Draft Marketing Plan for the Launch of the Econocar - Term Paper Example

Introduction In the above case study regarding the information given to Clive Smith by Sandeep about getting Vijay on board so as to receive the advanced Ishimuru green car's proposed batteries information , the possible reasonable answer from Clive will be No. Accepting such deal will be unethical for him for the company as a whole and it can have very bad repercussions to the company. Ethical norms are the moral standards that help us judge good from bad or right from wrong and living morally. They involve articulating the good habits or character that we should have, the consequences of our behavior on us and others and the duties that we are supposed to follow. It is very unethical, for the Tomoco Company to offer pay Vijay money so that he can offer them the very important and confidential information of Ishimuru, this will highly dent and even kill the trust company's customer have in the company in this era where corporate ethics has become very important in aspect of any company operations and marketing and brand image. The Tomoco company is dedicated to coming up with new innovations in the auto mobile sector. It has the responsibility to ensure that it come up with its own battery formula that can be used in the proposed econocar. Probably Tomoco has a compliance program that is well established which shows that Tomoco has been committed to laws and regulations governing the country auto mobile is designing, marketing and selling activities. Thus getting information falsely from a rival company will be going against these laws or regulation and the company may destroy its image that it has built over the years. It is worth to note that a good company image and reputation goes a long way in marketing a company products, in this case Tomoco cars and any improper business conduct of the company may lead to destroying the reputation and tradition of the company and thus reducing its market segment. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) The Tomoco company also may face legal actions from the Ishimuru company on the basis that the company obtained the design information wrongfully, the unfair competition prevention law, can be used to prosecute both Clive and Vijay for industrial espionage. According to the law industrial espionage is an offence of inappropriately obtaining business secretes. Since the law is applied when a person has leaked important and confidential information regarding a company which is vital to its business operation, to a competitor company, thus hampering fair competition, Ishimuru company will have a strong case as it will have evidence and more so it will be able to identify the person (Vijay) and the company (Tomoco) which has obtained the leaked or stolen information. Such lawsuits are normal costly to a company and even if Ishimuru losses the case the damage will be already be caused to Tomoco which may be irreparable. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Since both the two companies are involved in research and innovation of lithium ion (li-ion) battery, and no particular company has a proven formula or an already working design, it is equally risky and nave to accept a design from a rival. This is because the proposed design may not be good enough than the one the Tomoco is developing. More so Vijay seems to be a self centred person and may easily sell a wrong formula to Tomoco are equally will also be willing to sell the same design plan to any other company after sealing a deal with Tomoco. Basing on the above factors, Clive smith on behave of Tomoco will probably refuse the offer from Sandeep on the basis of ethical conduct and keeping the company reputation, image and lawful conduct. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Draft marketing plan for the launch of the econocar A Product Marketing Manager is to make sure that company's product achieves the returns expectations that the manager projected when he received the endorsement for developing the product. The method of ensuring that products achieve revenue is by including a launch plan. This contains all the deliverables (collateral, materials for sales training, price list, schedules for training sales, etc.), and the promotional schedule. The product marketing manager has to work with the top of marketing and communication managers to crop up a promotional plan. The promotional plan may include a press release, sales and resellers training, advertisement, road shows, trade shows and special offers. The most important thing is that a product manager must make sure that his new product gets sufficient attention from the prospective buyers, sales, support staff and the distribution channel to achieve his projected. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) A cost leadership marketing strategy The company will base its marketing strategy on cost leadership plan, which is founded on the idea that of producing and marketing a high-quality product for this case the econocar at a lower price than our competitors. The low costs will translate to turnover margins which are higher than those in the industry average. The on going innovation program of greener car powered by the lithium ion battery, availability of working capital, inexpensive distribution, good product design and the company good engineering process skills will are some of the conditions which exists to support the cost leadership marketing strategy. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Lithium ion battery development schedule Tomoco announcement that they would speed up development of lithium batteries for use in their econocar, that's an obvious sign of how significant battery power could become for the auto mobile industry. For Tomoco to achieve its goals of creating greener vehicles that basically run by use of lithium ion (li-ion) battery by 2010 the company will need to finish up the design of the battery by 2009. Developing the proposed lithium ion battery is the most tasking element in achieving the development of the econocar. To make a break through in the development of the econocar, the company must get the new lithium ion battery technology. (Stafford, 2007) Launching the product first for a company to carry out an effective launching of its product it has to follow specific steps which include identifying the right audience, establish the response the company wants, choosing a message and the medium to pass the message and getting the feedback. When the Tomoco Company produces the greener car model by named "Econocar" it will use the Integrated Communication Marketing (ICM) method. First it will just produced ads having the cars name without the car's picture. This will be to create awareness to the customers (audience) of the car. This then will arouse the feeling of the customers as some will want now to see how the car looks like. Then the Tomoco Company continued will continue producing ads about the features of the car. This technique is meant to take customers through stronger stages of feelings which are linking; preference; and also conviction. This may get the customers convinced about the car but, they will wait to make a purchase. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) At this point Tomoco company salespeople may target specific customer by calling or writing to them, for a special show of the car. The Tomoco Company will then have to create a message to the audience; the message should be effective and arouse the desire of the customer. After this stage the company will then get into personal communication with interested buyers through personal contacts or telephone calling. The Tomoco Company then will collect feedbacks about the "Econocar" car; this will help the company to make any changes in the promotion program. The company finally can make desired changes and launch the Econocar to the market. The company will use the ICM method to offer online sale for those buyers who wish to buy the car online. Through ICM Tomoco Company will be able to revolutionized its marketing concepts Marketing mix Product Tomoco company deals in auto mobiles and its is developing a new product in terms of a fully greener car known as econocar which will be more affordable than the current conventional cars and which will be much more environmental friendly. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Price Price is an important tool in marketing as it will determine the success of the whole project in terms of sells. If the price is too high the potential customer may not afford the car thus, the company will adopt low pricing strategy to create high sales. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Place Distribution channels determine the sales of the company as it plans to conquer the European market. Since our competitors will also be eyeing the same market, it is important that the company distribution channel be extensive to create good accessibility to our potential customers. Having a well extensive distribution channel is a key to reaching a bigger market segment. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Promotion Promotion is an important marketing tool which is commonly used to market new products in a foreign country. The process will require huge investments especially when it comes to advertisements. There are various forms of promotion; personal selling, publicity, sales promotion or advertising. Promotion of products and services can be carried out in different forms and the most common one is through product life cycle. The company will undertake most of the promotional tools available to create a huge awareness of the econocar so that more people can buy the car. Basically advertisement will have to be extensively used in promotion. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Pricing strategies There are many ways by which Tomoco Company can use to price its Econocar in Europe. A price matrix will be suitable that will incorporate factors such as demand, supply, quality and economy. This will ensure that the company is able to cater for the different market segments of its product. The pricing matrix will include; Premium pricing Premium pricing is the use of a high price which indicates uniqueness about the Econocar products. This approach is applicable where a substantial competitive advantage is in existence such as for auto mobile luxury cars. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Penetration pricing In this pricing strategy, the price for the Econocar can be set to be lower than what it is in other countries so as to gain a market share. It will include a low price strategy that will enables a penetration price which is necessary to allow more cars to sell at first but when it catches up, other pricing strategies are adopted that will bring in higher revenue. Economy pricing In this case, the cost of marketing and manufacture are kept at a minimum hence becomes a no frills low price for a product such as the Econocar from this company. Other pricing methods including; price skimming, psychological pricing, product line pricing, optional product price, captive product pricing among others The terms of access of Tomoco Econocar in the Europe market pricing depends on factors such as the current tax rates in France and the overall demand rate. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Staff training It is most definite that new technology, machines, working systems, duty requirements and changes in the job description will require employees to be updated. Need of training in an organization also occurs when new innovations and inspirations from the managers in the organization can also necessitate training programs in the organization. Thus sales people and other relevant personnel will have to be trained on the new Econocar and the technology involved. For any training program to achieve its goals and objective and to be more effective, proper planning and implementation must be undertaken by the human resource management in conjunction with the design department and the marketing department.. Designing a training program will include; employees learning through observation of other trained workers; workers being coached by their seniors; through discovery as a result of being part of a member of a team in this particularly project, or through attending their meetings. (Dole and Lowe, 2003) Financials Sales Forecast Jan, 2010 March, 2010 May, 2010 July, 2010 Unit sales 23,000 32,000 44,000 58,000 Direct Sales 18,000 29,000 35,000 47,000 Others 7,000 11,000 21,000 28,000 Subtotal 48,000 72,000 100,000 133,000 Sales and demand rate forecast Expenses Marketing expense budget Jan, 2010 March, 2010 May, 2010 July, 2010 Advertisements/promotion 3,000 3,500 2,900 3,900 Sponsored events 19,000 9,000 8,000 11,500 others 29,000 15,000 14,000 19,000 Total 54,000 47,000 43,000 38,000 % of sales 33.9 29.0 28.0 7.1 Conclusion It is important for every company to observe ethical conduct when carrying out its operation and more so when it comes to industrial information espionage. A company should have its own ethical way of getting information and developing new products without necessarily getting rival progress through unlawful or mischievous ways. This will highly dent and create a bad image for the concerned company which will adversely affect its marketing and sales returns. In this modern times customer have become highly conscious of corporate ethics and morals and thus it's only good for a company to operate within ethical lines. Once a company develops a product the next important step is to effectively and successfully lunch that product on market. The process of launching the product must tackle all the issues that will arise later such as, necessary large scale production and plans to carry out marketing activities of the product. The company have marketing strategy, advertise, Train sales staff and also the support staff on product's details and a come up with financial expectations. This will ensure a success of a product to be launched on the market. Reference: Dole, I. and Lowe, R, (2003): International Marketing Strategy; Analysis, Development and Implementation. 4th. Edition, Thomson Learning, p 213-189 Stafford, N. (2007): Electric cars hoping for lithium ion revolution, chemistry word, October, p17 Read More