Marketing Plan: Final Paper and PPT Presentation - Essay Example

Marketing Places and Promotional Strategies Marketing Places and Promotional Strategies Wal-Mart day care needs to conduct extensive promotional campaign in order to remain competitive in this industry. This starts from identifying its target customers with the ability to provide resources and generate income. Given the nature of competition in this market, Wal-Mart has to invest heavily on promotional strategies. Being a service industry which is very competitive, the following are some of the promotional strategies that should be advanced by Wal-Mart to beat the stiff competition in the service industry (Ferrell, & Hartline, 2011).

The first promotion strategy that would be effective for Wal-Mart is the use of social sites and media. Through social media marketing, Wal-Mart would reach out to a large number of customers and clients at a relatively low cost. This is a form of marketing that has gained popularity in the modern times of technological integration. The second service/product promotional program is branded promotion and customer-incentives. This method of promotion takes the form of positioning and differentiation.

Positioning represents customer thoughts on proposed or present brands in the market. Optimal positioning requires identifying customer wants and needs and acquiring a meaningful connection with target audiences. Differentiation occurs when the marketing mix is distinct or better than the competition. Differentiation requires and understanding of customers and competitors therefore, Shop-More Daycare recognizes the convenience of a daycare located within Wal-Mart. On the other hand, effective marketing skills needs appropriate place identification (Ferrell, & Hartline, 2011).

Wal-Mart has identified ideal geographical locations with higher number of potential customers. These includes the urban and cities with higher population of potential customers. ReferencesFerrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. D. (2011). Marketing Strategy, 5th ed. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning.