Management and Strategic Changes in Sprint Corporation - Research Paper Example

Marketing Sprint Corporation Marketing Plan Introduction Sprint Corporation is an US telecommunications company that provides wireless services to over 54.8 million customers. The company’s history dates back in 1899 when it operated as Brown Telephone Company provided service in the rural Kansas area. Over a series of management and strategic changes, the company has evolved in terms of brand development and diversification to become the third largest telecommunication company in the US. Today, the company offers a wide range of services including voice, broadband and messaging services with the US. The company idea has been to remain innovative and develop its services to meet the ever-growing customer demand within the US market. However, it is evident that a number of challenges have engulfed the company within its marketing and human resource sectors, which are threatening its survival in the dynamic business market. From this point of view, the company has a challenge to re-launch its organizational strategies to ensure that the company survives in the competitive telecommunication market. Organizational marketing is an important business strategy as it defines the mechanics that an organization deploys to attract the customers to buy their products. For brand managers, marketing ensures that company sales remain high and that the customer population increases every time (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel 11). In the contemporary business environment, competition is inevitable and companies are always struggling to reach out to as many customers as possible. The changes in market trends have made issues of marketing more complex and demands new approaches of marketing. From a critical point of view, it is evident that new approaches of marketing are slowly pushing away the traditional marketing approaches, putting marketing managers at their toes to adapt to these changes. The telecommunication company has become one of the most dynamic markets due to rapid changes in information technology making it a necessity for service providers to be flexible and agile in responding to market issues. The purpose of this essay is to design an efficient marketing plan for Sprint Corporation. Assuming the role of a brand manager, I will develop a strong marketing strategy that Sprint to ensure that the organization remains profitable by attracting even more customers to buy its products and services. Marketing Leadership The success of any organizational function depends on the type of leadership that the organization deploys within the business structure. For an organization to survive, it must be able to stream its internal environment as this influences how well the marketing team performs. In my marketing plan, I would begin by evaluating the internal organizational factors that may threaten the survival of my marketing strategy. Since a leader works at the design stage, he has the duty to ensure that those who implement the designed marketing plan are willing and have the zeal to promote leadership goals for the success of the organization. Leadership is one of the important aspects of our organization as this is the pillar of all the operations of the company. In Sprint, effective management is a topic that comes across almost in every monthly meeting due to numerous challenges that the marketing managers have witnessed in the past. Mr Son, the Softbank CEO, has expressed his anger against the leadership style that Sprint has used in the past (Knutson Para. 3) In various occasions he has suggested that Sprint fire its marketing leaders to pave for their failure in developing effective marketing campaigns and to set these campaigns in motion. From this point of view, it is evident that leadership wrangles in the company have undermined the ability of the company to design channels to distribute its products within the US market. Notably, the concept of business leadership has become an issue of discussion as many scholars investigate the most efficient form of leadership for the modern business environment. Often, there arises a question of whether there is a difference between leadership and management within the business environment. From a close observation, there is a great difference between a manager and a leader especially in the roles that they play. In role playing, a manager has the mandate to control the people under him while the leader plays the role of inspiring those under him. In terms of power, the manager holds positional power by the virtue of the position he or she holds within the organizational hierarchy while the leader has personal power that emanates from his experience. In terms of role implementation, the manager relies of set guidelines and sticks to the plan laid down. However, the leader has the freedom to remain innovative by combining skills of creativity and logical decision making to arrive at the best solutions to organizational problems. This shows clearly that there is a great difference between a manager and a leader (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel 39-40). The Sprint marketing manager uses the slogan that “people are the greatest asset of a company” as one way of recognizing the role that employees plays in his marketing campaigns. While this slogan places the employee at the centre of the organization’s marketing campaign, it is clear that it may as well be obsolete in the current market trends. While modern organizations accept that employees are important in implementing organizational goals, it is clear that they are shifting to a new idea that emphasizes more on the need for ‘the right work force’. To this end, I strongly agree with Sprint Corps new CEO who coined who distributed