Unit 19 Marketing Planning Assignment Solution

Introduction

This unit 19 marketing planning assignment solution will give the essence of a marketing plan which involves different dimensions which are necessary for the organisation to consider while formulating the plan. The marketing plan is being prepared for Samsung Galaxy S5 which is already established in the market. But the objective is to increase the market share of Samsung in UK and for that attracting the untapped market about 60% is necessary. The plan will consider the four phases which are goal settings, situation analysis, strategy formulation and resource allocation. Under these four phases the plan has been developed in this marketing planning assignment solution to grow the market share of Samsung in the UK market.

Task 2

Evaluate your chosen organization’s capability for planning its future marketing activity

Organisational capability is mainly focused on the internal resources and processes of an organisation for meeting the needs of the customers. The competencies of the organisation create a unique image which helps the organisation to achieve the competitive advantage. The capability of the organisation is also depend on the skills and the performances of the workforce that are aligned with the business objective.

In the context of Samsung, the organisational capacity can only be evaluated if we consider certain aspects that are follow below:

Tangible Resources	Human Resources	The management of Samsung believes the diversify culture and wants to inculcate in the working environment in the Samsung for attracting more market share. Leadership programmes are undertaken in Samsung to make the employees more efficient in giving their best performances. For development, Samsung organises a graduate programme for the emerging talents. The advantages will be the efficient employees in the team, high motivation to the employees for the development programmes but the disadvantage can be the high cost associated in the work process.
	Financial Resources	Financial resources of Samsung are one of the important aspects which are considered in the marketing process. Currently the operating profit is around 25, 025 billion KRW and cash flows from the investing activities is around 32, 806 billion KRW. Apart from that 36, 975 billion KRW has come from the operating activities. The rising tensions in the Middle East has affected the financial resources but they are been managed by the management effectively. Thus the revenue has triggered and it came around 206 trillion KRW. 15 trillion KRW is invested in the R & D in order to strengthen the innovation. From the financial resources we can observed that Samsung has a financial stability which can manage the marketing planning process for the coming years. But the instability in the smart phone market due to the changing needs and wants and also the high competition is increasing the operating cost. (Samsung, 2016).
	Physical resources	Physical resources are the net assets of the Samsung which is currently valued around 529.5 billion dollars which has increased from 470.2 billion dollars. The trend of the net assets at Samsung has increased which give a positive feedback for implementing the investment plans.
Intangible Resources	Patents	Patents are the intangible assets which are the rights exclusively own by the company based on the innovation. In case of Samsung the patents are major issues which bring certain legal proceedings between Samsung and Apple. In Britain Samsung has won the case in the High Court where the judge has mentioned that Samsung did not the copy the items and for that Apple have to release this thing in the media. The goodwill is there for the company Samsung
	Brands	Brand is the intangible form which distinguished the organisation from other in the ground of trademark, logo name etc. Samsung is a popular global brand which focuses on the superior quality and marketing initiatives for differentiate their products. The positive approach is the focus on the customer’s requirements which can create opportunities for Samsung.
	Customer Loyalty	Customer loyalty is only high when the organisations used to meet the requirements of the customers effectively. In Samsung market research is saying that it is high in UK with the comparison to other brand. The score is 35 which is much high than the benchmark of the industry that is 19. Thus there is a positive trend in the customer loyalty for Samsung and they need to maintain this score by enhancing the services effectively. (Matyszczyk, 2015).
	Customer database	Customer database is the information hub where the company can utilise it for maintaining a customer relationships for long term in order to acquire more profits. After analysing the needs Samsung has tied up with WIT agency for developing the database and marketing communications.
Core Competencies		Core competencies are interrelated with the competitive advantage.  It is the core competency that differentiates the product from one organisation. Samsung is operating in the highly competitive market where the innovations play a major role in order to attract the market. But there is a controversy that Samsung has imitated certain things of Apple which has increased the legal proceedings. But if we analyse it from the another side adopting the Android operating system Samsung has make a real footprint in the global market which distinguishes it from the Apple.
Competitive advantage		Competitive advantages are the core unique features of Samsung which distinguishes it from the other brands. Samsung has applied the market penetration strategy in the pricing which distinguishes it from Apple on the ground of market skimming which implies the high pricing. Samsung has a wide range of models for different segment starting from high to premium for attracting all the market. The wider reach and availability of Samsung with the service centres and retail stores Samsung can make their presence strongly in the market. The positive competitive advantage can help Samsung to attract more shares in the market. But it comes with the cost as it needs investments to maintain its competitive advantage. (Harrell, 2011)

Task 4

Your company is interested in growing their business by developing products and markets. As a result, they have asked you to examine techniques for new product development

New product development process required certain steps which are needed to be followed in the following way: (Kahn, 2012)

• Idea Generation: This is a first step where the ideas are being generated. The internal and the external sources are considered while generating the ideas. But in the market research it was found that ideas are mainly gathered from the internal sources which are the customers, suppliers, competitors, employees etc. In case of development of markets external sources plays a major role. Suppose considering the emerging market China due to the significant economic growth rate that is around 7.8%.
• Idea screening: All the ideas which are generated in the first step need to be considered which are important and have economic value. Several forms like market research, committees of the organisation. All the ideas are needed to be recorded in the checklist to measure the factors that are required to bring the ideas. 
• Concept Testing: The ideas are needed to be tested in the market to analyse the buying attitude of the customers. For instance Samsung has implemented certain new features in their model to check the responses of the customers based on the development. 
• Strategy Development: After verifying the responses marketing strategy are needed to e developed by selecting the target market and effective positioning in the mind of the customers with relevant differentiation. Analysis will be done by the top management by evaluating the merits and demerits. The possible measures to overcome the demerits are considered as part of the strategy
• Product Development: The product is prepared finally by the experts of the organisation. For instance in Samsung the R& D team will work on it and make the idea in to practical where huge investment is required
• Test Marketing: It is the step where some testing to the new product will be done in the market to gather the responses and for the research team will see the responses. 
• Commercialisation: When the testing of the product gets successful, commercialisation took place to make the products available in the market. 

It is the step of the new product development where each and every aspect for developing a product is considered. Starting from generating the idea till commercialisation each step is designed efficiently to make the product idea realistic and effective for the market. But other disadvantage like the economic factors or environmental factors is not considered while developing a product which is also equally important.

BCG matrix is a tool which can help the organisation to understand their current position based on the industry they are operating. BCG matrix consists of four dimensions which are needed to be identified. The following picture can help to understand this tool.

Question marks are the place when the new company has started their business or develop certain products which are new. The market growth rate is high but the market share of the company is low due to the introduction stage. Here the company has to incur a huge investment for attracting the market. Second are the Stars which denote the growth stage, where the market share of the company is high and also the industry growth rate. At this stage the company will maximise their profits. Third are the Cash Cows which signify the maturity stage where the share of the company is high but the market growth rate is low as most of the customers are aware of the product and its uses. In this stage they need to maximise the usage for making the industry growth rate high. Last is the Dogs which are the declining stage of a company where the market share of the company is low and also the industry growth rate is low due to the obsolesce. But the disadvantage can be the exclusion of the medium growth rate or share which the organisations have. In the BCG matrix only the high and low level can be traced which cannot give the real picture of the organisation.

Ansoff Matrix can help the organisation to formulate the growth strategy by considering the product and market both. It is a matrix which determines the four dimensions like product development, market penetration, market development and diversification. In case of product development strategy the company have to develop a new product for the existing market in order to attract more customers or to associate the people more on their brands. Market penetration strategy is less risky as the existing products are considered in the market in order to maximise the market share. Certain changes in the pricing policies to attract more customers can be done in this strategy. Market development can be considered where the existing products of a company can be offered to a new market like China for accelerating the growth. Last is the diversification which is the new business ideas of a company in order to make a diversified brand. The loss in one product line can be compensated to another product line but there is a chance that the brand can be diluted due to its diversified range. (Kotler, 2010).

Task 5

Choose a product or a service from your respective chosen organisation and write a detailed marketing plan for it.

The organisation is Samsung and the product is the Samsung Galaxy S5 model. Considering the product the marketing plan will be prepared consisting of four phases to achieve the desired target. (Payne, 2012)
Phase 1: Goal Setting

• Mission: The mission statement will be divided in three category which are:
  • Target client: Students, professionals
  • Contribution: The contribution for the value by Samsung on S5 will be the design that can prevent the phone from sweat, rain, dust. Savings in the battery will start automatically with the Ultra Power Savings mode, The high quality picture and camera will give a new feel to the users
  • Distinction: The availability, after sales service, wider applications are the unique features that will give maximum benefit to the users and that will distinguish S5 from other models.
• Corporate Objectives: The corporate objective will be to maximise the market share at the last quarter of the year 2016 by 3% to 5% from 32% which is now at present in UK. To achieve the objective we need to give preference to the customer’s convenience for selecting the product to consider their purchase. (Jain and Haley, 2010)

