Business and Marketing Planning - Assignment Example

Businеss аnd Mаrkеting Plаnning by Student' s name Subject Professor's name Institution's name Date QUESTION 1 The PST has established itself as the quality providers in the adhesive industry at such the company has a competitive advantage compared to competitors. Clear market segmentation and proper targeting will enable the company to scale back the sales volume. Some of the identifiable market segments include; product type; applications, and region of operation. Being the market leader in quality products, STP should target larger companies in their respective categories. The big companies are known for their high purchasing power due to their massive resources at their disposal (Kotze, n.d.). In most cases, these businesses will choose expensive products that are of high quality than cheaper products of low quality. The company should avoid startups and small businesses markets because most of them are about reducing costs of operation ("Growth of Small Businesses", 1949). Hence they tend to purchase cheaper products and have a little purchasing power because of their constraints to finances. Under product type, the market will present STP with different consumers in need of alternative STP products. The company should be aware which users will be interested in say K2-Tape and who will be the target consumer of the other products. The type can also be broadly used to determine what type of the product based on the taste, interests the user. With taste preference, we have various dimensions that comfort the consumers. Rarely we get consumer conforming to the same taste. Some will love the tape or other product to be customized with business logos while some entities will find it fit to have items supplied in a particular color. The consumer's need of the product should also be determined and categorized appropriately. Some of the varied applications of adhesive products are in wood industries, construction, packaging, transportation and domestic applications. The major players in specified applications should be demarcated clearly and targeted; the company should be able to understand the operations of those entities, know them name by name and come up with best and efficient marketing strategies targeting them. One way of a business exhibiting mighty is through its coverage of a geographical area. The occupation of the geographic area should not only restrict on physical setup of the firm, but it should extend to a vast spectrum which includes how far the business supplies its products, its regional basis, the number of employees and even the sales return (Goldwyn, 2004). After analyzing the target market basing on the said categories, it will be easier for STP to consolidate its market share. QUESTION: 2 The first and important strategy for STP economy tape product is to understand the target market. The issue of understanding the market should not be for granted. A Clear understanding of market elements and dynamics is essential; these parts include the consumer market size and growth, the openness and macroeconomic stability (Shepherd, 1972). The size of the user base is very crucial and is one of the major deciding factors if the business will break even. For STP tape brand the consumer base includes all the market segments presented. The product will be targeting big entities in the market segment that have high purchasing power. After understanding our target, the STP Company should have a thorough analysis of the target market. There is the need to understand the current market growth and trends, projected market growth, the performance of the competitors and in-depth understanding of barriers to new entries. The company will also need to assess the internal competencies. The business will need to determine if they have the best distribution channel and best infrastructure in place. STP Company has had tremendous growth in recent past. The channels and systems used before will come on hand to promote and facilitate distribution of a new economy product. The STP has been the market leader in technological applications; these resources will be available for the new product. Once the market analysis is carried out, there should be a way to prioritize which markets to target first. The market is viewed based on their strategic position and the ability of STP to serve them effectively. Existence of gaps in the business unfilled by the competitors should not be assumed. The presence of those loopholes gives the business an edge to compete favorably. The STP should analyze itself and identify the values they will be bringing to a particular market segment. The values should be looked dependently on how the market is willing to compensate for the exchange of those values. Once every detail has been looked into, STP should start its operations in a market that appear to be promising. With proper and already developed sales channel and infrastructure in place, STP should be able to kick off business operations (Stevens, Sherwood, & Dunn, 1993). The business will do well by selecting organic growth, attainment of this is by having a business and implementation plan .For successful venture, STP will need to prepare adequately and consider available options based on the predictability, risk, and cost. QUESTION: 3 The proper understanding of the market demands will enable the K2-Tape to perform well. There should be competitive market research and identify the gaps that are left by competitors. These differences will contribute to developing a product that provides the solution to the consumers. Such kind of product will be easy to market and introduce to the market. However, the market response is critical and to achieve this reaction, free samples can be made and distributed in the target market or STP can use the polling technique to get right customers feedback (Schwager, 2012). This kind of information will help the product developers to come up with the best economy sealing tape that will have a competitive advantage. It should be clear on what the consumers stand to benefit from buying K2-Tape and not from the competitors. Product development should be of high quality so that consumers can be able to see the value for their hard earned money. The marketing in self, cannot answer the question of quality, this gap will need to be filled by STP's product formulation experts who will be able to bring a quality and competitive product. K2-Tape has to be entirely different from other products in the market. If the quality of the product is the same in the market, then STP brand should have a different approach to marketing. The product should be able to stand out in the crowd of other product(Thisse & Norman, 1994).STP brand should give customers something they will appreciate, a thing that other products don't provide. Finally, the STP sealing tape should be promoted effectively. Promotion