Implementing Marketing Strategies for BBQ Fun - Case Study Example

Implement Marketing Strategies and Tactics Name Institution Date Task 1 Implementing Marketing Strategies for BBQ Fun Introduction Marketing strategies are practices and opportunitiesthat companies invest their resources in to help increase their sales as well as achieve competitive advantage against their competitors. Marketing strategies could be formulated for either long term or short term objectives. As established the main objectives of marketing strategies are to increase sales and also acquire a competitive advantage over their competitors. BBQ Fun is company based in Brisbane Australia with ten chain stores selling barbeques, barbeque consumables as well as outdoor furniture. BBQ Fun has invested in a number of marketing strategies and some of them include direct selling, advertising in the local channels and radio stations within Brisbane, advertising their products in the local magazines as well as inside their stores. These strategies have enabled the company to acquire loyal customers within the region and now it is making plans to expand its operations beyond Brisbane into other parts of the country (Kotler and Keller, 23). Marketing Activities of the BBQ Fun BBQ Fun has gained increased popularity within the state over the years from the many advertisements and campaigns they hold. The company uses BBQ Fun as a brand name which they have designed uniquely to attract the attention of potential customers. The brand name and the signature are part of the marketing strategies of the company. The company has also invested in many advertisements which have earned the company increased loyal customers as well as increased sales and revenue. The company has invested greatly in marketing strategies that will see it being recognized in other parts of the country as well and not just within Brisbane. The strategies used have taken into consideration facts like the diversity of culture and abilities within the region. This is because although English is the national language in Australia not all persons can speak nor understand the language. Communication Skills in the Marketing Strategies The objective of the BBQ Fun Company is to ensure that all people across the region as well as across the country get the chance to use their barbeque products. This they intend to achieve by catering for the communication needs of the different people in the region. They have to popularize their products in a language all persons can understand and if not then ensure the persons that do not speak the language used in advertisement understand their message in other ways such as use of pictures or hiring people to sell directly to them in a language they can understand and appreciate (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Background Analysis The BBQ Fun Company was established to buy barbeque products from different manufacturers and sell them to people in the Brisbane state. The company has ten stores and currently operates in Brisbane only. The company’s management has great plans for the company and some of them include expanding its operations to other parts of Australia beyond Brisbane. The company has developed strategies that it intends to achieve and will use their plansto measure the level of the success that has been achieved after every fiscal period. The company is making future plans that it intends to achieve in the next ten years and these plans include penetrating and successfully running their businesses in the national market. The company has established values that it intends to maintain as they accredit their achievements so far to those values. The company works to provide the best services to their stakeholders and sell quality products to their customers. The company however, has no plans of remaining stagnant and therefore and making plans to grow so as to fit as a national retail brand. Objectives The marketing objectives of the BBQ Fun Company include; increasing the sales of the products, to increase the company’s competitive advantage over its rivals as well as to ensure that people across the country use and enjoy their products. The marketing activities of the BBQ FunCompany such as advertisements among others are making it easier for the company to compete with business rivals in the industry. The company will be able to measure its success through the size of the market share, the size of the output as well as the revenues from increased sales. Marketing Strategy The number of competitors has increased significantly and they are also importing quality products. Therefore the main strategies to use against them will be increased innovation of products as well as intensive advertisements and campaigns. We shall employ various marketing mixes to increase our sales and popularity such as reducing the prices of our products, venturing into new markets that we had not ventured in, improve the quality of our products through continuous innovations as well as increase the intensity of our advertisements. The company will ensure that the production, distribution as well as selling of the products is conducted within the confinements of the laws and requirements of the regulatory bodies in the state such as the Australian Direct Marketing Association, the advertisements among other marketing strategies will cater for various cultures and abilities such as tribes, physical disabilities as well as age and gender. Task 2 Monitoring and Implementing Marketing Strategies for BBQ Fun BBQFun is a local company that sells outdoor furniture, barbeque consumables as well as barbeques. The company has tried to increase its sales through advertising on local media channels, local radio and magazines as well as through direct marketing. However, these marketing strategies were not working for the company which has now decided to expand into a national level with plans of opening stores across Australia; it therefore requires new strategies such as advertising in the national channels instead of using local channels. This will ensure national recognition for the company and thus acquire more customers. Increased market share will help the company gain more competitive advantage over its competitors. The company as mentioned earlier deals with barbeques, barbeque consumables as well as outdoor furniture, the company has chosen to reduce costs by choosing a different manufacturer who will provide the same products at cheaper rates but unfortunately the manufacturer has been delivering products of low quality and some have had to be returned back to the manufacturer. Therefore with suchquality of products the company might lose its customers to its rivals. The company can handle this problem by getting new manufacturers who will provide them with quality products at fairly competitive rates. The prices of the company’s products are quite fair although it could do much better with a price adjustment on their container products. They are also intending on intensifying marketing strategies of the container products so as to increase the growth in sales of their products. Currently