Marketing
Marketing by definition is the organizational activity that includes communicating and convincing potential and actual consumers of one’s goods to buy them, and finally delivering the goods to them.
Various organizations and enterprises apply different marketing management strategies to help achieve its organizational goals and objectives. The very first thing to do before starting to market a product is carrying out a market research. Research is the foundation and basis of success of any organization because it is the only way to understand and analyze a market. Through research, an organization gets to establish and discover what the market needs, its expectations and what needs require to be satisfied. According to various writers, upon conducting a research and identifying what the market needs, this is when marketing of the product starts, and will include advertising of the product, distributing it to the market and finally selling it to the available market, and those are the three major stages of marketing a product (Ferrell and Hartline, 2010). There are various areas that I need to research on and there are basically two approaches to this, as discussed below.
Market research
Bearing the product I want to market in mind, I will research on the pizzas that I will be offering. By this, I will look at the type of pizzas that the customers need the age group of the potential and actual buyers of the product and their distribution. It is also important to ascertain the customers’ geographical distribution so as to know how I will be delivering the products. It is also important to know how the customers want their product to be, so as not to produce goods that will not appeal to them. Also, customizing the product will increase the products’ acceptability to the potential customers once exposed to the market (Dow and Taylor, 2008). It is also important to analyze your potential competitors and this includes researching on the strategies they use to market their products because one may borrow ideas from the strategies they use. It will however be important not to copy their style because it may end up killing the originality in our product. There is also the risk of customers holding a negative attitude towards the product. This would be a very difficult phenomenon to change and is therefore advisable to avoid it at all cost. Market research will also incorporate looking at the current prices that the competitors are using to market their products. This will help me when setting the prices for my product, and also determine the pricing strategy to use e.g. cost-plus pricing.
Marketing research
This is research based on the type of strategy to employ when marketing the product, and two methods are used and these are qualitative and the quantitative methods. Qualitative research as based on the market’s feeling towards a product, while quantitative approach is based on reasoning and analyzing things critically and without bias or inclination. This is because both reason and feelings both influence a consumer’s choice to purchase or not purchase a product.
Marketing of my product will require effective communication, creativity, because as a marketer, one has to be creative and able to bring a new perception of a product to the market, if not a new product. Marketing a product will require studying and even to some extent manipulating consumers’ psychology, changing their perceptions and attitude towards a given product. Consumers in most cases usually hold a cautious attitude towards products, especially new products in a market (Lathrop, 2005). The task of the marketers therefore is to make them understand and have an informed decision about the product before purchasing them.
The product
In my venture, I intend to sell, promote, market and deliver pizzas in my campus. The demand for pizza, ice creams and confectioneries in my campus is always high because there are very few suppliers within and around the institution. Students therefore have to go to town to get some of these products. Furthermore, the nearest pizzerias take advantage of the high demand for the product from the students and sell them to the students at exorbitant prices, which are exploitative to the common students, and this makes it difficult for them to afford the products every time they need them. My target market therefore will be the students and any interested staff members who would like pizza to be delivered to their offices and my target location will be my campus.
Secondly, selling pizza to the students is a viable business venture especially around campus. The reason is because many students love trendy products, and pizza, chocolate and ice creams according to research, come top on the list. Many students and young people in general also prefer snacks especially over lunch and during the 10 o’clock and 4 o’clock breaks. This would be an ideal time to supply them with the products. In my market research, I also noted that campus students have a lot of pocket money to their disposal, and minimal expenses. It has been noted that they spend most of their pocket money on snacks and miscellaneous expenses. This is an opportunity for me because the students will be willing to spend money on the products. Selling the pizzas in my school is a virgin, inventive and an unexploited market. It will therefore be easier to set and establish myself. The main challenge however lies upon effectively promoting and communicating about the product to the entire population of the campus.
The Brand
I will be delivering different kinds of pizzas to the clients but I intend to concentrate more on the Lazio pizza, because they seem to be the ones preferred most among the students. I plan to be delivering pizza romana, ripieno, Pizza quarto stagioni, white pizza, and Silician pizza, which are all Italian pizza. These pizzas seem to be preferred by students due to influence from their colleagues. This shows that the students will readily embrace my products because by selling the Italian pizzas, I will serve the market according to the consumers’ preference.
