Category: Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan to Improve Holden Australia to Regain Popularity on the Market

Executive Summary

This report develops a marketing plan that is meant to improve Holden Australia to regain its popularity on the market. An analysis of the business environment has been conducted to ascertain the major challenges that the company is experiencing. The marketing plan is based on the investigation. There are effective strategies that have been put in place to ensure the company works effectively to gain a competitive advantage. Different options have been analyzed through the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy and conclusions drawn on how effectively the company can manage its affairs.

Holden Marketing Plan

Current Situation Analysis

Holden is an Australian automobile brand that imports cars under the Holden brand. Formerly, it was a local car manufacturer before the import business started. Its mother company, General motors in the US has been working towards ensuring that there is an adequate market coverage with their products in Australia. For long, the company enjoyed a huge market share with high profits from the high levels of sales they could have in the country. The brand was developed and became one of the most respected in the country. The changing times and customer preferences have seen the brand decline in sales and popularity in the recent past. Other international brands have taken over the Australian market with some corporations like Toyota, Hyundai, and Mazda becoming popular on this market. Back to the year 2002, Holden was the top seller of cars in the country (Car Sales, 2019). Moving from manufacturing to importing cars was one of the factors that contributed to the loss of market because there were other companies that could import more affordable cars into the market and Australians developed interest in such brands making them popular on the market.

In the year 2018, Toyota was the best-selling with a total of 217,061 units being sold, Mazda was second in sales with 111,280 units sold, Hyundai was at 94,187 units, Mitsubishi sold a total of 84,944 and Ford sold 69,081. Then followed Holden on the sixth position with 60,751 sales in cars (Car Sales, 2019). The company experienced a 32% fall in the sales rates and this is a major factor that needs an analysis of the main problems it has encountered.

Main Threats and Opportunities

The main threats to the company include competition and shifting customer preferences. There are many car manufacturers, who have gone global and they would like to develop their international markets better. Australia is one of the most suitable markets where the companies would like to penetrate. The companies have a good reputation and reviews on the market. They have been able to convince consumers, that their cars are the best. Japan’s Toyota is the leading in sales on Australian market (Waller, 2013). This is a company that has developed in routes in different international markets and it has a high competitive advantage. The products are highly affordable and economical. Holden has an expensive car choice of high maintenance costs. The company can be considered to have been positioned poorly on the current market.

The shifting tastes and preferences by consumers is the other major threat that the company is facing. Closing down its manufacturing operations was as a result of people wanting other vehicle varieties and this could be offered by brands outside the country. The cars were imported and the quality could match or surpass what Holden was offering (Waller, 2013). Customers’ tastes and preferences have to be satisfied. Such gratification can be achieved through the production of highly effective and efficient cars.

However, the company has an opportunity to redeem itself whereby it can engage in offshore activities that will reduce their costs of production and start developing new features in their cars that would attract customers. The low pricing strategy should also be applied on the market to suit the needs. People search for affordable and economical cars and this is what other brands are offering (Waller, 2013). If the company could focus on innovation using new technologies to come up with suitable car models, it would have had a higher chance of redeeming its reputation on the market.

Important Positive and Negative Developments in the Market

Technological improvements are positive developments that are likely to impact a strategic business positively. When a business is strategically positioned using the available technology, such technologies will give it a competitive advantage against competitors. Companies that embrace disruptive technologies tend to benefit from the resulting competitive advantage that they have in tapping the new markets first (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2016). If the company’s strategy is to use technology as a tool, then the strategy is likely to be effective.

Changing policies can be a negative development on the market and this can affect the strategies that are in place. The external environmental factors play a vital role in the development of strategies. When these factors change, they may be detrimental to the implementation of a given strategy. Taxation policies and legal aspects are some of the changes that may lead to negative effects in the implementation of a strategy. The company may be affected by the changes since it does not have the capacity to adapt to them and competing companies can have it easy on the market since they have sufficient resources to change their strategies to meet the needs of the changes and developments that arise on the market.

Factors Contributing to Company’s Success

Holden was the leading automobile seller in Australia. This has changed over time and there are different factors that have led to this development. One of them is the one that made the company successful was the brand strength. The company had a strong brand and it was popular among people on the market. Besides, there were tariffs that made it difficult for importers to penetrate the market. The company was also manufacturing cars with the support of General Motors which was the mother company to Holden. The competition levels were low since there were few motor vehicle brands on the market and that made it easy for the company to manage the market effectively (Car Sales, 2019). The main objective of the company was to remain the top seller of automobiles in the region and this was to ensure effectiveness is achieved in the manner in which they relate with the market.

The market and business environment was favorable for the company and there was effective handling of different issues that arose. The company enjoyed a huge market and they benefited from a highly profitable venture as the business’ environment was conducive with little competition. When a company is in such an environment, the management may become comfortable and innovation may be a problem as other brands develop with new tastes and designs. People look at the features of a car and that makes them change tastes as they would like to enjoy new features of the cars.

The success factors are no longer effective on the market since the company does not command a huge market as it did in the past. Through the elimination of tariffs, an increased level of competition was realized. There were new brands on the market and people preferred them over Holden due to new features. The brand name did not work as a marketing tool anymore, because there were superior models which made people develop new tastes and preferences.

The company cannot rely on the success factors because there are changes on the market and the business environment in general. There are new technologies which need to be incorporated in their production. New marketing strategies are also supposed to be developed for the brand to regain its strength in the market. This is because people have shifted their tastes and preferences and now they prefer modern brands that can be used to achieve high levels of efficiency and effectiveness (Waller, 2013). There is a need to develop a new marketing strategy for the company in order to have a highly effective team to ensure that there is maximum market penetration.

Main Challenge Faced by Holden

The major challenge faced by the company is a failure to produce a car that suits market needs. This challenge has led to the development of other challenges such as competition which did not exist before. Australians prefer smaller cars but the company engages in producing SUVs and others that do not fit the major market’s demands. Other companies have come up with strategies that will satisfy this market and they have taken it over (Waller, 2013). For instance, Toyota comes with highly efficient small cars that have been accepted on the market. Toyota was the largest seller of automobiles in Australia in the year 2018. This was an indicator of what the market wanted and how they preferred their cars to be made. Before the company could manufacture the cars meant for this market, it was already shutting down the manufacturing operations.

Government policy was the other factor that led to the rise in competition in this industry where the company could not manage the new designs that were taking over the market. It would have been prudent for the company to develop strategies on how they would manufacture cars that suit the needs of the market. The mistakes that were made by Leyland were repeated by Holden, where the company could not satisfy the needs of the market. This is a challenge that can be related to rigidity in terms of innovation. The company was not engaging in any innovative activities to improve their performance.

SMART Objective

The main objective of the company is to increase its sales rates by 30% through partnering with IT competent companies as there is a need to increase to increase the level of innovation in the organization in the next one year.

Potential Solutions to the Challenge

Innovation is one of the potential solutions that could save the company. There are new production technologies that can minimize the costs of production and this can help in implementing a low price strategy. The designs are also likely to be improved through embracing innovation in the company. The pros of innovation include having new features and designs that suit market needs. Secondly, there is an improvement of the manner in which efficiency is achieved in the organization. Cons of innovation include costly technological infrastructure which is required. Secondly, the technologies with the time become obsolete (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2016).

The other solution the company could analyze is to be engaged in strategic partnerships with companies from which they can derive synergies. Partnerships are essential in developing means through which different factors can be combined to give a highly effective means through which the organization can achieve its objectives. For instance, the company can partner with a marketing firm and this will help in improving brand popularity in the market (Kunitzky, 2011). The advantage of using partnership, is that the operational costs are reduced. Secondly, the company can benefit from the services offered by experts if it is an expert company. Thirdly, there is improvement in the performance of the business. Disadvantages of this option are related to the loss of the company’s independence.

Finally, rebranding can be used as a mean of improving business operations. Rebranding will eliminate the negative reputation of the company and bring about a new look of an improved company. However, making it popular may be challenging if the products are not highly differentiated.

Having strategic partnerships is the best potential solution for Holden. This is because of the nature of activities that need to be done in marketing and other operations. The strategic partnerships will play a vital role in ensuring all the functions are working effectively to ensure the company performs optimally (Kunitzky, 2011). The advantage of using partnership, the operational costs are reduced. Secondly, the company can benefit from the services offered by experts if it is an expert company. Thirdly, there is improvement in the performance of the business. For instance, if the organization goes into partnership with a marketing company, it is likely to benefit from the public relations expertise that is available. This is unlike when the company depends on its internal marketing team which may not have the insights on how to convince the market that their products are suitable for their needs. They can also partner with technology firms that can give them the infrastructure that is needed to improve their production. Therefore, partnership with strategic companies would be the best option for Holden to revive its operations effectively.

Marketing Plan

The marketing plan is meant to develop strategies that will improve the company’s competitive advantage on the Australian market.

STDP in Marketing

Segmentation – This is one of the strategies that the company can use to achieve various objectives. Demographic and psychographic segmentation is the best strategy that can be applied in this market. There are different levels of income in the society. Some of the people would like luxurious products while most would like efficiency, thefore company should consider having effective means of satisfying this market.

