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In order to meet the strict standards set by the developed countries, Zenith adopts the finest and latest methods for processing meat at its abattoir. Zenith Is currently exporting meat to various countries Like Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, African countries and the Middle East. Zenith opened its first meat outlet some 8 years back in Lahore. Since then it has Increased Its outlets gradually and made its presence in Fusillades and Shallot. Its outlets are equipped with the latest machinery which makes buying meat a pleasant experience.
Product Zenith is involved in selling meat in Its outlets. Over the period of time it has Increased Its product line from mutton, beef and chicken to camel meat, battle meat and fish. 1 . Attributes 1. 1. Quality 1 OF 7 internationally as a logical tool for adapting traditional inspection methods to a modern, science-based, food safety system. The premium quality meat has earned great appreciation and approval abroad and won Zenith the honor of being the largest meat exporter from Pakistan to the Middle Eastern countries.
Traditionally, the ordinary consumers in Pakistan bought meat from meat shops which did not follow any hygienic standards. Flies buzzed on the meat, cutting knifes were not clean and during summers, the butchers sweated while making meat. Taking advantage of the situation, Zenith launched its first outlet with the aim of providing fresh and hygienic meat to its customers. This strategy proved to be a great hit and people actually thronged its outlets for purchasing meat. Since then, Zenith has steadily increased its outlets. Cleanliness is maintained throughout in its outlets.
The area is fumigated so as to ward off pests, meat cutting machines and cleaned daily and meat is stored in chillers so as to preserve its freshness. It is note worthy that Zenith raises its poultry and cattle at a farm near Raining road which meets 60% to 70% of its meat needs and the rest is catered through other animal vendors. It claims that the feed given to the animals is in conformance with the hygienic standards. 1. 2. Style and Design Zenith has trained butchers which dice the meat neatly using state of the art cutting machines.
The customer is given the choice to select for himself, how he would like the meat to be cut and accordingly the butchers slice the meat for him. The final appearance of the product is eye catching for the customers. 2. Packaging The traditional meat shops cut the meat and then pack them in polyethylene bags. However, in Zenith the meat is cut and then packed in clean trays and covered by a transparent sheet of polythene to preserve the freshness of the meat. 3. Product Line Zenith has increased its product line over the period of time.
It is currently employing the line filling strategy and has added a number of items in its existing product range. Recently it has added camel meat and a great range of ready to eat items such as marinated Batavia, chicken briar boot, Chaplin kebab etc. Zenith also sells various vegetable items such as French fries, vegetable burger patties and potato cutlets. 4. Services Gaza occasion. A customer can book the animal of his choice a few days before the Did and pay for it at a Zenith outlet. He can select the day on which he would like to receive the meat.
Accordingly, he is given a receipt and called by the outlet on that day to receive the meat. The slaughtering of animals is conducted in the Zenith slaughter house and meat is sent to the respective outlets. Pricing Zenith follows psychological pricing strategy while pricing its products. It claims that its products are fresh and hygienic as compared to products offered by other meat shops and therefore charges its products at a very high premium. A price comparison with other shops is given below. Mutton (RSI. / keg) Chicken (RSI. keg) Zenith 690 353 Canteen Stores Department (SD) 570 210 Meat Shops 620 180 If one takes the separate parts of the mutton then the price ranges from RSI. 537 per keg for mutton ribs to an exorbitant RSI. 1,210 per keg for mutton fish. Zenith also offers the customers to pay for sacrificing of animals during Did-LU-Gaza and saves them from the hassle of searching for animals on the eve of Did in the animals’ market, arranging for a butcher, sacrificing the animals in their homes and then disposing off animal waste properly.
Instead it lets them purchase the animals of their choice and sacrifices them in its abattoir under the supervision of religious clerics but then it charges the customers accordingly. Some of the prices for the last year are given below. Goat (RSI. ) Cow per part (RSI. ) 20,250 Market price 1 5,000 6,000 If we compare the prices of its ready to cook items with those of Menu then we will observe that there is very little difference between the prices of both brands in various products. A small comparison of both items is given as follows. Menu Chicken Samos 120 125 Chicken Nuggets 178 175
Chicken Ticks 299 335 Goal Kebab 288 310 Place Zenith has two types of customers, ordinary customers which buy meat for daily use and business customers which later sell meat to other customers as shown below. Zenith owns all its shops in Lahore and meat is supplied from its meat processing factory to its shops on daily basis. Therefore in case of local market, Zenith supplies directly to its customers without using any distributors or retailers. Zenith also operates in Fusillades and Shallot in a similar way and owns meat shops which provide the types of products as offered in Lahore.
Zenith also exports fresh meat to various businesses abroad in the Middle East, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Africa. Previously, it used to own its outlets in Dublin and Jan but later it had to close those shops due to higher operating costs and issues related to operation controls. It therefore now exports meat to various business customers. Zenith exports its meat through air cargo from Karachi and Appeaser. The business customers usually consist of meat shops which take fresh meat from Zenith and later sell it to ordinary customers.
