Marketing Strategy for the Ultimate Helmet - Assignment Example

?Marketing Strategy for the Ultimate Helmet Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts 10.11 Marketing Strategy for the Ultimate Helmet Channel of distribution for the helmet The company has to ensure that the product reach the client in the right time. This can only be ensured by having an efficient channel of distribution of the product. The distribution chain is also supposed to eliminate the possibility of counterfeits selling in the market as originals. One of the channels of distribution that was identified was using the channel that was used to sell the old helmet. The effectiveness of this would matter mostly by the willingness of distributors to store and sell this new helmet. The channel would also take care of eliminating extra costs in getting new distributors. The channel would also ensure direct competition between the old helmet and the ultimate helmet. The old mode of distribution involved stocking the product at some online stores and merchant stores countrywide. This would ensure a global availability of our product. Another channel of distribution was identified to improve on the availability of the product. This channel was to identify new overseas sales people from different countries. This mode was established to make sure the ultimate helmet reached those countries that the old helmet was not able to get to due to poor channel of distribution. This would eliminate the need of the company having to first study the tax low in those countries to establish branches. Pricing of the product The pricing of the product is supposed to play a major role in sales made of the ultimate helmet. Taking into consideration the cost incurred in designing and making improvements the ultimate helmet is supposed to be high. A strategy to gain approval of the product had to be identified so that clients would believe they were paying the right price for the product. Different pricing strategies were identified by first dividing the market into two. These two markets are the new market identified and needed to be tapped while the second market was the market where people were using the old helmet. The new market, a penetration price had to be established which had to be lower than the old market price. This price required to be lower because most of these clients were seen as people who owned motorbikes but did not see the need of the helmet. It was established if the helmet was priced so high they would not bother even buying it. The market was seen to exist mostly in developing countries where motor bike ownership is taking toll in the 21st century. The old market was seen to exist in developed countries like the USA. People who owned motorbikes in these regions were more concerned with their comfort ability due to their high purchasing power. A factor that had to be put in consideration while also setting up the price is that these region stiff competition would be faced due to the existence of the old helmet. The old helmet producer had already established control over the market. It was established the main driver of the marketing would be first draw the attention of the client to the extra capabilities of the ultimate helmet and show them the benefit. This would then make the client buy the new helmet even if the price is higher than the old helmet. Promotion The helmet is supposed to be used mostly by people riding motorbikes and those people who like motorbike sporting. An appropriate channel of advertisement had to be identified with some weighted reason to make sure the product reached the intended client. The Medias of advertisement that were identified are as follow: Social media The helmet due to its capability in GPRS location and picking phone is so attractive to the generation. This group of people can be found on social media which includes face book, MySpace and Twitter. Most of these companies allow companies to advertise their product with them for a certain fee. We analyzed the different social media to identify which had many customers to make a maximum use of the amount we paid. We established facebook had a hooping 800 million active users. These active users 60% are young people who make a big customer base for the product. These made us to arrive at it as one of the optimal form of advertisement of the product. Bill boards on Highways This mode of advertisement was also picked due to the need to reach those potential customers who are on the road with the old helmet. The billboards are to be stationed strategically in places where mostly traffic is heavy to allow the people to read. The billboards are supposed to contain a message on the comfort ability of the new helmet compared to the old one. Placing advert between some programs in Television channels Motor sporting is seen as one of the most watched game in television channels. This sporting activity is watched globally which would be a means for a company to advertise our product also globally. We decided we can identify some television channels and pay them to place adverts of our helmet in between these games. This was seen as a good idea due to the fact that most of those people who watch these game they practice the sporting as a hobby or a part time carrier. The adverts of the helmet also needed a time to be established when they will be aired. A survey was carried out to establish when a lot people viewed TV. The survey showed that during the evening hours an advert would be aired to a lot people than the afternoon hours. So a request of the evening hours was also made. Monitoring marketing effectiveness Effectiveness of the different mode of marketing that we established had to be done. We decide to look at it by comparing the cost incurred versus the sales were made in the different markets. We analyzed the higher end market that existed in the developed countries. The sale volume was seen to rise steadily at first during the launch of the product but after sometime the sales were seen to drop sharply. The company had to establish what the cause of this dissatisfaction was. It was established although most clients had theoretical knowledge in information technology they saw it hard to use the product if they did not receive enough instructions at the point of sale. The company established that a more user friendly manual had to be developed. This manual had to contain a lot of pictures. Another solution that was arrived at the company had to offer free training to the sales people in the different branches. This would ensure that they offered the best advice to the clients. The lower end market was also seen to have more problems than the higher end. One of the major causes was even if the company lowered the price of the product taxes in those countries were still high making it expensive. Another major problem was that most clients in these areas did not appreciate the power of information technology in solving their problems. This notion made them not to see the need of purchasing the ultimate helmet. The company had to look at the possibility of either withdrawing from this market or offering a substitute of the product that was offered in the higher end market. This substitute was to include only those product features that these clients needed eliminating the others. The most effective advertisement channel was seen to be the one using the television. This was established after carrying out a survey to establish who were the most users of our product. It was seen those people who were funs of motor spotting had bought the new helmet as a way of improving their comfort ability. They also viewed the new helmet as one factor of increasing their prowess in the game. It was also established that in the higher end market the existence of the old helmet which was cheaper did not create a lot of competition. References Guiltinan et al .Marketing Management: Strategies and Programs. New York: McGraw HillIrwin, 1996  Joshi, Rakesh Mohan. International Marketing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Kilter, Philip , Gary Armstrong, Veronica Wong and John Saunders . Principles of marketing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2009.  Paul H. Selden. Sales Process Engineering: A Personal Workshop. Wisconsin: Milwaukee, 2010. Elis, Booker). Roundtable: Taking measure of which metrics matte. BtoB magazine, 2008-05-05 Web 2011-11-10.  Gerard, Michael. The best technology marketers are well versed in MPM. B2B Magazine, 2008- 04-07 . Web. 2011-11-10.  Koekemoe, Ludi and Steve Bird. Marketing Communications. Durban : Juta and Company Limited, 2009.  Baker, Michael. The Strategic Marketing Plan Audit .Cambridge: Cambridge strategy publications, 2008. Read More