Marketing Planning and Strategy - Daloo3a - Essay Example

? Marketing Planning and Strategy: Group Project, Report on a Business Table of Contents Introduction 3 Mission 3 Vision 3 Values 4 Environmental Analysis (External and Internal) 4 SWOT Analysis 4 7S’s Model 5 Organizational Objectives 7 Balanced Scorecard 8 Target Market 9 Service Marketing Mix: 7Ps Framework 10 Summary of External and Internal Environment Analysis 13 Conclusion 16 Recommendation 16 References 19 Introduction Global business environment is becoming highly competitive as the organizations are trying to implement unique business strategies in order to secure high business growth rate. This marketing report deals with a small and exclusive boutique store named Daloo3a. The organization started its business operations in the year 2013. Lana Khoury and Mohamed Saeed are the two business owners of this organization. It is an online designer boutique store used to sell shoes, clothes and accessories for women. The organization developed its company website in the year 2013. However, the organization closed down its company website in September, 2013. The owners of the organization are not sure what to do now. It will be effective if the organization implements rebranding and repositioning strategy. The name of the organization is Daloo3a. It is an Arabic word. The name of the organization needs to be changed so that this changed company name can attract a wide array of target customers of different cultural background. Initially the organization got start up capital from a private investor. The organization should consider the same source of finance during the repositioning strategy. It is important to change the name of the company and implement repositioning strategy. Secretrail.com recommended as new company name. Mission Mission of the organization is to bridge the gap between high street and designer fashion brand and meet market demand by maintain high quality and exclusiveness of the products. Vision Vision of the organization is to become one of the profitable online designer shops by maintaining sustainability in the business processes. Values The organization will try to provide effective value to the target customers in order to achieve high brand value. The organization will focus on effective marketing activities in order to promote their uniqueness for the target customers. Environmental Analysis (External and Internal) Secretrail.com is adopting rebranding and repositioning strategy in order to capitalize on the potential business opportunities. Following external and internal environment analysis will help to find out significant opportunities and threats for the organization. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is considered as an important strategic marketing tool that helps an organization to identify key external environmental business opportunities and critical threat factors. In addition to this, this strategic marketing tool helps an organization to determine its internal strength and weaknesses. SWOT analysis tool is also considered as environmental analytical tool. This part of the marketing report will determine the internal; strengths, weaknesses and external opportunities and threats of Secretrail.com. Strengths High Product quality, exclusive design and Effective customer service. Unique promotional strategies. Strong PR and Online marketing activities. Weaknesses Lack of brand awareness among target customers. Limited business start up capital. Limited access to effective supply chain network. Opportunities High demand for online consumption. Growing demand for designer fashion accessories. Growing demand for economic priced products. Threats Intense market competition. Economic slowdown. 7S’s Model The McKinney’s 7S model includes seven different interdependent factors or elements that are categorized as either soft or hard elements. Strategy, systems, structure, shared values, style, skills and staffs are the seven components of this model in which the first three elements are considered as the hard elements and rest of the four elements are considered as soft elements. Each and every element will be discussed with respect to the developed business process and strategies of Secretrail.com. Strategy Effective online business strategy will help Secretrail.com to gain significant competitive advantages. Demand for online consumption is growing among the modern day customers. Several leading organizations implemented this strategy to achieve significant competitive advantages. It is discussed earlier that Secretrail.com is going to implement niche marketing strategy. This online business process will help the organization to target significant target customer group. Systems The owner of the organization is trying to hire skilled and effective employees in order to ensure significant business performance. The organization needs to engage their employees in daily job activities to achieve overall business goals. Structure The business owner is trying to control overall business operation activities. This centralized structure can help the organization to maintain discipline in business process. Shared Values The marketing department has the major role to play. In addition to this, the organization is implementing repositioning and rebranding strategy. Therefore, it is essential for the employees to know organizational values to ensure effective customer service. Staffs The organization is going to establish a strong skilled workforce in order to ensure significant business performances. Styles The organization implemented people oriented or relation oriented leadership style by engaging the employees in the business operation activities to take care each and every need of target customers. Skills It is important for the organization to motivate the employees to perform effectively. The marketing managers need to provide effective training to the employees to increase their skills and competencies. Organizational Objectives It is clear from above discussion and analysis that Secretrail.com