the company has ten stores in Brisbane and it is intending on expanding its operations into the national geographical boundaries. This strategy for the company will be successful if they identify good locations for their products that is near potential customers, accessible and also visible. If the locations have the mentioned qualities then it will be easier for them to distribute their products. The company has targets it intends to achieve such as its market share, the revenue, growth on sales and number of new and loyal clients among others. According to the plan reported some targets were achieved while others were not. The reasons for not achieving their targets such as growth on sales were because the sales target of some of their products was not met such as the container buys. To measure success of their plans the company has set new targets for them to achieve such as increasing the target for sales on BBQ consumables from 25% to 40% because most new customers would reach for the consumables before the other products. Although the company met its growth targets its profit margins were slightly less than their target. The company has to incur various costs to ensure that they meet their targets and some of these costs include; advertising costs, costs of expanding their operations, hiring new employees as well as purchasing their products. The company should incur costs for them to improve their operations but they should do so wisely because they might invest in projects that could cause them losses instead of profits. The variations in revenue and costs are not big and the company should invest in more marketing strategies such as media advertisements, good manufacturers as well as qualified marketing consultants among others. Task 3 Marketing activities include all the actions taken by the company to ensure an increase in sales, product popularity as well as an increase in competitive advantage against business rivals and some of them include; media and non-media advertisements, review of the product pricesas well as expansion of business activities of the company. The major marketing strategies to be used by BBQ Fun include using the various marketing mix that is the product, price, place and promotion to increase sales and gain competitive advantage. The company intends to change their main manufacturer to another with one with competitive prices and quality products. The company also intends to expand its operations to other parts of Australia as well as intensify promotion or advertisement of their products especially those that did not meet their targets. The stakeholders involved in the company’s operations include; the investors, the employees, the suppliers as well as the customers. The company employees are informed of the operations through meetings that are held every day before start of business to review the previous day’s achievements and inform of the targets of the current day. The customers are informed of their roles and responsibilities through the promotions and campaigns carried out by the company. Investors are informed of their roles through meetings and reports prepared for them regularly while the suppliers are informed of their roles through notices, mails and meetings among other forums. There are many roles that are critical to achieving success in the proposed marketing plan and some of them include; the company should develop monitoring strategies to ensure that the activities of the company are in alignment with the plans made. The company should also conduct a research on the available opportunities in the market and utilize its strengths to ensure that they succeed in their plans. Implementation of the marketing plans is also crucial to the success of the company as plans that are not executed are invalid to the company’s success. The company should also set up a strong marketing team that will ensure that the plans set are being implemented accordingly and on time. The non-marketing team can also help in ensuring the success of the plan and these include the finance team, management as well as the information and communication team. The marketing team was briefed of their roles and responsibilities through mails as well as meetings and the main document used was the marketing plan alongside other supporting documents such as the roles of other stakeholders as the suppliers, non-marketing team and the management among others. Marketing strategy according to priority Resources required Intensive product promotions Financial resources, media channels, marketing expertise to develop the best advertisements. Expanding operations Great locations for the stores Expertise in marketing Hiring experts in marketing Finding a better manufacturer Information on potential manufactures from the research team. Communication and team building strategies used to ensure the success of the plan include; use of horizontal channels of communication at the workplace to enable all employees to share their opinions on how best to achieve success without any hurdles at different levels of management. The company also developed teams according to skills and expertise to ensure that they can work together and help each other with meaningful interactions and also with minimum interference from other departments. The communication strategy used is important because many organizations use the vertical communication strategy which hinders the lower level employee from sharing their suggestions with the top level management. Putting the employees in teams of their own skills and expertise set is useful because there will be minimal interference from other teams during the implementation stage which could distract them and hence lose focus of their responsibility and goals (Borden 56). In monitoring the marketing activities the company has chosen to hire marketing experts to ensure that the company’s activities are in alignment with the goals of the company. This will see the performance of the company improve drastically as the experts will ensure success of the plan is their priority. Conclusion BBQ Fun is a company that has great potential for growth in sales, revenue as well as competitive advantage. The chief executive officer of the company is expressing hope in the future of the company with all the plans that they have to market the company and the products as well. These include increased sales of certain products (container buys), expansion of company operations to other parts of the country as well as change of manufacturer to help them reduce costs and also provide their customers with better quality products at competitive prices. By hiring marketing experts the company will be able to set the right strategies that will ensure the fruition of their plans. Works Cited Kotler, P and Keller, L, K., (2012). Marketing Management. New Jersey: Pearson Education Limited, 2012. Borden, N. The Concept of Marketing Mix. New York: Wiley Marketing Series, 1965. Shaw, E. Marketing Strategy, Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 2012, vol. 4,no. 1, pp. 30-55. 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