MGM301 Marketing Management : Industry and Organisation

This assignment requires you to undertake the process of analysing one organisation and its operating environments from a marketing perspective. And then apply the learning from lecture 1-10 in the development of marketing strategy. You will provide an overview of this organisation, as well as detail the type of orientation towards marketing it takes. You are also required to examine and analyse the context and environments in which this organisation operates (its industry and the macro-environmental forces impacting on the industry).

Instructions
Issue 1
Provide a brief description of this organisation and the industry to which it belongs. You may also want to include in this description any mission statements, value statements or "slogans" that this organisation utilizes to communicate its purpose. In describing this organisation, please also identify its orientation towards marketing and provide relevant, detailed and factual supporting evidence to substantiate why you have identified this specific orientation. Finally, include a brief description of the product(s) this organisation offers the market. And comment on what role the brand has in this organisation"s marketing strategy.

Issue 2
Analyse each of the 5Cs for this organisation:a. Company what are the strengths and key resources, what are some of the weaknesses? What are the opportunities and threats?b. Customers who is the company serving and what type of behaviour is "typical" from them?c. Collaborators describe their suppliers, distributors or other partners that help the company to deliver their products to the market? If company doesn"t have any explain why it is not necessary.d. Competitors who are the current main competitors, are there any potential new threats or new entrants to the marketplace?e. Context what other factors affect this organisation (e.g., legal, political, technological, etc.)?

Issue 3
How does the firm go about collecting information (e.g., market research, market intelligence, etc.) about the 5Cs? For example, how does it learn about?a. What customers want?b. Which competitors pose a threat?
c. How the context of business is changing, if at all? d. What role collaborators play in the process?

Issue 4: Developing marketing strategy
Based on the market analyses, outline potential market segments that are available to the chosen organisation. Recommend and justify:- a choice of target market(/s)- a value proposition for the target market(/s).
A positioning statement for the target market(/s).

Issue 5: Developing marketing tactics
Recommend and justify a detailed marketing mix (4-7Ps) to support the marketing strategy described in Issue 4.

Issue 1 (Introduction):  

1.0 Brief description of the industry and organisation

2016-2017 statistics reflect that the revenue of Australian book retail industry has declined by 10.2% (Ibisworld.com.au. 2017). Diversified factors like emerging competition from online operators, consumers shifting preference towards e-book material, etc. seemed to have affected the growth of the chosen industry. Dymocks Australia has been established in 1879, with its headquarter in Sydney, Australia (Dymocks.com.au. 2017).

1.1 Mission, vision and value of the organisation

The vision of Dymocks is to attain a sustainable, vibrant and profitable environment in the Australian book retail market (Dymocks.com.au. 2017).  The mission and the value of the organisation are to remain loyal towards its loyal customers and serve the community with innovative operations (Dymocks.com.au. 2017).  

1.3 Marketing orientation

Dymocks is not only restricted its operation to offline bookstores but also extended its business in selling CDS, DVDs and other related items to prevent product saturations. It has been identified that Dynomocks has launched its online stores in the year 2006 to adapt the changing business phase from offline to online operation (Dymocks.com.au. 2017).

1.4 Description of the product lines

The brand has both online and offline presence. The products lines are books, gift cards, gifts, music CDs, DVDs, etc.

Issue 2:

2.0 5Cs of the organisation

Customer

Hall and Gupta (2011) mentioned that Dymocks in the Australian market is not focusing on any particular rages o customers. It is specifically focusing on the book lovers and placing its product in all possible platforms to increase its product ranges in the Australian market (Mitchell, 2017). The customers spending habit is analysed, based on which the prices margins are set and also the discounted offerings.

Competition

The retailers like Booktopia, Collins Booksellers and Amazon is Dymock’s potential competitors. With regards to the present context, Varadarajan (2015) mentioned that presently almost ever book retailers are shifting its operation towards the online market in order to avoid the high pace of saturation in the offline book retail market. Therefore, the business strategies of Dymocks in the Australian market is almost flowed by the majority of its competitors, therefore, the exposure of its USP (unique selling point) is not much recognised in the market.

Collaboration

It has been identified that in the Australian market, Dymocks has partnered with BBC Worldwide to launch its Lonely Planet Hub (Bbc.co.uk. 2017). It has been identified that the partnership had been a testament to BBC in order to expand its present in the Australian retail market, especially Sydney. The partnership was initiated to increased exposure of Lonely Planet Hub and BBC’s products before the final customers and personalise environment.

Context

Advancement in internet mobile, laptop and digital reading technology and readers' changing preference towards online reading materials are affecting the offline bookstores. Therefore, it can be identified from the previous example that the technological advancement and the changing social reading habits are the two factors affecting Dymocks in the Australian market.

