Download - mktg plan-368
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Furniture business has been identified as one of the booming industries now a day as both the
growth and expansion rate of companies operating in this very industry is increasing at a fast rate.
In this circumstance, we have decided to make an entry in this industry with unique and eye-
catching water hyacinth furniture that are economically viable, environment friendly, financially
low risky. As cheap labors and the raw materials which we will be using in the production line are
available in Bangladesh, we believe there is a strong chance of our success. We have targeted both
household and business organizations as our customer. Though the product line would be same for
both the target segments the way of approaching would be different. Unlike traditional distribution
channel, we would be following a direct channel to customers. It means we will be collecting our
raw materials, building furniture in own factory, selling the furniture directly to the customers from
our own showrooms. But for the business organizations we will be employing third party
marketers. Their main work would be to induce the organizations to buy our products, they might
send them e-mails, go physically to their office to let them know our products’ attribute and special
promotional offers. We believe that by targeting the medium and high-end market, we can
successfully occupy a promising niche. Our analysis has proven the growing sales and profit of our
business throughout this plan. “Build to serve, Serves long” is our vision and we strongly believe
that “Customers are the king of our business”. However, besides distribution we would also be also
undertaking some promotional activities seriously for example, putting billboard ads, giving away
leaflets, brochures, putting ads on newspapers, ads on radio channels and to some extent to
television. With the implementation of the new marketing distribution policy and promotional
activities outlined in this project, we will try our best to position our product as the high-quality,
endurable, elegant; alternative to conventional furniture found in other places. We believe, our
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Management Summary
Economic Outlook
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
ability to integrate emerging technologies in our own design will certainly help us to establish our
brand as a very strong, reputed and preferred by the all potential customers.
Country Forecast Overview (3 Year)
Key Indicators 2007 2008 2009
Real GDP Growth (%) 4.60 3.70 4.30
Consumer Price Inflation (av;%) 9.12 8.90 5.10
Budget Balance (% of GDP) -4.40 -5.00 -4.30
Current-Account Balance (% of GDP) 1.10 .20 .20
Exchange Rate US$: Euro (av) 68.87 68.79 69.73
Exchange Rate US$: Euro (year-end) 68.58 68.90 70.50
The political environment can affect the economy badly in this year. The political scene will
remain unsettled during the early part. The biggest risk to political stability centers on the timing
of the next general election. Given the huge task of compiling a voter list, which will include
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
taking photographs of some 80m people, there are concerns that this part of the preparations
may not be completed in time for a general election to be held in late 2008. A sustained
campaign of violence by any of the numerous militant groups in Bangladesh would constitute
another threat to political stability. Although the leading figures in two of the country's four
main banned militant groups have been executed, huge networks of full- and part-time activists
remain intact. In recent years number of FDI in Bangladesh is increasing, the rate of literacy in
increasing, the branch of MNC’s in Dhaka city is also increasing, which means the number of
employment opportunity is also increasing. So there is a possibility that the personal income of
our potential clients in the high status areas like Gulshan, Banani, and Dhanmondi will also
increase. So we are expecting that the factors discussed above might affect the business of
Artistic Furniture.
In last 3 years we have spent 1850000.00 taka for promotional purpose. We are hoping that in
this year we will spend the highest amount of money for promotional purpose.
London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has revised down its forecast on Bangladesh's
economic growth to 5.7 per cent in 2007-08 in their latest revision of country report on
Bangladesh. It fears inflation in the country to entrench further.
The above figure shows the continuous economic growth of Bangladesh. But there is a threat of
inflation in this year, which can affect the business negatively. The EIU report said the upward
price pressures - particularly those resulting from rising food costs - are expected to persist
throughout the forecast period.
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The Market - Qualitative
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
The customer or end user
Our target market is a person who wants to have very fine furniture with the latest in
technology, different design and efficient: This person can be a home user, small business or
big hotel. The common bond is the appreciation of quality, and the lack of price restrictions.
The key 4 furniture huddles of Dhaka are our potential target markets: located at Mirpur,
Gulshan, Panthapath, and Elephant Road
.
Demographic: Income range will be our main factor while we are targeting our customers
based on demographic characteristics. Our basic target customers are those who earn
monthly BDT 20000 or above.
Geographic: Our target market consists of whole Bangladesh. However, we may extend our
business to foreign countries based on the performance of the business in future.
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Psychographic: Social class is our main determinant for psychographic segmentation which
includes people from upper class or middles class. On the basis of value, we also have
defined our customers, that is, people who are very concerned about environment, we will
target them. We will let them know that we make our furniture using such ingredients which
are environmental friendly.
