Marketing Opportunities free essay sample

Profile BBQfun is one of Queenslands specialty retailers. The BBQfun brand is synonymous with barbeque retailing and is built on the strong foundation of selling barbeques and outdoor lifestyle itmes to Queensland consumers since 2009. BBQfun’s product range is primarily focussed on barbeques and outdoor lifestyle products, incorporating both local and important goods. BBQfun operates two store in Queensland, one in Brisbane and one at the Gold Coast. BBQfun provides to customer great value products, excellent customer service, continuously improvement and innovation and is trusted by more than 10,000 customers in Queensland. Situation analysis The retail market changed over the last few years, it became more competitive than ever before. Therefore consumer buying patters changed as well. BBQfun increased they market share until 2010 steadily to $10m. Since 2010, sales dropped dramatically because of changes in the retail market, technology and changed consumer behavior. BBQfun has moderate pricing, extensive and high-quality product range, excellent customer service and offer three year product guarantees as only one in the market. BBQfun has identify the basic market need is for quality, fashionable and unique outdoor lifestyle items. Market characteristics Queensland has a population growth of 5% (2. 5% in 2012 ABS) annual. New homes buyer and renovated houses growing steadily from a base of 50,000 per year. Unfortunately the low unemployment rate of 4,7% grow to 5. 4% in 2012 in Queensland. Therefore Queensland has now the second highest rate in Australia. BBQfun is targeting the geographic area of Brisbane with a total population of 2m people and also the direct area with a radius of 30km around the store. The aimed total targeted population is estimated at 450,000 people. Typical customer are males and females, age between 20 and 50 years. Amongst them is a high number of young professionals who working in the CBD of Brisbane and having completed under-graduated or post-graduated studies. The average disposable income is over $70k. Market needs BBQfun has identify the basic market need is for quality, fashionable and unique outdoor lifestlye items. Customer requirements Consumers like to have a wide range of different products and options. The store should be easily access-able with a minimal inconvenience for the customer. BBQfun has a great reputation for customer service which is always valued by consumers within this market. Consumer asking for price transparency to compare with competitors and payment plans. Products with warranty increasing consumer popularity. Market trends The trends in the market leads to quality, uniqueness and wider selection. Consumers who are in search for high quality items learn to appreciate value over price. Consumers like to have a vast selection or high diversity of products with varying price ranges. They are also looking for specialistic products which stand-out from the mass-productive crowd. Market Growth In 2009 the national outdoor lifestyle market reached 3 million dollars with an estimated growth of at least 6% over the next few years. Research demonstrates that consumers will be having a greater disposable income within the mere future with the assumption that on average two persons will be living under the same household. The economic forecast also states that interest rates will stay steady and will have no effect on disposable income. There is also an increasing popularity of T. V lifestyle programs which provides free-marketing to BBQfun. The market trend also shows that consumers are interested in high quality imports that remain affordable. Market Competition There are three major existing national competitors: The Yard, BBQ’s R Us and Outdoorz. The Yard is only become a threat to BBQfun if the business decision to enter the e-commerce market. Advantageously, The Yard does not trade in Queensland and currently has no marketing promotional actions. All of their products are good quality, Australian-made but highly priced. BBQ’s R Us is definitely a threat competitor who has a broad range of outdoor lifestyle products. Their main focus is on cheap imports and on already established markets. They have a strong replacement segment which is highly valued by consumers. However, their trading is mainly based in Adelaide and Melbourne which assist our market-share in Brisbane. BBQ’s R US are considering on entering the e-commerce market. Outdoorz has Australian-made outdoor lifestyle product with good value prices making them highly competitive to BBQfun. They have a few stores situated in every major city and the quality of their products range from low to medium. Alike BBQ’s R Us, Outdoorz has a strong focus on their replacement segment. They are gaining market strength in Brisbane and have a large advertising budget. If Outdoorz considers e-commerce marketing strategies, they will become a major threat out of the three. BBQfun’s local competition are mainly independent retailers. Our local competitors have products ranges that varied according to the owner’s preferences. They mostly sell Australian manufactured