Introduction
A Marketing plan is a critically researched and detailed report which elaborates a specialized strategy for planning new products, venturing into new markets, and winning more customers.
In the Marketing World, various Marketing issues are faced. The following are some of the Marketing issues that arise from the analysis of the facts and data provided for Brampton’s Hampers.
Brampton’s Hampers Company has a limited number of target groups who are the main customers of its products. In this marketing plan, we are going to define the target groups that are going to be considered in the marketing process. The first step while writing a marketing plan is discussing the market plan is the identification of the target market to be able to identify suitable marketing strategies that are to be acquired.
Among the major marketing plans, we are going to concentrate on acquiring new customers through extensive marketing through the effective use of direct response media.
Direct response media is the use of the media to market the company and its products. Using this marketing strategy is very advantageous because the media has a wide scope of targets that can be reached.
Marketing Issues
From the analysis of the facts and data provided about Brampton’s Hampers, we find that they deal with products that are more of quality than quantity and so they attract customers who are more quality conscious than price-driven. This creates a critical marketing issue because due to competition most customers or prospects do not care mostly about the functionality of the product, their main interest is the benefits because they are more quantity conscious. Most customers will look for a product that will go for a better price.
This creates a critical marketing issue because the company has considerable appeal to clients whose main interest is organic products. Unlike other supermarkets which offer all range of products, the company offers only a certain range of products hence many customers will prefer to finish all their shopping in the supermarket other than top-up at Brampton’s. Many customers will go to a supermarket that has everything under one roof but only the customers who are quality conscious and loyal to the company will go to top up at the company for the organic food products hence it becomes an issue trying to market the food products to such kind of potential customers.
Due to the introduction of a Mail-order business in the company, the company is likely to be faced with the issue of creating a distribution issue and maintaining Email Marketing. Due to the introduction of this mail-order business, the company is likely to get more customers who will not be necessarily from the traditional catchment area, and thus according to a book called “Marketing Issues in Western Europe: Changes…”, by Erdener Kaynak, great research must be done to determine how to carry out distribution activities to meet the marketer’s objectives
The product’s nature should determine the distribution strategy, especially when dealing with the wine which will need special handling.
Some of the potential clients may not be so enlightened about the new technology and in this case, new technology refers to the Email business. This creates a major marketing issue because it limits the number of target customers. After all, only customers who can access email facilities will have an opportunity to do the email business.
Due to the introduction of email marketing such as websites and sending newsletters via email the company needs to find another marketing strategy that will appeal to the interests of the customers that cannot access the email facilities.
Another critical marketing issue that is most likely to be faced is the initial market focus. The company’s first marketing strategy should not be the customers or the commercial marketplace. Once the company has been well marketed, the company achieves customer loyalty without having to market the products.
Critical issue number one is being able to market the company’s opportunity to appropriate sources of funding. The initial challenge is to determine funding sources that match its situation and market specifically to potential funders in these categories.
Due to the company’s interest in venturing into new marketplaces, its main target should not be the end-user customers. The main interest should be to market the company itself.
This becomes a marketing issue because the company might tend to overlook the fact that the new marketplace has not heard of the company. Marketing the company through the internet becomes a difficult task and sometimes media will have to be incorporated to reach out to new marketplaces.
Another marketing issue occurs once a company is well established in the traditional and other marketplaces. Unless the marketing effort is designed to fulfill the goals of the current sales program, the whole effort is virtually worthless. Brampton’s Hampers’ company’s main focus of marketing activity has been based on corporate reputation, self-evident attractiveness of their products and they have eerie anticipation that the quality and functionality of their products or services will be recognized and appreciated by customers and this creates a very critical marketing issue because it is very difficult to make it in the competitive market environment with such an attitude. After all, most customers do care much about the quality and the functionality of the products.
The company is also likely to be faced with a marketing issue because the company gives promotions and hampers to customers who are members only. The company should be ambitious and focus on the other external market
Marketing Plan
Purpose and Mission
Brampton’s Hampers is a well-established regionally-based supermarket that deals with organic food products and in this marketing is aimed at increasing the production of the company by entering into a new market by defining the new target groups.
The vision of the marketing plan is to provide goods and services that are of quality to our customers. The plan intends to create more effective customer relations by embracing the new technology to make transactions more effective and easy to use.
The companies advantage is the customer knowledge of the functionality and quality of the products and the extensive customer benefits that are in place to attract and retain customers.
Marketing Strategy and Objectives
The main market strategy to be discussed in this marketing plan is acquiring new customers through the effective use of direct response media.
From the research done about the company, we find that there is still a big number of potential customers in the traditional market area that has not yet been interested. Due to these statistics, the marketing plan is planning on selling more to the same market while still advertising more to the same traditional market area.
The major aim is finding and establishing a new market so as cater for the financial obligation of attaining more income
Tactical Marketing Programs
The current market consists of loyal members of the company who are mostly from the area around the company. Due to the introduction of the Wines club and the mail business, the company now has customers from even outside the traditional market area which is very impressive.
The market plan intends to implement the use of direct response media to reach out to more market targets so as to get more customers.
The use of direct response media will assist in the easy communication of the customers and the company to enable the easy use of mail business.
An outline CRM (Customer relationship marketing) plan to encourage repeat purchases from customers.
