UNIT - V
HEALTHY PASTRY: “SAMOSA”
PRODUCT LAUNCH
AND
EVALUATION
TEAM - C
Ajinkya Bande
Ibtisam Alzahrani
Lili Zhai
Lu Chen
Marilena Psylou
Yushan Yang
SUMMARY
The marketing plan of the product involves the market objective and the basic market background of an innovative new product, also the market analysis that allows us to outline the basic strategies for the achievement of the company’s strategic goals, and an implementation plan for this marketing programme. The new samosa product is called “Super Samosa” and the manufacturer brand name is “Eatwell”. “Super Samosa” will be placed in the UK market by using a conventional channel and the consumers can obtain it from big retailers such as Morrisons and from small Indian groceries. The price of the new product accedes to £1.40, which will yield profit of £0.15-£0.20 per package. The company is convinced that “Super Samosa” will gain consumer’s acceptance not only due to its healthy nutritional profile, but also because it is cheaper than the samosas that already exist on the UK market. The promotional campaign of the new product will begin with the product launch event and will continue with direct sells in the supermarkets in a “face to face” way. The company will also design a web site in order to make known the product in the UK market, with free delivery when ordering online. “Super Samosa” will be further known with the aid of media advertising.
During launching our new product, the main targeting will be confirmed. All individuals are potential targets, especially housewives and kids. And anyone who does not want to spend much time on cooking a meal and who is looking for healthy cuisines and concerning with fat, protein and fiber intake is potential target. The timing for product launch is also important. For our product, any season is suitable, however, launch-product contains ingredient associated with autumn, thus autumn time is the best time to launch product. Launch period will be three weeks which will provide enough time to promote product and to make the introductory offer for consumers.
The objective of product launch is to report the findings of a research conducted on consumers to test their reaction on a new recipe for healthy samosas. The formulation of the new healthy samosa recipe was necessary in order to produce a new product that can be consumed by everyone. The method of collecting data involved customers tasting samples of the new healthy samosa product and responding to questionnaires. The results of the data collected was carefully analysed and recorded. The findings indicated that most people responded positively to the healthy samosa which is a clear indication that the new product will succeed in the market. This finding demonstrates the benefits of improving products based on customer satisfaction.
The shelf life of the product is determined by subjecting it to Accelerated Shelf Life Test in which Arrhenius equation is used which considers the rate of reaction at different temperatures have a linear relationship. Being a cooked, fried and frozen product peroxide value is a good measure of shelf life which is considered here to anticipate shelf life. The anticipated shelf life for the product is 90days or 3 months at -18°C.
SHELF LIFE TEST
The frozen products are relatively shelf stable products and real time required to determine their shelf is usually too long and thus Accelerated Shelf Life Test (ASLT) is used which uses Modified Arrhenius Equation which considers the rate of reaction as constant and have linear relation at different temperatures.(CALLIGARIS, MANZOCCO, CONTE & NICOLI, 2004)
The Peroxide Value (PV) could be considered as a quality parameter of product as it is fried and the team had a limitation of not carrying sensory shelf life test because of assessor’s safety and time (as being a frozen product) & cost required. Thus according to Arrhenius equation for the frozen product under consideration i.e samosa the rate of PV increase has a linear relationship at different temperatures. Damage to the product structure caused by physical changes are considered in the ASLT test. During prolonged freezing storage, water migration (e.g. sublimation of the ice) may occur both within and from samosas which is one of the major causes of deterioration, texture loss colour change leading to weight and value loss and unattractive appearance. Water activity is an efficient mean to control microorganisms growth and deteriorated chemical reactions (lipid oxidation) during storage (MCKENNA, 2006). Thus, with PV the weight loss percentage (moisture loss) and water activity of samosa samples were tested after incubation for 1, 3, 7 and 10 days respectively. Two of the nine samples incubated at 3 different temperatures were extracted for oil using Soxhlet apparatus and PV was determined on the respective day of recording and averave of PV was recorded for respective temperature. The results then were subjected to modified Arrhenius equation.
