Implement And Monitor Marketing Activities - Assignment Example

IMPLEMENT AND MONITOR MARKETING ACTIVITIES by: Presented to: Course/ Class: University: City and state: Due date:Assessment Task 1 Briefing Stakeholders To succeed in implementing a marketing plan, it is important to brief stakeholders on their duties. Lingard (2010) elaborated that marketing plan stakeholders comprise of people who are concerned with marketing activities. Some of these stakeholders are human resources personnel, managers, shareholders, and company directors. BBQFun marketing plan must be approved by Board of directors hence it is imperative to keep them posted on status of the project before it is approved. The responsibility of approving progress report also rests with the board of directors. They need to be aware of how the plan is progressing. Secondly, human resources personnel should be briefed to allow them recruit and train staff who will implement the marketing plan. According to BBQFun marketing plan, the store will seek to create customer awareness in relation to services offered. This means that more staff should be employed and trained to increase effectiveness of communicating advertisement message during campaign. The human resources department needs a report covering on staffing needs. This report submitted to the human resources will be supported by information contained in the marketing plan. Thirdly, finance staff ought to be briefed on potential cost to be incurred by the company. This information will help finance staff to draw a budget that takes into account the marketing plan. As an example, BBQfun will need to establish a separate cost center to take care of income and expenses that arises from the marketing plan. BBQfun has set its advertising budget at $250,000. This budget will cover local letterbox drops, radio, and magazines. Such information will be presented to finance department in form of a request for funding. Concisely, the proposal furnishes finance team on their role in the marketing plan. Briefing Marketing and Non-marketing Staff To implement successfully a marketing plan, both marketing and non-marketing members should be part of all marketing and follow up activities. Some of the marketing staff includes advertising staff, managers, public relations staff, sales personnel, and supervisors. As noted by Lancaster and Reynolds (1995), marketing and non-marketing team must always focus on increasing sales since it ensures an organization carries on its activities into near future. In the process of implementing a marketing plan, marketing team must be given information such as objectives, duties, and performance measures. The debt of this information varies with the level of staff participation in marketing activities. Staff with direct role of implementing a marketing plan will be give sufficient details covering on the entire plan in addition to strategies and tactics to be deployed. As an example, BBQfun sales staff will be furnished with information on overall marketing plan and strategies to be utilized. This group may not need details on pricing or sales processes. BBQfun classified its objectives into marketing and financial objectives. Part of marketing objectives concentrated on increasing annual sales from $15 million to $20 million. Similarly, the plan had an objective of raising loyalty customer list by 6,000 and increasing brand recognition in Brisbane such that within a time span of 18 months, 75% of target customers were aware of BBQfun brand. On the other hand, financial objectives focused on double digit growth rate yearly and reduction in overhead through efficient management of expenses. BBQFun further had a financial objective of increasing gross profit margin to 50%. Sales team must be briefed on this information. The responsibility of creating customer awareness on services offered by BBQfun store rests with the appointed sales team. The team will as well pursue development of customer base in addition to enhancement of customer loyalty and referral. Sales team further have a role of communicating advertisement message to customers. The focal point of the message is on informing the customers that BBQfun offers products that satisfy customer needs in terms of access, varieties, and quality. Through direct mail, ads, and inserts in Brizzy magazine, the sales team will maintain contact with customers. PR team has a duty to ensure that BBQfun campaign message is communicated to the customers. This team ought to be briefed on their role in securing some space in Brizzy magazine. It is prudent to inform the PR team of the positive effects that accompanies these campaign i.e. low related costs. The outcome of marketing plan is measured by examining performance of individuals, teams or the entire organization. Performance of Sales team in BBQfun will be indicated by ability to attain marketing and financial objectives. In a communication by the CEO, the store managed to achieve store and sales growth but gross profits remained at 48%, which was below the 50% target. According to marketing plan, BBQfun had an objective of increasing customer loyalty list by 6,000. The actual result was that a total customer royalty list of 17,000 was registered, 1,000 more than the anticipated amount. Ability of sales team to create product awareness among customers is also evidenced by the result obtained i.e. 70% of targeted customers were aware of brand. Prioritized list of strategies and resources required Marketing Strategy Resources 1. Direct mail for purposes of creating awareness amongst customers Customer service personnel List of potential customers Funds to send mails Technological tools such as personal computers, internet, website, scanner and other supporting tools 2. The use of PR personnel in campaign PR staff – with technical knowledge on personal relation Quality information relating to stores that can gain media attention (can gain Brizzy’s attention) 3. The use of store flyers Flyers Staff or patrons to supply flyers Funds to cover printing, supply, distribution, and outsourcing of services Communication and team building strategies Staff involvement in all aspects of marketing plan ensures that organizational team has in-depth knowledge of goal and objectives (Kotler, 2005). This further enables team members to address potential issues that may arise during implementation of the plan. Being in constant communication with team members plays a vital role of keeping staff on track and in the right direction. The other team building strategy utilized at BBQfun is keeping staff informed of their role in the marketing plan. They need to be well versed with marketing and financial objectives. This way, staff will feel as being part of a process as opposed to being used as a means to an end. Strategies for implementing and monitoring marketing activities and analyzing performance Various strategies are available for implementation of marketing activities. The first one is pricing strategy where BBQfun are priced according to their quality. BBQfun places value as the top priority. To accompany this, BBQfun offer three-year guarantee. Secondly, BBQfun employs distribution strategy that entails presentation of products in BBQfun retails stores. This approach to distribution is strategic in that customers can easily access car parking. The third strategy in implementing marketing activity is the use of advertisement and promotion. PR campaign, adverts, and inserts in Brizzy magazines comprise of advertisement strategy used by BBQfun. The product will also be promoted through entertainment and competition for prizes. Besides, customer service improves the delivery of marketing activity. Through customer service, BBQfun will strive to make its customers happy. Marketing activities were monitored by comparing results in timely reports against planned objectives. Comparison of 2009 IBIS report against marketing plan of 2008 is an accurate means of monitoring marketing activities. The effect of marketing plan on sales, customer loyalty, and brand recognition in Brisbane specifically demonstrates performance. The marketing plan indicates that sales will increase by $5 million yearly for the next three years. Additionally, BBQfun managed to increase its profit margins and customer loyalty list. Attainment of these objectives is a measure of ability of marketing activities to achieve marketing plan objectives. What I can do differently It is crucial to note that technology has been advancing very fast and shoppers have resorted to online shopping as opposed to travelling to physical location of stores. This should be a revelation to BBQfun store that e-marketing must be embraced in all aspects of business i.e. marketing, ordering goods, customer service, and settling payments. Specifically, social marketing ought to be reconsidered in order to gain attention of potential customers who socialize through facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn (Lake, 2012). This approach to marketing is comparably cheap given that contact with target audience is easy. Besides, the medium of communication allows an organization to monitor easily results or rather the impact of social marketing (Alistair, 2009). Project Summary Apparently marketing activities have a direct relationship with sales level of a business. This means that sales will increase as marketing activities improve. To assess performance of marketing against objectives, a marketer will look at increase or decrease in sales. Other indicators of marketing performance include brand recognition, customer referrals, and high profit margins. Several skills are required in management of a marketing team. One of these skills is communication and interpersonal skills. Communication is vital in ensuring that all members of a marketing team have the required information. An environment that is deficit of communication culminates into conflict of duties. It is also important for marketing personnel to develop interpersonal skills i.e. ability to relate and work well with people from different cultures and backgrounds. Moreover a marketer should be able to handle or rather manage conflicts in a group. To meet the changing customer needs, a business must always be ready to move with the change in order to maintain its sales and profit levels. One of the business practices that should change along with the changing customer needs is change in product itself. This implies that an organization must always improve its product as opposed to maintaining the original product. Other factors that should change along with changing customer needs are packaging, pricing, advertisement, promotion, and quality. The improvement plan concentrates on online marketing, specifically social marketing. This strategy focuses on capturing potential customers who socialize through facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn. The objective here is to increase online purchase of BBQfun products by 75%. This improvement strategy targets at customers aged between 18-50 years who have vast knowledge on information communication technology and online purchases. Stakeholders who will be affected by the new strategy are Information Communication personnel. This marketing group will look into ways of presenting BBQfun product in an attractive way, which would increase online traffic. Managers will also be informed on how the strategy will affect teams and employees. The other stakeholders to be affected by e-marketing are sales personnel who interact directly with customers. Concisely, sales personnel should present attractive flyers, which clearly indicate how customers can purchase BBQfun product from online shop. Customer service agents will also be given necessary training on handling virtual customers. Finally, Human Resources Personnel will be furnished with information on additional personnel to operate computers and related software. . Assessment Task 2 Promotional Activities The marketing plan clearly indicates that promotion of BBQfun products was to be done through in-store entertainment and competition. Various prices were to be won by competitors. In reality, the company promoted its products using the Brizzy magazine in addition to in-store entertainment. The impact of this promotion was an increase in number of leads. Moreover, it was anticipated that a joint industry-wide promotion would allow BBQfun to take control of its market share. Monitoring product, pricing, and distribution decisions It is noticeable in the plan that BBQfun focused on presenting diverse range of products to its customers. The products were to be priced competitively due to its high quality, uniqueness, and variety. BBQfun planned to avail to the market a product that was at variance with the cheap mass produced offer in the market. The driving force behind BBQfun product is quality. The marketing plan further indicated that distribution of products was to be done through retail stores that were accessible to customers. Initially, BBQfun had 15 stores in Brisbane but the number increased to 50 following the appreciating market strength. BBQfun store has also succeeded in offering customers value for their money, which was beneficial to the company in that it registered the required sales level. The store’s profitability is further attributed to importation of products from overseas at a cheap price. This had the effect of earning BBQfun high margin, reduced costs, and gaining strength in the market. Monitoring marketing results against targets in the Marketing Plan A comparison of marketing results against marketing plan shows that store and sales growth targets were realised. BBQfun had planned to increase annual sales by $5 million. It was also in BBQfun marketing plan to increase loyalty customer list by 6,000 and improve brand recognition in Brisbane. Financially, BBQfun considered the need to register a double-digit growth rate while cutting overhead costs. Notwithstanding the objectives, BBQfun recorded 48% gross profit margins, which was way below its ability. Good performance in marketing is evident in the increasing customer loyalty list and high brand recognition among customers (Russell, 2010). Monitoring marketing revenue and costs against budget BBQfun spent a total of $220,000 in advertising and promotion. According to marketing plan, BBQfun had planned to spend a total of $180,000 in direct mail, magazine advertisement, and radio promotion. This additional cost of $40,000 was attributed to radio advertising, which had not been factored into marketing plan. In terms of gross profit, BBQfun realised 48% margin against the targeted 50% margin. Variations in revenue and costs against budget Variations in revenue are visible in the difference between planned and actual profit. The store realised 48% gross profit margin against the planned 50%. Ability of the store to raise more sales would culminate into extra margins. As communicated by BBQfun CEO, an increase in advertisement and promotion cost has the effect of cultivating returns in terms of sales and revenue. In this case, the actual costs exceeded budgeted costs following $40,000 radio adverting that had not been included in the budget. Reference List Alistair, Croll, & Sean, P 2009, Complete Web Monitoring. O'Reilly, Beijing. Kotler, P, Adam, S, Brown, L & Armstrong, G 2005, Principles of Marketing, NSW: Prentice Hall, Frenchs Forest. Lake, L 2012 July 29 “Social Media Impacts Search Marketing, and Results” About.com, viewed 6 August 2012, http://marketing.about.com/b/2012/07/29/social-media-impacts-search- marketing-and-results.htm. Lancaster, G & Reynolds, P 1995, Marketing, Butterworth-Heinemann Limited, Oxford. Lingard, M 2010, Student Workbook: Implement and Monitor Marketing Activities, Innovations and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd, East Melbourne. Russell, E 2010, The Fundamentals of Marketing, AVA Publishing, London. Read More