Marketing Plan
Marketing plan helps in highlighting marketing strategy. It usually includes the company’s marketing and advertising goals. It is also important to include a description of its position when it comes to marketing (Ferrell and Hartline, 2017). Another aspect to include in the marketing plan is the company’s marketing strategy.
Marketing strategy is used by a company to create customer value and gain profit. When developing a marketing strategy, there are various factors that a company needs to consider. First step is product-market definition as well as analysis (Shankar and Carpenter, 2012). A business should ensure that it develops a marketing strategy by setting marketing objectives. They should match the business objectives as well as goals. It is important to define product-market structures and distribution analysis. The industry’s market structure is oligopoly (Merzoni, 2010). The structure includes few firms that create competition. Mainly, the competition leads to increased prices. Some companies may decide to collaborate while others compete against each other.
Another characteristic of this type of structure is that at times companies may sell the same products. However, some businesses may choose to differentiate their products. There are different photo studios competing against each other. The include Barrett and Coe Cardiff which is among photo studios located in Cardiff. It is owned and managed by Bernie Ramsay in 2012. Its services include baby pictures, pet, family and commercial photography. Another photo studio is Venture Studios is another photography studio in the UK (Barrett & Coe Cardiff, 2020). Photographers working for the business have different character and passion and they utilize this to create great stories for their clients. Magenta Studios is another photography studio in Cardiff (Magenta Studios, 2020). It focuses on product photography. It has over fourteen years of experience and their employees have great experience in photography.
Our company differentiates its products by giving our clients high quality photos as well as great experience. The features of our photos include the style that the photo is taken and a background with different props. Also, it includes a sharply defined image. The photographs meet the clients’ needs.
Apart from giving our clients quality products, our company will also ensure that the photos are delivered on time. Another important element to consider is the pricing of the photos. Our company is focused on giving our clients affordable prices. We will have different packages at a reasonable price. The company offers high-quality photos customized to the clients’ need. The value of the products is viewed in its premium prices. We will offer different packages for our clients. For instance, there will be different packages for family portraits. They include package one whereby the client will be offered all digital files from the photo session. Also, they will be offered 11 prints of any size up to A4 and a huge framed print. Pricing for the package near Cardiff is £599, therefore, our company will offer a slightly lower price of £570 for the package (Gemma Griffiths Photography, 2019). The second package will include all digital files from the photo session. Also, they will be offered 11 prints of any size up to A4, it will cost £440. The third package will include 11 prints and 9 matching digital images which will cost £340.
Marketing strategy also involves market targeting. It is important to assess the effectiveness of each market segment. Mainly an organization targets a market that it can easily gain clients and generate profit. In case a company has limited resources it can choose to target small segments.
Our company targets market includes families as well as college graduates. In 2018, Cardiff was ranked as the most populated city in Wales. It had about 364,000 residents, in 2018, the city had 2,585.2 persons per square kilometre (Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Government, 2020). Cardiff also registered highest population growth over the last decade as it raised by 9.5%. The company will mainly target female professional clients as they make purchase decisions in the family, teenagers and college students. The group is likely to order pictures regularly.
Another target group is families as they are more likely to take photos as a way of preserving memories. Today, many people use their phones to take photos as they have become digital. However, most of them are low quality, instead, of having a physical album they prefer preserving them on their phones. This has had negative impact on professional photography as there are many amateur photographers. Our company will target on giving our clients good quality pictures. We will invest in high-quality equipment that will revolutionize the market.
Market segmentation is another factor that will be considered in marketing plan. There are various environmental factors that characterizes the photography industry in the UK. For our company to succeed we will consider the physical environment. Individuals are always looking for photo studios that offer great services. Another environmental factor that should be considered by a company is economic factors (Kurtz et al., 2010). A company’s operations is also affected by social factors and technological factors. A company’s strategy is affected by external environment. Therefore, our business will strive to offer great services and products. We will ensure that our clients are satisfied with the services offered and they refer more clients.
Another aspect that our company will consider is advertising strategy. Companies have different approach to advertising. Small and medium-sized organization hire sales and marketing team that are involved in overseeing the advertisement process. However, big companies have advertising departments that carry out their advertisement. It is important for a company to have an advertising strategy (Kurtz et al., 2010). In this case, an organization needs to develop an advertising approach that will help achieve its aim. It should come up with advertising objectives. For instance, an organisation’s advertising objective may be for informative purposes. Its aim might be to inform consumers about a new product and to create demand. It can focus on describing services that are offered or communicating customer value. Our company’s advertisement will be informative. We will focus on telling the general people about a new product being introduced in the market. Therefore, we will use informative advertising.
