Strategic Marketing Planning for OMO in the UAE

Executive summary:

Strategic marketing planning will assist marketers of a company to set effective marketing strategies that are relevant to the market needs and customer demand. Through using SMART objectives, the company can focus on setting proper organisational policies which are suitable to promote the market growth in the new as well as in the existing market. In addition to this, the report also concludes that, if marketers need to make proper strategic planning; they will focus on conducting proper internal and external analysis of the firm through using PESTEL and SWOT analysis. Through using VC analysis, marketers will analyse the competitive market position of the firm which will assist marketers to set strong marketing and business plan which will assist the firm to grab a strong competitive position in the market. This report will analyse the internal and external environment for OMO by using PESTEL, SWOT and Value Chain analysis. Moreover, this report will also use the Ansoff Matrix to analyse the growth strategies that are going to be applied by OMO in the UAE market to grab a high level of competitive advantage. This report will discuss the strategic marketing planning of OMO, the detergent product of Unilever in the market of UAE. The report will also make the marketing mix which will assist the marketers of Unilever to set strategies for OMO to enhance its selling in UAE market.

Introduction:

Strategic marketing planning is associated with setting clear goals and achieving them to get high level of competitive advantage and strong customer base. This report will discuss the strategic marketing planning of OMO, the detergent product of famous brand Unilever in the market of UAE. This report will analyse the internal and external environment for OMO by using PESTEL, SWOT and Value Chain analysis. Moreover, this report will also use the Ansoff Matrix to analyse growth strategies that are going to be applied by OMO in the UAE market to grab high level of competitive advantage. In addition to this, the report will also do the STP analysis for OMO to analyse segmentation, targeting and positioning of market in the UAE for grabbing high market success and develop a strong customer base. The report will also make the marketing mix which will assist the marketers of Unilever to set strategies for OMO to enhance its selling in UAE market. Finally, this report will conclude the findings of this analysis to representing the main theme of this discussion.

Step 1: Idea generation:

According to Bammann (2019), for generating clear ideas about marketing strategies and business operation of a company it is important to analyse its overall competitive environment. In the report, for having a clear idea on the business operation of Unilever for marketing OMO in the UAE market, PESTEL, SWOT and VC model can be used.

PESTEL analysis of UAE for OMO:

SWOT analysis:

Value chain analysis:

Inbound logistics:

Inbound logistic is the process of procurement as well as material management that deals with the delivery of raw material from the suppliers to the manufacturing unit (Mudambi and Puck, 2016). Marketers of OMO will focus on maintaining healthy and strong relationships with suppliers and dealers in term of receiving high-quality raw material in the factory right time. In addition to this, marketers of Unilever will also check that the overall price of raw material is justified which will assist this company to set a reasonable market price for OMO.

Operation: operation is associated with the process through which raw material and processed and transformed into final products (0). In this context, marketers of OMO will focus on supervising different operation such as machining, processing, packaging, assembling and testing, which will make them sure about the texture and quality of OMO.

Outbound logistics:

This is the process which deals with delivering final products to customers (Jaligot et al. 2016). Marketers of OMO will focus on supervising the overall process of order processing, scheduling and transporting of OMO which will assist them to ensure that the detergent is now ready to sell to the customers. Marketers of OMO will also supervise the additional outbound functions such as material handling, warehousing, scheduling and manual handling process. Through supervising the stages of outbound logistics, marketers of OMO will ensure that the detergent is of high quality and can be delivered to the customer at the right time.

Support activities:

Firm infrastructure:

Firm’s infrastructure is one of the most important support activities of firm which assist marketers to maintain well-organised and systematic work environment within workplace (Chalaby, 2019). Owners of Unilever needs to focus on developing well-managed workplace by diving the entre workplace into different departments, each of which has significant roles in running effective marketing operation. This process will assist marketers of this company to maintain highly coordinated and synergistic working environment that will assist the staffs to maintain the quality of OMO. On the other hand, senior managers of Unilever need to maintain strong connection with different marketing department in order enhance the overall sales of OMO detergents

Human resource management:

Human resources manager is not only associated with recruiting eligible staffs but also is associated with developing the professional ability of workforce (Rosales et al. 2017). In case of promoting growth opportunities for OMO, marketers HR mangers can conduct training and self-assessment program for the sellers and marketers which will improve their knowledge regarding using smart tactics to convince people to chose this detergent over the others.

Step 2: SMART marketing objectives:

Step 3: Growth strategies:

Ansoff Growth Matrix:

Market penetration:

Market penetration is the process of marketing existing products in an existing market (Dawes, 2018). As OMO is a well-known and preferable detergent product for existing customers in the UAE market it will enhance the chances of sales and marketing growth of this detergent in the UAE. On the other hand market penetration will, assist marketers of OMO to grab huge sales and profit in the UAE market without investing much.

