marketing budget plan
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Strengths
· Our brand formulation covers a variety of fields with our diverse use of ingredients, no other brand compares.
· Having the highest brand awareness, trials, frequency of purchases, and conversion ratio plays to our advantage as the top dog in the market.
· Through our brands recognition, effectiveness, and loyalty in the market we are able to control the price of our products more freely allowing us to out compete our rivals and maintain price leadership (in controlling cost of medication without fear of hurting our profits).
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Weaknesses
· Alcohol Based product denies some markets (children, young families).
· Our retention ratio is lower than desired – we need to establish a stronger and more reliable following.
· Lack of direction in advertising at the moment – we have only recognized our rivals we have not decided what we will do as a company whether it be spread consumer awareness more, push or pull strategy, etc.
· Unsure if we will stick with BMW or go to S&R or LLC for our advertising agencies.
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Opportunities
· We can possibly take the alcohol aspect out of our formula so that it is more family friendly and people can take it during the day without worrying about becoming drowsy.
· Changing our formula to a capsule brand over a liquid for easy travel.
· Cold medication has seen the largest growth in market share at 6.6% so we should capitalize on pushing an intensive marketing strategy to bring in the most profit. In other words, we do not necessarily have to focus on other markets except cold medication.
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Threats
· Besthelp controls the second largest share in cold medication (they use a 4 hour capsule strategy – more on the go friendly).
· B&B as a company covers multiple markets in allergy and cold while Allstar Brand (us) only cover multi-symptom cold. Our market is not necessarily narrow but it is not as specified or broad as some of the other competitors.
· Ethik Incorporated may be one of the biggest threats overlooked in terms of market shares because they have stakes in three markets and may be looking to expand further into ours.
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2) Place
All-round products have adapted both the direct and indirect method of distribution. The indirect method includes whole sellers, merchandisers and detailers. These ensure that the products are sold even to smaller retailers and thus increasing their market penetration. The retailers sell to doctors and pharmacies and urge them to recommend their products.
The direct method includes independent and chain drug stores, grocery and convenience stores and mass merchandisers. These are mainly focused on the urban and suburban areas.
In these various outlets, the company has provided sales force to ensure supply of the products and proper products placement in the various stores. The competitors have a similar approach to direct and indirect methods of distribution. The competitors’ products have more space allocated to them in the stores which is attributed to the number of sales force and level of discounts offered to the stores and the level of product turnover.
To counter this, All-star can in vary the resources allocated to the various channels of distribution.
Promotion
The company performs various promotional activities. It carries out advertisements on television, consumer promotions, co-op advertisements and promotional discounts.
In the consumer promotions, the company has adapted methods such as free trials size package, coupons and point of sale purchase. The promotional discounts are in addition to the price cut to a channel. Co-op advertisements are an additional payout for the store when it features the product in their advertisement. On the television adverts, they portray information to create awareness, remind the customers of the products and to specific demographic segments. The advertisements and promotions have been very effective as the All-round product is well known by customers. This has boosted the sales as the company is well known for high-quality products. The competitors, on the other hand, have similar approaches to promotion but have a smaller budget. This may be attributed to different budget allocation to the various methods and using advertising agencies that charge less. The reduction in promotional costs reflects well on the profits.
All-star should use a cheaper advertising agency which offers good quality adverts to reduce its costs as the company’s All-round brand is already well established. In taking this approach, it should also ensure that the product shelve space is increased to allow for more exposure to the customers.
Product
All-star products are very competitive in the market. This is because their All-round brand is one drug but for many solutions and it's very effective. This being said the other companies have taken a differentiation strategy by separating the products by the specific symptoms.
