REPORT ON

“ART OF LIFE”

PREPARED FOR ::

MALINA ISLAM HALIM

PREPARED BY ::

MEHEDI HASAN

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary

What is Pottery Product?

The Pottery Industry

The Company "Art of life."

Competitor Size

Uniqueness of the Product

SWOT Analysis

Market Potential of pottery Industry

Market screening

Product Policy

Product Range

Pricing Policy of Pottery

Distribution Policy of Pottery Product

Advertising and Promotional effort

Recommendations

CONCLUSION

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 Executive Summary:

The Art of Life is a small industry of pottery product that exports pottery products to
abroad as well as sells its product in our country.

In this report on “Art of Life”, a small industry of pottery product, we’ve prepared the
SWOT analysis for this particular industry, where we have shown the different
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of this industry.

In this report you will find the marketing potential of pottery product. Different
Pricing strategy that this firm is using and the distribution channel of this industry.
Here we also have shown promotional strategy of “Art of Life”

We hope that you will enjoy this report and believe that by studying this you will have
a clear view of the total marketing strategy of “Art of Life”

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 What is Pottery
Product?
Life is a combination of different art. Art express the harmony of life. We started
saying, "What if mind doesn’t express!" History of mankind proves, however, that
from the very early days of human civilization the art of expression has always
remained a pointer of progress and prosperity. Man’s association with clay goes back
to the pre-historic periods. It is from this malleable medium that man learnt to create
things for himself. Handling of clay is one of the earliest skills acquired by man. Even
today, 5000 years later the technique and the basic nature of the items remain the
same.

The heritage of Pottery craft in Bengal is rich and varied and dates back several
centuries. A wide span of time from the Harappan age to the late medieval period has
seen significant works like Pottery figurines and temple plaques.

Over a period of time successive generations of creative contributions from people in

and around Bangladesh -- natives and outsiders -- have not only enriched the cultural
heritage but also provided a wide variety of Pottery craft, both visually enticing and
intellectually entertaining.

Indeed it would not be incorrect to say that Bangladesh's contribution to the

intellectual and cultural development has little parallel. Perhaps the same creative
favor and passionate enthusiasm will continue to remain the hallmark of Bangladesh
in many more days to come.

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 The Pottery
Industry:
Industry refers to the business system within which the business units operate. The
industry in which we want to enter into is the Pottery Industry of Bangladesh, where
the companies severely compete regarding product differentiation, innovations, and
improvement and also compete by the development of various colorful glorious
decorative Pottery products to gain sustainable competitive advantages over each
other.

Industry Size:
The size of the industry is determined by the number of firms operating under the
same industry producing and providing similar good and services to the same
customer segment. This is an export-oriented industry and in its field there are few
number of firms operating. Though this is a very large potential business area there is
very few firms are operating in the Pottery Industry in Bangladesh. Since the raw
materials are available in the nature, firms don't need huge amount of capital to
operate in this industry.

Industry Trends:
This Industry in our country is in pioneering stage and it is growing as some new
firms are coming into the industry.

Industry Characteristics:
The Pottery Industry is based on the clay and there is a historical background of the
clay product in our subcontinent. It has a strong traditional background, as the rural
people of ancient period were significantly involved in making different varieties of
clay products derived from their basic needs household, farming and cultivation as
well. But at the moment very few of them are engaged in this activity.

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 The Company "Art of
life."
The name of our dream organization is “ART OF LIFE.” It is a product-oriented
organization that produces clay products i.e. pottery for different purposes like
decoration pieces, garden optics, kitchen optics, cooling material etc.
Pottery is a year round demanded product which does not have any seasonal change in
demand pattern and raw materials also have year round availability. This is an
opportunity for such export-oriented venture with the year round demand pattern
since pottery does not have any seasonal availability in meeting its supply and
demand as well.

Mission Statement of the firm

We add value to the wealth of society by growing the unrecognized unprivileged poor
pottery producers and to recognize them to the world of color, decoration and
creativity.

Objectives of the firm

1. Maximize the stakeholder wealth and add value to the economy.
2. To uphold the heritage of Bangle culture among different culture of the world.
3. To increase job opportunities at home for under-privileged workers.
4. To encourage participation of women in community affairs.
5. To work as a marketing agency for the promotion of locally produced goods in the
international market.

