Marketing Strategy and Management - Assignment Example

MM316Assessent 2015 Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Table of Contents Introduction 2 Relevance of the mission, SMART objectives and hierarchy strategies for UNE Life 3 Industry and assessing Porter’s five competitive forces and conditions for strategic fit 4 Challenges facing UNE Life’s business using macro and micro analysis 5 Relevance of market research for the strategic decision making of UNE Life’s business and the effect of pricing, product, distribution and promotion policies on marketing decisions 7 Describe significance of the overall segmentation, targeting, targeting, differentiation and positioning strategies for the SportUNE 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Strategic marketing management is an important concept that helps to influence the marketing performance of an organisation. This is because strategic marketing plan helps to provide the framework that can be used implement the strategies of the organisation that can help to improve the competitive advantage (Palmer 2005). In this context, this report will discuss the concepts of strategic marketing management. Relevance of the mission, SMART objectives and hierarchy strategies for UNE Life The vision of UNE Life is to provide the work envisions where human dignity as well as the self determination rights are observed. The mission is to educate a diverse community that provides professionals and help to translate the vision into informed practice to help in creating sustainable partnerships. The importance of the mission statement is that helps to help in improving the quality of services provided to the customers so that they can be satisfied (SportUNE 2015). It also helps to provide direction for the stakeholders towards improving the quality of the services provided. In addition, the objective of the marketing is to increase the quality of services provided in the next 3 years. In addition, the other objective is to increase the services provided by UNE Life to meet the needs of the clients so that that it can be possible to attract and retain the clients. The strategies to be applied by UNE Life include marketing the facility online through the Facebook account of the company. In addition, the other strategy that can be applied by UNE Life is offering online learning services to meet the needs of the clients because they don’t have much time to spend in learning. This will help to meet the diversified needs of the students to ensure that they are satisfied (Palmer 2005). Furthermore, the organisation provides relaxed atmosphere to meet the needs and expectations of the students. These strategies are important in improving the quality of services which are provided by UNE Life thus improving the competitiveness in the learning industry. Industry and assessing Porter’s five competitive forces and conditions for strategic fit UNE Life will operate in the tourism and learning industry. This is because most of the clients of the organisation will be customers. In addition, UNE Life will operate in the tourism industry because of the facilities that will be provided. For instance, there will be conference halls and recreation facilities that will help to improve the reputation of the organisation (Kotler & Kevin L 2009). The learning services provided by UNE Life will qualify it to be in the learning industry. Considering the competitive forces, the first force is entrant of new organizations into the industry. Due to increasing tourism activities and globalization, individuals are moving from one place to another in search of education. This means that there is high competition in the learning industry due to increased demand of the students. In this context, the industry has high competition hence appropriate strategies should be applied (Kotler & Kevin L 2009). However, the education sector is regulated by the education board and new entrants should meet the set standards before entering into the industry in order to meet the educational standards. In addition, there is no availability of substitutes and this means that the organisation will have competitive advantage. This is because the learning services can only be provided by higher learning organizations and this means that the organisation will continue enjoying the market because of lack of availability of substitutes (Kerin 2012). This means that the industry has not been saturated thus there is opportunity to invest in it. The other force is the bargaining power of the clients. The bargaining power of the clients is relatively high because of the increased demand for the education and recreational facilities. In this way, UNE Life will have strong bargaining power thus the strategies developed like the marketing will be effective in improving the competitiveness of UNE Life. On the other hand, the bargaining power of the suppliers is relatively low because of the strong reputation of the organisation. This means that the organisation will be able to compete effectively since the bargaining power of the suppliers do not affect the strategies developed by UNE Life (Kerin 2012). Finally, the extent of competition is not too high because the sector is regulated in order to maintain the quality of education provided. In this context, there is no rivalry competition hence the industry is attractive and can help to improve the performance of the organisation. Considering this conditions, the most effective strategy is the defender strategies. This is the strategy that can be employed to ensure that the organisation maintains its market share and is protected from external competition from other firms. This means that the organisation engages in few product development but focuses on coming up with new services that can help to improve the performance of the organisation (Goldstein & Lee 2005). The services to be provided include pool games, gym and the swimming arena. This will help to improve the efficiency of the services provided hence improving competition. Challenges facing UNE Life’s business using macro and micro analysis The first challenge that affects the life business of UNE Life is the suppliers. Sometimes the suppliers do not honour their contracts and they deliver the required products and services later. This affects provision of products and services to meet the needs of the clients. In addition, the changing labour laws also influence UNE Life’s business. This is because the labour laws influence the working conditions and in the 21st century the employees are advocating for flexibility working conditions (Goldstein & Lee 2005). Failing to apply the flexibility working conditions means that the organisation may experience high employee turnover and this affects the lifespan of the business. Furthermore, competition also influences the UNE Life’s business. This is because the high competition influences the pricing and budgeting hence influencing the competitiveness of the organisation. In this context, the micro environmental factors are likely to pose challenges to the business because if they are not effectively managed they can affect the marketing and reputation of the business. On the other hand, the macro environmental factors also influence the strategic marketing management. In the first place, the political factor influences the taxation and marketing policies to be used. This influences the lifespan of the business because of the changes in the political systems that influence the strategic marketing strategies to use. On the other hand, the economic