Maximizing the Childrens Segment for Tonga Toys - Research Proposal Example

Maximizing The children’s Segment: The case of Tonga Toys Introduction Every business that aims at becoming successful in its operations must consider its marketing strategy. Toga Toys plc. is a company that deals with manufacturing of toys for children between the age of two and nine years. The company has been under good management and this is reflected in its sales. However, to ensure the company withstands the stiff competition it faces from its competitors, it should be well informed about its market, products and the fellow competitors. The owner of this Company being an entrepreneur clearly knows that change in management may continue working well for the company or result to its failure. As an advisor to the owner of the company, it will be of great help to advise him on the marketing strategies that will work best in ensuring that it remains one of the leading manufacturers of toys. The determinant of any business success lies in its marketing strategies. Most principles of this Company will be dependent on successful marketing. Marketing will cover a wide range of areas including advertising, public relations, sales and promotions. This implies that marketing hence can be referred to as the introduction of a product or service to customers and promoting it to potential customers. It is possible for Tonga toys to produce new toys and have trouble in sales. This is because, without effective marketing, none of the potential customers would know that these toys exist. Conducting market research will be the foremost tool to use in advising the owner of the Company. Market research is essential for Tonga Toys and hence should not just be regarded as a one-off activity. Successful businesses carry out research continuously to be in line with market trends and sustain a competitive advantage. Conducting market research will be vital for Tonga toys to help understand the target market and improve sales. Market research will involve systematic collection of objectives and analyzing data concerning the target market, competitors of Tonga Toys and the overall environment with the aim of increasing understanding of them. Market research will be carried out through different methods of data collection. Giving customers questionnaires to fill concerning the level of satisfaction they gain from Tonga toy product will help discover the customers’ expectations. Analyzing secondary data will help also reveal the strengths and the weaknesses of the Company. Reviewing the Company’s annual reports will help in major decisions to be used in the next financial year. The information received through marketing research can guide will guide the Company in most of its strategic decisions. Market research is considered effective if the findings or conclusions arrived to have a value that surpasses the cost of the research itself. Tonga toys will carry out market research with the aim of finding out the target market, the customers’ preferences and how to improve on their existing products. If Tonga toys spends $1,000 on the market research and the research will yield to sales increasing by $10,000, then the research will be worth. Tong toys will benefit from having from information concerning the market in the following ways. The market research will guide the Company’s communication with current and potential customers. The owner of the Company wants ways that will help his Company continue withstanding competition and at same time increase the volume of sales. The market research will help formulate more effective and efficient marketing campaigns. Conducting integrated marketing communications will help the Company greatly achieve its communication objective, which is among its marketing strategies. They will help talk to the people directly in a way that is appealing to them. The marketing communications will help the Company make consumers’ aware of the products that they offer. This will have the effect of improving sales and increasing the number of customers. Communication principles such as advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and internet marketing will go a long way in ensuring that the Company retains its current customers and recruits new ones. Marketing tools when fully carried out and implemented, will bring success to the Company in terms of increasing the sales and hence profit. Conducting market research will also help the Company identify opportunities in the marketplace (Birn and Patrick 42). The Company aims at maximizing any opportunity that comes its way. One way of identifying such opportunities is through conducting market research. It will reveal the unidentified opportunities that the Company may implement and result to better results. For example, if the Company is aiming to open out a tie shop to sell its products in a particular geographic location and it happens that there is no such shop in that particular area, then the Company will have identified an opportunity. The chances for success are high if the location is highly populated specifically with residents who match The Company’s target market principles. This research will also reveal what the customers are expecting from the Company. This will help the Company have detailed information concerning the products that they will be offering in the market for purchases. Producing high quality products that meet the standards put by the customers will assist the Company increase sales by increasing the number of customers (Belch and Michael 123). A market research will uncover and