Marketing strategies

Introduction

The world is experiencing various changes in the market environments and consumer preferences are changing by the day. As a result, several institutions have been affected especially those with rigid business models that do not allow for flexibility with the evident market fluctuations. One of the essential things to a business and how productive it could be is marketing. Our case study is Fiji Water Company, and management is having a hard time deciding on what strategies to implement so as to improve the company’s position in the market. The most appropriate strategy that Fiji Water Company can take on right now is a product development strategy because it involved the development of the products that they currently have. Once they understand how the customer preferences and trends change and to what direction, they will be able to situate their products in line with these trends which would further increase the growth of the company and maintain its situation in the highly competitive international market.

 

Problem Statement

The Fiji Water Company is faced with two problems. To figure out which marketing mix model they are to use, they have first to figure out what they want to intensify their activities on. Fiji water Company is involved in bottling water and does not have any other acquisitions and therefore does not have a flexible business plan. This brings us to our first problem for the company

 

Flexibility

This is crucial for the company because the current customer base knows the company for the brand that they have been associating themselves with over the years. Fiji Water Company does not have a flexible business model and cannot, therefore, change their products abruptly since they will incur more costs and will have to start from the bottom (Jessop, 1994). In addition to this, water is a basic need and several companies are already dealing with similar bottled water. Customers may easily substitute Fiji Water Company for EVIAN and Perrier since they are another established brand whose products are well known. For this reason, Fiji Water Company must come up with a marketing model which will exemplify their new product from the rest. This is going to be a hard task because, compared with the efforts that other companies have been putting into production of new products to keep the customers loyal and eager for more new products, Fiji is lagging behind.

Catching up with the current market trends will require that Fiji Water Company inject more money into the marketing methods despite their established capital constraint. However, Fiji Water Company does not have it all bad because, as it stands out, their bottled drinking water has been able to remain in the market because it has a distinct characteristic not common to the other company drinks. Fiji Water Company has been able to incorporate five flavors in their bottle which is what customers like to associate with. However, it is not long until their competitors will do market research and find out what makes this company tick and then create better drinks that will give even better experience.

Competition

The second problem facing Fiji Water Company is that there is increased competition in the water retailing industry. There has been an increased number of participants who manufacture the same water products as Fiji Water Company. The result of this is that they are encroaching on the limited market base that Fiji operates on. The business models that EVIAN and Perrier use seem to be fairing well because they are more flexible and thus can incorporate the changing consumer tastes and preferences (Jessop, 1994). For this reason, Fiji has to intensify their market reach using the best technique they can use to market their pre-existing products, or they can beginning differentiating their products to bring out new versions of their drinking water so that they can maintain their competitive advantage. The company has been able to retain their old clients and that is a good thing, but if EVIAN and Perrier keep investing in their research and development programs, they just might succeed in attracting them too which might push Fiji Water Company’s “obsolete” products out of the market.

 

Choices or methods to resolve the solution

In today’s market, companies often face various challenges that must be overcome if an organization is to meet its goals and make profits. With the globalization of the world, companies from across the world can branch out and target markets in even the most remote areas of the world. While big companies find it easy to enter a market and dominate, others often find difficulty in penetrating specific markets. Since any company can pick out a specific market and decide to meets its needs, there has been an increase in the level of competition. Organizations, both big and small engage in strict competition trying to appease the customers in their target markets. While some use product quality and pricing to get a competitive advantage, the most ideal competitive tool is advertising. It is however important to select the best form of advertising to ensure that the message is received by the target customers and that they choose your products over those of the competitors.

