Introduction
Product quality and customer contentment are very significant concepts that organizations have to abide with in order to remain both relevant and competitive in the market (Davis, 2010). This will in-turn steer their growth. Companies need to understand the consumers’ likes and preferences in order to tailor make products and services which will meet their expectations and hence satisfy their wants. Secondly, product quality is considered to be very important because it leads to higher customer satisfaction, profitability, reduced cost, customer loyalty and retention among others. Further, it’s imperative for the service providers to adhere to quality and contentment of their customers. This is because human beings are rational and will always want quality out of their cash. Raab (2003) states the satisfied customers will always be loyal.
In order to capture a wide range of the market, product or service differentiation should be used by company executives. These new and unique products enable a company to have a competitive advantage over their fellow competitors. This is because the business world is dynamic and changes take place each and every day. It is necessary for marketing executives to continuously re-model their products to suite new fashions and design so as to satisfy their clients lest they lose their market (Glowik & Smyczek, 2011).
The quality of a product is in itself a comparison of the consumers’ expectations and the service providers’ performance. It means that service quality relies mainly on the expectations of the consumer. This means that one customer can appreciate the quality of the service offered to him or her while the other will feel dissatisfied with the same quality. This is due to their varied expectations. At the end of the day, it’s the work of the marketing executives through research and development department to tailor make new products which will satisfy the needs of all the potential customers.
Market identification involves targeting the group who are the potential buyers of a given product. Our product in this case is the television digital decoder to be sold in Africa and Asia continents. With most of the governments in these two continents working hard towards meeting a desired digital migration from the analogue to digital televisions by the year 2016, our company should target these potential markets.
This market has got a wide range of characteristics first being high levels of poverty. Most people in our target market live in abstract poverty and hence they cannot afford more expensive decoders which are already available in the market such as DSTV serviced by MultiChoice, a South African company. It’s therefore prudent for our company to design decoders which are cost effective and hence affordable to most people in our market.
Secondly, a greater percentage of the customers are semi illiterate and do not have a high understanding of technology. Due to this condition, it is advisable for our company to design decoders which are simple to use. The product has got in-built automatic upgrade software which routinely scans for the new updates and thereafter installs them. This will save a greater majority of our customers who do not even understand basic computer operations.
Additionally, a larger percentage of the population are the youth and children. The income earners in the economy are the youth. They are the ones who provide goods and services for their large families. This means that they are heavily pulled by the high dependency ratio caused by high rates of HIV/AIDS. The company should come up with favourable costs which will not make the youth shy from purchasing the product. On the other hand, children love watching educative programs, cartoons and action movies. We have made agreements with several service providers who will air these three main categories of programs. This will enable us to meet the desires of the children who happen to fall in our target market.
As well, the target market has a long established believe on the brand. This will automatically trigger acceptance of our new product: third world generation decoders into the already established market. Over the years, our company policy has been to provide affordable, durable and efficient electronic appliances. Through this, we have won the loyalty of many customers, and we are continuing to expand our market coverage. These third world generation decoders are highly effective since they have got very powerful antennas which enable clear transmission of many television channels. This will even increase the already gained customer trust in these two continents.
Market segmentation
Market segmentation involves further division of an already identified target market based on various needs. Alluding from the African proverb which says that an individual’s fingers are not the same in size, it is common sense that people or groups of people are unique. The various market segments are distinctive and should be dealt with differently. In this case, the company should have two market segments to cater for the rich and middle income earners. Most of the rich people stay in the urban areas where there is adequate provision of essential needs such electricity, water, education, health care and easy access to food. On the other hand, the poor stay in their rural homes where there is no easy access to the above mentioned services. In fact, there is totally no access to electricity in some rural homes in Africa and Asia.
Likewise, the solar third world generation decoders are intended for those who stay in the up country where there is lower flow of income. This can be backed by the tendency of most the youthful people going to seek for employment opportunities in the cities hence leaving the elderly and children back at their homes. For those who often opt to stay in their rural homesteads, they are always victims of circumstances and have to abide by the situations in the ground: lack of stable or no electricity. After a thorough market research, our company decided to design the solar driven third world generation decoders. These decoders use very small power output as compared with the ones tailor-made for the urban centres segment. Above and beyond that, the solar powered third world generation decoders are chargeable by both electricity and the natural sun. For instance when an individual with the solar powered third world generation decoder goes to the urban centre, he or she will be able to charge the appliance with electricity and later on top it up with the natural solar energy while at their rural homes.
