To gain 25% of the market for sports Flags by January 2009 –
To achieve this objective Flikaflag Ltd will have to:
- Be aware of competition and research their competitors, this will be good as Flikaflag Ltd will be able to identify what their competitors are doing which they are not doing so this can lead to improvements to the marketing, the product and/or the service.
- Improve on the quality of the Flikaflag Ltd service, this will help gain 25% of the market share as all customers like good customer service therefore customers will come to flikaflag Ltd to buy a sports flag rather than the competitors therefore as flikaflag Ltd will sell more than some of the competitors they will gain more of the market share for sports flags
- To make sure that the Flikaflags are at a better quality than the other sports flags in the market, this will help gain 25% of the market share in sports flags as customers will be more willing to buy products with a better quality and also willing to pay more, this will gain extra profit and a bigger share in the market.
Target Market
The target market is basically those people who are more likely to buy a certain product. It is good to know who the target market is as without it the business/company trying to sell the product will be completely lost when it comes to marketing the product. Examples of the target market for certain products:
Playstation 3 – the target market for the Playstation 3 will be men (worldwide apart from third world countries) aged 15 – 25
A toaster – the target market will be mid-aged woman
Using the segmentation it will help to find out the target market for flikaflag Ltd.
After segmenting the market I found that the target market for football flags are males aged 8 onwards, the target market is very wide so this means that it will be much harder for Flikaflag Ltd to market the product, this is where the marketing mix will come in.
Section B
FlikaFlag Questionnaire (pilot):
FlikaFlag Ltd is a business which is currently growing in the UK. Flikaflag Ltd sells Flags. Their flags are uniquely designed to fold away and simply fit in your pocket, the flags also flick out in a matter of seconds so there is no hassle!
How old are you?
0- 12 13 – 16 17 – 21 22 +
What is you gender?
Male Female
What borough do you live in?
Bromley Lewisham Southwark Bexley other
What is your occupation?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Do you like football?
Yes No it’s ok, nothing special
Do you go to football games?
Yes No
If yes, how often would you go?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Do you normally buy a flag when you go to football?
Yes No
Would you consider buying a flag to support your football team?
Yes No
How much will you be willing to spend for a football flag?
Under £5 £6 - £10 £11 - £15 £16 - £20 £21 +
Which of these following aspects will you expect when buying a flag?
Good Quality Cheap Price Design
What is your favourite radio station?
Kiss 100
Capital fm
Heart 106.2
Magic 105.4
Virgin Radio
BBC Radio One
Other Please specify: ………………………………
What is your favourite website:
Myspace
Facebook
Bebo
Youtube
Ebay
Msn/Hotmail
Other please Specify: ………………………………
What is your newspaper of choice?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
My pilot included all the questions I needed to produce good answers; the first question will help me see what age groups there are taking the questionnaire. The second question will let me know the amount of males and females there are taking the questionnaire. The third Question will let me see where the people live so that we will be able to see where we can market the product more effectively. The fourth question will let me know what occupation the participants are as if most of them are lets say unemployed and they go to football games and they would like to buy a flag, the chances are they will not have enough money to spare so their views will not be as valid as the ones that do work. The fifth question lets me know whether the participants watch football or not, this will give me an indication (and a percentage of people) who likes football as the people who do watch football will be the people who FlikaFlag Ltd should be trying to market their flags. The sixth question asks to see whether they go to watch the games as those who do go to watch the games have more valid answers as FlikaFlag Ltd will be looking to see what they will want from our business (the flag and its aspects etc.). The seventh question is focused to see how often the people who go to football go to football, this will let us k now if they go on a regular basis which will help us know if buying a flag will be a one of thing at the football games or to see whether they will buy it on most matches.
The next few questions are about the poduct, to see what the participants look for in a flag etc. firstly I will be looking to see if the participants buy (a) flag(s) when they go to football games, this question is obviously here to see if flags are usually bought by the majority (or minority) of the people who go to the games. The next question after this is aiming to see a rough estimate on how much they will be willing to pay for a flag, this is good as it will give FlikaFlag Ltd an indication on how much they should charge for a flag. The last thing I wanted to find out about the flag is what aspect they will look for more when they are buying a flag, this will give me an indication what aspect6 to focus on more, i.e. if most of the Participants look for quality rather than price then this give Flikaflag Ltd the chance to sell in the niche market as they can charge more by spending more on making the quality of the flag even better.
