Marketing Plan - Assignment Example

Marketing Plan Table of Contents Introduction 4 Mission ment 4 The Product support of Mission ment 4 Consumer Product ification 5 Target Market 5 Competitive Situation Analysis 6 Porter’s Five Force Model 6 SWOT Analysis 7 Strengths 8 Strengths as Core Competencies 8 Weaknesses 9 Opportunities 9 Threats 9 Marketing Objectives 9 Product Objective 9 Price Objective 10 Distribution Objective 10 Promotion Objective 10 Marketing Strategies 10 Product Strategies 11 Pricing Strategy 11 Distribution Strategy 12 Promotion Strategy 12 Explanation of Strategies 12 Tactics and Action Plan 14 Product Action Plan 14 Price Action Plan 14 Place Action Plan 15 Promotion Action Plan 15 Monitoring Procedures 15 Measuring effectiveness 15 Monitoring Timeline 16 References 18 Introduction Company G is a leading and popular public corporation, which manufactures and distributes high-quality electronic appliances across the globe. The current product line of the organization includes several high-quality electronic devices, digital video players and video recorders. Company G is the parent organization of Company XG and Company G. the diverse customer base of the organization includes tech-professionals, small business entities and daily consumers. The products of the organization can be found in the brick-mortal and online retail stores. The organization has developed strong relationship with the consumers, distributors, retailers and suppliers. The products of the organization are also found at specialty electronic retail stores. The organization is going to introduce energy saving small electronic appliance named XG-Select. The following is the marketing plan of XG-Select. Mission Statement XG-Select will meet the satisfaction level of the consumers through continuous innovation and high quality. Affordable, efficient and easily accessible XG-Select will meet daily needs of consumers that are unmatched by several market competitors. The Product support of Mission Statement Portable Party Blender is the first product line of XG-Select under Company G. The energy efficiency aspect, stainless steel design and compact size of party blender will help the brand to support its mission statement. 500 watt motor inside, attractive design, lightweight characteristic and efficiency can make this portable party blender as a unique product within small electronic appliance industry. This product will effectively justify the mission statement of the organization as the portable party blenders are of high quality, attractive, easily accessible. Moreover, energy efficiency, low investment and minimal raw material waste also justify the sustainability and mission statement of Company G. The product line is highly innovative as the consumers can carry the products with them in required places due to its portability. Consumer Product Classification The product line of XG-Select can be classified into three different types, such as shopping, specialty and convenience products. First of all, the portable party blender can be identified in the brick-mortal and online retail stores. It is easy to find and shop as the customers will be assisted by the executives and online reviews during the purchase of products. Secondly, it is regarded as a special product as attractive design, portability function and energy efficiency characteristics can influence the purchasing behavior of people. Thirdly, it is easy to use as the user-friendly functions and accessories help the consumers to mix several items in drinks quite efficiently and quickly. Therefore, it is also regarded as convenience product. Target Market Consumers aged between 21 and 45 are the major target customers. Consumers, who like to spend their time outside, are major target customers as this product will be highly required while having different beverage options. Both male and female are the major target audiences of this product line. Single young adults, office executives, young college students and households are the major target customers of these party blenders. The average income of the target customers would be 15,000 dollars to 65,000 dollars annually. These consumers generally seek for high quality products and the demand for the party blenders is increasing significantly in different regions of United States of America. Competitive Situation Analysis This section will conduct a competitive situation analysis using external environmental analytical tool. Porter’s Five Force Model Porter’s five force model can be considered as one of the important external environmental analytical tool that will help XG-Select to determine the impact of external environmental factors on the business performance of the organization. Competitive Rivalry This particular industry is highly competitive as existing Kitchen aid, Cuisinart and Coffee Mate manufacturers have secured 45 percent market share in the United States. Therefore, it is true that the degree of industry rivalry is quite high. New Entrant’s Threat Threat of new entrants is quite low as the industry is highly competitive and saturated. On the other hand, entry cost and formalities are quite high for the new players. It is quite difficult for the new players to grab the market share of existing players. Buyer’s Bargaining Power Retailers are the major buyers of XG-Select. It is clear that the industry is highly competitive. Therefore, the organization has tried to offer differentiated and high quality products at economic price level to reduce the threat of price war. Therefore, it can be stated that buyers’ bargaining power is moderate. Supplier’s Bargaining Power Supplier’s bargaining power is low for XG-Select as the organization can gain the support from high quality suppliers in limited cost due to intense competition among existing suppliers. Substitute’s Threat Threat of substitute is high as several organizations are trying to offer environment friendly similar kind of products to grab the market share of these types of products. Electric alternative mixer, food processor and stand mixer ate some substitutes of this portable party blender. The popularity of electric alternative mixer, food processor and stand mixer is also increasing and emerging as a substitute of