A Marketing Plan

Question: Write an essay onA marketing plan. Answer: Introduction: A marketing plan represents a comprehensive blueprint that outlines the process by which an organization promotes and advertises a particular products and services for the future years. It elaborates business activities involved in fulfilling particular marketing objectives within given timeframe. A marketing plan also comprises a description of current marketing position of an organization. Identification of marketing plan depends heavily on the organizational goals and objectives. An appropriate marketing plan considers historical information, strategies and methods for achieving organizational goals and future predictions. However, marketing a museum for enhancing the popularity is somewhat different from the conventional marketing plan. Since, museum comprises with several historical products that have to take care in an appropriate manner. In this report, the focus will be on the marketing plan of Victoria and Albert Museum. The focus museum is one of the most popular museums in UK that induces fare number of visitors from all across the world (Victoria and Albert Museum 2016). The report will contain in-depth analysis of the internal and external factors of the market in order to identify the best possible marketing plan for the museum. External analysis of Victoria and Albert Museum: PESTEL analysis: Political factor Change in the government rules and regulation has induces Victoria and Albert Museum to changes several rules and regulation of the museum. For instance, government regulatory has made free entry for the public that affected the collection level of the museum (Zaniol 2016). Government has also reduces the total amount of funding for the maintenance of the museum that also reduces the amount of money invested in the promotional campaign (Farrelly and Weddell 2016). Spending assessment and imposing boundaries on the spending on the local communities also have affected the businesses of the museum. Economical factor High inflation rate in UK has affected the spending pattern of the people (McNeil 2014). On the other hand, GDP of the country has increases very marginally. Presently, UK is experiencing fluctuation in the economic cycle. Therefore, it creating difficulties for the museum managers to handle finances for the future projects accurately. Individual funding and private sector investment for the museum is on the decrease (Hughes 2014). As a result, museum is facing challenges lot of difficulties to utilize effective promotional campaign. Social factor Museum has to preserve its valuable items for the future enhancement of the popularity. People tastes and choices are continuously changing. Therefore, it is creating challenges for the museum in order to maintain the popularity level among the people. Tourism is a huge business that provides lot of opportunities for museum to harness the popularity. However, museum has to face challenges from the amusement parks and other popular places. Technological factor Utilization of the innovative technology has created huge amount of challenges for the museum. Since, they have to focus more on the social media marketing, website marketing for enhancing the popularity of the museum. It provides opportunities for the museum to get close to many potential visitors. Furthermore, software like USI and business management software, Siruisware sales point software helps VA museum to enhance administrative functions like online booking, even planning etc (Sheridan 2014). Environmental factor VA museum is facing challenges in maintaining proper and clean atmosphere at the museum due to the huge number of visitors (Hogg, Liao and O'Gorman 2014). In order to maintain proper environment at the museum, management have to implement effective waste management so that it cannot able to create negative impact. Legal factor VA museum is facing difficulties in handling the changes in rules and regulation imposing by the government. Changes in legislation rules and regulation have also increases the uncertainty for the managers in developing marketing plan for the museum. Table 1: PESTEL analysis (Source: Thompson 2015) Porter five-force analysis: Rivalry among existing competitors: Rivalry among the existing competitors plays a key role in developing popularity of a particular tourist spot. Now, VA is situated in the heart of London. As a result, it has to face huge amount of competition from different other tourist attractions like Science museum, Serpentine Gallery, National History Museum, Saatchi Gallery, etc. All this spot also creating challenges for the museum to remain popular and attract more tourist to visit the place. Threat of new entrants: Museum represents a strong brand that requires huge amount of investment. It is also very labour intensive. On the other hand, VA is known as the most decorative art and design museum. Furthermore, government also put lot rules and regulations regarding the copyrights and taxes that limit the possibility of new entry in the market. Threat of substitutes: Every museum has to face the threat of getting substitute, which eventually reduce the popularity level in the market. Furthermore, UK has almost 2500 museums as well as other art galleries (Wanhill 2013). Therefore, museum has to face the threat of losing popularity due to the emergence of substitute attractions. Bargaining power of customers: VA museum is one of the most popular places in London that attracts tourist from all part of the world. Therefore, bargaining power of customers remains very low. Furthermore, tourists come to visit the place as a group that reduces the power of individual bargaining. However, government no entrance fee