The last few questions are to see what the participants are interested in the most so flikaflag Ltd can know how to market their product in these areas. As the majority of Britain listens to the radio I thought it will be a good opportunity to see what their favourite radio station is, as once Flikaflag Ltd finds out the most popular radio station they will know which radio stations they can try and advertise there product on. The next question is to see what the favourite websites are, this will let Flikaflag Ltd know where on the internet is the best place which they can advertise their products on. The last question is to see what the most read newspaper is so that flikaflag Ltd will know what paper they can try and advertise on.
The main thing that is good about the pilot questionnaire is the fact that the questions will let flikaflag Ltd know how to market their product. The biggest negative thing about this questionnaire is that not all of the questions are closed (limited answers), this is bad as this means that not all of the questions asked can be put into graphs and can not be analysed. From analysing the pilot questionnaire it gives me a clear indication on what I should change and what I should keep the same.
Flicka-Flag Questionnaire:
Flika-Flag Ltd is a business which is currently growing in the UK. Flika-flag Ltd sells Flags. Their flags are uniquely designed to fold away and simply fit in your pocket, the flags also flick out in a matter of seconds so there is no hassle!
How old are you?
0- 12 13 – 16 17 – 21 22 +
What is you gender?
Male Female
What borough do you live in?
Bromley Lewisham Southwark Bexley other
What is your occupation status?
Student Employed Unemployed Other
Do you like football?
Yes No it’s ok, nothing special
Do you go to football games?
Yes No
If yes, how often would you go?
Every Game Every home game Every month
Once a season Other Please Specify: ………………………………
Do you normally buy merchandise when you go to football?
Yes No
Would you consider buying a flag to support your football team?
Yes No
How much will you be willing to spend for a football flag?
Under £5 £5.01 - £10 £10.01 - £15 £15.01 +
Which of this following aspects will you expect when buying a flag?
Good Quality Cheap Price Design
What is your favourite radio station?
Kiss 100
Capital fm
Heart 106.2
Magic 105.4
Virgin Radio
BBC Radio One
Other Please specify: ………………………………
What is your favourite website:
Myspace
Facebook
Bebo
Youtube
Ebay
Msn/Hotmail
Other please Specify: ………………………………
What is your newspaper of choice?
The Sun The mirror The daily mail The independent
Other (please state): ………………………………………………………………
This final questionnaire is better than the pilot as it had all the questions that the pilot did which lets flikaflag Ltd know how to market the product, but in this case the questions are all closed questions rather than open as it is better to gather quantitative data as it can be put into graphs and can be analysed.
Results Graphs and analysis:
Question 1:
Most of the people which took the questionnaire were over 22 years of age. This is what I was intending to do as the majority should ideally be the age of the target market so that I can produce results which are more useful for marketing the flikaflag product.
Question 2:
As this graph shows the majority of the questionnaire takers were male, again this was intended as the target market is males. It is a good thing that the majority is the target market gender as their opinions are the most important.
Question 3:
This question is important as it will let flikaflag Ltd know how to market their flag in the certain areas, in this case because 44% of the people (the majority) how took the questionnaire live in Bromley borough it will let flikaflag Ltd know how to market the flag locally. It will be hard to say whether it is useful to market the flag or how to market the flag in the Bexley, Lewisham and other boroughs as there is not enough opinions from the people which live in this borough.
Question 4:
This question lets flikaflag Ltd estimate which people will have the money to spare. As the people which are employed will be the people with more money their opinions will be more valid. But then again the students will be more likely to spend money on whatever they want when they feel like it as they have no bills etc to pay for. This question is not accurate as someone could be a student how is also working part time, also the answer other is not precise, this could mean self-employed, retired etc.
Question 5:
This question cuts to the point, if they do not like football then their opinion is not really important about football flags, but then again just because they do not like football doesn’t mean they will not buy a flag! For instance if the person saw an England football flag they may still consider buying it for other purposes, or if the person saw a football flag of a team which one of their friends support, they may then consider to buy it for them as a present.
