Marketing Strategies for UNE Life - Case Study Example

Title: MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR UNE LIFE Name Institution Date of Submission Introduction The University of New England is an institution that offers both academic and recreational services to its staff and students. The University is located in Armidale, a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales of Australia. The University of New England life was established in 2014 through collaboration between the existing Services of UNE and Sports UNE. UNE is still under the management of the two partners. The institution comprises of 9 businesses that offer various services such as sports and fitness facilities as well as student night club and bar events. Among the nine businesses offered by UNE, this paper will majorly focus on the SportUNE. UNE Life Businesses comprises of both the internal and external environments. This discussion will major on the internal environment that consists of the students and staff. For SportUNE to realize easier and faster expansion, it will be most appropriate to increase the Sales of existing services and products to existing markets. A business go through different life cycles such as introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. SportUNE is a new business that was introduced to the school community to provide recreational and fitness services to the students and staff. The business is in the Growth stage and at this stage the business experiences increase in sales and profits and also the product become readily available to users because it is preferred. Entry into a particular segment of a new market or new product requires proper scheming so as not to become a failure in that particular line you intend to pursue. Entrants into a market are classified into two categories; pioneers and followers. A pioneer also means an innovator who is the first to come up with an idea then take necessary steps to make the idea practical. A pioneer has the advantage of gaining a larger market share as opposed to a later entrant. A follower is a market entrant who tries to identify the gap that is not covered by the Pioneer. He/ she then identify the necessary steps to cover the gap and invest the needed resources so as to narrow the gap (Arnold& Quelch, 1998). A follower then tries to carve a niche so as to be more relevant and to appeal to more customers in the face of stiff competition. The relevance of a pioneer or a follower strategy. UNE businesses, being new and recently introduced to the students, staff and community (UNE Report 2014), will need better strategies to beat off the competition. This is as a result of the external competitors offering similar services like entertainment and sports and fitness. For new businesses like the UNE Life businesses, it will be more appropriate to use a follower strategy in the external environment while relying on pioneer strategy in the internal environment (Kalyanaram & Ragu, 1998). For the UNE Life business, it is better placed to become more successful by adopting unique features to position and market itself so as to take advantage of the gap that still exist. The gap that exist is due to the unmet implied needs of the customers within their operational areas. The demands of the customers keep on shifting, and it becomes complicated for the initial pioneers in the external environment to fully meet them. The UNE Life business identifies this gap and exploits it through more innovative ways that the aging pioneers could not fully utilize. For the UNE Life Business to survive in the face of stiff competition, it will have to capitalize on the weaknesses of the pioneers in the industry. Most of the mistakes that are usually made by the pioneers occurs in areas like marketing and positioning. Limited resources, products mistakes and using outdated technology are also notable mistakes by pioneers. For a follower, it will become more successful when it is ready to invest more resources or to outsmart the pioneers in terms of competencies so as to surpass the early advantage of the pioneers. Moreover, it will be easier for the UNE Life businesses to become more successful in the event that there exist minimal legal, financial and technological barriers that will impede entry into the industry (Arnold& Quelch, 1998). Within the student and staff community in the school, the UNE Life business will use a pioneering strategy since there is no business of that kind within the school premises (UNE Report 2014). To the entire external environment, the business will be forced to rely majorly on the follower strategy. In the internal environment, the UNE Life Business is solely a pioneer. The business will use marketing programs such as making market penetration in large scale, carving a niche and also skimming and making an early withdrawal in case the strategy does not work out. In making market penetration in large scale, the main goal of the business is to obtain and retain a greater market share of the new product (Arnold& Quelch, 1998). This marketing program is usually very successful when there exist barriers to entry of other competitors or when the pioneer has distinct features that make it very difficult for other entrants. In carving a niche, a smaller business may identify a particular area of specialization or the area it is strategically positioned to beat off competition and confrontations from larger competitors. Instead of the business trying to cast wide its net and become general in the industry, it will narrow down to a particular line of product or services. UNE Life Business can narrow down to entertainment, sports and fitness activities in its line of business. In the program of skimming and making an early withdrawal, the business involves itself at getting the prices of its products and services go high. It also engages itself in making limited advertisements and promotional activities so as to maximize the profits per unit and also to recover quickly the costs associated with product development. The firm also heavily invests in technology to become superior technologically or to develop new applications that will have a strategic advantage to the business. In acquiring large market components, the UNE life business components may