Case Background
Discuss about the Marketing Plan for Case Study of Pennybox Application.
Marketing is extremely important for every organisation. It is the lifeline to sustain in a market for a longer period of time. In this highly competitive market environment marketing strategy needs to be on target which would help an organisation to understand the needs and wants of the consumers and accordingly develop or modify products to reach the larger mass in the best possible manner. It cannot be denied that developing a marketing plan could be an extremely complicated task if the process is not driven in a synchronised manner so, it is important to understand each and every step of the marketing plan effectively to implement them in the best possible manner (Hair and Lucas, 2014). The main purpose of the present study is to discuss the key steps involved in a marketing plan and also to use them to make a proper marketing plan for a particular product or service which would help to address the objectives of the present study. The case study organisation chosen for the study is “Pennybox”. This is an excellent application that is mainly designed to integrate technology with education. The rise of importance in education especially among children has fueled the study taking this business as the case study. The Scope of the study is to make sure a proper marketing plan is developed for the application product which would help to address the objective of the study. The main limitation that is there is time which is short and hence smaller research was possible on the organisation that might have hindered the impact of the study (Andrews and Shimp, 2017).
Pennybox is an emerging online organisation that has followed the best route to integrate business with education. Pennybox is an exclusively designed application which has focused on the most important segment of the society that is the children. The main focus of Pennybox as an organisation is to integrate learning through online application in a way that helps the children to learn without getting bored and feeling monotonous. It is extremely important to note that the organisation has focused on developing the financial understanding of children through the best possible way that is by integrating fun element in the application which not only engages the consumers but also helps to ensure that the children are able to enjoy their learning process effectively (Armstrong et al., 2015). The application was started late 2016 and emerged in the market pretty fast with more and more people showing interest in the application which showed the impact of the application effectively. The organisation focuses on cashing in on the 1.5billion market which would increase the overall financial base of the organisation that is likely to provide an excellent platform to sustain in the market. The product that is mainly chosen for the present research of the organisation is the Pennybox application which is working as a fun financial education application which is mainly focusing on teaching young children the importance of money and the way to handle it. It creates a significant knowledge base among the children which helps to manage money effectively from a very early age (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). This is an effective product which is extremely essential for the children of the future generation and hence it is important to promote the application and its services in the best possible way.
Situational Analysis
Pennybox is a new kid on the block and hence there is a significant opportunity for the organisation to expand its business all across Australia. The organisation is a new organisation established just a couple of years back and hence it is extremely important to note that the market is still open for the organisation. Providing financial education is extremely important for the kids and hence the market is considered to be open for the organisation. The current market in the virtual business segment is highly pure and hence it is effective for the young business owners to start off their business here. The Australian online business market is competitive especially in the retail segment but in the education segment the competition is less and hence there is a strong opportunity for the organisation to expand its business (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). It is extremely important to note that the major market segment for the organisation is the young parents and their children who are in their formative age and are ahead of time. It could be said that the organisation thinks about the needs and wants of the different children and their parents especially in terms of the financial understanding of the children because it is extremely important to ensure that the young generation is able to gain significant ideas about financial understanding. Even though the current market is less competitive the competition is likely to grow up in the future. Pennybox is creating a disruption in the market which means the organisation is creating a new consumer base for the organisation hence the consumer demands will not be largely great during the initial times but it is extremely important to note that the organisation will be able to create its own market demand given an effective marketing strategy. There are number of key factors that may drive the use of Pennybox application with the increasing interest of the young people to get engaged with mobile and other applications (De Mooij, 2013).
The organisation is placed in the market in an effective position because it is early days of the organisation in the market. As per the statistics the organisation is venturing in a market that is worth 1.5billion AUD and hence it could be said that the organisation is in at the right moment. The organisation faces moderate competition in the market as it is focused on a niche market. The financial worth of the industry is likely to increase with time and hence it could be said that the organisation is venturing in a lucrative business environment (Malhotra and Peterson, 2014).
PESTEL Analysis
The external environment of the organisation is extremely important to be analysed which would help to ensure success in the business operations. The external environment involves the analysis of the different key factors including the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal.
Political: The political environment of the country is stable and that contributes to the overall growth and development of the businesses operating in the market. The emergence of electronic business has been a boon for the people and a product like Pennybox is extremely important for the young generation which would help them to ensure that the young generation clearly understands the importance of money. The present government has been effective in stretching its hands for the new local businesses which would help these organisations to emerge successful.
