Ladybug Cell Phones - Essay Example

Ladybug Cell Phones The possible strategic partnerships that would help promote sales of the Ladybug Ladybug needs a strategy to promote its sales. As a company, there are three possible sales promotion strategies that we may develop in order to promote the sales of Ladybug. These include: the pull strategy, the push strategy, and the combination of both the push and pull strategy. Push strategy for instance put emphasis on the promotional events and activities that create demand by customer. In this strategy, the product will be promoted from the manufacturer all the way to the consumer. For example, the manufacturer will have the product promoted to the wholesalers, the wholesalers promote the same product to retailers and eventually retailers promote the product to the consumer. In this partnership strategy, the major idea will be persuading the distributors as well as the retailers to sell our product to the clients by giving various types of incentives to the customers. The push strategy will involve discounts, money back guarantee, and advertising items. The company will convince the distributors to help market the product and in the end sell it to the clients (Carroll, 2000). Pull strategy on the other hand will require that we, the company, spend considerably on the customer in order to develop high demands by the customers for the product. This will ensure our customers get attracted simply from the promotion and then demand for the product from our retailers, this will make the retailer request the wholesaler for the product and eventually the wholesalers would put an order for the product to the manufacturing company. This will promote sales of Ladybug significantly. There is a significant difference between the two strategies of sales promotion. The push strategy will demand that we, the company, persuade the wholesalers and retailers to sell our products or put them on their shelves in order to create demand among customers. On the other hand, with the pull strategy, we, the company, will engage the customers directly and communicate to them in order to influence their demand for the product so that they can request for it (Eisenstadt, 2003). Push pull strategy, a combination of the push strategy and pull strategy, implies the use of both the strategies at once. In this case, both the customers and our distributors will take into account and consider the incentives that we, the company, offer such as discounts. This partnership company also emphasizes on the role of communication between the customer, the distributors, and the manufacturing company. Communication in this strategy plays the role of a sheet anchor during campaigns of product promotions. The reason for communication is to share the concept and information on the product to the distributors and customers. The effectiveness of communication to the client is determined by the kind of feedback that is received from the customer. If the communication is effective, there would be a definite feedback got from the client and this would aid in developing the concept of what the client requires from the company product. Hence, through communication, we disseminate to the customer all the benefits they stand to gain when they buy the product. It is important to note that partnership strategies that will help in promoting the sales of Ladybug may be adopted in different forms. There is no particular strategy that is fit for all. Therefore, in order to have an effective strategy developed for sales promotion of Ladybug, we would consider factors such as: the strategy of our external competitors, customer behaviors, availability of finances, and the nature of the market among others. These factors are significant and we, the company, shall deal with them in order to implement a combination of the pull and push strategy successfully. Strategy for managing the Ladybug brand Branding is a systematic process of developing a connection or relationship between the product of the company and the customer’s emotional perception for reasons of building customer loyalty and generating segregation among competitors. Managing Ladybug brand would ensure that we meet and fulfill the expectations of the customer and consistently satisfy the needs of our customers. In order to manage the Ladybug brand, we would adopt a trademark on our product to avoid copy cats of our products. This is a trade-marking strategy; it helps in avoiding theft of our product idea. We will adopt a symbol for Ladybug to help identify it with our clients. The trademark that we will adopt for the product will create an emotional relationship and/ or connection between the company, Ladybug, and the customers. This will be achieved through controlling the image of the Ladybug brand. Pricing strategy Pricing is a significant element in the marketing mix of a company product. This is because it is the only marketing mix that generates organization’s turnover. The other three p’s only form variable costs that the company incurs. Pricing is important in that marketing revolves around it. For example, it costs the company to produce a product and design it. The same product costs the company when it comes to distribution and promotion. Therefore pricing is essential in that it supports all the mentioned marketing mix. It is not easy to develop a pricing mechanism which reflects demand and supply relationships. This is because when a product is priced too low or too high, it could result into a decline in sales for the company. Therefore pricing considers factors such as; competition, fixed and variable costs, proposed positioning strategies, and the objectives of the company. Therefore, in order to promote sales of Ladybug, the company will adopt a combination of the following pricing strategies: Premium pricing strategy, we will establish a price that is higher than that of the competitors. This company is normally used whenever there is a unique thing about the product, which is the case with the Ladybug. This strategy will be adopted also because it is the first time the product is getting to the market and the competitive advantage that the company has over its competitors. The premium pricing strategy is best for the businesses that are moving into the market with a new product. The businesses using this pricing strategy have high hopes of maximizing revenue in the early life cycle of the product. Penetration pricing strategy will ensure that the company captures the share of a market through setting a low price compared to that of our competitors in order to attract our customers to buy the product. This will ensure that our company gets people to try Ladybug and create awareness among the customers. Even though this pricing strategy may create some potential losses initially to the company, it is hoped that the strategy will create awareness and generate word of mouth amid the crowded category of the market (Gaonkar, 2001). Economic pricing strategy will ensure that the company takes a low cost or basic approach to marketing. This will help attract a particular market segment due to low prices kept due to the price sensitivity of the market. The company may also adopt a price skimming strategy in order to gain optimum revenue advantage due to the company’s competitive advantage before the competitors of the company begin to offer the alternatives of the product or just a similar product. Ideas for sales promotion, advertising, and sales promotion strategies Sales promotion is an essential strategy in marketing. It helps in maximizing sales of a product which is the main goal of manufacturing companies. It is the responsibility of the company to carry out sales promotion in order to increase sales. It is hence recommended that a company designs a competitive sales promotion strategy to help increase its sales such as the push strategy, the pull strategy, and the push pull strategy. Advertising is similarly significant as it helps in improving the product brand and sales as well. References Carroll, M. (2000). Elements of Marketing. Albany: State University of New York Press. Eisenstadt, S. (2003). Principles of Marketing. Leiden and Boston: Brill. Gaonkar, D. (2001). The Pricing Strategy. Durham: Duke University Press Read More