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feedback_mrkt__part_1_imc_plan.pptxIMC Plan Product/service For the Home Depot
Edwin Sanchez
MRKT 354
7/9/2017
UMUC
I like the creativity of the HD logo. I changed the transparency to make it lighter so it is easier to read.
Don’t forget that your plan is on Home Depot rather than the products that they offer. What is going on with the company? Not appliances or tv’s.
Please do not use the notes section – Ii don’t read it. This area is used for my notes to you.
Use spell check…utilizes is spelled with a z. It is underlined multiple times in the presentation.
Try not to use too many complete sentences. When using a reference, put the reference in parentheses at the end of the phrase.
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Table of Contents
Current Marketing Situation and Product Marketing Strategies 3
Product Description: Concise Marketing Overview of the Product & its role in the Market 4
Product Description: Concise Marketing Overview of the Product & its role in the Market 5
Product Description: Current Product’s competitive position 5
Product Description: Current Product’s competitive position 5
Product Description: Current Product’s competitive position 6
Product Description: Value Proposition 7
Product description: Primary target market characteristics 8
Product description: Target Market Buyer’s decision process 9
Product Review: Brand Strategy of the product 10
Product Review: Type of product/service lifecycle & benefits/features analysis 11
Distribution Review: Current supply chain members and their roles 12
Distribution Review Current supply chain members and their roles 13
Distribution Review Current supply chain members and their roles 14
Communications Objectives and Issues: First year communications objectives 15
Issues impacting the objectives attainment 16
References 17
Current Marketing Situation and Product Marketing Strategies
The Home Depot does utilise the four principles in marketing.
Product
Place
Promotion
Price
The marketing strategy utilised includes:
Remaining priced to competitive stores like IKEA, Wal-Mart using price match guarantees.
Ensuring relevance to the Millennial by educating them on the necessity of the products when they become homeowners.
Creating a student discount promotions and incentive programs that offer special deals to its loyal customers.
Marketing is the process of bridging the gap between the products provides and product consumers (Kelley et.al 2015). The Home Depot is a company that utilises the e-commerce platforms in business. The company retails all home improvement needs including appliances, power tools, bathroom decorating ideas and kitchen remodelling among other variety of home equipment. These are some of the home appliances that the Home Depot deals in as products. The organisation has its headquartered at the Atlanta Store Support Center in Atlanta Georgia (Bruner 2015). According to Bruner (2015), the firm operates in most towns within the United States.
According to the management, the provision of distribution stores across the country increases their relevance to its customers. The marketing slogan from 2009 was based on inspiration for action. The Home Depot adopted the phrase "More saving. More doing" in 2009 which changed from "You can do it. We can help”. According to Kelley et.al (2015), most of these phrases aimed at inspiring the need to act and access their products. For the past 25 years, the organisation has adopted the "The Home Depot; Low prices are just the beginning" slogan in marketing and product promotions. Most of the products can be evaluated from the definition of the three important levels.
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Product Description: Concise Marketing Overview of the Product & its role in the Market
The home appliances offered by The Home Depot can be assessed considering the three specific level of the products.
Core: The appliances enhances convenience in homes.
Actual: The Home Depot primarily deals in home equipment including cookers, building materials and electronics.
Augmented: Most of the electronics and cookers have warranties. The services are after sales services offered by the firms.
Most of these are physical products that the consumers need for convenience and in some cases as a basic need( Housing materials)
The core aspect of the Home Depot products considers the benefits (Epstein et.al 2015). Form the product outline in the organization’s catalogue, the firm tends to have an aspect of convenience in home operations as key. The ease of use of the home appliances and the convenience in brings in terms of time necessitate customers access of the products. The actual specification outlines the lines of products that the firm provides. The Home Depot majors in home appliances and some building materials across the United States. The Warranty and installation services are covered in the augmented specification of the products. The Home Depot does provide the warranty privileges for the products. The free installation services are also offered also offered as part of the after sales services (Phillips 2016). Phillips 2016 acknowledges that most of these appliances are accessed by the consumers in an attempt to ease the home operations and to enhance convenience in operations.
