Marketing Strategy for Fred Jones Construction Storm Roof Repair - Essay Example

?A Marketing Strategy for Fred Jones Construction Storm Roof Repair Products & Servuices Introduction Fred Jones Construction aims to improve its sales performance from $3 million to $9 million as a retailer to final customers of storm roof repairs in Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. The company believes in promotions as the best way to achieve its target. However, there is a need to identify and clarify what products and services would have to be promoted, in which market segment the promotions should target, at what pricing strategy versus the competitors’ pricing strategies, and exactly what promotional strategy should be implemented. Insofar as the products are concerned, there is also a need to define the branding strategy thast can compete against other brands in the market. And in order to be competitive, there should be some awareness of the competitors’ strategies against which the Fred Jones Construction strategies for storm roof repairs will strive to be more captivating to potential customers. I.Industry & Market Analysis The storm roofing business realized a boom in Dallas right after a tornado touched down in April 2-3.2012 and a year ago in April 27, 2011. $ 100 million worth of insurance claims had been reported in 2011 for Dallas alone, based on the news report of Nielsen and Richter (2012). There were 19 separate warnings about a tornado approaching Dallas population with 6.3 million people. Hail brought by the powerful wind could be as small as peas and as big as a baseball. In mid-June 2012, Dallas experienced “the massive hail storm” which was estimated to have resulted in $ 2 billion worth of insurance claims (Richter and Berkowitz 2012). And sop, even if 1,000 contractors of roof repairs are tapped to fix all roofing and housing repairs, each contractor would have a potential market of about $2 million. One of the major industry players, MyRoofDfw (2013) in the roof repair industry within Dallas Forth Worth Metroplex disclosed that there are more than 1,000 companies offering the same products and services in the location. But that company also forecasted only about 10% will remain operating within the next 10 years. That company boasts of having the expertise at roof replacement, leak repairs, insurance claims assistance, lowest pricing, free estimates, and free consultancy for home roof condition reviews. Aside from these, the company offers more than a dozen related services listed in its website. Six of those services are free because those are about inspections pertaining to different reasons for repairs. Competitors like Circle H Roofing & Construction have communicated to the public the problem of unpredictable weather changes that have damaged roofs due to hail, fallen trees, and strong winds. They have set the customer’s expectations (Circle H 2013) way ahead of the customer’s decision to secure the products and services from their respective companies. This is good because the homeowners can also plan ahead whatever would have to be prepared by the time the products and service crews arrive. Companies offering both products and services are transparent about schedules, how customers may pay through financing, and what repairs are to be expected. They also offer free inspections and quotation. Their products and services are all with warranty from the company that fixed the problems. Furthermore, they assist homeowners in claiming for property damages due to storms. Another competitor, Bennet Roofing (2013) gives importance to the presence and availability of its “experienced, professional staff” and the capability to “install and repair all types of residential and commercial roofing” aside from offering free inspection of roof damages. One of its strategies for storm roof repairs is the combination of educating the customers using their website about what needs to be done in order to claim for damages from insurance companies and then to mention towards the latter part that Bennet Roofing offers to perform all those long, tedious step-by-step process for the customer. Still another roofing contractor, CLC Roofing (2013) branded its products and services with the importance of integrity. Its website describes the benefits of the type of roofing that one can choose from and also makes customers know the disadvantages. For example, installing Wood Shakes would make the house look attractive, valuable, energy efficient, capable of retarding fire, and looks unique, lasts long, and is eco-friendly. But those wooden tiles need skills and time to install and may cost more than other types of roofing. Wood will also require maintenance so that they will not rot or accumulate molds and insects. Figure 1 shows a picture of what CLC refers to as Wooden Shake Roofing. And Figure 2 shows why such a project with Wood Shake will cost more. But the good thing about CLC is that the owner discloses these facts to prospective customers. Figure 1 – CLC Wood Shake Project Looks Attractive Figure 2 – Looking More Closely at Wood Shake Project: Difficult to Install II. Products & Services Strategy The focus of marketing will be on the Roof Repair materials that would have to be used shortly after the customer decides whatever should replace the damaged rooftop given the options coming from the Fred Jones Construction experts in Roof Repairs. The experts can only give the alternatives along with the corresponding estimated cost of damages. There are two types of roofing materials to choose from, namely, wood or metal. But the design and color can vary. Quoting exact amounts will depend on the inspection performed by experts working for the Fred Jones Construction firm. As part of the product strategy, a catalogue of alternative roofing materials will be made available to each customer who requests for free estimates of Roof Repair. In combination with the product strategy, all inspection of whatever got damaged by the storm or tornado will have to be free of charge because the industry practice by competitors offers free inspection and free estimates. Products