The Duke Solar Energy Systems - Report Example

Marketing Plan for The Duke Solar Energy Systems Marketing Plan for The Duke Solar Energy Systems Executive Summary This marketing plan is in continuation of the previous assignment which was based n carrying out macro and micro strategic analysis in order to determine what kind of marketing strategy will be required by a new business. The selected business is a solar energy system provider and in this part of the assignment, the author is going to include different marketing strategies that should be adopted by Duke Solar Energy Systems in UAE. For this purpose, the author of the report will include adopted marketing mix, competitive analysis, expansion plans for the future and probable marketing campaign with the help of different media tools that can be utilized to influence the consumer behavior in UAE. Company Introduction The Duke Solar Energy system is the brand that is about to launch in UAE. It is a brand that holds tremendous potential to meet both the commercial and non-commercial need of the country. After getting successful in Europe and North America, the brand is looking forward to Middle Eastern region that is waiting to see a workable and efficient power generation solution. There are great hopes for the brand, which is offering difference, quality, and performance for consumers. Mission Statement The underlying mission statement of Duke Solar Energy System is as follows: “Duke Solar Energy Systems aim at providing our astute clients with professional alternative energy services and devices, to increase target audience’s knowledge about the benefits of increasing dependency on alternative energy sources and provide them with best possible alternatives and products in energy sector”. Branding Strategy Duke Solar Energy Systems will be branded as the cost leader in the market. In this manner, it can be observed that the business and corporate level strategies of Duke Solar Energy Systems would require it to keep its business scope broad, i.e. expanding clientele base within UAE and outside UAE and at the same time bring differentiation in its services and product offering strategy to overcome the intense competition within UAE (Porter, 1980). Broad Scope Cost Leadership Differentiation Strategy Narrow Scope Cost Focus Strategy Differentiation Focus Strategy Costs Differentiation Pricing Strategy Keeping in view the business and corporate level strategies of Duke Solar Energy System, i.e. cost leadership strategy, the adopted pricing method that will be adopted by the company is hybrid pricing strategy. To ensure this, the firm will have to achieve economies of scale for which it will have to increase the demand for its products. How can the firm achieve objective of operating at economies of scale will be discussed later. Here, the adaptation of hybrid pricing strategy would be suitable for Duke Solar Energy Systems as it would allow the company to charge a price, which is a certain percentage of the actual cost of production and distribution (Porter, 1985). Distribution Plan Keeping in view the nature of the business, it has been decided that the product will be distributed to wholesalers of alternative energy equipment in UAE. To ensure that the product is within the reach of the target audience easily, the company will enter into contractual terms with alternative energy equipment provider across UAE. These wholesalers of the equipment would enter into the network of distributary system as soon as they sign the trading agreement and would be provided with finished goods upon realizing the demand of the product amongst consumer circles (Ang, 2014). Source of Competition Inter-Competitors Considering the nature of the business, the source of inter-competitive forces for Duke Solar Energy Systems comes from other alternative energy source providers. For example, a number of research projects in UAE have been incorporated to identify how waste material, mud, sea water, and fossil fuels can be utilized to generate energy sources for industries and domestic consumption. The biggest strength of such alternate energy sources is that they are cheaper as compare to solar energy systems. The biggest weakness of such energy sources is that the raw material required for generating energy source is rare to find and cannot be acquired easily. In Addition to these inter competitive forces, the traditional energy sources such as petroleum and gas are found in abundance in UAE, which might be difficult to substitute. Intra-Competitors The intra competitive forces include competing businesses within the same industry. In UAE, there are already a number of solar energy system provider who has established themselves as quality brands. One such brand is PTL Solar which provides solar systems to government, NGOs, domestic customers and individuals with quality alternative energy solutions. The biggest strength of PTL Solar is its presence all over Middle-East which increases the size of its revenues allowing the company to invest heavily in market expansion projects. On the other hand, the only weakness of PTL solar which is observed by the author of the report is its weak management structure which creates a loophole in its performance delivery mechanism. Another major competitor of Duke Solar Energy Systems in UAE