Strategic Marketing Plan: Flower World - Term Paper Example

Strategic Marketing Plan: Flower World Type Here American Intercontinental Effective product management and marketing is based on efficient and skillful allocation of resources and strategic planning of the company. For Flower World, marketing means carefully thought strategy and planning based on market analysis and customers' needs identification. All parts of the marketing plan are interlinked and should be considered as a single whole. Strategic Marketing Plan: Glower World Introduction Successful marketing management requires recognition and authority at the top decision-making level. Marketing programs must be carefully planned and based not merely on knowledge of internal corporate affairs, but also on knowledge of external environments. Objectives & mission statement The aim of Flower World is to comfort our being and those who we care about. The mission is to deliver quality service to all customers around the world and provide them with an opportunity to send flowers to their beloved. We will strive to provide the opportunity in expressing our customer's feelings with the gift of nature. Flower World is here for you, no matter the distance or time. With the help of social networking websites and well planned strategy Flower World website visitors will assess at least of 150,000 hits. With some exciting selection of product and lack of competitors, Flower World expects to turn at least 50% visitors into customers. Customer targets The Flower World services will be based its strategy on a differentiation criterion. This allows Flower World services to shift its focus to brand image and price reduction measures. This strategy will help Flower World services to maintained high-speed growth through continuous optimization of its product mix. Degree of differentiation is not large, and home repair service should represent a market where competitors can differentiate their products and that is why have less rivalry. Rivalry will be reduced where customers have high switching costs - i.e. there is a significant cost associated with the decision to receive products from an alternative competitor. The majority of customers are people from 18-75+ years old who value personal relations and comfort. The majority of customers belong to middle and upper social classes with stable income. The family status will not have a great impact on the target audience characteristics. Flower World services propose to its customers' competitive prices to ensure customer satisfaction. Flower World service can use parity pricing or going rate strategy. This strategy will help the company to attract buyers and create a core of loyal brand support. Nevertheless, penetrating pricing strategy can also be used at the initial stage of marketing campaign. It allows demonstrating product benefits for potential customers. Competitor targets Central Asian countries and Africa introduces laws and regulations in order to support foreign subsidies and attract FDI (foreign direct investments). In order to support national economy, the governmental prevents price rises, or even to rolls them back in basic industries such as steel. Governmental involvement seems to relate price increases to the impact on inflation and increased productivity. Government has the influence to block or roll back price increases. Central Asian countries have favorable legal laws and regulations which support market development and growth, thus they limit monopolistic position of every company (Yun and Zhao, 2005). Economic situation in Central Asia is marked by high inflation rates and low income per capita. Thus, liberalization and high level of investments can be considered as opportunities for the company to enter this country. Central Asia companies have higher standard of living. Social-demographic factors suggest fast population growth and decreased mortality rates. Both in physical appearance and in most aspects of their culture-notably, their language, their traditional form of administration, and their religion. While the population that can be addressed by conventional physical sales and marketing is constrained b geography, that of the Internet is constrained by the number of people who both have access to it and make active use of it (these not necessarily being the same thing). Estimates of the number of people who use the Internet and PCs vary widely, although a consensus seems to be emerging that currently tens of millions of people do indeed use the Internet (Yun and Zhao, 2005). Product/Service features The main product of Flower World of course is flowers. Flowers are the natural makeup of our planet. With today's technology it is possible to create new breeds, shapes and colors of the flowers. However, the most beautiful of them all is the organic ones, which have been raised within natural environment and original ingredients. Since Central Asian flower market is not as sophisticated as for example in US or Europe, it is only simpler and fair to offer organic product. Again, the uniqueness of my product is that is being ordered through the internet and delivered by local florists, and such service has never been offered before in that area. The product line refers to the total company or division offering in a related area, and is more than the sum of individual products. Product lines are significant because they reflect the corporate image. They are important for distributor relationships, and have an impact on the consumer's image and acceptance of a company. Product