Changing Perspective in Marketing Planning - Assignment Example

Student Name: Tutor: Title: Marketing Planning Course: TASK 1 Changing perspective in marketing planning Traditional marketing planning emphasizes on pricing, product, promotion and place. A company designs a product, prices the product, places in stores, and finally comes up with promotion campaign for the product. This traditional marketing planning is changing. The modern marketing planning counters the traditional approach for the assumption that it can push the product into the marketplace. Modern marketing planning approach suggest that provision of adequate information as well as authentic presentations can result into customers being drawn to the product instead of insisting on one-way messages in media ads (Gilligan & Wilson, 2012). The modern perspectives emphasizes in creating ways through which customers can provide feedback and engage in the improvement of the product. Understanding the market before developing a new product is important to avoid new product launch failure and premature from the market. Organization’s capability for planning its future marketing activity The organization’s capability is determined by its synergetic effects, core competence, resources and behavior. The organization has to utilize its strengths with the purpose of overcoming its weaknesses. An organization must have an effective and efficient marketing team that understand the market environment and is innovative. Future marketing activity will be determined with how the marketing team is informed about the target market. Resources have to be committed for engaging in future marketing activities (West, Ford & Ibrahim, 2010). Budget constraints curtail innovation as well as new product development. Financial capability, technological capability and team work among staff members puts the organization in a better place to undertake a marketing activity. The readiness of the organization to embrace change and commit resources to training and development of its workforce determines its preparations for future marketing activities. To launch a new product in the Dubai market requires commitment of resources. The weaknesses in the organization have to be understood and turned into strengths. The organization has to understand the present and future needs of the market. Techniques for organizational auditing and analysis of external factors affecting market planning The SWOT Analysis involves understanding of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of internal and external environment before venturing into a new market or launching a new product. SWOT analysis affect marketing planning because it will influence exploiting new business opportunity, response to new trends, new technology implementation, and how to overcome strategies used by competitors (Von Agarwal, 2005). SWOT analysis can be used to address staffing issues, organizational structure, operation efficiency, advertising, business culture and image. The application of Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis to an organization gives important insights that can assist in the formulation of appropriate strategies to be applied in the market. These forces include potential of new entrants into the market, threats of substitute products, impact of suppliers, power of the buyers, and rivalry between sellers in the market (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). PESTEL analysis involves understanding of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal factors of the target market. The environmental barriers can be overcome. PESTEL analysis can lead to change in marketing planning budget through the market surveys. Auditing and analysis of external factors for the scenario Dubai market consists of wealthy people due to the booming oil and other mineral business. A new product developed has to target the up market as well as the vast middle class. Moreover, there are immigrants workers who reside in United Arab Emirates and low cost product can target such a market segment. The market segment that will require the new product will be determined through market research and survey. The political stability in UAE offers a good environment for launching a new product. Market analysis has to do be done to determine any competitors who currently exist in the market the Dubai market (Von Agarwal, 2005). Dino has to finance market surveys to determine the needs of customers in the Dubai market. Religion and culture of the society of Dubai has to be considered in launching the new product. TASK 2 Main barriers to marketing planning Environmental barriers consist of prevailing legal, social, economic, technological, and regulations and ethical norms that pose to the marketing planning through placing limitations or restrictions in the manner in which the business interact with the environment. Regulations can hinder comparison marketing in cases where market surveys show the best form of marketing like pitting the product with that of the competitor. Absence of skilled manpower in the area or labor regulations that spell out unsustainable minimum wages may prevent hiring enough people to conduct market surveys (Gilligan & Wilson, 2012). The marketing plan of a competitor may cause postponement or further modification of the designed marketing plan. Cultural barriers also affect marketing planning. Culture is the knowledge, beliefs, custom, morals, values, capabilities and habits shared by people in a society. Organizational culture impacts on performance greatly. Inability to interpret the cultural sensitivities of the target market leads to misleading marketing planning particularly in global marketing. Behavioral barriers play a part in influencing marketing planning. The workforce behavioral traits greatly influence marketing