Marketing Plan of MYPHONE Company - Case Study Example

Developing and Presenting a Marketing Plan Executive summary MYPHONE Company is a smartphone business with international locations intwo continents in Asia and Europe. The company aspires to be the leading smartphone seller in Asia and Europe. The company offers smartphones in four different segments; households, high-end households, companies and high-end companies. The company prides in offering high quality smartphones that are differentiated from other smartphones in the market. Their products are designed to suit the preference of consumers in terms of levels of compactness and battery life, design, and additional features. The market penetration in Europe seems practical for this company due to the high demand for smartphone in Europe. However, the high demand is in high-end consumer and company segments. These segments are influential for the first year but lack significant growth. On the other hand, penetration into the Asian market is not fully exploited properly, there is a great potential if MYPHONE Company launches itself in Asia as it will guarantee high rate of growth. The market strategies analysis is performed to give the company a market perspective of the most appropriate strategies to enable the business to penetrate the market and retain the market share. Evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats affecting both the internal and external environments. Such analysis helps the business form a foundation for its marketing plan and strategic formulation. This marketing plan focuses on the company’s penetration strategy and growth by targeting different segments of the market through differentiation strategy. Content Executive Summary Introduction Business Mission Statement Objectives Situation Analysis (SWOT) Marketing Strategy Target Market Strategy Marketing Mix Decisions Product Promotion Price Place – Distribution Implementation, Evaluation and Control Results – Income Statement Conclusion Appendix References Introduction MYPHONE Company is a prospective company that seeks to penetrate into the smartphone business. The company aims to operate in both Asia and Europe. The smartphones involved in this business are produced by another company while MYPHONE Company undertakes marketing of the smartphones. Due to the diversity of the market in which this company operates, its smartphones are differentiated to offer different consumers products that suit their needs and preferences. The size of the market is marked by four segments; households, high-end households, companies and high-end companies. The four products are differentiated in features such as compactness, battery life, and design among other features. Business Mission Statement MYPHONE Company’s mission is to be the leading marketer of highly segmented and differentiated smartphones in Asia and Europe. The company wants to enable all consumers, regardless of their level of incomes to own smartphones and enjoy the experience just like high income earners. During the next three years, MYPHONE Company seeks to achieve the following objectives: To penetrate into European and Asian market successfully and retain a huge market share. To increase the earning of the company by at least 50% annually. Introduce more product into the market through expansion. Conduct accurate sales forecasts. Decreases the risk that products become obsolete by investing in R & D. Revolutionize the processing speed, size and power usage of the devices. Environmental Analysis MYPHONE Company deals with marketing of smartphone in Asia and Europe. The company operates in a huge macro-environment of forces that shape changes and stance threats to the company. The company is challenged by two already established companies that create intense threat to both entry to the market and expansion. MYPHONE Company does not produce is own phone, instead, A sister company is responsible for the production. As such, this scenario levels the competition with other firms. The company operate in two different continents; Asia - a developing continent and Europe - a developed continent. As such, there is a variation in terms of the preference of the market. The majority of the population in Asia are in preference of the low-end segments while the European market is characterized in high preference for the high-end segments. However, the market is not static as it is characterized by changes due to competition, revolution of technology, changes in the interest rates and recession. The market for smartphones in Europe is already great as the demand is high. This is enable the company to penetrate the market while marketing the smartphones in Asia where the potential for growth is equally high. SWOT Analysis Strengths The company operates in a market that is influenced by stiff competition. This is because the smartphones are made with technology that keeps revolutionizing. To counter the effects of heavy competition, MYPHONE Company invests in a differentiating strategy. This strategy forms one of the strength it possess, this has enabled the company to produce quality smartphones that are unique with a variety of optional features that make the smartphones difficult to be copied by competition. The company prides in the rich experience it has acquired through intensive market research. This is an effective tool that had helped the company identify customers’ need in order to assist in the production of smartphones that suits customers need according to the needs of different customers. MYPHONE Company is operated by qualified and competent executive, the sales consultants are highly trained and the marketing team is highly dedicated. This will ensure that the company get the relevant information in the targeted market such as Asian and Europe. MYPHONE Company is not directly involved in production. However, it prides in working with a sister company that has technicians who are best in applying technology that is efficient and precise in smartphones. The service center at MYPHONE Company ensures that the technology is impeccable. The IT technicians are important in the company as they are responsible for the quality of the phones. Weaknesses The management of MYPHONE Company is highly centralized since decisions are made at one central place to affect the decisions in another continent. The headquarters of the company are located in Europe but the company serves both European and Asian markets. This makes disposition of decision to slow down the growth of market share in Asia because a critical decision may take time to actualize. Language barrier will be a problem since the two continents have different languages, this will pose a challenge when communication will be needed due to the need to keep the teams in the two continents coordinated and integrated. While European are widely versed with English as a communication language, most of the Asian countries prefer to use their own native languages. This creates a language barrier especially due to the heavy