Segmenting Energy Bar Consumers

Introduction

Energy health bars are becoming more and more popular. Also known as Protein bars, or nutrition bars, each having a slightly different meaning. People tend to lean towards energy bars, protein bars, and nutrition bars because it is a great meal supplement. They keep your energy lasting longer in the day and tastes great at the same time. I love energy bars, especially being a college student. Energy bars are a convenient way to keep going throughout the day. They have been an expanding market, whether it’s the flavor, health factor, or price range. According to FoodNavigator, in just two years energy bars have grown at 34%. Projected “sales are expected to reach $6.2 billion in 2018.”

(Clif Bar Active Image, 2 March 2017)

Segmentation Variable #1 Psychographic

One psychographic that comes to mind when thinking about energy bars. Is mainly people who love to be outdoors. Energy bars are great in states like Colorado because we love to ski, snowboard, hike, raft, bike, etc. Now when doing these activities it is not the most convenient to pack a lunch to bring with you. So energy bars are great to bring with, they are small, taste great, and filling. One important factor for this psychographic, while eating energy bars. They don’t just eat them for a snack, according to Prepared Foods, they state that people eat energy bars to be full of nutrition. A couple types of energy bars that come to mind are Clif Bars, PowerBars, and Honey Stingers. 

YouTube. “Clif Bar Commercial: August 15, 2016-March 2, 2017.” Clif Nut Butter Filled, Online Video Clip. YouTube.

Segmentation Variable #2 Psychographic

For some people, their bodies can not take in gluten. In recent years this has become a huge factor for food companies. The way we process our food nowadays has changed, which results in our bodies changing. I am one of those people who is gluten intolerant, otherwise known as Celiac. So one thing I look for when I look at certain foods is for it to be gluten free. Lots of energy bars are becoming aware of this and understand they have to change their product or create a new product to factor this in for a wider range of customers. A couple great companies that have gluten free bars are LARABAR, ThinkThin Bars, Kind Bars, and lots more.

(ThinkThink Bars Gluten Free Image, 2 March 2017)

Segmentation Variable #3 Demographic

Some energy bars are marketed towards certain genders. In an article called The Stereotype-Driven Business of Selling Nutrition Bars to Women, they mention the slight difference I spoke about early. How “protein bars place emphasis on muscle building. Energy bars hone in on the concept of food as fuel. And nutrition bars target health and weight-conscious consumers.” I would have to agree with this statement made in the article. For example, Luna bars are most definitely marketed towards the female gender because just going to their front page it instantly pops up with a female. Luna bars were originated from the Clif Bar & Company. Their thought process behind the creation of the Luna Bars was that women are not always looking for the energy meant to fuel exercise. Sometimes they simply just want a healthy yet delicious snack. So Luna Bars does justice just for that need. Another brand that I thought of that is gender biased is ThinkThin Bars. I think they taste great, but the brand name is for meant for women who want to eat great and for it to taste great too. So they have a lot of their bars with no sugar added. 

(Luna Bars Female Image, 2 March 2017)

Apply! Segmentation In Action

After analyzing several different energy bar companies, I have noticed that every company has their own unique way of marketing their bars. I think the most gender neutral and wide variety of bars is going to the honey stinger or Clif Bars. Yet then you have to factor in the ingredients that are wanted or not wanted in their diet. So a great example of a company that is closest to this is Honey Stinger. Studies show that it is more common for women to be diagnosed with celiac disease than men. It would be a great improvement for a company to be able to say that they are gluten free, gender neutral, and are great for people who are active.  

(Honey Stinger Image, 2 March 2017)

Summary

I think that overall because there are so many different brands and flavors of energy bars, it is a wide variety to all consumers. Yet there is not one brand yet that applies greatly to gluten free people, both genders, and very active people. As I stated earlier, the closest energy bar relating to these needs would be Honey Stinger. A great idea for a company to become more successful would be to apply their brand to all three of the segments. 

