Positioning: The Battle of the Mind - Assignment Example

Week 1 Marketing audit mind map Week 2 Marketing a new product In marketing keep cup, the objectives to consider will include; Profitability Objectives whereby the company will work hard to realize a 25% return on investment by April 2014. Next will be Market Share Objectives where we are looking forward to gain 50% of the market share for our product by January 2020. Also we will highly focus on Promotional Objectives whereby we will in a high gear try to increase awareness of the environmental friendly keep cups by January 2014. Also Objectives for Survival since competitors might introduce cheaper products due to the changes in technology day by day. Finally, Objectives for Growth where by we are looking forward to expand our operations in countries where there is substantial economical and political stability by mid 2017. The company noted that the dumping of non non-recyclable paper cups was of a major environmental issue. The public relations goal included the need to create awareness of non-recyclable paper cups’ environmental harm, and then to change behaviors to encourage the use of Keep cup as an environmentally-friendly alternative. By using keep cups benefits such as significant reduction of the environmental impact brought about by disposable plastic cups by reducing tones of landfill, saving trees from being turned into paper cups The Keep Cup is manufactured from polypropylene, a safe plastic which is bisphenol-A free compared to normal plastics. The target market for our product will be companies where staff and customers are served with hot drinks, event organizers where attendants are served with hot drinks as well as take-away cafes. Since it is a new product in the markets and has unique differentiating features, we will use physical based positioning by extensively explaining the features to the potential buyers and thereon win their minds (Al Ries & Trout, 2000). Coming to distribution decisions we will use both the push and pull strategies. In push promotional strategy we will be taking the product to the customer directly to make sure the potential buyers becomes aware of the new product. The company will also use trade show promotions to encourage retailer demand, direct selling to customers, looking for product dealers’ world wide and many more. The pull strategy will be used to motivate potential buyers to seek out a product in an active practice. The company is looking forward to providing we are free keep cups to three companies. Integrated marketing communications objectives and planning assures correspondence with the potential buyers. This will involve strong marketing skills in delivering brand awareness, knowledge and interest, attitudes, image and purchase intention to the potential buyers. Copy platform is advertising objectives whereby our adverts will convince potential buyers that keep cups is a distinctive, high-stylish re-usable products and persuade them to consider it the next time they are in the market for reusable coffee cups. On trade and consumer promotion plan, to thrive, our promotions will respond to both consumer and trade objectives. This will help us to reach new buyers and maintain Current ones. On personal selling each and every individual salesperson will sell directly to the client. This will develop long and outstanding client relationships. Social Media marketing will ensure that we reach the right audience by using the channels that youth like most. We will base public relation by means of; News releases, social responsibility activities such as donating towards school projects. Keep cup pictures The keep cups are reusable and can be customized to one favorite colors and design. Week 3 Launching Prius The first model of prius was sold in the year 1997 in Japan, making it the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle. It was later introduced globally by the year 2001. Currently the Prius is sold in more than 70 states and areas. Japan and North America have been the largest markets for the car model. By May 2008 the company had sold 1 million cars and by September 2010 they had sold 2 million units of the car. In the U.S. about 1 million Prius had been sold by early April 2011, while Japan attained the 1 million mark in August 2011. In only a few years, Toyota boosted the Prius from a slot product to a symbol of environmentally accountable driving which is a sign for which consumers continues to be eager to pay a price premium (Toyota global website). Toyota business strategy Toyota has to set their business strategies to assist them in enhancing business performance and the profit margins. The business strategies for Toyota are group into three categories. The first category is the market which involves strategies such as optimizing the production scheme to meet consumer demands, consecutive commences of low emission vehicles, and fill-fledged entry to the market by establishing new plants and newly manufactured compact models, boost in supply to mounting markets and the foundation of global development and production system introduction of models that reflect market characteristic. The second category is the environmental issue which involves amalgam motor vehicle and unit supply capability, creation of HV systems which are smaller and lighter, and lower the cost of manufacturing, inclusive development with HV as the focal point and speeding up research and improvement of EV and PHV. The third category is cost which involves promoting cost lessening activities for compacted cars and arranging a special team to work on cost lessening (Toyota global website). Toyota corporate strategy Corporate strategies provide a plan, establish a pattern of actions establishes position and incorporates perspectives. Most companies operating in the modern day business environment need to set their corporate strategies. Toyota Motor Corporation has achieved this success by developing a set of principles that have enabled it to position itself as the most efficient manufacturer of cars. The principles such as Kanban and Lean manufacturing have now become commonplace in the business world. Challenges facing Toyota The global automotive industry faces similar challenges when conducting their business. The challenges are basically brought about by the underlying, finances of the auto business from the provider through the customer and by description they are adequately broad to be of interest to all contributors in the industry. One of the major challenges facing Toyota Company is the selling of the cars. This is a major challenge due to the recent recall of cars they had made. A number of issues were alleged they included clammy gas pedals and possible power navigation faults in certain Toyota models. This was a great blow to the firm since the consumers were so furious. The company faced action form the customers, the U.S. National Highway Safety Administration and the U.S Congress this was termed as