Background
Autonomy Corporation was started in 1996 as a software company in, England, Cambridge. The company is headquartered both in Cambridge and San Francisco in the UK and the US respectively. Autonomy Corporation has offices in many parts of the world including Germany Japan and Australia (autonomy.com 2010, p. 1). Other major offices are situated in Singapore, Canada, and France in addition to the head offices in the United Kingdom and the US. In Latin America and Europe, Autonomy Corporation has smaller offices where it operates and has a big market. The company deals in software like enterprise search applications that enable the enterprise to make content from diverse sources. These sources may include intranets and databases of the enterprise. Other applications include knowledge management that enables the management to create and distribute skills and experiences within the organization. The company is growing at a very high rate and is currently the second largest in the software industry in Europe. The estimated market share for Autonomy Corporation is 6 billion dollars.
The objective of this paper is to draw up a market communication plan for the company for one year or 12 months.
Situational analysis
This situational analysis explores the autonomy corporation Plc.’s current market position and environment in relation to software products or applications like knowledge management and enterprise search applications. This guides the way forward for the company and determines the strategies that the company is going to have. We shall discuss consumer analysis, target market, and the current trend in the market.
Consumer analysis
Most of the company consumers are those businesses or companies that buy the products for resale. According to autonomy.com (2010, p. 1), Autonomy Corporation is the second-largest provider of business solutions software has many customers. With a market share of 6 billion dollars, it shows that the company has many clients. The company’s customer base is very broad with both public and private businesses. These include Cisco systems, Forbes, intelligence agencies of the government among many others. Other corporate customers include media organizations that use the award-winning technology developed by Autonomy Corporation to cut production costs and keep the journalists posted about the emerging developments.
The revolutionary technology developed by Autonomy Corporation is used by e-commerce providers to facilitate conversion rates, assess customer satisfaction, and upgrade customer loyalty among others (autonomy.com 2010, p.1). Providers of telecommunications are also major consumers of Autonomy corporation products and services. For example, Nokia, Ericsson and Vodafone, and others use Autonomy in order to mitigate operating costs and offer quality services to their customers. The food and beverage companies like coca-cola use Autonomy to investigate commodity development and change in customer preferences. Autonomy is used by the finance and banking sector to investigate customer expectations and changes in the regulatory bodies. The other consumers of Autonomy include manufacturers, IT firms, consulting and professional firms, pharmaceuticals, health care, aerospace, government, and public sectors among others.
This broad consumer base shows that the company has great potential to continue leading the market. This also gives the company a strong financial position.
Target market
The company targets to increase the number of corporate clients who buy the company’s products for resale. The main target markets are companies that distribute or sell the software applications and systems to education sectors, financial services, and government, media, and health services because the products are widely used in those sectors. The distributors will therefore have a big market in those sectors.
Current trends in software market/industry
According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics (2001, p.1), Most organizations today are widely using IT and computers in their daily businesses. This has increased efficiency in their operations. Computer networks and systems are maintained using computer software. Software publishing is increasing globally by the day. The demand for software applications and systems is also increasing tremendously. Software publishing is done using CD-ROMs or through the internet. Current computers are sometimes preloaded with software when sold to customers. Application and systems software are common in this market. Applications software helps one in using the computer to perform different purposes. Systems software refers to operating systems through which computers operate.
The Internet has now revolutionized the software industry.
Most of the software is for use by internet users. Current software must be capable of being connected to the internet. Some software like Enterprise Resource Fund (ERP) has come up as companies advance in the use of technology. This is software used in bringing together all the functional departments of the organization.
The other current trend is the need for computer security culminating from the increasing use of the internet and intranets. There is therefore a dire need for software like firewalls and antivirus applications for computer security.
According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics (2001, p.1), Autonomy Corporation has kept pace with these developments in the industry. It remains the second-largest company in Europe dealing in pure software. According to the industry analysts like Forrester Research and others, the position of Autonomy Corporation is recognized in the industry. They acknowledge that the company is the fastest-growing in the industry. There are so many companies that have come up in the industry. This has caused great competition in the market. To maintain its position globally, Autonomy Corporation has to strategize on how to beat its competitors.
McKinsey seven (7) S Model in analysis of Autonomy Corporation
Under this framework, we shall analyse how Autonomy Corporation has improved its effectiveness and efficiency within the Mc Kinsey 7s model. The 7s include the analysis of the company under the shared values, structure, systems, strategy, style, skills and staff.
Analysis of Autonomy Corporation current Marketing Mix using the seven (7) Ps
This section analyses the current marketing mix of Autonomy Corporation under the 7Ps. The 7Ps are product, price, place, promotion, packaging, positioning and people.
Product-autonomy Corporation sells a variety of software applications and systems. It sells a complete package of enterprise applications like pan-enterprise search, customer relation management, and security applications among many others. The product policy of the company is to offer good quality products to satisfy the customers. The products are apt for today’s people needs. The products are of different sizes in order to suit the taste of the company (Egan 2007, p.76).
Price-autonomy Corporation charges fair prices for all its products. The price of the products is worth the quality of the product bought. The company believes that customers buy quality at a reasonable price. They therefore charge a fair price for its products.
Place-autonomy Corporation has offices in man parts of the world. The company is headquartered both in Cambridge, UK and San Francisco, US and is in operation in several countries globally. It has offices in china, Japan, and Australia among others. Promotion– the company creates awareness of its products through TV advertisement, print advertisement and online among others. The company website has a lot of advertisement for every product it sells. More awareness is created by the people who already know the company and likes its products.
Packaging- the company packs its products in a professional manner. In away that attracts the customers. The packaged products are very portable by the customers.
