Vineyard Marketing Plan

Explain the components of the marketing planning process and outline the marketing context for the vineyard offer, with particular reference to the role/importance of adopting a marketing orientation and its application to the business. (15 marks)

A complete marketing plan consists of seven components of marketing planning that are essential in the preparation. The first component is market research. Market research is said to be the backbone of the plan. The study is likely to start at the local area of the one planning. During the process of research, one is required to identify the buying habits of the customers in the area that the business is to be set at, the size of the market, the decline or the growth of the market as well as the current trends associated with the market. The second component to be included in the marketing plan is the target market. The target market should entail a description that is well designed (Mcdonald,2007 pg 98). An explanation that is well-intended plays a role in identifying those who are likely to be your customers or even buyers. The target market should include at least two or even three segmentation level discussed. It is believed that foreign-born employees and even the students are likely to be trapped by the language that is can affect business. The third component of the marketing plan that is essential is the positioning. Positioning enables you to outline the perception which you require your brand to create in the marketplace. The ability of the target market to view your brand in a different or even unique form is your positioning. Therefore, your brandings should communicate the way you want to be considered by your customers as well as the competitors. The fourth component of marketing planning is the competitive analysis. In the competitive analysis, one should be able to recognize their competitors in their field. You should be able to have an idea of the type of the product and services, their pricing and the segment of the market they are working towards attaining (Blythe & Megicks,2010 pg. 103). Knowing the crucial details about your competitor’s business will help you set your business in a way that you will stand out from them and even outsmart them. The fifth component in the marketing planning process is the market strategy. In the market strategy, one should be able to ask themselves the procedures they will apply while trying to attract their likely customers. The sixth component in the marketing process plan is budget. When it comes to the budget, one should be able to schedule the amount that is likely to be spent on the business in a month. In the budget, there should be the inclusion of the red-light decision point. Also, every activity carried out; there should be a metric that will enable to make you decide to stop in case the operation is not generating the right return on investment (ROI). Finally, the marketing planning should include the metrics. Metrics will enable to Trak the success of their businesses so that there will be a chance to compare the business budget with the return on investment.

b) Carry out an environmental audit in the form of a PESTEL analysis for the business ensuring that you detail specific market / organizationally related facts that are fully referenced where possible. Additionally, you should highlight relevant micro-environmental aspects such as dominant competitors within the industry and recent competitor activity. (15 marks)

PESTEL analysis mostly known as the pest analysis refers to the tools that the marketer’s use when it comes to monitoring and even analyses the external marketing environment also known as the macro-environmental factors that impact the organization. PESTEL is an acronym for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and legal analysis. The political factor analyses the degree at which the government is allowed to intervene in an organization’s economy. It includes political stability, government policy, political instability in the markets that are overseas, tax policy, foreign trade policy, environmental law, and labor law among the others. The political factor analysis, therefore, displays a significant impact on how the company carries out its business activities (Marmol, Feys & Probert,2015 pg.303). The business on the other side is required to be able to give feedback to the current and the anticipated future legislation. They should also be able to adjust policy of marketing in their organization. The economic factor on the other hand analyses on how the organization carries out the businesses and the rate of profits that they end up generating. The economic factors include the interest rate, economic growth, exchange rates, customers and businesses disposable income and inflation among others. The economic factors listed above are further divided into two. These include the macroeconomic factors which pay attention to the demands in the mentioned economy. There is also the micro-economical factor that pays more attention greatly on how people spend their wages and income.

The social factor (socio-cultural factors) on the other hand analyses on the population’s or customer’s attitude and shared belief towards the business. Career attitude, health consciousness, population distribution and age growth are among the examples of social factors. The factors have a direct effect on the understanding and what drives the customers. Also, there is the technological factor analysis. The technical elements pay attention to the new ways of; manufacturing goods and services, distributing the made products and services as well as how to be able to communicate with the big markets. The environmental factor analyses the causes of the effects such as those of increase in the scarcity of raw material among other challenges that may affect the business area. Finally, there is the legal factors analysis (Marmol, Feys, & Probert,2015 pg.88). The statutory factors analyze the sets of regulations and that the business needs to adhere to. These include the report of the consumer’s laws and rights, as well as the labeling and safety of the products among others.

c)Outline* the extended marketing mix 7Ps and explain how the development of the extended marketing mix could contribute to effective marketing planning for the new product. * a fully detailed marketing mix analysis is NOT required here – that is needed in Section 3 here you are explaining the importance of building a coordinated and robust marketing mix. (10 marks) (40 scores)

