Marketing Management in Bonmarche - Essay Example

Information of Marketing Contents Introduction 2 Role of Marketing Executive 3 Company background and market evaluation 5 Recommendations of primary research methods 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction Marketing management is an essential component of any business strategy formulation. There are wide array of marketing executives recruited by an organization in order to set marketing strategies. For any company marketing strategies are a medium to communicate with target customers. This approach encompasses different marketing techniques and tools that are used to accomplish business objectives. In this study marketing environment of a particular firm shall be highlighted. Bonmarche is selected as the company for conducting external and internal environmental analysis. The competitive environment scenario of the company would reveal various marketing strategies incorporated by Bonmarche. In this study importance of primary and secondary data collection measures would also be outlined. Primary data collection techniques are usually incorporated in order to determine customer feedback regarding product or service offerings. These primary sources are beneficial for marketing executives since it enables them to formulate appropriate marketing strategies. On the other hand, current market data can only be collected through this mechanism. Primary resources are explored by marketing executives so as to analyze current market trends and fluctuations. There are wide array of primary resources and each of them are suitable for a particular business scenario. This study would reflect upon which of the primary data collection measures is most appropriate for Bonmarche. It will even focus on secondary data collection techniques and its importance in real world companies. Bonmarche’s market evaluation shall be performed on basis of wide array of secondary resources. There would be supporting arguments included in the study for discussing primary research methods available for the firm. Marketing management can be considered as central component of the study. It shall even comprise of key requirements related to marketing executive’s role and application of appropriate data collection measures. Role of Marketing Executive Marketing executive is solely responsible for performing wide set of functions. They are the ones who direct company’s marketing of services or products. Marketing executives are well aware about product line of a firm, potential market, historical market, budgeting issues, media response and media costs. These key personnel have to deal with different marketing tools such as radio, magazines, television, promotional events, mail campaigns, etc. Advertising media can be stated as the key focus area for marketing executives. Their major responsibility is to thoroughly analyze various advertising media and incorporate them as and when required (Dahlen, 2009). However many marketing executives witnesses a challenge in context of taking maximum advantage of identified advertising media. Marketing usually can be classified into three important forms like positive marketing, negative marketing and educational marketing. Positive marketing is all about highlighting benefits of services or products being offered. Educational marketing is associated with creating demand by educating target customers about product or service needs (Kotler and Keller, 2011). Negative marketing basically outline flaws existing in products of competitors. The art and science of marketing executive’s practice is all about knowing how and when to execute marketing strategies. Marketing executives often spend their time carrying out extensive analysis on demographic segments, competition and regional sales figures. Each product manufactured by a firm comprise of a specific trait that is valuable and unique. Marketing executives should possess capability to identify those traits and then implement required promotional techniques. These individuals need not be strong in theoretical concepts but has to determine unexplored potentialities (Simerson, 2011). They play a vital role of converting less selling item into a large selling item. These competencies are internal to an individual and cannot be incorporated by an organization. External events might cause negative impact on product demand and so it is upon marketers or rather marketing executives to bring forth necessary shift in demand conditions. Their job role is not only confined to initiating shifts in customer demand but even taking maximum advantage of identified demand. Marketing executives has to work in collaboration with other team members so as to gather appropriate market data. Marketers basically work together with advertisers, product managers and developers to ensure that product or service promotion is successful. The major aim of marketing executives is to implement a strategy in such manner that it creates an impact on consumer mind. There are widespread roles which are performed by marketing executives (Smith, 2010). They are not just restricted to formulating marketing strategies but need to even analyze its impact on long term business growth and success. Marketing executives play a significant role in context of structuring and implementing business strategies. They are even offered position of strategic planner in their later phase of career. On the other hand, marketing executives are even the medium through which company can efficiently communicate with customers (Lasserre, 2012). They analyze customer feedback so as to implement better strategies that can help to acquire desirable profits margins. There are many books on marketing management like those of Philip Kotler. This book states that marketing executive is an individual who is responsible for evaluating market conditions and then incorporating strategies accordingly (Fill, 2006). It even defines marketing executives to be responsible for product success or decline. Promotion or advertisements are essential for any company and marketers are key people undertaking this component. All market related activities are performed by marketing executives. However they even take into consideration the impact of marketing activities on overall business strategy (Hienerth, Keinz and Lettl, 2011). Their role is not bounded to product launch but even expands to retention of brand image. All necessary