The UK Market in the Allocated Company - Case Study Example

Marketing research Name Tutor Date Introduction Research on marketing is a vital and very important way in the development of marketing strategy. It engages activities such as collection of information to give interested personnel an insight that deals with the mind of the customers which would in turn assist in the knowledge of the preferences of the customers, methods in which they use to gather their information on products, as well as their places of residence. Description of Clarks shoes This is a company that deals with shoes for all ages and sex. It engages in designing of the foot wares, innovation as well as the manufacturing of the millions of shoes it sells yearly. Two brothers namely James and Cyrus were the founders of Clarkes in the year 1825. This business spread to several countries that it became popular to more than 35 countries. Their growth is due to the business ethics the company upholds; approaching their customers with respect, integrity and honesty. History of Clarkes In the year 1825, in the village of Somerset where James Clark was working at his brother’s tannery, a flash of inspiration came across him. That was the idea of slippers. He began his innovation by a simple stitch of slipper made of sheepskin. Over the years since then, revolution has taken place from the simple sheepskin to sandals, sneakers, wedge shoes, office wear among others. Situational Analysis The Clarkes’ company operates within shoes for everyone. Its market revolves around official shoes for women and men, school shoes for children of sexes, casual shoes, and shoes for sports among several others. There is marketing trend in Clarkes Company. The consumers keep on changing their experiences in shopping. The in-store as well as experience done online line increasingly becomes blurred in the course of advancement of technology. Examples of the way people shop today includes window shopping with friends at the Clarkes shops, strolling towards busy streets while peeping through the Clarkes shops and also going through the internet in search of Clarkes products. This is a call for the Clarkes retailers to embrace change and advancement of technology to suit their potential customers. Obtaining the relevant information is the key to attain the desires of consumers. Consumers tend to choose a certain Clarkes store as a result of digging through some information thoroughly on the products they expect. Ones they enter a certain store, they behave as though they have more knowledge on the Clarkes than the person in charge. Due to this behavior, the salesperson should be very knowledgeable on the commodities he is selling. This is because he should expect to be asked questions concerning the Clarkes. Providing overlooked insights will even improve the perception of the customer better. The common impulse buying that affected several buyers is going down gradually. This is due to the confirming of the buying items through advanced technological phones is currently on the increase. Most customers use their mobile phones to check out on the list of items, as well as the exact type of product they prefer. They also compare the prices with other companies offering the same type of products. Consumers then try to figure out if the listed price on the product is worth the price and if it is possible to get similar commodity at a lower price quoted elsewhere (Green, 2014). Buyers take in opinions suggested by other people who might have used similar products before. For example, one parent might advise another parent to buy school shoes for his or her child at the place where she or he bought earlier which happened to be cheaper and durable. The decision of the consumer’s purchasing of a product can actually be affected by the peer to peer feedback. Social media such as Facebook and twitter plays an important role in the consumer decision purchasing power. Potential consumers view pages of this company and compare it with pages of other companies where they get to chat with the sellers as well as experienced buyers which greatly influence their decisions. Consumers upload pictures of their bought commodities and share it to the potential buyers whereby, experiences, opinions and ideas are exchanged. One would trust the opinion of someone he or she knows well and thus there would be an ultimate influence on the consumer to purchase a commodity (Green, 2014). A brand can be able to learn about a consumer the more he or she does the online shopping due to the management system that is well-structured for customer relationship. However, whichever the method a customer may prefer to shop, the company can obtain data that will enable them identify the likes and dislikes of the customer. Breaking down of the acquired data will further help in constructing questions that would directly improve on the products of the company whichever way the customers and potential customers want. Technological advancements affect the way consumers get the products they prefer, whether browsing through the internet or walking to the shops they trust. Influence on buying commodities also comes from the social media through the tales of experiences of the experienced buyers. There is need for the companies to keep up with these trends (Green, 2014). Competitive Analysis Competitive analysis is important in obtaining the knowledge of the tactics that competitors may use to gain advantage over a company that deals with similar products. One should device ways of beating a competitor such as digging through information of what they best do to attract their customers and hence make it better to outdo the competitor. Obtaining their strategy to succeed enables a firm to build up on that and escape the challenges that the competitor faced thus saving on time and resources. This enables a firm succeed faster. To achieve this, search engine needs to be done overly. Activities such as optimizing the website must be done to remain at a higher rank than the competitors. Investment of effort, as well as time must be ensured so that optimization strategy remains at the top. Avoiding the faltering of ranking can be