Social
After technological, Social factors are in my opinion the most important factor to Martin. I think this because the changes in social attitudes are amount of leisure time people have dictates the need for Martins products.
For Martin this means that as there biggest area of sales is for nightclubs and festival type event/concerts. The more free time people have and the more socially expectable it is for people to go clubbing the more lighting an smoke products will be in demand.
Also the issue of binge drink will slightly effect Martins, as there is a very prominent binge drinking youth community and these are the main people that will be effect the demand of Martin products (although these people do not buy the products them selves, the go to the clubs and keep the clubs in business that buys the products, as well as being tickets to the gigs that use Martin equipment).
Martin is affected by differences in social values. By this I mean that the work ethic is different in their different factories. For example the staff in the china factory would discard an entire batch of products if they had a tiny fault (that would be fixable) this cost martins time and money. Whereas in the same situation in the Louth factory the products would just be sent to be altered and the sent for re-inspection if the fault is fixed then the products are sold if not then they are discarded.
Environmental
Environmental factors are the current concerns about global warming, the Ozone layer and efficient energy use (including alternate energy supplies). Things to consider are re-cycling and waste removal and waste packaging. Pollution (air, noise and light). Energy use, are they using a form of re-usable energy.
What this means for Martin is that although they are leaders in the market for both lighting and smoke, they would appeal to an even greater market of consumers if they appear to have considered environmental issues. For example does the smoke pollute the air? The answer is no. Martin should use this to there advantage by making that a part of the advertising that the smoke is not harmful to the environment.
Also there are limited amount of packaging and long life cycles of product, both make martin more environmentally safe.
Economic
Economic external influences are external influences in the form of exchange rate, inflation rates, interest rates, GDP (Gross domestic Product), import/exports and unemployment rates.
This affects martin in more than one way. Firstly, via the exchange rate. This effects them because not only are they a large company with manufacturing sites in more than one county (and therefore each country the company deals in or has offices in will use a different currency), but also because they sell internally. This makes martin subject to changes in the exchange rate. The table below shows the exchange rate for 31st October 2008.
If the exchange rate falls then martin will struggle to make a profit on their products in America if they do not raise there price. If they do raise their prices they may find that they start to lose business if they have to raise it by a lot.
Secondly, via the interest rates. The graph below shows bank of England interest rates for the year period between Nov 07 and Oct 08.
If martin are borrowing money this exchanged rate is good for them.
The lower the interest rate the better it is for martin because the less interest they will have to pay back on loans and mortgages etc. also the interest rates will have an effect on there customers, it is better for martin that the interest rate stays low as if it rises there customers will have to pay more on there loans and mortgages, and therefore will have less money to spend on new products which means martin trade may go down if the interest rate rises significantly.
Section B
Marketing Activities (4P’s)
Product (see appendix four for research)
The martin group make several different types of product all under different brand names and subsidiary companies (i.e. martin professional UK). The key product area they manufacture I are as follows:
- Intelligent lighting
- Smoke and fog
- Architectural lighting
- Security smoke
- Speaker (the company no longer makes these as of 2002)
The different ranges/brads are as follows (the number in brackets is the number of products in that range):
- Moving head (MAC) (12)
- Scanners (Mania, T REX, MX10) (5)
- Effects & Color Changers (Mania, Wizard Extreme, Raptor, CX – 10) (13)
- Strobes (Atomic, Detonator) (3)
- Laser (RGB Laser) (1)
- LEDs (LC Series, Stagebar 54) (2)
- Media Servers (Maxedia) (2)
- Controllers and Controller tools (250, Freekie, Lightjockey, MAXXYZ, xciter, Color fox, Light Fox, Martin Show designer, Mum, Ethernet Switch. Universal interface, DMX, Ether2dmx, RS-485, DAB1) (17)
- Architectural (Exterior, Inground, Cyclo, Alien, Imager, Fibersource) (17)
- Jem and Magnum Fog (Glaciator, ZR24/7, Roadie, Hydra, ZR33, AF, Magnum) (16)
- Accessories (Flightcases, Clamps, Safety wire, Rainmac, Tools, Cables. Lamps, Colors, Gobos, Woodroffe Gobo Collection) (10)
As you can see martin sells a wide range of products, each of the different ranges also has a different target market segment. For example:
- Architectural lighting is aimed at one key market segments. The first being business with large office buildings and/or business that are 24 hour or only open at night (i.e. clubs, they must have lighting outside so that people can see the entrance).
