Overview of the Business Idea
The business idea that has been in practice is a conferencing facility that seeks to cater for various seminars, workshops, and conferences in Liverpool, United Kingdom (UK). The idea of setting such an enterprise is catalyzed by the need to venture into a unique portfolio, unlike many other businesses that integrate such activity in hotels and restaurants (Mogilko, 2016). However, the business shall have other major functional units, such as the provision of food and beverage when people are holding their events. The name of the company is Ample Meeting Point (AMP), and the slogan for the business is ‘Leading the other leaders,’ which typically means that the key goal is not just to benefit in terms of getting revenue but to also beat other rival firms that are doing the business (Manrai, 2019). Ample Meeting Point Ltd is a firm that is determined to make guests and visitors enjoy their convening moments by having in place all the required resources and facilities that can be useful in transacting the business.
With many businesses preferring to have their meetings online, some organizations regard physical meetings as effective. For instance, if an organization deals with enlightening the public about the measures that one can take during emergencies, the management may prefer a place where they can demonstrate effectively rather than online (Azimi, 2017). The first trend is the increased rate of learning requirements about various perspectives, especially those which concern employee management, adoption of new technology in the workplace, advanced techniques in performing activities such as sports, among others. The above trend means that people need a sufficient place that can be used to hold meetings and discuss, analyze and present various matters about their ventures (Dib, 2018). On the same note, many company stakeholders like driving change aspects by training, and therefore, they have to seek a place outside their premises to undertake that activity.
The second trend that has led to the push to start a conferencing facility is the rampant desire for employees to explore and venture into places outside their working environment. It means once staff members have a task to undertake, and it requires a seminar; they might be influenced by the trend of adventure to hold the event on the conferencing facility. These facilities are said to have improved services and trained personnel who can aid in leveraging several activities to give a better experience when holding meetings (Crick and Crick, 2020). Lastly, many companies have the idea that for an activity to be done in an exemplary manner, it should be undertaken in an environment that is free from business distractions.
Role Of Marketing in an Organization
The popular role of marketing in an organization is to make consumers aware of a given product or service. When marketing is done perfectly and effectively, the company benefits from brand recognition and loyal customers who want to build high relationship quality with the organization. When a firm’s service is visible to buyers, it becomes easier for the stakeholders to plan, budget and forecast depending on the rate of consumerism and other ratios within an organization (Dib, 2018). Brand awareness helps in identifying a specific item or service that consumers like and helps to develop a business portfolio in the right way.
Through marketing, Ample Meeting Point can identify consumer needs and wants and adopt a strategy that can be used to satisfy the guests in the facility. Through the influences from culture and societal stratification system, it becomes ideal for a firm to organize the product and service design and development to fit the wish of many (Godin, 2018). When guestsâ demand has been identified and the strategy set to safeguard the valuable action is performed, it ensures that an organization survives and grows its reputation.
It is the role of marketing in an organization to widen the market by using mass communication tools, advertising, sales promotion, among others. The number of customers will increase if they are reached well and that they can be able to see the value of service or product offered by a given company. In this case, the conferencing facility will have the services promoted through the expression of the level of service and personnel within that business (Hall, 2018). Therefore, many organizations will be willing to bring their activities to the firm and will recommend the place to their counterparts depending on the experience gained
When a company does marketing, there is the management of demand and regulation of prices within the market.
When promoting a given portfolio, a marketer will look at the prevailing market price and decide to base their price on what other companies are offering (Dib, 2018). Therefore, the number of people willing to buy at a given price will be monitored, and demand for the service will be derived. For instance, Ample Meeting Point will check the conference package in terms of the services and offered and charged fairly. Various packages such as seminars with high tea, with advanced lunch and evening coffee, will be checked when deriving the tariffs (Hall, 2018). When a marketing plan is applied, a company can effectively discharge responsibilities and faces competition at a varying rate of economic growth.
How Marketing Department Interconnects with Other Departments
The marketing team works closely with other departments to ensure that there is adequate research and development that can meet future needs and fit dynamic consumerism metrics. Additionally, the collaborative base between the department and operations management leads to the manufacturing of quality and well-designed items that keeps fair, productive aspect in any industry (Hall, 2018). Furthermore, through the marketing team and finance department, the volume of orders generated can be met in time after resources have been allocated to leverage the process of production. Together with human resource management, the marketing team creates an ambitious and informative sales team that has the expertise power to lead the business. Therefore, the marketing workforce must be kept active because of the changes that come over time
Functions of Marketing in an Organization
The first function of marketing in an organization is to promote through advertising the services. Promotion can be through mainstream and social media advertising such as television, radio, newspaper, and official magazines (Herjanto, Erickson, and Calleja, 2016). For social media, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram have been used for a long while. The function serves to win more consumers who will be attracted by the services. For conferencing facility, it is important to convey a message that has advanced visuals and graphics to represent the structure and design of the premises and inner setting of the place.
