Marketing Strategies for StarHub Internet - Research Paper Example

? Marketing Strategies for StarHub Internet Marketing Strategies for StarHub Internet Following are the strategies that will be mostsuitable for StarHub Internet: - Market Development and Distribution Strategy The market strategy is used to develop the market for a new or modified product. The companies around the world are known to attract the customers by providing a certain level of differentiation and cost benefit. The marketing unit of any business of the world is primarily responsible for bringing new business into the company. The businesses in the past were known to resort on one or two marketing strategies (Lovelock 1983). But, in the era of the 21st century focusing on one method of marketing is considered as equivalent to committing organizational suicide and therefore, modern businesses are forced to use a bunch of marketing techniques in order to stay in the business (Fahy and Smithee 1999). Moreover, marketing and advertisement is away from the noble concept of ethics and righteousness (Robin and Reidenbach 1987). The marketing is considered marketing whether or not it is dirty. So the staff in the advertisement department is supposed to keep the products and services of the company selling in order to keep their jobs (Botan 1997) The distribution strategy is a means of devising a system and mechanism for delivering the products to the customers. The business in the 21st century cannot survive without placement of the products as soon as possible. The internet service provider is recommended to develop the internal state of the art system and then, move on to the next stage of promoting itself and its services. The main idea is to boost the organizational ability to provide services when customers need or demand them. The external environment of the business has a profound impact on internal matters and practices of the business (Bourgeois 1980). The concerned Strategic Business Unit is operating in an industry that is characterized as well developed and established and therefore, the company is in need to follow the industrial norms strictly. The management is recommended to blend in the market before thinking of innovating. In opening few years, the SBU will not be able to do much more than surviving through the challenges of the industry (Sethi 1979). The SBU’s first and paramount objective is to find balance and sustainability in a challenging environment and these objectives and goals can be obtained by following industrial standards and norms at in initial one or two years (Hult, Hurley and Knight 2004). But, the quality of services should be maintained in a long term perspective. The external environment of the internet industry is well established and therefore, management of the company is suggested to introduce standardizations and development of standard operating procedures. The structure of SBU will also be divided clearly and there should be departmentalization. The task of providing internet services is a simple one and because of this reason, management does not have much room for innovation and newness while performing business activities. Product Augmentation Strategy The product augmentation strategy is used to mix two or more offerings in one package so that the customer can receive more value in less amount of money. This strategy is rate as the most effective one, when an organization is working to develop it market presence and share. The internet service provider is recommended to provide high quality cloud printing and scanning services along with traditional ones and therefore, the customers may receive more value than their expectations and anticipations. The receipt of more customer value will induce the consumers to become repeated benefiters. These strategies will be designed for one to two initial years and then the business unit must expand its geographical reach. The core source of creating customer value in internet industry is the quality of internet downloading and uploading speed. In the modern society people have internet connections on their handheld devices and because of this reason, they socialize electronically through their mobiles. The tasks that can be completed with less or even superficial internet connection speed are performed with handhelds. But, people use internet businesses’ services in order to fulfill more demanding needs such as video chatting, online movies and songs. All of these requirements can only be fulfilled with a strong internet connection and therefore, the SBU is suggested to keep the technical staff motivated enough so that they can keep the infrastructure up and running. This strategy should and must be implemented throughout the lifespan of the company because its survival is wholly and solely dependent on speed and quality of the internet. The development of fiber optic technology should be commercialized even further so that more customers can be attracted towards the business. Pricing Strategy The pricing should be kept low so that the sales of the internet business can be boosted. The management of the company should provide more services in less money so that it can develop a sustainable level of clientele in the market. This strategy is also a short term one and with the passage of time, the company should return to market standard prices after developing a foot-hole in the local market. Especially, the students should be given 25% to 50% discount because they have limited supply of money and due to this reason; they will significantly attracted towards cheaper and faster internet connection. The student population should be attracted and retained in order to achieve the goal of 4% increase in the clientele of the company’s internet business. Additionally, the customer relationship and marketing departments have to work very closely in terms of deriving the efficient and effective marketing strategies and they have to change their game-plan every now and then because market and consumer preferences change with the introduction of new competition. The marketing staff of any company working in any industry of the world has to remain vigilant and alert towards changing market needs (Gupta and Govindarajan 1984). The need of effective marketing in services sector is more significant than in manufacturing one. The services sector is all about polishing and maintaining high quality of customer experience (Wiklund and Shepherd 2006) for example Starbucks transformed the experience of having a coffee into an exquisite one and they say that they do not sell the coffee but, the experience. Starbucks sells its relaxed