Marketing Management and Digital Communications †Free Samples

Question Discuss about the Marketing Management and Digital Communications. Answer: Introduction The aim of this report is to prepare an effectivemarketing plan for Samsung Leader 8, which can be one of the popular high-end smartphones of the market. The report will highlight in details about the steps that are involved in marketing plan of the smartphone along with the strategies that are implemented by the Samsung Company in order to gain market share in the smartphone industry. It is important to mention that, Samsung smartphones currently occupy a significant part of share of smartphone industry in all parts of the globe along with Apple. The marketing plan will be done by conducting SWOT analysis along with examining the competitive environment of the smartphone industry that has to be faced by Samsung Leader 8. The company will also have to fix marketing and financial objectives, which will be reflected in the respective marketing plan. One of the major highlighting points of this marketing report is to focus upon thedigital marketing communication plan, which will be used by the company to reach out to the target groups of customers. At the end, report will also provide the implementation process of marketing control plan, which will be implemented to monitor the overall performance level of the marketing plan. Steps in Marketing Plan Hopkins and Turner (2012) have mentioned about deciding upon the steps, which are needed in implementing a marketing plan. For large scale companies like Samsung smartphones, the primary step of writing a marketing plan is to analyse the situation, which is existing in the smartphone industry. In the initial stage the company need to provide detailed description of the product that is being launched along with unique features that they are offering in their smartphone. The company also need to highlight upon the advantages, which are there for the users of the Leader 8 smartphone. In the following step, Samsung need to decide upon the target audience for the marketing plan. It is important to note that Samsung Leader 8 is one of the expensive smartphone. Hence, it is Essential for the Samsung Company to have target audience among the research section within the society, who has a strong fascination towards the latest technological gadgets. It is also important for the company to decide upon the marketing goals, which need to be realistic and can be reflected upon the marketing strategies that implemented. With high percentage of market share in the smartphone industry, it is possible for Samsung Company to make aggressive marketing objectives. In the next part of the marketing plan is a process of implementing Strategies and tactics, which will be executed in order to capture the market share and gain competitive advantage (Manorek et al., 2016). The actionable steps that are implemented by the Samsung smartphone company is to feature special promotional event, from where they are able to communicate with the smartphone lovers and also provide detailed information about the features associated with newly launched product. The final section of the marketing plan is to decide upon the overall budget, which the company is willing to spend for all marketing plans (Paik Zhu, 2013). The implementation process of the marketing plan and all promotional events will be finally decided upon by the final budget which the company has allocated for the marketing events. SWOT and Competitor Analysis SWOT analysis is an essential tool, which is used by all major business organisations while making upon their marketing plan. According to Silaban et al., (2014), it is one of the effective tool that can help an organisation to understand its internal business environment by evaluating the internal strength and weakness. It can also help the company to understand the opportunity and threats that exist within the external market and thereby help in the process of executing effective business plan. The internal situation analysis can help the company to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Samsung Company is currently one of the world's leading electronic manufacturers, with a market share of 21.4% in the smartphone industry (Manorek et al., 2016). The impressive build quality and premium design that is used in all Samsung smartphones are few of the major causes of success in the past many years. Some unique design that are available in Samsung smartphone, which includes amoled display and better user interface experience can also be regarded as some of the main strengths of Samsung smartphones. Better after sale service is also one of the major highlighting features for all Samsung smartphones. This has also helped them to gain much better competitive advantage. In case of Samsung Leader 8, the main highlighting features of the smartphone include bigger display and better camera. This current phone also has the capability of handling multitasking at much smoother level. The phone will also have some smart new features, which includes wireless charging and dual camera (Dissanayake Amarasuriya, 2015). On the other hand, the major weakness for Samsung smartphone is their incapability of lowering the price in spite of several new entrants in the market. The smart phones of Samsung is only dependent upon Android operating system, which is believed to be less secure compared to the operating system of Apple, who is currently the major rival of Samsung. The company also