Key Stakeholders in the Marketing Process and Their Role, Marketing Opportunities - Assignment Example

Name Professor Course Date PART A – TERMINOLOGY/QUESTIONING Question 1 Research the following TERMS and PHRASES. These are linked with your assessment. Attach your definition or explanation to each word or phrase in relation to marketing opportunities (in your own words). Please remember to reference. REFER TO AUSTRALIAN WEBSITES ONLY. A. New markets are medium that hold the potential to allow sellers and buyers of a given service or product to interact to facilitate exchange that were mot existing before B. Evaluate Market entails rigorous assessment of a given market where people match a market opportunity to a firm’s strategies, resources and policies C. Marketing opportunities entail newly identified wants, demands or need trend that an organisation can capitalise on because competitors have not addressed it. It is the subsistence of unmet need D. External factors refer to outside influences that affect a firm’s market E. Organisational goals refer to the strategic objectives that a firm develops to outline anticipated upshots and guide the efforts of employees including marketers F. Potential competitors refer to possible but not yet existent rivals in a business offering similar products. G. Key stakeholders refer to people who hold a vital interest in a business and its activities. They are people who can be affected or affect a firm’s policies, objectives and activities. H. An entrepreneur is a person who operates and organises business and takes greater risks of the business. It is an individual who exercises initiative through organising a business and controls and monitors the activities of the business. I. Innovative entails the ability to introduce something novel in the market or business. J. E-commerce entails conducting business over interconnected networks. It refers to the activities that relate to selling and buying of services and goods over the internet K. Business Contribution entails the role of business to its stakeholders and the society as a whole. It can also refer to money generated from a company’s activities such as sales. Question 2 In the current global economy it is important to stay ahead. How can we identify the business needs and potential marketing opportunities? Identifying business needs and potential marketing opportunities is essential for the prosperity of a business in the current global economy. To identify marketing opportunities, marketers must first differentiate an opportunity and an idea (Doole & Lowe 5). Identifying market opportunities calls for several steps which include: Identification of the target market and market statistics and potential Understanding the scope of the market problem that include consumer problem, product problem and technology problem Quantification of the market opportunity in order to solve the target market’s problem Identification of business needs calls for evaluation of the business activities and performance. This calls for identification of opportunities and gaps for improvement. Development of a report of the finding and recommendations facilitates achievement of the business needs. Step one of the identification processes requires thorough business analysis facilitated using surveys and focus group. The second step requires assessment of the business, its products and services besides examination of the firm’s present strategic plan. Step three entails evaluation of customer satisfaction to understand the gaps that need to be addressed Question 3 When investigating marketing opportunities how can we: A. Fit in new marketing opportunities with the organisation’s goals and capabilities? Firms can ensure a fit between organisational capabilities and goals and new marketing opportunities through strategic planning. Strategic planning helps firms to understand how to compete in the global competitive environment. B. Determine the impact of marketing opportunities on an organisation’s current business and customer base? Marketing opportunities influence a firm’s marketing performance and activities. They enhance a firm’s productivity through augmenting sales while at the same time increases a firm’s customer base. Marketing opportunities also increases a firm’s growth opportunities. Question 4 List 3 risks involved in introducing a new product or service. 1. Product or service linked risk. This entails risk related to product design or type of service 2. Quality linked risk 3. Market liked risk where a new service or product may be elegant but the market respond negatively Question 5 When an innovative product or service is introduced into an organisation we need to evaluate the introduction and transition. What steps would be involved in the evaluation to determine if the transition is a viable proposition to the organisation? 