Developing a Marketing Plan

Learn how to develop a marketing plan for your organization with this comprehensive guide. Understand the importance of aligning marketing opportunities with strategic objectives and creating an effective marketing mix strategy. Get insights on tactics for scheduling activities, determining costing, and monitoring progress. Explore case study of Houzit, an Australian company, and its marketing opportunities.

Developing a Marketing Plan
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
It is very important from the point of view of an organization to identify various marketing
opportunities based on the resource, capacity and capability of the organization and accordingly
utilize the marketing opportunity to the fullest extent in order to accomplish the strategic
objectives of the organization. It is very important from the point of view of an organization to
identify the various benefits and risks associated with the identified marketing opportunities in
order to ensure the effectiveness of the identified opportunity. The current report focuses on
identification of marketing opportunities for Houzit, an Australian company based on the risks
and benefits associated with it.
Discussion
Organizational Overview
Houzit is a homeware franchise in Brisbane which aspires to transform into a significant retail
company with presence in all the capital cities of Australia. It currently has 15 stores in the
Greater Brisbane area and plans to extend more 100 stores across Australia. The strategic
objectives of Houzit include increasing the revenue of the company by $5 million in the coming
3 years, increasing the number of loyal customers and the brand recognition of the company.
Houzit has 15 stores which are spread throughout Greater Brisbane and are being co-ordinated
and managed from their head offices located in Milton. The stores of the company are located in
commercial sub-urban neighbourhood or urban retail district. The stores of Houzit are bright and
functional in display and design and the average size of the stores of the company is 1000-1500
m2. Houzit has 15-20 full time employees at each of their sores in addition to various casual
staffs. The stores of the company offer various products to the customers such as bathroom
fittings, bedroom furnishing, mirrors and decorating items and lighting features. The company
offers long term re-payment plans to the customers in order to increase customer loyalty and
retention. Houzit has a limited marketing budget in place to increase the brand awareness of the
products of the company.
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As stated by Dadzie et al. (2017) there are several gaps which can be identified between the
strategic objectives of the organization and the current capabilities and resources of the
organization such as the company need to increase its product offerings in order to increase the
sales of the product. The company also need to increase their marketing budget in order to
increase the brand awareness of the products. As opined by Durie and Imiru (2018) the company
also needs to increase the number of permanent staffs in their stores in order to provide more
personalised shopping experiences to the buyers which will help in increasing their satisfaction
rate which in turn will help in enhancing their loyalty towards the company.
Opportunities
The first marketing opportunity which can help in achieving the objectives of Houzit is market
penetration in which the company can introduce new products such as kitchen fittings and
accessories in its existing market segment. As stated by Fernandes and Solimun(2018) the
benefits of introducing a new product in the product line of the company is that it will help in
drawing more customers towards the products of the company by providing one stop solutions to
the customers in order to fulfil their requirement which will help in increasing revenue of the
product. The main risk which is associated with this opportunity is the financial risks as it will
require a considerable amount of investment in order to develop and market new products in the
market.
The second marketing opportunity which can help in achieving the objectives of Houzit is selling
the products of the company through various e-commerce platforms in order to reach to a wider
audience in a short span of time. As opined by Felipa (2017) the benefits which are involved in
introducing e-commerce in the company are that it can reach to a larger number of audiences and
also to attract customers who do not have the time to visit the stores of the company. The risks
which are associated with this opportunity is that it requires a significant amount of investment
in order to enter the e-commerce platform and it also harms the reputation of the products as a
large section of the target customers of the company perceive e-commerce goods as not high
quality in nature.
The marketing opportunity which can be recommended to Houzit is of market penetration in
which the company should focus on introducing new products such as kitchen fittings and
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accessories in the existing market segment of the company as it will help in attracting more
customers towards its store by virtue of the one-stop solution being provided by the company to
the customers which will help in increasing the sales revenue of the company and will also help
in increasing the brand awareness of the company by diversification of their products.
The marketing mix strategy of Houzit is as follows:
Product- The products which will be offered by Houzit to its customer includes bathroom
fittings, bedroom furnishings, kitchen fittings and accessories, lighting fixtures, mirrors and
decorative items.
Price-According to Wieland (2018) Houzit needs to implement a dual pricing policy regarding
its products in which it will charge competitive prices from the customers regarding its regular
products and will charge premium prices from the customers for its exclusive designer products.