My Complete Research Resources

The first resource I used for this blog was FoodNavigator. This website helped me get started in the right direction for understanding the energy bar market. It helped me understand the growth of the energy bar market as well. Prepared Foods helped me understand trends that were existing along certain bars. For example, I learned that people eat energy bars for more than just a snack. They also want their snack to be filling, nutritious, and to taste great. People are more concerned about their health as time goes on, so this article explained that. The Clif Bar website helped me understand the psychographic. To understand what their motives were behind the company. Just by taking a look at the webpage, I was able to see immediately they support outdoor sports. I also used PowerBars, and HoneyStingers because I knew a little about them and that they were geared towards sports. So I was interested in checking out their site.  I used the ThinkThin web page to view how many options they had as gluten free because they are my favorite energy bar, I found it interesting to see they had a lot more options for gluten free than I thought. I found some interesting facts on celiacs and gender-based ideas. It helped me understand if more females or males tend to be gluten free. Another site I used to help make this blog full of great information was to research about gender preferred energy bars. I found that Luna bars were a big company that totally made their brand based towards women. Then after I realized that Luna Bars were based towards women I went to their website to see what that looked like and again, it was completely meant to be created for women consumers.

Marketing Ethics Within Wal-Mart

(Walmart Image 16 February 2017.)

Ethics is, “moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity.” This is such an important term to understand and live by. I believe that as a business owner it is especially important to make sure that your business is run by this term. Unfortunately, some companies are not run with the correct ethics.

(Marketing Ethics Image 16 February 2017)

Marketing Ethics Challenge

We all have heard of Wal-mart and how it has low prices every day. Wal-mart also is the largest employer in the world, hiring about 2.1 million employees, and bringing 421.8 billion dollars in revenue. Yet Wal-mart has a very unethical way of running the company, by not treating their employees properly. According to Carnegie Council, Wal-mart has had to pay over 1 million dollars in damages just to U.S. employees. Wal-mart has been part of many cases of bribery in other locations around the world. Just one of the countries that Wal-mart bribed was Teotihuacan, Mexico. The New York Times posted an article along with a video explaining how Wal-mart bribed Teotihuacan for $200,000 to build on landmarked pyramids. Locals were protesting for months to stop it from happening yet Wal-mart continued. This is just one of hundreds of very unfortunate events that Wal-mart has gone through to build their business.

(YouTube “Wal-Mart Targeted Over Corruption and Labor Practices: December 23, 2012-February 16, 2017” Online Video Clip. YouTube.)

Just another terrible situation that has happened within Wal-mart is in 2008, they sued a man after getting hit by a truck and became brain damaged from the accident. Wal-mart paid out $470,000 in health insurance. Then, sues the man to regain the money they had previously paid. This is just absolutely terrible. Once again this is just one of many incidents that have happened between Wal-mart and their employees.

(Protestors “Always Low Wages” Image 16 February 2017.)

Hits Home with Me

The reason this hit home with me and impacted me so much was because I used to shop at Wal-Mart and loved how inexpensive their products are. Yet after looking more into this company and hearing all of the unethical things this company has done I want to completely stop shopping here. I recently heard that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Is Cashing Out of Walmart. The article states that Buffet almost completely “checked out of Wal-mart.” This hit home for me as well because with this important of a businessman taking stocks out of Wal-mart he must see stocks falling extremely fast here soon.

Marketing Ethics at Action

Wal-mart is currently affecting a lot of employees. Yes, they hold the largest employment in the world, yet they are taking advantage of it. Wal-mart needs to start making changes to their company otherwise, they are going to plummet fast. If Wal-Mart continues on the path they are on, they will lose a lot of employees which is the major aspect they are affecting in their organization. One because they have terrible ethics and treat their employees so terribly, and two because Amazon is starting to take over and become a threat.

Resolution

I believe that the better you treat other people, life will turn out in your favor. Wal-mart treats their employees poorly and it is resulting in their business. If Wal-mart could just learn to have good ethics all around then their business would have a better chance at taking off and succeeding. If I were the owner of Wal-Mart I would definitely make a complete change to the company. I understand some companies don’t like change and that is what makes them fail. If I were in the shoes of someone within management, then I would do what I can to make the chain I manage a great working environment for my employees. Another thing I would consider is to speak to all the other managers I could get into contact with and try to make labor fair with payroll and possibly speak with the head of the organization. I once heard that “in order to get what you want, you have to help others get what they want” (Zig Ziglar). This is true when it comes to being ethical and owning a business because in order to be as successful as Wal-Mart they need employees, but if they treat their employees badly there will eventually be no Wal-mart.

Research:

As I was looking for information about how terrible Wal-mart is I came across another blog from WordPress about how Wal-Mart is unethical. I found it very interesting to read another blogger’s post on the same topic I was about to write on.

The next article I came across was just an overview on Wal-mart and explained some of the unethical acts that Wal-mart has done. The title of the website was called Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway Is Cashing Out of Walmart. I found this article important because Warren Buffett is an important businessman, and I thought that any story with him involved should be added.  

