Marketing Plan Assignment: Marketing Mix Strategies For Placing Overthrow In The Market

Question

Task: OVERTHROW is a throw-type fire extinguisher for suppressing fire at its initial stage. The “throwing” approach makes the product very easy to use and can easily be carried out in an emergency case by practically anyone.

OVERTHROW Benefits:

1. Effective: OVERTHROW suppresses fire with its chemical reaction in less than 10 seconds.
2. Practical: The easy-to-use nature of OVERTHROW makes it an ideal solution for anyone.
3. Economical: No maintenance check-ups are essential for OVERTHROW which saves both time and money.
4. Variety of Function: OVERTHROW can suppress an initial stage of A-class fire (wood, paper), B-class fire (oil) and C-class fire (electricity).
5. Eco-friendly: OVERTHROW has components inside that are environmentally friendly, as well as harmless to humans and animals.

Situation Analysis
The Internal Environment
Strengths:

1. OVERTHROW is equipped with a technology that does not yet exist in the Australian market, making it a distinctive addition in terms of innovation.
2. The product already exists in the market and so some of its organizational traits can be used as a template for the Australian market.

Weaknesses:

1. Sales force need to be trained and educated on the specifics of the product very accurately due to the nature of the product. Therefore, the right people for sales need to be hired which can be a potential roadblock in the process.

The External Environment
Opportunities:

1. No direct product competition exists in the market, as a result a gap exists that can be disrupted.
2. The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach of doing things have been on the rise in Australia, and the very nature of the product is suppressing fire all by oneself, which falls under the category of DIY.
3. In terms of levels of competition, only product competition exists, allowing for a greater market to penetrate.

Threats:

1. Since there is a market gap, competitors may come up with products providing similar features if they see the product succeed.
2. The political scenario and relationships with Australia and other countries can influence the existence of the product since components of raw materials may have to be imported from different nations.
3. Understanding socio-cultural barriers are very important since certain beliefs, attitude and cultural norms regarding supressing fire by oneself may not be easily accepted.

Target Market
The product is aimed at markets where fire hazard may exist. Demography wise, since the product is very easy to use, adolescents and senior people can also use with ease. Therefore, the age range we aim to target is 13-70 years, and all genders. The product is also targeted towards households and offices. This is a utility-based product so people utility-seeking lifestyle are also potential target markets. In terms of psychography, we will to appeal to the risk avoidance and fear-stimulated people.

Key Value Proposition
The entire purpose of the product is to make people’s lives easier by means of a risk suppressant. Therefore, our unique selling proposition (USP) is that dangers such as fire risks are not anticipatory and can therefore take place any time; in order to mitigate the risk down to zero, OVERTHROW is an ideal solution where time is an essential component since waiting for firemen to extinguish the fire can already be too late.

Answer

Executive summary
The report on marketing plan assignment focuses on the making of a marketing plan which would be used for placing OVERTHROW in the market. OVERTHROW is basically a mini fire extinguisher which arrives with a lot of benefits. The marketing mix strategies were used for this particular product. Along with the SWOT and PESTLE analysis were the tools which are used for assessing the impact of the product on the market.

Introduction
The report on marketing plan assignment proposes a mini fire extinguisher “OVERTHROW” which is basically a throw type extinguisher used for suppressing the fire at the very initial stage. The mini fire extinguisher is founded by Laswell Corporation which was formerly known as ElMundo Corporation. The extinguisher is biodegradable as well as environment-friendly. The other products of the company include firefighting and daily use products. The company has made good realities with Japan, Malaysia, Turkey as well as India. The company explored in the context of this marketing plan assignment produces various types of firefighter of which the largest size id of firefighter throwing and the smallest id of firefighter pack. OVERTHROW comes with a lot of benefits such as it is quite effective, practical in use, economical as well as serves a variety of functions. In the study developed in this marketing plan assignment, the focus will be shed on effective market planning of mini fire extinguisher and strategic analysis of the product will be done. Along with this, the objective of making the product with its key positioning points will also be assessed. Added to these, the marketing mix strategy will also be done.

Strategic analysis of macro and micro environments
The readings used to develop this marketing plan assignment mentions that the internal as well as external environment of the product is analyzed through a tool known as SWOT. This basically stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (Dang, 2019). Strength and weakness fall in the category of internal or microenvironment whereas threats and opportunities fall in the category of external or macro-environment.

