Poppy Barley Shoes: A Marketing Mix Analysis of The Edmonton Oxford Black

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Poppy Barley Shoes' marketing mix strategy, focusing on their product, pricing, distribution, and promotion strategies. The analysis centers around The Edmonton Oxford Black, a men's formal footwear product, and examines how Poppy Barley leverages these marketing elements to achieve their business objectives. The report explores the company's vision, goals, and initiatives related to product strategy, analyzes their competitive pricing strategy, and examines their exclusive online distribution model. The report concludes by highlighting key takeaways for Poppy Barley's marketing efforts.

MARKETING MIX ANALYSIS

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Product Strategy.........................................................................................................................3
1. Vision...........................................................................................................................................4
2. Goals............................................................................................................................................4
3. Initiative.......................................................................................................................................5
4.0Pricing Strategy..........................................................................................................................5
5.0 Distribution Strategy..................................................................................................................6
6.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8

1.0 Introduction
The purpose of this assignment is to provide a structured business report based on the case
analysis of Poppy Barley Shoes. Poppy Barley was comparative newcomers in the industry of
manufacturing shoes. Justine and Kendall were the one to start up the company; both of them
effectively used the broadness of the experience of manufacturing from their previous company
they worked for.
Poppy Barley became the very first North American company to provide and offer handcrafted
fashionable shoes for both men and women online. Poppy Barley protects their factories for the
working environment to be positive, providing fair wages and other benefits to the workers,
rights and freedom of workers, safety and health benefits. Being the first North American
company to offer fashionable boots online gives them the advantage of creating brand image in
the industry of manufacturing handcrafted shoes. By selling their products exclusively online,
Poppy Barley manages to bypass and avoid all the costs of retail, thus making it much more
affordable for men and women to purchase measurable shoes online with great fashionable
designs.
The product chosen to analyze is The Edmonton Oxford Black and the 4Ps that are going to be
used to pertain the product are product, price, place and promotion. The product strategy has
enhanced the quality of the product than before, creating an urge of the products within the
customers. The price strategy has increased the number of customer as they can avail the product
with their choice of price range, ranging from low to high, which on the other hand have
increased the market perspective and the sales trend. The place strategy has helped the company
by providing the best possible platform for their products which made to reach the customers
more easily. Finally, the promotion strategy includes the right choice of the opinion leader based
on the acceptability of that opinion leader in the mind of the customer thus enhancing in
targeting the audiences and increasing sales.

2.0 Product Strategy
In the product strategy, the product chosen is The Edmonton Oxford Black which is classified in
the category of men formal footwear to those who are mainly using the product like shoes for
office works, corporate meetings and corporate events. The main motive of the product strategy
is to fulfill the needs of the customers (Wei, Samiee & Lee, 2014).The product strategy is used
to serve a better quality of product to the customers based on their needs. Here the strategy is
made to analyze the quality of the product based on the feedbacks of the customer who have
already availed the service form them. The product quality is enhanced by using the strategy to
generate more customers and also to retain the old customers. The product strategy describes the
life cycle of the entire product. The product leaders manufacture and regulate the product
strategy; the product leaders target the audiences based on the demand of the product and explain
the main product and the attributes of the customers in order to achieve the objective. The
product strategy is combined of three components that are vision, goals and the initiative.
1. Vision
Vision consists of the details focused on the opportunities in the market, analysis of competition
in the market and the product launch in the market. It reflects the categories of the customers, the
needs and the wants of the customers and the plan to provide and offer unique products.
Following is the organizational vision: To design best products, cause no harm, utilizing
business to motivate and implement effective remedies for the crisis in environment.
2. Goals
The objectives and the goals set by the company must be measurable, time efficiency of the
objective and goal in order to achieve the selling of the product. This also helps the company to
set the target of selling the product in time quadrants. Following are the organizational goals:
 Revenue increment by 25%
 Expand business into 3 new countries
 To increase mobile promotion by 75%
 Provide customers with quality product at affordable prices