Targeting – This is another important concept that should be embraced by the company. The designs that are in demand are the ones that should be targeted by the company in order to penetrate the market effectively.

Positioning – The company should have high quality products that are priced lowly. Quality in terms of efficiency and design features are essential for satisfying the market needs. The brands that are taking over the market are pricing their products lowly and this is one of the strategies that should be used.

Differentiation is also essential as this can be achieved through having an effective marketing mix strategy. Having unique products and strategies is vital in creating an effective market niche. The marketing mix entails the 4Ps (product, place, price, promotion) and how they are supposed to be handled to ensure effectiveness is achieved on the market. The product part has to be improved because this is where the company has a problem. The market need new designs and features. Through innovation, the automobiles by Holden will be improved to these standards. Place is the other factor – presence of the products in areas where they are easily accessible by potential clients is necessary. Therefore, different premises have to be sought to suit this factor. The company has highly priced products yet the market demands for affordable ones. Low pricing models will be adapted through reducing production and operational costs (Richter, 2012). Finally, promotional activities have to be carried out with regards to marketing through advertisements and other charity events to make the brand popular.

Advertisement

Advertisement will be one of the main marketing activities that will be carried out by the company. Through advertisement, it will be easy for the organization to achieve quick popularity on the market and this will require the use of different media for the work. Television commercials, print media and billboards will be used in advertising the brand.

Charity

Through charity work, the company will gain popularity with the activities they will sponsor. Charity can come in the form of CSR activities in the organization to ensure brand popularity is achieved.

Promotional activities

Promotional activities such as road shows and motor shows will be used to increase brand awareness in the market. These are some of the ways that the effectiveness of the marketing strategy can be felt in the society. The more the impact these activities have in the society, the more popular the brand becomes.

Preliminary budget

The marketing plan budget will mainly go towards the advertisement and the charity events. These are the main factors that will be considered in the budget to ensure there is an effective promotion towards achieving the organizational goals and objectives. Promotional activities will also be considered as a budget item because they need funding.

Provisional budget

Item

Cost (US$)

Advertisement

25,000,000

Promotional Activities

15,000,000

CSR

10,000,000

Total

50,000,000

Expected Income (From sales of 100,000 units)

1,000,000,000

Controls and evaluation

The effectiveness of the marketing plan has to be evaluated. The increase in sales will be one of the factors that is considered to measure the effectiveness of the plan. Whenever marketing activities are effective, sales have to increase. Customer feedback is the other measure that will be used for this case. Feedback and inquiries are essential in measuring the effectiveness of the marketing strategy (Armstrong, Adam, Denize & Kotler, 2014).

Conclusion

Holden automobiles can get its market strength back with the implementation of the effective marketing strategies. The challenges they faced due to rigidity can be eliminated by embracing innovation in the company and having the most effective strategies in the marketing function. The marketing plan that has been developed is essential in helping the company to come up with effective measures of ensuring success is achieved in the local market and the business environment made conducive for its operation.

References

1. Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P, 2014. Principles of marketing VS. Sydney: Pearson Education Australia.
2. Car Sales, 2019. Holden continues to bleed annual sales slump by one third in 2018: can Holden weather the storm? [Online] Available at: https://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/holden-continues-to-bleed-116345/ [Accessed 31/10/2019]
3. Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. 2016. Strategic management. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
4. Kunitzky, R., 2011. Partnership marketing: How to grow your business and transform your brand through smart collaboration. Mississauga, Ont: Wiley.
5. Richter, T., 2012. International marketing mix management: theoretical framework, contingency factors and empirical findings from world-markets. Berlin: Logos.
6. Waller, D., 2013. Lessons Holden might have learned from our worst car failure. The conversation. [Online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/lessons-holden-might-have-learned-from-our-worst-car-failure-21580 [Accessed 31/10/2019]

The Marketing Plan for Enterprise Foods: Analytical Essay

Quality Production: Their factory is the heart of safety, which is why they have a rigorous food safety programme that detects and control their food safety risks.

Delivered Safely: All delivery trucks are thoroughly cleaned and checked that the correct temperature is maintained for both frozen and chilled products.

Full Traceability: They carefully control and manage their entire sourcing and manufacturing process, right from the beginning, right to the point when the final packaged product is sold to the consumer.

Enterprise Foods recognises that they need to build quite a lot of trust with their consumers and with the South African public in general after the Listeriosis outbreak in 2018. They need to give the public assurance that they can be trusted again.

Enterprise Foods has also committed to playing a leading role in driving a multisectoral approach, aimed at enhancing food safety in the country. They recognise the tremendous responsibility they have as a business to move beyond compliance and the standards we have in South Africa and to be at the forefront of solutions that give assurance to all South Africans – whether they eat Enterprise products or not. They need to ensure that the food safety system is robust. They launched the Centre for Food Safety, in collaboration with the Stellenbosch University on the 6th of November 2018.

Segmentation, targeting & positioning

Market analysis

Enterprise Foods manufactures chilled processed meat and canned meat products and is probably the biggest name in the cold meat industry. Their competitor is RCL Foods (“RCL”). According to the RCL Foods Website (2020), RCL Foods was formerly known as Rainbow Chicken Limited. As we note, the company RCL Foods has become a much larger and a more diversified food group over the last few years. Remgro is still the controlling shareholder of the RCL Foods group. It seems like Enterprise Foods were reaching the same target audience through their website and instore advertising. Enterprise Foods is not taking advantage of the of the fact that their target audience and potential new target segment spends most of their time on their cell phones and online which can become a medium that they can exploit to reach their intended target audiences. Despite Enterprise Foods’ dominant position, the company should be mindful competitors obtaining a higher market share.

Segmentation

Enterprise Foods sells more than processed meat; it sells a story of convenience over the years.

Demographic: Their primary target market is normally buyers between the ages of 30 – 50 years old. Mostly mothers and fathers who do monthly grocery shopping. They don’t really exclude any of the social classed but appeals more to the lower and middle classes due to their products being well-priced. Ethnicity and race are also not part of their segmentation as they have a variety of products and as such appeals to all races and ethnicities. To sum it up, they don’t have a specific target market; they target a country-wide diversified market.

• Geographic: It target the whole South Africa.
• Psychographic: They target households with children who wants quick prep food. They sell the image of convenience.
• Behavioural: There is an increasing trend towards convenience. Everybody has major time-constraints.

Current target market

Enterprise Foods target different markets at the same time. They reach their target market in hundreds of Super and Hypermarkets all over South Africa.

• 30 – 50 years old
• Women & men
• Household income 20k – 30k
• 60/40 Married/Single
• Many have young kids

Potentially new target market enterprise foods can expand into

The Health-Conscious younger market that is looking for nutritional and convenient food. For the purpose of this assignment I have labled this group as the Young Explorers.

Demographics of the Young Explorers

20-30 years old

Men & women (female skewed)

Personal income 20k – 30k

Mostly Single

Career driven

Psychographics

• Fitness & Health conscious – and it all happens after work.
• Love convenience.
• Search for culture.
• Cool, active and socially aware.
• They like the latest of everything and trying new things.
• Digital natives.
• Keep it real – all about authenticity.
• They love a story with a rich history.

Positioning

Enterprise Foods will add to their product range to position themselves as a contender in the healthy foods options. To achieve this positioning, Enterprise will leverage their competitive advantage that they currently enjoy within the chilled processed foods market. Enterprise Foods will attempt to leverage this position to establish and solidify the brand in the market as well as introduce a new health food product range to the younger market. They will also continue to price themselves competitively against their competitors RCL Foods.

Competitor profile

• RCL Foods is the main competitor for Enterprise Foods.
• In the RCL Foods Group, Rainbow Chicken’s, Simply Chicken range is the direct competitor.
• Rainbow Chicken (Simply Chicken) product range is: Steaklets, Viennas, Nuggets & Polony.

Media planning for enterprise foods to position it as a healthy food brand

Marketing objectives

According to Alexa Internet (2019), a list of strategic and clearly defined marketing objectives are at the core of any great marketing plan. Marketing objectives can be defined as the goals that a company wants to reach. The marketing plan is there to outline the intentions of the marketing team and gives a clear plan of action and execution.

As highlighted by our lecturer Zane Dippenaar, all marketing objectives must be SMART.

• S for Specific: Meaning the objective much clearly defined so that the full team understands the objective and why it is important.
• M for Measurable: You need to be able the measure your success at the end of the campaign.
• A for Achievable: Can the goal actually be reached by the team and is it within the team’s capability or is a pie in the sky objective that only looks good on paper.
• R for Relevant: Does the objective relate back to the company and the brands purpose statement. If not, scrap it.
• T for Time-Bound: There must be a timeline to each objective. Meaning there must be a start and an end date.

The objectives for Enterprise Foods, to introduce their new product line will be:

• Enterprise Foods intent to increase sales by 25% by introducing a new target market not previously explored to their current market.
• Enterprise Foods will aim to increase their market share by 10% within the next financial year.
• Enterprise Foods will aim to increase the basket spend of their current customer by 10% by the introduction of their new healthier product range.
• The firm is also committed at ensuring that their safety measures put in place comes through in all their messaging.