Corporate Headquarter
45, Dhanmondi R/A. Road No-2
Dhaka -1205, Bangladesh.
Phone: 8123730, 8112883.
E-mail: aol@dhaka.agni.com
Web site: http//www.aol.5g.com

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Business line
Producing clay products i.e. crockery, desktop item etc.

Competitor
Size

Since the number of firms under this industry is very few, the size of the competitors
is also very small. Only two or three competitors exist in this industry, among them
CORR-The Jute Works has the most significant performance.

Uniqueness of the
Product

The unique characteristics of the new venture are that the design and production of
such clay products is done based on the customer’s choice. Few competitors do not
depend on customers’ choice; they make the product and sell them as much as
possible. Our project will determine the customer needs and tailor the product
accordingly.

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SWOT
Analysis:

The SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) is a simple

tool that can be used to diagnose and identify potential growth opportunities for each
goal and objective that an organization pursues in the long run.

Positive Forces Negative Forces

Internal Strengths Weaknesses
External Opportunities Threats

Strength:

1. Customized Product:

Pottery products are highly customized because the product is made not in a mass
production rather almost job shop or customized basis. The artisans are highly skilled
in making any sort of pottery product, which allows the firm to tailor the product in
order to, satisfy the demand of different group of customers.

2. Skilled Labor Force:

Artisans who produce pottery items are engaged in this profession from generation to
generation. They are highly experienced and efficient in producing different
handicrafts items specially pottery products. So no additional training cost is needed
to meet up the skill gap.

3. Low Manufacturing Cost:

Manufacturing cost of pottery items is significantly low due to low price of direct raw

materials and cheap labor cost. The overhead cost of producing pottery is also very

low.

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4. Promotion Effectiveness:

The use of technology has enhanced the promotional effectiveness. Through Internet
website and different media the pottery items can be promoted all over the world at a
cheaper cost.

5. Low Financial Risk:

The pottery product-manufacturing venture does not require a huge investment. So the
risk is justifiable with the rate of return.

Weakness:

1. High Transportation Cost:

Since, the management will have to go to the rural area and purchase the pottery item
that will be exported abroad finally. So, there will be a significant amount of
transportation cost attached with it.

2. Quality maintain issue and labor dependency:

Even though the artisans are very skilled in producing pottery product, there is quality
risk associate with the production as the items are all hand made by artisans of rural
area, and there is no particular sophisticated system to measure the quality of the
products. There is no modern process in manufacturing terracotta that can enable the
firm to be capital intensive and reduce the dependency on labor.

3. Delivery issue:

The production process is manual and time consuming. So sometimes the artisans fail
to complete their tasks before the scheduled delivery date. Which finally results in bad
relationship with the buyers.

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4. No Brand image:

This product doesn't have any brand image or trade mark. So, the producer cannot
charge a premium price for this product.

5. Damages:

The main risk of pottery production that they are highly breakable, but during
the production process and the packaging can make the risk zero percent.

Opportunities:

1. Limited Competitors:

Still, the numbers of firms who are involved in exporting terracotta item is very few.
This limited number of competitors allows the firm to enjoy less competition and
higher profitability.

2. High Demand:

The demand for pottery items is very high outside Bangladesh. The North Americans
and many European countries is the main buyer of pottery made kitchen, garden and
decoration items.

3. Supportive rules and regulations:

Government regulations regarding exporting pottery are highly supportive as they are
enacted to promote cottage industry in Bangladesh. So, formalities and government
paper work is very low in this sector.

4. Social Awareness:

Social awareness is creating an opportunity for promoting overall handicrafts

industry.

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Threats:

1. Low Entry barriers:

Even though still fewer firms are exporting the terracotta items but as the business is
not a subject to high government regulations and no huge investments are needed,
anybody can enter or leave the industry. That possesses a threat because there is
chance that competition may increase in the future and the firm may not enjoy the
same profit as it is enjoying now.

2. Political Instability:

The political instability creates the sufferings for the general economy as a whole.
Political unrest may hamper the due shipment of certain order and delay the delivery.

3. Technological Changes:

Terracotta industry is a labor-intensive industry. If technological changes occur, and

the manufacturing process can be automated, then the product can be offered at a
cheaper price that may snatch market share and reduce profitability.

