The marketing plan for JJ Motorbike

1  Introduction
 

This report is a marketing plan what writes to the sales and marketing director of JJMotorbike, it has been based on the industry information and micro-environments analysis.

In the introduction part, it will introduce the main parts of this report and give a simple company profile of JJMotorbike.

This report is including 3 parts in the main body sector: the situation analysis, the marketing strategies and the control. And at the final, there will bea short recommendation.

First, in the situation analysis part, the author will use the theories of the PEST, SWOT and micro-environment to view the future marketing for JJMotorbike.

Second, in the marketing strategies part, the author will analyze the JJMotorbike’s marketing objectives, marketing position, price, promotion and so on.

Third, in the control part, the author will analyze the implementation milestones, marketing organizations and contingency planning.

 

1.1 Company Profile

John Jones established JJMotorbike at 5 years ago. Now, it had been the world champion in the ‘Super Bikes’ in the market. With 'JJ' a well-known personality in the biking community, JJ Motorbikes has become not only a place to buy motorbikes but for 'bikers' to meet and chat. The area outside the service centre has a small coffee machine and bikers meet fellow riders to chat and then browse in the accessory shop.  As well, they have the accessory shops to support their products in order to supply the parts which are broken or which should be updated. The JJ Motorbike can supply the customer who is with high disposable incomes or young people to help them could afford a motorbike. It increased their market share and market competition. It becomes the strongly advantages competitions for the JJ Motorbike which only be set up five years.
 

2.0 Situation Analysis
 

2.1 Macroenvironment

The environment in which the company is operating in consists of various factors, which influence the company’s business, decisions, strategies and the marketing tactics as well. The author will mainly apply the PEST to analyze the macroenvironment as follow:

Political environment

It is obvious that the political environment is usually not a problem for the businesses, as the company’s business is comparatively irrelevant to the country’s political issues. Moreover, the country’s political environment is steady, and is supportive to the different kinds of businesses. However, there are increasing political pressures limiting car access to city centers with congestion charging and parking limitations. These favor bike users.

Environmental issues

Nowadays, the pollution is becoming more and more critical than before, causing serious problems to the businesses and the people’s life. The people are now more aware of the environment protecting; also the legislations and regulations are considering the environmental issues. More and more people will prefer to buy and use the bikes rather than the cars and so forth. This is good news for the company, as the demands on its products and services are increasing.#p#分頁標題#e#

Social environment

The costs on the cars include taxation, fuel, parking charges and the like are increasing all the time. Especially the price of petrol, much more expensive than before, people who buy or run the cars need to pay more, they start to choose low costs bikes. For the company’s business, its needs will increase. The increasing acceptability of motorbikes as a convenient city 'run-around' means of transport will bring more customers to the company’s current business.

Moreover, more and more women start to own their motorbikes, which will bring benefits to the company’s business.

Technological environment

The increasing technical sophistication of motorbikes makes quality servicing by professional technicians in well-equipped workshops is important. This is critical to maintain engine emission standards and safety performance built into modern bikes. As the technology improves all the time, the products will be able to meet the people’s demands of safety and green.

 

2.2 Microenvironment

The microenvironment consists of competition, market demographics, market needs and trends, and the like. In other words, the microenvironment refers to the micro market situation in which the company is operating. The following are the details:

 

2.2.1Competition

1In the current market, there are several other different outlets, operating in the similar model, offering similar products and services. The company needs to compete with these outlets, the competition is intensive. However, the competition is still limited, as the market is not quite developed.

?There are some local independent trainers who do not have JJ Motorbikes' 'off-road' facilities. The company needs to compete and attempt to build relationship with these independent trainers in order to get some more market share.

?Some international chains are increasing their presence in city centre locations. The recent opening of a Damerell's outlet (accessories-only shop) is a threat to local clothing and accessories businesses.

?People are now test-riding at their regional centre, then purchasing through the internet to gain lowest possible prices. This is a threat to the company’s current businesses.

?Some car servicing centers have noted the opportunity and added motorbike servicing to their portfolio of services. Servicing is not only profitable for the service elements but for parts needed (e.g. tyres for a sports bike can be over £250 a pair and need replacing after some 4,000 miles).