The extended marketing mix consists of a combination of individual elements which are applied in the business environment for specific buyer’s expectations. The 7p’s extended mix comprises of the following; products which refer to the goods or services purchased by the buyers. The price which refers to the amount that the buyer pays to buy the goods or to receive the services. The place which relates to the means at which the product or the service will get the customer. The promotion which involved finding and persuading the buyer to purchase the product on sale (Infinite Ideas (FIRM)2012 pg55). The people who are likely to be in contact with the buyers in the trading process primarily on the delivery activities. The process which outlines the procedures as well as the systems which deliver the product to the customer. Finally, there is the physical. Physical refers to the physical environmental elements experienced by the customer.

Section 2 – Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning (LO: 3) (900 words max)

a)Explain how the overall market could / should be segmented for ONE of the following: - Tourists coming to the UK looking to book a vineyard tour

Market segmentation refers to the process dividing the market into different segments and groups based on different characteristics. When segmenting the vineyard, they should put into consideration all the four types of segmentation. First, there should put into consideration the geographical segmentation. Whereby, they should be able to learn the requirements of their customers because it is believed that people from different regions may have reasons for using some products. The second type of segmentation is the demographic segmentation. Demographic segmentation pays more attention to features such as the marital status, gender, family size and even age of the buyer among others. The owners of the vineyard should, therefore, consider the demographic segmentation to offer the best part of the vineyard for booking. There is also the behavioral segmentation (Richter, 2012 pg. 119). In this type of segmentation, the decision making and choices of the audience, preferences, behaviors, and usage of the customers. This segment divides the product based on the usage and knowledge of the product. In this type of segment, customers are viewed as the brand-neutral, brand loyal or as the competitor is loyal. Finally, there is the psychographic segmentation that segments the buyers based on their attitude, lifestyle as well as personality. Lifestyle and personality are seen to be of effect while the buyer is making a decision.

b)Identify your B2C target market as to who you would primarily target with the tour regarding characteristics including demographics, behavioral, benefits sought and lifestyle. (10 marks)

Business to customer marketing refers to the practices involved in an organization to promote their products and services to their buyers. Technology has overtaken the channels that market to a customer may tend to apply in their campaigns. It, however, targets the customers all over the digital channels.

In most cases, the businesses channels are likely to differ due to the customer’s unique demographic segment. As a result, most of the consumers tend to rely on the internet to attain the right product. The owners of the vineyard should pay more attention in the demographic type of segmentation. The business to customer marketing has been profoundly influenced by the website (Sreedharan, 2015 pg. 138). The B2C has in a way increased the process taken by the customers during the shopping period given that quite a percentage of consumers usually place their purchases on the websites after the viewing the same product but in different sites. The marketers that sell their products and services through business to customer form of marketing have ended up attracting their customers mainly based on the blogs written and also the gigs used I the advertisement process.

c)Explain what is meant by the term ‘positioning’ and suggest how the vineyard tour would be positioned in the consumer market. (10 marks)

Positioning is used in marketing to outline the activities that the business should get involved with to market and sell its products or even the services to its buyers. Most of the departments in the marketing areas tend to work on the creation of images, blogs or even gigs on the products or services intended to be sold. They use the aspects of the 7p’s while creating the images of the products. The aspects used are the Price, Promotion, Product and the Place. Positioning should be precise and easy to understand so that the buyer becomes even more interested in the product and plans on purchasing it. Before placing a positioning, the one intending to set the positioning should have a thorough knowledge of the product or even the service on the sale and should also have an idea of the target market (Mishra, 2017 pg. 188). They should then outline a good gig for their product., something different from the one offered by their competitors so as a attain a good market. Positioning can also be placed in advertisements because this is the first ever place that the businesses are likely to position themselves. Through ads, it gets to be viewed by a large audience. Positioning can also be carried out in sales locations and even though the price because the customers mostly tend to compare the price with the quality of the product to be purchased or the service to be received.

Section 3 – Marketing Mix Analysis

Using the table format below provide ‘creative’ details of the extended (7Ps) marketing mix for the vineyard demonstrating original thought in your proposal, whilst explicitly considering the environmental factors identified in Section 1 in order to justify your approach.

Hills vineyard

Product

In today’s business, the advantages of sustainable business are highly required for the company to survive globally. With the lack of sustainable business environment advantages, the organization is not likely to recover in case of any instabilities. There are different types of sustainable competitive environment.

