Integrated Marketing Plan of Human Behavior Academy - Case Study Example

Marketing Executive Summary The report is about presenting an integrated marketing plan of Human Behavior Academy (HBU). Apart from that the report is also about focusing on the development of the marketing strategy and also the marketing objectives. Therefore in order to accomplish all these things a comprehensive study needs to be carried out regarding the relevant contents. The report will primarily highlight the internal as well as external environment of the company by making use of SWOT analysis, Porter’s 5 forces model, PESTEL analysis and also 3 ‘c’ analyses. Apart from that the report will also shed light on the marketing strategies of the company. Finally I will portray the financial projection for 3 years and along with that few control measures will be recommended. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Human Behavior Academy: An introduction 4 Marketing Plan 6 Situation Analysis 7 Objectives of the company 16 Marketing Strategy 16 Financial Projection 19 Control 21 Works Cited 23 Introduction The case argues that nowadays people from all the sectors of the industry are taking huge interests in the field of behavior and attitude. Especially industries such as health, psychology, politics, communication, human development, management, medical and even in the field of biological science have high importance of behavior and attitudes. The case also portrays the conception of behavior and attitude as the resemblance of chicken and egg paradox. Now in order to begin the analysis and to present the requirements a brief introduction of the focused company is demonstrated below. Human Behavior Academy: An introduction Human Behavior Academy (HBA) is basically a non-profit organization based on providing training to the candidates regarding knowledge, skills, and attitude. These skills in turn help the candidates to deal with diversified behaviors and attitudes of people. The company is headquartered at Manchester, United Kingdom and has branches in countries like Singapore, Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Taiwan. The company provides trainings in order to build up professionalism amongst the practitioners. The success factor of the organization lies in its continuous process of research and development. This facilitates the organization to offer the candidates with latest information and trends in the area of behavior and attitude. The intentions of the company are highly reflecting through their mission and vision statement. According to the vision statement the company, it epitomizes that in order to develop a healthy and unbiased society it is necessary to have sturdy mental health, predominantly to understand the thoughts of people in the context of the behavior and attitudes. While the mission statement of the company typifies of generating responsiveness towards the significance and implications of attitude and behavior, as these are the rudiments of mental health. Apart from that the company also has the mission to build up a society that has strong mental health through the promotion of healthy behaviors and positive attitudes. The organizational structure of the company is divided into four department’s namely Academic division publication division, training & consultancy division, and Research division. Some of the well known publications of the company include: Body Language Exposed: Find Out How Your Body Can Betray You, Know Your Kids Better than Face book: Road to Improve Communication and Emotional Life with Your Children and The Forgotten Scrolls, Top Sales Professional’s Secrets: Transform Yourself into a Sales Superstar. Apart from that the company also has programs in the context of chartered behavior and attitudes. In this respect the students need to enroll themselves for the consultation process by paying fees. The other programs of the company include training, research and consultancy. The various divisions of the company are used to serve different purposes. Additionally the company helps in the following areas: Consumer behavior analysis. Advertisements analysis. Vote intention modification. Consumer behavior modification. Advertisement planning. Vote intention analysis. The company is also active in social activities. For example the company donates $ 1 to World Health Organization (WHO), whenever a candidate enrolls for any of their programs. Apart from that the company also donates $ 1 to the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), in order to improve their learning disabilities and problems related to the mental health. Also programs such as ‘child talent analyses and ‘green technology promotion’ are offered to the candidates. However the company tactically uses its membership program for the development of the organization. The task of the report is to develop a marketing plan for the company which will take into account all the stages of a marketing plan such as situation analysis, objectives, marketing strategies, budgets and controlling measures. The framework for marketing plan as suggested by Philip Kotler will be used in the entire study. The next half of the report will discuss the aforementioned steps of a marketing plan. It will also analyze the business situation of the company and present the findings. Marketing Plan Marketing plan is an essential part of the overall business plan of an organization. Marketing plan can also be referred to as the pathway through which a company reaches its marketing objectives. A marketing plan also provides insights of the target customers, the promotional strategy, the pricing strategy, the method of distribution and finally it also provides an implementation technique of the proposed plan. However it is also responsible for analyzing the micro and macro environment of an organization. This activity is also