Houzit Marketing Strategies - Case Study Example

Name Instructor Course Date Houzit Marketing strategies (Task 1) Organizational Overview Houzit has three major goals that are outlined to ensure that it performs to the expectations. The first goal is to increase its sales from fifteen million U.S. dollars per years to 20 million U.S. dollars per year in the next three years. The second objective is to ensure that we increase our loyalty customer list from ten thousand to fifteen thousand. The last objective is to increase the brand recognition in Brisbane so that at least one person out of every three people recognizes it. To meet these objectives, Houzit will require having a strategic direction that designed to deliver the objectives. The strategic direction will focus towards increasing the market share so as to increase the customers and sales of their products. Houzit will also to improve the quality of the products as well as differentiating them from competitor’s products. The strategic direction will also focus on the accessibility of the stores as well as increasing the selection of their products. The company deals with decorative, items, mirrors, and bathroom and bedroom fittings and has 15 stores in Brisbane area. It has 15-20 employees working on a full-time basis as well as several casuals. The notable strengths are excellent staff who are highly knowledgeable and about the company’s product. Offering of a variety of products that exceeds the range, quality and accessibility of the competitor has enhanced the enjoyment of loyalty from the repeat customers. The major weakness that faces Houzit is a limited marketing budget to increase awareness of its products. Struggle to fund continually the growing customer long-term repayment plan is another challenge facing the business. Currently, there is a gap between the business objectives and the resources and capabilities of the business. The first gap is that the business seeks to increase its customer base, but it has a challenge of funding the growing long-term repayments plans taken out by its customers. The other gap is that for the company to increase its sales and customers base, it requires sufficient marketing funds to develop its brand. The business has limited funds that are set aside for marketing. Opportunities The two marketing opportunities that meet the objectives of Houzit are a growing market in an area that is highly growing. This area has a big percentage of the target market that is still not aware of offers given by Houzit. The major benefit of this opportunity is that marketing of its products will be a bit cheaper since they are already known. The other benefit is that it has many stores in the area and may not require many resources to increase their sales in the market. The risk involved in this market opportunity is the competition of national chains that are moving to Brisbane market. The other opportunity is that business can increase its sales outside its target area. Through this opportunity, Houzit can be able to introduce the products designed specifically to that market and at a different price. The risk is that the organization may face competition from the local independent retailers who can drive down the prices of commodities. The marketing opportunity that addresses the organizational objective is growing a market in a high growth area that has a significant percentage of the target market that is still not cognizant with Houzit’s offer. In our marketing mix, we are going to provide the customers with what the product that they require and not what we think require. We will ensure that our products are accessible to customers and at a reasonable price. We will also promote our products through different channels to ensure that the customers are always up to date with ant information they require. These strategies align with the strategic direction by ensuring that the products are available to many customers than before. The strategies focus on increasing awareness of the products in the market. We will do a value chain analysis of our organizational performance against our marketing objectives. The marketing performance review tool to be used is value chain analysis. The marketing performance will be reviewed against the value added to the services. Company quality products will be availed to the customers at low prices compared to the customers. The marketing performance metrics to be used are growth in sales, customer rendition rate, new customers, and the organizational website traffic. Tactics The major advertisement will be scheduled to last for one year from the beginning of June 2015 to the end of May 2016. Some advertisement, for example, online marketing will run indefinitely since the cost of running them is negligible. Since we have a limited marketing budget, we will maintain our cost as low as possible. The television and media campaigns will be aired at least four days in a week and four times every day. The marketing campaign process must be audited to ensure that all the activities are carried out as per the plan (Westhooh19). Performance appraisal will also be done to establish how each player performed his assigned roles. A plan must be put in place that coordinates and monitors all the scheduled activities including the Key Performance Indicators. The major legal and ethical requirements in these tactics are ensuring truthful advertising. Our advertisements will be ethical since they will focus on both educated and uneducated people, and they will not involve in a form of propaganda. The tactics remain within the limited budget allocated to marketing. More also the tactics will involve some few employees in the company. Houzit Marketing Plan(Task 2) Executive Summary Houzit is a chain of stores that specializes in bathrooms fittings, mirrors bedroom fittings, and decorative items. The main goal of Houzit is to increase its sales from $15 to $20 per year in the next three years. The other goal is to increase the customer loyalty list from 10,000 to 15,000. The last objective is to ensure that its brand recognition in Brisbane increases. They aim to ensure that at least one person out of every three people in Brisbane recognizes their brand. To achieve these objectives we have developed some marketing strategies that align with the organization objectives. The marketing plan aims to increase the customer base, increase sales, and increase the popularity of the brand. The overall results of the marketing plan are to increase the profitability of the company using the provided limited marketing budget. The company’s SWOT analysis has helped to identify our opportunities thus we will concentrate on growing our market around Brisbane since we have a great percentage of the target market that is still not aware of our product. Aligning of our marketing objectives with the company objectives has a great influence on the strategies we use in the project plan. SWOT Analysis Westwood argues that SWOT analysis is crucial in marketing because it helps to understand the business internal environment (29). Houzit has strengths that will be of great importance