Folio Books Marketing Management: Targeting New Online Customers

This report provides a comprehensive marketing management plan for Folio Books, a retail company specializing in books, as it expands its online presence. The plan focuses on attracting new target segments, specifically new readers and business readers. It includes a situation review of Folio Books' current market position, SWOT analysis, and competitive positioning. The report details a three-year marketing mix plan with specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) goals, including increasing online followers and generating turnover. It outlines resource allocation, monitoring, and reviewing techniques. The plan emphasizes leveraging online platforms and adapting to digital marketing trends to enhance Folio Books' market competitiveness and sustainability. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Running head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes:

1MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Executive Summary
The Folio books company operates in the retail industry and the main rationale of operations
of the company is through books that are offered by the company to the consumers. Almost
all genres are presents in the stock of the company and they are mindful to cater to all the age
groups while they are operating in the market. The company offers an array of books and in-
store expertise to its customers. The company has recently decided to go online in terms of
selling the books to book lovers. While doing the same, it has been identified that the
company needs to capitalise on a new set of target segments. The targets segments that have
been selected as new target segments are new readers and business readers. A three-year
marketing mix plan has been developed and the schedule for the same has also been
presented apart from the development of the resource monitoring and reviewing techniques.
It has been recommended that the company should Effectively identify the trends in the
industry, survey the customers and effectively carry out social media marketing while they
are operating in the industry.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................4
2. PHASE ONE – Goal Setting..............................................................................................4
2.1 Corporate Mission Statement...........................................................................................4
2.2 New Target Market SMART Goals.................................................................................4
3. PHASE TWO – Situation review of current FOLIO BOOKS market...............................5
3.1 Description of the business..............................................................................................5
3.2 Current target markets and marketing strategies..............................................................6
3.3 SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................6
3.4 Competitive positioning analysis.....................................................................................7
4. PHASE THREE- Strategy formulation and Target market Segmentation........................8
4.1 Marketing Objectives and target market segment(s).......................................................8
4.1.1 Specific Objectives relating to target market segment(s).........................................8
4.1.2 Evaluation of 2 Potential New Target Market Segments and justification of the
selection of one for the purpose of this plan......................................................................8
4.1.3 Comprehensive Description of the new Target Market............................................8
4.2 3-Year Marketing Plan Mix for attracting the new Target Market Segment.................10
4.3 3-Year Marketing Plan Activity Schedule.....................................................................11
5. PHASE FOUR- Resource allocation and monitoring......................................................11
3-year Budget Projections....................................................................................................11
5.1 Non-financial resource Implications..............................................................................12
5.2 Monitoring and Reviewing............................................................................................12

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6. Conclusion........................................................................................................................12
7. Recommendations............................................................................................................13
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................14

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1. Introduction
It can be said that the main motive of operations of a company is not just to satiate the
needs and demands of the consumers. The company needs to cater to the need of generation
of revenue through which the organisation will be able to sustain itself in the long run
(Afuberoh & Okoye, 2014). However, in order to gain effectiveness in operations and
appreciation from the consumer community in the long run, companies need to carefully
identify the needs of the customers and shape strategies accordingly through which they are
able to gain favourable outcomes. Folio books have been operating in Brisbane as a humble
and customer centric company and the aim of the paper is to critically evaluate the current
position of the company in the market, identification of the marketing strategies that the latter
needs to take and the expected outcomes that the company should expect if the strategies are
followed.
2. PHASE ONE – Goal Setting
2.1 Corporate Mission Statement
The corporate mission statement that has been established by a company indicates the
main goals or the principles that the company would abide by while operating in the market
and serving the consumers. The main aim of the company is to help the consumers of the
company that is the book lovers in having favourable experiences while in terms of
purchasing books. The company aims to offer the consumers range of books along with
priority to the convenience of the consumers.
2.2 New Target Market SMART Goals
The company has recently incorporated online facility with which it has established
new goals. Thus, following are the SMART goals that have been established by the company.
The goals that have been established fulfils the SMART criteria. This implies that the

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objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound (Park et al., 2013).
Following are the SMART Goals of the company in accordance with their newly
implemented motives;
 To increase the online base of followers on mediums Facebook and Pinterest by 1000
followers in 1 month.
 To effectively cater to Search Engine Optimisation through which the website of the
company would appear whenever one searches for a book that is available in the
library of the company.
 To Generate turnover of A$ 400,000 in the first 5 months after implementation of the
online shopping facility.
3. PHASE TWO – Situation review of current FOLIO BOOKS market
3.1 Description of the business
The Folio books company operates in the retail industry and the main rationale of
operations of the company is through books that are offered by the company to the
consumers. The type of genre of books does not limit the efficacy of the company top gain
effectiveness from the part of the consumers of the company. Almost all genres are presents
in the stock of the company and they are mindful to cater to all the age groups while they are
operating in the market. The company has been operating in the market for more than 30
years and has recently undertaken and implemented online services through which the
company aims to gain effectiveness in operations in the modern era.
The company currently is based in Brisbane. The address of the company 133 Mary Street,
(Corner of Edward & Mary St.) Brisbane QLD 4000.

