The report is about global marketing strategy and planning. Global marketing strategy is a plan by Multinational Corporations who wish to adapt to the current and future conditions in foreign countries. The report will be based on Samsung Mobile marketing plan which has identified a global opportunity for expansion to the Indian market. Samsung is a South Korean multinational company with its headquarters in Samsung town, Seoul. Lee Byung-chul founded the company in 1938 as a trading company in the 1960, it concentrated it production to electronics. In an analysis conducted on smart phone use in India, it was established that the number of smart phone users is anticipated to grow to 337 million in 2018 from 229.24 in 2017 all of which are different brands. This is a major opportunity in which Samsung Mobile seeks to exploit and have a foot hold as a major smart phone provider for India.
Samsung already has retail stores in India and as of July 2018, they opened a manufacturing factory. The factory will be a major plus as it make their products more affordable within India. However, given the numerous competition they will face, to enter the market successfully and have an impact the company is targeting, a major and effective marketing plan will have to be drawn up which will act as a guideline to achieve their goals.
In order to come up with the most appropriate plan, the company will have to come up with the best market mix, evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the market which is considered as the positioning strategy. The company will also have to evaluate the target market, customer and geography. It should be noted that in the in coming up with the global marketing plan, some assumptions will have to be made and they will be highlighted in the report.
There are several assumptions which will be made when coming up with the global marketing strategy. The assumptions are as follows:
It is also in the assumptions that we shall evaluate the SWOT analysis. This is the company’s evaluation of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We shall assume the SWOT analysis in creating the marketing strategy. The SWOT analysis is as follows:
|
SWOT analysis |
Details |
|
Strengths |
– The company has vast experience in the mobile phone industry – The company is able to produce both high end and average quality products the satisfying a wide range of consumers. |
|
Weakness |
– There is an assumption that the company has no significant weakness. |
|
Opportunities |
– There is a large population in India being the second most populous state thus there is an assumption of a large market and low labor cost following the law of demand and supply |
|
Threats |
– There other well established mobile phone companies like Techno and Huawei which are assumed will give Samsung a run for their money. |
Assumption using the SWOT analysis will be very important in establishing the best market entry and penetration strategy and also gives an idea of what to expect.
Marketing objectives is whereby a business sets goals when it seeks to promote their services and products to potential customers within a given period of time. Samsung Mobile will use the SMART model to define its objectives. The SMART model is the specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timeframe objectives. The objectives of the company are as follow:
3.1 Launch a new product
One of the company’s objective is launch the Samsung smart phone in India putting into consideration what is trending in the smart phone industry. This involves creating awareness of the new product to the target audience. The steps involved in launching of the new products are as follow:
This involves identifying and knowing your target audience including their needs. Once that is done, come up with a world class product that be appealing to your target audience.
To win over potential customers, the target audience needs to know exactly what they are signing up for. This will involve giving the target a short and clear message which will help them understand the product easily thus also making it easier for them to make a decision on the product. The target audience needs product information to be clear in a manner that they will understand it quickly, other if it is hard to comprehend, they will have to move on. To find the right message, the company will have to identify the target audience segment or persona.
When a company set its goals, it will be the basis in which to determine the success of their launch. The goal will also act as a guide in launching of the product and also achieving the short-term and long-term goals.
In order to expect and counter the unexpected, you need to start early. This will help the company get back on track as quickly as possible in case of any setbacks as quickly as possible.
This involves following up on the progress of the product launch. This will help evaluate if the product launch is a failure or a success. In case of failure, the company will identify the reason why and make amends.
The SMART model for launching the new product is as follows:
3.2 Penetrate a new market
To enter and penetrate a new market effectively, you will have to consider some very important elements that it is successful. The method of entry, market selection and analysis, will ensure that you create a foundation for success in the Indian market. The steps to follow to ensure it is a success are as follows:
This will seek to identify the market in terms of it location, demographics and what the target audience has in common. This will help establish the most appropriate strategy to adopt for market entry.
This involves coming up with an in-depth understanding of the anticipated demand, competitors, market growth rate and the potential barriers to entry. This will be especially useful if the market is undefined.
This involves looking at the internal strengths of the company such as the infrastructure and resources and also the sales channels. This will help assess if the entry method chosen will be appropriate and adequate. This step also examines the skill set by the company employee’s to be deployed or recruited to India.
The market should be prioritized in accordance to the projected volume sales. This will enable the company to select the areas to put more effort and resources and those to ignore as they are deemed not viable.
Once you have selected the most appropriate market, you will then have to determine the most appropriate way to penetrate it. It can be via acquisitions, partnerships or joint ventures, licensing or exporting. Samsung Mobile will use direct investment as the marketing entry strategy. This is the most appropriate method given that India is the second most populous country thus there is a large pull of both skilled and semi-skilled labor. Following the low of demand and supply, labor will be cheap as supply is more than the demand. Also, on cost saving, the Indian government is giving tax rebates to large companies who set up shop in the country. This will ensure that the product is readily available to the target audience at affordable prices.
