Marketing plan development and implementation strategy

Marketing Plan

The purpose of this business plan is to provide a through analysis of the external and internal factors impacting the business activity at Z-Wing and to evaluate how these forces are likely to affect the company's market positioning. At the same time, the report will also focus on the 4Ps of management are concerned (product, price, place, promotion), analyze the market in terms of potential customers and the capacity of absorption for the market, as well as any possible competitors.

Based on these evaluations of internal and external perspective, the business will aim to provide recommendations as to the strategic and tactical approaches of the company and the positioning approach it is to take on the market. All these will be done keeping in mind that the primary objective of the organization is to maintain the leadership position at Z-Wing and all the competitive advantages that come with it.

Situation Analysis

The aviation market and industry is currently in a very challenging place. With increased fuel prices, additional security costs because of the terrorist threat and an incredible competition, companies are putting in a significant amount of effort to simply survive on the market and make even the smallest of profit margins. With Janssen capturing as much as 47% of the market, this has transformed more and more into an oligopoly with Z-Wing and Janssen controlling much of the market.

At the same time, the macroeconomic factors poise an additional pressure on the market. First of all, the fuel prices have constantly increased throughout the last years, making potential customers turn towards alternative forms of travel rather than flying. Security has also been an issue, with security costs increasing and playing an ever more important role on the market. All these have impacted the airlines, generally considered to be the most important clients for Z-Wings.

The main strength that Z-Wing has is the power of the management. With Aaron Weiss as CEO, the company has been able to benefit not only from his strategic leadership, but also from his capacity to see things clearly and provide guidance and leadership when and where necessary. At the same time, these qualities are also backed by an excellent choice of his management team which has successfully taken Z-Wing to a market leadership position and is keeping it up there.

Another important strength resides in the company's leadership position. In this position, Z-Wing is able to become a trendsetter and mold the market according to its own objectives. It will also benefit from a larger market share than its closest competitors.

The main weakness of the company could be the fact that it is overstretched and that the current economic conditions have not allowed it to hire at the pace at which this was done in the past.

In terms of opportunities, the market is currently growing at a 5% ratio, which means that this is still a profitable market which can be exploited through constant innovation. Innovation will bring about diversification which, at the same time, will make the company more flexible in its approaches towards existing and potential clients.

The threat on the market obviously comes from the closest competitor, Janssen, currently growing and having reached 47% of the market. However, there is also a potential threat from smaller competitors, which can use their smaller size to be more flexible on the market.

Z-Wing is offering both civil and military aviation, with a recent trend probably leading the company towards moving towards luxury aircraft as well as a way of diversifying its activity and developing its base of consumers. Its product portfolio is relatively diverse and can be improved to successfully maintain the current leadership status.

Z-Wing has always been a successful player on the market because of the quality of its products and the relations it has been able to develop in the industry. The association between Z-Wing and quality has thus become natural encouraging new consumers to buy Z-Wing products. At this point, however, the key issue is to successfully remain in a leadership position despite the serious threat poised by rival Janssen. Innovation will be key in the process of attaining this goal.

3. Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy should start from the company's primary objective, which is to ensure that it maintains its position as market leader and that it positions itself, through both its internal mechanisms and its external ones, notably relations with suppliers, clients and other competitors, in a way that enables it to maintain its lead. The mission of the company from a marketing perspective will thus be to be a leader.

From the marketing perspective, we were able to identify several objectives on which the company will focus on during the next 3 to 5 years (this is the accepted temporal evaluation perspective for the company). The first objective will be to ensure a constant increase in the number of customers within a range of 5-10% annually. Despite the economic recession and the external factors whose negative state at the moment might influence this (high fuel price, new security costs after the 9/11 attacks, the additional competition on the market etc.), the objective still seems feasible and it is a primary factor that will determine the success of the primary objective of the company, which is to maintain the leader position on the market.

A second marketing objective will be to ensure a proper feedback and control mechanism that will imply market analysis and determining how the consumers shape their purchasing preferences, as well as a proper performance analysis, which will be tied with the sales and expense/financial analysis.