Marketing serves as a selling element because a marketer will nurture leads using product or service-centric communications. When marketing, there is no fictitious presentation of information rather applies what is on the ground. For this business, marketing would help sell the services by getting clients who feel interested in experiencing the services offered (Herjanto, Erickson, and Calleja, 2016). For instance, the facility has a 3D projection, and that would mean technology experts will be coming to check if it can function the way they would like, especially during cloud-based seminars that rely on microservices architecture.
Product and service management can be achieved through marketing. To make sure that conferencing services fit the guest’s need, the marketing team would consistently conduct competitor analysis and engage prospects about the nature of business they wish to have, and integrate the information into bettering the services. The feedback is useful in developing the design, the setting, and the service delivery model. Marketing also serves as a distribution channel since the board can know the perspective to choose in getting the service to the client. In this case, since conferencing facilities cannot be mobile, it will be important to tell the customers where to come or direct them to the location of the facility (Herjanto, Erickson, and Calleja, 2016). Marketing also assists in financing aspects where money can be generated in other ways besides sales. It can build brand equity and help secure loans and grants to continue with the business.
The Marketing Mix
Marketing Planning Process
The marketing planning process involves a raft of steps that must be integrated for an effective business transformation. First is developing the action plan where a business entity will set the goals and vision for the enterprise before releasing the product or service information (Herjanto, Erickson, and Calleja, 2016). In this case, the conferencing facility will determine the objectives such as the need to get more recognition, the desire to have sponsors need to have a higher reputation, among other goals. Under this step, the mission statement is made, and the Ample Meeting Point mission is to work towards delivering exemplary conferencing services that many prospects will want to explore more in the coming days (Johnson and Sohi, 2017). When the mission is started, the objectives are aligned together, which makes the business have a linear transition.
The second step is to monitor the current position. Ample Meeting Point is a new and growing business; it might be challenged by the coverage in terms of market penetration, among other things. Thus, the management is expected to develop actions that seek to give a foundation note of the facility such that it will grow at a significant rate and beat the rival firms (Johnson and Sohi, 2017). At this point, AMP will need to do an extensive marketing audit that shall be the observation of the situation. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis will be relevant here. SWOT analysis will be applied to forecast what can happen when the business stabilizes and how to exploit the coming opportunities, for that matter.
Development of a strategy for marketing follows where marketing mix, objectives, and communication are determined. Additionally, AMP will need to observe alternative methodologies that are available for marketing. AMP will utilize the current trends, such as the use of cloud computing, to project items during the presentation (Manrai, 2019). That will be under the objectives that will ensure the business is not irrelevant. Here, marketing efforts must be leveraged to ensure that pricing, service differentiation, and the development of portfolios are achieved.
The last step in the marketing process involves making a budget, defining what to implement, and analyzing all the plans. Therefore, the milestone of the process is realized under this section, and plans to achieve the objectives would be laid down. For instance, AMP can choose to make a promotional plan where the conferencing clients will be given a 10% discount if they have a full package that covers the workshop, break-way teas, and lunch. Additionally, the company will decide which platform to advertise to quick customer realization, among other issues.
Importance of Marketing Strategy
When a firm has an effective marketing strategy, there is an edge over the rival firms. In this case, a firm such as AMP can check what other similar firms are lacking, and then they add on the portfolio. Furthermore, prices can be set fairly by focusing on lower-cost for a meeting while focusing on avoiding any potential losses. Additionally, a marketing strategy helps in discovering products that can make significant profits (Manrai, 2019). The areas that are affected by organizational growth or change in consumerism are determined. Thus, conference demands for guests will be met, and that assures business sustainabilityâstrategy aids in designing and fixing the right information when marketing.
A firm will only be unique if they invent a finer standard for such business. Marketing strategy enables an organization to optimize all the resources to provide the required items to the target market. Through a sound marketing strategy, it becomes easy for companies to fix budgets such as advertising costs and determine the scope or plan that can lower the expenses (Mogilko, 2016). For instance, AMP can have a sensitization message on top of notebooks used in conferences to call upon potential customers to do business with them.
SMART Marketing Objective for the Business
The one objective that this report focuses on is to offer conferencing services that are up to modern standards. It means that the design has to offer various aspects such as the arrangement of tables, stationery, refreshers, audiovisuals, among other factors (Mogilko, 2016). To offer such services, the firm must use technology-centric aspects such as individual microphones with sound effects controlled by a central system. The objective is measurable as it includes ten skilled personnel who will work towards the desire to open a modern conferencing facility that will make the sales higher by at least 30%. The framework will be expected to have been completed in three months, and the marketing team shall have to explore whether or not the planned outcome is realized in the required time.