- Security smoke; is primarily targeted at companies with office building or buildings that would attract break-in’s (i.e. warehouses).
- Lighting, smoke and fog; the main focus group would probably be the youth/festival go-er/clubber market, because although it’s the clubs and festival organizers that will buy the products, they will buy them in order to attract the youth/festival go-er/clubber market.
The USP (unique selling point) also varies from product to product. For example
- The Glaciator X-Stream is the only product on the market that greats heavy low lying fog, without the use of CO2 (dry ice). This is it USP as those customers and potential customer how care about climate change are going to opt for the Glaciator X-Stream.
- The roadie Compact is the only machine of its type. It was designed to fill a gap on the market. The gap in the market was the fact that there were no smoke machines on the market that were compact enough to be moved easily (either on a tour). So that is the roadie compacts USP, it’s a high powered smoke machine that’s portable.
Price
Martin sells a wide range of products, and due to the nature of the products the price range they sell over is large. The most expensive product martin sell is the MAXXYZ controller, at £35,999. the cheapest product is a color changer sleeve, priced at £78.
Martins pricing strategy is competitive pricing; however most of martins products fill a gap in the market therefore there are no other competing products on the market. In this case market charge a high price to reflect an image of high quality products.
Most of the products, which do have products from other companies, are slightly more expensive than the competition, because the products are more advanced. For example:
As you can see the Antari HZ-300 is the cheaper product (especially at its current sale price), however martin has more features on it making it the superior product.
When choosing two products to compare I tired to chose a product as near as possible to a martin product but found that most of the products made by other companies are not as good as the martin products.
Promotion
Martin has several methods of promoting their products. Firstly via there website. There are several websites for martin (they can be viewed in my appendix under the websites list, martin websites are in red font).
On the website you can find the following features:
- Product descriptions, pictures, videos, specification and downloadable manuals. (See appendix for examples of this)
- News section. In this section of the website martin display articles that relate to the company or its products, an example of this can be seen in my appendix.
- Service support. In this section of the website you can access support for your martin product.
- Training. Martin now offers training courses in the use and theory of some of there products. Course details are provided in the training section of there website, and there is a contact number to ring to book places.
- Download Area. In this part of there website you can download martin promotional material in PDF format. Brochures and flyers are the primary things you can download but also you can download things fro you computer (i.e. screensavers). The picture below shows the PDF’s I downloaded to help with my research:
- Jobs, this section contains information about employment opportunities at martin.
- Employee profiles, contains pictures and information (such as name, job description, email address and phone number) about key staff in the company.
- Contact us, company contact information, including addresses, telephone email and fax for each of the martin offices, company and factories.
- About us, includes basic company information.
- Links to the other martin websites.
Martin also use other method of production including trade fairs, in my appendix there are two tables, one shows the trade fairs martin visited last year, and the other shows the trade fairs and exhibitions they are planning on going to this year.
As you will be able to tell from the tables martin visit many trade shows each year, the number varies from year to year as not all of the trade shows run every year.
If you were to visit the PLASA 07 website, you can see that martin attended and had the biggest stall:
The picture above shows a section of the floor plan from PLASA 07, for the full floor plan see my appendix.
Martin are highlighted above with the Red circle, AC Lighting is highlighted in a Blue Circle.
As you can see from the above picture martin have the biggest stand, this backs up Martin when they say that they are the worlds leader in Intelligent lighting.
