Dog food must be getting better. More nutritious and of course, delicious! In 2019, Americans spent 95.7 billion (Links to an external site.) on their pets and most of this was spent on food and treats. The price of these options has skyrocketed and so has the gourmet nature of the ingredients, like sweet potatoes, elk and free-range bison. Any yet, I’ve never seen a dog buy dog food. Have you? For this discussion, you will write a product report focused on a dog or cat food brand. Your submission will follow the formatting and address the questions/issues specified in the Product Report Outline (see attached). Your Task Go to a store where pet food is sold. This can be your local grocery store, Walmart, Target, or anywhere pet food is sold and displayed alongside competing brands and products. When selecting your product or good, keep in mind that in this assignment you will be analyzing the product based on the four Ps of marketing. Gather the information necessary to complete your Product Report. Among the information you will need to collect is the following: Name of product and company: Use the proper corporate name, not a nickname. For example: Tide Pods by Proctor & Gamble. Include pictures if you’re handy with uploading/inserting images. Product description: Briefly describe the product you’ve selected along with any relevant history that led you to choose this product/brand. Describe the key marketing strategies behind your selected product. You should base your evaluation and report on what you can observe about how the four Ps are applied to the product you chose. Product: Describe the want or need your product addresses. Placement: Describe the physical location of the product among its closest competitors (a quick picture of the shelf would tell a good story!), and describe what this placement says about the marketing strategy. Pricing: Describe the pricing strategy. A good description would include observations about the closest competitive product and its relative pricing. Promotion: Describe how the product is being promoted. You could include any obvious physical/in-store promotions seen on the shelf, as well as flyers, coupons, social media, online advertising, etc. You’ll likely need to Google this pet food brand and company once you return from the store. Other factors: You might notice other important factors about your product that lie outside the four Ps. You can include them in your report here. One example might be a unique distribution system for your product. When putting together your assignment for submission, it should follow the format and organization shown in the Product Report Outline attached. Requirements Review the information above and complete additional research as necessary. Consult the readings and materials provided. Develop a thorough response to the questions on the Product Report Outline. Either copy and paste your completed outline into the discussion board or attached it for your peers to review.
