Developing of New Channels of Distribution to Access the New Markets - Assignment Example

Strategic Marketing Plan (Part II) Students Name: Institutional Affiliation: Department Course: Date: Executive Summary The contents of this paper heightens on descriptive components of a strategic marketing plan that should be attached to the organization as well as the aspects of planning to meet the market edge. The paper gives a detailed introductive statement on strategic marketing and then advance in discussing the various aspects support the marketing strategy. The paper conceptualize in discussing the components of strategic marketing objective plan and its relevance to the organization. The essay constitute pragmatic analysis of UNE Life strategic market programs and their contribution to a strategic marketing plan. The essay also gives an evaluative predicament on the importance of the marketing mix and its components to ensure a successful strategic marketing plan. Marketing strategy Marketing strategy is mostly a fundamental goal that is used by several industries or businesses to achieve and increase a competitive advantage that is sustainable over others[Fox14]. The Marketing strategy includes all the basic, both short term and long term activities that are available in the field of marketing that majorly deals with the analysis of the strategic first situation of a business and also the formulation, selection and evaluation of the market-oriented strategies because all this strategies contributes to the goals of the business and together with its marketing goals and objectives. The relevance of a pioneering strategy for the selected UNE Life’s business offering Developing a UNE Life’s market strategy Developing a UNE Life’s market strategy generally starts with a general scan of the business environment such as the internal and external environment that includes understanding of the general strategic constraints because it is necessary for the company to try picking the several available aspects of the external environment such as economic, technology, culture and also the needed legal aspects that are important for an organization[Pro14]. Strategies are both interactive and dynamic, either partially planned or partially unplanned, so as to enable a UNE Life firm to react to any unforeseen developments as they try to keep focused on a particular pathway where a longer time frame is generally preferred[Fer121]. There are simulations like the customer lifetime value models that can assist the marketers carry out what-if analyses so as to forecast what might happen basing on possible actions and also gauges how specific actions may affect such variables as the revenue or revenue per customer and the mix rate. The strategies habitually specify how to adjust the marketing mix so as to fit perfectly the market[Sha14]. UNE Life firms can use diverse tools like the Marketing Mix Modeling that will help them come to a decision on how to apportion scarce resources for diverse media, as well as how to apportion funds across a portfolio of brands. In addition, UNE Life firms can carry out performance analysis, customer analysis, competitor’s analysis, and even the target market analysis because a key aspect of marketing strategy is usually to keep the marketing consistent with a UNE Life company's overarching mission and vision[Hol15]. Relevance of a pioneer strategy When a new product is in the business cycle such that happens in the UNE Life, the company that initiates the production and makes sells is the pioneer. UNE Life has to initiate everything that is connected to this product because being a follower, you just a benefits of using various firms so as to help the pioneer for this main venture. The relevance of being a pioneer is that being a pioneer you can capture the leadership position gains because, from several studies, the pioneers have sustained a lot of leadership in the industry[Wil12]. Being a pioneer in the whole market has a big advantage that can be capitalized because being a pioneer has to complete dynamically in the marketplaces so as to exploit his advantages in pioneering. Pioneer need to have a grand plan for the life cycle of product marketing and also the launch strategy has to be considered a first step in that great plan because the pioneer or a leader may start from a particular product market division his launch but must have prior plans so as to cover the largest part of the market share over a prescribed period. UNE Life strategic market programs The competitive cycle First phase Normally the pioneer is the sole provider that comprise of 100 percent production capacity and the whole of market share because he is the determinant in the market at large[Pro14]. The followers will have to look at what the pioneer has done so as to buy some specific designs that they have come up with. UNE Life Company would want to be successful pioneers because they anticipate to control, create and dominate a completely new product category in the market or even the whole business model. Studies show that being first to the market gives or provide a significant and most sustained market share advantage over those who joins later[Fox14]. UNE Life being a pioneer may have to reach the status of the incumbent and become most powerful. Second stage In this stage of the competitive cycle, the business experiences a lot of competitive penetration because the competitors always build capacities and eventually enters into the market[Sha14]. Several business are started and forced into the market, and this will cause a lot of shakes to the market leaders because it's usually pioneers with a distinctive presence in the marketplace needs to be in a sole position so as to react or even anticipate the possibility of potential entrants and increase the barriers to their entry for example, a pioneer may be in a clear position to reduce its price and also decrease