You Foodz (Startup Venture)
Introduction:
In the current era of fast pace of lifestyle, people generally gave more priorities only to those elements that are more convenient and easily accessible. Food is on top among the priorities of general public, particularly the working class. The busy daily schedules of the working class can rightly be claimed for the significant boost in fast food and ready-to-cook meals business since last few years. Can’t decide what to cook daily, no time for cooking or shopping for food ingredients, keeping the food fresh or storing of leftovers are the common issue of general public.
Acknowledging the same issues an Australian national Lance Giles developed an idea of providing fresh Ready-made meals at the door step of busy consumers. Giles founded ‘You Foodz’, in 2012 providing varied options of fresh and Ready-made meals to the busy people of Australia. At present ‘You Foodz’ stands among the top companies in Australia providing ready-made meals in many cities.
You Foodz:
As stated by Shaw (p. 101, 2014) that when people prioritize leisure, have little spare household time or energy for cooking after a long work hour, they abandon cooking from scratch, eating microwave meal instead. Returning home at the end of a tiring day and then do cooking for own self or for the family is a major issue of majority of the working class. Acknowledging the same issue and developing an idea of providing ready-made meals, You Foodz started its operation from Brisbane in 2012.
As stated by Whitney & Rolfes (p. 4, 2013) that most of the people eat food that is accessible, quick and easy to prepare and within their financial means. The idea of ready-made meals and fresh products like seasonal vegetables/fruits, supplied right at the door step at most competitive rates was quite appealing, ‘You Foodz’, was successful in gaining significant numbers of consumers loyalty in a short span. Cooking food might be a source of stress in one’s life and they might dread it (Rombaucer, p. 39, 2019). The main theme of ‘You Foodz’ is to relieve the busy people from the hassle of spending time in the procedures involved with cooking, including time spend in markets buying selected stuff for cooking.
‘You Foodz’ offers a wide range of ready-made meals, drinks, salads and seasonal fruits/vegetables, prepared with the ingredients acquired directly from the selective farms or producers. Whereas most of the meals ordered online are freshly prepared a day or few hours earlier to retain its freshness. Considering the convenience of the consumers ‘You Foodz’ has made available its wide range of products in more than 3000 stores across Australia and personal deliveries through its fast delivery networks.
Target Market:
The secret behind the successes of today’s rapidly growing companies is the ability to identify huge potential target customer base (Srinivaas, p. 211, 2013). Selection of target market and how efficiently it is addressed are among the main factors that influence the success of any business in a long run. ‘You Foodz’ identified the cooking issues of the working class, single immigrants, and the students, and produced products to provide a solution for their issues.
Another potential target market of ‘You Foodz’ is that of diet conscious people. People today are more concerned about the foods they eat and thus are choosing more low-fat, organic, natural and healthy products (Pride et al, p. 49, 2012). Owing to the time spend in preparing healthy meal recipes, diet conscious people prefer ready-made healthy meals of their choice available in markets or from reliable sources. Thus, ‘You Foodz’ have a good market segment for its juices and detox drinks as well.
What makes You Foodz appealing;
People in the current era are more health conscious, hygiene and health are the main factors considered prior to opting for any prepared meal. ‘You Foodz’ gives more emphasis on the freshness and purity of the ingredients to be used for its meal preparation. The company ensures that its products are aligned with the best levels of health as per consumers requirements. All ‘You Foodz’ products are marked with expiry dates based on the area or city where it is being supplied to ensure the freshness of the product by the time it is consumed.
Changes in the consumers lifestyle has enhanced the demand for ready-made food (Sloan, Legrand, Chen, 2013). Based on the same demand, ‘You foodz’ is offering varied food items to match with the specific requirements of different people like detox drinks, protein enriched meals, low-fat meal or complete meal, the same varied food items also give a unique position to the company among the others in market. As the main potential customers of “You Foodz’ are the working class, immigrants and students, acknowledging their lifestyle and other needs, the company has maintained quite economical rates that could be conveniently affordable by all the classes of potential customers. As such, varied menu options, economical packages and free delivery services are the main factors that unifies ‘You Foodz’ among its market competitors.
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Business Environment:
The preferences and demands of people in the current scenario of continuous technological growth and intense competition has changed dramatically. Products or services that are easily accessible and time saving are more in demand, particularly the food products. Home cooking is now restricted to weekends or vacations. Due to the economic factors causing both parents to work outside of the home, the culture of home-prepared meals as basically disappeared and is being replaced by consumption of fast foods and ready-made meals (Meester, Zibadi, Watson, P. 79, 2010).
Basically, it is the time factor that acts as a constraint for home cooking, whereas ready-made food mainly offers freedom of time to their consumers (Albala, p. 287, 2015). Considering the busy lifestyle of a huge portion of Australian population and the type of products ‘You Foodz’ is offering, external business environment is quite favorable for the company. The increase in this particular type of business can be attributed to the increasing number of time poor individuals who have the additional responsibilities of feeding their families and themselves (Tarnay, Imre, Xu, p. 286, 2013).
