Idea Generation: Marketing Strategy and Development Blog 4

Marketing Strategy and Development Blog 4

Marketing strategy and development is stage number four is the new product development process. This stage of the process involves companies creating an initial marketing strategy with the product or service concept developed. Companies then set out an initial marketing statement that highlights the target market of the concept, the desired market share of the concept, the desire sales of the concept and the amount that the company aim to make from the concept (Kotler and Armstrong, 2012).Organisations also need to consider the size of the market and the market behaviour to direct the marketing strategy to help their concept be a commercial success (Mcdaniel, Hair and Lamb, 2011).

BskyB have had huge commercial success with their concept SKY+, however this success has not come from huge cash investment, it has come as a result of a good marketing strategy. BskyB launched SKY+ in July 2001, they did not advertise and market the concept because they knew that customers would expect SKY+ to work flawlessly but they knew that they would have some problems as it was a brand new concept and the first of its kind Until recently the service has purposely received only low key marketing support” (Mercer 2003). They therefore took a more cautious approach to allow them to receive feedback form the ‘early adopters’ category of the Rogers Adoption Curve(Appendix 1), before they gave the concept a high profile marketing campaign. BskyB identified that each category of the curve required a different marketing strategy, using this information they put together a marketing strategy to ensure maximum commercial success. In 2003 BskyB reduced the price of SKY+ from £300 to £199 and they had a major advertising campaign costing £20m. (Sky Press Release, 08/09/2003). BskyB also used celebrities as part of their marketing strategy to help raise the profile and awareness of the concept to the public, BskyB chose radio presenters as some of the celebrities they used and they also then when on to mention the concept on air, giving BskyB even more recognition..

To develop my marketing strategy for my concept I would use a Position Strategy Graph (Appendix 2) to help me plot my concept and create the an ideal price. I would then use a strategy similar to BskyB of not marketing the concept too much initially so that I can get some feedback from the early adopter which I may use to improve the concept. I would then invest in a marketing strategy to raise the profile of my concept, I would use well known footballers to help me create a TV advert from which I would also use still images to create poster campaigns and radio adverts. The advertisements would concentrate on the ‘Product’ section of the Marketing Mix (Learnmarketing.net, 2014. Appendix 3) to promote the sport and what it actually consists of as it is a brand new sport concept.

References

Baker, Michael and Hart, Susan (2007), Product Strategy and Management, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2012) Principles of Marketing, 14th Edn, London: Pearson Education.

Learnmarketing.net, (2014). Perceptual Maps/Positioning Maps. [online] Available at: http://www.learnmarketing.net/perceptualmaps.htm [Accessed 1 Dec. 2014].

Mcdaniel, C.D, Lamb, C.W.& Hair J.F. (2011) Introduction to Marketing 11th Edn, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning

Mercer, David (2003), “Can Sky Plus resolve its teething troubles?”, New Media Age. 1 May 2003, p.15.

Sky Press Release (2003), “BSkyB Sky+ Marketing Drive”. www.sky.com 08/09/2003

Appendix 1 Rogers Adoption Curve (Baker 2007)