AC lighting is highlighted above because they have one of the second biggest stalls and they are a distributor of martin.
Martin also have brochures, leaflets and promotional DVD’s that are give to customer and potential customer on request and during visits to the company offices and factories.
Place
The diagram below shows the channel of distribution for Martin professional:
As you can see from the diagram above there are several ways to order martin products, from the factory, from Martin DK, from the distributors or the warehouse in Holland.
Martin use long and direct channels of distribution. Long; from the factory to either the warehouse or martin DK, then the distributor, then the customer. Direct; products sold directly form the factory to the customer.
The advantage of this from martin is it means there products cover more of the market.
How do the 4p’s help martin meet their aims and objectives
Price
The factory at louth have no control ovr the selling price of there products. The sale price is set by the mother company, and then MMUK selling to the mother company at a fixed price set on jan 1st each year. Therefore drops in costs and raw materials are good for martina s they make more profit on there products. However rising cost is a problem and does not help martin meet there aims and objectives.
If martin manufacturing uk make a profit this helps them meet there other objectives such as money for new product development.
Product
For obvious reasons, the products helps martin meet objective 1, because without a product they would be able to meet and exceed the expectations of competitors and customers worldwide. Objectives 3, 4, 7 & 8 are also affected by the product and rely on it being high quality.
Promotion
Promotion help martin to meet their aim of becoming world leader as the more promotion they do the more people know about their product and the more people will buy them. This will help them to dominate the architectural lighting market as well.
Place
Place is key to martin successfully being able to meet there objective of having an expended product range in the UK. Selling at the right places and through the right channels of distribution is important to make the most of there products.
Teamwork
Teams and teamwork play and important part in martin. As an example of how teams play a part in martin I will look at the martin-manufacturing site in Louth. The factory is divided into three teams management (4 people), project and production (36 between project and production).
Within the production team there are also sub-teams. There are:
- Pre assembly
- Main Assembly
- Heavy Fog/Specialist Assembly
- Quality assurance and control
Martin have weekly meetings between members of each of these teams and project and management teams as well. In these meetings they discuss progress on current products and orders, current ideas in development, concerns on existing products and manufacturing methods, and also new product ideas and updates to current products.
These meetings allow everyone to have a say in what is going on at martin and keeps everyone in the loop so they can work to the full potential.
Martin pays they staff by an hourly rate not a piece rate, this is because they want their staff to focus on quality products and not quantity of products. Also they encourage there start to work smartly as opposed to harder, meaning take that little bit extra time to get the highest most efficiently produced product possible and to minimise waste. The individual target they set their staff are simple, work at as near to 100% efficient as possible.
Martin keeps all of its staffs skills up to date by sending them on regular training days, if a staff member is on holiday or off sick the placement of staff is just rearranged to cover there job as every member off staff is trained to do all jobs.
When new jobs come in before production starts martin send their staff to receive the train so they can work efficiently on the new products.
Every summer Martin also sends all their staff in the manufacturing site in Louth away on a team-building weekend. This is to encourage the staff tog et to know each other better and therefore be able to work better as a team.
Teamwork
Teamwork help martin meet there aims and objectives. Martin production teams and team building weekends go towards objective 6 which is very important in helping them meet there aims of being world learders in all there products and also there objectives of continuously improve, provide high quality products and services, creating 100% defeat products, developing 3 or 4 new products a year, expand product range and increase quality of products from China
Innovation and Enterprise
To martin Innovation is most important. 75% of their budget is dedicated to innovation each year. In the factory in Louth they have 5 people working for the R and D Department (Research and Design), 2 electrical and IT technicians, 2 material technicians and 1 process/technical personnel. In Demark they have 30/40 people on innovation/R and D.
As well as development of new products, they also spend a lot of time improving existing products. They have a suggestion box for the staff to voice their idea on improvements to products. Also they alter existing products at special request from the customer, in order to meet the needs of the customer more fully. If after the changes have been made are viable the changes are added to the specification fro the product and become permanent features.
