Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control - Essay Example

? Creating and Marketing a new product Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts (19, June, Introduction Technology has developed greatly in the past few decades so much so that our lives are now dependent on it. There are so many aspects of life that are now controlled by technology and our reliance on technological gadgets has increase substantially. On one hand this reliance on technology has made our lives easy as one can now keep track of many things at once without much physical effort. But on the other hand complications have also increased as we try to understand and use each of the gadgets separately. It is from these complications that we have identified a new need of getting everything available to users in a single device. The product we have come up is called ‘E-Wall’ which will help users of technology manage everything from a single place using a single device. In this report we will talk in detail about the product, marketing plan and strategy, business strategy, and operations. We will also discuss how we will establish it as a legal entity and protect the innovation from being copied by any company. We will also establish the target market of the proposed product. E-Wall E-Wall is an electronic wall that will act as a screen. This screen will display everything that a person needs to carry out his or her daily technology related operations. The screen will serve as a laptop, television, cell phone etc for users. Basically everything users want will be displayed on the E-Wall and users will be able to control it through a tablet. This tablet will serve as a key board for users which they will use to change icons on the wall. The aim of the technology is to bring everything together in one place so that users can easily access it. The device will also save space as it will be placed on the wall. Only a small server will be attached to the screen to feed data into the wall. The main purpose of E-Wall is to integrate all the present technology currently being used by the people worldwide. There is a need to join them together so that users can get a single point of access. Another purpose of the product is to make everything easily available to users of technology. The idea behind E-Wall is to get everything on a single wall so that everything can be managed easily. This product will not only make access to different technologies easily. E-Wall will display everything on a large surface (wall) which will increase visibility and also users will be able to use everything without even moving from one place to another or without juggling different devices at the same time. E-Wall will serve as a display screen for all of the existing technology. It will just integrate existing technology into one device. A key attribute of the device is that it will allow users to access everything on the E-Wall through a touch screen tablet. This will allow mobility without compromising on size of the display or the number of technologies available. This key advantage will make this device desirable for many segments of the society. Establishing Legal Entity It is important to form a legal entity in order to operate any official business therefore we have decided to form a Limited Liability Partnership company. This is type of company offers the benefits of both corporations and partnership, and this is why we have preferred it over other forms. The most important element of this form of company is the limited liability of partners. Limited liability restricts the liability of the partners and separates personal and company assets. It is relatively safe to go for a limited liability company as personal assets are not secured in case of liquidation. The next step will be to register a name of the company and a trademark which will be used both for transaction and for marketing purposes. By registering a trademark we will also ensure that no one is able to copy our name or sign in any way. Trademark is very important in today’s business world as it becomes a mark of identification for a company. Trademarks of famous companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi, and McDonalds etc are extremely famous and can be seen in their advertisements. This is why we will also try to come up with a catchy trademark for our company. In order to take care of the incorporation process we will be hiring services of a law firm. This will be appropriate because the incorporation process is quite complex and it is better to let the experts handle the process of incorporation. Law firms will charge us with a fee but it will be a good bargain for us because there are other important matters which need out utmost attention. It is therefore justified to use a law firm to complete the incorporation process for our company. Protection of the Idea of the Product It is extremely important to protect the idea of any new product from replication. When a company comes with a new product in the market, a lot of time and energy is put into the creation of that product. This is why it is essential that measures are taken to ensure that the company is rewarded for its innovation and no other company is able to use the work of the innovating company. For this purpose patents are issued by governments. The aim is to protect and reward the hard work of the innovating company. Most governments all over the world award patents to the companies that come up with a new product or service. Innovation is vital for the growth of any economy therefore governments encourage innovative behaviour of companies. In United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office is responsible for issuing patents for innovative products, designs, or brand (Intellectual Property Office UK, 2012). We will place our application in this office after registering our trademark and company with the responsible authorities. Patent application will take some time to process but it is important to protect the innovation from getting copied by other firms or businesses. We will also use a law firm to take care of our patent application filing. There are list of documents and requirements, and it is best that experts are used to file patent application. Now that our company has been established