prepare a marketing plan for a local organisation
The Marketing Plan for POWERSHOP AUSTRALIA
You are required to prepare a marketing plan for a local organisation selected by the lecturer and subject coordinator (details of the client company will be outlined and given to you in week 1).
The plan will be presented to senior management. Follow the steps outlined in the subject outline and listed below
You are strongly recommended to start work on the plan from Session One and after each Session add relevant information to the plan.
Length: approximately 20 pages.
For this assessment, you are required to prepare a marketing plan for a client company and ensure the plan has a significant social media component.Your marketing plan will be underpinned by sound research and demonstrate thoughtfulness, understanding of marketing issues and have an implementation plan to show how the organisation should proceed. Your report will include the following:
– A description of the organisation, and the product or service;
– A market analysis, including direct and indirect competitors;
– A PESTLE (political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and ecological) analysis;
– A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis;
– A consumer behavior analysis, including identification of the type of consumer and target market for the product or service;
– A marketing plan (4P’s and/or 7P’s)
o analysis of the product (or service) and branding;
o pricing strategy;
o distribution (place) options;
o people, process and physical facilities
o an outline of an Integrated Marketing Communications plan (IMC: promotion) which must include a substantialsocial media component; and,
Financial and operational plans; and,
An implementation and control strategy.
Be creative but also realistic in developing your marketing plan. Your budget is $50,000 maximum. Prepare the report as if you were going to be presenting it to the organisation you have chosen. The intention is to create a marketing plan that the organisation could actually implement!
Do:
– Present the marketing plan in report format with subheadings and paragraphs following the structure outlined above.
– Use tables, diagrams and further analysis of data to clarify, illustrate and supplement analysis and support your recommendations.
– Use page numbers, double or 1½ spacing for ease of reading and feedback.
– Use citations from original sources when they are used, using an accepted format such as APA. If sources have not been acknowledge, they will be considered as plagiarised. [A citation looks like this: Albaum, Strandsov and Duerr (1994) have described the sales response function…..].
– The reference to the above citation is as follows:
Albaum, G.A., Strandskov, J., Duerr, E., Dowd, L.(1994),International Marketing and Export Management, New York: Addison-WesleyMarketing Project Brief
Client: Powershop Australia
Aim
To provide Powershop with a marketing plan to guide Powershop’s entry into the south east Queensland market. The target market consists of residential and commercial customers. Your marketing objective is to achieve a market share of 5% in the first year of operation. You have a marketing budget of $50,000. The marketing plan should outline how social media could be used to engage with customers.Background
Ed McManus is the Chief Executive Officer of Powershop Australia. Powershop Australia is an online energy retailer. It is owned by Australasia’s largest 100% renewable generator, Meridian Energy, and their office is based in Melbourne. Powershop is Australia’s only electricity retailer to be certified 100% carbon neutral by the Australian Government. Powershop was ranked by Greenpeace as Australia’s greenest energy company in 2014 and 2015. In his role as Powershop CEO, Ed is driving a unique service that gives customers transparency and control like they’ve never had before over a key part of their household budget
– their energy bill. With a strong and growing customer base, Powershop powers more than 70,000 households and businesses from across Victoria and New South Wales. They are investigating adding other states in the near future.
The next step is to enter the Queensland market. Ed is excited by the challenge of trying to make a connection with customers in an industry where trust is currently low. But it’s also the idea of being a part of a business that strives to have a positive impact on the future of the planet that pushes him daily.
Short video introduction to company is here – what is Powershop? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xhhkTlupFA
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/PowershopAustralia
Background
Since the early- to mid-1990s, energy supply deregulation and privatisation of some state-owned assets has led to the establishment of increasingly open and transparent energy market (AEMO, n.d). The retail electricity market in Queensland was opened for full retail competition in July 2007. Currently, the prices electricity retailers can charge households and small businesses are limited by price controls imposed by state regulators (Australian Government, 2015a). However, there are plans to deregulate retail electricity prices for south east Queensland (SEQ) in the near future. The south east Queensland (SEQ) and regional Queensland markets have developed at a different pace. Consumers in south east Queensland are free to choose their electricity retailer (Queensland Government, 2016b). The SEQ retail market provides a choice of retailers and is dominated by AGL (https://www.agl.com.au/residential2) and Origin Energy
(https://www.originenergy.com.au/). Energex (https://www.energex.com.au) is another key player. Competition in regional Queensland is still immature (Queensland Productivity Commission, 2016). The government-owned energy retailer is Ergon (www.ergon.com.au), who offers electricity services to households and businesses in regional Queensland. The Australian energy market is regulated by the Australian Energy Regulator (https://www.aer.gov.au/).
Ed is aware that that consumer switching rates in Queensland have been lower than other states (Australian Government, 2015b) but he is confident that Powershop, with its emphasis on customer service and competitive prices, will encourage consumers to switch to a new service provider.
References
AEMO. (n.d). Energy Markets. Retrieved from http://www.aemo.com.au/About-the-Industry/Energy- Markets
Australian Government. (2015a). Energy in Australia 2015. Retrieved from http://www.industry.gov.au/Office-of-the-Chief-Economist/Publications/Documents/energy-in-aust/Energy- in-Australia-2015.pdf
Australian Government. (2015b). Energy White Paper. Retrieved from http://ewp.industry.gov.au/
Queensland Productivity Commission. (2016). Draft Report – Electricity Pricing Inquiry. Retrieved from http://www.qpc.qld.gov.au/inquiries/electricity-pricing/
Queensland Government. (2016). Tips for choosing or changing electricity retailer. Retrieved from https://www.dews.qld.gov.au/electricity/retailers/choosing