As this graph shows 60% of the people which took the questionnaire like football, this can be generalised by saying 60% of the population in Bromley borough like football, this is a good thing as 60% is an awful lot of people and this means flikaflag Ltd should have great expectations of their future sells.
The 14% which do not like football will be no use to flikaflag Ltd so their opinions are not valid, but the 26% which think its ok, may sometimes go along with friends or family on a day out to football and they can most probably be persuaded to buy a flikaflag. So generally speaking 86% of people are likely buy a football flag.
Question 6:
As this question only applied to the people that like football, it means that all off the people which part in this question are potential customers, but what flikeflag Ltd is looking for is whether they should sell their product at the games as well as high street stores and the through the internet. As you can see 38% of these people do go to games, this indicates that selling the flags at the games should be undertaken, in fact selling the flags at the games is probably the best way to market the product as that’s the most likely place they would use it, no one would really think of buying a football flag when there at home or out shopping. 38% may seem like a little amount as it is the minority but in fact it isn’t as 38% of the people that like football is hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of people.
Question 7:
This Graph shows how often the people who go to football actually go. The majority of these people go to games every month, this can be seen as a good thing as one week you will get customers buying the flag then the next week, their will be lots of different fans which didn’t buy the flag the week before as they may not of went to football that week, where as if the majority went every week then their will not be a continuous flow of customers where they may have bought a flag when they wanted one them they will keep that flag for every game they go to.
The next thing which flikaflag Ltd was going to consider is selling their flags at away games, but as their was a very small percentage which went to every game (home and away) there is not much point as flikaflag Ltd will probably loose money as they will have to cover other cost such as travelling and permission to sell at their football grounds.
Question 8:
This graph shows that only 37% of the people that go to football games buy merchandise when they go. This is bad because once the sums are added up that’s only 16.872% of the people which like football buy merchandise, this doesn’t even mean their going to be buying flikaflags merchandise!
Question 9:
This graph shows that around half the people (48%) will consider buying a flag to support their football team this is really good as if flakaflag market their product properly by good marketing tactics they can most probably get this 48% to purchase their product.
Question 10:
This question helps flikaflag decide what price they should charge for their product. From this graph it clearly shows that the majority of people are willing to pay in between £5.01 and £10. If flikaflag was looking to sell their product in the niche market they may want to sell it for £15 as if 10 people are willing to pay this £15 flikaflag UK will make more profit than selling 17/18 for the price if £5 each. But it also depends on how much flikaflag Ltd has to spend on the raw materials as they have to make a profit.
This questionnaire should have had questions on whether they like sports in general, if they go to any sporting events and will they consider buying a sports flag for a sporting event they enjoy as everyone going to football games will be there because they enjoy it.
Focus Group
Time Initial Comments
13:04 CC (meeting starts) this meeting is in place so that I can find out
your opinions on sports flags.
So what would you expect from a small flag which can be
taken to football games.
13:08 SM I will expect it to be at a good quality
13:09 AH if I was to buy a flag for football games I would like if it
was easy to carry around. Also I would expect to pay a reasonable price for the flag.
13:12 RJ to be honest if I was looking for a flag I wouldn’t mind the flag
to be a bit expensive as long as it is at a good quality.
13:13 CC how much would you spend on a sports flag?
13:14 RJ around £10
13:15 AR it depends if I like it, if I really like it I may be willing to spend
around £15
13:17 CC do you ever buy things online?
13:18 AR not usually but I have done
13:18 AH I buy most things online, accept clothes
13:19 CC so when you buy online what websites would you usually buy
from?
13:19 AH well I usually buy lots of things from ebay, but if I find a better
deal browsing the web I will just buy from them
13:20 CC do any of you go to football games?
13:21 SM yeah I sometimes go with my dad
13:22 RJ I go every home game I can really
13:22 CC when you go to football games do you usually visit their
clubshop and buy merchandise?
13:23 SM I will go into the clubshop and have a look around but I don’t
buy stuff often
13:23 RJ I only really go in their to buy their latest kit for the season, I
don’t usually buy any thing else
13:24 CC would you rather buy a flag to support your team in a high street store rather than buying it when your at a game?
