Social Media Book For Radical Marketing

Strengths

Weaknesses

·         There is a wide gamut of products available for sale

·         Asian and European markets have huge potentials

·         Access to competitor’s operational. market and financial  statements

·         Competitors also have a wide range of products to offer

·         Competitors also opportunities of exploiting huge potentials of the market (Hopkins and Turner, 2012)

·         Presence of a large number of competitors and products lead to market saturation

Opportunities

Threats

·         There are opportunities of forecasting future trends in terms of selling price, sales revenue and profit margins

·         There are opportunities of  modifying strategies and activities as per market forecasts (Hill and Rifkin, 1999)

·         Competitors intentions and activities can be anticipated to a considerable extent

·         Product designs can be modifies as per market outlooks and changing needs and requirements of customers

·         Future market trends can be anticipated on the part of the competitors

·         Competitors can modify objectives and strategies according to future market trends

·         Competitors may try to get access of well established markets

·         Product designs can be easily imitated and copied

Factors

Explanation

Political

·         European and Asian countries are politically stable and encourage free trade. This in turn provides market development opportunities.

Economic

·         With the global economy recovering from recession at a considerable pace, consumers of Europe and Asia now have more disposable income in their hands. This in turn provides opportunities of increasing sales, profit margins and market share of the company (Hopkins and Turner, 2012).

·         Interest rates vary from country to country and have direct impact on production costs and long term profit. Hence, it is an imperative to analyze interest rates at frequent intervals throughout the year so that appropriate pricing decisions can be taken.

Social

·         Social and cultural aspects of Asia and Europe are different to a great degree and have their respective influences on the purchasing behaviors of the customers.

·         Product development and designing need to take in to consideration, these cultural differences so as to avoid degradation in perceives value.

Technological

·         Technological factors associated with Europe and Asia depicts that both Asian and European consumers are fond of high battery life and compact design.

·         Customers of Europe prefer photo and video features and premium display features and customers of Asia prefer additional memory, security and navigation features (Hopkins and Turner, 2012).

·         Due to prevailing cultural differences, designs need to be selected on the basis of specific preferences of customers of these two nations.

Environmental

·         Environmental considerations are important both in Europe and Asia and have become one of the parameters of judging organizational reputation. Hence, in order to increase brand value and reputation, participation in CSR activities is an imperative (Greenberg, 2010).

Legal

There are certain differences in the legal rules and regulations prevailing in the countries that constitute Asia and Europe in context to manufacturing and selling business. These differences in legal aspects need to be taken in to considerations and appropriate strategies are required to be developed on the basis of the differences.

Critical success factors

Explanations

Pricing efficiency

·         Competitive advantage can be successfully attained by charging high price against superior quality.

·         Prices are charged as per demand and supply dynamics prevailing in the Asian and European market (Sovany, 2011).

Cost management efficiency

·         Efficient cost management strategies in the forms of management of cash and inventories are to be formulated and implemented irrespective of the sales and profit margin figures.

·         Cash management initiatives include safe keeping of cash and bank reconciliations Inventory management initiatives include.

Market research

·         Market research is to involve better understandings regarding market trends on an yearly basis (Bodner and Cohen, 2012)

·         Market research is done in such a way that marketing, advertisement, production and R & D costs can be estimated in  more or less accurate manners

Competitive advantage

·         Competitor advantage can be attained in an effective and efficient manner through improved customer service during and after sales.

·         This can also be done through  lengthy warranty periods, increased frequency of price reductions and innovative sales promotion and advertisement initiatives

Planning elements

Aims

Objectives

Performance indicators

R & D

Quality improvement simultaneously with cost management through improving economics of scale

Making an investment of €200000 towards research and development initiatives

Market share and sales revenue figures

Product

Production of a range of products with specific magnitudes of quality for catering to a range of customers

Making an investment of €150000 towards new product development

Low to high end customer satisfaction levels (Rowles, 2008)

Marketing

Putting innovative marketing and promotional strategies for gaining competitive advantage (Pasqua and Elkin, 2013)

Making an investment of €800000 towards marketing and promotional campaigns and social media engagement

Market penetration and expansion levels

Finance

Concentrating expenses on sales promotion and savings on fixed costs

Improvement in net profit margin from 5% to 10%  within the current year

Share price levels

Product name

Product strategy

Pricing strategy

Positioning strategy

Promotion strategy

Product 1

This product was introduced in the European and Asian market as a high end product and targeted towards high end customers.

All the features included in this product are of superior quality (Safko, 2010)

This product was initially over priced in the European market and the same has later been brought down to good value price.

In Asian market, a premium price is charged against this product due to lesser degree of market saturation

Positioned as premium quality for premium customers

Social media, promotional campaigns television and newspapers.

Product  2

This product was first introduced as a mid range product and later converted to low end product with modifications in certain features. This product has got highest sales.

The product was launched at a mid range supporting price and later price was reduced so as to keep pace with increasing demand and to cater to the needs and to cater to the needs and requirements of low end customers.

Positioned as value for money for valuable customers

Social media, television and newspapers.

Product  3

This product was also a mid range product initially in both European and Asian markets and later converted to low end product through some feature based changes. This product contributes to second highest sale

The price of this product was reduced from that of its initial launch in both with a view to satisfy low end customers (Sovany, 2011).

Positioned as price less features at price less value

Social media and television.

Product  4

This again a premium product with premium features and price and targeted towards households of Europe and Asia.

The price of the product was kept premium with no reductions. Premium prices have been maintained both in Asian and European market.

Positioned as cutting edge technology for premium customers

Social media, promotional campaigns television and newspapers.

Product  5

This product has been featured again as a mid – range product in both the markets.

The price of this product has been kept slightly higher in Asia owing to the fact that market growth rate in Asia is slightly higher than in Europe

Positioned as affordable by all payable by all

                            .

Social media, newspapers and television.

Product  6

This product was launched as a good value product in both Asia and Europe. This product has been launched targeting the households and specifically to gain competitive advantage in the market.

The price of this product has been kept to the level of mid range so that the same can provide tough competition to the rivals are the rivals are forced to reducing prices (Sovany, 2011).

Positioned as love your phone, love your money.

Social media, promotional campaigns and television.