MARKETING PLAN

Course: Global Marketing Management

Tutor: Emmet Hayes

Module: 869N1

CandNo: 70392, 79869,

CONTENTS

- Executive summary 1

- Mission statement 2

- Objectives 2

- Environmental scanning

- FAB Analysis

- SWOT Analysis

- PEST Analysis

- Market research

- Porters five forces analysis

- STP

- Segmentation

- Targeting

- Positioning

-Marketing Mix

- Product

- Price

- Promotion

- Place

- People

- Process

- Physical evidence

- Financials

- Project plan

- Conclusion- Recommendations

- Bibliography

- Appendix

Executive Summary

The purpose of this marketing plan is to analyze and identify the market plan

of the “Smart Headphones” which can translate directly almost every language in the world

providing exceptional convenience to people who use foreign language for their jobs or for

their traveling abroad. By buying these translating headphones consumers are offered with 3

languages and then can buy additional languages. The first target markets are France and

China and after the first 5 years we planned to extend the business to UAE and India. This is

due to the explosion of tourism and international businesses in these two markets, as China’s

tourism industry ranking 4th in the world and 3th in international companies and France has

high international relationships with Tourism share over 6.2% in current Euro GDP.

Although there are currently many competitors, such as electronic translating device and

many interpreters, there does not exist any direct competitor. Smart Headphones’ marketing

strategy is to emphasize, through promotion strategies, the competitive advantage of

translating directly almost every language in the world without mistakes and the availability

of our services. Based on the size of our market, our first outgoings projections for the first

year are £1,771,600 and our sales projections are £2,521,000 and they will be increased in

the following years as we are planning to extent our business. Thus, even Smart Headphones

is an innovative and new product in the market, having some risks; it will be in a high

demand as the target market indicates a high willingness to pay for it.

Mission Statement

“We erase boarders between nations and make people speak with the same language

only by using headphones.”

To keep up with globalization, break down boarders and make the earth “smaller”.

We will perpetually use the best quality materials; guarantee the highest possible

standard of interpreting with a professional service that our customers can trust us.

Our aim is to exceed our customers’ expectations and to delight them.

Objectives

Geographical Spread: When success be achieved in countries, which we

have entered, we wish then to go globally. Initially, our goal is to build a

substantial and successful service in France and China and 5 years later to

introduce our product to UAE and India (appendix II).

Annual sales: Set a strong value proposition in order to achieve sales of

£2,521,000 the first year and £20,805,000 by the year of 2018.

Increase sales gradually approximately 30% - 40%.

FAB Analysis

Features Advantages Benefits

2 headphones Not be bothered Clear voice

Plastic Not heavy Comfortable

Wireless No cables Convenient

Color Colorful Fashion

Battery Long lasting Time & money-saving

Translator Specific in almost every

language in the world

Nearly without mistakes

(extremely useful)

Voice recorder Practice your

pronunciation

Easy learning

USB Charge in computers Useful

Waterproof Can be used even in rain

or snow

No damage by water

SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

Long lasting battery (up to

40hours)

Easy to wear

Nearly all languages

Enhance communications and

relationships

Facilitate international

traveling and business

Save money/time

Expensive

The company brand is

unknown in the marketplace

and without an established

reputation of successful work

Problematic factors (style,

meaning, proverbs, idioms,

etc)

Possibility of malfunction in

crowded places

Necessity for complementary

devices

The accuracy couldn’t be as

good as the translation by

human

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

Global market Imitation of technology

No direct competitor

Innovative product

Can attack competitors

(software, ideas, etc.)

Expensive global patent

Consumer trust

PEST Analysis

CHINA

Political Economical Sociocultural Technological

-Government halved

the tax on electronics

from 20% to 10%

-Quite stable

-Foreign investment:

504,568 companies

(2008)

-Tourist and tourism

industry grow by annual

rate of 15%

-4th in the world in

tourism industry

-The World Tourism

Organization predicts

that China will become

the No1 tourist

-Population:

1,341,000,000

(2010)

-Less than 1%

speaks English

language

-Growth rate: 0.4%

(2009)

-The 1st productive

force

-Spent 2% of GDP

on R&D in 2010

which means 20%

growth in R&D in

the following years

-The technology

offers companies a

new way to

communicate with

consumers eg.

