Introduction
The Sketchers Shape Ups is one of the products in the consumer packaged-goods industry. The industry has other good like Sketchers Sport, Sketchers Resistance, and many others. Initially, the industry sold products like the skate shoe and the utility-style boots. However, with time, the company diversified its products and started selling a variety of casual and sports wear for adults, as well as children.
The industry works hard to maintain its fashionable and elegant brand image. Some of the strategies that the industry employs include celebrity-driven advertisements, which facilitate in reaching thousands of celebrities. This paper will focus on a promotion strategy for Sketchers Shape Ups product.
Advertising and Promotion Plan
The advertising and promotion plan will require the company to spend more than what its competitors will spend to enable it to gain a competitive advantage. Setting a high cost for advertising and promotion in the marketing plan, usually demonstrates how the company will deliver its unique selling propositions to its prospective customers.
Advertising and promotion tools are key elements of the marketing mix. Therefore, the company requires making sure that it has the best advertising and promotion strategies for its products. This would enable it to compete with its competitors, as well as to gain a competitive advantage. A company can only compete well if it has enough money to use in advertising and promoting its products (Birdsall & Johnston, 2010).
A company ought to think in terms of, which media is the most effective in reaching the targeted markets. Once it identifies the appropriate media, the company requires computing the annual budget to facilitate in effective promotion. If the company wants to stand out from its competitors, it ought to look for an advertisement medium that would reach a large number of customers (Jedidi, Mela & Gupta, 2007).
Media Used and Why
To make substantial sales, a company ought to communicate its products to a big number of people. This can only be achieved through selecting an advertisement medium that is accessible to many people. While organizations have numerous advertisement media to choose from, not all media are accessible by all consumers. Consequently, before deciding on the advertisement medium to use, an organization ought to have an accurate profile of its target customers. In this case, the company intends to use television as its advertisement medium.
The main reason for using television as the advertisement medium is that it will facilitate to capture a vast target audience. Majority of the homesteads owns televisions.
Hence, using television to advertise the Sketchers Shape Ups will give the company an opportunity to reach a wider consumer base. Apart from reaching a wider consumer base, television conveys messages in both audio and visual form (Jedidi, Mela & Gupta, 2007). Therefore, through this medium, the company will be able to pass the information even to those consumers that do not know how to read.
Advertising the product in both audio and visual format will also facilitate in information retention. Once people watch and hear an advertisement, it becomes hard for them to forget it quickly. Audiovisual communication facilitates in retention of the message. Therefore, the company opts to use television since it will facilitate in retention of the information, thus, making sure that consumers do not forget about the product.
Promotions used
The company chooses to use sales promotion. This choice was made since it helps the company to increase its sales volume within a short period. In this case, the company will apply sales promotion strategy such as the push up sales. This will facilitate in attracting and retaining new customers by issuing them with free samples and gifts.
Sales promotion will ensure that consumers return to the company whenever they are in need of Sketchers Shape Ups. In spite of sales promotion being expensive, the promotion strategy facilitates in creating a good rapport between a company and its consumers. In response, the company benefits from return customers.
Role of public relations to marketing plan
Public relations play a significant role in providing the support required for implementation of the marketing plan (Birdsall & Johnston, 2010). In this case, public relations will help in promoting and establishing the product. Public relations will also help in creating a favorable reputation for the company by publicizing news about events that take place in the company.
Consumers like associating with companies that give back to the society. Hence, the public relations will facilitate in informing the community about the company’s corporate social responsibility as a way of trying to win its trust.
Events and media choices for one calendar year
The marketing plan will comprise of a detailed calendar of the promotion events for a whole year. The year will be divided into three segments January-April, May-August, and September-December.
To create customer awareness about the product, the company will carry out an aggressive advertisement and promotion program during the first segment. It will run daily advertisements on the television to make sure that consumers know about Sketchers Shape Ups. As consumers get to know about the product, the company will relax its advertisement program.
