Riza Putri Aulia H Pradipta Suarsyaf Marketing Mix Strategy
FP Corporation: Marketing-Mix Strategy
dr. RizaPutriAulia H. B.MedSc
120820150507
dr. PradiptaSuarsyaf
120820150544
On February 2, 2017, we had an opportunity to visit a FP Corporation’s recycling plant in Ibaraki
prefecture along with our classmates from MM FEB Unpad. FP Corporation, or, FPCO,
manufactures recyclable food containers and converts the used ones into new recycled trays
using FPCO’s unique recycling system. Not only manufacturing and selling the trays, FPCO
also makes different proposals on how the trays should be utilized. The customers (end
customers or supermarkets) are advised with several suggestions for ways of using the
containers to emphasize the deliciousness and freshness of the foods contained. This company
was established in 1962 and currently has over than 700 workers with several recycling plants
and sorting plants throughout Japan. During this visit, we were able to have a better
understanding of how FP Corporation produces and recycles trays through an introduction from
the company’s representative, video, and direct view on how their recycle process was
operated. This report contains our analysis of the company’s marketing-mix strategy of their
recycled tray products.
Marketing-mix strategy
According to Kotler et al, marketing-mix strategy is the last step in segmentation process, which
contains all aspects of the marketing mix in order to gain market segments and survive in the
competition. Marketing-mix has four aspects including the product, price, promotion, and place.
This article is written to report our analysis on three aspects of marketing-mix by FPCO, which
are its products, promotion, and place.
The products
FPCO has been manufacturing ecofriendly Styrofoam food trays since over 50 years ago. Food
trays have become popularly used by many people in Japan because they are very convenient
to hold food such as sushi and sashimi. We think FPCO has succeeded in identifying a higher
trend in light and easy trays such as Styrofoam. Styrofoam is also chosen for its many
advantages, including light weight, tough material, shock absorbent, water resistant, cost
effective, and provides benefits for the foods contained, such as insulation to keep them hot or
cold, hygiene, and freshness so they will last longer.The Styrofoam trays are also manufactured
in different types (white and colored or patterned trays) to make them more attractive. Beside
Styrofoam, FPCO also manufactures recyclable transparent containers and PET bottles which
are also convenient because of their similar properties with Styrofoam trays but may be more
appealing as people can directly see the content of the trays.
FPCO differentiates their products with other trays by producing trays which are recyclable and
this features adds so much goodness to the products and help them surviving in the business
(point-of-different). Recyclable trays do attract many people who have high concern in keeping
the earth healthy and nowadays the issue of ecofriendly-products has been widely discussed.
FPCO claims the use of recycled Styrofoam food trays have many environmental benefits, such
as only small amount of petroleum used (because the trays are made by expanding the
polystyrene from petroleum), little contribution to only 0.2% of household garbage (because
approximately 95% of the trays are air), no chlorofluorocarbon used thus has minimal impact on
ozone layer depletion, little consumption on energy and no toxic materialis generated, and
reduced CO2 emissions as compared to manufacturing new or virgin trays by 33 to 35%.
FPCO’s recycled trays also makes the company different with other tray manufacturers as
FPCO claims that the technology has not been shared with others.
To make the products different with other recyclable products, FPCO adds several features to
increase the value of the products (point-of-parity). The containers are designed in a way to take
up minimal space in the limited area of supermarket back rooms, their edges are specially
designed to avoid cutting the users’ hands, and their extremely airtight feature is suitable for
food with high water content. Every FPCO food containers have FPCO mark stamped on the
back to distinguish them from other food containers. FPCO trays are also different from other
trays due to the materials used, which is pure polystyrene and they are distinguished by
material codes of PS and number 6.
The place
FPCO makes the sorting and recycling process much more convenient by having several plants
throughout Japan. FPCO has sales operation bases in 10 locations, distribution centers in 10
areas, small-lot distribution centers in 12 locations, 3 recycle plants, sorting and volume
depletion centers in 10 locations, and over 15 production plants from Hokkaido until Kagoshima.
High number of production plants results in high number of productions on a timely basis, as all
plants may supply 10.000 products to people living in Tokyo area. These locations also make
the operating process much easier and decrease the risk of having a bottleneck in the
distribution and picking up processes. To make the picking up process easier, the transparent
trays and PET bottles are compressed into bales in the sorting plant before being picked up by
trucks to the recycling plants.
Besides maximizing the operational efficiency, the many locations also give high coverage to
many people living in Japan, and this coverage is increased by having customers washing and
drying their used trays and collecting them in the nearest collection bins which are usually
located in the cooperated stores or specific bins provided by local authorities. This policy also
makes customers more convenient in participating in the recycling process. Furthermore, this
also helps the store establishing a good relationship with customers as they will have frequent
visits to the stores.
