Introduction
In the recent past, environmental issues have attracted a lot of concern at all levels of governance. This is because of the high rate at which the environment is being destroyed. Australia is no exception with most of the population complaining of different types of environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, and water conservation among others.
As a result, consumers all over the world have increased their awareness on matters of environmental conservation by going green. In this, they use commodities that are environmental friendly just to make sure that they conserve the environment. Given the demand by consumers, the manufacturers have also resorted to producing environmental friendly commodities, which have a higher demand than the other non-eco-friendly commodities.
The products range from the sophisticated commodities such as motor vehicles to the simple ones such as foods and beverages. In this paper, the production and marketing of an economic friendly food product will be analysed by investigating the marketing Ps of the product. The food product to be discussed is âorganic crisps/chipsâ.
For many years, potato chips have been produced through deep-frying in oil. Nevertheless, recent research has indicated that frying of potatoes in oil to produce chips leads to the production of a compound known as acrylamide, which is carcinogenic (Granda 406). As such, people have refrained from consuming potato chips that have been produced through oil deep-frying as a way of going green.
This has in turn led to research done to come up with a gadget known as the âAirfryierâ which produces perfect chips without using any oil. The chips produced through this method are therefore known as âorganic chipsâ since they contain no or less harmful health effects. The Airfryier makes use of superheated air instead of oil to produce chips.
The innovation of the airfryier has not only been a benefit to the health of the people but it also helps in the conservation of the environment. This is because the oil that has been recycled in chips production is normally disposed to the environment where it causes environmental degradation.
Levels of the product
Just like most of the other food and non-food commodities, organic chips have the distinct levels of product. In the first level of the product, the production of the organic chips will be analysed. As mentioned earlier organic chips are produced using an airfryier. An airfryier resembles a rice cooker and uses superheated to cook the food. The food in this case sliced potatoes are put on the tray and then inserted in the airfryier.
After a short time of about twelve minutes, the chips are now ready. The interesting fact is that the organic chips taste similar to the oil-fried chips the only difference being lack of oil (Granda 409). At this level, the product contributes to environmental sustainability by avoiding oil waste disposal as well as by protecting the health of people from cancer and other fat related illnesses.
After production the chips could be packaged in different packages however, they should be environmental friendly. In the past, plastic containers have been used to package chips and other food commodities. In the case of our organic chips, it will be fruitless to conserve the environment during production and pollute it in packaging and branding.
As such, our organic chips will be packaged in paper bags made of wood paper but with a thin layer of aluminium foil in the inside. This way, the package used will be environmental friendly thus contributing to the green philosophy of environmentalists.
The Four Pâs of marketing organic crisps/ chips
When marketing any product, it is important to incorporate the marketing mix to ensure the success of the product in the targeted market. The marketing mix has however expanded from the four main Ps to about seven Ps. The four main Ps include place, price, promotion, and product (Lake 1).
Just as it happens to other new products being introduced in the market, the same will be in the case of introducing organic chips in the Australian market. The fact that our organic chips will use less of inputs, which includes oil that has proved to be very expensive in the recent past, means that the cost of producing organic chips will be lower than that of the oil-fried chips. As such, the price of organic chips is expected to be lower than the oil-fried chips hence attracting more consumers.
Secondly, given the many health and environmental benefits associated with organic chips, the product will definitely attract many consumers who want to go green. It is obvious that consumers will avoid the oil-fried chips, which have proved to contain carcinogenic (cancer causing organisms) products. They will thus prefer the organic chips as way of protecting their bodies from health effects.
The promotion of organic chips will be on the theme of health and benefits that the product has. The most efficient element to be used in promotion will be advertising though the media on radio stations, televisions, journals, and magazines among other modes of advertising (Koichi 37). The product could be promoted through go green campaigns by educating the public on the benefits that organic chips has on their health and the environments.
The place of marketing organic chips is not a big problem since this is a product, which is used by a big percentage of the population of people in any given country. Potato chips are normally consumed by all categories of people from the children, youth, and the elderly. The organic chips could be marketed using strategies such as franchising and distribution just to mention a few (Lake 1).
Product Life Analysis
During the marketing of commodities, especially the new products, they have to undergo a product life cycle. The cycle involves four main stages with the first stage being the market introduction stage. In the stage, the costs are normally very high given the fact there are various promotion strategies and research being undertaken to ensure the success of the product.
In the case of our product, organic chips the introduction stage will involve creating awareness to the consumers since this is a new product. The main problem in this stage will be creation of the demand among the consumers by prompting them to buy the product.