and idea been protected through a patent, we will focus on other strategy and target market. Business Strategy The main business of our company will be to sell innovative technology to users who need to integrate many types of technology. We are looking forward to become a formidable force in the innovative technology sector in near future. Our business will only deal with new products because innovation is our business. We will market ourselves as a leader in innovative technology. The main competitive advantage for the company will be the top of the line innovative products. As we mentioned earlier we will be in the business of innovation of technology. The strategic vision of our company will be to achieve success by remaining ahead of the demands of the people at all times. The main product from which we will be entering the business is E-Wall. This product will represent the strategic vision of our company and will be in line with the overall business strategy of our company. This particular product will be launched in a business environment that is extremely competitive in nature. High technology product industry is categorized by turbulence, time intensive, and information intensive environments (Mohr, Sengupta, &Slater 2009). It is not unlikely that soon after our product is introduced in the market, many similar products will be introduced by other companies. The business environment is filled with companies that have significant resources and brand name. It will be easier for them to attract customers than us. Keeping the business environment of the industry in which we operate our strategy will be to cater to targeted customers without entering mass production. The technology that we have come up with is not for normal users. E-Wall is a product that best suits the need for people who need to make decisions using technology regularly. E-Wall will allow them to see all their data on a single screen and will make the decision making process easier as they will not have to rely on individual technologies anymore. Such customers will not be in great quantity and therefore we will be left a limited market. The business strategy of our company supports such a target market. The idea of catering to limited customers will also be feasible in the starting phase of the company. It is not possible to enter into mass production without investing heavily in plants and machinery. A good way to start would be to cater to small group of customers. The business strategy of our company is to stay ahead of the industry and innovate regularly but average consumer might not be ready for our products. It is therefore safe to presume that our strategy of not entering mass production and catering to limited clientele is in line with the strategic vision of our company. Target Market The target market of our product is mainly business users, governmental institutions, and research institutes. These three segments of society will be targeted by our company. The choice of these three markets is also done keeping in mind the business strategy and vision of the company. Business users often need to make decisions quickly and they require accurate and timely information at once place. E-Wall will allow them to take into account different aspects of business in order to make a better decision. E-Wall will allow them to see all the information together on the wall. Business users also need to watch news at all times because they have a huge role to play in their daily business transactions. E-Wall will allow them to watch news, edit and see information, and run different kinds of simulations. All this information will be available on the screen for the business users. Business users can also afford the high prices of the product that we are offering. Pricing strategy will be discussed in detail later. Governmental institutions will also require our product because this device will help them develop public policy and at the same time allow them to manage and oversee development projects. This device will also allow governmental institutions to view the performance of all their different departments at one screen. Governmental institutions will also be able to afford this device since their resources are also huge. The use of technology is increasing in the public sector and therefore our product is expected to cater to governmental institutions. Research institutions can also make use of E-Wall. The decision making help that the device can grant to business users are also desired by researchers. They need to make informed decisions in their research work. This is why they will make an appropriate target market for our device. There are many common factors among all the three target segments identified above. All of them can afford an innovative and customised product like E-Wall. All of them use technology on a regular basis and will want to integrate technologies of different forms. All of these segments of market also require customised products that best suit their own needs. This is why we are targeting these customer segments. Marketing Strategy and Plan The marketing strategy for E-Wall will be devised keeping in mind the business strategy and the strategic vision of the company. It will be aimed at the target market of the product identified above. E-Wall will be marketed using television advertisement, online advertisements, and through presentations at different seminars. The aim is not to sell the product is large amounts therefore we don’t need a wide spread marketing campaign aimed at the general masses. We will not be using social media or other youth based medium of marketing because our product is not targeted at that customer segment. We will be depicting our product and company as market driving. Market driving firms are firms that are proactive instead of reactive. These firms stay ahead of the market demand and come up with innovations regularly. These firms also drive the market by creating a demand for their product instead of meeting an existing demand. Research suggests that market driving paradigm of marketing is appropriate for high tech industries (Hills & Sarin, 2003). High tech products are not very famous among consumers and therefore their marketing is done differently than that of regular consumer goods (Mohr, 2001). This is