an inundation of bad publicity. It seems difficult for them to convince the customers that their cars no longer have defaults and they may not recall them in the future. Toyota also faces a challenge of product differentiation. Antagonism for complicated customers may seem fierce. Vehicle buyers have a profusion of options of vehicles with ever more similar purposeful and performance characteristics. For Toyota to gain he largest market share they must offer differentiated products so as to win the customers attention. Missing the market share can be financially devastating for the corporation. Another problem facing Toyota is the problem of product development. The process of vehicle development is exclusive, time overwhelming and dangerous. Toyota has made abundant changes such as dropping the cycle time and cost in spite of growing product intricacy, advancement in technology and more severe policies. Toyota should look for ways to reduce the development time and cost to improve productivity and to react accordingly to market changes. Another major challenge facing Toyota Company is the marketing and distribution of the cars. Competition for customers and the expense if differentiating products have forced Toyota to look for better and improved ways to generate and incarcerate value in their products. Strategies for business sustainability With ecological concerns increasing globally, business executives in every industry have been challenged to alleviate negative environmental consequences and dangers, and in its place create environmental benefits, at the lowest cost to their corporation. Until recently, most corporations have advanced these challenges using the short-term methods, distrustful strategies, focused on minimizing short-term dangers and monetary exposure and humanizing their public image, rather than accepting truly the sustainable business practices. Toyota continues to lead the automotive industry in corporate sustainability for the second consecutive year. On a strategic level the company has successfully aligned its expansion strategy and it's Vision 2010 "Innovation into the future" with its long-term environmental strategy - the scope of which is one of the broadest in the industry. In the field of new lower carbon technologies (especially in hybrid electric vehicles), Toyota has clearly shown its capabilities and potential to gain a significant competitive advantage within the sector. Furthermore, given its strong capital structure, Toyota will be in a strong position to continue to further invest in capital intense key lower carbon technologies. Toyota continues to set the benchmark in operational efficiency and is continuously improving its eco-efficiency performance across its operations. However, it currently does not address social issues systematically – a challenge given the fast expansion of Toyota's global supply chain to developing countries. Toyota prius Week 4 Market analysis The environment under which a business operates in is crucial to its success. Macro environmental analysis refers to the factors that affect the way an organization’s products will perform in light of the factors that the organization has little or no control over that is: political, cultural, economic, social and technological environments. Businesses have to devise ways of combating the challenges and also grabbing the windows of opportunities which are posed by the external environment for the macro environment can pose either as a challenge or as a window of opportunity to organizations (Kotler, 2009). PESTLE analysis of Telstra Corporation The approach used in the process of strategic planning to review the external environment affecting a business now and in the future is PEST analysis. Telstra Corporation limited as a large and a complex business need to focus on the external environments which can be done through PESTLE analysis. Political Factors Political factors affecting a business include changes in the government policies which can affect the industry it may also include changes of government locally or at federal or national level, changing government policies in taxation schemes, privatization of certain bodies or changes in nationalized industry structure. Generally competition makes things cheaper. Telstra as a Privatized company has lots of opportunities than the Government owned company. Telstra, formerly telecom was only the choice of the consumers for telephone service. After deregulation many competitors entered into the market and more choices were available for the customers to use the telephone service. Privatization of Telstra and deregulation of the market allowed it to enter into the competitive market. The new idea of National Broadband System is a threat to Telstra. The government announced that 90 percent of the household will be serviced by the fiber whereas 10 percent via satellite. This policy of government is justified by blaming Telstra as the most vertically integrated carrier in the world. But it has no evidence to prove this fact. The policy if implemented will materially affect Telstra’s profitability and its share price. The legislation if passed will destroy Telstra and also the government. On the other hand, the federal government decision to push for the structural separation of Telstra has been generally welcomed by those who feel it will enhance the competition. Economic factors The economic factors affecting a business may include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and inflation rate. The economic factors have a major impact on how the business operates and make decisions. A certain population seems to take the company’s services as a luxury thus this is a major problem for the company. With the introduction of pay phone stalls utilizing mobile phones, this has eased usage for these customers. Social factors Trends in social factors affect the demand for a company’s product and how the company operates. The major social factors which have an effect on a business include health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. The telecom industry has definitely made an impact on the job market of the country, taking in thousands of employees and creating new career opportunities everyday. The overuse of mobile phones has often triggered arguments regarding safety, but the Australia market does not regard it as a threat. Technological factors Technological factors are likely to determine barriers to entry, minimum efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions. Changes in technology can also affect costs, quality and lead to innovation. The technological factors may include technological aspects such as R& D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change. Telstra Company is mostly affected by one technological factor that is technological change. The telecommunication industry is undergoing numerous advancements with new inventions been made every day this will with time affect Telstra company on one way. The