Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to study the functional strategy and problems on various aspects i.e. marketing, production, management, and financial of the five star producing groups in the food industry located in the region of the upper south. The relevant data was collected from the producing groups within seven provinces: Chumphon, Ranong Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phang Nga, Phuket and Krabi.
The finding of the research revealed that most of the producing groups were agricultural groups who have been operating in the business for more than five years and consisted of more than 50 members with an original fund of 200,000 Baht. Their functional strategies and problems could be described as the following.
It was found on the marking strategy that the producing group used the STP process to determine the strategy. The process consisted of (1) Segmentation; the general customers who were food consumers (2) Targeting; customers in the community or the nearby areas as well as those in other provinces or tourists, along with customers in foreign countries (3) Positioning; placing the products and the higher position than competitors in terms of pricing and quality. Meanwhile, the strategies used on the marketing mix included (1) Product strategy; the strategy on market development in order to increase the sales from the same market and the same product (2) Price strategy; the method of target profit pricing (3) Place strategy; the method of zero level channel (4) Promotion Strategy; the method of personal selling. The problem of marketing strategy was the lack of proper knowledge about marketing promotion.
As for the production strategy, the agricultural raw materials or natural resources along with the production technology were used. Quality control and examining were always conducted by focusing on the overall quality management. The production problem was a lack of machines.
On the other hand, the management strategy focused on managing the organization to be efficient which included planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. This was to increase sales and profit. The problem concerning this strategy was the lack of a working plan.
The financial strategy was performed by using the system of presenting information about the business activities of the organization to support the decisions which included planning or forecasting on financial requirements, cost arrangements or financial or financial sources, financial investment in the business. The related problems were a lack of knowledge and competency in accounting and too many debit bills.
The finding of this study disclosed an outcome on the analyze of the business environment which could be summarized as SWOT or (1) Strengths: the qualified and up-to-standard products with an ongoing development on the formats (2) Weaknesses: a lack of knowledge in marketing promotion and the insufficient places for product sales (3) Opportunities: the support from the government on various aspects i.e. finance, machines and public relations as well as an added value in the popular method of using the local wisdom in the form of business (4) Threats: a great deal of competitors that could lead to a process of imitation which further led to the insufficient and costly raw materials with unstable quality. Should be analyzed, summarized to determine the risk. Training on accounting system or financial system should be arranged in order to conduct the related self-performance. This will help in future planning on expenses, financial management or decision concerning increasing investment.
WALAILAK UNIVERSITY. CENTER FOR LIBRARY RESOURCES AND EDUCATIONAL MEDIA