Global Marketing Strategy for Overlux

Individual Reflection on Overlux Marketing Plan and Simulation

The focal point of most business establishments is undeniably the pursuit of profitability. The accruement of profits by an organisation is a very gravitas prerequisite, primarily based on the need by the organisation to expand its overall operational and functional scope. However, the realisation and maintenance of a profitable trend demands the institutionalisation of pertinent procedures and strategies, such as in the marketing plan and marketing simulation. Essentially, a marketing plan denotes designing effective strategic planning to promote the organisational products and services across the international markets for gaining high competitive advantage (Elsayed& Paton, 2005). The marketing plan, more so, reshapes the functions of the organisations and develops effective tactics for the firm to achieve the marketing aims and objectives in a specified period of time. In this individual report I will reflect on Overlux company which aimed at creating a new shoe product and sell it in home, domestic and foreign markets.

The Scope of the Marketing Plan

in London. The company’s forte is being able to expand their business across the global market to expand its sales of the high quality products. Hence, the firm’s marketing strategy is aligned with its mission and vision. The marketing plan, in its descriptions, considers vital aspects such as the firm’s resources as well as the ability of the company to reach its intended international customers and convince them to buy its range of footwear (Yang & Gabrielsson, 2018). The realisation of this global sales endeavour is very pivotal to the firm in the making and formulation of strategic decisions. Nonetheless, the shoe industry is both locally and internationally very competitive year (Elsayed& Paton, 2005). Consequently, it is not a choice but an inevitable prerequisite for Overlux to take into consideration several factors in attempting to come up with an effective and pertinent marketing plan. The marketing plan, therefore, coincides with the Ansoff Matrix, in providing a practical outline, crucial for aiding marketers, managers, and executives in the establishment of relevant strategies needed in driving the company to growth and prosperity. With the key being the product development segment, the introduction of new shoes as well as the pursuit of diversification as soon as the firm enters the international market arena.

Overlux Marketing Analysis

In analysing the shoe market industry, the marketing plan used several resources to collect vital information concerning the dynamism of the shoe industry. Such a move is very pivotal, owing to the veracity that it makes very much attainable to establish its exceptional characteristics that draw the redlines between Overlux and its competitors, therefore, enabling Overlux to stand out. The marketing analysis identified prospective clients as well as their purchasing habits, the target market size, the strengths and weaknesses of the major competitors, and the prices that most customers are willing to pay. To obtain this critical information, the marketing analysis applied several models, such as the USP framework, marketing mix, the growth strategy mix, and the brand positioning map model (Yang & Gabrielsson, 2018). Moreover, primary research was applied in the collection of raw data and sequentially in the interpretation and analysis of the same data later presented as secondary data. The company went even further, by hiring the services of marketers who were employed significantly in the gathering of information directly from prospective customers. To obtain the information, the hire marketers primarily asked the potential customers appropriate questions concerning their spending and preferential habits. The marketing analysis, eventually, revealed several marketing gaps. For example, in terms of company performance competency, it was evident that Overlux was facing several urgent issues concerning its total unit sales, the overall client satisfaction compared to other companies’ issues related to the return on sales and to the net profit. Objectively, the marketing plan of Overlux aimed at a same day delivery of shoes to its clients chiefly to improve its customer satisfaction as well as the creation of limited-edition shoes. Regrettably, the company failed to realise these initial objectives, mainly because of the large amount of expenses that the firm invoiced. More so, this and other more creative and innovative concepts failed to be applied principally because the company lacked adequate income for investing in such particularities (Elsayed& Paton, 2005). Hence, in response to this, the focal point of the Overlux marketing plan during the simulation was the attempt to raise the home market share of the organisation as well as its domestic and foreign markets, achieved by maximising the overall sum invested in product development. Importantly, the action was relatively fruitful since an evidential burden in the market share of the company was realised.

The Simulation Decisions

It is not an appropriate plan for the company to compete with the high end fashion luxury brands in the market and set high price for the final goods at the initial stage when operating in a domestic market with a new product portfolio. In the initial period, the group priced the product at $129 in the domestic market as well as in the home market. At this phase, domestic customers were not willing to pay the high price for the products, as the home market was not considered. Consequently, the unit sales considerably decreased from 198,000 to 15,637. Once market had been investigated more efficiently and prices modified accordingly, this resulted in a reduction to $109 in the home market and to $99 and domestic sales becomes greater than before again to 129,663 units (Yang & Gabrielsson, 2018). The budget for the manufactured goods was estimated to account for a considerable amount of research. However, during the phase of simulation, the group was unwilling to spend a high sum on market research until the later periods, due to important costs. For distribution, the aim of the firm was to sell a large proportion of our shoes directly online. However, from period 2 (when it was implemented), to period 10, sales remained particularly low, rising from approximately 24,000 to 100,000. On the other hand, it was noticed that in almost every step product development has been purchased in order to increase the shoe quality, balancing expenses and try to reduce them significantly by reducing the investment for product promotions and advertising activities in the market. In fact, the group develops the strategy to invest more on the influencer marketing which was considered to be a cheaper option as compared to the mass media promotions.

