Marketing Information: A Competitive Analysis - Example

Manage the Marketing Process INDEX INTRODUCTION 1 SWOT analysis and assessment cultural and environmental constraints 3 Time for the various stages of completion 4 Performance Indicators 5 Strategy and Market Mix 7 Risk Management 10 Key Roles, Delegation of responsibilities and Communication within the organization 10 Evaluation processes 11 Reference: 13 INTRODUCTION Marketing a product requires special strategizing in as much as there is no standard procedure of marketing that can be applied to all products. There are a different set of strategies that have to be applied in congruence wit the product that needs to be marketed and the organization to which the product belongs. The method of work that the organization subscribes to, along with the in-house beliefs and culture, need to be kept in mind while designing the marketing strategy of the product at hand. The following paper seeks in essence to demonstrate this by outlining a brief of the marketing campaign for the travel card that has been introduced by the ANZ bank. The product at hand requires that in order to devise a marketing strategy that is effective, the unique features of the card be highlighted. The travel card is a Visa card payments for which ar4e made in advance. It can be obtained over the counter to both ANZ and non-ANZ customers and has been intentionally designed to ensure a better access to the customers’ own money in the in the currency that is required and on the moment that it is needed when the person in question is traveling. In order to design a successful marketing strategy it is first and foremost required that the key features of the card be outlined. These are: The card gives the customer a choice from out of multiple currencies that include the USD, EUR, GBP and NZD Another USP that can be utilized in the campaign is that the card is available at Flat card issuance fee It would allow the customer with easy access to money Access your own money anywhere Visa is electronically accepted, including over 24 million merchant and ATM locations worldwide. Other key features like the fee structure. SWOT analysis and assessment cultural and environmental constraints Before one can look to outline the strategy and the structure of the campaign it is necessary that one carries out a SWOT analysis in order to figure out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the product and hence a successful campaign. The features of the card that have been listed above can all be bracketed under the heading of the strengths of the product. The weakness of the product arises not from the organizational specific problem but the problem that is common to the genre of the travel debit card. This is related to the security holds that are often placed on the card by hotels, rental car agencies and other businesses. These are temporary holds used as a type of security deposit, since businesses often view debit cards (and, by extension, the people who use them) as a bigger risk than their credit card counterparts. This then makes the task of attracting customers and building a demand base more daunting than ever. Another problem is the fact that in an age of economic instability, banks are being overtly cautious especially ANZ which is suffering from a reduction in earnings due to bad debts. This then would make the organization highly cautious and any consumer that could be viewed as a defaulter would be refused services, thereby making the chances of meeting targets look highly unlikely. Beside this there are bigger fish in the pond with a number of larger banks now coming up with the same concept of the travel card making the ANZ travel debit card look individualistic is a task that is tough. The second most important part of the marketing campaign strategy is devising targets. Keeping the constraints in mind it has to be understood that these targets cannot be very high or unattainable. Plus a campaign like this one finds impact at certain times of the year since it basically a travel related commodity. The break however is around the corner and this should be manifested in better sales and an effective impact of the campaign. The target therefore is a half a million cards in the first two months from the date that the campaign goes on air. Time for the various stages of completion The campaign is to be worked out in four basic phases. The first is that of the market research and the detailed SWOT analysis. This should be completed within a timeline of about 15 days from the day of project inception. This stage would include the most basic levels of market research and planning The second stage is where a big part of the success or failure of the campaign would be decided. This is the stage where the detailed intricacies of the plan need to be worked out. This is also the stage that precedes the implementation, so it would include the creation and the approval of the campaign creatives and detailed decision making about the medium top be used and the time slots that are to be needed. This should be completed within a period of 45-48 days after the completion of the first stage. The third stage is where the campaign is implemented. This is the timeline where the project stays on air and is important because it is during this stage that the maximum costs on the marketing campaign are incurred. Media management is also part of this stage of campaign implementation. Ideally the results from the aggressive marketing should begin show in terms of numbers after the end of the first month of implementation which is when the campaign can be tapered off. But the campaign needs to be on air for about 4 months for any real change in sales numbers to be noticed. The last stage is that of is that of monitoring where the valuation of the effects of the campaign need to be note of. Here performance is measured against targets that had been set at the beginning and this has to be carried out simultaneously with the stage of implementation. Performance Indicators Anticipating competitors’ actions and reactions to your moves may be the key determinant of success for any marketing strategy. The key to a successful marketing strategy with regards