MMK101: Marketing Strategy Recommendations Report - Trimester 1 2018

This report presents a marketing strategy for the book 50@50 by Nicole Ives, focusing on the target market of individuals aged 50-65. The report outlines the book's positioning as an enlightening guide for people entering their fifties, and recommends a comprehensive marketing mix. The product strategy emphasizes the book's core, actual, and augmented offerings, highlighting its content and purpose. The pricing strategy suggests a price skimming approach, combined with psychological pricing, to maximize revenue and customer reach. Promotion strategies include social media marketing, event marketing, and influencer marketing to increase awareness and sales. The report concludes with a summary of the recommendations and emphasizes the importance of effective execution to achieve the book's marketing objectives and expand its readership in Australia and America. The reference list includes various marketing and business publications.

50@50
ASSESSMENT 3
MMK101 TRIMESTER 1 2018
MARKETING STRATEGY RECOMMENDATIONS
Student Name:
Student Number:

Table of Contents
2.1. Target Market and Positioning Statement...........................................................................................................
2.2. Marketing Strategy Recommendations...............................................................................................................
2.2.1. Product.........................................................................................................................................................
2.2.2. Price..............................................................................................................................................................
2.2.3. Promotion.....................................................................................................................................................
2.3. Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................................
Reference List.............................................................................................................................................................

2.1. Target Market and Positioning Statement.
Target Market Target market of a particular business refers to the set of customers whose
needs the business aims to fulfill. This particular report highlights upon
the target market for the book 50@50 by Nicole Ives. The author has
written a book which targets customers and makes them aware about what
life after 50 looks like. Therefore the target customers for this particular
book would include customers who are aged between 50 and 65.
The target market would include men and women both. Avid readers
would be specifically targeted for this book. This is because people do not
start reading at a later age and hence it is important that the customers
targeted are avid readers since a long time.
The book is targeting customers across Australia and America but can
also be made available worldwide through online platforms.
Positioning
Statement: The positioning of a product throws light on the image of the product in
the minds of its customers. This positioning is important in order to
establish the right goodwill of the product in order to enhance customer
engagement. The positioning of the book would be done as a fun,
enlightening book that paves the way for people entering their 50s. The
book would be a guide and a mentor for people and hence will be
positioned as a source of learning and attaining wisdom.

2.2. Marketing Strategy Recommendations.
2.2.1. Product
The product is the core, actual and augmented offering of the book. The core product is the most
primary offering (Kolb, 2015). It is important for customers to understand that the core offering
in this case is a book by the Author Nicole Ives. The actual product is the content of the book
and the availability of the book across various online and offline platforms. The book will also
be available in paperback as well as hard cover. The product is an essential part of the marketing
mix as it is the primary offering of the business. The augmented product involves the deeper
offerings of the book. In this case, the augmented product includes the purpose of the book
which is aimed at helping the older generation of the society understand different facets of how
to lead their lives. The book also talks about the interactions these people have with others
including their family members, friends and acquaintances.
This book offers to provide customers with a deeper insight about how they can face the coming
years of their old age. The book also helps them understand how they can work upon making it
better and worthwhile. The book also offers its younger customers a source of enlightenment for
what they might face when they enter their late 50s. There are a number of fears and
apprehensions in the minds of people. A lot of them maybe demotivated at that age and lack
liveliness. Therefore, this book will help its customers in paving a better way forward for their
old age and guide them to live a more fulfilling life at that stage of their lives.
The author already has two books published under her name and therefore the third book comes
with a certain amount of trust and expectations. The author has tried to help people in their 50s
by sharing experiences of different people from varied parts of the country. This collection of
different experiences can act as a source of learning for people who read this book and may even
get answers to a lot of their questions.

2.2.2. Price
Effective pricing strategy of a product is imperative to the success of the business (Armstrong et.
al., 2015). Pricing strategy determines how the book will be priced. This largely depends on how
marketers anticipate that the book will be positioned and demanded across the market. Pricing
strategy helps in understanding how much will the customer be willing to pay for the particular
product or service (Spann et. al., 2014). In order to price the book in a manner that will be most
effective for the business, a price skimming strategy must be adopted.
Price skimming refers to pricing a particular product high in the beginning and then slowly and
gradually reducing the price in order to cater to the lower income groups and enhance customer
base (Shaw, 2012). Initially, the book needs to create a certain amount of anticipation in the
minds of customers so that on the day of the launch, they would be willing to pay a high price for
the product. Over a period of time, when the targeted customers have purchased the book, the
price would be gradually reduced. This would enable more customers to buy the book and hence
the customer base would increase.
The pricing strategy of the book must effective enough to target different customers belonging to
various segments of the market. It is also essential that the book ties up with various Ecommerce
giants including Amazon. Customer who will buy the book through these platforms could be
given a small discount to encourage purchase. This will enable the book to garner attention of the
online shoppers as well.
Psychological pricing strategy must also be applied to the book in order to encourage customers
to impulse buy the product. The idea of psychological pricing is to list the product price as a little
less than a round number for example 20.99 or 22.98 (Hinterhuber & Liozu, 2014). This creates
an illusion of the product priced at a discount in the minds of consumers. Psychological pricing
works best when the product is kept at an eye level to the customers. This includes products that
are sold at physical stores and shopping malls.
With a period of time, the price of the product must be brought down in order to increase target
customers and reach out to those consumers who have yet not purchased the book. This price

