Weaknesses – They are a new business and need to generate their businesses image that they want the public to see them as. The business has a debt allowed bank account, allowing the business to go into debt up to £80. This could backfire as they could feel as it is not a problem if they fall into debt.
Opportunities – There is a large opportunity for Sunseeker yachts to gain a monopoly in the industry as they are by far the biggest and best known luxury yacht builders in the world. This would give them a market share of 25% of the industry which would see their profits boom as more of their rival companies will go out of business and there will be less competition.
Threats - Sunseeker only have their factories in the UK. There is a large market in the world for luxury yachts which Sunseeker wants to exploit as much as possible, but there is a threat there that another business will come in that has the same brilliant reputation as Sunseeker and steal some of this market as they will have a factory in their country, minimising cost for the consumer. There is also a threat in the industry in the current financial crisis that more people are not buying the yachts as it is a want and not a need for the consumer who is trying to minimise spending to deal with the current times.
My Marketing Plan for Sunseeker Yachts.
Sunseeker yachts are a business based on the south coast of England who sells luxury yachts. They have a specialised target market and export 99% of the yachts made. All of their factories are based in the UK and they have many skilled and loyal employees dedicated to the business.
With the current financial situation occurring through out the world, Sunseeker are not losing money as they have a production programme for the next two years and they are selling boats as before. Their competition is making bigger yachts to compete with the mid-sized Sunseeker and Sunseeker are being forced to make bigger yachts to stay ahead of the market. The credit crunch is not having an effect on the top end of this industry as the customers are so rich that it is not having a huge effect on them. For example, Roman Abramivich (the Chelsea chairman and oil tycoon) has just put in an order for a 130 foot super yacht worth around £12,000,000. This does not show signs of bad times for the business, but a need to make bigger and better yachts for their customers. This would mean immediately that the yacht would have to be of an exceptionally high quality and standard. To do this they could release a new range of customised yachts for the consumer to help design.
To begin with this new yacht, they will have to first do a large amount of market research. The type of research that I would personally recommend is primary research which Sunseeker have done themselves. This could be expensive and time consuming, but they will be able to ask whatever they like, find exactly the information that they need to know and they can ask the people that they need to ask. This will give them a precise and reliable source of information to base their decisions on. They will also need to research how to minimise costs of the manufacture to maximise profit per yacht sold. But, they also need to buy good quality materials to keep up their good reputation and especially to this high money product. They cannot afford to lose interested customers.
After this, they need to do some market segmentation to break down their target market and identify the specific groups within the large market of yachts. This is hugely important to the business in the planning of their product as they need to target these people in their market research and they can also base their promotion and manufacturing to this target market to exploit this market and maximise profit. This market will be a niche market as they are marketing to a specific market segment and it will cut out the chance completely of a mass marketing occurring and consumers choosing cheaper but with less quality competitors. Product differentiation is also going to be certain to their consumer as they will get to pick whatever they want for their yacht and each yacht will be individual from the type of wood used in the interior to the type of engine.
For a new and bigger ‘super yacht’ they will have to put a few things into mind. First of all, they will have to identify the customer demand. This can be done with a new specialised customised range where the customer helps design the boat of their dreams at a higher price but which will guarantee a high profit sale. This will also satisfy the customer demand as they will have exactly what they want in and on their yacht.
This type of marketing will be customer orientation as this type of product allows the customer to determine what they need. It is then down to Sunseeker to try and satisfy this demand to the highest standard that they can to keep up the brilliant reputation of the business. This is also a brilliant source of research for new or existing yachts. They can see which items people like in their yachts and they could include this into some of their manufactured yachts.
Promotion will also be extremely important in selling the new product as the consumers need to know about the new type of product and the word needs to go out about the specialisation of the new service that they are offering the consumer. For this I would use sponsorship of an America’s Cup boat as this is the most well known yacht racing in the world and this will hit home and remind the consumer of the business. Also, the advertisement in a high-class newspaper (e.g. The Daily Telegraph) in the business section as this is hitting their target market brilliantly as they theoretically would be high-class and a wealthy businessman. However, I would not advertise it on the television as the costs would be extremely high and they would not be hitting their target market. They should definitely continue their partnership with the James Bond films as they are showing the world of the quality and the brilliance of the Sunseeker yachts.
To offer this to the rest of the world at the same trade price as in the UK to prevent any competitor coming and stealing some of Sunseekers market, they should build some factories in other places in the world. For example, one in Japan to supply Asia and for the skilled workforce there, one in Australia to supply Oceania, a few in North America to supply this market, one in South America where there is a smaller market but still a small market, and a few in the Middle-East with the booming economies here, and finally one in the Mediterranean where there is a market. This would increase Sunseekers market share so high that they might even get a monopoly and also put some of its competitors out of business.
The pricing tactics of the product would be determined by the cost of all of the individual parts of the yacht accounted for. This type of pricing could be elastic as they might need to make a few to get this product up and running and to reassure other consumers of how good it is. But the product quality and the brand name would be included in the price as people will be willing to pay more for Sunseeker to make their yacht than a different yacht maker this is called price discrimination. This type of pricing is usually called contribution pricing as all of the different aspects of the yacht contribute to the finished product.
This would take a large amount of work for the business to do, but in the long run it could pay dividends for this new market and this could see them getting a monopoly in their industry.