Furthermore, compared to his competitors, Chai has the advantage of Thailand's experience and good reputation in regard to rubber production. This comparative advantage could aid Chai boost his product to other foreign countries, as well as Thailand. Given that the small and middle size plantations could be persuaded into accepting a higher price, but the larger plantations would not pay a cent above $10,000, the RTP's price should remain unchanged. However, the company ought to consider investing more money into sales, so to increase the number of sold RTP, and also in research and development, in order to further improve the quality of the RTP and its life cycle. Also, separate funds should be allocated to the R&D department as to allow them to continue their research for technologies applicable to synthetic rubber. Given the actual trend of replacing natural rubber with synthetic rubber, Chai's company has to develop and maintain an increased level of adaptability and find the ability to change the features of the RTP so that it meets the demands of the coming years.

The new product is generally designed for the large rubber producers on the high grade market, but it not limited to them. The large rubber producers have a better chance of resisting on the market, as they register the lowest closing rate (5%). These companies generally afford to pay the RTP's price and can be convinced that purchasing the product brings about long-term benefit of significant cost reduction.

For instance,...

On the other hand, to process this amount of rubber at the given accuracy rate, the manufacturer requires about 7 employees. (Exhibit 3: 2 workers process 1,500 tons a year at an accuracy rate of 95%. As such, one worker produces 750 tons a year.) 7 full time workers, working 300 days a year for 10$ a day add up to $21,000, more than double of the RTP's price.
The promotion campaign should take the form of advertisements published in the rubber industry Journal, periodical designed for medium size and large rubber producers. The advertisements and articles should focus on the benefits of the RTP, such as the significant reduction in costs and the large amount of processed rubber. Small rubber plantations will be left out of the promotional strategies, as they have not been selected as target markets and their inclusion would only increase the producer's costs.

For the near future, Chai Chalermvatcharaporn should focus on implementing the developed RTP business plan, and in case of failure, in two years time he would add it to the Siam's portfolio.

Bibliography

Porter's Five Forces: A Model for Industry Analysis, 2007, QuickMBA.com, http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml, last accessed on September 28, 2007

Rubbertech, Marketing Parts 1 to 3

Porter's Five Forces: A Model for Industry Analysis, 2007, QuickMBA.com

Rubbertech,…