Since the beginning, our group of six students evolved in the universe of the companies and more particularly in the field of entrepreneurship. After acquiring various notions through our school and professional experiences, we are able to act as independent consultants. Today is a work in progress and a contribution to the student’s own contribution and know-how about the company in phase of launching.
We met the founder, who is committed to the values and markets that green products offer. The products the market offers are designed, manufactured and marketed to be the least harmful possible and recyclable to protect the environment and people. It is a phenomenon of "circular economy". These values are being demanded by a growing community and the founder wants to explore this trend and do a service opportunity business.. The entrepreneur wants to launch an online comparison website for this new target of customers, finding cosmetic, textile, food and decorative products with little impact on the environment and health.
Before creating the website and publishing it officially, we conducted a market study. Why? Because it is necessary to analyze the scope and validity of the concept, so that the website meets the expectations of its target customers. Efficiency, adaptation and sharing of customer values are the key words. If the founder would not have knowledge about the market, she would take the risk of having no clients and no specific knowledge of her potential reputation. In order to keep the positive brand image, it is necessary to make a market research before any operation, otherwise the changes made, could damage the brand image and could cause trouble with its prospects..
To do this, we conducted surveys and research on the interests of the consumers to develop the best possible strategy and adapted the site to be attractive. We focused on four specific and essential questions for company's future:
I and my team then first look forward at the interal capability of the startup, we interviewed the founder and along with the academic supervisor discusses the base and the basic of the company, ranging from financial strength, market network, and more. We were able to identify from our work, our collaboration with the different project groups associated with the project, the value propositions and the strategies were of the future company. This internal analysis is a good way to be aware of one's strengths and weaknesses.
Then, we studied a possible business plan that we compared, thanks to the Gurley's test, to the business plans of competing institutions. Thus, we were able at first, once again identified the forces (validated or invalidated) and establish its competitive advantage. The competitive advantage is obtained thanks to a confrontation of the start-up with two competing companies in the same sector of activity: lifestyle and well-being for one and internet service for the other.
The company in our study will unfortunately not be the only site dedicated to the organic and ecological sector. Many companies have been tempted to open a business following this flourishing trend and offering many opportunities for expansion and growing revenue. The company must constantly monitor its environment to integrate and sustain its place in order to follow the cycles that can have a positive or negative influence on its business. We have studied the possible development of the company market in the future. Our research focused on the organic market, the gluten-free, vegan and e-commerce market in the Netherlands.
We consulted journalis, internet articles, related community group, and social media pages to see the market and their preferences. We also sent out survey thru the social media pages and community groups, alongside with survey conducted in the field. Regarding the organic market, company seems to have targeted a fair country. The Netherlands is known for its eco-friendly lifestyle, body and spirit. The bike, the vegetables, the sport, the open-mindedness and the little stress that prevails in this country are entirely in line with company's ecological and environmental values.
The gluten-free market on which the founder wants to position herself is also very interesting. This market is a niche but tends to expand for this reason it is difficult to have an exact figure on the rise of this mode of consumption. However, it is very popular specially to fight or prevent against celiac diseases. If in neighboring countries it can represent at least 60 million euros, it is possible that the Netherlands is developing in "gluten-free". More than an answer to a problem this consumption has become a trend to exploited, Italy and Sweden are the examples.
company therefore has every interest in following this trend to meet additional type of consumption in addition to the organic and vegan. In fact, the vegan market continues to grow. In just two years, 20% of young people aged 16 to 24 declare themselves to be vegan lover according to our survey and academical sources. We find these ranges in many food stores all over Europe.
Basing on our findings, me and my team sets out several advice for the business to be more feasible and more sound in its eventual deployement into the market, we start by advising their front platform, which is the internet store, ecommerce. In here I will list some of our proposed strategy, the general one as spesific one is for the company and would not be prudent to list.
The Dutch and European target we studied is both "young" with an average age of 25 and "dynamic". This one usually carried out purchases on Internet to monthly for the majority (43%) or even once every three months to once a week for 26%. The company platform is adapted to their new purchasing habits: e-commerce, in full growth. We propose to the company, to develop a format of its accessible, readable and quality website especially for smartphones. A small adaptation that could well achieve more sales, and generate more comfort for users of the SEO site, as the current site that presented to us were deemed not friendly and not easily found on the internet during our focus group discussion.
According to our findings, 64% of users buy via mobile and 52% via web browser. However, only 5.7% of internet spending is used for food, but the health and beauty market represent the second largest market share in the field with 14.1% of purchases. m-mobile. We suggested the company a wider choice in wellness, lifestyle and textiles. Food products will have to be highly specialized with: gluten-free, high-end products, vegan. An obligation to overcome competition from organic food stores
As part of this I have discovered new techniques for positioning ourselves as business consultants. Me and my team had the chance to work for an innovative project: that of a startup that going to be built and its founder. The project was done also with diverse set of team, from France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Indonesia. This teaches me on how to work with people with different background and work together as a cohesive unit that able to bring something meaningul and productive.