Initially, the Shackle brand was launched for the banjo products. Later on, the company diversified its products, which include Banjo, Sweater, Beer, Flask and Quilt. The Great British Banjo Company plans to expand its product portfolio in the UK market. The potential products include travelling equipments, outdoor equipments and food and beverages.
The travelling equipment will comprise of walking boots, bicycles, doctor’s bag, compass and rucksack. On the other hand, the outdoor equipment will include fishermen smock, men cosmetics, and winter sports clothes. Lastly, food and beverages will comprise of gin, whisky, long shelf-life products, spirits and mustard.
The introduction of travelling equipments and outdoor gear is prompted by the increase in adventure travel or adventure tourism in the UK. Adventure travel refers to any trip that incorporates the following aspect: physical activities, contact with nature and cultural exchange or learning. Nowadays, adventure tourisms seek experiences outside high adrenaline sporting events.
According to the study survey, more than eighty percent prefer adventure travel, that is, adventurous activities, traditional practices, Bohemian activities and environmental activities among others. The adventure travel usually takes place in a bizarre, mysterious, and distant or wilderness destination.
For this reason, it necessitates some form of unconventional transportation and tends to be linked to high level of activities, hence requires outdoor gears and travelling equipments. Therefore, the Shackleton brand will come in handy.
Some of the activities that are relevant to adventure travel include mountain treks, long distance trail, rock climbing, mountaineering, cycle touring, mountain biking, river activities, marine activities, nature watching and snow activities. Outdoor sporting activities are also very popular in the UK. According to the survey, over 50 percent of the sampled population prefers outdoor sports.
The most popular outdoor sports in the UK include soccer, rugby, mountain and ice climbing, Hiking, cycling, kayaking, rafting, snowboarding, skiing and many more. Besides sports, outdoor activities, for instance, going to the cinemas, drinking in pubs and eating in cafes/restaurants have become part and parcel of the UK lifestyle. As a result, outdoor gear, for example, sporting apparels and footwear are in high demand.
The adventure travels and outdoor activities have enhanced the demand for food and beverages. According to the survey, over 60 percent of the sample prefers outdoor activities like going to the pub, cinemas and restaurants. On the other hand, 50.31 percent favour outdoor sports.
As a result, the most preferred product line as per the survey is food and beverage, which is 49.09 percent. Food and beverages are followed closely by outdoor gears (37. 58 percent) and travel equipments (34.55 percent).
Key Markets and Competitors for Shackleton Brand
It is essential for a company to identify the principal markets on which the business must focus on. The marketing and brand strategies are designed based on the principal markets identified. Therefore, before launching the Shackleton brand in the UK market, the Great British Banjo Company must identify the principle markets on which to focus on. The company’s products are addressed to all the individuals living in the UK.
However, consumers will be differentiated based on age and financial resource/income. For example, alcoholic beverages will be limited to a given age group, particularly 18 years and above. The products will be of premium quality and, therefore, relatively expensive. For this reason, the company will target middle income earners and wealthy individuals. The rest of the products will be addressed to all genders and different age groups.
In the UK, the Great British Banjo Company operates in a market economy. One of the fundamental characteristics of a market economy is competition.
The success or failure of any company in a market economy, not only depends on its strategies, but also the policy of its rivals. Therefore, the decision-making process regarding the company’s strategies and activities will give priority to the moves of other participants dealing with similar products.
The company’s main rivals are those dealing with similar products, operating in the same target market and applying similar strategy.
Even though the Great British Banjo Company boasts of being the only company manufacturing banjos at the production level in the UK, it faces stiff competition from the American companies based in the Great Britain.
Some of the companies include American Made Banjo Company, the Bellbird Banjo Company and Cloverlick Banjo among others. Competitors for other products offered by the company include Adnams, Heineken UK, Carlsberg, Budweiser, Caterpillar (CAT), Harley-Davidson and Barbour among others.
7 P’s Marketing Mix Implementation Strategy for the Shackleton Brand
The Shackleton brand’s concept of marketing mix includes numerous aspects of marketing, which are related to the creation of awareness of the brand and customer loyalty in the Great Britain. In the promotion of its brand, the company will use all the seven facets of the marketing mix, which are also referred to as the ‘7 Ps’ of marketing.
This is largely attributed to the fact that the company’s products have both tangible and intangible aspects. The 7P’s include product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.
Product
At the moment, the Great British Banjo Company’s products include Banjo, Sweater, Beer, Flask and Quilt. However, the potential product under the Shackleton brand will include travelling equipments, outdoor equipments and food and beverages.
The travel equipment will comprise of walking boots, bicycles, doctor’s bag, compass, rucksack and many more. On the other hand, the outdoor equipment will include fishermen smock, men cosmetics and winter sports clothes. Lastly, food and beverages will comprise of gin, whisky, long shelf-life products, spirits and mustard among others.
