Marketing campaign for a small retail business Essay Example

Marketing campaign for a small retail business Essay In this project I am going to produce a marketing campaign for a small retail business. The business, which I am going to make, will have competitors in the local area. Before I am going to open my business, I will have to decide on a few main things. E.g. which products I am going to sell, the prices at which the products are going to be sold, where my business is going to be located and how I am going to promote my shop and the products. For my marketing Campaign Plan, I am going to develop a small supermarket, which will be called Shoprite. I want to keep the supermarket as small as possible and the products at the best standard. The supermarket will sell essential household products and I also We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing campaign for a small retail business specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing campaign for a small retail business specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing campaign for a small retail business specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Would like to stock a selection of sweets/crisps newspapers and magazines, ice creams, fruit and vegetables, cards, yoghurt, cigarettes etc. Shoprite will not be located in central Seaford but on the outskirts of town, mainly in residential areas. The reason for this is that it will save people from driving into town for their necessities. Shoprites competitors will be: 1. Costcutters 2. CO-OP 3. Scoop n weigh 4. Green Grocers Before I decide on the products, which my supermarket will be selling etc. I am first going to draw up a research plan as; it is going to help me with the information that I will need. The data that I will collect, I am going to gather by handing out questionnaires to people aged 10 years and older. The questionnaire will ask questions like; What is your age, sex, what product do you mostly buy, how much do you pay for it, where do you buy your weekly shopping from etc. I am going to do market research by, handing out questionnaires, from the Internet and magazines and by looking at competitors prices. BUSINESS OBJECTIVES In this task I am going to look at the businesses overall aims and objectives. First of all I am going to explain the difference between an aim and an objective. An aim is the overall goal of a business or the main thing the business wants to achieve in the long term. An objective is what a business must do in that term to achieve its aims. For example, it may have the objective of cutting its costs by 5% in order to achieve its aim of surviving a difficult patch. There are five basic aims businesses could follow. For each of the five aims listed below, I am going give two objectives. AIMS OBJECTIVES Survival Match competitors on price and quality, Break even. Growth Increase product range, Increase the number of employees. Maximising Profit Carry out market research, Carry out advertising to maximise sales. Social Responsibility Sponsor an organisation in the local community, Provide a safe and constant service. Prestige Carry out advertising to maximise sales, Improve quality of customer service. In my case, I am only going to use two of the aims that are listed above. The reasons why are as follows: * Survival To me this aim is extremely important. The aim is to make a profit; therefore it is not satisfactory to break-even in the long run. I am going to achieve this aim by staying open later than all my competitors do. * Prestige I am going to try and keep the products that are going to be sold to a better quality/standard than my competitors. For my secondary research, I am going to carry out a questionnaire. MARKETING RESEARCH PLAN The definition of Market Research is, the process of gaining information about customers, competitors and market trends through collecting Primary or Secondary data. In this task, I am going to carry out a marketing research plan to find out; * What customers want * What my competitors are doing * How successful marketing plans have been. Primary Data is information, which has been gathered for a specific purpose through direct investigations such as observations, surveys and through experiment. Secondary Data is information, which already exists such as, accounts and sales records, government statistics, newspaper articles or reports from advertising agencies. There are two well-known market research methods namely: 1. Desk Research (Secondary Research) This research uses existing sources of Information to research the market. E.g. * Company sales reports * Government statistics * Trade Association Publications * Market Research carried out in the past Advantages: * It is less expensive * Quicker to carry out because the information is already available. 2. Field Research (Primary Research) This is research, which involves obtaining new information about the market by asking people. The main methods of collecting Primary Data include: * Questionnaire A list of questions are to be answered by respondents and it is designed to give information about consumers and their tastes. * Test marketing Is a limited introduction of a product or service to test public reaction for a full market strategy. Giving the public a small sample of what is to be offered is a form of test marketing. * Consumer Panels This type of research is quite expensive as, an interviewer has to be employed to interview customers. Advantages: * The information is more accurate Disadvantages: * It costs more money * It takes more time to collect the information than with Desk Research To find out what potential customers want, I am going to draw up a Questionnaire because I feel that it is an easy way to collect data and it is accurate. Below is an example of what my questionnaire is going to look like. QUESTIONNAIRE 1. Which age group do you fall in? (Please tick one box) 10 20 21 30 31-40 41+ 2. Which of the following products do you mostly buy? (Please tick one box) Quick meals newspapers and magazines sweets ice cream 3. How much do you think is a reasonable price to ask for that specific product? (Please state answer) 4. Where do you buy your bread, milk and other house necessities? (Please tick one box) Safeway Sainsburys Somerfield Asda Tesco (Please tick one box) 5. What attracts you to that particular shop? (Please tick one box) Variety of products quality products friendly service 6. Which local newspapers do you read? (Please tick one box) The leader Friday-ad Harold Argus Seaford Cazette 7. Where do you usually find out about new shops? (Please tick one box) Newspapers Internet Magazines Shop windows People Thank you very much for taking the time in answering my questionnaire. Before I am going to let people fill in my questionnaires, I first chose a sample that would work best. In my case I am going to use: * Convenience sampling chooses the individuals that are easiest to reach or sampling that is done easy. Convenience sampling