Lint Clothing Limited Company's Branding, Pricing, and Distribution Strategy
Assignment 3: Part C: Your Marketing Plan
Due Week 8 and worth 280 points
From the start of this course, you have accessed the Interactive Marketing Plan tool and used the step-by-step guide to complete Part C of your marketing plan. You are required to submit a marketing plan for a hypothetical product-based company. Your plan must include the company's social media strategy, and information collected from Steps 6-7 of the Interactive Marketing Plan, located in the course shell. Note: Some elements may not be covered in the Interactive Marketing Plan and will require additional research.
Note: You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.
Write a six to seven (6-7) page paper in which you:
Develop the company's branding, pricing, and distribution strategy.
Provide the following marketing strategy information:
Classify the company's major competitors as inter- or intra-competitors. Categorize the competitors' major strengths and weaknesses.
Develop the differentiation strategy in relation to the closest competitor.
Establish whether the company's intention is to be a leader or follower within the industry.
Assess the level of impact that the salient macro-environmental issues (e.g., legal, technological, social, and economic, etc.) and trends with which the company must contend could potentially have on the company's marketing strategy.
Discuss the marketing research tools that you used in your marketing strategy.
Construct an implementation strategy for your hypothetical company in which you specify the essential activities and responsibilities. Include a timetable for completion of each component of your strategy.
Develop a five (5) year expansion plan that includes future profitability and market share growth. Include necessary graphs to explain your plan.
Specify two (2) social media and / or media tools that you would use as you develop your plan. Justify each of your chosen tools.
Choose two (2) performance standards, two (2) monitory methods, and two (2) financial controls that you would implement that differ from the standards that you had provided in Assignment 1. Justify your choices.
Assess the potential for your company's overall performance in relation to the marketing plan objectives.
Suggest the integrated marketing communications that are most relevant for your marketing plan. Relate each marketing communication to your company's advertising strategy.
Use at least five (5) academic resources that address sustainability and monitoring of effective marketing plans and determine the applicability for your hypothetical company. These resources should be industry specific and relate to your chosen product / service. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the professor's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
Develop strategies to assess performance and achieve marketing goals.
Develop pricing strategies and distribution channels for products.
Analyze integrated marketing communications and its relationship to advertising strategy.
Design customer satisfaction evaluation processes and quality assurance measurements.
Evaluate marketing research tools involved in the marketing process.
Use technology and information resources to research issues in marketing management.
Write clearly and concisely about marketing management using proper writing mechanics.
Name
Affiliation
Executive summary
Lint Clothing Limited Company was founded in 2010, by three college friends namely; Mark Anthony, Anna Cain and Andy West. The trio had started working after leaving campus but two of them had to quit so that they could concentrate on building their company. The three friends developed a business plan, where they targeted joining the clothing industry specifically with respect to outdoor clothing with a universal appeal. They all had a strong passion for outdoor sports and regularly participated. As such the business plan was quite natural for them and this gave them great focus. The product line for the company is quite explicit of their passion. The main products; include baseball caps, cotton t-shirts, vests, fleece jackets, scuffs and sweaters. The company specializes in outdoor clothing for persons that love venturing into nature and the sports associated. The company targets clients that enjoy their time outside and those that are professionals in the fields of mountain climbing, bicycling, horse-riding, camping, kayaking, skating and skiing. The clothing comes in different colors for the customers to choose from and at the same time there are women wear, men wear and unisex wear. This is part of the marketing plan that the company is going to implement in the next five years as it expands within the local market and the new American market (Easey, 2009). As part of the expansion plans, the company is going to establish a manufacturing plant in California at the cost of $3 billion dollars. It is also going to establish twenty more chain stores, five of which will be within England and the rest in California. These will set the company back some $1billion dollars. The company also plans to launch a company website in California to assist its clients; this will also be linked to the social media websites (Richter, 2012). To encourage more potential customers to participate in outdoor activities, the company will also launch promotional campaigns in the form of competitions and conservational activities (Lacobucci, 2014).
Competition
The competition in the industry is quite high and the company will facing off with some of the top brands. In both countries, outdoors activities are quite common and there have been companies that have taken much of the niche. Some of the main brands in the United Kingdom include; Berghaus, Higear, North Ridge, Regatta and Rab among many others. In America the company will be competing with well-established companies such as The North Face, Black Diamond, Prana, Marmot, Volcom, Oakley and Dakine among others. All these competitors can be categorized as inter-competitors as they are dealing different brands and which have been differentiated from each other. It means that consumers would be willing to pay a higher price for a specific brand. In this market intends to behave like a price follower where it will waiting for the other brands to set their prices and then take advantage of that information in order to set its price.
Lint clothing company stands for quality, reliability and best prices in the market. As such the company is looking to produce products that are of high quality at the most competitive prices in the market (Finskud, 2009). The company is going to take a niche in the high quality brands category but will not charge the customers a premium much like most of the competition who charge high costs due to their brand names (Richter, 2012). For the purposes of ensuring that the different brands are selling freely in their market segments, the logos will be the same across all the brands. This way the company can easily take the identity of the products. At the same time the customers will be in a position to associate with the logo as a mark of quality across all the product lines (Finskud, 2009). To ensure that the logo is descriptive and the subtle yet simple, the company will use the famous eagle with its wings spread out taking to flight and with the talons showing. While the eagle’s beak and the talons will be colored yellow, the rest of the body will be black with streaks of white to signify the body features and contours. Below the eagle the logo will feature the famous company’s logo statement ‘Nature Play’.
The brand names on the other hand will be customized to the product lines (Finskud, 2009). This will ensure that the brands under the company do not cannibalize one another and the higher quality brands such as those for the professionals are not diluted in the process. As for the slogan, it will be standard to signify the company’s commitment to quality and outdoor activities. ‘Live your life and be one with nature’ will be slogan across all the product lines and brands (Finskud, 2009). As part of the brand extension, the company is going to bring out custom branding for luggage and clothing (Lacobucci, 2014). This will mean that customers can older their branding and patents on the same. This strategy is going to attract a segment of the market that would prefer to use their own creations on the products lines. The market has not had custom clothing at competitive prices and the company looks at comman...