Strategic Marketing Management of Halfords Bicycle - Example

Halfords Bicycle Marketing Strategy Plan Executive Summary Halfords Bicycle Group is a company that is located in the United Kingdom and specializes in numerous products that are associated to movements such as bicycles, and mobility aids. Halford’s SWOT analysis indicates that it has enough strength that can be used to mitigate on its weaknesses while ensuring threats are minimized. Moreover, the marketing strategy introduces means in which the organization can continue to be successful introducing new budgetary allocations, implementation and control measures. Table of Contents Introduction 3 Halfords’ SWOT analysis 3 Strengths 3 Weaknesses 4 Opportunities 4 Threats 4 Halfords Bicycle marketing Objectives 4 Halfords bicycle Target markets 5 Product/ brand positioning 6 Marketing strategies at Halfords Bicycle 7 Halfords Products 7 Halfords bicycle Prices 8 Halfords bicycle promotions 9 Halfords bicycle place 10 Halfords bicycle people 10 Halfords product offering 11 Halfords Bicycle implementation and control 12 Halfords bicycle Budget 13 Conclusion 14 References 15 Introduction Fredrick Rushbrooke established Halfords Bicycle Group in late 1800s in Birmingham in the United Kingdom, dealing with large-scale production and sale of ironmongery. In the 1940s, the company bought Birmingham Bicycle Company (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). The firm presently is a market leader in selling car accessories, mobility aids, vehicle enhancements, toys and child seats, SatNav, fixing car audios, mixing paints, vehicle part fitting and bicycles. It has branches in Ireland, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands and in the Czech Republic. Halfords has floated its shares in (LSE) London Stock Exchange market. In production and delivery of bicycles, the firm commonly makes use of the brand name Bikehut and Apollo (Wallace & Wallace 2001). This report seeks to highlight the marketing strategies at Halfords and their marketing objective, target markets, and product offering (Hiebing, Hiebing and Cooper, 2004). In addition, the report will analyze Halfords’ product offering, product or brand positioning, marketing strategies or the marketing mix and implementation and control. The report will also present a budget necessarily for the implementation and control. Halfords’ SWOT analysis Strengths Halfords Company has been in business for more than a century; hence have a competitive edge as a first mover market firm. They are specialized in what they do, and offer an array of bicycles, which are satisfactory across their customer segmentation. The firm has the resources to expand and modify its production and sale of mountaineering and camping equipments. Weaknesses Halfords Company as a market leader in United Kingdom has its weakness. Among its weakness is its limited distribution network globally. The company has only branches in United Kingdom and Europe alone. This therefore minimizes Halfords market share necessary to increase its profitability. Opportunities There are opportunities in the market in which Halfords as a brand can capitalize on. This includes expanding its supply chain management in global economies such as in the United States, Asia and the larger part of Europe where they have not established camp. Threats Among threats facing Halfords is entry of new competitors in the market. Currently, the firm’s major competitors are companies they specialize in either of production that Halfords deals with which is Motor and bicycle parts and accessories. Halfords Bicycle marketing Objectives Halfords as a company that deals in vehicle and bicycle parts and accessories, have sponsored a car racing team and Team Halfords Bikehut biking team, which is under the leadership of Cooke Nicole, the first British woman, Olympic gold medalist in road racing. The company registered annual income revenue of more than 800 million pounds in the year 2009, an annual profit of more than fifty five million pounds with an operating income of more than a hundred million pounds. The firm has a minimum capacity of ten thousand employees on its payroll. Among the company’s marketing strategy is to offer its customers comfortability, efficiency and effectiveness based on the customer’s personal needs like riding style and the routes in which the bikes are to be used on (Ranchhod, Gauzente, and Tinson, 2004). The other strategic objective the Halfords seek to achieve is to spread out into Eastern European nations where the standard age for a car is older, and Eastern European citizens are increasingly proficient at car repair and maintenance. At Halfords, the goals and objectives which are set are lucid, can be measured; by quantifying the process of achieving the set goals and examining the performance of the said objectives. The firm practices the 80:20 rule where the type of objectives set are realistic (Llc, Books, 2010). This is to ensure Halfords does not attempt propagating work processes and operations. In addition to that, the objectives developed and implemented are achievable and has necessary financial, human, physical and time resources to make them achievable (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). It goes without saying the significance of developing goals which are not only agreed upon by all concerned stakeholders but are time bound, this helps Halfords achieve short term and long term goals and objective Halfords has set these time bound, measurable, realistic, attainable and specific goals and