Free «Marketing Plan» Essay Sample

Introduction

Every business needs a good marketing plan when developing the strategies to venture into a new environment. The marketing plan is essential in directing the business where it should go. A well-written marketing plan should have a sound strategic foundation (Luther, 2001 p.102). However, in many businesses the plan is simply a summary of objectives and strategies. This is not helpful to the business since it is just a good report, which is never applied in any area of the business. The business plan should be a practical document that is actively incorporated in the in the day-to-day management of the business. For this reason, most businesses apply the SOSTAC Model, which is a straightforward and systematically way of building a marketing plan.

The model analyzes practical issues of the business. The SOSTAC Model looks into the following practical aspects of the business. It looks at the Situation, this analyzes where the business is at currently. The Objectives, analyzes Where the business want to get to. The Strategy examines the basics of how the business can get to its goals. The Tactics analyzes the details of how the business will achieve its goals. The Actions specifies who is going to do what and when. Finally, Control puts forward ways of how the business can measure and develop the entire process (Goldratt, & Cox, 1992 p.301).

Fastrack Training Ltd is a company that specializes in training staff from various companies. The company has identified a new area that it can exploit and is planning to venture into this opportunity.  The company plans to offer students with training that meets the needs of the modern business environment. The company has developed a new product that it wants to market to various companies and organization. This new product is a series of modules designed to improve and develop the customer service skills of people working on “the shop floor” in retail outlets. The company will deliver the modules via the internet to the retail outlets of the companies or organizations. The delivery will be at their premises and each module will have a series of end of session practical tasks that have to be completed in the workplace, witnessed by the employers and written up by the student to be marked by Fastrack Training.

Appropriate strategies for the new product

Launch plan

 It is important for Fastrack Training Ltd to figure out how it will communicate the benefits of this new product to the targeted companies and organizations. This is the only way that will ensure that the new product becomes familiar to in the market. The first objective that is important to consider as the Fastrack Training Ltd launches this new product is that the launching should create awareness and enhance the loyalty of the target customers to the company. This is important for the continuity of the sales of the new product. If organizations believe that Fastrack Training Ltd trains students to standards that meet the needs of the modern business environment, they will remain loyal to the company. 

The second objective is to ensure that making the various organizations and companies aware of this new product is inline with its business goals. This is the only way that Fastrack Training Ltd will meet its goals. The company should use SMART methodology. In their planning, Fastrack Training Ltd should make Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound goals that will sure the company remains relevant to her customers. These calls for aligning the goals of the company with what the training modules should achieve. Since the company has analyzed and realized that its competitors are not preparing students with training that meets the needs of the modern business environment, it should utilize this opportunity give the market exactly what is lacking.

Thirdly, Fastrack Training Ltd should realize the importance of people in its launching strategy. The company should select the right people for the launching process. The right people mean that the selected persons should have the specific personality traits and experience to be able to deliver the training effectively. They should be able to give the appropriate leadership.  Apart from this, the selected people should be able to adjust based on the experience.

Personnel development

The other strategy that Fastrack Training Ltd will invest its resources in is the area of personnel development. Personnel development is an important aspect of any company that desires to continue growing and maintaining its customers (Liang, et al. 2009 p.258). It refers to all activities that add to knowledge, development of talents and potential of employees. It also involves enhancing human capital and quality of life.  The purpose of Personnel development is to achieve maximum utility of employees within an organization.

Fastrack Training Ltd will be involved in planning and implementation of specific training measures, but before this is done, the company should first begin with her employees. These training sessions will be aimed to promote professional development within the organization. The Personnel development programs have the potential of increasing job satisfaction. Job satisfaction leads better performances by the employees. Thus, Fastrack Training Ltd would put effort in understanding the attitudes and perceptions of employees to enables them perform better .

Education and training activities at Fastrack Training Ltd will be organized in close consultation with all stakeholders. These include the employees and the HR who administer the training. Fastrack Training Ltd will collaborate with other organizations that share the same interest and goals. It is extremely important for the company to keep its respectability along with not losing sight of what is important. It will develop a program with a team of training experts who move from one organization to another. The benefits are numerous in using this approach. The company will developing these training programs because they are cheaper if it works with others together and the training personnel are better equipped for their job.

Fastrack Training Ltd understands that it will be operating in an ever-changing environment in which not a single company can claim to be on stable ground. Therefore, the opportunities it has are endless. It will increase communication skills, Leadership skills and Interpersonal skills of its employees by allowing them to attend short seminars or classes that impart them with the same. Such courses enhance their skill variety. After acquiring such skills, employees’ are at a better position to train the clients in a more effective way (Bateman, & Snell, 2000 p.458). The company will also use its resources by providing counseling services to the employees.

