Introduction

The report focuses on the marketing plan for the case study of Houzz Inc that is already performing business activities in the market of Australia. It is self-evident that developing a marketing plan is important in order to achieve market benefits as well as advantages over the competitors. One may identify the essential marketing elements of a firm and draw out the objectives and direction with the help of a suitable marketing plan and strategy (Stevens, Loudon, and Nykiel, 2013). Furthermore, the marketing plan of the company would be effective in addressing the present issues by ensuring future growth and development in the market.

Background of Organization

Houzz Inc is a Brisbane-based home-wares retailer company. It offers products related to the bedroom, bathroom, and other decorative items. With 15 locations around Brisbane, the organization is currently operating (Houzz Inc, 2021). Houzz Inc aims to become the leader of its industry that caters to the needs of homemakers by offering a variety of innovative and high-quality items. One of the organization’s main goals is to expand revenues in upcoming years.

Overview of Existing business Strategy

The organization Houzz Inc is determined to become a national retail brand of meeting and satisfying the needs of people with its high quality of products and easy manage payment plan. In addition, the organization is planning to develop a significant market presence in homeware in every capital city of the country. Currently, the company has opened stores in different places across Brisbane city (Houzz Inc, 2021). Houzz Inc is expecting to open up new stores in other parts of the country and create a competitive market presence. This organization is also engaged in developing the strategies to counter the main competitors in the term of their strategies with the help of the quality products, quality services, and reasonable price. The main target market for the company is the upper-class customers who want to invest money in the decoration of the home through unique and quality products. But there are many players in this segment of the products that are now affecting the earnings of the company. As a result, the company is trying to increase the awareness of the customers towards the products to increase sales and market share.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths
For offering quality products to customers, the company has hired skilled and trained employees who are well knowledgeable regarding the products of homewares. Through the quality aspects, the company is also to increase its customers’ loyalty. The company has enough budgets to make a change in pricing strategy and produce low-cost based quality products.
Weaknesses
As per the small size, the organization is not able to invest a huge budget to meet its new marketing strategies. Hence, the awareness of customers cannot be more effective for the company.

Opportunity
The presence of middle-class customers is rising in each market of the country. Hence, it would be an opportunity for the company if it will target this group of customers because of their positive impacts on increasing the volumes of sales (Mudditt, 2020). In this regard, digital marketing-based practices may help the company to connect with target customers in each target market. Further, the low price strategy of the company will fit with digital marketing strategy easily that may help increasing market share in the target market.

Threats
The changing nature of the digital world creates a risk to the connected organization that uses digital marketing. But it cannot be ignored that the shift from traditional to digital marketing gives competitive advantages to the companies because of their direct interaction with the customers. In this regard, the measuring and monitoring will help the management of the company to analyze the effectiveness of digital marketing for the success of a new marketing plan in the market (Gonzalez, 2014). Conversely, the risk related to the price strategy such as low price will help the customers in saving money on every purchase. This is a primary advantage of this pricing policy to increase the volume of sales.

Competitive Analysis
This analysis facilitates a company to predict the challenges in the market. As per this analysis, it can be stated that the main competitor of the company in the new range of the products is IKEA. This company is offering the customized products to customers at a reasonable rate with quality aspects. In this context, the company must follow the unique customer policy to attract customers and associate with them. For example, the company may offer product designing facilities to customers through software that will help the customer to explore their desires and expectations. This facility will allow the customer to feel an attachment with the products that will make a positive impact on the sales of the products. The company can also offer the discount to the customers by offering one product free on the high-value product. With the help of this company may also establish its both products in the market.

New Marketing Plan for Company

As per the existing business plan, the company is targeting luxury customers. This is because that it produces luxury items mainly. Therefore, the company has to start to focus on the new segment of the customers who comes from the upper-middle class. This new demography of the customers will help the company to add a new customer base and earn revenues from them by satisfying their needs and desires.

New Marketing Mix strategy

For the new marketing strategy, below is the marketing mix that is:
Product: For targeting the new customers, the company should introduce the new product range such as products for “Dining Room”, “Decoration”; “Cooking” etc. through the new products company may increase its market reach as well as the sales of the products.

Price: for increasing the customer base, the company must use the low price (Hanna and Dodge, 2017). This price policy will help the company to penetrate the market and earn profits from larger sales because a low price strategy gives the reason to those customers who want quality products but do not make purchase decisions due to high prices.
Process: Company should focus on the online sales of its products. This method will help the company to reduce the expenses in the market on intermediaries (Tsai, 2013). As a result, the company will ensure the availability of the products to new customers at a reasonable cost that will attract them towards the products.
Promotion: Houzz Inc is an online retail shop. Therefore the use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram would be effective for the company to promote the products among the new target customers (Davis, 2014). Through this company may increase its customer base as well as the sales.

Align between Strategic Direction of the organization

The proposed marketing strategy is aligned with the objectives and goals of the company. This is because that the new marketing plan will help the sales team of the company to increase the demand for the products in the market (Davis, 2014). With the help of this strategy, the company may increase its sustainability in the market.

Important Strategies for Implementing New Marketing Strategy

Measure Marketing Performance

The management of the company should have monitored the implemented marketing strategy after its implementation. In this regard, the use of brand awareness strategy, acquisition strategy for customers, and their retention or loyalty are some strategies that will help the managers to analyze the effectiveness of the new marketing strategy of the company. The monitoring of “Brand awareness” will reflect how the organization must focus on increasing customers’ brand awareness. On the other hand, the monitoring of customers acquisition with the help of social media stories and the online contest will help to know about the awareness of the customers towards the products. For increasing the loyalty of customers, the company can start online communication with the customers with the help of “Facebook Talk”. This strategy will help in knowing the issues faced by the customers as well as their expectations from the company. As a result, the company may make effective customers policies by including the suggestions and feedbacks collected from the customers.

Conclusion

As per the above discussion, it concluded that the company could face being able to address the challenges related to the earnings and sustainability by entering into the new segment of the products and targeting a new range of customers. The new marketing strategy will help the company to establish its new image in the market and increase the customer base also.

References

Davis, R. (2014). Social Media Branding For Small Business: The 5–Sources Model. Business Expert Press.
Gonzalez, D. (2014). Managing Online Risk: Apps, Mobile, and Social Media Security. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Hanna, N. and Dodge, R. (2017). Pricing: Policies and Procedures. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Houzz Inc. (2021). Welcome to Houzz. Retrieved from https://www.houzz.com.au/aboutUs
Mudditt, J. (2020). Why a squeezed middle class spells trouble. Retrieved from https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2020/03/01/why-a-squeezed-middle-class-spells-trouble
Stevens, R., Loudon, D. and Nykiel, R. (2013). Marketing Your Business: A Guide to Developing a Strategic Marketing Plan. Routledge.
Tsai, A. (2013). The Small Business Online Marketing Handbook: Converting Online Conversations to Offline Sales. John Wiley & Sons.