Running Head: MARKETING PORTFOLIO
MARKETING PORTFOLIO
Marketing Portfolio
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Table of Contents
1. Market Research and Use in Marketing Plan 2
2. Comparison and Competition of Products 4
3. PESTL Analysis of Starbucks 6
4. SWOT Analysis and Use in Marketing Plan 8
5. STP Analysis 10
6. Product Failure and Success Analysis 12
References 14
1. Market Research and Use in Marketing Plan
Market research is a loose term that refers to the process of analysis of the market of an industry or business with the goal of understanding the latest trends to work in a direction of business expansion. With market research, companies try to employ various tools to study the different aspects of the market or their own client base. This helps the representatives of the company to understand their clients better and to make changes in their business strategies that will lead to an addition of new clients to their system while maintaining a harmonious relationship with the existing ones.
Market research focuses at all the aspects of a business- inbound logistics, production, promotion, outbound logistics, consumer base, availability of products and devices plans for the possible effective expansion that can reflect as profits and an expanded client group for the company, if employed properly.
Market research is important for all industries alike and an accurate market research can prove to be the basic groundwork for a long-term good business. These tourists have a direct reflection on the annual revenue and GDP of the country because tourism is the sixth largest source of foreign currency in Egypt, generating revenue of about USD 2.6 billion (Ghanem, Mansour & Adel, 2017).
But this industry started facing a downfall and was on its lowest in 2016 with only about 4 million people visiting the country as tourists from the month of January till November. This alarmed the authorities and they ordered to perform a market research to improve the state of tourism in Egypt. The research focused on the facilities provided to foreign tourists during their visit. After the research was done and its conclusions implied, the number of tourists visiting Egyptian 2017 rose to registered 7.5 million, which marked an increase of 54.7%.
Figure 1: Egypt Tourists Arrival during the Period of Jan 2017 to Oct 2017
(Source: Ghanem, Mansour & Adel, 2017)
2. Comparison and Competition of Products
Marketing does not only mean generating maximum possible revenue and earning maximum profit. It is rather a game where everyone is trying to be better than their rivals. These business rivalries can sometimes motivate companies to take drastic actions. If these steps become a success, then this can be highly beneficial. But it has been seen in some cases that companies don’t always get what they aim for.
The world is aware of the business rivalry between Pepsi Co. and Coca Cola Ltd. As a result, they have launched many products in the market that compete directly with each other (Ling, 2017). In the category of sports energy drinks, Gatorade and Powerade are the products of PepsiCo and Coca Cola Ltd., respectively.
As lead competitors, these products share a market of professional athletes or of teenagers who are in the direction of pursuing athletics or have an active lifestyle generally. A close look at the marketing strategy of both the companies revealed that while Gatorade considers the athletes between the age group of 13-25 as their target audience, Powerade is determinant towards making a sports energy drink that is affordable for all professional athletes (Turner, Shah & Jain, 2018). As of now, Gatorade has a global retail market and claims about 75% share in the market of sports energy drinks. Powerade, however, is currently claiming a share of about 21.7% in the market and is an official sports drink partner for big events like FIFA, US Olympics team, The Football League and many more.
Figure 2: Market Share of Gatorade and Powerade
(Source: Turner, Shah & Jain, 2018)
3. PESTL Analysis of Starbucks
PESTLE aims at analyzing the external or macro factors affecting a particular business based on studying the specific conditions available for that business (Real &Percell, 2018). Here, a PESTL analysis has been done for Starbucks with respect to their latest expansion policies.
Political
A number of political situations should be considered in case of Starbucks. The raw material for them is imported from countries that are facing internal agitation and revolts. This has attracted the concern of many Western theorists also. As a result, Starbucks is trying to be as concerned as possible with their raw material supply in terms of political environment.
Economic
Starbucks is continually expanding to developing countries but the quality factor that they maintain leads to a direct increase in the cost of their products. This is posing a threat to their market as there are many cheaper alternatives available that are serving customers for a much longer time.
Socio-cultural
The changing work and family patterns in the countries where Starbucks is expanding is rapidly changing, leading to a drastic shift in the spending patterns. However, as they are trying to expand to countries with lower GDP, it is very important for them to reduce prices while maintaining the quality.
Technological
The changing work and family patterns in the countries where Starbucks is expanding is rapidly changing, leading to a drastic shift in the spending patterns. However, as they are trying to expand to countries with lower GDP, it is very important for them to reduce prices while maintaining the quality.
Legal
Starbucks face major legal challenges due to the political conditions of the countries that they are getting their raw material from. Apart from this, legal authorities are keeping a hawk’s eye on the caffeine content of their products all over the world.
Table 1: PESTL Analysis of Starbuck
(Source: Real & Percell, 2018)
Figure 3: Monthly Analysis of Starbuck
(Source: Real & Percell, 2018)
4. SWOT Analysis and Use in Marketing Plan
SWOT refers to Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This analysis is designed for both small and large-scale businesses to understand and analyze their value in the market and to improve their business. Here is a SWOT analysis of Ford (Maxcy &Silberston, 2017).
