Critical Evaluation of Marketing Strategy

MARKET REPORT
Student's Name
Code + Course Name
Professor's Name
University Name
City, State
Date
Introduction
Rainbow is a company dedicated to providing quality products that make people's lives easier and more enjoyable. Our mission is to make the world a better place through innovative products that inspire and empower our customers. Over the years, the company has diversified its product portfolio to include a wide range of products: ROCK, ROSE, and ROAD. Our products are designed to meet the needs of a wide range of customers across all our market segments. We offer competitive prices and discounts to ensure our products are accessible to all. We also provide customer support to ensure our customers receive the help they need when using our products. Our customer testimonials demonstrate our commitment to customer satisfaction and the effectiveness of our products. Our target markets for our products include explorers, shoppers, professionals, high earners, and savers. The explorers are customers who are open to trying new products and exploring different options. They are also willing to take risks and try new things and tend to be price-conscious. Shoppers are customers looking for the best deals and value for their money. They are often bargain hunters who look for sales and discounts.
On the other hand, Savers are customers who prioritize saving money over spending it. They are often focused on getting the most for their money and may be more likely to purchase items on sale. Finally, High earners are customers with the financial means to buy luxury items and high-end products. They are willing to pay more for quality and may be more likely to purchase the latest trends. Our product portfolio has undergone tremendous changes over the years of our operations. We started with ROCK and ROLL products in period zero through period 4, when we introduced the ROAD brand. In addition, in phase 5, we dropped ROLL and at the same time introduced ROAD2. We maintained the three products until period 8 when we dropped ROAD2 and introduced the ROSE brand. Therefore we are currently dealing with ROAD, ROSE, and ROCK.
Regarding pricing development, the products have been experiencing various price changes. The ROCK price ranges from $380 to $550 but is the lowest in the current period. ROAD, however, ranges from $180 to $230, with the lowest initial price. Finally, the ROSE price over the 10 period ranges from $230 to 240, with the lowest current cost. Moreover, our firm has acquired brand positioning through developing new products by investing in consumer surveys, competitive commercial teams, and market forecasts. My team and I also allocated resources toward product promotion through advertising and distribution panels over the ten periods.
Critical Evaluation of Marketing Strategy
My main product of focus in this section and the rest of the work is the ROAD brand which has been part of our company's growth over the years. Therefore, we had to have an effective marketing strategy to make our product successful. For instance, when introducing the product in period four, we increased resource allocation for the competitive commercial team from $16,250 in period 3 to $17,250 in period 4. Similarly, we increased funding for competitive advertising from $32,500 in phase 3 to $34,500 in period 4. Moreover, the decision led to improved product positioning in the market. According to the theory of positioning, positioning creates a unique place for a product or service in the consumer's mind (Kotler et al., 2020). Throughout the period, our product's awareness increased progressively from phase 4 to 10 in all the market segments.
Similarly, branding theory suggests that a brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these elements that identify a product or service and distinguishes it from its competitors (Kotler et al., 2020). Rainbow created a strong brand identity and a loyal customer base through branding. In addition, my team and I used various branding techniques, such as logo design, product packaging, and advertising campaigns, to ensure that we remained a market staple. We also invested in research and development to ensure that our product appeal to customers. For instance, we increased our investment in advertisement experiments and conjoint analysis, resulting in a progressive preference increase by the Savers segment from period 4 to the current chapter. In addition, conjoint analysis funding increased from $38,000 to $40,250 during periods 3 and 4. The research efforts ensured that our products were high-quality, reliable, and affordable.
Therefore, our company has successfully created and marketed the ROAD product through research and development, strategic marketing, and branding initiatives. Consequently, our efforts have contributed to it a product that appeals to a wide range of consumers and managed to maintain its identity and reputation through effective marketing and branding initiatives.
Company Market Information
Following the simulation of the market activities and the release of the industry report, the firm's performance was below the general expectation and behind critical competitors. Despite previous marketing, branding, positioning, and brand awareness strategies, the company still registered unsatisfactory results. Rainbow currently ranks number five out of the significant six industry giants in terms of share price index, volume market share, and net contribution, as shown in (Fig.1). Furthermore, its revenues have decreased by -2.3% (Fig. 2). Thus, it is essential to review the brand-level feedback. Additionally, we have not invested in research and development for the past three years. Our budget for the next period is 9.2 million dollars, the lowest in the industry. Most of our competitors' budgets for the next period range from 9.2 to 26.4 million dollars.
