Product Strategy

Question:

What is marketing Plan?

Marketing strategy is one of the effective measures that are taken by the organisation in order to achieve the goals and objectives of an organisation. The effective marketing strategy can provide the organisation with the sustainable competitive advantage in the industry and can help in achieving the short-term and the long-term goals of the firm. Marketing strategy is one of the functions of the marketing management. Marketing management is one of the significant and integral parts of the organisational functions. The marketing management strategies can help in identifying the target market and the effective message can be communicated with the consumers for influencing their purchase decisions (Clow & Baack, 2012). The main aim of this project is to identify the 4P strategy of marketing for establishing a new corporation that can offer corporate photography and product release events in the market of Canberra.

The main aim of the marketing plan is to establish the photography studio in the market and take effective measures for attracting the target consumers in the industry. The marketing strategies can help in establishing the service in the Canberra markets (Chaffey, Ellis-Chadwick & Chaffey, 2012).

The service that is taken into consideration is the photography studio where various services will be provided to the consumers from the digital photography and other services can also be provided like printing of the photos, video converting etc.

Various strategies can be integrated in the product for attracting the consumers. It is known that the goods or the service should have certain unique qualities that can help establishing the product in the market and attract the consumers (Finne & Grönroos, 2009). Here it can be said that the digital studio will provide the consumers with the unique experience of capturing the memory of their families and friends in the frame. The most advanced cameras will be purchased for providing better service to the consumers. The company will offer high quality photography at the lowest possible cost to the consumers. The service will not only serve to the individual consumers but it will also provide services to the corporate entities like covering the photography of the corporate events. The quality of the service that will be provided to the consumers is very high and the service providers are very professional (Keegan, 2012).

The pricing strategy is another important factor that needs to be taken into consideration. The pricing strategy involves taking the decisions regarding the pricing of the product. There are various pricing strategies that can be taken by an organisation. There can be various pricing strategies like the penetration pricing, skimming pricing, competitive pricing, psychological pricing, bundle pricing etc.

The penetration pricing strategy is referred as the strategy where the organisation sets lower price for the service in order to increase the market share by increasing the sales of the service. The skimming pricing can be referred as the strategy where the organisation initially sets a very high price and thus profits are skimmed from the market. Afterwards the prices are slowly reduced for making the product available in the market (Kolassa, 2015). The competitive pricing on the other hand refers to the strategy where the pricing decision is taken by taking into consideration the pricing decision of the competitors. The firm can compare their own business with the competitors and they can either price higher, lower and they can keep the prices same as the competitors. The bundle pricing is another pricing strategy that can be taken by the company. In case of bundle pricing a group of products can be bundled together and they are offered to the consumers at a discount rate. The psychological pricing is basically the strategy where the theory o psychology is used for positioning product in the market (Kotler & Keller, 2012).

Price Strategy

For the photography company, the competitive or penetrating pricing strategy should be applied and lower price should be charged to the consumers for increasing the market share in the industry. Along with these strategies, the bundle pricing and psychological pricing strategy can be implemented as well (Marketing-schools.org, 2015).

The promotion strategy is one of the most effective strategies that are implemented in the organisation for spreading the words regarding the specifications of the service that is provided by the company. The promotion strategy is used for educating the target audience and various stakeholders regarding the effectiveness of the service (Shankar & Carpenter, 2012). The organisation evaluates the best possible way for reaching the target audience and these are usually a combination of various strategies like advertising, promoting, referrals, personal selling and public relations for the promotion of the service. In case of provision of photography service, the organisation can implement multiple techniques of promotion. They can advertise for the service in the traditional media like newspapers, television etc. On the other hand the social media marketing can be done as well for promoting the service for e.g. in social networking sites of facebook and twitter. The word of mouth and maintaining good public relations can help in achieving the desired goals of the company (Software, 2015).

Thus here it can be said that a group of promotional techniques or the promotional mix can be used for increasing the awareness among the consumers. The budget that can be set for the promotion is $2,000. Here the promotional mix includes social media advertising, newspaper ads, pamphlets, word of mouth etc. The timeline for the promotion is 3 months before the opening of the service (Toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au, 2015).