Lessons learned in the Marketing Simulation

Market research is mandatory for the organisations, and one of major learning curves that came out of this simulation which is an essential tool to restructure the organisational activities for successful establishment of the firm. Although a considerable amount was spent on the market research in this period of time, with expenses being $75,000, and the net profit of the organisation was still higher in period 8 as compared to the net profit in period 9, with values of $5,160,436 and $1,197,391, respectively. A complete report on pricing at the domestic market was purchased to ensure that the product was priced the highest in the market, which helps to increase experience of the company to sustain in the market and set effective price for their products. The effect of the market research on the simulation was visible through comparing the values from the figures 8 and 9. Another flaw within the marketing plan was the absence of the identification of a segment, regardless of the fundamentality of a segment(s) in a marketing plan. The inability to identify the segment was, however, based on the lack of clarity.

Recorded Success of the Marketing Plan

In the recent era of global competitive fashion market, the luxury brands must have good reputation in the market and strong and loyal customer’s base for expansion of the business and in this regard the organisation Overlux faces uncertainty to operate in such an intense competitive environment (Miller and Mills, 2012). The product portfolio is new for the customers as well as the brand consider it as a success factor to have product diversification in the market and attract the new customer’s base for long run. It is beneficial for the firm to invest higher in market research for acknowledging the fashionable trend and consumers demand in the recent years as well as it is also essential for Overlux to invest in product diversification strategy for establishing the brand with new product portfolio, so that it would be possible to compete with other fashionable luxury brand sand attract new customers base in the market. Through this tactic, it is effective to improve unique selling point and offer a high quality products to the customers for achieving future success.

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Bridging Differences between Simulation Decisions and the Plan

To bridge the gap, Overlux needed to create added value for customers for the development of their competitive strategy. By acquiring quality raw materials and utilising those in primary activities to manufacture the quality outputs are effective for creating values for a consumer. Inbound logistics is another mandatory factor, where the organisation must receive, stock up, and deliver the outputs efficiently, maintaining good relationships with external stakeholders by improving communication through frequent meetings in-person but not having extended payable days (Kolb, 2016). The company adopts latest operational system to produce final output and this further adds value to the customers. The outbound logistics can be maintained in such a recent era of digitalisation through ecommerce activities the manufactured shoes and other goods of the company are distributed well to serve the customers across the market. It further enhances the visibility of the products as well as maximise consumers values in long run. Influencer marketing is one of the effective ways for marketing mix strategic planning and promoting the organisational products and apart from that there are social media advertisement and magazines which are also effective to promote the products and services of the brand in the market. This further influences the customers to make effective purchase decision and improve customer’s awareness in the market. The support activities are also mandatory for successful operational activities where the strategies such as human resource management, efficient procurement to reduce operational cist, hiring experts to handle the customers and maintain technical excellence in designing the products are effective for the company Overlux to create values for the customers by delivering high quality products and efficient services (Varadarajan, 2010).

Target Level

Regarding the target level, the marketing plan partially failed to achieve anticipated targets. Among the failed targets was the realization of one-day delivery, with the aim of increasing customer satisfaction and the creation of limited-edition shoes. Another unmet target was the implementation of creative and innovative concepts (McDonald & Wilson, 2016). This is more so coupled with the quantity of expenses that the organisation had as a start-up. For instance, in the simulation period, the allocated amount in the first period increased from $950,000 to $1,750,000 in the last period. Consequently, the achieved target resulted in an increased market share of Overlux, evident when the company's market share increased from 0.9% to 7.3% (Varadarajan, 2010).

In conclusion, the outcomes of the marketing plan identified there is a need for all start-up businesses to uphold their prime focus on product development as well as market research. By doing so, start-up organisations need to be able to investigate, gather and evaluate pertinent data associated with the marketplace Also, it is a gravitas to employ varying strategies that are better suited to a company across different periods because the market is characterised by several challenges and continuously changing.

References

Elsayed, K., & Paton, D. (2005) The impact of environmental performance on firm performance: static and dynamic panel data evidence. Structural change and economic dynamics, 16(3), pp.395-412.

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Harris, L. C., & Piercy, N. (2017) Chapter 18 and 19 - Principles of marketing (7th European edition). Harlow: Pearson.

McDonald, M., & Wilson, H. (2016) Chapters 1 and 2 - Marketing plans: how to prepare them, how to profit from them (Eighth edi). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.