Analysis of Houzit's Direct Marketing Activities and Strategies

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Houzit's direct marketing activities, focusing on their strategies to increase sales and market share. It examines various marketing functions, including advertising, public relations, in-store promotions, and web promotions. The report also explores the integ...Read More

Plan Direct Marketing
Activities

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1: Marketing activities.....................................................................................................................3
2: Integration of Organizational Activities.....................................................................................4
3. Monitor progress..........................................................................................................................4
4. Distributing and pricing...............................................................................................................5
5. KPIs..............................................................................................................................................5
6. Delegation....................................................................................................................................5
7. Communications..........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References .......................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Marketing activities refers to combination of activities done by a company before and
after launch of product so to acquire customer and market base which helps in gaining
competitive advantage over others. It includes marketing plan, promotional and advertising
activities, market research etc. For this report, Houzit is taken for discussion. Houzit deals in
home ware stores and has more than 15 stores in Brisbane, Australia. Marketing and integration
of organizational activities will be explained with functional example. Distribution and pricing
with KPI will be discussed in context of company. Communication strategies used by company
to increase productivity will be scrutinized.
1: Marketing activities
Marketing activities vision is to create the demand of product in the mind of customer so
to increase profitability of company. Functions of marketing is to create brand image, create
awareness of products, create niche market to earn more profit and capture more customer base.
Different type of marketing activities which could be done by Houzit is explained below,
 Increased marketing: Products of company will only sell if the potential customers have
knowledge about it. Information about product should be properly disseminate to the
customers so that demand would be created in the mind of customers. Houzit should
increase their investment in marketing so to improve their brand image and awareness
with the help of advertisement and PR (McDonald and Wilson, 2016).
◦ Advertising: It is a process of communicating information of product and company
to their customer so that demand will be generated. It is a paid form which is done on
the platforms like telephone, television, internet which includes SEO or SMM etc.
Houzit should made their advertisement on the basis of emotional appeal and
comparison by assigning their product as stylish and exotic.
◦ Public relation: It is an approach use by company to make relation with their
potential customer so to increase sales of the product. Houzit can use newspaper,
magazines, radios etc to advertise their existing product with the new one which is
bedroom and decorative items.
 In-store Promotions: This type of marketing is used in a physical store to increase
footfalls of customer in the store. Houzit can give discounts, start loyalty programs,

conduct events etc in their stores to increase sales and footfalls. For instance Houzit can
markdown their price and place their banner outside store to attract customers.
 Web Promotions: It is a type of marketing in which coder increase or improve their
content on websites so to attract more customer on their websites. They should also start
online services so that more market would cover. Houzit can increase their web
promotions with the help of increase in SEO or SMM, write articles about product they
offer etc (Kumar and Reinartz, 2018).
2: Integration of Organizational Activities
The main of organization is to increase overall sales of company so to increase
profitability. Houzit planned is to launch an online services through which customer can buy
their products online. It will help company to increase their sales in the coming seasonal year. In
store displays with different pricing techniques will be use to increase footfalls on store. More
footfalls leads to more sales. Houzit will invest on their websites with SEO or SMM and by
updating information about products with the help of article so that brand awareness will
increase. Increase in brand awareness will leads to increase in sales of products. Main aim of
Houzit is to increase their market share by 1% from last year and increase their sales by 8.5% in
the coming months. All the marketing activities which is discussed above can help company to
attain their goals and objectives. Proper funds should be utilized by company to maximize their
efforts of increase in sales (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014).
3. Monitor progress
Due to seasonal growth of home ware products, Houzit main aim is to increase their sales
by 8.5% so that company would earn profit which will persuade to competitive advantage over
others. Company should opt penetration pricing skills due to cheaper imports product which is
affecting industry's performance. It will help them to acquire more customers through low
pricing with advanced distribution techniques. Company can use just in time techniques to
decrease their inventory cost which will leads to increase in profitability. Houzit can make a
combination of different marketing activities so that maximum utilisation of resources would
attain. Houzit can use different techniques like websites and social media analytics or pager rank
to measure their performance. This techniques helps company to identify the number of leads
they have generated through marketing and how many potential customers have turned into
sales. This will help them to measure their marketing techniques effectiveness and its ROI.

