Macro Environmental Analysis
Discuss about the Marketing and Online Consumer Activity.
Marketing is a method of promoting the business or selling the products in the customer domain. However, marketing related social activities is a crucial approach to supporting people in with special needs (Parry and Kawakami 2017). This study deals with the marketing strategies of Brotherhood Books that is situated in the Australia. Brotherhood Books is a well known Australian organization that sales second handed books that are donated in the social enterprises. This organization aims to promote the high quality of books. However, this organization provides books to the customers in order to solve their different issues and money that is generated from the selling of the book is distributed by such organization to resolve various issues within the community. Hence, this organization is associated with the social work by taking different marketing strategies. This recent paper deals with the macro and micro environmental analysis of Brother Books and their marketing strategies will be addressed in this report.
The macroeconomic environment deals with a quick analysis of the political, economic, social, and technological aspects of the environment provided to book selling industry for its operation. Thus, the PEST analysis of Brotherhood Books mentioned below:
There is a GST imposition on the purchase of consumer goods from overseas. Books purchased from overseas store not subjected to the Australian Goods and Service Tax. Therefore, overseas firm charges 10% less for similar items (Aharony 2012). Then there is parallel importation where he Australian booksellers allowed making bulk purchases from rights holders of Australia and not making cheaper purchases from overseas supplier. This in a way hampers increasing the price of the products available locally thereby affecting the overall competitiveness of the stores in Australia compared to the overseas store online.
Thus for the past five years the economic climate has not been favorable for the print book selling industry in Australia. Such unfavorable conditions characterized by instability in global markets, weaker economic conditions prevailing globally, fall in the consumer confidence and lesser spending. During this time, the luxury of reading books was taking over by other means of entertainment and media options (Gould 2013). Books made available through less expensive means through local library or illegal version through online. The Australian dollar also remained strong that enabled customer to make purchase from stores online. The lesser spending on books led to a price cut for capturing market share thereby resulting in poor economic performance.
Micro Environmental Analysis
Although it is an individual pursuit but book reading can also be an activity perceived socially amongst people having shared interest. However from the perspective of demographics, the population of Australia is booming and there has been an increase in a significant number of baby boomers entering the retirement phase (Reed 2013). Moreover, due to the access to superannuation compulsorily the retirees are therefore more financially independent. This implies that with extra leisure time in hand there will be an increase in demand for the physical books from this section of the population.
There has been a significant impact of technology on the print bookselling industry. The immediate impact of the emergence of technology has seen the boom of the e Commerce that facilitated the online sale of the books(Joshi, Singh and Sidhu 2012). The technology has also made availability of electronic book and audio book possible that in a way threatened the existence of the print. These products made available to the Australians via the availability of the internet.
The micro environmental analysis reveals the internal strength and weakness of the organization. Therefore, the stakeholder analysis is also categorized under the micro environmental analysis.
Customer needs are one of the vital elements of the micro environment. However, for the books shop it is crucial to understand the customer need (Bright 2017). Customers want the quality books and enriched stock. Brotherhood Books needs to understand the current demand and choice of the customers to enhance their sales revenue. This organization offers books through online that enables their customers to access their service easily and quickly. Therefore, they offer high-quality books as the quality of the product is the core area of purchasing behavior of the customer.
Performance refers to the business performance of an organization that is dependent on the employment of the organization. However, more employee engagement is associated with more performance (Sinha and Sheth 2017). In the context of Brotherhood Books, the employees are highly trained to maximize their performance. Therefore, this organization offers excellent customer service. However, this organization provides financial books that provide knowledge to the managers of different business organizations to maximize their company performance. On the other hand, stories regarding the real organizations are included the books of such organization, which insists the business owners buy their products and this maximizes the sales revenue generation of such organization.
The modern trend in the book industry focuses on the online availability of the books industry. However, business is running with the modern technology and it is not different in the case of book industry (Rezaei, Wee and Valaei 2017). According to the current market trend, people prefer e-book, audio book. A large number of the e-reader is present in the market. Hence, for this reason, Brotherhood Book industry needs to use social media marketing and online marketing to enhance the availability of their products.
