Using the same hypothetical company from Assignment 1, for this assignment, you will focus on the company’s branding strategy, primary and secondary target markets, positioning statement, and consum

Part A: Your Market Plan

Marketing Management (MKT 500)

A marketing plan is an effective opportunity available to the business owner for converging all of its resources with comprehensive planning to achieve desired results. This paper intends to develop a marketing plan for the Homage Company that possesses expertise in the production of cooking products. The company started its operations at Alberta in Canada since 1971 (“cookware," 2013). Now, the company is planning to expand its operations in North America, and for the same reason, the company has installed a plant in North America with the machines having the capability to produce the products desired by the consumers of the American market. The company is currently offering various products including pans, pets, etc. for both corporate and individual clients that are quite focused on quality.

Homage is one of the leading organizations in the kitchenware industry and holds an image of a luxury brand in the market of Canada and America. The company has established its positioning in the market based on the production of effective quality kitchenware products. It is essential to mention that as the focus of the company mainly relies on quality; therefore, its products are quite expensive as compared to the products of other companies in the market (Bloch, 2011).

However, the company is considering expanding its target market for meeting its future expansion plans. The company has taken the same decision based on the rising economic pressure on consumers in the market. It is obligatory for the company to add one new target market for meeting the objectives of its 5-year strategic plan. Therefore, the company is planning to focus on the needs of the middle-class consumer and improving its promotional activities for targeting them effectively. The successful implementation of the marketing plan will surely bring more profits and revenue to the organization in addition to the achievement of its strategic objectives for the next five years.

Competitive Forces: There are several companies that are producing kitchenware products and targeting the markets of Canada and the USA. More or less, there are currently 216 brands currently operating in the market (Hunt & Derozier, 2004). Most of the competitors in the market are targeting several segments at the same time.

Economic Forces: The recession has certainly caused a huge impact over the disposable income of the residents of the target market influencing the sales of kitchenware products in the market adversely. However, IBIS (2013) predicts that the economic condition of the consumer is going to rise for the period of 2014 -2018 and their spending over the luxury items will improve significantly.

Political Factors: the USA has carried out reformations in its trade policies with the biggest manufacturing country of kitchenware products, i.e., China. Due to the same reformations, the adverse influence has been put over the company's manufacturing the same products at the local level due to their incapability of meeting low prices products being imported from China (Sriram, Chintagunta & Neelamegham, 2006). Moreover, the impact of such reformations is not major over the companies producing quality or luxury products as the Chinese products are comprised of quality for meeting pricing requirements.

Legal and Regulatory Factors: There is no legal hurdle for the companies operating in the USA that are abiding with legislation positively (Yelkur, 2000).

Technological Factors: All the products at the company are being manufactured using the latest technologies and the company has a certain eye over the new technological developments in the market for integrating them in their business to improve their operations positively.

Sociological Factors: The Company is quite committed towards the production of high-quality, luxurious products with its customers with the promotion of Canada production tag (Shane, 2007). Also, the company is making use of green techniques for minimizing the adverse influence over the environment.

The target market of the company is the females aged 40 – 60 year that are normally housewives and not employed by any organization. These are the females that have a high value towards the products with high quality and consider the purchasing of Homage products as an investment. The owners of the restaurants and hotels being operated in the USA are also another target market of the company (Bloch, 2011). The secondary target market of the company includes the females aged 20 – 70 years that are employed at the organizations and carry out house works occasionally but perceives quality as a critical aspect.

The number of products being offered by Homage is quite extensive in number. One of the most famous products of the company is a steamer. The brand name for the product could be a super steamer. The logo will be carrying an artistic image with a smile. The slogan of the product is "Super Steamer for Super Dishes." Apart from the single product, the company is also offering a wide range of cookware products; therefore, it is essential that the brand is depicting the same message for its entire product to ensure that the customers are attracted to the brand instead of any particular product. Therefore, the slogan of the company products could be "Super Products for Super Dishes."

It is essential to carry out performance analysis of the company for gaining information regarding the return over investment for the company. For the same reason, this part of the study will be making use of various metrics for reaching better results in terms of bench-marking percentage.

