Market The Small Business

Answer :

Assessment Tool 1- Portfolio of Activities

Activity 1

1)  A supermarket operating on a small channel named Highland Mart is considered in this context. The supermarket mainly deals with grocery and cosmetics materials.

Strength

• The supermarket is set up with a very negligible initiation cost.
• It is located in the heart of Amsterdam.Thereby, it has a potential to draw huge number of customers (Technoknowledge, 2013).

Weaknesses

• It has a small chain of investors
• Initial customer base is also very less

Activity 2

Urgency of Profiling customers

Customer profiling is an essential means to categorize the customers based on specific needs as it portraits the specific decision that the customers want to make. The customers are divided uniformly into several groups of identical thinking and creative designs, which in turn highlights the particular feature of the centred decision taken by the customer.

1. Profiling can be carried out by figuring the typical information about the customers in a definite way. In the making of a profile, the particular taste of the customer is determined and then, the detailed information of the product is obtained to create a profile. The prophylactic information may include the selling, manufacturing date, expiry date and many more of the product (Loo, Boo & Khoo-Lattimore, 2013).
2. Questions asked during profiling exercise

There are a number of questions that can be asked during the profiling exercise of the customers which may include:

• Knowing about the customers Background
• Knowing about the Customers Taste
• Knowing about the customers Lifestyle
• Knowing about the customers Habits

Activity 3

Benefits of Sharing the Business Plan

The supermarket business chosen above is mainly a small business. However, it can yield a number of benefits if it shares its market plan amongst the customers and business investors (McQuarrie, 2015). 

Customers

Sharing the Business Plan let the customers enable the business to set up creating market strategies taking care of the customer demands to make a strong customer base.

Business Investors

Sharing the business plan with investors helps in adopting any amendments if needed to thrive in the competitive market.

1. I agree with the following fact as the business plan needs to be transparent to specific persons or groups that can help the business to grow in an advantageous way. However, there are some specific constraints that are set up in executing the business plan which can be hugely neglected by keeping the business plan translucent (Hayward, et al., 2017).

Section 2:  Identifying a Marketing Mix for the Business

Activity 4

Impact of a good product mix and pricing on a business

A good product mix offers a wide range of service lines for setting up a proper business function.  It also inculcates a competitive spirit in the Business to thrive in the competitive market. The product mix intensively advertises one product to increase the customers circle to a great extent.  However, at some point it deals with a chain of products aimed at the business interest of the firm.

Most Appropriate Product mix for initiation of a business

The most appropriate product mix comply exactly with the market needs for setting up of a successful business. It prevents switching of customers from one chain to another creating a constant demand-supply linkage for the business.  An appropriate product mix keeps in charge of the role of product in keeping as par with the customer’s demand (Pecotich & Shultz, 2016). 

Activity 5

Distribution channel

Distribution channel mainly refers to a chain of business that enables to transfer a good to the end customer through a series of intermediators. The intermediators may include a range of distributors, retailers and many more. The optimal example of this kind of channel is the e- commerce website like Flipkart, Amazon that involves a series of steps to deliver the product to the final hand.

1. Advantages and Disadvantages of various Distributionchannels
2. Franchise

2 Benefits

It enables customers from remote corners to avail any service which is inaccessible to them.

It also leads to free consumption and trade

2 costs

It includes involvement of a number of third-party vendors which paves a way for corruption.

The distribution ship often increases the original cost of the product that again leads to a hurdle to the common masses (Radman & Katavić, 2013).

• Website

2 Benefits

It enacts different ways to sensionalize a particular product that leads the customers to know the particular advantages and disadvantages of a product.

It also increases the number of choices to the customers.

2 cons

The physical dimension of the product is absent to the customers.

The delivery often includes discrepancies in delivering the right product to the right customers.

Advantages and Disadvantages of an electronic channel

Advantages 

• Increases the number of choices
• Decreases the involvement of third party vendors
• Essentially improves the quality of product
• Increases the customer satisfaction

Disadvantages

• Physical dimensions of the product are unavailable to the customer
• Clear cut approach of the deals is often absent in the electronic channels.
• Electronic products like earphones, tablets and smartphones can be obtained easily using the distribution channels as it promotes smooth flow of goods and services and all the relevant features of these products are well displayed in the website whereas merchandise products such as clothes and garments cannot be opted through the commercial website as the physical presence and trial facility is quite absent there 

Activity 6

1.  Requirements of tailoring promotional activity to a specific target market
2. It creates a stronger customer base and provides world class facility to them
3. It directly hits the target customers by building up a brand image and focussing on the customer’s needs (Bushnell, Drucker, Abell & Hammond, 2015).

Activity 7

1. Setting up of a small Business

I will consider building of a small cyber café named as Hi-tech Solutions.

• It will address all the specific needs of customers ranging from online reservation and form-fill-up for the students.
• It will also address any software problems faced by the customers.
• It will offer several e-services like e-commerce and other freelancing activities as a need for entrepreneurship.
•  3 strategies required for the increase of customer circle
• Knowing the customer’s needs
• Proportioning the brand properly
• Making the product approachable to the customer’s.
•  Factors to decide the strategy
• Considering the market
• Considering the competitors
• Considering the customer’s needs.

