Nantucket Nectars

Introduction

Nantucket Nectars is a sample case of a company with a very humble, honest and hardworking beginning history and model company that has maintained its corporate image and corporate culture to great heights of success.  The initial stages is characterized by actors of same administrative levels, with each person affiliated to the slightest capacity assuming the title of juice guy.  The diligence brought about by corporate culture and corporate image sails the company through storms to great distance where the maintenance of a cohesive corporate culture becomes a topic of discussion.

Nantucket Nectars reputation in marketing its products is rooted in the corporate image created  First and Scot, of integration into the fraternity of juice guy.  The principle of the highest quality service to the consumers of Nantucket Nectars products and the non-discrimination of entry into the juice guy fraternity is the key factor of success.  The consumers have been privileged to be associated with Nantucket Nectars out of their willingness to purchase their product.

The sellers of the same commodity automatically become members of the fraternity of Nantucket Nectars and a close associate of the juice guys. The manufactures are made even more proud of the association which is instrumental to the high quality standards of products for easy marketing.  The advantage of the term used to represent the fraternity is that the term is gender neutral and this applies equally among the involved participants.  The fraternity raises a corporate culture whereby each participants, ranging from the casual laborer, machine operator junior and senior staff, marketing agent and the ultimate consumer becomes a community of juice guy and becomes motivated to perform the relevant role in a free-spirited manner (Phillips, 2003).

            Further efforts in the marketing strategy are achieved through the channels used to communicate the image of Nantucket Nectars Corporate Culture.  The company is inspired to develop an ample combination of relevant elements to communicate the corporate image so that the effects of awareness are maximized while losses are minimized (Kono & Clegg, 1998).

            Much emphasis is made not on the company but rather on the product of Nantucket Nectars.  The tools of communication are such that, each member of the public and potential consumer has an out- right exposure to; for example radio, advertisements, bottle caps e.t.c are all at the exposure of the public with little efforts. The selling proposition has the effect of generating the demand and positioning the products of Nantucket Nectars at a favourable market place for the consumers (Adizes, 2004).

            Nantucket Nectars is a beverage dealer industry which among others of its kind enjoys exponential growth in the market.  The amount of beverage consumption is on the increase.  The fight against obesity has been instrumental to the reduction of carbonated beverages and this is an added favour to juice manufactures adding more benefit to Nantucket Nectars.  The taste of their product is more appealing to an equal magnitude as some carbonated beverages making it an out-right replacement.  In an effort to avoid detrimental health effects caused by soft drinks to the body, juices scores second from water as a beverage of choice for many Nantucket Nectars products have been maintained as fruit flavoured which are free from sugar with most of the fruits in use being the tropical fruits such as mangoes guava e.t.c.

Nantucket Nectars position of its brand product is one of the fast selling especially in the fast food industry.  The cost of production of its product remains at appreciable levels of self life to facilitated meet the market demands.   The product also enjoys diverse retail outlets to facilitate that the ultimate consumer reaches the product.  The outlets such as most merchandisers as well as drug shops have recorded significant increases in the quantity of fruit juice sold.  The brand positioning at Nantucket Nectars products is highly instrumental to the competitive advantage is enjoys in the market.  The company’s language with its consumers is also enhanced by the brand positioning.  Since there is an out-right idea that initially fills the consumer mind on exposure to the brand name.  The brand positioning though sometimes exaggerated by some, the Nantucket Nectars position is a reflection of reality. The positioning also reflects the public’s mental attitude of the company with a simple language that is actually used by real people (Pine, 1992).

            The positioning is also specific rather than general and each bit appeals to a segment of the public and represented in simplicity, reality and specificity.  To achieve the inherent brand positioning is extremely difficult since the company is not a monopoly.  The entire market mix has been precisely manipulated to achieve the current brand positioning.  The combination of the customers attitudes about the product are also important in this respect involving learning about the product through its use, its contact exposure to the knowledge about the product (Pine, 1992).

            Nantucket Nectar as compared to other competitors in the market has been able to prevail in the market on advantage of high quality products of their products.  Just as the founders original corporate image, the current state has mimicked the original.  The content of natural fruit juice has been maintained relatively high as compared to competitors, and the products are highly rich in natural ingredients.  Among its competitors are the carbonated drinks, juice products with concentrated ingredients, isotonic, smoothers among others all of which exhibit the qualitaties of junk foods responsible for health problems when consumed for long periods.

The product of Nantucket have adequate shelf- life to persist in the market and the only problem the company is facing is a failure to secure a convenient retail display in retail outlets due to the competition posed by long established industrial heavy weights.  The quality of the product is evaluated from dimensions of taste, nutritional ingredients, physical appearance and freshness.  The quality standards maintenance process is a consumer feed back response thus a continuous process that is an integral part of the company.  Products are evaluated for quality on individual basis to maintain tasty product that can be comfortably shared with the public.

