Organizational Overview

Houzit is a renowned chain of home-ware stores that specializes in the manufacture and sale of household goods such as decorative items for the bedrooms and the bathrooms, mirrors and other types of fittings, all of which are made available to customers at affordable prices and on easy payment terms. Houzit is currently based in Brisbane, with operations being carried out from its head office in Milton. This report prepares a marketing plan by analyzing two significant opportunities that Houzit can take advantage of, based on its present situation in the Australian market, to expand to other prominent cities and towns in the country as well.

Houzit aims at being a renowned national retail brand by catering to the requirements of home makers through the provision of high quality and unique homewares that will be made available to customers via payment plans that are flexible and easy to manage..

By the year of 2020, Houzit aims to hold a very important retail presence in every city and town of Australia, as far as home-ware items are concerned, by first expanding to as many as fifteen stores in Brisbane itself and then opening another 100 stores all over the country.

• The Houzit company aims at increasing the sales profit from as much as $ 15 million in a year to approximately $ 20 million in a year over the next three years
• The store wishes to establish what may be termed as brand recognition in the city of Brisbane, including greater Brisbane, so that at least one person in every three persons is able to identify and recognize the brand rather easily during the random customer surveys that will be undertaken at the end of eighteen months.
• The store aims at increasing the number of loyal customers from ten thousand at present to around fifteen thousand

There aren’t too many gaps between the organization’s objectives and its current capabilities and resources. Houzit has been doing well for itself in Brisbane and has the resources necessary to expand to other cities and towns in Australia. The fact that the organization provides high quality products to an established and posh clientele implies that it is more than likely to meet its objectives when expanding to other Australian towns and cities as well.

The first opportunity that Houzit has in order to be able to expand now its operations to the rest of the country, is that this is a business which has been in existence for as many as five years. Over the last five years, Houzit has developed an extensive range of home wares that it makes available to customers on easy payment terms.

• Customers are likely to have high expectations from Houzit products and may get disappointed easily if any new product is not up to the mark
• The easy payment terms can be taken advantage of by certain customers who can stall on payments citing some issue or the other.

• Owing to the fact that Houzit has been in operation for the last 5 years, it has a thorough understanding of the Australian market for home wares, knowing what it is that must be produced in order to attract customers in large numbers.
• The second benefit of this opportunity is that since Houzit makes a wide range of home ware items available to customers, those who are on the look out for home wares of different types will flock in large numbers to the Houzit stores because of the fantastic variety of products on offer here.

The second opportunity that Houzit has for expansion in Brisbane and other parts of Australia is the fact that it has a good client base. Most of the customers for home ware products offered by Houzit are from well to do households, who are willing to drive over to easy to access stores to get what they want. The target customer base is also quite expansive in nature, with target customers being aged between twenty years old and fifty years old on an average.

• It may not be always possible to retain such a large customer base when expanding operations to other Australian cities and towns as well, as customers here may not be of the same temperament or have the same preferences for home ware products as the customers in Brisbane.
• Customers who are in the age group of twenty years to fifty years tend to get disinterested easily, largely due to their spending power, and retaining the interest in home ware products over the long term is itself a challenge, a challenge which may be present when expanding to other Australian cities and towns as well.

• Customers in the age group of twenty years to fifty years have excellent spending power and will be able to afford easily, all the home ware products that are launched in the market by Houzit
• Sophisticated clientele will always have a preference for elegant and unique products, as made available by a company like Houzit
• Understanding the Opportunity that Best Suits the Organizational Objectives of the Company

The opportunity that best addressed the organizational objectives of the company is the fact that the company has an extensive customer base comprising of sophisticated, elegant clients in the age group of twenty to fifty years, who have good spending power and who therefore have the means to procure the unique home ware items that Houzit launches in the market.

Product – The product to be marketed is the home ware items such as bedroom fittings, bathroom fittings, mirrors and other decorative items that are manufactured by the Houzit group of household furnishing stores.

Strategic Direction and Organizational Objectives

Place – The place where the products will be marketed is the greater Brisbane area, after which marketing strategies will also be implemented in other prominent cities and towns of the country such as Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart.