Martin has won lots of award for their products, which must mean they no what there doing when it comes to products development and innovation new products.
The brand image for martin lights also incorporates the idea of innovations as they use the slogans “leaders in innovation” and “worlds leader in intelligent lights”.
Furthermore evidence that martin innovate there products is that afer 4 years of so most martin products will need replacing or updating as they will no longer have the latest features on.
Innovation and enterprise
Innovation and enterprise helps martin meet their objective of developing 3 or 4 new products a year. Also it helps them meet there objective of becoming world leader as they are always developing products that are at the “cutting edge” and therefore they can stay ahead of the competition.
Section D
Aim’s And Objective’s of Martin PLC
- Develop products the meet and exceed the expectations of customers and the competition worldwide. This is important to martin as it will mean that they will get the repeat business of there customers as they know they will always receive high quality products.
- Continuously improve, allowing martin to maintain there position as world leaders in intelligent lighting systems (light systems controlled via a control panel), and to help them work towards there objective of becoming world leaders in architectural lighting and smoke machines.
- Consistently provide high quality products and services. This is important to martin because if they don’t provide consistently high quality products there customers will not come back to them.
- Create 100% defeat free products, this will allow martin to increase product quality
- Develop 3 or 4 new products a year, this is important to Martin, as they need to try and stay ahead of the competition. Martin do this well in the pat year they have developed 5 new products exceeding there target.
- Keep staff happy, this is important to martin as having happy staff normally means more efficient/productivity staff, which means more products made in the same space of time but off equalling or better quality.
- Expand product range in the UK to include intelligent lighting. This will allow martin a fresh perspective in regards to making lighting and allow them to improve the quality of their products.
- Increase the quality of the products produced at the Chinese factory. This will improve the brand and company image of martin, as they will be producing high quality products only.
- Dominate the architectural lighting market. This will attract more customers to martin and make them more profit.
I think that martin can achieve their aims and objectives, however I think that they will need to over come a few things (like the quality of the Chinese made products) before they can fully achieve them.
To what extent do I think martin will/have achieved there aims and objective?
100% 0%
80% certain to achieve there aims and objectives.
I think this because:
- They do plenty of promotion so that they are a well-known brand this will make it a lot easier for them to become the leaders in the market as they are already well established.
- As they spend ¾ of there annual budget on innovation I think they will easily attach there object of 3 or 4 new products a year. (update)
- As they go on team building weekends, have work “suggestion boxes” and weekly meetings, I think they will meet there objective of keeping staff happy, and therefore make them m+ore productive/efficient. This will help them meet there other aims and objectives as well.
- I think they will achieve there objective of consistently provide high quality products and services, as they don’t actually need to do anything differently to achieve this they just need to continue or improve they current practices, basically just don’t get worse.
Judgement on the importance of marketing activities, innovation and enterprise
When asked martin said that they ranked the following in order of importance:
- Innovation and enterprise
- Teamwork
- Marketing activates
I think that the order for marketing activities, innovation and enterprise is as follows:
- Innovation and enterprise
- Teamwork
- Marketing activates
For martin innovation and enterprise is most important as if they don’t have new products they can stay ahead of the competition and they will then no longer be leaders in world lighting and on their way t being leaders in the smoke and architectural lighting markets as well.
Martin manufacturing uk meet all of there individual targets as a company, even if the mother company does not meet them also.
Appendix One
Write-up Of Trip Notes
- Martin CEO Based in Denmark
- 3 manufacturing factories
- Martin manufacturing UK (Louth)
- Martin manufacturing Zhuhai ltd (China)
- Martin Professional A/S (Denmark;DK)
- Louth makes smoke machines
- DK makes intelligent lighting.
- China makes lower quality version of both smoke and lighting machines.