to the above mentioned product is the ability of the campaign to create awareness about the merits of the product. There are already in existence a number of Travel Visa cards that are on offer in the market. What then is the reason that would exhort the consumer to choose our product over the competition is the question that the marketing strategy has to try and answer. It has to be understood that a new product that has been in existence for a while but has not seen the kind of success that was being hoped for has to cash in on the reputation and credibility of the older and the more successful products in order to get the required attention and subsequently the required success. In this case the preceding product would be the services that have been rendered to the customers of ANZ over the years both in terms of debit and credit business. The marketing strategy has to be in essence a differentiating strategy that looks to deliver the product that the customer will end up perceiving as being different and hence being important to him/her. What has to be clarified right at the beginning of the stage of planning is the fact that the product has been designed for customers with unique needs. The need for being different is a lot more important now because the sector is one that is characterized by hyper-competition. This is because of the fact that the flow of credit the world over has now been globalized. The target customers have a number of choices and all of these can be fulfilled instantly. The customer’s choice will always be based on differences, implicit or explicit. The underlying idea therefore is simple. Differentiation is one of the most important strategic and tactical activities that the campaign has to indulge. It is not discretionary. By deduction then, if this is the basic underlying principle around which the campaign needs to be woven, then these differentiating qualities need to be eye catching and strong. The focus therefore needs to be on the performance of the travel card in terms of the numbers-countries and visa outlets where it is acceptable, the number of currencies that become available by making use of the card, the speed at which transactions are completed, the performance quality of the card in terms of how easy or difficult it would be to use and the quality of the customer care which is the back up in case of problems. The campaign also necessarily has to make mention of the fact that the card comes enabled with a brother or an ‘Adam’ card. In this regard a report from the Credit Union Centre can be quoted, “Newspaper articles across the world have now started touting the advantages of using a prepaid Visa or MasterCard for travel. One of the foremost newspapers in London, the Independent, stated last May that this was the ideal way of “taking cash for holiday travel.” The paper explained, “These cards have been likened to a hybrid of a debit card and a traveler’s check.” The Member can use them to get cash at an ATM, charge a purchase, or pay for dinner. More than a decade ago, Patelco Credit Union of San Francisco began marketing its CU debit card and CU credit card as “travel cards.” The suggestion was to overpay your VISA card and then use that instead of travelers’ checks. Today the easier way is to just get a prepaid card.” Strategy and Market Mix The marketing campaign has to be an amalgamation of all of these points in as much as the fact that it has to seek to introduce the travel card as the correct method of carrying cash while travelling but it also has to try and ensure that the customer understands the fact that the travel card from ANZ is better than the rest available in the market. It is in fact here that the role of a correct selection of the marketing mix comes into the picture. A marketing mix as demonstrated in the diagram is a combination of the four basic Ps of a successful marketing campaign- the price, place, promotion and the product. The point that has to be noted here is that every product has its individuality and its own sense of direction. A travel card does not seek to target a very wide section of the society. It seeks to target those that travel either frequently for business or those that are travelling for leisure and are thus careful about the amount of money they either want to spend or carry with them. The product therefore has a base that is narrow as compared to many others and therefore has to make use of the medium of marketing accordingly. The marketing campaign at the initial level at least has to focus on penetration pricing. The idea is to accelerate the diffusion of information through advertising. It is here that one sees the application of the normative diffusion model. This means that at the initial level of the implementation of the campaign the ad spends need to be high and then can be tapered off over its life cycle as the card starts to gather market hold. The elements of the market mix here are the internet, brochures, TV ads and tie ups with Tourism agents. Pop-up ads that are sent out on tour and travel websites are the most ideal ay to get the customer’s attention in the most initial stages. This helps in creating a link for the product to the industry and the idea of travel. It also helps create the idea that the reach of the card is effective because it appears to come as a package with the travel plans itself. TV ads need to make use of large scale imagery and locales, adding the glamour quotient to the idea of luxury and hassle free travel. The idea of TV ads would also be more productive than print ads because they would help achieve a visual impact that the print media probably cannot afford. And with the website partnerships and pop ups the requirement for the customer’s access to the details of the plan, about who to contact etc are taken care of. The advantage that the product at hand has is the fact that there are ready made loyalists to the organization that would at least take the time out to look at a new product. There is no scope for any kind of subtle marketing in this process. The life cycle of the product and the consumer in this context is very large. The requirement therefore is the creation of loyalists to the card. The marketing campaign is