Table 1: Results of peroxide value and rate of deterioration
Incubation temperature °C (K) / Peroxide value after 1 day incubation / Peroxide value after 3 day incubation / Peroxide value after 7 day incubation / Peroxide value after 10 day incubation / Rate (mEqO₂Kg¯¹Day¯¹)4°C (or 277.15 K) / 13.79 / 15.25 / 16.57 / 1.65
40°C (or 313.15 K) / 13.25 / 22.21 / 14.08 / 71.68 / 7.167
60°C (or 333.15 K) / 26.51 / 36.50 / 84.83 / 85.98 / 8.59
Figure 1: PV of the samples against incubation time
Table 2: The log of rate of the PV plotted against the temperature¯¹ in K
Temperature in K / K¯¹ / Kpv(mEqO₂Kg¯¹Day¯¹) / ln Kpv
(mEqO₂Kg¯¹Day¯¹)
4°C=277.15 K / 0.0036 / 1.65 / 0.504942
40°C=313.15 K / 0.0031 / 7.167 / 1.969622
60°C=333.15 K / 0.003 / 8.59 / 2.151472
Figure 2: ln Kpv Vs Temperature¯¹
When the graph of Kpv Vs Temperature¯¹ is plotted the value for the storage temperature i.e. -18°C could be substituted as 1/255.15=0.0039 and Kpv could be determined at that particular temperature assuming that there is linear relation.
Thus, y = -2803 * x + 10.60
y = -2803 * 0.0039 + 10.60
y = -10.9317 + 10.60
y = -0.3317
Thus, ln Kpv at -18°C = -0.3317
Kpv at -18°C = Alog (-0.3317)
Kpv at -18°C = 0.46 mEqO₂Kg¯¹Day¯¹
Lower the PV makes difficult to detect off odour in a sample by means of sensory test. Sunflower oil due to high PV starts giving off odour which is detectable at around PV of 30 to 40mEqO₂Kg¯¹ but it is largely dependent on the odour of the ingredients of the samples like spices, cinnamon, etc. in a cooked sample. Thus, considering the amount and aroma of the spices used in the samosa the tolerable limit could be considered as 40 mEqO₂Kg¯¹.
Shelf-life at -18°C (anticipated) =
Shelf-life at -18°C (anticipated) = Days= 86.95Days
Thus, Shelf-life at -18°C (anticipated) ≈ 3 Months
During 10 days storage, only samples at 40C did not have change in colour of base and filling and flavour but became very soft. As to the other samples, colour of base and filling became darker and samples had a little odour after first day incubation. After 3 and 7 days, samples at 400C had the worst deteriorated odour and became gummy , samples at 600C had less deteriorated odour but were relatively dry. After 10 days, those at 40C were very deteriorated, soft and gummy, however, samples became highly dehydrated at 600C. Based on the observations from accelerated test, samosas after long-term freezing storage may not have much change in colour of base and filling and flavour.
Table 3: The average percentage of weight loss and water activity change of samples at different storage temperatures.
Sample / Day 1 / Day 3 / Day 7 / Day 10Weight loss% / AW / Weight loss% / AW / Weight loss% / AW / Weight loss% / AW
40C / 0.19 / 0.96 / 0.43 / 0.98 / 0.57 / 0.99 / 0.45 / 0.99
400C / 0.37 / 0.96 / 6.91 / 0.99 / 17.31 / 0.99 / 22.19 / 0.99
600C / 0.7 / 0.95 / 10.87 / 0.9 / 28.44 / 0.79 / 38.38 / 0.41
The water activity of the of the samples incubated at 4°C & 40°C was observed to increase through the time of incubation where as samples incubated at 60°C showed an decrease in water activity by half at the end of incubation period. However, though there was increase in water activity in samples at 4°C it degree of change of colour and odour was negligible due to refrigeration condition as compared to 40°C samples in which the samples were highly deteriorated and had strong off odour while the samples at 60°C turned darker and hard. On the other hand the moisture loss supported the decrease in water activity in the samples stored at 60°C which recorded highest moisture loss of 38.38% at the end of incubation period where as the samples at 40°C & 4°C had moisture loss of 22.19% & 0.45%. From the results of moisture loss it could be predicted that there will be a negligible loss of moisture which will be supported be packaging coated with PET to avoid air and moisture migration and thus avoiding crust flaking and disintegration of samosa after baking helping to achieve the anticipated shelf life period.
