Marketing Mix and Strategy Framework

This assignment requires students to delve into the concept of marketing mix, utilizing the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) framework. Students will also analyze internal and external factors using SWOT and PESTLE analyses. The core objective is to develop a comprehensive integrated marketing strategy for a chosen company, demonstrating their understanding of how these elements work together to achieve business goals.

Running Head: Marketing Plan formulation
Beautiful Beds
Marketing Strategy & Plan

Marketing Plan Formulation P a g e | 1
Executive Summary
Beautiful beds is a company started by a dynamic young couple who had some past experience in
retail sales. They are on a mission to change how people in Dublin and across the world buy soft
furnishing. It is a family owned business with no other stakeholders. The company has already
defined its target segment, which includes both male and female in the age bracket of 24-44, the
company has a 5 year term plan to focus on them. The fixed expenses of the company are lease
amount and the partnership amount paid to the concession shops.
The company has identified goals for the organization, which are, increasing the sales, Increase the
brand awareness and make a presence internationally, for achieving the objectives company has
hired a marketing consultant. The marketing strategy of the company is to mark its presence online,
sell its product through online channels of sales, and work on the customer surveys and the
feedback to improve its product and services. In order to increase the footfall, it is suggested to go
full throttle on the marketing front, offer huge discounts to pull the crowd, and once the people
know about the brand and recognize the quality of the products, prices can be further stabilized.

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Table Of Content
Situational Audit....................................................................................................................................5
Vision Statement...............................................................................................................................5
Marketing Snapshot of company.......................................................................................................5
Macro environmental analysis...........................................................................................................5
PESTLE Analysis..............................................................................................................................5
Political:.........................................................................................................................................5
Economical :..................................................................................................................................6
Social.............................................................................................................................................6
Technological:................................................................................................................................6
Micro- environmental Analysis..........................................................................................................6
SWOT.............................................................................................................................................6
Strength.........................................................................................................................................6
Weakness......................................................................................................................................7
Opportunities................................................................................................................................7
Threats...........................................................................................................................................7
Marketing Mix for Beautiful Beds..........................................................................................................7
Goals/ Objectives identified by Beautiful beds:.....................................................................................8
Marketing Plan......................................................................................................................................9
Getting a loyal customer base...........................................................................................................9
Establish brand through various channels.........................................................................................9

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Develop to presence internationally................................................................................................10
Estimated P& L Statement...................................................................................................................10
Control KPI Metrics..............................................................................................................................11
Website Traffic................................................................................................................................11
Sales.................................................................................................................................................11
Footfall:............................................................................................................................................11
References:..........................................................................................................................................13

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Situational Audit
Beautiful beds are a company based out of Dublin started by a couple in their mid-20. The couple
were working in retail industry when an idea stuck in their brains, to revolutionize the market of soft
furnishing and they quit their jobs in order to pursue their dream. Beautiful beds is a company which
is into selling of soft furnishing for home, their product portfolio includes Linen bed, Duvets, Pillows
and set of soft furnishing solutions for bedrooms. The Target audience for the company is young
people, both male and female in the range of 24-44; it’s a pretty big segment in Dublin. The company
function in mid-price segment, something which appeals to the youngsters. The value proposition is
providing best quality of soft furnishing at an affordable prices to the people who have just go
married, or are moving into new homes and does not have lavish budget to spend on the house,
Therefore, beautiful beds comes in the picture.
Vision Statement: We are here to make your house feel like your home
Marketing Snapshot of company
Target Market 24-44 (Male & Females)
Differentiating Factor Affordable price and high quality
Positioning Mid-Range, with an appeal to the youth
Place Malls, Concession shops
Product Bed furnishing, linen, duvets, bed pillows
Promotion Online, bill boards, newspaper ad, home décor
magazines, newsletters, affiliate marketing
Price Mid-range price bucket
Macro environmental analysis
PESTLE Analysis
Pestle analysis can be understood as evaluation and analysis of a company, it is a tool which is used
to track the environment company is working in, and it is a macro environment framework (Singh,
2016)