- Denmark and UK are in direct competition with china
- Each factory has a general manager who is in charge of that manufacturing site, there is an overall general manager based in demark. The general manager of each manufacturing site rotate each year o give each factory a new fresh perspective.
-
Products are from sold from mmuk to DK at a price that is fixed on Jan 1st each year. The products are shipped to the warehouse at venlow. Martin professional sell the products to distributors.
- Martin products are; architectural lighting, smart lighting, smoke and haze machines (jem and mach) and speakers (Mach discontinued).
Louth
- Martin makes smoke and haze machines
- They are currently trying to bring business over from DK and China. To create an expanded product range that includes lighting products (They have currently brought one line of production over from china of architectural lights).
- Do not make bespoke products, only off the peg. They do make modifications to products for clients, if these modifications are successful and suitable are considerable to addition to the product spec. If modifications to a product is made updates are available to customer who bought the original version of the product. The updates are loaded on to a controller, which is then plugged into the product (which then installs the update). The updates are free but customers have to pay for the controller.
- MMUK has 47 staff currently (and 3 vacancies). The staff break down is as follows:
- R & D (4)
- PTQ (4)
- Planning (1)
- Purchasing (1)
- Finance (1)
- General Manager (1)
- Shop floor (35)
- Louth have 16 years experience making smoke machines, originally called Jem before they were bought out by the martin group, Jem kept on as a brand name.
- Martin are one of the main manufacturers of security smoke machines. They are the sole supplier of carphone warehouse.
- Production split into 4 areas assembly, sub assembly, heavy fog and testing. Components are made (SA), sorted into kits, then each kit is assembled (A), built machines are then sent to be tested (T). Heavy fog machines such as the glacier are made in a separate area by specialised staff.
- Production figures are entered into the computer at every workstation, then they are reviewed by production managers
Appendix Two
Information of there website’s
Company Info; Profile; Locations
-
12500 m2 state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. The Martin Happy Factory, located in Frederikshavn, Denmark, dedicated to the manufacture of highly complex Martin products, mainly our moving heads and the larger architectural products.
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17000 m2 in Frederikshavn, Denmark, dedicated to the manufacture of Martin products. The world's biggest manufacturing site in the lighting industry.
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2200 m2 in Frederikshavn, Denmark, dedicated to the manufacture of Mach loudspeakers and flight cases.
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2200 m2 in Louth, England, dedicated to the manufacture of the Jem range, including a fully automated smoke fluid processing system.
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5300 m2 in Zhuhai, P.R. China dedicated to the assembling of Martin products
Company Info; Profile; Missions and Vision
Our Mission
Light up the world the intelligent way
Our Vision
Our vision is to lead, drive and expand the market for intelligent lighting.
We want to be positioned as preferred supplier of intelligent lights in the entertainment and architectural markets.
Business focus is long term expansion based on controlled and profitable growth.
Our Strategy
Quality, speed to market and strong service back-up are key to Martin’s success.
Constant innovation of competitive products combined with a strong branding will ensure our leading position is maintained and extended in the Architectural and Entertainment divisions.
Respecting the differences, but also exploiting the synergies between these two distinct divisions, will help us develop these markets further.
Radical segmentation and total solutions combining the brands of Martin, Jem and Mach will reaffirm our presence as the world’s leading supplier of entertainment lighting.
In the architectural industry, Martin wants to be the leading provider of dynamic lighting solutions. Strong market communication and market-oriented product development are the means to attaining this target.
Our worldwide distribution network will strive to achieve the highest skills in sales and service as well as a thorough understanding of the marketplace.
We will realize our vision by attracting, developing and retaining highly skilled employees. Responsibility, commitment and respect go hand in hand with personal development and constant challenges.
Profitable growth is necessary to ensure the long-term development of the Group. An operating profit of 10% is our strategic goal.
