Posted: April 29th, 2015

STP & Situation Analisys (Marketing)

STP & Situation Analisys (Marketing)

Use #1 from the choices of topics about Apple iPhone 7 marketshare. Each reference provided must be cited in the body of the work. The “outline of the marketing plan” gives great info about format and requirements, please use and follow. All areas in the attachment have to be addressed and all questions discussed/answered.

Module 1 – SLP
STP & SITUATION ANALYSIS
Session Long Project
Here is the brief overview of this cumulative Session Long Project (SLP).
In this research project, you would work as a marketing consultant to
develop a feasible marketing plan for your client. You would conduct both
secondary research in SLP1 and SLP2, and primary research in SLP3 to
glean the necessary information for your marketing plan in SLP4 and
SLP5. When conducting primary research in SLP3, collect only qualitative
data (i.e., personal in-depth interviews with at least three target customers)
for this study.
It is important to conduct quality market research on your focal
product/company in order to develop realistic and workable marketing
plans. Generally speaking, there are two types of research. One is
secondary research, which refers to data collection using existing sources,
and the other is primary research, which is your own data collection for the
specific study at hand. The purpose of market research is to collect usable
information to make more informed decisions on the business problem,
thus increasing the chance of business success in the marketplace.
Please check the outline of the marketing plan, which provides information
on:
1. The final format for this cumulative Session Long Project;
2. A list of topics for the whole project;
3. The continuity and connections among SLPs 1-5.
In this module SLP1, identify a company and a charge (or task) for
this marketing research project and conduct situation analysis
related to your charge. This is the first step of this cumulative
research project. You need to review all five SLPs first in order to
better understand the requirements for this project.
Product Statement
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In this section, describe the company and the product that is going to be
the focus of interest for your marketing plan. For example, if your client is
Apple, provide background information on the organization (e.g., what it is,
what it does, history, success in what it is doing, etc.). If the charge is to
market a new product (such as iPad 6), describe what iPad is, how long it
has been around, how successful it has been, and who the target audience
is. Be specific and detail-oriented, and do not assume that the reader is
familiar with the company and product.
Identify a company and a charge for your research project at the very
beginning, based on the detailed requirements for this cumulative
Session Long Project. The new charge is a hypothetical task, which
should be based on one of the company’s existing brands or
products. It is also better to identify a new product charge for existing
public firms so that you can find enough information for your task.
For example, you may pick one of the following companies and
charges.
1. Apple needs to increase its market share for iPhone 7.
2. Samsung wants to introduce a tablet called Galaxy MiniS.
3. New Balance needs to market its Men’s 611 running shoes.
4. Ford needs to have a successful introduction of the 2015 Fusion.
5. Lexus wants to increase the brand awareness of its 2015 Lexus GX466.
Do not choose the product that is the basis of Case 1. It is best to check
with your instructor regarding the company and the charge you
choose to analyze for this project. In choosing your company and the
charge, keep in mind that in order to effectively conduct your market
research, you must have access to relevant information. Also note that
your charge or task for this research project is what you are going to do
with a brand, rather than just the brand. In other words, your charge or task
is to solve a business problem faced by your client. So you need to state
the business problem and your charge clearly at the beginning since
it would guide the following steps of this research project.
Situation Analysis
A situation analysis may also be known as an environmental analysis.
Conduct an environmental analysis including the external environment,
customer environment, and internal organizational environment.
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A. External Environment Analysis
In this section, identify/describe all external forces for change that might
affect the company, its future, and the future of its industry. Identify the
external realities upon which your plan will be based. What are the
competitive, technological, economic, political/legal/regulatory,
societal/lifestyle/cultural, market, buyer behavior, channel of distribution,
and other industry trends that translate into external opportunities and
threats? Explicitly state how each of these forces can impact your
company, your charge, and the outcomes you wish to accomplish. That is,
do not just list these forces; relate them to the task at hand.
Keep in mind that tables and figures cannot stand alone in any marketing
plan. In other words, if you want to use tables and figures, use them as
support tools to illustrate the points you are trying to make in your written
text.
1. Industry Analysis: What is the current situation in the industry? This
description includes the size of the particular industry, trends in the
industry, the industry outlook (expanding, stagnant, or contracting),
success factors and failures of the industry, and so forth. Are these trends
and developments likely to affect your charge? How?
2. Competitive Analysis: There are three major types of competitive
forces. Brand competitors offer similar products with similar benefits and
prices (e.g., monetary cost, time, effort, etc.), and serve/target the same
customers. Product competitors offer products that compete in the same
product class but have different features, benefits and price. Generic
competitors offer products that satisfy the same need or solve the problem,
but in a different way.