goods with an average item sale of $250/piece. All these independent retailers have a market share of 48% and a growing rate of 8% per year. Situation analysis summary BBQfun trades on a highly competitive growing market. Competitors fighting hard for every single market share. BBQfun is in a fortune situation to enter a niche market with only a few competitors and has also great potential to expand national wide. BBQfun has created an outdoor lifestyle range which is differentiated and superior to competitors. They offering a high quality range of products which costumer can see and test in stores. BBQfun offered to customer some great deals such as flexible payment plans, three year guarantee which is unique in the market, broadest range of products in the market, expert and friendly customer service and the most remarkable services that are better than anybody else. The marketing strategy will show how BBQfun can take advantage of this situation and increase significant they market share. Marketing strategy The advertising budget is $180k for the year 2012. The marketing campaign will mainly focus on print advertising such as magazines, direct mails and local newspaper. It is also consider a radio advertisement. Previous years showing a high increase of sales after publishing articles in the BrisNews magazine. That will be consider as the most successful strategy. The aim of the marketing strategy is to increase the loyalty customer from 10,000 to 16,000 and to establish a brand recognising in Queensland so that two out three people recognise BBQfun. BBQfun like to increase they growth rate at at least 10% within the next year and continuously growing the gross profit margin. Target market The target market is divided in three segments: new builds, renovations and replacements. A customer survey shows that BBQfun most loyal costumers are new builds. These group present 30% out of all costumers. All three segments groups are willing to buy online and pay for delivery. New builds are service, quality and price focus as well as loving to buy Australian made. They are loyal reader of the BrisNews magazine. Renovator usually living in other parts of the country and for them is service and quality the more important than price. Those consumer are loyal to print and online version of the Aspire Outdoor magazine. Replacement costumer are different. they love to support australian jobs and looking for good quality as well. Costumer service is not so important than price. These group are reader from BrisNews magazine as well. Marketing mix BBQfun pricing strategy is comparable prices for comparable quality. The value and quality are more important than the price but this will be backed up with a three year guarantee. BBQfun has two stores in Queensland which can be easily access and has large car parking arrangements. The most successful campaign will be ads and insert in the BrisNews, this along will reach 40% of loyal costumer, as well as informal articles and reviews. In-store promotion will take place and competitions with prizes to exotic destinations. BBQfun philosophy is ‘customer is king’ whatever needs to be done to make the customer happy must occur. This creates a loyal costumer base and those costumer are happy to recommend BBQfun to friends. Marketing strategy summary The aim is to build such a good reputation and brand awareness that BBQfun will be position as the premier outdoor lifestyle store in Queensland within five years. The marketing strategy to reach that aim is to first create customer awareness regarding their services offered, develop that customer base and building costumer loyalty and referrals. The message BBQfun will communicate is that BBQfun offers the widest, most exotic, easy access outdoor lifestyle products in Brisbane. Marketing methods: direct mail, ads and inserts in BrisNew magazine and flyers in the letterbox. The marketing mix will send messages to consumers about the excellent high quality products with a three year guaranty which is unique. It’s necessary to let consumer know the stores are easily accessible and there are lots of car parking available. This will happen through ads, inserts and article in BrisNews magazine, following the BBQfun philosophy ‘customer is king’. Potential new markets Export markets One of the first questions is to ask which country or countries do BBQfun export to first? Should BBQfun start with the USA, being the largest of the English speaking, common law based countries? Or perhaps the UK, because BBQfun is familiar with the culture and the customer? Or maybe BBQfun should capitalise on the Chinese opportunity, because it’s the highest growth market? The selection of BBQfun’s first export market needs to be based on a well crafted pre-export plan and a carefully developed set of criteria. It needs to include a delicate balance surveying multiple initial market opportunities against BBQfun current level of resources, experience, and desired short and long-term business goals. Only then can BBQfun commence the culling process that enhance the business into the handful of optimal markets BBQfun can consider initially exporting to. No company