leaflets with the bold inscription that “the right people are the most important asset” within an organization (Knutson Para. 12). In its specific application, this statement is crucial for brand manager as creating the right marketing team would be a milestone for his marketing plan. On this note, my marketing plan would begin by creating the right work force that can support my marketing strategies. In Sprint Corporation, transformational leadership is crucial if the organizations have to achieve its strategic marketing goals. Transformational leadership is a concept that refers to modern leadership style that centres on the leader and their follower’s interactions. It refers to a type of leadership that accounts for value, relationship, motives, ethics and standards that influence the way a leader or manager interacts with their employees. It considers both the follower and leader characteristics that influence the way they handle their roles. The main focus of the leaders in this case is to win loyalty of their followers by satisfying their physical and emotional needs. The leaders achieve this by understanding the needs of the follower and developing strategies to achieve them. This is the most common form of leadership concept that applies today in many organizations. For an organization to do well, they have to satisfy the employees by providing them with satisfying salaries, healthy working conditions and opportunities to grow. In turn, the leaders benefit by having loyal employees who have a long term association with the organization, which is crucial if a leader has to accomplish their goals. On this note, transformational leadership is integrative and is based on mutual benefit of both the leader and the follower (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel 56-57). Many modern economists advocate for this form of leadership as it is satisfying and provides a good ground for goals implementation. This is the path that our company should take to effect strategic changes within the company. As a brand manager, I would focus on creating employee motivation to ensure that they remain aligned to my marketing goals. In my motivation plan, I would champion for fair wages for all the employees depending on the role they play in the organization. The amount salary is an important factor for any employee as they value an organization that provides the most satisfying salary. Therefore, a fair salary will ensure that employees are satisfied. Unsatisfied employees are always looking for new opportunities and they live as soon as they are obtain better paying jobs. One of the reasons for failure of Sprints marketing plan is failure to control employee turnover. To ensure that there is low employee turnover, I would focus on providing opportunities for promotion that are dependent on merit and the time that an employee has worked for the organization. To achieve this, I would increase the employee’s salary by 5% each year, which will give them the incentive to continue working with the organization. Since the employees will feel that their long stay within the organization is recognized, they will feel appreciated. To ensure that there is high productivity within the organization, I will reward the employees depending on the performance of the company at the end of the fiscal year (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel 11). Since the employees will benefit depending on the amount of the annual profits, they will be motivated to market the organizational products to ensure that they earn optimal benefits from higher organizational profits. Secondly, I will provide awards for the best marketing team to trigger healthy competition within the organization. Next, I will focus on the communication strategies to motivate all the marketing teams in the organization. One of the key motivational features in my motivational plan is efficient communication within the management. I will open channels for two-way communication within the organization to ensure that both the management can convey the organizational goals while the service people can provide feedback during the implementation process. Communication ensures that there exists cohesion between the management and the service teams. Before the beginning of any project, it would be crucial for management to communicate clearly the visions and the objectives of the organization (Augier 636). The employees should be given an opportunity to contribute in the goal development process to ensure that they are part of the plan. This will motivate all employees to work together as a team, aware of the overall objectives of the organization. This is crucial for marketing as employee productivity depends on teamwork (Debelak 13-14). Next, I would focus on training of all employees to help them acquire skills relevant for development of marketing skills to achieve efficiency. This will help them to produce more with specialized skills, hence contributing to increase in organizational productivity. On this note, marketing leadership will play a critical role in redefining Sprint marketing approach. Leveraging on Emerging technology In Sprints marketing plan One of the challenges that have faced Sprint is the development of a networked society and its impact on business marketing. Evidently, the change in communication trends affects the way in which an organization delivers its marketing messages. Network societies are new social structures that are driven by technology and that use changed mechanisms of communication. In the advent of television technology, the social structure slowly changed and social bonds melted down. The society became more conscious of the world around them giving them the mind of forming greater social circles. Broadcasting stations provided information across