Strengths
Ford is one of the most popular automobile manufacturers who are preferred by customers for their tough and sturdy designs. This reputation has emerged as the biggest strength of Ford as well and is going to attract loyalty of customers for them for times to come (Bharadwaj, 2018).
Weaknesses
Ford is the second most popular automobile manufacturer in America but they also enjoy customer base from all over the world. In order to maintain this, Ford has been inviting customers to fix technical glitches in their products which cost them a lot of money.
Opportunities
The constantly improving economy of the developing nations has opened a large area of opportunities for Ford. With more and more people being able to afford their products, Ford has started making vehicles for the customized needs of the consumers from these countries.
Threats
The biggest threats to Ford come from the Chinese automobile manufacturers. With their cheap prices and better reach in the Asian market, they are expanding their customer base rapidly which is a direct threat to Ford.
Table 2: SWOT Analysis of Ford
(Source: Maxcy & Silberston, 2017)
Figure 4: Sales Figures of Ford
(Source: Maxcy &Silberston, 2017)
5. STP Analysis
STP is a detailed consumer centric analysis tool available for businesses to understand their customers and their needs and provide the best possible product or service accordingly. Pond’s is a brand of cosmetics owned by Unilever; a US based company (Jones, 2017).The STP analysis of Pond’s has given the given conclusions
Segmentation- Segmentation refers to the imaginary division of customers of a company on the basis of their needs and capacities. Ponds here enjoy an upper hand with respect to many other rival companies. With a huge and expanding global market, Ponds has divided its customer base into categories that are as detailed as they can be according to their needs and spending capabilities. As a result of this division, they have been able to build a brand value for themselves in not only developed countries but also in many developing countries of Asia by giving them affordable and needed cosmetic alternatives.
Targeting- For achieving the aim of becoming a global brand, Ponds has targeted almost all economic groups that can prove to be potential customers. To establish a market across the world, they have targeted and dealt with people of different economic conditions differently. This has been achieved by them by creating a dedicated line of products that caters to these specific groups and making these products available at the prices that they can afford. They have further experimented with their packaging process to make sure that all their products look like the best in their specific categories, irrespective of their cost.
Positioning- Positioning can be explained as the way in which a particular brand places themselves in the market as the best choice for their customers. This has been achieved by Ponds with their brilliant advertising campaigns. They have employed almost all sources of advertising- banners, promotions, offer, gifts etc. not only in the physical world but also online. Apart from this, the online distribution process has surely helped them improve their market.
Figure 5: Sales Figures of Ponds
(Source: Jones, 2017)
6. Product Failure and Success Analysis
Every brand launches a new product with customer satisfaction and maximum profits in their mind. However, sometimes the products do not meet the expectations of the customers and end up being a failure. It is noted that there are a number of factors that will determine if consumers accept a product as beneficial or otherwise.
Apple, for example, has seen the best and worst in the market. Their most popular product is iPhone. Even though the world is divided in its opinion if Apple phones are a good investment or not, people still flock to markets whenever a new iPhone is launched because of the brand value they have maintained over years (Nagle & Müller, 2017).
However, launching a bad or low-quality product has affected the market of Apple in the past. With the launch of iPhone 7, Apple began to be questioned by customers and experts alike. The phone claimed to be much more advanced than all of its successors. Moreover, it was well promoted to ensure sales. However, when the phone was launched, many people found it to be a bad one because of the basic failures of engineering that made even the most basic functions on the phone like making a call, a task that needed huge efforts.
This damaged the overall branding of Apple and raised doubts in the minds of the consumers about the quality of the brand. However, the representatives apologized and promised the user’s better options in future, this setback to their market value caused more harm to them than they could imagine. Apple has launched the 10th generation of iPhone in the market which has been appreciated by critics. But the suspicion of the customers for the quality has been fueled by many other cheaper alternatives in the market to question their worth for a long time to come.
Figure 6: Iphone Units Sold
(Source: Nagle & Müller, 2017)
References
Bharadwaj, A. (2018). Evolution of the Global Automobile Industry. In Environmental Regulations and Innovation in Advanced Automobile Technologies (pp. 1-9). Springer, Singapore.
Ghanem, M. M., Mansour, S. O., & Adel, H. (2017). The impact of national culture on the adoption of e-tourism in Egyptian tourism companies. Turizam: međunarodniznanstveno-stručničasopis, 65(2), 234-246.
Jones, G. G. (2017). International Business and Emerging Markets: A Long-Run Perspective.
Ling, X. (2017). Customer Relationship Management: Case study Coca-Cola Company.
Maxcy, G., &Silberston, A. (2017). The motor industry. Routledge.
Nagle, T. T., & Müller, G. (2017). The strategy and tactics of pricing: A guide to growing more profitably. Routledge.
Real, K., &Percell, H. (2018). Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility Report.
Turner, J., Shah, R., & Jain, V. (2018). How brands are using nonlinear marketing to address consumer resistance to traditional marketing strategies. Journal of Brand Strategy, 6(4), 397-408.
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