The target market
Discuss about the Take The Power Back for Literature Review and Framework.
The need for domestic power is increasing day after the other, prompting households to explore the most appropriate and convenient power sources. Solar power is one of the most convenient sources of domestic power as compared to the electric power supplied by the government in terms of cost and reliance. That is evident from the one purchase distinguishing factor of solar power which is also easy to maintain and cheap to maintain. According to (Rippetoe, 2016) “A massive solar energy boom is being predicted for 2018 after an unprecedented number of industrial solar farms were approved by the New South Wales and Queensland governments last year” in Australia.
The target market for the solar energy is the middle-aged and adults who have homes. Households tend to require a lot of power to run a couple of devices and thus targeting them would be feasible.
While solar power championing programs have been put in place for quite some time, they have not been effective because of targeting a general market (Milne, 2016). As a result, therefore, if the champions are directed to the most relevant audience, then they will definitely succeed.
According to a research done by (Lin, 2015), “A record-breaking month of rooftop installations and a flood of large-scale solar farms could almost double Australia’s solar power capacity in a single year.” That has an implication that the industry has been down for quite some time but it has begun to boom and move towards maneuvering. One fact that needs to be understood here is that the solar manufacturing industry has been putting efforts into producing commodities that suit the user in terms of quality and quantity. However, the target market seems to be shying away from taking this advantage to benefit themselves from the availability of convenient power. However, Australians are beginning to settle on solar panels and batteries as the source of their domestic power. This fact is giving a little bit of hope that the industry is expected to do well in the near future and that almost every household will go for solar energy to quench their power thirst (Delucchi, 2014). The same is evident by the fact that Australians have been embracing the idea of the use of solar powers to cater for all their power needs. A substantial research reveals that the number of solar panels installed in different households in the country has increased by 69% in the year 2018 and that it is anticipated that the trend improves as time goes (Jamel, 2016). It is an indisputable fact that a large number of households have begun seeing the sense that solar power is an uncompromised source of energy and therefore all households should turn into it.
Statement of problem
Interestingly, according to another school of thought “Solar is the cheapest way to generate electricity in the world.” The writer argues that whether people turn to hydroelectric power, coal, or any other sources of power, they will eventually come into the realization that they have been wasting a lot of resources to get power. These resources could be channeled to other income-generating activities. Another author explored the same field and came into conclusion that the Australians majorly install solar panels during the month of January which is usually attached to the warm weather during that time and the usual increase in the price of power per unit (Cavusgil, 2017). He, however, advises that whether or not there is increase or decrease in cost of power costs, households should opt for solar power. Therefore, the fluctuations of power process shouldn’t be a determinant of whether or not to install solar panels. Another author adds that solar power can be used to run any gadget. He says that is beauty is that it can run even fans without the fear of getting high power bills at the end of the month.
Choosing the most appropriate framework for investigation is usually critical. After consideration of the necessary factors, the theory that was arrived at is the self determination theory. It is a theory that falls under motivational theories. The theory “represents a broad framework for the study of human motivation and personality.” The theory holds that whole intrinsic motivations are capable of sustaining innovativeness and passions they are not necessarily externally rewarded. Overall, “The interplay between the extrinsic forces acting on persons and the intrinsic motives and needs inherent in human nature is the territory of Self-Determination Theory” (Fornell, 2015). The theory is believed to show a “meta-theory for framing motivational studies, a formal theory that defines intrinsic and varied extrinsic sources of motivation, and a description of the respective roles of intrinsic and types of extrinsic motivation in cognitive and social development and in individual differences.” The primary reason for choosing this theory is its relevance in the fields of investigation. Researchers have proven that the theory is relevant and practically helpful in diverse fields among the organizations and the power industry. The theory uses the motivational factor and extrinsic appeals to influence human behavior and thus relevant to the study at question.
The study in this paper looks forward to taking back power home by encouraging households to buy any use solar panels and batteries as a source of power. Encouraging people to buy solar panels and batteries requires an approach that would enable people make decisions based in their intrinsic motivations. That explains the reason as to why other theories especially those associated with attitude as opposed to motivation would be less useful in this case (Crook, 2015). As a result, therefore, the theory of self-determination theory becomes the most appropriate in this case. The best criteria to be employed when trying to influence people to embrace a certain behavior or buy a certain agenda is to motivate them towards having that thing. Motivation also improves performance and how receptive human beings are as far as embracing new ideas is concerned.