SWOT
Strength

• The product is easy to use and is an innovative product. Thus, people will have more autonomy towards its effective usage
• This product comes with an innovative technology that is not yet present within the Australian market which thereby makes a unique addition of the Australian market (Anggraini et al. 2016).
• The product has a huge practical application and give a great deal solution to anyone
• These can suppress various types of fire at the very initial stage which includes A-class fire, B class fire as well as C-class fire
• Furthermore, the extinguisher is extremely eco-friendly and is not harmful to humans and animals.
• With the existence of the product in the market, some of the organization can use it as an appropriate template for the Australian market

Weakness

• As per the readings used to create this marketing plan assignment, the sales force for selling this product in the market requires training and development of the skill set. Along with this, they also need to develop their knowledge regarding the specifications of the products very minutely because of the nature of the product. Thus, it is important to hire the most appropriate people for selling the product to potential customers.
• The product can only be used for a single time, thus the investment by the customers for this product gets limited (McGrath et al. 2016).

Opportunities

• The product is making its way in the Australian market with a completely new technology which means that the number of competitors in the market is comparatively less. Thus, the findings obtained in the context of this marketing plan assignment signifies that there is no direct competition for the product, as a result, a gap has formed which can be disrupted
• In the Australian market, there has been a trend of the Do-It-Yourself approach and as the product which is developed does the suppression of fire by the individual, this automatically falls in the category of DIY. Thus, it would be in aligning with the trends going on in the Australian market.

Threats

• As there is a significant market gap within the Australian market, the probable competitors might come up with innovative technologies that would be incorporated in their product (Rippers and Locher, 2016). This would make the product very much similar to the existing product when the success of the existing product is being observed.
• Along with this, it has also been noted in this marketing plan assignment that the political factors and good or bad relationship of the Australian market with other countries can create a significant influence on the selling rates of the product. This is so because the raw material is required to be imported from various nations.
• Added to these, it is also important to take into consideration the various cultural and social barriers a there is an existence of certain beliefs, faith as well as cultural norms. The suppressing of fire by oneself might not be acceptable in the economy.

PESTLE analysis of the product examined in the marketing plan assignment
Political factors

• The relationship among the various countries can influence the rate of selling of the product

Economic factors

• Majority of the people might not agree regarding the buying of the product because of its nature (Mineo, 2017)

Social factors

• The safety features of the product is a major social factor influencing the sell

Technological factor

• The product is incorporated with updated technologies which can attract a large segment of customers

Legal factors

• The company has to abide by various rules and regulations of the Australian government

Environmental factors

• The product is eco-friendly and does no harm to the living things in the society (Mcleod, 2018)

What are the main objectives outlined in the context of marketing plan assignment of mini fire extinguisher? 
The main objectives discussed in this report on marketing plan assignment of placing the mini fire extinguisher in the market include the following:

• It involves the creation of perceived information regarding OVERTHROW among 40% of the total target population in the market in the past four months.
• Raising the brand awareness of the product by around 60% during the first seven months
• Along with this, there is a need to generate a positive brand attitude towards the product and produce an average of 80% of the product satisfaction in the starting of ten months (Office, 2017)
• The total sale which is approximated to be generated is 5000 units in the first year which includes an equal percentage of both online and offline.

Perpetual map
(Source: Dang, 2019)

The figure provided in this marketing plan assignment shows the perpetual map that very well illustrates the ease of usage of the OVERTHROW and regards it as the most appropriate solution for putting out fires. One problem that exists within the Australian market is that there is no availability of aerosol type fire extinguishers which means that the placement of OVERTHROW in the market can certainly boost up the sales in the market (Shaw, 2016). The target market for this product in the places where there is an existence of fire hazard. The product is targeted for all genders and also towards offices and homes.

Positioning statement and key value propositions
The product is applicable for mothers who are seeking some sort of balance and are at the potential risk of life. The mother requires the ultimate need for convenience as well as an inexpensive solution for getting the environment fire hazard-free (Todorova, 2015). OVERTHROW is one such product that would be available in the Australian economy which would simply put out the fire in a few seconds.

