Objectives
For businesses to succeed and grow to be competitive they need to set targets that need to be achieved. To explain the SMART goals I will take company Y as an example.
Goals should be specific. Business goals should be definite and clear. The goals should not be vague or ambiguous. For instance company, Y may have a target that it wants to have increased revenue by the end of the year. This goal may not be specific therefore ineffective. To be precise, the revenue increase should be defined. For instance, company Y may say that it wants to increase sales by 20%. To achieve this, the company may increase the price of the products or reach more customers through product promotions. If the company outlines its goals clearly, then it will be easy to achieve the targets. Goals definition is effective in its achievement.
Goals should be measurable. Businesses should be able to determine the capacity or amount of effort needed to succeed. The extent of achievement needed helps the business to know if it is on the right path of attaining the set goals. For instance a company, Y should be able to know how much of the revenue it needs to achieve. Maybe a 20% increase on the previous year’s sales. Alongside a 20% revenue increase, Y could be targeting net profits increase on the new customers. The company should be valuing the profits brought by the new customers and if the value is less than the targeted, then the company should find other ways of increasing sales apart from looking for new markets which are less profitable. Measuring goals is ineffective because some of them are not measurable and can be time-consuming for the business to keep track of what it has gained or not (Chapman 2004, p. 24).
Goals should be achievable or attainable. Company Y should have the ability to attain the set goal. In most cases, the company should set targets within its ability. For instance, the company cannot aim in attaining 50% of new markets in one year, if it does not have money or other resources to help in the product promotion. The ability to control the set goal is important in the achievement of business success (Chapman 2004, p. 24).
The business should have reasonable and realistic goals. Company Y should have targets that are important and relevant in its operation. Goals should be set to create a difference in the company that helps the company to grow. A business always sets realistic goals or that is of gain to the business, for example, by increasing sales the company will benefit from increased profits. Therefore realistic goals are effective for business success (Chapman 2004, p. 24).
The set goals should have a time frame. Company Y should ensure that a specific time is put by which its targets should be realized. Time frame will prevent the company from goal procrastination or time wastage. Time frame is not much effective in goal achievement because some targets do not have a specific time frame. In some cases, external forces may make it hard to achieve the set goals.
SWOT-analysis
SWOT-analysis helps the business in decision-making. SWOT helps in identifying business ventures by analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an investment. The firm of J. Boag & Sons Company needs to launch premium beer which is its product in Western Australia. For the company to be successful in establishing its foot in the desired market, it has to know the business strengths it has. The strengths will help the firm to gain a competitive advantage against its rivals. J. Boag&sons firm has the finest water and hops resources in Australia. This strength or advantage should enable the firm to gain access to the market and sell its product quickly. For instance, the firm should target that within 90 days of operation in Western Australia, 100000 bottles of beer should have been sold (Fine 2009, p.20).
The firm is specific to the number of sales it needs to achieve, the targeted place, and how to achieve the target within the time frame. Because the firm is launching a new product in the region, it needs to use ways that will attract customers. For example, the firm can sell the premium beer at a lower price as compared to the rival prices. Secondly, the firm may give incentives to the consumers to attract more customers thereby increasing sales. Also, the firm may advertise the new brand through the media, door to door, or any way that will create product awareness to the consumers. By defining the ways in achieving the set goals, the goals are achievable and realistic. The firm sales target is measurable because 100000 bottles need to be sold within three months. In this case, if the target is not achieved within the time frame, the company will check on the diversion of the tools put to achieve the goal. To get back on track, the company will use correcting measures or use other ways of achieving the set target (Fine 2009, p.20). But if the firm sells half of the target by the second month, then it is moving on the right track.
Weakness is features that put a certain business at a disadvantage concerning its rivals. J. Boag&sons firm has a problem because its beer brand has low market recognition. The firm is not able to sell more of the premium beer because the consumers cannot get the difference between the existing beer brand and the premium beer. Despite J. Boag&sons firm having the finest water products or selling the premium beer at a low price, it is not able to sell the beer. Therefore the firm should look into other ways of surviving in this market. The company can target to have a competitive advantage by the end of the year. To be specific on the competitive advantage goal, the company can look at getting 1000 new customers by the end of the first month.
