Global Marketing Plan for UNIQLO
Word count: 4,000 words (+/- 10%)
In Assignment 1 you presented a market audit of Argentina with an aim to assess how attractive the chosen country is for UNIQLO brand. It is assumed that your previous analyses has provided, among other things, an estimate of the market potential and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of competitive marketing efforts.
Therefore, please use your previous analysis as a background to develop the Marketing Plan for Uniqlo’s entry into your chosen market.
Marking Criteria:
1. Extent of coverage of relevant issues
2. Quality of data collected and depth of analysis
3. Application of relevant global marketing theories, models & principles
4. Quality of presentation (structure, referencing, grammar, neatness, etc.)
Requirements: (MUST FOLLOW ACCORDINGLY)
• Use appropriate marketing frameworks and concepts to propose marketing ?strategies for market entry of Uniqlo
• The market planning is exhaustive and covers all relevant areas
• Objectives are SMART; proposed marketing strategies and tactics meet the ?proposed objectives; Provide marketing strategies that ‘flow’ from the analysis and meet the stated marketing objectives
• Use numerous relevant sources of information to support the planning; data sources are reliable
• Select critical points, evaluate them and communicate the conclusions effectively
• Immaculate presentation and referencing, use of tables or graphs where ?appropriate and useful
MUST USE ALL THESE FRAMEWORKS/THEORIES AND PRESENT WITH GRAPHS/TABLES TO ILLUSTRATE THE INFORMATION
• Standardisation/Adaptation (product, promotion, price)
• Pricing strategies (cost- or value-based pricing? Penetration or skimming? Standardisation or adaptation of prices?)
• Distribution frameworks
• Product Life Cycle (and the different promotional strategies at the different stages)
• STP – segmentation, targeting, positioning
MUST HAVE ALL REFERENCES FROM JOURNALS AND OTHER ACADEMICALLY QUALIFIED RESOURCES.
Marketing Plan Outline:
1.Title page
2. Introduction ( max 200 words)
3. Country Selected ( Summary of Your Market analysis from previous assignment; this should be no longer than 500 words)
The National Business Environment; Market and Size Potential; Competitors
4. Entry Mode Selection
Justify the choice of entry mode.
Note: Entry mode – choose one entry mode and justify only this one; no need to discuss alternatives
5. Target Market
Begin the market analysis with a description of the target market for the firm within the new country. If this market differs greatly from the firm’s existing market, explain how the firm will change its marketing strategy to meet the needs of this new market.
Focus on the target market’s needs and benefits of the firm’s products that meet these needs.
Note: Do we need to choose a specific city (location) in the host country?
Most likely yes
6. Marketing Objectives
Examples of “vague” marketing objectives (what NOT to do):
• Satisfy customers?
• Be located in the right place
Examples of “actionable” marketing objectives (what TO DO):?
• Earn a 10% ROI by the second year of operations?
• Increase market share from 16% to 18% by the end of fiscal year 2009
Note: How do we formulate objectives?
For Example, by looking at the past and present performance of Uniqlo in other markets (e.g, Malaysia), I propose the following objective:
O1: To reach sales of £1m in the first 12 months.
O2 : to attract 2m visitors to the store in the first 12 months
O3: Store opening
O4 – brand awareness and recognition – to create brand awareness and brand recognition so that 10% of the market recognises Uniqlo.
O5 – to establish and promote online shopping within the Mexico City market
Objectives Proposed marketing strategies & tactics Additional info
O4 – brand awareness and recognition – to create brand awareness and brand recognition so that 10% of the market Advertise – where? Specific titles/channels/
7. Marketing Strategies to reach Marketing Objectives
a/Product strategies
?How innovative is the product??
Product adaptations.?
Compare it to competitors’ products.
b/Pricing strategies?
Customary markups.?
Types of discounts available.?
Compare to competitors’ prices.?
c/Promotion strategies?
Media used to reach the target market.
Sales promotion used.?
Value of personal selling.
Compare it to competitors’ promotion.
d/Distribution strategies?