measures are adopted by marketing executives along with primary and secondary data collection measures to retain brand value. Company background and market evaluation The company selected for this study is Bonmarche or BON. It is a womenswear retailer that is based in United Kingdom. The firm is inclined towards selling accessories and clothing. This womenswear retailer design costumes of varied sizes for women belonging to age group above 50 years. Bonmarche has total of 270 stores located across United Kingdom. The products being offered by the firm are own brand dresses, womenswear encompassing jackets and coats, t-shirts, blouses, knitwear, knitted tops, shorts and trousers, leisure wear, nightwear, skirts, lingerie, swimwear, jewellery, accessories, hosiery and footwear. Bonmarche focuses on selling their product line through its own retail outlets. This in turn adds to their brand value and even serves as a medium for promotion. The company utilizes its own retail stores portfolio in order to sell their wide range of products. However in recent times there have been other distribution channels incorporated by the firm (Bonmarche, 2014). This is done to effectively reach out to target audience. A stronger distribution channel enables a firm to attract majority target segment. Convenience is an important aspect when it comes to marketing of products or services. Through widespread distribution channels Bonmarche can deliver desirable outfits in least time possible. Apart from retail store outlets other channels used by the firm are websites, telephone order service, mail order catalogues, Ideal World or television shopping channel, etc. This form of distribution network has been adopted by the company since it facilitates efficiently delivering services or products to customer segments. There is wide range of subsidiaries of Bonmarche such as Bluebird UK Holdco Limited, Bluebird UK Topco Limited, Bluebird UK Bidco 2 Limited and Bonmarche Limited. In present scenario the firm encompasses a total of 1.67K (Wintzer, 2007). As per 2013 data the overall revenue gained by Bonmarche is 156.68m. The company was originally established in 1982 but later in 2002 it was successfully acquired by a well-known firm known as Peacock Group. In 2012 the firm was again sold to one of the private equity groups called as Sun European Partners. The company now performs its business operations under a single parent company. It operates in a highly competitive market where there is large number of established fashion house retailers. Bonmarche often witnesses tough competition in the industry and needs to constantly upgrade its product line. UK is considered as one of the pioneers in overall fashion industry. There are numerous innovations observed within this industry segment. In UK customers usually spend lump sum amount on fashions apparels. In 2012 the sales figure of this industry increased by 6.9 percent and overall revenue observed was 2.5 billion Pound. A major player in the UK industry is Newberry and it has achieved 19.1 percent growth. This kind of market growth has been enhanced through large customer spending. In the last few years the fashion industry of UK has contributed 20.9 billion pounds at an average towards UK economy. These data has been collected from a secondary resource – British Council Fashion & Oxford Economies. Bonmarche’s sales volume is greatly affected by fluctuating conditions in fashion industry of UK. It has been witnessed that magnificent contribution made by fashion industry towards UK market is much higher than publishing and chemical industry. Competitive framework or market conditions prevalent in UK fashion industry can be thoroughly analyzed on basis of Porter’s five forces model. This model helps to analyze competitive position of a firm on basis of certain factors such as bargaining power of customers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, competition from exiting rivals and threat of substitutes (Kumar, 2010). All these factors briefly states market position of a firm. The first factor is bargaining power of suppliers and this kind of bargaining power is normally high when there is scarcity of raw materials. In case of Bonmarche bargaining power of suppliers is high since there is limited number of suppliers and cost of raw materials is high. There are many clothing retailers in UK market who finds it more advantageous to outsource manufacturing facilities rather than producing in their home country. Maximum materials are acquired from China due to its low labour costs and production efficiency. The bargaining power of customer increases due to presence of wide array of players, who tends to offer similar product line. UK’s consumer market clearly reveals that there are various players available in the fashion industry. Majority of these players possesses high brand value items in order to suit personality of different customer types (Tracy, 2012). Hence bargaining power of customers is high in the industry where Bonmarche operates. This is due to availability of many retailers offering similar kind of product features. UK market is stated as a region that has presence of large number of global players. All these players have a unique brand image and offers high quality products to target customers. Market leaders in the fashion retail industry of UK market have formulated their own policies in order to attract large base of customers. Fierce competition is highly observable in the UK fashion retail industry and this influences Bonmarche to innovate new products for target market. Threats of new entrants in fashion retail industry of UK are comparatively low. This is because new players cannot pose sufficient threat to existing players in the market place. It can be stated that new players entering into fashion retail industry of UK do not possess significant resources to challenge other companies. Substitute products are those that consist of similar product features like original product. The target customer segments for well-known companies are unlikely to shift to any such substitute products which are offered low prices. Hence existing players in UK market such as Bonmarche has less threat of substitutes. The company is focused on creating value by identifying hidden customer demand in external environment. These data has been collected from books and journals all of which are classified as secondary sources. The major