International Marketing in Australia - Research Paper Example

International Marketing (report 3) Introduction Australia's population is estimated to be 21.8 million and growing by 1.2 percent annually. We are introducing a high-tech surfboard into the Australian market to try and capture a percentage of the 11.1 million people over 15 years in Australia (Australia Bureau of Statistics). Sweeney Sport Report states that surfing is now making an impact on almost one third of the population in Australia. This clearly shows that most people are interested in surfing. Since we have our new and advanced surfboard which we are introducing in the market, there is need to ensure our estimated market is aware of its existence and services it brings. We feel entering into the Australian market will be profitable, as the new advanced technology of this surfboard will appeal to many different surfers in Australia. To affirm this assumption, marketing, publicity and promotions among others should be carried out. Constructing pro forma statements will help in knowing how the surfboards are expected to do in the market Personal selling This is a method used in business to make sales through face to face communication with the customer, through the sellers’ appearance and attitude. We will need to use a personal selling technique to reach our estimated market. Since it is a new product in the Australian market, there is need to inform and encourage the surfers and those interested in surfing to buy or trail our surfboards. Personal selling is effective when introducing a new product in the market, as the customers get advice on the usage, and are able to ask questions on unclear issues. Our main target will be to capture the 2.5 million recreational surfers in Australia. This number will require a large group of personal sellers so as to ensure the estimated customers are reached. In order to get good sells and create awareness, a good number of the personal sellers will be required. With the tough economic times, the personal sellers will need to be paid well, that is not less than the minimum wages according to Australian wage laws. The objectives of introducing personal selling will be; create awareness to the customers of the new product, getting their views and feed back on their needs, making sales, building customer relations which will make surfers in Australia have confidence in our product, and last but not least, illustrating how the product should be used to the customers. Considering the language and culture of the Australian community, the role of the personal sellers will be to communicate to the customers effectively using shorten words as they like while respecting their cultural beliefs. Publicity This involves attracting public interests. In order to have a good market base in Australia, we should work to create a good name for our surf board with those who like surfing. Findings show that most Australians do not mind spending over $18 each time (Australian Bureau of Statistics). Since Australia is willing to spend on recreational activities, our marketing and sales strategies will ensure public opinion on our product is very good. Publicity of our surf board will increase the customer base, increase revenue and motivate use in innovating other useful products. Australia is a large country comprising mainland, the island of Tasmania and other smaller islands. Being a large country, the best method of ensuring publicity will be media coverage as its coverage of sporting activities is booming. In Australia, and our product is perfectly to be implemented within the coverage of the media (Yellow Social Media Report). Using media to publicize our new surf board will be economical since it will cover the whole area. Use of personal selling and publicity to market our new product is very effective, as it ensures direct relation with customers and communicates to a wide range of people. Therefore, use of media ensures our product reaches our target market. We would want to implement a publishing advertisement in the industry such as a surfer magazine and sporting goods magazine. This way, our target market being men, would look into these magazines and see our product. Another good placement in publishing would be product overview in popular men magazines such as Maxim and Men’s style. These publishing advertisements would delve into the features of our product and hopefully get professional surfers along with people who surf as leisure to jump aboard (DataMonitor). As internet and social media is increasingly gaining popularity, Australia is not left out, Facebook highly dominating, and Twitter and LinkedIn closely behind, as 79% of large businesses currently have a social media presence, with the prevalence of social media in businesses having increased steadily in the past year. Having a product which has no completion, that is any other surfboard that has advanced technology as this one, our sales will increase. Marketing objectives are usually set for a specific period of time. Some of the marketing objectives include increasing awareness on the product among the market target by a certain percentage in a year, inform the consumers on the additional features of a product, and reduce customer resistance to buy a product (Walker 10). The expected percentage of the target market will be between 5-10%. This is so because it is a new product in a new market and it will take the common rates. Marketing budget is an estimate of projected costs in marketing ones product. The expected sale in five years will be calculated by taking the target market which is male’s surfers and multiplying with the price of one surf board. Assuming one surfboard is $300. The expected sales will be $300 *374,535 =$112360500 Advertising/sales promotion/personal selling/publicity expense are calculated by taking the target market. Looking for the media that is the most appropriate to reach the targeted market is also critical. Distribution expenses will be calculated by taking the area and dividing this with personal sellers. This will cover the expenses they will each need in the distribution of the surfboards. Pro forma statements are useful in making financial analysis of a business. It is usually created at the beginning of the financial year of the planning cycle. Often it is used when launching a new product in the market or expanding the product. Multi-year financial plans and budgets usually contain statements of pro forma income statements balance sheets to show financial performance for given financial conditions and time periods for given time period. Here is a sample example of pro forma statement stock Actual Inventory $1,000,000 Beginning of year date add Projected purchases (Manufacturing $1,200,000 minus Projected Inventory Write down ($150,000) minus Projected cost of sales (Manufacturing) ($750,000) equals Projected Inventory $1300,000 End year date Assets Actual Furniture and Equipment $350,000 Beginning of year plus Projected Furniture & Equipment Purchases $35,000 minus Projected Depreciation ($25,000) equals Projected Furniture and Equipment $360,000 Year date Accounts of this pro forma of assets and stock that are balance sheets are estimated leaving out cash; later cash is used as the balancing figure. Tax is also deducted later after determining the estimated profit from the income statement. For the surfboards, we are projecting that the stock will be as above (Anthony & Leslie 26). Financial conclusions In conclusion, active planning tools include pro forma income statements. If pro forma statement analysis show the business will be associated with problems, then adjustments should be made early, since the population, location and risks in the Australian market are known. We will use the information to ensure that our business will yield more revenue compared to the expenses we will use. With the tough economic times and technology advancements, people are more concerned about the quality of the products they pay for. Many Australian surfers do not mind spending over $18 per recreational surfing session (Australian Bureau of Statistics). Therefore, this shows that the market is readily available and all we need is to convince the target market of our quality products. Works Cited Anthony, Robert, and Leslie Breitner. Essentials of accounting. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. Print. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Reflecting a Nation: Stories from the 2011 Census. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 06 June 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. DataMonitor. Media in Australia. Datamonitor, 2012. Web. Jan. 2012. Sweeney Sports Report. Sweeney Sports Report. Melbourne: Sweeney Research, 2012. Print. Walker, Orville. Marketing strategy: a decision-focused approach. Boston: McGraw- Hill/Irwin, 2003. Print. Yellow Social Media Report. What Australian people and businesses are doing with social media. Yellow Social Media Report, 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. Read More