Marketing Management Portakabin Limited

Executive Summary This paper reports on the research about marketing management that was done on the Portakabin Limited which is a company that deals in the designing and delivery of modular buildings. The company deals in heavy products. The first part of the report is the introduction which gives a brief explanation of marketing management and the relevance of marketing management in the organization.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Marketing Management Portakabin Limited specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It emphasizes on the need for excellent marketing management in order to boost sales for the company products. The report gives the general information and further narrows down the information to the marketing aspects. The paper reports on how the company operates in the competitive marketing environment. The focus is on the means that the company uses in differentiating its products from the products of other firms that produce similar goods. It also highlights the major markets of the company. The paper explains the strategies and tactics that the organization uses to maintain a good position in the market. The paper reports on different aspects of marketing management exercises that are applied in the marketing operations of the firm. These practices include the purpose of marketing management as applied to the company. Under this part, it is reported that the company employs innovation in its products and services as one of the means of attracting customers and increasing sales. The different marketing segments that the company uses are discussed in the report. The main marketing segments are education, manufacturing and customer health. Marketing research in the achievement of marketing objectives, thus this paper reports on the types and methods of marketing research used by Portakabin. The company uses both primary and secondary marketing research. Marketing research is used in th e assessment and analysis of the needs of customers. Marketing mix product is used by the company thus the report explains how the company applies the marketing mix product in improving marketing. Lastly the paper reports on marketing promotion as a component of marketing and how the company conducts its promotional activities.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Introduction The management of marketing functions is an important duty for all business organizations. Organizations craft their marketing activities differently in respect to the line of products and services that are associated with the organization (Thomas, 2006). Nonetheless, Kearney, 1994, observes that the marketing activities borrow from the same principles that apply to marketing. When a business firm deals in various services and products, the marketing functions of the organization are likely to become incre asingly diverse. Marketing forms an important pillar of a company. This can be looked at form the sense that no organization will be able to sustain its activities if it has no customers. If the goods and or services of a company are not gaining marketing access – they are not being bought, then the organization will not get money to pay its employees and to pump into the production process so that more goods are produced (Loudon, Stevens and Wrenn, 2004). Companies whose marketing functions are weak end up shutting down their operations as they cannot sustain their operations. Organizations may have very high initial capital when they begin their operations and produce so many goods using the initial capital. However, the production of the goods might fail to be followed by good plans of marketing. Thus, in such a case, the goods will remain in store. Therefore, the organization will not generate revenue to sustain the production of products and services. In this case, a cri sis will be eminent in the company (Kotler and Kotler, 2009). Good marketing management increases the sale of the company’s products and services. More often than not, the performance of a company is measured by the amount of sales it has made. High sales will mean that the firm is operating on a profit while low will indicate that the firm may be operating on a loss or minimal profits (Cant, 2006). Marketing Management – The Case Study of Portakabin Limited For organizations to acquire and maintain or sustain customers, quality of goods has to given paramount attention. Customers will continue to enjoy the products of the firm only if the products meet their levels of utility.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Marketing Management Portakabin Limited specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More If a product meets the tastes and preferences of customers, it means that customer values the quality of that product. The marketing mission of the company is focused on the provision of high quality buildings to the customers (Saxena, 2009). The construction industry was the original market Portakabin Limited. The portable buildings produced by the company were used for storage and accommodation at construction sites. The company later came to diversify its products – buildings which in the current times include medical centers, offices and even schools. The company embraced diversity, and this enabled it to establish two main markets within the building sector. The company produces single and modular buildings. The modular are of a permanent quality as they are made of steel and thus can be used in constructing buildings of different sizes and shapes. Such buildings are framed in the factory and are carried to the field to be erected from there. Such kinds of buildings are used for the construction of call centers, schools and big offices. Single module buildings are used in the constructi on of smaller buildings, for example, toilets, offices, bathrooms and storage units. There are several companies that deal in the same products; therefore, Portakabin operates in a very competitive business environment. The only way that the company has survived in the competitive market is through ensuring that it satisfies the needs of its customers as a way of maintaining them. Also, the company practices product differentiation. This enables their customers to differentiate between its services and products and those coming from other firms. Two major marketing strategies are used by the company to help it maintain a leading position in the market. The company searches for new customers and gives exceptional services to its existing customers as a way of attracting and retaining them. Purpose of Marketing Organizations have realized the value of customers hence every organization takes customer loyalty with a lot of seriousness. Organizations continuously devices marketing strat egies all in the name of guarding the loyalty those customers have to the firm and its products.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This stresses the importance and perhaps the major role of marketing in for any company. Quite a big percentage of organizational resources go into the marketing function (Layton, 2011). Marketing aims at understanding the behavior of the customers of the company. The behaviors of customers have been identified using different marketing strategies. Therefore, it becomes easy to manage the customers and satisfy them through the products and services that are offered to them. In a general sense, marketing aims at acquiring and maintaining customers. No business can exist without customers. The main purpose of any business is to create customers. Marketing management mostly differentiates a business firm from another through advertising and other tools of marketing (Leventhal, 2005). Marketing is known to uplift the competitive advantage of business organizations. True competitiveness is attained when a firm commits itself to marketing. This can be achieved by observing a number of mar keting actions relating to focus on the customers. When a firm planning its marketing activities, it must ensure that it puts its customers at the center of the activities. It is good to be aware of the customers that a business targets. Some businesses target corporate customers while others target individual customers. An understanding of the customer needs follows once the company has identified its customers. After the needs of customers are known, the organization can then efficiently provide products and services aimed to improve on the value that the company can give to the customer. Customers value a company through the taste that they derive from consuming goods or services that they buy from the company (Kotler, 2000). After the company has identified and attended to the needs of the customer, it has to handle another task which is knowledge of competition. The identification of the competitors is the first step here. The competitors which are firms that either produces si milar products or products that complement what a firm produce – complementary products. The firm must try to outline their strengths and weakness after identifying the competitors. These must be well understood. The marketing strategies of competitors and their capabilities have also to be understood. This information is what the company will use to make strategies of handling competition. Firms do capitalize on the weakness of their competitors in wooing customers to their side. Therefore, they adjust their strategies relative to the strategies of firms that are giving them stiff competition in the market. Market orientation tends to enhance the overall performance of the company and raises the value and image of the company to its customers. It should be put in mind that marketing is not an independent function; it has to be coordinated with other business functions of the organization (McDonald, 2011). The last action that is taken to enhance competitive advantage is mark et orientation. Market orientation, also known as market positioning, refers to how the business characterizes itself in the eye of customers. This is achieved through the products and services offered to customers. Market orientation and positioning is what gives the real image and impression to the customers. When a company has achieved a good image in the eyes of its customers, the marketing function becomes self sustainable. This is because customers will no longer need to be sensitized on products as they have known the quality of the products and have programmed it in their minds (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2012). Marketing Research Marketing research can be defined as a systemic and objective search and the analyzing of the searched information which relates to identifying and offering a solution to the problems in marketing. Marketing research follows a certain order and more so the broad objectives of the company that is conducting research. This calls for market research pla nning just as it is applied in other objective researches. Market research plan ensures that all the details of the research are captured in all stages of research (McDaniel and Gates, 1998). Before the marketing strategies are devised, it is good to conduct research in order to develop strategies that tackle the real issues. There are different methods of conducting marketing research. The major types of research that are used in marketing are primary research and secondary research. Market research, for any company, does not bring solutions to the marketing dilemma. However, it forms a basis upon which marketing strategies and decisions can be made by the marketing managers. The marketing research plan entails the marketing problem that is to be addressed by the research, the information that is vital in solving that problem, information gathering methods and tools and the analysis techniques that are supposed to be utilized in analyzing the information collected (Blankenship and Breen, 1993). It is very important to maintain objectivity whenever marketing research is being conducted. This will give the managers confidence to plan to use the results and findings from the research. Therefore, marketing research employs scientific methods of research. Scientific research moderates all personal prejudices, opinions or biases into hypotheses that are later tasted in an empirical way. It also pays attention to alternative considerations and explanations of different situations (Carson, 2001). Marketing research can help a company to be far-sighted because the company can discover future opportunities for investment and development. Therefore, the company engages in tailor-making their products to fit the customers’ needs or develop suggested products. Marketing research can help a business to know the level of completion that they have. When a firm wants to develop a new product that will enhance its competitiveness, it should undertake market research. Ma rket research acts as a scale of gauging the attention that the new product will bring to the market. Also, it gauges the effect that the product will have on the competitiveness of the company. Marketing research also assists in budgetary decisions. Through marketing research, a firm knows the amount of market investment that should be done. Therefore, budgeting for marketing improvement becomes easier (Zikmund and Babin, 2007). In our case, Portakabin conducts marketing research. The company uses both primary and secondary researches to identify the needs of their customers. Primary research refers to the first research to be conducted. In conducting primary research, the company uses different methods and tools for collection and analysis of data. Focused group discussions and interviews are examples of tools to be used in gathering data. The company uses these tools because they give out good qualitative data which is embedded in the opinions, views and commends. The company org anized for and held focused group discussions with their customers. From the focused group discussion, they were able to note that their customers needed buildings that allowed more light in as such buildings were likely to increase productivity. From these findings, the company came up with the new buildings – Ultima Vision range. These buildings captured the need of customers as they allow significant light via its increased window space. Most organizations prefer primary marketing research as it gives a true picture of the needs of customers. Primary research is quite practical as it reaches a sample of customers who give their views and observations openly and directly. Primary research collects up-to-date opinions and information. Therefore, it is more reliable in making conclusions and plans for future marketing activities for a firm than the secondary research. The major disadvantage of this method is in respect to the consumption of resources. This is because