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Political: These factors determine the extent to which a government influences the economy or a
certain industry. For example the government may impose some new tax or duty due to which the
entire revenue generating structure of the organization might change. Fiscal policies, trade tariff that
the government may levy around the year also causes change in the organization structure and
policies (Victor, 2017)
The political situation in Dublin is favourable for the business; the President has rolled out many
policies which makes it easier for people to do business in Ireland, hence a favourable situation for
beautiful beds.
Economical: These factors are the determinants of the economy, which affects the company
directly. Rising inflation, falling economy, change in foreign interest rates, change in demand and
supply, interest rate, have a strong influence on the company, and thus it is very important to
monitor the economic changes happening in the country and make strategies or do a risk
assessment in case of adverse situation (Tutor & Soares, 2014)
The economy in Dublin is modern knowledge economy; they focus on services and high tech
industries and dependent on trade, industries and investment. In terms of GDP, Ireland is ranked as
one of the wealthiest nations in the world. All these things point out to a smooth sailing economy
with no obstacles for Beautiful beds to sell their products.
Social: This analyses the social trends of the country, like demographics, buying behaviour, cultural
trends etc. These factors are hugely important while considering selling of product or service in a
country (Islam & Mamun, 2017)
With 43.52% of population falling in the age group of 24-52, it is predominantly a young country.
Majority of the population is urban, with good educational background and working professionals,
hence again a win-win situation for beautiful beds to penetrate in the market.
Technological: This is related to innovation in the technology which may affect the operations of
the business in favour or against. It refers to automation in the technology and the amount of
awareness related to technological innovation (Kolios & Read, 2013)
In case of beautiful beds, technology does not play a major role, hence completely oblivion to the
change in technology.
Micro- environmental Analysis

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SWOT
Strength: These are internal to any company, they help to make one understand why they are
better than the competition, what is the USP, what advantages does the organization have and so in.
In short, these are the factors which can be seen as the strength of the company (Anton, 2015)
Weakness: These are internal to the organization as well; they can be seen as the points where the
company needs improvement in order to win the competition (Hossain & Hossain, 2015)
Opportunities: These are external to the organization, the company cannot create opportunity, but
they can exploit it (Samuels, 2017)
Threats: Again, external to the organization, only proactive approaches can save the company from
the threat (Viaggi, 2013)
Marketing Mix for Beautiful Beds:
Marketing Mix: It can be understood as a set of marketing tactics which the company uses in order
to promote its services or the brand (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2015). It essentially
consists of 7P’s of Marketing, which are as follows:
Strength
Afforadable pricing
Dedicated owners
Small structure
Good revenue stream
Clear cut goals defined for the organization
Weakness
Less experience in the soft furnishing business
Inital debt on the shoulders
Opporunities
Favourable economic and political policies
Selling online
Threats
COmepetition from big players
Ease of business in dublin might attract more
players
SWOT

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 Price: It can be understood as the value which is put for the product. It depends on the cost
of production, segmented target, ability of the market to pay, demand of the product etc.
Pricing plays a very important role in the sales of the product (Strauss, 2016)
 Product: It refers to the item which is actually being sold, a product should be such that it is
able to satisfy some needs of the customer or potential customer (Sharma & Sharma, 2017)
 Place: It is the point of sale; every industry has a different place to sell its product. It’s a
place where the product gets maximum attention from the customer (Khan, 2014)
 Promotion: It refers to all the activities which helps to increase the sale of the product, or
make the brand more visible to its consumers (Andrews & Shimp, 2017)
 People: It can be understood as individuals who are contributing towards the marketing,
sales, customer relationship etc. for the product. It encompasses the entire team
responsible behind the product (Nath, 2017)
 Process: The process which the company follows to sell the product, what are the business
function, research and development behind designing the product and so on (Patil & Bach,
2017)
 Physical evidence: This aspect of marketing mix is related to the tangible component of the
product and the store (Wasan & Tripathi, 2014)
Product Soft furnishing, bedroom furnishings, pillows,
duvets, bed linen
Price Mid-sized price range
Place Malls, concession shops
Promotion Online, social media, billboards, news ads, Home
décor magazines
People Team of three people
Physical evidence Shop is wonderfully decorated with great
products
Process Online sales and retail sales.
Goals/ Objectives identified by Beautiful beds:
 Develop a loyal customer base