plans. A conservative marketing team may tread very carefully and prefer tested marketing methods that ensure steady growth ad modest returns. a marketing team composed of risk takers may go for innovative or aggressive marketing strategies to grow the market share in a short while (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). Cognitive barriers define absence of skill or knowledge resulting in unsuccessful marketing plans. Marketers who have inadequate skills are not able to understand markets, products, competitors, or customers properly and come up with ineffective and distorted marketing plans. Absence of competent skills hinders conducting of market surveys to detect customer preferences or new trends before launching marketing campaigns. Systems and procedural barriers also affect successful marketing planning. Absence of market survey forces that the marketing team can use make then to resort to guesswork in designing a marketing approach. Inappropriate system can impede the implementation of a designed marketing plan (West, Ford & Ibrahim, 2010). The marketing team has no power to commit resources and seek approval from other budget deciding departments before implementing a marketing plan. The budgetary constraint is a barrier to marketing planning. Absence of resources like people, time, and money hinder development and implementation of marketing plans. Adequate funds have to be committed to marketing planning for it to be successful. The marketing team can come up with successful marketing plans but they fail to implement them due to limited resources. How organizations overcome barriers to marketing planning The organizations have to understand the marketing environment through marketing research in order to overcome environmental barriers. Market analysis of the target market has to be done to identify any environmental barriers and come with ways of overcoming them. Understanding laws and regulations both international and local is important. Organizations have to invest in training and development of the marketing team. Marketing survey of the Dubai market has to done in good time (Gilligan & Wilson, 2012). Hofstede’s cultural dimensions provide a general guide to national cultures characteristics. The marketing team should not ignore the culture of the target market when designing marketing plans. Promotions, packaging and pricing of the product have to consider the culture of the people being targeted. In this case, the marketing team has to understand the culture of Dubai market before developing a marketing plan for the new product. The organizations have to streamline their functions to avoid system and procedural constraints. Budgetary allocation has to be done in good time to allow marketing surveys to be conducted. Adequate resources have to be allocated to marketing planning to ensure all procedures have been followed when implementing and designing a marketing plan (West, Ford & Ibrahim, 2010). The finance department has to allocate enough funds for the new product targeting Dubai. TASK 3 Marketing plan for the product Marketing plan is an important document that shows market evaluation, direction, goals and marketing results. The market plan has to define the market, the target customers and explains how the product will reach the intended market. Environmental scanning will reveal the weaknesses and strength of the Dubai target market. Realistic and achievable goals have to be set within a specific time frame. A marketing plan offers the roadmap for new market entry or the development of a new product for an existing market. The product composition, packaging, and promotion have to be defined the marketing plan (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). The time schedule for all activities leading to the launch of the new product has to be provided. Importance of marketing planning in strategic planning process for an organization The growth, productivity, and profitability of an organization are determined by its strategic planning process. Marketing planning has to be anchored in the strategic plan of the organization. Marketing planning assists in providing insights for the strategic planning process about new opportunities and effective resource allocation. Marketing planning can lead to chance in budgetary allocation in order to deal with changing trends and consumer preferences in the market. Marketing planning can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the organization for better understanding of the market (Jeffs, 2008). New product development and innovation determines the future of an organization. Products produced have to be sold in the market hence emphasizing the importance of marketing planning to strategic planning process. Marketing planning has to be incorporated in the strategic planning process of the organization. Marketing planning also has strategic goals that have to be formulated in the strategic planning process of the organization. Techniques for new products development Focus groups and brainstorming can be used in development of new product ideas which will be vetted to come with a new product. Brainstorming involves workers suggesting randomly product ideas to be developed and they are later scrutinized in terms of their viability and financial resources available in the organization. Innovation and new product development can be promoted through incentives by rewarding innovative workers for the sake of encouraging others. Motivated workers can generate new ideas that are crucial for new product development. Product extensions or re-launching differentiated product is another way of new product development. Existing products can be differentiated in flavor, size, or prices to target a certain segment of the market (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). The