The company approach should be building on the strengths, rather than

constantly worry about weaknesses. There is no company or business that is free of
weaknesses. Interestingly, strength in one area becomes weakness in some other area.

Market Potential of pottery

Industry:
Whether a firm is experienced in or new to international business, one of the most
critical issues is which of the vast range of markets overseas should the market enter.

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Selecting an overseas market has many outcomes, which may influence the
profitability of the firm in Bangladesh as well as in its other overseas markets.
Examining international strategies for different geographic region is important
because the firm may have enough resources to take advantage of all opportunities. It
must be flexible enough to let the company both respond to new opportunities and
withdraw from less profitable activities.

Selection Objective:
At the initial entry stage, the firm should select those markets whose are large in size,
holding relatively the best economical, political, legal conditions than other markets
and whose social and cultural condition are most suitable for adapting terracotta.

Market
screening:

Proper scanning helps the firm to arrive at a portfolio of attractive overseas markets.
Without proper screening of countries the company might consider too few or too
many opportunities. The basic notions that we covered for the screening purpose are
as following.
 Scan for alternatives.
 Choose and weight variables.
 Collect and analyze data for variables.
 Select manageable number of geographic alternatives.
Here the influential variables can be divided into two main categories: opportunities
and risk.
Opportunities are
 Market size.
 Geographic, language and market similarities.
 Fit with company capabilities and policies.
 Costs and resource availability.

Risks are
 Competitive risk.

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  Monetary risk like dollar rate inflation,
 Political risk for both micro and macro level.
 Financial risk such as lower return on investment, long payback period etc.

We have conducted the screening for potential market for the terracotta business by
exploiting the opportunities as well as avoiding the risk-involved markets. In this
process we have evaluated the countries according to its market size and potential,
economic condition, political and legal condition, social and cultural forces and
competitive forces.

Product
Policy:
Product is the first and perhaps the most important element in the marketing mix.
Because a product is successful in Bangladesh, there is no guarantee that it will be
successful when exported to other countries. While some products have universal
appeal and require little change before being overseas, others have narrow appeal and
must be modified before being offered overseas to buyers to other countries.
Fortunately the pottery products don’t need to be modified much for different market
because they are preferred as they are. Most of the buyers overseas buy pottery
products as products with artistic feature.

Product
RANGE:

The products of our company can be categorized according to mainly three parts.

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Decoration items: Candle stand, round terrace pot, tea light candle lamp, X-
mas candle items, tassels and other home decorative pots.
Kitchen items: utensils, plate, different size jars.
Gardening items: pots of different size and style.
Evaluating a product for exporting in another country requires determining if there are
cultural resistances to overcome and physical change is mandatory changes necessary
for product acceptance.

Product packaging:
As it is a very important issue, it needs to be discussed separately. Normally, each
item is shrink-wrapped and placed in hard-corrugated box surrounded by
appropriately cut buffers. This insulates the item from the inner walls of the box and
from each other. Wherever appropriate, an item is packed in individual boxes before
placing them in a master carton. Great care is taken to package items well for transit.
The products will be exported by shipping for most of the regions. Although ocean
fright is the cheapest way to move merchandise, it also is the slowest. Thus, even
though it still dominates global trades, it s position is eroding somewhat.
Pricing Policy of
Pottery Product.
Price is the only marketing variable that produces revenue. It is an integral part of the
product when marketed overseas, as it is difficult to think of a product without
considering its price. When setting prices for the overseas market, it is necessary to
take competitors’ price into account. By setting price, we have to follow the structure:
-

Price Objective:
While setting price the focus should be on the unit profit rather than on number of
units sold. This is because, the pottery products are almost luxurious items, and so
number of unit sales will not be huge like other consumer goods.

Cost Approach:

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In order to determine the price of different pottery product we have followed the
following sequence:
Overseas Market Research

Product Characteristics

Design

Manufacturing

Cost

Pricing

In order to minimize the cost, the production location should be near the villages
where the pottery producers live.

Market Approach:
The advertising of the product affects its pricing policy. The company Exclusive
Pottery will produce highly customized exclusive products that certainly add value to
its name over other pottery companies.

