Effective Marketing And Business Strategies To Push Sales For Lee Valley Tools

Evaluation of the Internal Marketing Environment

Discuss about the Effective Marketing And Business Strategies To Push The Sales.

Contemporary business organizations should have to initiate effective and distinctive marketing and business strategies in order to push the sales of their new products and to stay ahead in the competition. However, in order to have the scope for effective marketing strategies, it is also important for them to have the clear understanding about the market where they are operating (Borland & Lindgreen, 2013). The more efficient they will be able to determine and analyse the business environment, the more benefits they will gain in offering products according to the market requirements. In addition, it should also be noted that extending the business or product line is also important for the business organizations to extend their market coverage.

Lee Valley Tools are one of the leading tool manufacturers in Canada. They specialize in domestic gardening tools and woodworking tools. Lee Valley Tools were set up in 1978 in Ontario, Canada by Leonard Lee (www.leevalley.co, 2018). Currently they mainly cater to the domestic consumers but they are thinking of enhancing their business operation and enter in other related sector in becoming a fully-fledged manufacturing company. They are having the requirement of a product that will be related to their current product line and that will be the within the same business line. It is suggested that Lee Valley Tools should launch rotary sharpening tool. Currently they are not having this product in their product portfolio and this product will help them to extend their product line by means of complementing their current products.

This report will discuss about the internal and external business environment that will influence the business activities of the new product. Influence of customer decision making elements will also be discussed as well as the source of the competitive advantages. Marketing strategies for the new product include segmentation strategy and marketing mix will also be evaluated.

Strengths Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	· Currently, they are having expertise in selling and marketing the gardening tools. Thus, the new tool is also in same sector and they are having the expertise to push the new product also. · Lee Valley Tools is already highly penetrated in the Canadian market with the current products and thus it will be easier to push the sales of the new product also (Spann, Fischer & Tellis, 2014). · Offering rotary sharpening tool will help them to assist their existing customers by offering the option of sharpening the gardening tools.
Weaknesses	· There are number of existing and established players offering sharpening tools in the market. They are having more expertise in this product (Velamuri et al., 2013). · Lee Valley Tools are having market only in Canada and thus they will have limited market opportunities. · Lee Valley Tools will require added investments for their new product development. This may have impact on their financial performance.
Opportunities	· Extension of the product line will help Lee Valley Tools to cover more market and customers. · Canadian economy as well as the global economy is developing and thus the business opportunities will be more for Lee Valley Tools (Van den Berg, 2016). · Offering sharpening tools will help in catering to both domestic and industrial customers.
Threats	·  Presence of established competitors in the market will reduce the profitability of Lee Valley Tools. · Introduction of more sophisticated and sustainable products in the market will reduce the potentiality. · Economic recession is another major threat due to the reason that emergence of economic recession will reduce the market opportunities (Cowling et al., 2015).

Competition	· Intensity of competition will be more for Lee Valley Tools due to the presence of number of already established players in the market. · Rotary sharpening tools are having number of variants depending on their size and utility. Existing players are offering large number of variants (Shahin & Azar, 2013). · It is recommended that Lee valley Tools should offer their products with high level of point of differences. · Product differentiation will be the key source of competency for Lee Valley Tools.
Regulatory	· There are number of regulations and legal standards should have to be maintained by Lee Valley Tools in adding new products in their portfolio. · In addition, they also have to adhere to the safety standards due to the reason that target market will be the end customers (Baldwin & Yan, 2014). · It may get difficult for Lee Valley Tools to get adhered to the regulations.
Economic	·  Economic condition is better and favorable for Lee Valley Tools due to the reason that Canada is having positive growth of their economy. · However, it should also be noted that Canada is having highly globalized economy and thus the risk of impact of global recession is more for Lee Valley Tools (Panayotou, 2016). · It will also be a risky affair for Lee Valley Tools to invest in developing new product and probable return on investments.
Social	· Market for personal gardening tools is favorable in Canada. Thus, the potentiality of the rotary sharpening tool will be more due to the reason that requirement for sharpening the personal gardening tools is there in the Canadian market. · However, the preference pattern of the customer will get changed with the introduction of more updated products in the market. Thus it may be one of the major risks for Lee Valley Tools. · Offering of more variants of sharpening tools will help Lee Valley Tools to cater to different customer requirements.
Technological	· Lee Valley Tools are new in this sector and thus they will have less access to the latest technology. · Huge investments are required for Lee Valley Tools to get at par with their global competitors. · Technology is rapidly changing and it is important for Lee Valley Tools to frequently update their products.

