Analysis of the Marketing Plan for Australian Hardware - Report

This report analyzes the marketing plan of Australian Hardware, a Brisbane-based homewares chain specializing in decorative items, bathroom fittings, mirrors, and bedroom fittings. The report begins with an executive summary outlining the company's mission to expand to 100 stores Australia-wide and increase sales. It then delves into a SWOT analysis, identifying strengths like knowledgeable staff and a wide product range, as well as weaknesses like limited marketing budget. Opportunities include market growth and potential sales outside Brisbane, while threats include competition and economic downturn. The marketing objectives are to increase sales, grow the loyalty customer base, and establish brand recognition. The report outlines strategies related to product, price, place, and promotion. Finally, it discusses implementation tactics, such as loyalty programs and sustainability initiatives, concluding that the company should increase its marketing budget and leverage tactics to foster growth.

Running Head: DEVELOP A MARKETING PLAN
DEVELOP A MARKETING PLAN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The aim of this report is to do the analysis of the marketing plan of the Australian Hardware.
It is homewares stores chain based in Brisbane that are specialized in the decorative items,
bathroom fittings, mirrors and bedroom fittings. The company has appointed the marketing
manager and after the review of the organization, marketing strategies has been devised
towards the achievements of the Australian Hardware. The company has the mission for
significant presence of retail in the homewares in the every capital city of Australia that starts
with 15 stores to 100 Australia wide. The company has the objective of increasing the sales in
the next three years from $15 million per year to $20 million per year. Moreover, the
company establishes the recognition of brand in the Brisbane so that at least 1 out of the 3
people recognizes the brand of the company in the random survey taken in the 18 months.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis.....................................................................................................................3
Marketing Objectives.............................................................................................................4
Strategies................................................................................................................................5
Implementations.....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Reference....................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The aim of this assignment is to do the analysis about the marketing strategies as well
as activities that reflects the objectives of the organizations’. Hence, for this analysis the
company that would be considered would be Australian Hardware. It is the chain of the
homewares stores based in Brisbane, which are specialized in the bedroom fittings, bathroom
fittings, decorative items and mirrors that have currently 15 stores, which is spread across
greater area of Brisbane1. Their stores are being coordinated and managed by from their head
office in the Milton. Therefore, under this report, discussion will be based on the overview of
the strength, weakness, opportunities and threat of the organization. Moreover, discussion
will be done on the selected marketing opportunity as well as developed strategies. Lastly,
tactics will be discussed for the implementations of the strategies2.
Discussion
SWOT Analysis
Following are the overview of the SWOT analysis of the Australian Hardware:
 Strengths of the company: The Company has the excellent staffs who are
knowledgeable as well as highly skilled about the homewares. Moreover, the
company has the great space of retail that is functional, bright as well as efficient for
the commercial district of urban. Among the repeat customers, there is high loyalty of
the customer. Further, the company has larger assortment of the offering, which
exceeds the offerings of the competitors in the accessibility, range and the quality.
1 Chernev, Alexander. The marketing plan handbook. Cerebellum Press, 2015.
2 Paley, Norton. How to Develop a Strategic Marketing Plan: A step-by-step guide. Routledge, 2017.

4DEVELOP THE MARKETING PLAN
These strength makes the company high competitive and well-known brand among
the customers3.
 Weaknesses of the company- The Company has some weak point that includes
limited budget of marketing for developing the awareness of brand because of the
lack of the store cover and critical mass. Moreover, the company struggles for
continuously funding of the growing long-term repayments plans that are taken out by
the customers4.
 Opportunities of the company: The Company has the opportunities of the growing
market that is in the high area of growth with the significant target market percentage
that are still not aware of the offer of the Australian Hardware. Moreover, the
company has the opportunity for the opportunities of the increasing sales that are
outside the area of target that is Brisbane.
 Threats of the company: The competition of the company from the localized
independent retailers will drive the prices down as there is lower overhead costs of the
owners-operators than the stores run by staff. Moreover, competition from the
national chains is moving into the market of Brisbane. Lastly, there has been
reduction in the disposable income of the customers that are spent on the homewares
due to slump in the economy.
Marketing Objectives
The company has the objectives for increasing the sales in the next three years from
$15 million per year to $20 million per year. Moreover, the company has the objective of
increasing their list of the loyalty customers from 15,000 to 10,000. Further, they are having
the objective of establishing the recognition of brand in Brisbane for recognizing their brand
3 Bull, Joseph William, et al. "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT analysis of the
ecosystem services framework." Ecosystem services 17 (2016): 99-111.
4 Scolozzi, Rocco, et al. "Ecosystem services-based SWOT analysis of protected areas for conservation
strategies." Journal of environmental management 146 (2014): 543-551

