Marketing Strategies
According to marketing strategies and marketing management have a crucial role in contemporary business environments. The variables are vital for business management to alleviate challenges rising from the market forces, which shoot from irregular and volatile political, environmental, legal, technological, socio-cultural, economical and financial dynamics. Product development and marketing is a decisive process in present day marketing management. Contemporary businesses are finding it elementary to invest in fostering development, performance and monitoring improvements in product and service delivery. This report will highlight the process involved in product development, the market information and brand-related concerns in the Yellow Tree Company. Additionally, it will expound on the marketing strategies that occur during the process and the Yellow Tree Company’s product’s peripheral environment examination. In addition, the report will seek to highlight all the necessary procedures and practices needed by the Yellow Tree Corporation for effectual penetration into the Australian Market.
2. 0. Introduction
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, sign, or a combination of all with a view of indentifying the goods and services of a seller or a collection of sellers in order to distinguish them from the competitive ones. However, to many practicing managers, a brand must comprise of a created awareness, prominence and reputation et al, especially in the market place. The Yellow Company must therefore promote awareness and a good reputation of their new product if they are to effectively penetrate the sporting market.
3.0 Brand Name and rationale
Yellow Tree is a name denoting the name of the new company that the Last Chance Company intends to set up, primarily for the sale of the new brand of sporting apparel. The preferable name for this new apparel would be YEWAPPAREL, as it embraces the concept of the new slang adopted by the young audience, namely, YEW, for YOU, consequently denoting, “your apparel”. This will promote the new brand, since the young audience will associate themselves more with this brand, consequently increasing brand awareness and brand recognition among the prospective customers, consequently developing vital brand Knowledge.
Brand awarenessconsists of brand recall performance and brand recognition. Brand recognition entails the customer’s ability to recognize the brand from prior exposure. Brand recall entails the customer’s capability to distinguish the brand from the memory when given the product category and the needs it satiates. The Yellow Tree Company must therefore endeavour to actively promote their new brand consistently, in order to enhance awareness and easy recognition of their new brand by prospective customers, notwithstanding their present competition. In so doing, the consumer should correctly engender the brand from the memory when given significant cue.
4.0 The Brand Logo and the tagline.
Brand Tagline
The appropriate tagline for the YEWAPPAREL brand would be “The Athlete’s Umbrella”. The brand logo and tagline relay a strong image of sufficiency, where athletes and prospective sporting apparel shoppers can access everything they desire to purchase. Additionally, this is a informative name for a sport apparel company, as it will secure the needs of their customers. These should be big and bright purple, the color denoting royalty. This will develop a sense of importance in the customers donning the company’s new apparel, consequently boosting awareness and increased brand sales. The Yellow Tree Company must have a high awareness level with its target market, so as to create a strong brand. According to Keller, brand equity ultimately, resides in the consumer’s mind.
Essentially, taglines are also known as brand mantras, which are dominant devices that provide direction on the products to introduce under the brand, the ad campaigns to engage, the market to sell the brand, et al. For a company like Yellow Tree, the brand mantra “The Athlete’s Umbrella” highly relates to branding models, which depicts the Yellow Tree Company’s “core brand promise” and “brand essence.’’. It is a short phrase that grabs the essence of Yellow Tree Company’s brand values and the brand positioning, and helps the Yellow Tree Marketers to amend their marketing actions accordingly. It should be simple, inspirational and communicative.
5.0 Where will be the product be available in Australia?
The new brand will be principally available in the Sydney region of Australia. According to Australiatravelsearch (2008) it is the most populous area in Australia, and is an international centre for tourism, fashion, art and commerce.
This would bring immense exposure for the Yellow Tree Company new brand, thus creating effectual brand awareness and brand recognition. Additionally, Sydney has hosted chief international sporting events such as 2000 Summer Olympics, the final match of the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the 1938 British Empire Games, thus making it a very viable place to launch the new product.
