Case Assignment 1

Q1: Markets are majorly classified into 4 segments. These segments can be very useful to target the
customer relevant to the company. The segments are as follows:

1. Demographic Segment
2. Behavioral Segment
3. Geographical Segment 
4. Psychographic Segment 

But depending upon industries, there are some more classifications as Value segment, Firmographic
segment, Generational segment, Lifestage & Seasonal Segment. 

Demographic Segment covers age,sex, marital status, family size, occupation,educationlevel, income,
race and religion as classifiying elements. 

Behavioral segments cover shopping habits, online actions and loyalty.

The Geographic segment covers the location of the customer base. 

And, The Psychographic segment deals with mental & emotional aspects of the human race. 

Impossible Foods is targeting the demographic segment of the customers. Burgers is the most famous
fast food among millennials and genZ. It could also be Psychographics because Impossible foods intend
to reduce the intake of real meat and have hence introduced this plant based meat. 

Existing players in the plant base meat ecosystem are Beyond Meat, Morning stars farms, Cargill and
many others.

Q2. Impossible Foods intends to create supply chain surplus by creating their Impossible Meat for
cheaper than their meat-based competition, or by generating more value to their niche market
customers than they spend in creation of the burger. Since they are plant based, creating Impossible
Meat should be cheaper since meat takes much more resources than plants. In theory, the Impossible
Burger should be cheaper than a meat based competitor. As of right now, they unfortunately are not.
Although the CEO did say that they predict in three years their Impossible Burger will be cheaper than
meat [ CITATION Lis19 \l 1033 ]. “So what is causing them to be more expensive at the moment?” one
might ask. The answer to this question lies twofold. First, the company recently became a major player
when Burger King announced the Impossible Whopper. Before that, it was not as well known and did
not have enough access to the market to benefit from any form of mass production. The larger they get,
and as their capacity to produce Impossible Meat increases, the further the price of an individual patty
will drop thanks to economies of scale. Secondly, they have internal research and development which
they had to invest in to create “Heme.” This fixed cost, along with other fixed costs, will decrease with
each additional burger they make each year, again thanks to economies of scale.

To create more supply chain surplus, they will have to find the cheapest most effective way to
get the soy and yeast to their manufacturing facilities, and from their facilities to the restaurants or
customers. On top of that, they will have to either create or purchase an information system that will
efficiently allow them to keep track of each order, as well as raw materials and supplies necessary for
productions. Creating operational efficiencies will allow them to produce their Impossible Meats
cheaper as they develop, affording them more market space as their product becomes more affordable.

The main risks to them in this market are plain to see. If they fail to sell more burgers, the price
of their product will stagnate. Price Stagnation prevents them from offering cheaper options, which to
an informed consumer makes sense, since plant-based options are supposed to take less resources. If
the Impossible Burger stays more expensive than meat, the question arises of,” If they require less
resources, why are they more expensive?” Also, creating operational efficiencies and reducing the
internal production cost of one burger gives them more supply chain surplus, allowing them to net more
profit at the end of the year.

Another important risk to note is that they are open to more sustainable competition. As
pointed out in this assignment’s brief, Impossible Meat is still highly processed and genetically modified.
They also test on animals, which tends to alienate part of the niche market they intend to sell to.
Another company, such as Beyond Meat, could bridge this gap with a more all-natural approach. They
could also run a marketing campaign in which they boast that they do not test on animals. These two
marketing strategies could be incredibly effective in the markets that they operate in, given that many
vegetarians are also environmentally conscious.

Q3. The company has been growing well because of various new products that have been brought on
the table including Pork. The company employs about 350 people at its headquarters in California and
manufacturing unit at Oakland. The company plans to end animal agriculture as a food source by year
2035, it is currently working on Impossible burgers, Pork & sausages but soon would work on fish and
dairy products as well. 

Impossible foods have a partnership with one of the largest food manufacturers in the world named the
OSI group. The company has various distribution centers primarily in the West Coast & in Markets of
West Mississippi. There are many more spread across the states. The company is currently aware of the
number of nodes in the chain but is eventually trying to throw a manufacturing line to the customer’s
plate. The Company is currently looking at decreasing the nodes and the touch points in the chain. 
 

