Branding, Pricing, and Distribution Strategy - Assignment Example

Branding, Pricing, and Distribution Strategy Green Solutions is a company that has specific advantages in the current scenario of the energy industry. However, the intense level of competition in the energy market of the United States of America would make it necessary for the company to position itself in a unique and differentiated manner. The company should promote the brand by leveraging on the strengths like excellent customer service and low prices of the products. Affordability and eco friendliness of the products and the free services provided to the customers are the main factors that should be focused upon in the brand management process of Green Solutions (Jacobson and Delucchi, 2009, pp.58-60). The pricing of the solar energy products and services provided by the company should be competitive and affordable. A penetrative pricing strategy can be considered to be the most appropriate for the business. The pricing decisions should be taken by considering the prices of the similar products supplied by the competing companies in the sector. The distribution process of Green Solutions should be a well equipped and strong one, so as to reach the maximum number of industrial and household target consumer groups. The company should tie up with established distributors so that it can take advantage of the knowledge of these distributors regarding the way the local markets function. Competitor Analysis The main competitors of Green Solutions in the energy sector of the United States of America are Solar City, RGS Energy and Verengo Solar. These companies are the major players in the US energy sector. All the competitors of Green Solutions belong to the intra competitors group because they compete on conventional competitive factors like pricing and service provision. Solar City is a prestigious and expensive brand which is preferred by a wide industrial group of consumers. Both Verengo Solar and RGS energy are affordable for the customer groups but the prestige value associated with these firms is low. As such, more household customers prefer these brands while the industrial customers seldom opt for these companies. Differentiation strategy as compared to the closest competitor The closest competitor company of Green Solutions is Solar City. This is because , though Green Solutions aims to tap in both the industrial and household customer groups , yet the industrial customers are given higher preference because of the high scale of scales and revenues generated though these alliances. The differentiation strategy used by Green Solutions as a competitive strategy against Solar City is the affordability factor. The company would price its products at a competitive price by considering the high prices of the products of Solar City. Green Solutions –a leader or a follower in the industry Green Solutions has the long term objective of positioning itself as a market leader. The company has got all the resources and capabilities that are required to act as a leader in the energy sector of the United States of America. The company aims to develop and implement new strategies and services to impact the existing landscape of this sector and these differentiation strategies are expected to bring about considerable shifts in the way the big and small energy providers operate in the country. Macro-environmental issues and trends The macro environmental factors like the social, political, technological and economic factors can have far reaching impacts on the functioning of a company. This is especially relevant in the case of a company that operates on a tightly regulated and governed industry like the energy industry. Green Solutions should mandatorily contend with the existing legal and social requirements in order to establish itself as a successful company in the market. The increasing concerns regarding the fast depletion of on renewable energy sources have created unlimited potentials for the marketing of renewable energy sources like solar energy, wine energy, thermal energy etc. Thus, from an environmental and social perspective, the national landscape is highly feasible for the operations of Green Solutions. The economy of the United States of America is one of the strongest economies in the world which makes the pricing power of the consumers quite strong. Also, there are abundant industrial and household customers for the energy sources. Energy being a necessary product, everyone requires it to some extent (Pacala and Socolow, 2004, pp.968-972). Therefore, in overall, the current landscape of the country and the emerging trends are likely to have favorable impacts of the functioning of a solar energy provider like Green Solutions. Marketing research tools that are used in the marketing strategy The marketing research tools that would be used to conduct the primary market research for the viability of the business are surveys with samples from the industrial customers and household customers, one on one interviews with the industry experts and people who have actually been working in this industry, communication with the individual household customer groups through the use of social networks and blogs. The secondary market research for the company would be carried out by referring to the economic reports, different company and industry reports and industry forecasts. Implementation strategy for Green Solutions The marketing plan for the company would start with the market research processes. First the market research personnel would carry out the secondary data collection by referring to different published industry reports and particular company reports which are accessible. After the completion of the secondary market research, the company would take up the primary market research process in which direct interactions would be made with the existing and potential customer group from the target market. This would include the surveys and polls, explorative interviews with samples selected from customers, industry experts and managers. This will be followed by a proper analysis of the collected