Marketing strategy

The primary objective is to position Enterprise Foods as the leader in the supply of chilled processed meat products and for Enterprise Foods to be the preferred product of consumers. To achieve this, Enterprise Foods must market more aggressively and make digital marketing part of their advertising medium mix. Their marketing plan will seek to first intensify customer awareness of their current offering, and secondly bring awareness to the new healthier food products that they want to add to their current product range. Their aim is ultimately towards building strong customer loyalty and bring the trust back that they have lost over the Listeriosis outbreak.

The message that Enterprise Foods will be going with is: “Quality you can Trust & Taste”. This message will be communicated by several methods of communication.

Marketing mix

Enterprise Foods marketing mix comprised of the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

Product:

Enterprise Foods will ensure that their product is of high quality. To ensure this the company with always communicate their 7-Step quality check that they have implemented 2 years ago.

Pricing strategy:

Considering the actual fact that Enterprise Foods is introducing a brand new product into the market, the management of the corporate will conduct a competitor and a consumer research. The target of the competitor marketing research is to spot the pricing strategy of other firms within the industry especially of their competitor RCL Foods. This can aid the team with the process of formulating its own price strategy. On the opposite hand, consumer research will aid the company’s team in determining the price sensitive nature of the shoppers. The research will equip the company with findings the team can use to formulate an honest and informed pricing strategy. In its effort to enter a new market with an additional product and entice their current market, the management of Enterprise Foods will incorporate the concept of penetration pricing strategy. This involves setting the price of its products at a comparatively low level compared to its closest competitors. As a result, the new product will appeal to a large range of consumers considering the fact that buyers are price sensitive, especially the new target market they wish to entice.

Promotion Strategy:

The success of each company and product heavily depends on how much market awareness they will create through effective communication. Seeing as Enterprise Foods will be venturing into a completely new market, comprehensive market awareness will be necessary. Enterprise Foods marketing team formulated a robust and comprehensive marketing communications plans. The team will incorporate various market communication methods which include advertising, packaging and advertising. Marketing communication through advertising will integrate various mediums. These include television, radio, outdoor advertising through use of billboards, medium like newspapers and magazines.

The management team of the Enterprise Foods realized that it can attain a high level of revenue through incorporation of the emerging Information Communication Technology (ICT). As a result, the team will combine digital communication to their advertising platforms. This is also very necessary as the market they will be looking at targeting is always online. Focus will be placed on updating their website, making it more user friendly. Use of internet advertising will enable the corporate to reach a wider range of consumer. The company will also partner with search engines such as Google and Yahoo. The contract will enable the firm to post information regarding Enterprise Foods on these sites.

Social media marketing will place a huge role in creating market awareness. These tools include YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. YouTube is an efficient market awareness tool since the company will post the short video of the new product line on You Tube. This will ensure that potential customers see what the company offers as well as view the new product offering. YouTube is also very cost effective. Their website will also be used to promote their new product range. To ensure that market awareness is well created, the team will also integrate outdoor advertising. Outdoor advertising will be in the form of billboards.

Distribution Strategy:

According to Farooq (2019) product distribution is very important in ensuring that a product is easily accessible in the market. Simply put, a distribution strategy is the way in which you make the product available to the consumer. The team of the Enterprise Foods is committed at ensuring that the new product is easily accessible to the entire market. To attain this, Enterprise Foods has formulated a comprehensive distribution strategy.

According to Farooq (2019) a good distribution strategy should have the following objectives in mind:

• Movement of Goods;
• Availability of Goods;
• Protection of Goods;
• Cost Reduction &
• Customer Satisfaction.

Enterprise Foods will use an Intensive Distribution Strategy to ensure that their products are being available to the most number of consumers possible. Enterprise Foods new product will be supplied to wholesalers, supermarkets, hypermarkets and retailers in the entire domestic market.

Organization, Implementation and Control:

In order to ensure effective launching of the new product, Enterprise Foods’ management team has set a substantial amount in its marketing budget as illustrated below.

Cost Item Cost in Rands

Print Advertising (Newspaper, Magazines) 90 000

Online Advertising (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook & Mobiles) 150 000

Internet Marketing (Yahoo & Google) 50 000

Broadcast Advertising (TV & Radio) 200 000

Outdoor Advertising (Billboards) 50 000

TOTAL SPEND 540 000

Marketing research

During the initial stages of the marketing plan development, Enterprise Foods held several different focus groups with current and prospective customers. The goal of these focus groups was to solicit a significant amount of information from current and prospective customers.

Enterprise Foods were very careful with choosing a facilitator for these focus groups. The goal was to ensure that the results were as valid and credible as possible in order for them to use the findings to make strategic decisions. The groups ranged in size from seven to nine people from all races. The focus groups were videotaped to allow Enterprise Foods to review the content carefully after the research was conducted. Overall, the focus groups provided Enterprise Foods with a wealth of insights that were instrumental for them in launching their new product range to a new target market and growing their current market.

Developing and implementing media strategies

Encourage brand awareness and develop a cohesive message that encourages engagement. Use traditional mediums which includes print media, broadcasting and outdoor advertising to drive consumers to online media which is mobile, website and digital media. The aim is to increase market share.

The media mix (IMC)

According to News Old Stamp (2020), generally speaking, a marketing media plan could be a tool devised as a result of selecting the channels for content distribution and establishing its frequency. It exists as a visible aid to assist content marketers to implement their marketing strategy. The aim of creating a media plan is to deliver the message to the audience over time and to work out the most effective ways of doing it.

Our target market as well as our marketing objectives has been outlines above already. As a refresher we are targeting the younger market between the ages of 20 – 30 years old and we are calling them the Young Explorers.

The media mix enterprise foods will be using

Interactive Mobile Opt-in Notification – Customers will receive Enterprise Foods updates, promotions and discounts. This enabled Enterprise Foods to collect data and communicate with this audience again.

Blogs – Consumers have access to participate blogs initiated by Enterprise Foods to discuss products, share recipes and share healthy tips. The aim is to entice the customer to buy the product and make them feel like part of a community. People love to have a sense of belong. Social Networking Advertising – This will be through Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. These platforms will be used to drive users to the Website of Enterprise Foods and their products.

Email – Consumers can register to receive notifications and updates.

Website – The Enterprise Foods website will be designed for maximum functionality. Links to sign up for the mobile announcements, social networking and emailers.

Print Media – Press releases about Enterprise Foods new product range. This will be through ads in popular newspapers and magazines.

The campaign combines using traditional advertising and integrating it with digital mediums of advertising in order to reach the new target audience.

Implementation of the media plan

It is all good and well to have a well-written and constructed marketing plan, but implementation of the marketing is probably more important. In this step of the process it is very important to ensure all parties who need to be aware of the plan have the necessary details in order to successfully execute the plan. In this phase the company is turning its plans into actions.

Implementation is paramount in contributing to the success of Enterprise Foods marketing plan. This is due to the fact that the likelihood of market failure is higher during the operational phase compared to planning phase of a campaign.

In its operation, Enterprise Foods team has formulated a comprehensive implementation plan which will ensure effective execution of the strategies developed in relation to marketing of the new product as well as the current product range. The company’s implementation plan has incorporated a schedule which defines the activities to be undertaken.

Activity responsible person timeline

Formulating the Marketing Plan Sheri Omoh 15 January

Selecting of the Team Jan Pierewiet 20 January

Launching the firm’s revamped website Clara Anna 25 January

Launch of promotional campaign (Television, Radio, Newspaper & Outdoor Advertising) Leipolt Van der Walt 1 February

Start of social media campaign Megan Trainer 1 February

The official launch of product in store Cassidy Times 10 February

The table above illustrates the activities which will be undertaken and the time in which they are expected to commence. This keeps everyone working on the project accountable.

Evaluate the success of the media plan

Evaluating the success of a campaign is important to measure whether we have reached our objectives as a company. You cannot consider yourself a great marketer unless your numbers add up to the objectives that you have set out at the beginning of the campaign.

For Enterprise Foods we will measure the success of the campaign as follows:

• Market Reaction – If our competitor, RCL Foods follows us in creating a healthier food options for the younger generation it means we have done well.
• Customer Response – This is asking consumer what they think of your marketing efforts and whether they have seen your campaign and how they feel about the campaign.
• Sales Performance – Sales should be only going one way and that is up.
• Return-on-Investment – Does the marketing investment bring in enough new or repeat customers to justify the expense of the campaign?

Marketing campaigns are the most difficulty campaigns to measure. Marketing is not really scientific, but a commitment to evaluation ensures that each effort can be properly understood, and future strategies can be developed based on performance of previous campaigns.

Conclusion

For most businesses, the end goal seems intuitive. Most businesses want to just sell their products and succeed in business and see money rolling in. However, a business owner with a marketing plan has a big advantage, because they know not only what they want to achieve but how they intend on achieving it. A marketing plan is very much like a road map to a destination. In this case it is a road map to achieving your objectives as a company. Not having a marketing plan in place would be stupid as without a plan you can derail your business.

Marketing Plan for British Multinational Confectionery Company Cadbury

Situation Analysis

Situation analysis defines the potential customers, evaluates projected growth, assess competitors and makes a realistic assessment of the company. This assessment is then summarized as SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis.

