Marketing is distinguished by effective communication between the producer or the seller to the customers, with an objective of offering their services, or selling their products to them (Kotler, 2008). In most cases, communication is vital, simply because customers get the knowledge about a product or service through communication. Therefore, marketers do all they can to reach to their customers efficiently, and offer the product or services they have for them to get their goal, which is selling and making money. Therefore, the discussion hereunder will identify the marketing plan for Cycle-Gen, which is a pedal power for the bike.
Promotion
In order to make the cycle-gen known to as many people as possible, promotion will be necessary (Chandon et al., 2000). To begin with, there will be promotional messages that will describe what cycle-gen for bike is, as well as its significance, and this message will be persuasive so as to increase the anxiety for people to have these bicycles. Therefore, the promotional messages will highlight that cycle-gen are generators that are made specifically for the bicycle. They ensure that the bike can move on its own without necessarily having a person to propel it. They also ensure an ease especially in a rough road as mountainous places. Therefore, they make people enjoy the hiking with bikes without getting tired. They are also efficient for aged people who have the passion to ride a bicycle but they lack the power to propel the pedals. Besides, they are efficient to both males and females, as well as to the young generation who have the anxiety and passion for bikes.
When it comes to promotion, offers are still important to increase the marketability. Therefore, the best offer will be to organize a racing with normal bikes for people of all ages and both sexes, and then to offer free cycle-gen bikes to the winners. Alternatively, once the bikes are out in the market, they can be sold at a slightly low cost for the first one week, and for every person that buys more than one bike, he or she will be given spares free of charge.
Placement
In marketing, channels are the activities distinguished by the transfer of goods from their point of production to their final user (Kotler et al., 2015). There are many channels all of which are meant to take the cycle-gen from their point of production to the final user, who is the consumer. The most common and efficient channels will be;
Direct selling
Selling via intermediaries
Dual distribution
Direct selling involves selling the cycle-gen to the end users directly from the producers especially through the internet (Parasuraman & Zinkhan, 2002). Selling via intermediaries includes wholesalers and retailers who reach the customers that cannot be reached by the production company (Rosenbloom, 2012). Dual distribution entails using more than one way to reach the product to the final user, for instance, through direct selling to the final user (Duffy, 2005) or associating with another company, sell at a lower price and then the company to resale it at a higher price to make a distinguished profit (Rosenbloom, 2012).
The roles of these channels is to reach as many people as possible, and to sell the cycle-gen to even those people who have no access to the producing company. Doing this will automatically diverge the satisfaction of customers to have the cycle-gen even in the remote places. Besides, the forecast of this placement will guarantee security where customers get the cycle-gen without necessarily going to the producing company, and this will automatically increase the sales as well as profit. In some cases, involving intermediaries registers less profit, but it is the best thing because intermediaries help to reach to as many customers as the company could not have reached on its own, and therefore, it makes a profit that it could not have made without them (Jorgensen, Sigure & Zaccour, 2000).
References
Chandon, P., Wansink, B., & Laurent, G. (2000). A benefit Congruency Framework of Sales Promotion Effectiveness. Journal of marketing, 64(4), 65-81.
Duffy, D. L. (2005). Direct Selling as the Next Channel. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 22(1), 43-45.
Jørgensen, S., Sigue, S. P., & Zaccour, G. (2000). Dynamic Cooperative Advertising in a Channel. Journal of retailing, 76(1), 71-92.
Kotler, P. (2008). Principles of marketing. Pearson Education India.
Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L., & Armstrong, G. (2015).Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Parasuraman, A., & Zinkhan, G. M. (2002). Marketing to and Serving Customers through the Internet: An overview and research agenda. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30(4), 286-295.
Rosenbloom, B. (2012). Marketing Channels. Cengage Learning.
