Market Strategy, Marketing Channels, Implementation, and Monitoring
See below for completed Part A & B.
Part C: Market Strategy, Marketing Channels, Implementation, and Monitoring
(Due in Wk 6)
New Target Markets
Determine any new markets for your strategy and describe how you will provide value to each target market.
Marketing Mix for New Target Markets
Determine adaptions for each new target market.
· Products
· Price
· Distribution
· Traditional Promotion
· Online Promotion
Marketing Implementation
Create the implementation for your marketing plan. Describe how you will organize and implement the plan, such as whether it will be organized by market, geography, and who is responsible for marketing decisions.
Marketing Communication Channels
Evaluate the marketing communication channels you will use to reach selected audiences. Include Internet and traditional communication channels to convey key messages. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of each channel you select. Insert or remove rows as needed.
Channel
Target Market
Advantages
Disadvantages
Example: Direct mail
Middle class residential
Can include coupons
Expense and low return rate for given product
Strategic Actions
Develop specific activities required to implement the marketing plan. Identify the person or role who will be responsible for each action, when it will be complete, and what standard or metric indicate that the activity is complete. Insert or remove rows as needed.
Action
Date for Completion
Person/Role Responsible
Standard/Metric
Example: Design flyer for direct mail campaign
1/1/2021
J. Smith, graphic designer
Approval by senior marketing team and legal
Monitoring
Develop the measurement to identify how you know you have been successful for each strategic action. Specify the measures to track performance against goals. Identify standard reports from your online and traditional marketing efforts. Insert or remove rows as needed.
Action
Target
Person Responsible
Inter-measurement
Example: Direct mail flyer
1100 new inquiries
Western regional manager
500 new inquiries first month of campaign
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Part A
Week 2 – Apply: Signature Assignment: Part A: Strategic Marketing Plan
The company’s choice for the strategic plan is East Merchants. EA is an import company majorly concerned with the import of electronics into the country from other countries. The company is based in New York with offices in Texas and Chicago
Mission Statement
Transformation of lives through the provision of the best services in electronics and gadgets
Vision Statement
To inspire technological advancement through the provision of quality electronic products
Product Line Description
The company will be offering dealership in a varied assortment of electronic products, which will be directly imported from companies abroad or companies within the country. Some of the products will be sound systems, televisions, cables and extensions, fridges, deep freezers, electronic kitchenware such as oven, among many other products.
As stated, the name of the company would be East Merchants, which will be based in New York but with offices open within Chicago and Texas. The company will be a retail dealer with a projected employee capacity of one hundred. The company will be a limited liability company having two directors.
Environmental Analysis
The company environmental analysis is defined as identifying both internal and external forces that affect the performance of a company. The study includes threat factors to the business operations as well as the opportunity factors. Some of the forces that influence the company operations include competitive forces, economic, political, legal, technological, and social forces.
Competitive Forces
The company is expected to have significant competitors who are also in electronic retailing. Examples of such projected competitors include Homedepot and Bestbuy. Some of the strategic moves that the competitors have resorted to includes setting up online market platforms with home deliveries (Porter, 2017). According to the estimates, the electronic retail business’s market share will be around 20%, with an upward projection. One of the critical competitive advantages against the competitors will be reasonably low pricing.
Economic Forces
Some of the common economic forces expected to shape the business includes inflation and exchange rates as the company will be sourcing most of its product overseas. While the increase in the inflation index will hurt the business, it might positively impact the suppliers. On the other hand, the stability of the dollar will significantly favor the business while at the same time negatively impacting the supplier.
Political Forces
Some of the political factors projected to affect the business include ban on imports from countries perceived as a national enemy. Another political factor considered is the election year, where the economy may experience a deep due to uncertainty and affect business.
Legal, Regulatory, and Ethical Issues
Some of the regulatory forces in consideration are the cost of licensing and obtaining business permits. Other legal consideration includes the procedure of enactive billboards, distribution of fliers, and an advert in the mainstream media.
Technological Forces
The business is poised to respond to technological forces for it to remail afloat. Some of the technical considerations include ICT infrastructure that will affect communication (Editors, 2020). The business is expected to respond to the concept of e-commerce and automation of its financial and inventory systems.
Social Forces
Social forces such as demographic trends, including changes in population concentration, are expected to influence business operations significantly. Dependency on computers is a social force that would be responded to by setting up e-commerce.
Current market targets
The company’s current market target is young families. The demographic analysis points to increasing the new family setup, which forms a large part of the market. The geographic consideration will be city areas. The product usage for people living in such areas demographic setting is always high.
Review of Current Marketing
Most of the customers get information about the company products from mainstream media, billboards, and close friends and relatives who are customers of the company. The general advancement majorly ignites the busing process involved in the standards of living of the people. On the other hand, the startup’s major competitors have not initiated any marketing strategy as they enjoy a fair market share.
