Irobot Company

g 1. 0| Executive summary| 2| 2. 0| Situational Analysis2. 1. Political factors2. 2. Economic factors2. 3. Social factors2. 4. Technological factors| 3-6| 3. 0| SWOT Analysis3. 1. Strengths3. 2. Weaknesses3. 3. Opportunities3. 4. Threats| 7-9| 4. 0| Marketing Objectives| 10| 5. 0| Targeting and Positioning5. 1. Targeting5. 2. Positioning| 11-14| 6. 0| Marketing Strategies6. 1. Product 6. 2. Price6. 3. Place6. 4. Promotion| 15-19| 7. 0| Implementation and Control| 20-21| 8. 0| Conclusion| 22| 9. 0| References| 23| 10. 0| Appendix| 24-27| TABLE OF CONTENT 1. 0. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Robot Corporation designs, manufactures, and sells a variety of robots include floor vacuuming robots, pool and gutter cleaning robots. Our marketing objectives are to continue to strengthen our brand, which is to continue having advertisement to increase band awareness in the market, to have high market shares of 20% rather than 11. 67% by December 2012, which we believe this product Cleany will very much cont ribute to the increase in market shares, and to have market expansion in different parts of the world. Our new product is the robotic dirt eating machine. It is called Cleany.It is served as a vacuum cleaner, as well as a scrubber. When the floor, sofa or bed has dirt, Cleany will help clean them up. It is round in shape and it has no sharp ends. This product is very convenient to be used. It ensures safety and cleanliness. Moreover, this product is environmental friendly, it uses solar energy to charge its battery. Our packaging focuses on the protection of the product. We use thick polystyrene to wrap our product. We want to make sure it reaches our customers doorstep without any damages. Cleany is a good quality product. It performs well and it’s durable.Irobot plans to use price skimming as our pricing strategy. From time to time, discounts of 15-20% will be given so that customers with lesser income distributions can also purchase Cleany. The budget allocated to advertis e Cleany through television, radio, magazines, and newspaper, to give sponsorship and to create event to create brand awareness in the market is RM 662,000. 2. 0. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS 2. 1. Political Factors Tax Tax charged by government to irobot varies from different countries. The standard corporate tax rate in Malaysia is  25% since 2009, while resident small and medium-sized companies (i. . companies capitalised at MYR 2. 5 million or less and not part of a group having a company exceeding the above capitalisation threshold) are taxed at 20% on the first MYR 500,000, with the balance taxed at the 25% corporate tax rate. (TaxRate. cc, 2009-2012) But according to our financial position, tax does not very much affect our company. Employment law The legal/political aspect is very important in global marketing. â€Å"International law† can be defined as rules and principles that states and nations consider binding upon themselves. FAO Corporate Document Repository, 2009) Th ere are employment laws that we need to abide to. For example, we are not allowed to hire child labour in our workplace, we are supposed to grant our employees leave and benefits. Our employees have the right to take sick leave when they are not feeling well, we need to pay our employees extra if they are working overtime. This law has widely opened the eyes of our company. It somehow affects our company because now we know how the employment law works and how to make decisions accurately. 2. 2. Economic Factors Economic growth MIER downgrades 2011 GDP growth rate to 4. percent year-on-year. For 2012, MIER revises the GDP growth forecast to 5. 0 percent. (Suzy, 13 October 2011) Malaysia economic grows from year to year and in 2012, It will probably grow up till 5. 0 percent. During economic growth, customer’s disposable income will increase, and therefore, they have more money to spend now. This factor will most probably increase our company’s sale and cause irobot Com pany’s profit margin to increase. Inflation From time to time, there will be inflation around the world. From our pass experiences, each time there’s inflation, it will somehow affect our company.Customers may consider to not purchase our product first until their income is stable. Below is a graph on Malaysia’s inflation rate (International Monetary Fund – 2011 World Economic Outlook) In year 2010 the inflation rate in Malaysia has increase to 1. 7% from 0. 6% in 2009. Irobot is hoping the inflation to decrease in 2011 and 2012. Increased fuel price The current increased price in fuel since 2 years causes irobot Company to have a slightly lower profit margin as now we have to increase our fuel expenses. For every litre of RON 95, the actual price is RM2. 5, and the price of RM1. 90 at the pump translates to a subsidy of 85 sen, or 31% of the actual price. (Anthony, 6 October 2011) Therefore, starting from 2012, the decrease price of fuel will allow our c ompany to spend lesser on fuel which will be an advantage to the company. 2. 