reveal possible problems that the Company may encounter in its expansion program. This will help the Company abandon such policies and go opportunities that will maximize its success. The market research will help the Company realize its strengths and weaknesses (Lamb Joseph and Carl 201). It will provide solutions on how to improve the weaknesses and continue improving on the strengths. For example, if Tonga toys at some point produced toys that customers’ regarded to be of low quality, then that is a weakness. Improving on the quality of those toys will hence increase its sales by increasing customer loyalty. Tonga toys conducting a market research will be of no doubt a great step towards the achievement of its goals and objectives. It will help the owner and the entire management team makes informed decisions concerning how to price its products, reveal to the business on ways it can use to distribute its products, which media to apply such as newspapers, T.V, and public relations. Research will help the Company know the right time to introduce a new product in the market (McDonald and Ian 25). It will have supplemented the efforts of the marketing team in its efforts of identifying the appropriate time of introducing new products to the market. This will help the Company also prepare for expansion. It will reveal the areas that require expansion and how the market will receive that particular item. For example, Tonga toy will have the information on the brands that are well received in the market. The Company decision on producing more of that brand will be a good decision since it will increase the sales (Lamb Joseph and Carl 205). This reveals that conducting a market research for Tonga toys will help supplement its efforts of trying to achieve its objectives. The marketing management needs to carry out this research and this will greatly help the Company continue experiencing growth. The owner of the Company needs to increase the resources that it applies in its marketing strategy. This will help the Company withstand the stiff competition experienced in this industry. Producing high quality products that satisfy the customers’ needs will greatly help build customer loyalty. Marketing is among the strategies that will contribute to the success of any business. A well conducted market research will reveal the best strategies to implement to help the Company achieve its marketing goals (Birn and Patrick 41). Market Segmentation Market segmentation is an important marketing strategy tool. When fully implemented, it can yield positive returns to the Company hence when its implementation is vital. Its aim is to identify and select sets of buyers which then the Company can target for its marketing plans. The marketing management utilizes this tool because it helps divide the total demand into considerate homogenous segments that are identifiable by certain characteristics. These small segments are easier to serve (McDonald and Ian 27). This makes the Company deliver its products and services in a way that satisfy the customers’ expectations. Markets can be subdivided by geographic, demographic, psychological or behavioral variables. Tonga Toys will help the Company realize those targets it wishes to invest in. Once the Company identifies a segment, it becomes possible to develop products that meet the unfulfilled needs of this segment. This key strategy is vital to the implementation of strategic plans for Tonga toys brands. Market segmentation is a decision-making tool for the marketing managers in the important tasks of choosing a target market for the Company’s items and designing an appropriate marketing mix. Market segmentation will help the Company set the basic objectives for the entire marketing operation, and will indicate suitable strategies by which these objectives will be achieved (Lamb Joseph and Carl 207). Market segmentation will help the Company define its market clearly. Study reveals that every Company that views the market from a consumer’s viewpoint rather from its perspective. This gives the Company a chance of developing a wide range of products offer to consumers. Products viewed as substitutes by customers from several unique product fields when the Company’s perspectives are considered. The Company will have the chance of producing toys that are on high demand in the market. This minimizes the risk of loss by overproducing toys that will not sell in the market. Market segmentation will assist the Company rationalizes policies for existing brands and products. Through market segmentation, the Company aims at seeking to develop optimum strategies for its products (Lamb Joseph and Carl 210). The main purpose will be to improve market share, weaken the position of the key competitors, or even protect its brands from competitive activities. Market segmentation will help the Company increase the buying rate of current buyers. It will develop mechanisms that reveal ways that will be used to convince customers purchase the Company’s products. Producing high quality toys is one of the strategies. By doing this, the Company will also benefit from converting buyers from competing brands or attract new customers to the product consumption. Creating new customers will be of benefit to the Company since this will mean increased sales and hence profit (McDonald and Ian 29). Carrying out market segmentation will help the Company position its wide range of brands and products in the market. It will give positive returns to the Company if it caters for several segments in the same market. This will minimize the risks involved by