Gabriel Popescu Case

Gabriel Popescu - newly marketing director of Dobrogea Group participated in the Board Meeting where strategic development of the Group over the next 5 years took place. This development is about entering the pasta market where the Group is not present. To do so, an investment of over 3 million in production capacity is needed, so a market and industry analysis should be run by Gabriel Popescu.

The strategic marketing plan should be deploy before the tactical / operational plan, because it has long term time-frame, it is focused on broad and plan for action and it has the tasks for defining the market, customers, and competitive position. The strategic marketing plan should provide the finding of the analysis, and not a mass of raw data.

Gabiel Popescu runs an analysis of the market place and the Group position within it relative to competition.

Market Information: There are changes regarding the local market, i.e. the producers who do not invest in quality will stop operating. On long-, medium-term, there will be an offer increase by penetration of European brands, and by diversification of the local ones. Imported pasta may be sold for a lower price than the present. Another change is packed pasta is wanted before the bulk products. There are also changes in buying behaviour (for example, the grocery stores).

There are several problem categories the Romanian pasta market faces: weather conditions, insufficiently modernised agriculture, considerable variation from one year to another regarding the cereal crops - leading to major fluctuation in prices.

Changes in culinary habits of Romanians who travel abroad should be taken into consideration. The idea of fast preparation will lead to a more rapid development on a long term.

Competition: There are 8 important local competitors plus almost 3 % international ones, mainly