Full Marketing Plan and Presentation MKT/ 421

Running head: MARKETING PLAN 1

Marketing Plan

Student’s name

University affiliation

Marketing Plan

Prepare a SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is considered to be a very imperative technique in the gaining of an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses as well as in the identification of the threats and the opportunities that a business or a product is prone to. SWOT analysis is actually used in the business context to assist in the carving of a sustainable niche in the market. It is very powerful due to the capability of assisting a business in uncovering the opportunities that it is well placed to exploit. In addition to this, through understanding the weaknesses that it has, a business can be in a position to manage and eliminate the threats that are likely to catch it unawares. This section looks at the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that Hour glass traffic lights are prone to.

One of the strengths of the Hour glass traffic lights is that they have a sensible interactive design. The LED lights are designed in such a way that they trickle down like sand in a virtual hourglass and thus thereby assists an individual to know when the light is about to change (Beale, 2010). The other strength that is associated with the Hour glass traffic lights is that it enables people to see how long they are supposed to wait or notify them to hurry up. It is effective since people do not have to read from numbers. The other strength is that countdown number 3, 2, 1, appears while the yellow light turns on and this serves as a warning to the people to either get ready to go or to stop.

One of the weaknesses of the Hour glass traffic lights is that it is confusing for people to know when it is time to stop or to get ready to go. Having a simple numerical countdown or another design like that of Damjan Stankovic can be better in terms of clarity. The other weakness is that the Hour glass traffic lights is not virtually appealing.

One of the opportunities that Hour glass traffic lights has the opportunity of carrying out more research in order to increase design a more innovative system that could be easy to use and assist in reducing confusion among the drivers and the pedestrians.

One of the threats of the Hour glass traffic lights is that it is likely to be overtaken by other LED lights company who makes designs that are more virtually appealing and less confusing (Price, 2010).

Competitive analysis using Five Competitive Forces

The porter’s five competitive forces refers to the framework that is employed in carrying out an analysis of the level of competition that is present in a certain industry and the strategy for the business development. These five competitive forces in the industry include the threats of other substitutes, threat of the rivals who are established, threat of new entrants in the industry, the bargaining power of the suppliers and the bargaining power of the customers. In the threats of new entrants, the markets that are highly profitable usually attract many of the new firms. This results to the reduction in the level of profitability of all the firms that are in the industry. If the entry of other companies is not blocked, the abnormal profit that the Hour glass traffic lights get will trend towards zero as a result of the perfect competition.

In the threat of substitutes, if there are other products in the market that can be used as the Hour glass traffic lights; chances are that the propensity of the customer to change to the alternative products will be high. In this case, the traditional traffic lights can be used as an alternative to the hourglass traffic lights depending on the availability of the close substitute, depreciation of quality, the switching costs of the buyer, and the propensity of the buyer to substitute and also the relative price performance of the substitute (Shaw, 2009).

The bargaining power of the customers refers to the market of the outputs. The capability of the customers to put the firm under pressure usually affect the sensitivity of the customer to the changes in the price. The Hour glass traffic lights can put in place measures such as implementing a loyalty program in order to reduce the power of the buyers. The power of the buyers is said to be high of they have many alternatives and low when they are independent. Some of the factors that affects the bargaining power of the customers include the bargaining leverage, availability of substitute products, price sensitivity among the buyers, analysis of the customer value, the costs that the buyers are likely to incur as a result of switching to other firms, level of dependency on the various existing levels of distribution and also the total trading activities.

The bargaining power of the suppliers refers to the market of the inputs. Suppliers of the labor, raw materials, expertise and components in the firm can serve as a source of power over the firm when there are only a few substitutes in the market. The increase in the prices by the suppliers at hour glass traffic lights company can affect the prices of the product resulting to an increase in the prices. Suppliers at times may not be willing to work with a particular firm and can even go to the extent of charging prices that are excessively high for the resources that are unique and this can greatly affect the competitiveness of the company.

In most of the industries, the intensity of the rivalry in the industry plays a very great role in the determination of the nature of competitive in the industry. Some of the potential factors that affects the industry rivalry include level of the advertising expenses, the concentration ratio of a firm, competition between the online and the offline companies, the level of transparency, sustainable competitive advantage as a result of innovation and the power of the competitive strategy that has been adopted by an organization (Porter, 2014). In this case, if hour glass traffic lights invests heavily in advertising, focuses on transparency, adopts a very powerful competition strategy and is innovative enough such that it is able to have a substantial competitive advantage over its rivals in the market, it will be in a position to remain competitive in the market and hence attain a large market share.

References

Beale, S., (2010). Hourglass LED Traffic Light Design Concept. Retrieved from https://laughingsquid.com/hourglass-led-traffic-light-design-concept/

Porter, M. (2014). Competitive strategy : techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. Free Press.

Price, A., (2010). Would an Hourglass Traffic Light Work Better? Retrieved from https://www.good.is/articles/would-an-hourglass-traffic-light-work-better

Shaw, R. (2009). Soft sift in an hourglass : stories of hope and resilience at the end of life. Singapore: Armour Pub.