Therefore, the second segment will entail running the advertisements thrice per week. This will aid in keeping the clients aware of the product. Besides, it will target those consumers that might not have heard about the product. The last segment of the calendar year will involve running the television advertisement once per month.
By this time, majority of the consumers will have known about the product. Besides the advertisement, the company will also conduct some promotion campaigns, especially during the first segment of the calendar year to recruit more consumers. With these events running throughout the year, the company is guaranteed that it will keep its target consumers aware of the product.
Marketing vision and goals
For an organization to succeed in marketing, it has to have both vision and goal for its marketing. They act as the guideline and reference point. The company refers to the vision and goals to determine if it is making positive progress. Therefore, to succeed in selling Sketchers Shape Ups, the company will require having strong marketing vision and goals.
The company’s vision will be to be the leading company in the sales of Sketchers Shape Ups. On the other hand, the marketing goal will be to sell 300 units of Sketchers Shape Ups per week for the first six months. Besides, the company will have a goal of adding value to the life of its target consumers. Through its marketing, the company will strive to ensure that consumers continue benefiting from Sketchers Shape Ups at all time.
Product strategy and positioning statement
To be able to achieve the mission and the set goals, the company will require having a captivating position stamen and superior product strategy. In this case, the company’s positioning statement will be as follows,
We have what everyone wants, and at considerable prices. The products are unique and of high quality. They are supremely stylish, trendy and certainly the latest in the market. Those that purchase the products will be viewed as being at speed with fashion. The prices are also considerable; one will get anything they want at an affordable price.
Celebrities wear the Sketchers Shape Ups. Consequently, one of the product strategies that the company will utilize is to make sure that it attributes the product to famous celebrities. This will make the target consumers perceive the product as being of high quality, therefore, purchasing it. Again, the company will sell products at affordable prices as a strategy to attract consumers and not scare them away with high prices.
Customer snapshot
The customer snapshot helps the business get an overview of the customers. In the plan, we will incorporate customer snapshot. The features that will be included in the snapshot are recent invoices and payments. This will show what the company has sold. Therefore, it will be of significance when evaluating the effectiveness of the marketing plan in the future. The snapshot will include a list of the items that are highly purchased so that the company can focus on these items when running its subsequent promotional campaigns.
Competitive analysis
The Sketchers Shape Ups industry is competitive. Other many companies offer the same products. Majority of these companies relies on local consumers. Therefore, they do not run promotional campaigns or advertise their products. Consequently, this company will have an advantage since it will create consumer awareness through its promotions and advertisements.
Besides, majority of the competitors sell their products at high prices, and they run out of stock frequently. To surmount this competition, the company will use strategies like consumer education on how to get the best from the product by using it appropriately. The existing competitors do not teach the consumers on how to use Sketchers Shape Ups.
The company will regular replenish its inventory to make sure that its does not run out of the product. Consumers get frustrated whenever they visit a business only to learn that the product they want is out of stock. This discourages them from visiting the business in the future. Hence, the company will make sure that it has a regular supply of Sketchers Shape Ups to encourage the consumers to return to its store.
Brand elements and differentiators
The company’s name, logo, and design facilitate to differentiate its brand from the competitors. Marketers ought to establish unique brand features that can draw the attention of the target consumers (Steenkamp et al., 2005). To stand out from the competitors, the company will use the logo to differentiate its Sketchers Shape Ups from those of the rival companies.
It will promote its products by using colorful logos. This will create an impression of brand quality in the minds of the target consumers, hence; help the company to make substantial sales. Colorful logos will also make consumers remember about the brand whenever they come across a color portrayed in the logo.
References
Birdsall, C. & Johnston, N. (2010). Achieving brand-driven business success. Design Management Review, 19(2), 67-74.
Jedidi, K., Mela, C. & Gupta, S. (2007). Managing advertising and promotion for long-run profitability. Marketing Science Winter, 18(1), 1-22.
Steenkamp, J., Nijs, V., Hanssens, D. & Dekimpe, M. (2005). Competitive reactions to advertising and promotion attacks. Marketing Science Winter, 24(1), 35-54.