In terms of the specific financial objectives, keeping costs at a reasonable level will be the primary financial objectives. The problem at this point, as we have previously seen, is not only that the market is under pressure from the high number of competitors and a relatively decreasing demand, but also from the fact that the additional challenges such as high fuel costs make for this market a difficult one to operate on and difficult in itself to achieve the objectives mentioned. Keeping the costs down will ensure a healthy financial situation for the company and relatively achieve the desiderate of maintaining a leadership position by ensuring that there is an adequate balance between revenues and expenses and that the company does not run into financial difficulties in a challenging business and economic environment.

On the other hand, the company will also focus on the distribution of revenues. Some of the revenues will need to concentrate and be directed towards innovation process, towards developing the company strategically, so that the 3-5 years temporal perspective will be realistic in attaining the primary objective established for the company. At the same time, part of the revenues will also need to be distributed towards the marketing and promotion activities, for a closer relationship with the market and the customers.

The most promising market at this point seems to be the Asian market. There are several reasons for this, ranging from the fact that many of the urban centers in Asia have become important financial centers and there is a significant demand for travel in this areas from business persons to the fact that these countries have enjoyed a significant economic growth throughout the last decade.

Some of the relevant researches have shown that the aviation industry in the Asia-Pacific region, for example, is set to recover by 2009. This already identifies some of the potential target markets: China and India, as well as Japan. With China, the company can deal directly with the government and sell directly to it or with the private companies, as would be the case with Japanese or Indian airlines. Other smaller targeted markets could include Singapore or Malaysia.

One of the difficult things about assuming a market leader position is that the company has to always act and behave as a market leader. This is obviously challenging, because it is usually the second or third best in a market that is protected from some of the adversities on the market and the market leaders who is taking everything head on. The key to maintaining a leadership position on the market will be innovation. Being innovative will ensure not only that the company retains its current customers and gains new ones, but also that the company's prestige remains intact and that it is able to create trends.

A market leader strategy is thus recommended from a market dominance perspective. This type of strategy makes sense, especially since Z-Wing is still leader on the market with a high market share. On the other hand, from the Porter generic strategies perspective, the best approach is combining the differentiation with the cost leadership strategy, as a broad market scope and both an uniqueness and low cost competitiveness.

At first glance, these two seem incompatible with one another. This is not entirely true. The company can use its innovation lead to focus part of its activities on the differentiation strategy (and this does not necessarily need to be limited to products or services, but also to business models and general commercial approaches) and cost leadership, which means that the company will also concentrate on keeping costs sufficiently low so as to remain competitive on this segment of the market as well and to generate price competitiveness, with an advantage. Being a leader also means constantly provoking competitors, as is the case here.

Finally, as previously mentioned, innovation is essential to supporting the company's approach and policies on the market. From this perspective, a pioneers approach is obviously indicated. As pioneers, Z-Wing will be able to ensure that its innovations are first on the market and that new customers are attracted to the new products and services that the company is putting out on the market. At the same time, as pioneers, Z-Wing will lead the market from this perspective.

In terms of price, the cost leadership strategy that has been identified here means that the company will be able to sell its planes at a price level lower than that of its competitors, obviously making it more viable on the market. With a lower price, the company can still act as a market leader, but without necessarily reducing its prestige or revenues, because of higher volumes and larger market share.

In terms of promotion, this is essential in communicating the message of the company. The promotion can range from usual advertising (with a low percentage of success in actually getting clients to immediately buy, mainly to the high prices of the product itself), to targeted advertising, which would mean presenting the products and services to those clients believed to be interested (as was the previous example with the Chinese government) and to participating in fairs and reunions with the other market participants.

In terms of place, the company will be targeting mainly the Asian markets, which have been identified as potentially the most profitable of all and which can ensure the increase in both market share and potential revenues. However, especially for the civil luxury aircrafts, niches like the Middle East can bring both sustainable growth and higher revenues over the analyzed period of time.