will be explained for the alternatives selected by the homeowners. There should be transparency in terms of letting the decision makers know what are the advantages and disadvantages of their choice of the roofing materials. And no particular preference by Fred Jones Construction will be promoted to customers until after they have narrowed down their choices to a minimum of 2 or 3, after learning about the features, benefits, advantages, and disadvantages of the different alternatives. As much as possible, Fred Jones Construction will have links or contacts with most of the suppliers of materials so that the company can compare their prices and be able to offer the best prices to customers. Thus, the remaining issue will be the price of expert services. Part of the service strategy will be the following: (a) Training of Experts will be ongoing during times when no contract has to be fulfilled. (b) By the time there is a tornado or a hail storm, the marketing sales force should be ready with going out from one damaged house to another in order to offer the service of assisting people with insurance claims. They will have to distribute calling cards of Fred Jones and know the names of owners who need assistance with claiming the insurance and having their free estimate of damages incurred by the strong winds or the hail. (c) Sales people will be prospecting at the rate of 12 to 20 potential customers per working day, aiming for quality conversations with the homeowners who might need immediate repairs. (d) What will be promoted are the Fred Jones Construction expertise in Roof Repair, the wide variety of choices of alternative materials, the services of assisting homeowners with their insurance claims and inspection as well as estimation of damages of their roof. (e) In order to make the Fred Jones Construction presence in the Roof Repair industry very well known, the promotion will consist of providing homeowners with ongoing educational materials about quality services, how to be protected against powerful winds, hail, and storms by having warranty for all the installed roofing materials and standard services to install them, and about their choices of roofing materials. The branding would have to be in terms of giving the homeowners the impression that Fred Jones services for Roof Repair is well planned for climate changes, based on quality services to be rendered, friendly, customer-oriented, very helpful and supportive each time there is a need to review the impact of bad weather on the roof materials. Thus, when there is bad weather, homeowners should be able to recall Fred Jones Roof Repair services. III. Strategy as to Place of Promotions The target market covers Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex where there are over 6 million people. This will allow Fred Jones to limit its cost of promoting via advertisement material like brochures, calling cards, travelling expenses to distribute the hard copies of promotional materials, and attractive sign boards in strategic locations. Since no one knows which house will be damaged by the bad weather, all houses and their homeowners within the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex would serve as the target market. These people can be reached through active homeowners’ associations and local churches. And so the promotional / informative materials about Fred Jones Roof Repair should be channelled through such points of contacts. As much as possible, the strategy should involve no cold canvas of potential customers by just handing each homeowner the printed materials. The marketing task force will be trained to socialize with potential customers who could be any homeowner attending church fellowships or homeowner association weekly gatherings to discuss their association problems. As the days go by, the Fred Jones marketing tark force should become more and more familiar with the potential customers, so that by the time Roof Repair becomes a necessity, a member of the marketing task force who would be familiar with the homeowners can readily approach the victims of bad weather to offer Roof Repair. IV. Pricing Strategy As per the industry practice, there is no such thing as a pre-determined fixed price before inspection and estimation based on the customer’s choice of materials to be utilized to replace a roof. If the roof is only partially damaged and some parts can be supplied with replacement materials, then the price goes down. Customers have to be informed ahead of actual repairs what the timetable will be and why the particular roof repair will take that long. In order to be competitive, the free services of inspection should be emphasized. Transparency of inspectors would have to be practiced. If the customers trust the representatives of Fred Jones, pricing should not be a problem because the insurance claims can validate or negate a proposed cost of repairs. Naturally, the insurance company will not agree to shouldering cost of repairs if there is over pricing of products or services to be utilized. Because the experts of Fred Jones would know how to fix or replace damaged roof, the policy that these experts would have to follow is lowest price of repairs without compromising quality materials and services to install them. Such a policy can be expressed inth e form of a formula, as follows: This pricing policy implies that Fred Jones will eqarn out of every service rendered to a homeowner. But it does not mean that Fred Jones will not earn out of the products. Earnings from products would have to come from suppliers of materials with whom there will be an understanding that the suppliers will pay Fred Jones a standard commission of 30% for promoting their products. However, the percentage commission coming from suppliers may not necessarily be fixed. There may be materials supplied with well known standard sales commission also given to other Roof Repair Contractors for promoting their products. And the percentage commission may not be 30%. Such information would be confidential or oftentimes kept from the knowledge of homeowners. Naturally, the suppliers of materials