Marketing Portfolio for International E-Z UP, Inc - Essay Example

? Marketing Portfolio Project Overview The paper focuses upon presenting a comprehensive marketing plan for International E-Z UP, Inc. which specializes in selling instant shelters. The study shall aim at identifying the present situation of the company and thus would intend to offer distinctive marketing plan strategies to further improve its position and overall sustainability. Company Analysis International E-Z UP, Inc has been one of the pioneers in the field of portable and instantly erectable shelters. The company has been functioning since the year 1983. It has been capable of developing a successful business and has a global reputation and recognition for offering quality products and hence satisfying the needs and the wants of the customers. The company has been first in terms of innovation, quality as well as customer satisfaction in around 50 countries. The key to success for the company is its commitment towards the company-wide values (International EZUP, 2012). Mission Statement and Goals The main objective of the company is to focus towards honesty, people, customers as well as innovation. It also places greater emphasis at offering the customers with quality products and services with the objective to satisfy them and thus maintaining long-term relationship with them. Focus The main focus of the company has been upon the domestic market. However, in order to attain growth and to beat the competition it is quite imperative for International E-Z UP to shift its focus to international markets as well with advanced products thereby meeting the needs and the demands of the global marketplace. It will also focus upon providing the customers with quality products in order to ensure sustainability in the long run. In order to attain this objective the company can implement Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques such as Kaizen. Marketing Objective Short-Term Objectives of the Company The marketing objective of International E-Z UP for the upcoming year shall focus upon enhancement of the market share and increase of the desired levels of sales of the product. The company shall also try to enhance the customer loyalty. In order to attain this objective, it shall generate 20% of repeat business in the first year. The other marketing objective of the company shall be to escalate the brand awareness among various market segments from 10% to 30% in year one. The company shall also aim to gain at least 20 new customers by the end of the year one. It shall aim at increasing the market share in the United States market by 10% at the end of year one. Furthermore, one of the most significant marketing objectives of most of the companies is to minimize the marketing cost by substantial amount. In lieu of this fact, it can be mentioned that International E-Z UP shall intend to reduce the marketing cost by nearly 5% during the initial six months period. Long-Term Objectives of the Company The long-term objective of the company shall be to maintain their position as the leading name in selling instant shelters throughout the world in next five years. It shall also aim at acquiring nearly 20% of the customers of the competitors over next five years period. It shall also intend to increase the profit margin by 10% in the coming five years of operations. Attaining partnership and building collaborative relationship with numerous suppliers for smooth flow of the raw materials shall also be one of the objectives of the company. It can be stated that for the purpose of attaining the above mentioned short-term and long- term objectives, it is quite imperative for the company to prepare an adequate marketing plan. The sections below comprise pertinent analyses of the customers, the competitors, the external environment, the marketing mix and the human resources of the company. Based upon the analyses, the paper shall intend to devise a creative marketing plan for the purpose of promoting and creating awareness about the products and the services of International E-Z UP among the global consumer segment as one of quality. Customer Analysis Customer analysis is the method of identifying the customer segmentation, purchasing behavior, value as well as motivation for the purpose of better targeting the market and enhancing the sales. The target customers of the company are the businessman, the households, students and event organizers among others. These customers generally require instant shelters for various purposes such as advertisement campaigns, major events, and recreational activities such as picnic. One of the main benefits of the products offered by International E-Z UP is that they are multi-purpose and hence the customers can make use of them for different occasions. Competitor Analysis Competitive analysis in the context of marketing as well as strategic management can be identified as the evaluation of the strengths and the weaknesses of the present and potential competitors. The analysis tends to offer strategic contexts through which the opportunities as well as the threats can be determined. It can be mentioned that the competitor strategy analysis is one of the essential elements of the corporate strategy. There are many competitors of International E-Z UP such as Shed Town USA, Red X and Sun-Leisure company among others (Sun-Leisure, 2012; Shed Town USA, 2012; Red X, 2012). It can be mentioned that these companies have been devising innovative strategies in order to create and design its products. Competitors of International E-Z UP have stepped up to the competition in recent years with their improved products by taking feedbacks from thousands of customers. Furthermore, the