can expected to ace their first attempt in exporting to a new market. Consequences of  failing in a market can be damaging both short-term and long-term. Short-term consequences are better known, such as the waste of resources and time, opportunity cost, and cash-flow. In particular, is the flow-on damage these consequences can cause to your domestic business in the form of distraction and cash drain, and the general apathy that can then develop towards establishing new export markets going forward. But it is the long-term consequences that are lesser known and under appreciated, in particular for companies who are trying to build a sustainable and valuable brand or reputation, with the view to selling their brand or company down the line. One is the penalty in valuation BBQfun may incur when the time comes to  sell your brand or services. Large acquirers, in particular multinationals who have a presence in several of your target export markets, may not pay BBQfun the same value for an unsuccessful export market that they may pay you for your booming domestic one. The following are just some of the benefits of exporting: depending upon BBQfun export strategy BBQfun may have access to overseas capital to fund your business growth in addition to the benefits of greater volume exporting to the ‘other’ hemisphere can greatly assist to smooth out the normal peaks and troughs of supplying the domestic market there maybe ‘residual markets’ overseas for products and services that are in decline in the domestic market The mere process of overcoming the numerous hurdles of exporting can sharpen BBQfun’s commercial acumen and improve your business sustainability. Maximise exporting benefits BBQfun domestic business operations can also derive significant benefit from developing overseas markets as follow: Exposing BBQfun products/services to overseas competition forces BBQfun to compare they product offering and in so doing BBQfun may enhance they product or service to be more competitive. This can assist BBQfun competitive edge in their domestic market by either increasing market-share or improving margin—or in preventing overseas competitors competing in their market. As BBQfun’s product may need to be enhanced to market overseas—so may they marketing message and materials. Different markets require information presented in different ways (in addition to using new languages). The information gained this way can provide a reach stream of innovative introductions into BBQfun’s domestic market. To successfully access export markets may require changes to internal systems and processes—all of which can/should be used to enhance service delivery in the domestic market. Typically expanding into export markets requires bringing additional skills into the business and this can be achieved through training, hiring qualifies staff or outsourcing support. Is BBQfun export ready? Notwithstanding the above developing overseas markets is not for the fainthearted—penetrating new markets with different languages, cultures and currencies requires time, skills, concerted effort and cash (working capital). If done incorrectly chasing export markets can potentially negatively impact the domestic business. The first step is to evaluate your readiness for export. To address this question you must answer the questions: Does BBQfun has or can get access to appropriate skills? Does BBQfun has the capacity now (product or service delivery) to service export markets? Is that capacity scalable, what are the limitations? Will developing export markets draw resources, skills, money and capacity? Typically export markets involve a longer payment cycle and a reduced margin plus volumes can be significant. Can BBQfun fund this additional working capital or can it source the appropriate funds? Has BBQfun researched target markets in depth and been able to identify how the value proposition of they product or service differs from local and other international competition? BBQfun has great potential to expand to foreign markets. Marketing opportunities Business development strategies seek to match marketing opportunities to the organisations resources (what it can do) and its objectives (what management wants to do). It is useful to have a framework for thinking about the broad kinds of marketing opportunities we seek to find. The Ansoff’s model is one of the best tools for organisations to develop market and product expansion strategies. [pic] All organisations must find new attractive marketing opportunities to grow. But the challenge lies in determining which marketing opportunity offers the most long-term success. Marketing mix Product New products have been introduced and some discontinued. BBQfun offered australian made and imported products with the focus of australian made. This is a positive balances on current demands of customer. This means customers getting a wider range of different products and they can decide on quality and price. Price Price is an important part of a retail marketing mix. If BBQfun’s customers cannot afford the products, they are unlikely to frequent your store. Most of the products in BBQfun’s store should be in a