Executive Summary
E-co fueling company is the first company that started producing ethanol fuel in Australia. The fuel has been found helpful in reducing carbon emission in vehicles to a minimal level thus keep the environment clean. The objective of this report is to formulate marketing and action plan for the company. The report discusses four marketing Ps: product, promotion, pricing and place. Since the product is new to the Australian market hence the emphasis will be given to generate awareness about the product and also on promotion of the product. Other components of the plan like budgeting, time lines, associated risk and limitation will also be captured in the report. The company does not face any competition in the same technology but will face challenges from the alternate fuels. A well designed marketing plan will help company to achieve its objectives.
Situation Analysis:
Ethanol E-Cofueling technology is very effective in controlling the harmful emission from the vehicles. The numbers of vehicles is constantly increasing on the roads with the time and they are emitting harmful gasses. Further these harmful gasses are causing damage to the environment by increasing the amount of poisonous gases. At this point of time eco friendly technologies like the ethanol E-Cofueling which is not only a good optional fuel but also helps in preserving the environment.
Potential Customers – All the people, who are concerned about the environment or drive a vehicle, are potential customers of the ethanol eco-fuel. The company will have to face a strong competition from other alternative fuels available in the market like LPG, CNG, LNG, hydrogen and electric fuels. These fuels already exist in the market and people are familiar with them. A strong marketing strategy will help the company in promoting its products and also in informing the targeted section of customers about the advantages of this product.
E-CoFueling Company should target the big companies, government sector, along with the organizations working to save the environment, Non-government organizations and departments set up by various companies to deal with corporate social responsibility. Today people understand their role in saving the environment hence people from all segments can be a potential market for the company.
Market Share – for the initial one year company should plan to focus on local market and after establishing the product in local market, company may introduce the product in international market. All the countries where government is supporting and promoting bio-fuel, E-CoFueling Company can introduce its products. Company can look forward to a very promising market share in the countries where political support is provided.
Product Weaknesses and alternate plan - Since the product is new, there is a need to make people aware about the product and its advantages. It is also required to educate people about its strengths which it has over its competitors. Company is required to formulate some plans to handle the major threats and weaknesses. A good research and database about the potential market is required. Higher cost of production can also be a challenge as it will increase the cost of final product. E-CoFueling Company will conduct research studies in order to build initial data base and to understand potential market in a better way. To reduce final cost of the product E-CoFueling Company should keep working to identify alternative cheap raw materials.
Marketing Strategy:
It is imperative to prepare how E-CoFueling Company will achieve its marketing objectives. A detailed marketing strategy will help the company in achieving its objective which is established and meant for different marketing segments. All the objectives will be followed with action plan to determine how these objectives will be accomplished.
Product:
Current Product - E-CoFueling Company is dealing in ethanol fuel and other technologies related to effectiveness of diesel engine and emissions. The company is first to launch this technology into the market. The products are eco friendly and emit minimal amount of harmful gasses. These products help in keeping environment green and reduce air pollution. The E-CoFueling Company with a technically skilled team is working to meet international standards by offering great eco-friendly products to the consumers. The products are formed keeping in mind, the damages happening to our environment by vehicle emissions. The problem of global warming and green house effect is increasing because of the increasing level of pollution in environment. Air pollution is also a major factor that contributes in damaging the environment. Products that are specially produced to reduce the air pollution caused by vehicle emission could be a great help to protect environment .
Future Product - E-CoFueling Company is working for past few years to produce this technology. The company has also received grants by Australian federal government to explore partnership opportunities and alliance for further advancement of the technology and betterment of the products. These improvements can be made to reduce the harmful emission by the fuel. This technology is mainly based on the technology of compression engine. While developing the product, company faced several challenges and hindrances. Company can improve its products and can provide better quality with the help of partnership.
Services - using of this fuel is very easy and does not involve any modification in the vehicle. The owner is required to have flex fuel vehicle (FFV). The ethanol fuel will be made available to customers at various locations. With the help of specialized skilled and experienced technical team company will provide best quality of products and related services.
Promotion:
Promotion plays an important role in increasing the awareness about the product. The main obstacle identified with the product is lack of awareness among the people. If some researches to be believed, more than ten percent flex fuel vehicle owners are not aware about this new ethanol based fuel technology. Few owners who are even aware with the technology do not know that they can use ethanol based bio-fuel technology. Hence awareness will play an important role in achieving the desired sales target and increasing market share for the E-CoFueling Company. With the help of promotions company will be able to rightly position its products.
The major objectives of the promotions will be as follow:
Company will be using various mediums to promote its products but all mediums should communicate same massage. Communicating different messages will lead to confusion.
The awareness about the products is very less hence the focus will formulate an informative message. The messages will be attractive to gain attention of the people.
The promotion will be designed and focused on following aspects:
Inform – the main goal of promotion is to inform people about the products, strengths and advantages. While informing we should differentiate our product from the competitors. This will help people to understand E-Cofuel products and will generate a stimulus to buy the products.
Persuade – another goal of promotion is to convince potential consumers that our fuel is better than other existing bio-fuels. Our products help in reducing air pollution and do not emit harmful gasses.
Re-call – the message should be very effective so that people do not forget it. They should remember our message while purchasing fuel and vehicle.
