The American Bakery Company Baked to Perfection and its Digitalization Process. Between Apps and Baking: International Distribution Law. An App Launch in Europe

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1,3, ESCP Europe Business School - Campus Paris, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this paper is to outline the legal issues of BTP¿s (Baked to Perfection) market entry in five European cities. Therefore, it will concentrate on four major question. First, what contracts BTP will need to conclude? To answer this question, it is necessary to look, which contracts are required for both launches: the mobile app and the bakery outlets. For the app launch, BTP will need to interact with app developers, customers, bakeries and app stores. For establishing bakery outlets, it is important to define a franchise contract and vertical agreements. Second, how BTP can best protect its brands in the EU? For this purpose, it is necessary to introduce different types of intellectual property protection. Which intellectual property rights like patents, trademarks or copyrights are relevant for BTP and how can they be applied? Third, the paper will give an overview about the regulatory requirements that are necessary for operating the app lawfully and successfully. In this chapter, it will be shown what actions need to be taken regarding the app itself, its distribution and customer data. Finally, the paper will describe how BTP can sell its new European business. The assumption here is that BTP will create a subsidiary, which can be sold in the future. Baked to Perfection (BTP), an American bakery company, is performing well in two business areas. Mainly, it is operating in a (niche) bakery market as a traditional supplier of high quality bakery products, which are also often gluten free and/or organic. One success factor of its products is its own "Perfection" brand. Even though this business area is delivering good numbers in sales ($200 million) and gross margin ($30 million), the new CEO, Freddie Doe, decided to adopt BTP¿s business model by following the digitalization. In the last years, apps for smartphones or tablets became an interesting marketing channel, which allows to target efficiently an audience by delivering personalized (e.g. location sensitive) information. Therefore, BTP launched not a long time ago an app to offer its customers transparency regarding the best bakery shops in their local area. To be part of the ¿Perfection network¿, bakeries are paying a yearly fee. If they wish, they can additionally buy advertisement on the app to promote their bakery.