Issue 3: 

3.0 Effort taken by Dymocks Australia for collecting information

The brand manages to segment customers based on purchase history, age, children, reading preferences, marital status, etc (Wehner, 2017). It has been observed that based on the collected information, Dymocks sends email offers to the potential customers. Dymocks introduced it franchise system in 1986 in Australia.  In the George Street and Sydney store more that 1.2 million books were displayed. It has also sponsored Australian literary community via various writers’ festivals. Moreover, Dymocks has also partnered with Google eBooks in order to provide Australian customers with relevant sources of both paid and free books.

3.1 Customers’ requirements

Wahlquist (2017) mentioned that presently customers prefer purchasing books and reading material from the e-commerce sites. In the similar context, Varadarajan (2015) asserted that the customers’ purchasing behaviour towards any segment in getting more inclined towards online book retailers and e-commerce options due to the larger product range, discounts, product availability and easy of delivery. It has been identified in the earlier context that Dymocks fails to match the discounted offerings of Amazon. Therefore, the primary requirement of the customers is getting higher discounts on preferred products. The collaborations with Google had helped its customers to store books of any size in clouds (Kozlowski and Kozlowski, 2017). Google Books are not just limited to dedicated e-readers; it can be read on a myriad of devices as well. It can be read on any web browser or Smartphone having Javascript enabled and Android higher than 2.1 respectively. The collaborations with Google eBook and BBC Worldwide had helped Dymocks to increase its conversion rate by 40.48%. Moreover, Dymocks has introduced Booklovers Reward programs, where a customer can earn 5 pints for every dollar spent on books.

3.2 Potential competitors

Amazon has been its major competitor in the Australian market. It has been identified that Amazon accounts for $1 billion of the total $300 billion annual retail sales in the Australian retail market. In 2013, the brand has launched Kindle store on amazon.com.au and managed to created employment opportunity for 1000 employees with its successful operation (Wahlquist, 2017). Readers are interested in the e-reading or digital reading technologies due to the convenience it offers. Kindle had been a beneficial tool where the material would be pre-installed in the device and customers can just get access to the majority of the reading sources (Wahlquist, 2017).

3.3 Business transformation

In 2012, Dymocks has closed its three stores in Hong Kong when the rental contracts were expired (Ibisworld.com.au. 2017). In 2015, Dymocks had closed its flagship IFC Mall and subsequently had to close its Hong Kong office. In the opinion of Wahlquist (2017), it has been observed that after the closure of the IFC Mall store, the figure of Dymocks stores in the Hong Kong market was brought down to five. The remaining stores were expected to operate separately by using the Dymocks name previous to being rebranded (Ibisworld.com.au. 2017).

In the 21^st century, the brand had extended its business into segment like CDs, DVDs, etc. The online portal was created in order to meet the changing trends in the book retail sector. This helped the brand to hold 20% market share in the Australian market.

Issue 4:

4.0 STP of Dymocks Australia

Varadarajan (2015) mentioned that the customers aged between 15 to 29 years in the Australian market are the majorly inclined towards the digital reading platforms. On the other hand, the customers between 24-37 years prioritised frequent offline purchases. It has been identified that offline business is more profitable than the online business, since, online business incurs greater discounted offerings. However, customers purchasing books from the offline stores are convinced by the selling price of the reading materials and are ready to pay the asked amount. It has been identified that the purchase rate amongst the customers of 15-29 years is more than that of customers who prefer to buy offline (Li, 2010).  Therefore, the majority of the book retailers are shifting the offline operation to online platforms in order to tap the potential group to increase its business prospects.

Targeting

In the opinion of Wahlquist (2017), it can be determined that the brand generally does have any specific target group to focus on. Dymocks generally hits on the prospects that can easily get influenced by reading documents. Therefore, the brand has created both its online and offline presence in order to tap both the segment. In the similar context, Kozlowski and Kozlowski (2017) mentioned that the purchasing rate amongst the customers aged between 15-29 years comparatively greater than the customer's segment between 24-37 years. Therefore, the primary prospect of Dymocks in the Australian market would be the age group between 15-29 years. Therefore, it can be identified that the primary target customers of the brand would be the age group between 15-29 years. Since purchase rate is greater in this segment, thus, it can be estimated that the brand can generate stable revenue from the target customers. On the other hand, the offline business is operating with a decent figure, therefore, operating in both the segment has been a smart strategy by Dymocks in the Australian to avoid the risk of product saturation (Dymocks.com.au. 2017). Against the latter statement, Abdullah Saif (2015) mentioned that the risk likelihood in the online business is comparatively higher. High percentages of customers in other sector have stopped online purchased due to cyber-attacks and crimes. Moreover, the target segments are a most inconsistent group and keep on hoping purchasing action as per new schemes. Therefore, the primary target group can help the brand for a shorter duration.

Positioning

It has been observed that emphasising on both the online and offline preferences of the customers in the Australian market, the brand has positioned its product lines in both the platforms. Jeanpert et al. (2016) mentioned that with the passage of time customers reading preferences and purchasing behaviour toward the book retail industry are further changing with the advancement of technology. Therefore, customers reading preferences are fluctuating with the technical advancements and economic fluctuations.