in the marketing project. The company has staffs that are highly knowledgeable and skilled about homewards. The marketing workforce will be comprised of the company’s employees who will be able to promote the products to the customers. The staff will be of use in explaining all the details about the products to ensure that they win the customers. The company has stores with great space that is functional bright and efficient for a commercial urban district. More also, the chain enjoys high loyalty among its customers. Houzit provides an assortment of offerings that are more than any other competitor in the market. The offerings are quality and accessible any than any competitor’s products. One of the major weaknesses that Houzit has is a limited marketing budget that can be used to develop its brand awareness due to lack of critical mass and store cover. A limited budget is a big challenge to the project we have to manage with the available budget by ensuring good planning and scheduling of activities. The other weakness is the tussle to fund continually the long-term repayment plans that are taken by customers and are steadily growing. The analysis of the firm reveals two opportunities. One of the opportunities is the growing market that is in an area with a noteworthy percentage of the target market that is still the offers given by Houzit. Houzit has an opportunity to increase sales opportunities outside its target area. The area outside its target is the greater Brisbane. Houzit faces three major threats that include competition independent retailers who can drive down the prices. The local retailers have capability to drive down the prices is fueled by the fact that they have lower overhead costs than the stores that are run by our staffs. Houzit is also facing competition from national chains that are entering the Brisbane market. The final threat can be attributed to all businesses in the industry and some other businesses in other industries. This threat is the slump in the economy that is reducing the disposable income of the customers. In Houzit, this will have an effect on the income spent on the home wares. Marketing Objectives The marketing objectives will be to attract and retain customers in our stores. We also aim to convince the customer that we have the best offers than our competitors. The customers will be made to realize that we provide quality and unique prices as well as credit facilities to them an offer that beats all other competitors in the market. We are also focused on capturing and maintaining the house-proud customers who are ready to incur an extra cost to get a unique product. We are that building or renovating a house is quite expensive. Some people have no enough disposable income to purchase the products. By providing customers with favorable repayment plans that are extended over a reasonable period we aim to capture the customers with low income. The marketing aims at winning the hearts of renovators and new homebuilders who are aged between 20 and 50 years. Our marketing objectives are guided by three major company objectives. The marketing objectives are in line with increasing the sales of the company from 15 million dollars to 20 million dollars every year for three consecutive years. Our marketing objectives also aim to increase the loyalty customers from 10,000 to 15,000. Another company objective that will be addressed by achieving the marketing objective is popularizing the brand of the so that at least one out of every three people in Brisbane. The aim of all these objectives is to increase the company profitability. Strategies The marketing opportunity selected is to grow the market around Brisbane. Brisbane is an area that is growing at a high rate. The target market has many customers who are not aware of the products that are offered by Houzit. Considering that we have a limited marketing budget concentrating on the area will help to great advantage to us since our products are already known. We will be able to spend as low funds as possible to do a thorough and reasonable campaign. We will use several marketing strategies to ensure that we meet our marketing and company objectives. We will involve our knowledgeable and skilled employees in marketing to explain to our customers about our products and the offers we have. Another strategy is to show the customers that our goods are unique and of high quality. We will use the marketing mix to convince the customer that what we have is what they need since we are aware of their taste. The products that we provide to our customer are based on what they want and not what we think they want. Accessibility of our products is another strategy that we will use to appeal to the new and potential customers in Brisbane. Our goods will have reasonable prices as compared to the other competitors. We will also use different channels to advertise our products to ensure we reach most of our potential customers. Throughout the period of the marketing campaign and beyond, our customers will have up to date information on our products and any other information they require. The marketing plan will be audited from time to time to ensure that the funds are used as planned and to ensure that all the scheduled activities take place at the right time. The plan will ensure delays that may lead to high additional costs are detected and mitigated. The strategic direction aligns with the company objectives since it aims to ensure that more customers access the products than before. Implementation We will limit our campaign to Brisbane in order to cut on cost. We will use diverse media for our campaign, but the expensive media such as television and radios will be aired for a limited time while the other such as online marketing will continue indefinitely. The reason is that online marketing has a negligible cost. We will have a plan that will be followed to coordinate all the scheduled activities including the Key Performance Indicators. The reason for this plan is to ensure that all the activities run as per the schedule. We will also do performance analysis to see the impact that our strategies and the marketing plan, in general, have in the market. To measure our market performance, we will use metrics such as growth in sales, customer retention rate, new customers acquired and increase in the company profitability. The other tactic is to use some our employees in the marketing project because they have sufficient skills and knowledge of the company’s products. Conclusion A good marketing plan must be able to have goals that align with the goals of the company. The strategic direction must also be aimed at meeting both the marketing and the organizational goals. It is also important to identify the best opportunity that addresses the market organizational objective. The tactics that are used to implement the strategy must be realistic to ensure that the outlined goals are realized. With a good marketing project that has been outlined above Houzit objectives are achievable. Works Cited Westwood, John. How to Write a Marketing Plan. London: Kogan Page, 2013. Internet resource. Read More