The second stage of the cycle is the growth stage in which the costs are now reduced to a level lower than that experienced in the market introduction stage. In this stage, since product sensitization has already taken place, the volume of the sales will increase significantly. This will be facilitated by the health and environmental benefits of the organic chips hence attracting even more consumers who want to go green.
Maturity stage is the third stage of the product life cycle, which is characterized by presence of competitors. As for the case of organic chips, chances are very low that there will be competitors since the product itself is a competitor to the oil-fried chips. Given the more advantages that the organic chips have over the oil-fried chips, it is definitely that the organic chips will win the competition over the latter.
The saturation and decline stage of the product life cycle, which is mainly characterized by a decline in the volume of sales of the product. The organic chips product is bound to reach this stage at some point in its lifetime especially if more inventions are made. However, this is expected to take some time given the fact that the campaign of going green has just began in the recent past. Therefore, since organic chips is one way of going green, the product could take much time before reaching the decline stage.
Environmental Sustainability
Environmental sustainability has been one of the Millennium Goals all over the world. Australia as a continent is trying to achieve environmental sustainability through conserving the environment by going green. Environmental sustainability involves taking care of the environment to ensure that it only gets what it can endure (Blackburn 123).
This is done by ensuring that the environment is not polluted. In order to ensure environmental sustainability, the public, government and all other stakeholders involved in environmental conservation must come together to achieve the objective of environmental sustainability.
For instance, the manufacturing companies and all other industries have obtained environmental sustainability through corporate social responsibility (Blackburn 145). This is achieved by having the companies produce environmental friendly products as well as disposal of wastes in the right manner, which does not affect the environment.
The production, market introduction, and consumption of organic chips are definitely of significant contribution to environmental sustainability. First is the fact that the production of organic chips leads to the elimination of oil in production whose waste when disposed to the environment leads to environmental degradation.
For instance, oil spillage in water bodiesâ compromises aquatic life since it leads to lack of air circulation in the water body. Secondly, consumption of organic chips protects the health of individuals since they do not consume the carcinogenic compounds found in oil-fried chips. Since the people form part of the environment, protecting their health is also one way of contributing to environmental sustainability.
An investigation of the 4Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink
The four Rs have been used as a tool for environmental conservation. The Rs standing for Reduce, Recycle, Reduce, and Rethink have been applied to products and services produced to conserve the environment. Reduction advocates for minimization of the amount of waste that goes to the environment. The reduction philosophy is applied differently in different products. In the case of our organic chips, reduction is achieved by elimination of oil in the production of potato chips thus eliminating the disposal of waste oil.
Reusing is applied by having the items repaired and used in other ways such us selling them or having them donated to charity. The fact that the organic chips use an airfryier to produce more and more chips, means that they are reusing the equipment as well as the super-heated air.
Recycling is used to mean the transformation of waste products into other products that are useful. Recycling is applied in the production of organic chips by having the potato peels used in the manufacture of manures that can be used in farms to enhance productivity in the firms instead of using inorganic fertilizers, which cause environmental degradation.
Rethink is a new R added to highlight the significance of creating awareness to people so that they can be able to think before making environmental decisions. This applies very well in the case of our product, organic chips.
Given that every new product attracts controversial debates, the introduction of organic hips is bound to bring about debates from different groups of people. It is therefore important that they re-think before making any comments with regard to the product. They should consider how the production of organic chips would benefit the environment as well as the people consuming them.
Conclusion
As the world advocates for environmental conservation, all continents, and nations do the same in order to make the world environmentally sustainable. As mentioned earlier in the paper, Australia is one of the nations that has been advocating for a safe environment. It is in this regard that the introduction of organic chips in the Australian market will be a big step towards the sustainability of the environment.
The organic chips produced using super-heated air in an airfyrier, does away with the use of oil, which has been related with carcinogenic compounds in its production. As such, it makes the consumers of organic chips free from fat related illnesses as well as cancer. The elimination of oil in the production of organic chips also avoids the disposal of oil to the environment hence helping in environmental sustainability.
Works Cited
Blackburn, Wilson. The Sustainability Handbook. London: Earthscan, 2007. Print.
Granda, Charles et al. âReduction of Acrylamide Formation in Potato Chips by Low-temperature Vacuum Frying.â Journal of Food Science 69.8 (2004): 405â411. Print.
Koichi, Shimizu. Symbiotic Marketing Strategy. Japan: Souseisha Book Company, Print.
Lake, Laura. Developing Your Marketing Mix. 2012. Web. <https://www.thebalancesmb.com/developing-your-marketing-mix-2295745>