TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

“What causes someone to remain committed to their organization?”

Introduction

With respect to the perspective of a business organization behavior as well as industrial psychology, organization commitment refers to the individual psychological attachment to his or her business organization.  This then means that each business organization is concerned with coming up with various methods which are directed at improving the manner in which employees feel about their works (Jex & Britt, 2008). Such methods are the ones which helps employees to be more committed to their business organization. Furthermore, the effectiveness of organizational commitment is that it is the one which is used for predicting the work variable for instance employees’ job performance, organizational citizenship behavior as well as business turnover. Factors for instance, employability, insecurity, and distribution of leadership are some of the issues which have shown a great impact on employees’ organizational commitment.

On the other hand, organizational commitment can be some extent is contrasted with various job-related attitudes for example job satisfaction. This refers to the feelings of employees about their job duties. Thus organizational identification comes as the extent at which a worker experiences a sense of oneness just within their business enterprise (Jex & Britt, 2008). In connection to that, below are the three models of organizational commitments which can be used to predict the extent at which a person can remain to be committed to his or her organization;

1. A) Affective commitment

Affective commitment can be termed as being the positive attachment of employees to their organization. Therefore, a worker who is effectively committed strongly ends up identifying the organizational goals as well as desiring to remain part of the organization. The reason as to why he or she commits himself or herself to the organization is just because he or she wants to. This then implies that such willingness is influenced by various demographic factors or characteristics for instance, education, age, sex, and tenure (Jex & Britt, 2008). Regardless of that, is should be noted that all of these influences are neither consistent nor strong. The only difficulty with them is that although they can be seen, it is equally impossible to define then clearly. 

Conversely, the positive relationship which exists between employee commitment and tenure comes as a result of the tenure-related differences in work quality and status.

1. B) Continuance commitment

This means the need component or just the gains verse the losses which comes as a result of working in a particular organization. Investments are typically the returns or losses which arise in case an employee opts to stay or leave his business organization (McCarthy et al, 2013). Therefore, this is to imply that an employee may decide to be committed to his or her organization because of the high cost of losing the job that he or she perceives. Some of the factors which will in turn cost his or her organizational membership after losing the job include economics (i.e. pension accruals), social expenses (for instance the friendship ties with his or her co-workers), and so on (Stiffler, 2000). Consequently, in case a person may not regard the positive costs as being sufficient to stay within his or her organization, he or she should of course take into account all the alternatives which are available. Some of cost which would be incurred leaving his or her organization includes considering moving to another organization, disrupting his or her personal relationship. The problem with these factors is that although they don’t evolve once, they end up accumulating with tenure and age.

1. C) Normative commitment

With normative commitment, what this means is that a worker commits to and will remain to be committed to his or her organization due to the feelings of obligation or responsibility. Such feeling are usually derived from the strain an individual experiences prior to and after joining a particular business organization (Stiffler, 2000). For instance, you might find that an organization had initially invested a lot in training a certain employee. Because of that such an employee may feel morally obliged when it comes to putting forth effort on his or her job. This will be connected to the desire of staying within such an organization in order to pay his or her debt. Yet, this can be due to the organization’s internal norm, which was already developed prior to the person joining it via socialization or family process that necessitates a person to be loyal to his or her organization. It implies that an employee will continue staying in a business organization just because he or she ought to.

Other than that, in case an employee extensively invests a great deal within his or her organization, he or she will end up receiving an advanced reward. Normative commitment remains to be of great relevance to business enterprises which values employee loyalty as well as systematically pass that information to all workers with incentives, rewards, and other strategies which are aimed at boosting their stay (Udechukwu, 2000). Moreover, it will also remain to be higher in case workers regularly witness their employers being committed to the well-being of their co-workers. Therefore, an employer how has extensive organizational commitment has higher chances of contributing a lot to the success of his or her organization hence experiencing a higher degree of job satisfaction.  Such satisfactions, in return, decrease the workers’ turnover as well as increasing the capability of the organization to recruit and train talent.

Regardless of the above models, what this means is that the management of employees at work is regarded as being an integral part of the enterprise’s management process. Through getting a clear picture of the importance of workers to a business organization, it then means that the management will recognize the fact that human element and organization are two factors which are synonymous (Udechukwu, 2000). Therefore, it is easy for a worker to be perceived by a well organized organization as the chief source of its quality or productivity gains. This is due to the fact that it considers workers as the fundamental source of its success and not capital investment.

Thus an organization will remain to be effective and efficient to the extent at which it desires to achieve its goals through employees. In accordance to this consideration and to the above three models, below are the various factors which causes someone to remain committed to his or her organization;

Employee motivating factors

Motivation, commitment and employee loyalty are important factors when it comes to the success of a business organization. Despite of the likes and dislikes of a person, it is important for employers to stay on top of the employees’ needs so as to limit high turnover rates (McCarthy et al, 2013). The presence of absence of extrinsic and or extrinsic factors has a great impact on workers motivation to remain loyal as well as committed to their organization.  These motivational factors include;

1) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation _ This kind of motivation usual occurs whenever an employee does something not because he or she is eyeing to be rewarded at the end but rather because he or she feels much satisfied with his duty. This can be based on the positively valued experiences that one receives and passionate that a workers experiences from the work he or she does.

On the other hand, extrinsic motivations are basically the actions exhibited by an individual because of the reward anticipated for. Because of this, it then means that employees who are motivated extrinsically tends to work extra harder because of either they are striving to realize something they desire, because they working towards of great implication or just to avoid something which has a negative implication to their organization (McCarthy et al, 2013).

2) Employee loyalty _ Employees’ loyalty often exist in an organization only when workers do believe in the goals or the set objectives of their organization and no the goals of their own, working for the common welfare as well as wanting to stay in the organization. It is seen as being an action which arises from honest motives. It can also be perceived as being a form of commitment which demands actions from a worker. Because of that, it then means that a person will continue to remain in an organization due his or her loyalty directed at the betterment of their working relationship (Davies et al, 2015). Thus, the loyalty of an employee is then expressed through ones’ feeling of belonging to that organization as well as the team of co-workers that he or she desires to help.

3) Job satisfaction _ this factor is commonly affected by the absence or the presence happiness which in return had a profound on the employees’ behaviors and commitment. It is just an emotional state which results from the appraisal or evaluation of one’s job experience. It is a concept which can be used to illustrate the degree at which a person feels about his or her works as well as the one’s willingness to quit his or her job (Udechukwu, 2000). It is typical the extent at which workers remain to contented with the job they are doing.

 Cognitive job satisfaction and effective job satisfaction are the forms of job satisfaction which how well a person fits in his organization or the job he or she is doing. For instance, effective job satisfaction determines employees’ pleasurable emotional feelings about their work while cognitive job satisfaction determines the extent at which employees will be satisfies with the various facets of their work e.g. pension management, wages and salaries or working hours (Davies et al, 2015). This then implies that in case a person is satisfied or believes in the work that he or she is offered, the quality and the quantity of his or her work will increase. Furthermore, this suggest that whenever an employee is satisfied with his or her job, it then remains to be the contingent upon which a person strives to achieve certain motivators. Employees can be in the position of achieving job satisfaction when it is only directly associated to the outcomes of the work itself as well as when they have that capacity of receiving recognition, attaining success, receiving promotional opportunities and so on (Gitman & McDaniel, 2008).

Whenever workers have at least everything they need with their current employer, it then means that they will never have any relevant reason of seeking employment in another organization. In return they will tend to remain committed and loyal to their organization.  Employees who are loyal and committed are usually that person who doesn’t feel the essence of working elsewhere other than within their enterprise, simply because they can’t manage working in a different environment. In other words, when advantages outweigh the disadvantages, workers will always find a precise reason for staying with an employer who openly appears to be caring about their professional and personal welfare.

4) Position and title _ The position or the title that a worker holds in a certain organization will obvious describe the job that they are required to execute so as to realize the set objectives of their company. It then suggests that the position or the title which is held by an employee is the motivation factor for him or her to perform a particular task. People often do move to other business organizations which has the capacity of offering them higher scales as well as the appealing of the work title (Lussier & Kimball, 2014). Equally, the title or position also reflects the employee’s level of income which in turn acts as the motivating factor of staying in such an organization.

5) Job security _ To any business organization, job security is greatest motivating factor amongst employees. Mostly, to an organization which doesn’t value the work of its employees, it then means that workers will tend to be less motivated and loyal to their organization whenever they perceive some sense of job insecurity. With respect to that, it then means when an organization appreciates the work done by employees, in return makes them to be confident that they will not be laid off (Herzberg et al, 1993). They will then to be more and more productive, satisfied hence remaining to be committed to their organization.

6) Promotion potential _ in any business environment, one of the cruel components which foster employer-employee relationship is usually the perception of job promotion. For instance, whenever a person feels like there are chances of him or her advancing or receiving a promotion or increase in salary, he or she will tend to be always willing to execute any task given (Gitman & McDaniel, 2008). Equally, he or she will take on responsibilities which will in return afford him or her opportunity of receiving positive recognition and the chances of advancing up. This makes employees to be more committed to his or her organization.