advantage of secondary resources is easy availability of data. On the other hand large base of data can be explored that is beneficial for the study (Tiddlier, 2009). However disadvantage of this kind of resource is it need not be aligned be with current market data. This section of the study related to company’s market environment could have been enriched through incorporating current market information. Recommendations of primary research methods There are two forms of data collection methods – secondary and primary methods. Secondary data collection measure is related to obtaining information from available sources. On the contrary, primary data collection method is associated with acquiring current market data. Primary sources are used by marketing executives for identifying any fluctuating market trends. Bonmarche currently is facing a lot of challenges from global players operating in UK market. It can be stated that contingency plans are developed by a company on basis of collected primary data. Primary data collection methods are of various types and its implementation depends on market situation. Bonmarche classifies themselves as the largest retailer in UK market who is inclined towards women value. The company is actively indulged into producing premium quality womenswear. In order to retain brand image it is important to analyze current market trends and hidden customer demand. This can be performed effectively through incorporating wide set of primary data collection tools. The most common tools implemented by firms in daily operations are questionnaire survey, interviews, focus group study, etc. Questionnaire survey that is exhibited by a firm can be in structured or unstructured format (Churchill, 2009). There are set of questions formulated in context of any research problem. The survey is performed on selected sample for obtaining most desirable outcomes. Structured surveys have set of questions and options available to sample respondents. However in unstructured survey the entire format is different way since it is an informal procedure to gain market information. The major advantage of survey is it helps to explore widespread areas and acquire beneficial data. Drawback of this survey method is it is a time consuming process and respondent’s interpretation skills can greatly affect collected data. Interviews are basically organized to communicate directly with some individuals who are directly or indirectly linked with identified research problem. These interviews can be held in structured or unstructured format (Maylor and Blackmon, 2005). The major objective of organizing interviews is to gain additional information that can be advantageous for a study. Interviews possess a major disadvantage which is availability of those individuals who can contribute towards the study. On the other hand, interviewee might not reveal appropriate information that can be beneficial for the interviewer. This factor is a major limitation associated with primary data collection tool such as interview. Focus group study is a preferred data collection measure which is employed by firms. In focus group study, group of individuals are gathered so as to reflect upon any identified problem. This in turn helps a marketing executive to analyze different viewpoints and derive at a particular conclusion. Focus group study also encompasses a major loophole in terms of gathering equally competent individuals to state their opinions regarding an identified problem or issue (Alba and Hutchinson, 2008). To be more precise this kind of tool does not ensure high quality of collected data since every individual involved in the group shall possess different opinions. It often becomes difficult for interviewer to evaluate such form of data. It is recommended that Bonmarche should encompass questionnaire survey as primary data collection tool. This shall prove to be most effective tool since customer feedback can be acquired. The survey would comprise of questions related to product quality, features, satisfaction level, etc. In comparison to other primary data collection tools, this measure is less time consuming. It even helps marketing executive to reach out to more number of customers and obtain desirable information. Conclusion As per this study marketing strategy is at the core of all business operations. Bonmarche is a renowned organization in UK market delivering all forms of womenswear. This company not only focuses on product innovations but believes in creating value for women. In overall context the brand image of the firm is such that it attracts customers to purchase its products repeatedly. Customer retention is key focus of management of Bonmarche. This form of strategy supports the company to maintain its market position in highly competitive industry. UK fashion industry is an intensely competitive market with large number of global players offering similar product line. Survival is a major issue for many companies who are operating in this particular segment. There are different innovative strategies implemented by companies for product or service marketing. All these operations are mainly performed by marketing executives. They are solely responsible for enhancing brand image and attracting maximum percentage of target customers. This study has even outlined importance of primary and secondary sources of information. The market data of Bonmarche is obtained through secondary data collection sources such as journals, books, etc. On the contrary, primary data collection tools are also incorporated by firms to acquire current market data. These data basically reveals market fluctuations and trends which are needed by companies in order to retain their market position. The most appropriate primary data collection tool identified for the company is questionnaire survey. References Alba, J. W., and Hutchinson, J. W., 2008. 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Simerson, B.K., 2011. Strategic planning: a practical guide to strategy formulation and execution. USA: ABC-CLIO. Smith, D., 2010. Exploring innovation, 2nd edition. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education. Tiddlier, C. 2009. Foundations of mixed methods research. California: SAGE. Tracy, S.J. 2012. Qualitative research methods. UK: John Wiley & Sons. Wintzer, E., 2007. Global competition and strategic management. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Read More