Discuss about the Marketing Plan For Oxfam Shop.
Product Description
Hand Carved Marble Vase – Haat Black
Hand carved marble vase has been intricately carved by the Indian workers to create an elegant and classy floral marble vase. Natural stone has been used for carving the figure and then painted with floral pattern. The artisans of India have created the picture using the original works of India called as art of jali. Jali is a traditional art of India which consists of open carving and painting work and was one of the renowned arts during the medieval period of India. After the painting work is complete the stone are kept in direct sunlight and moonlight. The marble soaks the energy of sun and moon to recharge itself. This makes the work more durable.
The vase has been designed for the purpose of home décor and a show piece item. It can also be used as a flower pot in the home.
In spite of being one of the growing economies of the world, India is going through employment crisis. India has 56 percent labor-force to population ratio which is very low when compared to the 64 percent which is the ratio for the entire world. India is counted among the countries with the lowest female labor force participation rate. Most of the workers are self employed in the country and lack resources and support. Approximately eighteen percent of the workforce is casual labor, consistently looking for job opportunities on daily basis to support their households (Sharma, 2014). India is a country with rich heritage and culture which has been preserved within the small villages and towns of India. The skilled workers are engaged into artefact work of brass, handicrafts, marble, wood, pottery and other traditional works. India is known for its handicraft work which is distributed all across the world (Business Standard, 2016).
The product would provide support to the unemployed population of India by giving them an opportunity of engaging in permanent work. The people no longer would have to look for daily basis job and would get an opportunity to showcase their skills and creativity outside India. The product would work towards the welfare of the poor people by creating permanent job opportunities to create better social lives. This would help Oxfam to achieve its goals and objective to create long lasting solutions and eradicate poverty.
Further, the product would attract the target audience in Australia because of its antique and unique features.
Product Key Features
Hand carved marble vase is an antique product carved by Indian artisans. Its floral pattern is a reflection of rich Indian culture and tradition. Jali art has been used to create the floral pattern on the vase to give an elegant look. Its print and design reminds of the rich Indian culture and tradition which gets back to the medieval period. It is a symbol that represents the intricacy of art work that existed during the Mughal Empire in India. Marble vase has preserved the culture of India through its intricate design and hand carving work. Vase can be used as a home décor item and a flower pot.
Further, a booklet would also be provided to give an overview of history of Indian culture and tradition so that the customer understands the value of the antique piece.
SMART is a marketing methodology to create a layout for a campaign with specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed objectives (Reece, Tasner, Davila, Epstein, Shelton, Light and Kiddon, 2013).
SMART Goal: To launch hand carved marble vase and increase the sales of vase by 20 percent in the next financial year of Oxfam Shop.
The above goal is specific with the figure of 20 percent, can be measured by next financial year, realistic and achievable within a year’s time period.
Marketing plan would help to develop a target market, unique selling proposition, pricing and positioning strategy and a distribution plan.
Target Market
The product is designed for middle class consumers which comprises of 66 percent of the Australian population (Powell, 2016). Females, Boomers in transition and professional youngsters would be the target market for the product.
Middle Aged Females: The ladies who are between the ages 35-50 would be the primary target market for the product (Mplans, 2016). They are settled with their families and contribute to the decoration and designing of the home. These ladies are socially active and prefer to shop with their groups. They would contribute to the major sales revenues.
Boomers in Transition: This market segments ranges between the ages 50 to 65. These are the people who are changing their houses which could be due to retirement or going through some other transition in their lives. The females are again the decision makers for the household and decoration.
Professional youngsters: They are the couples between the ages 25 to 35 preparing for their houses. They look forward to decorate their home to start their new lives (Mplans, 2016).
The plan is to target the mass market share to drive huge sales of the product and achieve economies of scale to provide a fair price to the Indian workers.
Unique Selling Proposition
The product’s unique selling proposition is that it is hand carved by the artisans and preserves the traditional values of India. The hand carved marble vase is an antique piece which is not available at any outlet in Australia.
