Kingsford Charcoal
Case: Kingsford Charcoal
Define problem Kingsford is a branch product group of Clorox. The main product of Kingsford is charcoal. The business performance of this brand was good among the competitors, but during the recent years, it tends to be worse.The marketers of this company are trying to find a way to solve this problem by using the analysis and informations they got which cover many aspects. According to the analysis, the biggest competitor of Kingsford is Royal Oak and Private Label. Kingsford, as a brand with good brand awareness, keeps having better sales and earning performances than that of other FY, the sales volume dropped in 2000 and the category has become soft. At the end of 2000, about 5.7% decline happened in food channel and the entire category was down compared with 1999. By using the analysis, the marketer found that 54 percent of U.S. citizen have a gas grill and 49 percent are using charcoal. Therefore, the main alternative products that consumers would choose to use to take place charcoal is gas and the market of it is keep extending. The price of charcoal was keeping the same while the other brands were increased. So, if the price of Kingsford should be changed is a problem. There are some reasons that may cause the poor performance. First of all, since the business of Kingsford is seasonal, the sales would go down in off season, so the markers are trying to extend the grilling season to get more profits. Moreover, the advertising and promotion strategy have not been improved and the cost of them have been reduced, yet other companies spent lots of money in this area. The segment analysis showed that Kingsford has three target groups which are regular exclusive users, instant exclusive, and instant acceptors.The 2001 business decision focused on pricing, advertising, promotion and production. Compared with the other brands，the price of Kingsford is lower than the average. The marketers believe that rising price would not influence
Define problem Kingsford is a branch product group of Clorox. The main product of Kingsford is charcoal. The business performance of this brand was good among the competitors, but during the recent years, it tends to be worse.The marketers of this company are trying to find a way to solve this problem by using the analysis and informations they got which cover many aspects. According to the analysis, the biggest competitor of Kingsford is Royal Oak and Private Label. Kingsford, as a brand with good brand awareness, keeps having better sales and earning performances than that of other FY, the sales volume dropped in 2000 and the category has become soft. At the end of 2000, about 5.7% decline happened in food channel and the entire category was down compared with 1999. By using the analysis, the marketer found that 54 percent of U.S. citizen have a gas grill and 49 percent are using charcoal. Therefore, the main alternative products that consumers would choose to use to take place charcoal is gas and the market of it is keep extending. The price of charcoal was keeping the same while the other brands were increased. So, if the price of Kingsford should be changed is a problem. There are some reasons that may cause the poor performance. First of all, since the business of Kingsford is seasonal, the sales would go down in off season, so the markers are trying to extend the grilling season to get more profits. Moreover, the advertising and promotion strategy have not been improved and the cost of them have been reduced, yet other companies spent lots of money in this area. The segment analysis showed that Kingsford has three target groups which are regular exclusive users, instant exclusive, and instant acceptors.The 2001 business decision focused on pricing, advertising, promotion and production. Compared with the other brands，the price of Kingsford is lower than the average. The marketers believe that rising price would not influence