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Microfridge Execution

Bob Bennett created the MicroFridge, a small refrigerator intended for use in college dormitories. While student surveys showed interest, Bennett struggled to convince administrators and investors due to a lack of credibility from his inexperience. He also advertised the product late, resulting in excess inventory. After promoting the MicroFridge at trade shows and through media coverage, Bennett was able to sell 700 units by persuading some administrators. He then began direct sales from manufacturers to increase his profit margins.

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162 views

Microfridge Execution

Bob Bennett created the MicroFridge, a small refrigerator intended for use in college dormitories. While student surveys showed interest, Bennett struggled to convince administrators and investors due to a lack of credibility from his inexperience. He also advertised the product late, resulting in excess inventory. After promoting the MicroFridge at trade shows and through media coverage, Bennett was able to sell 700 units by persuading some administrators. He then began direct sales from manufacturers to increase his profit margins.

Uploaded by

asni
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MicroFridge: The Execution

Bob Bennet’s product was a one-stop solution for the students who earlier had difficulties
in cooking their food because of dormitory rules. Innovation is necessary for carving a space
in the market and Bennett did that. The interviews conducted by Boston's Atlantic Research
with 200 Massachusetts college students clearly shows that 52 % of students like the
MicroFridge idea and were willing to pay extra money for that. But Robert Bennet was
unable to convince the dormitory administrators and investors to invest in his product.
The main reason for that is lack of credibility, due to his lack of experience in the market.
Lack of credibility means that there is no trust and reliability in the brand or product and
investing in an untrusted product involves high cash flow risks.
Since his product was a new one, his first task would have been to extensively advertise the
features and the technology he has implemented and develop a unique brand position. On
top of that, he advertised the product late which resulted in piling up of inventories in the
distributor's warehouses. Being first of a kind and a sustainable product with low power
consumption. If he could have marketed it in a better way and with a different approach,
the product would have gained the customers' confidence quite faster.
After the press publicity through television news, radio shows and local news media across
the country, and by renting trade booths at trade shows his product got attention. People
got to know about MicroFridge. Through this publicity, he created a want for his product in
the market. As a result, after a little persuasion, he convinced some dormitory
administrators to buy his product. By the end of summer 1989, he sold around 700 units of
MicroFridge from distributors warehouses. And once the distributor's warehouses were
cleared, he started mailing his product directly from manufacturers to increase his profit
margins.
Solutions:
● To build trust towards his product safety, Bob Bennett should have approached for
an authorized Safety Certification.
● He should have gone for incentivizing his product for the customers. He could have
come up with the idea of offering free maintenance services and product warranty
for a long period of time than the conventional time period mainly offered by other
electronic appliances.
● Bob Bennett could have looked for a possibly better supply chain management
solution. In the initial stage instead of going for distributors, he could have explored
the other possibility of roping in a few sales representatives which he did later while
realising that his profits were being eaten away by distributors, who would be
exploring and expanding the market base. This way he could have increased his sales
volume quite earlier.
● He could have offered a scheme to use the product for some trial period so that
customers gain some confidence in the product. If the customer likes the product, he
eventually promotes the product by word of mouth.
● Improvements and Innovation of product should have been done at constant stages
to provide better customer satisfaction and to increase the growth and maturity
stages in the product life cycle.
● Along with innovation, he should have targeted customers from other geographical
segments.
● Rather than selling his company Bob Bennett should have pitched in some investors
and expanded its market. By not doing so, he might have missed a great opportunity
in the future.
● Instead of focusing only on Students and Universities, he should have market the
product also to Working Professionals, 1BHKApartment Owners, big organisations,
small offices, cafe and nuclear families.
● Let understand the case in detail with the help of SWOT analysis

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