First, there is the low-cost provider also known as low pricing the organization keeps their sales on low pricing to outsmart their competitors. The second type of sustainable competitive advantage is pricing or marketing or pricing power where a company the organization can increase their pricing costs without losing the shares of its market. There is also the powerful brand whereby, the organization can decide to take a large number of investments in time as well as time, but the same company can be destroyed easily. Strategic assets is also a form of sustainable competitive advantage environment, and it is likely to be owned by the organization’s research are excellent and developed. Another sustainable competitive advantage is the barriers to entries, the company adapting to the product line, the act of product differentiation, a company owning a balance sheet that is strong and the presence of management team that is outstanding.

Place

There are many ways in which the organization can set their distributions in to sustain their customers. The means occurred by the business is mostly as a result of the type of the business activity carried out. For an instant, those running businesses of the e-commerce are likely to carry out most of their actions on the sites such as Amazon. from which, their customers get to view the company and even get to purchase them online.

The technique implied above enables the business to save its intended customers because the rate at which they purchase the items at is much faster also, during delivery, the goods arrive at a good condition. Other stores imply the technique of the buyers walking into the shops view the products from there and make inquiries and even purchase them.

Price

The prices set in business can affect the market. Therefore, one should consider the total time that was taken making the product before deciding to price it. The price imposed on the product should be put into consideration to prevent the business from suffering losses. The company should also monitor its growth pattern before pricing its product so that its prices according to the company’s output size. In the case of a new product, the cost allocated should be slightly high to set the standard for the technology of the business. Once many people start to go for the product, then the price is somewhat lowered so that the organization is no overtaken by its competitors. The company should try to be innovative at all times so that they get to draw in new customers at all times. the company should keep making profits no matter the means of pricing that they apply

Promotion

For a market to achieve a good objective, among the goals that need to be worked on is the promotion. Advertising highly focuses on the mean that the information about the business will get to the customer as well as the act of convincing the customers to purchase the product. Promotion is the approach that is highly used in most of the businesses to promote their activities. Other than development, the company can also use advertisement as a form of making the goods visible to the customers. Other than promotion and advertising, there can also be personal selling whereby, salespeople are involved by the organization. Finally, public relations can also be used to make the products known by the customers.

People

The ability of a company to have a specific brand helps in many ways. It helps the company reduce the cost of hiring employees and marketing, it enables the organizations to recruit candidates who are fully qualified, and in return, it tends to improve the company’s productivity. If a company chose to invest in the employee branding, some sound effects come along with it. The business that spends on the act of branding the employees helps the company to retain their former employees and to recruit new employees selectively.

The other is that there is the reduction in cost mainly the recruiting cost is reduced. The amount spent on factors such as the job advertisement is highly reduced. The employee of the given company may become the ambassadors of the organization as a result of the branding carried out on them. Lastly, employee’s engagement on the work is highly improved since the branded employees are usually motivated.

Physical evidence

For a company to get more sales, the product being sold has to branded adequately. It should entail a nice logo, an attractive color palette and also typography among other features. To create an excellent brand, there should be a clear brand positioning as well as purpose. The true meaning and positioning of the brand will attract the customer’s attention. The given organization is supposed to have gone through market research and identify what is missing in the brands of his competitors and return include it in his own. The brand created should be likable, and the logo should be memorable such it will still be remembered for a long time. An excellent example of a famous logo is the Google logo as well as the Coca-Cola. it should entail a color palate that is attractive and typography that is in away professional

Process

In a business environment, there are many ways in which a customer can get the products in case they wanted to book the product. There are three different types of booking a product or a service. At first, there are direct offline bookings. The business needs to develop a brand identity that is positive and reliable to survive in the offline booking environment. To carry out offline booking, the company should apply the traditional methods of advertisement like the use of the brochures; there should be a connection between the business and the local visitor center in that given area. Finally, the company should also develop a relationship that is positive with the concierge of the hotel in the area. There is also online booking. This type of booking plays a more significant role in the booking of business tours. For a company to manage online booking, it should have a trip advisor that manages the reputation of the business, and it should diversify its online distribution and put more money on the online booking system that is easy to use. finally, there is the booking through the arguments by communicating with the travel agent

References

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Holland, J., & Leslie, D. (2018). Tour operators and operations: development, management and responsibility.

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Mishra, C. S. (2017). Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage: Management Logics, Business Models, and Entrepreneurial Rent

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Marmol, T. D., Feys, B., & Probert, C. (2015). PESTLE analysis. [Place of publication not identified], 50Minutes. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4005664.

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