Considering Marketing Strategies and Tactics - Essay Example

MARKETING PLAN: TRAFFORD CENTRE By Executive Summary Marketing plan of a company defines its strategic marketing future. The marketing plan analyses the marketing audit in which it makes a review of the internal and external issues. In the internal issues, there is a discussion of the SWOT analysis of the Trafford centre. In the external audit, there is analysis of the PEST analysis and the porters five forces analysis. The plan then highlights the strategic options and the objectives for the planning method. The core strategies indicate the methods used to reach to the planned strategies. The last part analyses the key control issues in the plan. Introduction Marketing creates link. The link involves so many stakeholders both inside an organization and the outside market. Planning to reach out to the wider market becomes therefore a critical issue and involves a good marketing plan to implement it (Ashishi, 2012, p. 21). Trafford Centre is a Shopping Centre in the city of Manchester in UK. Situated next to Trafford Park industrial estate and the situation is around 5 miles off the city centre. By retail size, the centre is the second largest retail centre in the UK. The retail centre was acquired by Intu Properties in the year 2011 through a very high scale sale in the history of acquisition in the British history (Moss & DeSanto, 2002, p. 204). This report will create a marketing plan for the shopping centre. In view of the same, the plan will analyse the SWOT analysis of the centre followed by an effective marketing audit. The plan will then make a review of the strategic objectives and discuss the control measures for the company in implementation of the strategy. SWOT Analysis of Trafford Centre The SWOT analysis looks at the critical success factors of the company as far as the expansion strategy in the market is concerned (Cant, Strydo, & Jooste, 2009, p. 45). These will weigh the ability of the company to succeed among the many companies that have been in the area prior to its operations. One of the strengths of the company is its location. The area is accessible by more than 10% of the UK population in which there is only a 45 minute drive to the place (Sharma, 2009, p. 295). This creates s very large market if well supervised. In the orient, the centre has a very large food court in the UK and it is well known as such. It is also accessed through the Manchester shipping canal increasing its availability. The place serves a lot of commodities and services including big car parks, art galleries, the imperial war museum, cinemas and many more services. The weakness of this place is that the visitor centre only opens for six days in o week. Moreover, there is a transport problem to the place in which only people with own means are able to easily access it. Lowry Outlet Mall section usually stocks low cost products and targets low income shoppers. The Manchester Shipping Canal has dirty water and therefore does not have the advantage of attracting water related leisure. On the issue of the opportunities, the centre has an untapped market in Trafford and Manchester. Moreover, the place would still serve a larger area and more people if it will be linked with a transport means. Another very significant opportunity is that the place is able to capitalize on the sports fanatics in the country to offer probable services to the fans especially those supporting Manchester City Football Club and Manchester United Football Club. A few threats also are a risk to the business at the place. The perennial economic recessions have been unpredictable and seriously affect its operations. The second threat is the limited trading hours reduce the ability of the customers to be satisfied. Moreover, its location outside the towns is disadvantageous to those customers who hardly shop out of town are therefore not able to go shopping at the place hence low sales. Marketing Audit A market audit takes into account the real procedures that happen in the company. The audit takes into account both the internal features (internal audit) and external features (external audit). The external audit takes into account the PEST analysis of the company industry (Deakin & Edwards, 1993, p. 45). There is however no specific industry since the centre deals in so many goods and services. For this issue, it is bound to attract many forces aimed at the different commodities representing different industries. The audit will also take into account the Porters five forces so that the threats can be realized from their external perspective. Apart from the SWOT analysis, the internal audit takes into account the operating marketing mix of the company (Doyle & Bridgewater, 2012, p. 90). However, a major analysis at the retail industry will suffice the situation. Microenvironment in the Market; the Market Mix The adaptation of the market micro-environment is highly determined by the marketing mix (Ferre & Michael, 2010, p. 010). The 4P’s of the marketing mix; price, place, promotion and products are perhaps the strongest points of the Trafford centre. Price offered on goods at the place is not uniform and draws some kind of centralised price discrimination. It has been indicated that there are people who shy away from shopping at the centre because of the low prices on some commodities in which case they attribute such goods to the low class people. However, the centre has maintained low prices as a result of the market economies of scale. There are so many variety types of products sold at the centre. Clothes and footwear, electronics