Pricing and Positioning Strategy
Pricing strategy play a great role in generating sales revenue for a product. Pricing helps to position the product in the minds of the people (Lavinsky, 2013). Consumers perceive the value of the product from the price of product. Economy pricing strategy would be used to target the middle class consumer. Since the cost price of the product would be low, therefore, economy pricing strategy would be suitable to drive huge sales.
A right pricing strategy would help to position the product in the minds of consumers. Economical pricing strategy would to target the mass market to increase the sales of the product.
Distribution Plan
The product would be available online on the Oxfam Shop and at the stores of Oxfam in Australia.
The market industry has been forecasted to grow by 4.2 percent during the tenure 2015 to 2020 (Pre Newswire, 2016). The reason for growth has been justified by the growing market of real estate industry. The people have become conscious regarding the usage of products and are more inclined towards eco-friendly products to reduce the environmental impact. The changing lifestyle and the rising income of consumers have been forecasted as the reason for future growth.
Oxfam faces major competition from the online retailers such as Amazon, eBay, Hive and other online portals (E Marketer, 2015). Further, the international retail chains are also a competition for Oxfam Shop because they provide the goods at the lowest prices and operate on very low margins.
The customers of Oxfam Shop are those who look forward for products at an economical price. They are very price sensitive and generally belong to low income segment. They look for the most economical products and are attracted by the discounts and promotional offers (Oxfam Australia, 2014).
Oxfam organization thrives towards reducing the poverty of the world by providing them job opportunities to the workers of developing countries. Oxfam conducts programs and events to influence the minds of the people. Oxfam influences the public through humanitarian appeals for which it receives great response (Oxfam Australia, 2014).
Oxfam has defined its vision and goals very clearly due to which consumers is inclined towards the brand (Oxfam Australia, 2014). It has established a strong network across the globe by creating strong relationship with the suppliers. It provides all the day to day needs of the people through its stores and online web portal.
Oxfam has a huge scope to expand its network across the globe through advertising, creating suppliers and opening the stores.
Segmentation is the process of grouping individuals who have similar attributes and characteristics. It helps to understand the needs and requirements of the market and then catering a different product for each market segment as per their requirements. Every customer has a different need based on his income, interest, age and needs. Therefore, a single product or service would not attract every customer. The customers are divided on the basis of demography of country, geographic location of customer, behavior and psychographic. Segmenting the customers based on these four variables helps a company to understand its target customer and then design a product accordingly (Kotler, 2012).
Now the product could have various segments based on these four variables. Australian population would have same geographic location. Customer’s behavior and psychographic varies from low income level to high income level and age group of the consumers.
Retail industry has grown to be very wide and people have different tastes for products which are influenced by their income, interest and group. The country’s population has increased by 1.4 percent in the year 2016 and has around 66 percent of the population as middle class (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016). Middle class population looks for economical product in the market for their home décor. Now in order to achieve huge sales of the product, middle class segment is selected who are price sensitive. This segment looks forward to receive value for their money and do not wish to invest huge amount of money on their lifestyle. Within a middle class segment, there are people with different ages, behavior, psychology and location. Here, the geographical location is Australia, therefore, geographical segmentation is not required.
Further, customer’s behavior and psychology is influenced by their age group because the people around always have an impact on the opinions of the customer, for instance, people maintain their standards of living according to their colleagues and friends.
Therefore, middle class segment can be further categorized into three sub-categories based on the age group of people. Middle aged females, boomers in transition and professional youngsters are the three categories for further division. The targets segment is further categorized as primary and secondary target market.
Middle Aged Females: The ladies who are between the ages 35-50 would be the primary target market for the product (Mplans, 2016). Primary target market drives the major sales for the product.
Boomers in Transition: This market segments ranges between the ages 50 to 65. These are the people who are changing their houses which could be due to retirement or going through some other transition in their lives. This is the secondary target market and contributes towards extra income of the product.
Professional youngsters: They are the couples between the ages 25 to 35 preparing for their houses (Mplans, 2016). This is again the secondary target market.
The plan is to target the mass market share to drive huge sales of the product and achieve economies of scale to provide a fair price to the Indian workers.