It is important for Lee Valley Tools to identify the sources for gaining of competitive advantages. This is due to the reason that competitive advantages will only be able to help Lee Valley Tools to push the sales of their new product in the market. This will be determined with the help of Porter’s generic strategies.

Cost leadership strategy refers to offering products in the market at lowest price available. Thus, initiation of cost leadership strategy will help the business organizations to attract more customers over their competitors (Kaliappen & Hilman, 2013). It is recommended that Lee Valley Tools should also initiate the cost leadership strategy in order to offer the products in the lowest price in the market. It is also being recommended that in order to have cost leadership in the market, Lee Valley Tools should opt for lean manufacturing in order to have lower average cost of production. In addition, increased of automated system will also enable Lee Valley Tools to have lower cost of production.

Evaluation of the External Marketing Environment

It is recommended that Lee Valley Tools should also initiate product differentiation strategy. This refers to the offering of products in the market with more unique and distinctive features and attributes. Therefore, the more will be the distinctive features of the product, the more will be the point of differentiation for Lee Valley Tools (Becerra, Santalo & Silva, 2013). For instance, they can offer rotary sharpening tools with more portability and battery power. This will enhance the convenience for the customers.

VRIO analysis will be used to evaluate the sustainability of the sources of competitive advantages (Knott, 2015).

Valuable	· Reducing the production cost will increase the profitability and organizational value. · Offering differentiated products will help to create more value for the customers along with the increase in the value for the organization by the means of increased market growth (Bondarenko et al., 2017).
Rarity	· Strategies to be initiated by Lee Valley Tools in reducing the production cost will be unique. Skills of the employees will help in initiating lean production process (Bhamu & Singh Sangwan, 2014). Distinctive skills of the employees are rare in nature. · Product differentiation by means offering unique products will also be rare and will not be available to the rivals.
Imitable	· Skills of the employees can be imitated by the competing firms. · Distinctive features to be used in the product will be patented and cannot be imitated.
Organizational structure	· Lee Valley Tools are having facilities and expertise in manufacturing gardening and woodworking tools. Thus, they will able to use their expertise in manufacturing of rotary sharpening tools also. · They have the favorable idea about the Canadian market and it will help them to offer product according to the local specification.

There are number of steps being involved in consumer buying decision process. The first step is need recognition that refers to requirement of the customers to buy a certain product (Karimi, Papamichail & Holland, 2015). The target customers for Lee Valley Tools will be the customers with having the requirement of portable and personal sharpening tool for their gardening tools.  The next step is the search for information. As Lee Valley Tools is the new entrant in this sector, thus the chance for internal search is less and customers will have to focus more on the external search. Thus, it is recommended that Lee Valley Tools should have extensive policies of promotion and advertisements in order to enable the customers to have more awareness about their products (Ke, Shen & Villas-Boas, 2016). The next is the evaluation of alternatives. This step refers to the selection of the chosen product from the available products based on the criteria of the customers. In this case, the point of differences to be offered by Lee Valley Tools will determine the preferences of the customers.

The next step is the purchase decision. Customers will purchase a certain product only if their requirements are being met effectively (Sallam, 2014). Thus, it is suggested that Lee Valley Tools should offer their products according to the requirements of their target customers. In addition, it is also suggested that they should initiate the continuous the process of updating their product to deal with the change in taste and preference pattern of the customers with time. The last step in the customer decision process is post purchase behavior. Thus, Lee Valley Tools should have proper after sales service for their customers.