Phase 2 Situation Analysis

• Marketing Audit: marketing audit is the systematic way to determine the organisation’s business unit based on the business environment in details for improving the performance of the company. External and internal factors are the important consideration for the marketing audit which can be analysed by conducting the Pestle analysis and Porter’s five forces.

a)    PESTEL Analysis: External factors can be analysed in the following way by considering the PESTEL analysis 

Political	Political tensions, instability used to affect the organisation deeply. For instance the middle east is suffering from the political instability which is affecting the sales of the Samsung. The political environment is also not sound in the Latin America and the countries in Africa which are declining the sales and increasing the operating cost of Samsung. Apart from that in Europe, Britain has given their view to get separated from EU by forming the Brexit. For Samsung has to consider certain policies due to the political condition(Lehmann and Winer, 2012).
Economical	Economy of the country is one of the important considerations for calculating the growth of the product. For instance the GDP of the BRIC countries have created a significant market for Samsung to grow. China and India shows a favourable growth on this ground. But in UK currently the valuation of the pound has been declined due to the separation of the UK from the EU. The increase in VAT percentage up to 20% will also increase the operating cost of Samsung and for that pricing will be affected.
Social	Social factors are the buyer behaviour, attitude, readiness stage etc. The developing countries show a positive growth in the smart phone market which has given several opportunities for Samsung to target the developing segment with their several product lines. Currently in UK 42.4% of the people is using the smart phone and to reach the entire market effective promotion is necessary. (Cravens and Piercy, 2011)
Technology	Technology is interrelated with the products of Samsung as they are operating in the electronic segment. Constant innovation is required in order to stay in the highly competitive market. Overall 15 trillion KRW is allocated for investment in the R & D in order to strengthen the innovation
Environment	The environment laws or the practices to safeguard the environment are one of the important concerns. Strong laws and to have to sustainable future of the business environmental practices like the recycling of the waste, low carbon emissions are mainly followed.
Legal	Legal factors are the important considerations. For example strict laws are there in some of the countries which make it difficult for the company to operate like the barriers from the tariff or non-tariff. Apart from that maintaining healthy and safety at the workplace, data protect laws, equality laws which restricts the discrimination is needed to be followed in UK.

b)    Porter’s Five Forces: The five aspects of are as follows: (Perreault, 2010)

Power of Buyer	The bargaining power of the buyers for Samsung will be more due to the price sensitivity factors. As the competition is high in the smart phone market so the consumers have a high knowledge regarding the features or the value in respect to the price. The loyalty factor is high for Samsung which is around 35 that is much high than the benchmark of the industry that is 19. Customer satisfaction is the only strategy to influence the buyers.
Competitors	For Samsung it will be the Apple who is also catering in the same sector. The market share is much high for Apple that is around 46% in UK and for Samsung it is 32%. Sophistication and innovation is the key attribute of Apple to become the market leader. In this case Samsung have to target the untapped market that is about 50% who are not using the smart phone (Dibb and Simkin, 2008)
Suppliers	The suppliers will not be threat to the Samsung due to the high competition among the suppliers. They want to give superior quality with reasonable price to become the fixed suppliers for the smart phone manufactures.
Substitutes	However the threat from the substation will be not be effective for Samsung as the brand is having its diversified range in the electronic segments. So in this regard the technological developments will be considered to satisfy the customers
New Entrants	New entrants are new comers in the industry. For Samsung the market share is around 32% which is far away from the new brands. But still continuous development is necessary to maintain the goodwill and to reach the target.

c)    SWOT Analysis: The following table can help to identify the threats and weakness for taking certain measures. 

Strength Segmentation pricing help Samsung to gather more customers. Samsung is offering the products from lowest range to premium which can serve all levels of the customers. Samsung is dominating the table of the market share by having 21.4% globally Reach and availability is one of the strongest activities of Samsung which makes the product saleable in the market.(Fifield, 2011)

Weakness In the countries like US and UK, the shares of Samsung has fallen that makes Apple to take the leading position Chinese competitors are beating Samsung by giving more features in less price like Xiaomi, huawei etc. The legal cases between the Samsung and Apple due to the patent rights breached by Samsung by copying the design are also the indicators of the weakness due to inefficiency of the R & D team.

