Question

1. A number of fast food chains, after their success with offering their customer fresh salads and in an effort to downplay the image of selling unhealthy food, began adding fresh fruit plates to their menus. At about the same time, and seemingly in direct conflict with this “healthy†strategy, several other fast food chains began offering fat and calorie laden items to their menus. Compare these two widely different approaches and predict the chances of each one’s success. Name some other products are popular, despite known health risks.
2. think of a new of revised product or services that you would like to see in the market. Discuss the implications of producing that products or services relative to legal, ethical, environment, profitability, competitive, design, and production issues?
3. How were food producers impacted by the U.S. government's requirements to identify the trans-fat content on product labels?
4. Suppose s company intends to offer a new service to some its internal customers. Briefly discuss how the fact that the customers are internal would change the process of managing the four phases of the service life cycle.

Answer 1

Essay 2

1.A number of fast-food chains, after their success with offering their customers fresh salads, and in an effort to downplay the image of selling unhealthy food, began adding fresh fruit plates to their menus. At about the same time, and seemingly in direct conflict with this “healthy” strategy, several other fast-food chains began offering fat- and calorie-laden items to their menus. Compare these two widely different approaches, and predict the chances of each one’s success. Name some other products that are popular, despite known health risks.

People are conscious about being healthy and fit in the society. They prefer healthy foods which gives nutrition and protect themselves from any diseases.

The success ratio of the food chain is very high and it targets customers who are health conscious and are willing to spend money. People have reduced spending on junk food due to the frequent increase of heart disease. This fast food chain target customers who want to remain healthy in their lives and stay away from all kinds of diseases. The success of this fast food chain is very high as there are more health conscious people. On the other hand, the other fast food chains are offering fat and calorie laden items that will make a person fat. In both ways, the fast food chains and customers are benefiting. This fast food chain targets those customers who do not want to put on more weight. The success rate is very low as people prefer eating tasty and junk food and care less about the low fat and calories.

The other product consists of soft drinks which are very bad for your health. It contains bacteria which causes fever and other health issues. There are other products like tobacco for example, which can cause cancer to the consumer.

2. Think of a new or revised product or service that you would like to see on the market. Discuss the implications of producing that product or service relative to legal, ethical, environmental, profitability, competitive, design, and production issues.

I would like to see the original video game Ms. Pacman redesigned and put back in the market with new machines. The last time I saw an old one, it didn’t work very well. The implications of redesigning it are:

Legal – The only legal issue I can really think of might be copyright laws and possible infringement if it’s not made by the original company. Also, I know a few people who used to play this video game for long periods of time, and they would complain of eyestrain and carpel tunnel. With the right legal assistance, this could become a legal and liability issue for the company.

Ethical – Some people might feel that video games are not a productive part of our society of good for people. I, personally, do not view this as an ethical issue.

Environmental – There are minimal environmental issues provided that the old machines and any failed parts are disposed of properly.

Profitability and competition – I think this would be a big issue. There are a lot of other high tech video games on the market. I believe that the high level of competition would be a problem. Ms. Pacman tends to be enjoyed by older men like my dad for example, and I think the younger generation that plays video games more often may not care for it which would create a competition and profitability issue.

Design – The design, I think, would be fairly simple. There really shouldn’t be a need to do a major redesign from the original machine and it can be made similar.

Production – This could be an issue if some of the parts are obsolete and have to be updated. Also, the machine may present an issue as it might not be in high demand so it will be a challenge to fit it into the production schedule when there are minimal or small order quantities for it.

3. How were food producers impacted by the U.S. government’s requirement to identify the trans fat content on product labels?

Food producers were impacted in a number of ways such as the company has to: determine the amount of trans fat present in each product; decide whether reduction in trans fat is desirable; redesign the product label; discard(and write off cost of) old labels; decide whether to re-label existing product; decide when and how to phase in the new product; if it is desirable, determine the possibility of trans fat at a desirable cost and also keep in mind the taste, appearance, etc.; come up with innovative products and try to sell them in the market.

4. Suppose a company intends to offer a new service to some of its internal customers. Briefly discuss how the fact that the customers are internal would change the process of managing the four phases of the service life cycle.

The four phases of the service life cycle are introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. The fact that the customers are internal would mean that the organization has a better ability to quickly assess where they are in the life cycle and be able to get direct input from the internal customer’s to better manage and improve the service.