INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING

INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING STUDENT`S NAME STUDENT`S ID:  Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary: 3 2. Company situation analysis: 3 2.1 Introduction to company and products environment: 3 2.2 SWOT: 4 2.3 PESTEL: 5 2.4 Competitor`s Analysis: 7 3. Marketing Objective: 7 4. Marketing Management: 7 5. 7 Ps Marketing Strategies: 8 5.1 Product: 8 5.2 Price: 8 5.3 Promotion: 8 5.4 Place: 9 5.5 People: 9 5.6 Process: 9 5.7 Physical Evidence: 10 6. Marketing Design: 10 7. Pricing Strategy: 10 8. Budget and Marketing Plan Implementation: 10 9. Evaluation and Recommendation: 12 Reference List: 14  1. Executive Summary: Marketing is the best way to reach more people in a smart to encourage them to buy a specific product. The way an organization can do that process makes the organization more successful in future. That is the reason why most of the business organization need to develop their marketing techniques to grow their business profitability and among new scope for the future of the business. However, the organization can also use different tools, techniques, theories and methods to find the proper way to reach more targeted customers. Moreover, it will increase the brand value for an organization and they will gain loyal customers so that they can expand their business in future. Gulf Area is a great place to increase the dairy products and beverage business. A market research showed that scope of dairy product selling is increasing about 50% per year in Gulf Region. Hence, it could be a nice opportunity for the dairy and beverage business organization to progress in that sector. 2. Company situation analysis: 2.1 Introduction to company and products environment: Almarai was founded in 1976 when Prince Sultan bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Kabeer decided to change the overall environment for the agricultural scenario of the country. That is the reason why he established the Almarai to produce and sell fresh milk, fresh juice and cheese in the market of Saudi Arabia. Today this organization has about 60,000 shareholders and from the year 2005, it became a publicly listed organization. However, in most of the cases, they have changed their marketing and business strategy to gain more profit from different business situations (Almarai, 2016). This organization has the turnover of 2.6 billion US dollars in last year. They also have the 6 billion US dollar worth market capitalization. Almarai has dairy, juice, bakery, poultry, infant nutrition and IDJ related products for the overall business scenario. 80% of their business is containers with dairy, cheese and juice products. In poultry sector, they have about 150 to 180 million birds in their firms to estimate the market strategy to be the market leader in that sector. They also have collaboration with PepsiCo and expanded their market in Jordan and Egypt. Almarai has a great product environment where they can find several scopes to grow the business. 2.2 SWOT: Almarai has a huge experience in different manufacturing sectors. However, they also have weaknesses and they are facing threat because of that. They can change the threat into opportunity with a SWOT analysis which will help them to build a better and faster way to develop the overall business (Aydin and Koç, 2016: 379). Strength Almarai has 60% of market share in Gulf Region. They have a good waste management system by which they can reduce their waste to 3% only. That makes them more efficient in the business scenario. They have their own supply chain management system. They have a great market and sale expertise in the organization. They have god service in chilled product supply. Almarai uses advanced technology like Q-Pulse to be more productive in process and engineering. Weakness Limited market shares in overall UAE. This organization is running under the single brand name called "Almarai". Therefore the organization should think about other brand names to sell their product under that name. Opportunity Almarai can be profitable when GCC currency will eliminate the cost of different currency exchange. The increasing number of people can be a market opportunity in Gulf Countries for Almarai. The current political situation is showing that import and export duty map reduce in future. Then it will be helpful dot Almarai to sell their product globally. Low-interest rate from a bank can help them to lower their bank loans in future. Awareness of health food can help them to target the potential market for Almarai to produce more cheese, milk, and fresh fruit juice. New products and brand of that product can be profitable for the organization. Threat The government may stop funding Almarai at any point of time to gain more oil revenue. The oil subsidy may affect the entire business negatively. Table 1: SWOT analysis (Source: Aydin and Koç, 2016, 379) 2.3 PESTEL: Almarai can use their entire business system to grow after a PESTEL analysis. It will help them to grow more in short time period. Political: Government policies can be beneficial for Almarai to gain more profit for the market and using the situation where they can develop the entire business scenario. Promoting the fresh fruit juice and dairy products like milk and cheese can help the Almarai to export them in an international market. Economical: Almarai`s business is mainly depending on the combination of fruit juice and milk products. The economic system needs to be developed by the government the way they can understand the current situation of the market. Otherwise, Almarai cannot survive in a changed situation of the business scenario. Sociological: Most of their Muslim, majority countries avoid milk. However, Almarai needs to understand their potentiality and they have to use milk for making other products like ice cream or milkshake. However, in most of the cases, they can promote their products to reach more people in short time period. Technological: Technology is very important part in today's world. Almarai needs to develop their technical equipment where they can understand the demand of the market and they can develop their technologies as per required. Environmental: The manufacturing industry completely depends on the raw materials and resources. That is the reason why in most of the cases the Almarai need to understand that they have the best possible way to maintain their quality of the product as well as the combination of different products on a single business