may include paid advertising, free media exposure, and public relations. Selecting the perfect media that connects with the target consumers will boost a great deal the performance of the product. There should be more advertising research carried out to improve on the available promotional strategies. Without promoting the product, it may be difficult for STP economy product to get a foot in the market. QUESTION: 4 PST will have to employ the application of market-mix approach while promoting the new product. The market mix is as all controllable positive or negative factors influencing the performance of the business (Cain, 2014). When targeting particular desired results, it is important to understand all the tenets of the marketing mix, and some of those tenets are the product, price, place and ways of promoting the product. PST brand should be able to bring to the market, a quality and appreciated a product. Create a place where the product should be availed to the consumers, set out the best pricing strategies so that the target market segment can buy the product and design appropriate promotional tactics that ensure the market base is aware of the brand. The product itself will not be able to sell good returns even if it is of the high quality. But when introducing other features in the final product, good sales may be realized. PST brand should ensure that the product is well branded, packaged in appealing design and that there is well labeling of the product so as to facilitate easy accessibility in the stores for domestic consumers. Good packaging goes beyond merely wrapping the product. There should be a systematic approach to packaging. The package must send the values of the company to the consumers. It should bring with it a perception of quality. The first thing a customer observes before even opening the product is the package. A well branded and labeled product will always be distinct from competitor's products (Charlton, 1938). It affirms consumer confidence in the brand and pushes sales volume high. The pricing model of PST should be in the way that all the target market can access the products quickly. When deciding which price to give your product, all angles should be exploited intensively and put into consideration. Profit objective should not be the only determining factor, but the company should use other changes influencing prices in the areas of operation. There should be a research to ascertain the best pricing strategies; pricing says a lot about the product. If there is any pricing adjustment required because of geographical operations, PST should implement that change so that consumers don't lose trust in the product. These prices should not be set too high or too low but should adhere to the best pricing practices (Nagle & Holden, 1995). In the company's case, quality associates with the price. This model should reflect vividly in pricing in such a way that the quality of the product should not uncompromised. The brand is in a highly competitive market, and any mistake may result in massive loss of market share. Great promotional strategies will indisputably give the company an edge in the market. Without promoting the product, PST will not make sufficient sales. Persuasive advert or use of social marketing as one way of developing products can be very useful in different states and countries. However, there are some methods the company may use to promote the product. The promotional strategies that PST will employ should be measured based on the cost involved in and the results yielded. Based on the target markets, the company can use networking to reach out to the customers within their network. Send brochures and flyers to prospective consumers, written in an appealing manner with all products highlighted. A company will play a significant role in providing information to the potential consumers; an interactive website and live support can be developed to give more information.A commercial advertisement on an electronic medium such as Television and radio is a bit expensive. An advert running on one of those electronic media will affirm the consumer's trust in the products, though initially expensive, the commercial may have a long-term positive impact on the business. The aspect of place introduces a concept of how the consumers are going to access the STP products. The company should come up with the most effective channel of distribution that will enable the customers to access the product. The selection criteria should be based on all factors affecting the distributional channel. The business should ascertain if the product will be sold directly to the final consumer or if to allow the middlemen participation. The longer the chain of distribution the higher the price of the product becomes. Some of the middlemen include the wholesalers and the retailers. For a product like K2-tape, it will be advisable to take the shortest chain of distribution. STP product strategies will need human resources to carry out those strategies appropriately. The business will have to find the right employees that respect the company's mission and vision. A competitive recruitment process should be carried out to get the best talents in the different positions. Human resource is the business' biggest asset, and proper motivation ways should be put in place to maximize delivery. The suppliers, wholesalers, retailers and other stakeholders make up the business team. They both assist in product success, and at such; they should be maintained. Best customer services should be of high quality to increase the business' retention ratio. Customer services start from how the company treats its clients and doesn't necessarily financial spending. References Cain, P. (2014). Brand management and the marketing mix model. J Market Anal, 2(1), pp.33-42. Charlton, D. (1938). The art of packaging. [London: The Studio Ltd.]. Goldwyn, R. (1988). What Are We Learning from Big Business?. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 82(2), pp.338-339. Goldwyn, R. (2004). What Are We Learning from Big Business?. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 114(Supplement), pp.30-31. Growth of Small Businesses. (1949). Nature, 163(4155), pp.966-966. Kotze, A. (n.d.). Corporates and Financial Engineering: A Few Case Studies. SSRN Electronic Journal. Market analysis. (1995). Nature, 377(6548), pp.459-462. Nagle, T. and Holden, R. (1995). The strategy and tactics of pricing. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. Schwager, J. (2012). Market Sense and Nonsense. New York: Wiley. Shepherd, W. (1972). Elements of Market Structure: An Inter-Industry Analysis. Southern Economic Journal, 38(4), p.531. Stevens, R., Sherwood, P. and Dunn, P. (1993). Market analysis. New York: Haworth Press. Thisse, J. and Norman, G. (1994). The Economics of product differentiation. Aldershot, Hants, England: Brookfield, Vt. Read More