Developing a marketing plan with 4P's
4P (Product,Price,Place & Promotion):
We will try to position our brand ‘Artistic Furniture’ in the customers’ minds as a brand that
which has a pay off line , Build to serve, Serves long. Our identity and promotional activity both
will be helping us to ensure long term growth in both their market share and profits. In order to
achieve maximum positioning we will be dividing our target customer segments into
two divisions: Household (where we need to implement B2C strategy) and Business
Organizations (where we need to implement B2B strategy). The offers or promotional activities
will also be different as they are two completely different entities having huge difference in
choice or preference. We will be letting the customers know our identity first, then our product
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
ingredients and styles. Getting the most stylish environmentally friendly furniture in a very
economical rate is everyone’s desire and hence we will be concentrating all our efforts to set this
statement in our audiences mind.
However, we have chosen umbrella strategy as the means of positioning our products. We will
be formulating and implementing the following strategies in positioning our furniture:
As we are totally new in this industry the first thing we need to do is to create awareness. It
is require letting the customers know our offered furniture, with what ingredients the
furniture is built with, what are the benefits that the customers would if they buy our
furniture. The furniture which will be offered will be extensively promoted in order to tell
others clearly what these products actually are, how they are better than other brand’s
offered furniture. This will help to attract a large number of interested audiences and create a
sales potential environment.
A message has to be passed on to the target segments through a variety of methods such as
website, print media (professional magazines, newspapers, leaflets, catalogs, etc.), broadcast
media such as TV, and other forms of support media (point of purchase displays, billboards,
and others). For instance in the point of purchase displays in the retail outlets there will be
specific markers on the products which will indicate their features – there will be two forms
of the same product. One of them will be for the households or Consumer segment (B2C),
while the other will be for the Business Organizations (B2B).
We have decided to devote most of the allocated advertising cost to print media. Besides we
are also interested in distributing leaflets, putting ads on billboards and newspapers.
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
However, we have observed that now a day radio advertisements carry huge significance as
the radio stations turn out to be very popular. However, for the benefit of the potential
customer, all the necessary detailed information and promotional offers regarding our
product will be placed in our website.
We prefer point of purchase demonstrations in the showrooms and retail outlets where the
sales people will be responsible for educating the customers about the ingredients, benefits,
placements regarding various furniture that are offered. We believe all these information will
help the customers to buy their desired furniture. Also this will ensure both quality of their
purchases and will definitely help largely to increase the reliability of our brand.
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Positioning Build to serve, Serves long
Umbrella Strategy(Bringing new and existing buyer and seller)
Product Strategy
Pricing Strategy
Promotional Strategy
Placing Strategy
The Market-Quantitative
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Potential market and clients
Recent study of BFIOA (Bangladesh Furniture Industry Owners Association) depicts that the
current market size for furniture in Bangladesh is Tk. 4 billion ($5, 714, 28.57 dollar) and it is
growing at 15%-20% per year. Among this 27% are contributed by home users, 22% are
contributed by small businesses are and 16% by big hotels.
Potentiality to expand beyond local market: As this water hyacinth furniture
business is primarily based on labor intensive technology, any country based on labor
intensive economy can employ this business. During our plan work we’ve found that
countries like Kenya, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc. can easily adopt this business for
availability of cheap labor.
Potentiality to export: Bangladesh has earned Tk. 61 million (US$871,430) from
export of modern furniture during the first quarter of the financial year of 2003-2004.
So, there is obvious potentiality to export our product.
Potentiality to produce mass: Our product’s scalability should be very high in future
as our prime raw materials (water hyacinth and bamboo) are readily available in
Bangladesh.
At the first three years we want to achieve quite a few things. To achieve those we need to
accomplish some purposes. Those will be, Short term purpose of Artistic Furniture will be within
the first twelve months of working; we will be attending needs of the clients. We will provide a
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
good service. By this service we will be gaining more clients. Once the business is ready to
open, we will want the following to be achieved in the early stages (within 3 yrs)
Establish the Brand
Having a stable and strong work force
Increase market share
Expand the business by opening more branches if there is reasonable
demand.
Employ more additional staff which will reduce the unemployment rate of
our country as well.
Once the business has established its brand, it will mean repeat business form existing clients
and the clients introducing friends. Further more a good reputation may also result in number of
clients to increase.
Having small promotion campaign in local areas will result in raising awareness amongst the
public and possibly attract new clients. Furthermore it will help people remember the business
for the future, if they ever need to use it.
We have few competitors in our business which are the existing furniture company.So
approximately 10% is our market share.
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Market Share
10%
90%
Market ShareArtistic Furniture Competitors
Market Research
We have conducted market research among 500 sample of different demography. Based on the
research result we have designed our product, setup retail store and setup the price. Sample od
the questionnaire is attached at the action plan.
