RUNWAY Marketing Strategies - Example

RUNWAY marketing plan- specific activities Name Institution Executive Summary The following part details the specific activities that are to be implemented in the design of RUNWAY business plan. These are tactics that will enable the new firm position itself as a major competitor in the athlete footwear business. These activities include merchandise management and pricing where the firm will have to take into consideration the income of the target market, the trends of fashion as well as the prices of the products of these competitors. The company has the main aim of selling low cost products. As such, it will implement strategies to that effect and some of these strategies include buying in bulk to enjoy trade discounts, buying private brands, maximum employee utilization in the store and avoiding product proliferation. Communication with the clients has also been identified as one of the strategies in this case. Customers need to have their complaints handled politely and courteously. RUNWAY will have professionals who act in a professional manner and who handle the complaints of the clients in a perfect manner. Customers will have a welcoming environment and be treated with utmost respect to ensure that they market the business out there. The other aspects discussed are store location and managing the business. The location will be vital for the growth of the business. The proposed location is the premises that Footlocker is in along George street in Sydney. This location is ideal for the business because of its easy accessibility. Both systematic and contingency models of management will be applied in this business. Employees will be treated as part of the system where each one has defined roles and their contribution to business development will be encouraged through an open system of communication. Each of these aspects have been broken down into a number of miniature activities for easier analysis. Store location In the formulation of a marketing plan, the management of the company needs to come up with a location that would be most conducive to the business. Teece (2010, 173) states that most businesses fail during their formative stages mainly because of the location There is a lot of importance that is attached to the location of a business. A business must be situated in a place that offers the target market the capacity to access it conveniently (Loeppke et al 2009, 411). There are a number of criterion that need to be considered when choosing a location in Australia. This criteria has been analysed in the following paragraphs. The first consideration is the population size and traits consideration. The population size is important in that it provides a rich ground of the potential target market (Meyer & Volbreda nd, 26). Taking into consideration that RUNWAY is a business that sells athlete footwear on a retail scale, it becomes vital for the company to invest in a location that has a high number of people. Another criterion to consider when looking for a good location for this store is the competition in the field. Competition sometimes deter many start-ups from emerging because it somehow leads to the saturation of the market (Porter 1996, 62). It is therefore very instrumental for any business to conduct a market analysis of the competitors in the market so that they may be in a situation where they can identify the advantages they have over their competition as well as the weaknesses. In Sydney city along George street, there are a number of shops and stores that sell sporting equipments including athlete footwear. However, an analysis of the competition shows that most of these competitors offer high-end products that alienate the middle income earners in the city. Transport access and parking availability is another consideration to make in this section. It is important that clients have a direct access to the retail store and those who come with their vehicles have been provided parking facilities. It is very important when designing a location for a start-up business to ensure that access to and from the business is open (Thompson et al 2010, 5; Henderson 1989, 144). Doing so increases the visibility of the business and creates a clientele base which becomes loyal following the convenience they get from the same. Sometimes, some business fail because of parameters that they might not be able to control. One such parameter is the determination of the nature of the businesses that are nearby. For example, a food processing plant cannot be expected to thrive when it is placed besides a morgue. These forms of businesses contradict each other. Basically, when choosing a location for a business, it is also very advisable to identify the nature of the businesses that are nearby. Then an analysis should be conducted to determine how these other businesses will either compliment or lead to the downfall of the new business (Smith et al 2007, 50). The potential location for the RUNWAY is ideal. It will be located in current premises which house footlocker. There is a cinema store across the road and other facility stores adjacent. Managing the business In the management of a business, there are number of issues that need to be considered. These are target market needs, the needs of the employees as well as the needs of the management. These three areas form the basic and most important concept in the management of the business. RUNWAY management employs a number of management theories in its approach towards management of the stores. The management theories most prevalent in this case are the contingency and systems theories and their application is analyzed in the following paragraphs. The system of management that will be applied in this case is the direct participation of the employees in the making of decisions in the business. This will be through a leadership approach arising from participation of the workers rather than giving blunt commands. There will be weekly meetings to determine the course of the business and offer an analysis into whether the weekly targets have been met. The number of workers who will be employed by RUNWAY to work in George Street will be 12. Six of these workers will be directly involved in relationship building and general assistance of the clients inside the store. There will be one cashier among them. Two workers will be involved in the sales and marketing of the store out there. Two will be involved in the procurement and management of inventories in the store. There will be one supervisor reporting to one manager. The duties of each of these posts will be clearly stipulated so that each person will know what he or she is supposed to be doing at any given time. To be able to enrich their productivity, these employees will be entitled to a one week in-house training to keep them abreast and updated in the new products that are trending in the market. Employees in the same rank will also have the chance to tour different departments in the store so that they can relate to how collective efforts affect overall performance. The systems theoretical approach will also be utilized in this case. Here, the employees will be assisted sufficiently to ensure that they understand wholly how the system of the business will work. This means that the employees will be taught on how all the department s integrate to provide quality assistance aiming towards the attainment of the goals of the business. The management structure