process. The health, safety issues, and product quality are needed to be monitored by the expertise. The weather and climate can also affect the product and packaging system. Legal: Every business organization needs to follow the rules and legislation system of the government. Almarai needs to follow the rules and regulation system of the Gulf Countries to sell their products in different countries. They have to make a market research before that to find out the demand of the product in different countries. Table 2: PESTEL Analysis (Source: David et al. 2016: 11) 2.4 Competitor`s Analysis: Marmum Dairy Farm LLC, United Kaipara Dairies Co PSC, and Unikai Foods International are a few number of companies that have a direct competition with Almarai`s market strategy. These companies already have a great market in UAE and International market (Baker and Saren, 2016: 11). Almarai need to find the scope with the help of quality management, product pricing, branding, promotional activities, targeted market and many more to understand the scope of the business. Otherwise they cannot expand their business in national and international level. Almarai need to adopt their techniques and business strategy to gain the marketed in those place where they already operational. David et al. (2016: 11) stated that they need to find out the reason of people choosing their product. Otherwise, it will be a tough job for the Almarai to survive in the market commission. On the other hand, they need to produce more good quality product in cheap price so that they can beat the other companies in case of price. 3. Marketing Objective: Almarai wanted to develop their overall business scenarios to be the number one company in dairy product in Gulf Countries. Thus, they have to target their audience at first hand to sell their products (Eteokleous et al. 2016: 684). Then they have to understand the quality and the presentation of their product to attract people. On the other hand, they also have to look at the product pricing to give a tough competition with the similar products. Due to that reason, the Almarai need to develop their overall projects properly to satisfy their customers. It will increase their sale and brand loyalty for their customers. Moreover, they have to launch new products regularly so that more people keep on buy their products. Fenwick and Amine (2016: 92) mentioned that time specific product launching or seasonal product launching can help them to increase the product awareness among the targeted customers. Almarai has to set their goal to gain more profit from the market. Otherwise, Almarai cannot be the most superior organization in the market. 4. Marketing Management: Almarai needs to use STP (Segment, Targeting, and Positioning) strategy to understand their products segment for the market. Otherwise, they cannot make their targeted audience ready for their product (Gagnon, 2016: 56). However, in most of the cases, the organization tries to understand the customer's demand from the market research. Almarai can also try the same policy to point out their targeted audience. After that, they have to provide a better quality of products in short time period and in cheap price. It will help them to grow their overall business to understand the usability of their product (Iyer and Grewal, 2016: 468). Packaging and presentation of the product are needed for the targeted customer to be attracted toward the Almarai`s product. Providing better quality products in short time period can help the organization to get a stable market from the competitive one. The position of the product and the brand is also important in business. Almarai needs to know their market position by which they can change their future marketing and business plans. 5. 7 Ps Marketing Strategies: 5.1 Product: Almarai needs to develop the overall business scenario of the marketing by improving the product for the targeted audience. After all, their main goal is to be the main part of the market by gaining more market for their products (Kenworthy and Sparks, 2016: 474). However, Almarai will develop the taste, flavour and quality of the product to increase the demand of the parody in the market. They will also to follow the international and national health standards to maintain a better quality of product among their potential customers. 5.2 Price: Price is a very important issue if the product is new in the market. A person always looks for better quality of the product in less money. Hence, Almarai will produce them better fruit juice and dairy product in less amount of money. It will make the brand more popular in the competitive market. Ramanathan et al. (2016: 122) stated that the management will make a market research before they can process with any decision regarding the product price, they can also provide some offers for the targeted customers to buy their product. It will help them to gain market in an aggressive way. 5.3 Promotion: Almarai needs to promote their new products in their market on regular basis. They will use the hoarding, newspaper, advertisement, event sponsors and celebrity signup for their latest products to make a curiosity for their product in the market. It will directly influence the targeted audience to look for their product in the market (Ratten, 2016: 168). Hence, it will be a great opportunity for the Almarai to gain more customers in shorter time period. They can also launch some road shows and event for their targeted audience to gain more loyal customers for their product. It will also increase their brand values in the Gulf Countries. 5.4 Place: Selling the right product in the right place is very important for a business organization. Almarai need to identify those places, shopping mall sites and shops where they can reach the maximum number of people in regular basis (Resnick et al. 2016: 174). It will be beneficial for the organization to send a message to the people to understand their product and the impact of their product on customer's view. Xu et al. (2016: 1566) stated that this human traffic is the main scope for the Almarai to maintain the product demand among them. With the help of it, they will understand the demand and supply ratio of the product. 