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Trend Analysis
►The past of Furniture Business:
Furniture business can not be considered as a new venture as there are plenty of existing
competitors such as Otobi, Partex, Navana, Furnitec, Pacific Furniture, Brothers Furniture,
Akhter, Hatil complex ltd., Imperial furniture mart, Unique furniture etc. They brought up
furniture made up with particle boards, wood, plytex, medium density fiber (MDF) etc.
Considering the sight, most of the furniture companies have chosen Mirpur, Panthapath,
Gulshan and Banani. Some of oure competitors do import furniture from Malaysia, Thailand,
Indonesia, China etc.
►Future Outlooks and Trends:
According to BFIOA (Bangladesh Furniture Industry Owners Association), the current market
size of furniture in Bangladesh is Tk. 4 billion ($5, 714, 28.57 dollar) and it is growing at 15%-
20% per year, which is a pretty good rate. Among this 27% are contributed by households, 22%
are contributed by businesses (both small and large) and 16% by big hotels. There is huge
potentiality to expand beyond local market as this water hyacinth furniture business is primarily
based on labor intensive technology, any country based on labor intensive economy can employ
this business. During our plan work we’ve found that countries like Kenya, India, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka etc. have easily adopt this business due to the availability of labor at cheaper rate. There is
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
also huge potentiality to export as Bangladesh earned Tk. 61 million (US$871,430) from export
of modern furniture during the first quarter of the financial year of 2003-2004 which clearly
portrays the huge potentiality of the furniture. We can produce at a mass rate as as our prime
raw materials (water hyacinth and bamboo) are readily available in Bangladesh.
Assumptions regarding future conditions:
►Level of economic activity:
As we will have employees less than 50 we can say that ours will be a small company.
Nevertheless we believe, our business has the potential to grow at a very fast rate after three or
four years of operation. However, we have decided to establish two showrooms in Mirpur and
Panthapath region as most of our giant competitors are doing business there. We need to show
them our prime strength and prove that we have a definite competitive edge over them. Besides
in the economic activity certainly the promotional cost gets counted. The promotional cost has a
huge significance since it paves us the way towards success. Primarily after establishment of our
showrooms we will be basically focusing on the advertising and promotional activity. However,
we will be also incurring some cost of training up our employees. This is a type of cost that
needs to be incurred just once as all the employees will get a flavor of how our business runs.
►Changes in customer needs:
Choice and preference are such things which never stay put, they always change. Like that,
customers have become very fussy when it comes to buying furniture. Unlike previous where
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
customers always preferred to buy heavy weight wooden furniture, customers now want small
and light weight stylish furniture. Not only they are pleased with this characteristic, now a day
customers also have become very conscious about pricing, they want environmental friendly
furniture at an economical rate. We believe we understand the diversifying choice of all the
potential customers and are committed to cope up to their expectation.
►Changes in distribution channel:
Like customers preference, distribution channels also got altered. Distribution of products from
the factory to the customer engages transport and storage. Efficient management of the
distribution system is essential to preserve the safety and quality of our furniture, to ensure a
high level of customer service, and to meet its commitment to environmentally sound business
practices and to make the product available every where. Artistic Furniture selects appropriate
transportation modes, with particular attention given to optimum unit loads, vehicle capacity
utilization, route planning and consolidation with scheduling and fuel conservation. We also
identify and implement measures to reduce energy consumption and waste. We encourage
distribution service providers to use environmentally sound practices.
►Changes beyond our control:
Changes beyond our control might happen in the macro environment where we do not have any
influence over any factors. The Macro Environment is made of Economic, Technological, Socio-
cultural, Demographic, Political and Legal, and global forces form the macro economic
environment that Artistic Furniture operates in. Economic forces are very important for
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
businesses as it involves producing goods and services that people want and pay for, as because
the economy is an Indicator of the general health and well being of a nation. Artistic Furniture
takes into account various economic factors, preferably the rates of inflation, the exchange rate
and level of income. The prime reason for such is to have a control over its allocated budget for
domestic and imported raw materials. In order to ensure precision in style, design, exposure of
the furniture we are coming up this technology in order to satisfy all our probable customers.
Also our machineries with which we would be cutting and shaping the furniture are most
updated automated equipment. The socio-cultural environment is made of institutions and other
forces that affect social values, norms, attitudes, perceptions, preferences and behavior. In the
context of a predominantly Green country like Bangladesh, we will be customizing our products
and services according to the country's culture. The demographic forces are of interest to
marketing managers because it involves people and people make up the markets. Demography
shows the populations inclinations towards certain social structure and the increase or decrease
in certain age groups. For Artistic Furniture demographic factors are of huge advantage as it
shows the geographic shifts in population within the country. In Bangladesh, for example, most
of the people are moving toward urban and sub urban cities and hence villages are losing
population. The less population in the villages is pretty much visible. However, such population
shifts certainly stimulates the interest of marketers as people in different urban and sub urban
cities will buy differently than those of living in the villages. The formation, maintenance and
survival of any organization are dependent on the stability of a country’s political and legal
system. We have done a comprehensive analysis of the political and legal factors and found that
the status ensures stability in terms of its operations. The legal consideration lies in the
awareness of various laws regarding import of raw materials and the like. Bangladesh
Government does not have any kind of rigid rules or regulations regarding the manufacturing of
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Competition
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
furniture. Besides if the companies are inclined to export then the Government rather
encourages it.