reaching more markets. In some situations, the segments may behave very different from each other since they have varying tastes and preferences. Hence, the Company may maximize its sales by producing toys that suit every segment that it serves. Knowing exactly what brand every segment prefers will help reduce competition between the Company’s brands in any segment. It will help the Company’s products also withstand the stiff competition by taking advantage of its wide range of products and offering them to appropriate customers (Birn and Patrick 33). Tonga Toys aim at expanding its services and products to ensure survival in more years to come. Market segmentation will assist the Company identify gaps in the market which will offer new product opportunities. The aim of segmentation will be to identify customer segments whose needs have not been met by any of the existing brands. The Company will now develop now products that will take advantage of this situation. Introducing new products that meet the customers’ needs or improving the existing products will enable the Company continue enjoying a huge customer base for producing products that meet their expectations. Customers form the bases of success for any business. Producing products that meet their utility hence will create loyalty that may even trigger impulse buying (Lamb Joseph and Carl 216). Demographic segmentation will work best for this Company the kind of products it offers. This will involve dividing the market into groups that depending on the demographic variables such as age, sex, socio-economic group and level of education. These elements have become the determinants in which many Companies consider the customer. Tonga Toys should focus on producing toys that will serve every variable appropriately. For example, considering the age, the Company should not produce toys similar to children of different ages. For children below the age of five, they require toys that will assist them learn how to spell words and which give fun to play with. For children beyond the age, producing toys that will enable them learn something different from learning will be of great help. Considering the sex, there are toys that serve the needs of female children better than the needs of male children. Thus, if the Company needs to benefit from these opportunities, it has to identify what every child wants. When considering the level of income, the Company should be well informed on the times to introduce certain products in the market. Periods especially when people have been paid will be the best time to introduce the products customers often complain to be more expensive (Belch and Michael 121). Segmentation will also enable the Company know the segments that require improvements as introduction of new products, improving the existing ones and which need marketing communications. Regarding the marketing communications, it will reveal the best tool for every segment. For example, segments that are highly populated, personal selling will work best while those segments that are sparsely populated advertising would work best. Tonga Toys will ensure that it produces products that are effective and efficient in meeting the customers’ needs. The Company will benefit from its good reputation perceived by the public. Customers believe that Companies, which people often talk positively about, have high quality products and often produce products taking into consideration the expectations of the customers (McDonald and Ian 34). Achieving the potential benefits of market segmentation will require both management acceptance of this concept and research before segmentation is implemented. As discussed earlier, the research will reveal the areas of operation that have trouble and hence need improvement. It forms the bases of segmentation. For example in geographical segmentation, Tonga Toys will have to consider aspects such as availability of resources to reach either the local or a national market. More resources will be required to reach the national market than the local market. However, for a Company like Tonga Toys considering expansion, implementing in the national market would be the best decision. The choice of segmentation will also depend on other factors such as type of product, type of demand, the methodology of distribution, the motivation of buyers and the media available for market communication. This implies that it will be of great importance to carry out research to be well informed about the market before implementing the segmentation strategy. For Tonga Toys, combining both the geographic and demographic segmentation would be the best option. This is because it exploits fully the opportunities available for the Company resulting to increased sales and hence profit. Being a Company that aims at expanding its market reach, production of high quality toys will be vital for its survival in this industry (McDonald and Ian 37). Works Cited Lamb, Charles, Joseph H., and Carl, McDaniel. Essentials of Marketing. Mason, Ohio: South-Western, 2008. Print. McDonald, Malcolm, and Ian, Dunbar. Market Segmentation: How to Do It and How to Profit from It. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Internet resource. International Journal of Market Research: The Journal of the Market Res. Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, UK: NTC Publications, 2000. Internet resource. Birn, Robin, and Patrick, Forsyth. Market Research. Oxford, UK: Capstone Pub, 2002. Internet resource. Belch, George, and Michael, Belch. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. 2014. Print. Read More