Geely Emgrand EC7 Marketing Strategy - Coursework Example

Marketing report Executive Summary A structured and rational marketing method and its implementation are necessary for successful business operation.This paper deals with the analysis of the marketing strategy to be implemented in the markets of U.K. This report outlines the position for Geely Emgrand EC7 with respect to the U.K. market and highlights the suggested measures to be adopted by the company for success. Automobile industry in UK – market trends overview In a developing economy, the automobile industry accounts for a large and significant economic sector. The industry accounts for an annual increase of 2.5 percent in car ownership. The auto industry currently exceeds the production of cars in comparison to its demand. The global overcapacity of the automobile sector has risen itself to about 20 million units. With the number of car manufacturers growing on a global scale, it is difficult to reduce the quantity of production (Milmo, 2012). Marketing goals and objectives Geely plans to expand the business by targeting UK as the first market in Western Europe. The first model will be Geely Emgrand EC7 four –door saloon. The company aspires to win the market across the continent. The aim of marketing will be to reach out to people from all segments and across all age group. The objective is to endorse the EC7 four door saloon to all those people who care for brand and quality products and to the fashion conscious consumers also who prefer cars in terms of looks, style and presentation. The specific objectives defined for this strategic marketing plan would be enhancing global partnership with increase in research, improved internal management, adopting suitable marketing techniques, coming up with new and advanced technology to offer more comfort to the consumers. The company will adopt strategies so as to cater to the demands of the consumer in terms of discounts and other extra benefit like free insurance. The strategies will focus on making the brand name more visible and popular. This calls for an effective and structured market campaign and advertising for acquiring new customers. The company goal of “Let Geely cars go all over the world” can be met by adhering to the above mentioned factors. An improved customer relationship will also be the focal aspect of the marketing strategies. Marketing strategies and analysis The focus of the marketing strategy is to enhance and expand the market potentials that can help the company increases the market share and annual turnover. The companies which do not have a structured and a lucrative marketing professional team fail to meet the needs and the demands of the consumer (Rafinejad, 2007). Sorli and Stokic (2009) in their works on marketing strategies identified the key to product success as effective business strategy, customer oriented marketing approach, and profit goals as illustrated in the diagram below - Fig 1- The key to product success (adapted from Sorli & Stokic, 2009) Geely will align its marketing strategies with business goals and objectives to focus on meeting customer requirements and increased market shares. Segmentation strategies Effective marketing strategies encompass numerous tactics that help the firms in establishing their brands, overcoming sales challenges, generating consumer interest, and creating the need for the product or service (Goyat, 2011). Marketing managers focus on identifying homogenous consumer groups in an attempt to provide distinctive value added benefits to each consumer segment and ensure increased sales and market shares. The homogenous consumer groups are the key segments that help in formulating appropriate marketing communication and brand positioning strategies for specific products or services (Craft, 2004). Goyat (2011) concluded in his research on market segmentation process that demographic and psychographic variables played an important role in defining market segments. Geely will target consumers across the age group of 25 and above. This includes people across all income levels and genders. The company will cater to all those people who look for cars with comfort, style, good mileage and usability. The reason behind this is to ensure that GeelyEC7 car reaches each and every customer from all walks of life. This will help expand the customer pool and market shares. The drawback with the customers in the automobile segment is that they are very choosy and are prone to shift their attention from one brand to another. Brand loyalty is thus low in this industry (EFTEC, 2008). In the U.K. the whole market structure can be divided into primarily two sectors. The first segment of consumers prefers cars with new designs and looks. This segment seeks trendy and fashionable look for their cars. They are more fashion conscious. This segment comprises of mostly the young people but some people in the older age group can also be included. The past few years have shown a sharp rise in the purchase of high quality and branded cars across all age group (EFTEC, 2008). The second segment consists of those people who are more willing to spend on quality cars. They are not much bothered about the look or the design but more focused on the quality of the engine, the customer services offered by the company and the brand name. Customer retention in this segment poses a significant challenge to the company. Marketing mix Marketing mix strategies refer to a detailed and a comprehensive structure for all aspects of product marketing (Hair, 2008). The 4 Ps of marketing comprising of product, place, price and promotion provide the essential marketing mix for any product. However, in the present marketing strategies involve a growing focus on additional aspects that relate to customer decision making and purchase behavior (Masterson and Pickton, 2010). Thus three more dimensions were added to the 4Ps of marketing and these three include physical evidence, people and processes. These constitute the seven Ps of marketing and specific strategies to be adopted by Geely are detailed below. Product The Geely EmgrentEC7 will target the high profile customers as well the people belonging to lower income group. Those who fall under the high profile people will value it for style, fuel efficiency and quality parameters. Place The second important aspect in the marketing area is the place. The company will operate through retail chain of outlets placed at strategic locations. In the UK there are plenty of shopping malls, community stores. The marketing team will plan to have the retail outlet in almost all these places so as to be easily accessible by all the customers. Geely would operate mostly through the retail distributor’s outlet Geely does not have any dedicated or a signature outlet in UK so it has to depend on the dealer’s options. Promotion Geely would adopt an aggressive brand positioning strategy to create awareness among the people. A consolidated effort from both the marketing team and the management is required to accomplish this task. Geely is also planning to launch the customer website, www.geelyauto.co.uk . The company will focus more on the customer care unit which will ensure that the GeelyEmgrand EC7 is a total customer care package will also offer long term warranty which would be an added advantage for the product. It will also advertise the products on the television and on the social media like the face book and twitter. This will help the customers resolve their issues and can have a better image of the company in terms of the services offered (Cerado, 2009). Price The company will ensure that in UK markets the pricing is done according to the demographic profile of target group customers. An important element effecting the purchasing decision is the willingness to pay the price which would be affordable