accents in the two continents. Poor coordination can impact negatively on integration of the marketing procedures. The geographical distance between Europe and Asia is too vast, it will therefore be difficult to coordinate logistics. Opportunities The outlook of Asian and European smartphone industry is very promising, this is a very good opportunity or MYPHONE Company with its smartphone. The high demand in the European market makes the smartphones a viable business for this company. Furthermore, the vast population in Eastern Asia that makes the Asian households should grow to be the biggest matrix even in global terms. The increase in technological advancement is changing the primary roles of phones from just communication to other roles that require taking photographs, surfing the internet and connecting with people in a more abstract way. The smart phone have revolutionized the traditional roles of phone thereby making them more preferred and in high demand. The demand for smartphones is rising in Asia as more and more companies are coming up to offer the same products. This is a very great opportunity of MYPHONE Company to equip its business with sophisticated technology and variety of smart features in its products. This will sets their smartphones apart in the market thereby making its brand more reputable than those of the competitors. The legal and political framework regarding the electronic industry is not very strict as compared to other industries. This is a huge opportunity for MYPHONE Company to launch its smartphone in Asia and Europe as it has the potential to face very minimal regulation in both continents. Threats The competition in the smartphone business is very stiff, especially in Europe where other multinational corporations have established their business and brands. Smartphones from competition are now characterized by large displays and advanced multimedia features, improved battery life and saving electricity consumption and thus, improving on these feature has become very challenging for MYPHONE Company. This scenario has a great potential to significantly impede growth in sales resulting in a reduction in market share. Total global growth rate in the smartphone business is about the turn into negative figures, the competition for market share is triggered to intensify. The number of smartphones available has increased in both markets and as a result, the risk of similar products cannibalizing each other has become very real. The main factors that are influencing competition are price, distribution, performance and economical. Methods of product promotion such as advertisement, brand reputation and marketing are other key factors that are influencing competition. Right-sizing, outsourcing and reengineering developments in management may change traditional channel associations with dealers, distributors and brokers in Asia, which may result to a decrease in sales. Marketing Strategy Marketing Objectives The marketing objectives of MYPHONE Company will be focusing on: i. To develop a brand equity, this will be measured after the current financial year. MYPHONE Company is aimed to attain an enormous brand awareness in both Europe and Asia after the end of the first financial year. ii. To create an inclusive awareness that will boost our revenues through advertising, partnering with appropriate stakeholders, promotion, holding tradeshows around Europe and Asia. This will ensure that the Company’s smartphones are the most preferred in the market. iii. To make sure that partnership with major corporates is established, it is very advantageous to partner with corporates as they purchase many smartphones from them. The company has strategically partnered with a great company for production of their smartphone. However, the company retains the sole right to make decisions related to marketing of the products. Target Market MYPHONE Company is committed to offering quality smartphones differentiated from other smartphones in the industry through a differentiation strategy. The target market of MYPHONE Company is Asia and Europe. The company aims at segmenting the market according to the preferences of the target market. The European market is already developed due to the already established demand for smartphones. As such, they prefer different features as opposed to the Asian market whose market is undeveloped and therefore preference of features is also varied. The features used for differentiation include; the levels of compactness and battery life, design, and additional features. MYPHONE Company is committed to produce smartphones that give the utmost satisfaction to its customers, which has prompted the company to implement a niche differentiation plan in the diverse market of smartphone industry. Annual returns have been positively influenced as a result of differentiating the company’s smartphones to suit different consumers’ needs. The target market consists of low income earners, middle income earners and high income earners, as many people aim to own a smart phone. The market is segmented into four different categories; households, high-end households, companies and high-end companies. Marketing Mix Products MYPHONE will be dealing with smart phones that are cable to have a competitive advantage with the two main competitors in the market target. MYPHONE will market this smart phones in Asia and Europe, this smart phones are capable of meeting the customers’ expectation consistently, and they phones are made to meet various needs of various consumers. The feature that have been incorporated in the smart phones are very unique, one of the advantage of this product as compared to the smart phone is that it has a longer battery life as compared to the mobile phones It will also be possible to customize the smart phones to meet the needs of a particular customer, for example a special customer may desire his phone to be coated in silver. It is also very important to bear in mind that since the segment is high-ended the extra feature will be very important. The issue of design has not be ruled out, and it has been considered to both the high ended and low-ended segment. Color will also be another factor that the company will consider, which means that the company’s products which are smart phones will be offered in various colors such as white, grey, black, red and green. The considerations that have been put in regard to products (MYPHONE smart phones) will ensure that the company has a competitive advantage. Price MYPHONE provides high-quality smart phones that are valuable to the customers’ needs, the value of the phones are reflected in the prices. The fact that there are various costs to be considered in offering the product such as insurance cost, shipping costs, and the custom duty the price will differ from the actual price in the manufacturing firm. However, the company will consider to large extent price elasticity of the company’s product as well as demand. Determination of the price will largely depend on the forces of demand