MG626 Strategic Marketing

Individual Management Report

Student Name
DATE:
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Strategic Marketing
Executive summary

The report below entails to highlight and explain the marketing strategy and produced
results in the light of Ashanti Marketing Solutions Ltd.’s approved strategy to enter the UK
market. Marketing mix and produced results are an important part of any company’s growth
because marketing results are eventually the basis of indicator of success for the business as
a whole. The nature of this report is to reflect the adaptation and standardisation of
marketing mix, CBEE model usable for strong brand recognition, IMC concept,
measurement of marketing success through sales and other indicators are all used to discuss
the ability of Ashanti Marketing Solutions Ltd. in gaining a successful entry in the Indian
market. Key finding from the report includes the fact that Indian market is more or less a
price conscious and developing market however the pricing as compare to other countries
required to be lower for local market campaigns that businesses want to run. As a conclusion
to pricing aspect, standardization is least likely. CBBE model tends to reflect that there can be
small but imperative indicators of successful way out for the brand recognition and the phases AMS
can go through in order to achieve a good consumer base. Recommendations section include AMS
can apply CBBE for effective results in terms of branding itself in the Indian business market.
It has to focus on the fact that in theory it has some limitations in analysis but it can always
benefit from such factors and the marketing mix has elements that are standardisable to a
certain extent and from which AMS can benefit in terms of its cost effectiveness. Three
recommended methods for communication include direct marketing as for AMS there are
businesses that are target clients for the company and are good in email engagements.
Digital marketing is an acceptable trend in the modern era and so it is potential method of
communicating with target consumer. Advertising through magazines and business times can
also be a good course of action for AMS has to target the Indian businesses.

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Contents
Executive summary....................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................1
2. Adaptation and standardisation of marketing mix..............................................................2
Product...................................................................................................................................2
Price........................................................................................................................................3
Place.......................................................................................................................................3
Promotion...............................................................................................................................3
People.....................................................................................................................................3
Process....................................................................................................................................3
Physical evidence...................................................................................................................3
3. CBBE Model.......................................................................................................................4
4. Integrated communication mix and methods......................................................................5
5. Measurement of success.....................................................................................................5
Sales & Profit Target..............................................................................................................5
Return on Investment (ROI)...................................................................................................6
Cost per Win..........................................................................................................................6
................................................................................................................................................6
Conversion Rate.....................................................................................................................6
Purchase funnel......................................................................................................................7
Market Share..........................................................................................................................7
Comparative analysis.............................................................................................................7
6. Conclusion..........................................................................................................................8
Recommendation........................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................8

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1. Introduction

The report below is aimed to reflect the different aspects of marketing mix that can be standardized in
an organization to meet the organizational objectives in relation to the particular product or service
being marketed. When an organization opts to enter a new market in terms of a new product or market
the existing product in a new region the strategies require a robust observations which ensure long
term success for the organization and to manage a strong brand in the new market, CBBE (Customer
Based Brand Equity) as a model is applicable. Marketing communication is necessary for ensuring the
desired marketing results and the concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC) is addressed
to enlighten the available marketing communication methods for Ashanti Marketing Solutions Ltd. in
relation to the Indian market. The most crucial aspect of marketing is to measure the marketing results
in relation to the desired marketing output. There are various tools that can be used to measure the
effectiveness s of marketing such as the sales target v actual sales made by the business and various
other that can be used to measure whether the marketing strategy is effective to produce the desired
output or not. All the afore mentioned areas are covered in the report below tending to explain the
same in relation to our Indian market.

2. Adaptation and standardisation of marketing mix

Elements of marketing mix includes, 7 Ps that entail to a word attached to each P and all the 7 Ps form
a complete marketing mix for any business. Companies have to benefit from different functions of an
organization to succeed in the business financial as well as non-financially but the issue is with multi-
national businesses such as AMS ltd which is keen to provide services in India as a target country.
Making business in India will regard AMS as a multinational organization which is offering
marketing services to more than one country. The issue is that there are different functions of AMS ltd
which require standardisation in order to weight out the costs of operations of all these functions
[ CITATION Sol00 \l 2057 ]. Functions may include administration, core technical marketing
experts, HR function, marketing function, accounts and finance and various other depending upon the
scale at which company operates. Standardization is a common concept for companies for ensuring
the economies of scale and efficiency gains while standardizing the admin, HR, Accounts make sense
but each element of marketing mix, for standardization, needs robust understanding and featured
decision making pillared by the well informed analysis of the extent to which the elements can be
standardized and if it can produce good output for the organization as a whole [ CITATION
Hub95 \l 2057 ].