portable party blender. SWOT Analysis SWOT Analysis can be considered as an important strategic marketing tool that will help XG-Select to determine its internal strengths, weaknesses and external opportunities, threats. Strengths High consumer satisfaction. Strong supplier relationship. Strong credit rating and financial strength. Weaknesses Required new supplier base. Zero brand awareness. New product positioning. Opportunities Online promotion. Growth of customer base through high product quality. Implementation of differentiation strategy. Threats Intense market competition. Inadequate quality of new suppliers. Recent financial crisis and limited disposable income. Strengths The customers are highly satisfied with the products of Company G due to its high quality and reasonable pricing. Strong relationship with suppliers helps the organization to gain high quality raw materials at limited cost. Strong financial base of the organization has helped the brand to get support from important stakeholders. Strengths as Core Competencies High consumer satisfaction will increase the brand loyalty. It can be considered as a core competency as it will help the organization to increase its market share in competitive market. Strong supplier relationship will help the organization collect raw material and distribute end-products at low-cost and time. It will help the organization to gain potential competitive advantages over competitors as the effective order delivery and warehousing requires high-level of supplier engagement. Only effective relationship with suppliers can enhance productive supplier engagement, which is organization’s core competency. High credit rating and financial strength can influence all the stakeholders to take interest in the strategy development and decision making process. It actually can enhance effective strategy development process that can increase the core competency of the company. Weaknesses The organization needs new supplier base for new products as lack of supplier base can be considered as a weakness of XG-Select. Since, it is a new product line, the target customers are not aware of the new developed product. It is also a major weakness. Lastly, new product positioning may create confusion among target customers, regarding price, quality and service of the product. The consumers may perceive that, these products are not effective comparing to other available products in market places. It is the biggest weakness of XG-Select. Opportunities The organization should try to implement differentiation strategy to provide high quality differentiated XG-Select products at reasonable price. Emergence of online promotional strategies should be considered by the organization. Threats Intense market competition is the major threat. In addition to this, recent financial crisis and economic recession affected the purchasing power and disposable income of people. Inadequate quality of new suppliers also can become a major concern for XG-Select. Marketing Objectives This section will develop four different objectives for XG-Select considering next three years. Product Objective The organization should develop an effective production team within the month of February. The performance of research and development team should be monitored and evaluated in every three months to judge the promised quality. The organization should implement technological applications in the month of February to bring pace in production activities. Every year the efficiency of production equipments should be monitored and evaluated. Price Objective The starting price of the portable party blender should be 34.99 US dollars and the unique or attractive limited editions should be priced 49.99 US dollars in first year of product introduction and will provide discounts in seasons. In second and third year, the price of all the product segments would be increased by 2.49 dollars respectively. Distribution Objective The organization should use its own distribution channel and motivate the retailers to follow ethics in distribution activities. The organization should maintain a distribution lead time of 7 days for every order. Resource allocation, manufacturing and distribution to outlets will be completed in 7 days to maintain effective lead time in next three years. Promotion Objective XG-Select will be launched in the every city of the United States of America through, online networks, live campaigns and reality shows in the month of October, 2015. The brand and product awareness should be increased by 75 percent within next three years. Marketing Strategies The marketing strategy includes four different strategies known as marketing mix strategy those are followed. Product Strategies The portable party blender will be consisting of rechargeable batteries and an AC adapter as it will justify the objective of implementing advanced technological applications. It is lightweight and energy efficient product. Moreover, the products are portable and easy accessible as it will help to satisfy the needs of customers. The products have one year warranty to enhance effective customer service and loyalty. Last but not the least; the products are highly attractive in design and superior in quality. It will justify the objective of continuous evaluation of the performance of production team and R&D team. Pricing Strategy Market penetration pricing strategy will be implemented for the products to position the product effectively. The average price will be 34.99 US dollars and price of the limited editions will be 49.99 dollars and the price will be increased by 2.49 dollars after the initial year. It will help to gain a competitive edge in first year and increase market share in second and third year. The organization will provide combo pack of two products with 10 percent discount during festival seasons. It will help the organization to earn huge brand recall for the products (Kumar, 2013). Distribution Strategy It is true that retailers are the major growth drivers for XG-Select. Therefore, the distribution channel of the organization will try to develop good relationship with retail giants in United States of America In addition to this, the organization will implement decentralized distribution strategy to reduce