The Rise of Right-Time Marketing - Assignment Example

Strategic Marketing Plan Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Table of Contents Introduction 2 Explain the relevance of mission, SMART objectives and hierarchy for UNE Life 3 Industry analysis using Porter’s five forces and the conditions for strategic fit 5 Analysis of the challenges facing UNE Life using macro and micro analysis 7 Discuss the relevance of the marketing research for the strategic decision making of the UNE life and identify the influence of product, pricing, distribution and promotion policies on marketing decisions 9 Discuss the significance of the overall segmentation, targeting, differentiation and positioning strategies for the SportUNE 12 Conclusion 14 Sources cited 15 Introduction Strategic marketing plan is the process of formulating the long term objectives that should be achieved by an organization through effective marketing strategies. This is because the success of any organization is associated with the ability of the organization to create awareness of its products and services and also ensuring that the needs of the customers are considered while formulating the marketing plan (Armstrong & Kotler 2006). This paper will discuss in details the strategic marketing plan in relation to UNE Life. Explain the relevance of mission, SMART objectives and hierarchy for UNE Life The strategic plan of any organization includes the mission and vision objectives. The mission statement of UNE Life is to ensure that the service role has been strengthened by ensuring that there are sporting partnerships that help to improve the healthy lifestyles. The mission statement helps to explain the existence of the organization so that the stakeholders can be able to understand the steps they can take to achieve the mission statement of the organisation (UNE life 2015). The relevance of the mission statement is to ensure that the stakeholders’ needs are incorporated into the strategic marketing plan so that it can be successful. This mission statement is relevant to UNE Life because it helps to explain the aim of UNE Life to the stakeholders and this helps to strengthen the working relationships. From this mission statement, the objectives of UNE Life include improving the sporting activities and making the University life to be easy and enjoyable by the students. In addition, UNE Life aims to provide healthy lifestyle opportunities to the students and other stakeholders (UNE life 2015). These objectives are relevant to UNE Life because they help to ensure that the stakeholders especially the students understand the aim of UNE Life and they will love to joint eh University. As a result, the stakeholders should be able to understand that the university provides services that meet their needs. This will help to improve the achievement of the goals and objectives of the students and they will enjoy being in the University. In addition, there are various corporate level strategies that can be adopted while making the strategic marketing plan. The highest level of the corporate strategy is the corporate strategies. These are the strategies which are made at the top of the organisation (Assael et al 1995). The corporate strategy is to identify the business opportunity where UNE Life can compete. It is concerned with reaching out the goals and objectives, developing business opportunities that can help to create competitive advantage and also managing the business interrelationships as well as the business practices. In this context, the business aims to ensure that there is value for the business and the business can achieve competitive advantage by meeting the needs and expectations of the customers. The corporate level strategy is relevant in strategic marketing plan by ensuring that the best business opportunities have been identified that can help to improve the competitive advantage of the business (Assael et al 1995). The corporate strategy also provides clear direction where the organisation should go hence promote teamwork. The other hierarchy of UNE Life is the business level strategy. These are the business strategies which are formed to ensure that there is effective coordination among the different business units to with the aim of developing sustainable competitive advantage. The business level strategies are relevant to UNE Life lifecycle because they help the organisation to compete effectively in the market and deal with the changes in demand and supply to ensure the needs and expectations of the customers are met effectively (Assael et al 1995). The business level strategies that can be applied include cost leadership and differentiation strategy. For instance, UNE Life provides services which are unique including indoor games such as strength and conditioning Gym as well as the outdoor games like children’s play area. These services are not provided by all universities thus UNE Life stands out hence it is able to create competitive advantage. Finally, there is functional level strategy. This is the lowest hierarchy of the strategic decisions. These are the strategies which are made at the functional divisions of the organisation. The strategic decisions which are made at the functional level include the strategies for business processes and the value chain process. At the functional level, the communication and information sharing is the key concept that helps to formulate better strategies at the business level strategies (Aaker 2008). The relevance of the functional level strategies is to transform business strategies into action plans which are used to create competitive advantage for UNE Life. In this regard, the hierarchy of the business strategies is relevant to UNE Life since they help to formulate appropriate strategies at various management levels. In