process of new product development details the steps that a new product goes through from when the idea is conceived until when the product is launched in the market. Controlled market test can be used to determine the product that has to be developed. Observing the purchase behavior of customers can make one determine emerging needs in the market. Recommendations for pricing policy, distribution and communication mix The pricing policy has to consider the prices that competitor are charging as well as the income bracket of the target consumers. The middle class presents an attractive market that needs products that are not priced very highly. The price being charged by market leaders have to be considered while setting the price of the product. Distribution will be done through established channels of departmental stores, malls, supermarkets, wholesalers and retailers. Developing a new distribution channel is expensive and unsustainable (Gilligan & Wilson, 2012). The established chain of supply in Dubai will assist in the distribution of the product. Communication mix will involve the promotion of the product in the Dubai market. Personal selling and direct marketing will be employed to ensure relationship develops between the sales team and the consumer. Promotion activities will be through advertising in mass media, bill boards and use of sales promotions. The communication mix will spell out how the awareness of the product has to be created. Factors affecting the effective implementation of the marketing plan Limited budgetary allocation does not allow the marketing plan for a new product to be implemented fully. Resources of many organizations are limited and organization struggle to perfect the product mix and the promotion mix. The organizational culture can also hinder implementation of marketing plan and there is need for organization change to take place before certain marketing plans are implemented (Shabbir & Thwaites, 2007). The skill and competence of the marketing team can also affect implementation. Inadequate skills and organizational bureaucracies have negative impact on the marketing plan implementation. TASK 4 How ethical issues influence marketing planning An organization has to be ethical in its marketing planning in order to guide advertising, pricing, research, and competitive strategies. Deceptive advertising can lead to interference by the government or lobby groups in the marketing plan to stop the deception. The organization has to uphold its moral obligation to the general public and the target market. No one should feel misled into buying or trying the new product. Stereotyping and discrimination in the market negatively in advertising and promotion is a challenge marketing planning. Ethical issues have to be considered during marketing planning (Ferrell, 2004). The content, measurement, price and packaging of the product have to be genuine to everyone for successful marketing planning. The companies are not to portray other competitor’s product negatively and hence use hypothetical cases in advertisement instead of referring to real products. Examples of how organizations respond to ethical issues Organizations have to be sensitive to ethical issues and act accordingly to change any misunderstood cases. A company in Australia was forced to withdraw an advertisement that was considered to be demeaning women. Hence organizations can also withdraw offensive advertisements from the media. Organization can also be forced to change the message in its advertising in order to avoid the backlash of the society. Measurements of the packaging have to be changed if they are not correct (Shabbir & Thwaites, 2007). If the product contents or packing is deceptive, the organization has to change the production formula and packaging. Examples of consumer ethics and the effect on marketing planning The organization should not defraud or cheat the consumer about product content or overcharge in the prices. Defrauding suppliers, wholesalers or retailers through expansive contracts is unethical. The organization has to be truthful and fair to other players in the market. Paying suppliers in time and not taking advantage of other players in the market is ethical. Improper presentation of the product in the market can affect is market planning because consumers may avoid it and cause its withdrawal from the market (Bellizzi & Hasty, 2003). The advertising should not be considered as offensive and should consider the norms and traditions of the target society. Ethical issues can affect the loyalty of customers to a company’s products. Where customers feel they are not getting quality for their products can lead to boycott of the product. Setting the price of the product very high to gain instant profits is unethical and lead to exploitation. Promising what the product cannot deliver is unfair to consumers and brings about serious ethical challenges. References Bellizzi, J.A. & Hasty, R.W. 2003, Supervising Unethical Sales Force Behavior: How Strong Is the Tendency to Treat Top Sales Performers Leniently? Journal of Business Ethics, 43: 337-351. Ferrell, O.C. 2004, Business Ethics and Customer Stakeholders, Academy of Management Executive, 18 (2): 126-129. Ferrell, O.C., & Hartline, M. 2012, Marketing Strategy, Cengage Learning, New Jersey. Gilligan, C., & Wilson, R.M.S., 2012, Strategic Marketing Planning, Routledge, New York. Jeffs, C. 2008, Strategic Management, SAGE Publications Ltd. p. 29. Shabbir, H., & Thwaites, D. 2007, The use of humor to mask deceptive advertising, Journal Of Advertising, 36(2), 75-85. Von Agarwal, S. K. 2005, Environmental monitoring, Kul Bhushan Nangia: APH Publishing Corporation. West, D., Ford, J., & Ibrahim, E. 2010, Strategic Marketing: Creating Competitive Advantage, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Read More