6.0 Target markets
The survey undertaken by the Yellow Tree Company marketers with regard to the market situation created an identification process for the niche market, suitable for the new Yellow Tree Company Brand. In essence, this depicts the customers who share the same tastes, likes and preferences, and as such, they invariably behave alike when changes occur in the market. This inherently means that they exhibit corresponding codes of consumer behavior, especially with regard to the new Yellow Tree Company brand. The first niche market the Yellow Tree marketers’ survey identified is the old people. Essentially, the elderly form the niche market since they prefer relaxing apparel to don in their everyday lives.
Such people must feel secure with Yellow Tree’s running apparel, if they feel the need to go to the gym in a comfortable outfit or take a healthy jog. The second target market identified by the survey is people who are inherently engaged in the athletics career. The survey revealed that such people are mostly heavy on exercise and as such, Yellow Tree’s sporting apparel must be designed in a way that entices these customers in order to form a niche market for the business. Additionally, the target market for the company would include contemporary young families and professionals who may want the time to relax with their families during the weekends.
7.0 Reaching the Target Audience
Having successfully identified the target market, it will be the task of the Yellow Tree marketers to attract the target audience. To achieve this, the company marketers will have to hold a meeting with one of the most prominent sports personalities in sports and dress him or her up with the new apparel, and collaborate with a popular magazine in the region, where the personality will be on the cover page for that particular month of the release of the apparel. The company has to dress the personality in a manner similar to what they expect the target audience to wear, which will, as a result, attract many of the prospective customers.
Additionally, the company would consider setting up a fan page in one of the social sites like facebook, where they will be running a promotion to draw more customers and improve product awareness.
By embracing the concept of customer-oriented market segmentation, the Yellow Tree Company will be better poised to easily reach their customers in different market segments, hence, satiating the different needs of the customer in these market regions.
According to Eagle Analytics of California (2009), customer-oriented market segmentation is the presentation of a heterogeneous market as an array of smaller homogenous markets, which is in reference to distinguished liking by customers for the satisfaction of their various desires. Generally speaking, the overriding consideration in defining market segments is profitability.
8.0 Nature of competition
It is essential for the Yellow Tree Company to define the nature of competition when the resolve is to target a certain consumer type, since particular firms it competes with have, in the past, decided to target the particular segment in the past, or plan to in the near future.
In the Australian market, there are various established companies against which YEWAPPAREL, would be competing against. These are, Diadora Australia, which entered into the sports apparel market in the 1960’s. There is also the Dunlop Sports shoes, established in 1924 for the sale of sports shoes. There is also the Kea Designer Sportswear, Sports Leisure and the GSport Promotional Clothing. These companies have presently, and in the past, sponsored top athletes in Australia, and also globally. These companies have their names endorsed by top athletes in the country. They have endeavoured to collaborate with the athletes, where they sponsor them and gather feedback from them, with a view to manufacturing augmented sports apparel that accentuates the performance of the athletes. It could also be that in their purchase decisions, purchasers in any market segment may look to particular brands, and this would be favourable if they chose Yellow Tree’s new brand.
9.0 Brand positioning
For the Yellow Tree Company, establishing the right points of parity and of difference creates a strong and competitive brand positioning.
In definition, Points-of-parity-Associationsare the associations not essentially exceptional to the brand, but may also be shared with other brands. They are a credible and legitimate offering with a particular service or product category. Hence, these characteristic associations are simply at the standard, and most probably, expected product level.
Points-of-Difference-Associations are the benefits or attributes that potential Yellow Tree consumers firmly relate with the new brand, affirmatively evaluate, and create a conviction that they could not regard a competitive brand to a similar extent as Yellow Tree’s. Thus, Yellow Tree Company marketers must endeavour in the intricate task of creating strong, distinctive and favourable associations, but very significant with regard to competitive brand positioning.
To arrive at the most select competitive brand positioning, Yellow Tree must define and assess its nature of competition and select and institute effectual points of parity and points of difference.
10.0 Building Brand Equity
According to Pullig, (2008) this denotes the value a brand has in the marketplace. For the Yellow Tree Company, this means that a high equity brand holds a high value within the deemed marketplace. Essentially, this means that the new brand has the capacity to create an affirmative differential response in the market. In essence, this means that the Yellow Tree Company brand is easily identifiable when presented in an advertisement. Such a brand would be the first to be recollected in the consumers mind whenever a relevant prompt is used. To effectively promote the brand’s value in the competitive market place, the Yellow Tree Company will be compelled to have an eloquent spokes man.