Price – The price of Houzit home ware items will be fixed at $ 150 to $ 200, on an average. This is primarily because of the fact that the company caters to a sophisticated and elegant clientele that has good purchasing power.

Promotion – Promotional activities will be carried out extensively on social media platforms as well as at major household goods stores and supermarkets both in Brisbane and in neighboring Australian cities and towns. Leaflets and posters about the new Houzit stores will be distributed at malls and shopping centers in Sydney and Adelaide where the store is looking to expand to.

The marketing strategy that has been outlined above goes well with the organizational objectives of Houzit, as it seeks to expand its customer base and increase sales in the coming three years. This is only possible if the home ware products are made available at fixed or unchanging prices in the initial days of expansion, with efforts being made to cater to the interests of sophisticated and elegant clientele, the type that already make up the store’s target consumer base at present.

Based on the theory of competitive advantage, the Houzit store will launch ornamental and beautifully designed home ware items that stand out by virtue of their appearance and quality in comparison to other home ware products that are made available in the market. The products will also be very beautifully packaged so that they are a delight to hold onto even when not being used. The delicate home wares will be adequately sealed so that these do not break too easily when being delivered to the homes of customers or when being carried home by customers.

Brand awareness, customer engagement and lifetime customer value are three of the marketing metrics that will be utilized when launching the Houzit home ware products both in greater Brisbane as well as in other parts of Australia.

1. Scheduling of Activities to Enact the Strategy

• The marketing strategies will be initially carried out on social media through the creation of promotional pages that can be liked by potential customers and a base of followers can be created..
• The marketing strategies will be launched in the month of March and carried on till the months of June and July after which the impact of these strategies shall be assessed.

The budget for the marketing strategies and activities will be fixed at $ 50,000 to begin with. This is largely due to the fact that the marketing or promotional activities will be limited only to social media advertising and pamphlet and leaflet distribution to begin with.

Duties and responsibilities for carrying out the marketing plan to perfection will be delegated among various professionals such as social media advertising professionals, search engine optimization experts, online digital marketers and chartered accountants for doing the necessary checks and audits.

• The promotional activities will be carried out over a time span of six months to one year
• At the outset, it is the social media marketing strategies that will be initiated, after which efforts will be made to create and distribute leaflets and pamphlets containing information about the opening of the new Houzit stores in other cities and towns of expansion
• Three to four people will be placed in charge to oversee the marketing activities and any lapses in strategy implementation will be detected and rectified immediately

• Information about the new home ware products that are to be launched by the new Houzit stores will be kept as authentic and as accurate as possible, so that customers are able to buy at the prices that have been explicitly advertised or mentioned at the time of the marketing campaign.
• Customers will be provided with a three year warranty for the products that they buy from the new Houzit stores, and will not be asked to pay for repair and damages if servicing or repair work is sought while the warranty period is operational.

The tactics mentioned above are well within the means of the organizations resources and capabilities because

1. Advertising and promotional activities will only be limited to social media marketing and leaflet or pamphlet distributions to begin with. This will not only cost very less money but it is also a marketing strategy that will be easy to implement, not requiring too many people to see it through. Since Houzit is a chain that is already doing well for itself in Brisbane, it will not even have to spend half of its resources on its new marketing strategies for expansion.
2. Since most of the Houzit customers at the moment comprise of people in the age group of twenty to fifty, and since the majority of the marketing and promotional activities will be carried out online on social media, Houzit is certain to make its marketing message known pretty well. Almost all if not all people in the age group of twenty to fifty in Australia have social media accounts and are hooked onto platforms like Facebook and Twitter all the time.

Conclusion 

Thus, marketing the Houzit chain of stores in greater Brisbane as well as other prominent cities and towns of Australia can certainly be done with the help of an effective and well thought out marketing plan. The Houzit store has been earning great revenue already, and has a solid customer base that is not too difficult to retain, provided Houzit ensures that it keeps up the standard or quality of its products or home wares over the long term. Houzit only has to pay special attention to making its quality and unique home wares available at genuine prices so that customers feel inclined to buy these over the long term.

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