Bskyb Marketing Plan
Executive Summary
The rationale of this report is to write a Marketing Plan for an existing company in the UK (BSkyB Sky), selected from any industry (telecommunication industry). This plan is aimed at identifying ways in which the firm designs its strategy for the next 5 years. BSkyB (Sky) should target acquiring 30% of the yearly revenue by 2018, after five years of systematic implementation of the extended marketing plan.
The target markets of BSkyB are both individual citizens and small business enterprises, where the later will be at the centre in the targeting. BSkyB (Sky) is to segment the targeted markets geographically where the concentration will be small cities in UK. BSkyB (Sky) will concentrate its product/service strategy on SMS texting, apart from other common mobile communication services. BSkyB (Sky) plans competitive pricing to appeal the customers in UK mobile telecommunication sector.
When it comes to distribution strategy, BSkyB (Sky) will place its services to the organized retail shops in the UK mobile telecommunication sector. For some markets, the distribute shops will be opened BSkyB (Sky) in malls of the geographically segmented cities. In order to reach the targeted customers in UK mobile telecommunication market BSkyB (Sky) will centrally focus on advertising so far as promotion is concerned.
Introduction
BSkyB (Sky) is a comparatively youthful firm in UK telecommunication industry, however has a considerable and rising track in the UK.
BSkyB (Sky) offers an array of entertainment and communications services to just about 40% of homes, where its aired television channels are watched by more than half the populace every week in the country, and moreover BSkyB (Sky) employs thousands of group all through the different regions of UK the country. BSkyB (Sky) claims to have changed consumers’ experience of television and home communications in UK, whilst making momentous returns for its shareholders and further confidently contribute to the economy of the country overall. More clearly, overall, BSkyB (Sky) was projected to s put in a 5. billion giving to UK GDP in the year of 2011. So far as the UK telecommunication industry is concerned, BSkyB (Sky) is fast emerging as a major player in the industry as regards the market segments of broadband and telephony markets, though its performance in these market segments is yet to be acknowledged as leading (CorporateSky, 2013). The major facts about BSkyB (Sky) are presented in the Table. Table: Key Facts: BSkyB (Sky) Source: BSkyB (2013) Adjusted operating profit for BSkyB (Sky) is a foremost measure of the underlying business performance. It has increased by 14% in 2012(? m) Source: CorporateSky (2013)
Even though BSkyB (Sky) is making substantial profits restricting its operation to the solo targeted segment of the UK telecommunication market, yet it has ample opportunity to grow and increase profits shifting gears, where there is an opportunity awaiting in mobile telecommunications services market segment. It is in this context that marketing planning is developed for BSkyB (Sky) in this report.
Identification and Assessment of Market
The marketing process of a firm all concerns planning and implementation of the research objectives defined in terms of the identified market segment to be targeted.
This is what marketing management is described as an order of selecting target markets and further based on marketing planning acquire, carry on, and nurture customers all the way through generating, bringing, and communicating advanced customer value. In this framework, marketing practitioners in firms are expected to be possessing proficient skills as per the requirements in the market, and they need to look for controlling the echelon, time, and concerto of demand (Mullins, Boyd and Larreche, 2006). The marketing attempt is connected to not only servicing the customers but as well as benefiting the firms. So far as identification and assessment of the market are concerned, the procedure all concerns analyzing marketing opportunities, deciding target markets, planning marketing strategies, extending marketing agendas, and finally monitoring and controlling the marketing endeavor that largely connects to marketing planning. However, a foremost component of the marketing planning process is discerning, innovative marketing strategies, and plans that may well direct marketing attempts (Kotler and Keller, 2009:80).
In this direction, the first and foremost task is to identify the opportunities in the market and find out the prospective segments where a firm can take opportunities to enhance it’s business and profitability. This report all concerned with identifying and assessing potential segments for BSkyB (Sky) UK telecommunication market. This business organizing operating in the UK telecommunication industry is yet to make a mark and achieve a leading position.