customer environment and the people who remain under work stress may have the luxury of having a coffee in a paradise like feeling. Thus, there are many coffee shops yet; no one offers the experience of having a cup of coffee like Starbucks. Promotion Strategy The promotion strategy is used in order to promote and advertise the products and services of the company both effectively and efficiently. The company should advertise itself and its services with the help of distributing brochures and displaying banners at the public places. The idea is to cover a lot of public with spending less on the advertising. The internet users do not watch television a great deal and therefore, it will be a waste of time and resources on advertising with the help of print or electronic media while, the best way to promote the services on interpersonal and group level via brochures and banners. The internet business is like selling a cup of coffee. The customers come to get what they want as soon as possible (Cronin, Brady and Hult 2000). Some of them come to see videos and others visit to check the mail and do what is important and flee. But, all of them, have a same old and traditional requirement of fast internet because if somebody is sending an email, the faster he or she can do that, the more level of contentment he or she is going to derive and therefore, he or she is going to become a repeated consumer. Finally, it can be established that marketing management at the company is required to push the technical staff to keep the infrastructure of the business up and running smoothly. On the more basic level, the internet service provider has to follow differentiation marketing strategy that will allow them to charge a premium on the quality of the service (Meyronin 2004). The marketing of internet service providers is done through promoting internet speed. The internet business does not sport furniture and customers have to work on the computer console while standing. The customers surprisingly do not complain about the nonexistence of a chair but, they always get annoyed by slow internet connection. The previous argument suggests that it is better to have a strong internet connection and the management can save substantial amount of money by not keeping the furniture. Following is the detailed marketing and advertisement plan for the featured internet business. The plan discusses various levels of sub-plans that have to be executed in order to attain higher level of positioning and market presence in the most volatile industry of internet services. The focus of the proposed plan will remain on internal processes as the true customer satisfaction will always come from quality products and services. Recommendations and Suggestions The summary of the recommendations and suggestions given in this section are as follows: - The Strategic Business Unit is operating in a well established industry and therefore, it is supposed to follow industrial regulations strictly The business is also recommended to focus on internal practices and product quality so that it can charge the customers with a premium The main source of developing customer satisfaction in internet provider business resides in the quality of the service The modern internet business do not have much of a furniture and therefore, they can invest residual financial resources in the betterment of the services The management is also suggested to focus on internal practices and low pricing strategy should be deployed effectively The management should also polish and maintain high quality of customer service and experience because services industry is all about consumer exposure This section of the report analyzed and reviewed external environment of the internet industry in order to develop detailed marketing strategies for a newly opened internet business. The internet service provider industry mainly focus on quality of the service and customers avail internet business’ services in order to fulfill their high volume data needs. The high speed internet connection alone can provide a competitive advantage to the service provider. The suggested strategies wholly and solely focused on internal practices as they are the true means of customer satisfaction in internet industry. The major purpose of all the proposed strategies is to provide an exquisite internet experience to the customers. The notion of under-promising and over-delivery is at the backbone of all pieces of the puzzle. But, the technical staff should remain on toes so that they can keep the infrastructure up and running. The pricing and promotion strategies are of short-term nature but, the service quality related strategies are of strategic nature. The commitment of top management is going to decide the overall effectiveness of the featured organization. References Botan, Carl. "Ethics in Strategic Communication Campaigns: The Case for a New Approach to Public Relations." Journal of Business Communication 34, 2, 1997: 188-202. Bourgeois, Louise. "Strategy and Environment: A Conceptual Integration." Academy of Management Review 5, 1, 1980: 25-39. Cronin, Joseph, Michael Brady, and Tomas Hult. "Assessing the effects of quality, value, and customer satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments." Journal of Retailing 76, 2, 2000: 193–218. Fahy, John, and Alan Smithee. "Strategic Marketing and the Resource Based View of the Firm ." Academy of Marketing Science Review 10, 1, 1999: 1-20. Gupta, Anil, and Vijay Govindarajan. "Business Unit Strategy, Managerial Characteristics, and Business Unit Effectiveness at Strategy Implementation1." Academy of Management Journal 27, 1, 1984: 25-41. Hult, Tomas, Robert Hurley, and Gary Knight. "Innovativeness: Its antecedents and impact on business performance." Industrial Marketing Management 33, 6, 2004: 429–438. Lovelock, Christopher. "Classifying Services to Gain Strategic Marketing Insights." Journal of Marketing 47, 3, 1983: 9-20. Meyronin, Benolt. "ICT: the creation of value and differentiation in services." Managing Service Quality 14, 3, 2004: 216 - 225. Robin, Donald, and Eric Reidenbach. "Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Marketing Strategy: Closing the Gap between Concept and Application." Journal of Marketing 51, 1, 1987: 44-58. Sethi, Prakash. "A Conceptual Framework for Environmental Analysis of Social Issues and Evaluation of Business Response Patterns." Academy of Management Review 184, 1, 1979: 63-74. Wiklund, Johan, and Dean Shepherd. "Entrepreneurial orientation and small business performance: a configurational approach." Journal of Business Venturing 20, 1, 2006: 71–91. Read More