Company Analysis

Cadbury is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelēz International which origin from Birmingham, England. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Wrigley’s. Cadbury chocolate has been an integral part of Birmingham’s heritage, dating all the way back to the very first store in 1824. At 22 years of age John Cadbury opened his first grocer’s shop selling sells hops, mustard and a new sideline – cocoa and drinking chocolate made with cocoa beans in Birmingham, England. He soon became one of the leading cocoa and drinking chocolate traders in Birmingham. The popularity and growing sales of John Cadbury’s cocoa and drinking chocolate of ‘superior quality’ determined the future direction of the business. In 1847, John Cadbury became a partner with his brother Benjamin and the company became known as ‘Cadbury Brothers’. Later, Cadbury was merged with drinks company Schweppes to form Cadbury Schweppes in 1969.

In 1970, Cadbury was launched in Malaysia. There are more than fifty countries Cadbury is operating in and Malaysia is one of the countries that Cadbury operating in. Cadbury produces many confectionery products such as Dairy Milk chocolate, crunchie, snack and others. However, Cadbury Malaysia was famous for it Dairy Milk products such as chocolate bars and beverages. In 2010, Cadbury become a part of Mondelez International.

Company Objectives and Marketing Objectives

Mission statement:

“Cadbury means quality” this is Cadbury promise. The company’s reputation is built upon quality; the company’s commitment to continuous improvement will ensure that the company promise is delivered. Cadbury established as a company of fairness and integrity, which always operate as a socially responsible business.

Vision statement:

The vision of Cadbury is “Working together to create brands people love”. The company aims to be judged as a company that is among the very best in the business world .

Marketing objectives:

Cadbury is a leading company in food products and it wants to reach to all segments of society. The company wants to provide its products on different occasions or festivals and it is providing its products from small stores to departmental stores through their quick distribution channels. The company has diverse products that needs to be provided in the market of different countries. The company also focus on effective advertising campaign that can make its products popular among its clients. Therefore, Cadbury have the following marketing objectives:

To develop differentiated product, while exploiting a smart variety, to achieve their profitable growth in confectionery and beverages.

To further take advantage of technology in order to increase growth, quality and productivity.

By working together with global supply chain Cadbury have a competitive advantage while attaining their ethical and cost-reduction goals.

By competing on quality this gives Cadburys a unique selling proposition that allows them to lay an emphasis on total consumer and customer perceived value.

Company Resources

i) Tangible Resources

A tangible resource is an asset that has a physical form such as machinery, buildings, land and inventory. To Cadbury, tangible resources represents an opportunity to earn an economic benefit through the production of distribution of goods or the provision of services.

Human Resource

Cadbury has around 80,000 workers all over the world. Decision making is highly decentralized. Several facilities are given to workers such as summer hours’ scheme, cafeteria and transportation facilities and flexibility of time.

The employees are rewarded for their effort. Cadbury is offering cash for their employees that can help them in all their needs. If the employees working hard the profit will be increased and Cadbury can enlarge their brand in different companies. If employees satisfied with the benefits they are getting, they automatically work hard for company’s growth.

Financial Resources

Cadbury have wide range of products, such as various types of chocolate, refreshing gum, candy and others. Everyday, millions of people around the world enjoy their brands. They have capitalized premium as well as low cost market.

Organizational Resources

Cadbury follows a matrix of global function and number of business unit. Management structure is being divided into 3 executive directors and 5 non-executive directors who plan strategy and make decisions for the company on a long term basis. The concerns are mostly from the shareholders. The key success factor of Cadbury emphasizes is growth, efficiency and capabilities.

Physical Resources

Cadbury emphasizes production of product environmentally and ethically by stores and operates in almost 40 countries and sell nearly everywhere. Cadbury main manufacturing unit is located at Bournville in Birmingham.

Technology Resources

Cadbury uses Pathatrix system in the production as it allows them to increase the number of food samples tested for pathogens in a shorter amount of time.

The Pathatrix system provides Cadbury with a validated, science-based solution to the rigorous demands of a highly interdependent and time critical supply chain.

ii ) Intangible Resources

An intangible asset is an asset that is not physical in nature such as patents, trademarks, copyrights and business methodologies. Cadbury main intangible assets are goodwill and brand recognition.

Reputational Resources

Cadbury have maintained an active worker villages and R&D facilities since the time they first opened. Work-life balance has been a key tenant of the Cadbury Human Resources philosophy. Since the 1800’s, Cadbury has been concentrates on social responsibility towards various communities. They give a lot of preferences to stakeholders, focusing on their employees, suppliers and buyers well-being. They have constantly striven put their employees first.

The world’s second largest confectionery is also great when it comes to dealing with many people. The quality and loyalty of Cadbury had made it a common man’s brand. It has become a brand and has been found to have no adulteration. Cadbury also concentrates on the environment by reducing waste inform of plastics.

Innovation Resources

There are various types of chocolate and beverages that produce by Cadbury. As we know, it may contain a high amount of sugar and other substances that can affect customer health. In July 2019, Cadbury has introduced a new version of its Dairy Milk chocolate bar that contains 30% less sugar as part of the confectionery industry’s growing efforts to respond to the obesity crisis.

Marketing Plan

Cadbury has a well developed marketing plan process that every Cadbury products have to go through before being introduced to the market. There are seven stages of process that each Cadbury marketing plan have to pass:

i) Analysis of the Market

Being in the confectionery business and dealing with consumers, Cadbury has always been a market and consumer focused organization. It consistently conducts market studies to determine the positioning of its brands, in current, new and future markets. This forms the foundation of the Marketing Plan.

ii) Setting the Marketing Objectives

In order to deliver growth, Cadbury conducts many marketing programs for its brands every year. Each marketing program is accompanied with a Marketing Plan. Each marketing plan has clearly defined objectives for the project team to deliver.

iii) Establishing the Strategies & Tactics

Based on the market analysis and set objectives, each Marketing Plan will contain strategies and tactics which will be necessary in delivering the desired outcome.

iv) Developing an Action Plan

This is one of Cadbury’s key philosophies, “making things happen”. Therefore, every Marketing Plan in Cadbury has specific actions to be implemented by a person responsible, and within set time targets.

v) Monitoring of Progress

In Cadbury, every Marketing Plan is monitored monthly by the Senior Management Team of the respective SBU, to track the progress of the plan, as well as to make any necessary improvements or changes.

vi) Resource & Financial Management

Once a marketing program has been approved by the Senior Management Team of Cadbury, the necessary resources will be provided in order to deliver the objectives set in the Marketing Plan. As in the case of providing the necessary resources, Cadbury also provides an appropriate financial budget for the project to deliver the objectives set in the Marketing Plan.

vii) Measuring Success

Cadbury continuously measures the success of each of its marketing projects, and compares the results achieved vs. the objectives set in the Marketing Plan.

Present Marketing Strategy

Cadbury has maintained an effective distribution and brand equity to provide its products to its clients. This product is available from the stores and the effective distribution channel creates the competitive edge and its reach to the market to provide the products. The company provides its products on a continuous basis. It is also designing the communications and promotion of its products in the market so that it can get appreciation over its products. The company has maintained such effective strategy that can meet the needs of its customers of all age groups. The products of the company are provided at every cities and towns through its quick distribution channels.

Marketing Collaborators

Global

Cadbury brings the partnership with Premier League to life in a variety of exciting ways for football fans. From offering the chance to win matchday tickets to create opportunities to meet Premier League stars past and present, offering support to the Premier League Primary Stars work in communities around the country all the way through to presenting the Golden Boot, Golden Glove, and Playmaker awards at the end of the campaign. Cadbury wants to bring the Premier League to consumers for them to share in the moments of excitement that football brings.

Cadbury Dairy Milk launch a new brand campaign Donate Your Words in partnership with Age UK. For the first time ever the UK’s number one chocolate brand will be removing the words from its iconic bars and ‘donating’ them to the Charity to help alleviate loneliness amongst older people.

Cadbury also collaborate with multi brands to create new products such as

• i) Joyville – Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo chocolate bar
• ii) Daim – Cadbury Dairy Milk with Daim
• iii) Nabisco – Cadbury Dairy Milk Ritz
• iv) Pascall – Cadbury Dairy Milk Pineapple Lumps
• v) McDonald’s – Dairy Milk McFlurry and Crunchie McFlurry

Malaysia

Cadbury collaborated with renowned cartoonist Datuk Lat launched a new limited-edition flavour Kopi C and Cadbury Dairy Milk Durian exclusively for the Malaysian market. Dairy Milk Kopi C is the first ever localised flavour and pays homage to Malaysians’ love of traditional coffee shops, also known as the kopitiam. Cadbury Dairy Milk Durian flavour was launched not only to celebrate the flavours of Malaysia but one that also truly resonated with the nation. In celebration of Malaysian flavours and culture, the sleeves of selected Cadbury Dairy Milk products will feature hand-drawn illustrations by Datuk Lat.

Cadbury Malaysia partnered with Food Aid Organisation to provide food to 400 residents of Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) in Desa Tun Razak. Through this collaboration, Cadbury Malaysia will redistribute the stocks which would otherwise end up in landfills to be channelled to charitable and welfare homes for the needy. This will reduce their food bill.