comfortable range for their target audience base. To get this information, BBQfun will need to perform an audience analysis to get an idea of median income and spending power. To create a sense of desire and to give an option for a splurge, BBQfun can also sell some itmes that are priced just out of your target customer’s normal price range. Place In retail, the design of the store and the way BBQfun present their products is an important part of the marketing mix. The display should fit BBQfun image so that customers encounter a cohesive experience. In a high-end retailer, products are often placed father apart to create a sense of scarcity and exclusivity; in a computer store, display models are set at waist height to allow testing. Placement can help bring certain products to attention and promote itmes BBQfun want to sell more of. Promotion Promotion is the most recognisable part of the marketing mix. It involves all of the marketing activities BBQfun does to let their customers know about the products they offer. For a retail outlet, BBQfun might advertise in newspapers and on the radio, start a social marketing campaign, use marketing emails, hand out flyers or plan grand-opening events. BBQfun promotional campaigns should be targeted to they customer base. Choose publications that they read, stations they listen to or watch, and copy or graphic design that will resonate with them. ecommerce Australia’s bricks and mortar retailers have been doing it tough of late. But then, it is getting hard to remember a time when they werent. But while news reports are filled with stories of companies such as Borders, Blockbuster and Premier Retail closing stores, many of Australias online retailers are going from strength to strength. But with competitors just a click away, they also know that staying ahead of the game in online retail is a never-ending race. Different research showed that three quarters of Australias online retailers planned to increase their investment in technology in the following year, spending more on core systems, mobile solutions, back office integration, and multi-channel retail strategies. Which ultimately should benefit consumers in terms of range and service. Business-to-Business marketing B2B marketing is about meeting the needs of other businesses, though ultimately the demand for the products made by these businesses is likely to be driven by consumers in their homes. Put very simply, business-to-business marketing is the marketing of goods and services to businesses in order to keep those companies operating. The biggest differences between business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing are the types of goods and services being marketed and the types of entities the goods and services are being to marketed to. B2B marketers promote goods and services that will help other companies run. Some of the things businesses produce for other businesses include equipment, components, raw material, processing services and supplies. In addition, because B2B marketers target only other companies, they have a significantly more targeted market than business-to-consumer marketers. Even when marketing very specific products for a fairly small subset of individuals, the latter type of marketer has a far larger audience than the former. Many B2B marketing is driven by costumer demand. If there are no consumer to purchase a product, there is no reason for a business to exist in order to make it. If that business does not exist, it will obviously not need the products and services offered by another business. Also, the goals of businesses and consumers are often the same. When choosing a company for goods and services, most consumers and businesses will make a decision based upon price, quality, delivery time and their history with the business. Other considerations might be the availability of the product or service and the quality of customer service if something goes wrong. B2B marketing is currently one of the fastest-growing areas of marketing. As technology brings more businesses together, companies are beginning to court each other far more aggressively. And as technology makes the world a smaller place, it becomes more important for marketing and sales professionals to understand and implement the principles of B2B marketing. Direct marketing Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising that allows businesses to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques that can include text messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters, and outdoor advertising. Direct marketing messages emphasize a focus on the customer, data, and accountability. Characteristics that distinguish direct marketing are: Marketing messages are addressed directly to the customer. Direct marketing relies on being able to address the members of a target market. Addressability comes in a variety of forms including email addresses, mobile phone numbers, Web browser cookies, fax numbers and postal addresses. Direct marketing seeks to drive a specific call to action. For example, an advertisement may ask the prospect to call a free phone number or click on a link to a