Marketing Plan Essay: Paka's New Swim Wearables

The goal of case analysis is to allow you to consolidate what you have learned in the class and from the book chapters and to apply the knowledge in a written analysis of a real world case. This is an individual assessment. For this assessment you should focus on the core issues underlying the case and illustrate the analysis with appropriate and relevant arguments, logic and theoretical frameworks to demonstrate your mastery and knowledge of the case subject matter and alignment with the chapter topics. Background research, analysing the case based on unit relevant topics, models and frameworks as well as strong arguments backed up by credible and relevant data and facts will be crucial in achieving a good mark. In constructing the case analysis, a report format is preferably advised over an essay format.

Important Note: You must cite at least eight (8) relevant peer reviewed journal articles (absolute minimum requirement). You can cite other academic references such as books, conference papers, and book chapters but these will NOT be counted as part of the 8 journal articles. All of these academic references should be cited within the text of the paper; your reference list must match your citations.

Review the case and based on your chapter learning and topics covered in weeks 1, 2 and 3, write a report by referring to the following discussion questions.

You are the Marketing Manager for ‘Paka,’ a niche wearable company specializing in sport/running wearables. They are developing a new range of wearables especially for swimming. Paka follows a sustainable approach to its marketing and business practices. You have been asked to develop a marketing plan for this range. Based on the content and learnings in the unit, you are required to answer the following:

1. As the marketing manager, what should you do to make sure this product is asuccess?
2. Undertake a strategic analysis of Paka’s competitors.
3. What are the steps involved in segmenting and targeting yourmarket?

Product Success

The report aims at providing an overview of marketing management in context of a company named Paka that specializes in running and sports wearable. Presently, the company has put forward a wearable range for swimming. The report discusses on the role of the marketing manager in determining the success of the product. Marketing refers to the exchange between the firm and the customers. In other words, it is an organization function and set of process for the creation, communication and delivery of the value to the customers and managing the customer relationship in a manner that benefits not only the organization but also the stakeholders (Armstrong et al. 2014). The report also puts forward a strategic analysis of the competitors of Paka. There is also discussion about the targeting and segmentation of the products of Paka. Segmentation refers to the breaking of the market into homogeneous consumer groups where a single product, price or promotion acts unlikely in satisfying the needs of the consumers.

Marketers puts forward that consumers calculate products that offers best value (Zimmerman and Blythe 2013). In fact, the overall value received for the products is equivalent to price and benefits provided. In other words, marketing refers to the creation of value to the customers and one of the initial steps in marketing process refers to the complete understanding of the marketplace and consumers in which they operate (Kotler and Armstrong 2013).

                                            Figure 1: Model Describing Value Creation and Marketing Process

                                                                                Source: (Baker 2014)

Marketers can follow the above model and determine the success of the products of Paka. Marketing newer products seems challenging since it requires identification of the right customers and their needs wants and demands. It also involves prior planning and determining strategies for promotion (Firat 2014). The very first step in the marketing process remains in discovering the preferences and the needs of the customers (Burns, Bush and Sinha 2014). This helps in developing a marketable product having a higher potential for the success. Testing the product sample polling and marketing along with customer surveys represents the techniques used for the identification of the customer needs, wants and demand. The need represents the desire of the consumers for Paka’s product while the want represent the desire for the products and service. For instance, food is considered as a consumer need but not want. Consumer demand on the other hand refers to the desires of the customers that they possess the will and the ability to buy. Besides, it is also important for the marketers to portray the product benefits desired necessary by the consumers (Lantos 2015). At the same time, it is also necessary to promote and develop products by focusing on the key advantages that differentiates the brand. Further, marketers should also promote Paka’s product for determining the success of its products.

Strategic Analysis of Paka's Competitors

Marketers should also consider the aspects of modern marketing for determining the product success (Morais 2013). This involves product orientation, customer orientation and sales orientation. Marketers can adopt product orientation by focusing on building better gadgets. It is also necessary to undertake sales orientation with the sole focus remaining on convincing customers that the concerned product is beneficial to them. Besides, the marketers should focus on the identification of the customer want before the formulation of the attractive solutions. In order to make sure that Paka’s product is a success it is necessary to quantify the results through identification of the percentage increase in sales and the percentage increase in the web visits.

Customer centric marketing represents a strategy for undertaking an analysis of Paka’s competitors (Mathies, Gudergan and Wang 2013).  The strategy ensures placing individual customer in the centre of design and delivery of marketing. According to this strategy, it is to be noted that there is no average customer and every customer have different preferences and behavior. The approach helps in moving forward from the past one-size fits all approach of marketing.  Thus, in order to undertake a strategic analysis of Paka’s competitors, a customer centric management framework is adopted that emphasizes four customer values including acceptability, accessibility, affordability and awareness (Lusch and Vargo 2014).  