Market development:

Market development is referred to as entering into a new market with existing products (Yin, 2016). In this context, marketers of OMO can enter into the rural areas id seven emirates of UAE in which they do not operate the business yet. In term of convincing consumers in rural and suburban areas to use this detergent, marketers need to analyse the income level and process of rural people which can pose impact into pricing strategy of OMO and its selling process. Marketers of OMO needed to set the overall selling process and marketing strategies of OMO in such a manner which will convince customer to buy this product. In this context, marketers can offer huge discount on OMO detergent to rural customers and inform them about uniqueness and high quality of OMO, which will assist marketers to grab huge customers it h rural and suburban market.

Product development:

Marketers of OMO has set product development strategy to lure huge customer by launching new products in the UAE market which will assist Unilever to increase sells of OMO detergent. According to Gurcaylilar-Yenidogan and Aksoy (2018), there are some new products which can enhance sells of another existing product of the same brand. Marketers of OMO can launch products such as soap reagent or liquid soap gel which when mixed with OMO detergent, gives high-quality cleaning effects. These marketing tactics will assist marketers of OMO to grab customer attention to convince them, to buy the new product along with OMO.

Diversification:

This is the process of marketing new products into new market for grabbing high level of competitive advantages (Loredana, 2016). Marketers of OMO although focuses mainly on marketing growth of the existing product OMO in the existing market, UAE market, the marketers also focus on launching some new products such as soap reagent ad soap gel in rural and suburban areas of UAE, which will enhance sales of OMO detergents. In this context, marketers of OMO have diversified the rural and suburban market of UAE based on the age group, gender and behaviour of the customers. In this context, marketers are going to target people of middle and old age with middle and high-income level. On the other hand, marketers of OMO has targeted people who belong to middle and high living standard, as these people would easily be convinced to invest in this premium detergent brand, OMO.

Step 4: STP analysis:

Segmentation:

According to DeSarbo et al. (2017), market segmentation is process of subdividing the entire market into different segments in which customer interacts in the same way with the same needs. The overall market segmentation of OMO detergent in the UAE market is as follows:

Geographic: all over UAE including rural, urban and suburban areas.

Demographic: all types of family size (nuclear and joint family), mostly middle to upper-income level people are targeted

Behavioural: People who prefer to use quality products and need fast solution of their homemaking work

Psychographic: People who believe in maintaining hygiene in their attire with using the high-quality detergents are targeted by OMO

Targeting:

After segmentation of the market, it is important to determine target customer which will assist marketers to develop the right marketing strategies for grabbing competitive advantages and increasing the sales (Wuryandani et al. 2018). Marketers of OMO detergent have set the target group in the UAE market in the following way:

Middle to higher income level people is targeted by marketers of OMO. As Unilever does not compromise with quality of OMO detergent, so the price of OMO is relatively higher than the other detergent in the UAE market. This is the reason, marketers have targeted high and middle-income people of UAE are the target group for selling this detergent. As UAE high per capita income and well-paid job for most of citizens it will, assist marketers of OMO to grab high market growth and strong competitive advantage.

Women, mostly the homemakers, which are involved in budget allocation and cleaning process, are targeted by marketers of OMO. As homemakers women are more involved in the cleaning process they will understand the need for high-quality detergent which will save their effort to get easy cleaning. As OMO has maintained its high quality in a sustainable manner it will assist the homemakers to chose this detergent over the other.

Positioning:

Positioning is referred to as customer’s perception regarding the market position that a brand has occupied in the market (Zhou, 2019). OMO has already positioned itself as a strong and high-quality brand in the UAE, which will convince customer to choose this detergent over the other detergent products of Unilever. In addition to this, OMO has maintained the reasonable and justified price of itself as compared to other detergents in UAE market; this will also pose a positive impact on customer perception about this detergent. As OMO uses children in its ads, it will make the emotional connection with consumers that will be helpful for sales and marketing growth of OMO in the UAE market.

Step 5: SCA (sustainable competitive analysis)

Sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) analysis is the process of analysing the overall competitive advantages of any business by determining its competitive position in market, usefulness of its strategies and its customer’s base (Hoenigl et al. 2018). Through using this analysis process, marketers of OMO will be able to analyse where this product will be successful in grabbing strong competitive position in the UAE market by convincing customers to prefer this product over the other product of Unilever ad other hands.

In terms of conducting the SCA analysis, marketers of OMO will analyse the following question and answer them accordingly to determine the competitive position of this product in UAE market and also analyse the customer base of this product.

Step 1: Basis of competition:

This is the first stage of SCA analysis process, in which marketers need to find out the reason base on which the entire market competition has been aroused. The basis of competition that OMO is going to face in UAE market is based on grabbing strong market position in the UAE market by selling high-quality detergent which will assist marketers to achieve customer trust ad belief. In this context, OMO focuses on improving the market orientation to set effective strategies which will assist OMO to deal with than ever-changing market competition in the UAE market. According to Rothaermel (2016), the strategic competitive analysis will assist marketers of an organisation to analyse the internal, external and competitive environment of the organisation. In this context, OMO will focus on PESTEL, SWOT and VC analysis which will assist marketers to analyse how this product will cope with the increasing competition in the UAE market. On the other hand, through determining the basis of competition, marketers of OMO will set strategies that will assist marketers to attract the eye of customers and grab high level; of competitive advantages.

Step 2: What do you offer?