►Our existing competitors, 1st barrier, are locally made trendy furniture: consist of
OTOBI, PARTEX, NAVANA, AKHTER, HATIL complex ltd., IMPERIAL furniture mart,
UNIQUE furniture etc. They have introduced particle boards, woodex, plytex, medium density
fiber (MDF) etc.
►Potential competitors can be imported furniture and cheap wooden-furniture makers:
they mostly exist in Mirpur and Panthapath. Imported furniture is coming from Malaysia,
Thailand, Indonesia, China etc.
►It is not that people choose our competitors instead of our product; it is that they choose
lesser quality, instead of higher quality furniture we offer.
►Competitors have some distinct advantages: Small firms in Mirpur have skilled carpenters
who can copy almost any design shown to them. Moreover, they have availability of all sorts of
input suppliers (e.g. hardware firms, glass suppliers, fabric and foam suppliers etc.) in the
cluster. As saw mills are established within the cluster, they can purchase timber whenever
necessary.
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
►Competitors have more disadvantages: Their weaknesses are lack of seasoning facility
hampers the delivery of good quality wooden furniture. Moreover, they are not united. So they
cannot avail collective advocacy opportunities. They also do not have access to modern
technologies to explore market opportunities through diversification.
Overall strategy:
►Porter’s Model of Industry Competition:
Porter's competitive forces model is probably one of the most often used business strategy tools
and has proven its usefulness on numerous occasions. Care should therefore be taken not to
underestimate or underemphasize the importance of the (existing) strengths of the organization
(inside-out) when applying this five competitive forces framework of Porter.
The Five Forces model of Porter is an outside-in business unit strategy tool that is used to make
an analysis of the attractiveness of an industry structure. The Competitive Forces analysis is
made by the identification of 5 fundamental competitive forces:
►Potential Entrants:
In this industry number of potential entrants are huge as the cost of capital is moderately low
(but it depends on the ingredients of the furniture). Very few companies can actually achieve
economies of scale as the companies need to produce at a very high rate to really attain
economies of scale. Government policy regarding the entrance in such industry is favorable
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
meaning that if the company is large enough to export furniture then those companies might get
tax rebates. Achieving brand loyalty is really very tough since a company needs to perform
consistently better while it comes to manufacturing furniture that customers really desire.
However, considering all these things we will say that it is not that tough to make an entry but it
is very tough to survive. We believe we have the technology and concept that can help us to
survive in this industry as well as to achieve our goals.
►Degree of Rivalry:
The industry is densely populated with a large number of competitors. Among them Otobi,
Partex, Furnitec, Brothers, Hatil. Akhter, Studio 45 and Legacy are quite popular in our target
customer segment. If we think about the assets or resources of the competitors then the size of
the competitors differs widely. Akhter, Hatil, Brothers,are the giants in this industry as they have
almost 5 or 6 showrooms around Dhaka.Though the number of competitors is immense, the
growth of the industry is not yet saturated and hence we believe we can be able to position our
brand if we carefully undertake our primary activities like promotion, placement of showrooms.
►Bargaining power of Suppliers:
We have already mentioned that the number of suppliers of manufacturers in this industry is
really large. It is very evident that the switching cost would be very high in this industry as it is
not very easy or the manufacturers to switch over other industry upon failure to capture the
desired market. Again, there are huge numbers of buyers who are there in the market willing to
purchase their desired product. So, it’s pretty much clear that the market is customer driven.
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
►Threat of Substitutes:
The substitute product ranges from plastic, iron, bamboo, cane and wood. The price also ranges
highly since the wood is the most expensive and plastic is the least expensive. Considering the
durability of the furniture, wood is the most endurable.
►Bargaining power of Buyers:
It has been already mentioned that in this industry the number of buyers are very large.
Normally, the buyers are industrialist or business organizations and household. The switching
costs of buyers are really very low since the product ranges from plastic to wood. Normally the
wooden furniture are the most expensive, then bamboo, cane, iron and lastly plastic furniture
comes in terms of pricing. As both the numbers of suppliers and customers are huge we can
deduce that the buyers have the power to order furniture in a large volume and hence the
industry is controlled by the buyers.