The SMART model for launching the new product is as follows:
The target market is the potential collective customer group the Samsung Mobile Company directs it resources and marketing efforts. In order to come up with the most appropriate and relevant product, the company needs to identify the target market incorporating other factors such as geographical location and customer persona.
4.1 target customer
This will involve market segmentation where the target customers will divided into demographic, geographical, psychographic and behavioral segmentation. The major selling points of Samsung Mobile their 4g internet connection and also its superior back and front cameras. Given these selling points, it will be easier to identify the target customers’ given the various market segmentations. The following will be considered for identification and satisfaction of the target customer:
This is how the market is divided into race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, income and education. For this specific product, the concentration will be gender, income and age. India a large number of young people aged between 18 years and 35 years. Majority of young people are tech savvied and tend to use the internet regularly given that majority are members of internet social groups. Majority use smartphones to access the same. Also, of note is that slow internet connectivity is really annoying. Thus, given that 4g is must faster, Indians aged between 18 and 5 years will find this appropriate and thus are Samsung target customers.
On the other hand, the female gender worldwide really likes to take “selfies”. The female gender will also be the company’s target customers given that another major selling point is the much superior cameras of the Samsung mobile smartphone. In terms of income, there is no limit as the company will produce both high end and low end smartphone affordable to all.
This involving determining the target customer by their buying habits, tastes and preferences, lifestyles and attitudes. The company will determine their target customers by their tastes and preference. This will help determine most appropriate and readily accepted design in terms of the gadget design, shape and size.
This involves identifying customers based on their loyalty to a product brand. Given that a majority of Indians are not loyal to brand, then it will be easy to enter and penetrate the market so long as the product is appealing. Therefore, brand loyalty will not be necessary to establish target customers.
This involves targeting customers in accordance to their physical location in the country. This will be discussed later as a sub-topic.
4.1 target geography
As mention earlier, this is dividing the marketing into various segments based on their physical or geographical location. In this case scenario, Samsung Mobile has an advantage as it already operates in various countries thus understands how to classify customer needs in accordance to their geography. India can be subdivided into urban, sub-urban and rural sectors. Given that this is a smartphone company, geography will be a key consideration since network connectivity differs with geography in India. Research will be conducted to establish the connectivity in different areas in India. The data will be collected using both the primary sources and secondary sources. It was established that in rural areas, there is little or no network coverage. Thus, the company will target the urban and sub-urban areas where network coverage strong making it appealing for residents to use mobile phones.
This is a set of controllable factors by a firm that it uses to influence the buyers’ decisions. It can be simplified by explaining is as putting the right product, at the right price, at the right place and at the right time. There are different marketing mixes but in this case scenario we shall us the 4ps marketing strategy. The 4ps strategy is as follows:
|
Price |
This is the most appropriate price offered for a product. |
|
Product |
This is most appropriate product that will satisfy the target customer needs |
|
Place |
This is place or location where the right product at right price to the target audience. |
|
Promotion |
This refers to creating awareness to the customers on the product, its price and the place to make a purchase. |
The 4ps described above are all controllable variable and they must be taken serious as the success of the new product depends on them. In marketing mix, all the elements of the 4ps should be in line and if they are not and one if the mark, this could lead to failure thus leading the company to make losses. The 4ps will be expounded as follows:
5.1Product
This is simply the good and/or services that a company offer to the target audience or customers. In this case scenario, the product is the Samsung mobile phone. In order to come up with the right product, the company has to collect data from the potential customers on what they expect from the product and harmonize them into the same device. Also, there are other factors that attract the customer to the product and they should be considered and they include the packaging, color or shape and size. The company should also consider what other companies in the same industry are doing and try to do something different in order to win over their customers. As mentioned earlier, the key selling point for the Samsung Mobile Company is the 4g network enabled phones and also their advanced camera. The two features are unrivalled in the Indian market.
5.2 Place
This is the distribution channel that will be used to ensure that the Samsung Mobile delivers its product to the target audience. Samsung Mobile set up a factory where it will assemble the phones. Thus, the company will use the direct sales method and using intermediaries their distribution chain.
Samsung Mobile will el directly by establishing physical retail store and also online retail stores. This will ensure there are no intermediaries and thus eliminating the costs associated with distribution at various levels which would include wholesalers, distributors and retailers of whom must make a profit. The main advantages of this method is that it cuts on the price of the product and also the company through it representatives is able to have face to face interactions with consumers. Face to face interactions will be very crucial as the company will be able to have a direct feedback about their product and thus will improve where necessary.
This involves the use of agents to resell the company’s product. Samsung will distribute their products directly to supermarkets. In so doing they will also cut on the cost associated with long supply chains and also minimize the pressure of maintaining too many retail stores. By supplying to supermarkets directly, it ensures that the product prices are still affordable to the target audience. Also, the intermediary might have connections to customers whom other Samsung Mobile may have not been able to get.
