Spectacles
Aesthetics
Dairymaster want to be seen as leaders in their market, they have a major focus on creating products that are technologically advanced and that are completely relevant to their customers. A big focus that their organisation needs to keep is a close relationship with its customers so they can create their image from direct interaction with the customer.
They must make sure that they are keeping contact with their customer in the right way, there’s no point in sending a customer an email if they have no idea how to use a computer. Dairymaster also need to make sure that they do not loose contact with customer for feedback and to see want customers really want from their products. (Cartwright, R)
Dairymaster have located themselves close to the Tralee Institute of Technology which gives them access to the facilities but also lets them hand pick the top students. Dairymaster recruit a high number of employees from IT Tralee which benefits both their company and the local community by providing employment while using the convenience of the college. The company further promotes the organisations public image of being highly innovative by hiring bright young minds. (Cartwright, R)
Dairymaster are constantly keeping their product image in the eye of the consumer by being present at many farming conventions nationally and globally, including Canada, USA, UK and France. These events allow customers to come along and see the products and be shown by professionals how their products can improve their farming. This is where the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action) model comes into action, the attention of the customer is gained by an appearance at a farm convention or a referral.(Cartwright, R) Then the interest of the customer must be gained, this is gained through demonstrations of the products. The customer will then move into a stage of desire, they then concentrate on the benefits of the product or service. Dairymaster do this by showing the customer a product that solves a problem that they frequently encounter such as the MOO Monitor. (Dairymaster).

Edmond Harty Dairymaster’s CEO won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year award last year. (UCD, 2012) Dairymaster received a huge amount of public attention as a result appearing on many TV shows, radio shows and in many highly regarded publications. The award has further cemented Dairymaster’s public image of being innovative and the leaders within their industry. Dairymaster were able to achieve much more attention than any advertisement possibly could have given through the media after the award was received. Dairymaster have also appeared in the farmer’s journal and several farming publications in other countries frequently. (RTE)
Customer Analysis A customer can be defined in two ways:
One for whom you satisfy a need.
Or
One for whom you satisfy a need and who you delight in respect of their wants. (Cartwright, R)

The author believes that Dairymaster define their customers as the latter of the two, they aim to make the lives of the customer better by offering them high quality products that will save them both time and hardship. Customers are now used to having a wide choice of products which offer high quality attributes. In today’s market the customer has a huge amount of power which means that their expectations must be met. Dairymaster has always kept a very close relationship with their customers which helps them to offer their customer a high quality product and service which meets customer’s expectations and even delights them. .( Leslie, B)
Lifetime value is a major part of Dairymaster’s business. When a customer buys a product from them they are placing a huge amount of trust in the company to deliver a product that provides for their needs. This is highly important because farmers that are Dairymasters customers invest a large sum of money into these products and will be used for 10-15 years. Farms are generally passed down through families this means that if Dairy master can create a strong connection that they are likely to stick with their product even when the farm passes to the next generation (Cartwright, R).

The author believes that because Dairymaster have such a close relationship with their customers that their business is largely customer driven, meaning that they produce a product that suits their customer. The author has found facts that show their organisation has been built around being customer driven, the organisation is also highly product led. They constantly strive to create new high tech products that improve the customer’s life. Their products are designed to offer added value by saving time and making their job easier. Dairymaster offer their own franchised instalment companies who are highly qualified and experienced with Dairymaster products.(Dairymaster)

If the customer is not kept at the centre of a company they are in danger of failing but the author thinks that Dairymaster do not need to worry about this because they are extremely focused on their customers satisfaction. Customer loyalty is important to Dairymaster, and as their product improves, satisfaction becomes a minimum acceptable standard. Dairymaster has to work to be innovative and delight these customers continually. (Cartwright, R)
. The author has found evidence that Dairymaster uses Ducker’s SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) criteria when designing new products the author will use the MOO Monitor as an example. (Gallagher,S)
Specific: When designing their new MOO monitor they were specific in deciding they wanted to create a product that would let their customers know when their cows were in heat.
Measureable: The product was measurable through testing and feedback from customers.
Achievable: That Dairymaster had staff qualified and experienced enough to make the product.
Realistic: That the technology was available to produce the MOO Monitor
Timely: That they had chosen a realistic deadline for the completion of the product. (Drucker,P)
Cartwright has added a C to the process(C-SMART) standing for Customer driven and states that this should rooted in objectives. The author believes that Dairymaster do this as all of their products are aimed at improving their customer work and life by making it more efficient.