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Problems and Opportunities
Potential Entrants:
Moderate Capital Cost
Few Scale Economies
Favorable Govt. policy
High Switching Cost
Tough to get Brand Loyalty
Very tough to achieve absolute cost advantage
Substitutes:
Wooden Furniture
Metal Furniture (Rot Iron)
Cane Furniture
Bamboo Furniture
Plastic Furniture
Degree of Rivalry:
OtobiPartexFurnitecBrothersHatilAkhterStudio 45LegacyUniqueNavanaPacific
Buyers:
Professional-Industrial segment
Consumer segment
Large number of suppliers
Large number of substitute products
Low switching cost
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Figure: Industry Structure and Competitive Strategy: Keys of determining our profitability
Strengths:
►Durability of our
product:
Our products are more
durable than other furniture
made by iron, cane, plastic.
Our product gets a
competitive edge over the
wooden furniture while it
comes of polishing the
furniture. As our furniture
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Suppliers:
Large number of manufacturers
High switching cost
Concentrated Industry
Large number of buyers
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
is made of hyacinth the furniture is totally environmentally friendly and equally durable as
wooden furniture.
►Quality of our product:
The quality of our product is superior to all the other furniture made of iron, plastic and cane.
Our furniture does not need to be polished always as it can hold the glitziness for a long time. In
terms of longevity also, our furniture is as good as the wooden furniture. So, we can say that
when it comes to the quality our product is way ahead from the benchmark.
►Provide Warranty:
Unlike many of our furniture we provide solid warranty upon selling our world class furniture.
The warranty would be like; if any of our products gets broken within 3 years then we will be
reimbursing our product upon bringing in our showrooms. Unlike lots of our competitors who do
not comply with their own set warranty policy, we are committed to strictly follow our policy.
►Usage of Modern Technology:
Unlike all other companies who use only manual designs (hand made), we are coming up with
AutoCAD technology for designing our furniture. In order to ensure precision in style, design,
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SWOT
Strength:Durability and quality of our
product.Warranty Features.
Usage of modern technology
(AutoCAD for designing, modern
machineries).Environmentally friendly business.Usage of Door-to-door salesperson.
Opportunities:Product line can be
extended.More
establishment of showroom.
Expansion of business
internationally.
Threats:Lower price can cause a reverse
view to the customers about
the products.Technological
development can cause this
technology to subside
Local competitors can start
producing same type of furniture
Weakness:Online transaction
will face technological challenges.
Unskilled labor force to process water hyacinth
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
exposure of the furniture we are coming up this technology in order to please all our potential
customers.
►Environmentally Friendly Business:
We are coming up with furniture that is built with hyacinth. Hyacinth furniture is completely
environmentally friendly product that does not require any kind of polishing for a long time. The
discard of the furniture is also very easy as the main ingredient of this furniture is hyacinth, a
totally environment friendly product.
►Use of Door-to-Door Services:
We will be implementing door to door salespersons strategy which means if customers buy our
products then we will be responsible to dispatch the goods to their house. As it is totally new
approach we strongly believe this strategy will contribute towards our success.
Weaknesses:
►Online Transactions is a real challenge:
We have not implemented any kind of online transaction system as e-commerce is not that
popular in Bangladesh. Besides one of the problems towards not implementing this system is
also the cost. In this circumstance, if e-commerce gets implemented by other furniture
companies in Bangladesh then we might face problem.
►Unskilled labor force:
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
As we are coming up with totally new technology the number of labors that we will get would
be unskilled. The usage of the technology would be totally new to them and hence we might
face problems in training up all our labors who will be indulged in the production of the
furniture.
Opportunities:
►Product line can be extended:
There is always a good option for us which is extension of product line. Our product line can
anytime be expanded if we see that our preset goals have been achieved. Besides, we do not
have to bring other technologies for that as everything (Auto Cad technology, modern
machineries) is already been established.
►Establishment of more show rooms:
Currently we have chosen Mirpur and Panthapath region where we will be building our
Showrooms. The main reason behind selecting these areas is that most of our competitors are
doing business here. We need to show them our competency and if we see we are successful in
the preliminary stage then we will be establishing showrooms in Gulshan also.
►Expansion of Business Internationally:
Again if we see that we are successful in doing business locally then definitely we will be
interested in expanding our business beyond our geographical boundary. We have observed that
a few of our competitors were quite successful in doing business locally and ultimately they
expanded their business.
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Threats:
►Lower price can cause reverse perception:
As we are coming up with furniture that are economically priced we might face problems. Most
of the customers always think that those products are of inferior quality that is economically
priced. We always care about the customers and hence we are coming up with such technology
that is most economically priced, which might become a threat.
