Challenges Of Marketing Management For Bloomfield Law Practice, Nigeria Essay.

Approach to solving the Problem: 3Cs

Established in the year 2007, Bloomfield Law Practice is a Nigerian law firm which provides its target customers with practical and relevant solutions to their issues. The firm’s lawyers have an in-depth understanding of the commercial, economical and political environments. The law firm also keeps abreast of the developments in these constant changing political as well as business environments (Bloomfield-law.com 2018). However, in recent days the company is facing issues with their marketing as well as corporate communications activities. There are several problems within the firm, which are being identified in this report. The report consists of factors which will enable the firm in;

• Interacting with its target customers and solve their issues to a large extent,
• Services’ sales volume can rise proportionally in relation the customer awareness,
• Strategies like above the line, below the line and through the line will enable the organization in increasing customer awareness.

The report is being divided into sections, with sub parts in order gain a better understanding of the issues. Moreover, a customer survey has enabled the researcher in gaining useful insights. The 3Cs model by Kenichi Ohmae has helped in establishing the report to huge extent. Furthermore, the advertising techniques are being introduced along with proper justification, so that the firm gets better outcomes. Last but not the least; recommendations are being given in order to curb the issues of the firm, so that it gets benefitted on the long run.

                                                                         

The 3Cs Model is referred to the industrial model that offers a well planned look at the specific factors required for the success of the business. It was coined by Japanese theorist Kenichi Ohmae. The 3Cs model mainly specifies that the strategist need to focus upon the three major factors for business success. For the construction of the business strategy, the three major elements should be taken into consideration. These major elements are; the customers, the company and the competitors. Bloomfield Law Practice is a Nigerian law firm dealing with financing, construction, civil and many other related areas (Bloomfield-law.com 2018). Recently, the law firm is facing some issues related to their marketing communication, which needs to be addressed.

By integrating the three major elements of the model, it can be said that the company will gain a sustained competitive advantage. In addition to this, the company can also gain an idea of solving their problems by taking this model into consideration. Ohmae referred these factors as three Cs or the strategic triangle. It can be said that the core idea behind this model is shared value of the environment, community and company. Customers have needs and demands and the basic product of the company is to recognize their wants. In order to cater to the most number of audiences as per their expectations, the Bloomfield law firm needs to differentiate from their competitors and try to offer the customers with value added services.

Customer Analysis and Insight

Bloomfield law firm needs to identify their best clients in order to address the market challenges and analyze the competition. It is highly important for the firm to segment their best clients. This might vary from lawyers to lawyers. However, it needs to be taken into consideration that the clients generate largest revenues. Segmentation of the client base typically involves identifying various client groups, who share the most common characteristics. Bloomfield Law Practice firm can target these particular segments in which they are most interested in. In addition to this, the lawyers can build their reputation by offering the clients with outstanding services and in-depth expertise (Tsang and Siu 2016).

The identification of the customers under these segments is mainly done on the basis of their psychography, demography, behavioral patterns and attitudes. Moreover, a survey is being done in order to gain useful insights from the firm’s target customers. Clients or customers are the basis of the 3Cs model as per Ohmae. In-depth analysis has helped in gaining an understanding that the primary goal of any organization should be the customers’ interests (Šeric, Gil-Saura and Ozreti?-Došen 2015). On the long run, Bloomfield law firm should take care of their clients’ interests and segmentation will help them in understanding their demands and needs (Andrews and Shimp 2017). The firm’s major task is to optimize their range of the market coverage, channel wise or geographically.

The major competitors of Bloomfield Law Practice Firm are Aluko & Oyebode, Templers, Olaniwun Ajayi LP, Banwo & Ighodalo and few more. However, Bloomfield Law Firm is quite popular as it has gained huge media attention. In the competitive market, the firm has good stages of client loyalty, mostly targeting a larger market. Taking the competitors’ advertising and promotional activities into consideration, it can be said that Bloomfield law firm has much more to do. Their advertisements should comprise an emotional style in it (Fill and Turnbull 2016). Most importantly, the law firm needs to promote their activities over the social media as well.