this way, UNE Life will be able to compete effectively by providing unique services that can meet the needs of the customers since the stakeholders will be satisfied with the products and services which are provided. Industry analysis using Porter’s five forces and the conditions for strategic fit UNE Life aims to improve the lives of the students at the University by ensuring partnership and improved healthy living. This means that UNE Life will operate in both the learning and the hospitality industries. The UNE Life will be categorized in the hospitality industry because it will provide various hospitality products and services like the catering services (Aaker 2008). UNE Life will also provide hospitality services such as conference halls and recreational facilities that aim at meeting the needs and expectations of the stakeholders. On the other hand, UNE Life is also categorized in the learning industry because most of the target audience is the students. The objective of the UNE Life is to improve the life of the students and the products and services which are provided target the students so that they can be able to improve their healthy living. Considering the industry in which UNE Life operates, there are forces that should be considered to determine the viability of the market. The first force is the force of new entrants. Due to education system in Australia, there is regulated number of entrants into the learning industry. This is because the educational standard has to be maintained (Baines 2011). This means that there are many students as compared to the learning organization which meet the international standards. In addition, there is no availability of substitute products and services. In the learning industry, there are no substitutes and the students have to go the normal learning process to meet the required educational standards. This implies that there are many students as compared to the Universities and this lowers the bargaining power of the customers. This makes the industry attractive. Further, the bargaining power of the customers is relatively low because there are few competent Universities as compared to the number of students (Baines 2011). This means that the customers have relatively low bargaining power as compared to the organisation itself. Moreover, the bargaining power of UNE Life is relatively strong as compared to the bargaining power of the customers. This means that the strategic marketing decisions of the organisation are not adversely affected by the customers. For instance, the charges might not be affected by the customers since they have relatively low bargaining power (Armstrong & Kotler 2006). Finally, there is no rivalry competition in both the hospitality and learning industry because of the policies of the government. Rivalry competition can lead to deterioration of the education as well as the quality of products and services provided by the hospitality industry. In this context, there is no rivalry competition thus the industry is well regulated and all these should be considered when formulating the strategic marketing plan. After considering the industry analysis in which UNE Life operates, the reactor strategies should be applied so that they can help to react on the needs and expectations of the customers. Some of the reactor strategies that can be employed by the organisation include product diversification and product development as a way of reacting to the needs and expectations of the customers. This will help to attract and retain the customers. In addition, the defender strategies can also be applied to ensure that the products and services are protected from unfair competition (Brassington & Pettitt 2006). For instance, the customer relationship management strategy should be applied in order to satisfy the customers so that they can be maintained. In this regard, UNE Life will remain competitive by applying these strategies and this will help to meet the needs and expectations of the customers who the majority is the students. Analysis of the challenges facing UNE Life using macro and micro analysis The operations of UNE Life are affected by both the internal and external forces which influence the strategic marketing plan. To start with micro environmental factors, the first factor that influences the operations of UNE Life and poses some challenges is the suppliers. The suppliers are the key stakeholders of the organisation because without the suppliers there could be no products and services which are provided. Due to the nature of UNE Life, there are few suppliers and sometimes there is a shortage in supply and this means that the products and services might be adequate to meet the demand of the customers (Brassington & Pettitt 2006). In addition, the customers might not supply the products and services at the right time and this affects the ability to meet the demand of the customers. This challenge affects the competitiveness of the organisation if there is no consistency in supply. However, this challenge can be solved by engaging into long term contracts with the customers. Competition is another factor that influences the attractiveness of the industry. Due to higher education regulations, there are few entrants who meet the required standards and this means that competition is not too high. However, there are many customers due to globalization which has made the customers to seek the education outside their home countries. This poses the challenge of competing effectively and at the same time provides quality products and services (Baker 2007). Finally, the employees on the other hand influence the attractiveness of the industry. In the learning industry, there has to be qualified lecturers who have the ability to teach in the Universities. This means that there is likely