Introduction
Marketing forms one of the most important factors that dictate the progress that an organization can make since it constitutes the last step in the chain of production. Marketing analysts generally concur that the process of marketing brings consumers and an organization together, a consideration that makes it crucial to establish the correct face of products, service, and most importantly, the company making the products.
An effective execution of marketing however requires a closely coordinated and a highly analytical application of marketing plans and special skills to win customers. Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair Company has continued to grow and widen its market since it was formed. The latter has been attained through active marketing of its products both in the United States and across the globe (Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair, 2013).
This paper provides an evaluation of the company and particularly its marketing plan. Besides, an effective SWOT analysis of the company has been conducted by exploring the key strengths and opportunities. In addition, possible threats and opportunities have been addressed in the paper.
A brief company background- Dan’s auto and track repair
The ability of any business to assimilate the correct productivity and profitability is highly dependent on its ability to formulate and apply the mission, goals, and objectives in its management plans. According to Johnson (2002), a business should formulate its marketing objectives in line with its long term strategies upon which it intends to deploy technology, human resources, and funds to enhance the realization of its mission.
Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair Company is one of the fastest growing small auto and truck repairs businesses in the United States. The owner who is known as Dan Wozniac began this business in 1991 in Arlington, Texas. It is worth mentioning that Dan’s business is family-owned and it provides wide range of vehicle service repairs to its customers (Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair, 2013).
Its channels of primary sales and services are the regular customers and roadside assistance services conducted on a 24-hour basis. It also offers fleet services which includes state certified vehicle inspection, wrecker services, vehicle products, fleet priority service, DFW Metroplex area, vehicle repair and on-site maintenance.
Its staff includes a small group of highly qualified technicians. The company’s management structure has undergone major reviews that push it towards decentralization and greater responsibilities to workers and customers. Ahenkora and Peasah (2011) indicate that a lean hierarchy allows employees to have direct touch with their top management and contribute to long-term planning.
Besides, it reduces the overall time used to respond to workers, environmental, and consumers’ issues. In order to further emphasize on lean management, it is vital to mention that the inventories are greatly reduced while additional focus is given to corporate social responsibility.
The structure has created important arms that reach out all stakeholders and therefore makes it easy to understand issues affecting them. The latter is a crucial consideration in defining the point of entry by the company.
The company has seen significant growth in its market changes over the years. The latter has been accompanied by eventual success in business. This has been due to its efficient leadership, marketing skills and innovation. In addition, it focuses on improved and a wide range of service delivery and expertise of workers.
This has attracted the attention of truck and vehicle owners as well as several other well established and successful companies. It has also been attributed to the adaptive enterprise and corporate marketing strategies that provide the type of technology and services as well as the efficient marketing practice to apply.
Other important services include diesel and electronic and non-electronic repairs, complete service and repair of clutch, air brake systems, axle, front-end, undercarriage among others. It has several business segments such as vehicle care segment, inspections for all vehicles, preventive maintenance and product segments, having new and used tyres, engine parts and other assorted vehicle spares.
Mission statement
Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair Company has immensely benefitted from the intimate relationship with its workers, consumers and the environment since it was incepted. It is one of the most important components that drive its success (Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair, 2013).
As a result, it has taken great strides in ensuring that the provision of better and unmatched services and sustainability are carefully ingrained in its mission and leadership structure. This has been used as a mechanism of ensuring that the company’s ideology and principles are implemented.
The company’s mission is built on core values that define its services and products. Its mission can be summarized as the provision of outstanding customer service. This denotes the responsibility of the company in fostering effective service delivery.
Statement of goals and core competencies
Johnson (2002) points out that a small business can be able to explore the successes in its environment by developing or focusing on its core competencies. Dan and his team of workers have come to develop effective strategies in catapulting their business to success over the past few years.
In their provision of services, they have been able to aim towards exploiting, leveraging, strengthening, maintaining and developing core competencies. Core competencies as in a firm may include an organization’s functional skills such as research and development, technology, finance, marketing and manufacturing.