If the customer is not kept at the centre of a company they are in danger of failing but the author thinks that Dairymaster do not need to worry about this because they are extremely focused on their customer’s satisfaction. Customer loyalty is important to Dairymaster, and as their product improves, satisfaction becomes a minimum acceptable standard. Dairymaster has to work to be innovative and delight these customers continually. (Cartwright, R)
Legal

There are many legal implications that Dairymaster need to address in the running of their business. There are many types of legislation which they must follow for each issue and the legislation is likely to be different in every country. The issues that the legislation will deal with may be health and safety, consumer rights employee rights etc. Irish laws and legislation are very similar to that in the UK. The author has looked at the legislation that applies in the UK and there are few differentiations to Irish legislation. As Dairymaster compete at a global level they must abide by laws that are enforced in every jurisdiction. Dairymaster have many competitors nationally and globally so they have to follow different legislation in all of the countries. In both the UK and the USA there is legislation which prevents companies from gaining monopolies and ensuring that companies must trade fairly. This may affect their organisation because it means that if Dairymaster gained too high a percentage of a market they would receive a sizable fine or the company could be ordered to divide into smaller subsidiary companies. This legislation also denies Dairymaster from gaining an unfair advantage e.g. offering certain agricultural groups their product at lower prices if they only buy from their organisation.
(Cartwright, R)
If a consumer is unsatisfied with a product which they received from Dairymaster and it is caused by neglect or false descriptions they may have cause to take legal action against the organisation. If a product is not at satisfactory level a consumer has the right to a refund on the product. Dairymaster’s products must be fit for all purposes that this product are commonly used for, have no defects, have a satisfactory appearance and finish and they must be safe and durable. The durability of the product means that it must last a reasonable amount of time which is average in the industry. This means that even if the warranty on the product runs out legal action could be taken if a defect occurred with the product. (Cartwright, R)

Dairymaster have a huge responsibility to make sure that their products are safe for their customer to use, if there is a defect with their product which causes injury or damage to the customer they could be sued. Huge amounts of money can be involved in such cases so it is highly important that big businesses are extremely careful with these matters. An example of this type of fault would be if one of Dairymaster milking parlours was causing injury or raising the risk of disease and the organisation knew about this defect but did not notify their customer or recall the product they could be held responsible for neglecting their duty. In these cases it is not just the customer that could take legal action but anyone who was injured by the defect. In the farming industry livestock are sold quite frequently this means if a farmer unknowingly bought a cow that was injured by a Dairymaster product they may also have cause to sue.(Cartwright,R)

Dairymaster have a large work force which is scattered through several countries which means they will have to deal with different employment legislation in each country. Employment contracts are much stronger in the UK and Ireland compared to the US but they have stronger legislation when dealing with discrimination. There are many factors that have to be considered the basic factors would be minimum wage and holiday pay. They are both present in a majority of countries but can differ slightly in each country. Discrimination is a huge issue which must be dealt with very carefully as it can lead to a lawsuit and a bad public image. This is particularly important to Dairymaster as they are a global company and have employees of many races and both genders. (Cartwright, R)

Health and safety is one of the most important issues that a company needs to deal with, Dairymaster have an obligation to look after the health and safety of their employees. If they breach health and safety acts this can lead to criminal charges. Health and safety ranges from dangerous cables on the floor to unsafe buildings and machines. The safety of an employee is vital to a company and can be seen from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (Maslow,A)