website. Direct marketing emphasizes trackable, measurable responses from customers — regardless of medium. Direct marketing is practiced by businesses of all sizes. A well-executed direct advertising campaign can prove a positive return on investment by showing how many potential customers responded to a clear call-to-action. General advertising eschews calls-for-action in favor of messages that try to build prospects’ emotional awareness or engagement with a brand. Even well-designed general advertisements rarely can prove their impact on the organisation’s bottom line. Direct marketing is attractive to many marketers because its positive results can be measured directly. For example, if a marketer sends out 1,000 solicitations by mail and 100 respond to the promotion, the marketer can say with confidence that campaign led directly to 10% direct responses. This metric is known as the ‘response rate’ and it is one of many clearly quantifiable success metrics employed by direct marketers. In contrast, general advertising uses indirect measurements, such as awareness or engagement, since there is no direct response from a customer. Marketing opportunities summary and recommendations Direct marketing campaign Because of a limited marketing budget it is recommended to continue the already successful direct marketing campaign. BBQfun can prove a dramatic increase of sales immediately after articles in BrisNews were published. BBQfun might think about to do the same for the Gold Coast store surrounding area. It is also important to continue with targeting the locals living around the stores with direct mail, flyers and local advertising. The advantages for BBQfun using direct marketing are clear: Direct measurement of success: sending 1000 mails, response is 200 = 20% direct response, sending emails, BBQfun can monitor open rates and click rates. BBQfun can use this through offering specials to consumer. Measuring results by product line, use historical data. If BBQfun usually sell 1,000 units of a particular product a month, and during the campaign response period they sell 1,050, BBQfun has an indication of effectiveness. (When using historical data, be sure to take seasonal variations in sales activity into consideration. ) Specific targeting: directly sending information to individuals, BBQfun can specifically target the demographic they wish to reach. This can enhance response rates as the information is relevant to BBQfun. This also gives BBQfun the opportunity to personalise each interaction, such as addressing emails with the name of the customer or individual. Cheap and quick production: depending on which form of direct marketing you select to use, it is generally cheap and quick to produce. Email campaigns, for example, have little cost, do not take much time to create and are delivered to people’s inboxes instantaneously. Potential to build list of potential or existing customers: if BBQfun regularly engage with potential or existing customers, they can build a database of contacts for future use. This makes targeting even easier for future marketing campaigns, giving BBQfun a pool of prospects to market to. The Internet has made it easier for marketing managers to measure the results of a campaign. This is often achieved by using a specific website landing page directly relating to the promotional material. A call to action will ask the customer to visit the landing page, and the effectiveness of the campaign can be measured by taking the number of promotional messages distributed (e. g. , 1,000) and dividing it by the number of responses (people visiting the unique website page). Another way to measure the results is to compare the projected sales or generated leads for a given term with the actual sales or leads after a direct advertising campaign. e-commerce campaign We are living in the Information age. Internet has changed our lives and these changes are irreversible. The more people get on to internet and search for information, the more opportunities begin to develop for e commerce. There is no choice for BBQfun but to get on to the e-commerce way. Advantages of e-commerce: Internet being a world wide web, opens up the world as a market to the businesses. Businesses can reach out to millions of customers in an instant which is not possible in any conventional mode of marketing. One of the most significant advantages that e- commerce offers is the cost. The cost of marketing online across the globe is minuscule when compared to the actual cost of marketing in the conventional ways. The cost per transaction works out to be very cheap. E-commerce promotes paperless offices and processes thus contributing to savings in terms of resources too. And also looking at e-commerce from a marketing perspective brings the product or the service closer to the customer. It enables the customer to view, read, download and experience the product. The other significant difference from conventional marketing is that the online marketing enables the marketing company to customise its sales pitch or product offering to the customer. As against the conventional modes which target consumers and markets at large, with