Preamble
Successful projects are designed to generate profits against invested capital. This is done after thorough cost-benefit analysis research has been conducted on a project idea. To successfully position a product in the market to gain a desirable market share, a good marketing strategy and marketing plan have to be designed to that end. These facts provide excellent opportunities to start a strong renewable energy company. A good marketing strategy could stimulate demand for the product.
One of these companies is Wenergy solutions. The company will utilize to its advantage three government levels that are at federal, state, and local levels. In addition to that, other customers that will benefit from this project idea will be families that drive in four-wheel drive vehicles to camping sites besides that product being a source of energy for camping purposes in addition to providing energy for these vehicles. The project idea also thrives on the fact that research done in remote areas could impress upon kids and other people the idea of green power.
The Australian government has been looking for an environmentally friendly energy source, a rationale for investing in the project. The project is designed to produce sufficient power while saving the environment. The D100 turbine advantages include portability, user-friendliness, and ability to generate electricity for a variety of electric appliances of various sizes including small appliances. It is 2 meters tall and has an inbuilt sensor temperature sensor, an advantage over similar devices.
Wenergy solutions’ goal is to develop global environmental standards where power industries could be a marketplace in making the breakthrough.
Marketing Strategy
Based on the views of Kotler (1997), the strategy will be tailored for the target market with risk aversion approaches. This will be based on an analysis of the target market through an evaluation of the short term market performance of the product. The strategy will run on two goals that will incorporate both short-term and long-term evaluations. The short-term market will target will be primary consumers and an analysis of attainable goals. On the other hand, the long-term goal will shift its target to direct and indirect customers (Mintzberg & Quinn, 1985).
Market Analysis
Wenergy solutions’ strategic plan is to exploit the widely available market that has lain unexploited particularly in the agricultural sector with special emphasis on the crop yield analysis and other sectors that are more developed such as the residential wind turbine installations. Wenergy solutions will be bound to benefit from this project venture since this energy sector, despite having been in existence for many years, a number of segments of the wind turbine market remain undeveloped to their full potential. (Hamilton, Eskin & Michael,1998).
Unit Installations
Wenergy solutions have designed the units to be installed in-house. The units will be customised installations though they have been evaluated to be costly. The high costs will be offset by a moderate cost per unit.
A feasibility study and analysis indicates that volume discounts on the units could be accounted for in the incentive structure when offering this to the local government and wind turbine companies.
However, Wenergy solutions will suffer from the challenging elements of incorporating unique marketing strategies for specific target markets and managing generated wind turbine data logs.
Wenergy solutions intend to integrate and exploit specific marketing techniques for specific market segments. One of its key market sectors in the agricultural sector. Market access and penetration techniques the company intends to use include e-commerce, e-mails, the internet, e-mobile, and websites. These technologies were identified to be critical success elements in implementing the program.
Program Market Outlook
The target plan to stimulate small to moderate market activity among consumers has been identified to be viable given currently prevailing market conditions. 100 D100 wind turbine data collection systems have been designed for implementation within the first year of program operation. This could conclude the short term project goal, before proceeding to other project phases.
The next project phase will be a long term goal with a significant cost effective strategy to establish a network of wind turbine logging system covering a significant percentage of Australian Agricultural system.
The definition of cost effectiveness includes: Savings obtained directly from a project with a simple payback period less than the life span of the project. The lifespan of Wind turbine units for this project has a five year warranty though they have been known to last longer.
Long-Term Outlook
What are the characteristic of a wind turbine collection market in Australia?
- A pool of qualified technicians specialised in installation activities dispersed within the state
- Informed agricultural and governments departmental employees and on wind turbine collection systems
- Well managed supply chain systems to ensure the units are in constant supply through installers, wholesalers, and retailers.
- Fairly consistent market prices for the units
- Quality validation and verification benchmarks from a third party for equipments and installations
- Systems that are compatibly integrated into buildings considered as a standard option in commercial and new residence constructions with building codes that incorporate wind turbine collection
Marketing Goals
A broad spectrum of marketing activities could be incorporated in achieving the long term goal. To that end, an ambitious marketing effort could be designed to coincide with a drastic decrease in the cost of the technology. The marketing approach could be:
- Educating the target market and industry about wind turbine collection and costs associated with such projects.
- Incorporating the local government in educating target customers about benefits associated with wind turbine collection and to provide incentives for the project.
- Ensure wind turbine collection project is at least installed in one commercial building and one new project.
- Initiate and develop a sustainably long term cost effective market strategy
- Develop cost effective strategies and mechanisms to ensure efficient utilisation of the equipments against their depreciations.
Target Markets
Product position should cover many target groups for the project to be sustainable for a long period of time. These groups may not be limited to the list but include:
- National Farmers’ federation (NFF)
- The Australian Government Department of Agriculture
- Distributors
- Remodelers
- Wind turbine manufacturing concerns
- Developers
Trade Associations
The need for long term sustainability and viability of the Wenergy solutions called upon project developers to conduct a detailed SWOT analysis. The analysis could ensure the company not only sustainably maintained its market position, but also recorded sustainable growth. To that end, the basic components of a SWOT analysis incorporated in the study included the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that the project could face in the short term and long term as illustrated below.
The SWOT chart indicates those factors that could contribute to the success or failure of the project. The design is to overcome de-meriting factors so as to retain a strong position (Porter, 1996).
The greatest challenge could be from seasoned and well experienced developers the company has to contend with. This project is to be developed by inexperienced university students.
Big companies have the financial muscles in spending to acquire patents and other competing ideas and innovations, a factor lacking with this new company.
The long term goal is to focus on manufacturing the product since the company does not incur any labor costs. Human resource is voluntarily available from university students skilled in sunlight data collection and equipment calibration techniques. One key unique element is to focus on customer service that is highly valued at this age.
References
Hamilton, Robert, Eskin. E., Michael M. (1998). Assessing Competitors: The Gap Between Strategic Intent and Core Capability, International Journal of Strategic.
Kotler, Philip (1997). Marketing Management. 9 th edition. New Jersey, Prentice Hall.
Management-Long Range Planning, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 406-417.
Mintzberg, Henry, & Quinn, James Brian. (1998). Readings in the Strategy Process. 3rd edition. New Jersey, Prentice Hall.
Porter, Michael. (1996). “What is Strategy?”, Harvard Business Review, 1996.