Marketing Plan on Counterfeit Protection Company - Essay Example

? Executive Summary Counterfeit Shield focuses on avoiding counterfeit items and thus aims to locate sources of these items. The goal of the company is to look for counterfeit items for any organization that intends to do so. The company will employ agents who will be paid a certain fee for there services and will work throughout the nation. The investigators of the company will endeavour to locate all the relevant information related to the counterfeit products. An in-house attorney will be employed, in which will observe the report or the investigation report will be handed over to the particular company that has employed some sort of system to handle there problems. It has been observed that there is a rise in the counterfeiting of products throughout the world resulting in loss of huge sum of money for the companies affected. Thus, there is certainly a place for Counterfeit Shield in the market. The main focus of Counterfeit Shield will be upon the avoidance of counterfeit items and therefore locating of the sources for such items. The main goal of the company is to seek out counterfeit items for a company that wants to do so. This will enhance the profit potential for the company. Agents will be employed by the company who will work for a certain fee all over the country and local area. It has been stated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that more than 200 billion US Dollar was lost all over the world because of the pirated goods along with counterfeit items in the year 2005 excluding the domestic counterfeit products. It also does not include digital products which are pirated that are being dispersed over the net. If all these figures were added then the value of counterfeit and piracy all over the world would be far higher than 200 billion USD (OECD, “The Economic Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy”). This signifies a huge market for some sort of protection for the designer goods for the companies. Table of Contents 1.Introduction (The Challenge) 1 1.1.Organization and Services 1 Situational Analysis 3 1.1. Goals 3 1.2.Focus 3 1.3.Strengths 4 1.4.Weaknesses 4 1.5.Opportunities 5 1.6.Threats 6 1.7. Market Position 6 1.8 Threats 7 Strategy 8 1.9 Target Market And Marketing Objectives 8 1.10Points of Difference 9 1.11 Positioning 10 Marketing Program Strategy and Tactics 11 1.12Product Line 11 1.13Promotion 12 1.14Price 12 1.15Place 12 2.Implementation Plan 13 1. Introduction (The Challenge) 1.1. Organization and Services Counterfeit Shield’s main focus will be on prevention and locating sources of counterfeit items. This business to business services main goal is to seek out counterfeit items for a company that desires to do so. This in turn will increase their profit potential. Agents that work for the company will operate for fee, throughout the country and local area. As reported by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development it was said that over 400 Billion US was lost worldwide due to pirated goods and counterfeit items. This represents a huge market for some form of protection of designer goods for companies. A basic example for how the company will operate will be a company seeking to stop the counterfeiting of there products. They will come to us and report the problem. After the problem is logged and payment is received for the service or a planned commission is setup, an investigator will search out all the areas and online sources in which that product existences in a potential for counterfeiting. A comprehensive analysis will be done. After that, sources of onsite locations will be verified with logging all important information. A report will be drawn up from all this and will be either handed over to in house attorney for prosecution or given to the company for their handling of the matter. Situational Analysis This section of the marketing plan tries to examine the context and the developments in any company. The three major elements such as customers, companies and competitors will be analyzed in this section. Company Analysis 1.1. Goals The main goal of Counterfeit Shield is to search for and attract those companies that want to protect their products from counterfeiting. The company’s sole objective will be to combat counterfeiting of the products for the companies approaching Counterfeit Shield. It will have campaigns on an annual basis and the main focus of the campaigns will be to educate the industry as well as customers regarding the ill effects of counterfeiting items and corporate profits. This will act as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility activities of Counterfeit Shield. Counterfeit Shield will aim at providing quality service to its customers by offering them expertise and skills which can deal with the issues efficiently and effectively. The prices for the services will be competitive by nature and will therefore aim at attracting customers for repeat business and a long term business relationship.. 1.2. Focus The focus will be on major multinational corporations in which there items mainly compose of high priced items and designer goods. Essentially the focus is the protection of their brand. 1.3. Strengths Strengths of the counterfeit shield include being able to provide the services and resources necessary to pursue and companies’ problems with counterfeiting, rather than the company having to worry about having an in-house system to protect the brand it will be all taken care of by Counterfeit Shield. 1.4. Weaknesses Weakness of the companies services include not being able to provide the services to every company and every market segment due to many issues that arise in certain markets. The prime weakness of Counterfeit Shield is its incapability to provide services to each and every company as well as market segment because of numerous legal and political issues in the market. Customer Analysis 1.5. Opportunities Opportunities include the majority of brand name market segments that need protection for their items being counterfeited. There are many brands and companies who are suffering from the problem related to counterfeiting, thereby requiring protection of their brands. It has been observed that the issues with respect to counterfeiting of the drugs are on rise thereby providing huge opportunity for the success of the company. 