Various Practices are Used in Marketing - Case Study Example

Business Report: part A Student’s name Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission Executive summary Marketing is a practice which aims at ensuring that an organization is able to sell its products and services. Marketing objectives are creating new markets, customer retention and creating confidence on the product. Various practices are used in marketing. Advertising is the most used form of marketing. Marketing is essential for any industry regardless of its line of operation. The Motorola Company and Nokia Corporation are two manufacturing companies. They are international companies hence have distributors and branches in several countries in the world. The following outline is part A of a report on marketing being done as an assignment for the course Introduction to Marketing (BUMKT 1501). Table of contents Contents Contents 2 1.0 Industry background 3 2.0 Company background 4 3.0 Product overview 4 3.0 Strategic Marketing and Planning 5 4.0 Microeconomic Forces 5 5.0 Macroeconomic Forces 5 6.0 SWOT Analysis 6 7.0 Market segmentation 6 8.0 Target Markets 6 9.0 Targeting Strategy 6 10.0 Positioning Strategy 7 11.0 Recommendations 7 References 7 1.0 Industry background The manufacturing industry is one of the industries which are characterized by competition. Manufacturing involves the production of finished products, after following a number of prescribed processes. The industry is characterized by different brands. A brand is a trademark, name, design or slogan that identifies the products of a specific company. Each company produces its own brand which is characterized by specific features. Brand development must be continuous in order to keep up with the market trends. For this reason, marketing becomes a must do for any company intending to stay active in the market. The phone manufacturing industry is one of the industries that have seen enormous revolutions over time. With the growth in telecommunications, need for communication gadgets has come in handy. With the development in wireless communication, mobile phone manufactures have established themselves manufacturing various phone brands bearing various features. The Nokia Corporation and the Motorola Companies are some of the major phone manufactures in the industry. Both have products trading with the names Nokia and Motorola. Due to the competitiveness of the market, both of them have been forced to diversify their products for instance Motorola also manufactures accessories, consumer two way radios, hoe digital videos, cordless phones, cable modems & gateways, tablets, phone software and also provides home networking (Motorola, 2011). Nokia Corporation has been forced to follow suit and also manufactures the same products. 2.0 Company background . The Nokia Corporation is a phone manufacturing company. It has its headquarters in Finland. It produces a mobile phone which trades with the brand name Nokia. It is also a provider of GSM systems. Today, Nokia is the largest producer of mobile phones having a market share of 27 %. The Nokia Corporation has its headquarters in Finland (Nokia, 2011). The company started in the 19 th century as a paper industry and has evolved in products and services to the today’s Nokia Corporation. The Motorola Company is also a phone manufacturing company with its headquarters in Illinois, US. The company has been in existence for more than 80 years (Motorola, 2011). The company has its fair share of the market due to its quality products and experience in the communications industry. As it is the case with Nokia, Motorola is involved in brand development so as to keep up with technology and emerging demands. 3.0 Product overview Phones are the main products of the Nokia Corporation and Motorola Company. The telecommunications industry has been developing over time. This has seen the need for mobile phone rising each day. Communication is a major contributing factor towards the economic development of an individual and a country at large. For this reason, emphasis and investments on the communication industry have been undertaken worldwide. The developments in wireless telephony saw the need for mobile phones rise drastically. This has seen a growing rise in need of mobile phones. This has created a good market for the Nokia Corporation and today, it is one of the leading phone manufactures in the world. 3.0 Strategic Marketing and Planning Strategic marketing is the practice of marketing according to a specific plan in order to meet certain objectives. Strategic marketing normally targets a specific market (South west marketing arts, 2002). The plan should be capable of ensuring that the company is able to reach its targeted market hence it must be competitive enough to woo customers. (Revella, 2009) 4.0 Microeconomic Forces Macro environmental and micro environmental are types of environments affecting a company. Microenvironment comprises of the internal and external environments. The structure of the management, objectives and strategies of the company constitute the internal factors. The eternal environment comprises of the competitors, customers, public and marketing intermediaries (Pearson Education Canada, 2002) 5.0 Macroeconomic Forces On the other hand, the macro environment forces are forces which the company can do very little to change but can only adapt its processes according to them. They include demographics, technology, nature, culture, politics and economics ( Driscol, 2001) 6.0 SWOT Analysis The report will also cover a strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis of the two companies. SWOT analysis is the analysis of a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The analysis covers an in-depth analysis on the company and presents the company’s present state and tries to find ways of ensuring that the company maximizes on its capabilities and plans on how to counter their weaknesses (Creative Industries Research Institute, 2008) 7.0 Market segmentation Market segmentation is the process by which an organization targets a specific type of people as a market for its products by development of marketing mixes that suit the needs to that specific market (Restrepo, 2009). The segments normally comprise of people with similar specific needs. 8.0 Target Markets Targets markets are specific markets which a company intends to reach when marketing. They are a group of people (customers or potential buyers) sharing specific needs or characteristics from a product (Bragg, 2009). 9.0 Targeting Strategy After identifying the target market, the company develops a targeting strategy. The targeting strategy aims at enabling the target market distinguish the company from competitors. The company comes up with the strategy according to the market it intends to capture (Restrepo, 2009). 10.0 Positioning Strategy The positioning strategy is the plan which seeks to integrate all factors discussed above into the product which will meet the needs of the targeted audience (Restrepo, 2009). 11.0 Recommendations The Nokia Corporation should restructure its target market to cater for low income earners. The Motorola Company should expand its market share by trying to reach untapped markets. References Bragg,R. (2009). Target Market Identification and Marketing, Center for Profitable Agriculture, 1(1), 1-10 Creative Industries Research Institute, (2008). SWOT Analysis, AUT University, 1(1), 1-2 Driscol, J.(2001) Lecture Notes On Macroeconomics. Brown University And NBER, 1(1), 1-151 Motorola Company, (2011). Motorola Was There. Retrieved 10TH August from http://motorola-videoleadership.hosted.jivesoftware.com/community/motorola_heritage Nokia Corporation, (2011). Nokia in Brief. Retrieved 10TH August from http://www.nokia.com/about-nokia/company Pearson Education Canada, (2002). Introduction to Macroeconomics, 1(1), 1-5 Restrepo, A. (2009). Segmentation –Targeting –positioning. Eureka Facts, 1(1), 1-8 Revella, A. (2009). Strategic Marketing: Your Untapped Competitive Advantage, 1(1), 1-3 Read More