Strategic Marketing of Australian Post - Case Study Example

Marketing Strategies Student Name Institution Affiliation Introduction The changing times have led to increase of use of digital technology. This has mostly affected how people communicate and interact. Communication is now mainly through social media, email and mobile telephony. This changing trend has highly affected the over 200 year old Australian Post whose core business over the years has been delivering letters for businesses and consumer market segments. Now the organization mails 97-percent of its letters from the government as most of the customers have moved to digital technology. Now the organization is recording great loses and needs a good marketing strategy that would make it to be still relevant in the market and make good profits. Basing on the Australian Post situation, several marketing strategic plans can be used in solving the problem to put the organization back to its normal business operation. The marketing strategic plan may include, Marketing Mix, Segmentation, SWOT analysis, Porter’s five forces, Product life cycle, BCG Matrix, Ansoff Matrix, and scenario Building. Below is an analysis of how each of the marketing strategic plan could be used in solving the Australian Post scenario. Marketing Mix Marketing mix is the mixing of several ideas and plans and then followed by having a marketing representative who would promote the particular product or brand. The strategy involves combining several concepts and ideas to formulate a final strategy that will help in making the brand popular amongst the masses (Jain, 2001). Elements of Marketing Mix Marketing Mix is divided in four elements that are referred to as the four P’s of marketing. The four P's need to be understood and analyzed in trying to understand how marketing mix can be a strategic plan in solving a business's problem. i. Product This is the goods and services that an organization offers to the market. It is necessary for the organization to understand the product in relation to the customers. The organization should understand the needs the customer who wants satisfied by the product. The business should be understand the particular features in the product that satisfy the customers’ needs. The product feature in the product or service that satisfies the customers’ needs should then be made in the specifications of how the customers love it. ii. Place Place is the actual; place where the products are found and can be sold and acquired by the end users of the product or service. Buyers can buy products either from virtual markets or from physical markets. In virtual market the buyers do not interact with the sellers while in the physical markets the two meets. The business has to understand where the buyers look to buy their products. They should then align the product to be available at the place where the customers want them. iii. Price This is the actual amount of money that is paid for by the customers to acquire a specific product or service. It is important in understanding how the customers value the product. Understanding how the customers would relate to any increase or decrease in the price of the product is also important. The business has then to come up with a price that is suitable for the customer and still makes good profit for the business. Coming up with discounts to customers would depend on how well the price is understood in relation to the customer. And the price has to be analyzed with how it compares to the competitors’ prices (Jain, 2001). iv. Promotion These are the ideas and strategies that are implemented by the marketers so that the customers can be aware of brand. It aims at making the product or brand popular amongst the masses. Promotion may be through advertising or personal selling. The business needs to understand when and where it can get messages of the brand to the customers (Jain, 2001). Understanding of the competitors’ way of advertising is also important. Using this marketing strategic plan the Australian Post can be able to come up with a new way in which they will serve the market. This is by coming up with services that are more appealing to the customers and they will be able to know when and how they need to offer the services as well as how to advertise and promote their services. The Australian Post will as well be able to know the pricing that would attract customers. The Ansoff Matrix This matrix argues that the product and market growth is determined by focusing on whether the products in question are new or have been in existence and whether the market for the business is new or has been in existence (Ansoffmatrix.com, 2015). This understanding of the Asnoff Matrix makes it suitable to be applied in the situation of the Australian Post. The Asnoff Matrix uses four alternatives of marketing strategies. The strategies are market penetration, market development, product development and diversification. Market Penetration Looking at the market penetration, it covers products that are in existence and that also are in existence in an existing market. This is a similar case to the Australia Post case. The organization has been in existence for more than two hundred years and its services are something that has been in existence. The market for the Australia Post is a market that has been existing and despite having reduced. The case of the Australia post can apply this strategy in its operation to come from the situation it is in. despite many people having left the services of the organization and gone to start using the digital technology, there is still complains about the delivery time. Product Development In the product development growth strategy, there is introduction of new products into the