New Marketing Strategies For Houzit

Houzit is a 50 years old organization dealing in bathroom and bedroom fittings, mirrors and decorative items with around 15 stores in the Brisbane, a city in Australia. The head office of the company is in Milton which controls and manages all the stores.

Discuss about the various new marketing strategies which help the Houzit in achieving its strategic goals and objectives.

Houzit, a chain of homewares stores in Brisbane, Australia is going to enter in its fifth year of operations with the new marketing strategies and goals. The company deals in bathroom and bedroom fittings, mirrors, and decorative items with around 15 stores in the city. In the case study, it is given that the head –office of the company is situated in Milton from where all the operations are controlled and coordinated.

The company has a various vision, mission, and objectives for the next few years, which are aligned with the strategic goals for an effective accomplishment. These goals are to make the business to the whole of Australia by making a national retail brand by supplying homemakers with a unique variety of stuff, superior quality goods with easy payment plan and system. The major objectives were:

• In the next three years, increase the sale to $20 million per year from $15 million per year
• Make rise in the customer list from 10,000 from 15,000.
• Establish brand recognition and identity in the whole of the city so that 1 out of 3 people can able to recognize the brand.

The company also recognizes few trends, which are evolving according to the time. The buyers are getting expertise over time and which make the company understand that there is a need for high-quality products due to the presence of various alternatives. In addition, customers are now demanding large choices and alternatives and this means that they are not ready to accept limited selections in the same category of product; the company is selling (Schwager & Meyer, 2007).

As per given in the case study, the company has 15 stores in different places in Brisbane. Due to the competition and market share, the company is expecting to open new shops in another part of the country.

The business of Houzit is around 50 years old including the same years of the customer base. This means that the business is continuously increasing and getting bigger. The stores of this company are mostly in commercial, suburban neighbourhood, or urban retail district. The ambience in the stores is kept bright which help the customers in choosing the best stuff according to the needs (Ring, 2013). The employee strength per store is around 15-20 which includes both full time and casual’s employees. The size of every store is nearly around 1000-1500m2. As per reports, the sales break-ups of existing Brisbane stores are as – 30% bathroom stuff, 35% bedroom furnishings and 20% mirrors and decorative items, and 15% lighting fixtures.

Current Size, Capabilities, and Resource of the Company Including the Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths 

• The employees of Houzit are well skilled, knowledgeable and trained in serving the customers.
• For a long time, there is a high customer royalty ratio.
• Attractive offers that cover up competitor and competition in quality, variety and accessibility.

Weakness 

• Houzit is not working on a large scale and thus it has a limited marketing budget for increasing brand awareness.
• There is a continuously increasing in the gap of loan taken out by the customers for the product.

As per the study, the company is planning to raise their sales to a very high volume or percentage in the next three years but there is a huge issue and that is budget. The company has a limited budget, which is also diversified in various areas like marketing, development, branding etc. (Zimmerman & Blythe, 2013). So, in order to increase sales, the company is needed to go for more employment, open up new stores and advertising. In addition to this, the company is also planning to improve the quality of the product with innovation.

The two market opportunities that can meet the objective are Joint venture and Digital Marketing. With the help of digital marketing, the company can increase their targeted customer in a short span of time and over the world and without any physical store there will be saving in the huge amount of capital. Also with the help of a joint venture, the company can able to tie up with the other companies to increase their sales objective and thus saves from financial crises (Martyak, 2014).

The risk attached to the digital marketing is the dynamic environment and trends, which often change with time and competition. In addition, digital marketing is only beneficial when the company is having a niche business. The benefit of digital marketing can be the small investment and measurability (Standberry, 2017). There are various powerful tools available, which can help the organization in getting each aspect of marketing to be analyzed effectively.

The risk associated with the joint venture can be losing the control over own business, conflict with other company and various legal formalities have to be accomplished (Chowne, 2017). In contradiction, it can help the company to expand even will small budgets.

The company should focus on demographic segmentation where they can segment and target the customers based on the lifestyle of people, age, income, family tradition etc. (Webber, 2011). This will help the company in saving cost, as the product will be designed according to the needs of the customers. In addition, the company focus is upon on the lead business, which helps them in increasing the sales. Digital Marketing can be used as a tool in the initial phase, which helps the company to enter into the global market.

4p’s of marketing mix strategy can be used to increase the volume of sales of the company in the next 3 years. These 4ps are a product, price, place, and promotion (Išorait?, 2016).

• Product – Houzit should design and develop the product according to the trend and lifestyle of people. There is also a need to increase the size of the product category to give customer more choices. For increasing profits, the company should use cost-efficient production techniques.
• Price – To increase the market share, the company has to sell products at low prices and they have to comply with pricing laws of each country if they want to do business globally.
• Promotion - For making the promotion of the product, the company can use the techniques of personal and direct selling rather than rely on distributors and suppliers. In addition, the company can use the help of digital marketing, which can help in saving a huge amount of promotional budgets.
• Place – The Company can also make the shelf on online platforms for selling their products like on the website, social media web page etc.