On the basis of identified market opportunities, it might be suggested to BSkyB (Sky) to concentrate on mobile telecommunications services, which appears a promising market segment, where BSkyB (Sky) huge opportunities to expand its business and so the profitability in order to emerge as a leading player in UK telecommunication industry. It is worth mentioning here that UK mobile telecommunications market corresponds to one of the most striking telecommunications markets globally, with the mobile telecommunications services market segment creating just about 1 billion of revenue yearly, where yearly growth in this market segment is projected to total ? 900 million yearly. Therefore, BSkyB (Sky) should target acquiring 30% of the yearly revenue by 2018, after five years of systematic implementation of the extended marketing plan.
Marketing Plan
The marketing plan is the most fundamental tool for expressing and integrating the marketing attempts whilst targeting to a specific market. The marketing plan functions on two echelons namely strategic and tactical. Firstly when it comes to strategic marketing planning it all concerns establishing target markets and the value offer for the customers.
On the other hand, tactical marketing planning spells out the product, price, place, and promotion as strategies (Kotler and Keller, 2009:80). In the Figure, a methodical process of marketing plan model is developed that involves planning, implementation, and controlling. Figure: Marketing Planning Model Source: Kotler and Keller (2006) In order to develop marketing planning for BSkyB (Sky), both the strategic and tactical approach is adopted where the focus of the marketing efforts is concentrating on marketing mix components in the forms of product, price place, and promotion, apart from segmentation and targeting.
Moreover, the marketing planning process for BSkyB (Sky) is developed based on the model extended by Kotler and Keller (2009) as mentioned above. This marketing planning is developed for BSkyB (Sky) to target the mobile telecommunication market segment in UK telecommunication market, so that BSkyB (Sky) could expand its business in the market and emerge as a leading player in the segment with enhancing its profitability for ensuring long term survival and sustainability. The planning involves marketing objectives, segmentation and targeting.
The implementation involves marketing mix strategy and finally controlling involves measuring and reviewing the mid-term achievements. This marketing plan is developed keeping in mind the duration of five years. Marketing Objectives, Targeting and Segmentation The process and strategy of segmentation all concerns to positioning strategy of a firm in the market, where the firm has already recognized and assessed the targeted customers, and further, it is indispensable to determine what position the firm wishes to engage in the selected market segments (Armstrong and Kotler, 2005).
For getting done a thriving positioning, whilst the target customers discover that the product fulfills their wishes and needs, there are strategies the firm needs to peruse in the forms of defining objectives, deciding target markets and for segmentation(Mullins, Boyd, and Larreche, 2006; Kotler and Keller, 2009). UK mobile telecommunications market corresponds to one of the most striking telecommunications markets globally, with the mobile telecommunications services market segment creating just about ? 21 billion of revenue early, where yearly growth in this market segment is projected to total ? 900 million yearly. Therefore, BSkyB (Sky) should target acquiring 30% of the yearly revenue from the mobile telecommunications services market segment by 2018, after five years of systematic implementation of the extended marketing plan. The target markets of BSkyB are both individual citizens and small business enterprises, where the latter will be at the center of the targeting. BSkyB (Sky) is to segment the targeted markets geographically where the concentration will be small cities in UK. Marketing Mix Strategy
The strategy of marketing mix involves deciding strategy about the four components of marketing mix namely product, price, place and promotion. In fact marketing mix strategy is trademark of marketing actions. The marketing mix is in fact a conscious attempt as regards the division of a firm to decide on their offered products/services that eventually determine the success/failure of the firm in the market. Hence, the marketing mix strategy should be in line with the point in time, competition, and the hope of the customers (Armstrong and Kotler, 2005). Accordingly, the marketing mix strategy is developed for BSkyB (Sky).
Product/Service BSkyB (Sky) will concentrate its product/service strategy on SMS texting, apart from other common mobile communication services. Price BSkyB (Sky) plans competitive pricing to appeal to the customers in UK mobile telecommunication sector. This implies that BSkyB (Sky) will decrease or increase the price of services keeping in mind the movements of competitors, though high pricing strategy will be avoided in order to penetrate the market. Place When it comes to distribution strategy, BSkyB (Sky) will place its services to the organized retail shops in the UK mobile telecommunication sector.