Mini fire extinguisher
(Source: Mineo, 2017)

The key value proposition of the product includes the spreading of happiness among the people by making the environment free from fire hazards. This would also make people's life much easier through the suppression of the risks that arise from hazards. Thus, the unique selling proposition for this particular product is the danger that arises from fire which is actually anticipatory in nature. Thus, it can happen at any place and anytime and for mitigating the risks, the mini fire extinguisher OVERTHROW is the most appropriate solution wherein the time is a crucial component. This is so because waiting for the firemen can already lead to much loss (Wu and Li, 2018). Thus, OVERTHROW is the most convenient option for putting out a fire by oneself and is a quicker solution for the putting out of fires leading to less damage comparatively.

Marketing mix strategy
The marketing mix strategy consists of basically product, price, place, and promotion.

Product
This basically comprises of the needs of the customers and the needs of the manufacturers. From the company that is manufacturing the product needs to develop such a product which can serve as an extremely low-cost launch. Along with this, the company also needs to develop such a product which can easily expand in the market. It is important for the company to design such a product which can easily keep on increasing and spreading in the market. Now in this the mini fire extinguisher namely "OVERTHROW", the product is kept extremely simple and thus the ease of usage of the product becomes more convenient. The product examined in the segments of this marketing plan assignment is kept quite basic which means that it becomes extremely convenient in terms of usability. In the customer's part, the customers want that the product needs to perform their core function in an easy manner and for this product is quite crucial as the fire can spread easily. The expectations of the customers include convenient to use, light in weight and safe in terms of usage. As far as the augmentation is concerned, the customers want the product to be inexpensive, easily accessible as well as the packaging should be recyclable.

Needs of the manufacturer and customer
(Source: Shaw, 2016)

Price
The main objectives mentioned in the case of marketing plan assignment of the pricing strategy include the costs as well as ROI. The demand for the product would be quite priced elastic and the method which would be used for pricing the product will be marked up pricing.

Place
After the completion of the pricing of the product, it is important to know to analyze the strategy for placing the product in the market. The channel; which will be used for placing mini fire extinguishers is an indirect channel of communication (Todorova, 2015). The market coverage of the product is quite selective. As the product "OVERTHROW" is just at the very introduction stage, the kind of distribution which will be used is patchy distribution. The retailing strategy will comprise of multi-channel e-commerce.

Promotion strategy
In this context, the argument raised on this marketing plan assignment focus on the basic idea of developing the product that is to eliminate the fear factor which exists in the human through the fire hazards. Along with this, the product also aims to create an ultimate need by positioning it as the most important commodity and not as a luxury item or a showpiece. The promotion of the product also comprises of [proper placement of the product. for instance, the TV show Masterchef Australia has reached the highest number of viewers through the appropriate product promotion. With its proper promotion strategy, the show emerged as popular Show demographics. As in this case, the positioning strategy for the product includes the risk-averse Australian mothers who are with their young children spending their life in the urban as well as semi-urban areas (Fan et al. 2015). The company examined in the context of this marketing plan assignment is likely to use the push strategy which was earlier used in Masterchef Australia. This aims at meeting the target of around 40% of the market during the initial months. The promotion campaign for the mini fire extinguisher will be entirely supported by digital outreach through social media platforms, mainstream publication which would be done through new channels. Along with this, radio as well as television will also be used for the promotion of the product (Wu and Li, 2018). As a result of this, the brand awareness of the product will rise to around 50% during the first seven months of the launch of the product.

Budget, strategy implementation and Evaluation
The budget obtained in the context of this marketing plan assignment for the mini fire extinguisher is as follows

• The product, “OVERTHROW” will be initially priced at $65 across Australia, wherein the cost of production will be around $50. Thus, the net profit which would be achieved by the company on selling per product is $15.
• The cost of production which is involved with the product is around 50 %, thus around 50% of the total budget will be kept for the production cost. This would briefly include the import of raw material from South Korea. The custom charges will be paid at the Singapore customs through which the product will be imported to Australia. Furthermore, the required taxes would be paid in Australia (Pappas, 2017). There would be a warehouse where the product and other raw materials would be stored. For this particular location, the product will be moved to the Australian market.
• The mini fire extinguisher is expected to be released by the end of October or the very first week of November which would produce a selling off around 30%. Thus from the total budget around 30% will be allocated to the selling of the product. The key factor which exists in selling and making the product variable to the market is promotion.
• For the evaluation purpose, around 20% will be used for setting up of the office as well as computers.
• The fixed costs in the business include rents, employee wage, and transportation. This particular business does not include the manufacturing costs.