1. Assessing customers’ response 2. Evaluating the firm’s sales volume and revenue 3. Assessing customers satisfaction levels 4. Monitoring customer repurchase trends PART B – CASE STUDY 1. Prepare a table using the format below. A. List 4 methods you could use to collect information about the impact of the WANDERLUST SUMMER COLLECTION on customers or potential customers. Include the type of information each method would be best suited to collecting. Method Information collected 1 Personal interviews In-depth information about colour, design, texture and appearance of the products 2 Questionnaires Quantitative data that include size, and costs of the products 3 Observations Feelings, customer engagement with the product and emotions of customers regarding the product 4 Focus group Quality and product range B. Explain how you will ensure the information you collect is reliable. Reliability is the extent to which a data collection method produces consistent and stable results. To ensure reliability of the collected data, using and administering diverse data collection methods to the same respondents is helpful. I would also use similar questions for both the personal interviews and focus group to see if they would yield consistent data. 2. Draft a questionnaire to gather information from young customers that have bought any product linked to the collection. A. You have been asked to gather clients thoughts on: price, product range, design, value for money, where they heard about the collection, whether they like the concept, whether the product has good quality and if they are willing to participate in the 2 contests. The questionnaire must reflect all this points. Open-Ended Questionnaire The questionnaire is designed to gather general information from you about the Wanderlust Summer Collection. Your answers will be treated confidentially. Please give your opinions as honestly as possible. You are kindly requested to respond to all items. Questions Q1.What are your views on Wanderlust Summer Collection and where did you get the information about the product? Q2.Would you purchase any of the products included in the collection? Why? Q3. Do you like the design and product range provided in the collection? Please provide a detailed explanation. Q4.What is your view about the firm’s Wanderlust Summer Collection pricing? Is the pricing customer friendly? Q5. How do you find the quality of the product? Are the products up to standards? Q6. Would you be willing to take part in the contest? Why or why not? B. Describe how you would circulate the questionnaire to customers. The questionnaires would be circulated to the customers via the internet or email as well as through direct hand-delivery to accessible customers. 3. What OHS, ethical and other legislative considerations might apply: A. When developing and administering the questionnaire, and The researcher or the company holds obligations under pertinent OHS legislation to ensure safety and health of the respondents taking part in the survey. The person conducting the survey must not coerce anybody to take part in the survey. More so, the researcher must seek consent from the respondents and uphold a high level of ethics when developing and administering the questionnaire. B. When marketing the product. Marketing of the product should be done through the right channels. Correct information regarding the product should be ensured and the marketers must not lie about the products. The products should be of the right quality, quantity and standards. The company must uphold ethical marketing policies to direct the advertising and pricing. Marketers must comply with standards and regulations established by Australian Association of National Advertisers. 5. What difficulties might you encounter in the process and how would you overcome them? Include budgeting, costing and resources (e.g. design costs, production and distribution costs, promotional costs, research and development, staff training etc). Please explain in detail. Conducting a market research surveys and the introduction of a new product can be challenging. There are several hurdles and responsibilities involved in the actual research and planning. Some of the challenges involved in the market research include time, costs and resources involved in the planning and actual research. Planning and actual research consume a lot of time, energy and resources. Similarly, there are several costs involved in the planning and development of a new product in a firm. Development of a new product calls for research and development costs, design costs, production costs, distribution costs and promotional costs. Particularly, research and development of products consumes a lot of time and resources. Apparently, staff must be trained in order to facilitate development and distribution of the new product and this necessitate training costs. Before a product gets to the consumer a lot of monetary and human resources are needed. 6. Which would be the best way for Target to find out about the needs and expectations of its current and future customers? The best way for the company to find out the needs and expectations of its current and future customers is through collecting customers’ views regarding the firm’s products and the changes they would want the firm to implement. In addition, collecting and analysing data on the firm’s customer relationship management system will help the firm to recognise their customers’ needs and expectations. 7. Identify the key stakeholders in the marketing process and their role. (Table eg. Human resources managers, marketing managers, board of directors, finance staff, marketing personnel, owners, production staff and supervisors etc). Marketing is a process that requires involvement of a firm’s major stakeholders such as marketing managers, human resource managers, board of directors, finance staff, marketing personnel, production staff, supervisors and owner ( Doole & Lowe 15). Human resources managers disperse the human resources needed to ensure that the marketing process runs smoothly. Human resource managers ensure that the firm attracts the most qualified personnel to guide and control the marketing process. Marketing managers ensures feasible management and application of the firm’s marketing operations. Through their skills, marketing managers develop feasible marketing strategies that are