to be shortage in the supply of labour meaning that there are few entrants into the industry. This makes the industry not so attractive because there are some important skills among the lecturers which are not easily available (Baker 2007). This raises the challenge of labour supply shortage although it can be solved by ensuring that there are employment contracts with the lecturers. On the contrary, the macro environmental factors can also influence the attractiveness of the learning industry. To start with, the political factor influences the marketing strategies to be used as well as well as the marketing language to be used. Failing to follow the political policies then there will be legal battle which can hinder the reputation of the organisation (Ryan & Jones 2012). The economic factor also influences the strategic marketing. This is because when the organisation has stable finances, it can use expensive marketing strategies like using TV advertisements. This will influence the perception of the customers. However, the challenge is when the customers have financial crisis and they are not able to buy the products and this makes the advertisement irrelevant. The social factor further influences the strategic marketing process because of the increasing population that requires quality services. This makes it a challenge to UNE Life since it might not be able to meet the demand of the customers due to increased population and globalization. Technology further influences the strategic marketing process (Jobber & Fahy 2006). This is because the technology can be applied to market the organisation to a wider market scope. However, the challenge is that not all customers have the access to the internet hence they might miss out the advertisements. Finally, the changes in the legal policies like the advertisement language as well as the disposal strategies can influence the strategic marketing plan. This is because the organisation has to constantly change its policies to meet the legal policies so that it cannot engage into legal battle with the legal policies. Despite these challenges, the learning industry is generally attractive since there are clear policies which should be met by new entrants. Discuss the relevance of the marketing research for the strategic decision making of the UNE life and identify the influence of product, pricing, distribution and promotion policies on marketing decisions Market research is important because it helps to collect relevant data that can be used to understand the dynamics in the market. Failing to understand the market conditions will influence the success of the strategic marketing plan. In this regard, market research is important because it helps the marketing team to identify the target audience (Jobber & Fahy 2006). This is because the marketing team will come into contact with the customers and they can help to identify the most viable market for UNE Life. This helps to improve the strategic marketing decisions which are made by the marketing team. Therefore, marketing research is relevant as it helps to identify the target market and their needs and expectations. In addition, marketing research is important and relevant in formulating the strategic marketing plan because it helps to understand the needs and expectations of the customers. This is because the marketing team will be able to come into contact with the target customers. In formulating the strategic marketing plan, it is important to understand the needs and expectations of the customers (Kerin 2012). This will help to improve the marketing function since the marketing team will be able to incorporate the needs and expectations of the customers to the strategic marketing plan. As a result, the marketing strategies can be appropriate in creating awareness of the products and services to the customers. The market research is also relevant to UNE Life as it helps to understand the most effective marketing strategies that can help to market the products. Not all the marketing strategies are applicable to all the marketing segments (Kerin 2012). However, with the help of the market research, it will be possible to formulate and implement the marketing strategies which can be helpful in creating an impact to the target audience. In this context, the marketing research is relevant to the marketing team as it helps to identify the most effective marketing strategy that can be applied when executing the marketing plan. Finally, segmentation of the target market can be effective with the help of market research. During the market research, various needs and expectations of the customers can be taken into consideration. This helps to ensure that the characteristics of the customers are grouped together so that there will be effective market segmentation (Lamb et al 1998). In this regard, the market segmentation will help to implement different marketing mix elements at each segment which is relevant and can meet the needs of the customers. In this regard, market research is very crucial and relevant in formulating the strategic marketing plan that can be most effective to the target audience. On the other hand, the marketing mix elements can influence the marketing decisions which are made by the marketing team. In the first place, the products and services influence the marketing decisions. For instance, the tangible products can be marketed using sales people because free samples can be offered and the marketing team will explain the use of the products (Kotler & Philip 2012). For instance, the new customers who do not know how to swim can be assigned the instructors to help them in swimming practice. This helps to market UNE Life hence the product influences the marketing decisions. In addition, the pricing can also influence the marketing