Question No 1: Briefly summarize Colombo’s competitive environment and General Mills’ strategy in response to that environment

There are few strategies explained for competitive environment in the General Mills’ which are it should focus on the services of the high sales and high quality. For impelling the segment the management of the general Mills had introduces the force of the large scale which is already involved in the selling. For one or many product the advantages are affording by the Colombo. For adding the little effort the application was added for generating the more profits. For the selling the shops few expertise are observed for General Mills. In the time period of the 1990s the market of the frozen yogurt is going to be changed intensely.

Many shops are converted in to the operational franchise of the frozen yogurt market in early 1990s and these operations are including as ICNY and TCBY it also includes Yogen-Frunz. The products of these shops are purchased by their operating franchises which are located in different locations. At the impulse locations the sales of soft serve were more than the 2/3 at the end of the 1990’s.  When the frozen yogurt is not selling in the market the management of the company was confused to finding the reason of reducing the sales.

Due to declining the sales the customers are going to dissatisfied from the products and the profit of the company decreasing day by day.  For both shops and impulse the same approach is using by the General Mills. It is felted by the company two different channels can reduce this problem which would be shown as differ but each channel have required information.

Question Number 2.

Using the ABC analysis, determine new segment profitability statements

For analyzing this costing analysis is used Activity-based

 Cost of goods sold: - $14,250,000 (same for all cases) = $14,250,000/1,500,000 cases = $9.50 per case

·         Impulse: 1,200,000 @ $9.50 = $11,400,000

·         Shops: 300,000 @ $9.50 = $2,850,000

Shipping: $3,000,000 it can differentiate according to the cases of the individuals ($2.25/case) or with pallets ($75/pallet):

·         Shops:

·         Pallets = 240,000/75 = 3200 @ $75 = $240,000

·         Individual cases = 60,000 @ $2.25 = $135,000

·         Total = $375,000

·         Impulse:

·         Pallets = 60,000/75 = 800 @ $75 = $60,000

·         Individual cases = 1,140,000 @ $2.25 = $2,565,000

·         Total = $2,625,000

Merchandising: $500 per kit

·         Impulse: (3450 - 90) x $500 = 3360 x $500 = $1,680,000

·         Shops: 90 x $500 = $45,000

Administrative and General, Selling: (previously allocated based on sales dollars)

·         Impulse: 99% x $3,900,000 = $3,861,000

·         Shops: 1% x $3,900,000 = $39,000

The above discussion generates following points for this analysis;

·         The Net income of the segment declines due to the A& SG it used the source of allocation for segments which was used for low sales method.

·         It includes the all types of the marketing cost as shipping, price, promotion merchandising and sales.

·         It is equal to the total of 44% sales which have amount of the$13125000 as well as this amount is equal to the 530% for the net income.

·         The segmentation of the shops has percentage of the net income 71% and for the sales it has 20%.

·         It is provide by the analysis of the ABC the information which is given in this table it is not available for the allocation of the arbitrary. 

·         For cost of the marketing, the ways and drivers are required to determining of the cost has also shown by it.

Question Number 3.

Based on your analysis in Questions 1 and 2, what changes would you suggest to General Mills? Give specific examples and explain.

The locations for impulse and shops are clearly varied according to their needs and cost. It is recommended for impulse and shops the various approaches are required. A&SG is considered as major issues of the cost. It is also recommended the various methods for reducing the time which is spending on the impulse the time for the shops would be increased. The time schedule must be planned for the servicing the shops and impulse. The alteration of the sales force time is also requiring for this Mall. For many other products the sales people are called for the location according to the products.

The shipping cost is considered as the second largest cost in this case the management must be adopting those strategies by which they can reduce their shipping cost. Now days the impulse is going to be produce a lot of products. They should adopt the more efficient method for distributing the products. It is recommended the there are many suggestions which can be provided by the students related to largest orders discounts. The management must be understood why orders of purchasing are going to be small. In the location of impulse the storage capacity is very low and their method for ordering is comparatively fixed.

The management must be more creative for reducing the cost of shipping and order. The management must be concentrate on the merchandising and force time of the sales.   

It is suggested to the general Mills the customers of the merchandising are not happy by their services. For merchandising the differ shops are agree to pay.  It involves the merchandising cost which needs to be smaller and less costly.