Marketing in Practice BEMM215 Assignment Sample

INTRODUCTION: Marketing in Practice BEMM 215 Assignment

Marketing is a procedure of communicating and promoting product and services of the organizations. The report will state about a long term marketing plan of GM mobility for its wheelchair accessible vehicles, its parent company is GM coachwork. GM mobility is a second largest company that deals in WAV, it is known for its innovative vehicles and engineering excellence. The report will outline a marketing plan for the Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) of GM mobility by using various tools as well as SOSTAC model. It will highlight recommendations in terms of budget and actions of measuring the marketing performance.

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Organizational Understanding

Situational Analysis

Market Overview

Wheelchair-accessible vehicles are a key product of GM mobility. In 2024, the WAV market expanded from $ 7.84 to 8.3 billion. In addition, the market is anticipated to increase by $ 10.44 billion by 2028 with a 5.9% CAGR. It is a great opportunity for businesses to mark their footprint efficiently. The market is estimated to grow to USD 9.29 billion by 2028 (Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market Size, Analysis Forecast 2022-2028, 2024). It is evaluated that in the UK 1 individual out of 5 is disabled. According to the UK disability statistics, in 2021/2022 16 million individual are disable in UK. It is 24% of the total population. This shows that GM mobility able to gain high demand for its Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicles. It is identified that in UK, 21% male a while 24% female are disabled (UK disability statistics, 2024). Thus, the company by its WAV can satisfy the requirements of customers.

(Figure 1: Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market Size, Analysis Forecast 2022-2028, 2024)

(Figure 2: UK disability statistics, 2024)

(Figure 3: UK disability statistics, 2024)

PESTLE analysis

PESTLE analysis assist GM mobility to identify factors that remain outside but impacts company operations are as under:

• Political: The government introduced a mobility scheme that enables allowance to disable person to get accessible vehicles. This leads to increased demand for products of GM mobility. On the other hand, the UK government commits 100% zero-emission and government initiative for an eco-friendly vehicle, it may influence demand for vehicles of GM mobility (Debnath et al, 2021).
• Economic: It includes factor like economic growth as economic recession declined purchasing power of customer for luxury goods (Aldoukhi et al, 2023). At that time, Disability action plan aids in supporting individual as it impact directly their purchasing power to purchase WAV.
• Social: Currently awareness for disable people and significance of accessibility leads to increase demand for WAV. Also, increase in aging population increase demand for accessible customized vehicles (Dicianno et al, 2021).
• Technological: GM mobility designed unique low-floor conversion technologies that allow it to innovates its products and get competitive advantage.
• Environmental: It priorities and focus on corporate social responsibility correspondingly aim to decline carbon footprint in the upcoming years,
• Legal: Organization follows regulation regarding automobile safety, controlling emissions while designing its products.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis assist in evaluate company’s strength, weakness, opportunity and threats.

GM mobility converts the vehicles into wheelchair-accessible vehicles. It purchase standard production vehicles from manufacture and via the effective process converts them in wheelchair-accessible vehicles and sell this vehicles in the market, it is a great solution as well as means to satisfy the requirements of the disabled and old age people. In current time, income is around £25 m, currently sells 80 cars per month and aims to reach 150 cars per month.

Strengths: It is second largest company that deals in wheelchair accessible vehicles with a great experience in vehicle conversion. It has wide range of products such as minibuses, wheelchair vehicles. It is also financially sound enable it to make innovative solutions for its products (Choi et al, 2023). Moreover, company has efficient engineering skill assist in innovation and make greater solution for products to make it different from competitors. It is successfully operating in its niche market.

Weaknesses: One of the weaknesses is high competition; the main competitors are Lewis Reed, Brotherhood mobility Automotive Group make difficult for GM mobility to grab customers. Another weakness of company is product-led not market-led.

Opportunity: Currently, company has opportunity of regarding enhancing profitability as demand for vehicle increase due to increase in aging population (Minchin, 2021). Additionally, government decline tax on vehicles for disabled person increase opportunity for business to increase their sales.

Threats: Post-Brexit there is various changes in regulations regarding supply as a result it impacts supply chain of company and make expensive import of WAV components.

TOWS

TOWS analysis aids the company to combine internal and external force and generate productive ideas which is beneficial for business.

Five forces

Porter`s five forces enable GM mobility to recognize and evaluate competitive forces of industry.