the business value of any new entrant into the market or the company being a leader can eventually block any entrance of new companies into the general market[Fre11]. Growth phase In this stage, the capacity tend to be overbuilt and any occurrence of downtrends will eventually impact the margins for all because after sometimes the share stability may have to happen because the commodity competition stage will come where the returns are at average[Wil12]. UNE Life business entity will experience an enormous growth in the size of the company because, as the pressure increases within the followers, this will make it difficult for its experience. When followers in the market experience a growth, the market share will be small, and this will force the leader to adjust on its shareholding so as to accommodate all of them. Final stage of the competitive cycle In this final stage, there will be a lot of decline in the industry and the firm will withdraw from the market or the industry[Hol15]. The pioneer being the product leader needs to steer through all the stages of the industry life cycle because of it being the largest shareholder in the market. Several followers will have to drop from the industry because they cannot accommodate the excessive pressure that is inserted by the industry leaders at large. The products that make will not be of quality to the market, and they will be forced to make several adjustments so as to fit in the market equilibrium and this may be hard for them hence dropping from the market. Strategic market programs Basic strategic planning The competition in the market typically depends on the market environment, market positioning and the product portfolio of all the existing players in the market. The basic strategic planning includes; Reducing product prices The company reducing product prices so as to penetrate the existing market because by introducing a product at a lower price than those coming late and they can attract the new clients who would not have or else bought such as a product in effect expanding the total market[Pro14]. The reduction of price can also induce the pioneer’s current customers to switch. The company improving a service or a product with a main focus on a niche market because a company can compete by being so innovative in the marketplace[Fox14]. The periodic innovations may be radical or even incremental because the enhanced products can compete directly with existing products or even it can be positioned so as to attract a much smaller segment of the already existing market. Pioneers will improve the products or their services so as this products will attract new customers that are not in the current target for the whole existing services or products[Hol15]. Target new geographical market for their existing products As the market leader matures in the whole market, the businesses traditionally look outside for extra lucrative markets. Most consumer markets such as heavy equipment manufacturers target newly emerging markets that need pieces of equipment such as cranes for building services. Being a market pioneer, the geographical identification of market is very much important as this will make the firms target their new markets[ElG13]. Developing of new channels of distribution so as to access the new markets and to enhance better penetration of the existing ones Pioneer companies, who take their business global, see globalization as it is not the only solution because sometimes the risks and the investments need to penetrate into the international market, and the returns may not be worth[Hol15]. UNE Life business entity when they decide to focus on the existing market, the company must have a greater understanding of the whole business general environment because this can prove less risky and also bring quicker success. This action can be accomplished by repositioning the products or the service through the use of marketing, packaging or even advertising so as to embrace the whole market niche. The possible strategic choices for the UNE Life’s business offerings for maintaining competitive advantage in shakeout mature and declining markets A strategy is usually a fundamental pattern of both present and planned objectives that results into resource deployment and interactions of an organization with market competitors and even other environmental factors. A well-developed strategy should focus on Scope which refers to the general breadth of any strategic domain Resource deployment that is much important as the aspect is concerned with resource allocation[Wüs12]. Sustainable competitive advantages that should be different from the ones for competitors Goals and objectives that are the desired levels of all levels of accomplishment to the company Intensive strategy This kind of strategy always requires the intensive efforts if the company’s competitive position with the existing products is to improve. The intensive strategy comprises of market penetration, market development, and product development. A market penetration strategy always seeks to increase the market share for the present products or services in the present market through the greater marketing efforts[Kri13]. The market penetration strategies always consist of increasing the number of salespersons, increasing the advertising expenditures, increasing the publicity efforts and also make market penetration through offering extensive sales promotions items. Market penetration strategy is usually effective when the current markets are not fully saturated with a particular service or a product and also when the rate of usage of the present customers could be increased significantly without any problems associated with them[Sha14]. A market penetration can be definitely defined as the proportion that comprises of people in the main target population who purchase at least once in the prescribed period a particular product or a category of goods or