large geographical locations, changing the narrow perspective of social relations. The idea of Castell and Cardoso (20) that information networks resulted to formation of new social networks seems to refer to the expansion of social relationships since the emergence of television technology. Technology makes people more conscious the world around them and provides opportunities for change of social structures. The world learns to share information, knowledge and cultures with people across the entire world. The cumulative impact of this is that technology becomes a paradigm for marketing and organizations have to respond tactfully to these changes. The internet technology has led to the emergence of new forms of networks. Internet technology is a platform for global communication that the society can embrace to break their small networks that were evident in the traditional social structures. Internet technology has become more accessible in the society due to reduced costs of service providers and reduced cost of access points. In an era when computer and mobile technology is becoming cheap, the society has better access to internet (Jones 146). Since internet is not geographically limited, it is possible to term is as a network of networks. It allows people to come together and share information no matter their geographical separation. Today, it is possible to send an e-mail from Africa to America within a flash of a second. The internet has become a tool that dominates all the aspects of human life; economics, social, and political aspects. As the internet continues to penetrate in the social spheres, people continue to lose their social structure and adapt to new social structures that are technology driven. United States is one of the countries that have experienced the highest technological revolution in the last 10 years. Currently, the country enjoys an 81% internet penetration with over 254 million people connected to the internet (Chakravarty, Kumar and Grewal 1-23). Therefore, it is clear that the internet technology has become a more powerful tool for marketing as compared to the television media. Contrary, Sprint’s brand manager has downplayed the role of technology in designing its marketing strategies. Recently, its new CEO launched a “multi-million dollar marketing campaign” as a strategic change for business profiling. As the Chief marketing officer, Jeff Hallock, states, the budget incurs for highly targeted television and top national print advertisement (Davis Para. 4). While increasing the marketing budget allocation may seem a necessity for the organization, it is evident that this campaign has its own shortcomings. To begin with, focussing to television and print media is out of step for a modern organization. With the proliferation of the internet, the public use these forms of media mostly for news rather than advertisements. At times, the public prefer to read newspaper online rather than buy a copy of printed newspaper. On this note, Sprints idea to use these platforms is an inefficient approach to modern day marketing standards. Secondly, the economic changes in the competitive markets are straining the marketing budgets demanding that brand managers find cost effective methods to launch their brands into the market. As competition increases, price competition arises and organizations have to reduce their marketing expenses to the highest levels possible. Considering that Sprint intends to maintain their marketing agents while still increasing their marketing budgets, it is clear that marketing will be an economic burden for the company, and will reduce its ability to use price-competition strategies during the harsh times of telecommunication industry. My marketing plan would aim at reducing the marketing budget while sticking to efficiency and effectiveness. My first objective would be to reduce the marketing budget and fix it at 3 million dollars. The major focus of my campaign would be to target the online customer behaviour and to build a strong platform of efficiently appealing to the online population. For this reason, I would spend $2 million on creating an effective online presence and only $1 million in the television and print media. At this point I recognize the controversy that has evolved in the recent past regarding the use of social media as a platform for marketing. The controversy on the use of social media for economic development within the companies is an issue that has been ignited by the analysis on the way people use social media. Statistics show that the greater percentage of social site users use this avenue to connect with family and friends and only less than 20% use these sites to follow trends and find product information (Castell and Cardoso 20) Therefore, it is clear that the social sites have not yet achieved significant benefit for the organization that uses them for marketing. Therefore, many companies are still in the fear that their connection with potential customers is still falling despite the proliferation of the social media in the internet era. From this point of view, many authors are of the opinion that social media has been of little help to economic development since it has served as an avenue for people to meet rather than companies to meet customers. In my own opinion, the reason why social sites have not optimally benefited companies is that the companies have yet to leverage this avenue for their marketing strategies. For instance, Sprints has failed in the digital platform due to inability to collect customer feedback from the social media. When Sprint launched the social media ninjas program they were able to create a good reputation for its products but refused to use customer feedback to redefine its marketing campaign. The companies have to find the right