the overall supply chain lead time during the distribution of the products. It will help the organization to maintain 7 day distribution lead time (Paley, 2006). Promotion Strategy Live promotion campaign and reality shows will be used as effective promotional channels as it will help to create significant brand awareness before the month of October across USA. In addition to this, tradition print and digital mediums will be used to create brand and product awareness among target customers. Lastly, the organization will use social media networks to promote products as the number of social media users is increasing significantly day-by-day as it will help to create 75% brand awareness in next three years (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). Explanation of Strategies In terms of product strategy, the mentioned applications, attractive design, energy efficiency of the products and high portability will help to meet customer satisfaction level. Therefore, strong manufacturing unit, strong R&D team and effective technological applications are required. In terms of price mix, the mentioned price ranges of the products will help the brand to be competitive in market. In addition to this, festival discounts will help to pull the customers towards the brand. It will act as a high brand-recall strategy. Lastly, yearly increase of price after a successful market penetration in the first year will help to attain significant market share growth rate. In terms of place mix, strong decentralized distribution channel will enhance effective communication in the channel. It will decrease overall supply chain lead time. Therefore, the objective of effective supplier relation can be justified. In terms of promotion mix, the entire mentioned promotional channel will help to create awareness among people of all age group, gender and cultural background, which will help to create awareness among 75 percent customers in next three years. Tactics and Action Plan This section will develop tactics and action plans to meet the developed objectives. Product Action Plan Tactic Due date Responsible Party Resource Allocation February 2015 Production Manager. Product Manufacturing From April 2015. Production Manager. Resource allocation and manufacturing of high quality products depend upon the effectiveness of R&D team, manufacturing staffs, suppliers and used applications or machineries. It is important for the production managers to evaluate the effectiveness of these aspects to ensure effective resource allocation and manufacturing process. Price Action Plan Tactic Due date Responsible Party Cost-Based Pricing April 2015. Production and sales manager. Competitive Economic Pricing Christmas Eve 2015, 2016, 2017. Production and sales manager. Cost-based pricing and competitive economic pricing should be used in order to offer high quality products at economic price. It will help to attract more number of customers. It is the responsibility of the sales manager to create effective pricing to ensure competitive edge. Place Action Plan Tactic Due date Responsible Party Retail Store Distribution October 2015. Distribution Manager. Kiosks across US August 2015. Distribution Manager. Development of kiosks across US and retail store distribution activities will be evaluated by distribution manager within mentioned dates by decentralizing the distribution channel in order to create effective communication among suppliers and internal stakeholders. Promotion Action Plan Tactic Due Date Responsible Party TV and Radio Campaign March 2015, 2016, 2017. Promotion Manager Direct Mail/News Paper June 2015, Jan-Dec 2016, Nov-Dec 2017. Promotion Manager Social Media Promotion 2015, 2016, 2017 (Month before Christmas eve) Promotion Manager The promotion manager should try to use all the mediums and promotional platforms considering the mentioned dates and timeline in order to reach the objective of creating 75% brand awareness within next three years. Monitoring Procedures This section will talk about measuring effectiveness and monitoring timeline. Measuring effectiveness Monitoring Activity Frequency Responsible Party Expenses Quarterly in a year. Human Resource, Distribution and Promotion Manager. Revenue Twice in a year. Sales Manager. Customer satisfaction Monthly Basis. Product Manager. Retail sales Quarterly in a year. Sales manager. Promotion effectiveness Monthly Basis. Promotion Manager. Expenses should be measured in order to determine overall production, sales and marketing cost and revenue will be measured to determine the profit in three years. Most importantly, it will help to justify price objective. Customer satisfaction will be measured by production manager in order to ensure the quality and efficiency of the products to meet the product objectives of offering high quality products by maintaining efficiency in the production team. Retail sales should be maintained and evaluated by the sales manager. Effective evaluation will help to focus on increase in sales and become one of the leading brands in next three years in terms of popularity and profitability. Promotion activities should be evaluated frequently in order to meet the promotion objective i.e. create 75% brand awareness in next three years. Monitoring Timeline Activities Frequency Responsible party Revenue and Profit Calculation Half-Yearly. Sales Manager. Labor expenses Quarterly. HRD, Distribution and Promotion Manager. Distribution Expenses Quarterly. HRD, Distribution and Promotion Manager. Advertising Expenses Quarterly. HRD, Distribution and Promotion Manager. Customer satisfaction survey vial mail Monthly. Product Manager. Customer satisfaction survey via e-mail Monthly. Product Manager. Customer satisfaction survey via telemarketing. Monthly. Product Manager. Print and Digital Media Promotion Monthly. Promotion Manager. Social Media Promotion Monthly. Promotion Manager. Public Campaigning Monthly. Promotion Manager. Retail Sales Evaluation Quarterly. Sales manager. References Ferrell, C. O., and Hartline, M. (2012). Marketing Strategy. Stamford: Cengage Learning, Kumar, N. (2013). Marketing as Strategy. London: Routledge. Paley, N. (2006). The manager’s Guide to Competitive Marketing Strategies. New York: Springer. Read More