Opportunities The emerging markets are giving huge opportunities for the smart phone manufacturers like Samsung due to the significant economic growth Rapid advancement in the technology is also influencing the people to consider the smart phone. Increase in the use of the social media are also influencing the smart phone market

Threats The declining trend in the Samsung’s share in the US and UK market due to the high reputation of the brand Apple The operating system iOS is much popular than the Android system of the Samsung The growing rivals that are theChinese brands are also the threats to the Samsung

Phase Three: Strategy Formulation

• Marketing Objectives: The market share of Samsung is around 32% in UK and we have to increase the share by 3% to 5% with the model Samsung Galaxy S5 by placing the product effectively in the mind of the customers. For that we need to follow certain steps which will assist to formulate the strategy. 
• BCG Matrix: For Samsung Galaxy S5 model the BCG matrix will be in the following way:

The BCG matrix shows Samsung Galaxy in the Stars position where the market growth rate is high and also the market share is high. The model S5 has already launched thus it is the star position. The smart phone industry is growing rapidly and the competition is also high. Almost half of the population in UK has their smart phone. Thus Samsung has to incur a huge investment to remain profitable in the market. The stars will Cash cows when the industry will be saturated but at this moment the industry is growing at a faster rate. (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010).

Ansoff Matrix: As per the growth strategy is concerned, Samsung has to select Market Penetration Strategy for attracting the untapped market of UK by some modifications.     

	Existing Products	New Products
Existing Market	Market Penetration (Samsung Galaxy S5)	Product Development
New Markets	Market Development	Diversification

Market Penetration is the strategy that has to be followed by Samsung as the risk is less and it will utilise the existing resources of Samsung which will also saves the cost. Maintaining the market share and targeting more segments with unique positioning will help the model Galaxy S5 to cater the untapped market of UK. Pricing strategy and the promotional campaigns will need to be revised to make the sales high for the model S5.

• Segmentation: Segmentation will be done based on the characteristics of the buyers by forming the groups which are similar to their needs and wants. For Samsung S5 model segmentation by Demographic will be considered. Under the Demographic Segmentation age groups will be considered. For instance the age group from 16 to 21 will be given more importance as all of the people in this age group are the students and the smart phone by S5 will give the actual value that the students will required. (Cant  &Jooste, 2009)
• Targeting: Targeting is addressing the target audience or the end customers. For the model S% it will be the age group of 16 to 21 where maximum are the students. Already the model is established in the market but in order to tap more customers the news segment will be considered for the targeting. Thus differentiated targeting will be given priority. 
• Positioning: The positioning statement will be “To all the Students, Samsung Galaxy S5 will fulfil your dreams and requirement at a same time with a fair price”. The future positioning can be traced from the following positioning map where the price is reduced to support the positioning with maintaining the same quality level.

Marketing Mix: Marketing mix will be designed in a way that will serve the market effectively. Marketing mix consist of four P’s that are product, Price, Place and promotion. The planning will be done in the following way:

• Product: For Samsung the product is the smart phone and the model is Galaxy S5. The new segmentation of the product will give more customers from the untapped market. 
• Price: Pricing is the important element in the marketing mix which is responsible to fetch revenue from the customers. To formulate the strategy first we need to define the objectives of Pricing. The objective of Pricing will be Market Penetration where the price will be set at a reasonable level to attract more customers in the market for increasing the sales turnover and also the market share. Thus Samsung have to follow this strategy to increase the share and also it will help to target the untapped market. The basic objective is to make the sales high for the Samsung S5 as the model is already established in the market of UK but for penetration we need to follow this pricing strategy. The method for pricing that will be followed is the competitive based pricing. The rival for Samsung is Apple in the UK market and the pricing for Apple is premium based on that perspective the pricing will be set that will satisfy the untapped market and also the image of the brand Samsung.(Kotler, 2010).
• Place: Place is the distribution aspect. For Samsung the objective for place will be to increase the reach and availability of the model S5. The bug retailers or the super markets will get the product directly from the manufacturing site and for the small retailers we will select distributors based on the territories. Online availability will also be considered. The responsibility of the distributor will be to send the products to the small retail shops based on the designed territories. For example a distributor in South west London has to serve all the small retail shops in that area by sending them the products from the manufacturing hubs. The justification behind this is the convenience of the customers. Customers will get more options to buy the product Galaxy S5 where he/she finds its comfortable. Based on the convenience the distribution is desi8gned in all possible ways to increase the reach and the availability of Galaxy S5. 
• Promotion:The basic objective of Promotion is to aware the people about the product. In case of Samsung the objective will be to inform the people about the price change. The promotion mix will consider the elements like Advertisements, Sales promotion and Internet Marketing. The justification for considering certain mixes is due to the following reasons(Harrell, 2011)
  • Advertisements in the newspapers, televisions will be consideredto aware the untapped market. Majority of the people used to read newspaper or watch television. But the adoption rate of the smart phone in UK is nearly 45% and for that reason this element is considered for the untapped market.
  • Sales promotion for the retailers will be given to take major portion of their shelf space 
  • Lastly is the internet marketing where the target segments that are students are much conscious about the application of the internet which will help Samsung to give their promotions to attract the students surfing the internet. 