3. Social Factors Attitudes to work and leisure In the 21 centuary, people are all so busy with their studies, works and daily activities. This affect out company sales, as more people now purchase our products as our products are all robotic products that will assure our customers convenience. DemographicsWith the population of 27, 467, 837 residents in Malaysia, some of them have very high income distribution and it will positively affect the irobot Company. We will be able to reach higher sales revenue because the chances of them buying our products will be higher. However, we also have customers that have low income distribution. Therefore, we provide discounts at times, so that this group of customers can purchase our product when our products are on discount. 2. 4. Technological Factors Internet The ability to access to the internet grants our company a lot of advantages.We target to increase the comp any’s sale by 4% through internet sales. Earlier a person had to go to the mall to purchase a product. This is not necessary now. The products for sale can be displayed on your website and the customer can order them from home itself. The only thing that you as a seller have to do is confirm the financial transaction and deliver the goods at the place specified by the buyer. This saves a lot of expenditure both on the part of seller as well as the buyer. 2. 5. SWOT Analysis 2. 5. 1. Strength The company receives a lot of positive images and feedbacks from the consumers.The consumers are more than satisfied to work with us. These are some of the company’s strength. Customer service We make sure all of our staffs work effectively and efficiently, and make sure they are accountable of their work. Besides, we provide customers with extremely good services. The workers are given training to be nice and friendly to all consumers. We connect with and laugh with our customers, even if just for few moments. We always believe that being nice has its own rewards. With positive customer’s service, we will be able to make our customers come back.Strong financial position Our company has a strong financial position in the market. The irobot profit margin is 11. 67% this year. Our target is to reach 20% of the market share by December 2012. To achieve that target, we will have more promotions and advertisements to create stronger brand awareness in the market to attract customers to us. Above is the graph of the profit margin of irobot Corporation from year 2007-2011 (irobot Corporation (irbt), 14 November) 2. 5. 2. Weakness Apart from just strength, every company has its own weakness. The irobot Company is weak in these few ways.Realizing our weakness, we promise to improve in the near future. Product pricing The prices of irobot products are higher as compared to its competitors. Although our products qualities are up to the standard, customers might w ant to try something cheaper when there is inflation or when they have other extra expenses to spend that moment. High operating cost The operating cost of irobot is somehow quite high. This includes salaries and wages to the employees, advertising, and cost of raw material, rent, fuel cost for transportation and also all kinds of taxes. . 5. 3. Opportunities Advanced technology With the availability of wifi, Irobot manages to attract more customers. Customers can now buy our product online. It would be very convenient for our customers as they do not have to come all the way to our retail stores to purchase the product. Growth in robotic industry Study shows that the robotics industry will grow from its present $11 Billion status to upwards of $70 Billion by 2025. Therefore, in future, the demand for robot industries will rapidly increase in demand. 2. 5. 4. ThreatLower cost competitors The company has faced tremendous competitive pressure. There will be price wars existing from ti me to time where our competitors lower down the price of their products, causing us to have a lower profit margin if we also reduce the price of our products. For example, if LG vacuum cleaner decreases their price, our competitors will go to them to try their product and this will cause us to make lesser sales. Competitors Even though irobot is a well known brand but they also have threat that they need to consider.They have many competitors in the market such as LG, iClabo, and also Vbot. So we have to be ready with all kinds of technologies updates in order to stay in front of the competitors. 3. 0. MARKETING OBJECTIVES Continue to Strengthen Our Brand. We intend to continue to enhance our brand image and corporate identity. The iRobot brand is designed to communicate innovation, reliability, safety and value. Our robots’ performance and uniqueness have enabled us to obtain strong word-of-mouth that leads to increasing brand awareness.We intend to continue to invest in our marketing programs to strengthen our brand recognition and reinforce our message of innovation, reliability, safety and value. Higher market shares The irobot Corporation currently holds 11. 67% of the profit margin in the market. Its aim is to achieve a higher market share of 20% by December 2012. Market expansion Our objective is to expand our leadership not only in Australia, but in more countries such as the US, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Africa and many other countries in designing and building practical robots and in developing robotic technology. . 0. TARGETING AND POSITIONING 4. 