Marketing Communication Plans - Term Paper Example

?Global business Executive summary Businesses exist in virtual reality consisting of both internal and external environments. The two present several factors that affect the profitability of the business. to survive, every entrepreneur must understand the operation of the market and consider all the possible factors presented by both the environments. Among the tools useful in evaluating the viability of both a business and the industry, include the SWOT and the PEST analyses. SWOT analysis investigates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats the business may face. The strengths and weakness are internal and the business therefore has absolute control over them. The weaknesses and threats on the other hand arise from the external environment and the business may not have any control over such. The business must therefore implement specific policies to streamline its operations with the view of maximizing profitability based on the above. PEST analysis on the other hand investigates political, economic, social and technological factors that affect the operations of the business. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Table of Contents 3 PEST Analysis 4 PEST analysis for the newspaper industry in developed economies 5 SWOT Analysis of The Guardian 6 Strengths 6 Weakness 7 Opportunities 7 Threats 7 Field Force Analysis for the newspaper industry in the developed world 8 The Indian Newspaper industry 9 References 10 PEST Analysis PEST analysis is a management tool that analyses the macro economic factors that affect the operations of a business in any industry and market. The tool that investigates social, economic, social and technological factors provides a realistic survey of any market by analyzing all the potential sources of either opportunities or threats that influence the operations of the business. Political factors are fundamental since politics influence the legal factors that influence the market. Additionally, politics influences the stability of a country thus creating a conducive environment for the operation of businesses. An entrepreneur must consider the prevailing political activities in the region before setting up since such foretell the future operations. A politically volatile environment for example may often spark instability and spread violence throughout the region. Such present businesses with operational challenges as the populace turn against each other thus instigating looting and massive destruction of establishments. In such a country, a business may consider seeking insurance services against political violence. This way, politics creates market for other service providers while threatening others. Similarly, social, economic and technological factors also create and destroy markets thus influences the viability of a market. Technology influences both productivity and consumption of product. The prevailing technological factors will therefore influence the consumers thus creating markets for particular products and services while threatening the viability of other markets. Such social factors as religion and cultures equally influence the consumption of certain products and services thus creating potential markets for specific products while eliminating the possibility of selling particular products in such regions. The entrepreneur must therefore employ the PEST analysis continuously to align the operations of the business and the production process to the prevailing factors thus achieving the profitability objective (Homburg, Sabine & Harley, 2009). PEST analysis for the newspaper industry in developed economies Developed economies such as the United States of America have effective democratic system implying that the markets in the countries enjoy stability and peaceful environments for operations. Besides the conducive environments, the presses in the countries enjoy a degree of freedom and independence that opens the market for any willing investor. With effective leadership, the populace enjoy myriad freedoms with the governments often formulating and implementing legislations that cushion the public from any form of exploitation. Additionally, the countries have elitist civil society keen on checking the operations of the government with the view of eliminating oppressions. Politics in such countries is thus interesting and forms a potential market for the dedicated political newspapers in the countries. The technological advancement in the developed countries has influenced the newspaper industries as entrepreneurs enjoy quality printing press that facilitate the design and publication of the papers. With the cost effective production mechanisms, the newspaper industries is the developed countries is therefore liberal as any investor is free to begin operations thus compete for the market (Peter, 1994). The development of desktop publishing and coupled with faster printing technologies have increased the circulation of papers as most companies have daily national and circulations. Additionally, the development of the internet have influenced the future of news consumption and the operations of news companies as every newspaper created online versions to overcome the geographical barrier experience by the physical newspapers. The internet expanded the market but also presented a huge threat to the development of the market. SWOT Analysis of The Guardian Strengths The Guardian, a British national newspaper is one of the leading news outlets in the country with an average daily circulation of more than two hundred copies. Coupled with its more than one hundred and fifty years of existence, the company is arguably one of the largest media outlets in the country. The company’s growth exhibits the management’s ability to predict the prevailing market factors and conform the production to such thus cushioning the company from incurring loses. Currently the company has numerous strengths key among which is its diversification. In a bid to expand its hold of the market, the company started a sister newspaper The Observer and a weekly magazine The Guardian Weekly. With such an approach to business, the company adopts a structure that adapts to the diverse market as each paper maintains a sizable steady readership (Aaker & Aaker, 2010). Diversity cushions a company from incurring losses as each sister company sustains a parallel market. Additionally, The Guardian has embraced technological changes and currently runs a dedicated news website. As another form of diversification, the website