Product Marketing And Environmental Factors Influencing The Marketing Mix Expert Solution

Product Characteristics

Aprons are a key part of the food and hospitality uniforms business. Waiting staff aprons serve many important functions that allow the employees to do their job and persuade customers. At Aprons & Co., we have a wide variety of aprons for cooks, servers, and others. These clothing provide additional pockets for stylus and notepads, provide a more coordinated appearance, protect other uniform clothes against accidents. You can make a great impression upon visitors with the right tab of hospitality before you even place an order for your restaurant, coffee shop and bakery. Our company enables you to keep the kitchen apron or apron required to conduct your job to the highest possible standards and professional level simple for all your workers. Including bib chefs ‘ aprons and waist aprons to make the employees feel comfortable, Aprons & Co. are the only places to shop when you’re on a budget with uniforms in the kitchens and aprons for everybody. Chef aprons, waiting for aprons and restaurant aprons are as sturdy as they operate. Each of the materials is very durable from 65poly / 35cotton and can be rigor fully washed frequently.

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Market Significance

The sector of hospitality performs well. The report this year reveals that sales in the next five years are expected to increase across the sector. The hotel industry is expected to generate more than $108 billion in revenue by 2023. Growth in the pubs and bars industry in Western Australia is high, with 4.1% more than double the national average of 1.6% (Bankwest, 2019). With the increasing trend towards hospitality, the growth for its standardized aprons and apparel will create a demand in the market which would be met by Aprons & Co.

Target Market

The target market is business owners who are busy running their hotel, salon, spa, café and have limited attention. The aprons in a hotel or café define what the business is all about, by being distinctive and easily identifiable. The business owners want their aprons to standout by being highly functional, follow the theme of the business, comfortable, and should reflect on the interior of the place.

Environmental factors influencing the Marketing Mix

Macro Environment

Demographics

The hospitality industry trends are directly related to the aprons consumer trends, in a reflection, the consumer of hospitality from the age of 18-24 consumers is 17.2%, the consumers are the age of 25-44 which holds about 33.4% of the market, the major age group of 45-64 holds 39.7% of the market.

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Economic

A low Australian dollar would help to make Australia’s international visitors more competitive and more costly overall. International visitor numbers to Australia have increased by 5.9 percent from June 2018 to 503,500 visitors compared with the previous year, boosting the accommodation and foodservice industry. All sectors are growing in the hospitality industry. The sector grew annually by 1.7% in the five years to June 2018. The strongest growth in revenue for cafés and hotels was annualized by 2.0 percent over the same period. Australia is gaining international visitor numbers, as the exchange rate increases travel to Australia and increase total out-of-pocket expenditure. International numbers of tourists to Australia have improved the housing and food services industry, increasing by 5.9 percent from 503,500 in 2018 to June 2018, compared to the previous year (Bankwest, 2019). The growth of the hospitality industry will influence the market of aprons and increase the need for consumers to seek a business that offers the required goods.

Physical Forces

The physical forces for the apron products are the interior of the hotels and café, the environment in which the service is supplied and where the company and customers interact and all tangible features that make the service easier to perform or communicate.

Technological Factors

The increasing trend of food delivery presents a threat to the eating out trend of the consumer. The total of 30% of the sales of the hospitality industry is done by online delivery decreasing the overall trend for eating out (Waters, 2020). The global reach for the product line affects the business as well, the e-shopping platforms enable businesses to reach the consumers within their fingertips.

Political and Legal Forces

The political factors often have an impact on business ease. Organizations need to be able to comply and change their communications strategy consistent with existing and expected future regulations. Compliance considerations include health and safety, equal opportunities, marketing requirements, labeling of goods, and consumer rights and regulations. Organizations simply need to learn what is and what is not legal to excel in business. If a company travel around the globe, it becomes very complicated, since the rules and regulations of each country are their own.

Social and Cultural Forces

The consumers of the hospitality industry shape up the preference of the design and look of the aprons. These include population growth, the spread of age, health awareness, attitudes towards a profession and so on. These factors are especially interesting because they directly affect the understanding of customers in the apron industry. The apron sector is one of the sectors most influenced by socio-cultural trends.