A decision to develop a strategy via exploiting core competencies might in the next three years ensure that the firm does not merely produce quality products. It may also deliver valuable services and unique benefits to customers.
Additionally, exploiting core competencies as a means of developing strategy requires that resources in a business are shared equally across all existing units. Johnson (2002) points out that the best and effective core competencies that should be shared need to be the intangible ones.
Dan has showed a deeper understanding in his practice in the sense that intangible competencies are important in the sense that his competitors are not be able to see them because they are invisible. The company has been able to utilize competencies relate to skills and knowledge which its employees have.
The business knowledge potential perspective currently entails viewing the business marketing strategy and provision of services through embracing technology as the driving force behind organisational success.
The top management has sought to provide vision regarding technology-focussed service provision and marketing which involves designing and implementing the required IT infrastructure. The latter takes into consideration the external IT strategy components such as competencies, scope and governance.
Competitive potential alignment perspective in the next three years appears to focus primarily on exploitation of the emerging IT capabilities in order to bring about new products and services.
This can expand the business scope. It is also concerned with influencing the critical attributes of the strategy which involves distinctive competencies, and the development of new types of customer relationships. This perspective is considered unique because it allows business marketing strategy to be modified using the emerging IT capabilities.
Overall marketing strategy
Janicijevic (2010) posits that developing a marketing strategy that is effective and oriented for long term requires key strategic planning and effective leadership methods. Developing a marketing plan gives a firm enough time to meet its goals. As a strategy, it reflects Hamel and Prahald’s view in their model of strategic intent.
Hamel and Prahald argue that planning is a strategic marketing intent which is aimed at leveraging core competencies, capabilities and internal resources a firm has in order to accomplish unattainable goals a competitive market environment presents (Ahenkora & Peasah, 2011).
On the same breath, Strategic scholars point out that while strategic intent is crucial for higher levels of performance, its effects can only be realized when employees in an organization show commitment to a vision or a specific performance criterion.
SWOT analysis
Strengths
Since its inception in 1991, Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair Company has continuously grown its marketing activities and processes to become one of the major providers of diesel vehicle and truck service providers in Texas (Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair, 2013).
Analysts have pointed out that the services the company provides which ranges from computerized diagnostics of all diesel and other engines to a 24-hour towing and roadside assistance have immensely attracted customers who have in turn developed preference and confidence to the company’s available services.
Besides, it is worth mentioning that its variety of unique fleet services and its ability to meet the convenience of its customers have enabled it to gain competitive advantage over the competitors. This has aided it in enhancing its profitability due to repeat customers.
Weakness
Marketing analysts indicate that the availability of substitute products and increasing demand for cheaper products and services presents small and growing businesses such as Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair Company. Such a company may be faced with massive difficulties of lowering cost to ensure economies of scale.
While many local auto shops and garages around Arlington Texas have opted to lower their product and service costs prices to gain a competitive edge, Dan’s business has maintained its service charges over others.
This has had a negative impact on its expected gains as many of its customers opt for alternative service providers. Its fleet service costs are not reflective of the affordable prices necessary for capturing the ready market in the region.
Opportunities
Modern sales and marketing operations for products and services that a company provides demand the application of better technological platform. The company has been known to offer quality services. It uses technology to enhance the effectiveness and quality of its marketing plans and service provision. This in turn presents it with numerous opportunities to reach the market and introduce fresh ideas in the market.
Threats
One of the major threats facing the company is the nature of the highly competitive market environment where the company is carrying out its operations. The company is exposed to a stiff competition from its competitors. It is worth mentioning that since its competitors are selling similar vehicle products and lowering the cost of their services, Dan’s business faces a great threat of losing =its marketing strategy.
An analysis using Porter’s five forces model
New entry threat
Though services provided by Dan’s company are exceptional, many similar companies have come up to in Texas to provide auto services. The fast increase in Dan’s profitability has agitated their concerns for a share of profits.