Another article I used was from the New York Times. In this website, it included one situation relating to the pyramids in Teotihuacan, Mexico. I thought this was extremely sad along with extremely unethical. This article also included the video of the people in Mexico protesting against Wal-mart, it really made it personal.

I also used another website that was initially an overview article of Wal-mart and how they treat their employees globally. The title was called The World of Wal-Mart, it went on to explain the working conditions of employees in certain countries for Wal-mart, along with money spent on bribery, a number of people that have been injured or died, and how Wal-mart reacted to the situations. It was extremely helpful information to understand the circumstances.

The next website I used as research is called The 10 Telltale Signs That The Future Looks Bad For Wal-Mart. This was where I found the story about the man who was hit by the truck and brain damaged, and when Wal-Mart sued the man to get their money back. This article had many other situations I just didn’t use them because I didn’t want the blog to become too lengthy. I also got back up evidence from another website about this same situation from WHY’D THEY DO THAT?.

Ben and Jerry’s SWOT

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis is an in depth overview on the company and how they are doing. It looks at the strengths and weaknesses which are internal sources. Along with its Opportunities and Threats which are considered to be external sources. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is known for their delicious ice cream and taking care of customers wants. They are a customer satisfying company along with an employee satisfying company.

(Ben and Jerry’s Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.)

Strengths (Internal)

Ben and Jerry’s is considered to be a well known company. They are known for their social mission, values, and actions. They have “free cone day” which seems to really please the customers because who doesn’t love a free ice cream cone. They offer this in 26 countries, in 742 different locations once a year. Ben and Jerry’s has the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, and it’s an organization that supports grassroots activism for social and environmental justice. They also care about where their products come from. They make sure that their products are fair trade certified.

Recommendation

Ben and Jerry’s is great at promoting their values. In order for this company to continue to be successful I think they should continue to to strive towards their original goals. Those goals they had spoken about are, first, to make the world’s best ice cream. Second, to be financially successful. And third, to make the world a better place. I would say they have definitely become financially successful. Yet still are on their way to making the world’s best ice cream and need to still work on making the world a better place. I think their strength is leading them in the right direction. They have definitely been working on the right business aspects.

Weakness

Ben and Jerry’s could reduce focus on social responsibilities. They could use the help of experienced managers to help with the growth of the company.

Recommendation

This company is growing so quickly that they need more experienced help from management. To fix this issue they should just hire more managers with experience from other firms that would be able to help with the growth of the company. Along with reducing the focus on social responsibilities because in the end it could be affecting some growth by pushing people away if certain consumers don’t agree with their point of view and social awareness.  

Opportunity (External)

The demand for Ben and Jerry’s overseas is growing. They could expand their market. Along with an increasing want for Greek-style frozen yogurt.

Recommendation

To become aware of this opportunity to expand their company, Ben and Jerry’s could consider making new flavors that are low-fat, low-carb, and Greek-style frozen yogurt. Lots of consumers now a days are focusing on their health. So this could please a lot more consumers in the market. Which would improve their second goal which was to be financially successful.

Threats (External)

Ben and Jerry’s opportunities and threats can help fix each other because their threat is that more and more consumers are checking the nutritional facts and seeing how much sugar and fat the items contain. Their threats are concerned with facing other companies that offer sugar free or fat free ice cream.

Recommendation

Going hand in hand with the opportunity, Ben and Jerry’s could come up with flavors that are low in fat and low in sugar yet still delicious. Along with expand their market into countries that don’t have competition just yet.

(Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day  NBC San Diego Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.)

Summary

Ben and Jerry’s is a great company, and they do a lot of active things that several other companies do not. They just need to tweak a couple things in their company such as expand their market in more countries and come up with more health based ice cream for the people who watch what they eat. They are actively involved with their customers and really care about the greater good. Whether it’s the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, or giving out free ice cream. They have delicious flavors.

My Research Resources

Some of my references are, http://www.benjerry.com/values/how-we-do-business helped me understand the background of how they do their business. For example how they use cage free eggs, good quality dairy, and fair trade ingredients as well. This next article I used helped me figure out what is important to Ben and Jerry’s. For example their social involvement and responsibility. http://www.benjerry.com/values/issues-we-care-about. Some of my other sources are YouTube videos, including their YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/BenandJerrysHomemade .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcGoA9cknCg&feature=youtu.be 

The last article I used for research is an article from the New York Times and explains the whole come up of how they started as a business, and the struggles they have come across. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/business/how-ben-jerrys-social-mission-survived-being-gobbled-up.html?_r=1

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