Port selection.?
Mode of transportation selection.
Packaging.?
Documentation needed.?
Typical retail outlets.?
Product sales by middlemen.
Compare it to competitors’ distribution.
8. Final Recommendations
9. References
10. Appendices – maximum of 3 short appendices to report
This practical guide is designed to provide additional support whilst studying. The practical guide to the construction of the marketing plan is balanced alongside useful tips on implementation, and advice on core skills such as presenting.
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Creating your Marketing Plan
Use the five following questions to structure your plan:
1. Where are we now?
2. Where do we want to be?
3. How do we get there?
4. How will we know we are getting there?
5. Is it worth it? (a point for consideration: once the plan is implemented, it is worth measuring the results to use to feed into the next planning cycle)
Marketing objectives
These are what the business is trying to achieve through marketing mix activities during a specified time period.
These are derived from the marketing plan and are output orientated.
Normally these can be considered as sales-related objectives, such as market share, sales revenues, volumes, ROI and profitability indicators.
To construct your marketing objectives:
1. Agree what marketing activities your objectives plan to focus on.
Decide what you plan to optimize.
2. Agree what is your primary marketing objective.
3. Then break them down further into, for example:
o Marketing communications objectives which might be:
? Advertising objectives.
? Sales promotion objectives.
? Direct marketing objectives.
? Experiential marketing objectives.
? Web development objectives, etc.
o Brand development objectives, or
o Product distribution objectives, etc.
Is each objective SMART?
In other words is each objective:
1. Specific
It should be succinct, and absolutely clear what must be achieved.
2. Measurable
It should identify a means by which success/the key performance indicators (KPIs) can be measured, monitored and evaluated.
So if, for example, your objective is instore traffic, you must have a target instore traffic figure to beat, by a set number or percentage, in a specified time period.
3. Actionable, (Achievable and Aspirational).
It needs to provide some direction, a focus to the proposed action and be sufficiently changing to motivate staff/your agency/other suppliers.
4. Relevant (Realistic and Responsible)
It must be possible to achieve what you’re asking to be achieved in the time AND with the budget that available.
If there is any concern about this then raise it now, not when the campaign has finished, and has unsurprisingly not achieved its objective.
5. Time period specific (and Targeted)
The objective must be specific about the time period within which it should be achieved.
How do we get there?
Review these seven stages of your marketing strategy.
This is about focusing all your efforts on profitably communicating the ability of your company to deliver your customer’s needs/help solve their particular problems – and to do this better than your competitors.
Here’s what to do:
Stage one: analysis
Before launching into your marketing plan you must first analyse the current situation.
So review:
1. Your company mission, vision and corporate strategy.
2. Relevant macro-environmental insight.
3. An analysis of your internal environment.
4. Review what you know and understand about your customers and their buying behaviour.
5. Competitor insight and other insight on your market.
6. Review your segmentation strategy and how your product/service is differentiated.
7. Review your competitive positioning and your competitor advantage.
8. Review your marketing mix.
9. Review your product and brand management strategy.
10. Review your pricing strategy.
11. Review your distribution strategy.
12. Carrying out a marketing audit will be particularly insightful.
13. Look at your relationship marketing strategy.
14. Review the insight gained from the analysis of the company’s data base.
15. Analyse relevant research and marketing information analysis.
16. Consider using a SWOT analysis.
17. Consider your existing international marketing development strategy.
18. Consider how important sustainability and ethics is to your corporate strategy.
Stage two: insight
1. Look at your relevant market intelligence reports.
2. Do your desk research (including gathering information from your analysis, above).
3. Review relevant, previously produced research and analysis.
4. Review your insight/learning from previous campaigns.
5. Agree what other research you need.
Stage three: your target audience
1. Develop your (ideally) needs-driven market segmentation strategy to pinpoint your target audience.
2. Agree your targeting strategy.
3. Review/work out your positioning strategy.
4. How is your target audience defined?
For example:
o Can you create a ‘pen portrait’ to describe them?
o What is your customer profile?
o Where are they in the customer lifecycle?
o What insights can you get from data analysis?