Literature review and framework
Marketing, usually, has goals and objectives that have to be met at the end of the day. To meet these set goals and objectives, a marketing manager would be required to use several strategies to make goal attaining easy and quicker (Varadarajan, 2015). With regard to the study topic, several marketing strategies can be employed to attain the marketing goals in which the biggest of them is having households buy solar panels and batteries for domestic power.
The first marketing strategy is the use of social media. Many business units have found their way out through the use of social media to create public awareness of their business regarding what they stock, how much they sell their products as well as the available after sales services. The campaign for taking power back home will be made through social media. The main advantages of this marketing strategy is that it is easy and convenient (Kanfer, 2017). There is no technical know-how needed to promote the same on social media. The marketing strategy is also convenient in terms of cost. It is absolutely free not unless the promoting feature is used. Another primary advantage is that it reaches a wider audience since almost every is in a social media platform. This strategy is steered by the motivational theory. It uses the idea of extrinsic environment to persuade the target customers to acquire the marketed product (Jain, 2016). However, the strategy may be disgusting at the beginning due to less traffic, it is absolutely one of the best since when traffic is acquired when it becomes convenient to appeals to their behaviors and influence them to buy your ideology.
Another imperative strategy that will be employed in encouraging households to begin using solar power is the use of creative video tutorials. Research shows that YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. Whenever a person wishes to learn about something visually, they go to YouTube and get everything necessary to solve their problems. The research tells that people do that a couple of tines within a day depending on the amount of problems they have. Overall, all over the world have gotten solutions of their diverse problems using the same search engine while others have developed renowned brands by the use of the search engine (Maddux, 2014). It is therefore, because of this reason, that it is necessary to explore the possibilities of using this technology and turn it into a marketing advantage. Creative videos and documentaries showing the importance of using power energy as well as real-life situation comparison of using other power sources and solar energy will be published on the search engine. The videos will comprise of explanations and logical justifications of the vitality of using the solar power. In making these videos, practical usage of the panels for supply of domestic power that can sustain all the domestic appliances will be included (Rogers, 2017). When the message reaches the people through other means, say, social media, mainstream media, etc., they will go to YouTube, get the relevant information and see the essence of embracing the practice hence achieving the goal of the call. The advantage of this strategy is that it is cheap and that it has more impact due to the audiovisual capability (Jacobson, 2014). One of its major drawbacks is that it may only reach a lesser audience if nit used in conjunction with other strategies. This strategy is linked to the self-determinant theory since it leads to behavior change due to its audiovisual ability.
Theory
The third strategy is the use of leverage influencers. This strategy is one of the most workable strategies and that explains the reason as to why it is embraced and used by almost all business organizations globally since it does bear good fruits. The strategy will involve the use of peoples with already established followers base to turn them into buying the idea that power should be taken back home. In this case, care shall be taken to ensure that the chosen influencer has a followership that represents the target marketing. That is because there are several influencers who have millions of followers but their followership is irrelevant to the audience intended for the campaign. The chosen leverage influencer, therefore, will be the ambassador of the project and thus this audience will not turn out to be the consumer of the return power home initiative. Now, the advantage of this strategy is that it helps reach the target segment with ease because only the influencer with the audience that suits the segmentation category is reached (Rogers, 2013). It also increases credibility. Its disadvantages are that it is costly. The strategy will appeal to the extrinsic motivations of the individuals in target, the same thus relevant as far as motivation theory is concerned.
Marketing strategies are very imperative for the success of any business and therefore the selection of the best strategy is very crucial. While the discussed strategies are vital in marketing, the use of social media is the most appropriate and recommendable strategy to use in this case. The strategy is not costly as the rest may be. It also does not require technical know-how how to become one of the best social media users. It is easy and friendly to use. The strategy also reaches a wider audience since a lot of people use social media platforms on daily basis. It is also cheap and takes a short period of time to pick.
References
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