of the stores will also be instrumental in ensuring that the business runs smoothly and the objectives of the firm are fulfilled. The employees will report to the store supervisor who will in turn report to the manager of the store. The manager of the store will be responsible to report to other stakeholders of the firm. These include the board of directors for the company and other investors. Rules will be put in place to govern the conduct of the employees by the management. Any breach of these rules will be punished and the consequences will be spelt out in the contracts that these employees sign. Rewarding of performance will be used as a motivating factor that management of RUNWAY will be engrossed in as a way of ensuring the employees work harder. They will also try and involve the employees in the process of decision making (Gonzalez 2010, 850). When the employees are involved in the decision making process, they feel appreciated and they are capable of working even harder. The best way to allow for employee participation is through ensuring that the channels of communication are open and direct. This will be the mode of management adopted by the RUNWAY. There will be an open means of communication. This will ensure that information flow is conducted faster and issues handled promptly. Communicating with the customer Another aspect of customer care is handling of the complaints of the clients (Ward et al 1996, 598). Basically, clients come back to a business mainly because of the way that their complaints are handled by the employees and the management of a company. The RUNWAY will be comprised of managers who are experienced and who have the capacity to handle the complaints from the clients with utmost professionalism when the situation arises. This should be done in a courteous and polite manner that will not demean the self-worth of the clients. It is important to analyze the target market before getting involved in any entrepreneurship venture. There are various ways through which this can be conducted and those ways have been discussed in the following paragraphs. One of these ways is through ensuring that the customers are given quality customer service. To be able to give quality customer service, it is important to have enough qualified personnel in the workplace (Barros & Julio 2011, 599). Some customers love frequenting a specific place to do their shopping mainly because the workers in these businesses treat them well and with respect that they deserve. To be able to treat customers well, these employees will have to be well versed with the customer needs. The management of RUNWAY will invest in sufficient number of workers for their establishment. These workers are taught how to deal with customers in a polite and courteous manner. Customers like it when they are treated professionally and with respect. RUNWAY will ensure that all the employees are well trained at induction stage in such a manner so that they can be in a position to offer excellent customer services. One of the most effective ways through which this will be conducted is through making sure that the customer feel welcome and appreciated. When a customer walks into the store, employees with smiles and happy faces will welcome the customer politely and offer to assist them every step of the way. This will make the customers feel appreciated and at home because of the friendly atmosphere in the store. Customer satisfaction will be paramount in this store. When a customer is satisfied with the kind of service that he or she receives, it becomes possible for the customer to come back at a later date and conduct more business with the company. A satisfied customer is an asset because he will come back with a friend and this precipitates into the word of mouth advertising, a very strong form of advertising. The key to provision of customer satisfaction will be excellent customer service and RUNWAY will be a model of this excellence in the footwear business category. Merchandise management and pricing Pricing and marketing are also core aspects of any business plan (Mohd & Al-Esmael 2014, 28) These are the key drivers of the success of the firm. RUNWAY will utilize pricing strategies that will enable the company to achieve its objectives. There are a number of issues that the management will need to look into to be able to market and price the products. These include the income of the target market, the fashion trend at present moment and the prices that other competitors have placed on their products. This will enable them give their products a price that will be competitive in the market. RUNWAY model will be based on the sale of cheap imported footwear. The footwear sold in many stores in Sydney are made locally and this leads to bloating of the prices of these footwear. This is where the company has a distinctive advantage over the other stores in the town. RUNWAY will import products from China. The business will implement merchandising and pricing strategies so that they may achieve a competitive edge through several ways. These strategies have been discussed in the following paragraphs. Low costing is the key element in this strategy. The business will ensure that all the products in this store are affordable. It will be possible to do so through the removal of bad costs resulting from high manufacturing costs and brand related costs. To prevent the increment in costs relating to brand, the business will import and promote private but quality brands. Most brands which are well known are quite expensive. The idea behind this business model is the sale of low cost products without compromising on quality. Private brands are cheaper and they also offer a better profit margin than other more established brands. Furthermore, the business will be acquiring the products in bulk so that they may benefit from trade discounts. Negotiation of the lowest possible pricing of the products will be conducted regularly. Another strategy that will be used in this category will be the avoidance of product proliferation. The system of FI-FO will be used in this case. The products that get into the business first will be sold first. This will avoid the issue of proliferation where a product may run out o fashion while still in the store. Losses could also be largely avoided in the same manner. The store will also try to minimize the promotional expenses, relying mostly on word- of mouth advertisement. This will ensure that the promotional expenses do not eat into the revenues that the company will generate. Proper utilization of the employees will also be vital to ensuring that costs have been kept to a minimum. In the management section of this plan, it has been stipulated that employees will be rotated within different departments so that they can acquaint themselves well with the services that each department offers. This ensures that each employee has a shadow and in case one of them cannot be able to do their work because of differing reasons, another can step in and assist. This ensures maximum utilization of the employees and continuity of business leading to cost reduction. References Barros,O., C. Julio. 2011. Enterprise and process architecture patterns. Business Process Management Journal. 17(4):598 – 618. Henderson, B. 1989. The origin of strategy. Harvard business review. 139-143. Gonzalez,R. 2010. Developing a multi-agent system of a crisis response organization. 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