will be Orient Energy Systems (PVT) Limited. The major strength of OESPL is that it has presence in all over Middle-East and Parts of South Asia which provides the company with enormous opportunities to generate greater revenues. On the other hand, the company is weak in its strategic options that deprives the firm from adopting a pricing strategy that matches its corporate and business level strategies. Differentiation Strategy In order to ensure that the business system run on the principle of low cost and differentiation, the production facilities of Duke Solar Energy System will be employed with minimum amount of work force. Moreover, the company website and product brochures would entail detailed description of the products that will be offered to the customers. Moreover, the website and brochures would also entail info graphics which would project how the installation of a Duke Solar Energy System will help the customers to reduce the amount of money that they pay for using energy sources. In this manner, Duke Solar Energy Systems will create value for its customers by allowing customers to gain more knowledge why solar energy systems are beneficial and reduce the cost by employing less number of employees (Boone & Kurtz, 2014). Impact of Macro-Environmental Factors on Marketing Strategy Keeping in view the technological environment of UAE, Duke Solar Energy System will make extensive use of social networking portals due to the fact that the population in UAE is inclined towards using this medium of information and marketing more as compare to traditional mediums of marketing and information. As far as the legal and social aspect of the macro-environment in UAE are considered, the marketing strategy of Duke Solar Energy System will be designed keeping in view the religious beliefs of the target audience. Moreover, the legal implications will be kept in mind before implementing any marketing activity in order to prevent any legal actions to be taken against the company by the government or the stakeholders of the business (Dahlen, Lange, & Smith, Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative Approach, 2010). Market Level Opportunities Although UAE is rich in oil reserves, still the government of UAE is looking for cheaper options to fulfill the requirements of energy sources for businesses and domestic consumers. In addition to this, social media marketing medium is highly popular amongst consumers and businesses in UAE. These two opportunities can prove to be vital for the Duke Solar Energy Systems. The company can use its social media presence to educate target audience about the declining oil reserves of UAE and attract target audience towards using solar energy resources to overcome the problem of polluted ecological environment of the Emirates. Implementation Strategy The implementation strategy provided here is developed for the first three years of the business. The marketing activities and strategy formulation practices is spread over the period of 3 years keeping in view the depth and attractiveness of the target market. It should be kept in mind that alteration sin the marketing plan could be made at any point of time upon realizing the need to do so. Milestone Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 Quarter 5 Quarter 6 Quarter 7 Quarter 8 Quarter 9 Quarter 10 Quarter 11 Quarter 12 Market Research Segmentation of the Target Market Acquisition of Branding and Marketing Consultant Identifying and Hiring the Wholesalers Designing a Promotional Strategy Selection of Marketing Mediums Testing the Marketing Strategy and Developing a Pilot Feedback Report Alterations in Marketing Plan and its Implementation Expansion Plans Duke Solar Energy Systems has its aim set at introducing a new line of alternative energy sources and add-on accessories every year for the first three years of business. This aim will be achieved by thorough market research into consumers’ buying trends and preferences in addition to aggressive promotional campaigns. The first three years of the business will be served to establish a healthy reputation amongst target market. Then the focus will be laid on establishing the business in other parts of the region. This aim will be achieved by carrying out market research in other countries of the Middle East such as Oman, Libya and Qatar. After establishing business in UAE within 5 initial years of the business, the management will aim at spreading the scope of business outside national borders. For this reason a new product line, which may include hybrid energy equipment, systems for generating energy from waste material and windmills, etc. The general assumptions made by the author to project the future expansion plans and their outcome are as following: 1. Entry into another Middle-East state would increase the market share of Duke Solar Energy Systems by 5% in the region. 