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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 1
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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

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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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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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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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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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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

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The Market-Quantitative

Marketing Plan- Artistic Furniture

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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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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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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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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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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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►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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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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►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

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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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Sample: Tri Folding Brochure

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APPENDIX

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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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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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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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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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secret.secret.

WE APPRECIATE YOUR PERSEVERANCE AND SUPPORTWE APPRECIATE YOUR PERSEVERANCE AND SUPPORT

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