Marketing of services - Essay Example

?Marketing of Services Table of Contents Situational Analysis 3 Analysis 7 Evaluate the Methods by Which Supply and Demand is Managed 10 References 12 Situational Analysis The situational analysis of Beehive marketing is conducted with the objective of determining the various factors which are accountable for influencing the internal as well as external operations of the company. The analysis will also assist in recognising the position of the company in its targeted market segments. In this respect, an external analysis has been conducted with the assistance of SLEPT framework taking into account both the macro as well as micro factors. Factors Macro Micro Social The major population of Australia is located in urban areas deciphering a diverse culture at the international context. The business environment of the country is seemed to be appropriate for companies to perform their operations (CIA 2013). The majority of the population is observed to be educated and skilful which will be helpful for the company to acquire specialised as well as skilful employees (CIA 2013). Legal The legal system of the country is recognised to be quite facilitating for small and medium sized businesses in Australia. The legal structure of the country is based on common law in accordance with the currently practiced English model (Clayton Utz 2012). Companies operating in Australia are provided with certain legal rights as per the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), to appear before a federal court in case of any business issue (Clayton Utz 2012). Economic The current economic conditions of the country can be determined as favourable for businesses. In this regard, the economy has been incessantly attracting more investors as well as business operators (Clayton Utz 2012). The business organisations operating in Australia are required to perform their business operations in an ethical manner by law. Moreover, companies should operate with due adherence towards their societal as well as community development responsibilities which play a major role in determining the economic value of the organisations (Clayton Utz 2012). Political The political condition of Australia is identified to be stable and thus is favourable for a small or medium sized company like Beehive marketing (Clayton Utz 2012). The political system of the country provides favourable business framework for companies to operate efficiently and ethically (Clayton Utz 2012). Technological Australia is recognised to be a technologically developed country which adopts latest technology rapidly which further facilitates organisations to ensure greater competitive advantages (Clayton Utz 2012). The intellectual property as well as technology is protected with legal laws and frameworks to preserve integrity and financial reporting transparency in the industry (Clayton Utz 2012). These are the various external factors which are observed to be quite favourable for Beehive marketing when performing its business operations in an effective manner. The internal environment of the company can be analysed in-depth with the identification of its internal strengths as well as weaknesses. In this respect, the key internal strength of Beehive is determined to be the employees or staffs. Notably, the employees in Beehive are skilful as well as committed who perform their activities effectively. Moreover, the employees are also observed to be operating as a team which in return improves its workplace culture substantially and thus creates an indirect influence on its production efficiency. The company possesses a good brand image in the worldwide market segment which can also be attributed as one of its major strengths. Furthermore, the company with its business values and nature will be successful in offering better services in relation to marketing solutions for business sectors. The main weakness of the company is that it lacks adequate and proper office space employing 3 employees. Moreover, the company is also observed to be facing the issue of communication gap and control with clients as no specific communication measures have been adopted thus far. The team members of the company are also not offered with training facilities in relation to social media, copywriting as well as event management. The company is also perceived to be lacking commitment as well as business plan for future growth and prosperity. The company is observed to be providing both tangible as well as intangible services in its services continuum (Vargo and Lusch 2004). The intangible services of the company comprise of market research, maintenance of social media and sales management. On the other hand, its tangibles services consist of copywriting, image sources, public relations, logo design, event management, designing websites and creation of print materials. There are also services which are recognised to be transforming from intangibleness to tangible assets which are managed by Beehive and can be observed as one of its core competencies. These kinds of services majorly include development of advertisement campaign, marketing plan and brand strategy for the business clients of Beehive. These various forms of services of the company are recognised to be improving its financial returns. Moreover, with the assistance of these services, the company is planning to provide better value created services to customers. Customer Analysis Beehive marketing is a privately owned medium sized company. The company has been performing its business operations with the objective of generating profits within its targeted market. The company is located in Perth which is located in the South-Western regions of Australia. It is usually involved with marketing activities for companies without any departmental divisions for conducting diverse marketing activities. The company provides marketing assistances to these companies with the intention