Developing Strategic Marketing Plan for Indochina Junk

Abstract

From the past three years until 2019, Vietnam’s tourism industry has witnessed tremendous growth and continuously rank as one of the rapidest-growing tourist destinations in the world, with a recorded revenue exceeded US$26.75 billion by the end of 2018 according to Vietnam ministry of culture, sports & tourism. That shows the huge potential of Vietnam tourism which eventually activates many opportunities for other businesses.

Well known as the natural wonder of the world, Halong bay – Vietnam has been exploited by tourism activities since the early 2000s. The booming in numbers of companies running overnight cruise ship in Halong bay area shows how dynamic and profitable of this business is, also it is giving a hint for a tougher competition occurred within this industry. For that reason, more and more cruise ship brand has spent a big proportion of investment into their marketing mix activity in order to get competitive advantages to the other rival firms, and Indochina Junk is not an exception. With 2 years’ experience working for this top rank travel agency in Halong cruise ship business, I have a common understanding toward the company’s operation and marketing process. Therefore, I choose Indochina Junk as the case company and develop a strategic marketing plan for it.

Study Objectives:

The research aims to explore and identify the tourism market potential and current marketing mix activities of those companies have been exploiting in Halong bay, Vietnam

Through further analyze, the objective of this paper is developing a strategic marketing plan for Indochina Junk to achieve competitive advantages.

Research Questions

• What is the current strategic marketing plan of the Indochina Junk?
• Who is Indochina Junk’s target market?
• What marketing tactics should be used to reach Indochina Junk’s market and goals?
• How much is the budget for launching this marketing plan?
• How to implement a new strategic marketing plan to the Indochina Junk?

Approach

For my independent study, I chose to conduct a Marketing plan which I think is necessary for the Indochina Junk right now cause of its expanding market goal in 2019. According to Hooley, Saunders, and Piercy, (2004), ‘the development of a marketing strategy can be developed into following three steps: the establishment of a core strategy, the development of the company’s competitive positioning and the implementation of the marketing strategy.’ Hence in my plan, I will follow this guideline and all the key techniques that I had learned from BUS501 and MRT501 to identify the marketing objectives and focus on executing them.

In order to answer the research question, I am going to collect both quantitative and qualitative data by using primary and secondary sources. In this marketing research, I will use a structured interview with marketing manager of Indochina Junk to figure out the company’s current position, and its marketing strategies. The questionnaire will be concisely listed and focus on asking the subject matter as well as the permission to access some of the company’s data. In the other hand, I will also send out a new form of feedback survey for the customers of the company after discussing with the case company. From that, I will sum up 50 feedbacks and interpret this information into primary data which is possible to analyse and assure the private information will be protected and censored. The result will show the need of customer through categorizing different groups of them.

After coding the gathered data, I will apply couple of the analytical techniques to help me understand more about case company’s situation:

*SWOT: Strength – Weakness – Opportunity – Threats (internal environment analyse)

*STEEPLE analysis – Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, Ethical (external environment analyses)

* Competitive analyse

+ Market share graph

+ Sample SWOTs of competitor

* The choice of strategic marketing plan: Through identifying the target market, I suggest a marketing mix strategy to address the need of each segmentation

+ 7P marketing mix

+ Pricing strategy

+ Portfolio analysis

With the outputs of these analytical techniques, I will structure the implementation of Indochina Junk’s marketing plan along with financial prediction in 4 main parts: Information marketing, theme marketing, precision marketing, and branding.

The limitation of this study is about the questionnaire feedback. 50 customers will be asked to fill in during the short term of time. The data will have a similar result trigger by the same group of customers take part in this survey. Another limitation is the case company’s data accessibility, here are some confidential information which the company could not provide to me hence there are some bias idea might be showed.

In the description above, I am bringing my interest subject and my willing to research this topic in order to contribute to my work. I desire to conduct this marketing plan properly and full of applicability.

A several literature research about marketing, hospitality marketing, research methods for business will be used in my paper for supporting purpose. Most of these scholar papers I found in blackboard website, library books of Stamford international university and credible online sources:

1. Armstrong, G. & Kotler, P. 2011, Marketing and Introduction, Pearson, 10th Edition, 2011.
2. Guo, Rong 2012. Email message, received. Re: the documents for tourism marketing strategy plan organized in international tourism industry. Forwarded by Qin.
3. Kotler, P & Keller, K L. 2009. Marketing Management. 13th Edition. Pearson Education Ltd., London.
4. Karel J. Alsem. 2007. Strategy Marketing. University of Croningen.
5. Aaker, David A. & Kumar, V. & Day, George S. 2006. Marketing Research. 9th Edition. New York. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Hoboken.
6. Armstrong, G. &Kotler, P. 2011. Marketing and Introduction, Pearson, 10th Edition,
7. Keller, K. 2008. Strategic brand management. Harlow: Pearson International Limited.
8. Kotler, P. 2000. Marketing management.10th edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
9. Middleton, Victor T.C. & Clarke, Jackie 2001. Marketing Travel and Tourism. Third Edition. Great Britain. MPG Books Ltd.
10. Li, Yi. 2010. Tourism Marketing Management. Third Edition. Peking. RenMin Newspaper Inc.
11. Merriam, Sharan B. 2008. Qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Print.
12. Lambin, J. & Chumpitaz, R. 2007. Market-driven management: strategic and operational marketing. 2nd Edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
13. Hooley, G. J., Saunders, J. A. & Piercy, N. 2004. Marketing strategy and competitive positioning. Third Edition. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall Financial times Indochina Junk official website: https://www.indochina-junk.com/

Strategic Marketing Plan for Super Bikes (Sri Lanka) Company Ltd

Executive Summary

Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. (Pvt) Ltd., since its inception has created a huge brand image and remains a large commercial force which is constantly driven to satisfy the legitimate interest of its stakeholders, the customers.

Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. (Pvt) Ltd., has changed its focus to differentiate itself from other players in the market, especially the Indian players, by filling real needs of our target group with reliable, friendly and efficient service.

The company’s market focus has made explicit in its plan to review the vision and strategy, adding more value to the target audiences in Sri Lanka.

Apart from the above facts, it was a pleasure to identify the needs of the target audience and how we as a leading bike company in Sri Lanka could cater to the needs of the young riders.

I have also given insights to the real target audiences, what innovations would satisfy the needs of the target audiences and how the company would achieve its goals to grow as the leading bike company in Sri Lanka.

Background of the Company

Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. (Pvt) Ltd. started its business in 1993 with two young but experienced bikers with an engineering background. They observed that the bike market was growing fast in the Asian market and was becoming very popular in both sporting and general usage. They developed frames for super bike that were suited for off-road and standard range.

Super Bike Co., does not sell directly to retail customers. It relies on a network of 20 distributors in Asia. Super Bike expects all their distributors to be in the Asian countries to handle the total production and service range such as selling bicycle spare parts and service including warrant, repairs, etc.

Super Bike is also the sole distributor for a bike company in Korea and sells their products ranging off-road five models and standard six models in Sri Lankan market.

Situation Analysis

Situation analysis analyses the internal and external factors of a business. It identifies the capabilities of the business, customers, business environment and its impact on the company. A situation analysis is an essential part of the business plan and is reviewed periodically to ensure its current relevance.

Super Bike Company’s major competitors are most likely to be the firms that come up with the best business plan and utilize their skills to make the firm successful.

PESTEL Analysis

It is a framework or tool used by marketers to analyze and monitor the external marketing environment factors that have an impact on the organization. An organization has no control of these factors. The results of the PESTEL analysis is used to identify threats and weaknesses which is usually used in a SWOT analysis.

PESTEL stands for:

• P : Political
• E : Economical
• S : Social
• T : Technological
• E : Environmental
• L : Legal

According to PESTEL analysis the Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd understands about the internal and external factors that affect the organization. It identifies the new trends in the macro environment or the external factors and work very closely to adopt according to it.

In order to track these trends the company will keep a close eye on all the above factors. These factors can cause various threats as well as lead to opportunities to the company. Furthermore, these factors are beyond the control of an organization.

SWOT Analysis

The next step on the marketing plan is to know our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. To identify these, a SWOT analysis would be performed.

Given below is the matrix of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats or the SWOT analysis.

Strengths

Capitalize on strengths

• a) This company has high efficient business strategies to develop their products and to sell their items.
• b) It is a specialized company in motor bikes.
• c) The company has financial stability
• d) It posses modern technology (machines, work forces and specially trained people)
• a) Favourable consumer perceptions
• b) Management and the staff have skills and the management in a variety of areas
• c) Reduces inventors risk and exposure
• d) Think differently

Weaknesses

Address weaknesses

• a) There is lack of opportunities to expand the business in the country.
• b) Sri Lanka is a developing country therefore, people do not have enough money to spend on motor bikes
• c) Creating brand awareness for new products are difficult
• a) Committed to expand
• b) High margins provide flexibility
• c) Professional sales team recruited with assistance of venture partners who will have affinity with our experience in the supermarket chain industry

Opportunities

Maximize opportunities

• a) There is scope for innovation in existing markets.
• b) It is a low cost – high profit industry.
• c) Japanese bikes are more expensive than Korean bikes.
• d) Capacity to operate in a high growing industry.
• a) Build consumer preferences
• b) Sell benefits
• c) Ease, quality and consistency of products ideal for introduction to the market

Threats

Minimize threats

• a) Competition from the other players in the market.
• b) Price competition.
• c) We cannot stop macroeconomic activities.
• a) Increase the number of dealers
• b) Guaranteed demand
• c) Venture with others to fight back

Objectives

Objectives are the firm’s desired goals to be achieved. Objectives should be SMART. It refers to the followings.