and supply. Demand will be greatly influenced by factors such as market growth rates, average price level in the market average level of advertising, and the manner in which we shall differentiate the smart phones in the market. The company will also consider to offer bulk pricing for the corporate that wish to purchase the mobile phones in bulk. Discount will also another pricing strategy that will be used to attract more customers to purchase the mobile phones, since there will be a probability of increasing the volumes of sales. Distribution Since mobile phones are not perishable they will be shipped from the firm to the markets in Europe and Asia. There will also be some consideration to incorporate middlemen to facilitate the sale of the mobile phones. It will also be very prudent for the business to consider involving import and export agents, this is because the shipping of mobile phones will be very tricky at the port in terms of clearance in some countries in Europe and Asia. There will also be a warehouse that will be set at some strategic ports to ensure that the cleared mobile phones are well stored as the sales team seek for their market. Promotion The first promotional technique that the company has adapted is strategic alliance, which involves partnership with industry giants mobile service providers in Europe and Asia, one of the industry mobile service provider that the company has partnered with is Airtel. This will increase confidence to potential customers in Asia and Europe. Online marketing will also be another method that shall be used to market the phones in Europe and Asia, there is a lot of internet usage today around the globe. Internet does not only provide a cheap means of prod promotion but it is very effective in reaching the targeted consumers. The company will consider online marketing and offline marketing, it will also aim at making sure that MYPHONE has a high ranking in search engines such as Google, Bing, and yahoo. Print and electronic media will also be used as promotional method since they are very effective. Print media such as magazines, newspapers and coupons will be used in different countries in Asia and Europe. Sponsoring some TV programs in local television stations in specific countries will also be a strategy that will be pursued to enhance advertisement through electronic media. Implementation, Evaluation and Control Since MYPHONE is a product that deals in a very competitive market of mobile phones, the current and future products that are going to be manufactured by MYPHONE should be based on research and development to make sure that more enticing features are incorporated in the mobile phone. It will therefore be necessary to make sure that the market is organized to focus and meet the specific needs of the low and high segments. The marketing efforts of MYPHONE will be organized around the following customers group: (a) manufacturing group; (b) business-to-business group, non-manufacturing; (c) consumer product customization group (d) group that is associated in the industry. Each group will be led by a sales manager who will be answerable to the marketing director. Since there are two segments, high and low, each group is responsible for marketing MYPHONE within that particular segment. Since the market is scattered in various countries of Asia and Europe, the sales leaders will have to be autonomous in any decisions regarding marketing, this is strategy will be adapted as a way of making sure that marking efforts are decentralized unlike the previous one that was centralized. All implementations activities should begin at the coming fiscal year on November 5th. All activities will be facilitated by the sales directors in appointed in both Europe and Asia. On November 5th, in liaison with the HR department various positions of a marketing directors will be created in strategic countries in Europe and Asia. February 25th, an analysis team will be created to make sure that a customer survey project is instigated. March 10th, a marketing data system will be created to make sure that there is tracking of customer satisfaction as well as reorder pattern. May 10th, implement any changes in any recommendation that the business strategy will recommend. June 15th, the marketing teams in Asia and Europe will complete a customer satisfaction for the clients that are using the phones. August 25th, analysis of the customer satisfaction will be done. This will be aimed to improve any flaws to increase customers’ confidence and satisfaction for the last quarter of the fiscal year. I as director will formulate the objectives that will be used for the next fiscal year Evaluation and Control Financial expenditures and the planned goals will be compared and included in the project report. Evaluation and controls will rely to a large extent matters relating to performance standards and controls of financial. The annual budget of the promotional will be 55%, on the fiscal year, the billing cycle will be allocated 20%. It will be the responsibility of each project team to report all the financial expenditure such as direct expenses, personnel salaries, for their respective segment of the project. To make the evaluation credible, it will be my responsibility to provide a standardized reporting form. Results – Income Statement From the income statement (A1), both the markets, in Asia and Europe will see an increase in gross profit when the marketing plan is implemented effectively. Start-up cost will consists of the real marketing research that will be carried. After the launch of the smart phones the cost structure will comprise of sales agent salaries, administrative and general as well as marketing. Marketing research will decrease since it would have been explored enough. Appendix Income statement (A1) Conclusion MYPHONE Company is a prospective company that deals with sale of smart phones in Asia and Europe. The company operates its differentiated smartphones with an aim of offering different consumers products that suit their needs and preferences. The size of the market is marked by four segments; households, high-end households, companies and high-end companies. The four products are differentiated in features such as compactness, battery life, and design among other features. The company aims to become a market leader in the smartphone business in both Asia and Europe. The analysis of the business external and internal environment through SWOT analysis provides the company with a foundation from which to base its marketing plan and strategies. The primary objectives of the marketing strategy is to create awareness s of the brand in order to boost the revenues of the company. References Booms, B.H. and Bitner, M.J. (1981), Marketing strategies and organization structures for service firms, in Marketing of Services, J. Donnelly and W.R. George (eds), American Marketing Association Kotler, P, Armstrong, G, Saunders, J and Wong, V, (2001), Principles of Marketing: Third European Edition, Prentice Hall, Harlow Read More