Customer engagement is a metric that is quite effective for the organization and is measured by the arrival frequency of the customers and their activity timing. The average number of visitors to the Homage website is approximately 2500, where the average visitors of Kenwood Company are 4000. It means that the difference is 2500/4000 = 0.625. It means that there are about 37.5 % more consumers of Kenwood as compared to Homage.

The retention rate of Homage over the website back in 2016 first month was about 30%, where it was 50% in the second month. However, the retention rate of Kenwood was 40% and 70% for the same periods. It means that there is a 10 % and 20% high retention rate of Kenwood over the website as compared to Homage. It is essential to mention that online visiting is essential to be measured for the case study as most of the products of Homage and Kenwood are sold over the internet via their sales portal (Hunt & Derozier, 2004).

The market share provides information regarding the leading of an organization in which the Kenwood is again defeating Homage. Because the market share of Kenwood increased from 20% to 33% from the annual year 2016 to 2017 where the sharing of the market for Homage increased by 13% to 17% in the same period, it means that the increment of Kenwood was higher from Homage by 7% and 16%. The metrics clearly explains the growth of both companies in the respective period. The results suggest that Kenwood brought effective changes in its strategies to experience such success (Hunt & Derozier, 2004).

The rate of the adaption is the measure of the time taken by the organization for adapting any innovation and substantial improvement. There are several factors with a potential of affecting this rate for organizations, including compatibility, complexity, adaptability, and trial-ability. Both companies Homage and Kenwood offered similar cooking ware products in 2016. However, it is essential to mention that the innovation adaptability rate of Kenwood was certainly higher than Homage by 10%. The main underlying reason behind the lead of the Kenwood from Homage, in this case, was their focus over the development of long term relationships with their corporate customers (Yelkur, 2000). Kenwood had more aim for fulfilling the needs and desires of corporate customers, while the Homage at that time was still focusing over individual customers.

Comprehensive analysis carried out for both Kenwood and Homage Company in terms of visitors, the engagement, market sharing, and innovation adaption. It is much clear that the Kenwood had been out casting Homage at various occasions. It is a high time for Homage to bring certain improvement in its strategies to compete strongly with Kenwood and other competitors in the market (Hunt & Derozier, 2004). For the same reason, there are several quantitative and qualitative objectives developed for Homage. The quantitative goals of the company include

• Enhancement of visitors to the company website by 30% up till 2019.

• Increment of repeated customers to the company website by 40% up till 2019.

• An increase in the company's market share by 20% up till 2019.

• Expansion of the organizational markets by 2- 4 numbers in Europe and North America up till 2019.

The qualitative goals of the company include

• Improving communication between the organization and customers to attract them appropriately.

• Provision of better loyalty packages to the customers for increasing their retention.

• Development of effective strategies to strengthen and improve the relations of the company with corporate clients.

• I am bringing certain improvement in the adaptability of the company with innovation to offer better products to the customers at reduced pricing.

As per the SWOT analysis of Homage, it is much clear that the company is producing high-quality products using sustainable approaches. There are several weaknesses in the company in terms of pricing and promotion. The weakness and threat analysis of the company suggests them to re-design their market segmentation for availing various unexplored opportunities available in the market (Nicholas, 2004). Moreover, the organization needs to re-design its promotion and pricing strategies for improving the methods of addressing the current market segment and avail the opportunity to target a new customer segment.

Complete SWOT analysis reveals somewhat similar results indicating the urgency for the company to redesign its strategies related to the product, price, the target, and communications to penetrate the market strongly.

• Target Market 1: Unemployed female and housewives aging 40 -60, and value quality and luxurious products.

• Target Market 2: Employed females carrying out housework occasionally aging 20 – 60 and value quality and luxurious products.

• Target Market 3: Corporate customers interested in luxurious and quality products

• Target Market 4: Middle-class females aging 20 -60 that are interested in purchasing quality products at maximum reduced prices.

Product: Luxury and high-quality kitchenware and cooking ware products. Key attributes of the product being offered by the company include quality, sustainable manufacturing approach, effective warranty, and pace in reaching the market. The company is offering a wide range of products. The company is now offering new products with attributes of low pricing.

