Reference no: EM132827806

Presume a newer, very flavorful type of coffee has entered the scene, to challenge current coffee suppliers, through a specific company, called Java Joe. Java Joe obtains the exceptional-tasting coffee beans solely from two co-op plantations on the western side of specific hillsides in a Central American country (each co-op is an arrangement that represents all the small farm-plantations around it, as if they were one supplier). Java Joe plans to sell its coffee to coffee shops in the U.S. through a large broker (general agent/representative). The broker/general agent (who gets paid by commission, by how much is sold) agrees to do the pricing strategy, meaning to tell Java Joe what to charge ("what the market will bear" he calls it) per pound of coffee. Now that Java Joe has entered the competition, the other coffee-marketing competitors are outraged with this new entrant and decide to create a price war to make like difficult for the new Java Joe firm, and maybe drive it out of business.

Analyze what Java Joe is confronting in terms of Porter's Five Forces (example, for Threat of Substitution, is Java Joe offering an alternative or a substitute to the current producers?) In answering each part of this question, you should have a sentence or two of how each of the Forces applies (or doesn't apply) to Java Joe. So we don't get confused about perspective, this time it should be from the perspective of Java Joe, newly having entered the market. To be even more clear, if you were talking about Power of Supplier, it would be for suppliers of Java Joe, not jumping to the wrong conclusion that Java Joe is the supplier here. Additional hint: don't forget the broker's role and whom he would actually represent.

• Ease of Entry
• Power of Supplier
• Power of Buyer
• Threat of Substitutes
• Intensity of Rivalry