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3.2 Current target markets and marketing strategies
The main target audiences of the company are the people who have high levels of
affinity towards books. The main aim of the company is to offer varied range of books to the
consumer community. The company aims to capitalize on people having special affinity
towards the activity of reading books. The target market has been segregated by the company
further with the help of books for people of different ages, interests and purviews.
The marketing strategy that has been adopted by the company is a product centric
marketing strategy where the products that are offered by the company fulfil the main value
proposition communication from the part of the company (Ottman, 2017).
3.3 SWOT Analysis
Analysis of the Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to be experienced by
the company will help in identification of the competencies and the threats to sustainability of
the company (Yuan 2013).
Strengths:
 Favourable reputation with over 30 years of experience.
 Impressive Product Portfolio
 Customer centric company
Weaknesses:
 Low exposure in the market
 Lack of investment in marketing
 Traditional approach while operating in the industry.
Opportunity
 Carrying out extensive marketing activities while the company operates.

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 Capitalising on innovative technology.
 Capitalising on other states of Australia with people having similar affinity to reading
books.
Threats
 Image of the company is perceived to be backdated.
 Losing in competition to companies with more marketing competency.
 Online book retailers such as Amazon have the effective marketing competency and
repertoire (Ritala, Golnam & Wegmann, 2014). Thus, poses threat to sustainability of
the company.
3.4 Competitive positioning analysis
The company has been recognised as a trusted supplier of books in Brisbane for more
than 30 years. As a result of this they have been able to develop a reputation in the market
that they operate in (Elfenbein, Fisman, McManus, 2015). As mentioned before, the company
is a customer centric business that carefully analyses the needs of the customers and puts it at
a priority through inclusion of the same in the business model of the company. The company
values the experiences that the consumers receive and thus caters to pertaining to the
customers in an effective manner (Minkiewicz, Evans & Bridson, 2014). However, it can be
said that the company is considerably new to digital marketing techniques or operating
through an online platform as a result of which the company needs to gain expertise in the
same (Ryan, 2016). New companies in the same industry have been found to stick to digital
forms of marketing as the first method marketing that they use in order to communicate their
value proposition to the consumer community. Apart from that competitors such as Amazon
are IT based and hence have an advantage in terms of communicating the motives of the

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company digitally through mediums such as social media. Thus, the position of the company
is currently favourable due to reputation, however it needs to adapt fast.
4. PHASE THREE- Strategy formulation and Target market
Segmentation
4.1 Marketing Objectives and target market segment(s)
4.1.1 Specific Objectives relating to target market segment(s)
Following are the specific objectives that the company has implemented relating to
the customer segments that are to be targeted by the company.
 To develop at least 100 customers associated to the long-term subscription.
 The generate interest of social media from book lovers all across Australia that will be
reflected through the performance of the company on Facebook.
4.1.2 Evaluation of 2 Potential New Target Market Segments and justification of the
selection of one for the purpose of this plan.
The 2 new groups of potential target consumer segments that have been identified are as
follows;
 New Readers
 Business Readers
There are readers who are always starting to read, along with people who need to follow the
business and market trends. Capitalising on the latter will help in generation of revenue and
satiation of the needs of the latter.
4.1.3 Comprehensive Description of the new Target Market
Identification of a new target market gives the company a scope to capitalise on a new
set of customers that they had not capitalised on before (Coeurderoy & Murray, 2014). It can

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be said that there are people who are starting to read books at one time or the other. It has
been found that while some people start reading simply out of interest, some people do it on
the basis of their current stature in life. Some even pick up a book before they are about to
commence a journey. Furthermore, it has

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been found that due to popular movies being made based of famous books, there are some
part of the population who aim to read the books that made the said movies or TV Series so
popular. Examples are: the Harry Potter Movies, Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies and TV
series such as Game of Thrones (Zhu et al., 2015). There has been an unseeingly rise in the
sales of Marvel comics Harry Potter and Game of Thrones books after the latter gained
popularity (Steiner, 2015). Thus, by targeting such customer segments the company can
contribute to their sustainability.
Apart from the latter the company also aims to capitalise on the people who have to
stay up to date with the business world (Berkup, 2014). It has been found even after the
upgradation and modernisation of technology that there are some groups of the population
who still prefer to check news from newspapers and not from the online variants of the latter.
Similar is the case with people who have the habit of reading business magazines. Thus, it
can be said that by including business magazines, famous novels and comics which has been
the base of development of various popular online movies and TV series, the company can
ensure that their turnover will increase and the company will be able to sustain itself in the
long run.
4.2 3-Year Marketing Plan Mix for attracting the new Target Market Segment
Following is the marketing mix of the company for the coming 3 years;
 Product: The product/s that is/are being pitched in the market are popular novels and
business magazines (Minkiewicz, Evans & Bridson, 2014).
 Price: The products will be offered at marked prices with discounts in special
occasions (Minkiewicz, Evans & Bridson, 2014)..
 Promotion: Promotion will be carried out through digital media platforms such as
social media (Minkiewicz, Evans & Bridson, 2014).. The chosen social media
platform is Facebook.
 Place: The place where the product is being pitched is Brisbane, however the
company aims to attract customers from all over Australia (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015).
The company intends to capitalise of the home delivery aspect of business.
 People: The people who will be responsible for incorporation of the plan are markers
of Folio books (Haider et al., 2019).

