Relationship Marketing Strategy And Plan: The Ark Clothing Co. Australia

Macro environment analysis

Discuss about the Relationship Marketing Strategy and Plan.

The Ark Clothing Co. is mainly into women’s clothing business (Theark.com.au 2017). They introduce the clothes based on the seasons as well as they divide the clothes based on the types of clothes like ‘travel’ (See appendix 3). One of the brands of the Ark Clothing Co. is Nikel and Sole is mainly inspired by the love for the materials that are used to manufacture the clothes. Some of the material that fall under Nikel and Sole are brushed metal, refined yarns, soft washed leather and natural fibers. They not only think of giving the cutting edge products to the customers but also respect the traditional craftsmen.

The mission of the organization is that they should not forget the culture and the community while making the business. They believe that design of the clothes should reflect integrity. There are seventy staffs working for the company. They have one store in South Australia and four stores in Victoria. They have a strong online presence and supply wholesale products to eighty retailers nationally.

The environmental force that might affect the business of The Ark Clothing Co. can be presented with the help of the PESTLE analysis

Political Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	The government of Australia is supportive towards virtuous kinds of business that is carried out in Australia. The free trade agreement is one such initiative by the government to increase the amount of business in Australia (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2016).
Economic	Even though the income of the customers in Australia is at rise, they are not spending much in the clothing industry (Heritage.org 2016). Hence, it might be difficult for the Ark Clothing Co. to makes its presence felt in the market (Hollensen 2015) .
Social	The Australians are trendy and the income level of the customers is high. However, they do not like spend much in clothing. Hence, the company has to use certain tactics that will help attracting the customers (Kotler et al. 2015). Along with the women’s clothing, the men’s style and clothing has also become famous.
Technological	Technological aspects of the country will be helpful for the company as the online sale is on the rise (Lusch and Vargo 2014). Customers are preferring to buy things online (See appendix 1)
Legal	The company needs to adhere to the Industrial Relations Reform Act 1993 (Cth) and Industrial Relations Act 1988 (Cth) while working in the market of Australia (Ilo.org 2017).
Environmental	The social trend of Australia is inclined towards the use of eco-friendly products (See appendix 2). Hence, if the Ark Clothing Co. is able to implement such kinds of trends in the men clothing they will be able to draw more customers (Menon et al. 2015).

As compared to other industries is Australia, the fashion industry has not been able to create an impact in the Australian economy. There are not many international fashion brands in Australia. Only two international brands are present in the market of Australia and they are Billabong and Rip Curl. The clothing industry has faced challenges over the years mainly because of cautious spending from the part of the consumers. In addition to this, intense competition and the higher rents that limit the range of revenue that could be earned by the fashion retailers. It has been expected that the industry revenue will grow at a rate of 3.9% in the coming five years starting from 2016-2017 (Ibisworld.com.au 2017). The growth will mainly take place due to the sudden rise in the online sales and the shift of the retailers who have brick and mortar shops to the online sales. Data shows that there is a labor force of 12.2 million and domestic market value of the fashion industry of Australia is 28.5 billion (Au.fashionunited.com 2017). The annual retail sales of Australia are 21 billion and around 37,000 staffs are employed in the textile, footwear, clothing and leather industries.

Microenvironment analysis

Thus, it can be said that the market of Australia will bring mixed opportunities for The Ark Clothing Co. on one hand, the clothing industry of Australia has gone through a number of challenges. On the other hand, it has been predicted that the industry will see a significant amount of growth.

Based on the situation analysis of the Ark Clothing Co. the SWOT analysis will be helpful to the get an idea about the key strength and the weakness of the company and the threats and the opportunities that will be faced by the organization.

Strength The strength of the organization is that they will get proper support from the government if there is any need for funds and other types of help (Sheth and Sisodia 2015). The sudden rise in the technology will be helpful for the company, the customers are more inclined to online buying and the if they are able to promote the men’s clothing online then it will helpful for the company (Shani and Chalasani 2013).

Weakness The customers are nowadays cautious about their spending and hence, it will be difficult to attract the customers towards them (Hollensen 2015).

Opportunities The environmental concerns are one of the main concerns of the country right now. It will act as an opportunity to the Ark Clothing Co. to design their new clothing line that will be eco-friendly and would not cause any harm to the nature.