Persuasive advertising is another marketing objective. It helps in building selective demand for a product through persuading client that its of great quality (Kurtz et al., 2010). A company can use the approach to persuade clients to buy their products and refer other clients. For instance, our company can use advertisements to persuade clients to book our shoots. We can assure them we offer great services and our products are of great quality.
Reminder advertising is another approach to advertisement. Companies mainly use the approach to maintain clients’ relationship and increase customer retainment (Kurtz et al., 2010). The aim is to ensure that the customer remembers the product.
The company will use direct marketing. It will help in creating great relations with the clients especially when introducing new services in the market. A company can use different approaches such as emails and telephone to market their products. We will have an official business website that will include packages offered and pricing. Clients can book photo sessions through the website. Additionally, customers can use the platform to ask questions related to the services offered. They can also purchase a voucher for family members or friends. Clients will be offered a chance to view the photos before they are printed. Their insights will be highly appreciated. Also, we will email clients in case we introduce new products in the market. Nevertheless, we will ensure that our clients’ privacy is well-guarded. Their information will not be shared with a third party and will be used for marketing purposes only.
Today, most people prefer digital photographs whereby, they can send digital images on the internet. Dijck (2008) maintains that taking photographs is not all about keeping memory to safeguard family’s pictorial heritage. Instead, it is a tool for personal identity formation and communication. Many people especially the youths share images as experiences. They use photographs as a way to pass messages and bond with their friends. Therefore, the company will focus on creating great experience for their clients and generate a memorable story especially for teenagers.
Digital cameras are fast replacing traditional cameras. People can use phones to take picture. In most cases, digital photos can be uploaded on the social media platforms as well as be sent through the email (Dijck, 2008). Photo studios have moved their business to the digital platforms. Therefore, they can easily edit and process the pictures. In most cases, families take photos to preserve memories. Today, some families take photos using their cameras or phones. However, they seek the help of professional photographers when they want high quality pictures.
There are various medium of advertisement that we can use to advertise our products. Print media is one of the oldest medium used by organisations and individuals. It includes newspaper advertisments, journals, magazine ads and flyers. Newspaper advertisement is the most popular medium and it is considered efficient way of advertising. Nevertheless, it can be expensive, hence, small companies may not afford. Magazines are also used to advertise products. Their conversion rate is high; therefore, it is an effective medium to reach out to more clients. Nevertheless, it is expensive compared to newspaper due to high quality print. Also, their target market makes magazines expensive. Brochures are another form of print media advertisement. They are mostly used for education purpose, where, consumers are educated about a product. Brochure can be used in informative advertisement.
Print media has different advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that it helps companies gain loyal customers (Kurtz et al., 2010). Also, it has a high chance to gain trust from clients as many people believe in advertisements in newspapers. It is easy for companies to reach their target audience when using print media. However, there are different disadvantages. Print media has limited shelf life, for instance, newspapers lose their relevance within a day. Therefore, it is easy for message being lost.
Broadcast advertising is another medium of advertising. It includes television and radio. Nevertheless, it is expensive especially for small business (Kurtz et al., 2010). Television advertisement helps in creating brand awareness as well as image. Radio advertisement is another form of advertising. It is a cheap option compared to television advertisement. Broadcast media advertising helps reach a huge number of people. It is also a credible medium of advertisement. When a company places their advertisement during peak viewing they have a high chance of reaching to more clients. Broadcast media advertisement is not suitable for companies with low budget. Apart from placing an advertisement, a company is required hire actors to develop an advert. Also, one is not guaranteed that their advertisement will be viewed.
Digital advertisement is another medium of advertisement. Currently, many people rely on digital platform to gain information. Companies are also using digital platforms to advertise their products and services (Kurtz et al., 2010). They have a potential of reaching a high number of customers due to the high number of people using smartphones and computers. Most common advertising platforms include social media and podcast. Although the medium of advertisement is interactive it has its disadvantage. The companies advertising through social media are not properly vetted, hence, there is trust problems. There are also fake accounts which are used to lure unsuspecting customers.
Our company will use diverse medium of advertisement. They will include banners and social media platforms. Currently, many companies are relying on social media to market their products. Some of the platforms that will be used include Instagram, Facebook and twitter. We will have an individual who will manage our social media platforms. Advertisement banners will be placed at strategic places to help us reach more clients. Our organization will also have promotions from time-to-time. The promotions will include reduced prices per package. Clients will also enjoy one free package of their choice on special occasions set by the company. There will also be vouchers which the client can share with friends or family. The approach will enable us reach out to more customers. In future, we will also place our advertisement on television to create brand awareness and reach to more clients.

References
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