Marketing Strategy of Electronics Company G - Essay Example

Marketing Plan of the of the Contents 3 Introduction 4 Product and ification 4 Target market 4 Analysis of Competitive Environment 5 SWOT 5 Strength 5 Weakness 6 Opportunity 6 Threats 6 Market Objectives 6 Market Strategies 7 Tactics and Action Plan 9 Product Action Plan 9 Price Action Plan 9 Promotion Action Plan 9 Place Action Plan 9 Monitoring Procedures 10 References 11 Introduction Company G is one of the highly reputed electronics companies, which have earned its market position by manufacturing a successful line of electronic appliances. In a recent attempt to enhance image of the company, it is about to launch a new line of hand blenders for customers, as the company strongly believes that this product has a high potential to capture the market. Engineers of the company deem that the small appliance market will be considerably impacted through launch of this product. The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for the company. Product Description and Classification The features of the products are completely in line with the mission statement of the company, which aims to improve quality and convenience of the lives of customers or users of the product. The key features of the new kitchen appliance are: Powerful 900 Watt power consumption, which saves electricity to a great extent. Chopping, blending and whipping functions packaged into one single product. Multifunctional blade and stainless steel shaft that resist corrosion. Attractively styled and high aesthetic appeal. “Quality” of the mission statement can be seen in the supreme quality of the product and the “convenience” part can be seen in the fact that the product is light, easy to use, and has multiple features which makes it convenient to use. Following the three way classification of consumer goods, which divides goods as convenience goods, shopping goods and specialty goods; this product can be classified as a shopping good because it will not be purchased regularly, like, milk, butter (convenience goods) or very rarely, like, luxury cars and designer goods (specialty goods). Target market In order to consider the appropriate target market, following variables can be considered by the company: gender, household income, marital status and presence of children in the families (Pride & Ferrell, 2011). Kitchen appliances are particularly required by women for helping themselves in the kitchen. Income of the families will also be a major determinant for recognizing the probable customers. However, the company is trying to fix the price of the product reasonably, so that middle income group can easily afford it. The presence of children will also enhance the sales, as children love home baked cakes and the blender would hugely serve the purpose. So, basically women of the family with little children form the primary target market for the company. Analysis of Competitive Environment The competitive environment of the company can be well-understood from the use of Porter’s five forces analysis (Porter, 2013). Competitive Rivalry: The competitive rivalry is very high in the kitchen appliance industry as competitors are mainly global ones, like, Haier, Electrolux, Whirlpool and Morphy Richards, to name a few (Letto-Gillies, 1996). The growth of any industry automatically slows down as it matures and competitors become more alike, given that the industry conventions emerge, customers taste converge and technology diffuses. The global competitiveness and evolution of technology by competitors act as the main threat from the competitors. Threat from New Entrants: The threat of new entry is quite low for this industry, mainly because capital requirement for new firms to establish themselves in the industry is quite high. The existing competitors enjoy economies of scale and the experience curve of these companies is also unparallel (Baker & Hart, 2007). This will act favorably for Company G, given that the company enjoys a good market share and economies of scale. Threat from Buyers: This does not pose much threat for Company G due to emergence of huge online stores and decline of specialized appliance stores. This has made the environment extremely competitive and overall position of the industry is good. Threat from Suppliers: The existing environment shows that the company shares a good relation with suppliers. Nonetheless, raw materials must be purchased from new suppliers for the new product. The suppliers are few and bargaining power of the suppliers can drive down revenues. Threat of Substitutes: The current features of the product provide it with an extremely favorable market position, yet evolution of technology can always result in newer products, thereby posing as threat. Currently, the product is one of a kind and has no exact substitute. SWOT Strength The three strengths are: Firstly, the product has the highest power motor in its category, along with a host of features, which make it a multi-functional product. This will ensure great deal of satisfaction to customers. Secondly, engineers of the company have secured that the product can be produced at the cheapest rate using good technology. This will provide competitive advantage over the other industries. Thirdly, the cost advantage of the company will provide it additional revenue and a higher profit margin. As the company will be able to produce at the lowest possible cost this will provide economies of scale. The cost advantage and the superior quality of production are the two core competencies. Weakness The weaknesses of the company can be characterized by: Firstly, suppliers can pose a threat by bargaining with company G as raw materials required can only be provided by them. Secondly, as the product is new so this will require some time to gain popularity and this is non surety of the market response is an identified weakness. Thirdly, the product may face obstacles in entering the market as the market already has similar products. This also makes it hard to make customers aware of the new product. Opportunity The opportunities of the company are: Firstly, growth of appliance industry in emerging markets, like, Asia, (Hill & Jones, 