To be realistic, the company may change the packaging and appearance of its premium beer. The appearance should be somehow different and better as compared to the rival beers may be in the shape of the bottle, color, and quantity. The firm may also offer after-sales services like delivery of the beer to the customers’ residence. The services will make the consumers to be happy and therefore tend to buy from the firm. Thirdly, the firm can give gifts or free samples to the customers. Since the company has the best water product in the region, it can be attaching its water to every bottle of beer as gifts. The gift will increase sales as the customers will be getting two products at the price of one. The gift will also create a thought to the consumers that the beer is a good as the water since it is a product of a company with the best water. Therefore the goal for getting a competitive advantage is attainable with the said tools. The firm can address its weakness and have the power to reduce the marginal difference of the premium beer in the market (Rouillard 2002, p.67).
Opportunity is a business chance to invest more or to grow. Opportunities arise from different aspects, for instance from seasonal or fashion influences, information and research, business and product development, global influences, new markets, technology development, and others. J. Boag&sons firm has a new opportunity to sell more of its premium beer. The opportunity is from the market development in which the salary of men aging 18 to 30 has been increased. For this opportunity, the firm should increase production to cater to rising demand. The firm can target to increase its beer production by 80% within the year. The firm is specific on the percentage growth of the beer demand therefore the production should be defined clearly to avoid shortage or excess demand of the beer. The time for the increased demand has also been stated to be one year therefore the production increase should be looked at for one year.
To attain the production target, J. Boag&sons firm should put in the necessary resources, for instance, raw materials like barley should be increased. Therefore more money is needed to acquire the extra materials. Since the firm is an established company, it has the financial ability to expand the production. Likewise, the number of workers or machines should be added to increase production within the period. The goal to increase production is realistic and reasonable to the firm since it is significant in catering to the increased demand that has been brought by income increase. With the production increase, the firm will also be able to acquire more customers thereby attaining high profits that will promote company growth. It can measure the production goal because if the production does not cater to the excess demand, then the goal has not been achieved. In that case, the firm needs to look to other ways of increasing the production or try to find ways of reducing the excess demand by maybe contracting other small beer producing companies.
Marketing managers
Marketing managers need to set some goals that will help the business to sell its products widely. Marketing goals are measurable targets set by the business for a certain achievement, like sales increase, creating customer loyalty, and having a market share (Williams 2009, p.59). The main goal of marketing is to create a valuable feeling for customers. Mostly the business will do anything to make the customer satisfied and in return, the customer will give back some value to the business in form of revenue. The marketing process gives different ways of creating customer satisfaction. Customer’s satisfaction is created through utilities. For example, by processing raw material into finished good that is form utility, the customer is satisfied. Place utility brings the commodity nearer to the consumer. Time utility will ensure that the consumer gets the commodity needed at any time. Possession utility gives the consumer ability to obtain any commodity from the sellers. A business will try to create utilities or satisfaction to its customers therefore creating value for them (Kotler & Armstrong 2009, p.0).
When implementing the marketing goals, the marketing manager needs to consider the market forces he/ she can control. Formal marketing controls are methods strategized by the business to help in the achievement of the marketing goals. The marketing manager will use formal controls to assess the success of the marketing strategy (Wilson& Gilligan 2005, p.70). Under the formal control, the manager firstly ensures that the inputs for example the workers and the financial resources are in the best position for production success. The manager can give decisions on resource allocation or ensure that the researches for the business are conducted efficiently. Under the process control, the manager should be committed to the success of the marketing goals. The manager’s behavior and attitude towards the achievement of the goals will also motivate the employees. The manager can also ensure that the business output is in line with the expected outcomes. Some business operations or performances like expenses, machine output, and sales can affect business marketing. Therefore the marketing manager should know any business activity that will affect the business negatively. The evaluation of the business activities will help the manager to strategize other ways of achieving the goals or use managerial strategies to control the situation (Hutt& Speh 2009, p. 460).