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Product Description: Current Product’s competitive position
| Internal Microenvironment factors | Strengths | Weakness |
| Company | Increased internet connectivity and the upwards sales through the recent cases of recession | Developed an online presence in 2014 which is later compared to the competitors |
| suppliers | Interconnected Retail services offering more buying options | Success is dependent on the economy of the country which is prone to fluctuations. |
| intermediaries | Cheaper travelling expenses associated with improved transport systems. | Reduced demand for services due to the increased decentralisation of services. |
| competitors | Dominance of companies that invested before 2014 | Reduced varieties in stores and less attractive augmented services. |
| Publics | Cheap and easily accessible internet connectivity | The geographical limitations |
COMPETITIVE POSITION:
Identify the product’s market share (Hoover.com is a good source, but frequently hard to find, so just be close and provide your rationale)
Name competitors, their pricing, kinds of advertising used, etc.
Identify their vulnerabilities relative to your product.
Identify if product is a market leader, nicher, challenger, or follower.
The most immediate competitors of Home Depot include Lowe’s, Menard, True Value and Ace Hardware. Other equally significant competitors include Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Target and Sherwin Williams. The SWOTs analysis provides the much-needed evaluation of the position of the organisation relative to its immediate competitors. Most of these firms extensive utilise both the mainstream media and social media in marketing. One of the most evident strengths that work for The Home Depot is the ever growing sector in e-commerce (Iyengar 2017). Iyengar (2017) appreciate that there is an increased adoption of online retails across the globe. The Home Depot is one of the most notable firms that offer home appliances on an online retail service. One particular weakness facing the firm is the late entry into the online retail services. Generally, the main advantage all through the sectors is the increased internet connections and the large-scale embrace of online marketing.
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Product Description: Current Product’s competitive position
| External Macro Environmental Factor | opportunities | threats |
| Demographic trends in the population | There is an increasing trend of embrace of e-commerce | Millennial shopping habits shift and are hard to convince |
| Cultural influences affecting consumer decision-making | The overall acceptance of the internet as a tool of convenience ease the online retail services. | Millennial are crafty and a prone to DIY projects |
| . Natural resources needed as inputs by marketer | Land and physical distribution stores is one natural resource that is input by the firm | The limitation of natural resource like land is a threat to companies like The Home Depot |
| Political or economic conditions | E-commerce is generally accepted as regulations and requirement are now relatively less server | The success of such stores is strongly dependent on the economy of the country. |
| New technologies impacting the industry | There is general growth of technologies that ease transfer of information and marketing like the emergence of the social media | The increase of internet connectivity enhances competition. |
| Laws, agencies, and pressure groups | Laws have since been modifying to ease the processes within international e-commerce platform marketing | International laws are relatively more stringent therefore the distribution of small-scale supplies are expensive. |
The opportunities, on the other hand, are much inclined to the increased demand for e-commerce products and the convenience that comes with the approach to marketing. Some of the threats are also related to the ease of implementing an e-commerce firm, therefore, increasing competition.
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Product Description: Value Proposition
The Home Depot product’s current value proposition is more for less as an approach in products promotion.
The overall benefit of the products offered by the firm is convenience and quality to its customers.
The Home Depot utilises several differentiation strategies including the cost leadership strategy which saw the reduction of product prices while improving the performance.
The firm does ensure a lifetime value for its target audiences by providing high-quality products and after sales services and warranty that is of much value to the clients
The increased competition necessitates product differentiation to better the chances of attracting more demand in the competitive market environment. The Home Depot employs price leadership strategy in ensuring distinctive service delivery. Price leadership approach would require the firm to lower their process and better their services in an attempt to attract customers (Honigman 2013). The market forces of demand and supply would ensure the firm attracts more customers, an attribute the is much-desired in a competitive market environment. The company also provide a long-term impact on is customers by ensuring supply of quality products and improve after-sales services that include warranty and equipment installation.
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Product description: Primary target market characteristics
The Home Depot has classified its target audience into three specific groups.
Do-it-yourself (DIY) customers
Do-it-for-me clients (DIFM)
Professional customers
The target market is also classified into different categories based on their ages. Primarily, the groups are classified into three: The young population, the middle-aged (teens) and the elderly.
These classifications ease the process of branding and advertising.
The target media depending on the various classifications included the traditional print media and mainstream media. The social media is also emerging as useful as it tends to attract especially the middle-aged population. These platforms are accessible and measurable.
The Home Depot largely utilises the differentiated marketing strategy.
The target market is classified into different categories based on their ages. Primarily, the groups are classified into three: The young population, the middle-aged (teens) and the elderly. These classifications ease the process of branding and advertising (Krämer & Kalka 2017). According to Kelley et.al (2015), the approach to marketing and advertising vary depending on the target audience. In most highlighted case, the teens and young adults can be accessed through the social media.