focused not just inwardly but outwardly as well which in fact is a basic must when it comes to marketing something which is as competitive as a travel Visa Card. There needs to be in place an evaluation of the competitor’s strategy that would allow us to increase and to reinforce our understanding of buyer behavior and further identify the type of customers that we can appeal to. It would also be useful our own strengths and weaknesses and consequentially better market opportunities, thereby helping us reassess whether our leader competing strategy is working or if we need to revert to our old ‘me too’ stance. Parker’s Model of competitive effects in brand level diffusion has in fact found that competitive market mixing variables are critical in explaining the diffusion of brands. The theoretical point of consideration here is that competitive mixing variables will be critical in explaining the diffusion of brands. The effects of diffusion might not be uniform in all areas under the scanner though. There are also significant contributions that can be expected out of the strategy to the creation of demand for the product as a whole. The theory of competitive marketing mix can be applied to our product by virtue of the fact that these actions while these actions may negatively affect the diffusion rate of a new brand, they would positively affect the rate of product category diffusion. What this means is a competitive marketing mix has a negative impact on the diffusion speed of a new brand in an established product category but would have a positive impact in a category of products that is relatively new which incidentally is the case here. The basic idea is that the campaign will be structured along the lines of competitive analysis. This means that the campaign needs to focus on the underlying economics of the industry beside the distinguishing features of the product at hand. This would then mean that there has to be an empirical basis for the campaign that would in turn be designed on the outlined costs of the capital investments, the break even levels, cost structures, pricing structures and other economic considerations. Risk Management Effective risk management facilitates improved decision-making and cost management, better resource and service delivery, increased innovation and, ultimately, a competitive advantage. Companies embarking on, or in the midst of, CRM implementations can benefit dramatically by applying the structured risk management methods. Such methods may include Risk Identification, Risk Quantification, and risk solutions. In our case these would include loss related measures along with ways to get damage control done in case of a PR blunder. Key Roles, Delegation of responsibilities and Communication within the organization The delegation of responsibilities within the organization needs to be on two basic fronts. First the customer care executives that deal with the product have to be well versed with the intricacies of the product. They need to know the charges and the requirements so that queries that are made in relation to the product are dealt with in a proper manner and also to ensure that the marketing process is carried on in a structured manner through them. Second, the agents responsible for actually making transactions need to be in charge of the decision about who to accept as customers and who to reject. The best way to get the information across to the employees of the bank itself would be to set up presentation kiosks and make use of the internal communication vein of the organization. This means that the marketing initiatives can form a part of the monthly circulars. They can also be discussed at management meetings and a familiarization set up can be installed at branch offices for a brief period of time. Evaluation processes The evaluation process can also be carried out through the application of the concept of the competitive market mix audit. The evaluation needs to be comprehensive, independent and periodic. These need to be based or whether or not the objectives that were set at the initiation of the project have been met. The evaluation process can be both in house or an outsourced effort and the results should be such that there be in place at the end of the evaluation a clear cut comparison that has been made between the performance of the product vis-à-vis those of its competitors demonstrating the relative strengths and weaknesses of both the product and the campaign. The process can be, made to run smoothly following the model of market segmentation. The variables of the evaluation can include: Customer acceptance and satisfaction in use Product quality level and innovations Adequacy of assortments Services provided Customer accessibility and sustainability of site The comparative price levels Number of price lines Consistency of price policies and Account and quality of promotional control along with the consistency of efforts Conclusion In conclusion therefore it may be reiterated that the success or the failure of the campaign is dependent on a number of variables most of them dependent on the ability of campaign to create a strategy that is attractive enough to get the customer’s attention then maintain a hold over it by the quality of service provided. It has to be accepted here that the success of this campaign like any other rests in the m most basic manner on the actual merit of the product and the services that are related to it. Reference: Parker P M, Marketing Information: A Competitive Analysis Grayson P, 2004, Competitive Marketing, Work the Mixing Mix, accessed May 11, 2009, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-120134126.html ANZ website, accessed May 11, 2009, http://www.anz.com/ Kumar N, Marketing as strategy: understanding the CEO's agenda for driving growth and innovation, Edn, Illustrated, pub. Harvard Business Press Dekimpe, M., P. Parker and M. Sarvary (2000), “Multi Market and Global Diffusion”, chapter in New Product Diffusion Models edited by V. Mahajan, E. Muller and J. Wind, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000, 4973. Weinreich N, 1999, Hands on social marketing, A step by step Guide, pub. Sage, Edition: 2, illustrated, p21-26 Read More