Importance Of Effective Marketing Plan For Introducing A New Product: Case Study Of Next Plc Essay.

This report helps in understanding about importance of effective marketing plan while introducing new product and service in the market. It helps in understanding about the different strategies which is utilized for developing the marketing plan and identify the marketing mix strategies which are vital for success of marketing plan. Marketing plan is explained as the strategy of advertising which is utilized by business to sell its product and services to target group of consumer (Chernev, 2020). It is also effective in identifying the target market and help in boosting the productivity and profitability of organisation. The organisation which is chosen for the report is Next plc which is British multinational clothing, footwear and home products retailer and its headquarters are situated in Enderby. Next plc focuses on launching its new products which is 50 shades of foundation which would help them in introducing its product in cosmetics industry and would allow them to expand its market base and contribute has in its growth and development in future. In addition, it also reflects upon the importance of marketing mix for organization in determining its strategy which is associated with product and different factors which could influence the sales of product (Opresnik, 2018). It provides information about the importance of key performance indicator in measuring the effectiveness of proposed marketing plan and how it would help Next plc in effectively launching its new product in the market.

Next plc is one of the top retailer brands which focus on providing the quality product and services which is associated with clothing, footwear, accessories and home products. Its business is expanded in different regions such as in Europe, Asia and Middle East. It has around 700 stores out of which its 500 stores are in United Kingdom and it was considered as one of the largest clothing retailer in the sales in early 2012 while overtaking its competitor Marks & Spencer. The organization is currently performing effectively in the market and focuses on expanding its business in different market region. It is helping them in boosting its productivity and profitability.

SWOT Analysis

The strengths and weaknesses of the Next plc are identified by the help of SWOT analysis of the Next plc.

Strengths - The strengths of the Next plc is that they focus on targeting people of age between 20 to 40 years by providing fashionable clothes under their label and ensure that its target audience should get product which help in satisfying their need and preference. Next plc focuses on providing stylish product at affordable prices and focuses on managing the quality of its products which help in boosting its revenues (Fung et. al., 2021).

Weaknesses - The weakness of Next plc is that they have not utilized the e-commerce platform effectively in comparison to its competitors which made impact on its productivity and profitability. Its lack of adaptability has resulted in bad situation for Next plc and also it’s another weakness is lack of innovation in its clothing products which is affecting the market share of organisation (Giannini, Iacobucci  and Perugini, 2019).

SWOT Analysis

Threats - The threats which are faced by the Next plc are its low market growth and effective pricing strategies which are utilized by its competitors. Its competitors are focusing on providing similar products to consumer at relatively lower prices than Next plc which is affecting its effectiveness and efficiency.

Opportunities - The opportunities for Next plc are to expand its target group of consumer by introducing new products and services in the market. They could focus on launching extensive beauty product and clothing associated with kids. It would help in expanding the market share of the Next pkc.

PEST Analysis

Such analysis is effective in analysing the factors which could affect the business of organisation and help in developing strategy which would help in reducing the negative impact of such factors on organisation.

Political Factors - The political environment of UK is stable and good which allows Next plc to conduct its business in the UK environment. There are some issues which is associated with EU policies due to disagreement of UK but there are no sign of impact of such policies of UK market (Carrapico, Niehuss and Berthélémy, 2018). As UK exits the EU it does have impact on the Next plc suppliers and its cost of production.

Economic Factor - The economic environment of UK is stable but the issues which could affect the market of UK is foreign exchange rate of currency against the Euro. Next plc sells mostly its product and services in the market of UK and they might face effects of such issue on its business (Koijen and Yogo, 2020).

Social Factor - The social factors are associated with environmental concerns as consumer become more aware about the impact of industrial waste on the environment. Consumers are looking to associate with organisation which uses healthy practices in development of its product and services. Next plc generally focuses on utilizing such healthy practices while ensuring efficient use of natural resources which enables its competitive advantage.

Technological Factors - There are significant changes in the use of technology for the production of products and services by the organisation. It is important for Next plc to adopt technology such as AI, Big data analytics etc. which would help them in analysing the buying behaviour of consumer and providing products to consumer which could satisfy their need and preference (Ahmad et. al., 2020).

Porter five forces to understand competitive analysis

This framework is based upon understanding the strategy which should be adopted by organisation to gain the opportunities and use for its own growth and development.

Bargaining power of supplier - It is important to understand that there are many suppliers in the industry which provides option for Next plc to switch to other suppliers which allows them to negotiate the prices according to their need and preference. Hence, impact of this force is low on the organisation (Mateut and Chevapatrakul, 2018).

Bargaining power of consumer - There are various competitors in the market which provides similar product and services to Next plc which enables them to ensure that its product should be affordable and possess quality in nature. The impact of this force is high on organisation as consumer has various options to switch to other organisation (Lee and Yan, 2019).

PEST Analysis

Threats of new entrants - There is lot of capital required to compete against Next plc which is very difficult and beside the need of capital lot of resources is required to build the brand image among consumers which is a difficult task for new entrants. Hence, the impact of this force is low on organisation.

