SUBJECT ASSESSMENT WORK KA1
REBECCA’S DAIRY/ICE CREAM
INTRODUCTION:
Rebecca’s Dairy Farm was founded 60 years ago in Cornwall, they produce over 450,000 litres
of organic milk annually. The Dairy Farm is looking to diversify into the ice cream market, this is
due to financial difficulties caused by falling milk prices and increased competition which is
driving the milk prices down. They are hoping to successfully diversify into the artisan organic
ice cream market as it is currently growing rapidly, they plan to do this by using 20% of the
current milk production (90,000 litres) to start making the artisan ice cream however they have
stated that if they are successful and and receive more demand, they may increase this
percentage to satisfy. Rebecca’s Dairy Farm has the resources needed to diversify however
their capacity is limiting them to a few flavours and a limited output but this shouldn’t be much of
a problem as to start off with their demand would be low. A large threat is that there is a
competitor of Rebecca’s Dairy Farm with a much higher milk production of 1 million litres
annually, this may be a problem as if they diversify into the artisan ice cream market it may
negatively impact Rebecca's Dairy Farm as they have a much higher capacity and will be able
to produce a wider range of flavours.
MARKETING AIM AND OBJECTIVES:
MARKETING AIM - Diversify into the artisan ice cream market
Objective one will be to find out whether there is a viable demand that can be profitable in the
artisan ice cream market, through primary market research. She will use a survey which will be
face-to-face and ask for the opinions of respondents which will give her qualitative data. This
survey will be conducted in her local area because that is where her product will be situated
first. The questions in the survey will be directed towards finding out whether the respondents
like artisan ice cream, how often they purchase ice cream, what flavours are their favourite, how
much they would be willing to pay and finally whether they like ice cream in a cone,tub or on a
stick. These questions are relevant to research the demand for ice cream in her area as it will
show what the most popular flavours are which is crucial because she can only produce a select
few flavours so she would need to produce the most popular flavours to get the most sales and
grow. She will conduct the survey to 150 respondents which is an appropriate sample size as it
will give a wide range of data which she can effectively apply to the design of the ice cream to
make sure it meets the needs and wants of her local customers. The time frame for this
objective is 4 weeks, this time frame is suitable as it gives her enough time to conduct the
survey to 150 respondents and it is a relatively short time frame, this is important because one
of her competitors is also thinking about diversifying, if she is able to meet needs and wants of
customers before her competitors then it will give the business an advantage.
The second objective is to develop samples of the artisan ice cream off of the data collected in
objective one, she can specifically use the data to determine what the top 3 flavours were, she
will then produce 100 ice creams of each flavour (300 in total) and then hand them out to the
, SUBJECT ASSESSMENT WORK KA1
local public. After she gives a sample to the respondents she will then ask them a few questions
about if they liked the ice cream, possible improvements for the ice cream, what would it take for
them to buy from a different brand. These questions are relevant as the respondents will give
feedback on the ice cream which will allow her to make improvements in the taste or
appearance/presentation of the ice cream. The time frame for this objective is 6 weeks because
she needs to make the samples then hand them out and collect data. Week one she will make
the first 100 samples and in week two she will hand them out, this will be repeated until the end
of the 6th week when she has successfully handed out 300 samples. The sample size is also
very suitable as she will select the 3 most popular flavours and collecting the opinions and
feedback from 300 people will help her to make any adjustments and when she brings the
product into the market it will be more likely to meet customer needs and wants which is crucial
for a product to be successful.
The final objective is to recruit an artisan ice cream maker. She will do this by first creating a
compelling and interesting job description that would be appealing to anyone interested in
working with Rebecca's Dairy Farm. She will advertise in local newspapers and local radio
stations as she is only looking to put her ice cream in the local market. Newspapers and radio
stations have a large audience so it means that she should find an artisan maker quickly. It is
important that these are local because firstly it is cost effective compared to national advertising
and secondly there is no point in advertising the job nationally because her scope is only local
and she is a small business. The time frame for this objective would be 2 months as she first
needs to develop a job description, radio advert and a newspaper snippet and then wait for an
artisan maker to contact and then interview them. This objective is important because to make
artisan ice cream she will need a skilful craftsperson to operate the machines needed to make
the ice cream, by having an experienced artisan ice cream maker they may also help with the
best places to source ingredients as they have lots of experience within the ice cream market.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ICE CREAM MARKET:
Market size:
The volume of ice cream in the UK last year was 319,010 litres, before this in 2013 the ice
cream market saw a massive drop of over 100,000 litres in just one year, and over these 6
years the market volume has shrunk by 120,475, a decrease of 27%. However the market is
now growing again as from 2014-2019 there was an increase of 70 million GBP giving an
increase of 16% in 5 years. This shows that there is an increasing demand for ice cream, this
will give a positive impact for Rebecca's diversification into the ice cream market because it is
growing and if she meets the customer needs and wants of customers before other competitors
then she may be very successful. The market share shows that:
Tesco - 27.2%
Sainsburys - 15.2%
Asda - 13%
Morrisons - 9.9%
Co-op - 6.7%