1.6. Threats The main threat for Counterfeit Shield is the use of in-house attorneys for the purpose of fixing the problem of counterfeiting. It may also be difficult for Counterfeit Shield to convince the companies the reason behind the use of Counterfeit Shield instead of in-house operations. Political as well as legal barriers may come in the way of successful operation of the company thereby possessing threat to the company. Competitor Analysis 1.7. Market Position The market position of this company will mainly focus on high priced brand name items, the largest segment being Footwear with 38%, Handbags/wallets/back packs with 11%,, wearing apparel at 9%, and lastly consumer electronics at 8%. Smaller segments of the market will not be considered and will not be the main focus for the company. The market position of this company will center upon high priced brand items. It has been found that the Americans spend approximately $200 billion in a year only on prescription drugs. Furthermore, it has been observed that there is rise in the figure by 12%. This demonstrates the fact that the consumption of the medicines is quite high among the Americans. Rise in the consumption of the medicines offers growth opportunity to Counterfeit Shield.. The company will not focus upon the smaller segments of the market. It will be positioned at market of pharmaceuticals product and other segments, footwear, handbags, back packs, wallets, wearing apparel and customer electronics 1.8 Threats The major threat for Counterfeit Shield is that new entrants may obtain ideas and concepts of Counterfeit Shield and therefore they may as well come up with a similar set up. Also another problem would be retaliation from the black-market of major controllers and movers of the black market items, this may pose a problem for the company to continue safe business operations. Strategy Strategy can be defined as the way and scope of the organisation over the long term. It tends to attain benefits for the organisation by means of configuration of the resources within a challenging environment in order to meet the requirements of the market and for fulfilling the expectation of the stakeholders (Porter, “What is Strategy”). 1.9 Target Market And Marketing Objectives Counterfeit Shield’s main objective is to provide services to those companies who want to protect their products from counterfeiting issues faced by them. The issues of Counterfeiting are basically evident in drugs industries of the USA. A counterfeit drug is a drug that has been produced by certain organizations other than the genuine manufacturer. They imitate an original product without obtaining any authority. Their intention is to deceive the consumers and thus market the forged drugs as original. The drugs such as antibiotics, steroids, hormones, analgesics and antihistamines were generally counterfeited thus forming 60% of the products which was stated in the report received by World Health Organization (WHO) (World Health Organization, “Definition”). Therefore, the main focus of the company will be towards the drug industry of the USA. The geographical location for the company’s services in USA will be California, Texas, Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, New Hemisphere and Washington (The Library Of Congress, “Panoramic Maps: Geographic Location”). The psychographic qualities of the market are the people wanting to prevent themselves from the usage of counterfeit products. It has been identified that the total population of the country is approximately 312, 632,780 which makes it one of the most populous countries in this world (U.S. Census Bureau, “U.S. and World Population Clocks”). The most populous states in the United States are California and Texas. Therefore, these particular cities can be targeted by Counterfeit Shield because with high population the demand for the particular goods and the services, in this context medicine, increases. This further stimulates the demand for services provided by Counterfeit Shield. The behavioural characteristics of the market are health conscious people preferring to prevent themselves from the consumption of the counterfeit drugs. The main target of the company is manufacturers of drugs as well as the wholesalers and the retailers selling such medicines, their characteristics seem to be of quality conscious traders. 1.10 Points of Difference The benefit that Counterfeit Shield receives on marketing such services is that there are no other companies offering the similar kind of services related to counterfeiting. The company offers innovative ways of dealing with the problems of counterfeiting by assigning an in-house attorney. The company’s unique capability to provide such services helps to achieve competitive advantage. The company offers facilities not only to the drug industry but also tries to focus upon the companies which are into FMCG and FMCD sectors. It is to be remembered that the duplication of such services will be of great cost to the company since hiring of an in-house attorney is a costly affair. 1.11 Positioning The Counterfeit Shield will be positioned as the company that offers its customers with unusual experience. It will appeal basically to health conscious customers wanting to prevent themselves from the counterfeit medicines. The positioning of the company’s services will be through greater emphasis upon the harmlessness of the drugs. The services of the company will be positioned in such a way that it is often perceived as being moderate priced and highly effective for all group of companies. (McDonald & Wilson, “Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them”). Marketing Program Strategy and Tactics While making purchase decision, the customer tends to get lured with the various elements which can be described as marketing mix. The concept was first developed in the year 1960s and its numerous elements are product, price, place and promotion. It has been observed that the service marketing is considered to be more challenging in comparison to goods marketing. The traditional form of marketing mix which was prepared taking into consideration the objective of the marketing is also used in the context of service marketing. However, it can be mentioned that Counterfeit Shield cannot achieve its marketing objectives by solely relying upon the traditional form of marketing mix since they need to stay at sub-optimal performance in marketing. If Counterfeit Shield adopts only marketing aspects they are unlikely to solve the issues related to the marketing of the services. Counterfeit Shield will take into consideration an effective combination of all the four components, namely product, price, place and promotion in order to gain competitive edge so as to reach the target market (Rao, K. R. M., “Service Marketing”). 