policy has reduces the possibility of bargaining. Bargaining power of suppliers: Museum has to face huge amount of competition to maintain its popularity in the market. However, museums generally struggle to have proper grants and fund to increase the popularity. Now, suppliers are very for the museums. Therefore, they possess high level of bargaining power. Internal analysis of Victoria and Albert museum: 7C analysis: Credibility: VA museum is the most popular art and design museum in UK. As a result, VA museum possess high level of credibility. Furthermore, utilization of the online sources has increases the knowledge of the potential visitors of the museum. It definitely creates positive impact on the business perspectives of the museum. Cost effective: VA museum always focuses on the convenience of the visitors so that they can have the best possible experience at the time of visiting. Therefore, VA museum always focuses on the cost effective pricing structure in order to improve the level f popularity of the museum (Russo 2012). Therefore, promotional campaign of VA museum always focuses on the low cost strategy as well. Customers: As the most decorated art and design museum in UK, VA museum aims to grab the attention of the customers from all across the world. Therefore, promotional campaigns of VA museum do not focus on a particular geographical area. However, museum does utilize direct promotional campaigns so that the popularity level of the domestic customers can be increased. Connections: As per the article by Christensen (2015), retaining the visitors is probably the most important factor that can have huge amount of impact on the popularity level. Thus, VA museum ensures that all the visitors can able to have the best possible atmosphere so that they come back to visit the museum in future as well. VA utilize social and online media for providing information of special functions so that the customers can be influenced to visit the museum for many times. Close: In the present competitive situation, it is important to fulfil all the requirements of each and every individuals. For that reason, many tourists spots have special support team that provide personal guidance that eventually help to get closed with the customers. However, VA museum does not focus too much on a particular individual, as it might reduce the focus of overall objective of the marketing plan. Customer service: Customer service is another important factor that every firm has to consider in order to increase its popularity in the market. VA museum also focuses on this perspective through several techniques so that the visitors can feel satisfied. VA utilize F.A.Q section in the website so that visitors can post any complaints regarding the museum (Camarero, Garrido and San Jos 2016). Furthermore, VA museum also use social media to solve any query of the customers. Cash: One of the major perspectives of VA museum for implementing marketing plan is increase the revenue level. Thus, VA museum focuses on to increase the level of funding provided by the government and private sector. The museum also focuses on to set the pricing structure of different events in such a way so that it can create positive impact on the present level of revenue for the museum. Objectives for Victoria and Albert Museum: The marketing objective of Victoria and Albert Museum are as follows: Specific To enhance brand value and reputation of the museum by providing superior quality of services Measurable To increase the number of visitors by up to 10% this year Attainable To induce more people to visit the museum so that it can increase the collection level of the museum Relevant To boost the financial condition of the Victoria and Albert Museum, as the museum is facing challenges regarding the short of investment from both government and private sector Time based To achieve continues growth in popularity for the time period of 5 years Table 2: SMART objectives of VA museum STP analysis for Victoria and Albert Museum: Segmentation: As mentioned by Shannon (2016) organizations have to understand every aspect of the mark in order to segment it affectively. Marketing plan of VA museum is focusing on the global market. It has to identify the best attraction for the foreign visitors so that they can highlight them on the website and social media platform in order to induce foreign people to visit the museum. However, VA museum also have to utilize demographic, psychographic and behavioural segmentation technique to enhance the effectiveness (Wan 2015). In case of demographic segmentation, management of VA museum has to consider factors like age, gender, education and income level. The marketing plan of VA museum focuses on the age group of 10-35 years in order to fulfil its marketing objectives (James 2013). In case of psychographic segment, marketing plan of VA museum will have to focus on the factors like social class, lifestyle and personality. As per the article by vom Lehn and Heath (2016), psychographic segmen tation is very important for the organization to identify potential customers from the market. As per the article by Black (2015), analyzing behaviour segmentation is crucial as it allows organizations to enhance the loyalty of the customers. Targeting: According to Grincheva (2015), targeting is nothing but the follow on process of segmentation. In this portion, organizations select a particular portion of the market in order to fulfilling the objective of the marketing plan. In case of VA museum, targeting will have to be primarily on the younger generation of the economy. Furthermore, prime focus of the marketing plan of VA museum will have to be on domestic people (Bryan 2016). Since, majority of the earning will