Economic: The economic environment of the country is more or less effective which is extremely important for the organisations to manage the overall operations of the business. It is extremely important to note that the Australian economy is booming which gives better purchasing abilities to the people and hence when the organisation Pennybox is planning to launch the paid version of the application people are likely to take it. The local businesses of Australia are provided economic grants and also have to pay low taxes which are extremely effective for the organisation to sustain in the market during the initial period of time (Strauss and Frost, 2016).
Social: The social environment of the country is an important aspect for the overall development of the country. The change in demographics is one of the major reasons that contribute to the growth or decline of a business. In the present market condition many people have been inclined to provide the best possible education to the children and since Pennybox is an excellent platform for the children to have fun and learn hence it would be effective for the organisation to get a significant mass of people inclined to get the application. Contributing to social awareness is extremely important and through Pennybox application it would be effective for the parents as well as for the children.
Technological: The technology is an important factor of advancement of a country and a community in the modern day market. It is extremely important to note that the modern people are highly tech savvy and hence this clearly helps to ensure success in reaching to the largest mass in the country. The application is absolutely domain friendly and clutter free and hence it would be easier to manage the operations (Sheth and Sisodia, 2015).
Environmental: The Australian consumers are highly focused on environmental development and issues which clearly show the importance of developing an app which is completely environment friendly and the co founders of Pennybox have been able to do it.
Legal: The application follows all the different legal frameworks. For instance the data protection is a huge aspect and the application follows them properly to ensure effective confidentiality of the data.
From the external environment it could be said that the organisation is new and emerging which is a major advantage for the company. It cannot be denied that the online market is highly competitive but this venture Pennybox will have opportunity especially due to its effective business plan that allows the children to learn managing finance through fun activities over the app which is still a pretty uncommon concept (Boone and Kurtz, 2013). The economic environment of the country also stands to be an advantage for the company to launch the paid version of the application which would be extremely effective for the organisation to sustain in the market. The main threat that is there for the organisation at the present moment is its weaker marketing and emergence of some other similar applications that could clearly compete in the market with Pennybox which clearly makes the market significantly complex (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2013).
The internal marketing environment plays an important role for the organisation as it helps to understand the internal strengths and weaknesses and helps to create opportunities and eliminate threats for the organisation. According to the external environment the economic and social environment of the country plays an important role for the overall development of the application Pennybox. Since the children have become an important part of the society in the modern day environment it is extremely important to ensure that the organisation is able to analyse the internal marketing environment. The SWOT analysis plays an important role in getting effective information from the external environmental analysis which would help the organisation to prepare a product that reaches the mass in the country (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). The external environment shows the change that the Australian Society is changing demographically as well as technically hence it could be said that the organisation needs to focus on providing something effective which would help the young kids to grow up being financially efficient. The SWOT presentation for Pennybox is discussed below:
Strengths
- Unique Concept.
- Very new market.
- Disruption and creation of new customer base.
- Easy and clutter free.
Weaknesses
- Technically heavy app.
- At times complex for non tech savvy people.
- No proper contact medium.
- Lack of information.
Opportunities
- New Concept hence creation of interest.
- Next generation concept of education to young children.
- Investment opportunities
- Expansion avenues opening up.
Threats
- Emerging competition.
- Lack of ideas to expand.
From the above analysis it is clear that the organisation clearly has few opportunities which could be encashed with the help of the strengths whereas the weaknesses will have to be utilised in favor of the organisation which would help the company to ensure success not only in the national market but also in the domestic market. It is important to take insights from the SWOT analysis which clearly shows that the organisation needs to develop its marketing strategy effectively which would help to ensure better market presence and success. There are several critical issues for the organisation present in the case and one of the major being the marketing factor. It is extremely important that the organisation is still new and hence it has not been able to prepare effectively to develop marketing communications with the consumers so that effective communication could be established with the target market (McDaniel and Gates, 2013).
In order to create an effective connection with the consumers regarding the product Pennybox an online application to educate children about finance through fun activities has to be done effectively and chronologically. It is important to note that the organisation needs to follow proper steps to promote the product in the market. The platform for the organisation is laid with the help of developing marketing goals and objectives. The marketing goals and objectives have to be developed properly (Keller and Kotler, 2016).
The marketing goal of the organisation is to reach the target market within a stipulated period of time. It is important to note that the main focus of the organisation is to create awareness about the product Pennybox in the market. In order to create effective awareness about the product Pennybox application it is extremely important to develop strong marketing objectives which are discussed below:
- To reach at least 5 million download mark for the application in the market by the end of 2018 financial year.
- To open and create a separate portal for the organisation by the end of 2018.
- To increase the revenue by at least 15% by the end of 2019.
- To recruit a dedicated team for customer support by the end of November 2018 for Pennybox Application.
