International Marketing Management: Strategies, Concepts and Cases in Europe - Assignment Example

Marketing Plan of the of the Number Executive Summary Retail is one of the most prominent industries in this era of global economy. It is an integrated process that helps the customers to acquire desired products from the retail stores to the end users. In fact, retail influences the buying behavior of the consumers through providing them a pleasurable shopping experience and ensuing customer satisfaction. Understanding the huge business opportunities lying in this retail industry, a small but profitable retail superstore is expecting to expand its business and establish a chain of retail outlets. In this paper, a marketing plan for the retail organization will be prepared. The plan will examine the external environment in which the organization is operating. After analyzing the environmental issues, internal strengths and external opportunities of the organization will be indentified depending on which the organization will be able to overcome its intrinsic weaknesses and underlying environmental threats. Marketing objectives will be formulated for the newly established business and accordingly marketing strategies will be selected so that the strategies can drive the organization towards achieving the pre-determined objectives. Once the strategies are formulated aligning with the organizational objectives, close supervision and monitoring should be exercised in order to ensure successful execution of the strategies incorporated. In this process, time to time review of the implementation process should also be done for assessing to what extend the policies are supporting the organization to meet its fundamental business objectives. Such evaluation will help the retailer to control those factors that are suspected to be reason behind the retail business to deviate from its elementary business goals. Introduction A comprehensive marketing plan is important in any industry before commencement of a new business or expanding in the existing industry segment or business line. Understanding the enormous growth potential in the retail industry, a small retailer is planning for business expansion in this industry segment (Blackwell 275). The retailer, though small in size at present, is expecting to establish a high end superstore with minimum human interaction, supported by superior technologies such as interactive interface, automatic locating of products, self-serve scanning and automatic checkout. Therefore, he is aware of the importance of preparing business plan well in advance. The paper will outline a blueprint of marketing plan for the retail superstore taking into account each and every important marketing aspect for the organization which is required to consider while expanding business into the retail segment. Discussion Marketing plan for the small retailer will involve certain aspects and attributes which are inevitable to analyze for the success of business expansion of the retail supermarket. In the next segment, all such components and criteria will be discussed thoroughly. Environmental Analysis Understanding the prevalence of political, economic, social and technological considerations of the external environment, their nature, scope and influence on the retail industry are required to analyze in order to indentify the viability of business expansion (Finch 213). PEST Analysis Political Factors Retail is one of the most significant industries in the United States. More than 30% of the US’s revenue comes from the retail sector of the province. In fact, Federal government is planning to spend more on retail sector to promote this promising industry further. During the election campaign in 2014, the political parties have decided to spend approximately $30 million in order to facilitate the existing big box retailers such as Walmart and Home Depot to grow further and appreciate the initiative of small retailers to expand their business (Glowik and Smyczek 426). Therefore, such favorable political condition will help the small retailer for smooth expansion of his business in this industry segment. Economic Factors Retail sales are highly dependent on the economic circumstance of a particular region. Considering the present economic condition of the United States, it is the largest economy in this world in terms of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is approximately $17.42 trillion according to the statistics of 2014 (Verbeke 247). Though the global financial crisis of 2008 severely affected the economic condition of the country, US have significantly managed to cope up with such severity. This is reflected in the robust economic growth rate of 2.4% in 204. The inflation is as low as 1.7% and the per capita income of the US citizen are as high as $54,710. Therefore, such economic condition is also approving the plan of the retailer to enhance the business. Social Consideration The social consideration of the United States is a reflection of the sound economic conditions of the country. As the national disposable income of the organization is high, the purchasing power of the citizens is also high. Rising income of the inhabitants in turn is resulting in increasing responsibilities at the workplace. Thus workplace complexities are increasing, changing the pace of lifestyle of the consumers. In fact, as positive consequences of globalization, more and more people in the US are striving to opt for the best branded and packaged products available in the superstores (Cullen and Parboteeah 465). Hence, demand for the products of superstores are sharply increasing in the United States, widening the scope for business expansion for the small retailer (Verbeke 231). Technological Factors Considering the existing big brands in the US retailing supermarket chains, such as Home Depot and Walmart, these organizations use highly innovative, world class and latest technologies in their retail outlets. The supermarkets have already introduced mobile applications through which consumers can decided upon their cart list, sitting at home or in office without visiting the physical stores. Automatic checkouts, kids friendly carts, electronic point of sales (EPOS), fuel rewards, and close circuit surveillances are some of the technological considerations that the big retailing organizations have already incorporated (Stephens 75). Therefore, while expanding business the small retailer must keep in mind that he will have to bring more superior technologies into his business and consider the cost consideration associated to such technological attributes. Assessment of Target Market The target market for the retailer should be middle income group and high middle classes. With the progression of the US economy and reduction in the unemployment level, the social standard for the middle income group is increasing substantially. As a result, the lifestyle of this consumer group is improving rapidly according to the changes in their standard of living. Moreover, the premium consumer group is already captured by the long existed big retail supermarkets such as Walmart, Home Depot, Aldi, Albertsons LLC, Kroger and Safeway Inc etc (Grugulis and Bozkurt 132). However, a large chunk of rising middle income group in the USA is still unexploited. Therefore, the retailer can gain immense sales opportunities by modifying his marketing strategies for attracting this consumer segments. Current Marketing Objectives and Performance Currently, the retailer is operating in a particular region of America. Though his operation is small scale, the superstore run by the retailer is the market leader in the particular region where he operates. In fact, in spite of having one of the leading superstore brands in the location, the local consumers still love to buy from the