1. Targeting Targeting strategies Instead of going after a small share of a large market, irobot Company chose to go after large share of few submarkets. The submarkets that we chose are the busy working people and also upper class families. We plan to focus only on two segments because we know that through concentrated marketing, firm will possibly achieve strong market position in the segment that it serve because it has greater knowledge of the segments. In this way, there will also be specialization in production, distribution and promotion.Instead of going after a small share of a large market, our company chose to go after large share of few submarkets. The submarkets that we have chosen are people who are always busy working and the upper class families. We plan to focus only two segments because we know that through concentrated marketing firm will possibly achieve strong market position in the segment that it serve because it has greater knowledge about what two three segments need and want. In this way, there will also be specialization in production, distribution and promotion. Below are few segments that we are targeting.Demographic Segmentation This product is made for both genders, female and male. It is made for all group ages, right from young working adults, to adults, to middle aged people and finally, senior citizen. Both male and female eat chocolate. And peop le with different age groups eat chocolate as well. This product is made for any religion as all religion can eat chocolate. It is also made for people with occupation that are busy working and has high income. Psychographic Segmentation Market is divided into different groups based on social class. We are targeting those upper class families.Looking into the personality characteristic, Cleany is mainly made for busy people. Geographical Segmentation This product is basically marketed to all busy states, regions, and cities in Malaysia where there are more people living in For example, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca. This product is also marketed to different western countries such as Spanish, United States, Australia and New Zealand and also to the Asian countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea. Behavioral Segmentation When this product is launched, we would expect people to have certain significant knowledge about our product.We also want customer to have good attitude towards our pr oduct. When they use our product, they will have a good perception about our product. They will give good response to our product. Once they have tried our chocolate, they will introduce our product to their families, friends and colleague and will even think of purchasing it again in the future. This product will grant them ease when they have no time to vacuum their house. Benefits Segmentation Customers nowadays want to look for things that can lighten their burden. Cleanny can absolutely lighten their burden by just needing them to press a button.And the floor, bed and sofa will be all cleaned. 4. 2. Position We want customers to have a perception that our product is a high quality product, a product that can be trusted, and a product that is of reasonable price. We want to be above our competitors in the mind of all our consumers and we want them to be more than satisfied when they use our product and to come back to us and buy them. Besides, they will also recommend our produc t to their friends. In order to be different in the market, we make sure that we position our product in three different ways.Product differentiation, service differentiation and also channel differentiation. Product Differentiation Our product is different than our competitors. It serves as a vacuum cleaner and also a scrubber. When there are dirt on the floor, Cleany will suck up all dirt and when there are small unwanted particle that is sticked to the floor, Cleany will help scrub them off until it is clean again. Apart from that, Cleany does not require electricity. It uses solar energy as a power resource. Service Differentiation Our company produces delivery service.We always believe that the more services we offer, the more satisfied the consumers, the more consumers we will get. After all, all we want to do is to satisfy our consumers’ needs and wants. Whenever consumers want to place an order they can just give our company a call, and we will send them the product t hrough speedy, careful and convenient delivery. Consumers can also place their order online. This will be so much easier for them. They can purchase the product anytime they want. Channel Differentiation In business point of view, we have to be different in order to win our onsumer over our competitors, we tried our very best to be different and to be outstanding, so that we will be win the hearts of our consumers and have good relationship with them. We employ expertise to advertise our product to the market to create brand awareness, to make sure most of the people in the market have heard of our product. We make sure our product will work well and consumers will be satisfied using them. Other than that, we do carry out cause-related marketing (Charity). We give food to the homeless. We sometimes send our people to visit the old folk’s home. Positioning strategiesThe irobot has chosen two positioning strategies to follow. Product attributes Cleany offers several benefits to the user. first of all, this product is so unique. It works as a machine that helps to clean. With just a button, house works are now so much easier. Customers do not need to sweep and mop the floor. When the side of this product touches any hard surfaces, it will automatically change direction. Away from competitors Our product is made away from the competitors. Normally vacuum cleaner works manually where someone has to hold it and move it to places that need to be cleaned.Normally, someone has to scrub the floor using brush. With the existence of this product, customers do not have to worry about cleaning the floor, the sofa, and the bed. 5. 