objectives for remaining focused, for motivation to reach an agreed result and initiating control. Halfords bicycle Target markets Halfords Company as a brand has its targeted markets. This includes the young, men and women across all ages (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). They also produce and sell car and bicycles (as products, parts or accessories ad repair) which suits different customers across different social status. There are products, which are affordable to high-end customers, while others are easily affordable by an ordinary customer. Product/ brand positioning Product or brand position is a fundamental element of marketing in any organization (Berry and Wilson, 2000). The practice of product positioning entails identifying who the targeted customers are, analyzing the product’s traits which are unique to them, conducting a customer analysis to understand what the customers’ expectations, needs, preference, tastes, attitudes, behavior and buying decisions are (Richardson, 1997). For Halfords Company, their product positioning has been characterized with establishing what their products’ location is in the merchandise space, production of customized products which suits the specific needs of the varied Halfords customer base and identifying what need to be done on its products in order to effectively, efficiently and adequately satisfy their customers. In addition, Halfords has in its product positioning identified what characteristics their products and services have that is particularly unique to them, thus capitalizing on it (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). At Halfords Company, they have integrated functional, symbolic and experiential positions of positioning concepts. They engage themselves in production and delivery of products that adds value to customers, production and delivery of goods that promote them as a brand and finally but importantly, they are involved in activities, operations, work processes and production and delivery of products that stimulate the cognitive stimuli of existing and potential customers. Product positioning at Halfords has been such that they aid it by use of customer surveys, performing factor analysis and making use of perpetual mapping. Marketing strategies at Halfords Bicycle For success for organizations striving to competitively- increase its market shares, satisfy the needs of its customers, increase its profitability, and build its quality and the name of the brand (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). Moreover, plan for the future, setting specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound objectives and seeks to enhance the quality of products and services produced and delivered, developing the right marketing strategies, implementing them appropriately and doing an evaluation is fundamental (Harrison and John, 2009). Among areas, which Halfords Bicycle has set as marketing strategies, include elements such as products, product prices, promotions, place, and the people. Halfords Products Halfords boost of more than 30% share of the cycling retail sector in the United Kingdom and Europe with 15% in the general cycling premium sector. It has invested in production of the state of the art bicycles, safety gears and accessories (Peter, 2010). The company has a wide range of bikes, which are custom made rather than pigeon hold to suit the riding styles of the different customers, and suitable for the different roads, trails and routes on which they are rode on (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). Among the bicycles produced and offered by Halfords bicycle includes road or race bikes, which are reputable for their speed (Port, 2008). They are generally light to ride, have not installed with mudguards, and are suitable for slightly lean tyres. The road or race bikes can be accelerated speedily and are rear rack free. They are for biking or cycling races. The future strategy is to integrate innovation in their products to match the changing customer needs in the ever-shifting competitive motor and cycle industry. There are also the Fixed Wheel Road bicycles, which need the experience of a skilled rider owing to the fact that the bikes do not have gears, and one needs to continuously pedal. This is because of the rear sprocket being set on the rear wheel. They do with minimal maintainable. The Flat handlebar road bicycles produced and offered by Halfords bicycle are bikes fixed with mudguards, a rear rack, and a compact chain set (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). They are a preference for commuting in and out of traffic owing to the flat bars’ positioning. There are touring bikes, which can be rode for long distances. In addition, apart from having built-in rear racks and mudguards, it has front panniers (McDonald and Dunbar, 2007). Touring bikes have wide gear ranges to efficiently-carry loads. Among other products of bicycles sold by Halfords, include among others mountain bikes, which are suitable for cycling through tracks, side streets and towpaths. There are also classic bicycles, folding bicycles, electric bicycles, tandems bicycles, recumbent bicycles among many others. Bicycles made by Halfords come in different sizes and designs to ensemble the different attributes of the human body (Wilson and Gilligan, 2005). Among other products produced for sale by Halfords Bicycles are helmets, gloves, lights, panniers, rucksacks, fluorescent jackets, cycling shoes, goggles, mudguards and locks. In addition, the firm seeks to increase