even a service. The two key measures that are widely used in product’s popularity in a market are the rate of penetration and the share of penetration. The rate of penetration which is also called brand penetration or the market penetration is said to be the total percentage of the appropriate population that has majorly purchased a particular brand or a category at least once in the time period in the market[XuL12]. A brand’s penetration share is determined by pragmatically comparing that brands client populations to that of the number of clients for its prescribed category in the appropriate market as a whole. For one to be considered that you are a customer a person must have purchased the category or the brand at least once during the period prescribed. Product development strategy This product development is a given strategy that seeks increased sales revenue by always improving or even modifying the present products or services. This strategy of product development usually entails a large research and also the development expenditures that will seek the lowest amount of money spent[ElG13]. The guidelines that indicate when a product development may be an especially effective strategy is important to pursue is that when an organization has successful products that are in the maturity stage of the company product life cycle. Product development is also characterized when major competitors offer better quality products at most comparable prices that are deemed important to it[Lar14]. Diversification strategy A product or service diversification strategy that is employed by UNE Life is a type of business development whereby small businesses that mainly implement this type of strategy can diversify their service of product range by modifying the currently existing products or services or even adding new products and services to the range[Hom09]. The UNE Life diversification strategy gives opportunities so as to grow the general business by either increasing sales to the existing clients or entering others to the new markets. UNE Life Product diversification can be an expensive and time-consuming task because if someone does not want to develop a product or service internally, one has to take into consideration several other options like distributing products or services from other suppliers[Pro14]. If a company is in a strong financial position, the marketing should consider acquisitions so as to gain access to products that bring into line with the diversification strategy. Goals of product diversification Defensive goals of product diversification may be spreading the risk of market contraction, or even being forced to diversify when the current product or current market orientation seems to give no further opportunities for the overall growth pragmatically. Offensive goals of product diversification reasons may be dominant new positions and also taking relevant opportunities that promise greater profitability than the expansion opportunities[Wil12]. The second dimension usually involves the expected outcomes of diversification because UNE Life management may expect great economic value such as growth and profitability or the first and foremost great consistency with their current activities. Besides, the company may also explore several diversifications just to get a valuable and most important comparison that exists between this strategy and also the expansion. Product proliferation strategy Product proliferation usually occurs when the organizations market experience several variations of the same products and services because this can be done through the different color combinations, different product uses and also the product sizes. Product proliferation produces diversity for the firm as it can confine its sizable segment of the whole market. UNE Life Product proliferation is habitually used by surviving firms as a method of entry deterrence whereby this is done by coming up and developing a large variety of products and services because the current firms can occupy the gaps in the market that potential entrants may have exploited, thus reducing the threats of competition to the pioneer companies[Wüs12]. The very vitality of product proliferation always makes it hard to manage because complexity is spawned by an ever-changing landscape of clients demand and the companies' attempts to meet that intense demand for configurable products and services and also more product variations. UNE Life product proliferation can sometimes also lead to cannibalization of the existing product line or service line of the UNE Life Company and must be justified by general increase in the market share because the main aim of a business entity is usually to make profit and increase the market share of the company. The relevance of diverse strategies to serve new economy markets in regards to UNE Life’s business. Streamlines Product Development A marketing strategy always assists the organization creates products and services with the best chances of making a profit[Wüs12]. This is usually experienced because the marketing strategy always starts with the marketplace research that takes into consideration the optimal target customer, what the organization is doing because using this vital information, one as to determine the main benefits customers and the clients want. Assists in determination of optimal prices Some parts of the marketing strategy are usually setting the right price for your product or the service based on what you learned in the whole market research. When organizations learn that its clients want a high-end product in any category, then the pricing strategy might need the marketing manager to make sales at the prices that always create a high end perceived value of the organization[Pro14]. If the target customer is someone who is bargain conscious and also willing to accept fewer amounts of the organization product in exchange for paying less, the pricing