According to Karpenko and Filyppova (2016), marketers need to represent the brand value of the organisation by showing the uniqueness of the brand. OMO is going to promote its brand by showing the uniqueness of this detergent which will assist marketers to convince customers to prefer this product over the others. As mentioned by Hu et al. (2018), marketers need to inform customers about the information regarding their product and brand which will represent the difference of this brand with the other brand in the market. In this context, marketers of OMO will communicate with customers in the UAE market through using online campaigns and public relation meeting which will allow marketers to inform about the quality and price of different sashes of OMO. Moreover, through conducting campaigns, marketers of OMO will also inform customers about their offering regarding the selling of OMO such as a discount on one and a half kg packets and buy one get one free scheme.

Step 3: where do you compete?

In this step, marketers need to focus on the market, in which they will compete with other brands (Shiri and Salman, 2019). Marketers of OMO will focus make a proper analysis of the UAE market which will assist the marketers to understand the actual trend and customer preference regarding the detergent industry. On the other hand, marketers of OMO will also focus on the product and customers in the market to make proper product development based on the demand of target market for example as OMO has targeted household in UAE, market to sell this detergent it will analyse current preference of target customers in UAE towards selecting detergent brand. OMO marketers will focus on analysing the criteria based on which the customers in UAE market chose the detergent such as quality, market price and cleaning effects. As mentioned by Koo et al. (2017) to analyse the market it is not sufficient to analyse the customers of the market by also the marketers need to analyse the increasing competition by potential rivals in the market. In the UAE market, there are many detergents such as Al Basma detergent and Falcon detergents that have a huge customer based on the UAE market will pose high competition on OMO.

Step 4: How do you compete?

In this step, OMO will focus on their internal strengths which will assist marketers to execute proper strategies to get a strong competitive position in the international market. As mentioned by Koo et al. (2017) marketers need to develop proper functional strategies which will assist them to improve the overall business to deal with changing market needs. Therefore, OMO needs to analyse the effectiveness of business strategies to determine whether the strategies can achieve strong market growth in the UAE market.

Step 6: Marketing mix:

Product:

Marketers of OMO have prioritised maintaining high quality of Unilever product. According to Wu and Li (2018), product quality is one of the most important aspects of marketing which ensure customers that they will have the high quality and durable product which will meet their needs regarding the product. For maintaining sustainability in high quality of OMO, marketers focus on improving the manufacturing process of this detergent in the factory by using new machines and manufacture technique. In addition to this, every year, marketers of OMO is going to make some improvisation on the quality of the detergent by addition quality raw material in this detergent which enables the customer to gain more cleaning effect on their clothes.

Place:

The distribution channel is important for transporting its products to its customers at the right time and place (Jindal et al. 2019). OMO marketers have maintained strong relationships with national sale distributors, regional sales distribute and common distributors which assist them to distribute OMO detergent to its customers within proper time. The marketers of OMO also maintained a strong relationship with dealers, wholesalers, retailers and stockists, for assuring hassle-free delivery of OMO to customer via supermarket, hypermarket, corner shops, convenient stores and discount stores.

Price:

OMO targets every household customers especially homemaker women in UAE for meeting their needs. Marketers of OMO focus on setting reasonable price of each size of sashes, which will assist the customers to afford this brand. According to Ismail et al. (2018), marketing mix assists marketers of an organisation to set justified prices of products based on per capita income and economic growth of the country, which will assist this brand to convince customers to choose the products this brand over the other brands. OMO has launched different sashes of detergents with reasonable price which will assist the customers from different economic level can buy the product based on their requirement. For example, one and a half kg packet of OMO is highly popular in middle and upper-middle-class households in the UAE. On the other hand, there are also small packets of OMO detergents as 25 gm, 50 gm and 120 gm which can easily be bought by the lower and lower-middle-class people in the UAE market.

Promotion:

OMO has taken highly innovative and fruitful promotional strategies which will assist the marketers to grab customer’s attention in the UAE market. The commercials of OMO are shown through print and electronic media such as newspapers, television, radios, backs and sides of vehicles and online famous blogs and articles. In addition to that, OMO uses children in tits commercials which can assist the marketers to make the emotional connection with the customers. According to Massingham and Pomering (2017), promotional activities are important for marketers if a brand to make huge customer attention and grab high competitive advantages. In this context, OMO has conducted an aggressive media campaign which is based on promoting the uniqueness and durability of these products, which assists the marketers in high competitive advantages profit and economic success.

Step 7: Conclusion:

From, the above-mentioned discussion, it can be concluded that strategic marketing planning will assist marketers of a company to set effective marketing strategies that are relevant to the market needs and customer demand. Through using SMART objectives, the company can focus on setting proper organisational policies which are suitable to promote the market growth in the new as well as in the existing market. In addition to this, the report also concludes that, if marketers need to make proper strategic planning; they will focus on conducting proper internal and external analysis of the firm through using PESTEL and SWOT analysis. Through using VC analysis, marketers will analyse the competitive market position of the firm which will assist marketers to set strong marketing and business plan which will assist the firm to grab a strong competitive position in the market.

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