Environmental
Environmental issues affect all industries as governments are slowly bringing in more stringent acts to deal with pollution. If an organisation can show that they are environmentally friendly it can greatly improve their public image. There are various processes that Dairymaster undertake that could affect the environment. Dairymaster produce all of their products and supplies so this means that they have a manufacturing facility, manufacturing plants can often gases and waste product that can be harmful to the environment. Dairymaster must make sure that all of their waste products are disposed of correctly and recycled where possible. Through the manufacturing of their products they may release a lot of harmful gases that can add to the greenhouse effect and damage the ozone layer so it is their responsibility to keep this to a minimum. (Cartwright, R)
Dairymaster must also be extremely careful with chemicals and water that is used during manufacturing. If contaminated water is not disposed of correctly the water can drain into local rivers and even to the water table causing wide spread affects. Dairymaster should have drains and disposal units for all water and chemicals that are used in the manufacturing of their products or any other activities. Dairymaster have shown that they are very conscious of water waste and disposal by designing machines that recycle water and reduce use and improve efficiencies. (Dairymaster)
Dairymaster’s biggest concern with the environment is compassionate and organic farming, this means using products and techniques that do not damage the environment. There have been many environmental issues that have affected the farming industry before such as BSE and foot and mouth. It is Dairymasters responsibility to prevent their products and implement techniques that will prevent causing an animal disease that could affect the everionment.BSE was caused by feeding cows infected material from sheep but a similar disease could be caused by ill designed machines. When BSE developed it caused a major plummet in the dairy and beef market, if this occurred it could be detrimental to Dairymaster’s business. The stigma could be attached to industry for a long period of time and could destroy Dairymaster if they were connected to the epidemic. Dairymaster have to make sure that their products to not cause a disease that could spread to a large amount of the customers stock and spread to the environment. They have shown that they are extremely concerned with compassionate farming by creating products that are highly hygienic and reduces disease.(Cartwright,R)

The costs of being environmentally friendly can often be very costly. Dairymaster may want to be extremely environmentally friendly but if its competitors do not feel the same they may leave themselves at a competitive disadvantage, by using a lot of their resources to implement short and long term plans to lower green house gasses and pollution.(Michael porter competitive advantage) If Dairymaster became complacent and focused on just being environmentally instead of focusing on what they were good at and slowly adapting environmental plans it could destroy their business. (Collins, J) Sectoral Analysis
There is a large amount of competition within the industry, Dairymaster are one of three large suppliers in this industry. There are also many small companies that also operate within the industry, from the research the author has completed, there has been no monopoly in any of the market segments but there has always been some form of competition. Because of Dairymaster’s size there could be a possibility that they could gain a monopoly of the Irish market although this is unlikely due to other globally trading companies in the industry. It is unlikely that the organisation would want a monopoly of the Irish market as they have made it clear that they want the Irish economy to thrive, their CEO Edmund Harty said that he wanted Ireland to become the leaders for quality food production.

The customer has a huge bargaining power in the industry, as there are suppliers of similar products .Dairymaster’s products are not frequently replaced nor are their competitors so this means that customers will seriously look at all their choices judging price, quality etc. Dairymaster take pride in the how their products use new technologies to make the lives of their customers easy. (Porter,M) They can boast that they have some of the most efficient equipment, this makes it harder for competitor’s to compete on quality. Dairymaster have differentiated themselves by offering extremely sophisticated products e.g. a farmer can receive a text to know when the cow’s come into heat (mating period) this is their USP(unique selling point).They also offer products that cater for huge farms and niche markets like goat farms. Dairymaster could segment their market by creating dairy products for both goats and sheep, they could even go one step further and create products that function for different forms of livestock like horses etc. (Porter,M)

A major advantage that Dairymaster have over their competitors is that nearly all their products are produced in-house, this allows them to have complete control over their quality. This may also help with keeping costs down as they are getting their products at the exact amount it cost to make them. This also helps give them a much better understanding of their products. It may be helpful for all the competitors in the dairy equipment sector to co-operate on issues such as animal health and hygiene and combine research to make further advances in these areas.
The Barriers to entry in the industry are extremely big, this is due to a number of factors firstly the capital involved in setting up a business in the sector, the already established business’s like Dairymaster have competitive advantage and will be able to charge a much lower price and offer high quality. Dairymaster employ a very highly educated workforce and have said that they find it hard to fill some positions, the industry demands educated staff that design and create new innovative products. This will act as a major barrier to entry for a new company as the will need to find highly educated workers and pay them the average industry wage which they may not be able to afford in the beginning.

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