On the other hand, Informal controls deal with individual objectives and character and also the group norms and expectations. Therefore the marketing manager needs to control the individuals. Informal controls are in three ways. Firstly is the employee self-control in which the employees manage their behaviors consistent with the firm’s goals. For the employees to exercise self-control that is supportive of the marketing goals, the marketing manager needs to ensure that the workers are rewarded intrinsically both in payment and good work recognition. Secondly, the marketing manager can control the social groups within the company by giving incentives favorable to the groups. The social groups are so influential to the employees’ performance both in positive and negative ways. Under Cultural control, the manager needs to control both behavioral and social norms of the business employees. The success of the marketing goals for employees needs to have shared values among themselves (Ferrell & Hartline 2008, p.34).
Internal problems
During the execution of the marketing goals, some problems may arise that may prevent the achievement of the set targets. Internal problems are issues brought by the business staff or operations, for example, lack of motivation for employees to work. On the other hand, external problems are brought by forces not within the business, for example, natural disasters, economical problems, political instability, and others. During goal implementation, the manager should put measures to detect and control any issues that may arise during the goal execution. Although control measures are put, sometimes problems occur, therefore affecting the achievement of the marketing goals. For the detection of any problem, the manager should always check the progress of activities. Every stage of the execution should be measured and compared with the target. If the execution results show some diversions, or if the set goal stages are not achieved within the stipulated time, then there is a problem. The managers should inform the team members. The team should try to identify the problem and later delegate new action to correct the problem (McDaniel & Gates 1998, p.05).
A marketing plan helps the business to make strategic plans to satisfy the customers. A marketing manager can set marketing goals that will target a certain market, establish market opportunities, and improve marketing operations and other goals that aim in satisfying the customers. Firm incompetence involves a lack of motivation for staff to work and cooperate in the marketing process. The business may also lack funds or other input resources necessary for the achievement of marketing goals. The inability of the marketing process to control the business products, prices, product, and product promotion may also pose a problem in goal execution. In the emergence of issues from the firm that would affect the marketing process, the marketing plan is used to detect the problem. The plan outline the team involved in the marketing process, the tools to be used, and the expected results. If for example, the goal was to achieve a 30% sales rise within one month, through product promotion, then failure to hit the target will require the plan to be reviewed to know the reason for the failure. The plan enables the firm management to be on track on the excursion of management skills both at the corporate and business level.
A business may be affected by Changes from the external environment and which are beyond the control of the firm. The external factors involve the economic cycles that affect the firm’s sales, political instability or government laws that are not favorable to the business, technological changes that the business is not able to cope with, and social factors that create a negative psychological attitude on the consumption of certain commodities. A marketing plan is supposed to involve the possibilities of the business experiencing such pressures. If the problem occurs, the firm will be able to use its strength to survive the situation. The plan also prepares the marketing manager for any shock and therefore the business does not suffer much from the problem. In any case, the diversion is controlled in time. The business puts accounts to the issues and can cope with the same problem if it occurs in the future (Jain, Trehan& Trehan 2009, p.29).
List of References
Chapman, T. D 2004, Passport to performance: raise your business performance, USA: Red Jacket Books.
Ferrell, O. C, and Hartline, M. D 2008, Marketing strategy, Canada: Cengage Learning Publishers.
Fine, L. G 2009, The SWOT analysis: Using your strength to overcome weaknesses, using opportunities to overcome threats, USA: Create Space Publisher.
Hutt, M. D, and Speh, T. W 2009, Business marketing management, Canada: Cengage Learning Publishers.
Jain, T. R Trehan, M., and Trehan, R 2009, Business Environment, India: Rahul Jain publishers.
Kotler, P and Armstrong 2009, Principles of marketing, USA: Pearson Publisher.
McDaniel, C, and Gates, R. H 2008, Marketing research essentials, USA: Taylor & Francis Publisher.
Rouillard, L 2002, Goals and goals setting: achieving measured objectives, Canada: Cengage Learning Publishers.
Williams, C 2009, Management, Canada: Cengage Learning Publishers.
Wilson, R. M and Gilligan 2005, Strategic marketing management: planning, implementation, and control, USA: Butterworth-Heinemann publishers.