7) Working environment and Peer Corporation _ The work environment has a profound impact on the manner in which employees will remain to be attached to their workmates and their organization. A good working environment comprises of things like an improved personal relationship with employers, teammates, job security and so on (Gitman & McDaniel, 2008). Therefore, this means that when a worker is in the position of doing what he or she loves, believes in the mission and vision of their employer as well as surrounding himself or herself with the people that he or she enjoys working with, he or she will remain to be more committed to such an organization (T.q.m, 2011). Hostility in a working environment makes employees to be demoralized hence making the quality and quantity of their job to diminish. This lowers ones attachment to such an organization.

In addition to that, in this current competitive labor market, majority of workers desires to be in a good working environment within their organization. This remains to be the case always because it the workplace which provides an image of the daily lives of all the people that comes to work , execute their duties as well as living within the framework of the company’s regulations (Mathe et al, 2012). Working environment is an important assortment of individuals who have diverse interests, lifestyle and personalities, who comes together for a common objective.

Therefore, workers who are happy end up creating a conducive environment which consists of efficiency and enjoyment. Thus an employee will enjoy working or thriving in an organization which has the capability of creating a positive work environment. A business organization which always solves any form of conflict within employees plays a significant role in motivating an employee (T.q.m, 2011). Nonetheless, collaboration amongst peer workers enables a good working relationship among employees. This motivates an employee to continue staying in such of an organization because he or she will not bear the burden of losing such a working relationship (Cassidy & Kreitner, 2009).

8) Employee benefits _ This comprises of things like compensation cost, occupational earnings, incidence, or provision of workers benefit plan. In most cases, workers do expect at least a core benefit for their health care, paid leave and pension and this means any employer how cannot manage to offer such will ultimately be faced by difficulties of hiring employees (Davies et al, 2015). Then this is to suggest that the benefits an employer receives from his or her organization is the one which has the capacity of retaining workers as well as making them to be loyal. In rapidly competitive environment, at times one business organization may be offering different employee benefits as compared to another (T.q.m, 2011). The benefits of the company which will appear to be more attractive will be the one which will retain a worker more so in this competitive labor market.

Conclusion

Regardless of the industry in which one works, every business organization owner will desire to recruit, hire, or train workers, who will in turn be motivated towards advancing its set objects, realizing its visions, as well as strengthening the organization’s internal and external relationship or association. In connection to that, an employee will be exhibiting either effective, normative or continuance commitment within his or her organization. This is to say that in case a worker is effectively committed, he or she will have no option but to remain committed to that organization, not just because he is forced to but because of the emotional attachment with it. When he or she exhibits continuance commitment, he or she will opt to stay with the owner of that organization, not because of the emotional attachment but because he or she recognizes the financial expenses linked with quieting the job. So he or she will be forced to remain so as to avoid such expenses. With regard to normative commitment and in association with the above discussed factors, an employer will opt to remain committed within that organization because he or she feels that he ought to and not because of their agenda with the respective employer. Finally, motivation either extrinsic or intrinsic is an important driving force as well as the deciding factor for whether or not a worker will remain committed or leave an organization.

Reference

Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2008). Organizational psychology: A scientist-practitioner approach. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.

Stiffler, K. L. (2000). Direct support staff perceptions of frontline supervisor's skills: Correlation with organizational commitment and intent to leave. Minneapolis: Capella University.

Udechukwu, I. I. (2000). The relationship between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intentions to quit, and perceived alternative employment in the assessment of employee turnover: A study of correctional officers. Fort Lauderdale: Nova Southeastern University.

McCarthy, S., Jaafar, J., Kamal, A., & Zubai, A. (2013). Psychology at Work in Asia: Proceeds of the 3rd and 4th Asian Psychological Association Conferences and the 4th International Conference on Organizational Psychology. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

In Davies, S. J., In Hertig, C. A., & In Gilbride, B. P. (2015). Security supervision and management: The theory and practice of asset protection.

Total quality management. (2011). Delhi: Pearson.

Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., Snyderman, B. B., & Herzberg, F. (1993). The motivation to work. New Brunswick [N.J.: Transaction Publishers.

Gitman, L. J., & McDaniel, C. D. (2008). The future of business: The essentials. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.

Lussier, R. N., & Kimball, D. C. (2014). Applied sport management skills.

Mathe, H., Pavie, X., & O'Keeffe, M. (2012). Valuing people to create value: An innovative approach to leveraging motivation at work. Singapore: World Scientific.

Cassidy, C., & Kreitner, R. (2009). Supervision: Setting people up for success. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Assignment 1: Discussion in Managing Finance

            The cost of capital refers to the debt, equity or a combination of two used by a business in funding its operations. The cost in using debt in financing the business is normally clear and known as the interest. The cost of using equity is not always clear but can be calculated and it normally appears to be higher than the cost of using borrowed money (Baker & Powell, 2005). The cost of capital therefore means the cost of goods or services that are to be sold. It is normal that businesses aim at selling at higher prices than the cost of goods in order to maintain the business. Cost of capital may also refer to the value of the total assets in the business and it is measured using the return on assets. Firms that have their return on assets higher than cost of capital have their economic value of the book increasing, those with return on asset equal to the capital have their economic value of the book unchanged (Baker & Powell, 2005). Whereas those with their return on assets lower than the economic value of the book have their assets being destroyed.

            To calculate the difference in cost and risk, we must put into consideration that the higher the expected risk the lower the present value thus the level of riskiness is measured by the returns expected from an investment. The cost of capital is got by calculating the debt and equity separately

Where Debt capital = interest on the debt

              Equity           = return from risk-free

               Cost of capital equity =risk free rate + market price premium (Baker & Powell, 2005)

            It is important for organizations to understand the external financing costs and risks helps the business to decide on whom to borrow basing on the costs and the returns (Baker & Powell, 2005).

            Rapid growth plans are important to a small company because they are motivating factors to employees and give a positive image to customers which can eventually result into a faster success (Baker & Powell, 2005).

            The best ways to fund a growing business is through self funding the business until it is evidently realistic. Growing businesses can also be funded through friends to gather up the initial capital (Baker & Powell, 2005). They can also be funded through small business loans or angel investors. These forms of funding are basic for a growing company since it cannot go for a big loan for the start due to uncertainty of the business.

References

Baker, H. K., & Powell, G. E. (2005). Understanding Financial Management: A Practical Guide. Oxford: Blackwell Pub.

BIOTECHNOLOGY BUSINESS

Johnson Bakery business organization

Reflections from this small scale case study

Introduction

Business management refers to all the activities which are directed at successfully running a business, for example leading, organizing, controlling, planning, and monitoring (Dumas, 2013).  As an entrepreneur, starting a business venture is perceived as being a huge achievement to him or her. Other than that, having the required knowledge, skill, and adequate resources of maintaining it is also another challenge.  There exist multiple challenges which are faced by various small scale business enterprises. This includes things like the building of the brand, hiring and training of employees and so on. However, there is a number of management issues that are typical to small scale business which of course large scale businesses have managed to grow out of long ago.

Regardless of the various favorable attributes that a small business organization has, it is still struggling to survive in a hostile environment. Many entrepreneurs running a small venture are always facing capital restrictions but no when it comes to investment in equipments and machinery. Contrary to that, funds that can be used for investing in fixed assets are frequently accessible and this is the reason as to why small business organizations are perceived to be having a large unused capacity of funds (Nieuwenhuizen & Erasmus, 2007). The commonly encountered financial constraints for majority of the owners of such businesses are getting the working capital. 

In most instances, only few sources are readily available for supplying small scale business entrepreneurs with the necessary funds which can be used for buying raw materials and intermediates, settle the wages of the workers and so on. On the other hand, owners of small scale business are in the position of enjoying multiple advantages unlike large competitors. For instance they have the capacity and flexibility of making decisions quickly as well as developing a close personal relationship with their clients hence creating customer loyalty (Nieuwenhuizen et el, 2008). However, there exist multiple situations in which small ventures are faced with difficulty of keeping pace with other large corporations.

With respect to the above case study carried out, management of employees, finances and marketing of the business are the three main issues which are faced by the owner. In connection to that, their analyses from the perspective of the owner as well as recommendations are discussed below. 

1. A) Problem of managing employees effectively

Analysis

For small business ventures, things are not always easy as it might be taught to be. No matter how hard the owner might try, problems will never end. This is to say that there will always be fires to put out or an issue to solve. The greatest challenge which is always under-resourced in such business is the management of people. By not having the right choice of people with the needed talents required for executing a particular task is an impediment to business growth (McGarvey & Hannon, 2004). Nowadays, most successful business revolves around people and not capital.

In a number of occasions, small scale business organizations lack the capacity of offering workers’ benefits, especially health insurance. At times, such businesses have insufficient workers who will qualify inexpensive group insurance rates. Despite that, in order to make premiums affordable, they may be required to produce high-deductible plans through which workers will be forced to bear a relatively higher health care burden. Moreover, the general lack of benefits hinders small business owners from attracting as well as retaining talented employees who might be able to find extra comprehensive returns packages from other large corporate employees (McGarvey & Hannon, 2004). This then means that every would-be entrepreneur ought to have a greater consideration to the people to be employed.