Indeed, the market was insatiable by the company’s services and therefore provided a ripe opportunity for new entrants to fill the gap. However, the company still enjoys the advantage of a large number of customers who have developed loyalty due to its special services.
Buyer and supplier power
Winer (2009) notes that the bargaining power of consumers and suppliers dictate the ability of a company’s products to trade effectively in the market.
The management of the company has sought to ensure that its customers, as indicated in the mission and goals, obtain the highest quality of the product possible at the best prices that could be able to effectively compete in the market. This is therefore essential for the company to stabilize its service provision and raise prices with time to encourage better production.
Competitive rivalry
Competitive rivalry on the other hand, forms a major business consideration that dictates the overall ability to forcefully infer the much needed impact in the market. The company suffers strongly from its general lack of enough resources that dictated the overall ability to reach its consumers. This has given larger companies the general advantage to maintain bulk of the market share.
Threat of substitution
Since its conception, Dan’s company has been faced with strong forces of other vehicle products in the market. Though Dan has sought to infer the best method to counter the products that are in the market by use of unique technology, the threat of substitute products requiring greater knowledge continues to be very strong owing to their demand in the market. In addition, it cements their overall preference by ccustomers.
Target market
In his publication, Winer (2009) points out that segmentation and targeting of a market is an important component since it boosts the competitive advantage, increases product identification, and improves market segment and marketing mix.
In the case of Dan’s company, it should be able to select potential locations where a mixture of low class, middle class and upper class car and truck owners can buy its products and services. In these segments, it may be able to market and carry out promotions of its products.
Product strategy
Dan’s company product ought to be transformed so that it can win the market and build the brand in the US and other parts of the globe. Its services include repairs of engines, brakes and exhausters. The company must adopt a new and unique style to attract customers. This may include ensuring efficiency and speed in carrying out services.
Distribution strategy
A producer to consumer channel has been lauded by scholars of chain management studies as a channel which enhances a distributor’s profit margin. In agreement, the option by Dan’s company to adopt a producer consumer channel can be considered to be attractive in the sense that it can maximize profits.
Indeed, as Mary Jo Hatch Posits in her model of business dynamics, direct selling or provision of services is a key business concept that enables a producer to favorably manage sales and enjoy all the profits without having to share with distributors or other intermediaries (Winer, 2009).
Promotional strategy
Promotional methods should be purposefully designed in a manner that more consumers are able to get the message on the availability of the services that Dan’s company is offering. A good consideration at this point is intensification of online promotion and use of billboards to reach more consumers alongside the current methods.
Notably, intensified online promotion would enable the company to reach more consumers even beyond its already established locations. However, greater care should be taken to ensure that the system is secure and its brand carefully guarded.
Pricing strategy
The pricing of Dan’s services and products has always been a key consideration for the company because it determines their affordability. As a result, Dan should establish a clear method of determining the prices of different products in a manner that several people are able to afford the products.
In order to further promote accessibility, different products and services should be priced differently depending on complexity of their production and design.
Conclusions
To sum up, developing marketing plan requires managers to employ strong systems of control for their companies so that they can enhance objectivity. There is need for a change in Dan’s company mode of marketing operations.
It should be made a key platform for continuous improvement. As such, putting in place a new marketing plan is very crucial if the pre-established objectives are to be met. Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair Company should gradually increase its marketing goals while heightening the much needed promotion to inform and persuade the consumers to seek its services.
References
Ahenkora, K. & Peasah, O. (2011). Crafting strategy that measures up. International Journal of Business and Management 6(10), 278-283.
Dan’s Auto and Trucks Repair (2013). Full Service Automotive and Heavy-Duty Diesel Truck and Trailer Repair Facility. Web.
Janicijevic, N. (2010). Business processes in organizational diagnosis. Management: Journal of Contemporary Management Issues, 15(2), 85-106.
Johnson, L. (2002). Issue selling in the organization. MIT Sloan Management Review, 43(3), 8-9.
Winer, S. (2009). New communications approaches in marketing: issues and research directions. Journal of Interactive Marketing 23(2), 108-117.