Impossible Foods decided to look for a third party distributor rather than doing it themselves because
they needed a correct digital infrastructure to maintain the nodes with channel partners, distributors
and retailers. The company believes that their customer is a consumer and hence its important that the
product reaches them very conveniently, and hence they work with quick service restaurants, recently
have partnered with Burger king and now is spread in about 17000 locations in the U.S. There would
soon be a good push of Impossible products in small retails and grocery stores as a part of expansion. 

Impossible Foods has a good food focus on sustainability and hence has a good plan when it comes to
supplier selection for their products. The company considers waste & water use limitations and
minimizing the carbon impact from their manufacturing. 

Q4. We believe that every process up until the arrival of the Impossible Burgers at the location is a push
process. In order to fill immediate demand, Impossible Foods will have to have raw material on hand to
create enough patties to fulfill the orders at all Burger King restaurants. This means that they will have to
somewhat accurately forecast how much they will sell so that they know how much material they will
have to buy to fulfill those predicted orders. Burger King will also, more than likely, order those burgers
from Impossible Foods in advance so that they will have them on hand at their restaurants and won't
run out of supply. The pull process starts the day of the order. The restaurant already has the stock it
needs to fulfill these orders, but they will not begin making the order until the customer requests it. So
the day of, the customer comes in and orders a burger. This begins the pull process, where the customer
requests an impossible burger and it is made for them on the spot. One quick note is that during rush
times this may differ. In some instances, locations will create burgers in advance to have them ready for
a rush that will happen around lunch or dinner time. So long as they predict a somewhat accurate
amount, the customers get their food quicker and there is little waste. This is when the process becomes
a push process. Another side note is that if Burger King places their orders far in advance, Impossible
Foods may be able to use a pull process to create the orders. If Burger King forecasts months in advance,
and orders thusly, Impossible Foods may be able to obtain the raw materials they need to create the
burgers after the order is placed. In this instance, getting the orders to Burger King could be a pull
process. This is however, unlikely, seeing as how demand for food can vary greatly week to week.

Q5. We believe that as of right now, the pricing and marketing processes are at odds a bit. While their
strategy seems effective, their price is higher than beef but their marketing strategy says they use less
resources and are more sustainable. Although this is a critical view, it's important to note that even with
certain inefficiencies causing them to potentially use more resources, they are still probably friendlier to
the planet than the beef industry. Also, their CRM strategies must be working because they seem to be
succeeding at swaying people towards Impossible Foods.

As for Demand planning, whether it be Burger King, Impossible Foods, or other outside factors it would
seem that when they first expanded to stores they experienced an Impossible Whopper shortage. This
occurred in 2019, and to my knowledge hasn't happened since. It would appear that Impossible Foods
has been able to safely secure their supply chain and successfully fulfill orders to Burger King
restaurants. Without a noted shortage, one must believe that they are indeed filling these requests as
needed. We believe that at the beginning of the expansion phase, when they first started selling in
Burger King locations, they more than likely did not yet have the ability to secure the resources they
needed to create Impossible Burgers at the rate they were requested. This shows that they did not plan
correctly for the expansion. That could be a good or a bad thing. While it could be that Impossible Foods
did not have enough material sourced from their suppliers to create the burgers, it could just as easily
be that actual demand for their product came in at a much higher rate than initially planned.

Impossible Foods' design collaboration seems to be spot on, as the burgers they make fit the same buns
as the Whopper. They also look nearly identical to the Whopper, but come in a wrapper with green
accents, that says, "Impossible Whopper," in bold, capital letters. Any changes with the design would
have had to come through Burger King down to Impossible Foods, and it seems as though they've had
success in creating a product that fits with Burger King's needs.

Works Cited
Dunn, L. (2019, July 2). Impossible Burgers Will Soon Be Cheaper Than Real Meat, According To Their
CEO. Retrieved from UPROXX: https://uproxx.com/life/impossible-burger-cheaper-than-meat/