3. Initiative
Initiatives are the target set and implemented by the company within the company to achieve the
objectives for example, improvements in performance, improvements in UI, better reporting and
increment of business.
4.0Pricing Strategy
Pricing is the most significant factor that can affect the sales of the product The Edmonton
Oxford Black. With the help of the pricing strategy the company categorizes the customers based
on their ability to pay for the product. It is very much necessary to understand the earning level
of the customers and also to categorize the product and to serve them accordingly to their
income. The pricing strategy is also used to understand the pricing of the competitors in the
existing market and what measures can be used to minimize the similar product price rates
offered by the competitors to increase the sales percentage of the company and the products
(Zeng et al., 2016.).
The pricing strategy used by Poppy Barley is competitive pricing strategy. Competitive pricing
strategy deals with the setting of price regarding the product in accordance to what the other
companies are charging for the product in order to face the competition in the market. This
pricing strategy is put into action more often by the companies involved in the selling of similar
and identical products. The offers delivered by the companies can differ from each other while
the feature of the particular product remains the same. Competitive pricing strategy is generally
implemented once the rate or the price of the product has come to the level or point of
equilibrium, which takes place when the product has been for too long in the market and many
alternatives of the product, has emerged in the market. The target of this strategy is to provide
the customers with products that are similar to that of other companies in the marketplace at such
prices which will gain the attraction of the customers and excite them to buy the product from
Poppy Barley. Competitive pricing strategy results in narrowing the profit margins of Poppy
Barley and giving them the opportunity to gain the competitive edge over other companies
selling the same product in the market (Danziger, Hadar & Morwitz, 2014).

5.0 Distribution Strategy
Distribution strategy is a marketing strategy used by the company to distribute its products in the
market. It is one of the most important 4Ps used in marketing mix of the product. This strategy is
created and developed by the management of manufacturing the products of business which
specifies and measures how the company is going to transfer the products to the intermediaries,
retailers and the customers. There are various kind of distribution channels used to distribute the
products in the region that would help the company in order to offer and provide the people with
adequate products according to the needs and the wants of the customers (Mahdi et al., 2015).
Distribution strategy consists of the distribution channel which deals with the consumer
channels used to reach the customers directly, B2B channels used in order to make the product
available to the customers by using retailers as the intermediary and service channels used by the
company to market the product through the help of the agents. Distribution strategy includes
intensive distribution that aims to accomplish saturation covered by the market by utilizing all
the retail outlets, selective distribution by which the company uses the limited number of retail
outlets present in the geographical area to sell and market the products and the utilization of
exclusive distribution which includes only one retailer or wholesaler in the geographic area the
company has targeted (Schmidt et al., 2016).
Poppy Barley uses the exclusive distribution to market and sell the products. Poppy Barley
exclusively sell handcrafted fashionable footwear online which helps them reach out in reaching
customers globally and also the geographic area the company have targeted in order to
accomplish the selling of the product The Edmonton Oxford Black. The strategy of exclusive
distribution is very much effective as because the company is exclusively selling the products
online which makes them reach larger amount of audience throughout the world and also the
targeted geographic area where they are going to launch the product.
6.0 Conclusion
After performing the following analysis and providing the structured business report it can be
concluded that the prime points the company has to look after while marketing the product are
the product strategy which includes fulfilling the needs and wants of the customers regarding the

product and life cycle of the entire product The product leaders manufacture and regulate the
product strategy; the product leaders target the audiences based on the demand of the product
and explain the main product and the attributes of the customers in order to achieve the
objective. The company also has to build up appropriate and genuine pricing strategy so that
they have the competitive edge over other companies and also selling the product with minimum
amount of profit. It is really important for the company to select proper distribution channel and
develop a effective distribution strategy to make their products reach out to larger number of
audiences and the targeted geographic area in order to sell the products and achieve their
objectives and goals.

Reference
Danziger, S., Hadar, L. & Morwitz, V.G., (2014). Retailer pricing strategy and consumer choice
under price uncertainty. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(3), pp.761-774.
Mahdi, H.A.A., Abbas, M., Mazar, T.I. & George, S.A., (2015). A Comparative Analysis of
Strategies and Business Models of Nike, Inc. and Adidas Group with special reference to
Competitive Advantage in the context of a Dynamic and Competitive
Environment. International Journal of Business Management and Economic
Research, 6(3), pp.167-177.
Schmidt, M.C., Kolodinsky, J.M., DeSisto, T.P. & Conte, F.C., (2016). Increasing farm income
and local food access: A case study of a collaborative aggregation, marketing, and
distribution strategy that links farmers to markets. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems,
and Community Development, 1(4), pp.157-175.
Wei, Y.S., Samiee, S. & Lee, R.P., (2014). The influence of organic organizational cultures,
market responsiveness, and product strategy on firm performance in an emerging
market. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 42(1), pp.49-70.
Zeng, X., Dasgupta, S. & Weinberg, C.B., (2016). The competitive implications of a “no-
haggle” pricing strategy when others negotiate: Findings from a natural
experiment. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(4), pp.907-923.