The Great British Banjo Company will adopt the following strategies for its product policy: horizontal range diversification strategy, quality differentiation strategy and assortment/product renewal strategy. The horizontal range diversification strategy will ensure long-term satisfaction of the clients’ needs.
The Shackleton brand will constitute a complex and contemporary range of product portfolio, even for the generally demanding tastes. Therefore, the company will adjust constantly to the requirements of the market pertaining to the product innovation, diversification, packaging techniques and production technologies.
The quality differentiation strategy refers to offering superior products to different market segments at different costs. Hence, the Shackleton brand will provide quality products to both middle income group and affluent group at slightly different prices.
Lastly, the assortment renewal strategy is a very intricate and dynamic policy. It would result in the creation of novel product lines within the current range. This will ensure that the product offered meets the requirements of the prevailing fashion and technology.
The Shackleton brand is expected to go through all the four stages of product life cycle development in a span of 8 years. The research and development team in the company will make sure that the company comes up with new products under the Shackleton brand name.
This will ensure that the brand withstands the pressure of competing brands in the market, meet the changing tastes and preferences of the consumers, and guarantee sustainable growth and development of the company. The diagram below illustrates the various product life-cycle stages which the Great British Banjo Company’s products are expected to go through:
Graphical representation of the product life-cycle of the Shackleton brand
At the introduction stage, there will be slow growth in the sales and low levels of profits will be realised from the sale of the products.
At this stage, the customers of the brand will be less as not much product promotion will have been done, and those who will have become aware will take time to make decisions on purchasing the products. At the same time, the slow market penetration strategy will be employed. This will ensure that the products are launched at rational prices and low promotions.
The growth stage will have a rapid increase in the level of sales as the market for the products will have opened up and more distribution channels will be in place. The soaring level of sales will be as a result of trial buys and repeat buys indicating that the product will have satisfied the customers’ needs. Product quality management strategies will be employed to ensure the highest level of sales is maintained.
On the other hand, the maturity stage will be characterised by a decline in the level of growth of sales. Market modification and product modification techniques, and marketing mix modification strategies will be employed in setting a marketing programme, which will be able to maintain the high level of sales in the company.
Price
As already been mentioned, the Great British Banjo Company will employ premium pricing and will not use low cost pricing strategies to expand its market. For that reason, the company will not focus on the price sensitive consumers.
The premium pricing will mainly be attributed to the company’s strong brand image and high number of loyal customers. The company also has a comparatively strong financial position. As a result, the Great British Banjo Company will employ penetrative price strategies like some of its rivals, for example, Harley-Davidson.
The pricing of the company prices will also be based on three aspects: the price level, the level of price differences and mobility of prices. Based on each category of product and the characteristic of the targeted consumers, the Great Britain Banjo Company will adopt differential pricing.
As a result, prices will vary depending on the above criteria. The quality of the products will justify the price level. Hence, the prices applied by the Great British Banjo Company for the Shackleton brand will reflect the product quality and the position of the company in the target market.
The company will ensure that the set prices reflect savings when compared to the actual values of the product. However, once consumer’s allegiance will be established, the prices of the product will be increased slightly relative to the competition.
The setting of prices relative to those of competitors is expected to be effective since the target market for Shackle brand are mostly urban dwellers. In addition, low prices are associated with poor quality.
The urban dwellers comprise of the largest consumers of the banjo products in many countries around the world. The distributors and dealers will be encouraged by a system of pricing, which will allow them a margin of between 25 percent and 30 percent range.
Place
According to the survey, it is obvious that most consumers in the UK prefer to do their shopping in departmental stores and shopping malls, as well as online shopping. As a result, Shackleton brands will be available in each and every store and shopping malls all over the Great Britain.
In addition, the company will develop an online portal, which will act as the main contact points between the company and the consumers. For this reason, consumers will be able to make orders via the company’s website. Last but not least, the banjo products will be available in the local museums.
Given the large number of well established companies in the target market, the company will apply three strategies, that is, establishing own shops/retail outlets, contracting and joint venture. Since establishing a business from the scratch is very expensive, the company will enter into agreements with some of the local shops and retail outlets to market/sell a number of their products.
The Great Britain Banjo Company will only enter into agreements with companies and institutions whom they share strategic goals. In addition, the company will contract logistics to distribute their products across the region. These will include material handling, transportation, inventory management and storage. This will help the company to penetrate the UK market.
The main criteria underlying the distribution strategies are: the complexity of the distribution channel, the level of company participation, degree of elasticity and the availability of the products. The above strategies will minimize the time taken before the product reaches the final consumer. This is because the products will be smoothly distributed to the stores, shopping malls and museums.