is going to implement online business strategy in business process to reduce the high degree of industry rivalry. In addition to this, the organization is adopting rebranding and repositioning strategy in order to increase its market share and develop potential client base. Major business objectives of the organization are provided below. Significant brand awareness through effective promotional strategy within six months of its business operation. The organization should try to develop supply chain and distribution network in order to maintain a balance between demand and supply. Reduction of business operation cost by implementation of business strategy that can help to break even within assumed time period. Competitive pricing strategy to attract more number of target customers. Balanced Scorecard It is a strategy performance management tool that is used by the managers of an organization in order to keep track and monitor of execution and consequences of each and every strategy. The vision or the strategy of an organization can be determined through the help of four elements of this balanced scorecard model. All of these elements are discussed below with respect to the strategies of Secretrail.com. Customer Several unique promotional campaigning and activities, such as online personalized shopping experience, reward system and pop-up events will motivate the customers to buy high quality designer fashion accessories. Financial Initially the organization is arranging business capital from a private investor to reposition the brand. However, the global expansion strategy and effective marketing strategies will encourage several external stakeholders to take interest in the business strategies. Learning and Growth Unique promotion strategies, effective employee engagement in business processes, customer centric marketing strategies or PR development strategies, and rebranding and reposition strategy will help the organization to achieve sustainable business growth rate. Internal Business Process Each and every business strategies has been developed and will be implemented in order to satisfy the needs of target customers. Target Market Secretrail.com is implementing a niche marketing strategy by developed online business process. The designer fashion market in UK is growing at a significant growth rate. Major target audiences of this organization are women aged between 20 and 35. It is clear from above discussion that UK fashion industry is saturated and highly competitive. Secretrail.com is adopting niche marketing strategy due to this reason and growing demand for the online consumption process among the target customers. Busy women employees of several organizations are also considered as the niche target segment for the products (Kotler and Kelly, 2009, p.109). This online strategy will help the organization to develop high brand image. In terms of income segment, the major target audiences would be female customers of middle and high income group due to their high disposable income and favourable purchasing power. Service Marketing Mix: 7Ps Framework Service marketing is an important marketing strategic tool that helps an organization to develop significant marketing strategy according to the needs of target customers. Service marketing mix for repositioned Secretrail.com is provided below. Product Designer clothes, apparel accessories and shoes are the major products of the organization. This differentiated product line can help the organization to motivate the target customers to consume the products. Recently, the demand for high quality designer apparel products is increasing among young female customers. In addition to this, the organization is trying to maintain high quality of the products to develop a strong brand image. Price Secretrail.com is going to implement a niche marketing strategy. It will help the organization to target a narrow and untapped market segment. It is clear from above discussions that the demand for these kinds of apparel products is growing. The organization is going to implement premium pricing strategy as the organization is going to introduce attractive designer clothes, shoes and accessories with superior quality. The organization is going to use quality raw materials and resources in the manufacturing process to ensure high end-product quality. Place (Distribution) Distribution is considered as an important business process tool that helps an organization to supply the products to the target customers according to the market demand. The organization is quite new to the industry. Therefore, it would be difficult for the organization to search for cost effective supply chain and distribution network channel. The organization should implement decentralized supply chain network strategy in which the manufacturers can directly access to the supply chain and distribution network (Blythe and Megicks, 2010, p.73). Centralized management strategy can increase the business operation time. Promotion Secretrail.com is going to adopt and implement several unique promotional strategies in order to create significant brand awareness among the target customers. However, it is important for the organization to develop unique promotional strategy that can help the organization to develop potential target customer base. Reward system for the target customers depending upon the consumption point, online promotional strategy, pop-up events and different promotional are considered as effective promotional strategy. Online promotional activity will help the organization to attract more number of target customers. Number of internet users is increasing rapidly due to emergence of advanced information technology and application (Palmatier, Dant, Grewal and Evans, 2006, p.5). It is important for Secretrail.com to adopt strong promotional marketing strategy as they are new to the industry and are targeting a niche market segment. Process The business process of Secretrail.com needs to be adopted based on the customer’s demand. In addition to this, the marketing department