Marketing Strategy and Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example

MANAGEMENT STRATEGY By of the of the School Marketing strategy Marketing strategy entails getting ideas about a company’s product to many people so as to turn them into customers. Being a small company, Guangyi’ Door Company can use unique selling proposition marketing model to attract and retain customers internationally. The company should ensure that their brands make it clear to potential customers why they are different and better that those of the rivals (Sarin, 2013: 120). This model will help the company to penetrate the European market by presenting attributes that drive purchase. The company can also use different marketing strategies. First, it can use mass marketing strategy where it focuses on medium-end quality door according to different ages as they have different segmentations. Targeting the mass market may help drive huge purchases of their products for them to survive and grow in the international market (Panda, 2008: 98). Secondly, the company can use targeted marketing strategy. They should focus on high income individuals by tailor making high quality doors. By communicating their value proposition well, they will be able to attract and retain many customers internationally (Tyagi & Kumar, 2004: 72). Thirdly, they can use tradeshow marketing strategy. It should participate in Trade Fairs, Chinese Guangxi - Southeast Asia Business Expo, the CAEXPO as well as other transnational commodity fairs so as to attract both local and international customers. Finally, the company should use global marketing strategy. The company should have sales agents through other countries door expositions in Europe so as to expand its customer base (Nijssen & Frambach, 2001: 45). Porter’s Five Forces It helps the company to analyze the industry and the market in which it will operate. This theory can equally help the company attract current buyers and future buyers over the world especially in Europe market. The company can use personalized or differentiated services so as to win customers thereby avoiding the threat of new entrants that may decrease profitability or take away some customers (Hill & Jones, 2010: 179). The personalized of differentiated products can create customer loyalty to the company’s brands thus creating a barrier to entry. To protect itself from the threat of substitute products, the company should develop high quality state-of-the-art doors with low ease of substitution (Roy, 2009: 64). This will increase the customer satisfaction thus reducing buyer propensity to substitute. Further, the company can implement loyalty programs to reduce bargaining power of buyers. This will help in attracting and retaining prospective and current buyers in Europe thus being internationally competitive (Hill & Jones, 2007: 182). The company can create strategic alliances or backward vertically integrate with suppliers to ensure constant supplier of inputs. This will ensure that suppliers do not charge excessively high prices for resources thus making the company to charge fair prices in the international market. Fair and affordable prices attract many customers (Harvard Business School Press, 2006: 38). Finally, the company has developed Sustainable competitive advantage through innovation. This will help in reducing the intensity of competitive rivalry (Kim & Mauborgne, 2015: 98). The company can also enhance its degree of transparency and increase its level of advertising expense to attract customers (Shankar & Carpenter, 2012: 24). Porter’s generic strategies The company can also be able to apply generic strategies so as to gain global competitiveness. The company will be able to position itself well or optimally in the market so as to attract customers thus generating superior returns. The company can adopt cost leadership strategy where they sell its products at an average industry price in the European market to gain market share. They can also sell at a lower price than the industry average price. In case of price wars, the company is able to maintain some profitability while its rivals or competitors suffer losses (Roy, 2009: 69). This strategy can help the company to target a broad market internationally. The company can acquire this cost advantages by improving process efficiencies, making optimal vertical integration and outsourcing decisions and gaining unique access to massive source of lower cost resources (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2010: 130). On the other hand, the company can use differentiation strategy in order to develop products that offer unique attributes valued by customers and that they perceive to be different from or better than those of the competitors. The value added by the products’ uniqueness allows the company to charge a premium price. In order to succeed in this strategy, the company will have to access leading scientific research, have highly skilled and creative and innovative product development team (Hill & Jones, 2010: 181).  The company needs to ensure that their products are not easily imitated by competitors. The company can also use focus strategy by concentrating on a narrow market segment that they know well. They can tailor a broad range of product (doors) development strengths to adapt their products so as to be competitive internationally (Rogers, 2001: 51). STP of the company Segmentation, targeting, positioning is also a marketing tool which can help the company to differentiate, attract, retain as well as grow customer base of their product. Segmentation helps the company to identify the needs of different types of consumers so as to specialize in meeting such needs of the consumers (Roy, 2009: 43). This enables the company to identify appropriate target markets for their products, for instance, 40+age customers who have high salaries. Positioning element enables the company to implement the chosen image and appeal to the market segment. The company can position itself as the maker of high quality state-of-the-art doors. The company then needs to do a lot of advertising so as to promote itself to the international market, particularly Europe. The company can use attribute positioning. They make high quality doors that stand out in the market. Focusing on the quality will enable the company to attract, retain as well as grow customer base of their product (McLoughlin & Aaker, 2010:125). Conclusion Small companies (SME) normally face an uphill task when trying to enter global markets due to stiff competition from big ones. However, the following strategies can help such companies especially Guangyi’ Door Company to attract current buyers and future buyers over the world especially in Europe market. Marketing strategy helps the company to adopt unique selling proposition to attract and retain customers internationally. Porter’s Five Forces helps the company to analyze the industry and the market in which it will operate thus being able to attract current buyers and future buyers over the world especially in Europe market. Porter’s generic strategies allow the company to gain global competitiveness by positioning itself well or optimally in the market. STP helps the company to differentiate, attract, retain as well as grow customer base of their product. References Ahlstrom, D., & Bruton, G. D. (2010). International management: Strategy and culture in the emerging world. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning.129-131. Business literacy for HR professionals: Essentials of strategy. (2006). Boston. Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press. 38 Hill, C. W. L., & Jones, G. R. (2010). Strategic management theory: An integrated approach. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. 179-182 Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2015). Blue ocean strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. 98 McLoughlin, D., & Aaker, D. A. (2010). Strategic market management: Global perspectives. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. 123-126 Nijssen, E. J., & Frambach, R. T. (2001). Creating customer value through strategic marketing planning: A management approach. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 43-46 Panda, T. K. (2008). Marketing management: Text and cases : Indian context. New Delhi: Excel Books. 97-99 Rogers, S. C. (2001). Marketing strategies, tactics, and techniques: A handbook for practitioners. Westport, Conn: Quorum Books. 68-71 Roy, D. (2009). Strategic foresight and Porters five forces: Towards a synthesis. München: GRIN. 40-70 Sarin, S. (2013). Business marketing: Concepts and cases. New Delhi: McGraw Hill Education (India. 119-123 Shankar, V., & Carpenter, G. S. (2012). Handbook of Marketing Strategy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub.20-30 Tyagi, C. L., & Kumar, A. (2004). Consumer behaviour. New Delhi: Atlantic.70-75 Read More