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 Establish the brand through various channels
 Develop to presence internationally
The above mentioned are the goals which are identified by the company and in order to achieve
these goals they have to come up with some really innovative ideas.
Marketing Plan
Getting a loyal customer base
Customer base is the group of customers who repeatedly buy your products or services. There is a
popular rule which is followed in sales with respect to the customer base. The rule states that 80%
of the sales come from 20% of the customers hence it becomes pivotal for the organization to focus
on those 20% of the customers and win their loyalties. The target audience for beautiful beds are
young male & female falling in the age bracket of 24-44 years. The onus is on the marketing
department to keep the customers hooked onto the company and keep them interested in the
company some of the techniques which the marketing department can do in order to have the
attention of its customers are:
 Making customers know what the company is doing for them: It is really important to make
the customers know about the steps company is taking to delight them, to keep them
coming back to the company. What new marketing gimmicks the company is playing to stick
around with its customers. If the customers are aware of it, they feel connected and feel
valued.
 Rewarding the customers- A customer feels valued if he is getting rewards for doing business
with the company. It gives him a sense of motivation and accomplishment (Hollenson, 2015)
 Sending thank you notes
 Taking the customer feedback seriously and working on it.
 Acknowledge the issues/concern/grievances raised by the customer
 Circulate a monthly newsletter and let the customer know what is the company new to
improve the customer experience

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Establish brand through various channels
Beautiful beds are a relatively new company and it’s not an entirely new concept, but what sets the
company apart from its competitors is its product selection, the target audience and its price range.
The company has three different models to operate in: Sell products in a leased space, sell products
in concession shops (3) & sell the products through online sale. Hence, all channels require a mix of
marketing promotion to target the customer base. Strategies the company can use to establish the
brand through channels are:
Online promotion: Social media is the hot buzz word in the present world. Every company is either
promoting its product or services on social, or is doing employer branding. The bottom line is that
the presence of each and every company is must and should on the social media. Platforms like
Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Snapachat are becoming source of maximum footfall. In
case of beautiful beds, their target audience is an avid user of social media, hence targeting them
their makes most of the sense. Also, the first step of online sales, which is showing the impression,
can begin from the platform and the entire purchase cycle, starting from impression showing to
purchase can be facilitated on the social media. Therefore, beautiful beds have to focus its maximum
efforts on digital marketing and promotion.
Newsletter/ Open Mails- Customers have a tendency of forgetting once they have consumed
services or used a product, its human psychology to forget about the things. Newsletter and mailers
come handy in this scenario; they help customers to not forget about the company. It helps in brand
recall.
Magazines: Home décor magazines, luxury magazine, which people read through while they
travelling can come handy as well when establishing the brand. Beautiful beds have to promote its
product in such lifestyle magazine as well, limited exposure, but presence should surely be there.
Develop to presence internationally:
In order to move outside Dublin, the company has to first have its stronghold in domestic market.
Once the company has established its name in the domestic market, it can look to expansion. Before
expansion, study of the market is essential, the market has to be studied under PORTER 5 forces
model to understand the market attractiveness and then only they should start deploying their
marketing activities to expand internationally.

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Estimated P& L Statement
Beautiful Beds
Profit and Loss Statement
For the Period ended Year One
Income
Sales 52000
( 1,000 elements @ $
52 each)
Total Sales 52000
Cost of Goods Sold
Opening Stock $ -
Stock Purchases 34320
Less Closing Stock 3120
Total Cost of Goods
Sold(COGS) 31200
Gross Profit 20800
Expenses
Advertising 500
Payroll 10000
Professional Fees (Legal,
Accounting) 200
Utilities & Telephone 800
Other: Computer Software 480
Expenses total 15600
Net Profit before Tax 5200
Note: The expenses are assumed; the calculation of sales is forecasted, keeping in mind the
population numbers
Control KPI Metrics:

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After formulating the marketing strategy, what comes next is monitoring the strategy
implementation and seeing if the marketing strategy employed is moving in the right direction.
There are few metrics which can ensure a check or control on the marketing strategy
Website Traffic: After formulating the online strategy, the traffic on website should go from 1x
to somewhere between 1.75x to 2x. If the traffic on the website is not increasing and the
transactions are not happening as forecasted, something is definitely wrong with the strategy, hence
need to rethink on it. The numbers should always increase after implementing the marketing
strategy. The period of monitoring should be at least 3 months
Sales: The element, for which all the marketing efforts are being driven. It is the most important
quality data point to measure. With the implementation of the marketing strategy that is after doing
a lot of online and offline promotions it is pretty reasonable to see the surge in numbers. The
numbers must and should show an upward trend, failure to do so, the strategy should be tweaked.
Footfall: Even if the sales are not increasing, the footfall on the counter has to definitely show
some remarkable results. If people are pulled to the store, it is clear that the marketing strategy is
not working, now if they are not buying anything that means the product is not working for the
customers. Hence, it tells which business function one has to focus on.

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