Through moving from the owner or founder of this business to the point of employees situation in which there is the delegation of duties, what this means is the people ought to be managed efficiently. This tipping point involves the human resource (HR) delegation of duties within each department, recruitment of employees and training, leadership, workloads and compensation.  This then implies that this point is repeated regularly in case there is the existence of extra employees to be managed directly by the owner of the business (Machado & Melo, 2014). It can also exist whenever geographically distinct offices are to be set up or functional teams are to be established for each department.

Whenever there is the need of coming up with new strategies, managing of employees entails ensuring that they are moving from their work opportunistic approach to accepting to execute any task which is available in the business (Cooper & Burke, 2007). In return this will evolve a focused strategy which will be aimed at targeting specific types of job and client as well as developing market opportunities for a particular brand. Repeating of the same activity will only is effective when new products are to be developed, entering new markets, when a new model arises or when new competition arises.

Recommendations

1. a) Hiring _ the owner of the business should make sure that he has hired in individuals who are trainable in case he can manage to hire the eagle.
2. b) Management of employees _ as a visionary entrepreneur, he should works towards engaging all of his workers. Through engaging them it implies that his workers will be emotionally committed towards the organization and its set objectives. This emotional dedication will then mean that all of those workers who will be engaged will end up caring about their company and their duties (Machado & Melo, 2014). They will therefore work on behalf of the goals of their business venture unlike working towards receiving a promotion or monthly credit alert.
3. c) Training and development _ the owner of such a business should ensure that he has sponsored his employees for various courses through sending them to programs which will enable them improve their knowledge and skills. An example of this, are those training which are aimed at improving selling skills of employees, customer care services, productivity, public relations or communication skills.

1. d) Reward and recognition award_ it is important to be in the position of encouraging, rewarding, motivating, and recognizing all the jobs which are well executed (McGarvey & Hannon, 2004). Nothing really inspires a worker like an honest thank you hug from his or her boss. It just makes him or her to feel more important and appreciated hence he or she will try and repeat the feat which had earned him or her that hug. Regardless of that, excessive use of phrases like thank you or well done have to be avoided.
2. e) Documentation _ in most cases, success business organizations are run on procedures, processes, and systems. By having all this in place, it means that the business will run efficiently and consistently (Cooper & Burke, 2007). When it comes to the issue which deals with procedures, anything that the owner does more than once will belongs in the operations manual. Even if the job is run by one person, he should it like he has the plans of growing the business and franchises it.
3. B) Financial management

Analysis

 Cash inflow_ The inflow of cash is the most significant issue to majority of small scale business organizations. For instance, it cannot be of any relevance having a profitable upcoming quarter which is already signed on a dotted line, in case its payroll doesn’t have enough funds for settling the wages of employees. A business which end up booking revenue in advance, but in return does no manage to realize income for a couple of months must be careful with its timing. Although its future ledger might end up showing nothing else but green, in case the cash at hand dips into the red, a crisis might erupt any time for which the revenue available cannot manage to contain it (Ghuman & Aswathappa, 2010). Therefore, for effective running of the business, the owner needs to ensure that the lines of credit are well maintained so that they can be able to keep track of the cash inflow.

Unforeseen expenses _Start-up business organizations often run closer to the bone and might be profitable as long as various unplanned events never occurs. Even a small percentage of expenses incurred, for example an increase in the cost of goods or one-time tax levied by the government on a small region, might end up causing a significant change in the bottom line of cash. Thus for the sake of long-term profitability, small scale business owner keeps maintains or regulates the changes in costs which in return helps him or her to keep track of the overall liquidity of the business.

Obtaining financing_ usually small scale business organizations are faced with greater challenges obtaining finances needed for running the business unlike larger ones. Banks are always reluctant in lending money to some un-established small business ventures. This makes entrepreneur to only rely on home equity loans or credit cards for survival. The reason for this is because they may have enough assets which are required for collateralizing a business loan. Lack of finances prevents small scale business owner from expanding his operations unless resorting franchising or seeking investor (Charantimath, 2006).

Keeping track of the money that a business makes is perceived as being one of the significant step or aspect of running a business. This entails recognizing its sources, the manner in which it is going to be spent as well as the returns that is expected from its expenditure. As the business continues to grow, it is expected that the owner will be enjoying the economies of scale hence managing his or her finances on a manual sheet of paper cannot be the wisest step to take (Ghuman & Aswathappa, 2010).

In most case, majority of small business owners do find that they lack the efficient time of managing their books of accounts. This is because most of the time they are so burdened with the work of running the business. Additionally, they cannot afford to hire an accountant or to keep the accounting records by themselves.

By having enough cash either in hand or at bank is essential for any business organization. This is because it is the vital resource which is used for offsetting various bills. For the sake of the business, he should recognize that he is likely to emerge as a capital drains which puts pressure on the business. Therefore, when starting a business, it is obvious that the owner ought to be heavily capitalized or be in the position of picking up extra income which will be used to shore up cash reserves whenever needed (F.f.m, 2015). This is the reason as to why mostly small business enterprises do start out with owners working a job as well as building his or her organization simultaneously. Although, this split focus can ultimately make the business to experience difficulties in growing, equally running out of cash makes growing a business enterprise impossible.

Nonetheless, managing of the business finances becomes of great significance when cash is flowing to the owner or into the enterprise. Regardless of the fact that, handling the accounts and taxes of the business can be within the owner’s capabilities, seeking professional help is equally a wise idea.

Recommendations

1. a) The owner should ensure that he has maintained a good accounting record. This will assist in ensuring that all the cash transactions have been tracked down so as to avoid any form of leakage in financial transactions
2. b) Period financial reports ought to be prepared chronologically by the owner through the use of the services form other professional accounts or by employing a qualified accountant (f.m, 2015). In the long run, this step will ensure that the owner has the capacity of maintaining strong financial position.
3. c) Moreover, the owner should not to use cash as the measure of the performance of his business. He should make use of the financial report for that. This is because majority of the entrepreneurs only do run on cash basis. They thus do end up monitoring the inflow of cash without considering their debt position.
4. d) The owner should come up with a strong credit policy system. The importance of this is that it will make him to ensure that the account receivable period is relatively shorter that the account payable period (Ghuman & Aswathappa, 2010).
5. e) He should also seek the service of a financial consultant who will assist him to maintain a strong financial position.
6. C) MARKETING CHALLENGE

Analysis

Marketing refers to the management process which is used for moving goods and services from the concept to the consumer. It entails the coordination of for elements which are termed as 4 P’s marketing.  The first one is product identification, selection, and development. The second one is the determining the price of that product. The third one is selecting the distribution channel to be used in ensuring the product reach the customer’s plane and the last one is developing as well as implementing of a promotional strategy (Ray, 2015).

Marketing strategy refers to the act of ensuring that messages of a business organization are in the position of addressing the needs of its customers. Therefore, the need of looking for new clients, the use of engaging marketing information which has the ability of generating results, implementation of business venture oriented marketing procedures and systems, and the inability of committing or allocating the time required for executing a particular task are some of the marketing challenges faced for this case study (Charantimath, 2006).

The management of the business need to recognize the fact that marketing is business development. Therefore, effective marketing involves recognizing and complete understanding of the business’s targets market as well as the environment of its potential customers. There exist no secrets for thriving marketing. As the owner of the business, he should not be misled by some marketing gurus who end up promoting market secrets which can only realized through attending seminars and pricey workshops (Ray, 2015). The principles which govern business marketing are well known and established. What the owner needs to recognize and do is achieving better marketing results through using directs response offers in promoting as well as building their business.

Marketing is typically based on the owner’s thinking about his business in terms of the needs of the customers as well as their satisfaction. Marketing is not the same as selling.  Selling is only concerned with the techniques and tricks which are going to make people to exchange their money for your product. Moreover, it is not concerned with the business transaction values. For marketing, the aim should be to integrate all the efforts which will assist in discovering, creating, arousing, and satisfying the needs of customers (Charantimath, 2006).  In other works, the act of marketing should not be perceived as getting consumers to pay for the product that the business will be offering. So it is a complex step which comprises of developing a demand for the product offered and fulfilling the needs of the customers in return.

Recommendation

Finding new customers and clients

With the issue which deals with finding new customers and clients, what should be known is that it entails recognizing who the business customers are. This involves knowing the best customers, their buying motivations, their buying or purchasing criteria, and their purchasing cycle. A comprehensive and intimate conceptualizing of all these points allows the business to develop an ideal customer profiles (Paliwal et al, 2013).  Appropriate marketing messages that are significant and powerful can then be used.

As the owner of the business progresses in recognizing his potential customers and clients in his target markets, the existing customers and clients should not be overlooked.  Although it is vital to grow the opportunities of the business with new customers and clients, the database of the old customers and clients is of great significance during communicating with them (Quarter et al, 2010).