the meth od makes use of significant resources and time that eats into the planning and the implementation of the research. Nonetheless, most people argue that the cost as and expenses of primary market research are justified as its payoff comes in the quality of results that come out of the research and its application in the formulation of marketing strategies (Wiid and Diggines, 2009). Secondary research makes use of the information or data that have already been collected and published otherwise known as secondary data. The secondary data may avail quantitative data on the market or industry. These data are often portrayed inform of statistics. The brand vision research that was conducted in the year 2009 showed the value of â€Å"on time and budget† delivery. During the same year, the company was able to deliver 99.6 percent on time as well as on budget. The data compared well with the statistics from the construction industry which showed that the industry had 59 percent on time delivery and 47 percent on budget delivery (Capon and Hulbert, 2007). Secondary research saves on time and financial expenses as it derives inferences from recorded information. The available marketing data is compared and analyzed from which recommendations are made and used in devising marketing strategies for the firm. However, this method has a number of disadvantages. The method makes a lot of assumptions. It ignores those rapid changes that are common phenomena of the modern markets. The changes that take place in the market may have rendered the recorded information useless when applied to the current or prevailing market. The use of secondary data may not give the desired marketing solution as it only focuses on data and not the situation under which that data was collected, analyzed and utilized (Lacobucci and Churchill, 2010). Portakabin Limited utilizes marketing research in finding out new products and services that customers require. It was also found out that the comp any uses ad hoc research that focuses on certain marketing projects. The company has been able to deliver data cabling services to its customers by using ad hoc research. The data cabling services that come with the new building designs provide telephone systems, air conditioning systems and computer access points. These new buildings are more efficient as they allow for immediate use by customers. The market research in the company attends to two Key Performance Indicators. These indicators are Net Promoter Score and customer satisfaction. The company uses two thousand customer surveys each year in finding out whether their customers are impressed with the products and the issues that are affecting them. Customers are asked to rate the company on a 1:10 scale on marketing aspects for instance product delivery and installation and administration. From the surveys that the company has been doing for quite some time from the year 2003, the rating improved from 8:1 in the year 2003 to a 9:1rating in the year 2009. Also, Portakabin makes use of misery shopping. In this method, the researchers of the company do pose as customers. The results that were obtained from mystery shopping showed that the customers of the company are pleased with the human skills possessed by the staff of the company. These skills include professionalism, courtesy, building rapport and customer aiding among others. The Application of the Marketing Mix Product The marketing mix is a marketing strategy that has gained a wide usage in the recent times. The strategy brings out a combination of elements that are seen as being essential in attaining effective marketing. The marketing mix assists in the determination of the unique selling point of a product in the market. It is the uniqueness of the products that differentiate a product from the products of other companies. Marketing mix carries four Ps’ which signify product, price, promotion and place. The handling of these elements is a rgued to be the determinant of the success of marketing management by an organization. In other scenarios, the number of these elements is increased by the addition of people, process and physical evidence. However, most managers stick to the first four elements. Marketing mix ensures that satisfaction of both the customer needs and objectives of the company. The marketing mix offers a good formula that is utilized in combining marketing and sales functions f a firm (Papantoniou, 1992). The first important element in the marketing mix is the product. For any company to make tremendous growth, it must ensure that the customers’ demands and needs are met through the products or services offered. The firm must define the features of its products and services and ensure that these features tally with the expectations of those who will consume them – customers (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2009). The customer’s purchasing power revolves around preference in marketing man agement. This gives leeway to the other element of the marketing mix product, which is the price. The prices that firm attach to their products should be competitive. The prices that are set on the products of your firm must be relative to the prices of goods similar goods from other firms. Prices have the same degree of importance just like the product themselves. The pricing strategy should be developed which will ensure that the company set competitive prices on its commodities. When the prices are set too high, the company stands to lose its clients who will go for cheaper for cheaper products. On the other side, when the company sets too low prices as a way of attracting customers, it is bound to make losses (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2009). A marketing function cannot attain maximum success when it is not accompanied by promotions. Promotion includes advertisement, selling, application f public relations and sales promotions. When all these are factored in the marketing process , excellent results are more likely to come out of the process. The last product in the marketing mix is the place of distribution. Distribution goes with advertising. Places where the products can be distributed include the internet, at the site of the company and home based business (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2009). In the marketing mix elements, Portakabin adds Positioning. Positioning has close links with the unique selling point of the firm. The company has positioned its brand at the ceiling of the market. The company has a customer charter that assures customers of timely delivery of buildings. Promotional activities help in converting the prospective customers into real customers. According to research, it takes quite a repetitive and consistent effort to covert prospects into real customers. Conclusion Marketing management is abroad area of business management which entails market planning. A lot goes into market planning. Market research must be done that will provide a viv id scenario regarding how to craft effective strategies before devising proper strategies of marketing. Different strategies are used in marketing management among them the marketing mix strategy. Reference list Blankenship, AB and Breen, GE 1993, State-of-the-art marketing research, American Marketing Association, Chicago, Ill. Cant, MC 2006, Marketing management, Juta, Cape Town, South Africa. 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