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Assignment explores the marketing strategy and plan proposed for BizOps as per the current market conditions

Home, - Developing marketing plan at BizOps enterprises

1. Executive summary

The current marketing plan is proposed action plan for BizOps enterprises of Australia. The company has about 150 stores across the country and also seven warehouses and head office. The marketing plan proposed is for the coming 12 months. There is extensive consideration of the diverse marketing trends in devising this strategic marketing plan(Armstrong et al.,2015). The fall in the spending trends in the customers, the rise in the online sales, the fall in the visit to brick and mortar stores, increased usage of the mobile apps for consumer ordering etc are considered in detail in the current marketing action plan of the organization. The proposed plan has multi dimensional significance in terms of the 8P considerations as well in terms of the marketing strategies considered for.

2. The challenge

The products employed mainly in the Biz-Ops retail outlet are innovative products and services of high quality. They do often consider green solutions to the existing customer needs. The immediate need for the organization is to increase the revenues of the company by about 15%. The annual profit levels of the company are expected to be raised by about 15%. This is the goal or the immediate challenge the company has in-front.

The sales are expected to grow at least from 20-25% to reach the said products, and hence this going to be strategic objective for the company for this financial year.

3.         Situation analysis

BizOps company analysis, featuring:

•           Goals

As of now by considering the situation of the retail business, there is fall in the spending capacity of the consumers overall. There is about 23% fall in the spending capacity of the consumers overall. Hence it is really a big challenge for the company to boost up its existing sales in this tough time.

•           Focus

As per the surveys conducted and from the information obtained from the analysis, it is quite evident that the focus of the marketing plan is expected to be on innovation. Further there is change in the customer attitude and habits, there are reduced visits to the brick and mortar type of retailers, only customers are visiting the online stores and they are taking up the purchases online. Hence the marketing strategy should essential consider these aspects.

•           Culture

The customer purchase culture is different, there is much about the innovation and the people are purchasing using online apps and mobile applications. However advertising and product value is expected to change to meet the satisfaction demands of the customer.

•           Strengths

Bizops is well established and has sufficient expertise in the product and there is considerable market share and branches all over the country.

•           Weaknesses

There is stiff competition and fight going for market share among the competitors. If the company did not change itself to meet the market demands, survival will become difficult. The company need to renovate its complete marketing plan as it is not upto the current trends and market demands. BizOps at present has a major weakness as it is not receiving its products from the market due to the lack of raw materials and some of its revenues generating products are not being released to the market. At present the company is suffering with another important weakness of customer’s changed outlook towards brick and mortar business. They are not visiting the brick and mortar type of stores and mainly doing online shopping. It is a major blow to the company as it is well established in this part of the business outreach.

•           Market share.

The company has good market share but it is declining due to the prevailing competition at present.

 

4.         Customer analysis

Address the following:

•           Number

Entire citizens of the country are prospective customers for BizOps since the products are diverse and meet the demands of every age group, profession, socio-economic standards of the people.

•           Type

Customers are from all types and from all corners of the country. Since the company has more than 150 outlets, customers from almost all these regions can be considered as its prospective buyers.

•           Value drivers

Customers are mainly driven by the company commitment to quality and affordability. The prices are out reachable and are upto the customer affordability.

•           Decision process

Customers mainly take decisions based on their first impression on the products from the advertisement as well based on the brand image and loyalty they do have on the product.

•           Concentration of customer base for a particular BizOps product

BizOps customer base is spread across all the target segments and is diverse as well.

 

5.         Competitor analysis

Market position:

•           Strengths

Competitors are many in number. They do have the same resources like BizOps and are also commitment for growth and for market outreach. Revenues and market share is comparable with BizOps and hence they have capabilities to challenge the domination of the BizOps and can grab the customer from them(Grant,2016).

•           Weaknesses

BizOps is well established since a long time; it has recognition as one of the pioneer and has sufficient brand loyalty as well. This is definite weakness for many of the competitors there in the market at present. Skilled and experienced managers and trained staff is a positive feature of BizOps which is obviously a weakness for some of the competitors.

•           Market shares

BizOps market share is reducing in the recent years; recently it has fallen down by about 22% due to the price war.

6.         Collaborators

There are several collaborators to the company at present; several financial institutions can be approached at present in the country to take up the financial assistance to reach the market with better strategies and better marketing plans. The company can also work out merger and collaborations with the e-commerce (Turban et al.,2018) giants who are already there in the market. It is also possible for the company to reach collaboration with other companies to enhance its appeal and product diversity and can draft strategies to market their products combinely. Online distribution channels can be enabled; joint ventures with courier services can be prepared to meet the customers across the country.