come from these people. However, VA museum also have to induce people from another country to visit the place. Therefore, marketing plan of VA museum will have to implement two separate techniques. Positioning: As mentioned by Wickham, Lehman and French (2015) positioning indicates the final strep of STP analysis that focuses on the way by which customers will eventually view the products or services. VA will have to be extremely conscious about quality of the services provided to the visitors, as it will create direct impact on the brand development process of the museum. The management of the VA museum will have to ensure that the atmosphere of the museum is remain in such a condition so that it can allow visitors to enjoy them to the fullest. The VA museum are focusing on the quality of services to create a specific position for itself in the market. Marketing mix for Victoria and Albert Museum: Product: Victoria and Albert museum has several types of products that can attract people from all across the world to visit the museum. The product collection of VA museum includes educational resources for schools, colleges and universities, products for family activities, temporary exhibitions and special events, etc. Thus, management of VA museum has several products in order to enhance the popularity of the museum. Thus, management of VA museum has to utilize marketing departments, social media and press to develop effective marketing technique for the museum so that people from all across the world get influenced to visit the museum. Price: As per the article by Hooper-Greenhill (2013) price play a key role in developing effective marketing technique. Therefore, management of VA museum will have to utilize pricing structure in such a way so that majority of the people can able to visit the museum without facing any financial troubles. Therefore, marketing plan of VA will have to be created in such a way so that it can induce government and private sector to invest more for the development of the museum. However, government regulation has made entrance to the museum completely free of cost. Therefore, VA will have to impose prices for the exhibitions and other functions to increase the level of income of the museum. In fact, pricing strategy of VA museum also have to include the kind of charges the cafes and other shops are charging at the area of museum. Place: The prime two factors that management of VA museum will have to consider regarding the place of the museum are as follows: The marketing campaign of VA museum will have to highlight the transport convenience from Heathrow Airport for the foreign visitors. It also has to highlight availability of bus and tube to reach to the place of museum (Lewis 2015). Since, transport convenience will definitely help VA museum to enhance the popularity in recent future. Another factor that management of VA museum will have to consider at the time of implementing marketing campaign is highlighting excellent architecture of the museum. Since, it has the capability to induce people from all across the world to visit the museum. Promotion: Promotional techniques of VA museum are as follows: Management of VA can use newspapers, magazines for the utilization of the advertisement tool. Furthermore, it can also include radio so that people can able to understand kind of satisfaction they will receive by visiting the museum. Marketing campaign of VA museum also have to utilize leaflets, posters to encourage people to visit museum. Sales promotion and direct mail is another technique that management of VA museum can utilize to increase the popularity. Social media is another platform that has to be taken into consideration by the management of VA museum to improve the popularity. People: VA museums marketing plan also have to consider people who are related to the popularity of the museum. Therefore, management have to provide proper pay and benefit structure for the employees to ensure they give their best effort for the success of the marketing plan. Management also have to ensure that the culture of the museum remains at highest order so that visitors can able to enjoy to their fullest. Physical environment: Physical environment reflects the space that is surrounded to the visitors at the time of consuming service. Thus, management not only have to focus on the cleanliness or visuals inside the museum but also have to maintain proper atmosphere in the surrounding areas of the museum. Process: Management of VA museum also have to consider the process by which visitors will be allowed to view different sites of the museum. This is crucial, as it can have huge impact on the satisfaction level of the visitors. Thus, utilization of the proper process will allow VA museum to fulfil all its marketing objectives. Conclusion: From the above discussion, it can be assess that many factors can have huge impact on the effectiveness of the marketing campaign. Therefore, VA management have to extremely careful at the time selecting any marketing plan for the museum. Otherwise, the marketing plan of the VA museum might not able to fulfil all its objectives. Conversely, the above analysis highlighted the fact that if management of VA museum can able to utilize all the factors effectively, it will definitely induce people from all across the world to visit the Victoria and Albert museum. References: Black, G., 2015.Developing Museum Display for Informal Learning(Doctoral dissertation, Nottingham Trent University). Bryan, J., 2016. Making Them Laugh, Making Them Cry: Theatres Role in Challenging History.Challenging History in the Museum: International Perspectives, p.59. Calinao, D.J. and Lin, H.W., 2016. 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