Company will utilize all the possible mediums to educate people about the products and associated benefits. Medium will be finalized to tap majority of the target audience. For example promotion will be done at those places where large number of potential users can be captured i.e. car showrooms, auto markets, auto exhibitions, fuel stations etc.
Public relation will be used as a major medium to promote the products. Many organizations are focusing on fulfilling their responsibility towards society and community. Environment protection is also one of the main agenda on their list. These companies are needed to be targeted to promote the products.
Initially the frequency of promotions should be high which may be reduced after few months.
E-CoFueling Company will use a balanced mix of media tools to promote products. Both printing and electronic media will be used for promotion.
An informative message for all the communication mediums will be developed.
After finalization of message the next step would be to finalize communication channels. As company is targeting people from all segments mediums will be used are;
Advertisement on television and news papers
Advertisement in top three selling auto magazines
Hoardings at huge market places
Messages on radio during morning hours when lot of people drive to their workplaces and listen radio
Public relation media will be used with high frequency. Company will organize information session at various big organizations. Sponsored events will be organized depending upon the likeness of local community. Donation programs and program for people in special need will be organized at different institute. Educational institute, non government organizations, health organizations will be targeted for these programs. These programs will help in building positive image of the organization and will help in getting special media attention. News about these events will automatically promote the company and its products. The awareness built by these programs is long lasting and effective.
Frequency of costly media tools like advertisement on television will be less and reduce further after initial six months. The frequency of advertisement in magazine and news paper will be more than electronic medium. The major thrust will be given to advertisement by public relation media.
The company will join hand with various organizations to support its products. Partners will use fuel in companies own vehicles and will ask its employees to use the products. We will provide them all the related information about the products, features and associated services at their door step.
While organizing events company will ensure the presence the presence of technical team who is having in-depth knowledge about the products.
Pricing:
Pricing of the product is a very important component of any marketing plan. Pricing could be used a weapon to gain advantage over the competitors. If company is offering better quality at little lesser price than competitors, it works as a pulling factor. It is not necessary to keep price lower if you can not offer quality. In given case the pricing of products will mainly depend upon the cost of raw material, cost of manpower involved in producing the products, equipment cost, transportation cost, inventory management cost, and other associated operational cost. At initial stage when awareness about the product is low company can not play on high volume and less margins. Company need to be honest while calculating the prices for its products. Product price should include operational cost, marketing cost and margins. The prices of the fuel will vary depending upon on the taxes, transportation cost and other operational cost. The average price of the fuel will be around $3 per unit. It may range from $ 2-75 to $ 4 per unit.
Place:
Place is another very important component of marketing plan. Product sales are directly link with availability of the product. Sales will not go up if product is not available in the market. Awareness and pricing plays role while decision making process. Once customer has decided to purchase the product it is availability which matters. Lot of existing customers having flex fuel technology complains about the availability of ethanol product. The focus will be on both local as well international markets. The product will be launch in those countries where it has not yet introduced or having very few competitors. To ensure proper availability of products, company will work on franchisee model and join hand with other established organizations.
The product will initially introduce products in all the metros and major cities. After success of first round the product will be introduced in semi urban locations. In each city company will ensure that products are available at minimum three to five locations depending upon the size of the city. Company will also ensure the 24X7 availability of the fuel. After first round of set up, a research study will be conducted to measure the response of the market. The next plan of action will be based upon the finding of the research.
Project cost:
All the plan will be designed keeping mind the fund constraints. The marketing plan has designed to create great impact at lesser cost. All the marketing communication tools and frequencies have been finalized to gain maximum advantage at lower value. The plan will be implemented in two phases so that we generate good revenue from the phase than go to the next phase. While developing the plan emphasis was given to public relation so that our company gains the advantage to be in the mews. Other partnership and joint venture approaches were given weightage.
Timeline:
The overall plan will be implementing in two phases. During the initial phase the focus will be on metros and major cities. In the second phase the focus will be on small cities and semi-urban locations. Step by step timeline of the project is as follow;
Months
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Particulars
Phase 1
finalization of Marketing Plan and Objectives
Identification of partners
> Completion of all the formalities with partners
> Finalizing Marketing Communication Tools with frequency
Introduction of Product in Metros and Major Cities
Ensuring Smooth Operation and Service
Modification in Marketing Communication Plan
Market Research
Phase 2
Improvments Based on the Findings of Market Research
Modification in Marketing Communication Plan
Introduction of Product in Small Cities and Semi-urban Locations
Risk and limitation:
The company is first in Australia to launch ethanol fuel technology hence having various advantages and high chances of success. The major challenges company will be facing from alternative fuels like CNG, LPG, Hydrogen, KNG and electric fuels. The fund limitation and insufficient research data will also impact the plan.
If the strategy plan fail, a support from government is required for success of the project. In some countries government is putting lot of emphasis on bio-fuel and asking auto companies to produce and promote flex fuel vehicles. Government should encourage those companies who are working for betterment of the environment.
Conclusion:
The marketing plan has been developed after considering all aspects like competitors, budget constraints and insufficient research. The proposed plan includes all marketing elements related to product, target market, marketing communication mix, pricing and distribution channels. The existing support from the government will help the company in producing better quality of product. Company can further gain advantage by introducing more variants of ethanol fuel. Overall the chances of products success are very high with the given plan.
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