►Technological development can collapse:
The technological development can cause collapse of our company if not operated properly. As
every designs are made through the help of software, if the software collapses in work-in-
progress status then we will be facing a deep problem. So, whatever we do, we need to ensure
that our software works properly.
►Imitation of our product:
There is always a chance that our competitor might imitate our product and use the same
technology which we use. In that case if they follow the same strategy then we will be in
problem. So, we need to make sure that we follow a unique pattern both in our furniture and
machines sop that no competitors can imitate us.
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macro ENVIRONMENT
micro ENVIRONMENT Economic Forces
Technological Forces
Demographic Forces
Socio Cultural Forces
Political and Legal Forces
Global Forces
Competitors
Suppliers Distributors
Customers
FigurE: P.E.S.T. Analysis
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Environment Analysis
No one business is large or powerful enough to create major change in the external environment.
These factors are generally uncontrollable, thus market managers are basically adapters rather
than agents of change. So it is vital for us to take these factors into consideration in every step of
their decision -making process and day-to-day activities.
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Objectives & Goals
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Primary Objective:
Our Primary marketing objective is to let the customers know our identity and the product line
with which we do business. As we are pioneering this kind of furniture business in Bangladesh
We think we should definitely get a competitive edge over other competitors who do business
with conventional wooden furniture.
As we are totally coming up with unique stylish furniture “Giving the best possible assessment
to our customers” we create amusing, creative and healthy environments with well-designed
environmentally friendly furniture. We will always try to provide premium quality with low
price, and we want every single penny spent with us to be well spent.
The Micro Environment:
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Artistic Furniture’s task environment consists of those micro groups in the environment such as
suppliers, distributors, customers and competitors. These are interrelated groups that influence
managers on a daily basis.
►Suppliers
Artistic Furniture is directly involved in the production of raw materials. Wherever possible,
locally available raw materials are used. If there is a shortage then the raw material which is
primarily hyacinth can be collected through trade channels. But, as per research and survey we
have found that there won’t be any shortage of hyacinth as it is such a thing that can be found
almost anywhere in a river or pond. We apply the following principles when sourcing raw
materials:
all raw materials must meet both legal and internal quality criteria, including limits on
possible environmental contaminants;
Always, preference is given to raw materials that are produced by environmentally
sound farming methods (e.g. integrated crop management).
►Customers:
Being the major source of survival and profit, customers form the most important component for
an organization. Artistic Furniture considers customers as being their life-blood of survival and
is taking the maximum innovative efforts that can be utilized for utmost customers’ satisfaction.
Customers here can be segmented to family (living in urban and suburban) and business
organizations market. Changes in the number and type of customers’ results in a dimension of
opportunities and threats. Artistic Furniture operating in such ever-changing world of tastes and
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
preference pays heed to customers’ choices and their attitudes. We would be very keenly take on
customers’ advice, try and amend as well as add new dimension to their business in order to
ensure survival in this highly competitive industry.
►Competitors:
One of the most important forces that always keep an organization on guard is its competitors.
Competitors are organizations that produce similar goods. In the context of Artistic Furniture,
Legacy Furniture, Brothers Furniture, Furnitec, Unique Furniture, Studio 45, Akhter Furniture,
Hatil Furniture,Partex and Otobi can be held as competitors. Considering the assets or resources
of the competitors the size of the competitors differs widely. Akhter, Hatil, Brothers,are the
giants in this industry as they have almost 5 or 6 showrooms around Dhaka. Though the number
of participants is enormous, the growth of the industry is not yet saturated and therefore we
think we can be able to position our brand if we cautiously take on our primary activities like
promotion, establishment of showrooms.
►Distribution:
Distribution of products from the factory to the customer involves transport and storage.
Efficient management of the distribution system is essential to preserve the safety and quality of
our furniture, to ensure a high level of customer service, and to meet its commitment to
environmentally sound business practices and to make the product available every where.
To this end, Artistic Furniture:
Selects appropriate transportation modes, with particular attention given to optimum
unit loads, vehicle capacity utilization, route planning and consolidation with scheduling
and fuel conservation;
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Identifies and implements measures to reduce energy consumption and waste. We
encourage distribution service providers to use environmentally sound practices.
The Macro Environment:
The general Environment consists of Economic, technological, socio-cultural, demographic,
political and legal, and global forces form the macro economic environment that Artistic
Furniture operates in.
►Economic Forces:
Economic forces are of concern to businesses involves producing goods and services that people
want and pay for, as because the economy is an Indicator of the general health and well being of
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
a nation. Artistic Furniture takes into account various economic factors, preferably the rates of
inflation, the exchange rate and level of income. The prime reason for such is to have a control
over its allocated budget for domestic and imported raw materials. However, most importantly
alertness of economic variables are necessary to determine our furniture’s pricing strategy so
that all segments of the population can afford to buy their products.
