The aim of this report is to a strategic marketing plan for a cleaning company named CFS in order to continually improve and grow in the market. The structure of the report is such that it first contains the internal environmental analysis section, stating the vision, mission and the objectives of the company. It further carries out a number of analyses such as SWOT, customer and competitor, product lifecycle, BCG and Ansoff analysis which helps to breakdown pertinent information regarding CFS marketing strategy. These sections are followed by development of marketing objectives and strategies sections of the report. The report finally lays down frameworks for monitoring the strategies developed in the report.
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Consumer behavior/preference and tastes vary depending on the on the stage of the product lifecycle. The cycle is characterized by increasing sales at the formative stages of the cycle and diminishing towards the tail end of the cycle. Applying this concept on Crystal Facility Services product the outcome reveals unique features of each of the four phases of the company’s product lifecycle. On the first stage of the cycle the product was provision of cleaning and maintenance services for both residential and commercial market. This service was offered to this particular market niche as it possessed greatest potential for the company to expand and grow within the desired pace and expectation. The price of the service/product was set at a fair range in order to attract the customers during the early stages of the product in the market. Crystal Facility Services is aware of the fact that matching the best quality of the services offered with fair pricing is likely to attract a lot of clients for the company as it seeks to gain a considerable size of the cleaning services market share in its early stages of its lifecycle. The company also sought to disseminate information about its product identity as well as it’s pricing to the market by carrying out targeted promotions for both the residential and the commercial market segments. The promotion was done by offering reduced prices for clients who gave a long term cleaning contract to CFS. (Dolan, Dobscha and Mick, 2012) According to analysis done by CFS a contact of one year and above constitute a long term contract and thus any client who offered a cleaning contract to CFS of more than one year benefited from the offer. For those clients gave short term contacts i.e. of less than one year and above were offered customized prices according to the size of their work but prices a bit higher compared to clients in long term contracts. The idea behind this strategy was to give the company stability in terms of client flow which will enable it to survive in the market during its formative years after introduction. The company also did a targeted marketing by pitching the product to the right market. For commercial cleaning services CFS targeted large corporate such as banks with large branch network that will offer CFS a bit of a bulky work and ensure good flow of work for the company. For residential cleaning services, the company marketed in residential places such as gated communities where the occupants where likely to procure the cleaning service of the company. (Hawkins and Mothersbaugh, 2014)
With time, CFS cleaning services (the product) morphed into growth stage. At this stage the product has undergone a number of changes from its initial form based on the feedback the company received from the clients. To be more specific the company started using different types of detergents on different clients according to their likes and preferences. There were some who wanted scented detergents while others preferred non-scented ones such as the banks who were keen to maintain conducive environment to everyone. At this stage also the pricing become more stable and a bit high compared to the first phase as the company experienced influx of new clients pushing demand for the services up. On the promotion the company at this stage focused on delivering exceptional work to the existing clients who in turn recommended CFS clients to other companies and individual clients. The place at this stage was maintained at exposing the product more to the corporate clients and high end residential areas where the company could easily get clients.