Engaging marketing messages which has the ability of generating results

In the owner truly desires to realize immediate as well as quantifiable market results, he should be able to use direct response marketing offers. He should not waste his precious time engaging in ‘feel good or hopeful’ marketing by just using image building and purely branding advertising. The reason behind this is that majority of small scale businesses afford the expenses associate with branding and image building advertising for a long period. This is an activity which can be managed by large companies. In order for the business to engage marketing messages which end up driving marketing results, the owner should time his message with the customers’ purchasing cycle, use emotive language, and create a sense of urgency whilst responding to his offers and so on (Paliwal et al, 2013). 

Implementing business oriented marketing systems

The owner of this business ought to realize that by having effective and efficient business systems, he will be in the position of driving his profitability as well as allowing his organization to operate its daily processes continuously (Quarter et al, 2010). Therefore, he should develop correct marketing strategies and mix of sales, implement the required IT and other communication infrastructure and recognize the essence of testing, tracking and improving his marketing skills. 

References

Dumas, M. (2013). Fundamentals of business process management. Berlin: Springer.

Nieuwenhuizen, C., & Erasmus, B. (2007). Business management for entrepreneurs. Cape Town: Juta.

Nieuwenhuizen, C., Rossouw, D., & Badenhorst, J. A. (2008). Business management: A contemporary approach. Cape Town, South Africa: Juta.

McGarvey, B., & Hannon, B. M. (2004). Dynamic modeling for business management: An introduction. New York: Springer.

In Machado, C., & In Melo, P. (2014). Effective human resources management in small and medium enterprises: Global perspectives.

Cooper, C. L., & Burke, R. J. (2007). Human Resource Management in Small Business: Achieving Peak Performance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub.

Cooper, C. L., & Burke, R. J. (2007). Human Resource Management in Small Business: Achieving Peak Performance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub.

Ghuman, K., & Aswathappa, K. (2010). Management: Concept, practice and cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.

Charantimath, P. M. (2006). Entrepreneurship development and small business enterprises. New Delhi: Pearson Education.

Fundamentals of financial management. (2015).

Ray, N. (2015). Emerging innovative marketing strategies in the tourism industry

Charantimath, P. M. (2006). Entrepreneurship development and small business enterprises. New Delhi: Pearson Education.

Paliwal, P., Singh, R., & Yadav, S. (2013). Cases in business marketing. New Delhi: McGraw Hill Education.

Quarter, J., Mook, L., & Ryan, S. (2010). Researching the social economy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

            Integrated Approach to Technology

            A technical architecture can provide a competitive advantage to the corporation by utilizing the knowledge gained while serving customers in solving problems.  The architecture can, therefore, develop the knowledge of the business in helping the corporation solve issues (Soudagar, Iyer, & Hildebrand, 2012). Customer experience refers to the interaction of product between the corporation and its customers over certain duration of time. The architecture is therefore necessitated to create an interaction between the firm and the customers by creating, customer’s awareness, attraction, cultivation, discovery and utilization and purchase of the product.  The architecture can, therefore, help the corporation in designing an accurate experience oriented proposition value (Soudagar, Iyer, & Hildebrand, 2012).  This is achieved by dividing consumers into different segments in order to design and implement a design oriented value portion for each. This is essential in gaining a competitive advantage because the needs of the customers are thus classified depending on the segment which increases convenience.  In addition, the architecture can help the corporation in designing strategies to deliver value to the consumers.  This can, therefore, be achieved by giving full focus to the entire corporation on the delivery of value. The CRM tools can assist in storing the consumer’s information in one location where all departments can access easily.  In addition development of the capabilities of the corporation to deliver value over time can assist. This us because those corporation’s that utilize the superior experience of the customers develop the abilities of continuously pleasing the customers (Soudagar, Iyer, & Hildebrand, 2012).

            Vodafone is an example of a corporation that utilizes an integrated strategy in achieving technological effectiveness. Unlike other corporations which utilize traditional strategies of segmenting the consumers on the basis of location, the corporation segments the consumers into high priority international segments (Alkhatib, & Rine, 2009). This includes active, fun, young, seasonal users and others where the designing of the segments the experience of the customers is a priority. The corporation offers the seasonal users with simple mobiles which are straight forward to increase satisfaction.  The young, fun and active users are offered with products that provide everything in one product including games, music and others which boost the experience (Alkhatib, & Rine, 2009).

            References

Alkhatib, G., & Rine, D. C. (2009). Integrated approaches in information technology and web     engineering: Advancing organizational knowledge sharing. Hershey, PA: Information   Science Reference.

Soudagar, R., Iyer, V., & Hildebrand, V. (2012). The customer experience edge: Technology and             techniques for delivering an enduring, profitable and positive experience to your   customers. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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

            Are HR Metrics and Workforce Analytics Truly Necessary?

            The organization data and the ability to utilize data have influenced the adoption of decision supports (Yount, 2011).  This is factor have thus increased the need to improve the efficiency of the organization management. This has influenced HR metrics and analysis of the workforce because they are associated with the ability to develop suitable decisions which are guided by the objectives of the organization.  This helps also in the development of a workforce working routine which is highly required in the organization of duties which leads to increased production (Yount, 2011).

            Another factor is that the scorecards are essential as they focus on the advancing and leading performance indicators from essential viewpoints (Yount, 2011). This helps in the development of ideas because they focus on things that already happened than what supposed to happen.  This, therefore, influences the increase of the adoption of HR metrics and analysis of the workforce. The need for high performance and efficiency is the other factor which influences the workforce analysis and the HR metrics as they are associated with speed and effectiveness since they provide the managers with adequate information (Yount, 2011).  In addition, the analysis tries to understand how the needs of the organization capital can change due to changes to different organizational aspects (Yount, 2011).

            Cost justification can be done by utilization of value-added, risk avoidance, enhancement of the organization and evolution strategies (Reddick, 2012).  The evolution strategy involves the approach of automation manually as the utilization of the web leads to increased costs and therefore value added approach is an essential than the reduction cost and it explains measures. The enhancement strategy of the organization leads to decreased or increased costs because of the improved HRIS. Value added strategy helps the organization in performing better as it helps in upgrading systems (Reddick, 2012).

            References

Shane Yount.(2011).The power of HR metrics: growth, performance, sustainment. Retrieved       from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJRHRxa6O7s

Reddick, C. G. (2012). Public administration and information technology. Burlington, MA:         Jones & Bartlett Learning.

            Modern Management Follows Up Question Wk 3

            I agree on moral justice and practical approaches help in solving issues in an organization thus achieving efficiency. This is because the moral approach allows an individual to work m based on his or her own liberty of making a decision. The justice approach helps in providing guidance to an individual in order to work as required because it enables them to identify what is the right thing to do and the process of making a decision is therefore based on the professional standards. In addition, the approach helps one in evaluating the outcomes of their decisions and how the decisions might impact the objectives of the organization. I, therefore, agree that a practical approach is essential in solving long-term issues in the organization like inventory theft as this may reduce the corporation’s performance. Additionally, I agree that the major issue faced by entrepreneurs is hiring of skilled expertise in order to provide better services.  This at times proves to bear challenge as the corporation requires large finances to sustain the workers (Wang, 2010).

            Managerial groups are likely to make advanced and beneficial decisions than individualized decisions. This is because the decisions that are made in groups are more evaluated which helps in eliminating issues (Wang, 2010). In addition, the decisions are more likely to increase production because they are based on different ideas of the involved individuals.  The individual decision is likely to be founded on self-interest and therefore they may not yield desired results in the future.  For instance, manager should consider group decision in the case where the decision process is aimed to affect all the employees and the stakeholders (Wang, 2010). This decision involves making changes to the values and principles of the organization which may thus require distinct perspective from different managerial expertise’s in order for the decision to be successful.

            Reference

Wang, C. (2010). Managerial decision making and leadership: The essential pocket strategy        book. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

PERSONNEL ADMIN IN PUBLIC SECTOR

            Cost is the range in which business replace workers that leaves the work place or is fired. Each time an employee leaves, another must be hired and trained. If the replacement of workers is high, the inexperienced workers could be training the new ones.  Executives of a business show that the replacement rates vindicate and this problem is caused by the low inferiority of the candidates.  These organizational leaders conclude that training is spending and wasting a lot of money as after all, they will just quit or get fired.  While this notion comes into the executives’ minds, the company is likely to be understaffed while the existing members are overworked which makes them annoyed and they quit.  Skilled employees do not stay at those places where a lot of them quit in their first working months as they do not feel comfortable, competent or appreciated (Jaszay & Dunk,2003). 

            These workers feel that the business is not worthwhile, due to mismanagement. For the workers to stay, the working environment should be conducive and satisfy their customers.  Replacement can be the fault of the management of the organization, in that they may have had hired the wrong workers, did not train them properly and they did not manage the resources well.  Thus it is the management’s responsibility to prospect on the future predicaments to head off future problems by starting on the right track through developing new ways of hiring and training employees.  Research shows that each time an organization replaces salaried employee, it costs the executive team almost a 6 to 9 months’ salary on average in recruiting and training new employees. Replacement is viewed to differ by salary and the character of the employee (Jaszay & Dunk, 2003).

Reference

Jaszay, C., & Dunk, P. (2003). Training design for the hospitality industry. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Learning.           