7.         Climate

Macro-environmental (PEST analysis) that includes:

•           political and legal environment

Australia at present is conducive for developing business. Australian political and legal environment is offering sufficient protection to the in-house organizations and also is protecting them with encouraging policies to enable better business.

•           economic environment

Australia economy is moving down, the purchasing tendencies of the customers are moving down due to the increased interest rates.

•           social and cultural environment

Customers are moving towards innovation and comfort in business. If there is good appeal in terms of ease in doing business they do prefer the same. Online sales have flourished due to the same reason.

•           Technological environment.

Technology adaption making a major role to play. More and more customers are becoming part of the business and adapting technology for their transactions.  Mobile based apps are popular and customers are purchasing products using these apps.

8.         SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis of the business environment can be undertaken by considering the environmental factors:

•           The company’s internal attributes can be classed as strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths

BizOps strengths are the established hold in the market. It has established expertise in meeting large quantity of the customer needs and demands. Further the company also has the required capabilities to outreach the market demands in terms of the product innovation, increase in the product numbers and details etc. Also BizOps has the sufficient capabilities to shift over from the traditional operational model to new trends in accordance with the changing market conditions.

Weaknesses

The weaknesses at present include the necessity to do the strategic changes in accordance with the customer demands. Current operational models are losing the customer interest; some of the products are not reachable to the customer due to scarcity of the raw materials. Company has not yet adopted the technological innovation as part of their business practice. The external environment will usually present opportunities and threats. Opportunities include possible market share increase by making its marketing plans compatible to face the market demands and price wars. There is good opportunity to outreach the market demands by making its products reachable and orderable online through the customer interactive portals online and apps available online. Mobile apps and other technological innovations can be employed to enable betterment of the market outreach.

Threat inherent in the current operational model is the fact that all the competitors of the company also have the same capabilities and they can succumb to take up the same strategies. It is possible that early bee advantage will be lost if the competitors grabbed the market quickly. Also the financial viability of the strategic changes and the marketing investments can be judged only based on the returns the company do avail.  If there are no proper returns on these investments the company may not sustain the market and its survival will become even more difficult.

9.         Market segmentation

Present a description of the market segmentation that addresses the following:

•           Description

Market segmentation need to be done in accordance with the demographic regions, ethnics, Age groups, social and economic conditions, gender and other related information. An extensive market segment is needed to enable product differentiation and for product growth to meet the market conditions.

•           Per cent of sales

Current market sales need to be increased by about 20-25% to enable the set target revenue growth of about 15% in the coming 12 months of duration.

•           What the customer wants

Customer is expecting more satisfaction from the purchase made from the company. By taking up the electronics item sales, he should be getting better satisfaction. Also it is required for the customer meet his expectation and image needs satisfied from the advertisements. Also the quality and the medium of the advertisements need to be as per the customer demands and interests.

(Segmentation can be done as per the customer needs like daily needs based product purchase customers. Customer that take up innovative products, customer looking for brand images, customer looking for luxury etc)

•           How the customer will use the product

Customer will use the product depending on the product. There are diverse products going to be marketed for these financial years. This will include products for daily usage, products for special applications, products for amusement, mandatory needs, luxury requirements, groceries etc.

(Customer segmentation based on daily usage product consumers, occasional usage, and rare usage product consumers etc)

•           Product support requirements

Products requiring extensive technical knowledge like cutting edge technological applications will be employed only by the customers who do have capacity in using the technology for their product usage requirements. Also the products that easy to use can have customers from common capabilities. Sometimes products can be employed only in addition to the existing purchases, like a customer can use a product only if he has another product already existing. Like an accessory to a PC can be purchased only if he has a compatible PC already with him. Hence such customer segmentation depends on the support requirements which vary from product to product.

•           How to reach the customers

Customer reachability will make difference in segmentation. Some of them can be reached through journals, magazines and other media advertisements. Some techno-savvy customers can be outreached by internet and social media applications(Williams, 2015). Customers for sports and other classified goods can be reached from advertisements and other initiatives like event management that can be done only by collaborating for sports arrangement and event management etc.

•           Price sensitivity

Competitor pricing obviously will impact the price sensitivity in the marketing plan. Competitor pricing need to be benchmarked and should employ an extensive role in deciding the final prices either by penetration pricing or by any other supporting price models.

10.       Alternative marketing strategies

Some of the products which are now constrained due to the shortage of the raw materials can be sourced from other suppliers and it is possible to rebrand the same after the quality check up. Product –repositioning and product branding is very important aspect of the current marketing strategy. It is required for the BizOps to investigate other alternatives like collaborative marketing by e-commerce channels, working for outreaching through mergers and JVs with other similar enterprises to enable much better product differentiation etc. Product portfolio is needed to be benchmarked with competitors products and they can be made equally resourceful in all segments like premium type, extra value products etc.