• Threats of New entry- GM mobility have lack of threat of new entry as to enter the industry there is a need of high capital investment, research and development as well as technology use (Yeung, 2024). Company has lack of threat of new entry because of its high brand loyalty known for safety and reliability.
• Bargaining Power of Supplier: Within the industry, there is high bargaining power of supplier also high switching cost as switching supplier includes potential risk like product quality and safety.
• Bargaining Power of Buyers: Customer has low bargaining power due to product differentiation related to safety and usage. Also, customer gives preference to quality over cost as a result unable them to shift other company.
• Threat of Substitute: GM mobility has lack of threat of substitute as there is lack of availability of products like wheelchair accessible vehicles.
• Industry Rivalry: There is high industry rivalry due to several competitors. Therefore companies focus on innovation, customization and customer services (Marković & Mijušković, 2022).

Competitive Analysis

Objectives

SMART Objectives

• GM mobility’s objective is to enhance the customer retention rate by 15% in the next 12 months.
• Company plans to increase its online traffic by 30% as well as enhance conversion rate by 20% in upcoming 12 months via using SEO.
• Its financial objective aims to enhance annual revenue by 15% till end of the upcoming fiscal year.
• Company aims to enhance average monthly unit sales to 100 units in next 12 month by increasing marketing efforts.

Strategy

Ansoff Matrix

GM mobility to attain its marketing and financial goals used Ansoff matrix. GM mobility group to promote its wheelchair-accessible vehicles in UK market uses market penetration. It uses several strategies to sell its current products more to the existing customer base. Market penetration will help the company to enhance its market share in its current market. The company will use:

Marketing strategies: It will use social media platforms, PPC and SEO to access to wide range of audience by highlighting its success stories (Manzoor et al, 2020).

Offering Incentives: It will offer discounts on referrals to influence customers and grab them towards company.

Accessibility and safety- Currently, customer prefers vehicles which are safe and accessible for each kind of individual like disable and age people (Wu et al, 2022). Therefore, company will emphasis on accessibility and safety while designing its product.

Collaboration: GM mobility will make partnership with technology provided company to enhance innovation and gain competitive advantage.

Company use market penetration as a strategy to grab the attention of more customers. The strategy of market penetration is suitable for GM mobility to increase its market share in the industry. In addition, market forecast for 2028 for wheelchair accessible vehicle is estimated $ 9.29 billion as a result it is beneficial for a company to offer more accessible vehicles (Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market Size. 2024) . This will assist the company to attain its goals of increasing sell of car 150 per month.

Customer Persona

GM Mobility choose customer persona for marketing as it assist in recognize target audience as well as personalize marketing requirement and preferences. This will aids the marketing team to target and attract more disable as well as old people.

Value Positioning

Recommendations

STP - STP analysis will be helpful for the company to understand to whom should it market its wheelchair accessible vehicles and how.

Segmentation- To segment its customers, company will focus on demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral factors. Considering demographic element it focuses on Generation Z and middle and high income people (Acheampong & Siiba, 2020). It design products keeping in mind United Kingdom customer. For example, it mainly focuses on the 16 million disable people in country as well as while manufacturing keeps their requirement in mind to mark it existence in industry. It emphasizes on customer segment that enjoy travelling, outdoor activities and feel good using tech-savvy products with safety and reliability.

Targeting: It will target population with old age and disability. In addition, the primary target of company will urban professionals who give priority to convenience and innovation related to mobility solutions (Goralzik et al, 2022). Secondly it targets families who require sage and reliable transportation option for disabled members.

Positioning: To position GM`s wheelchair accessible products company will focus on differentiation by focusing on innovation, accessibility and safety by using cutting-edge technology. Further, to position the product in market, it focus on cutting-edge technology related to autonomous vehicles, safety features and designing mobility services to increase efficiency.

Thus, with the help of STP, company will able to market its product as well as grab the attention of wide range of customers.

Marketing Mix 4 P

It refers to a set of tactics that used by businesses to promote and communicate products and services. Marketing mix of GM mobility group will be:

4 P `S of product

3 P`S of service

Tactic

GM mobility Group will use several marketing tactics for its products. It includes:

Paid media

Pay Per Click: It is best marketing tactic in which company pay the advertising company when consumer “clicked” on their advertise. The website aids in increase GM `s products visibility and website traffic.

Influencer Collaboration: In this tactic, company wills partnership with social media influencer to promote their products. Individual post images, videos and contents on their channel to grab attention. It leads to enhance brand awareness and engagement (Södergren & Vallström, 2023).

Owned media

360 degree virtual Tour: Company by implementing 360 degree virtual tour on website enables its customers to explore each element of vehicles form internally.

Testimonials: It refers to reviews of customers related to product and services on publicly platform. This will assist the company to strengthen their brand (Lakho et al, 2023).

Earned Media

Earned media means promotion via outside agencies and publications.

Event participation- GM should attend disability events as it is a good platform for enhance brand visibility.

Sponsorship: GM mobility can sponsor local events such as British Wheelchair Basketball to showcase their commitment (Cornwell & Kwon, 2020). It help company in increase brand visibility.