Promotion
In order to further the growth and development of Shackleton brand, the activities of advertising, sampling, discounting, word-of-Mouth and publicity will be used to entice customers. Promotional strategies will be used in defining and locating the target audience for the product and clearly passing the specific message.
The promotional strategies will be employed in creating awareness of the presence of the Shackleton brand in the UK market. The promotional strategy to be used will ensure that the target customers get the right information about the Great British Banjo Products by the use of the right medium and strategy. It will also ensure that the customers easily access the products under the Shackleton brand.
By promoting the products, the level of visibility of the products will be maintained, and the volume of the demand for the products will be set to an applied margin. The concept of Shackleton products will be introduced in the promotions. There will be a slip of paper attached to each of the company’s products. This paper will contain the fortune of the day and an interesting message to the customers.
This will also be present in the adverts in order to entice the customers to buy the products. Jackpot offer with Shackleton brand will be provided. This will be a trip for two to an exotic place in a foreign country away from the home country.
In addition, bundles like “buy one sweater and get one free, or buy one Banjo and get a beer”, customer design (customer chooses their own design), travel magazines, folk festivals, Shackleton membership, prize draw to explore the Antarctic, bicycle tour, and boat tour will be used. This will serve a good purpose of tapping new clients.
Direct sales could be made from the production centre and through the company’s websites. Generally, direct sales circumvent the middlemen by availing the products directly to the consumers. Sales promotions will be implemented during special occasions, for instance, holidays and festive seasons.
Discounts and rewards will be offered during sales promotions to increase sales volume. Sales promotion strategies will be used to influence the consumer purchasing behaviour and to enhance brand loyalty.
The company will also make use of the social media, which has become a very significant platform for marketing in this day and age. The social media sites, for instance, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google Plus are increasingly being used by the company to market their products.
The Great British Banjo Company will open an official Facebook and Twitter pages for communicating their product portfolios and interacting with the existing and potential clients.
The video adverts will be available in the YouTube. All the company’s social media sites will be stupendously integrated in such a way that ads on one social media site are linked to other sites. In other words, ads posted on the official Facebook page will also be found on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Google Plus.
Furthermore, the Great British Banjo Company will integrate corporate social responsibility with its marketing and brand strategies. This is because the company’s operations will affect many people, not just the stakeholders. Therefore, just like individuals living in the neighbourhood, the Great British Banjo Company will be a responsible member of the community in which it operates.
The company’s responsibility to the society in term of CSR will be in four parts, namely: economical, ethical, philanthropic and strategic. Meeting these four obligations will be very crucial for its long term growth. In addition, the CSR will enhance its relationship with the consumers and other stakeholders.
People
Since the Great British Banjo Company is not a well-established company, the marketing department will headed by the sales and marketing manager. The manager will have an assistant who will help in supervising and coordinating sales and marketing operations.
The company will also have customer care representatives and salespeople who will be in charge of the company-owned shops/retail outlets and the online platforms. The company also plans to hire finance and accounting staff in the future for marketing department.
Since consumers have a tendency of judging a business based on its employees, the role played by the customer care representatives and the salespeople will be very crucial for the company.
Therefore, the company will ensure that only qualified and competent candidates are hired. Customer care providers and sales representatives must have excellent interpersonal skills, knowledge of the service and competency for quality service delivery. In addition, they must meet the set standards and best practices.
Process
The Great British Banjo Company will develop well defined and efficient processes to ensure that clients get value for their money. The process refers to the company’s logistics, which will ensure that the company’s products are at the right location, at the right time and in the right amount, while maintaining warehousing space, stock and supply cost at a satisfactory level.
Since the company is yet to establish its own logistics systems, it will contract DHL. DHL is one of the international leaders in the mail and logistics. DHL will be responsible for material handling, transportation, inventory management and storage. Nonetheless, the company will have its own internal processes for handling client queries, establishing customer needs and requirements and processing orders.
Physical Evidence
Since services can’t be experienced before delivery, it is not easy to appraise their quality until they are consumed. Therefore, consumers will always judge a business entity based on the physical features.
These features include architectural designs, furnishings, ease of access, staff grooming, forms of presentations and stationeries among others. For this reason, the Great British Banjo Company will ensure that all the company shops/retail outlets and offices have state of the art facilities to enhance the environment in which the company and the consumers interact.
The shops and offices will have excellent ambience, cleanliness and stylish decor. The customer care representatives and the sales people will be in elegant uniforms. All the shops will have a standardized architectural design and internal decorations. In addition, the shops/retail outlets will be arranged in such a way that customers can easily access the products.
In other words, the shops/retail outlets will be like miniature supermarkets to promote self service. This will save the company cost of hiring more staff. In addition, all the shops/retail outlets and offices will have the Shackleton brand logo to create awareness of the presence of the Shackleton brand.