Banners, CRM, etc.

destination

-International

companies ranking 3th

in the world

FRANCE

Political Economical Sociocultural Technological

-The government

earmarks 75 million

euro for the France

State Secretariat for

Tourism

-Has an official

policy to promote the

French language

-Is the 6th largest

economy in the world in

USD exchange-rate

terms

-Tourism share is over

6.2% in current Euro

GDP

-Expenditure by foreign

visitors in France: 39.6

billion Euros (+7.2%)

-Expenditure by

residents abroad: 26.8

billion Euros (+7.8%)

-The 1st productive

force

-Spent 2% of GDP

on R&D in 2010

which means 20%

growth in R&D in

the following years

-One of the highest

country in

innovation

technology

-The technology

offers companies a

new way to

communicate with

consumers eg.

Banners, CRM, etc.

-Advent of

microcomputers

-Balance: 12.8 billion

Euros (+6.0%)

-High International

relationships

Market research

Primary research

In order to get some basic information about whom to target and if it is

reasonable to introduce this product to the market we used a survey with

questionnaire as it is cost-effective and no time consuming. Thus, 22 out of 48

managers of international companies filled out our survey via emails. 200 out of 500

friends answered our survey via Facebook and 22 out of 40 clients of the travel

agency, Thomas Cook answer our questionnaire (Appendix I).

The following are the most interesting results after this survey:

Please identify the group age you belong:

less than 18

18-25

26-35

36-45

46 and older

I could spend a great amount of money for any translation system if it was really useful:

Strongly agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

This table shows the high intention of our respondents to spend a great amount of

money and this could give us the opportunity to follow the skimming pricing

strategy. Moreover, it shows that our target market would really appreciate our

service and they find it useful.

I travel often to foreign countries:

Strongly agreeAgree

DisagreeStrongly disagree

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

This table indicates that our respondent’s traveling abroad is high enough which

shows that Smart Headphones will be on high demand.

I use a dictionary for communication very often

Strongly agreeAgreeDisagreeStrongly disagree

This chart illustrates that half of our correspondents use on a regular basis a

dictionary that means that our smart headphones will facilitate their daily life

My job requires foreign language

YesNo

Here we can notice that almost ¾ need to speak foreign language for their jobs, which

can prove that dictionaries, translators etc. are necessary to them. Our translators can

be a solution to this

Secondary research

Revenues generated by European language services in 2009 were estimated at

4.17 billion Euro or 43% of the global market, which is almost double

comparing of that in 2005 (Rinsche & Portera-Zanoti 2009).

Entry barriers are very low for translation companies, which indicates that for

individuals and new companies can enter this market easily (Rinsche &

Portera-Zanoti 2009). Thus, we have Patents: EPO (in Europe), CPO (in

China), USPTO (in USA).

The rank for conference interpreting:

1. English

2. Spanish

3. French

4. German

5. Italian

6. Portuguese

(Rinsche & Portera-Zanoti 2009)

Porters Five Forces Analysis

Potential new entrants:•Casio•BESTA

•Drive up price•Low bargaining power•Alternative markets

NO DIRECT COMPETITORS!!

•Small number of buyers•Switching to another product•The product is not important to buyers

•Google translate•Electronic dictionaries “Casio”•Interpreters “EK Translations ”•“Talk and listen kit”

buyerssuppliers

New Entrants

Substitutes

Although there are countless substitutes, Smart Headphones are under monopolistic

competition as they don’t have direct competitors, which means that our scope of

doing well in the market is widened and this can also affect the price of the product.

Strengths and weaknesses of some substitutes:

The competitors in this market are in the majority the companies who provide the

wireless language interpretation equipment to help the clients to communicate

with Language Groups.

“Talk and listen kit”

Compatible with most 72MHz wideband systems. This will be found

useful for customers who have already equipment and would like to

determine compatibility of this new digital transmitter and receiver.

This would make us decrease our profit as there would be some

potential customers who have equipment and surely they will prefer

“Talk and listen kit”.

The price of the “Talk and listen kit” is much higher than our product

but this can be explained as talk and listen kit has a human translator,

whereas our product has an automatic machine translator. Also, the

talk and listen kit can only provide 8 languages for translation (Talk

and listen kit 2011), but we provide more than that.

EK Translations

This company is able to translate only few specific languages, whereas

our product can translate almost every language in the world.

