Target

Discuss about the Sales Plan for Marketing Science.

iphone is one of the most popular product offering of Apple INC. As described by the company website, a line of smartphones uses Apple’s iOS mobile operating system (Apple 2016). Here, the selected product is iPhone 7, which is the latest iphone offering from the company.

As per the description provided by Wee (2016) the user interface of this phone is built around the product’s multi-touch screen and a virtual keyboard. It is a Wi-Fi enabled phone can be connected to the cellular networks.  As mentioned in the company website the general features of the product include playing video, photo, and music; send and receive emails, text massages; has GPS navigation, can “record notes”, execute “mathematical calculations”, accepts “visual voicemail” and many more (Apple 2016).

Here, the target can be identified in two ways:

As mentioned by Ailawadi and Gupta (2014) with the increase in the disposable income in the developing countries, the IT products are gradually being popular in those areas. Moreover, as discussed by Wee (2016) for a smart phone, the target market will be the teenagers, professionals and the students.

The sales target can be set in the following ways:

• The organization will target the developed and developing countries (mainly India, China and Brazil) and mainly the cities with IT professionals and the sales in those areas are needed to be increased by 10% by the end of this financial year.
• The revenue of the company from this particular product is needed to be increased by 15% by the end of this financial year.
• The brand awareness will be increased by 2% by the end of this financial year in the selected geographical markets.

A number of approaches can be utilized for meeting a sales objectives or accelerating the sales count. The selected company for meeting the sales objectives for the product can use the followings:

Answering the customers’ inquisitions helps the company to maintain a better relation to the potential customers. As opined by Freitas et al. (2015) addressing the customers’ doubts and questions creates a bond between the customer and the marketer. Here, the organization can use this strategy of solution selling for eliminating the customers’ doubt, problems with the product and help in choosing the right combination of product to best serve his/ her demands.

As the product is an IT offering, number of service issues can be occurred with the product. As mentioned by Venkatesh (2013) addressing the negative comments and experience is crucial for augmenting the sales count of the product. Here, as recommended by Davis (2015) the company needs to create a link in its websites like for registering the dissatisfaction regarding the product and a team will be preset to address those issues.

The Company can also use it to the old buyers. As the company has the contact detail of the previous buyers, hence, while approaching the previous buyer via telephonic sells, a sales script will be used. As mentioned by Freitas et al. (2015) the sales executive will introduce himself and the company and its upcoming product, then according to the sales script the promotion will be done.  

For achieving the mentioned sales objectives, the following resources will be needed:

The company needs to appoint sales personnel in the selected areas for commencing the direct selling. Moreover, trained and experienced personnel will be needed to handle the feedback portal of the company.

For the successful commencement of the public relation activity, and advertisement monetary resources are needed to be appointed. Moreover, the employees need to be trained for the successful achievement of the objectives (Lam 2014). Monetary resources are required for this purpose.

Approaches to meet sales objectives

As mentioned by Ailawadi and Gupta (2014) after indentifying the target market, the organizations need to select the most appropriate promotional strategy to attract that particular target group.

As opined by Venkatesh (2013) the strategy of public relation helps the company in creating brand awareness as well as uplifting the brand value. Here, the company can opt for some charitable deeds to develop positive relationship with the public and receive favorable publicity. In the developing countries, the company can invest in the public projects, which will collect better brand name to the company.

As mentioned by Ailawadi and Gupta (2014) by introducing some changes in the product price, sales count can be increased. Here, the company can provide student discount, “free gifts” to the first five buyers of the day and many other strategic incentives to the buyers. 

As opined by Davis (2015) advertisement is the most traditional and popular method of sales promotion. The main purpose of this strategy is making the target customer aware of the product and creating a favorable opinion regarding that particular offering.

As the selected product is a technological offering, advertisement will be disseminated via online Medias, social networking sites; IT related magazines and many more (Venkatesh 2013). Moreover, as the students, teenagers and the professionals can be identified as the target customers, banners and hoardings will be used at colleges, shopping malls and other public areas (Ailawadi, K. and Gupta 2014).

