Develop marketing options for small business operations - Assignment Example

?Unit Standard 6404 v5 Develop marketing options for small business operations. Level 4 Credits = 5 …………………………………………… NUMBER …………………………… Given Brief: You will be required to research market information specific to your small business operation and all questions from 1 (d) will relate to the data gathered List your references at the end of this Assignment, and acknowledge any quotations and authors’ opinions that you use. Please email this assessment to your facilitator (along with the covering sheet) on the date given on the course outline page on blackboard. 1. Analyse the potential market for products and / or services, and confirm market demand What are the products and / or services of your existing or proposed business? We are sell mobile phone with dual sim card and TV function. Also we sell all of accessories for mobile phone. And we do mobile phone repair service too. The market potential is huge for our products, evidenced by what appears to be the unstoppable growth of the mobile phone industry. Currently, Vodafone and 2degree and telecom sell so many brand cell phones like nokia Samsung LG Motorola IPHONE Blackberry etc... There about 80% market for them. We do special mobile phone in the market that’s different with them. We can sell mobile phone price cheaper than them but with good quality and more features. Future growth of the market/products is projected in the following areas: Dual sim card: that’s mean people don’t need carry two phones on every day. Two sim card and works at same time. People can get two different numbers in one mobile. TV function: people can watch on the tv in anywhere with mobile phone they have. That’s totally free no cost for that. Picture message: people can send and received text with it. Java game: people can download and play java game with it. 1 a) Complete the following table to help identify sources of relevant market information for your business. (P.C. 1.1) Market source What type of market information can you collect from the following? List the possibilities Potential customers Business People, Professionals, Students, Parents, Senior Citizens. Potential suppliers Our potential suppliers would be coming from China to ensure cost effectiveness making us competitive in the market in terms of price. Competitors Nokia C2 LG KS660 Dual-SIM Touchscreen Mobile Phone Spice D-1100 Dual SIM PDA Mobile Phone Spice D-88 Dual SIM Mobile Spice D-90 Dual SIM Mobile Phone Complementary business operations and affiliates Mobile Phone carriers like Vodafone, Telecom and 2degrees because they require celphone unit to be able to connect on their network. Publications Local news paper, Chamber Newspapers, School Publications, Market Research providers Can be done in-house to save on cost Market source Industry organisations Local market business organizations like Avondale, business and chamber organizations. Government agencies and departments SEC, Department of Trade and other regulating agencies Local Body organizations Avondale market business organizations. Internet Marketing Trade Me and Stella online shopping website. b) Give a brief description of the following Market Research methods. (P.C. 1.2) i. Questionnaires Questionnaire is a quantitative form of getting information about the market in a form of written questions to obtain useful statistical information from a given sample from the market that determines consumer preference, customer behavior, market hypothesis, etch. ii. Surveys Survey is a quantitative form of getting information about the market’s individual characteristic that comprises the market from a given sample that represents the entire market. iii. Interviews Is qualitative method of getting information from the market through a structured and prepared conversation. iv. Product demonstrations Product demonstration is marketing research method whereby potential customers are asked to sample the product with a condition that tjeu will report its feedback that will be used to determine the behavior and preference of the customers towards the product. 1 c) What impact would the following external marketing factors have on your marketing activities? (P.C. 1.3) Comment on at least seven of these: Environmental factor What impact do they have? Social Social factor is the way the customers think that includes their value system and belief. This cultural bias influence their purchasing decision as they tend to buy products that is aligned to their cultural orientation. Demographic Demographics is the configuration of the market. Among the demographic factors of interest includes the number of the population, the income level of the said population, level of education, spending patterns, household composition etch. This information can help determine whether there is a market for our product and if there is, on how to market our products to our prospective customers. Cultural Culture is one of the single factors that can significantly influence consumer and buyer behavior. It is the individual’s set of cultural values and preferences that have been imbedded to him/her in the context of the society he/she lives that will translate to purchasing and buying preferences. For example, in the United States, youthfulness is a desired physical state. And inferring from this cultural trait, we would know from marketing point of view, that there will be a market for cosmetic products. Ethnic Ethnic background, just like cultural background, is one of the determinant of market behavior or buying preference among potential consumers. Just like cultural background, ethnicity or racial orientation can determine the buying preference of customers. This has however is not a factor in our business because the need for mobile communication device is more influenced by perceived functionality than racial biases. Natural Natural or environment determines whether it will be physically possible for us to conduct business in New Zealand. The natural environment of New Zealand is conducive to our business and poses no issue in our business operation. Economic The economic factor determines the purchasing capacity of our potential customers. New Zealand, being generally an affluent economy, has a population that can afford our product. Political The political factor refers to the degree the government or a regulating agency can affect the marketing activity of a certain business