5. Examine your competitive advantage for each chosen segment .
6. Carry out a customer analysis and start walking in their shoes. Really get to know them.
Stage four: goals and objectives
Refer back to the section on Objectives – where do we want to be? Stage five: your Marketing Mix strategy
1. Develop a strategy for each section of your marketing mix.
This will include:
o Your product/service and brand strategy;
o Your pricing strategy
o Your place/distribution strategy
o Your promotion or marketing communications strategy.
Develop your brand marketing communications planStage six: developing a customer/audience proposition
Create a powerful, single-minded customer offer/value proposition for:
1. The recruitment of new customers.
2. The retention of existing customers.
3. The winning back/reactivation of previous customers.
4. Also for cross-sell/up-sell opportunities.
Stage seven: implementation
1. Agree the responsibilities of key people/teams/agencies/third party suppliers (marketing, sales and customer services team).
2. Agree the budget.
3. Agree all deadlines/the timing plan.
4. Include budget and timing contingencies.
5. Agree how you plan to evaluate your strategy.
6. Brief your Legal, Customer Services and other relevant departments.
How will we know we are getting there?
The monitoring and control mechanisms of your marketing plan:
This stage of your marketing plan has four key elements:
1. Objective setting/forecasting.
2. For each element of your plan, agreeing one or more:
o Benchmarks.
o Key performance indicators (KPIs).
o Other performance standards.
o Other metrics.
3. Monitoring and evaluating performance.
4. Then make the necessary changes.
To decide on what marketing metrics are required.
Establish benchmarks
Benchmarking is a standard by which something can be measured or judged.
For example it might be the process of comparing your costs, processes or quality against another (usually best-in-class) company.
Knowing how you compare is a valuable way to identify ways to improve product quality or performance in order to gain more business.
Monitoring and evaluating performance
Think through the process and data requirements of the evaluation of your strategy’s effectiveness.
1. What assumptions have you made? For example Marketing, Sales, Finance and your Board of Directors will all have a different definition of ‘return on investment’.
2. What are your financial forecasts?
3. How will each element of your plan/ marketing mix be evaluated? What factors are critical to the success of your marketing plan? What are your objectives for the:
o Product/service development;
o Pricing strategy;
o Place (distribution);
o Promotion;
o People;
o Processes;
o Physical factors.
4. What macro data do you need to have to construct an evaluation plan?
5. What micro-data? Macro data
What macro data/information do you need to have to construct an evaluation plan? For example:
• Monthly sales (volume, value, rate of sale);
• Existing distribution;
• Price versus the competition;
• Market share (seasonal?);
• Customer satisfaction levels;
• Customer acquisition volumes to date this year;
• Customer retention data for this year (ideally by socio-demographic segments);
• Key customer segment membership status;
• Customer churn rates (volume and value);
• Customer lifetime and value (ideally by socio-demographic segments).
Micro measures
What micro measures need to be recorded? For example:
1. Number of leads generated;
2. Quality of leads generated;
3. Total sales generated by the campaign (ideally the contribution to profit);
4. Incremental sales revenue from existing customers generated by the campaign;
5. Cost per lead generated;
6. Cost per contact;
7. Conversion rates;
8. Time to conversion.
Develop your own presentation style
1. Know your subject inside and out.
2. Have a rationale for all budgets contained within the plan, and how key performance indicators will be evaluated.
3. Never read verbatim from the slides or the plan.
4. Keep it really simple, otherwise you’ll trip yourself up.
5. Nervousness may make you gabble, so speak slowly.
6. Pause occasionally.
7. Get eye contact with different individuals. This will engage your audience.
8. Try to involve your audience as much as possible. Engage them. Have a sort of conversation with them. Be sincere.
9. Try to present standing up (this is the ideal if there are more than eight people in the room). Practice this in brainstorms, creative briefings, etc., so you become less self-conscious. Use your hands naturally to emphasize each point.
10. And most importantly be yourself. Don’t try to follow someone else’s presentation style.