The company can use the telephonic marketing strategy to attract the old customers to the selected product. Here, the company will follow the sales script and introductory approach for the sales of the product. As mentioned by Ailawadi and Gupta (2014) direct marketing is useful for retaining the old customers than to attract the new ones. Hence, for making the old customers aware of the new arrivals the company may use this particular strategy. 

Distribution channel:

As opined by Bhargava (2012) identifying the appropriate distribution channel is the key to developing an effective marketing mix.

The company is already following the indirect distribution pattern for its product. As mentioned in the company website, Apple has authorized renowned retailers in the big cities (Apple 2016). As the product is following the premium pricing policy, it can easily be speculated that the target customer of this product will mainly be from the urban areas. Hence, the organization can use the strategy of indirect distribution in those locations, which are potential enough, but the company is lacking the access to it.

As mentioned by Wilkinson (2013) direct distribution provides better control over the sales of the company. For better addressing the potential customers, the organization can use direct distribution channel for the selected product.

As mentioned by Fernie (2013) in such cases, the company can opt for own stores in a number of countries, Moreover, the customers can obtain the products from the online sources, which are being popularly used for the distribution of the products by eminent companies. It will help the company to directly serve the customers and get to know them and their demands in a better way.

Figure 1: Budget for the sales plan

Source: Developed by the author

To achieve these sales objectives, the company needs to invest a good amount of resources. Hence, it is important for the company to develop some risk management strategies for reducing the risk of failure related to the product and its sales.

As opined by Lam (2014) the major risk that is associated to the sales plan is the failure of the sales strategies and the following loss of the company. Here, the company can opt for promoting other popular products in that market with the promotion of the selected product. In case of failure in obtaining the targeted sales result, the company can encourage the buyers to purchase the other popular product of the company and draw the profit margin from them.

On the other hand, as mentioned by Pinedo and Walter (2013) in case of failure of the responsible personnel in performing their duties, the sales plan can also meet a failure in achieving its objectives. Here, the company needs to keep a back up team for successful performance of the given responsibilities. Moreover, as mentioned by Lam (2014) with the changes in the operation, the employees may find it difficult to cope with the change management. It may lead to employee dissatisfaction and increased turnover rate. Here, the company needs to arrange continuous sessions of training and motivation to the employees.

In addition to this, in the context of significant changes mentioned in the sales plan (feedback portal, online distribution channel and physical stores) operational risks are related. As mentioned by Pinedo and Walter (2013) here, the companies need to implement the new decisions with pilot research approach. It will reduce the potentiality of operational risk related to changes required for the successful achievement of the sales plan.

References:

Ailawadi, K. and Gupta, S., 2014. Sales Promotions. History of Marketing Science, Singapore, pp.463-497.

Apple. 2016. Apple. [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com [Accessed 21 Sep. 2016].

Bhargava, H.K., 2012. Retailer-driven product bundling in a distribution channel. Marketing Science, 31(6), pp.1014-1021.

Davis, J.F., 2015. Understanding Why Small Firms Choose their Advertising and Promotional Strategies: An Empirical Investigation. In Proceedings of the 1998 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 311-315). Springer International Publishing.

Fernie, J., 2013. Distribution strategies of European retailers. Logistics Information Management.

Freitas, A.C.D.S., Costa, D.A.D.S.P., Lourenço, G.P. and Pires, M.M.L.M., 2015. Increasing sales volume in mass business through inbound contact center (Doctoral dissertation).

Lam, J., 2014. Enterprise risk management: from incentives to controls. John Wiley & Sons.

Mitchell, V.W. and Greatorex, M., 2013. Risk reducing strategies used in the purchase of wine in the UK. International Journal of Wine Marketing.

Pinedo, M. and Walter, I. eds., 2013. Global Asset Management: Strategies, Risks, Processes, and Technologies. Springer.

Venkatesh, B., 2013. A Study on the Innovative Sales Techniques.Advances In Management.

Wee, A., 2016. iPhone 7 didn’t ditches the earphone jack, and comes with a dual SIM design!.

Wilkinson, I.F., 2013. Distribution channel management: power considerations. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.