Marketing Strategies For Solar Energy In Australian Households - Essay.

Overview of literature on the topic

1a

Overview of Topic

Explain why your topic is interesting and why it needs to be investigated.

This topic is very interesting as it helps in conserving the solar energy. This is one of the major issues in the modern day scenario. Efforts are being made so that all the households can use the solar power in a proper and conserving way. The power price in increasing day by day and the households are trying to use those materials that will help in using cheaper and reliable sources of energy (Den Heeten et al. 2017).

Target Market

Explain and justify what target market you are selecting and why you are selecting that particular market segment for this report

The target market for this particular product will be the individuals living in all the households of Australia. Those people who are really finding it very tough to bear the high expenses of the electricity they will use this energy source like the solar panels and household storage batteries (Ayodele  and Ogunjuyigbe 2015).

Problem/Opportunity Statement

Provide a statement which summarises the problem/opportunity which is the focus of this report.

The electricity costs are raising high in Australia and people are really finding it very difficult to bear these expenses. It is for this reason that they are trying to find out some alternatives that will help them to store the energy and use it for the better use. In this way, the solar energy can be kept stored in the households and can be used at a very low and affordable price (Nicholls et al. 2017).

Literature Review & Framework 

Overview of literature on the topic

Provide an overview as to what previous research and literature has investigated on your topic

The rate of the electricity is increasing day by day and the Australian households are trying to somehow meet with that expense. It is really becoming very tough for them (Burtt and Dargusch 2015). They are trying to somehow find out some kinds of alternatives that will help them to store the solar energy and then use it for several days for the purpose of a cheap and reliable source of energy. The people of Australia already have been very fast and easy in adopting the sources of the renewable energy. There are several benefits of using this kind of energy (Fares and Webber 2017). This is because this energy can be stored and the solar panels can be used at each and every households. With the help of these devices, the residents of the households can use the energy for several uses. This energy will be kept stored in the home batteries and are used for the all the future uses. It can so happen that at times the residents of the houses need energy for some purposes and that also need energy that will be needed in more amounts than what is made in the household solar panels. It is at this point in time that these residents can use the energy that has been kept stored in the household storages (Saddler 2015).

The Self-determination Theory

This also has a very good use for the Tou electricity rates. This comes into play during the time of the afternoon or any other time of the day rather than the peak hours when the consumption of the electricity in the households is very low. It is at this point in time that the solar panels of the houses are most active. If the electricity is using the TOU in such cases then the utility is more and the home energy is storage gets this utility from the TOU rates.

The demand charges of the solar batteries also affect the solar batteries a great deal

There is always a certain amount of money that is charged to all the residents. This is charged based on the exact amount of electricity that is being used. However, there is usually a huge amount of bill that is charged if the usage of the electricity by the residents is more at the time of the peak hours (Hayat et al. 2016). However, if there is the solar panel and the household batteries kept at home during that time then there will be a kind of benefit during such case (Debije 2015). If there are solar energy is kept stored in the solar batteries then that energy can be used during this time. So, the residents of those households can use this energy that was already stored in their batteries rather than paying such high price by using the electricity during the peak hours. Some countries are even trying to add the demand charges so that they can motivate other people to use the solar panels and the batteries (Natarajan 2017).

Theory/framework/Concept

The self-determination theory

This is the motivation theory that is very essential because man has to go through the feeling of getting fulfillment in several phases of life. They have several needs and demands and they have to fulfill those in order to get properly motivated. Motivation comes in many different forms and it is not only through the external factors like money stardom and other such aspects (Hu et al. 2016). The motivation often comes from the internal factors as well. The internal fat or are like knowledge. People in Australia were really facing a huge trouble because of the heavy surge in the price of the electricity. So, it was becoming a very big problem for those people to bear such a burden. So, they started thinking of some ways that will help them in getting some new and some alternative sources of energy (Young et al. 2016). This will help them in storing the energy for a long time and in making their bills lower. These Australian citizens knew that they have to gain a new kind of knowledge and a new kind of skill that is needed for using this new form of energy.

Marketing Strategies

Connection or relatedness- People have to use this new form of energy so that they can gain the benefit from these household batteries. The charges for the bill is very high mainly in the commercial areas but there are still many of the households who have started using this demand charges so that there is a sharp increase in their electricity bills and they can motivate others to get this solar panels and the batteries at the same time.

Autonomy

The residents of the Australian households can get the skills that are needed for the proper usage of these solar panels and the solar batteries. However, they have to get the power and the skill so that they can use it totally on their own. It is for this reason that they have to learn the methods of using the skill with which they have to use this solar panel and the batteries and also use the stored energy for the later uses.

Marketing Strategies 

Marketing Strategy 1

The first and the foremost market strategy must be to focus on the consumers. They have to keep in mind that they are making and selling this item for the benefit of the customers and they want to make the electricity bills of the customers low. They have to promote their products very carefully. They cannot just start by saying how big or creative they are but by talking about the benefits that the customers will get by using their products and that the customers are their greatest asset.