The Sponge Bed

Founded by: Emily Buck, Niklas Helmick, Navya Maddali , Wesley Turner, Kunhong Yao

Executive Summary

The Sponge Bed, founded by a team of five college students, was a product launched with a goal in mind. The Sponge Bed is a product designed so that you never have to clean dishes with a dirty sponge again. Our unique product is a sponge disinfectant which sanitizes sponges using UV lighting. Our competition are companies that use soap cleaner to clean sponges, which includes companies like Lysol wipes or Bounty. This reusable product differentiates itself from competitors because it extends the lifespan of a household product, the sponge, and provides a cleaning agent that will be sanitary for your dishes. This environmentally friendly product targets the Generation X middle class homeowners, who will use our easy 3-step setup guide to easily transform their dirty, food particle filled sponge brand new again.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to promote a healthier lifestyle to our customers while offering an environmentally friendly product by reducing waste.

The Marketing Environment

Demography: (Opportunity) The biggest demographic category is age, and in the United States today, there are currently 3 different age groupings of the population, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and The Millennials. Generation X, consists of about 51 million people, and contains people who were born from 1965-1976. This generation of people have adapted to modern technology, and put it to use. The people at this age also have families and households, and that is why we are targeting this generation as an opportunity for The Sponge Bed. Although this is the smallest of the three groupings of the United States demography, they are the most educated, and will receive our product very well. The Sponge bed is a practical product for the average family to have in their home, and by marketing it to this Demographic, we will see the best results.

Economic: (Opportunity) The current economic trends in the United States depict consumer spending as key fuel to the growth of the economy. Plus, income growth has improved. For Sponge Bed, we see this as an opportunity to push our product. Our low price of $24.99 is very affordable for our target market. Additionally, increased household cash flow would lead people to be looking for a product like Sponge Bed; A product that will save them money in the long run with a small initial investment in the short run.

Natural: (Opportunity)  Recently, many articles have been released stating about the cleanliness of sponges. In fact, the average household sponge is 200,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat and the bacteria count amounts to 10 million bacteria per square inch. The bacteria found in these sponges is far from harmful, and could lead to serious sickness and even paralysis. This is a huge opportunity and selling point for The Sponge Bed because the Sponge bed gets rid of all of this bacteria. Typically, you need a cleaning agent of above 60 degrees Celsius combined with disinfectant to thoroughly clean a sponge. Instead, consumers who purchase our product would receive a tool that cleans their sponge effortlessly, and hands free. By providing this information to the consumers, we would be able to steer them to buy our product to keep their kitchen safe and sanitary.

Technology:  

Political: (Opportunity) The political microenvironment consists of regulations, pressures from government agencies, social movements in society, and influences from the political environment. As of recently, there has been a social movement towards environmentally conscious products. The lifespan of regular sponges is only six to eight weeks, which means a lot of waste is created by people replacing the sponges. Also, each sponge takes over a year to decompose, which means they would have to be placed in landfills. The Sponge Bed solves these problems, and goes a step further. The Sponge Bed’s sponges come with a lifetime warranty, but are recommended to be changed every 6 months. Another social movement being made is household cleanliness. Today, there is a lot of modern medicine, but there are also a lot of ways to get sick. As mentioned before, an average sponge contains millions of bacteria that carry many illnesses. The Sponge bed solves this problem as well. The UV rays not only disinfect the sponge, but leave it free of any harmful bacteria.

Bibliography:

1. McCain, Bruce. "Five Key Economic Trends to Watch in 2016." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016
2. Williams, Amanda. "The Kitchen Sponge Is 200,000 times Dirtier than a Toilet Seat - and Could Even Lead to PARALYSIS." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
3. "Generation X and The Millennials: What You Need to Know About Mentoring the New Generations." Generation X and The Millennials: What You Need to Know About Mentoring the New Generations. Diane Thielfold and Devon Scheef, Aug. 2004. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.

Consumer Buyer Behavior

The Sponge Bed is a premier household cleaning product targeted to 30 year old middle-class homeowners, mainly with families. As a new and unfamiliar brand in the familiar product category of household cleaning items, customers will go through a limited decision making process when choosing our product. During this decision process the customer will want to research our product through customer reviews to determine that it is a reliable product that delivers the benefits as advertised. Other information search resources that would allow our target customer to become aware of the benefits of The Sponge Bed are informational brochures and sales associates. As the first item of its kind, there will need to be an informational aspect presented in The Sponge Bed marketing plan to guide customers to their purchasing decision.

Culture:

Culture is a large influential factor for any consumers buyer behavior. As it will ultimately drive the decision as to who will purchase The Sponge Bed, understanding the potential cultural values of our target customer is an important part of the overall marketing strategy. Generation X is the basis of our target market as they are likely to make purchases that will improve the lifestyle of themselves and their families. This will create the customer’s need for the project and drive their purchase decision.

The “green” and environmental factor that The Sponge Bed offers, by reducing waste and extending the life cycle of the common sponge, is also a contributing factor of the cultural buying behavior of the customer. The idea that of being “eco-friendly” by buying our product will generate a want for the product for consumers that are consciously aware of their impact on the environment, which is a general cultural characteristic of Generation X.

Personal: When considering the purchase of The Sponge Bed, consumers will think of how it can benefit both themselves along with the rest of their family. The head of the household will more than likely be the one considering the purchase, and knowing that it will improve the lifestyle and health of their family will greatly influence their purchase decision.

Another personal aspect of the target customers buying behavior will be their economical status. Although The Sponge Bed has long term economical benefits by extending the life of the kitchen sponge and ultimately reducing the need to buy replacement sponges, the initial cost will be a considering factor for families that don’t have excess funds. Due to this initial cost, our product is targeted to middle class families under the category of Generation X.

Psychological: There are a handful of psychological factors that will effect a potential customer's decision buying process. Someone who is not inhabited with a clean lifestyle wouldn't be concerned with cleaning with a disinfected sponge and therefore would not be interested in purchasing The Sponge Bed. On the other hand, a head of the household, who is concerned about the health and wellbeing of their children, along with their own, would be interested in an item that will help to keep surfaces cleaner and more sanitary. A customer who is environmentally cautious would be interested in a sustainable product such as The Sponge Bed, which reduces waste from paper towels and disposable sponges.  

Part of the marketing strategy for The Sponge Bed will be to educate potential customers as to how dirty the typical kitchen sponge is. This will generate a need for our product and create a larger potential customer base. It is suggested that your common kitchen sponge is replaced every two weeks, however the average user keeps them for much longer. Through advertisements and infomercials, making these facts known will make consumers aware that our product will be beneficial to them.

Social: Social factors will also come into play, as our product will be marketed towards primary middle-class customers. Low income families will not be looking to purchase excess household cleaning products and will usually stick to necessities. The upper class is more likely to have a cleaning company for their house, and would therefore not worry about a product such as The Sponge Bed. The middle-class will act as the target market, as they usually clean and have the available funds to purchase premium items such as The Sponge Bed.

Segmenting/Targeting

Geographic:

            Continent: North America

            Country: United States of America

            Neighborhood: Urban/City

Population Density: 500,000+

We have chosen these specific demographics to because it targets areas of high pollution and dust. This geographical target market is very populated and already suffers from increased pollution. Consumers that are aware of their cities’ pollution will be more inclined to purchase The Sponge Bed as they are conscious of the need to deal with the increased dust and mold in their homes. Our main target cities include New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, suffer from an increased amount of cigarette smoke, gas stoves, leaky roofs, water damage that lead to mold contamination, cockroach and mouse infestation approximately three times more than suburban homes. Targeting these areas will give us access to more people than if we were to target small towns in the mid-west.

Demographic:

            Age: 18+

            Gender: Male and Female

            Family Size: Any

            Income: $35,000+

            Occupation: Any

            Life-Cycle Stage: Young, single, single-parent, family with children, married

            Religion: Any

            Ethnicity: Any

            Race: Any

            Generation: Generation X

We are targeting mainly middle class-families in the Generation X demographic. This generation includes anyone born between 1965 and 1976. Most of the Generation Xers are parents, that put their family first, both children and aging parents, and career second. This generation prefers quality more than quantity that embraces the benefits of new technology. This generation is also the most educated generation to date and possess hefty purchasing power and therefore are the perfect consumers for our product. As this generation is knowledgeable about their environment, they understand the importance of keeping their household clean and prevent their children and parents from getting sick. Our product does not discriminate against any demographic markets and can also apply to other generations that include cooking and household cleaning in their daily lifestyle. With the increasing population in this country, homes will only get dirtier and require more maintenance. Without the proper upkeep of a home, children and adults can develop asthma and other chronic diseases. Our product, The Sponge Bed, targets those in any stage of the life cycle: young, single, single-parent, etc. as everyone involves cleaning into their daily routine.