Business Performance
Competitors’ analysis is essential for the every business organization to achieve competitive advantages in the market (Willis 2016). However, competitor analysis enables the organization to understand the strategy of the competitors and their market position. Hence, in the case of Brotherhood Books Bloomsbury and Pantera Press are their strongest competitors in Australia. Such two organizations provide quality book with reasonable price. Hence, it is important for Brotherhood Book to understand the business strategy of their competitors to achieve competitive advantage in the market.
Business performance of the book industry is related to the operating system of an organization and its sales revenue (Hviid, MIzquierdo Sanchez and Jacques 2016). Brotherhood Books has the capability to alter their marketing strategy according to the current market demand. On the other hand, they have prompt delivery of their product to the market. Therefore, this organization offers online products to the customers through eBook. This has reduced their operation cost and enhances their profitability. They have enriched stock and more than 100000 collections of different types of the book especially the trade books. However, they provide second handed books and the profit that is generated from the sales is utilized in the social work. According to the annual report of 2015-2016 Brotherhood Book has achieved high progress in their sales. This enables them to achieve their goals and high-quality service to their customers (www.bsl.org.au 2017).
The company has to spend a lesser amount of money for carrying on its operations since there are several individual and volunteering entities that carry out the operation without any compensation for money (Ashwini, Singh, and Power 2013). The volunteer also provide assistance for charity programs through competitive cost setting of products that will not only increase revenue but also extends the amount of donations.
Brotherhood Books has developed an excellent reputation and brand image for its products. The operation focuses on the promotion of social awareness and addressing various social and environmental issues (Shams 2015). The company creates a brand image in a way that if the consumers bring their product then money accumulated spent on reduction of carbon level footprints, donation to charity programs and creation of employment opportunities.
The company has a high level of customer loyalty through delivery of high quality products and services, on-time delivery and necessary customer assistance (Coelho and Henseler, 2012).
There are a number of people across nations who not only donates rare but at the same time several rare documents to Brotherhood Books which are not put up for sale immediately. Therefore, in this manner the company is able to create a particular customer base interested in products that are rare.
The distribution of the books is only restricted to Australian regions and not globally. Moreover, their physical store has its location in Melbourne only (Lu and Seo 2015.). Thus, there is a restriction or limitation on the distribution of the products by the company.
The company receives a lot of donation in the form of books from a large number of people that are previously used. Therefore, the availability of used or second hand products may not be able to arouse interest in customers.
The company has a huge opportunity to attract a large number of consumers since in recent times there has been a sale of the physical books and fall in sales of the e books. Thus, the company should focus more on product development and broader marketing (Mitchelmore and Rowley 2013.)
Nowadays, increasing number of customers are inclined to social networking site so the company must focus on interesting, attractive, frequent and comprehensive campaigns and promotions for drawing in more customers through marketing(Bruhn, Schoenmueller and Schäfer 2012).
The company should also target venturing the global market through availability to delivery of books to customers globally. This will not only enhance the consumer base but will also extend the brand image and help in creating more profits.
More people are engaged in their professions and they hardly find any time for reading physical books. This is a threat to the business in the context of preceding its operation through engaging and attracting customers and thereby generating money for charitable purpose.
This has been a time when the lives of the people transformed by the impact of digitization. Therefore, increasing number of individuals is using digitized materials for learning purpose (Sabbagh et. al 2012). The availability of options to ease accessibility and opportunities for multi-tasking attract consumers for using apps or tools for accessing e books instead of physical books. This results in a fall of sales and huge downfall of business experience.
The Financial and Non-Financial Objectives are as follows:
(1) Brotherhood books have actively engaged in solutions in digital space thereby creating better facilities of readability in times of technology.
(2) Booksellers have actively found solutions thereby allowing people to use their device of choice and make the purchase accordingly.