entity. In our case, this could be the tax imposed on the operation of our business, whether the government allows the usage of a single celphone with two telecom carriers or the cost of tariff when we import certain materials to repair our customer’s celphone. Legal Is the framework of laws and rules where we operate of our business. Ethical Ethical consideration in a marketing activity is the propriety of conducting the business among its stakeholders that includes not only the customers but also the suppliers, investors and government regulating agency. Regulatory Regulatory agencies are government agencies which ensures that fair business practice is observed to protect all the stakeholders of the business which includes the customer, government, society and the business itself. Technical The technical aspect determines whether we have the technological know-how to conduct our business. In the case of our business, this poses no issue as we are technologically articulate and can respond to issues that involves technology. Competitive Other companies selling the same product line has a direct impact on our business since customers has other options to avail the same product line from other source. Such, competition keeps us on our toes and drive us to deliver excellent products with an excellent customer service. 1 d) From the methods in 1 (b) select those that are relevant to use in your own market research. (P.C. 1.2) Analyse your small business, carry out market research and gather information on your product/service using the selected methods. This step is important. It will provide information to support your choices in the following questions. Survey and Questionnaires are the most relevant market research method to determine the characteristic of the market and to validate our hypothesis that there is a need for a dual SIM celphones which is our product. Our survey showed that the market is willing to try a dual SIM celphone and this is supported by the Questionnaires that indeed celphone users would want a celphone that can operate two SIM cards simultaneously. It is our objective to carve a niche in the celphone industry by catering to the underserved market of dual SIM phones. The market is very promising in New Zealand as there is almost 100 % subscription to mobile telephone carriers (Vodafone: 2,465,000 (46.71%), Telecom:  2,192,000 (41.54%), 2degrees: 580,112 (10.99%). Deducing from this, it means that we have a huge market for our dual SIM celphone as almost everybody are celphone users. Review and evaluate your results in terms of estimating the potential market for your products and or services. The potential market for our product is huge. New Zealand has 3.87 million subscribers comprising a 94% penetration rate (National Business Review, March 22, 2011). Those subscribers are also celphone users which are the potential customer for our dual SIM celphones. Market research result is encouraging as it showed that this market is interested for a dual SIM celphone. Such, carving a niche for in this market is very viable given the sheer size of potential market and consumer interest with a dual SIM celphone not to mention that the dual SIM market is not yet that saturated. 1 e) How significant are ethnic factors for your small business operation? Potential Customer’s ethnic background has no significant influence in the operation and marketing of our dual SIM celphone as the need for mobile hand held device is universal and is not influenced by ethnicity but rather by perceived functionality. Assess the following ideas pertaining to ethnic factors and resources: (Consider attraction, acceptance and permission to use (where applicable) as you answer these questions. (P.C. 1.5) The need for hand held mobile device is not determined by ethnic factors as the need for hand held mobile device is primarily determined by functionality, brand loyalty and perceived value of the device. Ethic factor How could this be incorporated into our Marketing? Traditional values NA Contemporary values NA Colour NA Symbols NA Trademarks NA Branding NA Names NA Images NA Designs NA Labels NA Packaging materials NA 1 (f) From the market information you have researched and evaluated develop customer profiles for your product and/or service and establish customer needs and wants. (P.C. 1.6) The types of customer that will be prioritized by our product are the business persons and the professionals. For reason that they are the heavy users of celphone and have the constant need to be connected. Our product fits them as it will afford them to have a secondary line from other mobile carriers should their priority mobile network becomes unavailable. This will address their need to remain connected without the inconvenience of carrying an extra phone. What special benefits do you offer customers? (P.C. 1.7) Our customers will have the convenience of having two active SIM cards without having to carry two separate celphones. It will also save them money as they do not have to purchase another celphone just to have another line. The phone has an added feature of being able to watch TV in a hand held device in addition that they can play games with it. How do these benefits satisfy customer needs? Our product satisfies the customers’ need to be always connected via celphone by having two SIM cards working in a celphone simultaneously without the inconvenience of carrying another phone. It also addresses the customers’ need to save money as they no longer have to purchase another celphone just to have another celphone connection. 1 (g) From your evaluation, what would you say your competitive advantage is. Explain. (P.C. 1.8) The most distinct competitive advantage of our celphone is its ability to keep the customer connected to two mobile network without the inconvenience and additional cost of an additional phone. It also allows them to watch TV and to play games in a handheld device. 1 (h) What does market data gathered tell you about current and potential market demand? (P.C. 1.9) Our market data revealed that there is a huge potential market demand for our product given the sheer number of mobile service subscription (New Zealand has 5,237,112 mobile communication subscription, National Business Review, March 22, 2011) Also, market research showed that this market is receptive to the idea of a dual SIM celphone which makes the prospect of penetrating the market very promising. Given the right promotional drive, location and pricing, we are optimistic that we can penetrate the market and carve our niche. How does this data match your previous perceptions? Our market research through the use of Questionnaires validated our market hypothesis that mobile phone users are receptive to try a dual SIM celphone that works simultaneously. They are also delighted with the idea that there is Television functionality in the dual SIM hand held mobile device. 