The distribution or placement strategy is also very effective and significant strategy that is taken by the business units. Distribution marketing strategy refers to the location and the methods that are used by business units in order to supply the products to the consumers. There place is very important as the consumers receive the product or the service at the location (Volkov, 2005). Thus it is very important to increase the convenience of the people for acquiring the service.

In this case the company can be located in a more accessible and local area in Canberra where people can easily access through various forms of transport. In case of corporate photo shoot, the service can be acquired through contact numbers or through email that can be given in the advertisement or in the company website (Westwood, 2011). The social networking sites can also be used for contacting. Thus it can be said that the company will operate under the model of B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (Business to business). They will directly provide the service to the consumers as well as other business and corporate units.

The project implementation and evaluation can also be done here. It is very important to implement the project effectively and control effectively at each and every step. Here it can be said that, in case of project implementation there can be various issues that are faced by organisations. So appropriate planning must be done with pre-planned schedule for the project. In the following table the schedule of marketing plan is given.

In order to evaluate the efficiency of the business project, it is very important to estimate the feasibility of the project. The cost benefit analysis can be an effective tool of assessing the efficiency of the project. The cost benefit analysis is a systematic approach for estimating the weaknesses and the strengths of the desired option. It is one of the effective tools for identifying whether the project should be undertaken or not (Wood, 2011). According to the cost benefit analysis, a project needs to be undertaken if the cost of taking the project is lower than the expected benefits that can be received from the project. Thus it can be said that in this case, there is a significant amount of cost that is borne by the company at first but it is expected that the revenue will surpass the cost and thus the project should be undertaken (Chaffey, Ellis-Chadwick & Chaffey, 2012).

Conclusion:

In conclusion it can be said that the project can provide significant opportunities to the company. The company can expand in other areas as well after succeeding in the market of Canberra. Highly innovative services by using latest devices can help in increasing the efficiency of the company and it can lead to a major success. It is known that the demand for the service is significant in the market and the company can utilise the opportunity for acquiring larger market share in the industry. The planning and implementation of the marketing plan is one of the critical success factors for an organisation. Thus it is very important to implement the marketing plan effectively for achieving success in the industry. In this assignment the effectiveness of the 4Ps of marketing namely Product, Place, Promotion and Price is discussed.

References

Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., & Chaffey, D. (2012). Digital marketing. Harlow: Pearson.

Clow, K., & Baack, D. (2012). Cases in marketing management. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE.

Finne, Å., & Grönroos, C. (2009). Rethinking marketing communication: From integrated marketing communication to relationship communication. Journal Of Marketing Communications, 15(2-3), 179-195. doi:10.1080/13527260902757654

Keegan, W. (2012). Global marketing management. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Kolassa, M. (2015). The Marketing Plan-Critical Success Factors | PM360. Pm360online.com. Retrieved 13 January 2015, from https://www.pm360online.com/the-marketing-plancritical-success-factors/

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2012). Marketing management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Marketing-schools.org,. (2015). Entrepreneurial Marketing | What is Entrepreneurial Marketing?. Retrieved 13 January 2015, from https://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/entrepreneurial-marketing.html

Shankar, V., & Carpenter, G. (2012). Handbook of marketing strategy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Pub.

Software, P. (2015). Photography Studio Business Plan Sample – Market Analysis | Bplans.Bplans.com. Retrieved 14 January 2015, from https://www.bplans.com/photography_studio_business_plan/market_analysis_summary_fc.php

Toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au,. (2015). The Four P’s of Marketing. Retrieved 14 January 2015, from https://toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/part/3/12/56

Volkov, M. (2005). Cases in Marketing and Marketing Communication. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 13(1), 73-74. doi:10.1016/s1441-3582(05)70071-9

Westwood, J. (2011). How to write a marketing plan. London: Kogan Page.

Wood, M. (2011). The marketing plan handbook. Boston: Prentice Hall.