existing markets. The product development can be different from the introduction of new products in the existing market or it can involve modifying the existing product. Modifying the product would involve changing the outlook of the product or changing how it is presented, this may also be increasing the products performance or quality. Australia Post need to be creative enough to make their products and service delivery more appealing. They should modify their products to be more digitally focused to be able to catch up with the market that is moving to the digital technology ways. Marketing Development The third marketing strategy in the Ansoff Matrix is the Market Development. It is also known as the market extension. This is the strategy where the business sells its products to new markets. It is achieved through further market segmentation to help in in identifying a new client base. The strategy takes in to assumption that the existing market have been exploited fully and that there is need to try and venture into new markets (Pride and Ferrell, 2010). The Australia Post suffers market as its customers are highly decreasing. The organization needs to realize ways of identifying new customers who can be able to utilize their products to avoid suffering the big loses. Diversification Diversification is the last strategy of the Ansoff Matrix. This is a growth strategy where the business comes up with new products and sales the same new products to the new markets at the same time. The strategy is the most risky of all the others as it involves two unknowns, new products are being created and the organization does not know the problems involved in the development process. On the other hand there is a new market that is being targeted that will bring problems of having characteristic that are unknown. Before a business can engage in diversification it should have its facts right about the expected gain from the strategy and should have assessed clearly the risks involved (Haq, Wong and Jackson, 2008). Using the Ansoff Matrix, the Australian Post can be able to weigh through the four matrixes of the grid. Just like I have demonstrated in each strategy the steps the organization can take, it will be able to identify the risks involved in each move and the benefits Marketing Segmentation Segmentation is the process where you define and subdivide a large homogenous market to achieve a homogeneous market that has clearly identifiable segments that have similar needs, wants and demand characteristics. It aims at designing a marketing mix that will precisely meet the expectations of the customers in the segment that is targeted (O'Cass, 2003). Marketing segmentation contains four factors that need to be achieved the organization. Having a clear identification of the segment Understanding measurability of the effective size of the segment Understanding how accessible the segment is through promotional efforts The segment’s appropriateness to the resources and policies of the company. Marketing segmentation is based on four strategies that are behavioral, demographic, psychographic, behavioral, demographic and geographical differences (O'Cass, 2003). This particular strategic plan can be used in the Australian Post situation in segmenting some of its services so that it can particularly give the customers their expectations. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is the third Marketing Strategic Plan that can be applied. SWOT analysis is useful in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the business and identifying both the Opportunities that may be open for the business and the threats the business faces. SWOT analysis is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. In this strategy the business needs to come up with its strengths in the market and analyze them. Then the business should come up with the business's weaknesses, this weakness should be compared to the strengths to come up with a way forward. The business analyzes the market to find any opportunities of new market or gap, this makes it easy for the business to expand or introduce a new product. Lastly, the business looks at the threats that are in the market. It is important for the business to understand the threats in the market to be able deal with them without making the business to fail. Continuing businesses uses SWOT analysis to react to the changing environment and to be able to respond proactively. New business use the SWOT analysis in their planning process to enter the market. The Australian post being a business that has been in operation for more than two hundred years should analyze its strengths and weakness as well as the many threats it is facing and be able to identify any of the opportunities in the market so that it can be able to solve the challenges it is facing. Porter’s five forces Porter's five forces is also a tool that can be used as a marketing strategic plan. It is a simple but a powerful tool that understands where power lies in a business. This element is important as it helps in understanding both the strength of the current competition position and the strength of the competition the business is considering to move into. Understanding where power lies in the business is important as it helps the business take advantage of situations of strength, improve situations of weakness, and avoiding taking wrong steps (Galbreath, 2004). The tool has the five forces that determine competitive power of a business: Supplier Power. The business needs to analyze how easy it is for their supplier to drive up prices. This force is driven by the size of suppliers dealing with each key input, their strength and control over the business, their product service, and the cost of switching from one