of the organization should ensure effective PR and customer relationship. Strong relationship with the target customers can help the organization to achieve its business goals. As the organization is starting its business practices as online business organization, therefore it is important for the organization to ensure effective product delivery process. In addition to this, the sales service needs to be considered as the most important aspect of the business operation. Customer-centric sales service activities will help the organization to ensure high sales growth rate. People The marketing personals and employees within the marketing department are considered as the key people in Secretrail.com. It is clear from the above discussion that the organization is developing business strategies based on its online business process. Therefore, it is important for the owners of the organization to develop a strong and aggressive marketing department. The employees need to be highly motivated. In addition to this, the marketing managers of the organization should organize effective training and development programs for the employees in order to increase their skills and competencies (Drummond, Ensor and Ashford, 2007, p.56). Last but not the least; the organization should organize an orientation program after the recruitment of employees in order to make them aware about the organizational values, business process and corporate goals of the organization. Physical Evidence The owner of the organization has several future strategies. The owner should expand the business practices of the organization in international market. It is highly essential for the organization to develop a strong workforce of the organization in order to ensure strong international presence (Dubois, Jolibert and Muhlbacher, 2007, p.43). The physical environment of entire business process needs to be maintained by the owners and the marketing managers. The organization should ensure similar physical structure like same brand logo, employee’s physical identity and similar business atmosphere in each and every business areas. Maintaining of similar physical evidence in business process will help the organization to attract the target customers towards the brand. Summary of External and Internal Environment Analysis This part of the report will analyze the external and internal environmental effects on the business performance of Secretrail.com. Strengths High product quality, exclusive design and effective customer services can be considered as major strength of this organization. The organization is going to redevelop an attractive company website in order to provide create significant brand awareness among the target customers. In addition to this, several promotional events, such as pop-up event will help the organization to attract the target customers. Various significant and valuable customer service strategies, such as adoption of personal shopping experience, reward systems based on consumption point of the customers can help the organization to achieve effective customer loyalty. Most, importantly the organization is going to change its brand name in order to target more customers in London market. Strong business expansion strategy will help the organization to increase its market share in UK market (Brennan, 2008, p.21). Lana Khoury is trying to develop a strong workforce that can help the organization to achieve organizational goals. Strong PR or online marketing activities can ensure effective customer relationship management. Weaknesses Lack of brand awareness is the major weakness of Secretrail.com. In addition to this, limited experience about the industry can create difficulty for the organization initially. In addition to this, limited business start-up capital is forcing the organization to arrange business capital from the private investors. This can affect the business profit margin in near future. It is important for an organization to arrange required business resources, such as human resource, financial resources and technological resources as the organization is going to implement online business strategies. It is highly challenging for the organization to implement advanced technology according to the needs of the market demand and target customers. High business operation cost at initial stage can affect the financial stability of the organization. The organization is new to the industry. Therefore, it is impossible for the organization to have a significant supply chain network. Effective supply chain and distribution network is required for an online business organization. Speed and effectiveness of the suppliers can ensure successful delivery of products and services within a given period of time. It is true that the organization is going to sell designer clothes and accessories. People cannot judge the quality of a cloth through online evidence. People always prefer to buy clothes by judging them according to the quality and physical evidence (Rust, R., and Lemon, 2004, pp.18-20). Opportunities The business environment in London is highly competitive as several potential organizations are trying to adopt and implement unique business strategies in the business process to achieve potential competitive advantages. Demand for online consumption is significantly increasing among the target customers due to its several advantages. Online consumption process is both cost and time effective. Demand for designer fashions and accessories are significantly increasing among the women in London. The organization can reduce the business operation cost in order to implement economic pricing strategy. Too much expensive products in this economic slowdown cannot attract such narrow target customer segment (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, p.12). The demand for several differentiated apparel products in terms of design and colour is growing among the target customers. Therefore, it would be effective if the organization introduces differentiated designer fashion accessories in reasonable cost