Good marketing strategies, marketing skills, and innovativeness are essential components in implementing a marketing plan. In essence, marketing is a social activity that incorporates the satisfaction of customer needs and wants, and is a wholesome activity with organizational outlook, focusing on future and anticipated needs. Marketing incorporates issues such as corporate social responsibility, which determines the way businesses evaluate the impact of their activities on the society.
In view of all these, effective Marketing implementation calls upon an effective marketing plan. Philip, Armstrong, Wong and Saunders (2008) define marketing as “an integrated process through which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return”.
In addition, “Marketing is the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development” (Philip, Armstrong, Wong and Saunders ,2008).
By incorporating an effective marketing plan, the management team of coco bongo has to draw up a marketing strategy including clear identification of the actual activities to undertake to achieve their objectives as determined by (Nichols 1993).
Thus, the marketing process To effectively implement the marketing plan for coco bongo, the marketers have to draw up a marketing plan incorporating the actual actions to be undertaken by the marketing team to achieve the objectives of the coco bongo nightclub. The marketing process and marketing mix could play key roles.
Marketing organization
The planned implementation envisaged a marketing organization. This was the framework for organized marketing activities, the business organization and its core management structures and the relationship between the management and its employees. There were effective communication channels within the organization and best business practices were core in the organization.
Activities
The core objectives of the coco bongo club included profit generation, a wider customer base, customer royalty, market penetration, brand royalty, and gaining a completive edge on other entertainment joints in the London market. The brand name of the club was synonymous with customer satisfaction.
The main product for this club is entertainment. However, as a new venture, the management of the club had to embark on promotional activities, as a marketing strategy to impress upon the customers its existence and the services it had to offer. Coco bongo is unique in the kind of product offerings.
Thus, it was of importance for the club to embed promotional activities to impress upon the mind of the market on the value derived from its activities. Inclusive in the marketing and promotional activities lots of sideshows to attract customers as promotional offers, acrobatic shows, and dancing incorporating professional dancers. Nichols (1993) concludes that the marketing concept of direct selling has a host of benefits.
This will help the marketers identify customer needs on the level of entertainment; evaluate customer base and customer satisfaction. In addition, other activities could incorporate pricing. Pricing is an important concept in marketing and forms one of the 4p’s in marketing, i.e., product, price, promotion, and place (Nichols 1993).
These marketing activities serve to inform the customers about the club, identify their customers, collect views about the club, and device ways of gaining a competitive edge in a competitive environment.
The marketing concept and market planning are essential components in customer retention, realization of higher profit margins, and customer loyalty. Promotional activities should incorporate customer demographics and tailor making products for that market, customer oriented products, and envisage the 4p’s in marketing. The products here imply the type or form of entertainment.
Other promotional activities important in implementing the marketing plan include direct marketing strategies (Nichols 1993). According to the case study, direct marketing includes professional dancing and many shows among other marketing mix activities. Importantly, critically focusing on the best customers leads to profit maximization.
Response
The survival of a business enterprise depends on its customer base, type of customers, customer loyalty, and product rating. A thorough analysis of these characteristics from the customer depends on information collected from the customers.
Thus, the management of bongo club devised methods for collecting customer response to enable management make vital decisions related to product improvement, innovation while constantly revising on its marketing strategies. Such method included collecting customer response by administering questionnaires, observations, and conducting other quantitative surveys and analysis of the responses.
Timetable
One of the indicators of a successful business is a timely implementation of its plans and strategies. By effectively addressing all these, the management of the club, in consultation with advertising agencies, hosting venues and other stakeholders drew up a timetable that addressed the needs of all stakeholders and an efficient implementation plan. Emotional needs of the customers were also addressed in the planned Implementation. According to the timeline for implementation, the business was to be lounged in three weeks.
Competitive Evaluation and Control
Performance
A business enterprise needs competitive evaluation to ascertain if it meets its objectives, such as customer loyalty, attitude of the customers to the presented products, customer needs and wants, the profitability of the business, and management expectations. This done, the management of the club undertook to define performance measures which acted as benchmark for evaluating the activities of the business in line with its objectives and goals.
The objectives, as spelt by the business enterprise could remain both short term and long term. The performance standards included a survey of customers’ satisfaction, the impact of the business on the environment, profit generation, and evaluation of customer needs and wants. Customer satisfaction remains vital in determining the performance of the business.
Standards
Standards envisaged quality control measures, legal requirements, ethical and corporate issues. The commitment and efficient utilization of the human resources served as a basis for formulating standards for the club. Setting standards also called upon management to defined exactly what they wanted done and how.
In addition, Megan (2007) asserts that standards applied on a range of issues including customer satisfaction, a wide customer base, retention customers, and profit maximization. Management expectations played a key role in identifying and setting standards.
Other drivers to benchmarking included active member participations, innovativeness, collaboration between the management and team members, legal and political environment, and a monitoring criteria. Megan (2007) found out that hosts of benefits accrue because of setting performance standards. Neely (2002) adds that standard measures include the quality of entertainment, timeliness in starting and ending entertainment, and cost effectiveness of the business venture.
Monitoring Controls
Business enterprises with good quality implementation strategies ought to envisage in their marketing and implementation strategies monitoring controls.
Monitoring controls envisage a guideline on business performance evaluation. The management of the bongo club must embed in its managerial strategies issues such as weekly reviews of employees and management actions, there should be schedules on implementing and carrying out duties in the organization, continuous performance evaluation remains key on both employee and management levels.
Meetings form an important component in decision-making and conflict resolutions. Meetings also form part of the way employees express their satisfaction or dissatisfactions over management actions.
There should be frequent updates on the club’s activities and concerns. Varieties of benefits could result from the business when monitoring control measures remain effectively embedded in the system. These includes, energizing employees, inspiring them, resolving conflicts, increased employee activeness and productivity, enhanced communication within the business setting, and improved group dynamics.
Target Market
The target market forms an essential component in effective marketing. This target market identification enabled management and the whole business enterprise tailors its products to suit the market and remain competitive, profitable, and retains a wider customer base coupled with customer loyalty, asserts Baker (2008).
Data on the demographic nature of the population obtained and studied well enabled the team to develop a marketing mix with appropriate marketing strategies for the appropriate market. This involved, analyzing similar business ventures to identify who their customers were, the occupation of new customers and how the timing could influence their activities, the location of the business, income levels of the groups, and essentially their entertainment needs.
SWOT
SWOT implies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats a business faces. The key strengths of the bongo club were its uniqueness in the market, the hosting venue in central London, providing easy accessibility to the venue from all quarters.
In addition, the club’s financial health remained good with superior advertising methods used. Weaknesses identified included a new business environment, new cultural settings, time of entertainment and fear from customers over the new entertainment modalities. However, the scene unfolds issues where varieties of opportiunities abound.
These include the uniqueness of the new venture, better administrative abilities, experienced employees, highly motivated workers assert Nichols (1993). The threats stemmed from other competitors and entrepreneurs who may innovatively use the idea to come up with a similar businesses, current business competitors, high prices, and environmental regulations.
Works Cited
Baker. Michael, The Strategic Marketing Plan Audit: University of Strathclyde, 2008
Neely. Andy, Business Performance Measurement–Theory and Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000.
Nichols, Jan Welborn-. “Marketing Basics” 1993. Web.
Kotler, Philip, Armstrong, Gary, Wong, Veronica, and Saunders,. Principles of Marketing 5th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008.
Megan, Tough. Setting Job Performance Standards. (2007). 6th March 2010. Publishing http://www.sideroad.com/Management/performance-standard.html