Psychographic:

            Social Class: Middle Class

            Lifestyle: Succeeders and Explorers

            Personality: Ambitious

As we are targeting those with a middle class income, our target market will belong to the middle class that will have intermediate or higher managerial, administrative, or professional positions such as managers, directors, bank clerks, etc. We assume that most of our consumers will be those that do household chores such as cleaning and cooking daily. This could be anyone from a single working women to a father of four. Our consumers put value into their house and are ones to keep their homes very tidy. Our consumers are those that like their space clean and organized with the security that their dishes and surfaces are sanitary and spotless. We target the psychographic areas through our design. From our slim shape, lifetime warranty, excellent quality, and product design, we appeal as a classical item that is appealing to all. We are targeting Succeeders as they have good work ethic, organized, stability, must have the best, and attracted to caring and protective brands such as something we see ourselves as. The Sponge Bed cares for its environment and only provides the best quality to its customers. We are also targeting Explorers as they look for the experience, challenge, new frontiers that are different, adventurous, and willing to try new brands. This target lifestyle group is pertinent to our product as it is one of a kind on the market. Our consumers will have an ambitious personality that are willing to try to change from their old habits of simply throwing out dirty sponges to being friendly to the environment and reuse their sponge for 6 months with our product.

Behavioral:  

Consumers will benefit from the quality and convenience of The Sponge Bed. It’s easy 3-step setup guide will clearly explain how to properly insert the sponge into the “bed”, close the cover, and simply plug it into an outlet! Therefore, making this very user friendly and also as it would be used everyday, would make our product have a heavy usage rate and used on a regular occasion. We guarantee that our sponge bed will last many years with its lifetime warranty, but we recommend our customers change their sponge every six months. Therefore, we will retain our existing customers as our sponges have the utmost quality and durability that our customers will continue to buy from us. Upon release, everyone will be first-time users, but we guarantee that our product will be highly beneficial that we will have users coming back to our brand and therefore will be “hard core loyals”. Those that switch from the normal household sponge to our durable sponge will never be able to switch back after seeing the benefits and handiness of The Sponge Bed. Our customers will see the difference it makes in their daily lives, especially with the convenience of The Sponge Bed disinfecting the sponge in a matter of 15 minutes and able for reuse elsewhere. First we must provide awareness of our company and the brand as The Sponge Bed is new to the market. The target may not be aware of the need to change a sponge so often or unaware that this product even exists.

Position Statement

For homeowners who clean with sponges, The Sponge Bed is a cleaning product that disinfects sponges to make them reusable and sanitary.

Product

Describe your product using the three levels of product and explain why it would appeal to your customer. What are the benefits that address your customers’ needs and wants?

What is your Consumer-Goods Classification and what significance classification has to your company’s marketing execution? Explain your product’s brand name. Describe your packaging and what role[s] it may play in marketing and selling your product.

Pages 200- 215 in the book

convience product

Product quality

Product features

Product style and design

Branding + packaging

Week 8: Kunhong

Work on the Product section of the Marketing Plan. Specify the features and related benefits to the product.  Identify the Core, Actual and Augmented characteristics and note the points of differentiation from competitive offerings.

Product of Sponge Bed and 2 sponges is $24.99, we also will sell 2 sponge package for repeat customers ($6.99)

Product Concept: identify:

Product configuration generally – features, benefits, attributes:

Features include;

- self cleaning sponge dish with cover

- UV disinfectant lights on dish cover

            - 2 highly robust sponges that last one year. Recommend buying new set of sponges from the company every year (pack of 2)

            - waterproof electrical cord

Benefits include;

• cost effective over time
• reusable/eco friendly
• eliminates odor-causing bacteria
• extends and preserves the life of your sponge

The Sponge Bed is a bacterial cleaning product that is proficient in sanitizing standard kitchen sponges through the use of UV lighting. The sponge bed is designed to meet the consumer's needs and is equipped with desired features to help the user perform his daily cleaning efficiently. The product is expected to meet the three levels of product which include the core, actual and the augmented product. The product’s core stage describes its benefits to the consumers. First, the product is a self-cleaning sponge dish with a cover to allow the consumer to clean the dishes and table surface leaving it spotless. Additionally, the new product has UV lights capable of disinfecting to allow maximum performance of the sponge. The product is useful to all households since it includes three highly robust sponges and a waterproof electrical cord. The actual product is described by the physical or tangible features of the product. The product’s unique feature is to take the form of UV lighting such that the rays from the object are directed to the sponge before applying it to the dishes or kitchen items to be cleaned. The augmented level of the product is described by other benefits attached to it for instance it is ensured to be affordable to all users in the targeted age. The product must give a directory guideline that will guide the user on how to use it and when. The sponge bed dealers shall offer repair services in case the product has been found with the damage.

        The product is classified into convenience goods since it is more effective than other products that serve the same purpose. The product is a shopping good and the period of usage will make it to be purchased after a longer period of time due to its nature of reusability. The product can also be classified as specialty good by the fact that its price is more affordable compared to other products providing the same service. This kind of product classification advertises the product hence marketing the product. The product’s brand name is developed from the function it performs to the consumer which is especially sanitizing the sponge. This brand name is to be attached on the box containing the product. The product is contained in the box with different sizes depending on the size of the product and some information about the product is found on the outer part of the box.

The Sponge Bed has numerous benefits to the consumers in the following ways. First, the new product is unique in the market compared to other cleaning products such as Lysol wipes and Bounty. It is cost effective as the price is significantly lower than other cleaning products on the market. The product is meant to be used by 30-year-old middle-class homeowners; mostly with families hence, they can be able to save the cost of cleaning. Second, The Sponge Bed is an eco-friendly product. The product impacts can last longer and retain the same efficiency compared to other products in the market. Furthermore, the products ingredients include antibacterial agents that are capable of eliminating odor-causing bacteria on sponge washer. Besides, the sponge bed cleaner helps the consumer extends the lifespan of the sponge by preserving it with disinfecting UV lights and anti-bacterial agents.

The new product has many strengths compared to other competitor's products. Unlike Lysol wipes and Bounty, The Sponge Bed is designed to perform the same services more than once with the same unique strengths. The new product will cover a wider market compared to competitor's products since it is meant for middle-class homeowners who are the majority. The price of the product is relatively low compared to Lysol Wipes; this gives the sponged bed cleaner a competitive advantage in the market. The product is designed to meet the consumers' needs who are seeking for a cost efficient and a sanitary product for cleaning dishes and surfaces. The product has positioned and differentiated itself well among competitors since it is reusable and has an extended lifespan remaining sanitary after several uses. The product targets the major segment of the population aged 30 years and above; earn average income and family households that can benefit from the sponge bed disinfectant in cleaning dishes and surfaces.

Pricing

Price of The Sponge Bed with two sponges: $24.99

Price of 2-Pack Sponges: $6.99

Pricing per unit:

Standard sponge size: 4.5” x 2.7” x .6”

Product Dimensions: 5” x 3.5”

LEDs – 30 @ $.14 per LED = $4.2

PCB + electrical components + Charger = $2

Housing + acrylic sheet + draining tray + cover = $2.5

2 Sponges = $1

Total manufacturing cost = $9.70

Selling price of Sponge Bed with two sponges = $24.99

158% markup ($15.29 profit on each product sold)

Selling price for pack of 2 sponges = $6.99

699% markup ($5.99 profit on each pack of sponges sold)

A 6 pack of sponges retails for $5.64 on Amazon.com.  It is recommended that each sponge be used for only 2 weeks before being thrown out due to bacterial contamination.  This means a 6 pack of sponges will last for 12 weeks.  With 52 weeks in a year, consumers will have to purchase 5 sponge packages to ensure they are always using a bacteria free sponge, amounting to $28.20 per year in sponges.  Our product will extend the useful life of a sponge from 2 weeks to approximately 6 months, by developing both new robust sponges that will be far more durable than those currently existing and the Sponge Bed which will keep these sponges bacteria free throughout their useful life.  Rather than using 30 sponges throughout the year, our product will allow the user to use only 2 sponges.  Selling our product for $24.99, consumers will only need to buy our product once, followed by one package of sponges each year.  This results in a savings of $3.21 in the first year, followed by an annual savings of $21.21, should they choose to continue purchasing our sponges.  

            With infomercials in mind as one of the main selling points, the price point we have set mixes well with the target audience we are aiming to market to.  Once our product is compared with the cost of purchasing enough sponges to always be using a clean one, the initial price will be seen as very competitive in the market of cleaning products.  There is no other product like this on the market, meaning the main competition is with reusable cleaning products such as Lysol wipes or other sponges.  The added awareness we will bring to how dirty sponges are will have an added effect to making our product even more appealing.  The 158% markup on the Sponge Bed will allow for money to be reinvested into added marketing campaigns as well as product revisions for the future. The price set will allow a large market share to be captured while also maintaining a strong return on investment.  The additional 2 pack of sponges which will be sold in retail stores requires a higher markup since this product will only be bought once a year in most instances.  

Place

Describe your marketing/distribution channel.  Who are your channel intermediaries and what key roles do they play?  What does your customer need from the channel intermediaries?  What market coverage do you need to establish and show how that connects to your product offering [think exclusivity and luxury goods, for instance]. Develop a channel plan for your product – identifying intermediaries and their roles, degree of market coverage and what your channel intermediaries will do for customers in accomplishing the sale.