2012) provides tremendous opportunities for the company to export its products. Secondly, the governments in many countries offer economic recovery plants, which directly favor this industry. For example, the stimulus package of Brazil led to rise in demand of appliances (Hill & Jones, 2012). Thirdly, the company can take the opportunity of B2B sales and expand its customer base from household to commercial businesses, like, hotels and restaurants. Threats The threats faced by the company are: Firstly, the global market players can pose threat by introducing similar products. The other companies can copy the products and sell it under their brand. Secondly, technological advancements can make products obsolete. As other companies develop new technologies and company G fails to adapt the product of company G can become obsolete. Thirdly, in case where the existing market players use predatory pricing. The global players who enjoy economies of scale can temporarily reduce price of similar products produced by them to threat the profitability of company G. Market Objectives The market objectives of the company can be explained as: Product: The product objective of the company is to extend the product line. The company already has been quite successful with its existing product line. So, this provides an incentive for the company to introduce new line of small appliances for capturing a new segment of the market. This would endow the company with better market shares in the kitchen appliance segment. Price: The pricing objective of the company is to provide goods at an affordable price. This is done with the aim of attracting more customers, when the company launches the project. The idea is to capture as many customers as possible. Promotion: The promotional objective is to make the product as highly visible as possible. Given that the target market comprises mothers of the families, the promotional objective is to devise advertising and communication strategy in a manner that attracts the same. Place: The place objective of the company is to strategically place the products at key distribution channels, which will make them easily accessible to customers. The use of online retail channels can provide a great degree of accessibility to customers, as nearly all purchases nowadays are made online. These four parameters are important because the product of the company forms the interface between the customers and the company. If the product is unsuitable no one will buy it. This makes product development an important aspect. Even if the company produces a good product but the pricing is unreasonable then the company cannot make consumers buy it. This makes price consideration important. With a good product and reasonable price the next task is to make the customers aware about the brand makes promotional activity important as the customers must be made aware about the product. Finally place becomes an important dimension because the customers must be able to access the product. This is the reason the four marketing objectives which has been described will provide best marketing mix objectives for the company. Market Strategies Product: After launching and attaining success from the new hand blender, Company G wishes to introduce variants of the same product. Products with multiple colors. Additional features to be added subsequently. Price: Competitive pricing will be used to make the product available to majority of the middle-income families. Special discounts during initial launch and festive seasons. Free gifts on purchase, based on lottery methods. Promotion: Company G wishes to recruit real life people as models for promoting the product. This will not only reduce advertising costs, but will also increase appeal of the product. Use of flyers, print medium, social media and audio visual media. Free demonstration at stores. Place: The new product will be launched on both online and offline distribution channels. The offline mode will include departmental stores in shopping malls, electronic goods retail chains and appliance specialty stores. Online distribution channel will include all the major virtual retail outlets, like, Amazon and eBay. Tactics and Action Plan Product Action Plan Tactic Due Date Responsible Party Introducing variants 6 months Engineering team Stylized products to improve aesthetic appeal 6 months Engineering team New features to attract customers 12 months R & D team Price Action Plan Tactic Due Date Responsible Party Market research to find existing prices. 3months Analytics Department Bulk buying of materials for production at low costs to provide discount 6 months Manufacturing team. Simultaneous low cost fiber products like containers to give as free gifts. 2 months Administrative department Promotion Action Plan Tactic Due Date Responsible Party Recruiting people for being the face of the product 4 months Creative team Appointing copyrighters and content developers 6 months Creative team Appointing personal sales people to demonstrate 12 months Marketing team Place Action Plan Tactic Due Date Responsible Party Devising the plan to divide the distribution between virtual and physical 4 months Marketing team Finding the most popular stores to increase the visibility of products 4 months Sales team Contacting biggest virtual retails to give best exposure 4 months Sales team Monitoring Procedures Monitoring Activity Due Date/Frequency Responsible Party Keeping track of every sales data both online and offline 12 months Finance Department Measuring effectiveness of online promotional buzz before and after social media campaign 12 months Finance Department Measuring effectiveness of offline promotions through sales improvement 12 months Finance Department References Baker, M., & Hart, S. (2007). The Marketing Book. London: Routledge. Hill, C. & Jones, G. (2012). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach. Mason: Cengage Learning. Letto-Gillies, G. (1996). Global Business Strategy. Connecticut: Cengage Learning EMEA. Porter, M. E. (2013). On competition. Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press. Pride, W. M. & Ferrell, O. C. (2011). Marketing. Mason: Cengage Learning. Read More