As such, I would advocate that the spokesman for the YEWAPPAREL, brand be the athlete with whom the Yellow Tree company will have used on the magazine cover page, and they will have to sponsor the artist for a certain period, where, they will don the artist with their apparel and have him appear on TV, especially during periods of intense sport activity, for instance, during the Olympics and the world cup. Additionally, the athlete will be responsible for promoting the image of the new product by defending its image against any attacks directed at the product, especially by the rival companies.
Consequently, it is necessary for the Yellow Tree Company to have an apposite tagline and logo as well.
11.0 Communication Strategy- How the new brand should be advertised
This refers to any promotion of goods, services or ideas, usually, by an identified sponsor or a kind of non-personal presentation, normally in paid form. According to Shimp, (2003) advertising plays a crucial and often contentious role in adding to brand equity. For Yellow Tree, this would be a powerful tool in evoking affirmative feelings and judgments and in the creation of a firm, unique and favorable brand association as well.
The advertising media appropriate for the Yellow Tree Company would be newspapers and magazines. This entails writing a press release and sending it to the local magazines and newspapers. To boot, the Yellow Tree Company should make effort to dress up models and celebrities in their new YEWAPPAREL brand, in order for the audience to perceive what is being sold to them. The Yellow Tree marketers could also invite a popular athlete and cloth him or her in their new brand, and put the snapshot on the cover page. There should be a colorful section inside the magazine, with a comprehensive interview of the athlete, with regard to the YEWAPPAREL brand, with the athlete’s comments and subsequent recommendations on the brand. This will attract the interests of the prospective customers, hence creating brand awareness, and subsequently promoting the brand image. Additionally, the Yellow Tree Company could purchase advertisements in the local papers and websites, where the targeted audience will easily access it.
Furthermore, the company could sponsor events that are inclined to positively affect the target audience. To boot, the company could establish affirmative relationships with blogs and websites that draw attention to the new brand and the Yellow Tree Company as well.
Lastly, the company could obtain appointments with the local Australian stores and persuade them to carry the YEWAPPAREL brand in their line. The company could also attend fashion trade shows.
12.0 Managing the Branding Elements to Create a High Equity Brand
To create a high equity brand, the Yellow Tree Company must adopt the following brand elements in their marketing campaigns. According to drypen.in (2010), the basic branding elements incorporate the following:
The Yellow Tree must realize that these elements stretch to the core of the marketing message itself, and they even determine the positioning of the Yellow Tree Company within the marketplace. Every aspect of the above mentioned elements creates effectual brand image. As such, this image must be relevant to their consumers, and must be differentiated from that of its competitors. Market research and being aware of the strengths and wants of the segments it deems attractive will help Yellow Tree establish the specific associations and brand image to create. Ultimately, the creation of brand equity occurs concomitantly with the creation of the market consumer’s knowledge. Effectively, brand equity is an asset that the Yellow Tree Company must wisely invest on, as the better it is, the better the returns. Successful brand equity in the Yellow Tree Company will be reflected in the bottom line profitability and the top-line revenue.
13.0 Brand Building Blocks
According to Keller, brand equity is the consequence that brand knowledge has on the customer response regarding the marketing of a brand, which occurs when the customer has a firm, unique and strong brand association, and the brand is well known. For the Yellow Tree Company, The Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model is appropriate in its marketing activities. It highlights four steps that depict questions asked by consumers and denote a branding ladder, where every step is reliant on achieving the previous step. (Keller, 2001) These steps have six brand-building blocks that have sub-dimensions. (Keller, 1993) In order to generate a strong brand, Yellow Tree Company marketers must aim to reach the resonance level, where a harmonious relationship with customers exists.
14.0 Brand tracking studies
According to Mora, brand tracking studies entail information collected from customers on a habitual basis over time. It is crucial for the Yellow Tree Company to tailor their tracking surveys in order to attend to the exact issues being faced by the brand in concern. The Yellow Tree Company awareness survey questions should move from a general point of view to a more specific perspective in order to measure brand image, particularly in terms of exact evaluations and perspectives.