competitors’ products are priced quite affordably which can be considered as a major challenge for International E-Z UP. Such strategies of the competitors might hinder the sustainability of the company as profits and sales are likely to decline with the pace of time. One of the competitive advantages of most of the competitors is their presence in most of the countries of world. Marketing Strategy Segmentation Strategy This section of the project aims at identifying the ways of segmenting the market. The different types of segmentation are geographic segmentation, product-line segmentation, demographic segmentation, behavioral segmentation and benefit segmentation among others (Oxford University Press, 2012). It can be mentioned that instant shelter products of the company can be segmented based on geographic segmentation by focusing on the prospective markets such as the United Kingdom, Germany, India and China. The products can as well be targeted towards the educational groups such as institutions. Furthermore, the products can also be targeted towards numerous different occupational groups. Targeting Strategy Targeting strategy generally focuses upon the market segments that the company shall focus upon. There are three distinct targeting strategies such as mass marketing, differentiated strategy and target marketing. It can be revealed that International E-Z UP should follow differentiated marketing strategy by focusing upon various market segments thereby offering tailored products and services at each of the segments (DSpace, 2012). Marketing Mix When initiating purchase of a particular product or service, the customers often get attracted to the elements which are identified as marketing mix (The Times 100, 2012). The concept was first developed in the period of 1960s and the various elements are product, price, place and promotion (Narrabri Shire, 2012). Product The various products of International E-Z UP are related to instant shelter, shelter accessories, flags, table and table covers, banner display and directors’ chair. The company has been offering products for residential purpose, hospitality purpose, event purpose, outdoor advertisement. The products are quite easy to install and are generally multi-purpose products. The products of the company are available with a warranty that helps the customers to repair their products in case of severe damages (EZUP Direct, 2012). It is quite significant for International E-Z UP to create a positive image in the minds of the customers. The company can also specialize in selling products to nursing homes and farm houses. The aspect of custom made orders could be provided special emphasis upon the company as it would enable to attract more buyers of the offered products of the company. Customers can be provided with an option of placing their orders related to the products they want and there can be a delivery time assigned to each of such orders. The delivery time would vary according to the extent of customization required by the customer, however it would range from 15 days to 25 days approximately (EZUP Direct, 2012). Price Pricing of the product is considered to be one of the most significant strategies taken by the companies. It signifies to set an appropriate charge or fee for a product. It has been recognized that the prices of the products of International E-Z UP are competitive and refer to the quality it provides. The company offers certain discounts to the customers with the objective to escalate the sales of the products. One of the services that the company offers to its customers is rental facility. The customers can easily rent the equipments for 24 hours, three days and for a weekly basis as well. The prices for the rental products depend upon the number of days the products have been rented for. The company can also focus upon offering gift vouchers to the customers making bulk purchases in order to attract majority of the customers (Pearson Education, 2012). Place It can be analyzed that International E-Z UP stores are located in very few locations because of which the company is not capable of reaching the customers from various parts of the world. Hence, it is quite significant for the company to prepare expansion strategies and hence open stores at various locations so that it can stay ahead of competition easily. Its online presence can be considered as one of the critical success factors, which helps the company to reach most of the customers. The company can have agents and representatives who can sell the company’s goods and services in various other territories. The company can make use of the selective distribution strategy by choosing small number of retail outlets to distribute the products (Narrabri Shire, 2012). Promotion Promotion can be considered as the technique to communicate with the customers. It tends to offer information to the customers that can assist them in making decisions to buy a product or service. It is a well recognized fact that successful promotion programs can assist in enhancing the sales and the revenues of the company. Hence, it becomes imperative for International E-Z UP to make its presence in social media sites so that it can attract a large number of customers and attain the feedbacks from them. Such feedbacks can facilitate the company to improve its products and services. It can also create awareness about its offered products through social media sites which in turn can enable it to increase its customer base. It can further assist the company at maintaining competitive advantage (Narrabri Shire, 2012). Human Resources Strategies Various external factors such as globalization and increased market competition has initiated several changes