planning requires considerable lead time for change, for the addition or deletion of products. It is not uncommon to spend two to four years in developing new products, and this requires advanced market intelligence. The reasons for adding new products are (1) to counteract competitive activity and assure that loss will not occur because someone else introduces the product first; (2) to realize potential profitability; (3) to guard against shifts in consumer tastes; (4) to gain complementary relationships; (5) to gain an additional share of market; (6) to complete a product line; and (7) to use common raw materials as well as production and marketing facilities (Steve, 2009). Core strategy Different types of strategies allow companies to select the best approach to marketing and management. If the planning process has been faithfully followed, the strategies are obvious. They have been gradually realized by the intense and open discussions of all the other components of the plan. Some may come directly from the internal and external analyses, but most will arise out of the critical issues. There are, however, two technicalities that will have to be reinforced repeatedly: that is, strategies are not programmatic or operational initiatives. They are strategic, involving every aspect of the organization and establishing a context for everything within the organization. Second, they are neither categorized under the specific objectives nor arranged in any kind of priority. The main marketing strategies which help companies to achieve competitive advantage are cost leadership, differentiation and focusing strategy. Flower world is a customer oriented company. Customer satisfaction is our main objective; therefore the staff and management would follow the company's mission statement to the fullest. The initial, promotional period would provide our first customers with bonus features to pursue the total satisfactory. Hence the primary objective would be market penetration. Spring time comes in very helpful, since the main product offered for sale is organic, wider selection of flowers will be available for distribution (considering the lack of technology in flower growing industry at the target market countries). Series of commercials would be placed in the prime time of target customers TV channels (Russian Language broadcasting channels in US), including mostly populated metro-area newspapers and magazines. Being one of the first companies that operates in US and Central Asia gives Flower World great advantage against all major internet based flower shops. Research shows that neither FTD.com nor 1800flowers.com delivers their product to the target market. Management would use this advantage to outshine weak spots of the company such as: lack of variety or lower quality of the product. Marketing mix: communications & promotion Advertising and personal selling will be used as complementary or supplementary market-communications activities by Flower World. Their respective roles depend on company products, customers, and markets. Often they are used in a complementary manner, with advertising paving the way for personal-selling activities. In other situations, such as in making industrial sales, personal selling is usually the most important component, while advertising may be a supplementary activity that helps create awareness. In either case, both should be coordinated by marketing managers. Salesmen should be aware of advertising plans and programs, and advertising campaigns should be developed within the boundaries of sales tasks, both of which should be viewed as mutually supporting functions. Audience characteristics are also important in determining what is communicated. People select what they watch or hear. The result is selective exposure followed by selective perception and retention. Communications that agree with predispositions are more likely to be heard than those that do not. This self-selection can be either deliberate or subconscious. As audiences also misinterpret messages by evading or misperceiving those that counter their predispositions, communications are most effective when they reinforce existing inclinations. Messages are interpreted or decoded and hence conditioned by the predispositions of potential consumers. For instance, the actual physical shape of a product, its color, or the choice of words in the promotion, condition the effectiveness of the communications. Educational levels also affect the impact of media; the lesser educated rely more on pictures and aural media and the higher more on print. Psychologists call these intervening variables ("Is it possible for brands" 2008). The message will be: "Be really free with Flower World like a Bird" For people do not automatically stand willing and able to buy goods and services. The marketing mix therefore becomes an essential building block of markets. One of our stated economic goals is a high rate of employment, which is directly related to both consumer investments and expenditures, and the business cycle. Marketing mix: price Price is the ingredient of the marketing mix that has enjoyed the most extensive economic analysis. In deciding marketing strategies, however, it cannot be separated from the other components. The importance of price as a marketing factor varies with kinds of products and market situations. Sometimes nonprice factors become more significant than price ingredients. Pricing programs of firms, even within the same industry, vary greatly. Pricing strategies should consider both cost and demand