13:24 AH yeah it will be better as then the product will be available for me whenever I want to buy the product
13:24 CC what shops will you expect to buy a flag in and would/do you shop in these stores?
13:26 AH JD, JJB, yeah I shop in these shops all the time
13:26 RJ Sportsworld, I sometimes shop in sportsworld but I would rather go to other stores which has better quality goods.
Research
London has an official population of 7,512,400 (as of mid-2006) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London)
Section C
Place
Place simply refers to how you will sell your products to your customers. Depending on what it is you are selling will directly influence how you distribute it, and it affects mainly those businesses that are in production.
To market the product flikaflag Ltd will have to know how distribute the product to the customer and what they need to do in order for this to happen. Flikaflag Ltd will have to think about a number of factors such as distribution channels, market coverage, warehousing etc.
Distribution Channels
Distribution channels is a way of selling a company's product, this is either directly or through distributors. Flikaflag Ltd will sell their product through distributors, when the product is sold at the football games it will be sold through the supports club shops which is usually placed next to the stadium. Also flikaflag Ltd will sell their products through sports shops such as JD and Sports world which is predicted to be successful through the focus group conducted (pages 16-17). From the analysis of the questionnaire it is clear to say that selling the flags at the game is a good idea as on question six it shows that 38% of people go to football games, this is a lot of people.
Marketing Coverage
Market coverage: ensuring that the product is made available through appropriate intermediaries so that: (a) the potential customer can access it as easily as possible; and (b) the product is properly displayed, sold and supported within the channel of distribution. Market coverage might involve intensive distribution, selective distribution or exclusive distribution.
()
This basically means that Flikflag Ltd will have to make sure that the product is sold in shops and stores (or online) so that it is available and easy for the customers to find the product. Therefore as flikaflag Ltd will be selling their flags mainly to millwall and crystal palace supporters they will sell their product in London and the south-east as this is where most of the supporters will be located. They will need to sell it in certain stores and make sure that it is known that that they are selling this product there, this can be achieved with help from advertising which will be discussed later in this report.
Inventory Management
Inventory Management means the way the stock is managed. Managing the stock is important as flikaflag Ltd will not want to have too much stock as they will have spent to much money (short-term) before making any profit. Also if a business had so much stock in a place where they will not sell as much as the place where they have less stock, this is a sign of bad management. As flikaflag Ltd is only selling in region in England this doesn’t really apply to them, all flikaflag Ltd will need to keep control of is the estimate of how much they sell each month, then they will have to make sure that the flow of stock coming into the stores each month is equal to how much they will actually sell.
Warehousing
Warehousing in where the products will be kept before they go to the distributors. when flikaflag Ltd comes to warehousing they will need to think about the size of the warehouse and the location. The location will be somewhere in/near the central of London as it is close to where it is going to be sold and it will have easy access to get the product from place to place. The size of the warehouse will not be that big as the flikaflag product is small. Warehouses in the particular size wanted will be around £150,000 (). This warehouse is based in blackpool which means their will be lots of time spent on travelling the products to and from blackpool and London. Another option for a warehouse which flikaflag Ltd should consider is a light industrial unit for only £16000 which is based in devon () again this is very far from London, but this warehouse is extremely cheap.
Transportation
Transportation is vital for the business as they will need to transport the goods from the warehouse to the stores and to football games or to the clubshops. As the warehouse is going to be in devon each journey will have to be done once per day for each vehicle therefore when flikaflag has to buy a vehicle they will have to buy one which will be able to hold a large quantity of stock. Something like the Iveco CARGO ()
Reverse logistics
Reverse logistics are basically all off the stock which has been returned by the customer (I.e. a customer may refund a faulty product). If a flag sold by flikaflag is returned then it will be bought back to the factory and tested to see whether it should be resold/repaired etc.
Price
the price is very important in the marketing procedure as if the price is to high and the product is at a low quality the customers will not buy it and if the prices are to low some customers will think that because its cheap the product is poor I quality and also if the prices are too low then it is more likely that the business will not breakeven.