The first grounding feature of our assessment is that, consumer behaviour on which marketing mix is
based is different in different regions [ CITATION sit1 \l 2057 ] . As a result of this marketing mix

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policy is likely to differ with the country and between different time
periods. Most chief issue with international research in marketing is the
availability of standardized data.

Product

Marketing product that AMS can deliver is likely to be based upon the
same technicalities such as social media marketing, blogging, email
marketing, in person event organising, webinars, seminars, flyer, posters,
texts and various others but the technical personnel should are likely to
have all the relevant skills and so the service as a customized one can be
delivered. It can be concluded that the product standardization for AMS
in India is possible.

Price

Countries which have extensive mass communication are sensitive to

price more than others and particularly for the high quality of product
because advertisement-as-information theory reflects so [ CITATION
THE \l 2057 ]. India is a developing country and average pricing
existing is not that lower for the public. Pricing can be standardized to
the extent that it is based on the cost of delivering a complete service such as the payroll of technical
staff and other features of cost. After costing the desired margin in relation to India marketing
industry can be assessed to fetch a standardized price and if AMS opts to go for penetration as market
entry strategy this should be an underpinning feature of marketing campaign for AMS. Indian market
is more or less a price conscious and developing market however the pricing as compare to other
countries required to be lower for local market campaigns that businesses want to run. As a
conclusion to pricing aspect, standardization is least likely.

Place

Distribution i.e. place in marketing B2B advertisement and marketing is not possible but the places at
which the service of marketing can be delivered can be online i.e. Social media etc and so is
standardisable to a certain extent.

Promotion

Promotion strategy cannot be standardized and this is because of the fact that as a public nature varies
from country to country so is the business nature that varies and business that seek to hire AMS for
their marketing function in this state is likely to seek for least pricing with a quality and innovative
marketing campaign. The promotion of AMS itself is different for India because the consumer is

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Indian businesses which seeks to promote its business and so will its taste differ. Promotion cannot be
standardized in India nor it can be adaptive.

People

This includes a marketing team including technical marketing experts who are able to a create a huge
difference by changing the marketing headlines and this team should be available in India either or
convincing personnel who is able to deliver the conversion rate of consumers who visit Indian office
of AMS. The people can be standardized but there will be a need for string administration if technical
staff is used to achieve economies of scale.

Process

It makes sure that the standard of service delivered is maintained and this can be a function of AMS if
it engages HR just to ensure the standard of service being delivered. The key is that the service
organization is unlikely to achieve the same set of economies of scale since it is not a manufacturing
company which is able to achieved desired output by gauging bulk purchases etc. Standardization
possible.

Physical evidence

Intangibility of a marketing campaign make it a problem for giving a physical evidence to clients
however this can be done through posting of past customer experience in form of reviews and
feedback tutorial on company website and so it can be standardized.

3. CBBE Model

Customer Based Brand Equity model (CBBE) plays role right between the conversion of a struggling
brand to a stronger one. The model tends to highlight the importance of how simply the brand
marketing strategy can be based upon the way consumer are shaped in your strategy in respect of how
they feel about you as a brand. Enabling the right experiences for customers let you become a strong
brand because of becoming a word of mouth.

The model has four question model:

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Subconsciously but a customer will ask for AMS the four key aspects. Firstly, brand identity. As a
marketing solution provider AMS needs to create brand awareness and ensure the customer are aware
of it and brand perceptions are actually “correct”. A formal market research by AMS can ensure the
right taste is understood and the aligned strategy of marketing can be developed in accordance with
the trend, taste and choice of customer. Feedback the customer and random markets to assess at the
end of this stage whether the customer actually perceive what you really wanted them to perceive
about your brand or not as a KPI to this stage. Secondly the brand meaning reflecting “what are you”.
Performance and imaginary are the two building blocks of the stage and they require AMS to ensure
the marketing solution they can provide the clients meet their needs too i.e. actually generate good
result for them and actually satisfies them. What they promised to deliver is actually delivered.
Psychological need of business needs to be fulfilled as “imagery” feature of this stage. Patagonia is a
good example of this stage as it is a brand offering high quality clothing made from recycled materials
and it performs in a way that makes it reliable for the consumer market. AMS can have this stage
through results achieved by delivering a marketing solution to the business which is taking marketing
solution as a service. Thirdly, Brand response, demonstrating what do I think or feel about you?