spends a huge amount in promotional and marketing activities, which raises the cost of the smartphone. In case of Samsung Leader 8, the major weakness is due to the premium level of pricing. Hence, it is not possible for the company to target people from all sections of society. The unique and exclusive new features that are offered in Samsung Leader 8 will help the company to make new opportunities by attracting the smartphone lovers. The phone is also offering larger display, which is currently not present in any of the smartphones. In order to ensure that more number of people is able to purchase the smartphone, Samsung is offering easy instalment without any interest exclusive for this phone (Chen et al., 2013). In the recent times however, Samsung Company has to face the threat from various new entrants and brands, which are trying to occupy the smartphone industry. They are offering high end features at much lower cost than Samsung phones. The unique feature of Samsung Leader 8 which includes bigger display and wireless charging are also expected to be incorporated in many of the Rival brands. It is also relevant to mention that security threats in the Android Operating System is much higher the compared to that of iOS, which gives a certain advantage to Apple iPhones. In spite of many new brands which have recently entered the smartphone industry, the huge reputation and brand value of Samsung can still help them to sustain the fast changing smartphone industry. Moreover, the premium quality and durability along with better customer service have always provided Samsung smartphones a better competitive edge (Xie Liang, 2013). Marketing and Financial Objectives The marketing and financial objectives of Samsung smartphone will be reflected in the overall business and marketing plan which will be implemented. The marketing and financial plan is usually set for a short period of 6 months, which will help the company to monitor the overall response from the market and consumers. Following are the set of 3 marketing objectives for Samsung Leader 8 for first 6 months: To reach out to wider section of people for by implementing digital marketing Communications. To highlight up on the unique and exclusive features that are offered by Samsung Leader 8. To capture 40% of market share of premium smartphone industry within the first 5 months. The financial objectives are as follows: To offer the phone at instalment rates, this will allow more number of people to buy the phone. To make a profit of 10 million dollar in the first 6 months from Samsung Leader 8. To lower the price of the phone after first month depending upon the total volume of sale. Marketing strategy and Marketing Communication Plan Marketing mix strategy is an important part of business plan which is implemented in practice through a set of controllable and tactical variables. A company can use these variables, to determine the response from the target audience (Park Han, 2013). The demand rate of the product within the market is entirely dependent upon the influential variables that are implemented. There are many four elements of the marketing mix strategy, which are as follows. Product: The product which will be launched Samsung Leader 8, which is one of the most premium smartphone that currently exist in the market. The smartphone is offering some of the unique features, which includes bigger and better display along with wireless charging and dual camera. The company has also integrated the latest chipset, which is capable of handling high level multitasking. Some of the major changes in the new smartphone influence brand new features of customisation, which will allow the users to design your own personal message and photographs. The build quality of the phone is also improved, which includes water resistance capability and is thereby capable to handle all kinds of rough usages. Price: The price of Samsung Leader 8 is kept at a premium range due to the fact that the phone is offering some new and exclusive features. The price is also within the higher category due to the fact that the phone is having some of the high end features and offering better materials in the manufacturing process. The high level of pricing can also help the company to provide better after sale service, which is also one of the major unique feature for Samsung smartphones. It is also important to mention that the price of the phone will vary in different places depending upon the distribution cost and local sale tax that is imposed by local government. The company will offer some extra discount during the initial Period of the smartphone launch. There will be some offer of purchasing the phone with easy instalment that comes with zero interest rate. The company has set up business partnership with various financial service providers, who are offering easy loan at lower interest rate e xclusively for Samsung Leader 8. Place: The Samsung Leader 8 will be launched in all parts of the globe. The exact time of launch may vary depending upon the rate of distribution in each of the Nations. The phone will be available in both offline and online distribution channels, which will help the company to reach out to maximum number of customers in short period of time. The phone will be available only to exclusive Samsung authorised retailers and online distributors, who have formed partnership with the Samsung company. It is relevant to mention that Highly Effective distribution channel is one of the major strength for Samsung