Essay: Starting A Solar Panel Company In Australia - Opportunities And Benefits.

Benefits of starting a solar panel company in Australia

Question:

Discuss about the Marketing Plan for solar Panel company.

The solar panel business has only stretched to the US, France, Germany, Canada, China, and India (Delmas et al., 2014, p. 8). With that in mind, it is clear that the Australian market is a big gap that has been left wide open with nobody to venture in. The solar panel industry in Australia is not well spread and has left some critical areas in dire need of it (Casini & Lites, 2005). The brightest idea is to start up a solar panel company in Australia before the start of next year, which would be a favorable market for solar panels. 

• To gather enough capital before the end of this year that would cater for all operations of the company.
• To make a substantial profit by after the first financial year into the market.
• To attract investors by funding campaigns for carbon-free products and donating to cancer projects within the first fiscal year.

Marketing Objectives

• To carry out an effective three months market research of the Australian market before the business starts.
• To ensure that all legal requirements according to the Australian government have been handed to the proper person to avoid tarnishing of the brand and the name of the company once the business starts.
• To carry out effective personal selling during the introduction of the product, next year.
• To ensure that effective advertising is conducted when the product is introduced into the market.
• To ensure effective promotion of sales during the launching of the product.
• To make sure that the product is of standardized quality to surpass competitors.
• To recruit the best employees that would ensure sufficient market research, that product is well known, promoted and is selling when the product is introduced.

Stakeholder Objectives

• To fund welfare projects in the first financial year to gain favor with the neighboring community.
• To make sure that soundproof machines and machines that filter harmful effluents have been installed in the organization’s factory by the time the business starts. Curbing sound and air pollution will help the organization to develop a good relationship with the neighboring community as it preserves the environment.
• To ensure that the organization has employed people belonging to the neighboring community.

My target market would be Australia which is the 6th largest country in the world that is covered by land and the largest in Oceania which means that most of it surrounded by water (Ewing, 2009, p. 22). The coastal areas are affected a lot by global warming which results from use of fossil fuels. They are the warmest areas among other places in Australia making the people inhabiting the area uncomfortable (Casini & Lites, 2005). These coastal areas would one of the best markets to sell solar panels. In these areas, the target market will comprise both new users and present consumers of the product. The Northern Power Station in South Australia which produced brown coal closed down making this part of Australia, a substantial market for the organization. Besides, organizations that generate energy in Australia like Victorian plants are reducing operations because the consumption has significantly dropped over the years (Australian Energy Council, 2016, p. 6). The reduction of the competitors’ activities makes it easy for the present users to switch to new product in the market.  Brisbane and Tasmania, are the areas with the highest rate of solar radiation, making them a real target market (IBISWorld, 2017). Moreover, the charges of electricity bills have increased tremendously in Australia thus leaving a gap for the solar panel industry. There is a large market for Solar panels in Australia only that no one has come up with the perfect product.

The company will offer solar panels that are usable by everyone no matter the kind of lifestyle. The type of solar panels that are already being provided in Australia is 2kW with eight panels, which does not fit on many of the roofs of the house in the inner west (Carter, 2016). The company will provide sizeable panels with all kinds of sizes for different roofs.  The solar panels that will be provided can conserve most of the energy that it takes in during the day, unlike the solar panels that have already been offered that work only during the day. Another objective of creating viability of solar power is to provide solar panels that are mobile so that in case one intends to move, and they can move with panels. The company will innovate new products that will appeal to all the consumers and thus overcome the competition. 

Target market: coastal and humid areas

The solar panels provided will be consumer-friendly and of one type but with many advantageous features. It will be able to work in humid conditions, especially the coastal areas and will not be affected by landscape shading. It will have a temperature coefficient of -0.28%/°C.  The solar panels will be able to cover for all roofing sizes. The solar panels will be long life and will have a warranty of over 30 years. The products will have a competitive advantage since they will be more innovative and price-friendly. Plus the offering is indisputable because the warranty is much longer than one offered by competitors. The product will also have 500 W yields utilizing a new instrument set for a wide range module. With all these features in place and struggles that the Australian people have suffered, who would they reject such a solar panel?

In an organization, the first step to developing a client service culture is coming up with a code of ethics for the company in which employees follow (Wren & Bedeian, 2009, p. 36). The human resource manager must ensure that he selects the qualified staff without biases which are then trained, awarded bonuses, salary increments, and job promotion when they achieve set targets (Jobber & Lancaster, 2015, p. 12). If some employees are not compliant with the required customer service required they should be undertaken through training and development.

To develop excellent systems that staffs are to adapt quickly and gather information on new entries of technology is very essential. To provide customers with the best services, I will consider employing both online and offline strategies. Customers will be able to order products online or pick them directly from the store.

Exterior facilities, a comfortable working environment and the layout of the company’s premises will be formulated and structured in the plan even before opening the branch in Australia. This will be achieved through the establishment of different stores in different target market regions in Australia. Signs, symbols, and artifacts will be included in the new product as the slogans of marketing the product.

The pricing goals are sales oriented since the demand for the solar panels is expected to be high. The pricing strategy will be penetration where the company will offer discounts and attach related items to the product at the point of sale (Baliga & Rodrigues, 2015, p. 212). The offer of discounts will ensure that customers are attracted to buying the product and will increase sales. The attached items will make sure that the brand is spread more. When the product starts to dominate, the penetration strategy ceases because the people already know it and are likely to prefer it over other products. Penetration strategy is the best method of pricing a product as seen above. The adjustment of the base rate price will be value-based pricing and flexible pricing. These strategies will make the product affordable to many users and at the same time claim a large market share.

Innovative solar panels and their features

Distribution methods of a product are fundamental because at the end of the day the customer will get a particular perception of the company (Ambrose, 2015, p. 6). First, the company needs to recruit the most efficient, faithful and reliable distributor. Also, the method distribution is another decision that should make carefully in this case. The distribution method to be applied is the direct channel distribution. In this approach, the distributor picks the product from the producer and delivers directly to the consumer without following other avenues (Cohen, 2006, p. 32). Being a consumer product, the direct channel method is the best to use since it is simple.

Marketing Communication is through the use of advertising, oral presentation, publicity, and sales distribution. It influences the role of promotion in marketing by motivating exchange through linking communications with the product adoption process of the buyer (Mishra & Deepti Mishra, 2009, p. 85). The purchase decision of the customer is preceded by the conviction among the product benefits, preference for brand, liking for the brand, advantages, and features.  According to my target market, the appropriate marketing communication activities would be, sales distribution, advertising, and oral presentation.

Upon the opening of the branch in 2018, oral presentations will begin, and discounts will be given and minimal advertising. It will end in 2018 September which will be done by the marketing department and will cost about a million dollars.

On the financial part, the sales must be monitored by the recruited sales executive in place, and the accounts by the accountant and the auditor. The marketing activities must be supervised thoroughly by the marketing manager which includes intense and continuous information gathering. The director of the company’s premises must be monitored by the overall manager to prevent pollution (Jobber & Lancaster, 2015, p. 16).

In a nutshell, the formation of a solar panel company in Australia is a big step but a favorable one because there are an open door and a large market for the launching of new innovative solar panels. The gap is brought about by decreased production of energy that comes from fossil fuels leading to a closure of some companies that produce that energy is making electricity bills expensive. With a clear outline of objectives, a good marketing strategy, a reasonable budget review, an efficient market implementation and evaluation and control of the same, solar panels which are a new entry to the market will favor newly started a business in that sector, in Australia.

References

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