Colloquy Grog Shop marketing strategies
The Colloquy Grog Shop’s branding remains to be the stronghold aspect of the marketing plan. However, the brand will need to gain recognition and popularity for it to position the company on a more competitive edge with respect to its competitors. This explains the reason why a branding strategy is vital in this marketing plan. Basically, the branding strategy puts clear on how, what, where, when and to whom the brand is targeting and the immediate actions that shall be done to make known the Colloquy Grog Shop brand (Lai, Mo, Lau, Gu & Hao, 2016). First, communication of the brand will be done through advertisements and grassroots methods. The strategy management of the company proposed to carry them out during national holidays and much of it in the month of December. The branding strategy shall focus on the targeted segment of professionals who are single and range between 25 to 45 years. In addition, the branding strategy will be focusing on the benefits of the customer as they shall be meeting their fellow singles. Among the benefits would be getting a marriage partner, sharing of business social and other forms of ideas (Lai, Mo, Lau, Gu & Hao, 2016).
As mentioned earlier, the distribution the Colloquy Grog Shop distribution would be based at the retail shop since the company is yet to establish branches. In this regard, the distribution of services shall use the direct distribution strategy since the distance or channel between the company and the customers is very little. In the direct distribution, the marketing plan wants to reach the highest level of penetration implying that the Colloquy Grog Shop will embrace the intensive distribution strategy. The pricing strategy is another aspect that the company has aimed to rhyme with the industrial based standards of pricing.
Competition that is facing the company is expected to come from different sources. However, all the competitors fall under the categories of either the inter-brand or intra-brand competition. The Colloquy Grog Shop has differentiated its services from those of bars which lack the mission of bringing the singles together. This is an inter-brand competition that the company has taken to compete with bars and coffee shops (Fong & Rashad, 2015). The company’s other main competitors are the community events that are structured people together. They have the same service and mission as the Colloquy Grog Shop. In response to these events and community activities, the company has purposed to get into an intra-brand competition. Since most of the community activities are usually cheap or free, the pricing terms shall have less part to play. The company has therefore laid out non-price competition strategies that will help it to survive the intra-brand competition (Fong & Rashad, 2015).
The Colloquy Grog Shop has made several predictions concerning the issue of winning customers from the hands of the potential competitors. The company prefigures that singles will abandon or rather supplement their existing methodologies of meeting people and adopt new integrated methods. These methods shall be at their disposal at Colloquy Grog Shop and therefore the thoughtful goal of introducing like-minded individuals shall have been achieved. The community-based activities offer the stiffest competition to the Colloquy Grog Shop because they are able to collect singles in large numbers. This gives the activities the strength of dominance. The weakness is that the conversations and the social environment is less integrated which implies that the competitor is weak technologically (McDonald, 2007).
The differentiation strategy for the Colloquy Grog Shop will be based on the main objective of the company to become the premier place that can offer the best environment for professional singles to meet their likeminded singles. In order to distinguish itself from the local close competitors of coffee and bar shops, the Colloquy Grog Shop shall adopt a business that concentrates its focus on developing value for customers. The company is interested in the benefit of the customers beyond the drinks it offers. With respect to this differentiation strategy, the Colloquy Grog Shop will develop an effective social setting that is inherently structured that encourages the socialization of like-minded singles (McDonald, 2007).
Unlike most of the adjacent competitors, generation of value for the customers is the sole purpose of the Colloquy Grog Shop. The provision of different drinks shall only be a source of income which is basically an ancillary part of the Colloquy Grog Shop’s business model. In this regard, the differentiation strategy have been developed using the structured conversation system which entirely distinguish the services offered by the Colloquy Grog Shop from those offered by coffee bars and bars. The differentiation strategy also has considers the community events as a major competitor. To differentiate the Colloquy Grog Shop from the community events, the shop is planning to integrate its services so that they can meet the evolving demands of the customer needs (McDonald, 2007).