Action

Timeline

Budget

Forecast

In 2023, company sales were £ 25,000,000 which increased to £ 35,400,000 in the year 2024.

Marketing ROI will be: (sales -marketing cost/ marketing cost)*100

= (35,400,000- 99550/99550)*100= 35,460%

Control

KPIs

• Conversion Rate: GM mobility will use conversion rate as marketing metric. It refers to percentage of customers visit website and makes purchase. The target of company will to attain 5% CTR by increasing visibility and traffic (Srivastava & Manohar, 2020).
• Click through Rate: It is a KPI that aids the company to evaluate its advertising as well as search engine results. The target of company will 10% click-through rate leads to enhance customer retention.
• Social media engagement: It measures the outcome that leads to generate by social media campaign. The target will be increasing engagement rate by 8% by posting on social media via influence marketing. It will help the company to enhance its brand and reach to more customers.
• Marketing lead- It refers to measuring performance of marketing tool that leads to generate the sales of products of GM mobility (Pourazad, Stocchi & Narsey, 2023). When the company sales increase to a pre-determined percentage, it means that company marketing campaign able to generate sales. For example, if company able to sale 100 unit in month, in next 12month, it means company`s marketing strategies is effective.
• Cost per Acquisition: It is a marketing KPI that outline the amount of marketing spend to acquire a paying customer. The target KPI of company is to get 1000 new customers and 20% referral rate. Company with the help of marketing activities such as PPC, SEO, influence marketing , social media marketing, events and sponsorship can able to attain the KPI effectively.
• High search engine ranking: With the help of SEO, GM mobility can rank its company at the top out of its all competitors. It leads to help the organization to attain its target of enhancing organic traffic by 30% as well as top 3 ranking in targeted keywords.
• Improving website page load time: GM Mobility via its technical SEO can enhance the website performance by declining the load time, crawl error and mobile optimization. It enable the company to attend its target of load time less than 3 seconds correspondingly able to retain more customer with the help of company website.

CONCLUSION

To sum up all, it is concluded that marketing is crucial for promoting the product and increasing brand awareness. The report outlined marketing plan for GM mobility for it wheelchair accessible vehicles. In the report to conduct the market analysis use PESTLE and Porter`s five forces and it is identified that within industry there is high competition. To know internal capability SWOT and TOWS used, GM mobility has a wide range of product and better engineering skill. It outlines SMART objectives of increasing customer retention, website traffic, annual revenue and monthly sales to 100 units. It highlighted company can use PPC, influence marketing, testimonials and earned media like charity and sponsorship to market its product. It can used click through rate and conversion rate as KPI.

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

• Acheampong, R. A., & Siiba, A. (2020). Modelling the determinants of car-sharing adoption intentions among young adults: The role of attitude, perceived benefits, travel expectations and socio-demographic factors. Transportation, 47(5), 2557-2580.
• Aldoukhi, M., Angel, M., Bare, L., Blacher, D., Cawi, J., Chabanel, T., ... & Mesa, J. C. (2023). Access of Persons with Disabilities to Public Ground Transportation and Roadways.
• AlTaweel, I.R. and Al-Hawary, S.I., 2021. The mediating role of innovation capability on the relationship between strategic agility and organizational performance. Sustainability, 13(14), p.7564.
• Choi, J. Y., Jeon, J. H., Lyu, J. H., Park, J., Kim, G. Y., Chey, S. Y., ... & Ahn, S. H. (2023). Current applications and development of composite manufacturing processes for future mobility. International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing-Green Technology, 10(1), 269-291.
• Cornwell, T. B., & Kwon, Y. (2020). Sponsorship-linked marketing: Research surpluses and shortages. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 607-629.
• Debnath, R., Bardhan, R., Reiner, D. M., & Miller, J. R. (2021). Political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental dimensions of electric vehicle adoption in the United States: A social-media interaction analysis. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 152, 111707.
• Dicianno, B. E., Sivakanthan, S., Sundaram, S. A., Satpute, S., Kulich, H., Powers, E., ... & Cooper, R. A. (2021). Systematic review: Automated vehicles and services for people with disabilities. Neuroscience Letters, 761, 136103.
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• Online
• UK disability statistics, 2024. Online. Available through: <https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9602/CBP-9602.pdf>
• Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market Size, Analysis Forecast 2022-2028. 2024. Online. Available through: < https://www.fnfresearch.com/wheelchair-accessible-vehicle-converters-market>
• UK Automotive. 2024. Online. Available through: < https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/uk-automotive/#:~:text=Automotive%2Drelated%20manufacturing%20contributes%20%C2%A3,across%20the%20wider%20automotive%20industry.>

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