On one hand, this may alter the consumers' trust in the company's products which are perceived as intangible compared with those goods that can be purchased from the shelves of specialized stores. On the other hand, resorting to intermediaries implies paying a certain commission which results in higher prices for the respective products. Moreover, the success of selling through indirect channels depends, to a great extent, on the distributors' efforts and knowledge. Although they receive tuition from the producer's technical staff, there may be several interests leading to a prominent discordance between the distributors' behavior and the company's expectations towards it. Threats primary problem that ADEL could encounter is the Australians' lack of information on biometrics secondly, Australians have a favorable attitude towards traditional security methods based on patrolmen or alarm systems the Australians' misconception about prices (most of them think that the price of an effective security system exceeds $750) which hinders them from upgrading their home security systems the lack of confidence in the suppliers' offers as a result of the numerous security companies which have failed to keep their promises.

4. Marketing objectives

Considering the Ansoff matrix (which establishes four types of market growth strategies: achieving higher market penetration, finding new markets, developing new products for new customers or diversification, and developing new products for existing customers), the new Biometric Fingerprint Door Lock that ADEL intends to launch on the Australian market on September 1, 2007, falls under the incidence of the third category above. In other words, the overall marketing strategy consists of market growth through diversification.

The marketing objectives which subscribe to this managerial decision are:

increasing market share to 5% by December 2007 increasing spontaneous brand awareness to 7% and prompted brand awareness to 20% by December 2007

5. Marketing strategies and brief tactics

The market share is an indicator which emphasizes the ratio between the volume of purchases for a certain brand (Biometric Door Lock, in our case) and the total volume of purchases on the respective market (home security products, in this case). Thus, for its increase, there are 2 strategies that can be mentioned:

persuading a high number of people to buy the newly launched product persuading consumers to purchase a higher volume of products

The tactics subordinated to these two strategies include: offering special prices (price), offering a related product as a bonus when purchasing the new Fingerprint Door Lock (product), resorting to advertising and PR (promotion), achieving an increased number of websites capable of distributing the product (place).

The second objective that has been announced earlier - the increase of brand awareness (an indicator expressing the ratio between the number of interviewees who mention the ADEL brand - in the case of spontaneous awareness, or choose it - in the case of the prompted alternative, and the total number of interviewees) implies building an interface between the brand and the consumer through sustained communication. The tactics serving this strategy mainly focus on advertising and PR.

6. Tactical marketing programs

Before starting to delve into tactical programs, preliminary information on the targeted market is a sine-qua-non condition for developing pertinent solutions. Consequently, the segment to which the Biometric Fingerprint Door Lock is addressed to encompasses Australians living in the urban environment, with a superior level of education, and a level of income ranging from moderate to high, who are preoccupied by both the safety and the refined design of their homes. Thus, the new product will correspond to the second and third level of the Maslow hierarchy because it attempts to meet security needs from a pragmatic point-of-view, and respectively, social needs from a design perspective which tries to impact on guests through an outstanding opulence.

In terms of price policy, ADEL will adopt the penetration strategy. This consists of entering the market with low-priced products in order to gain market share. Thus, the company could offer a promotional price which is 10% lower than the usual one. Such tactics will surely influence the Australian consumers' decisions as one of their major buying criteria refers to affordable prices.

Secondly, the company may offer a gift (e.g. A smoke detector) from the same area of safety products or it may provide the customer with a free subscription for the Security Insider Magazine. This way, the consumer will have the opportunity to...

Moreover, the company could offer a 20% discount at indoor fingerprint door locks for each outdoor biometric door lock that a customer buys.
Advertising plays a significant role in both building awareness and increasing market share through encouraging product trial.

First of all, the messages conveyed should take into account the model drawn up by Petty and Cacciopo (1986). According to these two authors, when consumers buy a long-life product, the involvement rate is high and commercials should provide a significant amount of relevant and concise information. Therefore, the message must be mainly rational and announce some of the product's advantages: e.g. you don't need keys anymore because you can open the door by simply pressing the sensor with your registered fingerprints; you will never have to call a professional locksmith again because you'll not have what keys to lose anymore; fingerprints can be enrolled or erased on the lock directly with lock on door; duplication is impossible; the system is very easy to install and operate. The message may continue by presenting other concise technical specifications like: image capture time, response time, false acceptance rate, false rejection rate, voltage, current, humidity, type of batteries used (AA), user capacity and so on (http://www.norcoalarms.com/biometric_lock.html).

Obviously, the amount of information conveyed will be tailored according to the media used. For TV commercials, the message will briefly depict some advantages and, at the end of the spot, it will emphasize the website where consumers can find more information. For displays inserted in newspapers and magazines, the message may be transmitted under the masked form of an article which will be attentively read by highly-interested consumers.

Secondly, commercials should emphasize that this revolutionary innovative technology is brought to Australian homes at affordable prices and is as effective as other high-ranked security systems that Australians trust (for instance, the back-to-base system).

Thirdly, messages should state that the company is not a beginner in the security field and that other countries confidently use its products.

Fourthly, publicity should also include an innuendo regarding the elegant design of the Fingerprint Door Lock in order to meet the customers' social needs.

The media which may be used comprise: newspapers (the sections dedicated to lifestyle or interiors from the Australian, the Age, the Advertiser, the Australian Observer, Canberra Times which have a strong adherence to major urban areas like Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide); magazines (especially the Australia Magazine which is dedicated to various subjects, Electromagnetics focused on science, the Finishing Touch referring to interiors, and Security Insider - a bimonthly magazine with an audience exceeding 10,000 readers, owned by the Australian Security Industry Association - ASIAL); TV stations like ABC or National Nine Network Australia. However, most advertisements will appear online under the form of banners posted on home security websites and in newspapers and magazines as these allow individuals to re-read the articles or even keep them as a technical guide to purchasing a security product.

Another subdivision of the promotion policy is represented by PR activities. These are essential to the Biometric Door Lock launched on the Australian market because they are able to build awareness, to encourage product trial and to change the distortional image that many people may keep in mind as a result of the non-competitive security companies which have entered the Australian debouche. Therefore, the company should organize product presentations and trade shows attempting to:

inform on biometric technology in order to prepare the target market reveal how the Biometric Fingerprint Door Lock works through practical demonstrations increase the audience's trust in the company's products by mentioning its international fame, by presenting the testimonies of several consumers from different countries or by providing a statistical snapshot of the markets that have already bought the product highlight the impetuous need to secure homes through specialized systems in the context of the increasing terrorist attack and random crimes (here, PR professionals should be very careful not to overstimulate negative emotions like fear or panic because the target market might reject the message) draw a parallel between the new product and the traditional products in order to emphasize that consumers may obtain the same effect at a lower cost.

The public invited at such PR events should consist of journalists from newspapers or magazines that target the desired market, representatives of ASIAL, and last but not least, owners of security websites.

Besides PR, other ways of reaching distributors could consist of sending newsletters on their e-mails or…