Since this is a unique business of its kind, the Colloquy Grog Shop has aimed to be the leading company in the industry of bringing singles together. There is no other company ahead that the Colloquy Grog Shop is aiming to be like or follow. This can also be drawn from the message communicated by the company that “THE Colloquy Grog Shop IS THE PLACE TO MEET SINGLES.” The direction in which the Colloquy Grog Shop is heading is towards serving a more sophisticated customer. The sophistication is expected to be in terms of the food quality, the quality of conversation, and the access to people (Sorger, 2012). Coordination of these aspects would place the company at a leading position in the industry. In this goal of becoming the leading coffee shop in the world, the Colloquy Grog Shop has put down some keys that are determinant to its success. First, the company shall have to attract customers who are able to appreciate the customer value that is offered by the shop. These customers are within the criteria used to choose the target market. The second key is to offer excellent services to customers and lastly to maintain the expenditure at below 50% to keep the move balanced (Sorger, 2012).
Developing marketing communications strategies is the heart section and the soul of this marketing plan. The marketing communications strategies will generally be targeting the different prospects that are present at each stage of market development. For instance, the Colloquy Grog Shop shall use advertising, direct marketing and public relations to reach the cold and cool prospects. These advertisements for marketing of the company’s plan shall be done through the local magazines such as the Willamette Weekly and the liberal arts magazine which are believed to be potential areas where the company can meet the cold prospects. Advertising through the local newspapers and magazines directly marry with the advertisement strategies that have been put in place by the company to ensure that each target is fully reached. These magazines are suitable because the readership demographics are similar to those of the Colloquy Grog Shop. They have details all the entertainment trends and events that are coming up in the whole of Poland (Sorger, 2012).
The marketing communication through public relations shall aim at creating friendships with customers on long term basis for the sake of customer retention and service. This is also related to the advertising strategy that has been put in place by the Colloquy Grog Shop. The company has designed this communication of public relations with respect to strategic relationships that it has put in place in the marketing strategy. Public relations will be based on individual customers while the strategic relationships shall be between Colloquy Grog Shop and companies that target customers of similar demographics (Sorger, 2012).
The marketing plan for the Colloquy Grog Shop shall utilize two major social media which are Twitter and Facebook. The management will build online communities and constantly look for followers. The communities will enable the customers to post queries that may concern the marketing plan. Interaction shall be enhanced by responding directly to the posts that shall have been made by the customers. Facebook will assist the company to invite online users to like the Colloquy Grog Shop Facebook page with an aim of gathering customers (Westwood, 2013). The rationale for choosing Twitter and Facebook is the fact that both are the most popular social media channels where a person can just create a community and gather followers. Both social sites could play a significant role in advertising the brand and establish online interactions. By posting the images and videos that show the great experience that is present at the Colloquy Grog Shop, customers will get interested to join in to experience the same. Facebook and Twitter are progressively gaining popularity and this gives the Colloquy Grog Shop an assurance that the marketing strategy would work well (Westwood, 2013).
The Colloquy Grog Shop has also considered on reaching the warm prospects in its marketing communications. The warm prospects are those customers who might have previously seen the marketing message of the Colloquy Grog Shop. The warm prospects are also those customers who might have been served before. The marketing communications for this category will be done through loyalty programs and customer appreciation events. In connection to the advertising marketing strategy of the company, the grassroots shall serve this purpose. Appreciations shall be in form of discounted services and promotions. This shall play the role of customer retention for the sake of long-term market maintenance (Luther, 2001). Lastly, the hottest prospects of the company shall communicate interpersonally. These are the regular customers who have appreciated the value that is offered by the shop. The communication here shall involve phone calls, in person or through emails. The communication will generally encourage the regular customers to invite their friends. It shall be therefore an extension of the advertisement as a marketing strategy (Luther, 2001).
References
Lai, C. Y., Mo, P. H., Lau, J. F., Gu, J., &Hao, C. (2016). Association of Situational and Environmental Factors With Last Episode of Unprotected Anal Intercourse Among MSM in Hong Kong: A Case-Crossover Analysis. AIDS Education & Prevention, 28(1), 26-42.
Fong Mun, Y., &Rashad, Y. (2015).The Comparison between NGO Marketing and Conventional Marketing Practices from SWOT Analysis, Marketing Mix, and Performance Evaluation Perspectives.International Journal Of Management, Accounting & Economics, 2(9), 1075-1087.
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McDonald, M. (2007).Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them. Burlington: Elsevier.
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Sorger, S. (2012).Marketing planning: Where strategy meets action. Boston: Pearson.
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Westwood, J. (2013). How to write a marketing plan. London: Kogan Page.
Luther, W. M. (2001). The marketing plan: How to prepare and implement it. New York: AMACOM.
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