Political factors - Basically, political factors include regulations and legal issues and define both formal and informal rules under which firm must operate. This includes the tax policy, employment laws, environmental regulations, trade restrictions and tariffs, political stability.
In UK, food products including the ‘Snacks’ are heavily influenced and controlled by legislation relating to composition and labeling requirements, such that consumers can be confident of the wholesomeness and value for money that they represent. On a world perspective, the availability of safe food is an increasing problem in fast-growing urban populations. Meeting this need by the provision of new food product is a major opportunity for UK as these markets develop.
Economic Factor - The market value of ‘Snacks’ companies in the UK represents a further contribution to wealth, both in the holdings by private shareholders and in those held by institutions. The balance of trade arising from Walkers products is positive because the major materials are already found and created in UK plants. Also, the nature of the product cost structures is not ruling out significant inter-country shipment of such low price-dense, high bulk packs.
Social Factors - There is now a wealth of evidence to show that consuming a high salt diet brings with it increasing health problems. High salt intake is linked to increasing blood pressure, which causes strokes and heart disease, with other less well-known effects including stomach cancer and osteoporosis. Basically, these issues are advantage for Walkers since majority of their products are potatoes. Potatoes are low calorie and excellent for people that are health conscious.
Of all food's connections to human society, none is more interesting than its ties to culture. As symbol, centre of ritual, and marker of cultural boundaries, it is universally understood to be an expression of identity and the representation of a social group. The food that matters is shared commensally, within the family or at a public feast; and the foods employed in these daily and seasonal rituals evoke family ties, and seem to embody culture in some immemorial way. Yet the foods served, the ceremonies that go with them, and the meanings constructed around them do change.
Negotiation of status relations takes place in a wide variety of settings and via different mediums. Food is prominent among these for a number of reasons. Food and corresponding evaluations of appetite/satiation, taste/distaste, and nutritious/non-nutritious evoke associations of superiority or inferiority in many cultures. For example, control of hunger, an indicator of discipline and self-restraint, is often demanded when people undergo initiation to mark a change of status in the life cycle. Conversely, gluttonous consumption of food may indicate lack of restraint, or be seen as indicating a voracious appetite, vigor, and capacity. Foods which are preferred for their taste, such as those containing fat and other critical nutrients (Abbott, & Sheldon, 1996)) are often associated with well-being and confer superiority on those who can regularly produce, consume or distribute them.
Furthermore, certain qualities of food, such as strong taste, odor or texture, are believed to make them suitable or unsuitable for persons at different stages of life or with different areas of specialisation. A second and most important dimension in the relation of food to status is that it is the product of labour. Procurement or production of a more than adequate food supply is an indicator of superior skill, vitality, and/or control over the labour of others. Abundance of food is also an indicator of a broad network of supportive social ties. As the basis for life, food attracts attention and is highly divisible, making the distributor or host the centre of attention for food sharing. Commensally occasions create, affirm or reproduce a wide variety of social relationships.
Technological Factors - These can lower barriers to entry, reduce minimum efficient production levels and influence outsourcing decisions. Some of these factors are the R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and rate of technological change.
Food appearance is critical in presenting brand appeal, especially for impulse purchases, but is also an integral component of the preservation systems involved in providing the long ambient shelf-lives required to meet consumer habits.
Basically, Walkers products are low cost, low margin, high bulk products for which price competitiveness is a dominant consideration. The costs of transportation and of working capital in storage are a significant factor. Low stock holdings, and just-in-time manufacture and distribution, with their consequences for planning and supply logistics are therefore important.
Trade customers have a strong influence on product success, often initiating new product trends to reflect consumer concerns such as calorie control, and avoidance of sugar or additives. However, they can also inhibit technical innovation and sustained investment in new technologies by pressurising for all costs to be borne by the manufacturer without commitment to list the resulting product forms. In consequence, most technically based innovation arises from the suppliers of materials, equipment or control systems who are increasingly led by non-UK interests who are able to justify their investments on the basis of markets outside the UK.
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