Kelley et.al (2015) appreciates that the target media depending on the various classifications included the traditional print media and mainstream media. The social media is emerging as useful as it tends to attract especially the middle-aged population. These platforms are accessible and measurable. The differentiation strategy in marketing requires that The Home Depot supply the different classes of the target market with different products. Currently, the Home Depot has a large following among the millennial. The Home Depot largely utilises the differentiated marketing strategy.
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Product description: Target Market Buyer’s decision process
The Home Depot clients tend to employ the Complex buying process largely.
The customers tend to require information about the products they intend to order from the online platform.
The Home Depot utilises the company web platform to catalogue all the products and their features.
Different approaches can define the buyer’s decision processes, but one of the most common approaches that are employed by the Home Depot clients is the complex buying processes. The complicated buying process tends to utilise slot of information on the products before a client places the order. The nature of the processes, Home appliances, tends to require some levels of analysis of the products before committing to buying them.
The Home Depot provides the information to the customers through their websites. The catalogues document all the features and the various products that are available in the stores.
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Product Review: Brand Strategy of the product
The Home Depot does maintain high volume inventory.
The home appliances offered by the Home Depot already have brand equity.
Home electronics like flat screen TVs are well represented in the packaging.
Low price guarantees are also employed.
Most of the Home Depot line of products are represented in the packaging as the primary target.
Brand strategy is the definition of the long-term plan of developing a successful brand (Guerringue 2016). The Home Depot does encourage the proper brand identification through packaging. Guerringue (2016) appreciate the significance of packaging in brand strategy insisting that for a successful branding process, the firm should develop distinctive features that characterise the product. The home appliances supplied by The Home Depot are fitted with characteristic features that facilitate a successful approach in branding.
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Product Review: Type of product/service lifecycle & benefits/features analysis
Product life cycle is the introduction, growth and the decline of a specific product in the market (Ghez & Becker 2009) REMOVE – DON’T NEED DEFINITION.
The lifecycle state of the home appliance product being considered is saturated.
The flat screen televisions have been produced in large quantities by several companies. The product according to Ghez & Becker (2009) explains why the screens are saturated in the market
Ghez & Becker (2009) also adds that the enthusiasm of the new technology, low cost of production and the low entail price have also facilitated in making the product to be saturated in the market.
One of the benefits of flat screen televisions is that it reduces the electricity bills because they use less power while running (Reim & Parida et.al 2015).
When considering the type of adopters, the target group are the early adopters. As Reim & Parida et.al (2015) outline, any product that relates to technology mostly target the early adopters.
Remember, you are discussing the company rather than a specific product. Where is Home Depot in the product life cycle? Are they growing or do you think they are at the maturity stage?
The lifecycle explains the stage at which the product is in in the market. The cycle will determine the demand for the product in the market. This is important as it helps when it comes to making a decision on the production of the distribution of a product. The slide has explained the life cycle of the home appliance product which is in the saturation stage. The slide has also outlined the benefits of the product to the buyers. The slide also explains the type of the people being targeted. In this case, those who are being targeted are the early adopters.
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Distribution Review: Current supply chain members and their roles
Different home appliances require different ways of handling.
In this case, the flat screen televisions are fragile and therefore should be handled with care.
The mode of distribution is by ferrying the product to different buyers or retail shops in special trucks.
The distribution strategy mostly by the wholesalers is selective.
As Ghez & Becker (2009 ) outlines, the distribution of products of these categories goes with interest f the target people and therefore should be selectively distributed.
In most cases, the distribution of products that follow the general trend or fashion should be selectively distributed depending on the target population (Stadtler 2015).
One of the channels being used is direct to customer sales. The television is taken to the consumer directly to the producer.
Also, other channels are being considered. One of them is by using the retailers. The flat screens are sold to the retailer who then distributes the product to different consumers.
One final channel considered and the use of wholesalers who then sell the product to the retailers who then transport the product to the final consumers.
The slide explains the different ways of transporting the various home appliances. It appreciates the need to use some special vehicles when it comes to carrying flat screen televisions because they are fragile.
Another area discussed in the slide is the different channels being used in the process of distribution of the product. Some of the channels discussed are direct channel from producer to the consumer, the use of retailers only and finally the use of wholesalers and the retailers.
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Distribution Review Current supply chain members and their roles
In this case, the flat screen televisions are fragile and therefore should be handled with care.