Pricing Strategies
Pricing strategies are the ways of selling/pricing the products. Flikaflag Ltd will need to think of their pricing strategies carefully, as I have thought through it myself I have a few suggestions:
Price Skimming, Price skimming is a pricing strategy in which a marketer sets a relatively high price for a product or service at first, then lowers the price over time. Usually price skimming is used when the product is unique/better than others in that market, as flikaflag flags are more efficient and handy than any other manufactured flag they should use this strategy. The main advantage is that flikaflag Ltd will get more profit per item sold but the big disadvantage is the fact that they may not sell much at such a high price.
Psychological Pricing, psychological pricing is when the consumer uses the price to persuade the customers emotionally rather then rationally, this form of pricing usually is when the price is odd such as £19.99 to make it seem cheaper or when the price is set high to create a good image of the product. Flikflag will be using this strategy as it will help sell the product, customers are more likely to buy a flag for £14.99 rather than £15 as it seems cheaper. Also flikaflag will be selling their product at a reasonably high price to create a good image of their brand.
Promotional Pricing, promotional pricing is when the pricing is used to promote the product such as BOGOF (buy one get one free). This pricing strategy will be good for flikaflag Ltd to use as it will attract more customers, as the price of manufacturing the flikaflag product is quiet high it will be to hard to break even or make a profit by selling them as buy one get one free, therefore I conclude that flikaflag should sell their product with a buy one get one half price offer as it may persuade the customers to get more than one flag (idea for families).
Close Out, this pricing strategy is when the old products are sold at a low price so the business will avoid storing the product. Flikaflag will use this strategy when their flags become old (i.e. when the team change their logo, colours, design), so if the team changes their logo for the new season then flikaflag will have to get rid of their current stock (the old stuff) to make way of the new designed flags. Therefore flikaflag might loose out a bit but they will loose out on more money if they keep trying to sell last seasons stock.
Target Return Pricing, this strategy is when the price is set to achieve a target return-on-investment. Flikaflag will use this strategy so they will be able to estimate their income from selling their product so they can plan what they can do in the future with their investments.
Retail Price
Retail price generally means the price which is set for a certain product. The average price for a full size Millwall flag is £6.99 () but as £6.99 is the price for a full size flag the price for a slightly smaller flag will be around £5 but as the flikaflag flag is a unique flag and has features which other flags do not have (the bendy flagpole) therefore the flikaflags should be priced around £10 as they are using the price skimming price strategy, the retail price should be £9.99 as it will look cheaper than £10 (psychological pricing).
Price Discrimination
Price discrimination is when different prices are set for the same product in order to give a particular group of buyers a competitive edge (). this basically means when there are separate prices because of the competition in that particular market. Flikaflag will charge separate prices depending where they sell their products. If the product is sold in a high street store the price will be higher as there will be more people to buy the product and they will have money to spend as they are most possibly on a shopping trip. Whereas when the product is sold at the football games (as the people primarily go there to watch football and not buy things) the price will be slightly cheaper.
Promotion
The promoting of a product is very important as it is how the product will gain awareness, promoting is basically advertising. It includes advertising the product, advertise the brand to increase the brand awareness etc.
Promotional Strategies
Advertising, advertising is any non personal paid form of communication using any form of mass media (). In business terms advertising means to use the media to create awareness of there product or/and use the media to sell the product. Flikaflag Ltd will need to advertise their product so they will advertise their product using the local radio stations as they are only planning to sell their product in London (in general).
Also Flikaflag Ltd will advertise their product on billboards throughout the targeted geographic area (London). Advertising on billboards will probably be the best option for Flikaflag Ltd as it will be one of the cheapest ways to advertise their product locally and at the same time gain awareness (at a larger scale than advertising on the radio).
Other methods of advertising include advertising on magazines and newspapers but as most of these are globally or nationally sold (sold around the world or in the whole country) there will be not much point of spending lots of money for advertising which may not be successful. But as there are some local newspapers and they are very cheap for the business to advertise, Flikaflag Ltd will advertise their product on some local newspapers such as ‘the news shopper’. Advertising in the news shopper will cost Flikaflag Ltd £66.98 for a 3.0cm x 2.7cm box in the newspaper for 1 week, this box is not allowed more than 20 words ().
