Strengths and Weaknesses of Malpara Florist

The name of the organization considered in this paper is Malpara florist, which is located in the Townsville region of Australia. It was started in 1962 but now it is a family owned business. It is operated by George and Anna Gianoulis since 1995. The boutique is running successfully in the market since beginning. It is one of the brand names in the industry. The deliveries are made on all days except on sundays. The work is more on the valentine day and mother day but the boutique delivers the orders on time. It has two offices but when it was initially started it had 4 offices. It was bought from its real founder in 1995 by George and Anna Gianoulis. They have many achievements and awards granted by the reputed institutions in Australia. The organization is the winner of the Townsville best florist. Along with the family members, there are many employees who are considered a part of the family (Stephen, 2015). They all strive hard to make the day special for the customers. The organization has its own site but the digital marketing is not being done properly. There is no front desk support for the customers on the site.

a. The site related to the organization is poorly designed. There is no FAQs and review section. Along with this, the customers do not get the real-time update through emails and messages. The marketing strategy of the organization is not working well. There is a need of proportional mix marketing strategy that caters to modern as well as traditional and unique needs of the organization. Traditional means include advertising campaigns in newspaper and magazines, posters and door to door marketing. The new trends include social media campaigning, online webinar presentations, effective media channel advertising, email marketing etc. There is a need to plan a suitable marketing strategy that can address the modern needs of the boutique or organization. There is a need to use digital marketing techniques so that the inaccessible market can be accessed, reducing the geographical distance (Yasmin, Tasneem, & Fatema, 2015).

The market is full of opportunities which need to be harnessed by the effective marketing strategy. But the competition in the globalized world is taking a heavy toll. Competitors in the market are employing all the latest means to lure the customers. In such a case, the Malpara florist cannot remain behind. The market is divided according to age and gender. There are different choices available for the customers depending on their age and gender (Edmiston, 2015). Market segmentation strategy must work in the era of competition. Market segmentation will help in the targeting of the intended population. There is a need to send the intended information to the right persons at the right time which is not possible without digital marketing.

Opportunities and Threats for Malpara Florist

The organization targets each individual as all the persons need florists on special occasions (Sargent, 2016). The wedding planners and special day occasions are considered seriously. There are various kind of opportunities like birthday parties, valentine day, new year eve, mother’s day, festival season etc. on these occasions the demands from every stratum of the population get increased so there is need to target each segment separately. The market is growing and there are opportunities for Malpara to expand its operations (Crittenden & Crittenden, 2015). In addition to this, the organization targets the customers on the basis of their need like residential customers and office customers. There are different products for each segment according to the exclusive needs.

a)    Marketing objectives and goals

•    To increase the site visitors by 20 %
•    To increase the conversion rate by 5%
•    To increase the number of loyal customers by 5%

b)    Financial objectives and goals

•    To increase the profit by 5%
•    To increase the annual turnover by 20%
•    To increase the growth rate to 3%

a) Product- product marketing has become a necessary tool in the globalizing world. Along with the quality products, their design and packaging must also be fascinating. The Malpara needs to work on these parameters. There is a need to have a wide number of varieties. In addition to this, the brand name of the organization on the products must be legible so that the brand name is made popular in Townsville. The products are to be designed according to the occasions. In addition to this, there is a need to deliver the products on time (Kannan & Li, 2017). The Malpara has a sound policy to not leave the products at the door of the houses or offices if no one is available for taking the delivery. There is a need to put emphasis on the product designing so that the brand can be promoted.

b) Price- the price is the entity which values for each stakeholder. The organizations can offer discounts to loyal customers which will help increase the number of loyal customers in the organization. The price must be competitive enough to lure the customers. The reasonable list price along with various payment options will increase the market for Malpara (Hudson, Huang, Roth, & Madden, 2016). To attract the customers, the credit terms can be made easy for them so that the products of the organization are economically accessible to every individual of the market. Certain free coupons and discount offers can be provided in the days of the festival and special days (Guitart, Gonzalez, & Stremersch, 2018).

c) Promotion- along with the price and product, the promotion is very much important in the competitive world. There is a need to do a lot of work on this front. The proportional mix strategy that is most suitable for the organization must be identified. The digital marketing strategy needs to be effective in nature. The website of the organization is not fascinating so there is a need to hire a development agency that will analyze the market and provide an effective website for the organization. Digital marketing also involves social media campaigning and online webinars presentations. Another tool of digital marketing is email marketing (Bendle & Wang, 2017). There are pieces of evidence that customers get influenced by the buzz present on social media and other digital platforms.

Marketing Strategies

Harnessing the potential of the digital market has become imperative for each business organization. Digital marketing along with digital transformation can lead to economies of scale and state of the art facility. There is a need to tap the market potential and expand the business of Malpara (Skiera, Bayer, & Schöler, 2017). In addition to this personal selling and sales promotion are the areas need to be considered. The promotion of the company must be done at the mass level to reach the mass population. There is needed to make the services of the company accessible for everyone. Along with this, the new offers regarding the discounts and credit facilities must reach to the intended population at right time. This is not possible without employing modern means of marketing.