The logo
I have designed a logo to use in my marketing campaign, “Delicacy pizzas: When Pizza came to campus, straight to you!” This is a catchy and interesting marketing statement that will attract the students and staff members’ attention. The reason for the choice of this marketing statement is based on several factors. First of all, there are no pizzerias within campus. The local cafeterias and canteens within the campus do not offer pizzas so; literally a pizza has come to campus. Secondly, students have to get out of campus to get the pizzas. This time round, the pizzas are coming to campus to look for the students. The third reason is that students may need the pizzas but they are either too busy or operating under tight schedules or are just lazy to go buy the pizzas, because they don’t see the value of going out of campus to get the pizzas compared to what they are doing at the moment. The logo one designs and the marketing statements tell a lot about the company and the products in offer (Fill, 2009).
As explained by the logo, I intend to be delivering the pizzas to the students at the designated places for example hostels, their social meeting places (e.g. the school’s social hall) and in the offices to those staff members who would wish to have a pizza.
The importance of the logo is to capture as many people’s attention as possible. This is the objective and goal in applying it. The marketing statement will be included in all the promotional modes to be used. Repeating the statement makes it memorable and catchy. The repetition of the statement will also act as the unit of measure as to how close or far I am from achieving my goals. In other words, it acts as part of the vision statement of the enterprise.
The campaign
This includes the promotional strategies that I will employ to fully and efficiently pass the message and make impact on the target market. Various methods, strategies and media will be used to reach technically all the students in the campus. Various channels can be used to reach all the students and they are discussed below.
The brand positioning
This will include the position at which promoting the product will place it, in relation to the other products of the same kind, otherwise the competitors. Brand positioning can be viewed from two related perspectives, and these are from the competitors’ view and from the consumers’. Positioning of the brand will be influenced by a number of factors and can be viewed from different lights.
Positioning by product user
When positioning my products in the market, I will have to keep in mind that my target comprises of the campus’s population, and not solely the students. Therefore the language to be used in the promotion should incorporate every age group and not the youthful students in campus alone (O’Rourke, 2009). It should at the same time consider the older staff generation.
Price positioning
This is positioning of the pizzas that puts into consideration the competitors’ prices for the same product in the same market. I will have to consider their prices. My strategy will be to place the prices in same range with the competitors’. This way, the students will prefer to buy the pizzas from me because I will be selling them at the same price, and better still, to their convenience (in the hostels, offices etc).
Positioning by competitors
It will be important to establish where the students buy their pizzas frequently and make sure that I offer better services than them, from quality to packaging. By doing this, I will be in a position to conquer the competitors’ grip on the students as the target market.
The position through which one penetrates a target market, depending with the market’s size and the level at which the entrepreneur enters influences a lot on the overall performance of the product in the years to come (Hattersley and McJannet, 2007).
Creative approach
I will have to come up with a creative strategy that rises above my competitors’ so as to fully conquer the market. I have in my strategies a couple of creative and effective ways of reaching my target market.
To start with, in marketing the products, I will post attractive and eye-catching posters at the common places that students frequent for example at the schools’ numerous notice boards, at main gates’ notice boards, in the social and interaction halls, at the school canteens and cafeterias etc. Posting them at these strategic places will make sure that as many people possible will see the posters. It will also be bright to post these posters at the campus hostels, because this is where students will end their day.
Our campus has students from different religious and family backgrounds. The logo and promotional statement I use will therefore have to consider the fact that different people view different statements from different angles and perspectives, and therefore the images, colors and statements I use must be acceptable to all these people.
Being creative will mean that I will have to come up with a strategy that no one else uses or has used before, and also it will have to be unique. For example delivering the pizzas to the hostels is one creative and new strategy that can take almost 100% of the market. Also, supplying the pizzas to the students and staff directly to them is another new way of capturing the market, because by doing so, am almost conquering the competitors’ strength.
Being creative in marketing the pizzas will include taking the routes that have not been explored before and therefore it will mean being different from my competitors, from production to pizza quality to packaging and delivery o the pizzas. Many students prefer Italian pizzas. This may be because the providers probably offer them the Italian pizzas alone, and are not ready to explore the other available options. I will therefore in my case experiment and slowly induce Neapolitan pizzas and use them in small-scale production to test the market’s readiness, and this will be a way to curb the Italian pizzas monotony.