and high quality. It will help the organization to develop a potential target customer base. Threats The organization is trying to establish the business operations in the London market. It is true that the apparel industry in London is highly competitive due to the presence of several leading organizations. Leading fashion retail chains like Zara and Marks & Spencer’s are the major competitor for the organization. Differentiated product line and huge product portfolio of the competitors can make it difficult for Secretrail.com to achieve significant market share growth rate. Recent financial crisis and economic downturn affected the economic environment of the country. This economic downturn affected the purchasing power of the target customers. Major problem may arise when the customers will shift to other brands due to the premium pricing of the products during economic slowdown. As the organization is targeting a niche market segment, then it is quite difficult for the organization to arrange cost effective business operation resources. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion and analysis that the company name Daloo3a cannot attract wide array of target customer group. It is an Arabic word that cannot be understood by people of different cultural background. Secretrail.com is a newly developed online designer fashion retail store. The name Secretrail.com suits with the nature of business and it will help to develop potential target customer group. The organization is adopting repositioning and rebranding strategy in order to satisfy the needs of target customers. The owner of the business is going to implement several unique promotional strategies that can help the organization to target the potential customers. The organization is going to change its brand name in order to target a wide array of customers. The business owner is planning to ensure effective Public Relations to make a strong relationship with the target customers. The business owners will seek for the financial help from a private investor. However, the investor has assured that he will provide the required capital to reposition the brand. Unique niche marketing strategy and favourable market demand can help the organization to achieve potential competitive advantages. Recommendation It is true that the organization is implementing effective marketing strategies, but several external environmental threats and the internal weaknesses of the organization can create difficulty for the organization at the initial stage. Following recommendation plans will help the organization to overcome threats. First of all, Daloo3a needs to change its brand name as it is important for the organization to develop a potential target customer group. Secretrail.com can be recommended as an effective company name so that the organization can attract more number of target customers from different cultural background. The name daloo3a is Arabic word that cannot be understood by the people that what kind of organization it is. It is important for organization to adopt rebranding strategy. New recommended company name can help the organization to justify its online business process. The organization should consider that the economic environment of the country is quite sensitive. Therefore, it is important for the organization to think about economic pricing strategy. Economic pricing is an important valuation technique that assigns pricing to select products based on the nature of economic environment. Effective operation cost control process will help the organization to implement economic pricing strategy so that the organization can support people’s low purchasing power. The organization needs to have an effective access to a strong and cost effective supply chain and distribution network so that the organization can maintain effective supply chain management process. Fast and significant supply chain network will help the organization to deliver the products based on demand and needs of the target customers in its online business process (Gilligan and Wilson, 2003, p.92). The organization needs to focus on effective workplace environment. Encouraged and motivated employees always give their 100 percent effort. It is important for the organization to take care both professional and personal needs of employees as the employees are considered as the major business growth drivers of an organization. In addition to this, the organization should provide effective training for the employees in order to increase their skill and competency level. Last but not the least; it is important for the organization to implement advanced information technology in business process in order to increase the efficiency of overall business process (McDonald, 2007, p.18). References Blythe, J., and Megicks, P., 2010. Marketing Planning: strategy, environment and context. London: FT Prentice Hall. Brennan, R., 2008. Contemporary Strategic Marketing. 2nd Ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Drummond, G., Ensor, J., and Ashford, R., 2007. Strategic Marketing, Planning, and Control. 4th Ed. London: Butterworth Heinemann. Dubois, P., Jolibert, A., and Muhlbacher, H., 2007. Marketing Management: A Value Creation Process. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan Gilligan, C., and Wilson, R., 2003. Strategic Marketing Planning. 1st Ed. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. Kotler, P., and Kelly, K. L., 2009. Marketing Management. 13th Ed. London: Pearson Prentice Hall. McDonald, M., 2007. Marketing Plans. 6th Ed. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann. Palmatier, R., Dant, R., Grewal, D., and Evans, K., 2006. “Factors influencing the effectiveness of relationship marketing: a meta-analysis”. Journal of marketing, 8(1), p.5. Rust, R., and Lemon, K., 2004. “Return on marketing: using customer equity to focus marketing strategy”. Journal of Marketing, 20(2), pp.18-20. Vargo, S., and Lusch, R., 2004. “Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing”. Journal of marketing, 25(1), p.12. Read More