As being in a country with high frequency of natural disasters, FPCO maintains the continuity of
its production by having risk management in all of its plants. According to their annual report,
FPCO implements several policies such as evacuation and firefighting practices on regular
basis, supplementation of emergency kits, regular meetings of the safety and health committee,
regular information or data backups, and construction of seawalls for the plant in Fukuyama.
These risk management actions ensure the safety of FPCO and its workers in manufacturing
the trays.
The promotion
FPCO has been known to have excellent promotional
strategies, as seen from their annual report which is
published on their official website.According to the
annual report, FPCO has set a goal to visit its
customers 100 times a month. FPCO has been
maintaining its relationship with vendors or
customers (supermarkets or stores) by organizing
events such as workshop and co-creation sales
activities. The workshops are intended to giving
reports on market survey and carrying out
simulations of selling approaches or selling spaces
by several means, including having a kitchen studio where the audience may see how the
containers are utilized. There is also a FPCO Fair which is held every March to give
presentations on the proposal and advertisements to the customers, wholesalers, and other
customers. FPCO also gains interest from end-customers by having a plant tour where visitors
can see how the containers that have been picked up are being recycled. This tour may
motivate customers to collect their used trays to be recycled.
FPCO also builds relationship by end customers by being engaged in exhibition fairs and
collaborating with Cookpad, Japan’s website specializing in food recipes. FPCO also publishes
an electronic book to present the proposals on how to use the Muserundesu microwavable
packages so the customers are interested in buying and using them without confusion. FPCO
also maintains a good relationship with the communities by several actions, such as building
commercial facilities, accepting interns to study about science and engineering, holding visiting
lectures to elementary schools, accepting teachers for training, and participating in local
community activities such as the local festivals.
Beside the environmental-friendly aspect of the products, FPCO also contributes to the society
by hiring disabled employees. FPCO claims that at the end of March 2014 there had been more
than 600 employees working at FPCO with disability employment rate of 16%. The disability
ranges from many diseases with Down Syndrome is being one of them, as there is considerable
value of number of people with Down Syndrome in Ibaraki prefecture. Employees with Down
Syndrome were placed in forming, packaging, inspecting, and sorting areas of the recycling
plants. The disabled employees are also involved in their social events such as Hockey games.
These social responsibilities held by FPCO gives much more values to the products.
Lastly, the promotion of FPCO’s product is done by annually reporting their company activities
publicly through their official website. The report contains all achievements as well as the
financial report. This helps FPCO maintain the good relationship with the shareholder and even
with the customers.
dr. RizaPutriAulia H. B.MedSc
120820150507
dr. PradiptaSuarsyaf
120820150544
On February 2, 2017, we had an opportunity to visit a FP Corporation’s recycling plant in Ibaraki
prefecture along with our classmates from MM FEB Unpad. FP Corporation, or, FPCO,
manufactures recyclable food containers and converts the used ones into new recycled trays
using FPCO’s unique recycling system. Not only manufacturing and selling the trays, FPCO
also makes different proposals on how the trays should be utilized. The customers (end
customers or supermarkets) are advised with several suggestions for ways of using the
containers to emphasize the deliciousness and freshness of the foods contained. This company
was established in 1962 and currently has over than 700 workers with several recycling plants
and sorting plants throughout Japan. During this visit, we were able to have a better
understanding of how FP Corporation produces and recycles trays through an introduction from
the company’s representative, video, and direct view on how their recycle process was
operated. This report contains our analysis of the company’s marketing-mix strategy of their
recycled tray products.
Marketing-mix strategy
According to Kotler et al, marketing-mix strategy is the last step in segmentation process, which
contains all aspects of the marketing mix in order to gain market segments and survive in the
competition. Marketing-mix has four aspects including the product, price, promotion, and place.
This article is written to report our analysis on three aspects of marketing-mix by FPCO, which
are its products, promotion, and place.
The products
FPCO has been manufacturing ecofriendly Styrofoam food trays since over 50 years ago. Food
trays have become popularly used by many people in Japan because they are very convenient
to hold food such as sushi and sashimi. We think FPCO has succeeded in identifying a higher
trend in light and easy trays such as Styrofoam. Styrofoam is also chosen for its many
advantages, including light weight, tough material, shock absorbent, water resistant, cost
effective, and provides benefits for the foods contained, such as insulation to keep them hot or
cold, hygiene, and freshness so they will last longer.The Styrofoam trays are also manufactured
in different types (white and colored or patterned trays) to make them more attractive. Beside
Styrofoam, FPCO also manufactures recyclable transparent containers and PET bottles which
are also convenient because of their similar properties with Styrofoam trays but may be more
appealing as people can directly see the content of the trays.
FPCO differentiates their products with other trays by producing trays which are recyclable and
this features adds so much goodness to the products and help them surviving in the business
(point-of-different). Recyclable trays do attract many people who have high concern in keeping
the earth healthy and nowadays the issue of ecofriendly-products has been widely discussed.
