Strategic Marketing of UNE Life - Case Study Example

Strategic Marketing Plan-Case Study: UNE Life Name Student Number Unit Name Unit Coordinator Word count: 1978 Table of Contents 1.Executive Summary 3 2.Introduction 3 3.Strategic Marketing 5 3.1.UNE Life’s SMART Objectives 5 3.2.UNE Life Hierarchy of Strategies 6 3.3.Porter’s Competitive Forces 6 3.4.Industry Attractiveness Analysis 8 4.Conclusion 10 References 10 Strategic Marketing Plan-Case Study: UNE Life 1. Executive Summary The objective of this paper it to evaluate the implementation of strategic marketing plan in UNE Life and its relevance. UNE Life is a segment of the University of New England that is dedicated to provide services to students apart from education where they can be entertained, engage in fitness, and also allows the students to engage themselves in various business activities. The strategic marketing plan involves five steps to ensure that it is complete. The first step is mission statement that is used to give an analysis of the reason the particular entity exists, the second step is situation analysis that evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the organization, the third step involves determining the marketing objectives such as revenue, profit and market share. The other step is strategy development where a target market is selected who are potential customers of the business and finally evaluation is conducted that determines the way these marketing strategies will be conducted and the team responsible for this task.(Handlin, 2012) 2. Introduction Strategic marketing planning refers to a set of activities carried out by the operational and the management departments of a company with an aim to developing efficient and effective strategies applicable in the overall marketing. This process consists of determining the available opportunities that can be applied in promotion and also involves a careful analysis of the all the available opportunities. It also involves detecting potential markets, conducting an analysis of the identified markets and selecting the most relevant to the business. This planning also entails laying out a set of strategies applicable for the company and determining the steps followed in deploying these strategies. Once the best strategies are selected then a marketing plan is also identified, prepared, analyzed and implemented. Lastly, the chosen plan and strategy should be evaluated and validated against the set goals of the organization to measure their performance levels and the viability of the marketing plan.(Lorette, 2012) Implementing a strategic marketing plan requires an extensive analysis of the customers regarding their needs and their experiences to determine whether their direction is in cohesion with the organization’s plans and objectives. One important factor in strategic marketing is market segmentation. This refers to apportioning a wider market into subsets such as businesses, customers, countries, who share common interests. Market segmentation is very important in strategic marketing because it enables the organization to understand the customers well and this helps the company to meet the customers’ needs to deal with competition. The segments should be identifiable, accessible, substantial, unique needs factor and durable because the process of segmentation is tedious and time consuming and thus the outcome should be durable segments.(Piercy & Morgan, 2015) UNE Life’s mission is to ensure that the university experience of the students is made easier and more entertaining together with the knowledge they acquire in class. The mission is relevant because the main aim of UNE Life is to offer services to the students who are their customers through entertainment and other services. This implies that the main idea of UNE Life is to make the student’s life enjoyable away from the pressures of course work. This mission is also time relevant in terms of time because it is boundless. This is because at any point in time students will be enrolled into the university and apart from studying they need recreational facilities within the institution and UNE Life makes this desire possible. The mission is thus timeless and highly effective.(Wilson & Gilligan, 2012) 3. Strategic Marketing 3.1. UNE Life’s SMART Objectives The marketing objectives of UNE Life are characterized as; creating services awareness within the campus to increase the number of customers, to increase the number of sales with balanced forces of supply and demand while reducing marketing expenses, establish products awareness to the customers who happen to know the location but are not aware of the products offered through structured conversation and finally to minimize variable costs and ensure that the profit margins are achieved every year. These objectives are specific in that a particular objective pinpoints the desired target. For instance, targeting an increased number of customers is very specific in that it only involves bringing more students to the premises for the services offered. The objectives are measurable because the targets set are quantifiable. For instance, striving to meet the minimum profit target per year at UNE Life is a measurable objective by simply comparing the net income to the targeted income. These objectives are also achievable because they are not complex and the ability to achieve them lies in determining promotion strategies and customer needs. The marketing objectives are also relevant to the particular business endeavor and also applicable to the target groups. Furthermore, the objectives are timely because their applicability is annual which is not only achievable but also efficient. This is because these particular objectives can be applied at any time of the year as long as the original goal is met. 3.2. UNE Life Hierarchy of Strategies Various strategies can be applied to ensure that the objectives are met. The main aim of UNE Life is to ensure that the students are fully aware of a wide range of products offered and how they can benefit the students in the campus. The strategy to be applied therefore will be aimed at creating customer awareness of the goods and services offered, creating a solid customer base with a good foundation and ensuring that the customers are loyal and that they can also recommend other potential customers. The awareness process will be geared towards convincing the students that the only single place where their recreational and business needs can be met is at UNE Life. They are also assured that their graduation needs will be handled appropriately to meet all their requirements. This awareness will be conducted through advertisements at the university website and in the social media platforms accessible by the students. In addition to this, students will be given coupons through which they can invite their friends to try the products offered at UNE Life. This is a form of an incentive whose main focus is to attract more students. This concept enhances the referral to new customers who may increase the existing customer base. The pricing scheme is as per the standards set by the law, students will also be assured of free delivery and customer service requires enhancement to ensure that all the customers’ needs are handled. 