Marketing Strategies & Tactics Plan
Product Strategies
Spain is famous for some of the best eyewear brands across the globe. The Spanish market is well-developed with respect to product features; therefore, it is highly prospective that the low-priced eyewear would be warmly welcomed by the eyewear consumers. However, the intense rivalry also imposes the apprehension for Warby Parker that its products need to be extraordinarily distinguished and should have an affordable price. Warby Parker will allure different type of customers with a blend of optical, sun wears and fashion wears along with specialty made spectacles. In order to enhance brand visibility, Warby Parker will also offer key chains and other eyewear accessories such as spectacle cases that also embellish the Warby Parker logo. Additionally, the product will be renamed in the Spanish language. Warby Parker will offer a trendy collection of designer eyewear as the market has already intense rivalry and developed preference of consumers. Additionally, Warby Parker needs to consistently add new product features in order to compete at its best (Hollensen, 2015).
Pricing Strategies
Pricing is one of the most significant factors of the marketing mix as it tends to affect product features, demand, and consumption. In Spain, pricing of Warby Parker products tends to be affected by government regulations, consumer bargaining power, bargaining power of intermediaries, intensity of competition and export pricing. Spain has numerous eyewear businesses including local supplier and international labels. Therefore, Warby Parker is also obliged to follow the status quo of the pricing. However, Warby Parker has already decided to maintain prices lower than the status quo. One of the major competitors for Warby Parker in Spain is Luxottica Ibérica SA, which leads the market with 13% market share followed by ESSILOR, Costa, Valeant, Bausch + Lomb, Marcolin, Viva, Laveta Eyewear and Optim. This shows that Warby Parker must also maintain the lower market price to steal the market share and develop the consumer base (Euromonitor, 2016). Initially, Warby Parker will follow the ‘Penetrating Pricing’ strategy by keeping the prices lower than the competitors. This will help to enhance brand awareness and will contribute towards brand visibility. Furthermore, pricing discounts and quantity discounts will also be offered to encourage sales. While selling spectacles in Spain, it should be kept in mind that selling eyewear is cheap and easy but the profit margins are low (Hollensen, 2015).
Distribution Strategies
Spanish eyewear industry is dense with high availability of products. The Spanish market has numerous competitors in the market with various product options available to customers. This calls Warby Parker for rigorous distribution strategy, which means that its products should be frequently available. In order to do so, Warby Parker would sell through its selective shops located at all the busy and commercial shopping areas while also setting up kiosk shops in the top supermarkets. Selective distribution would also be suitable for the reason that if Warby Parker would make claims of low prices, the demand would definitely go up and if the products won’t be available in the market, customers would tend to switch to other eyewear. Therefore, in order to capture the market, Warby Parker products should be frequently available to the consumers. Warby Parker will outsource market research to a local marketing agency in order to acquire authentic data and figures.
Warby Parker will initially target cities and region where the demand for spectacles is high. Simultaneously, the products will also be sold to other cities through Warby Parker’s website for ensuring that the products are efficiently distributed and easily accessible to customers. Moreover, Warby Parker will also sell through the direct market channels i.e. its website. In order to avoid stock out and shortage situation, Warby Parker will lease out a warehouse, which will be used as a central distribution center for managing sufficient stock in the rest of the regions. Warby Parker will also develop an alliance with Fed-Ex for delivering fragile products with appropriate packaging across the country (Hollensen, 2015).
Promotional Strategies
Warby Parker will use an integrated and comprehensive promotional strategy to endorse its brand. Primary objectives of promotional activities would be directed towards enhancing brand visibility and product awareness among the Spanish consumers. Since Market has numerous competitors, Warby Parker will employ Push strategy that will focus on stimulating sales. Warby Parker will use a well-defined set of integrated promotional sources, which include local TV advertisements, special discount offers, content marketing, social media marketing and viral marketing. Warby Parker will also rely on celebrity endorsement through its advertisement hosting famous Spanish stars and celebrities. Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and a Warby Parker blog would be the social media sources that would be used for Warby Parker’s promotion (Hollensen, 2015).
Positioning Strategies
Warby Parker would position its brand of designer eyewear with high-quality products and branded labels. Warby Parker’s core idea of business is to offer a trendy and fashionable designer eyewear at the most affordable price in relation to their market competitors. However, the market is dense with numerous market players ranging from small local businesses and e-retailing options to renowned international brands. Therefore, it is necessary to appeal the customers through distinctive product features i.e. revolutionary price, unique designs and high value offered to them. Therefore, Warby Parker will position itself as a high-quality product that are offered at the fraction of the existing market price of substitute market offerings. Secondly, Warby Parker would highlight the factors that its eyewear products have high quality as they tend to directly involve customers by evading the traditional distribution channels. This would help Warby Parker to offer high product quality and superior looking prescription spectacles. Well-defined product positioning is highly significant for Warby Parker specifically while marketing in Spain, because there are lots of competitors that are targeting similar consumer base (West et.al, 2015).
f. Control & Assessment of Marketing Plan
Controlling the marketing plan can be very challenging, particularly while entering the international market in the beginning. Controlling, monitoring, and assessment of a marketing plan is critical as marketers tend to lose their focus, direction, and cost from the estimated statistics. Therefore, controlling and assessment frameworks are vital to making certain that the marketing endeavors are steady and are in line with the organization's short-term and long-term goals. Warby Parker would control and assess the marketing plan in the following areas;
Annual Plan Control: Warby Parker will set annual objectives that will be measured annually on the basis of total sales, sales volume, quantity exported, resources, budget, revenues, profitability and annual expenditures. These objectives would facilitate Warby Parker understanding its performance against other competitive landscapes in Spanish eyewear businesses.
Profitability Control: Warby Parker will also assess its financial performance monthly, biannually and annually, as well as, after the completion of every project. This would make sure that the business is meeting its financial targets. Apparently, this would also help Warby Parker Spain finding out its ROI, inventory turnover, profit margins and return on assets (Hollensen, 2015).
Productivity Control: Warby Parker will evaluate the productivity level and operational effectiveness related to communication mediums, distribution channels, sales drive by reviewing output and synchronization between financial performance and production level.
Strategic Control: Warby Parker will assess the efficacy of strategic alignment with the core business goals in order to ensure that the existing strategies are stringently aligned with the objectives (West et.al, 2015).
References
Euromonitor. Official Website. (2016) Data Retrieved From http://www.euromonitor.com/spectacles-in-spain/report on March 5, 2016
Hollensen, S. (2015). Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education. Retrieved From https://findresearcher.sdu.dk:8443/ws/files/108612027/Marketing_Management_3e_Suggested_lecture_plan_2015.docx on March 5, 2016
Warby Parker (2016) Official Website. Data Retrieved From https://www.warbyparker.com/ on March 5, 2016
West, D., Ford, J., & Ibrahim, E. (2015). Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage. Oxford University Press. Retrieved From https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Keith_Brouthers/publication/260755797_SME_Entrepreneurial_Orientation_International_Performance_and_the_Moderating_Role_of_Strategic_Alliances/links/54a66e860cf267bdb90845ea.pdf on March 5, 2016