►Technological Forces:
One of the most pervasive factors in the environment, the impact of technology is seen as the
combination of skills and equipment’s that marketers use in their day-to-day operations. Unlike
all other companies who use only manual designs (hand made), we are coming up with
AutoCAD technology for designing our furniture. In order to ensure precision in style, design,
exposure of the furniture we are coming up this technology in order to please all our potential
customers. Also our machineries with which we would be cutting and shaping the furniture are
most updated automated equipment.
►Socio Cultural Forces:
The socio-cultural environment is made of institutions and other forces that affect social values,
norms, attitudes, perceptions, preferences and behavior. In the context of a predominantly Green
country like Bangladesh, we will be customizing our products and services according to the
country's culture. If we are successful in achieving socio cultural values then definitely we
would be able to make a good sale. To us it is the most important factor because we believe
cultural consciousness and understanding, leads to more effectual business relationships and
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
therefore boosts company growth and profitability. We have studied those factors or forces that
will help us to get the best out of cultural diversity and to avoid cultural pitfalls.
►Demographic Forces
The demographic forces are of interest to marketing managers because it involves people and
people make up the markets. Demography shows the populations inclinations towards certain
social structure and the increase or decrease in certain age groups. For Artistic Furniture
demographic factors are of huge advantage as it shows the geographic shifts in population
within the country. In Bangladesh, for example, most of the people are moving toward urban
and sub urban cities and hence villages are losing population. The less population in the villages
is pretty much visible. However, such population shifts certainly stimulates the interest of
marketers as people in different urban and sub urban cities will buy differently than those of
living in the villages.
►Political and Legal Forces:
The formation, maintenance and survival of any organization are dependent on the stability of a
country’s political and legal system. We have done a comprehensive analysis of the political
and legal factors and found that the status ensures stability in terms of its operations. The legal
consideration lies in the awareness of various laws regarding import of raw materials and the
like. Bangladesh Government does not have any kind of rigid rules or regulations regarding the
manufacturing of furniture. Besides if the companies are inclined to export then the Government
rather encourages it.
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Electronic Media
Radio
Out of Home Media
Transit Advertising
Leaflets
Print Media
Newspapers
Weekend Magazines
Calendars
Action Programs
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
.
Advertising budget and Media Plan
Our advertising budget of 4th year can be divided in the parts shown below:
Advertising
Budget
Our advertising campaign is for 6 months in the fourth year. We want to divide our advertising in
three segments:
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
1st and 6th month intensive advertising with 360 degree approach
2nd and 4th month advertising with little less effort
3rd and 5th month advertising with minimum effort
After completing the campaign the result will be measured through research and if the campaign
is successful then the advertising horizon can be expanded further.
Radio
Channel Time
Per Day
advertising
duration
Advertising Cost
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
cost (for 1 week)
Radio Today
89.6 FM
Weekdays (on
Sunday between
10-30 to 11-00
news, Tuesday
between 10-30 to
11-00 and
Thursday between
7-30 –to 8-00 news)
Weekdays
30 seconds
just before
news and in
the 1st mid in
News
For news,
Weekdays
(5000X3)+(4800X3)
= 29,400
Weekends
(3850X2)+(3550X2)
= 14,800
For program,
10000 X 2
= 20,000
Tk. 64,200
Weekends (on
Friday, and
Saturday from 7-30
to 8-00 news)
Mid breaks in 9 o
clock programs
Weekends
Do for the
news and 30
seconds
In mid break
of program
Radio Amar
101.60 FM
Weekdays (on
Sunday between
10-30 to 11-00
news, Tuesday
between 10-30 to
11-00 and
Thursday between
7-30 –to 8-00 news)
Weekdays
30 seconds
just before
news and in
the 1st mid in
News
For news,
Weekdays
(4800X3)+(4600X3)
= 28,200
Weekends
(3650X2)+(3550X2)
= 14,400
For program,
10000 X 2
= 20,000
Tk. 62,600
Weekends (on
Friday, and
Saturday from 7-30
to 8-00 news)
Weekends
Do for the
news and 30
seconds
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Mid breaks in 9 o
clock programs
In mid break
of program
Channel Time
Per Day
advertising
duration
Advertising
cost (for 1 week)
Cost
Radio Foorty
88.0 FM
Weekdays (on
Sunday between
10-30 to 11-00
news, Tuesday
between 10-30 to
11-00 and
Thursday between
7-30 –to 8-00 news)
Weekdays
30 seconds
just before
news and in
the 1st mid in
News
For news,
Weekdays
(5100X3)+(4900X3)
= 30,000
Weekends
(3950X2)+(3650X2)
= 15,200
For program,
11000 X 2
= 22,000
Tk. 67,200
Weekends (on
Friday, and
Saturday from 7-30
to 8-00 news)
Mid breaks in 9 o
clock programs
Weekends
Do for the
news and 30
seconds
In mid break
of program
Total advertising budget in radio section=Tk.64,200+Tk.62,600+Tk.67,200= Tk. 1,94,000
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Print MEDIA
For Newspapers
Newspaper PositionNumber of times ad
insertsRate Cost
The Daily Star 3rd Page,
8 Column,
2 days in a month
On Sunday
Tk.4000 per inch
per column Tk. 4,94,000
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
8 Inch ,
4 color
The Daily Prothom Alo
FirstPage,
8 inch
8 column
4 Color
On Thursdays 2
days in a month
Tk.6500 per inch
per column Tk. 6,50,000
For Magazines
Newspaper PositionNumber of times ad
insertsRate Cost
The Daily Star Back On Friday 2 days in 30,000 per issue Tk. 1,00,000
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
weekend magazine Cover a month
The Mirror Front
Cover
On Friday 2 days in
a month
40,000 per issue Tk. 1,20,000
For Calendars
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Type PictureInclude
Layout of Calendar Rate Cost
Fiscal Calendars Yes
A calendar which has a different month on each page.