2. Determine the mix of products and / or services to be provided. 2 a) You need to analyse your market information to decide upon the mix of your products or services. Define what the following terms mean to your business (P.C. 2.1) Item Your definition Product lines Celphone with two SIM Cards operating simultaneously. The product has the advantage of like having two celphones in one without the inconvenience of carrying an extra phone. The customer is able to save money too because they no longer have to purchase an extra celphone. The device has also the functionality of a television. Product mix The mix consists of selling a dual SIM celphone that can operate simultaneously with a TV and game functionality. It is complemented with a repair service that can also serve as an after sales support should our customers will have an issue with the phone they purchased from us. Product breadth We will only be selling one type of dual SIM celphone coupled with our repair service for our market introduction to better monitor how the market responds to the idea of having a phone with two SIM cards. Product depth For market introduction, variety of dual SIM celphone is not yet present as we are still in the process of feeling how the market responds to our product. As we know our customers better on what particular configuration of a dual SIM celphone they prefer, that will be the time that we will add variety to our product. Service Levels Service level is the kind of service support the customer can avail from us after the purchase of the celphone. In this case, the model of our business supports a high service level because it also has a repair service which can service as an after sales support should the customer will have an issue with their purchased celphones. 2 (b) What is meant by the term customer expectations? Customer expectation are “the needs, wants, and preconceived ideas of a customer about a product or service. Customer expectation will be influenced by his or her perception of the product or service and can be created by previous experience, advertising, hearsay, awareness of competitors, and brand image. The level of customer service is also a factor, and a customer might expect to encounter efficiency, helpfulness, reliability, confidence in the staff, and a personal interest in his or her patronage. If customer expectations are met, then customer satisfaction results” (QFinance: The Ultimate Financial Source). In the case of our proposed business, this meant that our celphones should work as advertised i.e. that it should be able to hold two SIM cards at the same time and that the customer can watch TV and play games with their celphones. Above all, that we should have a good after sales support that if customers will encounter issues with the celphones purchased from us, we would be able to service it through the repair service component of our business. That we way, we can guarantee that we are able to fulfill the customer expectation about our product and service. From your market information gathered, explain how you would use this to align your products and services with customer needs and wants. (P.C. 2.2) Our market research revealed that our customers are inconvenienced of having to carry two cellular phones at the same time. Research data also revealed that customers are quite excited about the idea of having two celphones in one by having two SIM Cards operate simultaneously in just one phone. Given this information, it validates our hypothesis that there is a need or market for our product. Such, we can align our product to that discovered need by capitalizing the feature of our cellphones in our promotional drive that indeed our product addresses that need. The extra features of our celphone of being able to watch TV and play games will serve as an added incentive for our customer’s who will purchase our phone. 2 c Using the market information, establish prices of your products and / or services, and preferences for location or distribution of your product/service. (P.C. 2.3) Our price should be competitive compared to the competition. Price should be equal if not lower compared to the price of the competition in the similar product line. To test the mettle of our product in the market and gauge market acceptance, we will have outlets in the malls and technology centers where competition also sells their products. 2 d Justify viability of your business to produce, distribute and support its range of products and services at the price you have determined? (P.C. 2.4) There is a huge 5,237,112 (National Business Review, March 22, 2011) mobile user in the New Zealand market which is our potential customers. Market research shows that these mobile phone users are receptive to the idea of having a dual SIM celphone. Also, we priced our introductory celphone to be competitive if not below the existing competition giving our customers the value of two celphones at the price of one with an added feature of TV functionality. 3. Develop options for effective marketing of business products and / or services 3. a Set realistic marketing objectives for the following, including reasons why you think your objective is feasible: (P.C. 3.1) Area Objective Market share Our initial market share target will be only 1% of the total existing mobile phone users. Volume of Sales To translate that to actual sales, that will be approximately 523,000 target sales in the first year of operation. Profit percentage A decent net margin of just 25 % will already be profitable given the scale of the market. Also, our strategy would be to capture the targeted market share first where profitability is realized through volume of sales. Market niche It is hoped that we will be able to carve a niche in the mobile phone industry users by developing a market for dual phone mobile users. 