            Artificial preservatives and sweeteners, food colors and artificial flavors are kept aside at the stage of production. Wholesome and safe products that support health and life of the public are the expectation of Nantucket Nectars (Gilmore & Pine, 2000).

            Corporate image influence the outsiders perception and a distinct mental figure about an organization.  It is therefore very crucial to determine the kind of interaction expected from the organization.  The major creator is the company although external forces such as journalists and the media have extra impacts on the image.  The existing corporate image should rhyme with the company’s product to be agreeable to the consumer.  The image should also be close to the behaviors of the players in the company (Kono & Clegg, 1998).

            In Nantucket Nectar the cofounders, the so called juicy guys has a simple funny lifestyle, very simple and appealing to the community and devoid of money motives which greatly led to the success of their endeavors as they sort to indulge in business.  They were even accompanied by their dogs at work meaning although practically serious with duty their activities were free spirited; the same of which was extended to workers, marketers and consumers of their products.

            This brought about the spirit of community as every player was a key part and parcel of Nantucket Nectar Community.  Various means of communication of the corporate image were used to spread the message to all public using the most convenient means.  Uniqueness of Nantucket Island was made known to the public as an attractive feature associated with the company.

            Through corporate image products of high quality for the purpose of promoting the company’s specific and budget to enhance its prevalence in the market.  It is through corporate image at Nantucket that customers are well informed of the existence of the products of the company that great efforts otherwise needed for marketing are complimented (Kono & Clegg, 1998).

            The corporate culture at Nantucket Company is also of unique nature, and a major driving force to the success achieved in marketing the company’s products as well as improving the managerial duties and a conducive working environment for the worker in the company.

            The belief affecting sociological interactions moral aspects of individuals and the behaviour norms of participants is what entail corporate culture.  There exists uniqueness to each organization as far as corporate culture is concerned (Phillips, 2003).

            The founders and executive officers are the ones empowered to initiate this corporate culture in the organization which is in most cases an unconscious activity.  A working corporate culture allows communication permeability both to the vertical as well as horizontal directions of flow without much struggle.  The corporate culture starts with team’s works which have significant effect to the whole system.  Strong cultures are beneficial to the organization as the duties and activities confronting individuals are self oriented (Taylor, 1997).

Success or failure of any company squarely lies on the strength or weakness of its corporate culture.  The management style is to a great extent influenced by the corporate culture and is also a measure of success or failure of the company.         Workers can agree to devote their long hours at the work place for the mutual benefit of the company and their well being if only the corporate culture interest in the company is positive.  This is the basic principle behind Taylor’s’ scientific management principle (Taylor, 1997).

            The corporate culture in any organization is the tool cause of success.  A cohesive corporate culture exposes each and every worker to the operational secretes of the organization.  The running of the whole system is so publicized that no single secrete of the organization has been kept.  The leakage of such secret to Competitor Company’s by a worker who may wish to be disloyal may be detrimental to the organization.  The use of its vital information the company out of the market.

The lack of it, in any organization is a cause of long term crippling and never takes off from the ground.  Communication is enhanced by shared positive corporate culture and this leads to awareness about production courses as well as marketing directions. The behaviors of the employees in any organization are a clear guide as to what type of corporate culture exists. Corporative employees indicate a negative corporate culture while happy, satisfied and corporative employees passes a message of a cohesive corporate culture.  Such a culture is never an over- night dream but rather a systematic articulation since the company’s foundation (Kono & Clegg, 1998).

The scenario is clearly evident in the case of Nantucket Nectar Company where entrepreneurship was created out of free- spirited, honesty, discipline and hardworking among other personal attributes.

 Working hard is the key to success as well as prosperity in Nantucket Nectar.  Through a system of participatory management, actual policies come from decisions made by the company’s employees.  Individual employees judge the performance of their peer employees.             This makes them learn from peer employees through experience. In a case of any mistake done they learn through experience. Employees have interest towards the success of the company as the company is treated as of their own.  The channels of communication are always open in both horizontal and vertical ways and therefore a forward and backward information flow is possible. The employees focus on increased product quality and heightened levels of business success (Simon, 1996).

Team work play a very vital role towards the success of participatory management since most deliberations are held at this level on regular schedules and the outcomes communicated through the team leaders to the relevant authorities.  At the meetings they are usually at pleasure to discuss their personal inspirations and the recognition of their roles in the company. The meetings are also used as a guidance media on importance of family life in relation to working life.  The need for continued career development education and a reminder of the policy issues of the company are never left out during such meetings.  The good will is also extended to the community whereby they are urged to give a helping hand to the community projects as well as participatory deliberations of issues surrounding the community.