Specific

• The stated objectives will have to be to the plan.

Measurable

• The objective under consideration has to offer measurable results.

Actionable

• The target stated in the objective will have to be responsible.

Realistic

• This refers to practicability of the stated objectives.

Time frame

• All objective should specify a time frame for the targets.

Our SMART objectives are as follows.

• a) To achieve a market growth of 20% by the end of 2020.
• b) To increase number of customer base.
• c) Promote the brand awareness amongst many target audience.
• d) To reach the sales revenue of Rs 2850 million in the end of the year 2020 with an extensive of the product line.
• e) To foster a good public image for motorcycling and motorcyclist
• f) To promote the increased use of motorcycles for transportation and recreation

Strategy

Strategic Marketing Plan

The marketing plan is the central instrument for directing and coordinating the marketing efforts. Marketing plan is most important factor of any organization to develop their future various activities.

There are two levels of marketing the planning

• a) The strategic marketing planning
• b) The tactical marketing planning

Marketing Plan is further defined as the logical sequence of activities leading to the setting of objectives and formulation of plans for achieving them. It could include marketing tactics, product features, promotions, merchandising, pricing sales channels and service.

The Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd. is specialized in motor bicycle trade. They produce off-road and standard range of motor bicycles. Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd, has developed a marketing plan as follows:

• a) To identify individuals who does business with us, and the prospective customers.
• b) Established a strong presence in the Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd in the country.
• c) To make market penetration, nationwide distribution and making an opportunity gauge market acceptance of other competitors and reduce business and financial risk.
• d) Utilize acquired market knowledge and try to gain and established a relationship with the non bike riders both through motor bike affiliations and through the efforts of our friendly staff.
• e) Established significant high margin sales.

Definition of Brand:

A unique design, sign, symbol, words or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its competitors. Overtime, this image becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer’s mind. (American Marketing Association)

Therefore, branding is

• a) a seller’s promise
• b) has to deliver a set of specific features consistently.
• c) builds an identification of the product in the consumer mind.

There are four main steps in building a brand

• a) Brand recognition.
• b) Brand acceptance.
• c) Brand performance.
• d) Brand loyalty.

The Role of Brands

Brands identify the source or maker of a product and allow consumers, either individuals or organizations, to assign responsibilities to a particular manufacturer or distributors. Consumers may evaluate the identical product differently depending on how its branded consumers learn about brands through past experience with the product and its marketing programme. They find out which brands satisfy their needs and which ones do not. As consumer lives become more and more complicated, rushed and time starved the ability of a brand to simplify decision making and reduce is invaluable.

Brands also perform valuable function to firms. First, they simplify product handing or tracing. Brands help to organize inventory and accounting records. A brand also offers the firm legal protection for unique features or aspects of the product. The brand name can be protected through a registered trade mark. Manufacturing process can be protected through Patents and Copy Rights and Designs. These intellectual property rights ensure that the firm can safely invest in the brand and reap benefits of a valuable asset.

Brand strategies

There are a few branding strategies available in the market

• a) Individual product branding, such as Lux, Coca-Cola, Sunlight, Viva
• b) Blanket family branding such as Maliban, LG, Samsung, Keells, Damro
• c) Company trade name combined with individual brand name such as Nissan sunny, Nissan bluebird; Singer TV, Singer washing machine

Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd will be using the branding strategy of Blanket Family Branding Strategy. Accordingly the company name and the product name would be the same. For instance, in the case of LG products – all products under LG brand name such as LG refrigerators, LG Television. If LG brand name fails in the market it will adversely affect demand for all LG products under LG brand.

The product range of Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd.

• a) Off-Road Five models – Brand names as follows:
  • Super Striker (180R)
  • Super Mount Rider (200R)
  • Super Off road Express (200R)
  • Super SBR (250R)
  • Super Evil (250R)
• b) Standard Six Models – Brand names as follows:
  • Super Champ (70cc)
  • Super Smile Scooty
  • Super SB100
  • Super GL125
  • Super GN150
  • Super Goes Rider (180cc)

The above names are the brand names used by Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd. The company has eleven models under the branding strategy of Super Bike Co. All models use the company name ‘Super’ as it uses the family branding strategy.

Integrated Marketing Communication Plan

The best marketing strategy in the world will ultimately fail, if it is unable to get the correct message across to its potential customers at the right time. An Integrated Marketing Communication Plan will match effective and efficient way to distribute our message across to the target audience in motor bike riders. So what needs to be taken in to consideration is that however great the service is, if unaware of it the battle will be lost to the competitors.

The main reason behind the marketing communication plan is to gain customer awareness, confidence and to minimize the confusion where the customer will be indecisive, sceptic and indifferent. Our focus is to project an image of experience, quality, dependability and excellent customer service and add value to our prospective customers in order us to win the confidence of target audience.

We are certain that if we clearly communicate the advantages and reasons for the customers to do business with us, then they will not be hesitant to commit and use us for their daily needs and the business will not go to a competitor.

We deeply believe in the range of motor bikes, we have in our shelves. So then our prospects will pick up on that passionate attitude and will lead to feeling confidence and positive about using us.

Another aspect to the communication plan is that, we all know purchasing is an emotional decision. We have been able to instil our prospects good feelings about our company and business relationship with us, and how they can improve their lives or solve the problems of time factor. Accomplishing that will be at heart as important as in the sales process on focusing attention on products features and benefits.

Communication goals

• a) Gain customer confidence and overcome potential feelings of distrust which paves the way into moving to competitor.
• b) Making the customers aware of the products and services available.
• c) Be the best motor bike company in the country by communicating to the masses that “We are the SUPER”

Communication strategy

The following is the list of communication collateral to be created and improved to create awareness of the products and the ways to reach the target audience.

a) Sales brochures

The brochures will include detailed information about the Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co Ltd compelling reasons for using super bike Sri Lanka and contact information including contact numbers, web addresses etc. The brochures will be general enough that the customer could tailor to suit their needs.

b) Advertising

• Outdoor advertising

Hoardings of the super bike company, distribute leaflets to all target avenues in Sri Lanka.

• Yellow pages and rainbow pages

List in all phone directories, place advertisements in the most popular / most read directories.

• Internet

Site optimized, linked and place search engines, ad directories. These actions will ensure super bike company appears high for relevant local search.

• Television

Solicit local news stations and others businesses related programs to carry out a strong story about the super bike company Sri Lanka.

• Radio

Investigate the possibility of having a promotion.

• Newspapers

Solicit the local newspapers to write an article about the Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd

• World of mouth/referral actions

Super Bike Sri Lanka’s current business goals includes that complaints be tracked and evaluated. Formulate a simple survey, having a suggestions box at the entrance / exit of the company to get the customers feedback about the motor bikes.

Marketing Mix

Our marketing plan considers the marketing mixes very carefully as follows:

Product

Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd products offerings will be positioned as cost effective, reliable, operational solutions to the current and future needs of the congested place of the Sri Lankan motor bike industry.

Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co. Ltd will emerge the pinnacle in current market and will be able to provide superior service, convenience, speed, consistency, and ease of use, reliability, supported by a committed team. This will enable Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co Ltd to be the leader in the industry.

Price

This pricing strategy will be competitive enough to convince customers that they are purchasing and effectively high quality product with a reasonable amount of money. A primary research indicates that the target market is not price sensitive.

The sales price will return an estimate 43% gross margin on sales.

Distribution

Utilizing the distribution channels of the large corporations with whom we secure strategic alliances will facilitate product distribution. Such corporations will typically have nationwide coverage. This strategy will ensure a presence in the market that increases awareness and builds demands.

Promotions

Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co Ltd entry in to the Sri Lankan market will be supported by a campaign to established its profile in the motor bike industry. This will include the following:

• a) Seek out and convince – decision makers in the basic family units
• b) Undertake a campaign of personal selling, targeting the decision makers.
• c) Advertise in industry journals, Magazines, on the intended and on our web site.
• d) Continuous advertising in the Television, radio and News papers.
• e) PR – press write-ups, personal interviews and product trails.

Target Audiences

In order to provide a profile of the users of and to perform an analysis at the effectiveness of the company following methodologies were employed.

• a) A review and analysis of previous studies of motor bikes are conducted.
• b) Focus group with target audiences were planned and facilitated.
• c) The survey of the target markets and special details about the buying behaviour of the consumers were found out in order to collect the specific data.

Key audiences of Super Bike Company are:

• Internal – staff, friends and the management team.
• External – families, housewives, business and professional executives.

Segmentation

A market segment consists of a group of customers who share a similar set of needs and wants. The major segmentation variables are geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural segmentation.