The strategic location for time-bound delivery of the products is very much necessary. Already two offices are there; such offices can be set up at other strategic locations so that during peak season, the work can be carried out with ease. In addition to this, inventory and .logistics management must be covered. There is a need to take the benefits of strategically based offices so that each segment of the population can be reached in the least time possible (Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2016). The transportation cost and time will be reduced by planning the strategic location of the offices. This will reduce the net price of the product bought from the boutique. Thus, it will make the organization competitive in the market. The situational analysis will make the picture clear.

The traditional as well as modern means of marketing will be used so as to cover the target population. The website promotion and designing agency will be hired to cater to the demands of technical resources. The website will have the facility of getting feedback from the customers. The real-time and genuine feedback given by the customers will influence the wide number of people. The section of Frequently Asked Questions will be made along with front desk support. Online live chat facility will greatly aid the efforts. The customers have become tech-savvy; the young generation likes to place an order on an immediate basis without visiting the office area. Online booking facility with online payment methods can lead to the expansion of business in hitherto untapped areas which have potential (Saboo, Kumar, & Ramani, 2016).

Along with this email-marketing and online webinars need to be arranged from time to time. The customers should get apprised of the latest offers of Malpara. The discount offers and other facilities can be promoted through digital marketing strategy. Online registration of the customers will result in a longtime relationship. In addition to this, content marketing is very much necessary to convert potential visitors into customers (Bruyn & Lilien, 2008).

SWOT and PESTLE Analysis

Traditional marketing techniques will involve advertising campaigns, media channels, and poster distribution. The reputed persons of the society can be asked to make a collaborative effort. In addition to this, the marketing mix strategy will be used to propagate the ideas of the organization. The moral values and principles of the organization can be disseminated among a wide number of people. This will involve the latest social media and other digital platforms to reduce the geographical distance between the customers and the organization.  

It will involve various steps. First of all the complete analysis will be done from a different point of view. Surveys will be conducted and questionnaires will be prepared for taking the feedback of customers. Population analysis will be done from a demographic point of view. Along with this SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, RACE framework and competition analysis will be done. The government documents and papers related to the industry will be explored. After carefully analyzing the situation, the target market will be identified (Leeflang, Verhoef, Dahlström, & Freundt, 2014).

The organization has a strategy to target each individual of the society and Malpara is in the business of floristics which is used and advocated by everyone. The varieties of products will be developed according to market segmentation. Different kinds of products will be made depending upon different parameters like age, location, occasion, gender, event etc (Buchanan, Kelly, & Yeatman, 2017). The unique products will be made so as to fascinate the people and provide quality services to the customers. In addition to this, technical experts will be hired for digital marketing. The digital marketing agency will promote the company on large scale. The organization will be able to connect and provide services to the mass population. The credit facilities and a wide variety of payment options along with relevant ideas will be propagated. In addition to this, traditional marketing tools like posters distribution, door to door campaigning, media advertising etc. will be employed.

The customers will be given a channel to give their feedback on the website of the company. There will be effective grievance redressal mechanism as the customers will be able to register their complaints on the site. Online chat facility will apprise the customers about the latest offers of the company which will help conversion of customers. There will be state of the art facility for the customers which will help generate a brand image of the boutique. Effective monitoring will be done and contingency plans will be formulated (Fierro, Arbelaez, & Gavilanez, 2017). The mid-term appraisal will be done and the required contingency plans will be followed. The performance of the boutique will be analyzed on a monthly and yearly basis. This strategy will help the boutique achieve marketing and financial goals set by it.  

Market Segmentation

The proportional mix strategy for marketing needs to be planned and implemented. There must be the inclusive participation of all the stakeholders so that there is visionary approach and everyone along with employees and customers feel themselves as the part of the process. The inclusive approach will be beneficial for each stakeholder. It will generate goodwill for the company and keep the company progressive (Pradhan, Nigam, & Tiwari, 2018). The boutique needs to plan the strategy of marketing in advance so that mid-plan contingencies can be employed at the right time. There must be effective communication so that idea of change implementation is understood by the employees without any misunderstanding. Along with digital marketing, a digital transformation will improve the quality of services to a significant extent. There is a need to employ modern means to target the modern era population (O’Reilly, 2018). The organization needs to use the latest technology means to expand the operations in the market.

Conclusion

The organization is successfully running since 1962. It has established an image in the market through quality services. But now there is a need for the organization to change its marketing strategy (Fulgoni & Lella, 2014). Business, as usual, is not sufficient if it has to scale new heights. There is a need to have a balanced approach and digital marketing to reach  inaccessible segments of the market. The proportional mix strategy identified for the organization will be effective in dealing with the modern requirements of the boutique. The customers, as well as employers, need the digital marketing strategy to cover up the geographical distance (LMG, 2017). The company needs to consider these strategies seriously to maintain a long-term relationship with the customers and maintain itself in the competitive market.

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