Questions:

1. How do we allocate budget for a new product development at SEG?
Based on the financial size of the opportunity. Something like this would be given a large budget, but there is no need to worry about the budget size. You can assume that the NPD budget is enough to cover all categories, however we do not require that they launch all
categories at once.

2. GMO or Non-GMO? Non-GMO. Please reference current USDA guidelines for Organic.

3. Do we have company guidelines for labeling that they need to follow? Please follow the USDA's definition of Organic. Ideally, we would to use the USDA Certified logo on every package. So it must fall into those criteria.

4. Do they need to give a marketing plan? Yes, but just a product launch plan.

5. Last year the sponsor gave a budget they had to follow. Do we have a budget for them? $150K for marketing. They will need to focus on in-store and at-shelf. Nothing sexy like TV. However, a strong social media plan would be smart.

6. Prices and pricing:Retails of this new brand will usually be 20-30% lower than national brand organics.

7. Expected rate of return for products? 30-40% gross profit

Items asked for:

1. Planogram of a store: We will not provide this as our stores vary. Think theoretically; such as how would you block it,
where would you position it within categories? Big question - Should it be assorted in-line or treated as a store-within-a-store or both?

2. Provide data to students: We will not provide internal data on Organics sales specific to SEG. Please use similar
competitor's data if available and adjust to size. Confidentiality concern.

3. Provide some current Own Brand Strategies: We will not provide internal data on Own Brand sales specific to SEG. Please use similar competitor's data if available and adjust to size. Confidentiality concern.

4. List of top selling products in our stores (does not have to be Own Brand) This is part of the question. We want to sell popular products. This is well-publicized by external

There are a ton of consumer data sights available online. We would recommend using Neilsen Consumer Insight Data, Organic Trade Association and information on this slide.

For Financials, we would recommend using Kroger and Wal-Mart data should they be looking to for financial data. Southeastern Grocers, holds 20% of the market share in the southeast so numbers can be adjusted accordingly.

We currently do not have an organic own brands product line. So our current sales are $0. Our focus is more on the following questions:
- Who is the organic customer?

-What are the most important organic items/categories that we should carry in private brand?Must drive profit and sales.

-What are the MUST HAVE items in organic?

- How would you group the items? Should they be located in-aisle or in all together? What will drive the most customer impressions, hence sales?

Ideally, we want this to mirror a real work experience on our Merchandising team. Our team is tasked with telling Southeastern Grocers

leadership what products to market and sell as our own brands within each category.

Attachment:- assignment.rar