4. Distributing and pricing
Company can only increase their sales if they decrease their distribution cost. Houzit can
increase their profitability on online platform as the middle man will be eliminated from the
whole process which will increase more profitability for company. Other than that Houzit can
use penetrating pricing for their new products as it will help them to increase their sales though
the profit earn by company will be low but it will increase Houzit customer base which is good
for future. For the old products Houzit can use competitive pricing in which prices of products
changes according to their competitors and external environment. Company should analysed
their pricing and distribution channel quarterly so to modify it according to the requirements of
scenario (Constantinides, 2014).
5. KPIs
KPI measures how much revenue or profit is generated by marketing campaign done by
the company. Company use simple techniques to find out that ROI of their marketing activities
with the help of ROI = (Earnings – Cost) / Cost formula. Other than that company can use web
analytics to find out the ROI on online platform. It is the easiest method of calculating the return
on investment (Parente and Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, 2014)
6. Delegation
It refers to assigning of power and authority by the owner of manager to other employees
so to increase efficiency of the organization. It will help Houzit to increase their productivity and
efficiency thus increase in profitability and sales over a period of time. All the online related
activities which includes SEO or SMM or online services is given to the digital marketing
manager. Article writing should be assigned to content writer as they will be able to produce
something which customer wants. In store displays should be given to store manager as they
have better knowledge of ground as compare to their owner or manager. Pricing activities should
be given to brand manager of Houzit as they are equipped with better knowledge and skills. At
last distribution activities should be assigned marketing manager (Rollins, Nickell and Ennis,
2014).
7. Communications
Communication plays an important role in the success of organization. If open
communication is promote by Houzit internally then it will increase motivation which results in

better performance of employees while working. Houzit owner should talk to their employees
before planning any activities as employees have better ground knowledge as compare to owner
of the company (Stone and Woodcock, 2014). Other than that, proper marketing communication
should be follow by company to interact with their customers so to find out their needs and
demands and then modify their strategies accordingly. There are three principles which should be
follow by Houzit before communicating with their customers are explained below,
 Houzit should advertise their products in the home-ware magazines only as those who are
reading that magazines is interested in the products. For instance, it is of no use for
Houzit if they are publishing their products in car magazines as they are not their target
market.
 Company should set their target market before publishing their advertising and
promotions. ROI will only be attain if they are investing on marketing activities to
acquire their potential market instead of covering whole market.
 Houzit should set their budget before starting their marketing objectives as maximum
utilisation of resources is the key factor which Houzit has to achieved.
Conclusion
Company should decide their mission and vision before starting their operation as it is
important for them to align employees performance accordingly. Marketing activities should be
planned according to the budget they have decided. Proper combination of marketing activities
should be formed by company to acquire more customer and market base. Marketing
communication is important for company and can only be utilize if they are targeting their
potential customer instead of covering whole market. Pricing should be set by company after
analysing and monitoring internal and external environment which includes competitor pricing,
exchanges rates etc.

References
Books and Journals
Constantinides, E., 2014. Foundations of social media marketing. Procedia-Social and
behavioral sciences.148. pp.40-57.
Kumar, V. and Reinartz, W., 2018. Customer relationship management: Concept, strategy, and
tools. Springer.
McDonald, M. and Wilson, H., 2016. Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to profit from
them. John Wiley & Sons.
Parente, D. and Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, K., 2014. Advertising campaign strategy: A guide to
marketing communication plans. Cengage Learning.
Rollins, M., Nickell, D. and Ennis, J., 2014. The impact of economic downturns on marketing.
Journal of Business Research.67(1). pp.2727-2731.
Stone, M. D. and Woodcock, N. D., 2014. Interactive, direct and digital marketing: A future that
depends on better use of business intelligence. Journal of Research in Interactive
Marketing.8(1). pp.4-17.
Tiago, M.T.P.M. B. and Veríssimo, J.M. C., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why
bother?. Business Horizons.57(6). pp.703-708.