The controls include the monitoring of quality, customer satisfaction as well as strict control actions so as to get a quick response of the Overthrow. It is also clear on this marketing plan assignment that the relationship with the customers will be effectively managed through surveys, problem resolution as well as continuous improvement. There are certain key metrics that are required to be implemented such as KPIs which would be reported on a daily basis.

The evaluation and control for the product examined in the case scenario of marketing plan assignment are briefly classified into three categories namely sale metrics, marketing metrics, and customer service metrics. The sales metrics include a number of customers retained, sales calls, recurring revenue and number of proposals given. The marketing metrics include costs involved in individual interaction, new rate of customer retention, customer satisfaction and CLV (Wire, 2017). The customer service metrics include the timely delivery, pickup and proper shipping of the orders. Along with this, there would also be a rating and billing accuracy. 

Conclusion
Therefore, considering the analysis and findings used to construct this marketing plan assignment, it can be concluded that OVERTHROW is basically a mini fire extinguisher which is developed for quick and convenient suppression of fire. This product comes as a handy and can be used by any age group. The product provides a lot of benefits such as it is economical in nature and can put out various types of fire. Through the marketing mix strategy, the objective of the product placement will be done. The marketing plan comprises of a year through which the objectives will be met. In the coming year, the sample marketing plan will be followed with some of the additional objectives.

References
Anggraini, A.F., Primyastanto, M. and Utami, T.N., 2016. The Industrial Development of PT. Phillips Seafood Indonesia Pasuruan to Fulfill Basic Material of Crab marketing plan assignment (Portunus Pelagicus). ECSOFiM (Economic and Social of Fisheries and Marine), 4(1), pp.105-112.

Dang, G., 2019. BRANDING STRATEGY OF THE VIETNAMESE ROASTED CASHEW NUTS, FOCUSING ON BRAND DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAMESE MARKET. Fan, S., Lau, R.Y. and Zhao, J.L., 2015. Demystifying big data analytics for business intelligence through the lens of marketing mix. Big Data Research, 2(1), pp.28-32.

Laswell Co., Ltd. (n.d.). Retrieved 09 September 2019, from http://www.laswell.co.kr

Liu, Y., Li, K.J., Chen, H. and Balachander, S., 2017. The effects of products’ aesthetic design on demand and marketing-mix effectiveness: The role of segment prototypicality and brand consistency. Journal of Marketing, 81(1), pp.83-102.

McGrath, T.J., Morrison, P.D., Sandiford, C.J., Ball, A.S. and Clarke, B.O., 2016. Widespread polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) contamination of urban soils in Melbourne, Australia. Chemosphere, 164, pp.225-232.

Mcleod, S. (2018, May 21). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved 09, September 2019, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Mineo, G. (2017, August 09). Marketing Psychology: 10 Revealing Principles of Human Behavior. Retrieved 09, September 2019, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/psychology-marketers-revealing-principles-human-behavior

 Office, T. (2017, August 14). Fire Drill - The Office US. Marketing plan assignment Retrieved 09, September 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO8N3L_aERg

Pappas, S. (2017, September 8). Personality Traits & Personality Types: What is Personality? Retrieved 09 September 2019 from https://www.livescience.com/41313-personality-traits.html

Personality Perfect. (n.d.). Marketing plan assignment 16 Personality Types Overview: Free Access. Retrieved 09, September 2019, from https://www.personalityperfect.com/16-personality-types/

Rippers, T. and Locher, C., 2016. Cold water extraction of codeine containing combination analgesics available prescription free in Australia.

Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.

Todorova, G., 2015. Marketing communication mix. Trakia Journal of sciences, 13(1), pp.368-374.

Wire, Business (2017, June 22). Global Fire Detection and Suppression Systems Market Forecasts, Segments, and Drivers by Technavio. Retrieved 09 September 2019 from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170622006265/en/Global-Fire-Detection-Suppression-Systems-Market--

Wu, Y.L. and Li, E.Y., 2018. Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in social commerce: A stimulus-organism-response perspective. Marketing plan assignment Internet Research, 28(1), pp.74-104.