Microfridge

Micro-Fridge: The Concept

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

Problem:

Mr. Robert Bennett had designed a Micro-­-Fridge which had a microwave, a freezer and a refrigerator all rolled into one. He had also devised electronic circuitry that shut off power to the refrigerator/freezer whenever the microwave oven was switched on. But he was facing many challenges to launch his product. So his dilemma was that if he should quit his job for pursuing his business plans or to continue with his present job as a computer salesman in Boston.

CHALLENGES

Mr. Bennett was facing the below mentioned challenges for launching his product:-­-

* Administrators of many educational institutes were not supporting him to have his product in the dormitories of the students.

* Venture Investors were not providing the funds to him to start his product.

* Also, he was new in the market so the market was not confident about the product.

* His product was not high tech so it was difficult for him to compete against the big players.

* He was about to operate with low margins and relatively high cash flow risk which possessed financial threats for business.

* As he could face difficulties with the distribution channels so he might not scale up his business even his product sales would go up.

SWOT Analysis of the MicroFridge

Strengths: Refrigerator, freezer and microwave Owen all into a single unit for sale. Weakness: New in the market (not so easy acceptance)

Opportunities: Demand for the product is present (as per the survey) Threats: New product in the market which can compete in next 6 months. PROBLEM ANALYSIS

Let's assume Mr. Bennett would go for the launch of the product then he had to find a channel to reach to the students/end consumers. So there were only two ways to reach them one was having the consent of the administrators which would indirectly help him to sell his product to the students but he was not getting any support from them. Hence this channel was closed for him.

Secondly to reach to the general public he must have opted for either the distributor and retailing option or for the house accounts so if he would go for the first option then the cost of the MicroFridge would get increased by 30% and if he would follow the second option then he would need the support of venture investors which he was not getting and besides that he would face the financial threats for the operations.

He had got the manufacturers