The price of the “EK Translations” depends on the time (Ek

Translations 2010), whereas with our product the customers pay only

once at the beginning to buy it and they can use it countless times.

The rivalry is intense as there are many equally sized competitors and the switching

costs are not high which means that the rivalry will increase and many competitors

may develop theirs products in order to catch our features.

Closely related competitors:

Nowadays, there is a huge possibility of potential entrants but besides that we are on

the plan of developing barriers to entry and our first aim is to sue for patent in order

to avoid our main potential competitors which are the Casio and the Besta.

Casio and Besta are a pocket-sized computers that can translate only some basic

languages but besides that, it is an emerging product and it can be developed to a

similar to ours product and in some cases Smart headphones can be replaced, as the

Casio and Besta are much cheaper.

Suppliers

The bargaining power of the suppliers is quite low as there are not many buyers yet

and there are many alternative markets.

Buyers

The number of potential buyers is satisfying enough as the primary research indicated

that a big percentage would like to use a product such ours. Although there are many

sellers with similar products making the consumers having a high bargaining power,

our product has the benefits of innovation and translating almost every language in

the world.

Market segments

Geographic segmentation: Initially Smart Headphones will be operated in China

and France, as per research, rank 1 and 4 respectively in international tourist arrivals

in 2009. Also, the average hourly compensation costs of manufacturing workers in

China are the least as compared to the UK and the USA. Additionally, we plan to

extent our business to UAE and India after 5 years of our launch as we found many

interesting factors in our PEST analysis but we do not want to do hurry actions.

Demographic segmentation: The demographic segmentation consists of

international middle- to high-income adults who would need the Smart Headphones

for:

Military Translation

Business Translation

Medical Translation

Conference Interpretation

Court Translation

Technical Translation

Tourism Translation

Daily Translation

Target Market

Smart Headphones will target two different segments:

need the business interpreting services during negotiations, meetings,

symposia and international conferences;

need the simple daily translating services during their overseas travel.

For the following reasons:

These segments are more approachable and receptive as the first step to

launch the Smart Headphones. After our business achieves stabilization it can

move on to the others segments.

This market segment is more likely to spend a fair amount of money to

improve the quality of traveling.

This target segment seems to be willing to accept the new interpreting

services.

There is a growing demand in the interpretation market with increased

travelling, in the form of business trips, tourism. Recent market research

shows that the language services market is growing at an annual rate of 10%

and is expected to reach EUR 20,000,000 in the next three years (EU

language industry set to ride out the crisis 2009).

Positioning High

SMART HEADPDHONESS

Interpreters

Low High

Quality

Low Price

Smart headphones will position themselves as a fair price translator. This positioning

will be achieved by leveraging our competitive edge: good quality and innovation.

Smart headphones will provide customers good quality translation experience

everywhere and forever. Also, Smart headphones provide private machine

translation; enable our customers to enjoy their trip abroad without disturbing.

Whereas, our competitors that are electronic translators and interpreters have one

basic disadvantage each. That is to say, electronic translators have the drawback of

the low quality even the price is low and interpreters have the disadvantage of very

high price which depends on how long someone do use them.

THE MARKETING MIX

1) PRODUCT:

(Product differentiation)

Basic product: The ‘smart headphones’ translates almost every language in

the world and consists of 2 wireless plastic headphones, a chargeable battery,

a translator chip, and a voice recorder. It is a portable, lightweight product,

water-resistant and with long lasting batteries. The original plastic bands for

our product are black, but bands are available in various colors for fashion

purposes. Initially, 3 languages will be provided, but if a company orders our

products online, requesting many more languages, they can be provided them

at their doorstep. If customers need extra languages, they can also be

Machine

Translators

provided, with the assumption that they will make the order personally and in

advance.

The core product: This is the translating headphones, consisting of 3 inbuilt

languages for translation.

The actual product: This includes the extra tangible items, which people can

purchase. For instance, cushioning for headphones, extra battery, charger,

voice recorder, extra language software, coloured bands, etc.

The augmented product: This includes the non-tangible services that are

provided in addition to the physical parts. We provide a 24hour helpline to

our customers, who have complaints regarding our product, or doubts

regarding the translation of words. We also provide a 5-year guarantee.