telecommunication industry has in many ways influenced both the public and private sector to invest and bring new technology into being. Environmental issues Most business is affected by environmental issues. Environmental issues may include ecological and environmental aspects such as weather, climate and climate change. The growing awareness of the potential impacts of climate change is affecting how companies operate and the products they offer, this is aimed at creating new markets and diminishing or destroying existing ones. In some instances changes in climate can affect the service delivery to the customer this is a major effect of the environment on the telecommunication industry. Legislative issues Legal factors are said to affect the how a company operates, its costs and the demand for their products by the consumers. Factors which are mainly included in this category include: discrimination law, consumer law, antitrust law, employment law and health and safety law. Telstra company operation should adhere to the universal service obligation and it should also ensure that there is a network reliability framework of its users this are some of the legislative issues that the company should adhere to in its operation. Telstra pictures Week 5 Market research questions Questionnaires are the core tools when conducting market research. It includes a series of questions which collect key marketing research data for a business. The design of the questionnaire depends on; Purpose of the questionnaire, the sort of person to be questioned and how the questionnaire is going to be taken? The types of questions to be asked which can be Simple yes/no answers – e.g. have you used product/service X before?, Multiple choice – a number of options are offered to the response, Sliding scale – where a value is placed on an answer e.g. how do you rate our services? The values could be less than satisfactory, satisfactory, or excellent. Some of the questions to be asked are like; The questions to be asked include, what made you decide to buy our product? Do you refer us to other people? And If so why? What would you go for instead of our product? If so why? How can we make your experience here more valuable to you? Is our online store simple? How did you hear about us? When you needed help in the store, could you easily find someone to help you? Do we keep our promise? Did we deliver on time? How can we improve on our performance? What are your future expectations about our product/service? Week 6 How can we cultivate strong customer relations? A critical and yet overlooked component of customer relations management is the cultivation of existing customers. Most companies spend their time and scarce resources trying to attract new customers while the existing ones are largely ignored. This practice can be costly in terms of lower profitability and higher customer turnover rates. Companies seeking to improve their CRM practices should look no further than cultivating their existing customer relationship. it has been noted that companies which have consistently highest approval ratings seem to have a few key things in common when it comes to customer relations they include value, quality and a great concern of what the customer think of your products. Every new customer transaction signifies an investment for the business. The company should put measures in place so as to retain the new customer and also retain the current customers. In order to get the best out of the customer relationship the company should focus more on ways of retaining their customers in so doing they will have to relate with the customers through regular meetings Most companies at first fail in the function of customer cultivation. Doing it effectively can take strong leadership, clear vision, and an effective measurement system to continuously evaluate customer lifetime value. Companies which have been successful in customer cultivation reap significant rewards out of it. For one to attain the best cultivation level for the customers one should follow a series of steps this may include: one, relating with the customers on a regular basis, trying to retain your customers by creating barriers to switching to a competitor, one should also try to offer complimentary products and services on an ongoing basis, keeping the customers excited and engaged by new products innovations and lastly analyzing customer behavior to be able to anticipate future wants and needs. Week 7 Positioning statement The mission statement could be: “To provide high quality airways services at an affordable cost to all our customers.” Rebranding of Virgin Blue Sir Richard Branson announced the re-branding of Virgin Blue, pacific blue and V-Australia will all be branded as Virgin Australia. We think the reason for this is to resist the competition of Qantas airlines. At the re-branding, Branson is looking forward to modernize air travel in Australia with the new look, just as he did several years ago when Virgin Blue effectively put Ansett airlines out of business with its low fares. The new brand with its excellent product and service offering create a path to change Virgin Australia into a modern vibrant airline with a product to compete with the best. The planes will a complete modern interior design thus promising a brand new in-flight experience. It has as well expanded their services by introducing a business class to the existing economic class. The re-brand is not only exterior but is also interior in that in every point that a customer gets in touch with is connected and that is the key to a really great brand. People will definitely make virgin Australia the airline of choice for Australians. This will improve its image from low-cost to a serious competitor to Qantas. ‎It will also be a sign of modish brand qualities. It will allow room for future growth by re-establishing Virgins’ identity. It will also attract new customers and keep existing customers coming back. It will relate its target market to their services and give a new value to their marketing strategy. It will also create a long lasting impact with the re-branded virgin logo design, is increase consumer remembrance. Finally it will reinvent itself to better align with their current and potential customer base and resist competition. On the other hand, it can causes confusion to their customers. Also it’s a lot of tedious work. Also for the logo to become recognized they will start from scratch, it will take time for people to become familiar with it, and will spend extra cash in advertising the new logo. Virgin blue logo new staff uniforms after the rebranding Sir Richard and CEO John Borghetti during Virgin Blue's rebranding launch References Al Ries & Trout, J (2000). Positioning: The battle of the mind. New York: Mc Graw hill. Kotler, P (2009). How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets. New York: Freepress. Toyota global website. Retrieved on 1st October, 2011. http://www.toyota-global.com/ Read More