 

2.2.2Market Demographics

In mid-2005 the UK has the population of 60.2 million, of which 50.4 million lived in England. The average age was 38.8 years, an increase on 1971 when it was 34.1 years. In mid-2005 approximately one in five people in the UK were under 16 and one in six people were aged 65 or over. The UK has a growing population. It grew by 375,100 people in the year to mid-2005 (0.6 per cent). The growth has been fast in recent years.[1]#p#分頁標題#e#

The mid-2005 population of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom is estimated as follows:

 

Source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk

Based on the growing population, it is necessary to divide the people in different age levels. 16 is the right age to ride, group one: 16 – 22, this group of people are usually the students, they do not have sufficient disposable income, mainly depend on their parents; group two: 23 – 35 single or married without kids, this group of people have sufficient even high disposable income; group three: 23 – 35 married with kids, this group may have to give up the biking due to the financial constraints; group four: 35 – 55, the children may be not at home, they have high disposable incomes, often returning to biking ('born-again' bikers). The marketing strategy should be based on the above demographic divisions.

 

2.2.3Market Needs

Due to the growing population, political pressures, and other related powers, the market needs are expected to increase significantly. The problem is competition. Based on the increasing market needs, the competition will become more intensive. People who are seeking to exploit the convenience of a bike for commuting in the age of heavy traffic, threat of congestion charges (for taking cars into city centers), parking charges and fuel costs. The advantages are convenience and lower travel costs.

 

2.2.4Market Trends

As the technology is improving all the time, the customers usually use the internet to purchase their interested products and even the services. Therefore, the website is becoming more and more important, it is suggested that the company needs to commence its business through the internet. Moreover, the company needs to offer trial use products to the customers; this is also one of the significant market trends.

 

2.3 Internal Audit

Look back to the company’s previous performance, the sales increased in recent years, so dose the profit. Due to the expansion, the company needs to understand more about the company’s shortcomings compare to the market’s competitors. The company lacks of systematic management and its employees are not specific in most of the aspects except the specialized knowledge in the bikes. Previously, there is no sales person, the experience in company’s marketing department is not strong, and its strategy should be based on enough marketing information. Therefore, the marketing research is needed in order to make the most appropriate decision towards to current market situations. Moreover, its business is not in strong relationship with most of its customers, suppliers and so forth. Therefore, JJ Motorbikes have been considering the introduction of a loyalty card (the 'JJ' card); this is a good idea for attracting and maintaining customers. However, lack of this kind of experience may cause some problems at the beginning.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

2.4 SWOT

In this session, the author will analyze the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats.

Strengths

Due to its professional background, the company has its own advantage against its competitors. The five years experiences helped the company build a good relationship with its customers and so forth. The company operates in a wide range of the businesses consist of:

?Motorbike showroom

?Accessories and clothing shop

?The 'Pit Stop' café

?Used bike showroom at rear

?Service centre

?Reception area

?Classic bike display area.

This is a strong product portfolio for the company. It is important to successfully balance its portfolio. For example, some are profit centers, some are not. The company needs to focus on its profit centers like accessories and clothing shop and motorbike showroom.

Weaknesses

The company lacks of marketing experiences, management experiences, and so forth. Moreover, the management needs to employ some experts like sales people, managers, and so forth to make the right decision. With its five years operations, the company’s brand is still not strong enough to attract the groups of customers. The brand is an important element in the marketing strategy. It refers to the recognition of the customers, and makes its customers loyal. Therefore, one of the most important things for the company’s business expansion is to make its brand popular and recognized among the customers.

Opportunities

As mentioned above, the growing population, and increasing demands provide great business opportunities for the company. Also the needs on the internet shopping are increasing; the company may also open its own website and its on-line business.

Threats

The international chain in center locations is a big challenge for the company. Also the strong brand and advertisement of the international chains bring significant difficulty to the company. There are some independent trainers use other facilities, the company needs to use its brand and advertisement to win the customers’ recognition, therefore win back the independent trainers, and thus achieve successful expansion.
 

