The strategy recommended would match both external and internal fit that help Ice-Fili to increase its current market share (5%), maximise its long term profits and to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. To dominate the Russian ice cream market and maintain its market leader position, it has to brand itself as the top historical Russian ice cream producer and strengthen its core product in the impulse segment. Due to little product differentiation, there is low brand loyalty for consumers. Ice-Fili could distinguish itself from creating high brand awareness via marketing and advertising. Evidenced by both Nestlé and the beer industry that spent intensively in advertising, the former is catching up Ice-Fili’s market share while the latter is currently enjoying increasing market demand. Thus, it is feasible for Ice-Fili to invest massively in advertising through TV or packaging to position itself as a historical Russian brand that produce ice cream made of high quality natural ingredients. This could differentiate itself from regional producers that have low …show more content…
The availability of a Nestlé product over an Ice-Fili product is 2:1. To sustain competitive advantage and lead over Nestlé, it is important for Ice-Fili to build distinctive relationships with the distributors, especially Eskimo-Fili and Service Fili to increase its products availability in the impulse segment. It is also potential for Ice-Fili to set up its own independent distribution channels, acquire or invest into a local distribution company such as Service-Fili. The benefits of having lower delivery costs and distinctive access to potential selling points would outweigh the corresponding costs. However, it is only advisable if Ice-Fili has the financial strength to do so (e.g. issuing public bonds to raise capital as part of its financial