0. MARKETING STRATEGIES 5. 1. Product 5. 1. 1. Product Features The robotic dirt eating machine (Cleany) looks like this. It is round and it has no sharp ends. 5. 1. 2. Product Benefits Convenience Cleany works as a vacuum cleaner as well as a scrubber. This product makes it very convenient for the customers as the customers do not have to v acuum or to mop the floor themselves. By just pressing a button, this product does it all for them.This product can be used on the floor, on the bed also also on the sofa. Customers that have busy schedule will really fall in love with this product. Cleanliness This product will ensures floor, beds and sofas to be clean, shiny and makes dirty stains to leave. When liquid are spilled on the floor, the dirt eating machine will help wipe it clean. When there are small unwanted particles that are sticked on the floor, this product will help to scrub it out. Safety When we produce this product, we make sure that it is not dangerous and it will not hurt people.That is why this product does not have any sharp ends. It is made round in shape so that it can be safely used. Therefore, customers that have children at home will be able to feel at ease to use our product. Environmental friendly This product is environmental friendly. It works on solar energy. In order to fully charge its battery , customers have to just put this machine under the sun for 30 minutes. This product helps customers to save electricity. Warranty If the dirt eating machine is spoilt within 2 years of purchase, irobot will provide a free machine to our customers.But so far, we have not come across any cases like this for other products irobot produces. 5. 1. 3. Product Labelling and Packaging Product packaging is the activities of designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product. Our product packaging will be based on: Product protection Our packaging concept is to mainly offer product protection. The product will be wrapped with polystyrene and be placed in thick brown recycled boxes to prevent any damages while product is sent to each stores and customers. We are using recycle boxes because we are focusing more on environmental concerns.Using methods Outside of the packaging, there will be instructions on how this product should be used. Customers can always read them first before starting to use this product to ensure they know exactly how this product works. 5. 1. 4. Product Quality Good performance Cleany performs very well and we often have good feedbacks from customers that have purchased some other products from our company. First of all, it works very quickly. Apart from that, it is easily used. Customers have to just press buttons and it will work on its own. Durable Cleany is an extremely durable product.It could last customers for years if taken care in proper way. This product is very hard and tough. This does not break or crack easily. Therefore, customers can feel calm using it. 5. 2. Price Price is the amount of money charged for a product or service. Price skimming We are going to use price skimming as our pricing strategies. This is to establish a quality brand image in the market. We are going to set higher price for this product to attract the least price sensitive market segments. From time to time, discounts will be given to our customers, probably about 15%-20% of the normal price.The reason why we do not use penetration pricing is because we do not want customers to have the perception that our product is a low quality product. Therefore, using price skimming, we have decided to set our product at RM539. Customers can either make their payment by cash or by credit card. Although there is a risk we are taking, as this product might not establish too much profit for the company in the beginning, but we believe as customers start using it, they will see all kinds of benefits the dirt eating machine provides and this good news will be spread by word-of-mouth.Also, by strong promotion and aggressive advertising, our products will be widely sold to the market. 5. 