2) PRICING:

Translating Headphone

s

cushioning, extra

battery,extra language software, coloured

bands, charger

24h helpline, 5-year

guarantee

For the pricing of our product we decided to use the strategy of “market-

skimming pricing” for the following reasons: 1) There are not direct

competitors who could offer lower prices in order to take our potential

customers. 2) The target market will be middle to high-income adults, who

are non price-sensitive for this product. 3) The high image of this product

must support its price ( Kotler et al. 2008)

Furthermore, we will follow the “psychological pricing” and we chose the

price of £499 and not £500, as some consumers will see the £499 as a price in

the £400 range rather than the £500 range.

The company plans to maintain the same price for the first two years, and

then, decrease it to £399 after the third year.

Also, “optional product pricing” can increase the company’s profits, as some

more products will be sold (cushioning, extra battery, extra language

software, colored bands, voice recorder, charger) along with the Smart

Headphones.

Finally, “captive product pricing” is one more strategy in order to sell extra

language software.

Thus, after an extent research we concluded to these prices:

Headphones (including 3 languages): £499

Cushioning for headphones: £7

Extra language software:

European language: £80

Asian language: £110

Other languages: £140

Coloured bands: £25

Extra battery: £60

3) PROMOTION:

Marketing objectives: Awareness Interest Purchase

(Wood 2010)

Promotions mix: As Smart Headphones is a new product in the market ,it is

indispensable to give high attention to promotion:

Advertising:

Ads through:

Traveling and business magazines

Pictorial ads in electronic stores and on billboards near to travel agents

and business centers.

A commercial on YouTube can be a very useful way of advertising.

We prefer YouTube to television commercial, as YouTube would be

definitely much cheaper.

Distribution of brochures containing detailed information about Smart

headphones and a contact number for people who like to get more

details about them. Moreover, when someone calls the company we

will make him/her aware of the offers and discounts we provide.

Social networking site is one other way of advertisement by which

potential customers can read more about the functions and the price of

the product and the discounts. Also, everyone, who joins company’s

website, can see customers’ opinions about the Smart Headphones and

finally it can be purchased online.

Sales promotion:

Plans for participating in industry trade shows regarding Smart

headphones. By this way it will be showed how life can be much

easier by using the Smart headphones.

Also, the use of push strategy by forcing promotion for placing our

product in upscale electronic shops.

Everyone, who will buy 2 pairs of headphones, will have extra

European language software.

Public relations:

Promotional emails to International businessmen in China and France.

Special events in seminars, meetings or forums, congress and

exhibitions to build awareness of the product and positive word of

mouth among consumers and businesses.

4) PLACE:

The company will follow the following distribution strategy:

INDIRECT CHANNELS

Tie up with airline companies and electronic shops in order to sell

Smart headphones on board and also in in-flight duty free shops. Also, it will

be sold through company’s website. The following table shows the place

where people can buy the Smart headphones:

China France

Producers in China

Wholesalers in China and

France

Retailers in China and

France

Customers

Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) Air France

Beijing International Airport Virgin Atlantic

GOME Virgin megastore

Air China FNAC

Suning Roissy Airport

5) PEOPLE:

Customer service: A team will be available 24/7 to help customers

when they face a problem with the meaning of the words or when they have

complaints about the product. Also, if there is any hardware problem with the

headphones within the 3-year warranty period, specialized people will be

available for the customers, to get their headphones fixed.

Manufacturing: A person will be able to supervise the quality of the

products outsourcing in China. Newcomers will be appointed to design the

smart headphones, as they can be more innovative.

Sales team: A manager will train the staff of the retailers in order to

demonstrate the product and its features.

6) PROCESS

Organizational Chart

We generate our organizational chart by thinking production and sales processes. As

for production, we put production and technology & design departments; and for

sales, marketing&sales and accounting departments. Advertising and promotion parts

will be under the marketing department. Whole chart can be investigated to

understand structure of our company.

Financials

SHAREHOLDERS

PRODUCTION

MAIN PRODUCT PRODUCTION

SUBSIDIARY PRODUCT PRODUCTION

ENGINEERING

QUALITY CONTROL

WAREHOUSING

TECHNOLOGY & AR-GE

DESIGN&ART

AR-GE

LICENSING-PATENTS

ENGINEERING

MARKETING&SALES

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

SALES

ACCOUNTING

FINANCIAL AFFAIRS

PROVISION & COMMERCE

CEO

Project Plan

Milestones Table

As it is shown in the following table, we are planning to research and to follow

market facts before enter the market, this year will be our preparing year. Then, we

will launch smart headphones. When other companies enter the market, our product

will be developed with new functions like speaking skill. After almost five years, we

will spread to new companies with a gained reputation.