known as situation analysis. A typical marketing plan includes: - Situation analysis, marketing objective, strategy, tactics, budgets and also the implementation control. Situation Analysis Situation analysis is a process, using which an organization analyzes its external and internal environment. These activities are mainly carried out to get insights of the capabilities of the organization, business environment and also the customers. According to the American Management Association, a situation analysis is defined as a methodical collection of and analysis of present and past data in order to identify the opportunities of business and also to justify the selection of the business strategies. However in the context of this project, the internal and external environment of Human Behavior Academy (HBA) can be analyzed by making uses of PESTEL analysis, Porter’s five forces and SWOT analysis and also the 5’c analysis will be carried out. Porter’s five forces According to porter attractiveness of the market refers to the productivity and profitability of the industry as a whole. It is basically a tool used for evaluating the industry and also to prepare strategies that will help the company to develop their business. The five forces mentioned by Porter are:- 1. Bargaining power of buyers: - The bargaining power of a buyer is about the ability of the consumers or the buyers to negotiate and put down the prices of the goods and services. In other words it can be also referred to as the capacity of the consumers to lessen the prices of goods and services by facilitating an increase in the cost of production by insisting for high quality products. Human Behavior Academy offers various kinds of programs to its candidates. However the company has a number of competitors in the industry. There are a number of organizations which offers similar kinds of program to the candidates. Hence it can be stated that the bargaining of the consumers in this industry is high. 2. Bargaining power of suppliers: - Bargaining power of suppliers refers to the ability of the suppliers to increase the cost of production. Suppliers are also another type of organization that provides the company with the raw materials and even offers manpower during the demanding situations. The industry where the company belongs is mainly based upon providing service rather than offering products. Furthermore the services are mainly intended for social purposes. Hence the bargaining power of the suppliers in this context gets diminished. However communities such as corporate funders, donors can be viewed as the suppliers. They are the one who provides resources to the organization for the purpose of serving the candidates. Hence it can be portrayed that if there is a bargaining power, it stands low. 3. Threat of substitute products and services: - A substitute product or service is a product that offers the same benefits to the consumers by performing the same function like that of main product. A substitute product highly reduces the demand of the established products and thereby affecting the overall sales. Substitute products are also not the direct competitors of the organization. The company in this context does not sell any product rather sales service. Hence in this context substitute services can be other related programs which offer similar kind of utility. Human Behavior Academy mainly offers programs such as health psychology, psychological testing and the empowered therapist among many others. For example a program or an activity which offers an analysis of the health psychology can be termed as the substitute service. 4. Threat of a new entrant in the market: - Threat of a new entrant is characterized by the potential entry of a new player in the industry who can pose stiff competition. Organizations which offer such programs are less in number and hence there is always a possibility of a new player entering the market. Moreover the investment is also on the lower side. A company entering this industry only needs to invest in the development of the infrastructure. Furthermore the barriers of entry to this sector are also extremely low. Hence it can be stated that the threat of a new entrant in this aspect is high. 5. Competition among the existing players: - Rivalry among the existing competitors can be based on various aspects. The most common ways of competing among the players of industry are price competition, product differentiation and promotion. However the intensity of competition also depends upon the number of players, growth rate of the industry etc. Since the number of organizations in this industry is on the lower side the competition amongst the existing player is low. PESTEL Analysis The second analytical tool that has been used in order to assess the situation is PESTEL analysis. It is a tool that is being used to conduct an analysis on the factors such as legal, political, environmental, technological, economical and social environments. In the context of the project analysis of UK market will be carried out as the company, Human Behavior Academy is presently headquartered at UK. Though it has its presence in other countries as well, but the main business comes from the UK market. Hence the elements of PESTEL is analyzed and presented below:- Political: - The political factors represent the current political scenario of the country. It includes factors such as political changes, tax policies, changes in the restriction of trades, tariffs and the stability of the government. The political system of United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and also a parliamentary system. On the whole the country is politically stable. Hence with a stable political environment Human Behavior Academy can carry out its business with ease. Also in order to carry out such ventures in the market place it is mandatory to have a