Our intermediaries will consist of distributors, wholesalers, Walmart, and retail locations such as Target, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and Sears.  Our product will be perfect for infomercials and the bulk of sales can be made through this form of promotion.  Our company will be required to rent substantial warehouse space in order to store adequate amounts of our product for such sales.  A shipping agreement should also be made with a company such as FedEx or UPS to cut shipping costs across the country.

            Distributors will be our first and foremost point of contact with making sales into retail outlets.  The purpose of our distributors will be to buy a large bulk of our product in order to promote and distribute to wholesalers. Distributors will be crucial in promoting our product to various wholesalers to reach retail locations in various areas.  Our distributors can then handle storage of the product, sales to wholesalers, and shipment of the product post infomercial sales.

            The wholesalers will have a somewhat similar function to the distributors in that they will buy the product in bulk and store it in their own warehouses.  However, they will profit from sourcing the product in smaller quantities directly to retail locations.  The smaller quantity purchase orders will result in higher prices of the product to those retail locations.  Wholesalers will be very important in the channel design ensuring locations such as Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond receive substantial quantities of our product.  As this is a household product, ensuring our product is sold in these “home goods” type locations with other cleaning products will promote sales.  Customers will benefit from being able to physically see the product in stores, though it is likely prices will be slightly higher than seen on the infomercial due to smaller quantity purchases from the wholesalers.

            Additionally, Walmart acts as their own distributor and we will focus efforts to ensure our product can make its way onto Walmart’s shelves.  This is a crucial retail outlet for our product since the price point is one that should be appealing to a majority of customers who would shop in Walmart.  If customers were to see our infomercials but not immediately purchase our product, seeing the product again on store shelves could help reinforce the desire to purchase.  Walmart would provide the ideal location to improve on these efforts.  Additionally, similar to retail locations such as Target and Sears, customers will benefit by seeing the physical product.  Walmart also has the added benefit of acting as its own distributor and will thus be able to keep prices competitively equal to those seen on the infomercials.

            Our marketing efforts will be focused on undifferentiated mass marketing.  We plan to offer one product that will appeal to a broad customer range.  Our product focuses on keeping a sanitary and healthy environment in homes throughout the world.  This is a message that resonates well with a vast majority of the population.  Using undifferentiated mass marketing, we can save on marketing costs by selling one product with one message.  Though this causes a vast generalization of the population and their wants/needs, the message being spread and the capabilities of the product are appealing to a large portion of the population and doesn’t need to take on a different strategy for each market segment.  

Promotion

Develop an Integrated Marketing Communications mix and strategy for your new product:

State your communication objectives and consider how you might evaluate success.

Will you use push and/or pull promotion?

Describe which tools you will use in your promotional mix and why.  You must use a mix of traditional and new media for an effective IMC campaign.

Create an advertising slogan or tagline for your product that can be used across your communication mix.

Week 11: Kunhong

The promotion of the sponge bed will involve both television channel and social media platform to advertise and interact with consumers. The majority of the target market own televisions sets hence it will apply to use television as the primary media channel of promotion and advertisement. The promotion strategy will include information about the sponge bed; it's packaging, price and effects to the consumer. Since the primary competitors of the Sponge Bed such as Lysol wipes and Bounty are using television for promotion, it will be advisable to adapt the same to remain competitive. The use of television in advertising is crucial since they need to demonstrate how to use sponge bed with motion pictures.  This is where the use of infomercials will be of the most benefit in advertising the Sponge Bed. We can purchase larger amounts of airtime for a relatively cheaper price, which allows for adequate time to demonstrate the usefulness of the product while conveying the message of how dirty sponges really are, a fact most people don’t know. This will facilitate a wider market coverage to the target group.

            In addition, the promotion strategy will involve opening a social media platform that will enable the company to interact with consumers. The target market is the working class who can afford computers and the knowledge of using social media platforms. The social media platform will offer a chance for the consumers to post their feedback about the product and their recommendations. The competitors are moving digital, and there is the need to catch up with the technology. The online advertising has proven beneficial to many organizations. The online platform will allow the company to see who accessed our company website. This will enable us to improve the performance of the sponge bed to meet the needs of the consumers more. Besides, the online platform will contain the company slogan and the relevant information about the product such as; packaging and distribution channels for easy access by the consumers.

           The budget for the product promotion and advertisement will be equally distributed within these two media of communication. Television advertisement will cover the motion pictures and demonstrations of the sponge bed to the prospective consumers. This will run on the primary television programs during night hours when the target consumers are watching. The target market is working class and rarely are they at home during the daytime; hence, the television advertisement will only be aired during night hours. The social media advertising budget will cover the cost of different platforms such as Tubemogul, to enable online interaction with the potential buyers.

Week 14:  Peer Evaluation form and submits it to their facilitator.

‘The Sponge Bed’ bathes your sponge in UV light to clean and eradicate all bacteria from the sponge.

Product Concept: identify:

Product configuration generally – features, benefits, attributes:

Features include;

- self cleaning sponge dish with cover

- UV disinfectant lights on dish cover

            - 2 highly robust sponges that last one year. Recommend buying new set of sponges from the company every year (pack of 2)

            - waterproof electrical cord

Benefits include;

• cost effective over time
• reusable/eco friendly
• eliminates odor-causing bacteria
• extends and preserves the life of your sponge

Value Proposition

For homeowners who clean with sponges, the Sponge Bed is a cleaning product that disinfects sponges to make them reusable and sanitary.

Case Brief

City of Livonia Employees Retirement System v. Boeing Company

Facts: a class action suit was filed for all people who purchased stock from Boeing Company from 4^th to 22^nd June 2009 (Meiners, Ringleb & Edwards, 2014). This was because the Boeing was alleged for being so optimistic on getting the new Dreamliner into its services. The technical problems were known after test flight which delayed the first official flight leading to a fall in the stock on 23^rd June.

Procedural history: The suit claimed of false statements made by the executives about the day for the normal service of the plane committing securities fraud.

Issue: is false statement by the executives securities fraud?

Decision: Posner, Circuit Court reversed a class action suit, the defendants won.

Rationale: according to the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform, the landscape of federal securities fraud litigation is altered and the one complaining is required to prove actual knowledge of falsity not predictions (Meiners, Ringleb & Edwards, 2014). There is a need to particulate facts that gave rise to the defendant’s actions putting in to consideration not just a mere inference. The law does not allow to publicly disclose risks of mere failures since the future is full of uncertainties. Predictions are always based on probability and they result to either actual happening or failure (Meiners, Ringleb & Edwards, 2014). Therefore mistaken predictions should not be considered as frauds or else it will discourage predictions including well grounded ones. Also the actions of the suit were affecting the entire team in the Boeing Company for instance the employees who were not involved in making the statement. The suit was dismissed in favor of the defendants.

References

Meiners, R. E., Ringleb, A. H., & Edwards, F. L. (2014). The legal environment of business.

Global Business Conditions

To: 

From: Economics department

Date

Re: The analysis of the global business conditions

The current state of the economy

            The general global economy is expected to meet challenges due to multiple fronts in this year. US Federal Reserve has started tightening its monetary status, Europe is putting great efforts in managing debt and migrant crises, China is meeting unstable financial conditions, and all economies around the world are emerging as weak (Kozmetsky & Yue, 1997). The Japanese and the European economies are floating due to weak currencies and low prices of oil while the Chinese economy is slowing because of the fall in the commodity prices and the rate hiking in the US monetary (Kozmetsky & Yue, 1997). America productivity gains have gone low and this has constrained the job growth and counties level of GDP. The most dangerous risk of all that is affecting global economy is a growing population leading to policy uncertainty constraining the decisions of the policy makers.

            Macroeconomic policy makers have developed a concern on how to stabilize the economy. This is due to a recent great depression pointing to large costs in humanitarian business. Due to this depression level, billions of dollars are being lost in business which has affected the global economy (Hart & Tindall, 2009). Therefore the concern is put stabilization policies in place that leads to humanitarian benefits. This has called for a need by policy makers to set the following goals. There is a need to stabilize the inflation level and the target is 2%. The policy makers are aiming to ensure sustainable growth through ensuring low inflation and reducing the negative environmental effects of growth (Hart & Tindall, 2009). There is also a need to improve in the global productivity through improving in the strategies of competition and global trade performance. Policy makers also strive to achieve better employment levels by ensuring that whoever is able and willing to work gets meaningful work and that will raise people’s standards of living and eradicate poverty. Lastly, there is also an aim guarding monetary status by controlling over borrowing by states and this will help reduce nation’s total debt. Therefore to stabilize the economy, policy makers are expected to start by strengthening monetary policies in big markets such as china.

Changes expected in US interest rates

            U.S economy is expected to meet high interest rates according to the update by the Federal Reserve. Most of its economic growth is expected to be driven by businesses investing in fixed asset and increase in consumer spending. It is forecasted that consumer expenditure will account for the highest percentage of America’s GDP (Hart & Tindall, 2009). China’s currency has been confirmed to fall in the past five months in relation to a dollar which has sparked fear about Asia’s economy. China’s currency was weakened against US dollar in January 7, from 0.51 to 6.5646 percent. The state of china is roiling global markets due to uncertain conditions and businesses have fear to trade on the country’s stock markets.