With the inception of digital media, marketing has become easier for the companies. However, this is absent in the Bloomfield law firm. The firm needs to be more and more active over their social media sites and official website. Marketing communication challenge within the firm arises when the enterprise is not much interactive in nature (Kim and Kumar 2018). Moreover, while analyzing the facts, it is seen that Bloomfield law firm interact less with their online viewers. In addition to this, their queries are not well-addressed. Furthermore, their less interactive nature has posed a great threat for the organization itself and their marketing communication.

Competition Analysis and Insight

                                                               

Bloomfield Law Practice firm is a Nigerian law firm, which deals with the legal issues of their clients. The legal team of the company handles the injury cases dealing with crime, finance, construction, civil and other related areas. These are the products and services of the company. However, there are several strengths and weaknesses as well, which are addressed in this part of the report. The major strengths of the firm are their customer base, loyalty, popularity, products and services. On the contrary, it can be said that the marketing communication challenges are the major weaknesses of Bloomfield Law Practice firm (Bloomfield-law.com 2018).

On analyzing this fact, it can be stated that the corporation might not have to excel in each and every function just to win. It is important for it to attain a significant edge in one major function and that is proper marketing tactics. If this is done, then the law firm will be able to enhance their functionalities, which is now a bit on the average zone. In essence, the law firm can seek to stay ahead of its competitors by outsourcing some activities, which can be a bit costly. However, it can be said that these techniques will enable the business in getting successful on the long run (Killian and McManus 2015).

Integration of insights will bring all the three insights that are generated together in order to form a cohesive strategy. By integrating the 3Cs together, which is customer, company and competitors, it can be said that the law firm will be able to gain a sustainable advantage among its competitors. Firstly, as per Kenichi’s opinion, the clients are the basis of any business and without any doubt; the business’s main aim should be to represent the customers’ interests. Moreover, it is highly important for the firm to be genuinely interested in understanding the demands and needs, values and buying motives of the customers.

On segmenting the objectives of the customers, the company will be able to gain competitive advantage as well. It will prove to be beneficial for the firm as it will be able to gain customer loyalty, good reputation and great competitive advantages as well. However, the law firm is facing major challenge in marketing communications, which can be only resolved by interacting more and more over the social media and websites. Furthermore, the company should segment their customer coverage and re-segment the market for getting benefitted on the long run. In these situations, marketing communication issue can only be resolved if the law firm re-segment their market (Belch et al. 2014).

Company Analysis and Insight

The main aim here is to develop a proper marketing or marketing communication plan in order to address the problem of communication, within the law firm. Firstly, the company can win a decisive edge by sequencing and selecting the significant lead. On pulling ahead of their competition, they can perform some functions of becoming better than a mediocre. Moreover, if the costs rise, they it becomes critical for the company to decide whether to subcontract their major share of assembly operations. In addition to this, the competitors might not be able to shift their operations rapidly, which might give cost advantages as well (Luangrath, Peck and Barger 2017).

In addition to this, improving the cost effectiveness factor also helps in reducing the basic costs and expenses much more efficiently and effectively than their competitors. Moreover, the second method involves around exercising greater selectivity in the product and services offerings and functions to be taken into consideration. The third method is to share the key resources and functions with other organizations (Trusov, Rutz and Bucklin 2017). According to Ohmae, the major competitive strategies are needed to be constructed by keeping a close eye on the differentiation opportunities like purchasing, designing, selling and servicing. Furthermore, the power of the image plays a major role and therefore, proper public relations activities and advertising should be done (Smith and Zook 2016).

In this part of the report, the most suitable approach for conveying the strategy is being discussed by using below the line, above the line and through the line strategies. These marketing activities mainly the advertisements can be divided into three specific segments; which are above the line, below the line and through the line marketing activities. This line is originally used to separate the marketing activities that have mass penetration level (above the line) to those having specific penetration (below the line). However, with increased development and competition in the technology, emerged the through line marketing activities. This blurs the lines and involves the utilization of both BTL and ATL advertising activities (Rowles 2017).