• Geographic segmentation – nations, regions, cities, density, climate, etc.
• Demographic segmentation – age, family size, gender, income, family life cycle, occupation, religion
• Psychographic segmentation – lifestyle, personality
• Behavioural segmentation – occasions, benefits, user status, usage rate, loyalty status, attitude towards product

Nearly one-third of the company’s sales are from direct consumers, which is about 30%. Only 70% is from the distributor buyers. The following tables illustrate it clearly.

• Table 01: Direct Consumer Vs Distributor Buyers

Direct buyers

Distributor buyers

Customer base

30%

70%

• Table 02: Demarcated under geographical area.

Urban

14.9%

58.3%

Suburban

39.5%

43.5%

Rural

2.2%

1.6%

• Table 03: Demographic Segmentation

Age

16 – 20

21-35

36-60

Above 60

Percentage

8%

52%

36%

4%

Targeting

Once Super Bike Company has identified its market segment opportunities, it has to decide which ones to target. Marketers usually combine several variables in an effort to identify smaller, better defined target groups. When evaluating different market segments, Super Bikes must look into factors such as the segments overall attractiveness and the company’s objectives and resources.

Action Plan

• Product-related activities

Market activity

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

NPD

New Branding

Pricing related activities

Market activity

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Price changes

Distribution activities

Market activity

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

New channels

Expanding

Promotional activities

Market activity

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Advertising

Sales promotions

Personal selling

Public relations

Direct marketing

Budget

Budget is a crucial part of the marketing plan. It gives a clear overview of all the costs associated in carrying out the marketing activities, including advertising, branding, public relations, staffing costs, etc. Creating a marketing budget assists you to stick to your plan and avoid unanticipated costs, reducing the possibility of overspending. A marketing budget also provides a financial road map and allows you to determine the return on investment.

The following is the budget for Super Bikes (Sri Lanka)

Super Bike (Sri Lanka) Co Ltd

Budget

INCOME

Budget

Operating Income

Off-Road Five Model

13,275,000.00

Standard Six Model

9,570,000.00

Other

3,870,000.00

Total Operating Income

26,715,000.00

Non-Operating Income

Interest Income

1,280,000.00

Gifts Received

1,000,000.00

Donations

1,000,000.00

Other

585,000.00

Total Non-Operating Income

3,865,000.00

Total INCOME

30,580,000.00

EXPENSES

Operating Expenses

Accounting and Legal

567,000.00

Advertising

2,670,000.00

Depreciation

1,208,000.00

Dues and Subscriptions

875,000.00

Insurance

1,350,000.00

Interest Expense

485,000.00

Maintenance and Repairs

625,000.00

Office Supplies

285,000.00

Payroll Expenses

3,620,000.00

Postage

50,875.00

Rent

2,000,000.00

Research and Development

1,500,000.00

Taxes and Licenses

1,000,000.00

Telephone

492,000.00

Utilities

647,000.00

Web Hosting and Domains

1,370,000.00

Other

500,000.00

Total Operating Expenses

19,244,875.00

Non-Recurring Expenses

Furniture, Equipment and Software

1,800,000.00

Gifts Given

800,000.00

Other

500,000.00

Total Non-Recurring Expenses

3,100,000.00

Total EXPENSES

22,344,875.00

Net Income Before Taxes

8,235,125.00

Income Tax Expense

825,000.00

NET INCOME

7,410,125.00

Evaluation

A business evaluation is an analysis and review of the entire business as a whole. It is conducted to determine the overall standing and operation of a business. The evaluation is conducted to ensure that the stakeholders understands what areas may need attention and what changes need to be implemented to get the business in the desired track.

Super Bike Co. will initially see how well the strategy is aligned to its long term vision. If the strategy being followed lines up, it is on the right track.

Then, it would check how well the business and operational plans (tactics) are aligned with the strategy. It would determine whether the listed tactics, when executed, advance the business along the strategic direction?

Third, check the results since the tactical plan was established. Is the business progressing towards the vision? Are a high number of the tactical goals being completed? Are the goals being completed on time?

Finally, on top of the third step, it would ensure that the company is remaining on target.

Super Bike Co., would use the following methods to evaluate its performance:

• a) Measure Performance Vs Plan.
• b) Surveys, including Customer Satisfaction Survey
• c) Customer Feedback
• d) Growth in terms of profit and growth in the customer base.

Stake Holders

A stakeholder is a person, group or organization who:

• may affect a decision, activity or outcome of an organization
• may be affected by a decision, activity or outcome of an organization
• may perceive themselves to be affected by a decision, activity or outcome of the organisation’s existence

The primary stakeholders are typically the company’s investors, employees, customer and suppliers.

The primary stakeholder of Super Bike (Sri Lanka) would be the two young investors of the business, the workers who have employed themselves to work in the company, its consumers, mainly between the ages of 21-35, and the suppliers such as the Korean supplier of the bike parts.

Each group has different interests, objectives, and agendas which may be competing. Identifying and ranking their influence and interest to keep moving forward and avoid getting pulled in every direction is very important.

Not all stakeholders are equal, so figuring out who holds the sway and what is the best champion saves a lot of stress. You can classify stakeholders using this simple matrix:

Image source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/…

Key Performance Indicators

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable values that a company uses to determine whether it is meeting its operational and strategic goals. Different businesses have different KPIs depending on their individual performance criteria.

Super Bike Co., focuses on the following areas as its KPI:

1. Motorcycle Sales : This can be the number of total sales. This will measure which brands appeal to the customer more. It gives a very good indication of how much sales has been done.
2. Focus on repayment selling : Many people borrow to purchase motorbikes in Sri Lanka. Giving them the price as repayment will sell the motorcycle and recover the money as well.
3. Service Gross Profit : Explaining to the customer the work being done upfront. By doing this the customer will understand what you are doing and is less likely to question the bill.
4. Service Additional Work : Contact customers for approval before doing any additional work since it would be hard to ask for additional charges after the work has been done.
5. Motorbike Holding Cost : This is the total money invested on the bike, i.e. buying cost, insurance, registration and maintenance. This value would indicate whether the bike has been sold profitably.
6. Market Share : Use reliable market data to determine the market share of Super Bikes. Relying on competitor figures are not advisable.
7. Revenue per Sale : This would tell you how much revenue you gained after deducting all expenses including, buying costs, registration and maintenance.

Reference:

1. Boone, L. and Kurtz, D. (2013). Contemporary marketing. Cengage Learning.
2. Fogel, G.K., (2010). Business environment in China: Economic, political, and cultural factors. Lawrence Technological University.
3. Hassan, S.S. and Craft, S., (2012). Examining world market segmentation and brand positioning strategies. Journal of Consumer marketing, Vol. 29, No. 5, pp.344-356.
4. Hood, N., Clarke, G. and Clarke, M., (2015). Segmenting the growing UK convenience store market for retail location planning. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, pp.1-24.
5. Iskandar, R. (n.d.). Strategic Fashion Marketing Plan. University of Southampton.
6. Lee, A.J., Yang, F.C., Chen, C.H., Wang, C.S. and Sun, C.Y., (2015). Mining perceptual maps from consumer reviews. Decision Support Systems.
7. Li, G., Li, G. and Kambele, Z., (2012). Luxury fashion brand consumers in China: Perceived value, fashion lifestyle, and willingness to pay. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 65, No. 10, pp.1516-1522.
8. Lu, S. (2015). China to Become the World’s Largest Apparel Market in 2019. [Online]. Available at https://shenglufashion.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/china-to-become-theworlds-largest-apparel-market-in-2019/> [Accessed on 18-Feb-2019].
9. Postiglione, G.A. (2015). Education and social change in China: Inequality in a market economy. Routledge.
10. Wood, M.B. (2013). The Marketing Plan Handbook. Pearson Prentice Hall.

Marketing Plan: Beard Wash Self Kit

Dollar Shave Club is an American company based in Venice, California, which transports razors and additional personal grooming goods to consumers by mail. Dollar Shave Club was founded by Mark Levine and Michael Dubin. It offers three membership tactics, which can be upgraded or downgraded at any time.[It distributes razor blades on a regular basis and offers supplementary grooming goods for home delivery.

This market plan forms the basis of the outline of an advanced and exceptional product called ‘Beard Wash Self Kit’. The analysis permits us to the finest approaches to help our product be successful with the external and internal environment which we have best analyzed at our best understanding. ‘Beard Wash Self Kit’ will be advertised as an exclusive and convenient product for customers who need and want to have good beard. It appears like adults associate well presented, frizz free and silky hair with self-confidence. It will steadily be offering high customer satisfaction by interpreting outstanding service, excellence products, and giving a pleasurable atmosphere at a suitable price connection. We will also be keeping a welcoming, fair, and inspired work atmosphere, which respects diversity, thoughts, and hard work.

Goals and Objectives

1. To meet/satisfied the desired needs of consumers;
2. To provide them unexceptional experience;
3. Provides an opportunity to enhance the growth of business in future;
4. Utilize money and time of our customers;
5. Helpful to make our customers self dependent.

STP Analysis

Segmentation

It basically depends on the customers by dividing them into different groups and segments based on their own characteristics.

