Marketing is a rather critical concept for Dupont Pioneer because it needs to raise awareness about its products and services. Therefore, it is necessary to come up with several SMART objectives intended to organize the movement and establish the direction in which the organization has to go. The organization reviewed within the framework of this paper is Dupont Pioneer. Several SMART objectives will be developed and the 5Ss will be used.
Increase in Sales
The first goal of high importance that should be reviewed by Dupont Pioneer is the attempt to increase sales. This SMART objective is expected to drive business and improve the financial state of the company. The very first thing that Dupont Pioneer is expecting to see is a flawless return on investment. This supposition means that the increase in sales will be triggered by efficient marketing strategies and will exceed the costs of the latter.
The company will have to come up with a series of specific marketing subgoals if they are willing to promote their business. Here, the problem consists in the fact that merely stating an objective of increasing sales is not a sufficient measure within any given business framework. For instance, one of such specific objectives is to increase the sales among major companies operating in the seed industry by 15% by the end of 2017 (August 1st – December 31st).
Expand Merchandise Awareness
The second SMART objective that is reviewed within the framework of this paper relates to the efforts that are made by the company in terms of expanding product awareness among all the types of customers. Dupont Pioneer should be interested in reviving the attention to their products and coming up with a vibrant slogan that may spark interest in the customers. Here, the driving factors are the customers’ attitude toward the company’s products and the possibilities to change the latter. Dupont Pioneer and its Russian department may also be interested in rolling out a campaign based on the slogan.
In perspective, increasing merchandise awareness can become one of the factors that contribute to the improvement of the awareness rating of the company. This can be done both online and offline marketing. Offline -expanding of regions covered by AgroAcademies. Education of farmers showing methods of rising harvest with Pioneer hybrids. Online: going live with translations of AgroAcademies and other presentations on YouTube channel, promoting a website through AdWords, direct mailing of news, and invitations for the events. The timeline for this objective is the period from September 1st to November 30th.
Brand Management
The third SMART objective that is relevant within the framework of creating a digital marketing plan for Dupont Pioneer is brand management. The company should be interested in creating and maintaining a certain image in the minds of its customers to remain prominent in the community. For instance, Dupont Pioneer can make the best use of advertisements that are based on the company colors and strong messages instead of focusing on the process of promoting certain products or services (this particular objective can be reached within the time frame of two months – from August 1st to September 1st).
The ultimate goal of the company should be worldwide recognition that can be achieved without any further explanation (for instance, meaning that the name of the company could be removed from the logo, but the customers still would be able to recognize it). The combination of these three SMART objectives will help the marketing department in terms of maintaining the existing levels of performance and recognition.
Seven P’s
Product – Dupont Pioneer expects to provide the customers with the new products based on soybeans and sunflower seeds. This P is based on the needs of the customers and the products that are popular in the area. Meeting the expectations in terms of the product mix is one of the key goals of Dupont Pioneer.
Place – Dupont Pioneer has only three warehouses over Russia. On transferring sales model to direct sales it’s needed to build a chain of warehouses closer to customers that can make decrees logistics costs and time of delivery.
Price – when working on the pricing strategy of Dupont Pioneer, the marketers are interested in coming up with a price list that represents good value for customers’ money. The company does not aim at making their products the cheapest on the market. Instead, Dupont Pioneer expects to prove that their products are worth the money that is spent on them and make their customers happy (even though they may pay a bit more than the customers that prefer products of other companies). The main issue is not a stable ruble, the main plan is to “freeze” convertible rate for every three months. One of the ways to improve the pricing strategy is to introduce a difference between online and retail prices (meaning that the former will be lower than the latter).
Promotion – here, Dupont Pioneer is interested in advancing its PR and promotion strategies because how customers interact with businesses has changed critically over the last decade. There is a variety of tools that can be used by the company to increase performance and expand the reach. It is also important to mention that promotion strategies should be able to convey all the necessary information and appeal to the customers’ emotions. The concept of earned media can be used by Dupont Pioneer to trigger numerous reposts, retweets, and other acts of sharing information. By going viral, the company will be able to enlarge its customer base and cover more regions. Therefore, it is important to realize that the concept of owned media should also be taken into consideration. The more owned media Dupont Pioneer will have, the more options will be available to them in terms of marketing and conquering the market: updated website, YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook. The concept of paid media (pay-per-click, for instance) is the third option that is available for the company. Here, Dupont Pioneer can pay for advertisements that will be oriented to their potential customers.