11.       Selected marketing strategy

The Proposed marketing strategy is multi dimensional. Product campaigning will be enabled from all the diverse outreach routes. An exclusive advertising and marketing plan will be prepared for both immediate and long term sales for the organization. There will be outreach programme to reach each and every customer segment in the market conditions.

First two months ground plan will be prepared and subsequently there will be marketing strategies detailed for a month time or so. Necessary contracts will be made for online and social media marketing in the same time. The events and sports sponsorship and other similar outreach programs will be finalized within this time frame. BizOps executes the marketing strategy throughout the 12 months. Further key strategic initiatives will include reaching the market through the online and e-commerce channels. Enabling customers purchase their products using the online portals. Further customers will be provided with the necessary options to use the mobile apps and other similar technological based apps for better outreach as well to enable them order online. Discounts, new offers, latest pricing, products etc will reach the customers as per the segmentation through mobile apps, sms, social media messages, emails etc. Customer can avail promotions offers that include discounts on the product sales, bundling offers for the products, penetration pricing etc. The strategies are selected to enable a comprehensive consideration to the customer interests. The changing trends of the business and customer interests are considered in proposing these strategies. Product – Differentiation, pricing, competitiveness, valuePlace – Both online and in retail stores.  Pricing – Competitive pricing and bundled pricing. Promotion – Online sales and promotion through offers and all possible means of customer outreach.

 12.       Product

Any BizOps product decisions need to consider the actual product advantages and how they will be used to leverage the product. The product decisions must include:

•           the name of the product (brand name)

Products that are constrained due to raw material availability are discontinued and rebranding is considered as available option to outreach the customers at present.

•           Quality

Product quality and value is expected to be in line with the competitor benchmarks.

•           scope of the product line

As needed and expected by the customers and market demands

•           product warranty (if applicable)

Depends on the product type, price, and competition and organization philosophy.

•           product packaging.

Appealing with aesthetics along with the necessary durable standards

13.    Pricing

Explain the pricing structure or strategy for the BizOps product, expected volume and the decisions around pricing variables including:

•           list price

Prices ranges as per the customer demands. Ranges from affordable, cheaper to luxury products.

•           Discounts

Discounts will be just as per the prevailing market conditions and market demand conditions

•           Bundling

Product purchase bundling offers will be as part of the product offers.

•           payment terms and financing options

Installment schemes, market financing, availed

•           leasing options.

Possible as per the customer repayment capabilities.

 

14.  Distribution (where the product will be placed)

•           Distribution channels that might include direct, retail, intermediates and distributors

Direct sales from the established retail stores, sales to the customer from online selling channels. Intermediaries who can sell the product through collaboration and merger programs. Distribution using the distributor network for classified products possible.

•           Criteria for distributor evaluation

Distributor efficiency will be evaluated based on the product delivery time, safety in the distribution and cost of the logistics. Inhouse distribution as well lending distribution services both possible.

•           Distributor margins (motivating the channel)

Online channels, distribution using dedicated mergers and collaborations all possible for BizOps

•           Distribution locations

Strategic location will be in accordance with customer distribution. More number of distribution channels and warehouses located in the region where the customer distribution is more.

•           Logistics such as warehousing, transportation and order fulfilment processes

Logistics will be enabled by selecting the organization’s own logistic services as well as the services from lending with partners. Transportation means will be as per the products.

15.       Promotion

How much advertising and which media? Consider the following:

•           Engage public relations

Public relations as per the media programs designs, employing social media relations, journals, articles, social programs, event sponsorship etc.

•           BizOps promotional programs

Promotion through bundling, penetration pricing etc

•           Promotional budget to ensure break-even point

Will be as per the custom budgeting done in the strategic planning. But efficiency and returns on the program will decide the continuation or further investment in the program

•           Projected promotional results of the program

Sales expected to grow from 20 to 25% of all its products.

 

16.       Short- and long-term projections

Document the selected strategies immediate effects and expected long term results. Explain any specific actions that will need to be undertaken to achieve this. In this part of the marketing plan you can include forecasts of revenues and expenses as well as results of break-even.

Short term projections should include increase in the sales by about 10% within the first 6 months of the operations and further the increase in the sales will continue and expected to reach 20 to 25% by the end of the first year. The overall sales of the products are expected to continue the same in the subsequent years of the business. The product revenues will be reached by growth rate of 15% in the first year. On long term it will continue to reach further increase to outsmart the competitors. Performance indicators will be selected to monitor the performance(Powers, 2015)

17.       Conclusion

The marketing strategy and plan proposed for BizOps as per the current market conditions and it can be audited to further refine the promotional schemes, advertising and distribution channels etc chronically. The review process will continue till the marketing strategy works for yielding the ulitimate objectives of BizOps.

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