Marketing Strategy and Plan Call - IN

Question: Describe about the Marketing Strategy and Plan of Call - IN? Answer: Introduction Call-IN provides the customers with high quality smart phones and software devices. Call-IN aims at producing one of the high quality products along with the latest technology incorporated into the devices. The latest devices will have operating systems of both the Windows phones as well as the Android technology. Branding strategy The rising phenomenon of the smart phones in the industry has made it quite difficult for the new entrants in the market to survive in the market. To keep the company floating, Call-IN has to implement some unique branding strategies to highlight the products in the market. Call-IN will design a unique logo and incorporate an attractive tagline to attract the customers to the products. In addition to this, another feature that will attract the customers towards the product is the hard body and unique glass of the phone that would not allow the phones to break or scratch, which is nowadays the most common disadvantage of any smart phones (Cadogan, 2009). Pricing strategy Initially, Call-IN will provide smart phones at a relatively cheaper price than other companies. The flexible pricing strategy of the phones will help the company to attract the customers in the initial stage. It will be an advantage for the company as smart phones nowadays come at the relatively high price (Ferrell Hartline, 2011). Distribution strategy To attract large strata of customers, the sure shot plan that Call-IN can apply is taking the customers from economic background under the distribution plan. Just by targeting the high-end customers while promoting the phones would not help Call-IN in the initial phase. Hence, Call-IN will develop phones that will satisfy the need of the rich customers as well as the customers who cannot afford costly phones (Friend Zehle, 2009). Marketing strategy Inter-Competitors When two or more companies manufacture similar products, it gives rise to inter-competition. The other mobile phones manufacturing companies in the United States will be the inter-competitors for Call-IN (Hooley, Piercy Nicoulaud, 2012). Intra-Competitors The distribution channels that sell the products of various companies give rise to intra-competitors. The discount or offers given by one retailer can be different from the offers given by the other dealers. Call-IN plans to control the intra-competitors by keeping a check upon the distribution channels that are selling the products. By constant inspection of the distribution channels and putting a fair price for the products, Call-In can control the intra completion to some extent (Jain, 2011). However, the strongest competitor in the market for Call-IN is Apple. The greatest strength of Apple is the time period and the trust of the people that the company has gained in the time period with the unmatched technology and services by Apple. However, the weakness of Apple is the compatibility problem with the Apple products with the other devices. In addition to this the constant up gradation of the products, prevent the customers with an economic budget to buy Apple products (Jain Haley, 2009). Differentiation strategy The biggest strength of Call-IN will be to provide the customers with phones with relatively lesser price than any other competitors in the market. The unique features of the phone will help the customers to connect the phone with any devices and hence increase the accessibility of the phone. Any company wants to be the leader any field that the company works. However to be the efficient leader, Call-IN will initially start the journey as a follower and evaluate the path of the leaders. Once call-in learns about the techniques and ways of operation from the leaders, it will operate like the leaders to become a leader in the market itself (Kotler Keller, 2012). Level of impact for the macro-environmental issues Legal Whenever a company starts functioning in the market the foremost thing that the company should keep in mind is the legal aspects of the market. Call-IN should adhere to the consumer act, employee act, health and safety act and so on. As call-in is new to the market, there are high chance that the competitors will monitor each and every action of the company and hence, Call-IN needs to be extra careful (Kumar, 2010). Technological Call-in should not disappoint the customers with the old version of technology or applications. The applications that will be there on the phone would be upgraded and the current version installed on the phones Social The application should not have any nook or fault that it gives out any valuable information that an individual might store. Nowadays there are various applications that require personal data. The application should be secured enough so that the users do no face any adverse issues (Shankar Carpenter, 2012). Economic The global market share of the mobile companies is currently in a good state; as a result it is a favorable condition for Call-IN to launch in the market. Consumers are also trying out new smart phones that are available in the market; hence it will be a good start for Call-IN In addition to the regular marketing tool for surveying the people about the mobile phones and the problems that the consumer are facing with the current smart phones, call-in will also take the help of American fact finder to know about the market. The surveys will help call-in to know about the problems that the people are facing with smart phones, and call-in will take required measures to make the phones free from those problems (Lovelock Wirtz, 2011). Implementation strategy Time period Actions Jan 2015 Feb 2015 Mar 2015 Apr-July 2015 Sept 2015 Oct 2015-Dec 2015 Planning Market Research Check the available resources Challenge the product with the other products Launch the product Post launch evaluation Expansion plan Call-in has prepared a five-year expansion plan to monitor the market share as well as the profitability of the company. Call-in has prepared a forecast to increase the market share by 26% by the end of the year 2019. Figure 1. Graphical representation of the market share growth of cal-in in the next five years In addition to this, call-in has implemented a plan to increase the profitability b y 17% within the next five years Figure 2. Graphical representation of the profitability growth of the company in the next five years Social media strategy To promote the products in the market, social media is one of the best platforms. However, to promote the products in the social media, call-in need to implement various social media tools. Social networking site The social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter offer various advertising plans for the companies who wants to promote the products through the networking site. The companies can post the advertisement free or can pay for the advertisement to highlight them whenever a user logs in (Walker Mullins, 2011). Blogging In addition to the social networking sites, the blog posts help the companies to promote the products. The additional advantage of the blog post is that the company can write long or short descriptions as well as personalize the advertisements. There is no fixed pattern that the company needs to follow in blogging. Monitoring methods Monitory methods Taking customer feedback Call-in will ask for customers to give a feedback about the product after 1 month of use. The survey should be done through email so that the customer can give feedback about the product according to the individuals ease Calculate the numbers The number of sales is the ultimate method to monitor the performance of the product. Hence, by checking the number of sale of handsets from the dealers will help call-in to keep a check on the sales (Zou Fu, 2011). Performance standards Battery life By judging the battery life of the phone will give an idea to Call-IN about the performance of the phone as compared to other phones Compatibility By evaluating the compatibility of the phone with other devices will help call-in to measure the performance standards of the phone. Financial controls Control on Promotion Call-in can control the finances by monitoring the expenditures on promotion. Undoubtedly, as the company is a new entrant in the market promotions is required. However, call-in should create advertisement that do not exceed the budget Import To incorporate import of products if the cost of import is lesser than the cost of production Integrated marketing communication strategy Integrated marketing communication helps any company to design and promote the products through various advertisements, hoardings or print media. To promote the products, call-in can incorporate the idea of cheap smart phones to promote the products in the society. Call-in can base the advertisements campaigns in rural areas as well as urban areas. By basing the advertisements in both the locations, the idea that will be conveyed to the audience is that Call-IN smart phones do not discriminate among users. On the one hand people from the rural areas can use as well as people from the urban areas Conclusion As Call-IN is the new product in the block, the company has to take possible safety measure to give the products a safe launch. However, some of the key features of the phone, like the presence of two operating systems, hard body, better screen quality and compatibility will provide the Call-IN with a good start. References Cadogan, J. (2009). Marketing strategy. London: SAGE. Ferrell, O., Hartline, M. (2011). Marketing strategy. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Friend, G., Zehle, S. (2009). Guide to business planning. New York: Bloomberg Press. Hooley, G., Piercy, N., Nicoulaud, B. (2012). Marketing strategy competitive positioning. Harlow, England: Pearson Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Jain, S. (2011). Marketing. South Melbourne, Vic.: Cengage Learning Australia. Jain, S., Haley, G. (2009). Marketing planning and strategy. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning. 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