Finagle A Bagel’s Approach to Marketing

1. Does Finagle A Bagel apply all seven phases of the new product development process when working on a new menu item such as the jalapeno-and-cheese bagel? Explain.

In my opinion Finagle A Bagel does apply the seven phases of the new product development process when working on a new item. According to the case study (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor, 2015) they do an informal research and brainstorm the idea of the new product. Then they talk to their customers and different other people to know about their feedback. In the next stage the recipe is put on a paper. After they have the recipe, they produce a test batch. They are involved in testing the new taste and repeat the process with changing the proportion of different ingredients to reach to a point where they believe that the perfect composition of ingredients is reached. Then they prepare their products to be presented to their customers so that they can evaluate it. I believe that we can regard the whole process to be in line with the 7 phases of the new product development process.

2. Do you agree with Laura Trust’s assessment that adjusting prices based on store location can backfire? What arguments can you offer for and against Finagle A Bagel raising prices in higher-rent stores?

In my opinion Laura might be wrong about her statement that adjusting prices based on store location can backfire. As it has been stated that the stores that are based in high rent areas are looking to raise their prices. This points to the fact that these stores are located in areas where rich people may be in majority. My counter argument would be that we are raising the prices where rich people would be visiting our stores and they would love to pay a good amount of money for the products of their choices.

3. Finagle A Bagel is both a wholesaler and a retailer. Which of these two marketing intermediary roles do you think the company should develop more aggressively in the next few years? Why?

We have been following this case study since the start of the course. The main strength of the Finagle A Bagel has been it retailing and not their wholesaling. Therefore I believe that they should focus on the marketing at their retailing side more than the wholesaler side. They need to attract more customers on retail basis. Ultimately some of these customers convert to buy on wholesale. The first goal of Finagle A Bagel should be to be successful on the retailing front in my opinion.

4. Should Finagle A Bagel continue to spend nothing on media advertising and rely instead primarily on sales promotion techniques such as samples and coupons?

I do not think that it is a good idea to block advertisement on different forms of media. Research has indicated that advertisement has a positive correlation with an increased sales (Rhee & Rhee, 2015). Keeping this fact in mind, Finagle A Bagel should devise advertisement campaigns so that they are not left behind their competitors in their line of business. Advertisement through media would let them reach out to even those people who are kind of liners and do not come out of their homes a lot. The amount of people sitting in front of a TV is much larger than those who can be reached out through samples or coupons.