strategy will need the organization to sell at or below the competitor’s price. Understanding the clients Marketing strategies can also assist the business in understanding and also connecting with customers because if your marketing plan is always loosely structured the organization might not have much success at targeting products at the main right demographics. An organization having a solid and well thought out marketing plan can assist one identifies gaps in the marketplace and eventually provide feasible solutions for the clients[Wüs12]. Developing financial goals Several marketing strategies are also important for guiding the business into the development of financial goals because financial goals are related to sales target and also to the organization expense budget. The sales target are initially set out as part of the marketing plan and this might change over time according to the vital changing conditions, increase or decrease in consumers demand and increase in market price as experienced by the organization at large. Expenses monitoring is also part of the financial goal development because if an organization tends to spend more than the organization brings in, then this will cause a big problem in maintaining long-term business viability. Appropriateness of designing organizational structures and marketing plans for the implementation of different competitive strategies for the UNE Life's business The appropriateness includes; Evaluating employee performance The designing organizational structures and marketing plans for the implementation of different competitive strategies for the UNE Life's business is appropriate for evaluating employees performance because the linear structure of functional and product organizational structures majorly allows the supervisors to evaluate best the job done by their subordinates[Sha14]. The executives can evaluate the various skills the employees demonstrate, how the employees get along with one another and the timeline that they complete their assigned task. Supervisors can as well compete annually or even semi-annually performance appraisals that are very much compulsory to the several organizations. Achieving goals The designing organizational structures and marketing plans for the implementation of different competitive strategies for the UNE Life's business is appropriate for the achievement of goals. Designing organizational structure is specifically vital in the achievement of goals and results because the organizational structure allows for the given chain of command[XuL12]. The departmental leaders are majorly in charge of delegating tasks and several projects to subordinates so that the whole department can make sure that they meet the project deadlines. In general terms, designing an appropriate organization structure fosters teamwork and production of quality work where every individual in the whole department works towards a common goal. Prevention or provision of solutions The designing organizational structures and marketing plans for the implementation of different competitive strategies for the UNE Life's business is appropriate because the well-designed organizational structure enables the organization to best manage changes experienced in the marketplace like the government regulations, consumer needs and even on the new technology[Sha14]. The head of departments and managers come together, state various problems areas and eventually come up with a lot of solutions as a group because several changes can be much expected in any industry or organization. Critical roles of the marketing metrics and the marketing audit by UNE Life's business and its offerings Marketing metrics Marketing metrics is a quantitative measurement of a particular security market that is typically used by market analysts so as to track the performance of the company[Wil12]. Marketing audit A marketing audit is basically a comprehensive, independent, systematic and a periodic examination of a company or a business marketing units that are designed so as to evaluate marketing assets and also the activities in the general context of market conditions and also use the resulting analysis to assists the organization in making prior plans. Conclusions Assists the organization come up with calculations about the financial returns on a specific amount spent on advertisement through Return on investment and media efficiency ratio Returns on investment and media efficiency ratio are some of the marketing metrics that rare designed so as to come up with calculations about the financial returns on a specific amount spent on advertisement[HoS14]. The return on investment is an online tool for measuring efficiency while media efficiency ratio is considered an offline tool because it is a traditional one. These tools are used for measuring efficiency in the whole company because both of them are mathematical formulas. Optimizing the overall performance Tools such as measuring click-through rate and the conversion rate are more vital tools of marketing audit and measuring metrics because they are necessary when optimizing the campaign performance. Optimization of the organization is considered important because this action reduces the amount that would have been spent on the whole campaign period. There is always a good mix and the best reason for optimization because the marketing of products and services is all about the building of awareness, distribution, preferences and other diverse dimensions that leads to sales[Pro14]. References Fox14: , (Foxall, 2014), Pro14: , (Proctor, 2014), Fer121: , (Ferrell, 2012), Sha14: , (Shank, 2014), Hol15: , (Hollensen, 2015), Wil12: , (Wilson, 2012), Fre11: , (Freng Svendsen, 2011), ElG13: , (El-Gohary, 2013), Wüs12: , (Wüstenhagen, 2012), Kri13: , (Kristie Lorette, 2013), XuL12: , (Xu, 2012), Lar14: , (Larsen, 2014), Hom09: , (Homburg & Sabine Kuester, 2009), HoS14: , (Ho, 2014), Read More