Assignment 4: Part D: Your Marketing Plan – Video Presentation

Professor: Dr. Kevin Tullis

Course: MKT 500

Strayer University :

Date: 7/25/2014

Introduction

According to Westwood (2013), a marketing plan is an outline of an organization's marketing strategies. A marketing plan outlines the current position of the organization in relation to its competitive advantage and the suitable courses of marketing actions that can be undertaken by a specific firm to increase its competitive analysis. When developing a marketing plan, several factors that can impact on the marketing efforts of the firm are put into consideration (Westwood, 2013). Such factors include the strengths of the firm to undertake its intended marketing plan and the threats it faces by undertaking to implement its marketing plan. Still, there are external factors that can impact on the marketing strategies of the firm (Kotler, 2011). Kotler (2011) provides that those marketing strategies that can impact on the marketing strategies of the organization are referred to as external environmental factors, and they are out of the control of the firm. Hence, it is necessary to consider them when developing a marketing plan in order to ensure that they do not contribute to the failure of the plan (Kotler, 2011). In this paper, the company to which a marketing plan is written is a multinational company which deals with manufacturing and selling of electronics. However, the company penetrated the international market recently and hence it has subsidiaries in only one country outside the country in which it is based.

SWOT analysis of the company

Armstrong & Cunningham (2012) provide that any company that wants to implement a successful marketing plan must carry SWOT analysis. The analysis exposes the weaknesses and threats that a firm faces in its operations as well the threats it faces by undertaking new marketing strategies. As a result, it gives an organization the opportunity to be put suitable measures in place to militate against the threats and risks that may result from its weaknesses. Also, the SWOT analysis helps the organization to establish the available opportunities and the strengths it has to utilize the available opportunities (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2012). The following is the SWOT analysis of the company under study;

Strengths

The company sells its merchandise at relatively lower prices a fact that gives it a competitive advantage over other firms that operate in the same industry. Walras (2013) provides that in a price elastic market, low-commodity prices increase the demand for the commodity and hence this explains why the company gains competitive advantage by selling its merchandise at relatively lower prices. The company's management has effective management skills which give it an advantage to yield optimal production. The company’s staff has been trained to be customer friendly and also the company values its customers a fact that has seen it increase its goodwill amongst its customers.

Weaknesses

The company does not have strong liquidity position to fund its operations and hence it has to rely on borrowed capital. The company operates in a highly competitive industry and also it is competing against competitors who have a higher competitive advantage as compared to it. Also, the company does not sell diversified products that can help it improve its total contribution margin.

Opportunities

The company has a strong brand that is being recognized globally. Hence, it has an opportunity of maximizing its sales and hence profitability by undertaking its intended global strategy. The widespread of technology has resulted to increased demand for electronic gadgets. As a result, the company has an opportunity of getting ready market by undertaking its global strategy. The company has an opportunity to reach investors from the international strategy since by undertaking the global strategy the company will be recognized by a large of potential investors. Finally, the company has an opportunity to diversify its risks by setting up subsidiaries in different geographical regions across the world.

Threats

The company faces the threat of being outpaced by other already recognized by other firms in the same market industry in terms of competition. The company is likely to be affected by fluctuations of currencies of different countries in terms of profitability. The company will require capital to fund its expansion operations which pose a threat of liquidity crises to the company. Finally, the company is not assured of acquiring market share in the new distribution channels.

External environmental analysis

Since the company is going to be operating is more than one countries, it is likely to be affected by the legal environment since different countries have different legal trade policies. Still, it is worth noting that different regions of the world have different cultures. Hence, the company is likely to be affected the sociocultural environment since its employees are likely to be affected by the new cultures. Still, the company’s competitors are highly technologically advanced, and hence they are likely to have high competitive advantage. Turnbull & Valla (2013) provides that any company that undertakes global strategies must consider the economic associated. It is worth noting that different countries use different currencies that fluctuate time to time. Hence, this is likely to affect the company adversely in terms financial performance.

The company’s marketing mix and the 4 Ps

Armstrong & Cunningham (2012) provide that the features, price, the place of sale and the promotion of a company product determine the market share the product will achieve thereby determining the competitiveness of the company. As noted in the strengths of the company in consideration, the company sells its products at relatively low prices thereby increasing its competitive advantage. The company carries out research and development to determine the strategic places to place its product. It uses research and development to establish the most suitable distributions to venture in thereby maximizing its sales. Still, the company carries extensive advertisement of its product using different marketing strategies a fact that ensures that the company acquires a competitive advantage. However, the company’s product faces a threat of being outpaced by its competitors in terms of its product features. Feedback from the company's customers has revealed that the company's products do not have all the features that maybe required by the customers as compared to its competitors. As a result, the satisfaction that is yielded by its products is sub-optimal a fact that reduces its competitive advantage.

Analyzing the company using the 5C’s

The five C’s constitute of the company, its competitors, its customers, its culture and its collaborators (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2012). Considering the company itself, it has such strengths as good corporate image and goodwill among its customers that improve its competitive advantage. Still, the company’s market size is large in the country in which it is based. It has good relations with its collaborators such as the suppliers. For instance, the company receives quantity discount from its suppliers a fact that increases its total contribution margin and hence its competitiveness. Though the company is highly competitive in its country where its operations are based, it faces stiff competition in the global market, and especially from the globally established companies such as Apple Inc and Samsung Company.

Segmentation is a marketing mix strategy that involves dividing the market using market common features as the basis of division (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2012). The company segments the available markets in basis of geographical regions. Targeting refers to the process of undertaking to maximize opportunities in a specific market segment (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2012). Positioning is the process of placing a company's products in the minds of the consumers (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2012). The company carries out extensive advertising to position its products in the minds of the consumers. The company’s marketing mix has been improving as attested by the table and figure below:

Figure 1

The figure above shows that the company’s performance in terms of market share has been improving with an increasing rate over the past four years. It is an indication of positive prospects of performance and hence it attests that the company is capable of undertaking the intended global strategy. The company will undertake intensive marketing, research and development and product improvement strategies. Research and development will help the company establish the possible external environmental factors that can impact on its performance thereby helping it to undertake the suitable courses of action. Hence, the company will incur extra costs to finance its expansion strategies.

The marketing plan is expected to increase the volume of sales and hence the profitability of the company. The following are the projected increase in sales volume and profitability. The graph shows the trend in projected growth.

Figure 2

It noted that the profitability is expected to increase with a slight increase despite the high percentage in sales increase that is expected. The trend is attributable to the fact the expansion will incur high operational expenses such as research and development as well as advertising a fact the will lower the profitability. Low profits will mean low-shareholder returns.

References

Armstrong, G., & Cunningham, M. H. (2012). Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia.

Kotler, P. (2011). Reinventing marketing to manage the environmental imperative. Journal of Marketing, 75(4), 132-135.

Turnbull, P. W., & Valla, J. P. (Eds.). (2013). Strategies for international industrial marketing. Routledge.

Walras, L. (2013). Elements of pure economics. Routledge.

Westwood, J. (2013). How to write a marketing plan. Kogan Page Publishers.