Positioning is influencing the minds of the consumers by creating an image of the product in their minds as compared to its competitors (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014). Product can be positioned through its price, application, quality which would be its unique selling proposition. Unique selling proposition of the product is that it represents the art work of the medieval period in India. It is hand carved by the Indian artisans, which would connect the customer with the India values and tradition.
A right product is required to satisfy the needs and requirements of the consumers (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014). Hand carved marble vase is a unique product which can be used by every Australian for the household purpose.
Product promotion would be carried out through out stores display on occasions and festivals when customers are looking forward to buy something for their home décor. Apart from that, initial discount offers could also be introduced such as combo offer wherein customer would save money by purchasing 2 or more products together. Social network website such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and others provide a great platform for promoting products through direct customer reach.
Price is an important component to drive sales for a product. Price builds a perception of the brand and product in the minds of consumer (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014). The price of the product would economical to increase the sales revenue and achieve economies of scale.
The product would be made available at the nearby stores of Oxfam Shop and a consumer can also purchase the product online from the Oxfam website.
Conclusion
The report has successfully created a marketing plan for the Oxfam Shop. Hand carved marble vase has been introduced as a new product in the Australian market. The product’s unique selling proposition is that it represents the art work of medieval period of India and has been created by the artisans who have been suffering through poverty. Economical pricing strategy has been used to target mass market share and achieve economies of scale. Promotions would be carried out through out store marketing and social media network.
Further, the report has analyzed the market industry trend to grow by 4.2 percent during 2015 to 2020.
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Australian Demographic Statistics, Jun 2016 . Australian Bureau of Statistics. Available at: https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/3101.0 [Accessed Online 25 Jan 2017].
Business Standard. (2016). Minority communities’ artisans to showcase talent at IITF. Business Standard. Available at: https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/minority-communities-artisans-to-showcase-talent-at-iitf-116101801188_1.html [Accessed Online 24 Jan 2017].
Dudovskiy, J. (2016). Amazon SWOT Analysis. Research Methodology. Available at: https://research-methodology.net/amazon-swot-analysis/ [Accessed Online].
E Marketer. (2015). Australian Retail Ecommerce Sales to Top $10 Billion in 2015. E Marketer. Available at: https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Australian-Retail-Ecommerce-Sales-Top-10-Billion-2015/1011823 [Accessed Online 25 Jan 2017].
Kotler, P. (2012). Marketing Management. London: Pearson Education.
Kotler, P., and Arstrong, G. (2014). Principles of Marketing. US: Pearson.
Lavinsky, D. (2013). Marketing Plan Template: Exactly What To Include. Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2013/09/30/marketing-plan-template-exactly-what-to-include/#399ce9353b82 [Accessed Online 24 Jan 2017].
Mplans. (2016). Home Decorating Retail Marketing Plan. Mplans. Available at: https://www.mplans.com/home_decorating_retail_marketing_plan/marketing_strategy_fc.php [Accessed Online 24 Jan 2017].
Oxfam Australia. (2014). The Power of People Against Poverty. Oxfam Australia Strategic Plan. Available at: https://www.oxfam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014_strategic_plan_fa_web5.pdf [Accessed Online 25 Jan 2017].
Powell, R. (2015). Australia’s middle class no longer the world’s wealthiest. The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/australias-middle-class-no-longer-the-worlds-wealthiest-20151013-gk7pwa.html
PR Newswire. (2016). World Home Decor Market – Expected to Garner $664.0 Billion, by 2020. PR Newswire. Available at: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/world-home-decor-market—expected-to-garner-6640-billion-by-2020-565775251.html [Accessed Online 25 Jan 2017].
Reece, M.,Tasner, M., Davila, T., Epstein, M., Shelton, R., Light, L., and Kiddon, J. (2013). How to Innovate in Marketing. New Jersey: FT Press.
Sharma, A.N. (2014). India Labour and Employment Report 2014: Workers in the era of Globalization. Institute of Human Development. Available at: https://www.ihdindia.org/ILERpdf/Highlights%20of%20the%20Report.pdf [Accessed Online 24 Jan 2017].
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