The objective is attainable since the ten staff will set a target that depicts a feasible task within the three months as indicated above. To be relevant, AMP shall include increasing revenue by lowering the prices, whereby sales volume shall go higher (Mogilko, 2016). The returns on revenue will depend on the customer check-ins and the way the business is appreciating and working towards growth. The timely objective will be to run a business that shall compensate 25% of the capital used to start the business within the first year.
Extended Marketing Mix
Table 1: Extended marketing mix
Comparison with Closest Competitor
When comparing with The Gateway Conference Centre and Coffee Shop in Liverpool, AMP is advantaged since there is a serene environment for business meetings without disturbance from dining guests. The Gateway Conference is the closest competitor and charges $4500 for the full conference package and $2700 for the half package (Crick and Crick, 2020). The rival firm has not developed a strategic action for enhancing their physical evidence mix since the premises are old-fashioned without the modern design. Therefore, AMP may attract more guests because of the aesthetic value and the leveraging of the marketing elements, as shown in table 1. Above.
Marketing Planning
Evaluation of the Target Market
Segmentation means that AMP will have to divide the market into specific groups of clients using segmentation methodology. Under this section, geographic, demographic, behavioral, and psychographic elements will be considered while creating customer profiles. Firstly, on the profiles, the number of clients that the business intends to secure geographically includes guests from the UK, the US, the Asian region, and some regions of Africa. It is important to market the facility in the home country because when the domestic customers know about the existence of seminar place, they can recommend it to their fellow clients. In the UK, the program seeks to visit several iconic businesses such as Barclays Bank, Rio Tinto Group, Phoenix Group, British American Tobacco, among other firms that are known in the UK. All these organizations have the potential to bring business to the AMP due to the nature of the industries.
The targeting strategy will determine which among the segments highlighted above has the potential to generate desired business. To give a rationale on the strategy, Barclays, British American Tobacco, and Phoenix will have a significant business margin, and hence, AMP will have a justification as to why the firms can be considered. Rio Tinto, a mining company, has the potential to spend its money in organizing a super workshop due to the lucrative nature of the business (Dib, 2018). The marketing team must, therefore, establish more concepts that will lure the company into accepting to be holding meetings in the facility.
On the perceptual map on competitive positioning, AMP must set the service offered in the minds of the target customers and differentiate it from the other competitors. In this case, symbolic positioning will be better utilized due to the image, belongingness, and ego that the target customers must have in this business. Here, AMP must focus on the emotional connection, as shown in Fig.2, so that the target clients must have the conferencing facility.
Marketing Implementation Plan for Advertising Campaign
Table 2: Marketing implementation plan.
Promotional Budget
Table 3: Promotional budget
Control and Evaluation Technique at the Disposal
First is an analysis of competitor offering and methods so that there can be the determination of the right course of action in the conferencing facilities. If AMP wants to thrive in the industry, it must develop a unique plan, as shown in table 2. under the implementation plan that will keep the guests visiting time and again. For example, the management might decide to expand the portfolio and have accommodation rooms only for guests with long seminars and who have traveled far away to have the event (Herjanto, Erickson, and Calleja, 2016). The tip would have been learned from the hotel business, which has all these offers. Therefore, with the accommodation and provision of food and beverage, AMP will start to develop to hospitality but majoring in conferencing business.
Existing customer evaluation will be a key issue to leverage and have a forecast on the business sustainability. Therefore, data will be collected about the target audience and their preferences so that loyalty is guaranteed for such ventures. In this case, firms such as Barclays and Rio Tinto shall be observed to know when they have most business meetings and thus, decide to offer some discounts. It will help in pushing for more clients for the business (Manrai, 2019). The third technique will be to have a research test with a focus segment within the target clients. It means the management would want to discuss various issues that they would like to be added to the service and the new designs that the business can have to increase the occupancy rates. The responsible person will have to note down the various aspects that need to be addressed and then take them to the management for execution.
Additionally, it is important to get customer opinions and feedback. This involves any person who sits in the facility to hold a seminar, workshop, or any relevant function. Therefore, AMP must have cards that have few questions such as the experience in the facility, what interested the clients, any need to improve the business and other recommendations. The cards can be issued to guests when they are checking out, where they fill and leave at the suggestion box. Lastly, it is important to analyze the costs and compare them with the budget (Manrai, 2019). That will enable the reduction of unnecessary costs, weeding out services that are not required, and adding methods that can lead to more business. After the cost is determined, the marketer should compare it with the budget to check the performance and recommend any alternative marketing methods.
References
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