factor influences the consumer buying behavior (Kotler & Philip 2012). For instance, the global financial crisis influences the buying behavior of the customers since they are limited in their income. This influences the UNE Life’s business in terms of the market share and buying process among the customers. Moreover, economic factor influences the budget of the organisation because when there is inflation then the budget of the organisation will be affected. In addition, the social factor influences the demographic factors that influence the revenue for the business. For instance, the cultural factor affects the customers and their decisions thus affecting the long term strategic plan for the business. Furthermore, the technology in the external environment influences the strategic marketing process. For instance, the business will be influenced by facing the challenge of technological changes. Frequent changes in technology influence the strategic marketing process (Jobber & Fahy 2006). For instance technology leads to misleading information hence affecting the lifespan of the business. Relevance of market research for the strategic decision making of UNE Life’s business and the effect of pricing, product, distribution and promotion policies on marketing decisions Market research is important because it helps to understand the needs of the target audience. This is because through, the marketing team will be able to understand the needs of the customers so that appropriate strategies can be developed (Jobber & Fahy 2006). This helps to improve the strategic marketing management since the strategic decisions developed will help t meet the needs and expectations of the customers. The other relevance of market research is that it helps to ensure that the marketing team is in direct contact with the target audience. This is because when there is market research, the marketing team is able to come into contact with the stakeholders like the customers thus improving the understanding of the needs of the customers (Brassington & Pettitt 2006). This is important in improving the public relations as well as marketing the organisation because the target audience is provided with the opportunity to inquire more about the business thus improving the customer decision making. On the other hand, the product influences the marketing decisions because the type of the product. This is because the products like the swimming pools cannot be marketed through sales people but through the social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In this effect, the product influences the marketing decisions. On the other hand, the pricing influences the marketing decisions. For instance, the market penetration pricing strategy can affect the marketing decisions (Baker 2007). This is because the marketing decisions should be based on the pricing culture of the organisation. Furthermore, the distribution strategy influences the marketing strategies. For instance, when the distribution strategy is direct distribution between the organisation and the customers, then the marketing decisions such as personal selling can be applied. This is because the distribution strategy influences the cost that is used in marketing the products hence it influences the marketing strategy to apply in marketing the business. Finally, the promotional policies influence the marketing decisions in various ways. For instance, marketing decisions should be based on the organizational culture so that there will be no conflicts when formulating the strategic decisions (Baker 2007). In this context, the strategic decisions should be made based on the marketing mix elements and conducting marketing research so that the strategies developed meet the needs and expectations of the target audience. Describe significance of the overall segmentation, targeting, targeting, differentiation and positioning strategies for the SportUNE The segmentation criterion that is used is according to demographic criteria. This means that there will be female and male market segments. This is important because the needs of the target audience are different and this means that appropriate strategies will be developed to meet the needs and expectations of the customers (Baker 2007). The significance of segmentation is that it helps to improve the focus on meeting the needs of the target audience. For instance, the female sportswear is different from the male sportswear hence the facilities will be able to meet the needs of the customers effectively. In addition, targeting strategy that is best for the business is concentrated targeting strategy. This is because the concentrated targeting strategy will help to segment the market into male and female market segments so that the concentrated targeting strategy can be applied (Kotler 2002). This is important because the marketing strategies that can be applied focus on the customers who are concentrated and this helps to save the resources that could have been used in marketing the products in sparsely target market because the resources will be used collectively. Further, the differentiation strategy that can be applied is product differentiation strategy. This is the targeting strategy that is used to ensure that the products and services are unique from those of the competitors. For instance, the swimming pool should be well varnished and renovated to be safe. The significance of differentiation strategy is that it helps to ensure that the customers can be able to differentiate the products and services from those of the competitors (Kotler 2002). Finally, the positioning strategy that is most effective for the organisation is product quality and diversification. The product diversification is important because it helps to offer variety of services like the gym and swimming as well as in door games. In this way, the organisation will be able to meet the diversified needs of the customers thus improving the ability to attract and retain customers (Kotler 2002). The significance of positioning is that it helps to improve the market share of the organisation. Conclusion Strategic marketing management is important as it helps to influence the effectiveness of the business. The marketing planning helps to improve the utilization of the resources of the organisation because appropriate strategies can be developed to meet the need and expectations of the customers. Market research is important because it helps to understand the needs of the customers and also get the feedback of the customers. Furthermore, the marketing mix elements that influence the marketing decisions include the product, pricing, promotion and distribution. References Brassington, F & Pettitt, S. (2006). Principles of Marketing, Prentice Hall, 4th Edition. Baker, M. J. (2007). Marketing Strategy and Management. Palgrave Macmillan; 4th edition Goldstein, D & Lee, Y. (2005). "The rise of right-time marketing". The Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, Vol. 12 , No. 3, pp. 212–225. Jobber, D & Fahy, J. (2006). Foundations of Marketing, McGraw Hill. Kerin, R. (2012). Marketing: The Core. McGaw-Hill Ryerson. Kotler, A & Philip, G. (2012). Principles of Marketing. pearson education. Kotler, P. (2002). Marketing Management (International edition). Pearson Education; 11th edition. Kotler, P & Kevin L., K. (2009). "1". A Framework for Marketing Management (4th ed.) Pearson. Palmer, A. (2005). Principles of Services Marketing. McGraw-Hill; 5th edition. SportUNE. (2015). About Us, retrieved on 16th July 2015 from http://sportune.com.au/ Read More