conditions, and the dynamics of markets, thereby accounting for both internal and external variables. Although the determination of an optimal price is usually impossible, a satisfactory one can be developed by analysis. The major pricing decisions include determining prices for each product or service, discount structures, price relationships among product lines, and price maintenance levels. Problems encountered in establishing prices relate to the inability to determine costs precisely, the difficulties of dealing with expectations, and the variations in impact of policies on different products in a company's product line. Marketing intelligence is a critical component of effective price determination. The problem is that many companies are specialized on innovative products which are not appropriate for many types of printing, and the price of their services higher than in comparison with this device. Convenience is not the only reason customers will buy this device. New models of Flower World services have high potential to occupy a niche in the market. Successful promotion and advertising campaign will help the company to attract professional and home users target and increase sales in a year sustain strong market position and loyalty of customers (Semancik 2009). Marketing mix: channels of distribution From a micro point of view, Flower World 's distribution decisions are designed to combine, supplement, or modify those of other firms, in order to form channels of distribution that achieve the most effective distribution. Since markets are dynamic, the opportunity for new combinations is continuously available. Channels are thus used to overcome barriers. These barriers include the separations of time and space between producers and markets, the costs of moving goods, the communications barriers between producers and users of products, and the separation of demand. In surmounting such barriers, middlemen serve two groups -- manufacturers and customers. Their economic justification stems from performance of their functions more effectively than others. A tendency exists to consider eliminating the middleman, thereby reducing costs. But middleman functions are not superfluous and cannot be eliminated -- although the number of times some of them are performed may be reduced. They can, however, be shifted to customers or manufacturers. But by so doing, costs may actually be increased. The task is to perform them efficiently with minimum duplication (Ng and Houston 2009). From a macro point of view, channels change slowly. New distribution outlets tend to complement, rather than replace, existing ones. Dealers evaluate product lines on the basis of congruency with current and competitive lines, sales policies, resources, facilities, service to customers, reputation, and profitability. However, effective dealer performance demands not only an acceptance of the product, but also a willingness to handle and promote it as a manufacturer's programs require. Middlemen serve a pivotal and conflicting role. They are both selling and purchasing institutions, they have common and conflicting interests with other channel members, they are both independent and dependent, and they want to sell a particular manufacturer's product line and yet offer adequate assortments to customers. Channel conflicts are evidenced by the reactions of independent retailers to chains, more traditional retailers to discount houses, and wholesalers with their own private brands to manufacturers. This should not be misconstrued to mean that cooperation does not exist in channels. For indeed, a set of mutual expectations exists in channels among manufacturers and middlemen. Manufacturers expect middlemen to furnish sales and promotional efforts, adequate product inventory and exposure, and required services and information ("Market4Demand; Market4Demand" 2008). A major problem for Flower World, therefore, is that of balance. Channel balance, which is difficult to achieve, must be realized at various levels. For example, manufacturers desire an adequate number of distributors to blanket markets and would prefer even greater numbers. This desire must be balanced with distributors' preference for limited numbers of distributing units with protected territories. In the end, the number of channels must reflect a compromise; there must be enough of them to ensure fairly adequate coverage, but not too many to prohibit segments profitable enough to protect the interests of each. To get channels to function as integrated systems means that the programs and actions of each unit in the complex must be acceptable to and coordinated with those of other units. This is not easy to achieve, but the benefits can be considerable. Substantial savings can be realized through such devices as contractual arrangements, which specify obligations between manufacturers and distributors, and permit each to plan, program, and benefit accordingly. Continuing channel contacts and formal contracts help stabilize markets, encourage automation, and result in lower costs. Adequate incentives are necessary at each stage of the data-and-product flow to develop a coordinated distribution program (Winer, 2007). Marketing mix: customer relationship management Customer relationships management (CRM) will help Flower World to maintain stung relations with customers and analyze their needs, problems and preferences. CRM will be based on computer technology. Computer applications deal with such problems as the number of distribution centers to establish, where to