Threat A number of competitors are present in the market and as the customers are not willing to spend much hence, the competition will more intense among the present companies (Kotler et al. 2015). There are two international clothing companies present in the market of Australia. The presence of international brands might attract the customers more and they might prefer the international brands to the domestic brands (Lusch and Vargo 2014). The threat of other industries will prevent the Ark Clothing Co. from gaining the desired revenues (Menon et al. 2015). The hospitality and the tourism industry gain a huge amount of customers (See Appendix 4). Hence, the clothing industry will be at loss, due to the shift in interest among the people.

The clothing industry faces challenge in the market of Australia. To enhance their business, the Ark Clothing Co. has introduced the men’s clothing section. The problem that the company will face is attracting the customers towards the new clothing line in a time when the customers are not attracted to the clothes. While launching the men’s clothing line, the company should keep in mind the mission of the company. As the mission of the company is to combine design and integrity hence, the corporate objective will be to introduce the new line with the same mission in mind. Thus, launching the new clothing line will not solve the issue due to the tough competition in the market. Hence, it can be said that either they have to introduce a design that will new to the market or use a different manufacturing technique that will help the customers to understand the uniqueness of the clothing line. The situation analysis will be helpful for the Ark Clothing Co. to understand the factors that should be incorporated to solve the problems.

As per the Ansoff’s matrix, the Ark Clothing Co. should think of expanding the business by either by bringing changes in the area of operations or by changing the product. Australia is not the proper market that is helpful for the clothing industry, hence, it is necessary to bring changes in the business so that the company is able to gain good amount of revenue from the market (Shani and Chalasani 2013). Other than changing the manufacturing process or the product, the company cans also bring changes in the marketing styles so that they are able to attract more customers in future (Hollensen 2015).

Conclusion:

Even though Australia is a developed country, yet the customers are not ready to spend on clothing and apparels. The Ark Clothing Co. is a mid-sized company and it can be concluded that even if it is having a strong economy, they do not have proper customers. The Ansoff’s matrix will be helpful in understanding the future alternatives that the company will take. Moreover, based in the Ansoff’s matrix, recommendations will be provided to the company.

As per Ansoff’s Matrix, it can be recommended that the company have to take good amount of risk to make their presence felt in the market. They are introducing a new type of product in the market; however, they should use eco-friendly products to manufacture new products in the market. They can highlight the type of materials they are using to attract the customers. The people in Australia are keen to use environment-friendly products. As there are a number of competitors in the market, the only way to attract the customers is to promote the use of the materials that will be used to manufacture the products.

References

Au.fashionunited.com, 2017. Fashion industry statistics Australia. [online] Au.fashionunited.com. Available at: https://au.fashionunited.com/fashion-industry-statistics-australia [Accessed 17 Jan. 2017].

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2016. Free Trade Agreements. [online] Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Available at: https://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/pages/trade-agreements.aspx [Accessed 17 Jan. 2017].

Heritage.org, 2016. Australia Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption. [online] Heritage.org. Available at: https://www.heritage.org/index/country/australia [Accessed 17 Jan. 2017].

Hollensen, S., 2015. Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.

Ibisworld.com.au, 2017. Clothing Retailing in Australia Market Research | IBISWorld. [online] Ibisworld.com.au. Available at: https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry/clothing-retailing.html [Accessed 17 Jan. 2017].

Ilo.org, 2017. National Labour Law Profile: Australia. [online] Ilo.org. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/ifpdial/information-resources/national-labour-law-profiles/WCMS_158892/lang–en/index.htm [Accessed 17 Jan. 2017].

Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L. and Armstrong, G., 2015. Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.

Lusch, R.F. and Vargo, S.L., 2014. The service-dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions. Routledge.

Menon, A., Bharadwaj, S.G., Adidam, P.T. and Edison, S.W., 2015. Effective Marketing Strategy-Making: Antecedents and Consequences. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 224-224). Springer International Publishing.

Shani, D. and Chalasani, S., 2013. Exploiting niches using relationship marketing. Journal of Services Marketing.

Sheth, J.N. and Sisodia, R.S., 2015. Does marketing need reform?: Fresh perspectives on the future. Routledge.

Suriyaarachchi, R. 2014. HOW GREEN ARE AUSTRALIANS?. [Blog] Green Australia Pacific Blog. Available at: https://www.greenpeace.org.au/blog/green-australians/ [Accessed 17 Jan. 2017].

Theark.com.au, 2017. The Ark Clothing Co.. [online] Theark.com.au. Available at: https://www.theark.com.au/ [Accessed 17 Jan. 2017].

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