3 b From your market research, identify at least two market segments that your business can cater for. (P.C. 3.2) There are two market segment that our business can cater to which is the business user segment and professional segment because they are the market which has the most need to be perpetually connected through their celphones. A dual SIM celphone guarantees them continued connectivity in a mobile network with a spare network to use just in case the other line will become unavailable. What sort of profile do the customers in this market segment have? The type of customers mentioned above are heavy mobile phone users with extra purchasing capacity. They are however sensitive to the reliability of the product due to their dependency to mobile communication. 3. c Do you consider yourself a market leader, market challenger or a market follower? We are market challenger because we are in the process of developing a demand for our dual SIM celphone in a market that has already existing mobile phone providers. . (P.C. 3.3) Suggest strategies for the following: Area Suggested Strategies Accessing and monitoring the competition Get Financial statements submitted from Securities and Exchange Commission, Trade and chamber databases to determine the performance of competition compared to ours. Supporting your present marketing position Capitalized on the dual SIM capacity of the celphone to beat competition and acquire market share. Expanding your present marketing position Deliver the message and the notion to the customers that dual SIM celphone is the wave of the future in the handheld mobile device due to its simultaneous functionality, cost effectiveness and convenience. Establishing new niche markets We will establish our niche in the market by targeting first the business people and professionals who has two celphones because they are the ones who are likely to avail of a dual SIM celphone. 3.d (P.C. 3.4) Using your market information, develop a business image We would like to develop the business image of reliability in terms of mobile connectivity as our product assures our prospective customers extra connectivity with our dual SIM phones without the inconvenience and added cost of an extra phone. Determine effective sales promotion methods and costings for target customers using the table below – not all will be appropriate Promotional activity Method Costing Displays We will rent a prominent billboard display in a major commercial center to inform prospective customers of our product. Signage NA Price-offs NA Premiums NA Sampling We will provide sampling in our outlets by letting our customers try to use our dual SIM celphone where they can experience how to communicate with a handheld mobile device that has two networks or line. Almost nothing as it will be conducted in our outlet. Contests Shopper promotions Community promotions Co-operative promotions Participation in manufacturer or distributor promotions Joint editorial and publicity promotions 3 e Describe your marketing mix with respect to the 5 Ps Concept, viz Product, Price, Promotion, Positioning and Place: (P.C. 3.5) The P Description of how this P fits our marketing mix Product Dual SIM celphone that has the capacity to go online simultaneously and a repair center. Price Same as the price of existing competition if not lower than their price. Promotion Local and national newspapers, trade and chamber publications Positioning We will position our product in the market as a two in one celphone that can work simultaneously giving prospective customers value for their money and convenience. Place (ie location and distribution) Malls, technology hubs and celphone distribution centers where the competitor is also located. We will test the mettle of our product in the market by making our presence felt side by side of the competition. 3. f Outline specific marketing options and strategies that focus on customer needs: (P.C. 3.6 and 3.7) Area of focus Marketing options and strategies. Customer Perspective Our value proposition to our customer would be product leadership on our selected niche of dual SIM phones. We will impress upon the customer that in the dual SIM celphone product line, we are the best option available to them for them for they get value from their money because of the features of our phone not to mention that our celphones are reliable with excellent after sales support. Customer Support Services Our service center can also serve as a customer support services or after sales since it has the capability of repairing damaged phones. In addition, we will have trained staffs to attend to customer inquiries and complaints. All aspects customer oriented We will train all our of our personnel not only on the technical aspect of our celphones and selling but also on customer service to be able to forge a relationship with the customers that will entrench our position in the market. Cultural values We will not attend to the cultural value aspect in our Marketing options and strategies because the need for mobile hand held device is influenced by perceived functionality of the phone rather than cultural biases. Special needs We will emphasize the game and TV functionality of our dual SIM celphones to customers who has special needs from their celphones. 3.g Describe how you will monitor the marketing performance of the marketing plan by implementation systems such as marketing information systems, measurement tools, and feedback mechanisms. Ensure that these help achieve the related business objectives (P.C. 3.8) In the introductory phase of the business, it is important to monitor actual sales to gauge the response of the customers towards our promotional effort and market acceptance towards our product. This can be done by checking the sales at the Point Of Sale (POS) computers. Inventory should also be constantly checked through the implemented inventory system to ensure the availability of products when demanded by the customers. Feedback from the customer is extremely important at this stage and the mechanism should be made available in every outlet where there is a feedback form for the customers to give their opinion. This will give us a “feel” on what the customers really think about us which could aid us in our future marketing efforts. REFERENCE: Natinal Business Reviews, March 22, 2011. Retrieved on July 15, 2011 at http://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/what-2degrees-should-announce-tomorrow QFinance: The Ultimate Financial Resource. Retrieved on July 15, 2011 at [http://www.qfinance.com/dictionary/customer-expectation] Read More