This has made it easy for consumers to pick a product specific to their need. With All-round brand, the consumer takes a general medicine for any symptoms they experience. This has been seen as a concern for physicians due to over medication .whereas for their competitors’ one can choose the specific product for the particular symptom. The level of contents in the medicines is also a concern. The All-round brand has got alcohol which is viewed negatively as people focus on healthier lifestyles. The other competitors have different levels of medicine content in the varied product categories which the consumers may consider to be much healthier. Another product differentiation taken is the forms of medication. All-round brand is in capsule form while its competitors have various other forms i.e. spray, capsules and liquid form. The study shows that customers prefer the capsule form of the over the counter medication. Another factor is the duration before one takes another dose. All-round brand has maintained it to 4hs while the others have up to 12hrs. The 4hrs is more appealing to customers as they may need to take the medicine during the day as they work and may need a drug with fewer side effects. The 12hrs drugs have more side effects and may be best taken only at night. All-star company can counter the competition by removing the alcohol in the All-around product, and they can also create new products for the specific symptoms they cure.
Pricing
All-round product line has the second highest cost in the market. The range of the over the counter products is about a dollar which appears irrelevant to the consumers seeing that the All-around product is still ahead. The competitors in the market seem to have priced the cough remedies higher, this is the cough care and the end products which cost as much as the All-around product or higher. When it comes to the other symptoms of allergies and nasal congestion, the consumers consider them minor and thus assume they should spend less. The All-round product can counter the competitors by the continuous emphasis on its product as the best medication for coughs and the fact that it will also cure other symptoms that may not be prevalent but are associated with coughs.
The profit margin made by the retailers is also a factor in the level of sales. The higher the discount on the volume of products, the more the sales.
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Product
Our product which contains alcohol excludes some markets such as young families and children indefinitely. Another issue that may need to be addressed is that for many young couples or many people in their career building stage of their lives are very “go” oriented meaning that we have to be conscious about having alcohol in our product (for when they consume it during work). Another concern to think about would be the form our product is in. Having the product in liquid form is easier for children and elderly to swallow but one of those (children) are excluded in our market. We should consider changing over to a capsule form.
The buying behavior behind our product is partly based off the analysis above – people will be more conscious to purchase our brand if they are in specific categories (i.e. children). The reason why they may be purchasing our products is due to its immense popularity and history for being effective. The name itself is strong enough to give the company a strong hold in the market but we should be able to adjust in case change in demand. There is a lot to consider when purchasing from our brand but if the buyer is not considering children using our product I believe it will be picked over the other brands that address colds.
Price
The price of our product is completely dictated by us, we control the market and thus we control the price. As long as our prices are not outrageously high the consumers naturally lean toward the more well-known established brand which is us. Picking a lesser known brand or off brand is considered in a way, “not effective” or “cheap” so consumers will learn toward our brand. Although the prices for our product is the highest in the market (not by a large margin, but enough) we are in control of the price control. We should readily adjust our prices with consumer behavior, seasons, and the economy.
Promotion:
Allrounds primary target customers are young singles and the types of promotions that Allround offers seem to be appealing to this target segment. Our brand pulls our target segments in specifically in the cold season, during this period our customers automatically turn to our product when they need over the counter medication mostly due to the high consumer awareness of the brand. Allround has a high budget for advertising, higher than its competitors, and it is during the cold season that Allround incorporates television advertising to promote their product and attract buyers.
Another promotion that Allround uses is a type of consumer promotion that accounts for 8% of Allrounds promotion allowance. It is the use of coupons, customers are rewarded for choosing our product by saving money. This promotion is especially attractive to the elderly and older individuals because they are more likely to look through the retail stores coupon book or store catalogs.
Young Individuals prefer our brand because they tend to be more active and in need of just 4 hour medicines that are easily consumed. Another way we appeal to this target segment is by the use of social media, Allround has begun to promote their product through social media sites which has shown to be an effective medium to set a platform to gain insight of our customer’s thoughts and reactions on the product.
Place:
Our other target segment, the elderly, tend to have more health problems as they continue to age which means that they start to make frequent visits to the doctor’s office. This allows for doctors or pharmacists to bring the attention of those customers to our product.