and less as compares to the other car companies in the market (Ferrell & Hartline, 2010). Physical evidence Physical evidence relates to fringe benefits or additional value added services provided to the customers on purchase of the specific product or service. Geely may offer its customers with car shampoos and cleaning sponges as tangible benefits for its targeted customers. Masterson and Pickton (2010) in their works on marketing explain the significance of extended benefits and customer service in meeting customer expectations and helps in achieving increased customer satisfaction. People People in marketing mix relates to the individuals or teams who are responsible for ensuring that high quality service and value added benefits are delivered to the customer (Masterson and Pickton, 2010). Geely must ensure a highly interactive team of customer service personnel who can answer customer queries and deliver prompt services to ensure positive customer experience. Processes Processes refer to the chain of activities that contribute to supporting effective marketing within the organization. These begin with identification of customer needs, requirements, order processing, handling customer complaints and ensuring the delivery of effective services (Masterson and Pickton, 2010). Geely must ensure that these processes are in place and combine to provide a comfortable and effective delivery of service. Observations Day (1994) in his works on the capabilities of the market driven organization identifies the defining trends of the new consumer and its impact on marketing strategies. The internet, communication technologies and mobile devices have brought a staggering amount of information into the consumers’ hands. They can check real-time about prices, service levels and availability of almost any product or service. Technologies like web 2.0., to a large extent, have flattened traditional advantages like scale, size etc. giving even small shops, single individuals the same power as large multinationals. This has profound implications for any marketer who can no longer take advantage of size, scale etc. for granted. At the same time, the amount of data generated and available has also increased exponentially. This means that marketers need to sift through terabytes of data in order to understand and anticipate customers’ actions. To delight and retain customers, companies need to invest in building capabilities in extracting meaningful information from vast volumes of transactional data, analyzing it to detect trends, predict future behavior and devise strategies around the same. This requires cross-functional skills like analytics, consumer behavior, communications technologies etc. and deploying them across all levels in the entire value chain from the customer interfacing organization to the manufacturers, logistics etc. Another notable feature of today’s businesses is the speed at which information travels, which has dramatically shortened the life span of strategies and tactics. Marketers need to be prepared with their responses to the anticipated responses of competitors. To manage the entire life cycle of an organization’s interactions with its customers, Customer Relationship Management as a model has gradually evolved over the years providing a framework for organizations to structure their interactions with present and future customers. For example, major retailers have loyalty programs, cards etc. for tracking transactions, buying patterns etc. to target focused campaigns to each class of customers on some occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, holidays etc (Menteth, Wilson, and Baker, 2006). At the other end of the spectrum, organizations like automobiles, consumer durables are adopting a different route to delight their customers. Forging long term partnerships and strategic alliances with suppliers and designers, they are focusing on building flexible, responsive and cost efficient supply chains that would turn out innovative products at cheaper prices. In automobile industries clusters of suppliers work as a value chain with the car manufacturing companies in the lead. The company designs a product and passes it on to the suppliers with cost targets for each component. The suppliers are expected to work backwards to meet cost targets and manage their investments on a long term basis. This enables the entire chain lead by the car manufacturer to align themselves with customer and market demands. Understanding consumer behavior can give an organization competitive advantage and reduce the risk of market failures to a large extent (Baker, 2003). According to a number of theoretical studies, marketing skills lies only in understanding and satisfying the customers (Day, 1994).This caters to saying that customer is considered as the king and all the efforts should be put to achieve sound customer value and interest. Day argues that in spite of knowing the market well, there is no fixed way to ascertain which criteria should be used and implemented for marketing. According to Day, capabilities can only drive the company to succeed. Organizations can become more market oriented if they work on these special capabilities which can be achieved only through superior functional activities. He further argues that only the market driven organizations are better in their ability to gauge the market and customer-linking capabilities. Capabilities are the group of skill set and collective learning which allows smooth functioning of the organization (Day, 1994).Capability is needed to understand the market and its possible changes and to predict suitable responses to its marketing actions. According to Day (1994) marketing capability can be achieved if and only if the marketing team repeatedly uses their knowledge and applies it transform the product to the desired result. Marketing capabilities can be defined as the process wherein the knowledge and skill is combined with the market related needs of the business. This result in adding value to the product and company can withstand any competitive threats. The organizations should develop capabilities in the core business functions for success and to achieve competitive advantage. All the organizations cannot have same set of capabilities and cannot be generalized. They should be difficult to imitate and should be in tandem with the organization’s business strategy. Three components are essential for a better market response - the firm should be able to understand the target market, anticipated and existing competitors, optimum utilization of the firm’s resources to create better products (Lindblom, Olkkonen, Mitronen, and Kajalo, 2008). Conclusion Globalization of economies has provided the companies with the scope to adopt extensive organizational growth and development strategies. However, this is not devoid of the constraints presented by the global business and market environment. An essential part for fruitful marketing is defining a well-researched strategic plan that helps in defining emerging customer needs and satisfying market expectations for long term success through adaptation in product design and an effective marketing mix. References Baker, S. and Bass, M. 2003, New consumer marketing: managing a living demand system, John Wiley & Sons. Cerado 2009, Social networking for businesses and associations, Available from http://www.cerado.com/download/Cerado-Haystack-Executive-Briefing-Social-Networking-for-Businesses-and-Associations.pdf Day, G.S. 1994, The capabilities of market-driven organizations, Journal of marketing, Vol 58, pp 37-52. EFTEC 2008, Demand for cars and their attributes, Economics for the Environment Consultancy Ltd. Ferrell, O.C. & Hartline, M.D. 2010, Marketing strategy, Thomson South Western Publishers. 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