BEST FOODS, INC Best Foods, Inc , a major U S food products company located in Philadelphia, developed a new type of coffee and planned to test market the coffee nationwide In addition to the test mar[.]
BEST FOODS, INC Best Foods, Inc., a major U.S food products company located in Philadelphia, developed a new type of coffee and planned to test market the coffee nationwide In addition to the test marketing, Best wanted to saturate the coffee market with its new product by selling the coffee at a $2.50-per-pound introductory price for one week The second week of the introductory campaign, Best planned to increase the price per pound to $2.75, but all one-pound cans were three inches higher to accommodate enclosing a free stainless steel measuring scoop Two weeks before the product introduction, the marketing department, using all forms of media, advertised heavily throughout the United States Posters, billboards, newspapers, radio and television all carried advertisements for the new coffee Raffle drawings were established in all the major grocery store chains nationwide, with Best foods providing the prizes In conjunction with the marketing department, production runs for the new coffee started one month before the introduction Estimated demand for the new product started one month before the introduction Estimated demand for the new product was million units for the first week and 1.25 million units for the second week Production runs had to be started early to meet the estimated product demand and to allow for a break in the production for the second week to set up for the new size cans Case Questions Describe what interactions needed to take place among the marketing, pro – duction, and logistics departments Explain the logistics department’s role in the introduction of the new product? Why was it necessary for the logistics department to be cognizant of all the planned changes in the promotion and production schedules for the new product introduction? Discuss various problems that may have arisen (for example, the second – week change in can size and weight) and what the logistics department’s responsibilities were with respect to changes?