Task Rep Time Definition

Researching and

following market

Shareholders First one year Before entering

market

Launching

product

All departments After researching Production,

advertising etc.

Product

development

All departments When some

companies start

to copy us or

come to end of

product life cycle

To refreshing our

product

Spreading new

countries

All departments Approximately

after 5 years

To UAE and

India

Recommendations and conclusion

Taking all these points into consideration, it is undeniable that Smart

Headphones can be an innovative product to the market of translation and as it is

proved through this marketing plan, it has high competitive advantages as it can

translate almost every language in the world, in a real time, only by using a button.

Indeed, it has high technology which is hard to be copied, as we have already an IT

license, and because of its large target market it can be proved that this product is an

intelligent idea.

However, we still need to look for some future actions in order to maintain the

high position of Smart Headphones. Firstly, company’s main aim is to be leader in

market by determining the next step, which is to add microphone in order to

exemplify and provide speaking. Thus, consumers may speak in their own language

and the microphone can translate loudly in another language. Secondly, R&D

investments will need to be increased in the near future, as the company is planning

to expand its target market to India and UAE. Thirdly, a strategic alliance with a

company, such as Apple, would facilitate the Smart Headphones’ global extension.

Last but not least, one other integral plan for Smart Headphones, which needs to be

done in time, is to apply the following patents: EPO (in Europe), CPO (in China),

USPTO (in US) in order to protect the Smart Headphones’ functioning from the

competitors, in a limited period (Hooley, Piercy and Nicoulaud 2008, p.163).

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APPENDIX

(I) SURVEY

1. Please indicate your gender.

Male Female

2. Please identify the group age you belong:

Less than 18

18 to 29

30 to 39

40 to 49

50 and older

3. What is your monthly income:

Less than £1,500

£1,501 to £3,000

£3,001 and above

4. What type of media do you use to get informed?

Press

Television

Internet

All of the above

Other

5. I can speak:

One language

Two languages

Three languages

More than four

6. I travel often to foreign countries:

Strongly agree

Agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

7. I have difficulty in learning languages:

Strongly agree

Agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

8. My job requires foreign languages:

Yes

No

9. I use a dictionary for communication very often:

Strongly agree

Agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

10. I would spent a great amount of money for any translation system if it was really useful:

Strongly agree

Agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

APPENDIX (II)

UAE

Political Economical Sociocultural Technological

-Government consists of a Federation of the 7 Emirates, ruled by President

-Government encourages globalization

-Has a large foreign population

-Out of the 3 million people, 60% are in the workforce

-Only 13% of them are the UAE Nationals, 87% are foreign expatriates

-Languages spoken are Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Hindi, etc.

-Population: 6,100,000

-Citizens have a high standard of living, and their financial positions have continuously increased over time

-The society is open and free with all types of hotels, restaurants,

-Large population has young professionals who are very technologically-knowledgeable

-IT industry relates to tourism, hotel, computer and IT service sectors

-UAE has the most

-Multicultural society

tourism, etc.

-Multicultural nature of the country attracts many foreigners

satellite, Internet and mobile phone users in the Middle East

INDIA

Political Economical Sociocultural Technological

-The Indian Constitution has listed 14 languages into its 8th Schedule in 1950

-The 100th Constitutional Amendment, which added 4 new languages into the 8th Schedule was supported by all the 338 Parliament members

-33 languages more are to be included

-UNESCO appreciates India for “maintaining linguistic diversity”

-IT industry’s contribution to India’s GDP has increased to a share of 5.2% in 2007, as against 1.2% in 1998

-Indian IT market is set to cross US $25.43 billion

-As per NASSCOM, India is sharing 5.2% of the IT market and currently, Indian language market size may be considered to be approx $500 million

-Population: 1,150,000,000

-Diversity in languages spoken

-Over 22 languages are spoken, Hindi being the most common

-The Technological Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) is the initiative of IT industry to bridge the digital divide by developing IT tools in local Indian languages

-Machine translation is relatively young