5.5 People: The customers are the main entity of any business organization. However, in most of the cases, Almarai wanted to develop their overall marketing strategy to satisfy their customers. Due to that reason, they have to target different segments of the customers for their products. Riquelme et al. (2016: 26) stated that they will also modify the quality on behalf of the price range for different people and their buying ability. If the Almarai can provide a huge range of combination for different segments of the profits then they will surely reach more people in the shortest time period (Pizarro Milian and Davidson, 2016: 15). Otherwise, the organization unable to reach the global market scenario where the competition will be tougher. 5.6 Process: Almarai will change the way raw materials are being processed and the way they can serve the product to the customer's hand. It will help the organization to gain more profit in shortest time period. On the other hand, they can specify the product quality for different products to find the scope for the new market in Gulf Regions (Sridhar et al. 2016:36). They can also find some scopes for the new type or lines of products for the customers. It will expand the business and they will get better and faster way to grow the overall business of Almarai. Almarai`s international contract with PepsiCo can help them to find a new way to expand their product in different other countries rather than only Gulf Region. 5.7 Physical Evidence: When an organization gains a permanent brand value in people's mind and people becomes habituated with the brand awareness without introduction, and then the brand gets physical evidence for their brand (Stevens et al. 2016: 207). That is exactly what is their position on the market and by which they can gain more sustainable growth from the business scenario. 6. Marketing Design: Almarai will make a definite and proper way to communicate with the potential customer to attract them toward the product of Almarai. Some marketing experts say that, knowing the customer is the best way to develop the marketing strategy and design for the business organization (Takata, 2016: 5619). Moreover, Almarai will need some Unique Selling Proposition (USP) where they can attract more consumers towards their products. The customer`s view of the brand's look and feel can help the organization to gain more profit in shortest time period. Almarai will use marketing mix to measure their current position in the market. Otherwise, they will not be able to develop their marketing strategy as per required. They will use CRM (Customer Relation Management) software to sort out all the customer segment and t know their basic needs. Voorhees et al. (2016: 134) stated that, and then they can change their marketing strategy to take the product in front of the customer. They can use push marketing techniques, social media, newspaper and events to reach for their customer. 7. Pricing Strategy: Competitive pricing strategy can be very helpful for the Almarai to gain customers from different market segmentations. Hence, they have the best possible way to deliver quality products on less amount of money. Due to that reason, they have to understand the competitor's pricing policy for similar standard products (Williamson, 2016: 110). Moreover, they have to produce more products to lower the production cost for their dairy and fresh fruit juice products. That will help them to provide the customer the good quality of product without increasing the product price. 8. Budget and Marketing Plan Implementation: particulars amount OMR amount OMR Responsible persons Initial investment 100000 cost for customer analysis 3000 Marketing executives cost for competitor analysis 5500 Marketing executives costs for advertising 11000 Marketing executives costs for product promotion 8000 Marketing executives costs for business promotion 4000 Marketing executives transportation charges 9000 Operation executives salary to executives 15000 Accounting executives costs for product development 12000 Operation executives product testing charges 4500 Operation executives customer awareness programs 2500 Marketing executives packaging development charges 6000 Operation executives Miscellaneous charges 10000 Operation executives Total expenses 90500 Balance in hand 9500 Table 3: Marketing budget (Source: As created by author) In this case, the above table has stated the costs for marketing activities. Along with this, OMR 100000 has been allotted as an initial budget for marketing activities. Moreover, different activities of product and business development have been discussed along with their relevant costs. It has been calculated that the marketing activities will have costs of OMR 90500, which means OMR 9500 will be balanced in hand. Furthermore, the responsible persons for the marketing activities have been allocated to the following the table. However, the allotted duration should be followed for controlling the overall expenses. Activities Responsible persons Duration in days customer analysis Marketing executives 20 competitor analysis Marketing executives 15 Planning for product development Marketing and operation executives 10 budget preparation Marketing, Operation and accounting executives 5 advertisement Marketing executives 20 product promotion Marketing executives 30 business promotion Marketing executives 15 product development Operation executives 20 product testing Operation executives 7 customer awareness programs Marketing executives 20 packaging development Operation executives 10 Finalizing new product Management level 5 Table 4: Schedule for action plan (Source: As created by author) 9. Evaluation and Recommendation: In order to gain profit from the market, the Almarai need to develop their marketing strategy to grab the global marketing scenario. On the other hand, the organization needs to develop their overall performance to deliver better and faster way to reach the product in customer's hand. The gulf area is a competitive area of the dairy and beverage company. There is a few numbers of organizations who can gain profit from the business organization. Due to that reason, Almarai needs to put a very measured step to gain profit from the Gulf Region. However, Almarai can also use the effective combination of SWOT and PESTEL analysis to measure their current market status. Hence, the management of Almarai can proceed for the future market strategy development. Moreover, providing good quality of the product in cheap price can also help the organization to maintain a proper way proceeds for the sustainable growth. The management of Almarai needs to watch out for their performance on a daily basis to increase their productivity for the customer.  Reference List: Almarai. (2016). Almarai. 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