BHO6505 Marketing Management

Introduction

Formulation of marketing plan is a significant document that is developed by each and every organization when it plans to introduce its new products and services in the marketplace. It includes different marketing strategies and techniques which support a company to promote its products and attract customers towards its products and services. The objective of this report is to develop a marketing plan for the chosen organization i.e. Optus. Optus is one of the largest telecommunication organizations in Australia. The organization is operating its business as wh/82olly owned subsidiary of Singtel from the year 2001. Primarily, it operates under Optus brand when managing many subsidiaries, like Virgin Mobile Australia in telephony market. To offer its services, Optus runs and owns its network infrastructure and utilizes the wholesale services of Telstra and NBN (National Broadband Network) (Optus, 2018).

Moreover, it offers services directly to the final subscribers and it also works as wholesaler to other firms like Amaysim and Exetel. Through its brand i.e. Yes, the company offers wireless internet and broadband services. Additionally, its wholesale services are 4G Mobile and Satellite. This report includes different components of marketing plan like market summary, situational analysis and marketing strategy. Marketing strategies are identified by using the marketing mix framework that includes all the strategies such as product, price, place and promotion strategies.

Situation Analysis 

Optus is planning to expand its telecommunication and internet services in international market i.e. New Zealand. In this process, marketing will be a key process for developing this brand and increase its presence in international market. It will help the organization to increase its customer base in Australian and other markets. Situational analysis and marketing analysis of Optus Organization is stated below:

Market Summary 

e="text-align: justify;">Under this component of marketing plan, Optus will gain the information about overall market and characteristics of different customers on which it will target its services. This data will be used to know about who is served and what their expectations and demands are. The company will determine that how Optus can interact with the customers and deliver their brand message.

Target Market 

By conducting an analysis of the market, it can be stated that the major target markets of Optus are such as residential people, corporate offices, other commercial firms, students and business professionals (Larimo & Kontkanen, 2017). This company targets its customers by considering different segmentation characteristics which are discussed below:

Demographic Characteristics

Under this, Optus is focusing on the people considering their age, gender, income and profession. The company is equally focused on both male and female customers. People in the age group of 15 to 40 years are the major target for this brand. On other side, individuals with higher and middle income level are also on Optus’s target (Khan, 2014).

Geographic Characteristics

Under geographic segmentation, the products and services of Optus are offered by focusing on the Australian population. The company has potential to serve both local and international customers. Considering this, it is making investment of more than $1 billion yearly in enhancing Australia’s telecom products, services and networks. Last year, Optus declared $500 million investment to promote mobile network to bring wireless broadband and 3G to approach 96% of the Australian population. Now, it is planning to bring voice, wireless and broadband services to 2% of country’s population along with better service, amazing prices and greater choice.

Behavioral Characteristics

Optus targets the customers on the basis of knowledge, user status and usage of its telecom and internet services. Currently, it provides different discounts and offers to develop and maintain the loyalty among customers. For example, Optus is focusing on the mobile customers by providing different monthly and yearly packages (Nankervis, Baird, Coffey & Shields, 2016).

Psychographic Characteristics

This type of segmentation includes targeting the people on the basis of social class, personality characteristics and lifestyle. Optus is targeting the fun loving people who love to surf internet and use broadband services. It focuses on the middle and upper classes of society who generally wish to use high speed internet and broadband services.

Market Needs 

Optus is providing its targeted customers with a variety of telecommunication products and services with different packages. It is making efforts to provide different benefits which are significant to its customers:

High speed internet and other telecom services

Nowadays, people are looking for the high speed internet and telecom services. The company has identified that its targeted customers are seeking for high speed networks for their landline and mobile phone services.

Affordable and excellent services

When the students and other individuals search for their internet and networking services, they try to find the most affordable telecommunication services. This is the reason that there is an increase in the market needs towards the products and services of Optus in Australia.

Market Trends 

In new and international market, Optus will offer its products and services by using different and innovative marketing techniques. The company has considered the different trends in market. It offers the telecom services which are very popular among its customers. This firm has offered a 3GB plan so that it can provide the data emphasized offers to meet the market trend of customers needing higher data limits. Moreover, NBN services have been promoted largely as a promotional campaign (Optus, 2018). This campaign provides the information that the product and service now exists and they can be bought via Optus. This market trend has begun to shift towards the combined products with NBN. Moreover, Optus is looking at the products and services offered by its competitors like Telstra and upgrading its products and services. In the new market, the company has the opportunities to expand the business by extending its services according to the trends like video streaming services, movies and shows. The company will support these services by the unlimited data usage offers (Steenkamp, 2017).

Market Growth 

Telecommunication market in Australia is emerging with a significant growth rate. The services have changed the manner Australian population communicate by using increased connectivity. In the market, increasing demand for mobile services has incurred at the cost of fixed line telephony services. The revenues and profits generated from wireless services have enhanced that is driven by the improved data connectivity and increasing volume of data consumption. Although, the decline demand for the fixed line telephony services and intense competition in mobile services have majorly diminished the revenue potential of telecom market. In the year 2017-18, total $42.8 billion mobile service providers have strived on the basis of price and offering additional value for their products and services (Optus, 2018).

SWOT Analysis 

Strengths

• Optus has a strong free cash flow which enables the company with huge amount of resources in hand (Optus, 2018).
• Highly successful in product innovation and new product development.
• Higher numbers of integration of complimentary firms by the strategies such as merger and acquisition.
• Automation in processes has been the reason for quality products and has also helped the company in scaling up and scaling down as per the market demand.
• Strong brand name which helps them in their expansion processes (Wright & Snook, 2016).
• Higher consumer satisfaction among their rivals.
• Strong dealer community which help them in promoting their products and services.