Tk. 150 per Tk. 1,00,000
Total budget in print section=Tk.11,44,000+Tk.2,20,000+Tk.1,00,000=Tk. 14,64,000
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Out of Home Advertising
Transit Advertisements
TypeSize of Poster
Number of terminalsRate Cost
Terminal Posters Large 15 12,000 per issue Tk. 1,80,000
Leaflet Advertisement
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Type Color Contents Rate Cost
Folded in thirds Yes Write ups as well
as pictures of
furniture
30 per page Tk. 1,62,000
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Promotion
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Total budget in out of home ad section =Tk.1,80,000+Tk.1,62,000 =Tk. 3,42,000
So, our total advertising budget = Tk. 1,94,000+Tk. 14,64,000+Tk. 3,42,000= Tk. 20,00,000
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Sample: Tri Folding Brochure
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
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APPENDIX
Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Questionnaire:Questionnaire:This questionnaire intends to know opinions of the people of Dhaka
city to find out whether the brand image of words and pages has any
positive impact to boost our sales up to the expectation. Please feel
free to provide your honest opinions. Please answer all the
questions.
1) Generally for which purpose you buy furniture?Household usageOfficial usageRestaurant usageIf others, please specify _______________
2) How frequently do you buy furniture?Once in a yearOnce in less than two yearsOnce in more than two yearsIf several times, please mention _____________
3) What do you think about the current pricing of furniture products in Bangladesh?
Too HighHighCheapDon’t Know
4) If you think option the furniture are highly priced then what actually reflects from their high pricing?
QualityStatus
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
Brand imageNothing
5) If the same style furniture that you buy from an established company is available at other stores at lower price what would you do?
I will stick with the established companySwitch to other companyIt depends
6) How long do you think furniture should endure?1-2 years3-4 years5-6 yearsIf others, please specify _________________
7) Why do you prefer while buying furniture? (Rank “1-5” where “5” is the highest and “1” is the lowest)
First Preference: Quality
1 2 3 4 5
Second Preference: Brand Image
1 2 3 4 5
Third Preference: Style
1 2 3 4 5
Fourth Preference: Location of Showrooms
1 2 3 4 5
Fifth Preference: Availability of the Brand
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
1 2 3 4 5
8) Don’t you think people should be aware of environmental pollution and hence and should prefer buying green products?
Strongly AgreeAgreeNeutralDisagree
9) Are you satisfied with your current furniture performance (durability, style, fabric)?
YesNo
10) If “No” then why?High PricePoor Service QualityLess Product Line Up
11)Would you prefer buying furniture that is as stylish as the established brands product and at the same time environment friendly ?
YesNo
12) Have you observed any kind of Promotional Activity by any kind of Furniture Company recently?
YesNo
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
13) If “Yes” then what was it?NewspaperBillboardPosters/ LeafletIf others, please specify _________________
14) In which areas do you think the furniture companies should establish their showrooms?
MirpurPanthapathGulshanIf others, please specify _________________
15) Gender:MaleFemale
16) In which age group do you belong?20-2526-3031-35More than 35
17) Monthly Family Income Level in Tk.:15000-2400025000-3400035000-44000Above 44000
This survey is carried out for academicThis survey is carried out for academic purpose.purpose.
All sort of information will be strictly kept inAll sort of information will be strictly kept in
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Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture
secret.secret.
WE APPRECIATE YOUR PERSEVERANCE AND SUPPORTWE APPRECIATE YOUR PERSEVERANCE AND SUPPORT
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