Cost Analysis:
In the export business of pottery, the cost has incurred mainly in shipping the goods.
Other cost of exporting pottery is the cost of marketing the products and the cost for
the distribution system.
Price Analysis:
The manufacturing cost of pottery product is too low that it is possible to make
immense profit in this business. But in setting price for the products we have to accept

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lower amount of profit than available in the overseas market in order to set a price
below the competitors of other pottery companies.

Distribution Policy of Pottery

PRODUCT:
Distribution policy is one of the important factors of marketing a product. A channel
of distribution is an organized network of agencies, which combine to link producers
with users. Distribution is the physical flow of goods through channels. A channel is
useful in that: it makes the product available in a convenient location to the customer
(place), it makes the product available when the customer wants it (time), it packages
or reprocesses the product into a form that the customer can use (form), and it advises
the public about the product and its attributes (information).

Planning of Distribution System:

A consideration of the specific factors when planning the distribution system should
take into account the following:
• A distribution system is the major link between a company and its customers.
• A distribution system takes considerable time and capital to build, and is not
changed easily.

We have chosen the following distribution channel for the product Pottery:

Exclusive
Terracotta

Agent
Agent
Wholesaler
Retailer

Retailer
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 Overseas
Customers

We will appoint an export agent in each overseas market; he sells goods to the
Advertising
retailers and
in the overseas Promotional
market effortandOF
on behalf of our company POTTERY
receives a commission
onProduct:
the sale, although he does not take title to the goods.

Advertising and Promotional

effort of Pottery Product:
Advertising and Promotional
International competition for world market and the increasing sophistications of
effort of Pottery Product:
foreign consumers have led to a more sophisticated advertising strategies. The basic
framework and concepts of international promotion are essentially the same wherever
employed. Six steps are involved. These are:

1. Study the target market.

2. Determine the extent of worldwide standardization and customization
3. Determine the promotional mix
4. Develop the most effective messages
5. Select effective media and
6. Establish the necessary controls to assist in monitoring and achieving
worldwide marketing objectives.

For our company, we have designed extensive advertising and promotional plans. The
first attempt we are taking is creating Brand Image in pottery business. For this we
have selected two strategies:
1. Bangladeshi Image all over the world:
2. Environmental Consideration:

Online promotion:
We have already developed our website on the net. Our web address is:

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 www.aol.5g.com
We have used latest technologies in developing our web site to serve our payments. A
24-hour service department is engaged to deal with this. We are offering the
followings in our web site:
 Complete product catalog.
 Downloadable price list.
 Customer enquiries and instant answers
 Customized product ordering
 Newsletters
 Company information
 Decoration styles
 Documentations on pottery
 Multi-language support and many more.

Secondly, we have decided to advertise in the most used search engines like yahoo,
Lycos, google, altavista, infoseek, netscape etc.

Yearly exhibition:
We have planned to arrange an exhibition all over the world to display our product
and get in touch of our customers.

Paper media:
We will advertise in the fashion and interior-exterior design magazines as well as
international magazines to reach our prospective customers.
Award Giving Ceremony:
We have decided to arrange an annual award giving ceremony to our best designer,
best agency, best consumer and many more categories.

Cable, national, local and satellite TV ad. :

Though this kind of media is very costly, we want to cover these also in limited
perspective.
Participation strategy:
We will try to participate in international or regional fairs because these are
recognized as a unique forum for buyer-seller meet.
Recommendation
s:
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We have some specific recommendations to improve this business. These are:
 Government should take effective measures to inspire people to come
into this business like giving loans.
 Govt. should take measures to lower freight cost in this business.
 Export-Import policy should be specifically noted.
 Business personals must take care of research and development
department in this business.
 Schools should be established to train and create artists in pottery
industry.
 Awareness building programs must be taken to create awareness and
interest in people to use this product.

CONCLUSIO
N:
Bangladesh is a developing country. Its economic condition is not in a sound position
but it has a very rich national heritage and wealth. A country like Bangladesh who is
not endowed with much resource and also technologically not advanced, can export
handicrafts item like pottery product in order to face the challenge of globalization.
Since foreign direct investment is inadequate due to government policy, political
instability and lack of infrastructure we have a great opportunity to earn foreign
currency in the national economy as well as exposing our national heritage. We have
examined different scopes of this business plan through out the paper and found this
proposed business venture is one of the unique ideas for earning foreign currency. We
should nourish this pottery industry with much attention and care.

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