Marketing Strategy 2

The other thing that they have to do is to know their companies in a thorough manner. This is because they have to gain the trust and the goodwill of their customers. They have to make sure that they are giving all the details of their business in a clear and a precise manner so that the customers do not have any doubts before buying their products (Bang et al. 2000).

Marketing Strategy 3

They have to get good promotion and good sales. This is because they have to get proper advertising companies and good referrals before launching their products. This is because they have to keep in mind that they are launching a very new production the market and they have to get a very good promotion for their products (Gordon et al. 2018). It will be very good for them if they are getting some referrals from a well-known company (Balcombe et al.  2015). Revolusun is a famous solar panel company and it uses some of the other kinds of attractive offers for the customers who buy products from them or refer others to buy the solar panels and the household batteries from that company. It has the practice of giving their customers a monetary price of $500 if they refer some of their close ones or friends to this company for using the products.

Recommended Marketing Strategy

However, as this is a very new kind of energy for many people will have the doubts regarding the fact that whether they will get proper benefits from using these solar panels. They might also feel that whether these companies that are selling the solar panels and the batteries are from a trustworthy source or not. So, the promotions must be done in a proper way so that the customers do not have any doubts about using the solar panels. Moreover, the solar energy is not that consistent in nature and so they must be thinking that they will have to keep some kinds other sources of energy at their homes like the fuels or the grid-connected solar grids.

Recommendation & Conclusion 

Recommended marketing strategy

So, it can be concluded that the idea of using the solar panels and the home batteries at the households is a very necessary aspect. This will help in making the electricity bills of the Australian households lower and they can also get the benefit of using the stored energy when there is peak hour and the charge of the energy that is being consumed is very high.

It is recommended that the companies give some free trials to the residents so that they can use the solar panels and can enjoy the benefits for a certain and a free period of time. They must also give some of the other kinds of demos o the common people so that they can use it properly.

References:

Ayodele, T.R. and Ogunjuyigbe, A.S.O., 2015. Increasing household solar energy penetration through load partitioning based on quality of life: The case study of Nigeria. Sustainable Cities and Society, 18, pp.21-31.

Balcombe, Paul, Dan Rigby, and Adisa Azapagic. "Energy self-sufficiency, grid demand variability and consumer costs: Integrating solar PV, Stirling engine CHP and battery storage." Applied Energy 155 (2015): 393-408.

Bang, H. K., Ellinger, A. E., Hadjimarcou, J., & Traichal, P. A. (2000). Consumer concern, knowledge, belief, and attitude toward renewable energy: An application of the reasoned action theory. Psychology & Marketing, 17(6), 449-468.

Burtt, D. and Dargusch, P., 2015. The cost-effectiveness of household photovoltaic systems in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Australia: linking subsidies with emission reductions. Applied energy, 148, pp.439-448.

Debije, M., 2015. Renewable energy: Better luminescent solar panels in prospect. Nature, 519(7543), p.298.

Den Heeten, T., Narayan, N., Diehl, J.C., Verschelling, J., Silvester, S., Popovic-Gerber, J., Bauer, P. and Zeman, M., 2017, April. Understanding the present and the future electricity needs: Consequences for the design of future Solar Home Systems for off-grid rural electrification. In Domestic Use of Energy (DUE), 2017 International Conference on (pp. 8-15). IEEE.

Fares, R.L. and Webber, M.E., 2017. The impacts of storing solar energy in the home to reduce reliance on the utility. Nature Energy, 2(2), p.17001.

Gordon, R., Dibb, S., Magee, C., Cooper, P., & Waitt, G. (2018). Empirically testing the concept of value-in-behavior and its relevance for social marketing. Journal of Business Research, 82, 56-67.

Hayat, M.A., Shahnia, F. and Arefi, A., 2016, September. Comparison of the electricity tariffs and bills across the zones of Australian power distribution companies. In Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC), 2016 Australasian Universities (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Hu, A., Levis, S., Meehl, G.A., Han, W., Washington, W.M., Oleson, K.W., van Ruijven, B.J., He, M. and Strand, W.G., 2016. Impact of solar panels on global climate. Nature Climate Change, 6(3), p.290.

Natarajan, D.R., 2017. Concentrating solar power and its storage on a smaller utility scale vs photovoltaics with its batteries at a household level.

Nicholls, L., McCann, M.H., Strengers, Y. and Bosomworth, K., 2017. Electricity pricing, heatwaves & household vulnerability in Australia.

Saddler, H., 2015. The past and future of electricity consumption in Australia. Australian Options, (81), p.12.

Young, S., Bruce, A. and MacGill, I., 2016, July. Electricity network revenue under different Australian residential tariff designs and customer interventions. In Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), 2016 (pp. 1-5). IEEE.