3.0 Marketing Strategies

 

3.1 Mission

The mission of the marketing strategies is to ensure the success of the market expansion, through the ways of marketing research, advertisements, and related marketing tactics.

 

3.2 Marketing objectives

There are several different marketing objectives as follow:

2Deeply understand the market situations through the marketing research

3Improve the company’s market position#p#分頁標題#e#

4Strengthen the company’s brands, appeal its customers

 

?Financial objectives

The revenue is expected to increase by 10% at the end of next year. Expand its local market share from 70% to 80%. The profit is estimated to improve above 5%, due to the increasing expenses on the advertising, promotion and so forth.

 

?Target marketing

The target market should be mainly based on the ages, as mentioned above, the target customers are divided as: group one: 16 – 22, this group of people are usually the students, they do not have sufficient disposable income, mainly depend on their parents; group two: 23 – 35 single or married without kids, this group of people have sufficient even high disposable income; group three: 23 – 35 married with kids, this group may have to give up the biking due to the financial constraints; group four: 35 – 55, the children may be not at home, they have high disposable incomes, often returning to biking ('born-again' bikers).

 

?Positioning

This process is attempted to influence the customers’ perception towards the company’s products and services. The products and services are positioned as the good friend to the people’s health, i.e. green, cheap and safe products. It is to ensure the customers that the products and services will bring them a healthier, safer and cheaper life.

 

?Marketing mix

?Services and service marketing

The service marketing is based on the relationship and value.[2] Here, the company needs to maintain a strong relationship with its current customers, build a club for the customers, this can offer the opportunities to the customers to communicate and exchange their views, in this way, the loyalty can be improved, and the increase the value.

?Pricing

There are different pricing strategies; the company needs to choose the most appropriate pricing strategies or methods, so that can bring the most benefits to the company. As a local market leader, the pricing objective should be the quality leadership, which is attempted to use high price to signal high quality to position the products and services as the market leader. Also the price method should be the value-based pricing. This is to ensure the effective value to the customers.

?Promotion

The company should not choose the price reduction promotion, as a local market leader, it is not necessary to pursue only the increasing quantity i.e. avoid the price war, but achieve the high value to the products and services. The membership can be provided as a way of promotion, which can give customers some discounts, or related gifts.

The advertisements are necessary, which can make more people understand the company’s products and services, as well as its brands can be well recognized through the advertisements.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

?Product

The company needs to ensure the high quality of its products as well as its services. The products and services should be combined successfully so that the portfolio can achieve its best effectiveness and efficiency.

?Channels of Distribution

For the company’s leadership in local market, the company needs to make the channels fewer, so that increase the company’s profit space. With the expansion, the market position can be further strengthened, and the relationship with the suppliers can be therefore strengthened as well.
 

4.0 Controls
 

4.1 Implementation milestones

2007 September 1st, open the website and online services, the customers can buy through the internet, the cost of the website is estimated at £1,000.

2007 October1st, training provided to the employees, cost £15,000

2007 October 15th, first round advertisements in local newspapers, TVs and internet, cost £25,000.

2007 November 1st, another outlet is opened

2007 November 15th, second round advertisements in local newspapers, TVs and internet, cost £45,000.

2007 December 15th, second round advertisements in local newspapers, TVs and internet, cost £45,000.

2008 March 15th, second round advertisements in local newspapers, TVs and internet, cost £25,000.

 

4.2 Marketing organization

The company should be market-oriented, be flexible towards to the customers’ changing demands. JJ Motorbikes have been considering the introduction of a loyalty card (the 'JJ' card). The racetrack where JJ Motorbikes have their training centre is interested in collaborating on this (e.g. reduced prices and preferential race day booking for 'JJ' cardholders). More local business partners would be desirable. The company needs to actively cooperate with other business partners, so that the risk can be well diversified and reduced.

 

4.3 Contingency Planning

It is important to do the contingency planning for the company, once the marketing strategy cannot meet the expected objectives, the company needs to tighten its marketing investment, reduce its advertisements, and increase the company’s internal control, i.e. improve its effectiveness and efficiency.