locate them, the customers to CRM from specific warehouses, the quantities to ship to warehouses from each factory, and the amount of inventory to carry at each distribution point. Many studies using computers to determine costs and allocation of physical distribution resources have proven highly beneficial. Through use of computers, both linear programming and simulation techniques have been applied to physical distribution as a means of reaching the most practical decisions possible. The most widespread uses of the computer in marketing, however, have been undertaken to present timely information in the form of sales breakdowns by product, territory, CRM and salesman, and to furnish information on profitability and expenses (Xiaojing et al 2009). The result has been a significant aid in controlling and planning marketing. Actually, the more routine and concrete aspects of marketing have benefited more from computer applications than the more complex, involved, and even critical problems that have not received extensive computer attention. Decision making starts with the difficult task of defining problems -- problems of fact or problems of value. The latter are usually the most difficult to handle. They fall into the category of normative decision theory. Once problems are defined, alternative strategies must be developed and evaluated before decision criteria can be applied logically. CRM under conditions of complete certainty and complete uncertainty form the anchor points of the decision spectrum. Marketing decisions are usually made under conditions of risk. Several useful decision criteria are noted, including expected value, minimax, optimistic, and regret. The role of models, particularly quantitative models, in reaching marketing decisions is discussed. Both of the basic model building processes-model building by abstraction and by realization -- are analyzed. This is followed by a brief discussion of the use of computers by marketing management (Emde, 2009). The general situation where consumers face clearly defined competitive price offerings in the marketplace, and must exercise rational economic judgment by becoming human price calculators, is not the norm. In its stead we find reductions from list prices, trade-ins, coupons, allowances, special discount prices, service variations, packaging differences, and a multitude of brands. They tend to obliterate price information, to reduce the emphasis on so-called "rational price behavior," and to alter our concepts of competition. Conclusion In sum, Flower World marketing depends and relies on strategic planning and industry analysis. It is possible to say that marketing planning, a critical management activity, cannot logically be separated from assessment of opportunity. It brings a coordinated effort to the enterprise, adjusting and balancing its resources, and producing programs of logical action. Since marketing executives are faced with the necessity of utilizing scarce capabilities and resources in limited periods of time, allocation is a major problem. In Flower World, effective allocation can only be achieved, however, through planned behavior. Marketing planning requires sales projections for such periods as one, three, five, and ten years ahead. These projections predict customer and competitor reactions; attempt to gauge acceptance for new products; and highlight economic, social, demographic, technological, psychological, and political changes, all of which are difficult tasks to perform -nor can they be performed with the degree of precision available in other more concrete situations. This puts the innovator under pressure to make further innovations if he is to maintain his competitive advantage and the better-than-minimum profits that go with it. Innovation is, then, one of the competitive tools of the business firm. It is a major means of creating a differential advantage, albeit sometimes short-lived. In adjusting to change, and in attempting to meet the demands of the marketplace, it must be managed, and programmed innovation is becoming one of the foundations of business strategy. Programmed innovation is an extremely important process that involves great amounts of resources and effort in promoting and accelerating economic change. At the other extreme, they can build a solid market position by accepting modest immediate returns and taking a longer period of time to cover their outlays, thus making it more difficult for new entries, as with a pricing policy of market penetration. Between these extremes, they may choose to be reimbursed for their original outlays while still holding a competitive advantage, and then use the advantage to increase volume and build a stronger market position. In particular, the emphasis on price that stems from past economic situations is, today, often misplaced. This does not mean that price competition is no longer important. It does mean, however, that ours is often a competitive situation in which price obscurity and not price clarity is the rule. References Anonymous. (Jan 30, 2008). Is it possible for brands to market ethically Marketing. Retrieved month day, year, from ABI Inform. Anonymous (Oct 11, 2008). Market4Demand; Market4Demand Launches New Web Site Offering Timely Marketing Resources to Entrepreneurs. Marketing Weekly News. Atlanta: Retrieved month day, year, from ABI Inform. Emde, E. (Apr. 2009). Is Your Customer Base at Risk Protecting Your Existing Business in Tough Times. The American Salesman, 54 (4), p. 15. 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