The advertising activities are actually differentiated based on the companies’ target groups, budget of the marketers and marketing motives. The above the line advertising comprises the advertising activities, which have wide and large non-targeted reach. Through above the line advertising activity, Bloomfield Law Practice firm will be able to build its brand and also inform the target customers about their services. The conversions are actually given less emphasis in this type of advertising. The above the line marketing activities mainly include mass marketing strategies that are largely untargeted as well as focused on brand building. The communication is not directed towards a particular group in such advertising activity (Groeger and Buttle 2014).

Integration of Insights

In addition to this, the law firm can also focus on below the line promotional activities for addressing the issues of communication challenges. Below the line advertising mainly includes outdoor advertising, direct mail advertising, sponsorship, brand activation, in store marketing and several others (Batra and Keller 2016). Some positive sides of this marketing activity are that the law firm will be able to gain easy control as the advertisements are extremely targeted. Lastly, the through the line advertising refers to the amalgamation of both ATL and BTL marketing strategies (Grove, Dorsch and Carlson 2015). Through the line advertising will allow the Bloomfield Law firm to adopt strategies like 360 degree promotion, digital marketing and others.

Above the line	Below the line	Through the line
The above the line promotional activities will typically include; Television, radio, print advertisements (newspapers and magazine). Advantages: Wider reach, Better connection with the audience, Brand building.	The below the line promotional activities will required the law firm undertake certain advertising strategies like; Outdoor advertising, Direct mail marketing, Sponsorship, Brand activation, In store marketing. Advantages: Better ROI, Easy control, Extremely targeted, Tailor made.	It includes both above the line and below the line strategies. The Bloomfield law firm can adopt this strategy in order to get better results. Some examples of this strategy are; 360 degree marketing, Digital marketing. Advantages: Better reach, Brand building.

It can be recommended that Bloomfield Law Practice firm needs to undertake certain policies and strategies in order to address their challenges with marketing communications. A marketing and marketing communications plan is being developed in order to resolve these issues of the law firm. Furthermore, it can be said that the law firm needs to adopt through the line advertising activity in order to get more benefitted. This will enable the company in gaining more popularity, building its brand and gaining more attention from the media and in turn, target customers. Through the line marketing activity will enable the firm in engaging into digital marketing, which is immensely important in modern days.

In addition to this, to resolve the issues of their target customers, the law firm needs to be more and more interactive over the social media. With the inception of digital marketing activities, communication has become easier. In modern days, the firm can directly relate with its customers through the social media and resolve their issues online. Other customers will also be able to understand the credibility of the organization through these activities. Moreover, the interactive nature of the firm will ensure that no customers face any communication issues. Furthermore, through this, the Bloomfield Law Practice firm can get benefitted on the long run and the marketing communication challenges will also get resolved.

Summary/ Conclusion

To conclude, the report has successfully developed a proper marketing and a marketing communication plan in order to address the issue of communication challenges, which is happening within the firm. The major problem of the Bloomfield Law Practice firm is being recognized and critically analyzed. The law firm is less interactive in nature, which do not have a social media webpage and due to this, the firm is unable to communicate with its target customers on the open forum. The nature of the problem is analyzed and necessary action plan is being developed for addressing the situation. The communication problem is a major problem in any company and therefore, it needs to be addressed as soon as possible, for getting the best results.

The marketing challenge of Bloomfield Law Practice firm is being addressed and strategies are being proposed. Moreover, without the strategy, the firm might not have a sound plan. The 3Cs model coined by Kenichi Ohmae is being used in order to undertake the strategies on the basis of its customers, competition and company. The report has also discussed about the needs and demands of the firm’s target audience, its major competitors, product and service offerings and others. The use of the 3Cs model has helped in conducting the market research in a better manner. It has enabled in identifying the challenges of the customers as well. Furthermore, the survey has enabled the researcher in gaining competitive insights.

References

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