The socio-cultural factors of the United States

It is rather interesting that the world superpower has the same great extremities of relative wealth and poverty like the other countries. The general open market has a few legal barriers that prevent change of social status either upwards or downwards, despite of the debate of how far the social policies and institutions are going to promote and facilitate the change in the status of the people. Broadly speaking the social structure of the United States of America, in the technical language of social science, is characterized by moderate social mobility.

Social class, in the sense discussed in this article, essentially consists of three factors: wealth, power and prestige. (Wikipedia 2005 [Online]) Being a food item we have no limitations like other products of targeting the particular segment in the market and compared to other countries USA has an advantage of standard of living by which almost all the Americans can spend for the food in restaurants expensive restaurants or in fast-food joints like McDonald's which offer at low prices.

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And in addition to that we have a well established leader in producing and distributing the sauce for food items.

(Hoovers company 2005 [online]) Please refer to Appendix 3 for a detailed analysis of the distribution of population in USA. Cultural analysis Having considered the social factors now it is the cultural analysis that we have to think about. Because of the influence of culture in any success of a product it is a basic thing that every company have to consider about. In an outlook of the culture of the United States we have traced the following information with which we have an adopted a product that can be sure success in the market of the United States.

Ketchup is almost a religion in America. It is a major part of their culture. As stated above, 97% of the houses in America have ketchup. This gives our product an advantage. In addition to this, USA the land of delicious eating which describes itself by saying that it loves eating food, having influenced by many of the other countries food habits the habits in taking food have been changing dynamically. The influences of the Africans, Italians and the South-East Asians had considerable changed the food habits of the Americans. This is an advantage for a new product like us.

We are going to introduce our new product in a cultural economy which is ready to adopt new things in their food. (Wikipedia 2005 [Online]) Having an advantage of supplying our product- new recipe in the sauce to a well established leader in the market will bring a brand image which we are going to exploit. And added to this we have a market which is going to encourage a new food culture. Now we are going to launch our new recipe in the sauce called sweet chilli sauce. Americans use ketchup in almost all their food (fries, hot dogs, pizzas, burgers etc.)

They have it in the restaurants as-well-as in their homes; we are aiming to replace or supplement that tomato and other sauce with our sweet-chilli sauce. Compared to other markets it is very easy to launch a new product in United States because of the cultural and social factors. We can't find this type of culture in any Asian markets as the eating habits are different, and we would be hard pressed to find a market which has adopted the food habits of so many other countries. And the important thing is that we cannot penetrate in to any other market like United States.

Competitor Analysis America is a huge country that has millions of products that are sold in various locations and to different customers on a regular basis. The modes of selling vary from a small convenience store to large supermarkets e. g. Wal-Mart, K-Mart etc. Companies usually target large supermarkets to sell their product out through various promotional offers etc. The American food market has always been shadowed with companies coming-up with different product extensions in order to cater to the ever-increasing demands of the customers.

In terms of Ketchup, American market has three major players that have been fighting against each other in order to gain market leadership. These companies and their product portfolios have been existent in the American market for a substantial amount of time and have made their mark. Our company Heinz already leads the competition in terms of ketchup market and we have around 57 varieties of food products in our portfolio. The products of the Company are sold under highly competitive conditions, with many large and small competitors.

The Company regards its principal competition to be other manufacturers of processed foods, including branded retail products, foodservice products and private label products, that compete with the Company for consumer preference, distribution, shelf space and merchandising support. Product quality and consumer value are important areas of competition. The three main competitors for our product are as follows: Heinz Strangely enough, the largest amount of competition our product will face will be from within its own Company.

Heinz is the only company to have come up with such products as blue ketchup and seen a rise in its market share due to the same. It already holds almost "60% market share" so it is at the top of its game. It also has a large amount of customer loyalty, who will give the new product a try. However, this new ketchup will also be competing with other ketchups sold by Heinz itself. Hence we will need a very strong marketing campaign or it to overcome its competition, from both external threats as well as the threat of other ketchups within its company. (Heinz 2004, [Online]),

Chef: Jacob Fruitfield Food Group One of our major competitors in the ketchup market would be Chef, a product of Jacob Fruitfield Group. The Chef brand is the second largest brand within the Table Sauces market and is the brand leader in many segments of this market. Very few brands can compete in so many areas of a market but Chef's reputation for high quality, reliable & great tasting products allow it to do so. In particular, consumers identify with the Chef's head, the blue packaging of Chef products and the unique taste profiles of the Chef recipes.

It is a brand, which consumers recognise from their childhood and as adults continue to enjoy with their own children. We will have to take strong promotional steps to combat this competition. (Jacob Fruitfield Food Group 2005. [Online]) Brooks Ketchup It's been nearly 100 years since Brooks first got started in the chili bean business. They began selling their famous beans in 1907, and in 1938 were the very first to coin the phrase "Chilli bean" when referring to the red bean that gives chilli its classic taste and texture.

Another major competitor that we need to watch out for is Brooks Ketchup. Even though this ketchup is not readily available in major supermarkets or convenience stores in America, it has its presence with such a large time of reputation and market presence backing it up. Most often Brooks is ordered online. Our online sales strategy (selling through Heinz. com) would be a step towards combating this particular competitive threat. (Catsup 2005, [Online])