(3) They have also initiated web based landing pages through active e commerce sites to enhance more readability and enhance their profits.
(4) Brotherhood Books have made their presence being felt at various social media platforms like Face book and Twitter so that increasing number of people become aware of their presence.
(5) Booksellers expect an ability to operate in an economy that believes on anti-competitive behavior.
(6) Booksellers want to be part of industry that undertakes operation in educational and cultural space, the entertainment space and as small businesses that contributes to the economy through various communities of Australia.
Value based positioning is based on the choice of service rather than the consumer segmentation (Ryan 2016). Firms those offer specific types of books get sub segment in the market. Market segmentation is determined through the value based positioning in the context of Brotherhood Book. The product, price, place, and promotion are the four components that are associated with the value based positioning.
The product is the major component of a business and it may tangible or intangible service that meets the needs of the customers (Weedon 2017). However, Brotherhood Books sales trade books especially those are the beneficial business owner. Therefore, they offer eBook service that covers a large population in the market. However, implementation in the product categories as for example, offering academic book can be beneficial for such organization to enhance their customers and getting a good position in market
Price is another area of the marketing strategy as based on which the sales revenue of an organization increase or decreases (Greco 2013). Hence, the determination of the price leaves a great impact on the organizational profitability, marketing strategy and the supply demand. An organization gets the position in the market based on their pricing. Brotherhood Book follows market penetrating strategy that enables them to get a valuable position in the existing and especially in the new market by increasing their sales. Providing high-quality price with reasonable rate is an important pricing approach that leads an organization to achieve a strong position in the market.
A proper marketing needs putting the quality product with right price at the right place (Srinivasan, Rutz and Pauwels 2016). However, it is often hard to select the right position to promote the products from where the customers can easily access the product of service of an organization. Hence, selection of the right place for the product distribution will be effective for Brotherhood Books to transform their potential consumer into the actual consumer. On the other hand, online engagement of the customers is an alternative way for Brotherhood Books as it gives them right platform to sell their products. A large number of customers from different geographical regions can access their product of such organization with the easy transaction via the internet.
Promotion is important after setting of product, price and the correct place (Lu, Zhu and Dukes 2015). Promotion includes the distribution of the product information to the customers by using various media. Advertising, social media marketing, conducting cultural events and email marketing are the popular ways of product promotion. Brotherhood uses advertising process through pamphlet, leaflet, and poster. Therefore, they often promote their products in the cultural events as it is a good platform for them to communicate with a large population and to share their vision of their business that is associated with the social work. As a result, they easily attract the customer attention and sale their product. Apart from that using social media marketing will be effective for such organization to promote their business online and it will allow them to obtain a valuable position in the competitive market by increasing their sales and popularity.
The Brotherhood Books follow a business plan strategy especially meant for bookstores .The partners of Brotherhood Books includes companies like GL, Australian Industry Group, Australian Post, Australian Super, Benetas, Australian Unity, Carlton Football Club, Bunnings, Citrix, Carlton Football Club, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Complex Security Pty Ltd, Dome Security, Food Bank Victoria, Energy Efficiency Council, GHD, Fun City BF, Ktena Knitting Mills, Hudsons Famous, Lander & Rogers Lawyers, Maddocks, Loving Earth, Majestic Cleaning, Masters Home Improvement (Carrum Downs), National Australia Bank, Naturform, Pitcher Partners, Pacific Brands, Recycling is Fun, Ricoh Australia, Rigby Cooke, Scalzo Food Industries, Spotless, St Vincent’s and Mercy Private Hospitals, Suncorp, Three Pillars,Superior Healthcare,Unified Security Group,WorkSafe Victoria, Yarra Valley Water (Banks 2013) .
Conclusion
The entire study is associated with the business strategy of Brotherhood Books, which is a second handed book seller and utilize their profit in various social works. However, such organization mainly focuses on the selling of trade books and they have the large inventory with a variety of collection. Therefore, the SWOT, micro and macro environmental analysis of such company reveals it current strength, weakness and market positioning.
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