supplier to the other and many more. The business having fewer suppliers and more need for supplier’s help makes the suppliers more powerful to the business. Buyer Power This is understanding how easy it may be for the buyers to drive the prices down. It is also driven by the number of buyers, the cost of the buyers switching from your services and products to those of a competitor, the importance of each individual customer to the business and many more. Dealing with a few powerful buyers may make them to dictate terms to the business. Competitive Rivalry It entails understanding the number and capability of the business competitors. Having many competitors who offer products and services that are equally attractive may make the business to have less power in the market. Threat of Substitution This is understanding if the customers have the ability of finding a different way in which they can do what you offer. If the customers are able to find an alternative of getting what the business offers then the business becomes less powerful. Threat of New Entry The power of the business would be affected by the ability of other businesses entering into your market. The business needs to have stronger power to prevent entry of other businesses. This is a great marketing strategic plan that would save the Australian Post if applied. The organization would be able to know where in the market it is lacking influence and power and how it would help in solving it. Mostly the organization is faced with competition, rivalry, and new entry into the market. The organization should be able in identifying dealing with these situations. BCG Matrix The BCG matrix is also a tool that can be used in marketing strategic planning and it bases on the product life cycle of a product. In this case the product life cycle is used to determine the priorities that need to be given to a product's portfolio of a business unit. A business should have a portfolio of products that will contain both the products that grow at a higher rate that are in need of cash inputs and the products that have a low growth that generate a lot of cash. It looks at the dimension of market share and market growth. The bigger the market share of a product is, or the faster the product's market is able to grow, the better it is for the business (Ferrell and Hartline, 2011). The BCG matrix is in four categories of in the portfolio of the business: Stars – having high growth and high share of the market Cash cows - having low growth and high market share Dogs – having low growth and low market share Question marks – high growth and low market share. The Australian Post understanding its product life cycle is important. Currently the organization faces low growth and low market share, it has to derive means of dealing with this for its sustainability. Product life cycle The product life cycle is four stage process that helps organizations comes up with ways of remaining relevant in the market place while offering products and services to consumers. A product goes through the introduction stage which is the most difficult stage for most organizations and this triggers massive strategy formulations to avoid losses of revenue. The most important stage of the product life cycle is the growth and maturity stage and if organization experience tremendous growth and eventually become complacent will face challenges like in the Australian post case thus avoiding the fourth stage of decline is most crucial for organizations that need to remain relevant in the market place thus a clear indication that the Australian post’s management didn’t have elaborate strategies to avoid the decline stage. Scenario building Scenario building is vital in strategic planning. In reference to the Australian post case scenario building can help predict and evaluate strategic plans before they become disastrous to organizations. Scenario building is crucial in supporting and enhancing organizational plans with a common goal. Scenario building is fundamental in helping manger prepare adequately so as to make informed strategic decisions more so in times of difficulties and uncertainties just like in the Australian post case. Using the scenario matrix it is easier to identify and generate scenarios thus scenario building goes through a 6 stage process; definition of scope which is essential in identifying problems, perception analysis is the second stage which helps identify perceptions, trend and uncertainty analysis also helps identify the relevant trends that can help solve strategic problems. The most crucial of all is scenario building which helps develop scenarios based on key uncertainties and thus solving Australian post challenges would have been effective if scenario building is effectively applied. This leads to strategy definition which will help formulate action plans for implementation lastly scenario building suggests monitoring to help I the execution and implementation of that strategy. Conclusion The Marketing Strategic plans above can be used in the situation of the Australian Post. The organization needs to understanding the market, its customers and its services and products and be able to come up with a proper way in which it will be able to kick back in to the business. References Ferrell, O. and Hartline, M. (2011). Marketing strategy. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning. Galbreath, J. (2004). Determinants of firm success: a resource-based analysis. Curtin University of Technology, Graduate School of Business. Iacobucci, D. (n.d.). Marketing management. Jain, S. (2001). Marketing planning & strategy. Australia: South-Western College Pub. O'Cass, A. (2003). Marketing management in Australasia. Bradford, England: Emerald Group Pub. Read More