The mode of distribution is by ferrying the product to different buyers or retail shops in special trucks.
The distribution strategy mostly by the wholesalers is selective.
As Ghez & Becker (2009) outlines, the distribution of products of these categories goes with interest f the target people and therefore should be selectively distributed.
In most cases, the distribution of products that follow the general trend or fashion should be selectively distributed depending on the target population (Stadtler 2015).
One of the channels being used is direct to customer sales. The television is taken to the consumer directly to the producer.
Also, other channels are being considered. One of them is by using the retailers. The flat screens are sold to the retailer who then distributes the product to different consumers.
One final channel considered and the use of wholesalers who then sell the product to the retailers who then transport the product to the final consumers.
The slide explains the different ways of transporting the different home appliances. It appreciates the need to use some special tracks when it comes to carrying flat screen televisions because they are fragile.
Another area discussed in the slide is the different channels being used in the process of distribution of the product. Some of the channels discussed are a direct channel from producer to the consumer, the use of retailers only and finally the use of wholesalers and the retailers.
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Distribution Review Current supply chain members and their roles
the channel system for primary target .
This slide has a chat that describes the channel for the primary target
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Communications Objectives and Issues: First year communications objectives
Communication is crucial when it comes to marketing and product distribution (Shwom & Snyder 2015).
Some of the communication objectives include the creation of awareness, image protection and the stimulation of want and desire.
According to Shwom & Snyder (2015), the creation of awareness is the most crucial, and it is the one that will create and also increase the demand for the product being advertised.
When it comes to the buyer readiness, the process of selection of target market and the advertising is crucial.
So and so explains that the market needs to be aware of the product, should have the knowledge about the product.
According to Shwom & Snyder (2015), the sale of he flat screen televisions are easy because the buyers have the knowledge of the product, they are convinced that the products good and the do prefer it compared to other technologies that are available in the market.
Objectives need to be measurable.
Communication is very crucial in any business. The slide outlines the need of communication in the product distribution. It has also outline some of the advantages that the producers and the sellers of the flat screen televising enjoy. Some of these advantages include the fact that the market have the knowledge of the product, they are aware of the product and the technology is more superior compared to the other products. This therefore increases the demand of the product.
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Issues impacting the objectives attainment
According to Stadtler (2015), the financial challenge is According to Stadtler (2015), the financial challenge is one of the major factors that might hinder the process of implementation of the communication objectives.
Shwom & Snyder (2015) also explains that source might not be a problem but the procurement procedures required might result in a delay of certain services.
Some other challenges include unfavourable government policies and market competition that can discourage small companies from entreating the market.
The slide explains some of the factors that impact the attainment of the set objectives. Some of the factors considered include the financial issues, the issue of procurement procedures and the issue of unfavourable government policies.
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References
Bruner, R. F. Home Depot, Inc.
Epstein, M. J., Buhovac, A. R., & Yuthas, K. (2015). Managing social, environmental and financial performance simultaneously. Long range planning, 48(1), 35-45.
Guerringue, L. (2016). Can PR Professionals Continue to Reach Millennials Using Traditional Media? Retrieved from http://www.newsgeneration.com/2013/04/19/traditonal_media_millennial
Ghez, G., & Becker, G. S. (2009). The allocation of time and goods over the life cycle. NBER Books.
Honigman, B. (2013). How Millennials are Shopping: 20 Interesting Statistics & Figures. Diakses day https://medium. com/@ brian Honig man/how-millennials-are-shopping-20-interestingstatistics-figures-c76fb1231fbb
Iyengar, A. (2017). Providing Enhanced Functionality for Data Store Clients. In Data Engineering (ICDE), 2017 IEEE 33rd International Conference on (pp. 1237-1248). IEEE.
Krämer, A., & Kalka, R. (2017). How Digital Disruption Changes Pricing Strategies and Price Models. In Phantom Ex Machina (pp. 87-103). Springer International Publishing.
Kelley, L., Sheehan, K., & Jugenheimer, D. W. (2015). Advertising media planning: a brand management approach. Routledge.
Phillips, D., Hwang, B. Y., Sheets, S., Longstreth, T., & Christian, G. (2016). The Home Depot.
Reim, W., Parida, V., & Örtqvist, D. (2015). Product–Service Systems (PSS) business models and tactics–a systematic literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 97, 61-75.
Stadtler, H. (2015). Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Shwom, B. G., & Snyder, L. G. (2015). Business Communication: Polishing your professional presence. Pearson.
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