• We will be taking into consideration the interests of the consumers and requirements too by doing a survey to figure out if our consumers need this Kit in different sizes, in different design according to their own interests or how much they can afford to pay for this product.
• For the ‘Beard Wash Self Kit’, I persume that this product will be segmented based on its brand name which can attract adults to buy this product
• We will also be focusing on the geographic segment by offering this product in each and every rural and urban location so that everyone can try and understand the benefits of this product as it can make their life easier.

Targeting

• The main target of our company’s product will be men and adults who should have to use this product because they are growing up
• Nowadays, they are going to saloons and spend too much time and money over there but if they will try this beard wash self kit then it can save their time and money too
• They can use this product daily or even rarely whenever they feel need to as there is no compulsion to use this regularly
• They can buy this product as its their need nowadays to clean off the beard to look young and attractive.

Positioning

• The postioning of my product depends on the diffrentiation as this product provides self features to the consumers;
• In this era, we have numerous beard wash kits so it has a huge competition;
• We made our product easily accessible for our consumers by offering it through online and thorugh stores;
• It is offered on reasonable and affordable pricing as compares to other competitors.

Marketing Mix: 4P’S

Our main focus when distributing the product will be like it should provide value to the consumers. So, they can understand the usefulness of the product which will indirectly enhance the sales. We will be selling this product at a very affordable price. The location will remain the same at this will be the part of the Dollar Shave Club Company’s product. But we will try to expand it by offering it to retailer, wholesaler, online and through direct sale as well. We will be introducing with this new product many new discounted offers which will be valuable for our consumers. We will be advertising this product via posters and by making advertisements online. Once agreement has been obtained for ‘Beard Wash Self Kit product’, we will move rapidly to implement the plan. We will likewise set up controls to screen and measure the results of the project to ensure the desired objectives are achieved.

1. Product. Our product’s first strategy is to offer best services that go well above and beyond the Dollar Shave Club. We will be mainly focusing on adults/grown-ups. The essential task to get Dollar Shave Club into the ‘best’ ground of ‘Beard Wash Self Kit’ is to guarantee the workers in an extra area. This is the duty of each individual worker, as well as the owner. The secondary product strategy includes keeping the retail locations open to clients, and offering products for adult’s use.
2. Price. The strategy for pricing at Dollar Shave Club is to keep up a serious edge without undercutting ourselves. Keep costs tiered and variable; change them occasionally and offer discounts. The owner will be entrusted with assessing the estimating plan with the assistance of the bookkeeper, and modifying varying. Dollar Shave Club has accounted $2,000 for advertising this product named ‘Beard Wash Self Kit’. These assets have already been planned for in the business plan. Dollar Shave Club has shattered down the cost by separately advertising method.
3. Place. Dollar Shave Club will remain in the current location, while holding an ear to the ground for chances to grow inside a similar structure. The owner will keep up his positive relationship with other owners to expand it.
4. Promotion. The promotion strategies of Dollar Shave Club for the ‘Beard Wash Self Kit’ product is to maintain a strong social media presence and to create a new website. The task of updating Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites will be tasked to each individual worker for the promotion of “Beard wash Self Kit product”.

Marketing Plan Development for Houzit

Houzit is a chain store of 15 and now the company will continue to expand in Brisbane. Most of the customers are elderly and the size and size of the store about 1,000–1,500 m2. Currently facing one problem how to attract young people purchasing. It mean we will not only expand store, but also needs expand marketing of customer.

And also we will be a national retail brand, catering to the needs of home makers with a range of unique, high-quality homewares made accessible to all through our easy-to-manage payment plan. We can easily get this goal because we have excellent staff who are highly skilled and knowledgeable about homewares and Great retail space that is bright, functional and efficient for a commercial urban district. High customer loyalty among repeat customers and Assortment of offerings that exceed competitors’ offerings in quality, range and accessibility. But there are some weakness we have to solve. For example, A limited marketing budget to develop brand awareness due to the lack of critical mass and store cover and the struggle to continually fund the growing long-term repayment plans taken out by our customers.

The company is expected to increase its AUD$500,000 in Brisbane for other successful budgets in order to successfully implement the expansion plan. In the near future, we are preparing to develop some business activities to attract more customers and increase brand awareness. First of all, the company is preparing to develop a website to provide people with more convenient browsing and selection products. Of course, we will hire excellent employees in this area to ensure the safety of our customers’ information. Second, we will increase advertising. Because this enables the new store to quickly dominate the market. Finally, we will launch discounts from time to time to attract customers. This is a very simple sales method. After all the activities have been developed, we will establish a team to measure the standards of these activities. This group will be based on the tasks given by the company.

Houzit is a chain of home wares stores in Brisbane that specialise in bathroom fittings, bedroom fittings, mirrors and decorative items. They currently have 15 stores spread across the greater Brisbane area, with all stores being managed and coordinated from their head office in Milton.

Segmentation is simply a subset of your overall customer data. Creating a segment involves grouping clusters of customers with similar characteristics and developing marketing activities (message, tone, and channels) accordingly. A segment can be based on demographic factors like age, gender, income, location, and actions such as purchasing behavior. I need to understand Houzit demand, I must identify consumer segments that share common characteristics. I know it is not easy to understand, such as customer’s age, educational level, occupation and level of income, or something in soft variables side, such as lifestyle, attitude, values ​​and purchasing motivations.

Opportunities can also be found by analysing substitute industries, it is because I know growing Houzit without understanding the competitors is risky. Market research can prepare for changing markets and prevent the business being left behind by the competition. Competitor Analysis is an important means of increasing profitability, success, and remaining competitive in your market. Small businesses can plan strategies based on the insights gained from conducting Competitor Analysis, and better understand which specific areas of your business to focus on or improve.

The benefit of the opportunity is about Houzit is close to entering its fifth year of operation; offers a wide range of home ware items on easy-to-manage payment terms and supplies a three-year guarantee on every item sold. Costumers have confidence on Houzit. However, the risk for the company opportunity is the high-quality items is increasing as customers are learning to appreciate differences in quality, and people have more selection than before due to there have a larger selection of choices and are no longer accepting a limited selection of home wares.

Houzit can consider what the most suitable price for the products is. The marketing mix is the set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that a company uses to produce a desired response from its target market. It consists of everything that a company can do to influence demand for its product.

In the next year, Houzit purpose is about open more chain store in Brisbane, and within 5 years Houzit will open in other big city in Australia for open a new market. Our business is clear who are the target customers, in this case, our target customers are sophisticated people who are houseproud, shoppers who will drive to an easy-to-access store, customers who require payment plans to spread their commitment over an extended period and 20-50 years old. Identifying a target market helps the company develop effective marketing communication strategies. The location of Houzit is good. According to the data, most of the store are located in a commercial, suburban neighbourhood, or urban retail district, the size is about 1000 to 15000m2, the choice of business location affects your income.so the location of the shop is important.

Pros and Cons of Walmart’s Recent Strategic Marketing Plan: Essay

Walmart is an American multinational retail company that operates a chain of supermarkets, departmental discounters, and grocery stores. The corporation was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, and now its headquarters are located in Bentonville. Walmart has approximately 11,496 stores and 57 clubs and operates in 27 different countries around the world. This is the world’s leading revenue collection company and the largest private employer with approximately 2.2 million employees.

With the development of global marketing, Walmart’s marketing campaign has been changing over the years in order to achieve better growth of the business. In particular, Walmart’s marketing campaign and tagline have evolved from ‘Always Low Prices’ to ‘Save Money, Live Better’, which is fitter with Walmart’s new business strategy. In this essay, I am going to evaluate Walmart’s recent strategic marketing plan by identifying its pros and cons.

From my perspective, Walmart’s latest strategic marketing plan has three advantages. First of all, customers could directly know what Walmart could bring to them. Specifically, if the customer would like to save money, then Walmart would be their best choice. Secondly, compared to the old tagline which is ‘Always Low Prices’, Walmart could attract new customers using the new tagline. Particularly, new customers could be attracted, if they would like to live better, they would like to try to purchase at Walmart. Thirdly, the new strategic marketing plan could not only attract new customers but also could retain existing customers for the reason that the new tagline, ‘Save Money, Live Better’, maintains the lower price. Therefore, customer loyalty could be another advantage of the new strategic marketing plan.

However, the new strategic marketing plan has some drawbacks. I would like to discuss one of the disadvantages which may have a negative impact on Walmart’s competitive position in the market. It is hard for Walmart to remain competitive status with this strategy marking plan. Particularly, there are more and more similar retailers in the market, such as Costco. Based on Lawrence Gregory, Costco’s business strategy is cost leadership. Costco’s strategy is pretty similar to Walmart’s strategy. In addition, according to a survey conducted by Forbes, Costco’s annual revenue growth rate from 2014 to 2019 was 6.3%, which is 3.9 times higher than Walmart’s growth rate of 1.6% (Forbes, 2020). Based on this survey, it is clear that because of increasingly fierce market competition, it is difficult for Walmart to continue to maintain its competitive status in the market with the ‘Save Money, Live Better’ strategic marketing plan.

Thus, the recent strategic marketing plan of one of the major retailers in the United States, Walmart, has both pros and cons, which have been analyzed in this paper.