steady political scenario. Moreover the government of UK encourages such organizations which offer training based on improving the knowledge and behaviors of the candidates. Economical: - The economic factors include interest rates, gross domestic product, inflation rate, unemployment rates and growth rate of the economy. The economy of UK is one of the largest economies around the world. The official currency of UK is British pound sterling. It is ranked at the 6th position in the context of world economy. UK is also considered as a country of high production. The other important sectors of UK include agricultural and fishing, tourism and finance. UK is also the first country that generated the concept of industrialization in the early 18th century. Hence with the positive economic scenario, Human Behavior Academy can expect a number of candidates to enroll in their program. Also such organization highly depends upon the disposable income of consumers and consequently the disposable income level among the UK population is also high. Social: - The social factors include trends in demographics such as population size, age, cultural factors and consumer activities. The culture of UK refers to the idiosyncratic cultural norms. The native language of the country is English. It is characterized by the existence of different type of consumers in the market. Societal factors plays an important role as it is the only driving factor for the change in the market characteristics. Even the market can be segmented by making use of the societal factors such as gender, age etc. In this context it important for Human Behavior Academy to consider the societal aspects while designing the programs as the tastes and demands are different for different consumers. Hence it becomes necessary for the company to assess the nature of the social tendencies. Technological: - Technological factors include rate of new product development, increase in process automation and other technical infrastructures such as technology inducements, technology transfer, and impact of internet and R & D activity. In UK technology is one of the central parts of any business. They make heavy use of technology in almost every sector. The ‘European innovation scoreboard’ rank UK as the country which incorporates maximum innovation in its business strategies. Technology plays an important role for the betterment of such organizations. Human Behavior academy also has other wings in the form of research and development, publication, where technology is the basic necessity. In UK with the help of technology, UK is capable of developing 16 research papers with a mere cost of $ 1 million, while on the other hand US and Japan produces 9.2 and 3.6 papers respectively with the same allotment. Environmental: - These days environmental factors play as essential role. Also companies have become much more cautious about the environmental impact. The environmental factors of a country include natural phenomenon such as natural disasters, weather patterns, climate changes etc. The weather remains cool throughout the year. Even there are occurrences of snowfall during the winters. Therefore with the favorable climatic condition, organizations do not face any issues; rather the climate helps to carry out the operations with ease. Since Human Behavior Academy is not an exception, thus it can perform its operations with ease. Legal: - The legal factors of a country includes the laws for employment, favoritism, biasness, health and safety and antitrust. The country has a very well structured legal framework. The English legal system was developed over long time periods and is considered as the foundation of many laws all through the Anglo sphere. The country has set up a number of legal legislations in order to reduce to bare bones of the business process. It has a well defined guideline for the organizations operating in the market. Apart from that UK also have a number of legal acts pertaining to business. It includes legislation about the competition, protection of employees and also a well defined consumer protection act. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis follows an approach which takes into account the target company and the different environmental variables. The principal objective of a SWOT analysis is to present the internal strengths and weakness of the company as well as the external threats and the opportunities that the company possesses. This will in turn help a company to develop the best strategic choice. It is also one of the most important ways of analyzing the strategic management of the company (Pahl and Richter 1). Hence the SWOT analysis i.e. the strengths & weakness and the opportunity & threats of Human Behavior Academy is presented below. Strength The strength of the company lies in its diversity of programs. The company has a number of programs designed for the candidates. Apart from that the company also has a good reputation in the market, as they are very much socially active. The core competency of Human Behavior Academy lies in its specially designed programs. For example Super Child program is one such curriculum. Moreover the strength of the company is also in their wide range of activities. The company has a strong presence in the fields of academics, publication, training and consultation and research. The fees charged by the company for the enrollments of the candidates is also low, hence it can be also referred to as strength. Also the continuous research and development process creates a core competency for the organization. Weakness The company mainly focuses on its training department, but it also needs to focus on other departments such as the training and development segment and also the publishing division. Apart from that, the biggest weakness of the company lies in its financial state. In order to generate revenue