By analyzing Harmer’s customer’s relationship marketing plan we shall be in a position to define the role of direct and relationship marketing approach to the achievement of the organization’s business objective According to James Quinn an organizations business objective can be said to be the organizational goal by this he means the state at which the company intends to be at a specific time in the future. The business objectives can also be defined as a plan on what is to be achieved in the future and when will the results be attained, however, the objectives do not give details of how the results shall be achieved.
In addition, the objectives also dictate the type of products that will be in a particular place and the prices to be introduced on them, but the objectives of a firm can not be separated from the interest of the customers, as evidenced by Paul wills 2004. The market plan for the organization:
Brampton’s Hampers
Executive summary
Current situation Macro environment
The organization has a stable structure and guarantees existence. This is based on the economic, legal, government, technology, ecological social culture, and supply chain. These are the macro-environment factors that ensure the organization stays in operation. The organization maintains a good economic state by improvement of quality and marketing through the website. The government is very concerned with quality hence the organization ensures that quality is not overlooked.
Current situation Market Analysis
This refers to market Analysis that the organization is in at a specific time. Market refers to the catchments area or the level of sales by an organization, this involves the whole process of inventory or amount of goods sold. Market size assists in the determination of the current situation market analysis which in this case refers to the customers turn out, marketing size also involves the determination of the area of coverage in goods or product distribution this is the approximate number of customers that the organization serves. Brampton’s Hampers market is mostly around its location, in that a good percentage of its customers come around the companies location which the south west of England.
The market segmentation of the organization involves the divisions of the market Brampton Company has several age sets who are their customers but a good percentage are young people. For a marketing plan to be effective it must increase the number of customers from other age blankets. Industry structure and strategic groupings must be considered since they are used to determine the available opportunities together with the competition and market share. Brampton’s has a great advantage over its competitors since its products are produced locally hence fresh and readily available. In this light, the market trends must be monitored closely the market test carried out earlier are useful in the determination of the market share.
Current Situation Consumer Analysis
In analyzing consumers’ needs we should consider several factors such as the buying decision and the participants to those decisions. Participants and the decision made helps the organization to be aware of the customer’s complains or praises. The research on this for Brampton Company involves checking the demographic, psycho logics, expectation, and motivation of the buyer and besides the loyalty segments.
Current situation Internal
This involves the capability of the company in terms of the available resources that the company holds financial capacity, people, time, and skills. The Brampton Company poses some strong aspects of this because its employees have dedicated hence a low turnover and also the locality is on good terms with the organization since its activities and supplies are all based on the specific area. In addition, the objectives of the organization are well structured and clearly stated. A good objective should include a mission statement and a vision. Brampton Hamper’s objectives include corporate, financial, marketing long-term descriptions of the company’s state and final consideration of the organizational structure. The objectives of this company are based o about one year and he can be obtained from the planning the companies which are meant to last for an about a year and also from the marketing test.
Summary of situation Analysis
The whole of the organizational analysis refers to the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the organization they involve both external and internal factors. The critical success factors in Brampton’s and the competitive advantages such as the easy availability of their products and the ability to advertise their commodity via websites.
Marketing strategy
The organization activities and the marketing plan surrounds the south of England the new goal can be to improve the area of the companies activity by putting into consideration the geographical coverage, improving the distribution channel to a wider area, physical distribution, and logistics, and also the electronic distribution.
Implementation
To implement the suggested changes the organization should put into consideration the personnel requirements which include the assignment of responsibilities such as distribution activities, give incentives, and train the staff on the selling methods that will assists in the enlargement of the area the company covers. Financial requirements should also be a priority to ensure all Brampton’s activities including the new changes are stable. Management information system requirements, month-by-month agenda, and the monitoring of new changes and adjustments mechanism to assist in contingencies evaluation should be implemented. Contingencies involve other extra suggestions that the organization can implement.
Financial summary
The suggested changes involve expansion of the organization which means that there may be extra funds needed. Hence a Pro-forma monthly income statement, a contribution margin analysis, and breakeven analysis should be calculated to ensure the organization is stable and does not result in a very low liquidity level. This can be backed by internet Strategic Intelligence.
Appendix
The scenarios of the future should be designed. The organization’s new plan is to expand its market area by covering a wider region and also improvement of the distribution factors of their products, this involves more employees and extra funds though the profit margin may widen.
A budget generally refers to a list of all future expenses and revenues. It’s useful in microeconomics since it uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between several goods a budget can also be referred to as the organizational plan stated in monetary terms.
The budget is based on the annual activities of the company; it requires considerable effort and can be seen as a financial plan for the upcoming financial year. Brampton’s activities on the Finance details compile the company’s budget, the company uses modern software which allows several people in the various departments such as operations, human resources, and Information technology to contribute their expected revenues and expenses to the final budget.
A good budget ensures that the expected do not differ with a very wide margin with the actual results. If the actual and the expected are close or the margin is not too wide it implies that the company understands the business and has been successfully driving it in the direction they had planned. But if the gap between the expected and the actual figures have a great margin then it indicates that the share price could differ hence sending an ‘out of control signal
References
- Erdener Kaynak (1993), The Global Business: Four Key Marketing Strategies.
- William J. Winston (1985), Marketing Strategies for Human and Social Service Agencies.