Judgment and feeling are important in this step for AMS. What do Indian customers judge about the
quality of marketing solution in comparison to others offering same services, credibility assessment
through expertise of AMS in producing results, consideration of uniqueness in service being delivered
whether it is as per desired or required outcome and superiority of brand over others is assessed. The
last stage of this model entails to highlight the difficult stage for a brand to achieve and reflects the
brand resonance in terms of customers feeling a deep bonding with brand. Behavioural loyalty of
Indian consumers, their love for AMS, sense of community among people of AMS and consumers
and an active engagement ensures this phase for AMS.

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The model tends to reflect that there can be small but imperative indicators of successful way out for
the brand recognition and the phases AMS can go through in order to achieve a good consumer base
[ CITATION Min19 \l 2057 ].

4. Integrated communication mix and methods

Integrated communication marketing is a unified approach of marketing that is a strong ground for
AMS for establishing a brand awareness. This concept tends to blur the differences among the
different types of marketing campaigns as it melds all the aspects of marketing communications in
order o let them work together and in liaison for the brand. Advertisement, selling, public relations,
direct marketing and social media marketing along with their relevant techniques tend to work on the
same page and can keenly focus on Indian businesses as consumer base. For launching a new product,
it is important that all forms of communication are linked together for the cantered approach to the
target customers which are Indian businesses for AMS.

Three recommended methods for communication include direct marketing as for AMS there are
businesses that are target clients for the company and are good in email engagements. Digital
marketing is an acceptable trend in the modern era and so it is potential method of communicating
with target consumer. Advertising through magazines and business times can also be a good course of
action for AMS has to target the Indian businesses.

5. Measurement of success

Measurement is the most important part for the optimization of any process. Running the marketing
campaign as well is a process and Key performance indicators can be used to assess whether the
campaigns run was effective in achieving the desired results. By measuring Ashanti Marketing
Solutions Ltd. can fetch the areas of marketing that work well and therefore focusing them can let
Ashanti Marketing Solutions Ltd. achieve the good results. Sales revenue is the most imperative
indicator of a marketing successful campaign as the marketing has a direct result in terms of sales.
Marketing and sales team often have to work in liaison with each other to produce the desired
business output.

Sales & Profit Target

The sales revenue and its trend analysis over the period of marketing can reflect the results your
business has achieved through marketing in terms of revenue it has generated. The marketing cost in
income statement for the year can be taken as a percentage of sales to see over a period the percentage
of revenue used for marketing and this can also be assessed against the increased revenue to
understand the weighing of cost against benefit achieved through marketing however apart from this
analysis there are various other indicators of marketing success measurement including:

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Return on Investment (ROI)

This tool reflects the return/investment as a ratio for instance a business spent 10,000$ on marketing
and the revenue it generated in the year is 40,000$, the ROI will be 400% but if the same business in
case has generated 4,000$ this will indicate an improve able marketing strategy that needs a more
robust understanding of customer demand and other market trends as a ROI will be only 40%.
Customer needs can be well understood through various techniques and tools in order to successfully
market a business [ CITATION JamUE \l 2057 ].

Cost per Win

This ratio indicates the expense per 1 unit of sale. As Ashanti Marketing Solutions Ltd (AMS) is a
service organization each service will be counted as one sale and the sales it made after successful
marketing campaign can be considered to measure to compare different campaigns.

There are various different types of consumer behaviours that if are well addressed the marketing
strategy is likely to be well informed of the required elements and so will be the success of marketing
campaign [ CITATION MBA10 \l 2057 ]. Theorist highlight the importance of understanding the
customer value in a particular market and as part of our earlier assessment the market trends, and
macro environment analysis well reflects the customer references and demands which can be assessed
in more detail to reflect the importance of customer value for marketing that can be made by AMS
Ltd [ CITATION Dan18 \l 2057 ].