People – it is evident that Dupont Pioneer is not an exception and seriously depends on the human resources that are currently available within the given region. Therefore, it is critical to find team leaders and managers that will be responsible for maintaining the progress of the organization. The product mix of the company will also be seriously impacted by these decisions like the set of services that are provided by Dupont Pioneer may be changing recurrently.
Processes – here, the core goal is to make sure that the services that are provided by Dupont Pioneer are of the highest quality possible and satisfy customers’ needs. The existing marketing strategy should be based on the supposition that the company’s customers should receive products that are worth the money being spent on them. Also, the management will have to review transportation services and opening new warehouses for better logistics.
Physical Evidence – in the case of Dupont Pioneer, the customers will receive specific seed products that will serve as a “physical product” that validates the relationship between the organization and its clients. The deal between the two actors should be tangible and supported by a set of official documents that certify the purchase and specific Dupont guarantees that are intended to strengthen the customers’ faith in the high quality of the company’s products.
Measurements
Numerous measurement variables can be used by the managers to assess the organizational performance of Dupont Pioneer within the framework of the current project. The first proposition is to launch AdWords promotion of the company’s website and run the process of SEO optimization (see Figure 1). This is going to allow Dupont Pioneer to measure their reach and scalability of their business within the Russian environment.
The instrument that will be used to evaluate the performance of the website is called Google Analytics. It also provides the end-user with the possibility to export a report regarding the website’s performance. The company will also be interested in measuring the number of people that are interested in learning more about Dupont Pioneer. The target market of the company are farmers and agro holdings. Another important variable that will be taken into consideration is the data contained in the forecasts regarding the financial statements of the company. This particular variable will seriously rely on the specifics of the given region.
Another vital area that requires attention from the managers of Dupont Pioneer is the development of a mobile app. In terms of measuring the company’s performance, it will allow the administrators to collect necessary feedback and generate reports that will explicitly showcase the company’s overall level of performance. This application will be aimed to provide both company representatives and customers with valuable statistics. It is also important to save certain information in the system (such as the client’s name, a detailed description of purchases, and the region where the client resides) to generate informative reports. The contacts will be separated via regions so that the company has the opportunity to evaluate the popularity of certain products in different regions. Also, this app can be used in preparing allocations and the possible needs of each farmer. This can be used in the planning of import for the coming sales season.
Based on the customers’ preferences, Dupont Pioneer will be able to develop custom marketing plans for each zone of Russia. The company may also be willing to design vivid and informative brochures and catalogs that will be sent directly to clients. Dupont Pioneer will be able to measure its impact on the number of (loyal) clients and see if their customer base expands owing to the distribution of additional materials. The company may also make the best use of the FAQ that will save customers’ time and critically reduce the load on the employees in terms of customer support.
It may be interesting to see how the introduction of FAQs minimized the number of unsatisfied customers and unanswered questions. The last measurement opportunity that is reviewed within the framework of the current paper is the production of academic textbooks. By doing this, Dupont Pioneer expects to extend its reach and become a well-known company in Russia. The rationale behind introducing this aspect of measurement is the creation of a positive brand image that is going to be beneficial for Dupont Pioneer that is aiming at conquering the Russian market.
Tactics and Budget
To increase recognition and find new opportunities for promoting the company, Dupont will provide webinars for those who cannot attend field Agro academies. Another part of the digital marketing plan that can be useful in terms of measuring the company’s performance is direct news distribution. This will help the company to see which of their customers are interested in reading their latest news and recommendations. The budget of the company will include a 5-month plan focused on its online presence and digital marketing (see Figure 2). Specifically, by the end of the year, the company expects to increase the number of authentic followers on social media by at least 10.000 individuals and other companies.