in the way the organizations work and thus shape the strategic situation through which it becomes easier to manage the people easily and effectively thereby assisting in attaining the objectives of the company. Human resource strategies are focused upon those decisions that possess an impact upon the employment and development of people in the organization. It is also concerned with maintaining relationships that exist existing between management and staffs (Kearns, 2012). It is significant for International E-Z UP to secure the commitment of the workforce and ensure flexible as well as innovative working practices. It is also important for the company to maintain proper coordination among the top management and the employees of the organization. Moreover, the employees should be encouraged to provide their contributions towards the organizational developments by coming up with innovative product related suggestions which can be valuable for the company in the long run. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis can be perceived as a significant resource that can be incorporated into the strategic planning model of the company (Chen & Bruneski, 2012). Strengths The key strength of the company is that it specializes in offering the customers with quality products. Since the past two decades, the company has been one of the leading corporations in the global instant shelter industry. It has been the foremost company earning reputation in terms of innovation, quality and customer satisfaction (EZUP Direct, 2012). Weaknesses International E-Z UP does not have its presence in a number of emerging nations in the world. Lack of employee strengths and funds may be few of the reasons behind such deterrence (EZUP Direct, 2012). Opportunities The company has tremendous growth opportunities to enter into various markets that do not have any instant shelter companies. This will assist the company at attaining competitive advantage by a greater extent in the world stage (EZUP Direct, 2012). Threats Competition can be considered as one of the most significant threats for the company. Consequently, the company can target numerous other segments of customers in order to increase the sales. Furthermore, government regulations and laws at times tend to hinder the successful operation of the company in its global operations (EZUP Direct, 2012). Implementation and Control Plan After executing the overall plan, they will be monitored continuously for progress. Project manager shall be appointed in order to monitor and control the aspect of the marketing plan that did not work well and the aspects of marketing plan that would require more attention. With the assistance of total quality management system in the organization, International E-Z UP shall monitor the qualities of the offered products and try to determine the defects in the products (John Wiley & Sons, 2012). With the assistance of the quality circle the company shall be capable of enhancing the quality of the products and can bring pertinent improvements in the near future. Furthermore, the company will try to adopt profit-chain and balanced scorecard guidelines in order to enhance the efficiency and the effectiveness of the organization (Al-Tamimi, Hasoneh, & Rezqallah, 2012). The lacunas shall be minimized by working closely with the research and development team. However, the new strategies shall be followed by the company in order to beat the competition. Meetings will be held on a periodic basis with the employees of the organization in order to discuss on matters related to the strategies incorporated in the business. References Al-Tamimi, W. S., Hasoneh, A. I., & Rezqallah, I. E. L. (2012). Service – Profit Chain Analysis in the Telecommunications Sector Jordanian Perspective on the Mobile Sub-Sector “The Case of Orange Mobile”. European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences. Chen, E. & Bruneski, P. (2012). SWOT analysis. Retrieved from http://web.viu.ca/rtri/SWOT%20Analysis.pdf DSpace. (2012). Customer targeting (marketing) strategy. Retrieved from http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/36362/15-904Fall-2003/NR/rdonlyres/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-904Strategic-Management-IIFall2003/F598202F-EF6F-497C-87B2-C25DA06EC006/0/session4_marketing.pdf EZUP Direct. (2012). Products. Retrieved from http://www.ezupdirect.com/ezup-otherproducts.htm EZUP Direct. (2012). Product warranty. Retrieved from http://ezupdirect.com/ez-up-shelters-help/warranty_info.htm International EZUP. (2012). Company info. Retrieved from http://internationalezup.com/ John Wiley & Sons. (2012). Total quality management. Retrieved from http://www.wiley.com/college/sc/reid/chap5.pdf Kearns, P. (2012). HR strategy. United Kingdom: Routledge. Narrabri Shire. (2012). Sample marketing plan. Retrieved from http://www.narrabri.nsw.gov.au/files/uploaded/file/Economic%20Development%20PDFs/Sample%20Marketing%20Plan.pdf Oxford University Press. (2012). Marketing segmentation and positioning. Retrieved from http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199290437/baines_ch06.pdf Pearson Education. (2012). Chapter overview. Retrieved from http://wps.prenhall.com/bp_zimmerer_essbm_5/63/16273/4165920.cw/index.html Red X. (2012). About us. Retrieved from http://www.redx-eu.com/about-us.html Sun-Leisure. (2012). About us. Retrieved from http://www.sun-leisure.com/products/pro-tex-instant-shelters.html Shed Town USA. (2012). About us. Retrieved from http://www.shedtownusa.com/portable-instant-sheds-c-70.html The Times 100. (2012). Marketing mix. Retrieved from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/marketing/marketing-mix-price-place-promotion-product.html Read More