Swot Analysis
Some of the strengths of the business that would be used to give it a competitive edge against other competitors will include the setting of e-commerce, allowing for online shopping, reasonably low prices, and lastly, good after-sale customer services.
Some of the business’s weaknesses will be the logistics where the company cannot cover the whole country and hence to concentrate its operations in three states. This mode of operation exposes the business to vulnerability and creates limited competition at the national level.
Based on environmental conditions, the company is poised for expansion with the opportunity to venture into other products and possibly setting up a production line. Lastly, some of the company’s threats are banning electronic importation to flourish in the local manufacturing sector. Another possible threat is the inability to break even in the projected period (Andreas, 2016).
Strengths to Opportunities & Converting Weaknesses and Threats
The company should consider a move towards obtaining its products from the local market to eliminate the risk of a ban on imports, which would adversely affect business. The company should also use its strength of having an e-commerce platform to search for new markets, which would consequently create new market opportunities.
Marketing Objectives
The company’s primary market is young families living in an urban area and who form more than 80@ of the customer base. One of the marketing objectives would be venturing into suburban areas and the rural area, which can expand the market share by a further 13% and subsequently surge the annual company revenues to about a 25% rise.
References
Andreas, J. (2016, February 24). Mindtool. Retrieved from Mindtool website: www.mindtool.com
Editors, B. (2020, September 19). BBC Corporation. Retrieved from BBC web site: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zd3prj6/revision/5
Porter, M. (2017, June 18). Havard Business Review. Retrieved from hbr web site: https://hbr.org/1979/03/how-competitive-forces-shape-strategy
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Part B
East Merchants: Marketing Data Analysis
Internal Data
Source: Marketing Data
What it Measures: They produce reports on consumer behavior, consumer profiles, various social media campaigns, level brand awareness, and rate of market share concerning the competition and quality of participation via website and content.
Data: The Company utilizes mainstream media, billboards to market their products. Other consumers of East Merchants (EA) also acquire information through close colleges and clients. The company targets young families living in cities due to their escalating population, living standards, high usage, and demand for electronics and gadgets. The majority of EA start-up competitors have not yet introduced any marketing strategy as they benefit from a reasonable market share. Besides, the predicted market share of retail marketing is estimated to be approximately 20 percent, signifying a rise due to the entry of many businesses in the industry (Porter, 2017). Social factors, for instance, demographic trends, ought to impact the business operations as more and more people now rely on computers in their daily activities. Hence, opening up e-commerce will help market the firm’s product and easily avail the products to customers.
Potential Data Usage: The data can be used to analyze what marketing campaigns are working and which ones need improvement. The new movements that would be effective regarding the consumer target requirements.
Secondary Data
Source: Competitive analytics
What it Measures: The strengths and weaknesses of the business’s competitors compared to its expectations.
Data: EA competitors who are in electronic retailing include Homedepot and Bestbuy. These competitors have initiated online websites that provide home deliveries. Compared to its competitors, EA will offer reasonably lower prices and activate online marketing platforms such as e-commerce to allow only buying and after-sale services to give it a competitive advantage (Andreas, 2016). The company will have weak logistics as it will only operate in three states allowing for the competition from other firms that operate nationally.
Potential Data Usage: It will be significant in understanding the industry and the business. Thus, it will help identify the competitors’ strengths and weaknesses of competitors with the owners’ expectations, hence offering a competitive advantage to the battle competition.
Primary Data
Source: Surveys and Questionnaires
What it Measures: Young people living in urban areas that frequently use electronic gadgets have high demands for these products due to their living style.
Data: Young families form about 80 percent of the company’s customer base.
Potential Data Usage: This will help the firm expand its market share by 13 percent and grow its revenues by 25 percent, venturing into remote areas (Andreas, 2016).
Customer Relationship Management
CRM Touchpoint: Visiting EA’s website
Purpose & CRM Objective: The company will be opening up online marketing platforms such as e-commerce and automation to respond to technical forces and inventory systems in order to remain relevant in the industry.
Data: Business strengths that EA has are the introduction of e-commerce, fairly lower prices, excellent after-sale services, and permitting online shopping.
Potential Data Usage: The data will be valuable in expanding the businesses by attracting more customers hence more profits through good customer experience and after-sale services (Porter, 2017). The e-commerce platform that is a strength to the organization will help bring in more customers nationally and globally to counter the ban on imports.
References
Andreas, J. (2016, February 24). Mindtool. Retrieved from Mindtool website: www.mindtool.com
Porter, M. (2017, June 18). Havard Business Review. Retrieved from hbr web site: https://hbr.org/1979/03/how-competitive-forces-shape-strategy