internet marketing and E Commerce it is possible to target every single individual making it more personalised and customised offer. Ways BBQfun can measure the success of they e-commerce site: Number of orders processed through the site: this is an simple metric to measure on a weekly or monthly basis. Plot the results on a graph and it is easy to see how orders flow through the site and how quickly they e-commerce presence is growing. Number of customers using the site: measuring how many people have registered to use or are using an e-commerce site demonstrates adoption of the channel and the credibility and usability of a site. This metric is a critical e-commerce measure for a brand new site or for a company expanding into the world of e-commerce for the first time. Average cart total: analyzing the average cart totals and whether the totals are trending up or down will help BBQfun qualify the success of their site merchandising and promotional efforts. When average cart totals spike, BBQfun can figure out why so that you can repeat a successful promotion in the future. Cart abandonment rate: the number of carts that are abandoned on the site is a clear indicator of how the site is performing. Taking a closer look at exactly when customers bail out will tell BBQfun where the problem is and keeping tabs on abandonment rate will help BBQfun fix issues before they become major problems. Percentage of total revenue: when looking at the total revenue, what percentage is attributed to e-commerce? Measuring this percentage periodically will give BBQfun a sense of they overall adoption rate and the success of the site. These and many more advantages make obvious BBQfun sense for to market their products and services online. Both marketing strategies will increase the sales figures and the market share, grow the business, strength the reputation of BBQfun and give BBQfun the opportunity to expand to national and international markets as well and everything with a low budget. Sales prediction Least squares method Year |Sales (y) |Coded time (x) |XY |X2 | |2012 |11,000,000 |1 |11,000,000 |1 | |2013 |12,000,000 |2 |24,000,000 |4 | |2014 |15,000,000 |3 |45,000,000 |9 | |2015 | | | | | |Total ? |38,000,000 |6 |80,000,000 |14 | |Mean xy |12,666,667 |3 | |4. 67 | | b = 80,000,000 ( 3 x 3 x 12,666,667 ) = ( 80,000,000 114,000,003 ) 14 ( 3 x 4. 67 ) = (14 14. 01 ) b = 34,000,003 0. 01 b = 3,400,000,300 a = 12,666,667 ( 3,400,000,300 x 3 ) = 12,666,667 10,200,000,900 = 10,187,334,233 y = a + bx Sales prediction for 2015 is $ Apply marketing opportunities to BBQfun E-commerce marketing Entering the e-commerce market is essential because of the change with technological advancements where most organisations and businesses are deciding to follow the trend. E-commerce marketing will help expand BBQfun to sell products internationally and nationally and make new markets and target audiences discoverable. This will result in financial growth with new sales and consumers. BBQfun already has existing storage places therefore are logistically prepared to enter the e-commerce market. BBQfun stock regulations could be managed in the future in respect to sales and marketing research. E-commerce strategies will help with discovering new markets and new target audiences. There are no real costs involved where delivery can be paid for and managed by the company. However, website design, management and IT solutions will have some cost. The website design will need to incorporate yellow colours or bright summer-time themes. Yellow itself is a neutral colour that will appeal to both our male and female consumers. The website needs to be written concisely and in easy terms. After successfully applying e-commerce marketing strategies the next step is to cover B2B marketing in order to achieve brand recognition and increase sales. B2B and e-commerce marketing strategies both align with BBQfun’s business strategies and therefore assist the company in reaching aims. Direct marketing BBQfun already has implemented a direct market strategies through direct mail and local adversing in the BrisNews magazine. Most successful campaign was getting articles written in the BrisNews magazine where BBQfun experienced immediate sales after the articles were published. BBQfun should build on this strategy further by trying to get more publications with popular outdoor lifestyle related magazines in printed and online formats. Where these publications need to be highly tailored to the target audience. Expansion in the direct mailing program to a national level will expand the business further and increase customer loyalty and reputation. There is low cost involvement in expanding the direct marketing segment where distribution, flyer/advertisement design and article placements will increase subtly. All flyers, mail and online material will need to aligned with the corporate design. The corporate design apparent in direct mailing will present a young, refreshing, exotic lifestyle to appeals to our target audience. All suggested strategies applied to BBQfun will lead the company to be a strong/healthy growing business and national and international recognized.