3.2: Integrating Pricing strategy with branding strategy

ATC will use a unique brand position to ensure that customer accept prices fixed for its product and services, and the company will use differentiation strategy to make customer accept the prices fixed for its product. By creating a strong brand position, ATC will be able fix a convenient price to support its brand. The company will use extensive promotion for its product and services to make consumer understand the high value they will derive from buying the company product. By creating strong brand awareness, ATC will be able to influence customer to accept the price fixed for its product and services. In 2007, Apple was able to create strong band awareness for its product, and when Apple launched iPhone 8G version in 2007 for $599, millions of customer lined up to purchase the product.

3.3: Distribution Plan

Distribution channel describes the chain of business through which firms distribute its goods and services to customer. ATC will use distribution channel such as wholesaler, distributors, retailer and the internet to distribute its goods and services. (See Fig 1). The company will also use indirect distribution channel through which consumer buy product directly from wholesaler and retailer. Typically, the indirect distribution channel will assist consumer to buy the product directly from wholesaler and retailer and indirect distribution strategy will allow the company to reach large number of consumer at a time.

Fig 1: Distribution Channel use by ATC

To reach larger number of consumer, ATC will focus more on retailer than wholesalers will because retailers are closer to consumer. The company will offer its product to large number of retail units across the country and the ATC distribution strategy will allow the company to get access to large number of consumer, increase the overall sales as well as lowering the operating costs.

Moreover, ATC will use the internet technology to distribute its product and services domestically and internationally. Recent development of information technology (it) has made internet technology to become an effective tool to distribute the product and services across the globe rapidly, and efficiently. ATC will take the advantages of the internet technology to efficiently move its products from the company inventory to customer. Thus, ATC will integrate e-commerce in its distribution channel to reach more customers in both the United States and the international market.

To ensure that large percentages of the company product and services reach the target market, ATC will use IMC (integrated marketing communication).

4. IMC and Customer Satisfaction

Integrated marketing communication is the marketing tool that organizations use to achieve their marketing objectives. Typically, IMC is a marketing tool that organizations use to enhance brand awareness in order to create seamless experience for customer. Essentially, the IMC uses all the combination of communication tool such as direct marketing, advertising, sales promotion, social media, public relations, and online communication to achieve market advantages. Typically, organizations combine these marketing tools in a unified force to maximize the company brand image as well as assisting company to drive up sales. (Clow, & Baack, 2007) .

Based on the benefits that organizations derive from the integrated marketing communication, ATC will integrate all aspects of marketing communication to derive maximum benefits from customer. The company will achieve its marketing goals by integrating all aspect marketing communication tools. (Clow, & Baack,2007).

ATC will use different strategies for its IMC plan. First, the company will integrate traditional marketing mix with modern communication tool. The company will integrate traditional marketing such as advertising, direct marketing, public relations, newspaper advert, television, radio, magazine, direct mail, outdoor and sales promotion with marketing activities such as sponsorship marketing, e-active marketing, database marketing, guerrilla marketing, and alternative marketing. . (Clow, & Baack, 2010) .

More importantly, ATC will use e-active marketing and internet communication tool to drive up sales. Using internet technology, ATC will take the advantages of social networking to achieve company-marketing objectives. Presently, internet marketing tools such as search engine optimization (SEO), Internet Radio, and internet TV has assisted organizations to enhance marketing campaign.

Part of the promotion strategies that the ATC will use is sales promotion, which includes using coupon, discounts, and loyalty incentives to drive up sales. The company will provide discount to regular customer and customers who purchase product and services that reach $500. The public relation strategy will include press release, public relation events and press launch. ATC will also use direct promotion tools such as exhibitions, salesmen, trade shows, showroom sales activities, experiential marketing to promote the company goods and services.

The company will also use direct marketing to deliver message directly to customer and ATC will use direct...

The digital marketing strategy that the company will use in combination with other promotion campaign are as follows:
YouTube

Social networking such as Facebook and Twitter

Company websites

E-commerce

Blogging

Mobile phone promotions

4.1: Measuring Customer Satisfaction

ATC will need to measure customer satisfaction to evaluate the extent the company has been able to add value to customer. The company will use survey technique to measure customer satisfaction. Typically, survey is an effective research tool to measure customer satisfaction. The company will use survey technique to collect customer feedback about their perception on the product and services. The survey technique will assist the company to understand the perception of consumer towards their product, and services and the findings of the survey will assist the company to understand the technique to improve its product and services. (Meirovich, & Bahnan, 2008).

Another research technique that the company will use to measure customer satisfaction is to assess the percentage of repeat sales from the same customer. The increase in repeat sales will signify that there is a high level of customer satisfaction. More importantly, the company should record the number of people who indicate they would recommend the company products to fiends. Increase in the number of customer indicating that they would recommend the company to friends reveals the increase in the customer's satisfaction.

Additional, ATC could use other research tools such as focus group, face-to-face interview and customer is buying pattern to measure customer satisfaction. Other marketing research to measure the level of customer's satisfaction is:

Desk research

Specialist market research

Website statistics

Focus groups

More importantly, ATC will use sale record to measure the customer satisfaction. The company will record number of sales made before the promotion campaign vs. The number of sales recorded after the promotion campaign. If there is high increase in the total number of sales, it shows that the company is recording maximum satisfaction from customer.

The effectiveness of the promotion tools that the company uses in the marketing campaign will also be used to measure the customer satisfaction. The company will compare the number of customer who makes the demand for the price of product and services with number of customer who actually orders for the product. Increase in the number of customer demanding for the product and services reveals that the company is enjoying positive results from the promotion tools.

5. Marketing Strategies

Company Competitors, and Strengths and Weaknesses

ATC will be operating in highly competitive environment. In the United States, there are over 10,500 companies dealing with both computer hardware and software. In 2009, the market for computer hardware and software in the United States reached approximately $17.4 billion and the company dealing with the computer peripheral value approximately $1.2 billion. Based on the growing market environment that ATC is operating, the company is operating under the competitive market environment. Major competitors of ATC will be small and medium computer companies and software manufacturers. The company will also face competition from various chain stores in the United States. ATC will face competition from companies such as GHI Chain, ABC Chain, DEF Chain, and other local rivals. The company will also face competitions with various companies offering their businesses entirely through the internet. Moreover, ATC will also face competitions with big computer and software companies such as IBM (International Business Machine), Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. Typically, these companies also offer their product online and directly to consumer giving consumer the opportunities to avoid retailers altogether. Moreover, the increase in the number of online site offering computer and software goods are threatening the ATC market opportunities in the United States.

Other ATC competitor is CompUSA, which is one of the industry leader in the computer hardware and software in the United States. Headquarter in Dallas, Texas, the company records a revenue of more than $5 billion with more than 225 stores across the United States. ATC also faces competitions with companies such as CompUSA. In 2007, Best Buy recorded revenue of $35.9 billion, and boasting of 140,000 employees. Circuit City Store Inc. is another competitor of ATC. The company records the total sales of $12.4 billion in the last previous year.

Apart from the big computer and software companies, there are other local computer stores threatening the market shares of ATC. The paper discusses the strength and weakness of ATC competitors to enhance greater understanding of the…