Market coverage
This is the intended area of distribution of the company’s product. It is quite crucial to consider market coverage as it will determine the number of retail outlets to establish and also where appropriate to use intermediaries. There are three distribution strategies to consider, namely; intensive, selective or exclusive.
Samsung Mobile will use the intensive distribution method via establishing retails stores in as many part of the country as possible and the selective distribution method by supplying directly to various supermarkets.
5.3 Price
This is the value attached to a product. Pricing should be determined in a manner that will not exploit the customer and also still remain profitable and favorably competitive in terms of pricing. Very low prices will be lead to less profits and stunted growth while very high prices will price the company out of the market. Thus, the most favorable price should be in between. There are two methods of pricing used, that is; cost oriented method and market oriented method.
Cost oriented method
This involves consideration of the cost of production for pricing purposes. The methods of cost oriented prices are as follows:
Market oriented method
There are two main methods as follow:
Having looked into all this pricing methods, Samsung Mobile will use various methods at different stages. In order to attract customers, for the first three months, the company will use break-even pricing. This will attract a lot of customers due to the low price. After three months, there will be an assumption customers who purchased the product will have a positive attitude and review of the product and it will spread to other potential customers. At this point, the company will now use perceived value pricing.
5.4 Promotion
This involves creating awareness about a product to the target audience via vigorous advertising. The main aim of promotion is letting the customers know more about your product, how to use it, the prices, where to buy and also why to buy it over other similar products. For the most desired outcome, the advertising message should be short and clear and should be in line with the marketing image. After determining the message, the company should determine the most appropriate mode of advertising. Modes of advertising include; word of mouth, print and electronic media.
In this case scenario, the most appropriate method to be used will be via electronic media. Electronic media involves use of radio, television and the internet. Given that the target group is of young ages who are members of social media, then, social media will be quite appropriate. Also, radio and television adverts will be very appropriate in the urban and sub-urban areas as most people own televisions and radio. It will ensure a large number of people get the message at the same time. However, for it to be appropriate, the adverts should come at such a time where many people are glued to the radio or television for example during news time when popular sports like cricket are being aired.
6.0 Market positioning
This is the perceived image in the mind of the target consumer that Samsung Mobile will create in their minds. The following the positing strategies:
Samsung Mobile will use the above three strategies to position themselves in the consumer minds. They will use the fact that they are offering a mobile gadget which is 4g enabled and also has a high definition camera that no other mobile company in India offers. Product price will be used in this respect where the company will use premium pricing as it will seek to convenience customers their product offers much more than their rivals as mentioned earlier.
7.0 implementation plan
This is how the company will achieve its goals in the process of market expansion and new product launch. It will include the timeline, budget allocated and anticipated and measurement of success.
7.1 timeline
This is the time taken to implement the market expansion and new product launch. The timeline of the implementation plan is 12 months which excludes months for conducting research on the market and the product.
7.2 Budget
This is the estimated allocation of monetary resources that the project is expected to use. The budget is summarized in the table below.
|
Activity |
Budget (in $) |
|
Development of the marketing plan |
150,000 |
|
Research conducted |
250,000 |
|
Establishing a factory |
3,000,000 |
|
Cost of advertising |
1,000,000 |
|
Recurrent budget which will include salaries and taxes |
1,500,000 |
|
Post – launch research |
50,000 |
|
Miscellaneous expenses such as emergency fund. |
200,000 |
|
Total |
6,150,000 |
In case there are no miscellaneous expenses or the money does not dwindle, the funds will be carried forwards to the following year.
7.3 Measuring success
This is an in depth analysis of whether the project was a failure of success and also a measure on the level of success. The success will be measured in line to the objective stated earlier and most importantly, the company should at least break even in the first year. That is, the company should make a profit or in the least cover the production cost. If it achieves all the three set objectives, then the project will be said to a success. The level of success will be higher if the company makes a profit rather than breaking even.
Conclusion
For a successful global marketing and strategy planning, the company will need to do a lot of research on the ground gather information that will be important for drawing up the plan. As noted, there are some assumptions that will have to be though they are measured and low risk. SWOT analysis is also deemed as assumptions since this is a new market and the data is based on other markets while other data has not been tested in the current market. The SMART model is also crucial while defining the assumptions. Also, the mode of distribution is quite crucial in stepping down on the prices. Pricing on the other hand is quite crucial as low prices will lead to loses while very high prices will lead to rival firms having an edge over Samsung Mobile in terms of pricing. Mode of distribution will also incorporate the market coverage. Marketing positioning is also important as will help win over potential clients and develop a key bond with customer will associate with the company’s product. Finally, the major measurement of success will be whether the company will break even in the first year of operation in the new market.
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