Conversion Rate

This indicator is also used to measure the success as it is gauged by considering the number of visitors
against the sales actually made i.e. the clients who actually took marketing services from AMS ltd.
This rate can also be compared but will take a long time to generate analysed results over long term. It

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is an effective tool that management of AMS can use to highlight the requirement of improvement in
sales section i.e. client service panel because their performance can be assessed. Once marketing is
done the next service has to be delivered in a good quality by this function of the organization and
they can convert the customers came into becoming clients for the company. This assessment is
crucial to the real reflection because if the marketing campaign is assessed on the basis of sales
generated the assessment won’t be real because there are various other functions that can convert the
clients’ base in to real sale including the client service department as the key one.

Purchase funnel

In case of e-marketing, through google analytics the analysis can be done to fetch the sales against
each lead generated by different e-marketing campaigns. [ CITATION And19 \l 2057 ] highlights
various other tools and dynamics that can be assessed to reflect the success achieved through
marketing.

Market Share

Market share also reflects the way a business is making its ways in the market. As it is a B2B
marketing campaign and its indicators there are various ways in which the marketing strategy can
result in an increased market share for the business.

Comparative analysis

AMS has the key concern as to which marketing tactic their client business wants to use and for each
tactic the result produced can be assessed as to whether it has generated the desired traffic and/or
active attendees in a webinar conducted etc.

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Source: [ CITATION Joe17 \l 2057 ]

AMS can make improvements in the marketing strategies by addressing the trends and analysed
results from the key performance indicators discussed above. These indicators can reflect the
marketing output in the manner that can also be compared with the target output to make corrective
actions in the strategy after taking into account the variances arise in the assessment.

6. Conclusion

In conclusion to the marketing success analysis, it is needless to mention that the list of tools and
techniques that can be used to measure the success of AMS marketing strategy is not exhaustive
however there are key indicators of strategies success including

Summarizing the extent to which element of marketing mix are standardisable for AMS can reflect:

Product Standardisable
Price Adaptive
Place Standardisable to a certain extent
Promotion Adaptive
People Standardisable to a certain extent
Process Standardisable
Physical evidence Standardisable
The key is that the service organization is unlikely to achieve the same set of economies of scale since
it is not a manufacturing company which is able to achieved desired output by gauging bulk purchases
etc. Standardization possible.

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Marketing success is unlikely to be based upon some or standardised indicators as there are various
functions involved in the process from marketing to a final sale of service. As explained earlier, once
marketing is done the next service which has to be delivered in a good quality by is customer service
function of the AMS and they can convert the customers came into becoming clients for the company.
This is because if the marketing campaign is assessed on the basis of sales generated the assessment
won’t be real because there are various other functions that can convert the clients’ base in to real sale
including the client service department as the key one.

Recommendation

AMS can apply CBBE for effective results in terms of branding itself in the Indian business market. It
has to focus on the fact that in theory it has some limitations in analysis but it can always benefit from
such factors and the marketing mix has elements that are standardisable to a certain extent and from
which AMS can benefit in terms of its cost effectiveness .

References
Abeele, H. G. a. P. V., 1995. To Standardize or Not to Standardize: Marketing Mix
Effectiveness in Europe. Marketing Science Institute, pp. 95-105.
James C. Anderson James A. Narus, NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1998 ISSUE. Business
Marketing: Understand What Customers Value. HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW:
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT.
Kucheriavy, A., 2019. Marketing Effectiveness - How to Measure Your Marketing Success.
Intech, pp. 9-10.
Lazauskas, J., 2017. Ask a Content Strategist: How Do You Measure the ROI of Video
Marketing?. [Online]
Available at: https://contently.com/2017/04/27/measure-video-marketing-roi/
[Accessed 2019].
Mansfield, D., 23rd Oct 2018. Marketing theory: understanding customer value. Built
Visible.
MBA LECTURES, 2010. Types of Consumer Behaviour. MBA Lectures, 5 Juy.
Pprofessional Academy, 2018. MARKETING THEORIES – THE MARKETING MIX –
FROM 4 PS TO 7 PS. professional academy, Issue
https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs-and-advice/marketing-theories---the-marketing-
mix---from-4-p-s-to-7-p-s, site:.
Solberg, C. A., 2000. Standardization or Adaptation of the International Marketing Mix: The
Role of the Local Subsidiary/Representative. Journal of International Marketing, 78-98(1), p.
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STRATEGIES, T. E. T. P., n.d. Definition of 'Pricing Strategies'. Business

News›Definitions›Marketing›Pricing Strategies.
team, M. t. c., 2019. Keller's Brand Equity Model. Mind Tools.

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