skimming as well as psychological pricing strategy can be effectively utilized in order to increase
customer base, generate revenue as well as set a competent position in the market.
2.2.3. Promotion
Promotion strategies are adopted by businesses to reach out to customers in an effective manner
(Singh, 2012). There are various promotion strategies that can assist the publishers as well as
Nicole Ives to reach out to a large audience. These strategies can include the following:
Social media marketing
Social media refers to the process of promoting a product or service through social media
platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or even Snapchat (Tuten & Solomon, 2017).
The advent of social media in the recent years has taken the world by the storm. The snapshot
below throws a clear light upon the increasing use of social media and its acceptance across the
globe.
.
Therefore, in order to target a wide audience through a single channel, social media can be
effectively used as a tool to create and enhance awareness about the book. Social media
communities including those on Facebook and Twitter can also be used to effectively garner
customer feedback about the book and spread the word across a wide customer segment.

Social media has also been proven effective in conducting word of mouth publicity
(Saravanakumar, 2012). The publishers can start a community specifically for the book with the
use of right hashtags and hence increase awareness about the book.
Event marketing
For a book to be effectively launched and marketed, events play a significant role. The book
launch event as well as other forms of event marketing can be conducted to make sure that the
book reaches a large audience (Daniel et al., 2012). The book must specifically aim to be a part
of events where the majority of the audience consists of older adults. Event marketing allows
brands to target a large customer base at the same time under a single roof.
Book readings should be organized and older adults must be invited to these readings to increase
awareness about the book and generate an interest in the same. The publishers should also tie up
with various events where the book can be sold by sponsoring a small amount of money.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a fairly new concept but is garnering attention these days. The idea is to
promote the product or a service via an influencer (Weiss, 2014). These influencers can be social
media celebrities, TV actors, politicians or any personality who has a large following and hence
can influence the market in the favor of buying the product (Sammis et. al., 2015). In this case,
the publishers can reach out to leading social media celebrities and get them to promote the
book. This can be done by sending free copies of the books to these influencer. Once these
influencers tweet, post or comment about the book on social media platforms, then
automatically, their followers will generate an interest in the book and hence may buy the book.
2.3. Conclusion.
50@50 is the third novel of author Nicole Ives which highlights the experiences of different
people in their fifties. The book is authored with an aim to provide people with a deeper insight
about how they can or should lead their life at this stage of their lives in order to make the most
of it. People have shared their experiences and their interactions and Nicole has beautifully

compiled them in a manner that helps readers learn from different experiences and guide their
life in the same manner.
The targeted audience for the book includes people in their fifties or those who would be
entering their fifties in a short span of time. The book is positioned as insightful, full of wisdom
and interactive. For the book to reach out to a large audience, 50@50 must be priced high at first
and then the price must be gradually reduced. This price skimming strategy will help the book
gain a wider readership.
The book must be promoted through social media channels, events and with the help of
influencers. These strategies must be effectively conducted to generate awareness and set the
right positioning in the market and eventually lead to increased revenues (Baker, 2016). The
above strategies can help the author and the book’s publishers to reach out to a wide set of
readers and increase the book’s readership throughout Australia and America.

Reference List.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education. United States.
Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing? In The Marketing Book (pp. 25-42). Routledge. United
Kingdom.
Daniel, M., Bogdan, G. and Daniel, Z., 2012. The use of event marketing management
strategies. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, pp.5409-5413.
Hinterhuber, A. and Liozu, S.M., 2014. Is innovation in pricing your next source of competitive
advantage?. Business Horizons, 57(3), pp.413-423.
Kolb, B.M., 2015. Entrepreneurship for the creative and cultural industries. Routledge. United
Kingdom.
Sammis, K., Lincoln, C. and Pomponi, S., 2015. Influencer marketing for dummies. John Wiley
& Sons.
Saravanakumar, M., 2012. Social media marketing. Life Science Journal, 9(4), pp.4444-4451.
Shaw, E.H., 2012. Marketing strategy: From the origin of the concept to the development of a
conceptual framework. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 4(1), pp.30-55.
Singh, M., 2012. Marketing mix of 4P’s for competitive advantage. IOSR Journal of Business
and Management, 3(6), pp.40-45.
Spann, M., Fischer, M. and Tellis, G.J., 2014. Skimming or penetration? Strategic dynamic
pricing for new products. Marketing Science, 34(2), pp.235-249.
Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage. United Kingdom.
Weiss, R., 2014. Influencer marketing. How word-of-mouth marketing can strengthen your
organization's brand. Marketing health services, 34(1), pp.16-17.