data so as to interpret them in the most precise and accurate manner (Kotler and Keller, 2012, p.44). Timetable for the marketing strategy The marketing plan for Green Solutions would be would be implemented by using the different marketing strategies on a scheduled basis. This schedule for the use of the different marketing strategies and techniques is expressed for a period of 1 year through the Gantt chart method which is a statistical method of segregating a series of works into different phases with fixed time periods allocated to each one of them. Months January-February March-April May -June July-August October-November November-December Secondary research through the study of industry and company reports and publications and primary research through surveys and polls. Establishment of financial controls, monitoring tools and performance standards Partnerships with organizations which work in promoting environment, friendly products and lifestyle Partnerships with the community based institutions and organizations and the environmental groups Active promotions and campaigns for the launch Social media marketing Review of the performances and finance use in the marketing strategies. Five year expansion plan The five year expansion plan for the company would include expanding the business operations into the emerging markets like China, India etc. and the developed markets like Europe. Also, product extension and brand extension would be considered by the company to ensure better sustainability and continued success in the future years. This would increase the profitability of Green Solutions and also help to increase the market share of the company in the global energy market. Two social media tools Two social media tools that can have positive impacts on the marketing plan of Green Solutions are selected as blogging and Face book marketing. Face book being the most popular and globally used social website, is likely to enable the marketers of Green Solutions to reach the widest possible number of customers across the globe and in the country itself. This would lead to higher brand awareness and act as a supportive factor for the future foreign expansion plans of the business. Blogging would act as a real time communicative system for ensuring higher transparency regarding the achievements and activities of the company. Blogs would act as an effective medium for communication of the messages and philosophies of the company to the target consumer groups (Goldstein and Lee, 2005, p.90). Two performance standards, two monitory methods and two financial controls Two performance standards that would be used for determining the desired performance level of the marketing plan for Green Solutions would be the distribution of the product development costs over a fixed period of one year with the reviews being made at the end of every quarter of the year and the implementation of strict regulations related to the marketing of the company so that excellence and compliance can be achieved in every step of the marketing plan of the company (Polanski and Winsatt, 2005, pp.100-104). Two monitoring methods that would be used to review the marketing plan would be the forecasting of the resources and investments that would be necessary to be allocated for performing every step of the integrated marketing plan and the periodic review of the effectiveness of the marketing plan to compare the actual progress of the plan with the forecasted prefers requirements of the same. Two financial controls that can be established for the marketing plan of Green Solutions are the creation of a budget for the next year and making each marketing department responsible for accounting all the financial expenditures using a standardized report format (Ker, 2008, p.90). Potential of Green Solutions’ performance The potential for performing at a very efficient way is high for Green Solutions because the external business environment is supportive of a new green energy providing company and also because the marketing plan of the company is developed as a combination of the traditional and nontraditional innovative marketing strategies. This is likely to influence better performance and penetration of the company in the high growth energy sector of the United States. Integrated marketing communications Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) make the use of both the conventional and non conventional marketing channels aimed at the application of a strong and consistent brand image. Thus, Green Solutions should also use different promotional techniques and marketing channels that would complement each other and strengthen the marketing plan of the company in a combined manner. The Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) used by Green Solutions would include promoting the brand through traditional advertising and promotional techniques like print media, visual media, electronic mail marketing, tie up with other important entities functioning in the energy industry of the country, broadcasting, direct marketing, banner advertising and outdoor advertising. Also, the non conventional marketing techniques like social media marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing (SMM) would be used as an integral part of the marketing plan. References Goldstein, D. & Lee, Y. (2005). The rise of right-time marketing. The Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, Vol. 12 (3), pp. 212–220. Jacobson, M. Z. & Delucchi, M. A. (2009). A path to sustainable energy by 2030. Scientific American . Vol.301 (5), pp. 58–60. Ker, D. A. 2008. Developing business strategies, 6th Ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Kotler, P. & Keller, L. K. (2012). Marketing management, 14 Ed. London: Pearson Education Limited. Pacala, S. & Socolow, R. (2004). Stabilization wedges: solving the climate problem for the next 50 years with current technologies. Journal of Science and management, Vol. 305 (1), pp. 968–972. Polanski, T. L. & Winsatt, M. 2005. Environmental marketing: strategies, practice, theory, and research, 5th Ed. New York: The Hawthorne Press. Read More