MARKETING PLAN
The marketing plan involves the market objective and the basic market background of an innovative new product, also the market analysis that allows us to outline the basic strategies for the achievement of the company’s strategic goals, and an implementation plan for this marketing programme.
Market Objective -
The objective contain both long and short term. Long term objective indicates the future overall destination of the company. To achieve the long term goal, it is necessary to translate it into shorter term objectives. So we sets our marketing objectives as:
ü Short term: to sell 20,000 packages in the first season, and increase the sales by 10% every month afterwards.
ü Long term: to achieve a market share of 2% in the UK market in the first year.
Market Background -
The idea behind the generation of developing the new samosas was based on the team’s belief that it is time to provide to the UK consumers healthier food without compromising the taste and quality. As mentioned in Unit 2, Indian cuisine is one of the leaders of ethnic cuisine in UK market. In 2008 yielded profits of £1.3 billion and the prices of Indian food showed a 15% increase. The main demand of consumers, as far as the Indian cuisine is concerned, is more authentic flavors and healthier products. Furthermore, the number of people who prefer buying frozen Indian appetizers such as samosas increases. The people who enjoy consuming samosas the most are men of higher socio-economic groups between 35 to 44 years old.
Market Analysis (SWOT) -
The main strengths of “Super Samosa” are the healthier nutritional profile of the ingredients, the low fat content, the high protein content, the increased fiber content, the high vitamin C content, the high b-carotene content and the medium spice level. Furthermore, “Super Samosa” contains soya chunks which are meat analogs and in that way it can be also consumed by vegetarians. That fact will be a great opportunity of the new product to be incorporated in the UK vegetarian market. Moreover, “Super Samosa” will bring a new opportunity for the UK market, because they have easy cooking instructions. In that way, the only thing that the consumer has to do is to put them on a baking tray and bake them for 15min at 180°C. In that way, the consumer will prefer buying “Super Samosa” instead of other non-ethnic products, such as Italian which are easier in preparation and the company will be able to win the competition between ethnic and non-ethnic products. On the contrary, the main weakness of “Super Samosa” is the fact that due to the healthier procedure which was used for its production and the use of whole meal flour in the base, they are not so crispy in comparison to other market samosas. The main threaten that “Super Samosa” has to confront is the other types of ethnic snacks which are on the market, such as spring rolls, bhajis and pakoras. The company believes that “Super Samosa” is able to be easily incorporated to the UK market and confront the competition of dominating international food manufacturers such as the Icelandic Bakkavor group, the S&A Foods and the Sharwood’s.
Market Strategy -
The market strategy is a statement of our target market, competitive advantages and the core strategies we will use to achieve the market objectives. In terms of major customer that the organization seeks to serve, the group has clearly focused on the needs of a well-defined target market. The target market for our product is between the ages of 35 and 44, who are most likely to do the daily shopping and concern about the health of their family members. The geographical location of the market will initially be Britain. The company’s competitive advantage(core competencies) include innovative recipe, partnered with improved producing process, which will provide consumers with a product that provides higher nutritional value (high protein, high fiber)and better health advantage (low fat). The core strategy is a statement of how we intends to achieve our objectives. The basic way includes to increase sales and to improve productivity.
To increase sales, we will take two ways:
1. One way is to expand the total market by attracting new customers, or developing new product. For example, we launch the frozen samosa product at first, and we may also produce ready-to-eat samosa if there is proper marketing opportunity.
2. Another way is to increase the market share, which means to win the consumers, so the company needs to serve better than the competitors.
ü We will improve productivity either by increasing margins or reduce costs.
ü To increase margins can be approached by increasing price or change product mix (products, price, promotion and place).