Factors, issues and assumptions determining the assumptions

            The real GDP is one of the indicators of economic stability since it is a determinant of various factors in the economy. With the general fall in the commodity price in most economically stronger countries like china, it has retarded the growth of the forecasted profits and the return expected out of capital (Litan, 2014). This has resulted in to a fall in the general capital turn out with many associated negative impacts in the economy such unemployment, deflation and low standards of living resulting in to unstable economy. This kind of economy is associated with uncertain monetary condition which is hard to manage and direct in to productive activities and that is the case with china (Litan, 2014).  The current employment statistics is also another factor that the state of the economy may rely on to evaluate whether it is stable or in an unstable condition. Employment rates indicate the welfare of the economy and labor force. The employment levels in America and China have been found to be going down in the past few years which is an indication of low standards of living among the people and low production levels. The level of debt is also a great determinant of the economy’s state (Litan, 2014). A country with a high rate of debt is always in an unstable economic state since its income is supposed to pay off the debts. China is at a high threat of debt and this has put it in a dangerous state and has caused worry to many investors since the rate of debt has soared from 100% of GDP to 250%.

Implications on the corporate profits

            High rate of debt implies that the profits being earned are transferred to clear off the debt instead of carrying further investment. This can also threaten new investors to invest in such kind of economy (Litan, 2014). Low real GDP results in to unemployment and low standards of living in the economy. Devaluation of the currency also discourages many investors to go on with business activities and as such economic growth is being retarded.

References

Litan, R. E. (2014). Trillion dollar economists: How economists and their ideas have transformed business.

Kozmetsky, G., & Yue, P. (1997). Global Economic Competition: Today's Warfare in Global Electronics Industries and Companies. Boston, MA: Springer US.

Hart, P. ., & Tindall, K. (2009). Framing the global economic downturn: Crisis rhetoric and the politics of recessions. Acton, A.C.T: ANU E Press.

                Summary

Instagram organisation is an online platform which users can use to share photos, videos and for the purpose of social networking. It enables all the users to take pictures and record videos then they can decide to share them publicly or privately using the application or by the use of other platforms of social networking such as twitter, Tumblr, Facebook or Flickr. The purpose of this organisation is to act as an efficient medium through which businesses can be conducted and it delivers high quality content. In social networking, the platform allows the user to bring their personality and individual together where they can check in on a regular basis than any other users of social network. For the purpose of business, the service allows business owners or entrepreneur and their clients to interact easily. What makes it preferable is that it is a visual medium of communication. Businesses that wish to sell physical products use this medium to show off their current and other upcoming commodities. It allows business owners to think outside the box where they utilise this platform to show their offices, staff and workers, production processes and other special events an aim of convincing the buyers that their products are real.

This proposal aim at revealing how Instagram can develop its own consultancy such that it can build an integral page on its own for companies and or people who use it for social networking. That way, the company does not have to partner with other social media consultants to improve on companies’ content and communication on their page. The result will be that the organisation will save on the part of the funds it shares with the other consultants. To achieve this the proposal would need support in terms of money with a budget of $54,000.

Introduction

Instagram development started on the idea of focusing the check-in multi-featured HTML5 project on the photography of mobile. The platform was founded with a funding of $500,000 in 5^th March 2010, but by that time the software was already in the process of development. By the end of January 2011, hashtags were added on the Instagram platform with an aim of helping user to discover each other and photographs. This organisation was acquired by Facebook social media company in April 2012 for a price of around $ 1 billion in stock and cash. By that time Instagram had been in operation for less than two years and had not earned revenue. But by the end of December 2014, the company had gained a lot of value and it was worth close to $35 billion dollars.

The mission statement: Developing an Instagram that will allow users to experience good moments in the lives of their friends through pictures and videos as they happen.

Instagram is a social network platform which is used also for the purpose of business communication between buyers and sellers. For the social purpose, it has been a great innovation where people can interact with their friends, family members or their workmates. The service also allows the users to take photos and record videos which they can store up or share the photos with those friends and family members. However, it makes money from advertisement that are added on its webpage by businesses or individuals who are looking to show case their products to potential customers. It draws its strength from its devotion and growth in base of mobile users. It has been able to reach 400 million active users monthly and it is continually evolving with time. Advertising on this platform is getting sophisticated as the level of introduction of new online technology is improving. New features that are being introduced give advertisers the chance to show their products in slideshows and they can even be able to connect to sites outside of Instagram. It has new colour advertisements make it possible to bring on board the potential of campaigns involving multi-stage print   to the mobile phones with an added allowance of directing people to a particular website to get more information. Such advertisements, whose aim is to build brands but not driving the clicks, are sold the basis of per-impression rather than ion the basis of per-click.  More over our platform is able to attract the attention of people through the advantage of getting on average 20 percent of the time that people use on their mobile phones especially in the United States. Thus our financial records shows that the organization has been making progress towards set goal and the mission statement. It started with an idea of fun without a clearly set out path to making profit. But with time the organisation has been able to build a goal towards which all the activities and ideas are directed.  Since this platforms fundamental service is sharing photos, it acts as a natural podium for branded advertising. Many iconic organisations which have brands that can be recognised visually immediately have been eager to always come to this platform with new products and their efforts have not gone unrewarded in terms of wining over customers. Being among the first original mobile social media application has seen it gain a lot of benefits. As current computing is moving away from desktop in terms of all the demographics, having a solid space in mobile will fetch a lot of dividends. Thus the population targeted by this platform is one that is conversant with social media especially the Millennials.

III. Needs/Problems/ Product or Service

Although the advertising companies can visit the Instagram page and create an account, customers may not find out about the presence of the in the platform. Even where they find the company, there is no assurance that they will continue visiting or monitoring the page on a regular basis. Thus a business requires a strategy where it will develop the page, build on it and maintain it there and then attract the right customers. Thus the problem has been keeping the companies on social media. The graph below shows a general view of companies posting on Instagram.

Accordingly, the number of company posting on Instagram page is increasing with time but the issue at hand is how to make the target population, that is, the millennials to keep monitoring their page.  

Thus for Instagram to provide consultant services to companies, it will have to develop a new component, Insta- build. This will help connect companies with a team of experts and thus provide a top quality content and communication for their page. This will provide packages that will guarantee an improvement in results while trying to get future customers to be aware of the companies Instagram page especially the customers they would not reach out to before.

Instar build will consist of two packages from which the companies can chose from that is Platinum and Black. The platinum package will consist of engaging captions or hashtags, promoting services such like give ways ,deals and photo shout outs and also on call personnel services from 9 am to 5 pm.  For the Black package the extra services to be offered include allowance for three post a week, professional photograph and video editing, engaging captions or hashtags, collaborative promoting like give ways ,deals and photo shout outs. These additional services will ensure that will be an increase in visitors’ traffic on the page of the advertising companies and more so it will guarantee organic 10,000 boost on the followers.  The other service will be to provide companies with a way to engage customers over the year but this will require the companies to first subscribe in order to use the service without interruption. Thus for the platinum package the offers that will be accessible by the advertising companies will have increased.  They will be able to access a page where they can post daily on the goods and services they want to provide to the visitors and the page will provide a 24 hour callassesstance, an ad sponsor space on the home screen and a guarantee of acquiring 25000 more new followers. The package will also include a 3 person development team that will ensure that the advertising companies are able access the web page without any hitches.

The cost that will be incurred to launch ‘build’ into the market will not involve a lot of expense for the advertisement to be placed on the Instagram’s page. This is because there are qualified personnel that are already working with Instagram in this particular field. The qualified personnel in the company who can assist in building and creating the company number around 40 to 50.  However the most costly aspect that the company will be incurring in this process will be the training of the consultants. This is because the average consultant will work for about forty hours a week and when this is translated into yearly and all the consultants are include the cost will be quite significant.  Since there is an addition of two new packages, each will come with an additional cost in terms of monthly fees. The monthly fees for the Black package will be $1,500 and for the Platinum package the monthly fees will be $2,500. However, since Facebook Company is the affiliate of Instagram, a joint consultancy for social media can be done for the both companies and this will result to a $1,000 premium on top of the selected package. Another additional cost will involve the need to purchase more chairs, desk, phones and computers and the cost estimation is $54,000. However the resulting benefits arising from offering the additional consultant services will by far outweigh the costs incurred here.

Since Instagram is a subsidiary entity of Facebook, it will not a lot of competition other than the internal competition from Facebook itself. The advantage that will enable Instagram to have a competitive edge over its rivals is its many followers of over 400 million. This makes the competition easy to beat,

The projected return on investment will breakeven and get better due to low costs. There will be no need for another factory head quarter since there is already one in San Francisco. The distribution method will be very minimal since there is no hand on hand product.

References

Max Robins, (2015) features most people don't know exist in Instagram. Retrieved from: http://uk.businessinsider.com/hidden-features-in-instagram-2015-9 

Andrew Waber .Instagram advertising: What’s Working? Retrieved from: http://marketingland.com/instagram-advertising-whats-working-157977