Gaps Between the Objectives and the Current Capabilities and Resources

The above-mentioned strategies are effectively aligned with the organization objectives. The strategy of entering into the global market is aligned with the strategy of raising sales volume. Making the business globally available also help the company to create brand recognition which can also help the company to increase the customer database (Hollis, 2008).

The company is running its business over a long period of time, which creates multiple marketing opportunities to grow the business. Along with this, they have to also deal with various challenges, as one of the biggest competitors of Houzit is IKEA, which has a global presence and a large amount of customer database.

According to Petch, 2016 – the life cycle model is described below:

• Seed- The first stage where Houzit have to match their marketing opportunity with their strategic goals and objectives
• Start-up – Major policies and financial budget needed to be allocated.
• Growth – This is the phase where a high level of challenges and fluctuations affect the management decision and thus there is a requirement of an effective management.
• Established – The phase where there is a deal with continuous competition and also with the dynamic business environment.
• Expansion – the Company here takes the decision of moving to new markets and thus the management has to deal with various global laws and pricing strategies.
• Mature – In this phase, the organization looks for new opportunities like joint venture, collaboration, targeting new nations etc.
• Exit – The final stage of any business cycle, related to its proper valuation.

For measuring marketing performance, various metrics can be analyzed as –

• Brand awareness – The management should attempt to increase brand awareness which can make the customers aware of the products and services.
• Market share and Customer acquisition – This can be beneficial if one wants to increase the sales volume by attracting more and more customers, which lead to an increase in market share.
• Loyal Customers / Retention – Those customers who are loyal to the brand from a long period of time should be provided with some tangible or intangible benefits which feel them good to be a part of the organization.

Important tactics which can help in implementing the strategy –

As Houzit is a highly integrated company, there is an effective coordination present between various department and product line across all the chain (Moharana, Murty, Senapati, & Khuntia, 2012). Therefore, for gaining a competitive position in the market, the management of Houzit is putting more efforts into achieving the organization objective. The organization also needs to measure and evaluate the progress of each objective and goals.

To achieve various goals and implementing various strategies like expanding business globally, the tool digital marketing requires an amount of some capital, which has to be invested nearly about $1000 for effective implementation.

The KPI, which stands for Key performance indicator, can help the organization to evaluate the growth in meeting various organizational objectives such as increases in customer loyalty, reach a global market, and increase in volumes of shares (Parmenter, 2015).

The above-selected tactics are influenced by both legal and ethical implications. For example, the organization has to comply with various government regulations and rules for establishing their organization in new markets, i.e., An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is required to issue from Internal Revenue Service to identify a business entity. Nearly all businesses are required to have a tax identification number. This will also help the company in getting various supports in the form of subsidy and rebates. In addition to this, if the company follows appropriate ethics and positive principals of society, it will help it in making a strong brand identity. In addition, if the company follows social values, the customer will also be delighted by using the service for a long period.

Tactics fitting within organizational resources and capabilities -

The various tactics discussed above are very important for the organization. These tactics are effectively aligned with the organizational resource and capabilities. Houzit has small budgets and therefore digital marketing can help to achieve its organizational goal and objectives with its online presence where less amount of capital is needed.

Conclusion

The organization strategies of Houzit are straight and integrated but there are various hurdles on the path in the form of budgets, which will affect the decisions and goals of Houzit. In addition, Houzit has to adopt various effective practices due to tough competition in the market and this effective control over all its department and management can help the company to be standing in this competitive market.

References

Chowne, P. (2017). Benefits and Risks Associated with Joint Ventures. Retrieved from: https://prowsechowne.com/benefits-and-risks-associated-with-joint-ventures/

Hollis, N. (2008). The Global Brand: How to Create and Develop Lasting Brand Value in the World Market. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Išorait?, M. (2016). Marketing Mix Theoretical Aspects. International Journal Of Research – Granthaalayah, 4(6), 25-37.

Martyak, M. (2014). Joint Venture Benefits and Considerations. Retrieved from: https://www.powerlinx.com/blog/joint-venture-benefits/

Moharana, H., Murty, J.S., Senapati, S.K., & Khuntia, K.  (2012). Coordination, Collaboration and Integration for Supply Chain Management. International Journal of Interscience Management Review (IMR), 2(2).

Parmenter, D.  (2015). Key Performance Indicators: Developing, Implementing, and Using Winning KPIs. New Jersey: Wiley.

Petch, N. (2016). The Five Stages Of Your Business Lifecycle: Which Phase Are You In?. Retrieved from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271290

Ring, J. (2013). 12 Ways To Create An Awesome Atmosphere For Your Restaurant. Retrieved from: https://restaurantbrandingroadmap.com/12-ways-to-create-an-awesome-atmosphere-for-your-restaurant/

Schwager, A., & Meyer, C. (2007). Understanding Customer Experience. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2007/02/understanding-customer-experience

Standberry, S. (2017). Top 10 Benefits of Digital Marketing & Why Digital Marketing is a Must for Every Small Business. Retrieved from: https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/benefits-digital-marketing/

Webber, R. (2011). In which contexts do different market segmentation strategies work best?. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 12(4), 310-314.

Zimmerman, A., & Blythe, J. (2013). Business to Business Marketing Management: A Global Perspective. New York: Routledge