Marketing Planning Process - Essay Example

1. Evaluation of the Business Plan The group’s primary objective was to construct a business plan that would help us to better understand the company’s business, marketing and financial strategies. For example, the STP process research helped us to understand why the MixtapeMadness chose the particular target audience for their business. The group decided to distribute the work among members in order for each one to carry out individual research and gather as much information as possible. This distribution was also informed by the fact that each member specializes in a different area, thus the need to allocate tasks in an area in which one is comfortable to research in. Furthermore, members have different experiences and each has a preferable way to research for the required information. Therefore, we all decided to choose an area in which one would prefer to focus on at the beginning. This was also informed by the limited amount of time available. Even thought the group met every week, more work was done during our private times. On the other hand, the group meetings were useful as we all used this time to share the researched information and track what areas needed to be looked into with more detail. Also, with today’s technological advancement, we were all able to contact each other through mobile phones or email so as to share the findings thus far and seek for assistance from one another. The business plan consists of three parts. One of them is the market environment, which includes external and internal analysis as well as the strategic fit of the corporation. The main advantage of researching the current external and internal situations is the ability to identify the threats and opportunities for marketing purposes (Baines & Fill 2011) (see Figure 1). Figure 1: The Marketing Planning Process Source: Wood, M 2010, Essential guide to marketing planning, 2nd edn., Pearson Education Limited, Harlow. p.5. In our case, the environmental scanning was essential to understand why the company chose the specific strategies it did. For example, the company decided to create the focused shapes UK music (MixtapeMadness 2014). In addition, according to Mintel (2014), technological evolution changed consumer purchasing behaviour with a majority purchasing music products online nowadays. Therefore, in order to match consumer needs, the online platform was created for music downloads. Moreover, the “PEST” analysis was highly useful to track the environment that the company operates in (Mullins 2013). For example, economical factors such as low income among young consumers have influenced the company to create a free downloading website. The business plan also contained the marketing plan, which included the theories of Ansoff’s product matrix, Porter’s 5 forces, the STP process and in-depth research of company’s marketing mix (Wood 2010). The following part has helped us to understand the website’s purpose and value provided in more details, as well as the direction the company should follow. For instance we established that in the coming years, to attain the break-even point and to increase brand awareness, the most suitable strategy for MixtapeMadness would be to use the penetration strategy (Bradley 2010). Then, after attainment of its product awareness and profit is made, the company can expand further into the global market and enter into a market development strategy (Egan 2007). The third part of the business plan was the financial part, which analysed the cash flow forecasting, break-even analysis and forecast of revenues (Fortes 2011) (Appendix A). The main strength of our business plan is that it is well structured with numerous academic sources having been reviewed to help us understand the structure of a business plan, such as the need to build a macro-environment research first, then followed by the corporate, strategic and functional levels (Fill 2011; Mullins 2013; Wood 2010). Also, the structured document helped us to follow the same strategy to build the poster for the presentation. The poster did not have all the theories we included in the business plan, but the structure of the poster was useful as we clearly positioned “where the business is now” and “where we want to be as a company”. The poster was clear enough for judges to understand how we established our research. Another strength is that the plan is well researched with the knowledge gained from lectures helping us on how to search for different sources which was useful in strategy formulation. However, as the company is private, limited financial statements were available for computation of forecasts. Therefore, the main weakness lies in the financial part of the plan. Even though the group tried to contact the owners of the website and ask them to provide more financial information to us, the company could not provide us with annual reports. However, due to teamwork, we were all able to gather relevant financial information available and establish the forecasts. Also, as the company is established as an intangible platform, we were not available to visit the physical store; we only relied on the information available on the website. 2. Individual Contribution The marketing models that I studied in my lectures helped me to apply marketing tools and techniques to my research. Therefore I was confident on taking the tasks such as the marketing strategies, which consisted of Corporate, SBU and functional levels (Bradley 2010; Egan 2007). I have also researched MixtapeMadness’ segmentation, targeting and positioning that helped me to explain to the group the market segmentation strategy that the company has selected which is most suitable for the service they offer (Faulds 2009). Another goal for me was to research the marketing mix of the company, which was price, promotion, product and place, information that helped me to establish the company’s weaknesses in its strategy (Wood 2010). For instance, as the company is in the growth phase, the most appropriate strategy is to build its brand awareness by push factors such as slotting allowances, sales promotions or advertisements on social sites and blogs (Baldus & Calantone 2014). I have also contributed in the promotional plan that includes the analysis of the most effective integrated marketing tools. For example, by using public relations, the company could try to reach out to famous urban artists, have interviews with them and get their support for new artists and make this public. This way, the awareness of the website would increase with many people perceiving it as the platform for urban music that is supported by famous artists (Egan 2007; Luxton 2008). The main advantage of group work experience is the ability to recognise self limitations. For example, it was difficult for me to come up with a financial plan due to my low experience in economics. I was not well versed with calculations on revenue thus the usefulness of the group with this regard. It is during this process that I gained the economical knowledge that I will need for business planning in the future. I have learned the functions of cash flow and gross margin models that we have discussed in class. It is this application of the models to a specific company that has helped me to understand how these theories work in practice. Another advantage of this experience is that I have learned to better argue my point of view during group negotiations. As I do not have a rich work experience, the group meetings provided me the opportunity to see how meetings are conducted in a workplace setting and how important group discussions are for coming up with mutual solutions. Therefore, during the group work, I learned what it is like to use facts and examples to make better arguments. Also, because the entire group was made up of international students, I learned more about different internal cultures such as what different people expect from group meetings and how they communicate during the group discussions. However, I will focus more on improving on time management in future. For example, I will seek to be able to effectively organise and prioritise tasks on a daily basis. 3. Conclusion In conclusion, the business plan is useful as it helped me and my group to understand how to use theories in practice, apply critical thinking and analyse information. With my research skills enhanced, future research processes should be easier to undertake. Moreover, I have improved my knowledge of economics and accounting and this will help me feel more comfortable as the knowledge I have gained will be useful for my next research. This module provided me with a better understanding of how to collect data, how theories work in practice, why marketing is essential for the company and how to professionally present the project to experienced judges. Read More