Open Family Australia Marketing Environmental Analysis Essay.

Industry Overview and Service Description

Describe about the Open Family Australia Marketing Environmental Analysis.

Industry Overview and Service Description

Open family Australia as an organization has been in the nonprofit industry for over thirty years providing charity work in various sectors. This organization operates as a limited organization by guarantee registered under the nonprofit making organization by the name open family Australia Company under the section 150 of the Australian company registration act (Achrol, Reve and Stern 2013). Open family organization was registered on 9^th June in the year 2007. After registration, the organization was given 116661717 CAN after which the it was issued with 49724845604 Australian business number. Open family Australia has its headquarters located in VIC post code 3003 since the year 2004. Prior to the location of the headquarters at VIC 3003, the organization had moved from one location to another.

The previous headquarters locations were as follows VIC 3003 since 27^th  July in the year 2012 up to the year 2014  September when the when the relocated to VIC 3207 from 2007-10-19 until  the year 2012-07-27. They again moved to VIC post code 3205 starting from 19^th November the year 2000 up to the in the beginning of the year 2007 November.  After all these relocations, Open Family Australia was registered for the GST on 2000-07-01 after being given the trading name on 2^nd may the year 2000. The company has used the name open family Australia without changing since the Australian Business Register of Australia no longer sample and update the already given trademarks. The company according to the records updated by ABN this year 2016 July on 22^nd. It was found by the Aubiz.net that there are 9 trademarks which mention Open Family Australia Company.  It has also been revealed that the trademark number 1043080 had been filed on 2005-02-22 and is classified as "word” indicating the application status as registered and operational (Bartels and Jenkins 2007). Other company trademarks include trademark number 1156228 in the "word" category application status/date: "never registered, live", 2007-01-12 and trademark number 1156231 registered on 2007-01-12 in the "word" category implying that the application status/date: "registered, live", 2007-01-12. Open family Australia operates in nonprofit industry which is having other competitive organizations.

There are a number of similar organizations based in Australia offering the same services as Open Family Australia thus competition. These companies include, ACNC, IBBY, SAHANZ among others. A part from the private charity providers, the Australian government has also created several charity organizations leading to stiff competition. Open Family mainly deals with the homeless but extends to the other area as already mentioned. As a result of several companies joining the industry, most companies are therefore merging to work as one organization. Open Family Australia in the resent merged with Whitelion. The company works with volunteers who provide support to events, fundraising, ChatterBus in Melbourne and Sydney.   Open Family Australia is a none profit organization as mention whose purpose and objective is to support the youth and the homeless personalities within the streets. Apart from the care to the homeless and street children, the company also conduct religious services, provide social services, provide peer support, counselling, facilitate and supports the peer groups.

Section Two

The Company’s Micro and Macro Environment

Open Family Australia is a firm operating within a free open system and draws resources from its environment. Business environment is composed of two categories. These categories are, macro environment containing several factors affecting the growth and development of any business in a free system (Dibb and Simkin 2001). Macro environment is type of business environment that its influence the beyond its control. Macro business environment contain factors such as demographic, economic, natural, technological, Political, cultural among others. On the other hand micro environment contains factors which affects a firm like Open Family Australia but are within the control of the organization. Micro environment includes factors such competition, participants, marketing middlemen or intermediaries, company itself and publics among others. In order to identify factors affecting the business in a given business system. Environmental determination and analysis requires the application of various tools of environmental analysis such as the SWOT analysis and PESTELS analysis among the other tools (Dillon, Madden and 2014.).  Both micro and macro environment forces affect the free system in which Open Family Australia operates as follows:

a) Economic environment

Economic environment is one of the forces within the free system that Open Family Australia operates (Heath and Wall 2011.). This environment is composed of economic conditions, policies related to economic including the economic systems. Poor economic situation of the country affects the performance of Open Family Australia. The company depends much on donations and funds raised by the public as well as other donors. When the income affected by the economic situations, capital required by the organization reduces.  Income changes, to tightened budget, income variation and poor economic development prevents the growth of Open Family Australia as nonprofit organization depending on donation.

1. b) Natural Environment

To provide services to the public Open Family Australia depends on the availability of the natural resources. Natural resource reservation by the government hinders the performance of the company.

1. c) Technological Environment

Most of the operations such as the involvement of the volunteers and donations are performed through online platforms. Poor technological advancement slows down the operation of Open Family Australia Company which most of the time conduct their services through the use of advance technology.

1. d) Political, legal and social

The government business regulatory services can policies affects the operation of the Open Family Australia. Currently the government has come up with several nonprofit organizations which leading to stiff completion in the sector.

1. Demographical environment

The Company’s Micro and Macro Environment

The demographical environment involves human population. It involves the size, age location, race occupation among other factors.   The Australian population has been growing for the last few years leading increased population growth rate. The company deals with the charity working including helping the homeless in the streets. Since the population is growing at high rate, the number of people in the streets increases becoming a challenge to the organization (Hollense 2015).

Micro environment

1. The company (Open Family Australia)

The success of any organization depends on the marketing management. Marketing management on the other hand depends on the relationship between the major players in the micro environment. There must be coordination between the management, finance, accounting departments and other sectors. The coordination between the management of Open Family Australia and other support departments like peer group helps in the success of the company. Failure of proper coordination among the key players may to disorganization of the whole system (Hunt 2006).

1. Competition

The organization is currently facing a several companies in the same industry. There are a number of government organizations set to offer the same services as Open Family Australia Company.  Apart from the government organizations, there are other private organization offering charity work to the disadvantaged. When the number of organization there is always struggle for resources slowing down the rate of the organization.

