Mkt310 Retail Management And Digital Assessment Answers

Answer:

Target Market

Big-Al’s main business idea is to present the customers with a broad range of functional and well-designed furniture products at a relatively low price, which is appealing to the average consumers, majorly the white-collars. Their target market is very extensive. They have an aim of appealing to customers of all sexes, ages, geographic locations, all of whom have one common thing: price preference. They are also targeting consumers who love modern furniture and accessories. Big-Al, therefore would have to sell more colorful and novel products (Lihra, Buehlmann and Graf 2012).

Positioning

Big-Al would be positioning themselves as a cutting edge retail furniture dealer. Consumers of all ages would be impressed by their assortment and creativity of designs. Big-Al would attempt to leverage their competitive edge of market niche specialization so that they can help themselves to position themselves in the market. Big-Al would be focusing on their dedication towards product designing, consumer values and effective solutions. Big-Al would be having a competitive edge over other competitors since they would be focused on product quality and wide assortment. Using of inexpensive materials in a novel way for producing the assortments and reducing costs of production, distribution and retail, the customers acquire the benefits of low prices (Kolarevic and Klinger 2013).

Strategies

The single objective of Big-Al is to get established as a premium retailer of furniture, furnishing and lighting products in Melbourne. The marketing strategy would first seek to build up a brand image and increase customer awareness about the products they would be offering, developing the customer base and work in the direction of building customer loyalty (Kapferer 2012).

Big-Al would seek to communicate the message of them as being a premium retailer who boasts of a good assortment of good quality furniture. Their message would be communicated with the help of online channels and digital marketing platforms like social media sites, and physical marketing approaches like different types of advertisements in different journals or newspapers, billboards, hoarding, signboards and pamphlets. Big-Al would also attempt leveraging a huge amount of walk-through customer traffic with the help of creative and interesting displays of the products for luring in walk-by customers (Severi and Ling 2013).

Marketing Mix

Product

Big-Al’s furniture products would be a total concept, the products counting all the merchandises and services offered by them. As a result, the product offering is more than just physical or material stuffs sold at the stores. Big-Al’s major products are furniture that includes offerings like sofas, kitchen modules, lighting equipments, bathroom facilities and textiles. They would be aiming for outstanding quality and strong brand image in the market, with special image for every product. They would be offering a broad assortment of home furnishing that would contain best functions and aesthetic designs at realistic prices. Big-Al would be only dealing in finished products, and not raw materials (Kotler 2012).

Place

Big-Al would be aiming to open initially one store in Melbourne. With time the number would increase along with revenue generation. Big-Al would be aiming to expand into international borders too, after effectively creating appositive brand image for themselves in Australia. Apart from the traditional methods of marketing, Big-Al would branch into selling their products on websites like Groupon, who would be their first online partnership site for selling their products. The websites would allow customers to present easy reviewing of the product details and their feedback. The furniture at the Big-Al stores would be displayed in a clean, uncluttered manner. Floor painted arrows would direct customers to the products they are looking for easily (Singh 2012).

Promotion

Big-Al would be using their free catalogue of product list as a basic promotional tool. The catalogue would be having details of the products, like size, colours and prices. A separate group for strengthening the relationship between the company and the society would be established. Discounts and offers would be used too, especially when sales volume would be low or during festive seasons (Kotler 2012).

Price

Prices for Big-Al would be set reasonably to attract a wider range of customers. Adoption of innovative production techniques would be supported for generation of products at low costs. Prices can get reduced when customers themselves choose, assemble and transport products. Big-Al would also be using mantissa pricing method, by fixing prices with 9s, like, 499, 799 and 999 dollars, making customers think the products are cheap. Most of the commodities are fixed with the proper prices for the average consumer. Installment payment services would also be offered as another efficient promotion strategy (Singh 2012).

References

Kapferer, J.N., 2012. The new strategic brand management: Advanced insights and strategic thinking. Kogan page publishers.

Kolarevic, B. and Klinger, K., 2013. Manufacturing material effects: rethinking design and making in architecture. Routledge.

Kotler, P., 2012. Kotler on marketing. Simon and Schuster.

Lihra, T., Buehlmann, U. and Graf, R., 2012. Customer preferences for customized household furniture. Journal of Forest Economics, 18(2), pp.94-112.

Severi, E. and Ling, K.C., 2013. The mediating effects of brand association, brand loyalty, brand image and perceived quality on brand equity. Asian Social Science, 9(3), p.125.

Singh, M., 2012. Marketing mix of 4P’s for competitive advantage. Journal of Business and Management, 3(6), pp.40-45.