You have been asked to prepare a concise report including an Internal Memorandum and Executive Summary to inform the CEO of Cement Australia for your strategic business unit (SBU). Please review the attached brief.
The report should be no longer than 2000 words (excluding the Internal Memorandum, Executive Summary, a Table of Contents, and your References.
A workshop will be conducted in Week 2 to provide the format and layout required for your report. Please remember to follow the structure provided by the Business Report Writing Tool (BRW Tool), as will be outlined during this workshop.
Task:
- Cement Australia is an Australian company operating two key strategic business units (SBU): the business to business market (B2B), which includes products for large-scale construction projects, and the packaged goods market, which services both the brick & block home construction sector, and the consumer goods markets (B2C). In the B2C market, Cement Australia is the leading supplier of packaged cement-based products and is the supplier of choice for the largest DIY (do-it-yourself) retailer in Australia – Bunnings. This SBU has been identified as an area of strategic focus to grow the organisation as the DIY market continues to expand, driven by both the trend in popular home- renovation shows (such as The Block), and the recent entry into the Australian market of Masters, the product of a joint venture from Woolworths and Lowe’s (from the United States).
The Cement Australia brand encompasses many product types suitable for use in home construction, renovation projects, simple repairs and maintenance, in addition to related product additives, such as oxides designed for use in colouring cement. Refer to Cement Australia’s web sit e for further information.
- This task is related to the product platform – “Just Add Water” – a range of pre-blended dry products made from a cement base, which simply need the addition of clean water for This product platform includes:
- Mortar Mix
- Concrete Mix (and Rapid Set variant)
- Sand and Cement (and Rapid Set variant)
- Render It
- You are the Product Development Manager for the B2C strategic business You have been asked to prepare a report for Cement Australia’s CEO to assist the future expansion of the B2C area in the Australian market. Specifically, the company is interested in opportunities to add value to their current product portfolio by exploring the usage occasion needs outside of their “big bag” 20kg format (Just Add Water category).
The company is trying to understand the Australian DIY market in terms of opportunity identification and consider how to best customise the current product offerings for this market. The development of a new product concept needs to be completed prior to the installation of new packaging equipment at Cement Australia’s Brisbane bagging facility.
- Your task is to conduct secondary research ONLY (i.e. do not contact Cement Australia) and identify the potential opportunities available for the B2C SBU in the Just Add Water Your report is required to address the specific opportunity elements of:
– Emerging trends in the Australian DIY/renovation market, and how this can relate to the company’s development of the Just Add Water category.
The outcome of your report must provide recommendations that outline a viable product concept and the process require to achieve this.