1. Suppliers

The increased number organizations in the industry requires an organization such as Open Family Australia to form a strong relationship with the suppliers. Due to the increased organizations in the industry there is reduced availability of resources leading to the delays and high cost of executing projects and organizing the charity work (Keller 2009).

The above discussed forces affect Open Family Australia organization in different ways as discussed. Even though the company is a nonprofit organization, it is under the influence of market forces according to market analysis. Open Family Australia deliver services to the public members who are disadvantaged in one way or another. Therefore, an institution involved with transaction and service provision operates in a free market environment with various forces.

Market Segmentation

Open Family Australia is operating as a nonprofit organization targeting the youths as the volunteers. Division of marketing therefore put into consideration the constituents such the population being served, the rate at which the targeted market will response and the management cultivation and solicitation to efforts to meet the objectives of the organization. The organization therefore, should apply the use of constituent codes (Leeflang and Van 2015). The organization is targeting the generation of income from volunteers and fundraising to properly execute their missions they should parlay constituent codes. The company should set a specific solicitation plans in order to gather more support through gifts and donation.

The creation of a plan for each constituent code means increased donation from and volunteers from each code designed and properly managed according to the plan. Open Family Australia   should therefore, design the solicitation codes with consideration with the consideration of market segments and the type of gifts, volunteers and donors they target. To come up with the a clear planned giving market segment, the organization uses various market segment bases which considers the age, gender, frequency of donation among other foundations to be considered as in the table below.

Market segmentation bases

The above market can be used the Open Family Australia for the purposes of reaching many volunteers and donors. These four market segmentations when properly applied by the company, the company will avoid direct link with the stiff competition prevailing in the market. Segmentation by demographic assists enable the company to select the best group that can offer maximum donations (Malhotra 2008).  Demographic focuses on the identification of the best population. The company solicitation and efforts should therefore be concentrated on a larger population with the youths of the required age sets and gender. Behavioral segmentation deals with the market division based on the response and the reaction of the targeted group as indicated in the table above. This base of segmentation can help the organization to obtain maximum donation and get large number of volunteers.

Segmentation by geography assists with the identification of the potential geographical areas. Open Family Australia can use this kind of market segmentation to reach out to a large potential location in order to get volunteers who can help the company to achieve the desired projects. Psychographic segmentation is another segmentation base that can be exploited by the organization to market itself. This segmentation deals with the volunteers perception and trust towards the organization (Peng and Luo 2000). Open Family Australia can apply this base to avoid stiff competition currently present in the nonprofit making industry.

Market Targeting and Consumer Profile

Target market are the segments or the group of individuals Open Family Australia has decided to as the acquire gifts and donations from in order to achieve the goals and objectives. Identification of the target group depends on the types of segmentation discussed above. Market segmentations in the table above assists the organization to breakdown the identified market target into smaller manageable groups (Natter at.al 2008). The target market of Open Family Australia are the youths in various learning institutions and the working youths. The market segmentations therefore help Open Family Australia Company to customize the gift, donations and the degree of the individual’s willingness to volunteer and help with the charity work this organization is undertaking. Market target has enabled the company to focus on donors and volunteers who are willing to offer much to the projects of the company.

Open Family Australia uses online platform while creating the volunteers profiles. Profiles help the company to reach volunteers and enable volunteers to inquire more about the company. Profile enable volunteers to have information on the goals and objective of the organizations leading to clear channel for donation. Creation of volunteers profile requires a procedure to be followed. The system begins with the company creating extensively describe loyal volunteers as well as other potential donors and determination of their target group interest. After the first two steps, the company should give clear information concerning their locations and how they can be reached by the volunteers.  Open Family as created a website where all volunteers can create their profiles and get information concerning all the projects, goals and objectives of the company.                                        

Differentiation and Positioning

Open Family Australia as nonprofit organization dealing with the youths, providing support to the disadvantaged homeless youths in the streets. The company maker target as mentioned in section four above are the youths in learning institutions and working ( age 15years to 35 years old). With application of market segmentations the company can be considered to be strategically located in Victoria address code 3003 as indicated in section. Even though the position of the company is considered to be strategic after several relocations.  Positioning can also be considered in other way apart from the geographical perspective. Volunteers according to the reports of the company have indicated how volunteers perceive a product in relation to other competitive organizations. Open Family has a distinguishing image and offering that stands out from the competition in the minds of consumers.

The company in the recent past has been using a perceptual map plotting volunteers’   survey data on a perceptual map. .  Open Family Australia provide unique services to the youths and volunteers indicating the difference and positioning of the company (Nwankw 2000).  The company follow clear and easy channel of donation mostly done online as compared to other firms. The management of the firm utilizers varied management methods. The group targeted group is quite unique consisting of young individuals. A perceptual map is a two-dimensional graph that visually provide information on a company’s service and performance position.  It confirms the stand of an organizations performance compared to the competitors in the same industry.

Conclusion

The above discussion covers various concepts of the free system Open Family Australia Company is operating. The company overview provides information concerning the basic knowledge of the company starting how the company supports the disadvantaged in the streets. The company operates within a free system composed of macro environment containing forces such as, political, demographic, technology as well as natural and cultural forces. The macro environment on the other hand is made up forces that are within the company’s management and can be controlled.

The company operates in a competitive industry made of several government organizations. To cub the level of competition market segmentation as well as positioning and differentiation is an important factors to be considered as discussed above. The company should include the elderly in the society for extensive donation as many of the organizations do not concentrate on them. Development of a worldwide platform to enable the organization to receive volunteers and donors from all across the globe. The company should considered extension of the services and projects in order to acquire more gifts and funds from a broader community. The company should invest on the services of marketing managers for increased performance. 

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