It is important for an organisation to move in a strategic manner and SMART objectives help that to a large extent. It is important that the organisation Pennybox is able to effectively reach the target audience and achieve the objectives. The above discussed objectives which have been stated for the proper growth and development of a new Local Australian business Pennybox fall under the above criteria. These objectives are SMART that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. The organisation has a specific focus of reaching its audience through the Pennybox application and hence its focus of reaching the 5million download mark is a specific and achievable objective as the figure that the organisation has kept a realistic figure for analysing its growth. On the other hand Having a separate portal for the various important aspect of Pennybox is important to create the need and demand and to understand the queries of the consumers is important and hence for that specific duties have to be done which could be done through the portal and hence the second objective is also valid under SMART system (Baker, 2014). It is extremely important to analyse and tally the growth of the organisation and nothing could be better than a financial tool that helps to analyse the growth of an organisation. Hence having the third objective to increase the revenue by 15% will help the organisation to measure its growth effectively bringing in different performance indicators. Finally in order to provide the service effectively it is extremely important for the organisation to ensure an efficient team is implemented so that the different confusion and queries of the consumers are effectively addressed and this could be done by the last objective of developing customer service team within specific time that not only makes the objectives specific in their work but also with the time given they become achievable as well as the growth of the process could be analysed with realistic and time oriented objectives like these mentioned above (Keller and Kotler, 2016).
Target Audience is an extremely important aspect in marketing strategy. It is important for the company Pennybox to ensure that it is able to understand the marketing logic effectively which would help the organisation to manage the entire marketing operations. There are different ways that an organisation could segment its markets some of them which are commonly used are based on demographics and psychographics (Kotler, 2012). It is important to note that the organisation at the present moment needs to segment its market based on the psychographics. This will help the organisation to target those parents who are looking to provide quality education to their children but not in a boring way and this will help the company to identify its market in the best possible manner. Hence the target market for the organisation will be the young couples with lucrative jobs and their children being in the age group of 5 to 12 which would help the organisation to meet their needs and demands effectively (Baker, 2014). It is extremely important to note that the organisation will be focused on delivering the right kind of services to the right couple understanding their needs.
The positioning of the organisation at the present moment will have to be done with the help of a standardised profile that will not trademark the organisation as the seller of expensive intellectual products yet it will be able to generate significant revenue for the company. There are various ways to position the organisation in the market but at the present moment the organisation should focus on positioning themselves following the product class because the application is not developed for every child but for them who show greater interest in finance as a subject especially taking interest in money. Hence Product class positioning strategy has been zeroed in on as the suitable strategy (Andrews and Shimp, 2017).
The Marketing mix is an extremely important aspect for the organisation and hence it is extremely important to focus on the key components of the marketing strategy.
Product: The core product of Pennybox is the finance app which teaches the children about money through fun activities. The augmented product is the design and color combination which gives a great feel to the product and finally the actual product is the service that the parents receive from the app especially in terms of development of intellect among the children (Belch et al., 2014).
Price: The organisation is focused on following the penetrative pricing strategy because it is still early days for the product in the market and hence it is important to create awareness which cannot be done setting the price high for the sale of Pennybox as an application.
Place: The organisation is mainly operating virtually and hence it focuses on connectivity to a large extent especially when the company is launching the paid version of the product it is focusing on having effective connectivity through every browser which is extremely important (Berthon et al., 2012).
Promotion: The promotion is mainly done online. The mass media promotion is done through social media and radio advertisements. Youtube ads and popup ads are implemented effectively which would help to create interest. Discount sales and personalised service promotion is extremely important for the organisation (Best, 2012).
The evaluation of the marketing strategy will be done based on the Key Performance Indicators and the results that each and every activity is expected to do. Apart from that the actual result and received result comparison will also be implemented for effective evaluation of the marketing strategy which would help the organisation to implement significant controls, (Rossi, Allenby and McCulloch, 2012).
Based on the evaluation results the organisation will focus on implementing controls like analysing the marketing strategy every three months and bringing in new elements based on the requirements of the hour which would help the organisation to meet the needs and wants of the consumers (Kotler, 2012). For instance making changes in the pricing strategy and making improvements in the positioning strategy will be developed as per the situation (Huotari and Hamari, 2012).
Conclusion
The present study shows the importance of marketing strategy and plan for an organisation to promote the products and services of the organisation. The key aspects of marketing mix and external analysis involving PESTEL and SWOT have been discussed which showed the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation and the opportunities and threats as well which have to be used and eliminated with effective marketing strategy. The present study has discussed all the key aspects of marketing which has helped to address the objectives of the study successfully.
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