FPCO claims the use of recycled Styrofoam food trays have many environmental benefits, such
as only small amount of petroleum used (because the trays are made by expanding the
polystyrene from petroleum), little contribution to only 0.2% of household garbage (because
approximately 95% of the trays are air), no chlorofluorocarbon used thus has minimal impact on
ozone layer depletion, little consumption on energy and no toxic materialis generated, and
reduced CO2 emissions as compared to manufacturing new or virgin trays by 33 to 35%.
FPCO’s recycled trays also makes the company different with other tray manufacturers as
FPCO claims that the technology has not been shared with others.
To make the products different with other recyclable products, FPCO adds several features to
increase the value of the products (point-of-parity). The containers are designed in a way to take
up minimal space in the limited area of supermarket back rooms, their edges are specially
designed to avoid cutting the users’ hands, and their extremely airtight feature is suitable for
food with high water content. Every FPCO food containers have FPCO mark stamped on the
back to distinguish them from other food containers. FPCO trays are also different from other
trays due to the materials used, which is pure polystyrene and they are distinguished by
material codes of PS and number 6.
The place
FPCO makes the sorting and recycling process much more convenient by having several plants
throughout Japan. FPCO has sales operation bases in 10 locations, distribution centers in 10
areas, small-lot distribution centers in 12 locations, 3 recycle plants, sorting and volume
depletion centers in 10 locations, and over 15 production plants from Hokkaido until Kagoshima.
High number of production plants results in high number of productions on a timely basis, as all
plants may supply 10.000 products to people living in Tokyo area. These locations also make
the operating process much easier and decrease the risk of having a bottleneck in the
distribution and picking up processes. To make the picking up process easier, the transparent
trays and PET bottles are compressed into bales in the sorting plant before being picked up by
trucks to the recycling plants.
Besides maximizing the operational efficiency, the many locations also give high coverage to
many people living in Japan, and this coverage is increased by having customers washing and
drying their used trays and collecting them in the nearest collection bins which are usually
located in the cooperated stores or specific bins provided by local authorities. This policy also
makes customers more convenient in participating in the recycling process. Furthermore, this
also helps the store establishing a good relationship with customers as they will have frequent
visits to the stores.
As being in a country with high frequency of natural disasters, FPCO maintains the continuity of
its production by having risk management in all of its plants. According to their annual report,
FPCO implements several policies such as evacuation and firefighting practices on regular
basis, supplementation of emergency kits, regular meetings of the safety and health committee,
regular information or data backups, and construction of seawalls for the plant in Fukuyama.
These risk management actions ensure the safety of FPCO and its workers in manufacturing
the trays.
The promotion
FPCO has been known to have excellent promotional
strategies, as seen from their annual report which is
published on their official website.According to the
annual report, FPCO has set a goal to visit its
customers 100 times a month. FPCO has been
maintaining its relationship with vendors or
customers (supermarkets or stores) by organizing
events such as workshop and co-creation sales
activities. The workshops are intended to giving
reports on market survey and carrying out
simulations of selling approaches or selling spaces
by several means, including having a kitchen studio where the audience may see how the
containers are utilized. There is also a FPCO Fair which is held every March to give
presentations on the proposal and advertisements to the customers, wholesalers, and other
customers. FPCO also gains interest from end-customers by having a plant tour where visitors
can see how the containers that have been picked up are being recycled. This tour may
motivate customers to collect their used trays to be recycled.
FPCO also builds relationship by end customers by being engaged in exhibition fairs and
collaborating with Cookpad, Japan’s website specializing in food recipes. FPCO also publishes
an electronic book to present the proposals on how to use the Muserundesu microwavable
packages so the customers are interested in buying and using them without confusion. FPCO
also maintains a good relationship with the communities by several actions, such as building
commercial facilities, accepting interns to study about science and engineering, holding visiting
lectures to elementary schools, accepting teachers for training, and participating in local
community activities such as the local festivals.
Beside the environmental-friendly aspect of the products, FPCO also contributes to the society
by hiring disabled employees. FPCO claims that at the end of March 2014 there had been more
than 600 employees working at FPCO with disability employment rate of 16%. The disability
ranges from many diseases with Down Syndrome is being one of them, as there is considerable
value of number of people with Down Syndrome in Ibaraki prefecture. Employees with Down
Syndrome were placed in forming, packaging, inspecting, and sorting areas of the recycling
plants. The disabled employees are also involved in their social events such as Hockey games.
These social responsibilities held by FPCO gives much more values to the products.
Lastly, the promotion of FPCO’s product is done by annually reporting their company activities
publicly through their official website. The report contains all achievements as well as the
financial report. This helps FPCO maintain the good relationship with the shareholder and even
with the customers.