Price: The Company is currently offering high-quality products; therefore, the prices of company products are set accordingly (Hunt & Derozier, 2004). However, the company is offering a new product range at reduced pricing.

Place: The Company possesses a certain number of distribution channels, including cookware stores, retail stores, and annual events for distributing its products. The company is also offering the products from the sales portal over its websites (Sriram, Chintagunta & Neelamegham, 2006). It is essential for the company to ensure appropriate control over the distribution channel for ensuring that their distribution is carried out effectively with little dependency over the retailers and maximum convenience of the customers.

Promotion: As the company is offering a new range of products in the market; therefore, it is essential for the company both digital and conventional marketing strategies to target the customers more effectively (Yelkur, 2000). The company will be making use of Social Media, TV, Radio, Billboards, etc. for promoting its products.

There is flexibility for the organization to implement the plan within the next five years as the company needs to work over the manufacturing of new products. Also, it will provide a certain opportunity to the organization for maintaining effective financial health.

Homage is a socially responsible organization. It is offering high-quality products to its customers manufactured using sustainable approaches fulfilling the concerns of the customers that value quality and possess certain respect and care towards the environment and health of the society. It is not viable to execute the positioning statement of the company earlier than ten years as the company is committed to the production of high-quality products for a large diversified market (Shane, 2007). If the company succeeds to include a middle class in the target market in the coming five years, then the company will be able to broaden its target in further five years.

There are several stages involved in the product purchase decision making of the customer including recognition, researching, and evaluation of options, purchasing, and reviews.

The consumer will feel the need for a high-quality product at their homes that can fulfill their cooking needs with convenience. The customers will be interested in carrying out research over the product regarding technology, features, and warranty that will be available to the customers over cookware stores and the internet. The customer will compare the product with the products of other company in terms of quality and price (Hunt & Derozier, 2004). The customer will certainly select the products of Homage Company if they are interested in purchasing quality products. The customer will also receive positive reviews from friends and family about the company’s product over social media and family gatherings. The customer will purchase the product from any of the wide range of distribution channels of the company (Sriram, Chintagunta & Neelamegham, 2006). The customers will rate the product attracting more potential customers to purchase the same product.

There are several concerns regarding an innovative product that needs to be satisfied, including competitiveness of the product, innovation availability, increased features, high acceptability among customers, and potential of returning maximum profits to the company. Homage needs to analyze before manufacturing any new product that it sufficiently meet the needs and requirements of their new market segment, i.e., the middle class (Yelkur, 2000). The company needs to carry out both narrative and a pictorial type of concept testing in this regard along with the carrying out of assessment using sociological methods. It is essential to ensure before testing of the concept that the proposed product is effective for the company in enhancing its market segmentation along with the capability bringing more profitability and revenue to the organization.

References

Baron. R., Shane, S. (2007). Entrepreneurship: a process perspective. Mason: Cengage Learing

Bloch, P. (2011). Product Design and Marketing: Reflections After Fifteen Years. Journal Of Product Innovation Management, 28(3), 378-380. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5885.2011.00805.x

Cookware manufacturers association (2013). Brand finder. Retrieved 26 January 2013 from http://www.cookware.org/

Hunt, S., & Derozier, C. (2004). The normative imperatives of business and marketing strategy: grounding strategy in resource‐advantage theory. Journal Of Business & Industrial Marketing, 19(1), 5-22. doi: 10.1108/08858620410516709

IBIS Wolrd (2013). Kitchen&cookware stores in the U.S.: market research report. Retrieved 26 January 2013 from http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/kitchen-cookware-stores.html

Nicholas, J.M. (2004). Project management for business and engineering: principles and practice. Oxford: Elsevier

Sriram, S., Chintagunta, P., & Neelamegham, R. (2006). Effects of Brand Preference, Product Attributes, and Marketing Mix Variables in Technology Product Markets. Marketing Science, 25(5), 440-456. doi: 10.1287/mksc.1050.0188

Yelkur, R. (2000). Customer satisfaction and the services marketing mix. Services Marketing Quarterly, 21(1), 105-115. doi: 10.1080/15332969.2000.9985409