Positioning– the company is well positioned in the minds and the hearts of the customers. Customers perceive the company as friendlier than other companies because of its affordable price. Autonomy Corporation offers quality products and excellent services. Due to good quality of the product, the company has won the confidence of the people.
People-according to Smith and colleagues, these are all the people that take place in the marketing strategy of the company are taken care of. The company treats the employees well. The outsiders also pray a big role. The company has won their confidence by giving them quality products and low prices.
SWOT analysis
The table below summarises Autonomy Corporation SWOT that is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the company experiences in the market.
Internal factors
External factors
Autonomy market share market share
The company is the second largest in Europe in the software industry. It has a market share of $6 billion. It has over 20,000 customers and over 400 vendors making the company to have the biggest market share. It has market capitalization of about 5.5 billion dollars. The market share is expected to grow as the marker grows.
Competitor analysis
The competitor chosen for this is global graphics. Global graphics was born in 1996 and has been in operation for over 13 years. It deals with web design and internet commerce solutions.
Global graphics SWOT analysis
The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of global graphics are as discussed in the table below:
Internal factors
External factors
Global graphics marketing mix analysis
- Product– the company offers a variety of products that can be accessed through the internet. These products are web design, ecommerce and web marketing among others.
- Price– prices are relatively low.
- Place-the company operates in UK alone.
- Promotion– global graphics spends a lot of money through advertising. Internet advert is posted to the internet regularly.
The competitor’s target market
The company target corporate clients within UK region who sell its products. Since UK is highly developed in terms of technology, the company gets customers from all sectors of the economy.
Autonomy Corporation objectives to be achieved
- To create brand awareness globally through advertising on TV and use of print adverts within one year.
- The communication plan is also targeted to identify the needs of all targeted market within one year.
- To encourage all targeted people to take action and buy the products that is offered by the year end.
- Know how to get the customers the value of what they want and when they want them by the end of the year.
- The plan is aimed at building a lasting relationship with all the customers within one year.
Market communication plan annual budget
The overall budget will be $157,080 which is 10% of the total projected sales. The projected sales value is $1,570,900. Advertisement includes internet, print ads and TV costing a total of $5290 per month. The budget approach selected is percentage of projected sales. This is because it is easier to construct and shows constant budget allocation for each month. It is also possible to note when a figure for certain month is overstated.
Marketing communication elements, strategies employed and objectives
According to Egan (2007, chap 4), there are five elements of communication mix that can be used in marketing communication. These will be discussed below in depth. The suitable element is selected according to 4Cs criteria. That is convenience, cost to the user, communication and relevance to customer needs and wants.
Advertising. Advertising has a wide coverage but it is expensive. Customers believe in advertised goods. It is a one way communication and may not communicate the whole information. The objective to be achieved is creating awareness.
The strategy to be used will be to advertise on TV in the evenings before 9 am when most of the people are in the house. Advertisement through internet will be updated frequently or on weekly basis to incorporate any amendments. Print ads will be placed at strategic points where many people can see them.
Personal selling
According to Smith and colleagues (1999, p.74), personal selling is very expensive but it builds buyers preference hence quick action. It is more convenient as the buyer is given full information as they may need it and builds long-term commitment. The objective to be achieved is to create awareness and make sales.
The strategy will be to offer installation services of the software for free. Items will be sold at a relatively low price in order to attract many people. Visits will be made to potential customers.
Sales promotion
Sales promotion has diverse methods of communication like contests premiums etc. It May not build long-term brand preference. It May have a limited coverage. The objective to be achieved will be to create awareness and make sales. The strategy here will be lowering the cost to a reasonable level in order to attract buyers. Sales promotion will be accompanied by free samples of some other products.
Public relations uses many forms of communication like events, news stories etc. It is relatively cheap and has a wide coverage. The objective will be to create awareness and make sales. The strategy will be to organize activations at strategic points where many customers can be captured. The activation will be accompanied by free samples and some forms of entertainment related to the product use.
Direct marketing also uses many forms like phone calls direct mail etc. It is more interactive and convincing. The objective to be achieved will be to make sale and also create awareness. The strategy to be used will be to make phone calls during lunch time, mornings and evenings when people are not too busy.
Considering the autonomy corporation products life cycle and the 4Cs, advertisement will be more effective because of its wide coverage and low cost per exposure. Advertisement will reach many people globally. It will be combined with direct marketing in order to identify the needs of the customer.
Effectiveness of communication Methods
According to Terence (2008, p.59), the effectiveness of the methods will be measured respective of the target market response. Both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used in measuring the effectiveness of the methods. Under qualitative methods, interviews will be conducted on the persons targeted to ascertain their individual response (Egan 2007, p23). For quantitative assessment, we will assess the general needs of the target market so that strategies can be laid down to meet the needs. Random sampling will be used to choose the respondents.
Timescale; the communication method, time applied and objective to be achieved:
Conclusion
Autonomy Corporation will be able to communicate the product to the consumers effectively using the methods used above. The company will continue to lead she market should this plan be implemented effectively. The choice of the method of communication based on the 4Cs is reliable because it ensures the objectives are met or realised.
Reference
Autonomy.com. 2010. Autonomy-the leader in meaning. Web.
Bureau of Labour Statistics, U.S. Department of Labour. 2010. Career Guide to Industries: Software Publishers. Web.
Egan, J. 2007. Market communications. Canada: Cengage learning EMEA
Russell S. &Taylor J. 2004. Marketing communications: an integrated approach. London: kogan page limited.
Smith P., Berry,C.& Pulford ,A. 1999. Strategic market communications: new ways to Build and integrate communications. London: kogan page limited.
Terence A. 2008. Advertising promotion and other aspects of integrated marketing Communications. Canada: Cengage learning EMEA