why we will be using seminars and presentations to market our product. We will be holding presentations in offices, banks, brokerage houses, medical institutes, other government offices, and research institutes. These presentations will be delivered by an expert of technology and audience will be told about the features of E-Wall. This marketing strategy will be cost effective for us and will also yield the maximum results. We will just have to screen potential customers and then contact them. Television and online advertisements will also be used to a certain extent. It is not possible to reach all the potential customers through seminars and presentations therefore advertisements will also be used. Time slots will be picked keeping the target market of our product in mind. We will not be using stores to sell our product to consumers. We are aiming to cater to a small number of customers and therefore there is no need for stores. We will be using our office for selling purposes and a section of the office will be designated for display purposes. It is not possible to open stores in different areas as it will not be cost effective. Having a single selling point will also minimize distribution expenses. Our pricing strategy for E-Wall will be towards the higher end. The product we are selling is a high tech product and therefore high prices are justified. Generally when high tech products are introduced skimming pricing strategy is adopted (Kotler, 1994). We will do the same with E-Wall. It is clear that our product is a high tech product which will be setting new standards in the industry. It is therefore essential that higher profits are earned at the early stages of the launch. Experts suggest that price sensitivity is lowest in the early life cycle phase (Nagle, 1987) therefore our pricing strategy is justified. Positioning of the product is also very important for attracting right kind of customers. E-Wall will be positioned as a high tech revolutionary product that will serve the needs of the high tech users. This positioning will be done through advertisements and presentations. Classy advertisements will be designed to make the product look revolutionary and high tech. The aim is to tell the world that this product is but special users. The right positioning of the product is vital for its success. It is for this reason that we have focused greatly on positioning of our product. Operations The operations of the company are divided into finance, marketing, Human resource, and operations. The functions of the above mentioned department will be discussed below in detail. Finance The finance department will be responsible for handling the company account and all the financial assets of the company. The department will raise necessary capital for the operations of the company. The department will also take all the necessary steps to fulfil day to day cash requirement of the business. Accounting all the expenses and financial recording will also be done by the finance department. It will also be responsible for allocating budgets to other departments of the company. Marketing Marketing department will have an important job of attracting consumers through targeted messages. This department will handle the marketing functions of the company. Its personnel will be responsible for giving presentations in seminars. They will also design advertisements for television and internet. Market research and feedback will also be done by this department as it is important to understand how consumers are taking the message and how they feel about the product. Human Resource The human resource department will be responsible for hiring the man power for the whole company. There job will be to attract the right kind of employees that can take the company ahead in the market. Recruiting and selection will be done solely by the human resource department. This department will also be responsible for designing pay structures for the employees. Promotions, perks, and other benefits will also be decided by this department. All employees’ related conflicts will also be dealt with by the human resource department. This department will also work with the top management in order to shape the future strategy of the company as for a new company hiring the right kind of employees is essential. The role of this department will be pivotal in our company. Operations The operations of the company will be responsible for design and production of the product. The production of E-Wall will be outsourced completely. We will be designing the product ourselves but different companies will be contacted to produce different parts of E-Wall. The operations department will only assemble the product in house. This department will deal with the suppliers and make sure that all the outsourcing is done in the required manner, and the quality of the product is not compromised. Research and development is another function of this department. Conclusion Our innovation is E-Wall, an electronic wall that integrates laptop, phone, television, and other related technologies, which is a high tech product. This product is for users of technology that want to integrate all the existing technology into one so that time is saved and decision making time can be minimized.. Our main target market is business users, governmental institutions, and research labs. Our product will be priced using the skimming pricing strategy and targeted marketing will be used to attract customers. Mass production will not be done as this product is not for regular consumers. Bibliography Hills, S. & Sarin, S. 2003. From Market-Driven to Market-Driving: A New Paradigm for the Marketing of High-Tech Products and Innovations. The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 11(3): 13-24 Intellectual Property Office. 2012. Official Website. Accessed on June 19, 2012 < http://www.ipo.gov.uk/> Kotler, P. 1994. Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Mohr, J. 2001. Marketing of high-technology products and innovations. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Mohr, J. Sanjit S. & Stanley, S. 2009. Marketing of High-Tech Products and Innovations, third edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Nagle, T. T. 1987. The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Read More