Phase Four: Resource Allocation and Monitoring

• The marketing team of UK will be given training to understand the recent development of the strategy. Hiring or recruiting will not be considered at this stage because the marketing plan does not claim any market development or product development. With the existing human resources, the new strategy for the market penetration will be considered. (Perreault, 2010)
• Sales quota and the sales turnover after three months of the strategy implementation can give the real picture of the market acceptance. After analysing the result the strategy can be changed to make the growth strategy more effective. 
• Performance Appraisal will be done to monitor the performance of the employees by collecting the feedbacks from the different corner of the organisation. The rankings will prove the efficiency level of the employees. 
• Activity Schedule

Selecting the Distributors	1 Month
Meeting of top management	2 days
Meeting with the Investors	5 days
Giving presentation to the Investors	2 days
Selecting the Marketing team	1 day
Delegation of the Duties	2 days
Performance Measurement	It will start after one month of the application of the new strategy
Market research	10 days
Presenting the Research to the top management and Investors	2 days
Formulating the Budget	2 days
Consulting with the Advertisement Agency	2 days
Checking the sales turnover	It will start after one month of the application of the new strategy

• Budget

Advertisement Agency	83757.48 pound for 2 months
Market Research	27919.16 pound for 1 month
Internet marketing	111.68 pound for 1 month

Task 06

You need to reflect on your group work in task02 and task 05, and assess your learning that you achieved in both. Also, state what contributions did you made to the group works

The learning that I have gathered while attempting the Task 2 and 5 are as follows:

• I have got to know that capability is the key influencing factor while formulating a growth strategy for the organization. If the capability is not sound for an organization then the growth strategy will be impossible to fix. 
• While formulating a marketing plan for the organization, the steps will give a direction to the organization for achieving the desired target. 
• Marketing plan consist of the steps which are interrelated with each other which I have found while preparing it. Suppose after targeting, positioning or placing the product is done and one cannot fix the price without positioning the product. 

My contribution: 

• I have done the secondary research for the Samsung for addressing the capability of the organization for adopting the new strategy
• I have prepared the outline of the marketing plan for Samsung S5 where I have categorized the plan into four phases to give a clear direction. 
• I have conducted the SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis and Porter’s Five forces for determining the internal and external resources. 

Task 9

As you are nearly at the end of your work placement, senior management would like you to explain why marketing planning is essential in the strategic planning process for an organisation

Marketing Planning is the process which gives a road map to the organisation about the steps that are necessary to be followed in order to achieve the target (Strydom, 2015). Based on the perspective of the marketing planning of Samsung S5, I would like to say that marketing planning has given a framework which will facilitate the organisation to achieve the business objectives of increasing the market share by 2% to 3% in UK. As the objective of the business is to increase the market share with the established model of S5 thus the marketing panning has given several ways like following the Ansoff matrix or re-designing the marketing mixes etc which can help the management to analyse the options given by the marketing planning. Apart from that marketing planning integrates the corporate or business objectives with the marketing objectives. For instance, corporate objective is to deliver satisfaction to the customers, business objectives are to increase the shares and marketing objectives is to plan the marketing strategies like following the competitive based pricing or dipper distribution strategy for increasing the reach and availability to achieve the desired goal of attracting the untapped market of smart phone in UK.

Conclusion

To conclude I can say that this report has helped me to understand the importance of preparing a marketing plan and the factors that influence the marketing plan like the barriers or the ethics. The different barriers are highlighted in thus report along with the business ethics and consumer’sethics which can influence the marketing plan to be successful. For preparing a marketing plan it is also necessary to understand the capabilities and capacities of an organisation must have to incorporate the changes in the work process.

References

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Dibb, S. and Simkin, L. (2008). Marketing planning. 1st ed. London: South-Western Cengage Learning.
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