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in the minds of the people of 1 out of 3 people in the random survey that are taken in the 18
months.
Strategies
The market opportunity that are available with the Australian hardware is the growing
of the market in the high growth area. There are significant percentage of available targeted
market that aren’t aware of the offers of the Australian hardware. Moreover, there are
opportunities that are available outside of the target market5.
The company has the vision for being the retail national brand for catering different
needs of the home makers with the ranges of the high quality as well as unique homewares to
be made accessible to all from the easy managing payments plan. Moreover, the company has
the mission of growing the stores from fifteen stores in the area of greater Brisbane to
hundred Australia-wide for the significant presence of Australian hardware in the every
capital city of Australia6. The company strategies for following Marketing Mix Strategies:
 Product- The trends in the market is highly on the quality, accessibility as well as
unique items. Hence, the company must strategies on providing large variety of
products, a product that is unique from the other competitor’s products as well as
providing quality products from increasing the number of customers, which they
would differentiate with that of the other7.
 Price- The target of the customers is of the sophisticated people, hence, price is not
the major issues for the company rather the major issues is of the quality because the
customers are not learning for appreciating for the differences in the quality.
5 Huang, Rong, and Emine Sarigöllü. "How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the
marketing mix." Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors. Springer, New York, NY, 2014. 113-132.
6 Londhe, Bhausaheb R. "Marketing mix for next generation marketing." Procedia Economics and Finance 11
(2014): 335-340.
7 Khan, Muhammad Tariq. "The concept of'marketing mix'and its elements (a conceptual review
paper)." International journal of information, business and management 6.2 (2014): 95.

6DEVELOP THE MARKETING PLAN
However, company should provide plans for payment for spreading their
commitments over the extended period.
 Place: The Company has currently located in the commercial, suburban neighborhood
as well as urban retail district and now it aims for expanding the market to 100
Australia-wide.
 Promotion: The promotional activities of the company is not up to the mark of the
company and hence it needs to increase the budget of marketing in order to develop
the brand awareness of the products of the company8.
Implementations
The company has planned for certain tactics for the implementations of the marketing
plan. They have planned for introducing the concept of loyalty programs for the first
purchase of the new customers of the items of the mirrors as well as decorative items. This is
the good opportunity for the company because it will increase the sales as well as attract large
number of customers purchasing the products. Further, the company follows the big push of
the government on the matter of issue of the sustainability. It means conservation of energy
and management of waste. The company by following the new regulations of the
sustainability would be able to provide the wants of the customers without having high usage
of the electricity. Hence, this aspect of the tactics used by the company would create great
impacts in the mind of customers as compare with that of the customers9.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded from the analysis that the company has the wider
opportunity available in the highly growth market of the highly growth area. The company
8 Bourletidis, Konstantinos, and Yiannis Triantafyllopoulos. "SMEs survival in time of crisis: strategies, tactics
and commercial success stories." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 148 (2014): 639-644.
9 Pettigrew, Simone, et al. "Sales promotion strategies and youth drinking in Australia." Social Science &
Medicine 141 (2015): 115-122.

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needs to increase the amount of the marketing budget for developing the awareness of brands.
This would help in resolving the problem of funding continually the growing plans of the
long-term repayments that are taken out of the customers. Moreover, with the help of tactics
of loyalty programs as well as following sustainability, Australian hardware will be able for
creating the major impacts in the minds of the customers that would be helpful in fostering
growth of the organization.

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Reference
Paley, Norton. How to Develop a Strategic Marketing Plan: A step-by-step guide. Routledge,
2017.
Chernev, Alexander. The marketing plan handbook. Cerebellum Press, 2015.
Bull, Joseph William, et al. "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT
analysis of the ecosystem services framework." Ecosystem services 17 (2016): 99-111.
Scolozzi, Rocco, et al. "Ecosystem services-based SWOT analysis of protected areas for
conservation strategies." Journal of environmental management 146 (2014): 543-551.
Huang, Rong, and Emine Sarigöllü. "How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand
equity, and the marketing mix." Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors. Springer, New
York, NY, 2014. 113-132.
Londhe, Bhausaheb R. "Marketing mix for next generation marketing." Procedia Economics
and Finance 11 (2014): 335-340.
Khan, Muhammad Tariq. "The concept of'marketing mix'and its elements (a conceptual
review paper)." International journal of information, business and management 6.2 (2014):
95.
Bourletidis, Konstantinos, and Yiannis Triantafyllopoulos. "SMEs survival in time of crisis:
strategies, tactics and commercial success stories." Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences 148 (2014): 639-644.
Pettigrew, Simone, et al. "Sales promotion strategies and youth drinking in Australia." Social
Science & Medicine 141 (2015): 115-122.