smartphones, which has helped the company to gain significant market share in a smartphone industry over the past many years (Kim Lee, 2015). Promotion: The effective promotional strategies that have been implemented by the Samsung Company have one of being the biggest pillar of their success. The Samsung uses all platforms from digital and offline media in order to promote their newly launched product in the market. The company uses the face of popular celebrities, whom they use as their Brand Ambassador in order to raise the popularity of their smartphones. Large sized placard and billboard along with hoarding and posters are also few of the common platforms that have been used by the company. It is relevant to mention that for premium and flagship smartphones like Samsung Leader 8, the company uses exclusive promotional channels, which is a part of their marketing strategy. In order to gain competitive advantage in recent times the company is have announced the opportunity of purchasing the phone through easy instalments with zero interest rate. Samsung Leader 8 will also come with some free new gadgets, which will enha nce the experience of smartphone usage for the audience. In the recent days most of the technological companies are using the medium of digital communication as a major platform of promotional medium. The rising popularity of the digital technology, which is a significant part of common man's life, it is easily possible for every business organisation to easily connect with the target group of audience using the digital platforms and use the techniques of digital marketing (Babin Zikmund, 2015). It is also relevant to mention that the digital communication platforms can help Samsung company to provide better details of the smartphones, which is there planning to launch. The social networking websites are also used as a common platform to digitally communicate with the target customers. Online virtual groups are formed, where people can discuss about the new features which are being offered in the Samsung Leader 8. It is also possible for the public to get authentic reviews from technological experts. The digital communication platforms can also allow the customers to easily connect with the authorities of company in order to provide suggestions or raise complaints. Better level of connectivity can enhance the relationship between the customer and the company. The digital marketing communication also provides the future related to Integrated Marketing Communication, which is one of the effective technique promote newly launched product. One of the major advantages of digital media is that it allows optimise level of information to reach out to the audience, which help them to understand the marketing objectives and feature of the products. Action program to achieve the marketing and financial objectives It is essential to have an essential action program plan that is necessary to fulfil the marketing and financial objectives for Samsung Leader 8. The product growth life cycle stage will be used as a part of implementing the action program for fulfilment of activities. At the initial stage will be the growth phase, when the company will have to spend huge amount for promotional activities of the newly launched product. The company cannot expect any financial profit at this stage. The high level of pricing of Samsung Leader 8 will be the major challenge in the initial stage of action program. Nevertheless, the company needs to ensure that the popularity of the product is raised during this period, which will help to improve the sales volume in the later period. The phone will be offered along with some free products which will help the company to gain market share. Implementation and Control of marketing Plan The marketing control process is an essential part of monitoring the overall implementation process of marketing plan. Few of the major steps that will be implemented by Samsung to monitor the process of marketing include: Collecting feedback from the customers and also opinion from technological experts. Calculating the total profit that is earned from the sales of Samsung Leader 8. Setting up of performance standard, which include the plan of distribution and sales. Measuring the response and data which have been collected from the market. Comparing the record of sales along with other competitors of Smartphones. By controlling the overall marketing plan is possible for Samsung to implement new changes over the growth phase of the newly launched product. Conclusion The report has provide detailed description of the marketing plan, which help the newly launched Samsung Leader 8 to gain significant market share in the premium smartphone industry. It is important for the company to analyse the internal strengths and weaknesses and implement marketing strategies by using various distribution channels, which also include the digital media platform. References Babin, B. J., Zikmund, W. G. (2015). Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning. Chen, X., Chen, Y., Ma, Z., Fernandes, F. C. (2013, February). How is energy consumed in smartphone display applications?. In Proceedings of the 14th Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (p. 3). ACM. Dissanayake, D. M. R., Amarasuriya, T. (2015). Role of brand identity in developing global brands: A literature based review on case comparison between Apple iPhone vs Samsung smartphone brands. Hopkins, J., Turner, J. (2012). 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