Overview of Toy Watch and Marketing Mix - Essay Example

?Running Head: work Toy Watch of the of the of the Introduction Fashion is one industry where new products become outdated very soon. The essence of success in such industries is the ability to build an anti-luxury culture amidst low prices but high quality and cool featured accessories. The same philosophy was replicated by Toy Watch when it revolutionized the Swatch lead luxury watch market. The tag of Italian design and use of plastic in the watches make Toy Watch the most wanted fashion accessory by celebrities and a featured ‘Star’ product in the Boston Consulting Matrix. Overview of the company- Toy Watch Toy Watch is basically a wrist watch company based in Italy. Its innovation lies in its plastic watchbands in bracelet style which gave stiff competition to luxury statement provided by Swatch watches. The company was founded in the year 2005 but in less than 2 years, it has reported mammoth profits because of its new product idea and a well-organized distribution and promotion policy intact with low prices that are affordable by any consumer group (Toy Watch 2011). Its heart throb features are its light weight, oversized dials and Italian designing marvel by Marco Mavilla, a Milan-based designer. The popularity and success of Toy Watch is also supplemented by its endorsements with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, First Lady Michelle Obama, Katie Holmes and so on (Adams n.d). Marketing mix In the context of marketing, the strategies of a company are examined in terms of four features of namely the product, price, place and promotion. Also termed as four P’s model, the marketing mix determines how the strategy should be pursued in different markets with varying customer preferences, saturation and competition levels (Jain 2010: 77). Talking of Toy Watch product, its tactical features are its stylish designing and use of polycarbonate material which blends well with any kind of traditional watch material like steel, ceramic, plastic or crystal and gives the same Italian finish with light weight and unimaginable designs. Its color choices also reveal its product planning and development genius because wrist watches top the priority list of fashion accessories and every day a new design kicks off the older one. As such, with a plethora of color ranges, Toy Watch has targeted the teenage group very effectively when they go for individual dress matching with every single accessory. In terms of pricing, this is again the competitive edge of Toy Watch whereby it uses penetration pricing to capture the new markets created and gained by this class of plastic band watches. Because of low pricing tactics, Toy Watch was able to garner more market share owing to the affordability its products offered to the various teenager and other groups. The luxury concept of Toy Watch products is applied in its distribution strategies too (Soller 2006). With endorsements from top notch celebs and presenting the watches in jewellery shops and exclusive retailers like Fifth Avenue, Selfridges and Harrods (Italia n.d). This keeps its quality and luxury image intact despite its low pricing. Promotion wise, Toy Watch makes use of not only charity shows but also female sizzling personalities and revolutionary technologies in advertising the distinctive factor of their products. For instance, it partnered with Keep A Child Alive Charity whereby half of the revenues coming from sale of its selected watches would go towards this charity initiative. Such efforts link the social responsibility and ethical consciousness of the company with the customers and favor the brand image. With Miyota Quartz Movement (Howard n.d) and presentation of Toy watch products on Oprah Winfrey show (Green n.d), it has captured all segments of consumers ranging from most sought after personalities to common men. Factors adding to the customer value Theoretically, customer value propositions which aim to provide them the maximum returns on their investments and utilities of time, place and psychology. Toy watch fortunately ranks well in all of these criteria as it offers one of the most stylish and carried fashion accessories at the most reasonable price, availability at premium stores and high end retailers (Italia n.d) and most importantly, the psychological satisfaction of having the best at the least prices. Consumers who were left from getting associated with the Italian watch fever were linked to this fashion stream because of the Toy Watch strategy of low cost leadership and differentiation which added value to the consumer taste and preferences and that too, even in the fast paced fashion market. STAR positioning of Toy Watch in the BCG Matrix The Boston Consulting Group Matrix is one of the most commonly used frameworks in analyzing the strategies of a company with its growth perspective and market share kept as the focal points of analysis. According to the matrix, every organization is managed as a portfolio of its different products with separately defined strategies for each of them. It helps determine the growth potential, cash inflows and outflows and allocation of resources for each of them. It correlates the market attractiveness with the firm’s competitive position in order to determine the correct strategic alternative to be pursued by the firm (Griffin 2005: 258). Source: www.maxi-pedia.com/BCG+matrix+model Business growth rate on the vertical axis can be high or low depending upon the saturation level and competition prevailing. With high growth rate, firm can expand its operations by increased investments because the industry is attracting new products and innovations. This ultimately increases the market share of the firm owing to the extent of innovation and adjustment applied by the firm with the components of market attractiveness. In this matrix, stars are the best positioned strategic business units in terms of their competitive position and growth potential. This is because they rate higher on both the market share and business growth rate. Toy Watch best fits in this quadrant of the matrix because of its unique product proposition and relatively lesser market share captured by such low priced watches in the fashion accessory industry. Because the consumers were unable to get premium prices watches at lower rates, the industry offered chances of coming up with reasonably priced watches which carried the luxury statement and features of the most stylish watch brands. Further, less competition and changing consumer preference towards style influential made this plastic wrist band product the sensation of 2006. Use of high end sponsorships, endorsements and advertising techniques further anchored the favorable position of Toy watch in this successful quadrant of the BCG matrix. Marketing strategy brief In light with the existing market positioning and product developments of Toy Watch, it is for sure that the company still holds a lot in capturing market share and competitive edge over its rivals. Incorporating newer technology in its products can differentiate it from its competitors but pricing will remain the cornerstone of its legendary success. It is already operating in both men and women segments. Children segment offers huge opportunity of expansion and growth keeping in mind the price factor and designing genius of Toy Watch. As such, capturing more of children segment across developing nations seem to be the next move by the company. References Adams, A. (n.d). Michelle Obama wears Toy Watch timepiece- popular, purple and plastic- basically a toy [online] available from < http://www.luxist.com/tag/toy+watch/> [accessed 4 February 2011] Green, M.W. (n.d). Toy Watch review [online] available from < http://ezinearticles.com/?Toy-Watch-Review&id=2243918> [accessed 4 February 2011] Griffin, R. (2005). Management. 8th Ed. New Delhi: Biztantra Howard, J. (n.d). The best alternative to expensive watches: Toy Watch [online] available from < http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Best-Alternative-to-Expensive-Watches---Toywatch&id=5813372> [accessed 4 February 2011] Italia. (n.d). Toy Watch- the Italian Watches worn by American VIPs [online] available from < http://www.italtrade.com/spotlight/14802.htm> [accessed 4 February 2011] Jain, A. (2010). Principles of Marketing. New Delhi: V.K. Enterprises. Soller, K. (2006). Toy Watch: Running on Cheap-Chic time [online] available from [accessed 4 February 2011] Toy Watch. (2011). About Toy Watch [online] available from [accessed 4 February 2011] Read More