it has to depend on the number of enrollments and the publications only. Also in Europe the company has its presence only in UK and most of the other branches are in Asia. Hence candidates are only confined to the UK market. The company also needs to improve the technical infrastructure of the company so as to enhance the quality of research and development. Opportunity Human Behavior Academy holds a lot of opportunity towards the development of the organization. At first the company can further diversify its service range by launching new programs. Although the company has a wide range of service offerings, but still it can design other specialized programs such as the super child program. Apart from that the company can also open branches in different parts of the Europe. This will allow them to generate more revenue. If possible the company should also try to make its presence in the US market. As US market is one of the potential markets of the world. Threat Every organization has to face with some form of threats. The biggest threat of the company is its competitors. Apart from the competitors the company also has threats in the form of substitutes. Substitutes are those which offer other services but exhibit the similar function. Additionally, the company may face threat due to the rapid technological change taking place in the business environment. Nowadays companies hugely invest towards the development of technical infrastructure. Hence development of technical infrastructure has become a necessity for a company to move at par with the other organizations. However the biggest issue that the company has to face is the highly saturated market place and the diversified demands of the consumers. 5 c analysis In general situation analysis is referred to as ‘3 c’ analyses, but sometimes it is also called ‘5 c’ analysis. This has helped the companies to gather more information regarding the internal as well as external environment. However in the context of the company an analysis of 3 C’s will be carried out. The other two factors are about the suppliers and climatic condition and these analyses has been already accomplished in the form of Porter’ 5 forces and PESTEL analysis. Customer analysis Customers are the sole reason for a business to exist and operate in the marketplace. Therefore customer analysis is an important task. Human Behavior academy can have a wide range of consumers. The consumers pertaining to its training and development department can be any professional who wishes to develop their skills and expertise for dealing with diversified human behavior and attitudes. People who love reading can be a potential customer of the company for its publication division. Competitor analysis Competitors also impacts in the overall performance of a company. Hence a competitor analysis is an important activity. The competitors of the company in the UK market can be ‘Association for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy’, ‘The British Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP)’ and also other players. Company analysis Human Behavior Academy is a non-profit organization. It provides training to the candidates for developing their skills, and expertise in order to deal with the human attitudes. It offers its candidates with the latest information and trends in the area of behavior and attitude. The organizational structure of the company is divided into four department namely Academic division publication division, training & consultancy division, and Research division. It also offers membership facilities where a candidate can enroll his/her name for a stipulated time frame and paying a certain amount of money. Objectives of the company Objectives can be stated as the tasks that a company wants to accomplish by making use of various marketing and operational activities. Also it is necessary that a marketing objective of a company must follow the SMART approach. SMART approach can be referred to as the approach which follows specified, countable, sensible, and also time bound. Hence based on the findings of the analysis the company can have a number of objectives. However the most essentials of them are formulated below:- The first objective of the company should be opening up of branches in different countries of Europe. Diversification of the programs and also to promote the publications by efficient medium. The final objective of the company should be to promote itself in such a way that it gets the maximum number of candidates. Now in order to achieve those objectives the company needs to formulate a sounds business strategy as well as a well defined marketing strategy along with the 4p’s of marketing. The next section will offer the strategies and the marketing mix of the company. Marketing Strategy Marketing strategy can be defined as the process by which a company makes effective use of the limited resources and to increases the overall sales volume (Murray, “E-Commerce for Development”). In other words marketing strategy is defined as tactics which helps an organization to decide upon the marketing goals. It also highlights the way by which the strategies are to be incorporated. The primary aim of a marketing strategy is to gain competitive advantage for the company and also to develop core competencies. Tapping new markets and achieving new customers is also another vital aspect the marketing strategies. Now in the context of the project the marketing strategy for Human Behavior Academy the elements of marketing mix is illustrated below. Product Strategy: - A product strategy plays an essential role towards the achievement of its objectives. It is also considered as the most important element of marketing mix and holds a strong position in the overall strategy of the company. A product strategy is called the pivotal function for controlling and monitoring the competition (Moghaddam & Foroughi 20). Hence a sound product strategy should be developed in order to bring success for the company. Now Human Behavior academy is an organization which provides service to the customers, hence it belongs to the service sector. The programs that the company needs to have in order to get success in the market place are as follows:- Launching of new specialized programs such as ‘super child program’ which has been developed earlier by the company. Such programs will help to cater to the specialized section of the society. The company must also launch short training programs and weekend programs. By launching a weekend program the company will be able to provide training to the professionals. Apart from that short programs will generate more interest in the potential candidates as they will feel the outcomes of the training session will be instant. Price Strategy: - The pricing strategy of a company plays the central role in towards the acceptance of its products and services in the market place. Pricing can be stated as the process by which a company influences the customers to buy their offerings. Pricing also plays an indispensable role towards the attainment of customers. Pricing can impact differently and can portray denotations, either social status or value for money. However in this context Human Behavior Academy prices its products in such a way that it remains affordable to the clients. Therefore it also portrays that the company is quite optimistic towards providing ‘value for money’ to its customer. Apart from that the company can also go for a competitive pricing strategy as it will help them to compete in the market. Also this pricing strategy allows the company to price as per the industry standards. It is also recommended that the company may also employ penetration pricing for the countries where it should expand in the near future. This will help them to grab more market share at the initial stage and tap new avenues. In case of the existing markets the company can price its product based on competitor pricing i.e. pricing according to the competitors. Place Strategy: - Distribution can be defined as the way by which a company delivers its goods and services to the customers. Physical distribution is an integral part of marketing mix and the distribution channels which is chosen also plays a crucial role in making the product available for potential buyers. Since Human Behavior Academy is a service oriented organization, there is no need of appointing distributors or carry out retailing. However distribution in this context is about distribution the services of the company. The only way around to accomplish it is by opening number of branches in various parts of UK as well as outside of UK. The company can cater to a wide range of customers if it makes its presence in countries like Italy, Spain, and France or in any other parts of Europe. Moreover it is also recommended that the company should assess the possibilities of opening a branch in US. However for other divisions like publishing the company can actively use the distributors to sell the publications. Franchisee can be also appointed to offer training in the rural markets. Promotion Strategy: - The promotional strategy of a company plays an indispensible role towards the attainment of company’s objective. Promotional strategy is used to convey the messages of company towards the customers. However the principal aim is to notify the customers about the product and service offerings of the company. Also it been noticed that companies spend a lot towards the promotion of the offerings. Hence in the context of the company the promotions can be done through using TV advertisements, Newspaper advertisements, and even radio advertisements. However radio advertisements should only be considered when the company succeeds to make its presence in rural markets. Apart from that the company also needs to use other promotional tools in order to grab attention of the diverse group of consumers. The tools can be business magazines, sports magazines and also leaflet distribution. Moreover the company can make use of the same promotional strategy for its publication division. Financial Projection The financial projection is about the preparation of a list of expanses and incomes for the company. Since it’s a non-profit organization, the company will not intend to make profits. The financial projection is presented below. Expenses Year 1 budget Year 2 budget Total Budget Advertisement € 10, 000 € 10, 000 € 20, 000 Cost of new programs to be offered € 20, 000 € 20, 000 € 40, 000 Development of technical infrastructure € 10, 000 € 10, 000 € 5, 000 Total € 40, 000 € 40, 000 € 65, 000 Income Year 1 budget Year 2 budget Total Budget Enrollment of candidates € 20, 000 € 15, 000 € 10, 000 Membership € 5, 000 € 15, 000 € 40, 000 Support from public and government € 15, 000 € 10, 000 € 15, 000 Total € 40, 000 € 40, 000 € 65, 000 Control Controlling is a process by which a company monitors and controls the activities of the firm and to reach the objectives with ease. Therefore in the context of the project Therefore in the context of Human Behavior Academy, control process can be carried out by employing the following. The company must develop a timeline for its activities. Periodic monitoring by undertaking gap analysis, which will tell the present standings of the company. Works Cited Moghaddam, Farshid Movaghar and Amir Foroughi. “The Influence of Marketing Strategy Elements on Market Share of Firms.” International Journal of Fundamental Psychology and Social Science. 2.1 (2012): 19-24. PDF File. Murray, Allison. “E-Commerce for Development: Challenges and Opportunities.” Isoc, n.p. n.d. Web. 25 July 2012. Pahl, Nadine and Anne Richter. SWOT Analysis- Idea, Methodology and a Practical Approach. Munich: GRIN Verlag, 2009. Print. Read More