Tracking measures on the current customers must be sensitive and reliable in order to yield actionable recommendations. This is insightful, as it offers information on the brand equity achieved by the Yellow Tree Company, especially, the ones that influence customer behaviors and attitudes, and generate value for the brand. It is imperative that the Yellow Tree marketers identify the actual value of brand drivers, which are the substantive and intangible POD’s that influence the consumers’ brand and product choices. Marketing activities with effectual effects on brand knowledge must be identified.
15.0 Conclusion
Marketing strategies and marketing management and are elemental in implementing and marketing a new product. Through the above highlighted marketing plan, the Yellow Tree sporting apparel will effectively launch into the sporting market. This entails being aware of the target market, generating an awareness, establishing dependable supply management channels, using the apposite marketing and pricing strategies to appeal to the marketplace, hence ease the diffusion and approval of the Yellow Tree sporting apparel.
16.0 Appendix
17.0Appendix
This is the brief marketing plan of the Yellow Tree Company.
I. MARKET ANALYSIS
A. Target Market – Who are the customers?
1. We will be selling primarily to (check all that apply):
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Market Segment |
Total Business percentage |
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Government |
% |
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Retailers |
% |
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Wholesalers |
% |
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Private Sector |
% |
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Other |
% |
2. We will be targeting customers through:
a. Product line: We will target definite lines _________________
b. Geographic area-What areas to be targeted. _________________
c. Sales? We will target sales of _________________
d. Industry-Our industry of target industry _________________
e. Other? _________________
3. How much will our preferred market spend on our product or service type of this coming year? _______________
B. Business Competition
1. Who are our chief business competitors?
NAME _____________________________________
ADDRESS _____________________________________
Number of Years in business ___________________
Price/Strategy___________________
Market share ___________________
Product/Service
Features ___________________
2. How competitive is the market?
High Competitive Market ____________________
Medium Competitive Market ____________________
Low Competitive Market ____________________
C. Market Environment
1. Some vital economic aspects that will affect our product (such as industry health , country growth, taxes, rising energy prices, economic trends, etc.):
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
2. Some important legal factors that will affect our market:
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
3. Some important government factors that will affect our market:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
4. Environmental aspects that will influence our market, but over which we lack control:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
II. PRODUCT OR SERVICE ANALYSIS
A. Description
1. Brief description of the product/service and what it does:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
B. Comparison
1. What advantages does our product/service have over those of the competition (consider such things as unique features, patents, expertise, special training, etc.)?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
2. What disadvantages does it have?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
C. Some Considerations
1. Where will you get your materials and supplies?
______________________________________________________
2. List other considerations:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
III. MARKETING STRATEGIES – MARKET MIX
A. Image
1. First, what kind of image do we want to have (such as cheap but good, or exclusiveness, or customer-oriented, or highest quality, or convenience, or speed, or …)?
______________________________________________________
B. Features
1. List the features we will emphasize:
a.___________________________________________________
b.___________________________________________________
c.___________________________________________________
C. Pricing
1. We will be using the following pricing strategy:
a. Markup on cost ____ What % markup? ______
b. Suggested price ____
c. Competitive ____
d. Below competition ____
e. Premium price ____
f. Other ____
2. Are our prices in line with our image?
YES___ NO___
3. Do our prices cover costs and leave a margin of profit?
YES___ NO___
D. Customer Services
1. List the customer services we provide:
a. ____________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________
2. These are our sales/credit terms:
a. _____________________________________________
b. _____________________________________________
c. _____________________________________________
3. The competition offers the following services:
a. ______________________________________________
b. ______________________________________________
c. ______________________________________________
E. Advertising/Promotion
1. These are the things we wish to say about the business:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
2. We will use the following advertising/promotion sources:
1. Television ________
2. Radio ________
3. Direct mail ________
4. Personal contacts ________
5. Trade associations ________
6. Newspaper ________
7. Magazines ________
8. Yellow Pages ________
9. Billboard ________
10. Other___________ ________
3. The following are the reasons why we consider the media we have chosen to be the most effective:
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