its line of production in bicycles. Halfords bicycle Prices Halfords bicycles have strived to produce bicycle and bicycle accessories, which are relatively affordable amid the present modern competitive market environments (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). For the accessories like lights, helmets, gloves among others, Halfords customers can purchase them at between minimum amounts of ten pounds to as much as three hundred pounds. For the bikes, a customer can ride home with as little as 200 pound bicycle (McDonald, 2007). Additionally, the prices have randomly shifted owing to changes in competitive market forces. The future strategy is to make quality, diverse and innovative products that are affordable to all its customers. Halfords bicycle promotions As the company seeks to expand its retail and supply chains, advertising has held an important position in Halfords marketing strategies. The company has not only invested in press and electronic media advertising, but have also ventured into ecommerce and advertising which is on the internet (Boone and Kurtz, 2010). They have developed their own website, www.halfords.com. In addition, the company has promoted its products through sponsorship of local car racing and cycling teams. They have been actively involved in trade fair and exhibitions of the line of productions they deal with. They have a dynamic retail sales team, which ensures on time delivery of goods, and making sure the market is aware of new products (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). The company has benefited greatly from word of mouth spread through satisfied customers. They have invested in creation of an efficient and effective customer care service that operates 24 hours to respond to customer inquiries, orders, opinions, views and suggestions. It is also a great avenue for identifying customer’s attitudes, buying behavior, tastes, needs, expectations and preferences (Westwood, 2002). The future promotion strategy is to enhance its promotional techniques to involve and engage the customers more and for their suppliers to cut their prices to relatively lower prices. In addition, the company seeks to use cost effective raw materials and production programs which will help maximize profits for the company without burdening the customer with high priced products. Halfords bicycle place Place in marketing strategies refers to the site of the business or retail outlets at which customers can easily and quickly access products and services offered by an organization (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). Halfords Company as a brand has over four hundred retail shops spread across the United Kingdom and in Eastern nations of Europe. The brand has its branches in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and in the Ireland. Halfords has diversified its distribution channels to include marketing and purchasing of their products through the internet by the existing and potential customers (Fifield, 2007). Place offers convenience by which customers are not only accessible to the products on offer, are able to find the products they need, but also, are well informed and are able to get hold of information about various products on display. This is to allow customers to make informed buying or purchasing choices. The future place strategy for Halfords bicycle is to enhance its supply chain management and establish global outlets. Halfords bicycle people People entail the concerned stakeholders like investors, customers, shareholder, management and the employees. Through the element of people, an organization is able to perform market segmentation, understanding the market demographics, that is, the social status of customers or consumers of which the products are produced and availed for (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). As a marketing strategy for Halfords, their customers range across all levels of people from young children, young adults, men and women, the elderly, professional racecar drivers and cyclists. In addition, their products are affordable to any person across any social status. The future people strategy is to produce better customized products that will not only accrue profits for the company, but satisfy the needs and the expectations of the stakeholders effectively and efficiently. Halfords product offering Product offering can be described as the process of presenting the products to customers in such a way that they keep the existing customer coming back for more and for the potential customers, to prick their curiosity and lure them into making a purchase (Daval, Zachariah and Rajpal, 1996). Halfords does not only offer basic featured bicycles, but are keen on installing modern accessories in line with current fashion trends in the make, design and form of bikes available in the market. In their internet web page, the page is appealing to look at and display a diverse selection and category of products that Halfords offer. The links are designed in such a way that a customer easily locates a product they are interested in, and are able to have a look at other items on the display. The online web page is such that all space is effectively utilized to offer explanations and promote Halfords products (Paley, 2006). There are lucid connections to customer care services, clear information about the charges on home or office deliveries, and terms and conditions, which apply to various purchase orders. As a product offering strategy, Halfords has made it uncomplicated for the customers