consider increasing the number of new clients that are using the firm's new goods and services as fast as possible. Adoption of firm's goods and services will occur if the firm engages in active marketing so as to create the awareness among the consumer and to increase motivation among the potential customers. Also increasing the accessibility of the new product to customers on the assumption that the customers will like the product once they get it and develop loyalty towards the same product. In carving a niche, the business should try to focus all its efforts on the particularly targeted segment so as to have the greatest impact possible. As a pioneer, the marketing program component in skimming strategy will involve setting high prices to those of the competitors or substitutes so as to realize an increase in margins and also profits and revenues. Also, promotional programs may be used to focus on the customers who are not sensitive to prices but may also be potential adopters of the particular new product (Mullins & Walker, 2010). Growth-market strategies for market leaders and share growth strategies for followers Growth strategy refers to means business uses to expand its operational activities, the span of control and processes and also the areas of operations largely. Market leader refers to a particular firm, brand or product that has the largest share of the total market. A market leader is the most dominant player in a particular segment of the market in terms of a product, brand or the total share of the market. Market leaders may use different growth strategies so as to gain an overall growth in the entire market as opposed to other competitors. Market leaders usually set their marketing objectives. Such objectives include retaining the current number of buyers or customers, to stimulating selective demand among the people who adopt the product later so as to capture a large market share. Another objective is to stimulate primary demand of the products so as to fasten the overall growth in the market (Spence, 1979). UNE Life business being a pioneer within the school environment at UNE, it reserves all the benefits that will accrue to a pioneer. It will thus focus on strategies to achieve growth to become more appealing to a larger customer base. The growth strategy that UNE Life business will use includes Fortress strategy, also known as position defense strategy. This strategy involves continuing to strengthen the strategic advantage that a firm has over other competitors. UNE Life is well endowed with adequate resources to serve the school community. It is easily accessible by most of the school population (UNE Report 2014). In this strategy all the actions aimed at improving customer satisfaction and also making the customer loyal to a particular brand or product outlet. UNE Life Business will also use the Flanker strategy in which it will develop different products and services that almost a perfect substitutes to those of the competitors. These substitutes are then used to direct fight off competition from those products developed by the competitor. Another strategy that UNE Life business could use is the Confrontation strategy. As a result, the business become more reactive as opposed to being proactive. The business will try to respond according to the pressure that is exerted by the opponents. Lastly, the UNE Life business could use Market expansion so as to achieve growth in the market. Market expansion is more through developing new brands or alternative forms of the existing products but retaining the same technologies that could appeal to a wide variety of market segments (Mullins & Walker, 2010). Share growth strategy for followers refers to the strategy that a follower could use to gain a larger market share so as to narrow the gap that exist between the leader and the follower. A follower may build a specialized business within a larger market that was initially overlooked by the initial entrants. The followers also usually aim to reduce the market dominance of the leader so as to become a more powerful threat. The share growth strategy that a follower could use includes the Frontal attack strategy, leapfrog strategy and Flanking and encirclement Strategy. Other businesses will use Frontal attack strategy because it is the only stable competitor, and also the market for the product is highly homogenous. Due to lack of strong competitor among the student and staff community, there is no stiff competition to the UNE Life business. A follower or a new entrant may also decide to use leapfrog strategy whereby the follower offers a product that is highly differentiated but attracting to the users. The challenger stands a higher chance of success if he/she can more superior products based on technology and better designs of the products (Mullins & Walker, 2010). Flanking and encirclement involve a follower targeting multiple underutilized or underdeveloped portions of the market. It will entail development of different products with specific features that meet the implied needs of the clients and customers. As a result, the follower becomes more appealing to a larger customer base. Strategic choices for maintaining competitive advantage in Shakeout, mature and declining market A strategic choice refers to a key component of the strategic planning process. It entails generating of different strategic options, evaluating the options to gauge their feasibility and selecting the best strategy to bet pursued (Kaplan Financial Limited, 2012). UNE Life business will rely on different strategies to remain more relevant and competitive even in the face of stiff competition and turbulences that affect the business. A shakeout refers to a turbulent situation in which businesses are forced out of the business, or they are acquired through a stiff competition. In the shakeout stage, the UNE Life Business will rely on strategies such as Adaptive survival and Aggressive amalgamation. Adaptive survivors refer to the businesses that can adjust during the era of rapid growth and unlimited expectations to situations of high pressure on margins and greater rivalry. For the adaptive survivors, they must be flexible and willing to modify their management and leadership style, more resources such as the financial and human