Sweet Lisbon 1 | Page 2

Editors’ Note A LOOK INTO THE HANDMADE ICE CREAMS IN PORTUGAL With low switching costs for customers, a huge number of competitors, and low entry barriers, the handmade ice cream market in Lisbon is a highly competitive one. The objective of this report is to outline current business models and strategies of the four major competitors in the market and to see, which of the companies performs better than the others on given key success factors of the industry. Building on that, we predict strategic decisions the competitors are likely to take, facing the future. Hence, we focus on answering the following questions. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Additionally, we embark on a customer analysis to further elaborate the competitor analysis’ conclusions. Sources To begin with, the sources of our analysis consist of two types. The first one is primary sources. Data derived from primary sources belongs to the person generating the information. No third party has access to this data. An online customer survey, and a second customer survey in front of respective ice cream parlors are our major primary sources for this report. Secondary sources produce data from “Who are the major competitors?” different people for various purposes made “How do the competing products and ser- accessible to the public. We found information about the ice cream parlors on their vices stack up against each other?” homepages, news releases, Internet blogs and “What are their current objectives?” social media networks. “What is their current strategy?” We used the data collected in a careful “Who has a differential advantage?” manner, trying to justify information from sec“What are their future strategies?” ondary sources with real customer experiences.