strategies to market their products on social media, which is a sensitive platform. While the social media may be an avenue to roll out products into the market, a sensitive platform needs to be used effectively. The reason why the social media has not yet benefited many companies is that the organizations have not yet specialized on it use (Schweidel and Wendy 387-402). The organization needs not only to advertise their products but also ways of using the feedback that they obtain from the customers (Debelak 12-34). On this note, the marketing plan will aim at creating a Facebook and twitter account for the Sprint brand. The main purpose of these sites will not only to disseminate brand information but also to acquire customer input. In delivering information, transparency will be a priority within the social media. This implies that I will provide truthful and detailed information on the company brands. The social sites will allow the customers to like the products, comment on their personal tastes and share this information with their friends. I will use a team of 10 employees to optimize advertising for every social site. An optimal size of a marketing team will ensure that it is possible to cut on cost while remaining efficient in advertising. Secondly, I will initiate organizational membership campaign to ensure that all employees have limited membership of this page so that they can pass information to their friends. This way, it will be possible to create an integrative marketing approach essential for appealing to a larger crowd of customers. Of more importance will be using social media response to refine the organization marketing campaign. Filtering of information is crucial as social media provides people with the liberty to express both negative and positive opinions on the products. To use it appropriately, I will ensure that the company has a centralized information Centre to store and process customer feedback. To process customer information, I will take into consideration the response from different target markets, age brackets and cultural backgrounds. For instance, if people from different culture understand the marketing messages differently, I will use their feedback to redefine these messages to ensure that they can understand them and respond to them. In another instance, if customers from a certain market are less aware about a certain product, it will be possible to provide more information on history of the products and its qualities. This way, I will be able to overcome the weaknesses of television one-way communication by taking advantage of social media two-way communication approach (Debelak 34). I anticipate that consistent refining of marketing approaches will help Sprint to remain at profitable growth. Lastly, I will use social media as an avenue to stimulate online shopping within my marketing campaign. From a close analysis, online shopping has a wide range of benefits to both the customers and the business organizations. For the customers, this is the most convenient way for them to shop for products from their remote locations at any time. Since online business takes place all round the day, unlike business stores that are closed, it becomes easier for the customer who have limited time to shop at their preferable time (Liu & Forsythe 83-103). In the era of smartphones and computer technology, these services are accessible to every customer. Secondly, the customers have the ability to shop only for the best products without wasting their time. They have online access to product information and can make quick decisions pertaining to prices, quality and features of products. On the organization’s end, online shopping is a superior marketing strategy that helps to provide information on products. Since internet is not limited by distance, the organizations can market their products worldwide. This makes it possible to sell even to foreigners, forming part of their international market entry strategy. In addition, this approach saves a lot of money used in television media advertising, one of the traditional advertisement methods. On the economy, online shopping has led to economic integration, leading to economic globalization. Therefore, taking advantage of online shopping will allow me to market the Sprint brand and stimulate higher sales within the organization. Corporate Social Responsibility as a Strategy for Marketing The idea of corporate social responsibility as a way of marketing organizational brands has become a popular approach in modern organizations. In the 21st century business arena, the concept of corporate social responsibility has been an important business perspective. Corporate social responsibility is the role that companies play in satisfying the needs of the public, the environment and other stakeholders that are linked to the business. CSR strategy is crucial as there is believe that corporate social responsibility has a value for the organizational profits. Ccorporate social responsibility is one way in which an organization seeks to satisfy the welfare of the employees, the consumers, the government, the environment and the any other stakeholders of the business. While many companies feel that corporate social responsibility imposes great cost for the organization, it is clear that it is one way of winning customer loyalty and attracting more buyers in an organization (Homburg 54-72). Customers are more attracted to organizations that place value on them and ones that are friendly to their stakeholders. One important aspect of corporate social responsibility is empowering the public to purchase from the company. Therefore, my marketing plan would aim at empowering the young companies to be able to purchase the Sprint brands. In the past years, Sprint has targeted large companies as the