For example, assume that the brand in question is Apple iPad 4 and your
charge is to come up with a marketing plan of how to promote the iPad 4.
In your Product Statement you will have already talked about the iPad.
Brand competitors in this case would be Samsung Galaxy, Motorola
Xoom, Toshiba Excite, Lenovo IdeaPad, and so on. Product competitors
could include Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Dell computers. Generic
competitors of iPad could include Regal Theatres, Cox Cable and so on,
which satisfy consumers’ entertainment needs.
When discussing the competitive forces, focus on the brand and product
competitors and describe these competitors in more detail. How big are
they? What is their market share (in comparison to that of your company)?
What is their income? How is the income derived? How do they spend their
moneys? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they pose a
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threat to your company? What attracts consumers to their products? A
detailed description of these competitors will aid your future SWOT and
Issues analyses, and will give you ideas about target market and
implementation.
3. Technology not only refers to the new types of products such as
computers and digital products but also means the processes by which
tasks are accomplished. This section examines how changes in technology
impact customers’ lives and needs and how marketers respond to their
needs. Are these trends and developments likely to affect your charge?
How?
4. The Economic Situation looks at the stability and growth of the market
in which the firm operates—for example, country, region, state, or local
area. This section may examine inflation, employment, and income levels;
taxes; and consumer confidence as they impact the company and the
charge of the marketing plan. Are these trends and developments likely to
affect your charge? How?
5. Political Trends, Legal Trends, and Regulatory Forces: This section
examines how governmental regulations may affect the company and its
charge. It also looks at the company’s relationships with elected officials. Is
the current administration, Congress, state legislature, county or city
government likely to sponsor laws or regulatory changes that will affect the
company and the charge, either favorably or negatively? Do recent court
decisions have an impact on the operating environment? Do they impact
how you will have to carry out your charge?
6. Cultural Trends may have a profound impact on how customers
respond to the company’s offering. Examples of lifestyle trendsinclude
less leisure time; cocooning; focus on health, exercise and nutrition; and
less concern with cleanliness. Demographic trendsinclude aging baby
boomers, new boomers (Generation Y), a rise in single-person and singleparent
households, more women who work, and increasing population
diversity. Some changes in cultural valuesinclude less conspicuous
consumption, value orientation (quality/price), environmental concern, less
tolerance of public smoking, more tolerance of varying lifestyles, and giving
back to the community. Are these trends and developments likely to affect
your charge? How?
B. Customer Environment Analysis
This section should examine the current situation in respect to the needs
of the target market, expected changes in those needs, and how the firm
presently meets those needs. Make sure you answer all of the following
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questions. Keep in mind that this section focuses on the current target
market of the company, not the market you propose to target with
this marketing plan. At this point, you are still examining the status quo,
which should aid your decision making in the remainder of the marketing
plan. For example, if the company in question is Apple, and the charge is
to promote the iPad 4, the focus in this section of the marketing plan would
be on the existing target markets served by Apple and what can be learned
from those targets. Consider the following issues for your analysis:
1. Who? Who are current and potential customers of the same customer
group? What are the demographics, psychographics, and geographics?
Is the buyer the user? Who influences the purchasing decision?
2. How many? How many customers does the company serve? How many
does it have the capacity to serve?
3. Where? Where are products purchased? Where do customers buy the
products? What are the types of intermediaries? What is the influence of
electronic commerce? Where are customers doing non-store
buying—Home Shopping Network, catalogs, Internet?
4. When? When are the products bought? What is the frequency of
purchasing? Do promotional events affect purchase? How do
differences in physical or social environment, time demands, or
purchase task affect buying?
5. How and What? What are the basic need-satisfying benefits? Does a
competitor’s product fit a need this product/service does not provide?
What are changes in customers’ needs? How do the customers
pay—cash, credit?
6. Why Are There Non-Customers? Needs not met? Bad fit for
lifestyle/image? Price? High switching costs? Competition’s product is
better? Poor distribution? They do not know about the product?
