Place
The factor of Place is not on such a large scale, the outlet is the shop and although products may be offered by post most of the transactions will take place at the shop. However the shop must be in a position in which to offer its services well and easily accessed by the customers. For example there must be plenty of car parking near by so that the customers can easily access the shop, it should be available to as many customers as possible.
Promotion
Promotion the fourth element and refers to how the potential customers are made aware for the product and or products. Before the promotion campaign firstly the company must find out who its customers are and whom they are aiming their products at. This would be found out through out throw the use of market research which will not only tell you the market you are looking at but also it gives you a change to develop the product more. Knowing that the market for
Your company is between the age ranges of 14 to about 25 and is mainly based at male with a small female market.
The techniques for promotion is based under five different headings, these are;
· Packaging
· Personal selling
· Public relations
· Sales promotions
· Advertising.
For each of these in turn there are different options that are available,
Packaging it is how the product is presented to the customers this is normally the physical appearance and the packaging in which the product is sold. For this company as the products are bought from manufactures which sell through many different outlets the product already come packaged up and this is not a large concern of the company just to ensure that the packaging stays in good condition.
Personal selling involves communication directly with the customers; this is always one to one contact for example double glazing sales man. This involves the sales man approaching the customers rather than the customers coming to a shop. Potentially this is the promotion technique that is most likely to sell the most products but this is not a good option for your company, as it would involve large amounts of stock being taken to see all the clients.
Public relations is the relations between the company and the public. This is about presenting a caring image to the public and potential customers, of a place were they would want to shop.
This image can be achieved by;
· Through sponsorship of events related to the product or the image that is wished to be portrayed.
· Sponsorship or the setting up of youth teams.
· Making money available for help with community projects such as building a youth centre.
· Buying equipment for schools.
Due to the fact that Urban Surf Co is such a small newly opened company they will not have the large P.R budget to cover these large events. In the future they may be able to put a small amount of money in to local schemes or events but this is not in the immediate future.
Sales promotion is also known as point of sale promotions this is because this is where it happens. The different sorts of sales promotion are:
1. Buy one get one free - this can also be buy one and get something else free.
2. Discounts.- where products are reduced in an effort to sell more.
3. Competitions - used to get people interested in he shop and products.
4. Free gifts – another way to pursued people to buy products.
5. Product trials – allows people to try the products before they buy.
6. Point of sale displays – special displays to promote the products and gain customer awareness.
For your company I would expect these to play a major part in the shop. I would use the point of sales displays, as the major part of the sales promotion as this will give reactively cheap and cost effective method.
Advertising is the process of communicating information about the product or service to as many customers in the target market as possible a way that arouses interest so that the customers are encouraged to buy products. This must be accurate as law states it. The advertising method chosen should suit the size of both the firm and size of its market.
Small firms should consider these options because they are of low cost and are cost effective still:
· Word of mouth
· Local press
· Commercial directories. (e.g. yellow pages)
· Delivering leaflets.
All of the above should be considered as they are all with in the small marketing budget that is available to me.
Company and product analysis;
Swot analysis
Using the swat analysis it will help with determining which new products to introduce in the company and examine how existing products are doing. SWOT stands for Strengths weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The first to of these are internal and the second two are external.
Strengths- the company has as an advantage over the other companies because it sells from many different well-established names all who are associated with good quality. All of these name have there own form of advertising as well as any Urban surf co put in to practise.
Weaknesses- is the size of the company selling the products, as it is very small. Also the product is week because the clothing is based at a particularly type of person with in the age group as the clothes are designed to a limited amount of people. The other problem is that the small company only has a very small amount of money available. This limits both expansion and marketing plans.
Opportunities- For the company to expand because of the ever growing population and the fact that the area of Bishop Stortford will be prone to a great economic growth due to the increase in access that is likely to become available. No shops in Bishop Stortford cater for woman’s clothes except Urban Surf Co in this type of market.
Threats-The treats to the company is the clothes shop just up the street which is based in the same market as us there also a shop in the main present which will again is based in the same market.