Rivalry among competitors - There are many competitors of Next plc which are operating in the same market which creates competition for the organisation. It is important to understand that Next plc should focus on expanding its market share which would help in gaining advantage against its competitors such as Marks & Spencer, Tesco. Hence, the impact of this force is high on organisation (Khurram, Hassan and Khurram, 2020).

The Next plc is focusing on expanding its market share in the UK market by focusing in extending its reach in the market by launching new product in the beauty products. Next plc would focus on launching the product which is 50 shades of foundation which would help them in targeting teenage girls which is beneficial for organisation in boosting its productivity and profitability.

Measurable and attainable objectives

The long-term goal of Nexrt plc is launching its new product 50 shades of foundation in market and ensures that it would help in extending its reach in the beauty industry.

The short term goal of the Next plc is to identify its potential customers and targeting them by adopting advertising strategy.

STP Analysis

Segmentation – By the help of its new product 50 shades of foundation, Next plc would focus on targeting wider audience which includes women of age 17 to 45. It is beneficial in targeting audience in wider market.

Targeting – The next plc would focus on specifically targeting teenage girls of age 17 to 21 which are looking for products which are affordable and possess quality. Such product is effective for Next plc in targeting teenager in the market and would contribute in boosting the revenues of organisation.

Positioning – Next plc would focus on using effective advertising strategy which would help them in connecting with its target audience and developing awareness of the product among consumer such as quality of product, price etc (Ing, Osman and Tze-Yin, 2020).

Strategy Statement

The strategy statement of the Next plc is based upon its new product which is 50 shades of foundation which basically target the women of the society but it specifically focuses on the teenage girls who would need quality beauty products at affordable prices and it would help in getting them range of shades for the makeup. The Next plc would focus on using social media to target its customer and engage then with its product and implementing the strategy which would help in achieving the desired goals and objectives.

Portfolio Analysis

Next plc would focus on reviewing its products and services which is offered by them to its consumers. It would help Next plc in identifying the resources which are required for launching its new product in the market which is 50 shades of foundation. The organisation would focus on identifying the investment opportunities which would help in boosting the revenues of organisation (Novikov, 2018).

Porter's Five Forces

Key Planning Assumptions

Next plc would focus on identifying the business environment situations which could make impact on the success of product. The outbreak of COVID-19 could affect the sales of new product of Next plc and organisation should focus on adopting the digital platform to continue their sales among the pandemic situation.

Product – The Next plc would focus on launching its new product in the market which is 50 shades of foundation as organization provides products in different segment such as clothing, footwear, household etc. The organization focuses on providing quality products to its consumer at affordable prices which is effective in satisfying the need and preference of consumer. Its quality products are considered key in gaining the competitive advantage over its competitors (Syapsan, 2019).

Price – Next plc focuses on adopting premium pricing strategy which help them in creating the environment which is favourable for targeting premium consumer group. Next plc would focus on creating a separate consumer base by the help of its premium pricing strategy. When launching its product 50 shades of foundation Next plc could focus on using economic pricing strategy which would help in targeting teenage audience.

Place – Next plc focuses on delivering its products by the help of its stores and its stores are highly located in the market of UK which makes easier for consumer to gain access to its products. Next plc would focus on providing its new product on its physical stores and also using online platform to reach out wider audience.

Promotion – Next plc focuses on using its social media and its websites to engage with the consumer. The organization could advertise its new product 50 shades of foundation on its website and social media to create awareness about attributes of new product in the market (Daniel, 2018).

People – Next plc focuses on developing effective relationship with its consumer which would help them in retaining its consumers. Next plc could focus on providing effective training to its employees which would help them in building effective relationship with consumer.

Process – The organization should ensure that its employees are well trained and contribute their best while associating with consumers. While launching the new product in the market, organization has to ensure that consumer should have appropriate knowledge about the product which would help in influencing them to buy the product.

Physical evidence – Next plc should ensure that while selling its new product in the market, it stores does have video boards which provides attributes of the 50 shades of foundation which would help consumer in understanding about its effectiveness.

Measurements

Next plc would focus on success of its new product by measuring its sales in the market nad understanding about how often targeted audience has buy the product. By understanding about the feedback of consumer about the product, the organisation could understand about the changes which are required by the consumer in the product.

Recommendation

Next plc could focus on launching its new product 50 shades of foundation on its physical stores and could utilize the digital platform to sell its product. Such strategy would help in reaching out to wider audience which is beneficial for boosting the productivity and profitability of organisation. Organisation could focus on making appropriate changes in the product based upon the feedback of consumers.

Contingency Plan

The organisation would focus on overcoming the risk which is associated with product and should ensure that in case of failure of the product; organisation would focus on understanding the reason of failure and making significant changes to overcome the failure.

Conclusion

This report concludes about the need of effective marketing plan while launching the new product in the market. It concludes about the new product of Next plc which is 50 shades of foundation and before launching its product in market, organization has to identify the factors which could influence the sales of the product. The organization have to prepare an effective action plan which would help organisation in targeting its audience by the help of new product.

References

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Carrapico, H., Niehuss, A. and Berthélémy, C., 2018. Brexit and internal security: Political and legal concerns on the future UK-EU relationship. Springer.

Koijen, R.S. and Yogo, M., 2020. Exchange rates and asset prices in a global demand system (No. w27342). National Bureau of Economic Research.

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