Media strategy
The use of media has in many researches proven to be the most effective way of marketing and promoting products, both new, old or even the innovated/improved ones. In my promotion strategy, bearing in mind that the target market is concentrated around one area (which is an advantage to me), I have the plan to use a cost-sufficient, and at the same time effective means to accomplish my mission.
The most effective method in this case will be the use of print media. This is because, if I choose to use the radio or television, it won’t make any economical sense because the target market is small, and although they still watch television and listen to the radio, it will be an expensive way bearing in mind that the target market can still be reached using the print media such as internal memos.
With my choice of using print media as a way of promoting and marketing the products, as earlier stated, I intend to use posters, pamphlets and flyers. Posters are public and can be viewed by anyone. They therefore have to be attractive, conspicuous and effectively communicate, giving all the required information about the pizzas, how they will be delivered and also most importantly, my contacts in case a customer requires delivery. The posters should be of reasonable sizes, and should at the same time not be too sophisticated and complicated. They will come in different sizes, because the available spaces for pin-up are also varied.
Pamphlets and flyers are more personalized and attract more people customers. This is because the potential customer is handed directly to him/her by the marketer or promoter. This has a more personal touch compared to posters or even radio and television. I will therefore emphasize on these, and hand them directly to the potential customers. It is also a good way of marketing because customers can ask me any question that they might be having concerning the products, delivery or even the kind and quality of the pizzas.
The use of print media is therefore a good, effective and even an economical way of marketing and promoting the pizzas. I will therefore rely fully on print media marketing.
Target audience
As discussed above, my target audience will be the students around campus and the staff working in the university. However, I will concentrate more on the students because they hold the highest demand for the pizzas, as even seen in the researches and observations carried out in the nearest pizzerias.
Students due to their dieting lifestyle, their preference for snacks especially over lunch and break times and the pocket money to their disposal, have a higher demand for the products. Not in many cases will you find the older generation purchasing pizzas, but it is very common among the youths.
At the same time, influence from their peers is another factor that creates a ready market for pizzas among these youthful students. The perception that pizzas are funky, the current affair and trendy in the modern society catapults the desire to buy one. Many of them, those who have not tried the product have the perception that it’s a cool lifestyle; therefore they will do anything possible to get one, and when they keep on seeing them as I deliver the orders, they will also join the bandwagon and probably become loyal customers.
Effectiveness
The effectiveness of my promotion campaign strategy will be determined by the response I get from the consumers. There will be a number of indicators that will show me whether my strategy was effective or not.
The first indicator will be the deviational change in the demand for the pizzas in numbers. If there is an increase in the pizzas’ demand after marketing and promoting the products through print media, this will be an implication that the marketing strategy is being effective as the information is getting top the intended destination, which; the students and staff member.
Secondly, the number of phone calls I am going to get from my clients requesting foe pizzas after handing them the pamphlets will be another determinant as to whether my promotional strategy was successful or not. An increased number of phone calls will imply that the people have been reached by the pamphlets and the pamphlet is convincing enough to make the people call and request for the pizzas, and that is a positive response and indicator.
The third way to ascertain whether the promotional method was effective will be by the knowledge students in the school will have concerning delicacy pizzas. If I pick on a random student and ask him about the product and find that he has some level of conversancy with the products, this will implicate that he took his time to go through the pamphlets, flyers or posters, and acquired some information from them. This also means that he is a potential or an actual buyer.
Conclusion
Organized promotion backed by a good research on the market will go a long way towards fully satisfying the clients’ need (Armstrong and Kotler, 2009). By doing this, it will also be advantageous to the entrepreneur because he will actualize his goals and also maximize on the profits.
References
Armstrong, G. and Kotler P., 2009. Principles of Marketing. New York: Prentice Hall.
Dow, W and Taylor, B, 2008. Project Management Communication. Wiley, Print.
Ferrell, O. and Hartline, M., 2010. Marketing Strategy. Boston: South-Western College Publishers.
Fill, C., 2009. Marketing Communications: Interactivity, Communication and Content, 5th ed., Essex: Pearson.
Hattersley, M. and McJannet, L., 2007. Management communication: Principles and Practice. 3rd Ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Lathrop, T., 2005.This business of music marketing and promotion. 5th Ed. Sesame Street: Random House Inc.
O’Rourke, J, 2009. Management Communication: A case study approach. New York: Prentice Hall.