and computers, sports and outdoor services, jewellery, home furnishing, health and beauty as well as financial services are all offered there. Therefore, apart from shopping, there is a high sense of leisure that is offered at the place. In reference to the place, it is indicated that the centre is in the outskirts of the greater Manchester city. This is a location that is very viable for a shopper. In terms of proximity to the customers all over the UK, the centre is located in a position that can serve 10% of the UK population since they live within an area of 45 minute drive to the centre. Promotion as done by the centre is very wide and vast. The centre management Salford City Reds rugby league club which gives it a lot of publicity. Moreover, there are documentaries on BBC radio and television sponsored by the centre through its management that creates a lot of publicity (Cant, Strydo, & Jooste, 2009, p. 44). External Audit PEST Analysis This will widely analyse the macro-environmental factors at the centre. Political factors are part of all businesses. In the UK for instance, the food safety controls by the government creates limits upon which the industry can function at the centre. According Harrison (2010), there were losses of lives due to use of cucumber in the summer of 2011. Given the government regulations, the centre with its high scale food centres was at a loss taking care of the situation after a government ban on all cucumber products. Other political features that directly affect the retail industry are environmental regulations as well as policies, regulation of fair and healthy competition, employment laws and consumer protection. The economic policies that directly affect the retail businesses are the need for economic growth in the country (Julian & OCass, 2002, p. 3). All Britons are supposed to maintain a certain level of purchasing so that there is a maintained economic growth. The stage of the business cycle also economically determines the running of the centre. Consumer confidence is a very critical issue in the running of the centre because, being an isolated place yet so accessible, the consumers’ confidence vary from time to time and affect the running of the centre. The most important social issue that affects the running of the centre is the consumer classes. There are consumers who are able to afford their own means of transport to the place and are therefore able to access the centre. Moreover, some sections of the centre that sell low quality products for the middle income earners also make the high class people to shy away. Changes in the technological know-how has by a great extend changed the way the centre runs. Customers have been able to order for products from their respective places without necessarily travelling to the centre. It is therefore possible to only go and pick the products all the procedures having been satisfied (Danny & Barabara, 2002, p. 32). Five Forces involving Trafford Centre The Five Forces Analysis is a very crucial role in the analysis of the centre’s external market audit (Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel, 2011, p. 81). Competition in the UK retail industry is very fierce. With more wholesale and retail companies offering these services, the centre has been forced to take advantage of economies of scale. The centre has been vulnerable to some large superstores such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury. The threat of substitutes has been relatively low to the company especially due to the company protection of the local companies. However, Waitrose has offered stiff competition in the food industry while Marks and Spencer has been almost on the leadership in the clothes industry. The threat of substitutes has been low due to the economies of scale that the centre enjoys. However, the bargaining power of the buyers has been so tough that the businesses in the industry will be forced to cut down prices in the year 2013 (Williams, 2003, p. 275). Assessment of Strategic Options Market share data The measurement of the strategic options is based on the position the centre holds in the retail industry (Lichtenstein, Drumwright, & Braig, 2004, p. 11). Apparently there are those companies that have the upper hand of having been in the retail industry for a longer time than Trafford Centre. Therefore, market share data is used to indicate the position that the company holds in the entire UK market. If from the books of accounts there will be an increased returns on investments, then this will create a share date that is advantageous. The much of the market occupied as compared to the smaller retail firms as well as the larger multinational firms will be indicated when the centre is able to maintain the sales to the 10% of the population that is able to be served. Sales data This is the most used data in the indication of whether the strategic options are getting successful or not. The volume of sales is a good indication of the success of the presence of any business in a given area. Periodical increases of the sales volumes due to the changing factors of consumer ability and government regulations are indicative of the sales data especially at the end of an accounting period (Moss & DeSanto, 2002, p. 16). Consumer Feedback More positive feedbacks from the customers are indicative of the ability of the centre to create viable satisfaction to the customers. The best indicator to a good strategy always is that one which comes from the recipient of the service or the good (Palmer, 2004, p. 43). Over the years, the company feedback schemes have