Results

Coco Natur

Business perspective shared with enterprise on coconut products

About Coco Natur

Coco Natur (2007) is a cooperative comprised of overseas Filipinos, coconut farmers, and other community members. It mobilizes investments of overseas Filipinos to set-up community based enterprises. Its products are coconut based such as virgin coconut oil, soap, shampoo, massage oil, facial cream and lotion. Coco Natur aims to establish community based coconut enterprises by assisting the communities in market research, product development, technology transfer, capacity building, marketing and by linking them for financial aides. Product differentiation is the new goal of Coco Natur, because the coconut oil market starts getting satisfied. New products to be developed can be:

eco-tourism
coconut sugar
coconut shell handicrafts
geonets (net of coconut fiber against erosion)

The social impact of Coco Natur is:

local employment and income generation
community involvement

Business case

Because of Coco Natur's aim for product differentiation the current marketing & sales strategy has to be analysed and improved. Coco Natur asked SharePeople for an expert to deliver a concrete hands-on marketing action plan. The improved marketing & sales strategy had to ensure a sustainable future for Coco Natur and her communities. Coco Natur found a partner in Sonja Remkes, an Interim Marketeer at Fortis Retail Banking.

Results

Analysis

After many talks with employees and stakeholders Sonja Remkes took in a lot of information. Based on a SWOT-analysis, a "confrontation matrix" was then used to show the actual status of Coco Natur. This created the urge to put theory into practice and to come up with seriously needed actions: the operational plan was created. The focus was on how to boost sales, with "champion products" (value adding), to what target (what sales level is needed to survive and grow)?

Coco Natur - Meeting Sonja Remkes and Mai Añonuevo

Advice

Sonja used several workshops with employees and Board members in order to create the necessary understanding and commitment. The newly created operational plan consisted of:

USP focus: selection of 3 leading soaps, appropriate packaging material and redesign of promotional material
Distribution: set of quality sales standards, finding & training of sales persons
Distribution/sales: design of a sales driven website

The following concrete action plan concerned the following necessary and vital actions to create sustainable economic growth:

a minimal sales projection of 11.555 soaps/month
a new pricing strategy, including direct selling, no inventory costs and mark-up
sales targets (the minimum number of direct sellers needed and a model on how to manage these direct sellers)

Sonja managed to bring focus into the organisation, with the key outcome: People, Planet, PROFIT! The latter turned out to be crucial, as it is the basis of a sustainable enterprise. Last but not least, all activities were scheduled for the months to come once Sonja left.

Impact on the partners

Impact was created on different levels. First of all, you can admire the new website on http://www.coconatur.com/! The new marketing strategy, concerning the activities mentioned above, was launched in April 2009, and has boosted their way of working, enthusiasm and focus. The effect on actual sales will be monitored twice a year by SharePeople.

‘SharePeople experts are able to give you a different perspective of your social enterprise. They challenge your ideas to help you come up with out of the box solutions to your problems in managing the enterprise. Having expertise in their line of work, they are able to share technologies which are useful to social enterprises in making them not only socially relevant but more importantly be profitable.' (Mai Añonuevo, Member of the Board of Directors)

‘I have learned to respect different working styles, as they are inspiring and should be given lots of space. In a positive working environment, this mix can deliver beautiful results.' (Sonja Remkes, Interim Marketeer at Fortis Retail Banking)

Follow up

Coco Natur - Cocolada's Farewell It is agreed upon that Sonja keeps informed on the status of the business and the activities done. Of course, she is available as well for any kind of question concerning marketing & sales. She's invited to come again in 2010, to see the results with her own eyes. SharePeople stays in close contact with Coco Natur (perhaps for a new expert programme as well), and monitors the growth of the organisation.

Mai Añonuevo, Member of the Board of Directors of Coco Natur, participated in the SharePeople Experience Week in July 2009. For her, this was an important opportunity to exchange experiences with other experts from the Netherlands and from other countries. Also, she has met Sonja again to talk about the developments of Coco Natur.