essential to the marketing process. They formulate, direct and coordinate marketing activities. The board of directors assess the overall business strategy and direction. They approve proposed marketing strategies that a firm wishes to employ. The finance staff provide and manage the funds needed in the marketing process. The marketing personnel ensure that customers receive the information regarding the product. They create awareness of the firm’s product and ensures that customer’s get the right product at the right place, at the right price, and with the right promotion. The production personnel ensure the quality production of consumer products while supervisors ensure that the quality standards are maintained in the marketing process. The firm’s owners identify the most suitable market for their products or services. The owners ensure that the right marketing channels, rules and ethical standards are followed. 8. List at least 3 resource requirements that may be needed to assist with the implementation of new marketing opportunities? 1. Human resources 2. Financial resources 3. Physical resources 9. What changes may be needed to current operations to service an increasing or changing customer base? In order to deal with an increasing or changing customer base, the firm need to streamline or restructure its operations. An increasing customer base also calls for an increase in the number of personnel. In addition, the firm need to change its schedules in order to absorb its entire customer base. PART C: PROJECT Product Establishment Form Chosen Product Sultana Bran Buds Manufacturer or Producer Kellogg’s (Australia) Pty Ltd Product Category or Market Ready to eat breakfast cereal Target User or Buyer Retailers, families and children Key Category Competitors Sanitarium, ALDI, Uncle Toby’s Other Competitors Other breakfast products such as bread, cakes, buns from companies such as Bonbons Bakery and Uncle Bobs Bakery Market Size (Australia only) in AU$ and Units 35.4% supermarket cereal share per year Questions 1. Create a PowerPoint presentation (at least 6 slides) to identify: a. 5 Innovative approaches and creative ideas that will be explored when developing potential marketing opportunities. 2. How would you successfully determine the probable return on investment (ROI) for your product or service? Return on Investment is an essential calculation that a business owner requires to guarantee the long-term viability of the business. A successful way of calculating Return on Investment of a product is by subtracting the cost of investment from the gain from the investment and then dividing it by the cost of investment and then multiplying by 100. ROI = (Investment Gain-Investment Cost)/ Investment Cost*100 For instance if Sultana Bran Buds cost 100 dollars to produce and 10 dollars for advertising, the investment cost for a single product is 110 dollars. If the company sells the product for 200 dollars, the return on investment would be 200-110/110*100=81.8 percent. Therefore, the company is earning 81.8% return on investment. 3. List 5 potential marketing opportunities and rank them from 1 to 5 in order of their viability to the business. 1. Market penetration entailing digital promotion strategies to show people how to use the product. This will increase selling of more products to existing customers 2. Product development that entail changing features and adding more healthier contents to the product 3. Enhancing packaging to include milk in which is needed to blend Sultana Bran Buds 4. Developing home delivery services 5. Market development that entails selling to new customers both locally overseas 4. Prepare a report for members of your organisation to: a. Identify and document the changes needed to the current operations so your colleagues will understand the advantages of new and viable marketing opportunities. b. Include in your report at least 3 newly identified marketing opportunities and describe the potential changes you aim to achieve with each of them. Kellogg’s has been predominately advertising its Sultana Bran Buds through traditional marketing means that include television and radio advertising. Given the advanced development in technology and the prevalent use of the internet at homes and in the workplace, the company requires using the digital platform to show consumers how to use the product. This can be done via the internet, which has become the newest platform for marketing and has proved to be more effective compared to other forms of marketing. Increasing market penetration will help in getting more people to use the product. Market penetration will increase the sales volume. Product development that entails including healthier ingredients that will increase sales as this opportunity will attract more people into buying the product. The company can add raisins and develop extra flavours in order to attract more customers and increase sales. Enhancing the packaging to include milk, which is needed to mix the cereals, will attract a large customer base besides increasing sales. This marketing opportunity will also help the firm to win a competitive edge. Home delivery services will call for recruitment of more employees to make the deliveries as well as increase the sales volume because more people will purchase the product because of its convenience. The marketing opportunities are aimed at increasing sales, attracting new customers, retaining new customers and gaining a competitive advantage. . Work Cited Doole, I & Lowe, R 2008. International marketing strategy: Analysis, development and implementation. USA: Cengage Learning Read More