About us (Section on the martinproffesianl.co.uk website)
Martin Professional is the world market leader in intelligent lighting for entertainment and architectural applications. Martin has always possessed the unique ability to combine innovation and efficiency in product development with quality and value. This unrivalled expertise has resulted in the most comprehensive lighting range on the market. With a complete range of smoke machines and quality loudspeakers as well, we are the only manufacturer in the world able to offer a complete entertainment package.
Martin Professional Plc is the wholly owned British subsidiary of Martin Group. This market leading UK company distributes the entire range of Martin products, including lighting, smoke machines and audio products. These products are sold to professional companies such as lighting hire companies or installers, directly through a network of qualified “Preferred Retailers.”
At Martin, support and service are key ingredients to our success. Wherever our products are found throughout the world, you will always find a certified Martin Preferred Partner, ready to support you with qualified advice and first class service. Here at the Martin UK office we support our Martin Preferred Partners with our own hard-working, enthusiastic team who work together to ensure that our customers, both existing and potential, receive the best service and support in all areas, whether it be training, technical, sales or marketing, there is always someone on hand to help.
About us section of www.martinpro.com
Martin is a producer and distributor of automated lighting, Jem smoke machines, effect and sound products. This broad range of high technology products are utilized throughout all sectors of the entertainment industry, giving the company the ability to offer a complete entertainment package. Other important areas of application include the growing market for indoor and outdoor architectural and promotional lighting. Martin offers both dedicated exterior luminaires and specialized lights for retail settings
Martin Professional Environmental Policy
Martin Professional is a worldwide supplier of intelligent lighting, architectural lighting and Smoke products, and we recognize that our day-to-day operations inevitably impact on the environment.
As a global company we wish to minimize the potentially harmful effects of such activities where and whenever possible. The management of Martin Professional is committed to continual improvements in environmental performance and prevention of pollution.
Environmental regulations, laws and codes of practice will be regarded as setting the minimum standards of environmental performance. Best practices and legislations from other industries will be taken into consideration and where applicable used within Martin facilities.
As part of Martin’s continuous drive for high performance in all aspects of business, we have developed a comprehensive policy statement that will enable us to set our targets, by which our efforts towards sustainable environment improvement can be monitored on a regular basis.
To minimize the adverse effects on the environment from our operational activities, we have set the following objectives within the policy:
Promote recycling and use of recycled materials, whilst reducing consumption of materials wherever possible
Minimize waste in all operations and product development
Meet, and where appropriate, exceed the requirements of legislative, regulatory and contractual obligations
Continue to be at the leading edge of innovation in order to improve the performance of our processes and products to increase efficiency and minimize impact on the environment
To minimize the social impact of company activities and avoid damage to the environment through regular reviews of the business, from environmental and management system audits, use of lean manufacturing tools/techniques and 5S implementation
To promote environmental awareness throughout the organization, including energy consumption
Martin Professional will continuously set environmental targets and goals designed to improve our environmental performance
Appendix Three
PESTEL Research:
Bank of England website:
Graph produced in excel based on the data downloaded from the bank of England website. It shows the monthly average and the end of month official bank of England rats from Nov 07 to Oct 08.
Interest Rates:
A Table to show the Exchange Rates on October 31, 2008 from
Appendix Four
Product Research:
Screen shot of www.directproaudio.com, show the price and specification of the Antari HZ-300.
Screenshot of the www.martin.com showing the specification of the magnum hazer.
I found the price of the magnum hazer in Martin Price Guide (downloadable on there website).
The pictures below show the layout of PLASA 07. Pictures found in a PDF format downloadable from PLASA’s website.
PLASA Floor Plan from 2007
Close-up of Earls Court 1, Martin is highlighted in red, AC Lighting (martins supplier) is highlighted in blue.
Promotion
Source:
The Table below show the Trade shows and exhibitions that martin have visited this year and in 2007:
Exhibition websites:
Website
Examples of a product page on the Martin Professional Website.
An example of a News Article
List Websites Used (Biblography)
Websites in red belong to the Martin group, the websites in blue are external
Arieal photo from the multimap website