resources must be employed and more controls must be exercised.UNE Life must ensure that the leadership and management structure is well suited to stand the stiff face of turbulences and the much-unexpected pressures in their operational areas. The business also has to invest heavily in the resources that are available to the business. The resources include both the human and the financial resources. During the turbulences, UNE life business must recruit most competent personnel that handle the administration of its fitness activities (Edelman & Marc, 1997). UNE life business could also be forced to conduct aggressive amalgamation. They develop the required business models that fit the emerging environment, they will also move fast to acquire smaller rivals, spend heavily on technology so as to cut the costs of operation. So as to become successful in mature markets, the UNE Life business may opt to use strategies such as to develop a well-planned business strategy that will help to sustain competitive advantage, customer loyalty, and satisfaction. Also to develop innovative marketing programs aimed at achieving more profit opportunities and realize growth (Hill, 1988). In the mature markets, the sportUNE will have to use strategies such as harvesting strategy, maintenance strategy, profitable survivor strategy and niche strategy. In harvesting strategy, the sportUNE only focuses on maintaining the current cash-flow even if the long-term market share declines. In the maintenance strategy, the business only maintains the current market share it demands at the expense of the margins. Profitable survivor strategy focuses on increasing the shares in a declining market or trying to encourage fewer competitors to quit the business. Niche strategy aims at strengthening the share position in a particular segment of the market such as the fitness activities only. The new economy is the shift from a manufacturing based economy to that which is service-based. It is as a result of the transition from a manufacturing system of economy to that which relies majorly relies on service provision that characterized by digitalization of different kinds of businesses. New economies offer different digital platforms for marketing different products and services that are offered by a business outlet. SportUNE will use this digital platform to provide important decisions to its clients about the services offered as opposed to the old manual methods of reaching out to its clients. New economy also has the advantage of reaching out to a large number customers (Gordon, 2000). For SportUNE, it will develop new marketing tools that rely on the internet so as to do product promotion. It will also develop new methods of delivering its products and services to the intended users. SportUNE will also come up with a customer support center that will be able to respond to and handle all the complaints that are brought forth by the clients. The support center will also be used as the channel to deal with the products that do not meet the customer expectations. Meeting all the needs of the customers will become a way to building trust and ensuring loyalty from the customers. As a result of loyalty, there shall be a customer lifetime value to the organization (Gordon, 2000). In the new market economy it will involve those activities involving the digital platform so as to ensure the long-term customer value, customer retention strategies and customer satisfaction. The digitalization of the business will ensure that SportUNE build a brand, not just through advertising but performance and to change focus from making profitable transactions to attaching a lifetime value to a customer. Organizational structure is the hierarchy in which the authority in an organization is planned. The planning is in terms of communication, coordination and supervision and task allocation that are all geared towards the accomplishment of the organizational goals (Child, 1972). SportUNE as a business function will be most appropriate to employ product management organizational structure. Product management organizational structure ensures maximum decentralization to the middle lower managers and the junior staff. In a product management organization, the overall is the CEO of the organization. Under the CEO are different departments such as the marketing, product management and design and product development. Marketing department entails marketing communications, corporate marketing, product, and field marketing. The product management and design involve departments such product management and customer experience design. Product development contains the departments such as the research and development, architecture and engineering, site operations and project management. All these department will help the SpoortUNE business to strategically place itself so as to become successful ahead of other competitors. SWOT analysis for SportUNE will entail the business, and its entire staff analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats that are available to the business. The business will rely on its strengths such as appropriate location, ambient environment, and trained personnel. The weaknesses of the business include limited finances and lack of external reach. The opportunities include new economy technologies to market the market, student and staff community that provide the market to the products. Threats are the external businesses that also offer fitness services that are competitors to SportUNE. Marketing metrics refers to the parameters that are used to determine the performance of a particular product or service in the market (Ambler, 2003). For the SportUNE business, measuring the Customer satisfaction would be a good indicator to show how they are doing in the market. Marketing audit refers to the examination of marketing practices and activities of a particular organization (Kotler & Rogers, 1977). To get the exact performance data of the company from the first-hand users, SportUNE will be better off to use Self-audit. Here, they appoint a marketing manager to perform the audit of the marketing activities himself and examines the performance of marketing activities. References Arnold, D. J., & Quelch, J. A. (1998). 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