Entrepreneurship In Contemporary Marketing: A Case Study Of Leech Cultivation Business

SMART objectives

Discuss about the Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Marketing.

Every action taken in a business should be followed by fixing a goal (Wilson et al. 2012). To get the loan from Agro Bank Malaysia, the business should be told about the positive aspects that will help the society as a whole. The main aim of expanding the business with the help of the loan is to help the customers know about the presence of such products in the market, which can help in treating deadly diseases. Another aim of the expansion is to help the farmers who are unaware of such cultivations and are not able to make a proper living for them. Leeches could be useful not only to make cosmetics but also drugs for curing heart diseases. At times, many farmers suffer loss due to less rainfall and unfavorable weather conditions. Many farmers commit suicide due to the unfavorable climate. Once, Mohd Lena Embong will expand the business the person will help some other individuals to get a job. With RM 5,000 seed money, Lena, 43, bought 1,000 breeding leeches, which he fed with eels, and is waiting to sell his first harvest to local buyers. He expects to sell the leeches at between RM50 – RM60 per kg to those producing cosmetics such as lotions, creams and massage oils. The younger leeches can be sold at RM1.50 each to other leech farmers. Medicinal leeches fetch US$7 – 8 each in the international market. Those individuals will be able to get a living for themselves.

The first six months will be a promotional period where no such profit is expected. In the first year, a goal to increase the sale by 10% will be set. In the second year, 20% increase in sale is expected. While the end of the third year, the company should achieve an increase in sale by 35%.

• The goal of the farmer is specific. He wants to promote the products to make the people aware of the product and eventually help other farmers with the business.
• The profit gained from the products will help Mohd Lena Embongn to understand whether the product is successful. Hence the goal is measurable.
• The goal is achievable, as Mohd Lena Embong is not planning to go international in the first phase. He wants to expand within the country.
• Once the goal is achievable, it will be real as well. the leeches have already shown the wonders and hence, it would not be difficult for Mohd Lena Embong to make the goal a reality
• The profit will be checked within a gap of six months to understand whether the people are accepting it.

The business of leech cultivation could be segmented into four areas:

Geographic

The service will be marketed in the rural areas where the number of farmers will be more (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick 2012). Leeches are rarely available in the urban areas and hence, the rural areas where the weather is moist will be helpful for the cultivation of the leeches. The awareness about the cultivation will be spread directly.

Demographic

The marketing will be done among the low-income group. The high or the mid income group might not be interested in such cultivation. Even though most of the farmers are males, it will be marketed among the female as well as they are aware of the cosmetics and might get interested in the cultivation (Hair et al. 2012). The products will be distributed with the help of retail shops in urban areas for the customers.

Market Segmentation

Psychographic

The lifestyle will be taken into consideration while marketing the products (Kotler 2012). This approach involve dividing the market into various segments depending upon the different attributes of the people regarding traits, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. The service given by mohd lena embong will be for the population whose main income is from agriculture. This process creates a greater impact on the consumer as the approach has been  in a more focused  manner.

Behavioral

In this aspect, segmentation is done based on the behavioral aspects of the consumers as per their spending, life style, consumption and desired benefits pattern. The product will be marketed by keeping in mind the above-mentioned behavioral aspects of the consumer (Rosenbloom 2012). The products will not only help the customers but also the people who will be involved in the business as they can focus the products suiting their attributes along with the customers.

The medicinal quality of the products will attract the pharmaceutical companies so that they are able to produce the medicines that would help in curing the disease.

The main area where Mohd Lena Embong will focus is on the behavioral and the psychographic aspects. As the leeches are useful to make medicine and the cosmetics, hence the financers will be get attracted to the expansion of the business.

The target market for the business will be the pharmaceutical companies and the cosmetics manufacturers. The business expansion can take place in various places where more farmers could be recruited (De Mooij 2013). Thus, it can be said that the business of Mohd Lena Embong will be a sort of social enterprise where both the farmers as well as the client will be benefitted by the cultivations. The leeches could be used to cure diseases as well as make cosmetics. Hence, both pharmaceutical companies and the cosmetic manufacturers will be the target for selling the products. Many farmers do not know about the cultivations of leeches. Once they will come to know about such cultivations, cultivating leeches will benefit them.