Owing to the growing demand of fast food, ready-made meals and other diet products, huge numbers of local and international brands are offering similar products in Australian markets. Thus, ‘You Foodz’ is operating in quite intense competitive environment.
Business Model:
For any business to be successful, determining its target markets, resources, mode of operation and market competition is highly valued. Companies evaluate the influence of all such factors through formulating its business model. In general, the business model can be defined as a unit of analysis to describe how business is transacted (Gassmann & Scheitzer, P. 90, 2014). A business model illustrating every segment of operational procedures acts a guideline for its managers as well. through evaluation of components of a business model we will analyze the operational procedures of ‘You Foodz’.
Key Partners:
There are varied elements that acts as a support for the business operations, in most businesses support of such elements is quite crucial for the success of the business. ‘You Foodz’ to ensure the credibility of its product is acquiring ingredients like chicken, fish, vegetable/fruits etc., directly from the selective farms. These farms are the key partners of ‘You Foodz’.
Key Activities: ‘
You Foodz’ procure different food ingredients from varied sources, and prepare its products by utilizing only the best portions of the procured items. The prepared products are then supplied through various supply channels to more than 3000 stores across Australia. The company have a separate department for online orders, where the ordered product is freshly prepared to be supplied through the company’s own delivery system.
Customer Relationship:
Developing a relationship with existing customer is a major support for a successful business in the long run. ‘You Foodz’ is offering multiple consumer favoured packages to maintain and develop a better customer relationship. Also, as it is investing huge amounts on social media and other conventional forms of marketing, the company is getting positive response from the consumers. Youfoodz’ Instagram account has over 100,000 followers and 17,000 users uploaded pictures and videos with the Hashtag #youfoodz (Indig 2020).
Customer Segment:
As ready-made meals are the best alternate for home cooking and growing health awareness has promoted the demand of dietary products, as such Busy working class, immigrants and the immigrant students are the main customer segment of ‘You Foodz’.
Key Resources:
small scale fruit/vegetable farmers, chicken, fish and meat suppliers are the key resources of ‘You Foodz’, they are in contract with the company for providing their best yield. ‘You Foodz’ acquiring products from the same small-scale farmers is also a support for them.
Value Proposition:
You Foodz’ in the making of its products efficiently follows all protocols of hygiene, health and freshness, producing the match for consumers requirements. As the value proposition defines whay a customer prefers one product over the other (Simon & Schmidt, p. 61, 2015) healthy ingredients, convenient accessibility through stores, affordable prices and free delivery service highlights the value of ‘You Foodz’ products for the customers.
Challenges:
‘You Foodz’ has been encountering with two major challenges, competition and employees loyalty. For competition ‘You Foodz’ is doing vigorous marketing of its products through various platforms i.e., social media, magazines, TV and radio, also its free delivery service has been an effective support for promotion of its products.
You Foodz’ is facing various complains of employees being not paid their deserved superannuation, delays in salaries and breaks during working hours. Whereas, ‘You Foodz’ management have clarified that Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is being routinely provided with the actual superannuation assessments and employees are being paid as per the prescribed schedule.
New Food startups:
’You Foodz’ since its very beginning had always focused on the product’s quality, target market research, making its product conveniently within the reach of consumers and intense marketing i.e., promotion of product. Any food business start should also implement the same strategies to penetrate in the already established dense market and reach a position among the giant competitors.
References:
Albala, k (2015) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Food Issues. Sage Publications: USA.
Gassmann, O., Schweitzer, F (2014) Management of the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation. Springer: Switzerland.
Indig, K 2020, YouFoodz Revenue Exploded by 3,000% After Trying This Tactic, (online Referral Candy Blog)
Meester, F. D., Zibadi, S., Watson, R. R (2010) Modern Dietary Fat Intakes in Disease Promotion. Humana Press: UK.
Pride, W. M., Ferrell, O. C., Lukas, B. A., Schembri, S., Niininen, O (2012) Marketing Principles. Cengage Learning: Australia.
Rombauer, I. S., Becker, M. R., Becker, E., Becker, J., Scott, M (2019) Joy of Cooking. Scribner: USA.
Shaw, H. J (2014) The Consuming Geographies of Food. Routledge: UK.
Srinivaas, M (2013) Successful Organizations in Action. Partridge Publishing: India.
Sloan, P., Legrand, W., Chen, J. S (2013) Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry. Routledge: UK.
Simon, D., Schmidt, C (2015) Business Architecture Management. Springer: Switzerland.
Tarnay, K., Imre. S., Xu, L (2013) Research and Development in E-Business through Service-Oriented Solutions. IGI Global: USA.
Whitney, E., Rolfes, S. R (2013) Understanding Nutrition. Cengage Learning: USA.
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