of promoting these companies in the worldwide market segments. Beehive is determined to be acquiring adequate information as well as idea about the type of business it is involved with. The company usually operates as a Business-To-Consumer (B2C) service unit (Teo and Tan 2002). The company charges around 10,000 AUD$ for their services from clients. The client base of the company fundamentally includes the Apple Business Consultancy (ABC), Community Housing Coalition of WA (CHCWA), Diet by D’Zyne and Fresca Natural among others. There are a total of 13 clients currently associated with the company to whom it provides its marketing services (Larsen 2010). The clients or customers of the company acquire marketing services with the intention of improving their individual profitability margin which further increases the ethical responsibility of Beehive. Moreover, companies expect that with the assistance of services of Beehive it will be able to expand the burliness operations more effectively and successfully within its targeted market segments. The clients also expect to be able to create a better brand image in the different market segments. These are the various expectations with which companies attempt to grow their ability to create better impact within the worldwide market segments (Valarie, Rust and Lemon 2001). It has been observed in this context that there are certain specific risks which are associated with the services offered by Beehive to be acquired by its clients. The marketing risks have been thus argued to be a consequence of the initiative taken by the company to invest huge amounts on its marketing operations lacking accurate knowledge of its clients’ requirements. As stated by Lovelock, Patterson and Wirtz (2011), identifying the customers’ needs and preferences is a crucial skill of organisations which should be essentially considered so as to obtain competitive advantages. Such extensive marketing approach was solely intended towards improving the future performances and benefits of the organisation through better exposure in terms of clientele. However, in accordance with the customers’ preferences and needs, Beehive was unable to assure that the future profitability of its individual client will improve, which in turn failed the overall marketing scheme planned by the company. In this regard, the company formulated plans with the aim of discussing the gaps persisting within the organisational offerings and clients’ preferences to devise the steps which are required to be followed for its better future performance. The company is also required to perform its operations in accordance with its client’s requirements by developing better trust for its proposed marketing plans. In this respect, the company should also provide its new clients with feedbacks obtained from the previous consultations rendered to the other clients. The company can adopted a strategy of offering marketing plans to companies or clients before any payments when contracted to develop trust. The marketing services which are offered by Beehive vary in accordance with the tasks or activities which are undertaken by the company. It has been observed that the company generally takes around 3 weeks for developing brochure for its clients which is a time consuming process and therefore needs to be improved. The company is still under the process of developing maintenance services with regard to social media which would augment its differentiation effectiveness by a substantial extent. It usually perceives to develop a long-term relationship with its clients. The team members of the company have devoted their time and effort towards Beehive enormously with the aim of developing this company towards better profitability as well as sustainability. All these aspects show that the company can perform its business operations with greater focus on employee performances and satisfaction to determine their efficiency towards building trust and bond with its clients. Evaluate the Methods by Which Supply and Demand is Managed As can be apparently observed with reference to the above illustrated detailed service blueprint of Beehive, the major challenge or bottleneck situation which the company might have to face, is the inclusion of every stratum in the organisational structure from low to top level throughout the process of order received to its deliverance. It is quite likely that such engagement shall not only make the entire process time consuming and cost consuming as well, but shall also raise confusions, complexities and quality issues with the increasing client base as aimed by Beehive. References CIA. 2013. The World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/as.html Clayton Utz. 2012. Doing Business in Australia. http://www.claytonutz.com/docs/DBIA_English.pdf Larsen, Nynne. 2010. Market Segmentation. http://pure.au.dk/portal-asb-student/files/11462/BA.pdf Lovelock, Christopher H., Patterson, Paul G. &Wirtz, Jochen. 2011. Services Marketing: An Asia-Pacific and Australian Perspective 5th Edition. Australia: Pearson. Teo, Thompson S.H. and Jek Swan Tan. 2002. “Senior Executives’ Perceptions of Business-To-Consumer (B2C) Online Marketing Strategies: The Case of Singapore.” Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy 13(3): 258-275. Zeithaml, Valarie A., Roland T. Rust and Katherine N. Lemon. 2001. “The Customer Pyramid: Creating and Serving Profitable Customers.” California Management Review Summer 43(4): 118. Vargo, Stephen L. and Robert F. Lusch. 2004. “The Four Service Marketing Myths.” Journal of Service Research 6(4): 324-335. Bibliography BMS. 2013. The Goods-service Continuum. http://www.bms.co.in/explain-the-goods-service-continuum/ Ranganathan, C. and Shobha Ganapathy. 2001. “Key Dimensions of Business-To-Consumer Web Sites.” Information & management 39: 457-465. Thomas, Jerry W. 2007. Market Segmentation. http://www.decisionanalyst.com/Downloads/MarketSegm.pdf Read More