are looking for ways and means to move their stocks. If there are non-moving stocks of materials, the suppliers would offer a higher commission just to get the contractors to say good things about those alternative products. At any given time, no one knows which materials are fast moving or non-moving. But the suppliers would know. Thus, in the pricing strategy, customers will first identify their choices of materials to be used to repair or replace their damaged roof. Once materials are identified, Fred Jones will call up the alternative suppliers to find out what are their prices and how much percentage discount can be extended to Fred Jones. Tha is the only time when the exact percentage will be known. Obviously, given that the quality will be equal, Fred Jones will get from the supplier which offers a higher discount. And the supplier who will most probably offer a higher discount would be whoever has plenty of stocks to dispose of. Suppliers also k now that contractors would have to present the estimates to customers and that the customers would also have to agree with the pricing. Therefore, the tendency of suppliers would be for them to quote the most competitive price to the contractor at which suppliers will also profit. V. Promotional Strategies Fred Jones Construction must make its presence felt to all homeowners via website advertising at local online providers of news to the public. These would include MetroplexDaily.com, DallasExaminer.com, DallasVoice.com, Fort-Worth Star-Telegram@Dallas, Dallas Morning News, Texas Catholic official newspaper of the Diocese of Dallas. However, there would have to be limited budget for such media. The prime market segment penetration of heavy promotional effort would have to be through word of mouth initiated by Fred Jones’ marketing task force in their effort to represent the company during fellowships of churches, during meetings of homeowners’ associations, and during Town Hall Meetings. The personal approach would be more effective. How this can be done by a limited number of marketing representative under the payroll of Fred Jones will be a matter of having a Sales Strategy that allocates locations or areas within Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. A diagram of such a strategy is shown below: And so, depending on the number of Marketing Representatives that Fred Jones can afford to include in the payroll, each of them can be assigned an area of coverage where they should have a timetable to promote Fred Jones to the various influential people and the homeowners. To be sure they are doing their jobs, an auditor should be assigned to test check each location via random surveys and find out whether Fred Jones Construction was successfully made popular as a Roof Repair Expert in times of tornadoes, storms, or hail storms. To make the marketing representatives successful in their mission, the promotion strategy should start with an in-house training to let the reprentatives know what product branding Fred Jones would like to popularize and why. They have to be taught how to make a difference versus competitor activities. Their salesmanship skills would have to be sharpened. For example, it is not enough to get to know people once and let them forget all about Fred Jones Construction Roof Repair. It is the other way around. They must keep in touch, know people by name, develop closer relationships, be serviceable in every possible opportunity. When they encounter the problems with damaged roof, Fred Jones shuld be the first alternative who should come to their minds to perform free inspections and estimates of damages. Giving away calling cards and company flyers about benefits of choosing Fred Jones will go a long long way, if the marketing representatives develop good relationships with influential people and as many homeowners as possible, in the spirit of genuine service and concern . VI. Conclusion This marketing strategy can be improved with more information about Fred Jones Construction’s strengths and weaknesses, because the opportunities and threats can be better matched with known resources. Theoretically, the strategies that have been presented should work under the assumption that there will be adequate resources to support the promotional effort. Well defined products and services made known to the homeowners at the right places and in the right way, with reasonable estimates and good quality, good customer relations – all these puyt altogether can penetrate the market and give Fred Jones Construction a good name in the Roof Repair industry. With that, the target performance can be reached when the calamity takes place at Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. Telephone calls can expedite immediate response. Homeowners will surely appreciate it if the call is coming from a known friend who is sincerely concerned about potential damage to homes. References Bennett Roofing (2013). Storm Damage – Hail and Wind. Retrieved April 29, 2013 from http://www.dfwwebdesigns.net/bennettroofing/stormdamage.html Circle H Roofing & Construction (2013). What To Expect during Roof Construction. Retrieved April 29, 2013 from http://www.circlehroofing.com/whattoexpect.htm CLC Rioofing (2013). McAllen Hail Storm. Retrieved April 29, 2013 from http://www.clcroofing.com/roofingcontractors/tag/finding-a-roofing-contractor-in-coppell MyRoofingDfw (2013). Roof Repair in Dallas Fort WorthTx. Retrieved April 29, 2013 from http://myroofingdfw.com/why-us Nielsen, J. and Richter, M. (2012 April 3). At Least Two Tornadoes Tore Through the Dallas Fort Worth Metropolitan in Texas on Tuesday, Ripping Apart Buildings, Tossing Tractor Trailer Trucks Into the Air and Grounding Planes in the Region. Reuters. Retrieved April 29, 2013 @ http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/03/us-usa-tornado-dallas-idUSBRE8320WD20120403 Richter, M. and Berkowitz, B. (2012 June 15). Update 2 – Dallas Storm Insured Losses Could hit $ 2 bln – Trade Group. Reuters. Retrieved from April 29, 2013 from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/15/usa-texas-storms-insurance-idUSL1E8HF6IJ20120615 Read More