The contribution of this cohesive corporate culture extends to the customer value. The customer is given high quality product at an affordable cost since the company is able to cater for all requirements.  The increased output raises extra revenue in the company that circulating income needed for customer value is always affordable (Adizes, 2004).

Corporate culture in a start-up company determines the destiny of the company.  As it is the determining factor of satisfaction and motivation of the staff members, poorly motivated workers will cause a downfall of the company with positive corporate culture.  The difference arises on the efficient utilization of resources which may be in a static supply.  Labour can be manipulated to give some extra input unlike the other factors of production and this can only be possible through motivation brought about by corporate company.  When workers don’t give their maximum support out of poor corporate culture, there is expected a down fall and vice versa (McGregor, 2005).

            Human Resource remains to be number one most important factor of production.  The ability to use this resource in an elastic manner has always been an art and science of great concern studied under human resource management.  While we appreciated the fact that there is no amount of payment that can influence an individual to give full potential to a productive role, we cherish the fact that people organized and properly motivated they can give immense levels of success in a joint role.

            The realization of this fact is crucial since the era of orders and directives by managers to subordinates is long time gone. Globalization of the current times is calling for initialization of human resource in the most efficient manner to reach the greater economic levels possible and face the global competition.  This thus makes corporate culture and not only useful in start-up company but extremely useful in the mature family too.

            Corporate culture evolves with the foundation of the organization and the enhancement is supposed to be linear to the development of the company.  It is the core of the organization and should always remain as the driving force of the employees output.  A slight negative change in the intensity of cohesiveness and a breakdown of internal communication means that the vibrancy and dynamics of the organization have been disrupted which is a possible cause of disintegration and collapse of the organization or entire company, and just as every organ of the body grows linearly with the rest of the body, so is case with corporate culture.  It is even supposed to grow stronger since the size of the company determines the level of expected conflicts within the system.  The management should therefore, day by day, try to enhance the scope of corporate culture for the benefit of the survival of the organization.

            As the company expands, hierarchies come into place thus widening the gap between the executive officer and the factory worker.  This means that communication also becomes a problem along this extended chain.

            Team influence also experiences difficulties as a result of prolonged chain of communication along the chain of command.  Further compilations arise as a result of the company opening new branches.  The junior workers in separate branches may not even know each other meaning that corporate culture faces more draw backs.

Conclusion

            Through hard work and dedication in the workplace as a whole team, great levels of economic development can be achieved.  This leads to the growth of the business organization as has been evident by Nantucket. However explosive levels of growth calls for a lot of cautiousness it is at this stages that the maintenance of these cohesive becomes a danger.

The ambition of every investor is to climb to the highest ladder.  Challenges posed by such circumstances are therefore welcomed with positive gesture.  As the hierarchy expands, vertical communication prevails to the extent of which results to murmurs by the low level employees against the hierarchy of power.  Discussions become rive that they cannot get in touch with the top organs frequently such scenarios are the starting stages of the corporate culture break down, lack of motivation and morale in the work place, leading to reduced output and to some extent duty boycotts ad demonstrations.  At this level the economic survival of the company is on peril and a collapse may occur at any time.

References

1. Joseph Pine (1992), Mass Customization Harvard School Press. ISBN – 13:97 – 0875843728, 96 – 157

Douglas Mc Glegor (2005), The Human Side of Enterprise, Annotated Edition Mc Graw-Hill; 1^st Edition ISBN – 13: 978 – 0071 1462228

Frederick Winslow Taylor, (1997), The Principles of Scientific Management, Dover Publications ISBN – 13: 978 – 0486299884, 43 – 62

Herbert A. Simon (1996), Administrative Behaviour Free Press: 4 sub Edition ISBN – 13: 978 –– 0684838822,

Ichak Kalderon, Adeces Ph. D (2004), Management/Mismanagement Styles.  The Adizes Institute; 1^st Ed. ISBN – 13 – 978 – 0937120019, 109 – 212

James H. Gilmore, B. Joseph Pine (2000), Markets of One Harvard Business School Press ISBN – 13: 978 -157 851 23 86, 126 – 176.

Larry Johnson, Bob Phillips (2003), Absolute Honesty AMACON/American Management Association, 1^st Edition ISBN 13:978-081 4407811, 192 – 260.

Toyohiro Kono, Stwart R. Chegg (1998), Transformation of Corporate Culture Watter de Gruyter ISBN-13:978-3110155884, 213-306