3.3. Porter’s Competitive Forces UNE Life will be competing against other entertainment industries around the campus that offer similar services to it. The organization will therefore prove to its customers that it is better than the competition. Michael Porter’s five competitive forces will therefore be implemented as follows to gain the competitive advantage over other firms in the entertainment industry. Threat of new entry portrays medium pressure because of the monopoly of the fact that UNE Life is located within the campus and students will feel more secure acquiring products from here rather than other sources which are not trusted. In addition to this, the prices will be constant. This implies that the customers are loyal and they are not likely to try new places. Threat of substitute products is high because there are other entertainment firms around the university where students can acquire recreation facilities. People can acquire similar products elsewhere creating high pressure. The bargaining power of buyers is low because of the customer’s loyalty to UNE Life. Many students and staff will choose UNE Life as opposed to other products to the guarantee of quality provided by the University’s reputation. The bargaining power of suppliers is low because these suppliers are distributed considering that they supply a wide range of products. In addition to this, the monopoly aspect of UNE Life poses an advantage in that it becomes the main customer of the supplier’s products around the university. Rivalry among existing firms is high because there are other firms that offer the same services offered at UNE Life and some even have more products. The entertainment industry is wide and this only means that rivalry is also high. According to the Miles and Snow Typology, UNE Life falls under the defender strategy. This is because its main objective is to main the existing customers, ensure enhanced growth and improve customer services. This is because by improving customer services, the customers will be loyal and this is a strategy of maintaining these customers and ensuring that growth is stable. The students being the target customers demand good services for them to be loyal due to their dynamic nature. 3.4. Industry Attractiveness Analysis Looking at the macro-level domain in market attractiveness, the level in which UNE Life operates in is very wide. The entertainment industry is very wide and the target groups are similar. The industry’s growth is in an upward trend because new ideas concerning entertainment are being created every day. For instance, considering the movie industry, people nowadays prefer watching movies using virtual reality gadgets in a 3-Dimension platform. This implies that this industry is growing tremendously. As a result it is easier for UNE Life to grow in this industry than if it was a declining one. The micro-level analysis of attractiveness is high because UNE Life has ventured into market segmentation. Dealing with a particular segment, in this case students, has enhanced the marketing power because the customer’s needs can be addressed at a personal level because of the specialization implemented in this facility. The external strategic challenges faced by UNE Life is the changing customer needs. New technologies are being developed and thus the customer needs are always dynamic. Dealing with these changes is challenging due to the fact that resources are needed in implementing these changes. The internal challenges are the fact that the marketing team should be highly trained and resourceful to achieve the marketing strategies. Acquiring such a team is not easy and also requires resources and training time. Market research is important for the strategic planning in UNE Life because the customers need to be analyzed. The needs of young people are very dynamic and they will choose a location where their needs are best addressed. This is the reason why the foundation of any form of strategic planning is customer –oriented. The product being offered will influence the marketing decisions in that the customer’s needs will be studied in accordance with the product to ensure that they co-exist. Pricing will be determined by the standards set by the law but this also depends on the services offered along with the selling of a specific item. Distribution affects marketing decisions in that the value of items distributed should be reasonable such that the revenue is not affected by distribution cost. Promotion policies will influence marketing decisions in that the targeted sales should be achieved through effective means of customer awareness. Market segmentation is very important for UNE Life because it will help in determining the specific customer needs based on a particular subset. Designing the target market is also important to provide products specific to that target group and also will enable the organization to measure attractiveness level. Positioning is significant to UNE Life in that it is able to determine the products placement in the minds of customers. This is important in dealing with rivalry companies. Differentiation of products is significant as it is a common strategy in dealing with competition. Making products unique helps in maintaining customers.(Boundless, 2015) 4. Conclusion Strategic marketing plan is very important and according to the findings stated above, it is important to focus on customers before engaging in any strategic plans because their needs and the needs of the company should be consistent. The only way to determine the right direction is through market research and analysis. References Boundless. (2015). Product, Placement, Promotion, and Price. Boundless. Retrieved from https://www.boundless.com/marketing/textbooks/boundless-marketing-textbook/introduction-to-marketing-1/introduction-to-marketing-18/product-placement-promotion-and-price-108-4454/ Handlin, A. (2012). 5-Step Strategic Marketing Process. Retrieved July 20, 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5step-strategic-marketing-process-15753.html Lorette, K. (2012). What Is Marketing Strategy Planning? Retrieved July 20, 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/marketing-strategy-planning-628.html Piercy, N. F., & Morgan, N. A. (2015). Strategic and operational Market segmentation. In M. Levy & D. Grewal (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1993 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 676–676). Springer International Publishing. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-13159-7_146 Wilson, R. M. S., & Gilligan, C. (2012). Strategic Marketing Management. Routledge. Read More