2. The expansion into another Middle-East state would increase the revenues of Duke Solar Energy Systems by 15% in the region. Media Tools Used In order to achieve maximum exposure of the target market to the marketing and promotional activities of Duke Solar Energy Systems, the marketing consulted has advised the company to use only the most popular mediums of advertising. For this purpose, the company has selected digital marketing mediums such as social networking tools to market its products. Keeping this in view, the company has selected Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and Official website of the business as the major marketing tools (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2012; Bush & Hunt, 2011). The description of the marketing campaign of Duke Solar Energy Systems on digital medium is provided in the table below: Media Target Audience Details Digital Facebook Twitter Blogs Website Domestic Consumers and Enterprises Development and Implementation of Social Media Marketing Strategy Development and Integration of Marketing Content Sear Engine Optimization of key words associated with the business that will bring the social networking profiles of the business, its blogs and official website on top most ranks in search engines Performance Standards In order to gauge the performance and impact of the applied marketing strategy, the marketing managers and senior management of the company associated with operational activities will use two tools. The first tool that will be utilized will be to keep a critical eye on the increase or decrease in the net sales of the products before and after the implementation of the marketing plan. If the sales are increased, it would mean that the marketing strategy is paying off. Second tool that will be utilized by the company to gauge the performance of the marketing strategy will be to monitor the number of customers increased or decreased after the implementation of the marketing strategy. An increased traffic of customers would indicate towards successful implementation of the marketing strategies. Monitoring Methods For monitoring the effectiveness of the marketing plan, two areas will be focused upon, which include monitoring of the online traffic and evaluation of the feedback provided by the visitors. In the first case, which will involve monitoring of the online traffic, the total number of visitors who visit the site will be taken into account and compared against the targeted customer base. This in turn would provide an insight about the effectiveness of the marketing activities of the business and therefore indicate whether any changes are required in the existing marketing plan and activities. Apart from this, the evaluation of feedback provided by the customers will also be an monitoring tool used for monitoring the effectiveness of the marketing plan. This activity will be used to understand the perceptions of visitors and any suggestions they have made for further improving the marketing activities of the company. Financial Controls For the purpose of attaining effectiveness and efficiency with respect to financial performance of the business, it is pertinent to implement certain controls which ensure efficient operation of the business. In this regard, the most important areas are required to be taken into consideration first which can be overseen through the internal controls system of the organization. First of all, there must be an internal control function in the organization, which shall oversee the operations and activities of management and the staff working under the management. In this way, it will be possible to exercise control over financial performance of the company. On the other hand, it is also important to manage the activities and performance of employees in a manner, which is in line with the objectives and mission of the organization and ensures ethical practices. For this purpose, it is important to segregate the responsibilities so as to do away with the dependency on a particular individual or group of individuals. Integrated Marketing Communication The following table contains financial breakup of the budget reserved for the marketing and promotional activities of Duke Solar Energy Systems. The budget provided here is for the first year of business operations of the company. The budget for the following years will be developed keeping in view the changed dynamics of carrying out marketing activities in UAE and other countries in which the business will expand. Medium 3rd Quarter 2014 4th Quarter 2014 1st Quarter 2015 2nd Quarter 2015 Total (in $) Internet 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 $20,000 Trade Shows 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 $40,000 Marketing literature 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 $20,000 Outdoor 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 $20,000 Total 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 $200,000 Percent 25.00% 25.00% 25.00% 25.00% Reference List Ang, L. (2014). Integrated Marketing Communications: A focus on new technologies and advanced theories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Boone, L., & Kurtz, D. (2014). Contemporary Marketing. NY: Cengage learning. Bush, R. F., & Hunt, S. D. (2011). Marketing Theory: Philosophy of Science Perspectives. NY: Marketing Classics Press. Czinkota, M., & Ronkainen, I. (2012). International Marketing. Ny: Cengage Learning. Dahlen, M., Lange, F., & Smith, T. (2010). Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative Approach. NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Porter, M. E. (1980). Competitive Strategy. NY: Free Press. Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance. London: Free Press. Read More