grown more positively and in 2008, the success of the centre attracted the documentary on BBC called Britain From Above in which the success of the centre was all highlighted. This was as a result of the positive feedbacks from the consumers. Feedback from Staff Staff members at the centre are employed based on the British labour laws. So far, reports from the human resource management at the company indicate positive trends and these are attributable to good management of their affairs. Marketing Objectives The objectives in any plan have to be based on the SMART issue. According to Trafford (2013), the Trafford centre has its plans set on the SMART plans. Here, the plans are based on Specificity of the expected strategies, measurability, achievability, being realistic and time-bound. Since 1998, the company has been on the positive growth and there are still unfinished projects in the company especially on the transport issue. One of the plans was to increase accessibility to the place through improvement of the link roads because of the congestion leading to the area. It is planned that by 2016, all the transport problems will be solved through increment of public transport and completion of the link roads (Commons., 2009, p. 71). Other specific objectives will be to expand the Barton Square Retail Space, utilization of the Upper floor spaces for more products, building more retail centres on unused retail centres. Most of these are supposed to be complete by the year 2016 as stated in the company development plan. All these plans satisfy the idea of SMART in trying to achieve. The customers keep increasing from time to time and therefore there will always be need to serve them effectively. Core Strategy There has been a great problem especially when it comes to the movement of the goods and people to and from the centre (Sivakumar, 2009, p. 65). The company has been encouraging its customers to use more and more public transport instead of private cars. This is as a result of the traffic jams that have been witnessed in most of the areas leading to the centre. Since the company has the will to serve more and more people but does not transport the goods to the customer centres, the greatest strategy would be to open up accessibility to the area. This will be achieved through development of more link roads. There is also a problem of public transport since not so many vehicles ply that route. To reduce the jam and increase customer accessibility, it will be important to also increase the customer parking area since the 10,122 car spaces area all over-packed to accommodate all the cars as well as the roads getting almost blocked. Since it is situated at the same place and there are no plans to make more centres elsewhere, the greatest issue will be to strategize on making all the stakeholders satisfied with the services available (Williams, 2003, p. 296). Organization, Implementation and Control Issues The business does not act in a vacuum. There are several stakeholders that must all be satisfied. In the process of implementation of the program, there will be need to inculcate the services of the customers, the employees, the management and the government. This is the only way to avoid negated spill over effects later. Cohesion of these controls will make sure that there is sufficient co-existence in implementation of the strategy (Thyne, Deans, & Gnoth, 2007, p. 65). One of the ways the customers’ protection started was to reduce car theft at the parking lot by integration of the car number plates with a magnetic sensor system that made sure that no cars are lost. This was one way of winning the customers. During this installation, the customer presence was highly increased. If the assessment of the strategic options is positively bearing fruits, then the controls will also be considered to be succeeding (Deakin & Edwards, 1993, p. 265). Conclusion A marketing plan is a basic tool in measuring the viability of a company strategy. It brings together several marketing principles that are intertwined to create a cohesive program that will be sure to succeed at the end of the specified period. It keeps into account the fact that a business enterprise had all the initial plans before setting up operation in a specified area. This plan is for Trafford Centre, the second largest retail centre in the United Kingdom. In view of the ability of the company, the plan analysed its SWOT analysis. This led to further closing in on the internal audit that included the analysis of the company marketing mix. The external audit was carried out to establish the ability of the Centre to sufficiently remain sustainable in the market. At this point, there was a discussion of the industry PEST analysis and the five forces analysis. Assessment of the strategic options was important so that the vision of the company in the plan is maintained. The last bit (controls) indicated the moderation procedure. References Ashishi, A. (2012). Cadbury Overview. Retrieved 03 21, 2013, from Marketing: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22450560/Cadbury-marketing-strategy Cant, M., Strydo, J., & Jooste, J. ( 2009). Marketing Management. Melbourne: Juta and Company Ltd. Commons., H. o. (2009). Regional Development Agencies and the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill. London: The Stationery Offic. Danny, M., & Barabara, D. (2002). Public relations Cases: international perspectives. New York: Routledge. Deakin, N., & Edwards, J. (1993). The enterprise culture and the inner city. New York: Routledge. 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