Place- The products of the company will be available from the physical stores of the company
available in various convenient locations across the country and will follow a direct distribution
channel in order to prevent addition charges of the product and also to facilitate availability of
the products in the market.
Promotion- Houzit will promote its product from both online and offline platforms using various
promotional tools such as advertisement, personal selling, direct mail and sales promotion. As
stated by Payangan, Sahabuddin and Girikallo (2017) the company will put special emphasis to
promote the products through social media platforms in order to gain increased popularity.
According to Kim et al. (2014) the above designed strategies aligns with the strategic direction of
the organization as the above mentioned strategies will help in increasing the sales of the
products of the company, will increase customer loyalty and retention and will also help in
increasing the brand awareness of the products of the company. For example the introduction of
kitchen fittings and accessories will increase the sales of the products of the company by virtue
of its one stop solution. The dual pricing strategy and the promotion of the products through
social media will help in increasing the retention and loyalty of customers and will also
contribute to enhancement of brand awareness.
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As opined by Otubanjo (2018) the marketing performance review strategy which can be used in
Houzit in order to review the performance of the company against marked objectives is Value
Chain Analysis which will help in identifying the activities of the company which helps in
creating competitive advantage for the organization and will accordingly help in increasing the
effectiveness of the activities in order to enhance the competitive advantage of the company.
According to Mintz and Currim (2013) the metrics which will be used to measure marketing
performance are brand awareness, customer acquisition, lead generation, customer loyalty and
sales of the company
Tactics
The tactics which can be used in order to schedule the activities to enact the strategy is to create
a list of comprehensive activities which are required in order to enact the new strategy in the
company and accordingly schedule the various activities depending on a particular sequence or
order and by assigning a time period in order to complete those activities.
The tactics which can be used in determining the costing of the activities is to undertake a cost
benefit analysis of the new activities regarding the cost required to undertake the activities and
its underlining benefits to the company.
The tactics which can be used to determine the accountabilities and responsibilities regarding
enacting the strategy is to organize a general meeting in the organization presided by the top
management of the company in order to divide the new tasks to the various departments of the
organization depending on their functionality and organizing brainstorming sessions in order to
clearly define roles and responsibilities of each members and each departments.
As stated by Wongtianchai, Ussahawanitichakit and Jhundra-indra (2015) the plan which can be
implemented for coordination and monitoring of scheduled activities is to develop SMART goals
and Key Performance Indicators regarding the achievement of the schedule activities and
accordingly review the progress of the activities on a monthly basis against the SMART
activities and the KPIs and making necessary changes in the activities or strategies in case of any
expected outcomes associated with the activities. The KPIs which can be developed in this
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context are Increase in sales of product by 20%, increase in customer retention by 20% and
increase in brand awareness by 25% at the end of the current financial year.
The legal and ethical requirements that impact the above mentioned tactics are ethical reporting
standards regarding the performance of the company after implementing the activities and
adoption of a sustainability approach in designing the activities and strategies.
The above mentioned tactics fits perfectly within the organizational resource and capabilities as
the organization do not require new resources and do not need to develop their capabilities in
order to implement the tactics.
Conclusion
From the above report it is clear and evident that it is very important for an organization to
ensure that the marketing opportunities which are identified by the company is aligned with the
overall strategic direction and objectives of the organization otherwise it would let to the non-
accomplishment of the strategic objectives of the organization and will also lead to the disruption
of the operations of the organization. From the above report it can be also stated that an
organization should develop its marketing mix strategy depending on the current capabilities and
capacities of the organization in order to achieve the strategies in an effective manner.
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References
Dadzie, K. Q., Amponsah, D. K., Dadzie, C. A., and Winston, E. M. (2017). HOW FIRMS
IMPLEMENT MARKETING STRATEGIES IN EMERGING MARKETS: AN EMPIRICAL
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Durie, A. D., and Imiru, G. A. (2018). THE MARKETING STRATEGY OF FIRMS: AN
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on 27/12/2018
Felipa, P. B. (2017). Marketing + internet = e-commerce: Oportunidades y desafíos */Marketing
+ internet = e-commerce: Opportunities and challenges/Marketing + internet = e-commerce:
Oportunidades e desafios. RevistaFinanzas y PoliticaEconomica, [Online] 9(1), 41-56. Available
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MARKETING MIX STRATEGIES ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, TRUST AND
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