Environmental Analysis: Creative Confections"I've always enjoyed being adventurous with food, especially desserts," said Lavonne Temple, founder of Creative Confections (CC), a small specialty emerging bakery in Jacksonville, Florida. Starting with experimenting with cake and candy recipes in 2002, Temple developed a neat little business selling delicious cakes and specialty candies from a home-based operation. Growing demand for Temple's fine homemade desserts has recently brought CC to the brink of a major expansion. Over the next decade, CC can expect to encounter changing trends in the baking industry, each of which will impact the company's long-term environmental goals in remote, industrial and operational settings. Remote environment labelling: Expected changes in food labeling legislation will determine how CC labels the nutritional content of its cakes. An expansion of labeling information requirements is expected in the future (Seiz, 2005). Strategic Objective: CC must increase its knowledge of the composition of ingredients and their derivatives to provide better labeling and protect allergy-prone customers from harm. Nutrition issues: Consumer demand for low-fat, sugar-free, nutritionally enriched foods is no fad, with 54% of consumers rating nutrition as the top factor influencing their food purchases ( BakeryOnline.com, 2003). As the focus on these attributes is expected to continue, integrating healthy elements into baked goods represents a lucrative market. Offering tasty, nutritionally sound cakes in the CC product line will attract health-conscious customers, which brings recipe adjustments into the realm of food science (BakeryOnline.com, 2004). Strategic Objective: CC must incorporate ongoing nutritional research and development data collection into its strategic plan. Globalization - The globalization of specialty desserts is growing steadily thanks to Internet marketing (Global Monitoring, 2004). By marketing its business on the Internet, CC will reach and satisfy a growing customer base. But first, CC must design an appropriate website, offering colorful, high-resolution photographs of the specialty cakes it produces so that consumers can see how the cakes are designed (global tracking). Using emerging web technology to its advantage, CC's website could offer an interactive feature, where customers design a bespoke cake to suit a particular occasion by clicking a few buttons to view the finished cake design. Strategic goal: Add to CC's product line a range of cakes that can be distributed fresh or frozen, thus creating a customer niche on the Internet based on CC's mission of quality and freshness. Industrial Environment Gourmet Factor: Market research indicates that enjoyment will always be an important factor in pastry shopping, regardless of diet or health awareness, i.