Activity 8

1. Requirements of Marketing Mix
2. To gain competitive advantage
3. To ensure sustainability
4. It creates a clear cut partition between marketing and selling
5. Promoting Brand Image.
6. Development of marketing strategy for creation of a strong customer base.
7. Example

The competitive advantage is gained by the supermarket Highland mart by inculcating all the creative strategies adopted by competitors to essentially thrive in the global market (LILIENFELD & Ruenzi, 2014).

Section 3- Implement Marketing Strategy

Activity 9

1. Benefits of documenting Market Plan
2. It enables to portray a clear cut idea about my business to others
3. It creates a strong sense of branding and portioning amongst the customers.
4. It also develops a competitive advantage from the very beginning.
5.  Persons with whom market strategies can be discussed
6. Business Investors
7. Customers
8. Financial advisors
9. Market surveyor
10. data analysis

Activity 10

1. Discussion

I completely agree with the Fact as the promotional activity did not require great investment if it has the proper essentials. It is essential to hit the target customers to create a strong market base. The promotional activity should directly address the customers’ needs in order to gain a competitive advantage.

1. Sample Plan
2. There will be a huge discount on all the merchandise products during any occasion
3. There will be a dealership on cosmetics and grocery items for my supermarket Highland Mart.
4. There will be a 50-50 partnership between me and my brother
   
   

Section 4- Monitor and improve Market Performance

Activity 11

1.  Importance of Monitoring the market strategy
2. To ensure that the market strategy does not become much expensive
3. To ensure an economical friendly market plan
4. To ensure smooth implementation of the market plan
5. Importance of Key Performance Index to evaluate market performance
6. It helps to determine the possible threats from the competitors
7. It also determines the key marketing strategy to immensity a particular brand
8. It also paves a way for determining those areas that needs considerable improvement in performance for achieving a successful business.

Activity 12

1. Bridging the gap between actual and anticipated performance in marketing
2. To determine the possible areas of improvement and work on them
3. To intensify the gap between creative and aggressive market growth
4. To alleviate the raising threats from the competitors
5. To create a competitive advantage
6. To build consistency in market
7. Discussion of “You should always increase your targets if they are exceeded”

I completely agree with the given statement as the targets never remain stagnant neither it ought to be. Whenever one achieves the target, it goes one notch higher. In this way, the level of target keeps on increasing as you started to achieve them at once (Schaper, Volery, Weber & Gibson, 2014). 

Activity 13

1.  Marketing suggestions that can be provided by the stakeholders
2. It may include creative market stances needed to excel in the particular field.
3. It may also include the way to improve the brand value of the particular business in the global market.
4. It also includes the volume of business investment that ought to provide a solution in this context.
5.  2 ways through which stakeholders can provide market suggestions
6. It can be done by focussing on the profit scenario, that can be achieved in implementing a particular plan.
7. It can also be done by promoting a particular product as a source of brand positioning and promotion. 

Activity 14

1.  Evaluating the customer’s perception
2. It is particularly important for small scale business as they have no customer base, initially.
3. Their entire business is dependence on the customer’s needs.
4. The business of cyber café Hi-tech solutions as mentioned earlier take the customers feedback very essentially and derives the gross importance forms the feedback. It is simultaneously important to achieve a strong base through effective brand positioning. Therefore, there are lot of feedbacks that is taken for the business improvement of this firm.

Activity 15

1. Impact of External Environment on Market ResearchProgram
2. To develop a plan in order to achieve a successful business
3. It also narrows out the decision to make the business competent in the relevant field.
4. Refining the particular outcome of the realistic and approachable clients
5.  Areas of concern
6. Market patterns
7. Competitor strategies
8. Screening of Market Activities
9. Forecast

Forecast is a method to determine the possible errors and estimate the costs at an early stage so that all the budgetary activities are Aligned accordingly and to ensure that the resources are also allocated to destined locations.

Activity 16

1.  2 new Business opportunity for Helen
2. Helen can invest on the set up of a cyber café as it is the prime need for the modern generation.
3. She can also invest in a garment firm as she can obtain the best possible return from it.
4. Result of not incorporating market changes
5. The business will remain rather stagnant 
6. There will be less number of investors 

Assessment tool 2

1. Marketing mix

Marketing mix is an intensive tool of brand proportioning where creative brand image of a competitive marketplace is understood. The effective market plan enables to optimize the business result in order to achieve a collaborative market plan.

1. Influence of Budget on market strategy

In order to create an effective market plan, a proper budgetary allocation is very much needed to allocate the resources to destined locations. The Budget determines the areas of considerable investment in achieving a controlled growth (Hatten, (2015). 

1. Communication with the customers

It is very essential to communicate with the customers as the business is totally dependent on the customer’s needs. Therefore, the urgency of the customers must be understood and their feedbacks should be taken in a valuable way.

Promotional Methods

• Customer’s participation 
• Intensive advertisement
• Brand Imaging
• Market Research

Market Research is opted to carry out creative marketing activities in a definite way to attain maximum number of customers in shorter period of time. It is also done to gain a competitive advantage.