Micro Environment

Suppliers

Suppliers are the individuals from whom the stuff is bought to make a good end and are therefore very important for the organisation. The actions of a supplier can affect the company directly. The suppliers for Apron & Co. are wholesalers directly from China. A rise in prices will influence the marketing strategy of a company and even contribute to increases in prices. In order to remain competitive and deliver quality products to customers, it is important that the best vendors on the market are found and chosen, and closely linked.

Consumer

The business focuses on meeting the desires of its clients and wishes. Each marketing strategy, therefore, aims at customers who understand the customer’s needs and offer the best product to meet their needs and customer service. To fulfil the desires of the business clients, aprons are to be made and designed according to each customer requirement.

Government and Non-profit consumers

Many policies are implemented by government departments. Pricing policies, credit policies, and other policies that affect marketing strategies. A business will follow these policies and follow them up on marketing campaigns.

Competitors

Through carefully tracking competitors, a business will determine its marketing strategy based on the current market trend. Research and monitoring of rivals are necessary if a company is to maintain or improve its market position.

Level of Customer Service to be provided

We know it is usually awful work to get your aprons. Fight for long waiting periods; travel to your supplier; slow responses; incorrect size or quality incoherence. We are dedicated to providing you with extensive customer service by finding an optimal design, functionality, and material. We believe in building long term relationships with the clients.

Product Distribution

The product distribution is based on building relations with different sales agents and distributors, however direct distribution and sales will only be dealt with in the online selling platforms. This will enable the company to target masses and maintain standard quality across the board.

Product Pricing

The product per pc is costing the company $2. However, the customer will be price beginning from 5$ up to 20$, the distributors will be set at 7% commission. The current quantity of 1000 pc will be priced at 7$ for the distributor, with 7% in commission and 30% in marketing cumulates the cost to 2.59$ and 2$ will be the cost of the product bringing the total cost to 4.59$.

Product Promotion

The nature of the product requires to engage businesses and a platform for direct selling to engage the direct customer.

  • OOH activities (Billboards in future)
  • Website (With E-Commerce)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Email Campaign
  • Google Ads

The targeting will be business personnel and business owners to reach and provide customized products to the consumer. The campaign does not require 360-degree marketing however it would require constant hammering to enlist the brand name in the name of the consumer. The creative requirements would focus on a single brand name “Australia Hospitality Apparel” also known as “AHA” which would be a catchy phrase to learn and hammer the customers. The brand name will easily be recognized once it is marketed in a correct manner. The budget required for the activities would be $250,000 annually initially which would cover digital marketing, OOH activities, website, and email campaign. However initially the budget is $2100 which would only cover digital marketing. The OOH Activities in the future will be active for 1 month, however, there will constant hammering in the platforms of digital marketing.

Future Product Mix

The product mix in the future will consist of more hospitality products like

  • T-shirts
  • Trousers
  • Shoes
  • Safety Shoes
  • Kitchen Knives
  • Other Accessories

This product line will give an optimal solution to the hospitality business owner to have a one window solution to all their apparel and uniform requirements.

Expected Result

The result should have increase brand recognition in the market amongst businesses, higher penetration towards sales, and increase brand awareness and product knowledge. The sales are not the optimal result of the marketing activities they are solely based on increased brand recognition. The long term business activities will have a boost for future sales of the product mix. However, the budget is to be taken from the revenue which would only accumulate to 2100 for the sale of 1000 pc. More is to be injected to achieve the objective of creating a sustainable brand image that is effective.

  • Brand awareness increase by 10%
  • Sales of 500 pc through marketing channels
  • Generate 1,000 Leads

References

Bankwest (2019). Bankwest Future of Business: Focus on Hospitality. [online] Bankwest. Available at: https://www.bankwest.com.au/content/dam/bankwest/documents/business/insights/focus-on-hospitality-report-2019.pdf [Accessed 13 Jan. 2020].

Waters, C. (2020). How UberEats is changing the way we eat and how restaurants run. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/how-ubereats-is-changing-the-way-we-eat-and-how-restaurants-run-20170629-gx15dq.html [Accessed 14 Jan. 2020].