One of the major influences of the customer decision making process is on the sales of the products. Social factors is the major influential factor the customers. This is due to the reason that if the customers are having the requirement or the market trend of using the personal gardening tools then only the demand for rotary sharpening tools will be there in the market (Rani, 2014). It is also to be noted that economic condition of the country will also be a determining factor for Lee Valley Tools due to the reason that more favorable economic condition will ensure more market potentiality of the products.

Sources of Competitive Advantages

It is suggested that they should initiate the mass market segmentation strategy for their rotary sharpening tools. This is due to the reason that initiation of the mass market segmentation strategy will enable them to cover the maximum number of customer and maximum market area. Moreover, sharpening tool is necessity product and not a luxury product. Thus premium pricing strategy will not be viable enough for them (Craft & Hassan, 2015). In terms of the geographical segmentation, tier I cities should be targeted at the first stage due to the reason that customers are having added purchasing power in the metro cities to buy the rotary sharpening tool. In terms of the demographic segmentation, the age group between 30 and 65 will be targeted due to the reason that adult professionals will have the requirement due to their lack of time and older aged people will have the requirement due to their inability to opt for external help in sharpening their gardening tools (Cross, Belich & Rudelius, 2015).

Lee Valley Tools will initiate cost leadership and differentiation strategy in order to cater to the target segments. The first phase of the targeting strategy will be gathering feedback from the segmented set of customers in order to identify their preference and requirement patterns (Tanwar, 2013). In accordance to that, generic strategies will be initiated.

It is suggested that Lee Valley Tools should be position their sharpening tool as a necessity item and as a complementary item for their gardening tools. This will help them to attract the existing customers of them who are already using the gardening tools of them (Akpoyomare, Adeosun & Ganiyu, 2013). This will also cater to the new customers who are willing to have their own set of gardening tools. Thus, relating with the gardening tools will ensure that rotary sharpening tool will be sold alongside with the existing products of Lee Valley Tools. This is also recommended that product differentiation will also help them to offer distinctive value to the customers over their competitors.

The CSR activities of Lee valley Tools should include free training of farming and gardening. This will enable them to portray the utility of their new rotary sharpening tools and how this can help the customers in enhancing their value. In addition, they can also offer their new products as free to the rural areas in order to help the people in their job (Servaes & Tamayo, 2013). On the other hand, this will help Lee Valley Tools in demonstrating the advantages of using their rotary sharpening tools.

Cost Leadership Strategy

Point of sale and kiosk will be extensively used in order to gain customer data. This is due to the reason that in the rural areas, web services will be less. Kiosk and physical point of sale will help to gather the date directly from the customers (Khodakarami & Chan, 2014). More offline mediums will be focused over the online medium in the rural areas. Customer loyalty program will be initiated according to the customer data. This will help in providing most effective service to the customers. Customer data will also be used in product development due to the fact that the further product development will be initiated based on the feedback gathered from the customers (Tseng & Wu, 2014).

Product	· Proposed product is specialty product due to the fact that customers will not buy daily and it will be for once. · Core element of the product will be to provide portable and personal sharpening tool. · Actual product is the tool provided. · Augmented product will include the effectiveness of the after sales service (Kim & Krishnan, 2015).
Price	· Market penetration pricing strategy will be initiated. · It will help to increase the volume of sales along with increase in profitability (Liozu & Hinterhuber, 2013). · Price will be the lowest compared to the competitors.
Promotion	·  Advertising, public relation and sales promotion will be the used in promotional mix. · Public relation will help to cater and communicate with the rural market effectively (Nour & Almahirah, 2014).
Place	·  Retail channels will be used to cater to the end customers. · More focus will be given on brick and mortar stores due to the fact that it will have more effectiveness in the rural stores (Beck & Rygl, 2015).

Conclusion 

This report concludes that offering the rotary sharpening tools will help Lee valley to further increase their market share in the Canadian market. In this report, there are numbers of marketing strategies being discussed that can help Lee Valley Tools in pushing the sales of their new product in the market. This report concluded that the segmentation and targeting strategies discussed will help Lee Valley Tools to effectively cater to the market.

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www.leevalley.co. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.leevalley.co