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Malcolm: So, good morning, everyone. Can we settle down, get going?

Malcolm: Right, well first of all I would like to introduce a new member of our team who joined us yesterday. Nellie Hamilton. Nellie came highly recommended from our London office with the specific brief to help us with the launch of the "Country Crumbles" range. Nellie, this is Lee Chung, our Finance whizz-kid.

Lee: Hello Nellie. I’m looking forward to working with you.

Malcolm: And this is Maria Esposito, our PR and Press Officer.

Maria: Hi Nellie. It’s good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you!

Nellie: Oh, nothing bad I hope.

Maria: No, quite the reverse. I hear you did wonders with the image of that old "Energy-Lite" range they still market down in London.

Nellie: Well, it went quite well I guess…

Malcolm: OK let’s get on, shall we? The last member of our team is Kevin Whittaker, head of Sales. And I’m going to ask Kevin to introduce the "Country Crumbles" range and fill us in on where we are so far. This will be new information for Nellie but I'm sure the rest of us will be very interested to see where Kevin thinks we are at the moment and where we’ve got to go. So over to you, Kevin.

Kevin: Right, well, "Country Crumbles" is a new all-organic, all-natural product. There are no additives, no colouring and no E-numbers used in its manufacture whatsoever, so it’s an extremely healthy product. This means that it’s potentially an upmarket product too, with a high price tag. Now I’ve got some charts here that will show the style of the biscuits and the ingredient specifications but...

Nellie: Sorry Kevin but isn’t that going to be a problem? I mean trying to launch an upmarket expensive product at a time when everyone is trying to cut back?

Kevin: Let me finish, Nellie. What I was going to say was that our USP is that we are going to market our range at a much more modest price point than the opposition. We all know that there are several ranges that endeavour to promote the “healthy living” image. Either in upmarket grocers, supermarkets or indeed health food shops. Our unique element is that we can match, or almost match, any of the opposition for healthy ingredients, reduced sugar and reduced fat – and we can do this at a price that is not much more than our standard biscuit range.

Nellie: Isn’t that going to affect our profit margins?

Malcolm: Yes, you’ve got a point there, Nellie.

Kevin: Yes, but we have been extremely canny in our forward buying of wheat and other cereals, and in sweeteners and other ingredients too although not to such a large extent. This is due in the main to Lee and his financial acumen – he really got the better of 打败the futures markets a few months ago. The upshot is that we have a two-to three year supply of most of the essential ingredients at a price our competitors would give their eye teeth for不惜任何代价 And that will enable us to bring our costs down significantly, at least in the first year to eighteen months of production. After that we hope the brand will be so well-established that we can gently raise the retail price in line with our materials costs.

Malcolm: Yes, so that’s the theory Nellie. Any initial thoughts?

Nellie: Well, I guest the first one is how much can we spend on advertising? Has anyone worked out an advertising and promotions budget yet?

Lee: Well, initially we have set aside £300,000 for the initial campaign and a further £150,000 for a joint campaign with SuperKor.

Nellie: Superkor?

Malcolm: Ah, yes, the third element in this strategy, Nellie. As you know I’m sure, Superkor is the largest supermarket chain in Scotland. They have 67 branches all over the country, and they are interested in coming in on "Country Crumbles" as a joint venture with us – promoting it in their stores, giving introductory offers to establish the brand, maybe some two-for-ones, that sort of thing. If they did come in with us, it would almost guarantee the success of the brand.

Nellie: But they’re not certain yet?

Kevin: No, I’ve been liaising with them for the last three months but their marketing people really take some persuading. We’re getting there though. Maria, er, excuse me but is it really a good idea to spend a possible £450,000 on advertising a single product? That’s more than the entire advertising budget for last year.

Malcolm: Well Maria, I have talked about it with the MD and the Chairman and they have given the go-ahead on that figure. So they do have quite a lot of confidence in the new range and in us to promote it and sell it!

Maria: Well, we better give them something they can approve of then.

Malcolm: You said it, Maria. So let’s move on to the next item on the agenda.

Lee: An advertising plan – we need one! And that’s the first main job for Nellie.

Nellie: Right.

Lee: Here’s the one from last year, and here’s the end of year report. You can use these as a starting point.

Malcolm: We need to target different buyers. We need to think carefully about where and how we advertise. We’ve got a list of possible places but they’ll need costing, and Nellie, can you get on to that?

Nellie: Yes, but how much time have I got?

Lee: Do you think you could get something together by next Thursday? That’s ten days from now.

Nellie: Yes, I guess so. I’ll start straight away.

Malcolm: Great. Andrea can help you with the initial research and then I’m sure Maria will want to come in on it as well. OK, well on we go. We’ve still got a lot to get through! Now what about the focus group reports on all the different flavours Maria, how are they looking and have you got any…