Reference no: EM133065436

Strategic Marketing Assignment

Tesla's plan to enter the Indian Market

Context
You have been accepted onto a Future Leaders Development Programme (FLDP) within a large organisation of your choice (you can select any organization that you aspire to work for). It is a yearlong programme and involves developing and presenting specific projects to other programme delegates; all the projects are viewed by the CEO. The delegates come from across the organisation, and you are the sole representative from the Marketing Department.

This is an excellent opportunity for ambitious staff to make an impression on senior managers and leaders. In the past graduates from the programme have been promoted within the company. The introductory session of the programme is personally led and overseen by the CEO.

The company is currently successful but is going through a period of intense change. There are new competitors entering the market, whilst new technologies are changing both production capabilities and consumer preferences. You have been assigned the following task:

Task 1: Develop an implementable strategic marketing plan.

You are required to develop a realistic and workable strategic marketing plan for a given organisation. The choice of organisation is important to ensure successful completion of this task.

For the selected and named organisation you must:
analyse the factors to be taken into account in the development of a marketing plan
develop an implementable plan for your named organisation: you should select the most appropriate format for the plan
design monitoring systems that are capable of identifying performance deviations from the plan's original objectives
anticipate the need for contingency plans.
develop alternative marketing mix related action plans that address selected objectives and selected strategies.
construct a marketing strategy for a named organisation.

The proposed marketing plan for the named organization should contain the following sections:

Summary and Introduction
Your marketing plan should start with an executive summary. The summary gives a quick overview of the main points of the plan.
Although the executive summary appears at the beginning of the plan, the executive summary is usually written at the end, because it helps you check that your plan makes sense and that you haven't missed any important points.

Business strategy
It's a good idea to introduce the main body of the plan with a reminder of your overall business strategy, including:
what your business is about (the business mission of your named organization)
Organisation key business objectives
Organization's broad strategy for achieving those objectives
Knowing organization's business strategy helps to ensure that your proposed marketing plan, marketing strategy and the organization's overall business strategy all work together. For example, suppose your business strategy is based on providing premium quality products and service. Your marketing strategy and plan will need to take this into account, targeting customers who appreciate quality, promoting your product in ways that help build the right image and so on.
External and internal analysis for your marketing plan
Understanding the environment your business operates in is a key part of planning and will allow you to discern the threats and opportunities associated with your area of business.

A STEEPLE analysis helps you to identify the main opportunities and threats in your market:
Social factors such as changing attitudes and lifestyles, and the ageing population
Technological factors such as new materials and growing use of the Internet
Economic factors such as interest rates, exchange rates and consumer confidence
Environmental factors such as changing expectations of customers, regulators and employees on sustainable development
Political factors such as changes to taxation, trading relationships or grant support for businesses
Legal factors such as changes to employment law, or to the way your sector is regulated
Ethical factors such as ethical and moral standards governing policies and practices

You also need to understand your own internal strengths and weaknesses. For example, the main strengths of a new business might be an original product and enthusiastic employees. The main weaknesses might be the lack of an existing customer base and limited financial resources.

A SWOT analysis combines the external and internal analysis to summarise your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. You need to look for opportunities that play to your strengths. You also need to decide what to do about threats to your business and how you can overcome important weaknesses.
For example, your SWOT analysis might help you identify the most promising customers to target. You might decide to look at ways of using the Internet to reach customers. And you might start to investigate ways of raising additional investment to overcome your financial weakness.
You should not restrict your analysis to only these two approaches. If deemed necessary can also apply other approaches to analyzing your named organization that we have covered in class, such as PEST analysis, etc.
Marketing objectives
Your marketing objectives should be based on understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and the business environment you operate in. They should also be linked to your overall business strategy.
For example, suppose your business objectives include increasing sales by 10 per cent over the next year. Your marketing objectives might include targeting a promising new market segment to help achieve this growth.
Objectives should always be SMART:
Specific - for example, you might set an objective of getting ten new customers.
Measurable - whatever your objective is, you need to be able to check whether you have reached it or not when you review your plan.
Achievable - you must have the resources you need to achieve the objective. The key resources are usually people and money.
Realistic - targets should stretch you, not demotivate you because they are unreasonable.
Time-bound - you should set a deadline for achieving the objective. For example, you might aim to get ten new customers within the next 12 months.

Marketing strategy for your marketing plan
Your proposed marketing plan is how you put your marketing strategy into practice. It should therefore be a practical reflection of your strategy.
If you understand the market well, you can probably break it down into different segments - groups of similar customers. For example, you can break the business market down into businesses of the same sector and of a similar size.
For each segment, you need to look at what customers want, what you can offer and what the competition is like. You want to identify segments where you have a competitive advantage. At the same time, you should assess whether you can expect high enough sales to make the segment worthwhile.
Often, the most promising segments are those where you have existing customers. See what you can do to expand sales to these customers. If you are targeting new customers, you need to be sure that you have the resources to reach them effectively.
Once you have decided what your target market is, you also need to decide how you will position yourself in it. For example, you might offer a high quality product at a premium price or a flexible local service. Some businesses try to build a strong brand and image to help them stand out. Whatever your strategy, you need to differentiate yourself from the competition to encourage customers to choose your business first.

Plan your marketing tactics
Once you have decided what your marketing objectives are, and your strategy for meeting them, you need to plan how you will make the strategy a reality.
Many businesses find it helpful to think in terms of the four Ps:
Product - what your product offers that your customers value, and whether/how you should change your product to meet customer needs.
Pricing - for example, you might aim simply to match the competition, or charge a premium price for a quality product and service. You might have to choose either to make relatively few high margin sales, or sell more but with lower unit profits. Remember that some customers may seek a low price to meet their budgets, while others may view a low price as an indication of quality levels.
Place - how and where you sell. This may include using different distribution channels. For example, you might sell over the Internet or sell through retailers.
Promotion - how you reach your customers and potential customers. For example, you might use advertising, PR, direct mail and personal selling.
For a more comprehensive approach, you can extend this to seven Ps:
People - for example, you need to ensure that your employees have the right training.
Processes - the right processes will ensure that you offer a consistent service that suits your customers.
Physical evidence - the appearance of your employees and premises can affect how customers see your business. Even the quality of paperwork, such as invoices, makes a difference.

Implementation of your marketing plan
Your marketing plan must do more than just say what you want to happen. It must describe each step required to make sure that it happens.

The plan should therefore include a schedule of key tasks. This sets out what will be done, and by when. Refer to the schedule as often as possible to avoid losing sight of your objectives under the daily workload.

It should also assess what resources you need. For example, you might need to think about what brochures you need, and whether they need to be available for digital distribution (by email or from your website). You might also need to look at how much time it takes to sell to customers and whether you have enough salespeople.

The cost of everything in the plan needs to be included in a budget. If your finances are limited, your plan will need to take that into account. Don't spread your marketing activities too thinly - it is better to pick a handful and make the most of them. You may also want to link your marketing budget to your sales forecast.

Control
As well as setting out the schedule, the plan needs to say how it will be controlled. You need an individual who takes responsibility for pushing things along. A good schedule and budget should make it easy to monitor progress. When things fall behind schedule, or costs overrun, you need to be ready to do something about it and to adapt your plan accordingly.

From time to time, you need to stand back and ask whether the plan is working. What can you learn from your mistakes? How can you use what you know to make a better plan for the future?

Attachment:- Strategic Marketing Assignment.rar