For some markets, the distribution shops will be opened BSkyB (Sky) in malls of the geographically segmented cities. Promotion, In order to reach the targeted customers in UK mobile telecommunication market BSkyB (Sky), will centrally focus on advertising so far as promotion is concerned.
Controlling Strategy
Yearly or half-yearly controlling of a marketing plan is suggestive in order to make sure that the firm is not wastefully expending and achieving the marketing objectives as per planning.
So far as performance achievement is concerned financially the foremost ratio to watch is marketing expense-to-sales ratio. Moreover, the period-to-period fluctuations in every ratio may well be tracked on a control diagram. The conduct of consecutive remarks even within the higher and lower control limits ought to be looked at (Mullins, Boyd and Larreche, 2006). UK mobile telecommunications market corresponds to one of the most striking telecommunications markets globally, with the mobile telecommunications services market segment creating just about 1 billion of revenue yearly, where yearly growth in this market segment is projected to total 900 million yearly. Therefore, BSkyB (Sky) should target acquiring 30% of the yearly revenue by 2018, after five years of systematic implementation of the extended marketing plan. The achievement in this regard will be evaluated on yearly basis. Furthermore, period-to-period fluctuations in every ratio will be tracked on a control diagram by the marketing practitioners in BSkyB (Sky). Following is the planning of controlling on yearly basis.
In order to achieve the marketing objectives, performance evaluation will be conducted on a half-yearly basis, and in the case of success/failure of achieving targets, further planning will review accordingly.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Even though BSkyB (Sky) is making substantial profits restricting its operation to the solo targeted segment of UK telecommunication market, yet it has ample opportunity to grow and increase profits shifting gears, where there is an opportunity awaiting in mobile telecommunications services market segment.
BSkyB (Sky) should target acquiring 30% of the yearly revenue by 2018, after five years of systematic implementation of the extended marketing plan. In order to develop marketing planning for BSkyB (Sky), both the strategic and tactical approach is adopted where the focus of the marketing efforts is concentrating on marketing mix components in the forms of product, price place, and promotion, apart from segmentation and targeting. BSkyB (Sky) should target acquiring 30% of the yearly revenue from the mobile telecommunications services market segment by 2018, after five years of systematic implementation of the extended marketing plan.
The target markets of BSkyB are both individual citizens and small business enterprises, where the later will be at the centre in the targeting. BSkyB (Sky) is to segment the targeted markets geographically where the concentration will be small cities in UK. BSkyB (Sky) will concentrate its product/service strategy on SMS texting, apart from other common mobile communication services. BSkyB (Sky) plans competitive pricing to appeal to the customers in UK mobile telecommunication sector.
When it comes to distribution strategy, BSkyB (Sky) will place its services to the organized retail shops in the UK mobile telecommunication sector. For some markets, the distribute shops will be opened BSkyB (Sky) in malls of the geographically segmented cities. In order to reach the targeted customers in UK mobile telecommunication market BSkyB (Sky) will centrally focus on advertising so far as promotion is concerned. Period-to-period fluctuations in every ratio will be tracked on a control diagram by the marketing practitioners in BSkyB (Sky).
In order to achieve the marketing objectives, performance evaluation will be conducted on a half-yearly basis.
References
- Armstrong, G. and Kotler, P. (2005), Marketing: An Introduction, 7th Edition, Prentice Hall Inc. , Upper Saddle River, N. J. Company Report (2012), BSkyB (Sky) Industry Report (2012), UK Mobile Telecommunication Industry: Euromonitor International. Kotler, P. and Keller, K. L. (2006), Marketing Management, 12th Edition, Prentice Hall Inc. , Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Mullins, J. W. Walker, O. C. , Boyd, H. W. and Larreche, J. C. (2006), Marketing Management, 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York. BSkyB (2013), “Key facts & figures”. [Online] accessed from http://corporate. sky. com/about_sky/key_facts_and_figures [22 March, 2013]
- CorporateSky (2013), “British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc : Unaudited results for the six months ended 31 December 2012”. [Online] accessed from http://corporate. sky. com/documents/pdf/latest_results/q2_press_release_201213. pdf [23rd March, 2013]