On the third stage of the product lifecycle, the maturity stage, the product had undergone nearly all the modifications needed according to the client’s feedback received by the company. At this point there were fewer requests for modification of the kind of service CFS was offering. The price was also set at the optimum for the new incoming clients and adjusted upwards for companies whose contracts needed renewals. The product promotion was basically dependent on the quality of service the company was offering as the competition was struggling to match CFS quality in terms of customer service and experience. For the place, CFS continued to focus on its key target market i.e. corporate clients and high end residential areas. At this point the company must ensure that it maintains high standard of service delivery as it is the only aspect that gives its brand a strong position in the market. (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2016)
On the final phase of the cycle, the decline stage, the product was in perfect condition all that a new client will do was to choose the kind of services they needed according to their size, industry and other parameters. The product was receiving less and less sales but since it’s a service industry renewal was much like a new sell. The Price was also set at optimum for this stage while the Promotion and Place were retained as in the maturity stage. Below is a diagrammatical representation of the four stages of CFS product lifecycle. (Slater, Hult and Olson, 2010)
Fig 1.0 showing sales- time relationship for each of the phase of the product lifecycle
Applying the BCG analysis on CFS, the outcome reveals where each product of the company within the four quadrants of the BCG graph. The graph basically assigns a product a certain quadrant based on its performance in the market. CFS targets commercial and residential markets with strong purchasing power. The company’s cleaning and maintenance service in commercial category is falling under the ‘star’ phase of the BCG matrix as it is operating in high growth market and has high market share. On residential markets the analysis reveals that this kind of product is falling in the low quadrant has it is operating in high growth market but posting low performance if comparatively compared to the purchasing power of its market niche. CFS has no products in the remaining two phases of Cash cow quadrant, where the product is enjoying a lot of success in the market and dog quadrant where the product is badly struggling in the market. Below is a pictorial representation of BCG matrix analysis on CFS products. (Walker et al., 2013.)
Table 2; Shows pictorial representation of BCG matrix analysis on CFS products
Carrying out Ansoff analysis on CFS product reveals the following outcome; on the first quadrant, the lower left quadrant, market penetration, CFS has an option of expanding its sells within the existing market. Cleaning services is one of the sensitive areas that many organizations are keen on getting it right as it has potential to severely damage its reputation. CFS therefore under this strategy of expanding sells has an easier route to meeting its sells objectives. Product development in the lower right quadrant may pose a bit of challenges to CFS because it means it has to introduce new product in the existing market. Even more challenging and riskier to CFS is market development quadrant where the company is required to introduce same product in entirely new market. (Houliez, 2010)The last quadrant, the diversification quadrant, calls for CFS to introduce new unproven product in a new market. Comparing the four options in finding a new way of improving on sales and profits, the outcome reveals that the best way to achieve this goal for CFS is through market development because the company has requisite experience in introducing new products in the market having done successfully when it begun operations. They have also continually refined the product thus the new market will likely receive it well. Further to this the current market for CFS is already saturated and it will take a lot of resources and time to try and introduce a new product similar to what they already have. Below is diagrammatical representation of Ansoff analysis on CFS product sales strategy. (Hooley et al., 2014.)
Fig 3; Ansoff analysis on CFS products sales strategy
Based on the outcome of the above analysis on the CFS products, the following are the marketing objectives of the company.
The company will develop a brand position strategy for complete portfolio of its products. CFS will want to let all their target customers know that as CFS we offer best quality services and customer service coupled with fair prices in the market. We want them when they think of CFS cleaning services, best quality services comes in their mind. This is the position we want to occupy in the target market’s consumer mind. (Varadarajan, 2015). This would be a brand position for both our commercial and residential cleaning services. Therefore the company will develop a brand positioning for a complete portfolio products as an appropriate brand positioning style because this way customers can easily associate both our products with higher quality and customer service compared to the competition. The figure below displays brand positioning map. (International marketing strategy, 2012)
Fig 4; is a brand positioning map for the CFS products.
Sales Strategy
Under this particular strategy the company will from time to time offer discounts to both segment of its market that is the commercial and the residential segments of the market. The strategy will also seek to give lower prices for clients who give long term contract to the company as this ensures good flow of work for the company. These marketing mix programs for both market segments will give optimal result for the company.
Marketing Strategy
Our main marketing strategy is to deliver exceptional work to our existing clients who in turn will recommend our services to other persons of influence within the market. This will be reinforced by CFS by carrying out marketing messages containing feedback from all our clients as they will be happy with our services. This strategy is aimed for both the commercial and high-end residential market segments. Mixing our marketing messages with feedback from the clients is likely to lead increased sales for the company. (Chaffey, 2011).