3. Place Distribution channel Most businesses use third parties or  intermediaries  to bring their products to market. irobot Company contains one intermediary. The suppliers will send their products to the retail store, and the retail store then sell the go ods to the final consumers. We do not have wholesale in between so that we could save cost so that the price of our products will not increase. Coverage The type of coverage that the irobot Company is using is the selective distribution characteristics.The dirt eating machine is a shopping good where it can be found in quite a number of outlets in Malaysia. Outlets that are chosen are all of the Jaya Jusco in Malaysia, 9 of the Giants in Malaysia and also 11 of the Tescos’ in Malaysia. Transport Lorries will be used in order for manufacturers to transport their products to all retail shops. And from retails stores to customers, we will post the products to their house using Post Laju. Location Irobot Companies are normally built at places where they know they are going to make profit. Stores that do not meet the requirements are closed down.Therefore, only the most profitable stores survive. 5. 4. Promotion Advertisings We have all kinds of advertising in the market such as T elevision ( Astro, TV8, NTV7 ), Magazines (CLEO, Autoworld Emzime, Chip Malaysia), Newspaper (The Star, Berita Harian, Sin Chew Daily), Radio (Hitz Fm, My FM, Mix Fm, light and easy FM) and also billboard in different places in Malaysia. The irobot company does not mind spending money on advertisement because we believe it’s an investment. We spend money to make more money. Once Cleany is able to create strong brand awareness, that’s when our money comes back.We have spent RM602, 000 through all many kinds of advertising to get our product known. Internet activities We have several internet activities. We have our own irobot website which is irobot. com. We have all the updates of our product in that website. Besides, we also have made a Facebook page that we place the price and our product updates there as well. We know that internet is a very efficient way to reach our customers. Events and sponsors Every year we will lay aside RM20, 000 for events and sponsors. Ever y year, in the month of July, we will carry out social events in colleges, children’s home, and old fox home.We also give out sponsor to companies that needed them. Exhibitions We will carry out exhibitions and our employees take down the names and the email address of people who come to the exhibition because we know that those people that come, they are interested in our product. We will email them about the updates of our products, when will we be launching new products, and also when will we have discounts for our products. To promote our company and also to make our products known to the market, we have spent a total of RM662, 000 in year 2011. 6. 0. IMPLEMENTION AND CONTROLTask| Description| Person in charge| Date to complete| 1. | Meeting on how marketing programme will be carry out. | All marketing department staffs| 20/11/2011| 2. | Advertise the new product on television during peak time on Astro, TV8 and NTV7. | Peter| 21/1012011| 3. | Advertise the dirt eating mac hine (Cleany) on The Star, Berita Harian and Sin Chew Daily newspaper for 2 days per week, which are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. | Derek| 21/10/2011| 4. | Advertise new product on Hit, My, Miz and light and easy FM Radio daily. | Isabella| 23/11/2011| 5. | Advertise on magazines. Paul| 24/11/2011| 6. | Carry out event. | Lucy & Michael| 27/11/2011| 7. | Give out sponsor. | Krystle| 12/12/2011| Irobot Company Marketing Programme irobot Company Budget Activity| Budget (RM)| 1. Advertising CampaignTelevision ( Astro, TV8, NTV7 ) Magazines Newspaper (The Star, Berita Harian, Sin Chew Daily)Radio (Hitz Fm, My FM, Mix Fm, light and easy FM) Billboard | RM 550,000RM 8,000RM 35,000RM 7,000RM 2,000| Public Relation – Events and sponsorship| RM 20,000| Sales Promotion (Discounts, vouchers, rebates, free gifts)| RM 40,000| Total| RM 662,000| 7. 0.CONCLUSION In order to successfully sell our products in the market, marketing plan has to be carried out. Company has to plan and discuss in advance about what they want to achieve, whether is it possible to achieve, how are they going to achieve it, and by when are they going to achieve it. Marketing plan is one of the most important tools that a company can use to be successful in the market. The irobot uses concentrated targeting strategy where we go after a large share of a few submarkets. We are targeting the busy working people and also the uppler class families.We believe that Cleany will make it to the market and will bring brand awareness of the company, will product profit for the company and will increase company sales. 8. 0. REFERENCES 1. irobot corporation (irbt) 7 November 2011. Irobot corperation profit margin Available at URL: http://ycharts. com/companies/IRBT/profit_margin [Accessed 5 November 2011] 2. irobot corporation 2011. Company milestone Available at URL: http://www. irobot. com. my/company-milestones. html [accesed 7 November 2011] 3. Jim Riley September 2009. Distribution – introduction Available at URL: http://tutor2u. net/business/marketing/distribution_introduction. asp [Accessed 5 November 2011] 4. Malaysia Monetory fund 2011, Malaysia inflation rate Adopted from URL : http://www. indexmundi. com/malaysia/inflation_rate_(consumer_prices). html [Accessed 15 November 2011] APPENDIX Through this report, I have learnt several things. I have learned that every single company has factors that will either positively or negatively affect the company such as political, economic, social and technological, environmental and legal factors.As a company, we have to always take notes of these factors as it can sometimes be an opportunity