1.12 Product Line The name of the company is Counterfeit Shield and the main focus of the study is to provide services to those customers wanting to protect their products from the issues related to counterfeiting. It is aimed that this new line of services will create a favorable image in the minds of the customers. With the help of the agents, numerous companies will be approached. 1.13 Promotion Essentially, the promotional strategies aim at making the people aware of the product and to enhance the sales of the company. The objective of Counterfeit Shield will also be at attracting more customers towards its services and increasing the sales. The company will aim at promoting its services via industry journals, magazines, newspapers and internet promotions and will make limited use of television. 1.14 Price The service of the company will have penetrative pricing with an objective to lure the customers initially. The company may change its pricing scheme after obtaining a desired share in the market. 1.15 Place It is to be noted that the services of Counterfeit Shield will be provided at limited cities of the USA in the initial stage. It will try to expand its operation in other cities and international markets soon after it has captured the desired amount of market share. The services will be provided with the help of the agents that will be appointed by the company. These agents will work for a fee. Their main task will be to locate companies facing issues related to counterfeiting in drugs primarily as well as in FMCG and FMCD sectors as well. 2. Implementation Plan It is quite significant to identify the influence of the overall activities and the manner in which they are being controlled by the organisation. The executives of the organisation will try to eradicate irrelevant cost for the company and will discover additional information. It will be tried by Counterfeit Shield to prepare adequate marketing policies so that the services being provided by the company are generated according to the needs of the market. Once the plan is executed, it will be monitored continuously for progress. Project manager will be appointed in order to monitor which aspects of the marketing plan did not work well and the areas of the marketing plan requiring more attention (Stapleton, J. & Thomas, M. J., “How To Prepare A Marketing Plan: A Guide To Reaching The Consumer Market”). The table below is the Gantt chart that helps to explain the activities that will take place in the period of time. Activities Date Creating working prototype 1/12/2011-20/12/2011 Building infrastructure 20/12/2011-1/4/2012 Building purchase for office 1/4/2012-1/6/2012 Interior designing 1/6/2012-15/7/2012 Acquiring of office resources such as computers and furniture among others 15/7/2012-1/8/2012 Hiring and training the staffs 1/8/2012- 1/9/2012 Advertising 1/9/2012-1/11/2012 Newspapers 1/9/2012-15/9/2012 It is to be observed that the promotion is the most crucial element of marketing. The promotion of the product will begin from 1/9/2012 and will continue till 1/11/2012. Since the company will also focus upon the newspaper advertisement, it will begin from 1/9/2011 and will continue till 15/9/2012. It is well known fact that service is one of the crucial parts of all the corporations of the organisation. It is quite significant for the service organisation to deliver quality services to its clients in order to develop business and maintain close relation with the customers. Providing quality service is significant for organisation such as Counterfeit Shield. The firm will earn revenues by providing quality services to its customers. Therefore, in order to achieve quality services, Counterfeit Shield will adopt total quality management through which all the members of the organisation will try to make their continuous efforts to comprehend, meet and exceed the expectation of the internal as well as the external customers (Hardina, D., “An Empowering Approach To Managing Social Service Organizations”). The company will try to confirm its performance standards with the needs and requirements of their customers. It is to be stated that although quality costs for Counterfeit Shield will comprise of prevention costs, appraisal cost, internal failure cost as well as external failure costs, the company will try to pay attention towards the training of the employees and building up of the quality into each step of services rendered since poor quality service cannot be recalled or replaced (Martin, L, L., “Total Quality Management in Human Service Organisations”). References Angell, Marcia. “The Truth About the Drug Companies”. November 16, 2011. Current Issue, 2011. Fleisher, Craig & Bensoussan, Babette. “Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition”. November 26, 2011. Competitive, 2002. Hardina, Donna. An Empowering Approach To Managing Social Service Organizations. Springer Publishing Company, 2007 Martin, Lawrence, L. Total Quality Management in Human Service Organisations. Sage Publications, 1993. McDonald, Malcolm. & Wilson, Hugh. Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them. John Wiley and Sons, 2011. OECD. “The Economic Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy”. November 26, 2011. Executive Summary, 2007. < http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/13/12/38707619.pdf>. Porter, Michael, E. “What is Strategy”. November 26, 2011. Guide, 2011. Rao, K, Rama Mohana. Service Marketing. Pearson Education India, No Date. Stapleton, John & Thomas, Michael J. How To Prepare A Marketing Plan: A Guide To Reaching The Consumer Market. Gower Publishing, Ltd., 1998 The Library Of Congress. “Panoramic Maps: Geographic Location”. November 26, 2011.Canadian Provinces, 2011. < http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pmhtml/panmap.html#states>. U.S. Census Bureau. “U.S. and World Population Clocks”. November 25, 2011. Main, 2011. World Health Organization. “Definition”. November 25, 2011. What is Counterfeit Drug, 2011. Read More