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 Process: The process will focus on convenience of the customers (Haider et al.,
2019). Furthermore, development of relationships with customers will be stressed by
the company.
 Physical Evidence: The product will be available to the customers from the Folio
book store and the online catalogue on the website of the company (Haider et al.,
2019).
Marketing mix Recommended
Change(s)
Fit to Target
Market
Fit to existing
situation
Advantages Disadvantages Resource
Impacts
PRODUCT Including
business
magazines,
comics and
novels
YES YES Increase in
competency
none nil
PRICE Nominal Pricing YES YES Increase in
revenue
none nil
PROMOTION Social media
marketing
YES YES Inexpensive but
effective
None nil
PLACE Internet,
Brisbane, etc.
YES YES Nil None nil
PEOPLE People Interested
in Books
YES YES Nil None nil
PROCESS Online and
through physical
store
YES YES nil None nil
PHYSICAL
EVIDENCE
Experienced
through Purchase
of book
YES YES nil none nil

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4.3 3-Year Marketing Plan Activity Schedule
Activities 1st
to 6th
Week
7th
to 12th
week
13th
to 19th
Week
20th
to 26th
Week
27th
to 30th
Week
31st
to 35th
Week
36th
Week
Sourcing New
Products

Development of
relations with new
suppliers
 
Creating
marketing strategy

Strategy analysis
and evaluation
  
Implementation
of strategy
  
Carrying out
Marketing Research
 
Stocking of new
products

Report
Preparation
 
Monitoring of the
Complete activity

5. PHASE FOUR- Resource allocation and monitoring
3-year Budget Projections
A budget refers to the sum total of expenses that is allocated for a particular activity
(Ren et al., 2016). The budget that the company needs to incorporate into their budget
depends on the price at which the book, comic and magazines can be acquired by the

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company. Depending on the price of the books at the time of purchase and also depending on
the number of the books that have been purchased. Since, this case is hypothetical and the
company is low profile information regarding the same could not be retrieved.
5.1 Non-financial resource Implications
The resources that would be required from the part of the company in order to sustain
the motive of carrying out the said 3-year marketing plan is to cater to the needs associated
with the development of a favourable workforce that is human resources (Alfes et al., 2013).
Furthermore, the company also aims to capitalise on the intangible resources that they have
been able to develop. The intangible resources that is being mentioned here is the goodwill
and the reputation that the company has been able to develop in the last thirty plus years that
they have been operating in Brisbane with favourable outcomes. Furthermore, physical
resources such as office equipment, warehousing facility and transportation are the resources
that would be needed by the company in order to sustain the motive of the 3 years marketing
plan that has been taken by the company.
5.2 Monitoring and Reviewing
Monitoring is crucial when it comes to the checking the viability of operations of a
certain activity of the organisation (Clijsters et al., 2014). The aim of the company is to cater
to the needs through which the company can improve its nature of operations. Hence, there
will be half yearly system of monitoring that will be check whether the activities that have
been planned by the company is being carried out effectively or not. This, will ensure the
quality of the task that is to be carried out while the activities are being carried out by the
company.

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6. Conclusion
On a concluding note, it can be said that Folio books have been operating in the
market of Brisbane for more than 30 years. The company offers an array of books and in-
store expertise to its customers. The company has recently decided to go online in terms of
selling the books to book lovers. While doing the same, it has been identified that the
company needs to capitalise on a new set of target segments. The targets segments that have
been selected as new target segments are new readers and business readers. It has been found
that the latter can help the company in terms of staying relevant and generating revenue while
the company operates in the industry that they are a part of. Thus, a 3-year marketing mix
plan has been developed and the schedule for the same has also been presented apart from the
development of the resource monitoring and reviewing techniques. By effectively following
the latter the company will be able to gain effectiveness in operation and ensure that the
company gains a sustainable stature while they are operating in the long run.
7. Recommendations
It has been found in the above sections that although the company have a favourable
reputation as arrest of their experience, they have had difficulties in expanding. The aim of
the company is to provide customers with favourable experiences while they are operating in
the market and thus, the following recommendations should be followed;
1. Effectively identify the trends in the said industry will help the company in identifying
what are the activities that are being carried out by leading organisation in the same
industry (Sánchez et al., 2013).
2. Surveying the consumers who visit the book stores would help in educating the company
about the attitudes, needs, demands and preferences of the latter.

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3. Effectively carrying out social media marketing as it is the cheapest and the most
engaging medium to target the consumer community.

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