helps the company break news and engages their large audience on an interactive platform. Through the website and social networks, the company enjoys an effective market research tool thus conforming its productions to the demands of the market. The newspaper market in the United Kingdom just as in any other developed economy is selective and prefers more developmental and human-interest news articles. The company has strived to achieve this thereby maintaining a steady rise in their readership. Weakness In a bid to maintain the market, the newspaper encourages interaction with their readers a trend that later showed an editorial weakness which nearly cost the company its market share. The newspaper has faced sharp criticism from the market for publishing profanity. The newspaper has published racist comments among other profane words such as fuck. The newspaper does not edit such comments especially those from their readers in their interactive segments such are unethical journalistic practices that threatened stability of the paper. Opportunities The Guardian has several operational opportunities arising from both the market and the nature of its operations including the limitlessness of the market that is likely to expand the readership of the newspaper. Through the website and the use of social networks, the newspaper seeks to expand its market by carrying out effective market researches and offering a dedicated news database. Additionally, the political stability in United Kingdom promises longevity of the media industry as the media is independent and free from state interference. Such present the newspaper company with opportunity for growth and longevity (Parente, 2005). Threats Among the biggest threats that The Guardian faces is competition. United Kingdom has several leading newspapers besides the Guardian including the Times, The Daily mail among many others. Additionally the market has several dedicated and special interest magazines that compete for the same market enjoyed by the Guardian. This implies that the Guardian must employ specific features in order to increase its daily circulation. Field Force Analysis for the newspaper industry in the developed world The Field Force analysis is yet another management tool that helps managers understand the market and the factors or forces that compel a particular market behavior. In his hypothesis, Kurt Lewin a psychologist asserts that the “field” is a psychological concept existing in the minds of people or group of people. The field in this context is dynamic and thus changes in representation of the prevailing psychological factors. By analyzing the field, one can thus determine the individual’s motives, moods, values, goals, ideals and anxiety among many others. Understanding such is essential to managers since the factors influencing the changes of the field influence the market’s taste and preference (Lane, 2005). The internet is the largest technological innovation in the history of humans. Among the biggest beneficiaries of the invention are communication companies including newspapers. The developed economies have the capabilities that spearheaded the technological innovation and creation of such platforms as the internet (Fournier, 1998). With political stability and economic strength, the countries resorted to scientific research to better their technologies thus resulting in the innovation of the internet. Currently, such developed countries as the United States of America and the United Kingdom are leading in internet access thus expanding their markets. They use the features of the platform to access international markets. The newspapers in the developed countries use the internet differently. The cyber space provides unique database on which the companies store their digitized copies of their dailies thus providing their audience with a wide source for news (Pickton & Broderick, 2005). The Indian Newspaper industry While most newspaper companies in the developed countries continued to register a decline in circulation and market percentage, the trend was different in the Indian market that continued to grow thus attracting new operators. Among the contributing factors to the growth was the country’s large population. As the most populous country in the world, India has an active newspaper market that intensified trade thus expanding the market for the operating companies, which kept identifying new potential markets within the same country. Additionally, the country has a stable political system that ensures peace and stability for the operating companies. This facilitates growth and expansion of any business. The press in India enjoys independence and freedom from government interference. Such a conducive operational atmosphere attracts myriad of operators who establish their own markets by majoring in different special interest trends. The country enjoys minimal censorship and the relationship between the government and the press is conducive. In a bid to regulate the industry, the government blocked the operation of all unregistered news companies an occurrence that opened the market for the established companies as the market expanded spontaneously (Kotler & Fox, 2002). With this, the government reduced tax on the import of electronic print media facilities. This facilitated the expansion of the media industry in the country as the established companies bought such facilities at the reduced price and setting up operation in different towns and cities in the large country. Indians have also embraced the use of the internet, this increased access to newspaper as news companies maintained dedicated websites and online versions of their newspapers to overcome geographical barriers. The interactivity of the internet increased the market as media companies began relying on the website to break news and carry adverts. References Aaker, D. A., & Aaker, D. A. (2010). Marketing research. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. Fournier, S. (1998). Consumers and their brands: Developing relationship theory in consumer research. New York: New York Times. Homburg, C. Sabine, K. & Harley, K. (2009). Marketing Management - A Contemporary Perspective (1st edition). John Wiley & Sons. New Jersey, U.S. Kotler, P., & Fox, K. F. A. (2002). Strategic marketing for educational institutions. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Lane, M. (2005). Socially Responsible Investing: An Institutional Investor’s Guide, Euro money. London: Aspen. Parente, D. (2005). 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