decisions. There are various pricing strategies which can be applied by an organisation. For instance, there is a competitive pricing decision. The pricing influences marketing decisions in that the pricing strategy can be appropriate to different market segments depending on their capacity (Kotler & Philip 2012). For instance, competitive pricing strategy influences the marketing decisions regarding the segmentation where the strategy can be applied and the marketing techniques like using free samples so as not to increase the price of the products. The distribution strategy on the other hand influences the marketing decisions. There are various promotional strategies that can be applied to ensure that the product reach the consumer disposal effectively. The distribution of the products influences the marketing strategies to be used (Kotler 2002). For instance, direct distribution of the products to the consumers requires online marketing since the customers can access the information online and there is no need of using the middlemen. Finally, the promotional strategies influence the marketing decisions in various ways. In the first place, the culture of promoting the products should be based on the organizational culture so that there will be no conflicts among the marketing team. The marketing team should consider the culture of promoting the products (Kotler 2002). The marketing decisions regarding the promotional strategies like the use of advertisements and sponsorship programs can influence the marketing decisions with the aim of meeting the needs of the customers. In this regard, the marketing mix elements should be applied effectively on the identified market segments to ensure that the needs of the target audience effectively. Discuss the significance of the overall segmentation, targeting, differentiation and positioning strategies for the SportUNE Segmentation is the process that helps to divide the market into various units considering the characteristics of each market segment. Segmentation is important in the marketing plan since it helps to understand the needs and expectations of the customers in each market segment. This is because the attributes of each market segment will be helpful in developing the strategies using the marketing mix elements (Kotler & Kevin 2009). As a result, the market segmentation is important in ensuring that the needs of the customers are taken into account when implementing the market mix elements. For instance, the market segmentation can be done based on the disposable income of the customers or the demographic location of the customers. In this regard, the market segmentation is helpful and helps to implement the marketing mix elements effectively. In addition, the targeting concept is also important in the marketing plan. This is because there are various characteristics in different markets that should be taken into account so that the marketing plan can be implemented effectively. For instance, the concentrated targeting strategy can be applied to ensure that the target audience is reached (Kotler & Kevin2009). In this regard, targeting strategy will be helpful in ensuring that the marketing plan is appropriate to the target audience and stop acting outside the target market scope. In addition, the differentiation strategies will also help to improve the competitiveness of SportUNE. The differentiation is in terms of the unique services and facilities which are provided by SportUNE. This makes the organisation to be unique from the competitors and will stand out and this means that the customers can be satisfied with the products and services provided (Palmer 2005). For instance, UNE Life provides various facilities and services like the outdoor sporting precinct like the mountain bike track, children’s play area and multi-purpose courts for games like Tennis and Basketball. These services which are provided by SportUNE are unique and have not been provided by other organizations and this influences the ability to attract and retain more customers. Finally, the positioning strategies that can be applied to improve the competitive advantage of the organisation include product diversification. This will help to diversify the sources of income for the organisation. In addition, the product diversification can also help to increase the customer base as well as the income for the organisation (Homburg et al 2009). For instance, the organisation should provide services such as transport and outside catering services to improve the achievement of the mission and vision statements. In addition, the organisation should open up more branches and facilities so that the market base will increase and this will help to improve the competitiveness of the company by increase market scope. Conclusion Strategic marketing plan if effectively formulated can help to improve the competitiveness of an organisation. When formulating the strategic marketing plan, the mission and vision statements can help to indicate the direction for the stakeholders. When formulating the marketing plan, market analysis should be done to determine the factors that influence its implementation. This includes assessing the internal and external market environmental so that the factors that influence the implementation of the marketing plan can be identified and solved. The marketing market decisions are influenced by the organizational culture as well as the competitiveness of the organisation. Finally, the marketing mix elements help to form the basis for strategic marketing plan. Sources cited Armstrong, G & Kotler, P. (2006). Marketing: An Introduction 8th Edition, Prentice Hall, NJ. Assael, H., Reed, P & Patton, M. (1995). Marketing: Principles and Strategy Harcourt-Brace, Sydney. Aaker, D. 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