retailer because of his long-established reputation, reasonable pricing, maintenance of quality and stock availability of the retail outlet. Presently, the main objective of the retailer is to establish customer satisfaction and ensure 100% customer retention through procuring a wide range of quality products and services and making them available at an optimum price. The retailer believes that he can maximize his profitability by maximizing the number of loyal customers, rather than increasing the price of the products. Observing excellent consumer response and analyzing the trend of retail supermarkets chain in the United States, the retailer is also expecting to enhance his business line and establish supermarket chains in various cities of the US (Kotler and Keller 15-25). SWOT Analysis (Linsenman 159) Marketing Objectives As the retailer has decided to enter into the retail supermarket chain industry, it is important to identify the business objectives on the basis of which further strategies will be developed. The objectives of the retail supermarket business will be as follows: The business will be conducted in such a way that can always ensure customer satisfaction. Therefore, achieving customer loyalty will be given highest priority. Earning trust of the internal and external stakeholders. Trust is one of the most important considerations that reinforce business relationship. Therefore, the retailer’s objective will be to incorporate the trust factor among the employees of the retail outlets, all the suppliers and distributors so that transparency in business process can be established and the same can be infused to the consumers. Ensuring operational excellence is another important consideration under the business objective of the retailer. More specifically, efficiency will be brought in every aspect of business ranging from procuring of raw materials to designing the retail outlets and training the employees so that they can serve the customers in the most competent way. Finally, the retailer’s objective is to understand environmental changes from time to time and accordingly modify the business in terms of product diversification, implementation of latest technologies, addressing the complex and ever-changing consumer need and most importantly, complying business with the changing economic and political regulations on the US retail industry Marketing Strategies Once the target market has been identified and business objectives has been outlined, in the next segment the retailer will formulate strategies in order to accomplish the objectives in reality. For devising best strategies for the retailer, the strategic technique of marketing mix will be incorporated (Linsenman 159). Product The product basket of the retailer should be extensive and must include those products which are especially associated with the needs of middle class and upper middle class consumers. Presently, the retailer is dealing with the consumer of a particular region. As the consumer base will be widened, consumer choice will be more complex and will include more number of products that the retailer does not consider to keep in his store at present. Therefore, the retailer must conduct a survey or observe the buying pattern of his target consumer group in various locations and accordingly design his product ranges. Place As the main target audience for the retailer is the middle income group, he must identify the locations where concentration of this consumer group is more and accordingly situate his retail outlets. Price Initially, the retailer must adopt penetration pricing i.e. he should keep the price level lower than the competitor’s piece level. As the number of big supermarkets is huge in the US retail industry, such low pricing strategy will help the retailer to attract large number of consumers from his competitors’ consumer base. Once the business of the retailer is established and loyalty of the consumers is gained, the retailer may shift from penetration pricing strategy to competitive pricing in order to boost his effectiveness and profitability. Promotion Middle class consumers are highly influenced by different types of promotional activities driven by the management of the retailing supermarket chains. Therefore, the retailer must announce discounts and big sales on various departments on occasional basis such as Cyber Monday, Super Saturday and Black Friday. Discount coupons and gift cards should also be provided on festive seasons such as Christmas. Apart from those, facilities such as coffee machines, fuel cards etc should also be incorporated to attract consumers. Evaluation and Control The final stage of marketing plan under strategic management is to ensure evaluation of the performance standards, monitoring whether the business performance is satisfying the financial consideration of the organization and ensure structured monitoring procedure over a definite time interval (Simerson 444). Measuring performance Standard In order to measure the performance of the retail outlets, the retailer should standardize its performance first. Once the performance standards are set in terms of enhancement of customer base, consumer attrition rate, sales and revenue generation etc, the performances of the new business should be reviewed over a certain period of time. Such review will help the retailer to identify those factors that may result in deceleration of growth for the company and take actions accordingly so that such disturbing elements can be eliminated from the business. Financial Control Financial control should be undertaken by the retailer in two ways. Before commencing business, a budget should be planned and prepared in the beginning of the financial year and the business should be conducted in such a way that all activities associated with the business should be done within the budgetary allocation. Moreover, the retailer should set the revenue and sales target in the beginning of the year and drive towards achieving the target. Internal audit should also be conducted over a stipulated time period in order to ensure authentication and transparency in the business process. If all such controls can be applied to the retail business, the organization will evolve as one of the biggest and most appreciated retail superstore in the United States. Works Cited Blackwell, Edward. How to Prepare a Business Plan: Create Your Strategy; Forecast Your Finances; Produce That Persuasive Plan. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2011. Print. Finch, Brian. How to Write a Business Plan. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2013. Print. Glowik, Mario. and Slawomir Smyczek. International Marketing Management: Strategies, Concepts and Cases in Europe. Deutschland: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2011. Print. Grugulis, Irena and Ödül Bozkurt. Retail Work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print. Cullen, John Brooks and Praveen Parboteeah. Multinational Management. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print. Kotler, Philip. and Kevin Lane Keller. Marketing Management. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print. Linsenman, Ciree. Start Your Own Retail Business And More: Brick-and-Mortar Stores, Online, Mail Order, and Kiosks. Toronto: Entrepreneur Press, 2010. Print. Simerson, Byron. K. Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide to Strategy Formulation and Execution. California: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Print. Stephens, Doug. The Retail Revival: Reimagining Business for the New Age of Consumerism. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. Print. Verbeke, Alain. International Business Strategy: Rethinking the Foundations of Global Corporate Success. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print. Read More