Acceptability: It represents the dominant component in the framework and the design represents the roots of acceptability of the products of the competitors. It represents total product offering of the firm that exceeds the customer expectations. It is found that the functional aspects of the design of the competitors might either enhance the core benefit or increase the reliability of products. Competitors can rely on psychological acceptability through changing the brand image, design, packaging and positioning.

Accessibility: The means to which the customers will readily acquire the product of Paka depends on the two dimensions that are the convenience and the ability. Competitors of  Paka might  develop innovative means for delivering both similar to the online retailers who not only does return policies and  excellent customer service along with keep a track of the minute to minute information regarding stocks, brands, styles and warehouse.

Affordability: This represents the extent to which the customers within the target market remains able and willing in paying for the price of the product. This has two dimensions that are economic and psychological.  Thus, for the competitors of Paka, acceptability in combination of affordability determines the value proposition of the product.  For instance, if the competitors of Paka lower their price then it leads to an enormous increase in the sales demand.

Awareness: The competitors of Paka inform the customers about the characteristics of the product and persuade them to try or repurchase it through this process. This aspect has two dimensions product knowledge and brand awareness. It is the most vital aspect since most of the competitors are either inefficient or ineffectual in developing it. For example, although a proper advertising remains incredibly powerful but co-marketing and word of mouth  seems more effective in reaching the potential customers.

The competitors of Paka should also consider the fact that the consumers often recommend the products to the others and become increasingly critical towards the advent of social media platforms and internet.

Market segmentation refers to the process of dividing the market into distinctive sub groups while targeting represents the practice of creation of differences in marketing mix for catering to the different segments (Abbey, Blackburn and Guide 2015). In other words, segmentation refers to the breaking of the market into more number of homogeneous groups where a single promotion, price or product satisfies the needs of the consumer. There are two different types of segmentation, mass marketing and one to one marketing (Cross, Belich and Rudelius 2015). Mass marketing refers to the segmentation where all customers the treated equally and more efficiently in meeting the needs of the customers while one to one marketing refers to the segmentation where each of the customer is served as segment and product remains tailored as per the desires of the person. Although this type of segmentation is hard to achieve in an efficient manner and in most cases involves quality issues. Segmentation will enable Paka in achieving better understanding of itself and the environment and guide the repositioning and redesigning of the existing products so that they fit more closely to the wants of the customers. Paka’s new range of wearable for swimming falls between mass marketing and one to one marketing. The steps involved in segmenting and targeting include:

Demographic distinction:

• Gender:  Male, Female or Children who prefers swimming
• Age: 10 to 50
• Household Composition: Single, Married or Divorcee
• Education: Student, Homemaker, Recent Graduate, Established or Executive Career
• Income: Middle and higher income group who can easily afford the product
• Ethnicity: Social, Active, Family Centric or Luxurious lifestyle

Geographic distinctions between the customers lead to the change of the preferences and the need for the sport wear products.  

• Cultural difference exists within countries. For example, all parts of the Australian might not express interest in buying wearable products for sports
• Difference between urban and small living. For example, the people residing in the urban areas are more modern and prefer sportswear products compared to the people living in the rural areas.
• Difference between the hot and the cold climate. For instance, the preference for wearable range of product for swimming will be more in the hot climate than the colder climate.

Conclusion:

On a concluding note, it can be said that marketing refers to not only an activity but also set of process and institution for the creation, communication, delivery and the exchange offerings that holds value for the customers, partners, clients and the society at the large. The report portrays that there are various aspects of marketing that needs to be considered for determining the success of the new products.  The report also shows the strategic analysis of Paka’s competitors based on the customer centric marketing framework which centre around customers. Through the report, it can also be seen how segmentation and targeting of  Paka’s new range of product can be done based on demographics and geographic distinction.

References:

Abbey, J.D., Blackburn, J.D. and Guide Jr, V.D.R., 2015. Optimal pricing for new and remanufactured products. Journal of Operations Management, 36, pp.130-146.

Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia.

Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Burns, A.C., Bush, R.F. and Sinha, N., 2014. Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson.

Cross, J.C., Belich, T.J. and Rudelius, W., 2015. How marketing managers use market segmentation: An exploratory study. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 531-536). Springer, Cham.

Firat, A.F., 2014. Marketing challenges: A personal history. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 6(3), pp.414-429.

Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G., 2013. Principles of Marketing (16th Global Edition).

Lantos, G.P., 2015. Consumer behavior in action: Real-life applications for marketing managers. Routledge.

Lusch, R.F. and Vargo, S.L., 2014. The service-dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions. Routledge.

Mathies, C., Gudergan, S.P. and Wang, P.Z., 2013. The effects of customer-centric marketing and revenue management on travelers’ choices. Journal of Travel Research, 52(4), pp.479-493.

Morais, D.G., 2013. Branding Iron: Eugen Sandow's “Modern” Marketing Strategies, 1887-1925. Journal of Sport History, 40(2), pp.193-214.

Zimmerman, A. and Blythe, J., 2013. Business to business marketing management: A global perspective. Routledge.