Under this particular strategy the company will from time to time run a promotion campaign that give our existing and new clients an opportunity to win free cleaning services from CFS for the period of six months. An individual or a firm will only be eligible to participate after signing a cleaning contract with CFS of more than six months. This promotion strategy is also aimed for both segments of CFS market that is commercial and residential. (Chaffey, 2011).
Competition Strategy
CFS will always strive to maintain a good rapport with its clientele (residential and commercial) by offering the best quality of services as possible and mix this with excellent customer services. This way the company understands that competition will struggle to emulate CFS services as customer services and quality work is as a result of careful human resource recruitment and training our staff into one culture where service delivery is the core value that we poses. (Chaffey, 2011).
The company will be keen to monitor the performance of each of the strategy laid down above. To monitor and measure the success of the marketing and sales strategies, CFS will look at number of sales realized by the company from time to time. This is because marketing and sales usually go hand in hand such that if one doing well then the other one likely to be also doing well. If the sales at any particular period of time does not meet or exceed the target then the company will relock at its marketing strategy to see if it can effect a few changes to see the numbers rise. On the hand if the sales numbers are good then CFS will only seek to improve on the strategy based on the feedback received from the market on areas of improvement. (Slater, Hult and Olson, 2010)
The promotion strategy will be measured using number of new sign ups closed by the company during the promotion period. This number will be expressed as a percentage of the number of existing clients doing business with the company. The percentage value should be at least 25% of the existing clients anything less than this will see the promotion strategy amended accordingly.
On the competition strategy CFS will from time to time carry out research to determine the market share it has in the market. If the results shows reducing share of market each half year then the company will rethink about its competition strategy on the other hand if the company realizes gains in the market share then the competition strategy will only be enhanced based on the feedback the company will receive. (Slater, Hult and Olson, 2010)
Conclusion
In conclusion, the situational analysis report captures important features of the CFS Company by carrying out internal environmental analysis which assessed the company’s main objectives including vision and mission. The report also carries out a product and services portfolio overview where internal resources assessment is done as well as customer, competitor and SWOT analyses to further determine the strength of the company brand in the market. The strategic marketing plan on the other hand contains important information regarding best marketing strategies and analysis that will help the company refocus more on the market for better performance in sales. The report captures the product lifecycle, BCG matrix and Ansoff analysis to find out the objective of the marketing strategy which leads to development of focused marketing strategies along with the frameworks to determine their success or failures which would then inform further actions on various strategies put in place by the company.
References
Chaffey, D. (2011). Internet marketing. Harlow [u.a.]: Prentice Hall Financial Times.
Dolan, R., Dobscha, S. and Mick, D. (2012). Marketing strategy. Beijing: Zhongguo ren min da xue chu ban she.
Hawkins, D. and Mothersbaugh, D. (2014). Consumer behavior.
Hooley, G., Piercy, N., Nicoulaud, B. and Rudd, J. (2013.). Marketing strategy & competitive positioning.
Houliez, C. (2010). Branding places or branding spatial practices? Retail spaces in the age of mixed realities. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 6(2), pp.87-96.
International marketing strategy. (2014). Cookham: CIM Pub.
Lovelock, C. and Wirtz, J. (2016). Services marketing. Hackensack (NJ): World Scientific.
Slater, S., Hult, G. and Olson, E. (2010). Factors influencing the relative importance of marketing strategy creativity and marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. Industrial Marketing Management, 39(4), pp.551-559.
Slater, S., Hult, G. and Olson, E. (2010). Factors influencing the relative importance of marketing strategy creativity and marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. Industrial Marketing Management, 39(4), pp.551-559.
Varadarajan, R. (2015). Strategic marketing, marketing strategy and market strategy. AMS Review, 5(3-4), pp.78-90.
Walker, O., Mullins, J., Mavondo, F., Gountas, J., Kriz, A. and Osborne, C. (2012.). Marketing strategy.
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