does not represent the entire population. * Stratified sampling a sample obtained by the process of dividing a population into categories representing distinctive characteristics and then selecting a random sample from each category. After I have collected the data, I analysed the outcome on graphs. MARKETING CAMPAIGN OBEJECTIVES I am first of all going to explain what Marketing Objectives are and then I am going to explain the likely Marketing Objectives of my Marketing Campaign Plan I am going to give the definition for each of the following words: Marketing, Marketing Objectives and the Marketing Mix. Marketing: The management process which is responsible for identifying Potentially profitable products and then selling them to customers. Marketing Objectives: Before embarking on any marketing activity, the marketing department must decide on their aims and objectives. An objective is how an aim could be achieved. Marketing Mix: The Marketing Mix is the term used to describe the various Marketing activities of a firm. These are referred to as the 4 Ps. The 4 Ps stand for: * Product goods made or services provided by businesses. * Price A price where the demand for a product equals its supply. * Promotion communication between business and customer, making the customer aware that the product is for sale, telling or explaining to them what the product is. * Place Where a business is situated. e.g. Safeway is situated in the residential area. There are four marketing Objectives that I am going to use for my marketing campaign. * Advertising: To create goodwill in a competitive and changing environment. * Sales Promotion: To maintain/improve levels of sales in a short term. * Promotion: To minimise the bad effects that a change might have on the market. * Market Research: To change existing or develop new products/services to meet customers needs. PRODUCTS I am going to outline the products/services that my business will be offering and then explain how I will differentiate my products/services from my competitors. Shoprite is not going to be anything grand and smart, it is just going to be a plan and simple supermarket, as it isnt going to have a huge selection of different brands (an named product which customers see as being different from other products) and products. All Shoprite will be mainly selling is household necessities, a few newspapers and a small selection of sweets. There is only one way in which I can think of making Shoprite any different from the competitors and that is that: * Shoprite is going to be located on the outskirts of Seaford (in residential areas) so that people can buy their house necessities e.g. bread and milk. Product differentiation means: Making one product different from another, for instance through the quality of a product, its design, packaging or advertising. There is no doubt that Shoprite will have good quality products because I will never be able to get it over my heart if I knew that I ripped off my own customers! PRICE In this task I am going to explain: The factors that affect the choice of pricing strategy, the different pricing strategies available to businesses and which pricing strategies my business will use and why. A business must decide on how they are going to price its products, in making this decision it must consider: * What profit it wants to make. * What your competition is charging for their products * What your customers are prepared to pay for your products. There are several pricing strategies, which are available to businesses: * Cost-plus fixing a price by adding a certain percentage profit margin to the cost of a product. * Penetration setting a low price initially to attract more customers. * Skimming selling a low product or service at a deliberately high price, this is for high quality/unique goods. * Competition a price based on what your competitors are charging. * Price discrimination selling the same product or services for different prices to different segments of the market. * Non-prices competition strategies other than prices which are used to attract customers. For my business to have a good start, I need to think about what pricing strategy Shoprite will use. I thought by starting off, it would be good if my first strategy is competition as I feel that it would be good if I start off by asking the prices which my competitors ask for their products. PLACE This task is about: * The location of my business. * The transport, which my business is going to use. Shoprite is going to be a small supermarket so it will be located on the outskirts of Seaford (preferably in the valley dip area) because I reckon that people would rather quickly buy there house necessities at a shop which is near their home than drive down town. Channels of distribution For a product to sell, it has to be at the right place, at the right time. There is a channel of distribution between the customer and the manufacturer of a product. The channel of distribution that Shoprite will be using is: * Through wholesalers because Shoprite is a small shop and cant buy directly from the manufacturer because my orders are to small so, I will be buying my products through wholesalers. There are a variety of different types of transport that are available. * Road: It is quite expensive and more flexible than any other form of transport. * Rail: Goods, which are carried in bulk for long distances are more, suited for rail transport. * Air: It tends to be used to transport items that require fast delivery or which are highly perishable. * Sea: There are many forms of sea transport which includes: Cargo liners, tankers and container ships. Although it is slow compared to other forms of transport, ships can move bulky items and is more cost effective. Two other methods of transport that arent very popular are Canals and Pipelines. Shoprite will use road transport it is the only type of transport that I will need and it is very flexible and I wouldnt need to move a lot of bulky items. PROMOTION This task is about promotion techniques and the ways to help raise awareness of business products or services and encourage consumers to buy them. There are a few definitions of promotion: * Communication or the main aim between a business and customer. * Making the customer aware that the product is for sale. * Tell or explain to the customers what the product is or how it works. * To make the customers aware of how the product will serve the customers needs. * To persuade the customers to buy the products for the first time or again. Shoprite will use the promotion techniques that are listed below: * Public Relations it is free advertising. Press releases are sent to for example newspapers and magazines to announce new products or company activities that may help to promote a company and its products. * Advertising it is a form of non-personal communication with customers. An advertising message may be informative (provide customers with information) or persuasive (influence or persuade customers) advertising.