YouTube

            In the case of Fiji Water Company, the most ideal advertising methods are either YouTube or printed ads on the people magazine. YouTube was launched in 2005 and it allows people to post videos, promote them, interact and share with people across the world. In the case of Fiji, advertising through YouTube will involve registering an account which will make it possible for the company to post videos of up to 15 minutes long and of 2 GB in size (Baum, 2015). This will however change with time and the company will be able to post videos of any length. Since the company will mainly be focused on promoting its brand of water, it can create advertisements in the form of videos and post them on the YouTube site. YouTube is one of the most frequented social media sites and video posted on the site may get viewed by over 60 million people in a month (Fairly, 2015). Since the site is on the internet, the viewers will comprise of people from different parts of the world. This means that Fiji will not only be able to market its product locally but also at an international level.

            When using YouTube, the company will not be required to pay anything in order to use the site for advertising. The company only needs to post the video advertisement on the site and market its product. Other than being the second largest search engine with over 1 billion users, it also enables tagging where Fiji can include special phrases or words to their advertisement videos, enabling them to appear in the Google database (Baum, 2015). Fiji Water Company will therefore be able to reach millions of potential customers and close to no cost. There are however some cons in using YouTube such as the policies used by the company. YouTube has the right to take down videos and even close an account if they deem it necessary. Another disadvantage is that other companies can post advertisements on Fiji’s videos, therefore creating more competition.

Printing Ads in the People magazine

            Another approach that Fiji Water Company can take is advertising in the People magazine. The magazine has a readership of 46.6 million people and is released on a weekly basis (Chandra, 2009). Since a specific type of customers subscribe to the magazine, the company will be able to target a specific type of market and come up with ways to better meet their needs. Another advantage is that magazines have a long life. This will increase the chances of the advertisement being seen over and over again for a longer duration of time. Magazines are also regarded as having their own social status. An advertisement in the magazine will therefore be associated with the same perception of status and people may opt to purchase the company’s products because they regard it as being better than the others in the market (Greene, 2016). Another advantage is that magazines can be passed on by people or placed in places with human traffic such as libraries, offices and waiting rooms. This means that the advertisement will get exposure not only to the people who buy it but also those who will have access to it in such places. The company will therefore be able to reach millions of people by placing the advertisement in the people magazine

            The downside to using the people magazine as a tool for advertising is that it is expensive (Greene, 2016). Fiji will be required to pay a certain amount of money to have its advertisement appear in the magazine. More money will be required to have the advertisement positioned in a strategic and ideal place that will make it visible to those who buy the magazine (Brassel, 2015). Another advantage is that people rarely pay attention to the advertisements. Those who subscribe to magazines do so for specific reasons such as the stories in the magazines. People may therefore pass over the advertisement despite the large amount of money paid to place it there.

 

Conclusion and Recommendations

            Due to the financial constraints that the company is experiencing, the most ideal advertising tool to use is YouTube since, other than being free, it enables the advertisement to reach millions of people. This will give the company the exposure it is looking for and a competitive advantage over other companies. After acquiring enough capital, the company can later on resolve to use both YouTube and advertisement on magazines such as the people magazine. Both of these strategies are viable, but if they are intent on meeting objectives in a shorter duration and returns, they would focus mainly on the YouTube platform and use the people magazine as a complementary marketing strategy. Product development is crucial for the company because they have to get out of their comfort zone and start keeping up with the global trends if they are to maintain their market stationing.

 

 

 

 

References

Baum E. (2015) “Seven benefits of using YouTube to market your business online”          Inbound Marketing

Chandra G. J. (2009) “AARP shows largest growth in readership” Folio Magazine

Greene F. (2016) “The disadvantages of magazine advertising” retrieved from,             http://smallbusiness.chron.com/disadvantages-magazine-advertising-64643.html

James Dean (2012): “The Pros and Cons of YouTube Business marketing.”

Jessop, D., (1994), "Strategic Procurement Management in the 1990s: Concepts and         Cases." European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 1.4:257-58. Web

Mike Brassel (2015): “Magazine Advertising: Pros and Cons.”

Tallman, S., Torben P. (2015), "What Is International Strategy Research and What Is        Not?" Global Strategy Journal 5.4: 273-77. Web