Conclusion

Product

The brand has channelized its operation in books, CDS, DVDs, and other online operation in order to tap the potential segments in the Australian market (Prange, 2016). However, readers are having a high preference towards Amazon due to its innovative creation Amazon Kindle. Customers are exhausted with the concept of visiting, purchasing and carrying reading materials. The technological advancement in the present sector has possibly made it possibly for the reading to look for the e-materials with a ‘click-on’ option (Competitionpolicyreview.gov.au. 2017). Therefore, customers are not enthusiastic to purchase products from e-commerce portals. It’s an opportune time for Dymocks to come up with a digital reading material like Kindle, which can not only help reading with reading materials but also serve other education purposes (Kozlowski and Kozlowski, 2017). The price ranges of Kindle are comparatively higher than a reading book or novels. Therefore, customers would not be convinced to purchase the product in case the price range satisfies more than two purposes.

Price

It has already been discussed in the above section that Dymocks fails to provide a much-discounted offering in its products. Therefore, Amazon has managed to penetrate successfully in the Australian market and equivalently converted the majority of its customer’s segments (Competitionpolicyreview.gov.au. 2017). Therefore, it is necessary for the brand to at least include schemes like seasonal discounts, etc. to create a buzz in the market at least for shorter tenure. In the opinion of Li (2010), the customers who have fussy reading attitude prefer purchasing offline platform over online. Therefore, the brand has already managed to form a decent set of loyal customers for its offline business. On the other hand, the customer purchasing frequency is greater in the internet platform; therefore, the specific set of customers waits for innovative and high margin discounts (MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share. 2017). Therefore, seasonal offerings can help the brand to reduce the price range for shorter tenure and also drawing the attention of high percentage of potential readers.

Place

Jung (2014) stated that in the online platform, Amazon has already managed to lead the market. On the other hand, the collaboration with BBC Worldwide has helped Dymocks to increase its product exposure more in Sydney. Therefore, it can be identified that this partnership was adequate to tap the market of Sydney. Moreover, it has also partnered with Google eBook, which is a partner of almost book brands. Thus, the brand needs to increase its collaboration with further retailers in order to lead the offline retail market. Although, the offline book market is decreasing with time, but Dymocks has still managed to capture 20% shares of the Market.

Promotion

Dymocks can sponsor the popular sports events in the Australian market. This can help its brand to gain exposure through various ATL (above the line) activities to promote its offline operations.

References:

Abdullah Saif, N. (2015). How does Marketing Strategy Influence Firm Performance? Implementation of Marketing Strategy for Firm Success. International Journal Of Innovation And Economic Development, 1(3), pp.7-15.

Bbc.co.uk. (2017). BBC - BBC Worldwide partner with Dymocks to launch the first ever Lonely Planet Hub in Sydney - Media Centre. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/worldwide/160113lp [Accessed 29 May 2017].

Competitionpolicyreview.gov.au. (2017). Australian Booksellers Association Inc Response to Draft Report of the Competition Policy Review. [online] Available at: https://competitionpolicyreview.gov.au/files/2014/12/ABA_Inc.pdf [Accessed 23 May 2017].

Dryden, D. (2007) ‘The bookseller’, in Smart, R. (ed.) An introduction to Australian book publishing, Australian Publishers Association, Sydney, pp. 27-8.

Dymocks.com.au. (2017). About Dymocks | The Dymocks Story. [online] Available at: https://www.dymocks.com.au/about/ [Accessed 23 May 2017].

Financial Review. (2017). Dymocks hails new chapter in $2bn book market if import bans scrapped. [online] Available at: https://www.afr.com/technology/technology-companies/dymocks-hails-new-chapter-in-2bn-book-market-if-import-bans-scrapped-20141024-11b839 [Accessed 23 May 2017].

Hall, W. and Gupta, A. (2011). Barnes & Noble, Inc.: Maintaining A Competitive Edge In An Ever-changing Industry. Journal of Business Case Studies (JBCS), 6(4), p.19.

Ibisworld.com.au. (2017). Book Stores in Australia Market Research | IBISWorld. [online] Available at: https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/specialised-market-research-reports/consumer-goods-services/book-stores.html [Accessed 23 May 2017].

Jeanpert, S., Jeanpert, S., Paché, G. and Paché, G., (2016). Successful multi-channel strategy: mixing marketing and logistical issues. Journal of Business Strategy, 37(2), pp.12-19.

Jung, S. (2014). Environmental Analysis and Marketing Strategy of Korea e-book Industry. Journal of Marketing Thoughts, 01(03), pp.68-76.

Kozlowski, M. and Kozlowski, M. (2017). Australian based Dymocks partners with Google Books. [online] Good E-Reader - eBook, Audiobook and Digital Publishing News. Available at: https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/australian-based-dymocks-partners-with-google-books [Accessed 29 May 2017].

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Wahlquist, C. (2017). Amazon expands in Australia and plans huge warehouse. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/20/amazon-expands-in-australia-and-plans-huge-warehouse [Accessed 23 May 2017].

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