Weaknesses 

• Structure of Optus is only compatible with the existing business model hence restricting its expansion in the adjacent product segment.
• Product’s unique selling proposition and positioning is not properly defined.
• Net Contribution percentage and profitability ratio is under the industry average.

Opportunities 

• Increase in customers spending and limited growth of the industry has given them with an opportunity to capture larger market share.
• Green drive by government gives them with an opportunity for procurement of their products by the country (Perrone & Wodonga, 2015).

Threats

• Irregularity in the supply of innovative products.
• Difference in Liability laws in different parts of the world has led to different liability claims for the company.
• There is a very intense competition in the market.

Competition 

In Australian telecommunication industry, Optus is facing intense competition as there are various players who are competing on the basis of prices of products and services. In this market, one of the biggest competitors is Telstra that offers similar services and maintained a great brand image among customers. Apart from this, other competitors are Motorola Corp. and Macquarie Telecom which pose competitive pressure on Optus Telecom (Kraus, Meier, Eggers, Bouncken & Schuessler, 2016). Considering the competition, Optus has made efforts to launch new and innovative technologies to become more competitive to Telstra and other players in the sector. In New Zealand, there are various leading players like Vodafone New Zealand and TelstraClear which may pose immense competition on Optus Company.

Key to success 

There are various factors which support the success of Optus Company.  One of the major factors is that this company is offering its products as per the needs and demands of customers in the country. Competitive pricing of Optus is the biggest success factors that assist it to manage its operational costs and introduce new services frequently. In addition to this, this organization is making investment in improving infrastructure which enables it to achieve the technological edge. If the company will be able to maintain these key to success factors, it will attain significant growth and success in international markets (Fernandes, 2018).

Critical Issues 

The critical issues for Optus are such as:

• Licensing and regulatory issues may affect the business of Optus adversely.
• Competition posed by already well-established players.
• Lack of brand presence in international markets (Jin, Kim & Kim, 2015).

Marketing Strategy 

When any organization plans to introduce its new products and services in the market, it is very important to develop effective marketing strategies so that they can approach the targeted customers. For Optus, the key to its marketing strategy is emphasizing on the quality and speed of telecomm and internet services. By using these strategies, the company can target a larger population in Australia and other markets (Fine, 2017). The marketing strategy and its different aspects at Optus are stated below:

Mission 

The mission statement of Optus is to become the best telecommunication and multimedia solution group in Asia pacific Region. Under its mission, it plans to enable communication by developing bonds and breaking all the barriers. It will plan its services in such a way which will exceed the expectations of customers towards telecommunication products and services (Optus, 2018).

Marketing Objectives 

The major marketing objectives of Optus Company are:

• To enhance the brand presence in international markets
• To increase its customer base in Australian and other markets
• To increase the market share and coverage by 15%.
• To achieve a steady growth in market penetration (Rossiter, Percy & Bergkvist. 2018).

To attain these objectives, the company will create different marketing strategies so that they can reach to overall goals of organization.

Financial Objectives 

For this marketing plan, financial objectives of Optus Company are:

• To increase its revenues and profits by 15% in the timeframe of next 3 years.
• To maintain the investment of research and development for future development of products.
• To attain a significant growth rate in next three years.

Target Markets 

As mentioned above, the company will target the customers on the basis of different segmentation characteristics like demographic, geographic and behavioral characteristics. In New Zealand market, Optus will be focusing on both the males and females of 15 to 40 years. It will conduct a market research and analyze the number of customers who prefer to use internet and other packages on affordable prices. The prices of Optus are slightly higher so it will focus on the people of higher and middle income level (Davari & Strutton, 2014).

Positioning 

Optus will position itself as a quality and excellent telecommunication service provider in New Zealand. This positioning will be attained by leveraging the competitive advantage over other players in the industry. In this market, the company will reduce the prices of its packages so that it can attract more customers towards its telecom products and services (Helm & Gritsch, 2014).

Marketing Mix Strategies 

This is an essential component of the today’s market and distinguishes their marketing from that of others (Baker, 2014).

Products: 

Optus is providing different types of Internet and broad band services along with the fixed and mobile telephony (Optus, 2018). The services of the company are of high standards and the chances of its success in the New Zealand market are very high. Apart from this it also gives services such as cable television and leased line services.

Prices: 

Optus provides its services at the reasonable rates in Australia but it aims to give the services to the people of New Zealand at certainly lower prices in the starting phase (Chumaidiyah, 2014). This will help them in capturing larger market segment. Since New Zealand is having higher per capita income hence they will not face problems in the marketing and sale of their premium products and services.

Promotions: 

New Zealand is a market that is highly advanced in terms of use of internet services hence it would be beneficial for Optus to focus on digital marketing strategies for promotions. Along with this they can also use conventional modes of marketing such as televisions and new papers at the initial level so as to reach to maximum numbers of customers very shortly (Bahadir, Bharadwaj & Srivastava, 2015).

Place: 

It will provide services in New Zealand touching large numbers of cities at once. For providing services they can use both mobile and landline mediums to provide people with high quality services. In fixed telephony, they use residential and commercial POTS for local and long distance telephony. In mobile telephony, they use GSM/GPRS, 3G/HSPA and 4G/LTE technologies to give services to its users (Blakeman, 2018).

Conclusion 

Thus, it is hereby concluded that this marketing plan will help Optus Company to overcome different challenges and grab various opportunities in the market. The above report prepares a marketing plan for Optus when it is planning to expand its business in New Zealand. The company should make hard efforts to attract more customers towards its telecommunication products and services. It is found that above marketing mix strategies and other techniques will help the company to attain its marketing and financial objectives.

References 

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