Public Relations, public relations is ‘Establishing and maintaining a good image for the organisation (and for a business, its products or services). It includes interviews with the press, public launches of new products, appropriate conduct when dealing with the public.’ ().
Public relations involve developing positive relationships with the organisation media public. The art of good public relations is not only to obtain favorable publicity within the media, but it is also involves being able to handle successfully negative attention ().
In order for flikaflag Ltd to be successful they will need to have good public relations, to have good public relations flikaflag must be prepared for interviews with the press and flikaflag Ltd will have to be prepared to answer all the questions/queries from the public. Considering flikaflag Ltd is selling flags there will not really be much unethical issues which they will have to face, other companies have had bad public relations through being unethical such as Nike as they where using children in third world countries as slaves to make their products and some perfume manufactures has been in trouble in the past for killing animals such as dolphins to use in their perfumes. Flikaflag Ltd will have to make sure they are ethically friendly in all areas so they do not create bad publicity. Having good publicity promotes the product as most customers will rather buy from a business/company which I can trust. Also some people will not want to buy from a company/business which is unethical.
Direct Mail, direct mail is the sending of publicity material to a named person within an organisation. There has been a massive growth in direct mail campaigns over the last 5 years. Spending on direct mail now amounts to £18 bn a year representing 11.8% of advertising expenditure (Source: Royal Mail 2000). Organisations can pay thousands of pounds for databases, which contain names and addresses of potential customers ().
If flikaflag Ltd could promote their product buy sending leaflets etc through the mail, this will be good as it will create awareness of the Flikaflag product, it may sell their product well and it is one of the cheapest ways of promoting their product.
Product
The product is the most important of the 4 p’s (obviously) as without a product there is no business unless the business is there to provide a service. In-order for the product to sell well it has to be made to be good in quality and also to be made to fit what the target audience would like.
Name – flikaflag Ltd Brand name was chosen to be flikaflag as it is small catchy and describes in brief what the product does.
Functionality – the flikaflag product will have the ability to fold up and fit in a pocket! This is possible as it uses a unique material which can be used as a flag pole and also be rolled up.
Quality – the flikaflag product is going to be at a good quality, as if the product is good in quality then there is more chance that the customers who have bought the product will recommend the product to other people. One happy customers could create 10 new customers.
Packaging – the packaging of the product will be small and boxed so that the product is securely safe from getting damaged also the box will be relatively small so that less storage space is consumed and it will be better for the customer to carry.
Repairs and Support – if the flikaflag product is broken then Flikaflag Ltd are more than willing to refund the product as long as the fault in the product happened before the customer received the product, also flikaflag Ltd will be offering a to help customers with all their queries and/or help by telephone, their will only be one person at a time answering the calls as the company is small and will not be receiving much calls and for the same reason the customer services number will only be open from 1pm – 8pm everyday.
USP – the unique selling point of the flikaflag product is the fact that the flag is small foldable and can fit in your pocket
Section D
In this section I will discuss the internal factors that may affect my marketing plan (the marketing mix) i.e. cost, time, staff. I will also conduct a SWOT analysis to help me identify all aspects of current and future influences. I will explain how my marketing plan will help to divert some of these issues and how it may need to adapt to avoid/lower the risk of others. Then I will conduct a PEST analysis to identify external factors that may affect your plan, also in the PEST analysis I will describe what flikaflag may want to do to lower the risk/avoid certain influences.
PEST Analysis
A PEST analysis is a technique for structuring an environmental analysis by identifying the Political, Economic, Social and Technological dimensions of the operating environment.
Political
Economic
()
()
Social
Technological
For each environmental factor:
Find articles that back up or criticise your marketing plan
SWOT
Cost – raw materials
Staff – students to work! As part time, cheaper labour – fined articles
Time – more time training = profit maxumisation
Economic-
Socio economic group
Disposable income levels – affordability??
Oil prices
Western society becoming more ethically aware – make sure flikaflag product is ethically friendly, promote ethical friendly through product
Digital, technology advancement – digital radio now
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