The product, the medicines and the cosmetics that are made from the leeches will be cheap and will be readily available to the customers. The cultivation of leeches does not take much space and can be carried out anywhere and everywhere. Leech will be useful for the diabetic patients to treat the swollen limbs. The use of leech does not involve any medication and the natural way of placing the leech on the body of the patient will help solving the issue of swollen limb. Leech prevent the blood from clotting and will parent internal damage for any type of patient. In addition to this, leeches have some good amount of proteins enzymes that helps in treating various diseases. Thus, once the product will reach the customers they will not only be benefitted due to the beatifying abilities of the leeches but also because of the medicinal value of the insects (McKenzie-Mohr 2013).

Product Strategy

The entire cultivation of the leeches is not costly and hence, the price of the products will be quite cheap. The farmers should be encouraged to start the leech culture and help Mohd Lena Embong with the business. Leeches live up to a year and it need food every 5-70 days. One medium-sized eel is enough to feed the leeches. Thus, the products that will be made of the leech will not be costly and the people from urban region will be able to afford the medicine that will be made by the leeches (Shani and Chalasani 2013).

The distributions of the products need to be done properly by checking the needs of the customers (Boone and Kurtz 2013). The products will be distributed mainly with the help of retail like the urban shops and the shops in rural areas (Lusch and Vargo 2014). The medicines that will be made or the techniques of curing the disease by the leeches will be helpful for the people who are not able to afford high medicine. Once they will know the techniques, they will be saved from a number of deadly diseases. Simultaneously, the pharmaceutical companies will be approached directly so that they can use the leeches to make medicine that will help the patients. The medicines should be cheap so that both the rural and the urban patients can try the medicines (Armstrong et al. 2014). Placing the products with the cosmetics manufacturers will also help the manufacturers to manufacture beauty products at a cheaper rate (Wilson et al. 2012). In addition to this, the beauty products will also benefit the customers, as they will be available at a cheaper price (Solomon 2014). For the customers, it will be retail selling where they can buy the products from shops. For the clients like the cosmetics and medicine manufactures, it will require direct selling.

Personal selling

Mohd Lena Embong will personally go and sell the products to the big manufacturers of customers and pharmaceuticals. Personal selling of the products will be done after the promotions of the products have been made physically or through the help of the electronic or print media (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick 2012). The manufacturers who deal top companies will be approached once they will come to know about the products through promotions or through word of mouth. Personal selling may not be required for the manufacturers who are working at the mid level companies. Personal selling will be done once the products already launched in the market.

Advertising

Price Strategy

Advertising will be done in the initial level of promotions (Hair et al. 2012). Advertising will be done with the help of hoardings, televisions and radios or with the help of print media. In that way, the  mass population will some to know about the products. The advertisements should reach the rural as well as the urban population. The good qualities of the products should be well communicated so that customers and the clines try out the products. Mohd Lena Embong is thinking of business expansion. Thus, he would require people to work for him. The promotions should also attract financers who might get interested to finance the business of Mohd Lena Embong. 

Promotion with the help of publicity and public relation will also come at a later stage of the business (Kotler 2012). Once the business will be flourished, people might want to gain more insight about the products and the qualities of the products. However, Mohd Lena Embongn should not strike the option of public relations in the initial stage as well. Leech is such an insect with which the customers or the clients might not be able to connect. The public relation officer should be able to tell the wannabe customers or clients about the products or the usage of the products.

Sales promotions

Sales promotions would be the most effective way of promoting the goods (Rosenbloom 2012). Channel sales could be one such way where Mohd Lena Embong will be hugely benefitted. Once the dealers will start promoting the products, it will be able to reach small and big customers. The customers will then helps with the word of mouth and will be helpful in promoting the products. Promoting the sales should be a continuous process and should be carried out even when the product is launched in the market (De Mooij 2013). In addition to this, continuous market research is needed to known the latest techniques of sales promotions.

References

Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing.Pearson Australia.

Boone, L.E. and Kurtz, D.L., 2013. Contemporary marketing.Cengage learning.

De Mooij, M., 2013. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Sage Publications.

Hair, J.F., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C.M. and Mena, J.A., 2012. An assessment of the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling in marketing research. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 40(3), pp.414-433.

Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012. Principles and practice of marketing(No. 7th). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Kotler, P., 2012. Kotler on marketing.Simon and Schuster.

Lusch, R.F. and Vargo, S.L., 2014. The service-dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions. Routledge.

McKenzie-Mohr, D., 2013.Fostering sustainable behavior: An introduction to community-based social marketing.New society publishers.

Rosenbloom, B., 2012. Marketing channels.Cengage Learning.

Shani, D. and Chalasani, S., 2013. Exploiting niches using relationship marketing.Journal of Services Marketing.

Solomon, M.R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: prentice Hall.

Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M.J. and Gremler, D.D., 2012. Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm. McGraw Hill.