The information concerning our company is worrying. It is clear that the company is not performing well and needs to take action to improve its performance. The lack of R&D for three years or more is a major red flag and could be the underlying cause of the firm's poor performance. Additionally, its budget for the next period is far below the industry average. This indicates that we may not have the resources to improve our operations and compete effectively in the market. Rainbow must review its brand-level feedback and boost its operations to enhance its performance and increase its market share.
After acquiring feedback on the firm's performance, I had to review the market information of our brand, ROAD. Overall, the brand was not performing well. The firm only rates well in the Savers segment, which expects tremendous growth in the future (Fig.4). Therefore, the team has an opportunity to invest in the ROAD brand to retain the largest share in the category (Fig 3). Knowing the product's contribution levels is essential because it shows how much revenue each product or service generates. The knowledge can help us determine which products or services to focus on to maximize its profitability (Fig. 5).
Brand Performance and Possible Solutions
We learned why our strategies were not working for the brand, contributing to poor performance and industry ranking. The market simulation report identified potential drawbacks and proposed possible solutions to increase the ROAD brand's performance. Some of the critical bad decision indicators identified regarding the brand include low perception, limited awareness, purchase intentions, lack of perceptual objective, and ineffective production plan (Fig. 6). Our team didn't allocate sufficient resources to the sales team. Generally, our promotion strategies were not contributing to positive brand performance regarding segment savers.
Regarding the brand not having a good perception in the Savers segment, it indicates that the product is not meeting consumers' expectations. This could be a consequence of our preliminary market research, a lack of focus on product design, display, and features that appeal to customers. In addition, I believe my team and I didn't consider the product dimensions of the brand and perpetual maps when designing our ROAD brand products. To boost ROAD's perception among Savers, we should initiate a research and development (R&D) project to improve the product's design, display, and features (Watanabe et al., 2003). Through research and development, companies in our firm will innovate and create new products or services that meet consumer needs. This can help differentiate a brand from rival entities and create a competitive advantage. In addition, we need to conduct market research to identify Savers' needs and preferences and ensure that ROAD meets their expectations (Mothersbaugh et al., 2020).
The brand's low awareness and purchase intentions compared to other offerings targeted at Savers suggest a need to fix the positioning of ROAD before trying to achieve higher awareness levels. To increase the firm's R&D brand awareness, we must focus more on improving its positioning (Sundaram et al., 1996). We can achieve this objective by conducting market research to understand Savers' needs and preferences and crafting a positioning statement that resonates with the target market. According to Sengupta (2005), positioning creates an image or identity for a brand. Market research can help us to understand the needs and wants of their target audience, allowing them to position their brand in a way that resonates with their target market.
We should implement marketing activities, such as advertising and promotions, to create awareness and drive purchase intentions. We recently failed to develop perceptual objectives for our brand. It implies that the product is not ideally positioned and cannot target the intended consumers (Foroudi, 2019). Therefore, my team and I will have to design measurable, achievable, and relevant market objectives to ensure the brand positions satisfactorily and adequately target the saver market segment (Bilgili and Ozkul, 2015). Consumer behavior is essential in determining brand performance (Shaw and Bagozzi, 2018). In other words, understanding customers’ thinking and act can help the company create marketing campaigns with the target audience's needs. According to Whitler et al. (2021), by interweaving advertising, branding, and marketing theory and practice, companies can create marketing campaigns that effectively use R&D, positioning, market research, product portfolio, lifecycles, contribution levels, and consumer behavior to improve brand performance (Fig. 7).
We also realized we didn't make a good decision concerning production mapping. The production plan was slightly high (98,000 units). Despite the automated reduction (78,000), the final inventory was still too high (1,000 units), indicating that we didn't develop better strategies when managing the same. Generally, we didn't work on ROAD's production plan well. In this case, we need to make a more accurate forecast in production and adjust accordingly to ensure inventory levels are kept at an optimal level (Merkuryeva et al., 2019). We can adapt the manufacturi...