or individuals browsing their sites, due to an increase in the number of filtering options where a customer can explore what they want by make, volume, price and structure. They say a photo can tell a thousand words. Halfords bicycle has taken this statement seriously during their internet product offering (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). They have posted clear and properly edited photos, which is a great way in which a customer can actually see what they are buying way before making an online purchase. On Halfords web page, there are customer review sections or customer analysis surveys in which customers not only present their opinions, but also have an opportunity to ask definite questions about any product displayed. At the same time, customer are able to read what other customers have to say about the services they priory received and what their experiences were with the products they purchased (Halfords Bicycle, 2010). The on the net product offering to say the least is colorful, attractive and keeps the customer or an idle internet user absorbed, who may turn out to be potential customers. However, the company should work on improving the purchasing process on the internet since some of the products displayed on the web page are not purchasable online. Halfords Bicycle implementation and control Developing the appropriate marketing strategies is one thing but implementing and having control over them is another. Wrong execution of marketing strategies for any profit or nonprofit making organizations is disastrous. The inability to evaluate and control the process leads to organizations losing focus; hence, they are unable to achieve their set goals and objectives (Haines, 2008). For success in the implementation of present and future Halfords marketing strategies, include careful planning, which depicts how various elements will be implemented, by who, how they will be implemented, the reason why it is necessary to implement them and when is the most appropriate time to effect the changes. It also entails identifying which marketing strategies meant for implementation align well with the Halfords organization structure. This is necessary for making changes in the organization structures to accommodate implementation of the developed strategy. It is critical for Halfords to have enough financial, natural and human resources necessary ti implement the strategy. For the human resource, the firm needs to communicate to its workforce about the strategies in order for them to understand what they are supposed to do. In addition, informing the human resource of any changes that may be expected upon implementation of the strategy. The implementation stage should be conducted with a period of one year. After the implementation stage or phase, Halfords Bicycle has a task of monitoring and controlling the strategic plan implemented. They should regularly measure and analyze whether the results expected are realized, whether the strategy are still on course, whether the firm need to re-strategize or move on with the strategy. This includes shifting timelines, altering the plan of actions, adjusting the strategy and as a last resort performing a complete overhaul of developing new objectives and goals. Monitoring should be done within a period of 6 months. Halfords bicycle Budget The Halfords bicycle budget meant for implementation and control of its marketing strategies include increased costs in transportation costs as the company expands into new regions, storage and inventory costs, salary and wages for workforce that will be charged with the increased production of bicycles. More financial resources is needed for conducting a comprehensive market research and surveys to identify customer needs, tastes, preference, attitudes, behavior, and what influence their choice of buying. Tables for budget expenditures and implementation /controls timetable  Promotional Medium Cost Television Ads £12,000 Radio  £ 15,000 Newspaper Ads  £11,500 Web Marketing  £8,000 Promotional Events  £15,000 Printed Promotional Materials  £ 1,500 Total Cost  £ 64,000 Conclusion Marketing strategies are the back born and the skeletons with which the flesh or structures of marketing plans are laid on. Marketing strategies allow organizations to identify what their strengths are, what are their weaknesses and how they can work on them, understanding who or what the threats (competitors) are in the market and planning on how to counter or neutralize the risks or threats. During the development, implementation and control or evaluation of the marketing strategies, an organization is able to identify opportunities available in the market and make use of them. This report has highlighted Halfords bicycle marketing strategies. Halfords bicycle is a division of Halfords Company, a retail market leader in sale of car accessories, mobility aids, vehicle enhancements, toys and child seats, SatNav, fixing car audios, mixing paints, vehicle part fitting and bicycles. It has branches in Ireland, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands and in the Czech Republic. References Berry, T. and Wilson, D. 2000. On target, the book on marketing plans: how to develop and implement a successful marketing plan. New York: Palo Alto Software, Inc. Boone, L. and Kurtz, D. 2010. Contemporary Business. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Daval, R., Zachariah, P., and Rajpal, K. 1996. Marketing management. London: Mittal Publications. Fifield, P. 2007. 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