main buyers using their marketing campaigns. While these large companies have the ability to purchase the wireless networks, it is clear that this a competitive market sector as most telecommunication companies go this target market. However, it is notable that even small companies can purchase wireless networks and use them at their homes (Strauss 15). Therefore, it is possible to create a good corporate image by appealing to low class organizations not as a beneficiary of the company but as a target market as well. To do this, I would copy the example of companies that have targeted developing countries as target markets for their products. First, the emerging markets are developing rapidly unlike the developed countries where the markets are saturated and the demand in declining. As more people are employed in developing countries, and their income levels continue rising, the purchasing power in these markets is growing as well. However, in developed countries, the demand is stagnated and entry of more investors is promising more completion in the end. Therefore, these markets are slowly turning to be unprofitable and bad targets for many global investors. Natura has taken advantage of the growing demand in countries such as China, Latin America and Mexico. Jones (145) notes the rise in demand in Mexico by 7.5%, in Brazil by 13.3% and in Peru by 10.9%, while that of America rose only by 1.1%. This shows that demand in developed countries is stagnated while that in developing country is growing rapidly. Additionally, there is less competition in emerging markets as compared to the case in developed markets. Therefore, while launching an international business strategy, it is advisable for a company to target developing markets like Natura have done, to take advantage of growing demands and potential future growth. This scenario is much similar to the one that Sprint faces today. While Sprint focuses on the large companies as buyers of their postpaid brands, it is clear that competition is higher in this target group. The only option that remains today is targeting upcoming and small companies as potential upcoming market (Strauss 15). To market the Sprint brand, my corporate social responsibility plan would include providing free training on networking skills for employees of such small companies. Each year, I would target ten small companies and provide training for at least fifteen of its employees within the information technology department. While this may cost the organization about $1 million dollar, it will be possible for the company to appeal to this market group where competition is minimal. Evidently, such companies will prefer to purchase from the company as one way of maintaining a mutual relationship. To ensure that small companies are aware of this promotional program, I would provide direct marketing for such companies. This will involve sending advertisement teams to such organization to ensure that they get the details of the marketing program. Using a corporate social responsibility model to attract new target groups will ensure that I survive in the competitive telecommunication industry. Conclusion In conclusion, Sprint Corporation has experienced challenge in its marketing approach due to changes in market trends, emergence of technology and the rise in competition within its market. Notably the organization has failed to streamline its market operations due to inefficient leadership, use of traditional marketing models and lack of business differentiation strategies in its marketing plan. As a brand manager, I plan to induce efficiency in Sprint brand marketing by streamlining the marketing leadership approach. To achieve this, I will a transformational leadership model to get the management and employee aboard the marketing plan. Their loyalty and contribution in the program design will affect the influence the success of the program. Creating harmony among leaders and satisfying the employee will go long way in attracting them within my marketing plan. Secondly, my marketing plan will pay more attention on reducing the budget by leveraging on technology and cutting down on television and print media budgets. Social media and internet platforms provide a better approach to customer-organization two-way communication. This will reduce the negative impact of one-way media advertisement that has become obsolete. Secondly, unlike Sprint previous campaigns that target large companies, my marketing model will empower small companies to purchase the Sprint brand (Knutson Para. 5). A practical and efficient marketing strategy will help Sprint Corporation to remain profitable during the current competitive era. Works Cited Augier, Mill. Behavioural theory of the firm: hopes for the past; lessons from the future. ManaGement, 16(5), 2013, 636-652. Castells, Manuel, and Gustavo Cardoso, eds. The network society: From knowledge to policy. Center for Transatlantic Relations, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 2006. Print. Chakravarty, Anindita, Alok Kumar, and Rajdeep Grewal. "Customer Orientation Structure For Internet-Based Business-To-Business Platform Firms." Journal Of Marketing 78.5 (2014): 1-23. Business Source Complete. Web. 4 Dec. 2014. Davis, Mark. 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"Sustaining online shopping: Moderating role of online shopping motives." Journal of Internet Commerce 9.2 (2010): 83-103. Schweidel, David A., And Wendy W. Moe. "Listening In On Social Media: A Joint Model Of Sentiment And Venue Format Choice." Journal Of Marketing Research (Jmr) 51.4 (2014): 387-402. Business Source Complete. Web. 4 Dec. 2014. Strauss, Ralf E. Marketing Planning by Design: Systematic Planning for Successful Marketing Strategy. Chichester, England: Wiley, 2008. Internet resource. Read More