to the company or a threat to the company. This report helps me open my eyes to the SWOT analysis that every company has to know of. As a company, we have to know what are our strengths and weaknesses are, the opportunities around us, also the threats that might bring harm to the company. Once we get to know our strengths, we can be better in what we are good at. For example, the location of our business is good. In future, when we were to open another branch in the market, we would think and make good decisions on better locations.Once we get to know our weaknesses, we can always find ways to improve and to be better in areas that we are weak in. For example, our company is lack of marketing expertise. Then, our company should send our employees for marketing training. When we know what our opportunities are we have to grab hold of it and not let it go. For example, the availability of the internet nowadays, if we are able to make use of it, creating a company’s website or allowing customers to buy products online, then it will help generate profit for the company, at the same time, it helps create stronger brand awareness.As for threats, when we know exactly what the threats that we face are, we can avoid it. For example, the price of raw material in a country increases. We can turn the threats into opportuniti es by purchasing raw materials from countries that are selling them at a cheaper price for example, China. Besides that, i have learned so much more about target marketing and positioning as I look into details every single part of it. Target marketing involves breaking a market into segments and then concentrating your marketing efforts on one or a few key segments. Positioning is how you ifferentiate your product or service from that of your competitors. Positioning helps establish your product's or service's identity within the eyes of the customers. Without the knowledge of targeting and positioning, marketer cannot market their product in the market well. It will bring bad effects to the company. Company will not be able to understand the market. They will not know which segments are measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable and also actionable. Moreover, they will not know which market segment to target in order to get most of the customers.Without knowing how to pos ition their product, they will lose their place in the market sooner or later. They will lose out in the market. This is because other marketers know what targeting and positioning are and have applied it to their product and company. To have an effective and efficient marketing plan, we have to make marketing strategies that are good. We have to be good and try as much as we could to be different in the 4P’s that are product, price, place and promotion. This is because, when the 4P’s are not good enough, customers will not be attracted to us.Instead, they will turn to our competitors. We have to be different and unique in our products features, we have to make our products provide benefits to our customers, the packaging and the labelling of our products should be interesting to be able to attract our customers over from our competitors, and that the quality of our product should be good so that customers will think that our product is worth the price. Apart from just the product features, the price of the product is another main thing that we should consider. Imagine wanting to buy something that you like, but it’s extremely expensive.You would think of other alternatives rather than really purchasing that particular product. The third P Is the place of the company that sells the product. It should be located at places that have potential customers. Also, the types of intermediaries used. We can choose between one, two, three or four depending of the types of products that we are selling and how many intermediaries that we want to have. As for promotion, we can have various kinds of promotion in order to attract customers to us. We can sometimes give out discount and promotions in ways of vouchers, and free gifts to our customers.This is actually for short term sales. We can also carry out events, charity works, give out sponsors. In order to finish this report, I have read through each and every page of my lecturer’s note so that I would not miss any important thing out. I realized I have learn so much more about marketing plan compared to before. Previously, I had no idea that political, economic, social and technological factor can affect a company. Now I know that all these factors are important for a company to take note of, so that they could avoid harmful factors. Previously, I did not know that being different in the market is so important.Now I know, in order to win customers away from our competitors, we have to stand out in the market. I am really grateful and thankful to my lecturer of her lecturer that she has always wrote extra notes on the whiteboard to make sure we understand what she’s teaching and that she had taught us well. When I’m studying the other marketing modules, I have noticed that what my lecturer teaches me, I have heard of it before, I have studied a bit of it before. I realized that it helped me get better understand of my other marketing modules as well because they are almost about the same.