Air cargo is particularly used through ships. However, it increases the freight cost of the products. It should be noted that currently Zenith is not exporting any ready to cook products as the management believes that a separate set up will have to be established for it and currently it does not have the capacity to go for it. Promotion Zenith delivers the message of “fresh and hygienic meat” to the customers. As explained above, it has maintained the quality of its products. Out of the promotion mix, it employs only advertising and business promotions.
Advertising In case of advertising, it follows the affordable method and does very little advertising. One of the major reasons for less advertising is that currently it has no competitor in fresh meat business on a large scale, the management feels that Zenith has earned a big name due to its quality products and has a good demand for them and therefore needs not to advertise. Its advertisements mostly appear in the newspapers and on television a few days before Did-LU-Gaza to apprise the public about sacrificial animals.
In these advertisements, they display the prices for various sacrificial animals and the date till which the customers can place an order for the animal of their like. Business Promotions In order to attract potential clients in the Middle East, Zenith participates in various agriculture related trade shows such as Garage which is the largest annual agricultural exhibition held in the Middle East. In this exhibition, many companies display their agriculture produce, poultry, livestock, fish and aquaculture produce and get an opportunity to meet potential business clients.
Taking advantage of this occasion, Zenith also participates in this exhibition every year and displays its products so as to increase its clientele. Improvements in Marketing Mix Product While Zenith has increased its product line over the period of years, it has a great potential in increasing its product line by including a wide variety of sea food like prawns, shrimps, lobsters etc. Currently it is selling only one type of fish which is Sole. However, it can include a variety of fish like Cat fish “Shaggy”, Masher and Salmon etc.
In its ready to cook products, it can expand the marinated products further like adding fist fillet, marinated prawns etc. Besides adding ready to eat products like smoked meat, cold cuts and sausages to compete with K deli line On the other hand, there are a few vegetable products which do not match with the Zenith’s message “fresh and hygienic meat” and Zenith will have to drop them from its product line. They include French fries, potato cutlets and vegetable burger patties.
Price Zenith charges an exorbitant price for fresh meat from its customers and over the period of years, a number of customers have discontent over their pricing and have actually turned to traditional meat shops. These meat shops are posing serious challenge to Zenith as they charge far less from their customers. Considering that Zenith owns its outlets and faces lesser distribution costs since it distributes meat products from the factory to the outlets through its own vehicles, therefore it should charge slightly less from its customers so as to retain them.
A better option will be to charge 5% less on whole mutton and around 20% less on whole chicken. The price of mutton will be reduced from RSI. 690 per keg to RSI. 655 per keg and that of chicken will be lessened from RSI. 353 per keg to RSI. 282 per keg. In case of specific parts of mutton and chicken, Zenith will have to reduce the prices by 10% and 20% respectively. Similarly in case of sacrificing animals on Did-LU-Gaza, Zenith should reduce the rates by 10% both on goat and cow so as to attract more customers who turn to traditional sacrificial animal bazaars prior to Did.
The prices of its ready to cook products are very much at par with those of Menu. Hence their will be no need for price adjustment on these products. It must be noted that inflation is on rise in Pakistan and the customers have lesser buying power with the passage of time. If Zenith keeps on charging its customers high prices, then it is very likely that it will lose its clientele to other meat shops in the Eng run. Zenith currently operates in Lahore and sells its products through its outlets only.
It is losing against its contemporary brands like Menu and K&Ns who sell its products not only through their outlets but also place them at various departmental stores such as Swear, Jail Sons and AY-Fatal. They also operate in other cities through a similar strategy. Zenith can place its products at the other departmental stores to increase its sales. The management cites the reason that since it wants to sell its products fresh so it does not places them at other outlets because then they won’t have any control on heir sales. However, it has been noticed that the turnover time of other meat related not deteriorated.
Zenith operates only in Lahore, Fusillades and Shallot and number of small businesses particularly restaurant owners from other cities have to buy their products from the abattoir in Lahore. If Zenith distributes its products to other cities by opening various franchises, then it will certainly witness a sharp increase in its revenue as its products are comparable in quality to other brands. Zenith currently does not need to advertise for its fresh meat products excessively as here is a good demand for them and currently it does not have any large scale competitors which are competing in this area.
However, for its new items in ready to cook products, it should advertise on the television and in the newspapers as frequently as its competitors like K and Menu to apprise the general public about its products. Also it should do sales promotion on opening of a new outlet by discounting its prices by up to 5% for a week to increase its sales. This strategy is mostly followed by Gourmet bakers and it helps them in not only increasing their sales for the given eroded but also promoting about their new outlet.
Furthermore, Zenith can do personal selling in Pakistan by interacting with various fast food chains like KEF and McDonald’s and convincing them to use its ready to cook products in their meals which will be a win-win situation for both. Zenith will be able to increase its sales whereas the fast food chains will feature using quality ingredients in their products. Conclusion Zenith is currently performing well in retailing of fresh meat and ready to eat meat products. It has maintained the quality of its products and over the period of time, it as increased its product line in fresh meat and ready to cook products.
It is following a psychological pricing strategy and is charging very high prices at the time but it will have to cut down prices as the buying power of consumers is getting low with the passage of time. It does not have to do much promotion on fresh meat products as it has very few competitors. However, it should advertise more about ready to cook products. At the same time it should improve its distribution by supplying to other parts of Pakistan and explore new markets to increase its revenue.