Develop its brand name

The most important asset in the company is its brand name; “Fastrack Training Ltd”    The strategy that the group uses is to use the brand name to overcome barriers, which might have otherwise resisted its growth in the training field. Evolution of strategy is not a finite project. It is a continuous process, which requires systematic input of well thought ideas. Fastrack Training Ltd executes this by planning, constant improvement, prioritization and taking control of all its training programs. It streamlines its strategic execution approach. The company will built the “Quality” culture. It uses the ‘three pillar’ philosophy while training all clients.  “The heart of Fastrack Training Ltd core strategy to develop the three pillars of the business empire: Knowledge, quality and constant improvement.

The aim Fastrack Training Ltd will be to unite the efforts of its employees in order that it may achieve its specified objective. Therefore, it is a requirement that the diverse perspectives of its employees be converged so that the organization can achieve these goals. Fastrack Training Ltd will unite the capability, skills and talents of all her employees in a planned way in pursuit of the company’s interests. The management at Fastrack Training Ltd will not promote sameness and seek conformity in its operations. It will come up with new ideas and develops ways of implementing these ideas rapidly.   Efficiency in operations will be encouraged; this makes performance economical and leads to more revenue.

Marketing mix

Marketing mix consists of the four elements, which are price, product, place and promotion. An offer consisting of detailed marketing mix can be made to the potential customers by varying these mix elements (Mello, & Ruckes, 2001 p.526). The four P’s in the marketing mix are the parameters that can be controlled with reference to the internal and external limitations of the target market environment. The purpose of such decisions based on the four P’s on the customers in the target market is to create a positive response.

Pricing

Our pricing objectives strategy will be based on evaluation of how firms in the market set their prices. There is a standard price that colleges ask students to pay to train them in any field. Companies or organizations also pay a standard rate for their employees to receive further training. The assumption that will be made is that the firms were forced to set an average price after considering all factors in the market. Apart from this, there will be different prices for different customer types. For instance, a large firm with many employees may receive a discount depending on the number of employees to be trained. However, regardless of what other firms charge, it is recommended that the firm’s price should be positioned below premium price of competitors.

Marketing approach

Fastrack Training Ltd will have various marketing strategies but the main one will be the use of catalog. The catalog will provide an overview of the company’s new product (Cox, 1994 p.75). This is because the use of catalog is more efficient and effective compared to other methods. The company plans to publish catalogs in more than 10 different languages. Distribution of these catalogs ensures that they reach various companies and organizations that may require employee training. This strategy will make the company very popular.  Mass distribution of the catalogs to organizations enables the Fastrack Training Ltd to reach many customers. Fastrack Training Ltd marketing philosophy revolves around simple ideas like quality training opportunities, low price of the product and relevance of the product to the target market.

Marketing Strategies and Planning

Fastrack Training Ltd has a simple marketing strategy. The idea is to provide relevant training opportunity at reduced prices. This enables many companies to afford this new product thus increasing the annual revenue of the company. By building, the “Fastrack Training Ltd” name, many companies whose employees will benefit will remain attached to it. Customers therefore associate the name of the company with success.

Marketing Channel

Fastrack Training Ltd uses various channels to reach their many customers. As explained the best channel is the use of catalogs, followed by websites, brochures and advertisement. Other methods employed include promotions, and marketing. Fastrack Training Ltd will apply various ways to ensure that the new product reach the customers. These include integrated advertising and marketing campaign and global interactive marketing service.

Types of control mechanisms

Fastrack Training Ltd will apply four major control mechanisms to ensure success of its operations. These include revenue, number of employees, loyalty and its share in the target market. All these are important aspects of checking whether the business is successful. Each one of them has different impact on the performance of the company. The revenue that Fastrack Training Ltd receives will be an indicator of its success or failure. If the company will be able to attract, as many customers as planned, then it will reach achieve the targeted revenue. It is important that the company achieve this because the aim of all businesses is to make profit (Paulson, 2010 p.357).

The number of employees is also a good parameter of determining the success of a company. If a company such as Fastrack Training Ltd, which specializes in training of employees in other companies, has many employees, then it means that it has many clients. This is good sign because many clients are a sign of success in any business.  Loyalty is an important indicator of satisfied customers. If customers benefit from Fastrack Training Ltd they will trust in its training programs hence become loyal to the company.

If Fastrack Training Ltd will have a good number of loyal clients who return with more employees to be trained, then it will mean that Fastrack Training Ltd is successful. The percentage of the target market that Fastrack Training Ltd will have will be a clear indicator of success or failure. For illustration, if Fastrack Training Ltd has 60% of the entire target market while the other 40% belongs to the competitors, then it means that the company is successful. These indicators will prove whether Fastrack Training Ltd successful or not.