done through constant refinements making, coming up with more links that are inbound, as well as key word analysis (Clarke design, 2003). Another way to overcome competition is through lowering the prices relatively to the market price to increase sales. SWOT Analysis This is the Strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats. Strength refers to the advantage the Clarks Company has over other companies. Clarks company is making arrangements to improve on the performance of the company through testing three new formats of retailing sometime soon. The company has quaker roots that are strong enough to continue with the exertion of the company’s influence that is equally powerful. The sale of shares of the Clarkes is in a better shape than other companies. This makes it stronger as compared to the other companies. The company is planning to add more strength on the advertisements so as to increase its sales further. These finances will be extracted from the profits it will attain. Adoption of hi-tech technology improves the production of the shoes as well as cuts down the cost of production. The director is trying to obtain ways that he would use to make it an international factory. This globalization is done through making its brands stronger such as K shoes and Ravel. There is also struggle to make better and more durable shoes than other companies. Some of the weaknesses that Clarkes face include the inadequacy of selection of their products in their various stores. The Clarkes Company has business strategies just like any other company would do. These include the strategic thinking, cost leadership that is general and finally differentiation. Cost leadership that is general strives to reduce or rather reduce to its best the production and distribution costs. This will enable it tag its products at lower prices as compared to the competitors. This will in turn boost sales. Clarkes uses this strategy but it faces the problem of having its competitors sell at lower prices. Differentiation deals with concentration of a firm in an area it can do its best so as to improve on its sales through the quality, designs and evil fashionable products that are trending. Secondary research Market research aims at gathering information from its target customers to enhance its sales and profits. Thus, it is one of the most important strategies in business. Market research maintains a company in the market whereby it is able to compete sufficiently with its customers due to the information it gathers to improve on the need, competition and size of the market. Clarkes Company has a large market in over 100 countries. It deals with shoes that ranges in all sizes and sex, both official and casual wear. It is commonly known to produce and supply desert boots. The competitors for Clarkes are Barrats Trading Limited which deals with some footwear brands such as Caterpillar, Rocket Dog among others; another competitor is the Jones group which focuses on providing a variety of clothes, shoes, as well as accessories of both sexes; the third competitor is the Marks and Spencer which deals with women wear, men wear, as well as lingerie among other products. Clarkes also faces challenges from those companies that sell similar commodities at cheaper prices. It was noted that the conditions of trade in the United Kingdom are so uncertain. It takes more than a year to notice a change in the growth in business as well as the level of confidence earned by the consumers. At times, the cost of production increases. This may be caused by untimely increase in price of leather as well as cost of living which subjects the factory bosses to increase salaries and wages of the employees. It is challenging to maintain workers since other companies of similar structure may come up and absorb these workers through presenting greener pastures, thus, better payment. It is also a hectic exercise to get skilled employees who are well knowledgeable on the type of commodity produced. Maintaining the environment is a mind boggling issue since the factory produces wastes at each time of production which must be disposed. At times they recycle their products but there are some which cannot be recycled hence look for proper ways of disposing them as they maintain the clean environment (Clarkes International limited,2011). Segmentation In market segmentation theory, a firm that engages in homogenous products tends to improve on its profits through marginal responses of the consumers to price or in other words, the firm would use price elasticity to set new prices that would increase its sales. This will enable the firm to achieve equal marginal profit in each segment. Market segmentation is therefore the division of a wide target market into smaller groups of consumers with common wants, as well as desires, thereafter coming up with relevant strategies to win them. Product differentiation is one of the strategies that can be used. There are various methods that can be used to segment market consumers. Examples are geographic segmentation, demographic, behavioral and lastly psychographic segmentation. The Clarkes company uses geographical segmentation in that, it makes the desert boots which are very comfortable in desert like areas. Demographic is another segmentation used by the Clarkes company. It produces shoes that belong to all ages and sexes. The company utilizes psychographic segmentation too. This is achieved through producing shoes of all seasons. This includes sandals, boots, office wear among others. Conclusion Clarkes Company is a large firm that deals with production of shoes. It deals with various types of shoes for almost all seasons. Its market targets children, men and women footwear. As a normal company, it faces challenges such as competition from companies that deal with the same line of products. To cub this and remain in the market, the company devices various ways to still earn profits and increase its sales. References A theory of market segmentation, (1968). Journal of marketing research. Volume (5) issue(4) Competitive analysis. Retrieved from www.clarkedesign.co.uk/seo/competitors_asp Green, M. (2014). Harland Clarke digital. Read More