C. Internal Environment Analysis
This section should identify/describe relevant internal aspects of the
company that will help identify strengths and weaknesses in your SWOT
analysis in the Module 2 SLP. This requires the identification and analysis
of the organization’s past financial performance (sales, market share,
profitability, etc.); marketing strategies (target market and
positioning/image); marketing goals, objectives, and past performance; and
marketing programs (advertising/promotion effectiveness, product/service
offers, distribution effectiveness and channel programs, pricing, sales force
effectiveness, sales strategy and programs, public relations/publicity,
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marketing research/intelligence gathering efforts, etc.). Additionally, the
report may need to examine items such as production capacity, technical
capabilities, management/leadership, organizational structure and culture,
level of available resources and skills, financial stability, the product life
cycle (i.e., is the product in introduction, growth, maturity, or decline
stage?), and other relevant characteristics of the company that help
develop a complete list of strengths and weaknesses in your SWOT
analysis. It is important to focus on how the company is perceived by the
market and its own customers as the main determinant of market-relevant
strengths.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Use the following outline to organize your paper. Note that the letters “a, b,
c…” and the numbers “i, ii, iii, iv…” and “1, 2, 3, 4…” below are used to
show the major issues you need to include in your paper, but should not be
used to format your paper.
I. Product Statement (2 pages maximum)
1. Describe the company/organization.
2. Provide brief background of the organization.
3. Describe the business problem and charge you
have for this marketing plan.
4. Provide a brief overview of what issue you are
studying, and how a marketing perspective can
help address the issue.
II. Situation Analysis (3-6 pages)
Note: Only include sections that are relevant to your charge. The
relevance of each section of analysis should be clear to the reader.
a. External Environment Analysis
i. Context Analysis
• Industry forces
that might impact
success of any
actions taken
ii. Competitor Analysis
iii.
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• Any organization
or message that
may prevent any
actions taken from
being successful
iv. Technological and Economical
Situation Analysis
v. Political, Legal, and Cultural
Analysis
b. Customer Environment Analysis
c.
i. Customer Analysis
ii. Collaborator Analysis
d. Internal Environment Analysis
e.
i. Company Analysis
Note: Use double-spaced, black Verdana or Times Roman font in 12 pt.
type size. Include a title page and references.
Explain clearly and logically the facts about your company and charge, and
use the required reading to support your positions on the issues. Do not
repeat or quote definitions. Your use of the required reading to support
your opinions (that is, contentions or positions) should demonstrate that
you understand the concepts presented. Paraphrase the facts using your
own words and ideas, employing quotes sparingly. Quotes, if absolutely
necessary, should rarely exceed five words.
Academic papers at the master’s level should include citations and
references. Look at different sources, especially credible and reputable
ones such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal,
Businessweek, and The Economist, to find the information for your paper.
Also use Trident University’s online library databases such as ProQuest
and EBSCO to find information for your project. Your discussion on each
topic should be a synthesis of the different sources. Taking shortcuts on
the number and quality of your sources will result in a poor-quality
marketing plan that will be of no use to your client.
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It is also important that you reference your sources throughout the text of
your marketing plan. Take the following paragraph as an example:
“As a result, telephone interviewers often do not even get a chance to
explain that they are conducting a survey (Council for Marketing and
Opinion Research, 2003), and response rates have steadily declined
(Keeter et al., 2000) to reported lows of 7% (Council for Marketing and
Opinion Research, 2003). This decrease presents a problem because not
only does it increase the cost of conducting telephone surveys, but it also
leads to questions concerning the generalizability of the results (Struebbe,
Kernan & Grogan, 1986; Tuckel & O’Neill, 2002).”
There are different citation and reference formats such as APA, MLA, or
Chicago. No matter which format you adopt for your marketing plan, make
it consistent throughout the plan.
The marketing plan should use third person business writing. Avoid “we,”
“our,” and “you.” Do not use contractions in business writing.
Here are some guidelines on how to conduct information search and build
critical thinking skills.
Emerald Group Publishing. (n.d.). Searching for Information. Retrieved
from
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/learning/study_skills/skills/searching.htm
Emerald Group Publishing. (n.d.). Developing Critical Thinking. Retrieved
from
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/learning/study_skills/skills/critical_thinking.htm
Guidelines for handling quoted and paraphrased material are found at:
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Academic Writing. Retrieved from
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/2/
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Quoting, Paraphrasing, and
Summarizing. Retrieved from
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/1/
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Avoiding Plagiarism. Retrieved from
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/1/
Your paper consists of arguments in favor of your opinions or positions on
the issues addressed by the guidelines; therefore, avoid the following
logical fallacies:
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Privacy Policy | Contact
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Logic in Argumentative Writing.
Retrieved from
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/659/03/
Your SLP should not simply be a list of facts. Take the facts you find about
the company, the charge, and the environments that the company faces,
and explain how you think those facts will affect the financial future of the
product or brand in your charge. The emphasis in grading your paper will
be on the breadth and depth of your discussion of each topic, critical
thinking, the clarity of your discussion, and the proper organization of the
paper.
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