Differentiated target marketing strategy
The company should adopt a differentiated or rather selective target marketing strategy in order to reach out for its two market segments effectively. This type of target marketing is very useful in a situation where different market segments have got their distinctive characteristics and needs (Baye, 2001). In this case, the two market segments have got conspicuous differences and hence the need to be dealt with separately. The use of this strategy will even further make our customers to be more loyal to our brand by the provision of products which meet their needs. It is always believed that a satisfied customer will always go back and buy the same product the sooner his or her need may arise.
Further, this technique always helps companies in spreading their risks. The profitability of any company is dependent on very many variables: internal and external factors. A business has no control over its external factors and hence can just try to realign itself in order to continue in operation. In cases of uncertainties, a firm will not lose entirely because one of the several market segments could be productive and hence subsidise the loss of the others.
Product positioning strategy
This strategy helps a company to differentiate its products from the already existing ones in the market. For instance, our company has designed two different types of third world generation decoders which have never been manufactured by any company in existence. This makes our product unique in the market and several people will be lured to try using our new gadget. At long last, this will increase both our sales and the profitability index.
Moreover, our company enjoys a long period of customers trust in all our market segments due to the high quality of our products and the brand name. The customers with an already fixed positive mentality towards a given brand will always insist on buying products manufactured by that particular company.
Both functionality and relevance of a particular product will also determine the number of customers who will be lured to use a new product in the market. After a precise evaluation of the customers’ needs by our research and development department, the company tailor-made decoders which will exactly meet the desires and the economic capabilities of our potential buyers. The product has got a 99 percent proven level of efficiency. In cases of extreme malfunction, it is our company policy to replace the product within the first month of purchase. Likewise, our company has a well elaborate warranty policy where products are replaced within a period of two years since its purchase. Last but not the least; our company has got technicians in all our countries of operations who always help our esteemed customers in repair of the destroyed appliances at a cheaper price. This is what makes us unique from our fellow competitors in the electronics market.
Marketing mix strategy
Product
Our third world generation decoders are appliances used alongside televisions to transmit television channels. The product has good quality transmission of pictures compared to the analogue televisions, a parental control kit which restricts children from watching unworthy programs, an integrated television guide which enables users to program his or her gadget, and automatic software upgrades which downloads and installs new programs. In addition, our product is portable in size and helps our customers. This helps them in movement convenience.
Our new product name is the third world generation decoders. It is further designed into two categories depending on the power usage: electricity powered third world generation decoders and the solar driven third world generation decoders. The reasoning behind the naming of this product is that it was specifically designed for the developing countries which are currently at the helm of digital migration. Moreover, the source of power that the gadget is using has also been used when it comes to mentioning of the product.
The products are packed into green sizable boxes. Green is a sign of hope and life. Our company believes that there is a great potential in the two continents: Africa and Asia which needs to be tapped. They provide a wider market base as compared to the other continents in the world where we run our operations due to their numerical strengths.
Place
Our distribution channel will be by the use of authorised agents. Manufacturing is done at our headquarters in the United States, and we have got regionally offices based on the geographical allocations of our target market. The distribution process of our product kicks off at the industry. In every nation where we sell our products, we have country offices which receive our products from the regional offices. Our agents are strategically placed in almost all the nations within our target group. These agents further supply the product to the dealers and retail traders who in turn sell to customers.
This distribution channel is very essential in the distribution of highly fragile products (Blythe, 2006). Our decoders can easily be damaged when they are not handled properly. Secondly, this distribution channel is cost effective and helps trim down unnecessary costs which would have been transferred to the consumers. These two issues make this distribution channel for our product ideal.
Price
Our company employs polycentric pricing strategy. This is pricing technique where global companies divide its market based on the country of origin of its customers (Schindler, 2012). The use of this technique accommodates the difference in economic conditions of the concerned markets. These customers are further subdivided in accordance with their preferences and specific desire for certain services. This is essential towards the realization of maximum returns in each market segment.
Promotion
Product promotion basically involves a company’s effort towards increasing its sales. In our situation, internet marketing will be very ideal for us. As earlier stated, a greater percentage of our target markets are the youth who have gotten access to internet enabled mobile phones. They are always at par with the technology, and this is proves to be a good platform for advertising our product. Secondly, our product can be also advertised via the radios because most of the people in these countries own personal radios. This brings the intended information closer home as quick as possible to the intended market.
Works Cited
Blythe, Jim. Marketing. London: SAGE Publications, 2006.
Baye, Michael R.. Advertising and differentiated products. Amsterdam: JAI, 2001.
Davis, John. Competitive success: how branding adds value. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley, 2010.
Glowik, Mario, and Slawomir Smyczek. International marketing management: strategies, concepts and cases in Europe. München: Oldenbourg, 2011.
Raab, Gerhard. Customer relationship management a global perspective. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Gower, 2008.
Schindler, Robert. Pricing strategies: a marketing approach. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, Inc, 2012.
