Marketing Planning for Tommy Hilfiger

TASK 1

1.1 Perspectives in marketing planning

Tommy Hilfiger born on 24 March, 1951, is an American fashion designer and the founder of the company. At first the company was more focused on sports wear for men. Later on the company was expanded in women's clothing (Ayub and et.al., 2013). As the market was changing, the company started realising that they need to change their perspectives in terms of the product as they need new and stylish products to beat their competitors. So the company started to focus on new products to attract more number of consumers.

Objectives

• To create classic, cool and committed product by reducing the effect on environment.
• To operate lean and clean with sustainability.
• To connect people in a positive and inclusive way.

Assessing the condition of Tommy Hilfiger

Currently the revenues generated by the company has increased by 5% from last year and in terms of money it is $131 million. This type of performance will keep on driving the brands image forward (Baker and Saren, 2016). The company is having heavy opportunities to expand the business in Asia and Latin America. The company is establishing the brand image in other countries also by making use of the revenues they have generated and by adopting the consumer's satisfaction strategy they are making tremendous progress in the market.

1.1Strengths and weaknesses of fashion industry

Some of the designer's in the fashion industry is having two avenues for the distribution. This can be the strength because first thing it will allow the designer to sell the products on the large scale and secondly the ready to wear, off the track line is easily affordable and accessible to the buyer. Some times the designer is not having the knowledge of a particular region, so the company can not be able to attract the consumers. This will result is decrease in revenues.

1.2 Organisation's capabilities for future marketing

Human Resources

The staff and the management of Tommy Hilfiger believes in the culture of diversity. So by using more diverse staff they are attracting more number of consumers. Many leadership programs and skill improvement seminars were organized so that it will improve the efficiency  and skills so that they will do work in more efficient way (Chaffey and Bosomworth, 2013). For new fashion designer, they are having graduate programme. The new employee will be highly motivated by this but it can be very costly.

Financial Resources

There are one of the most important aspect in the process of marketing. The revenue generated in last one year was $464.011 millions. The flow of cash from incentives are estimated to be $78.36 million. But in the middle east due to the high cost of products, the financial resources are getting affected (Chaffey, Smith and Smith, 2013). All it can be concluded that Tommy Hilfiger is having quite stable financial conditions and in coming three to five years it will going to be high only. One thing which can be problematic is the frequent change in trends and in the needs of the consumers.

Physical Resources

They are the net asset of the company which are evaluated around $40 trillion or more. The trend in context with net asset in increased, so it gives the opportunity to the company to implement that money in investment plans. Thus in the near future, it will further going to increase and will make the financial condition more strong.

1.3 Examine techniques for organizational auditing

Two techniques used to carry out internal and external auditing of Tommy Hilfiger, are SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis respectively. For the internal factor, SWOT analysis is used, which is the  best way to identify the examine the performance of the company internally. The firm is having quite unique products which can be helpful in generating more profit. The first stage of marketing planning is SWOT, which will be very helpful for the marketers to take a note on the internal factors which are affecting the business more (Donnelly and et.al., 2015). The main objective of this is to add the value to the services and products offered by the companionship.

For understanding the impact of external factor  PESTLE is used. In developing any kind of marketing plan it is compulsory for the company to understand the impact of external factors which are political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental. The government policies can make a huge impact on the plan because of the changes in taxation over the course of three to five years (Hollensen, 2015). The economical factors like exchange rates, inflation rates and the unemployment rates of the different countries will also put an impact the product sales rate of the company.

1.4 Organisational auditing

Internal audit: SWOT analysis

Strengths

• Strong and firm recognition as a global brand
• Outlets in more than 90 countries with more than 1000 stores
• Brand visibility and advertisement is very popular

Weaknesses

• Facing huge competition from other well established brands
• Maintenance cost and production cost is very high

Opportunities

• Expanding product line
• Increase in disposal income
• innovation in fashion industry

Threats

• Slow growth of economic condition will result in decrease demand
• inventory issues because of changing trends in fashion industry

External audit: PESTLE analysis

Political factors: Currently in US, the political situation is very stable. It means that Tommy Hilfiger can operate in such kind of external environment which they wants. The company is also having good back up support.

Economical factors: UK is having very strong economic position. GDP rates are high and the fashion technology is well ahead from the other countries. Diverse economy will help the firm in attracting more consumers resulting in increase in profitability.

Social factors: In UK, the social living standards are very high which will lead to a all round performance of Tommy Hilfiger. People are not afraid of buying expensive clothes but it should be of the highest quality (Lee and et.al., 2013).

Technological factors: UK is having very innovative technical skills. They are having high expertise in manufacturing technology which will be helpful for Tommy Hilfiger in developing quality products.

Legal factors: Worker's right and child labour laws are some of the legal factors which can affect the fashion industry. Company is making sure that they are doing the work by following the legal rules set by the government.

Environmental factors: The production plant of the organization is having producing the product which will be less harmful to the environment.

TASK 2 -MARKETING PLAN

Executive summary

Tommy Hilfiger proposes a marketing plan so that they can sustain in the fashion industry. The corporate strategy is used by the company so that they can achieve their goals. The organization has used experimentation and learning from failure as their new product development technique. The pricing policy used by this firm is economic pricing and distribution policy is pricing for market penetration.

Role of marketing plan in corporate strategy

The corporate strategy is the entire strategy of Tommy Hilfiger. This strategy will give the direction on how the business will progress in future. This strategy can also be considered as the long term planning so that the company can reach the final goals and objectives. This particular strategy is influenced by the stakeholders, culture, resources etc. (McDonald and Wilson, 2016). This strategy will be focused on areas of organizational structure, joint ventures and reducing dependency. The prime focus of this strategy is to increase the sales which will give them competitive advantage. Marketing mix will be used in this, so that future plans can be set by Tommy Hilfiger. This contains only one stage in the development of the organization. This will include short-term objectives, day to day functions, customer care, new product development etc.

The goal of the company is sustainable evolution. The goal set by Tommy Hilfiger is to produce 100% cotton with the help of more sustainable sources, so that it can be recycled. Marketing strategy is selected by the company so that they will increase the profitability. This can be done by attracting more number of consumers through the help of advertising.

If the company is not doing proper marketing then most of the consumer will not get to know about the product and services offered by the company (Nijssen and Frambach,  2013).  This strategy will act like a guide where all the goals are pre defined so that the company have clear idea about what they want to achieve. Affective marketing will make sure of the products of the company and its competitors. So the company either will improve the quality of their products or reduce the price to gain the competitive advantage in the market.

Techniques for new product development

Two techniques used by Tommy Hilfiger for the development of new product are experimentation and learning from failure.

Experimentation

The design of the clothes will be very unique and different from market. The design will be based on the performance of the product in the market. The company is producing a variety of products, so it will be very difficult for them to inspect the quality of each product (Payne, Frow and McDonald, 2013). That will not be cost-effective. Their focus is more on minimizing the variable products and more on design and process control. This technique will provide an approach to design the product more effectively and do experiment on that particular product.  These tests will take some efforts from the employees but it can reduce the cost of the products and improve the quality of cloth.

Learning from failure

The earlier product developed by Tommy Hilfiger is not giving good response from the market. So the company has decided to improve the quality of their products which will attract more number of customers. Their R&D team is doing significant job in finding out the reasons for the failure of the product (Perreault, Cannon and McCarthy, 2013). The new product was having good colour as well as it was available in all the sizes so that all the consumers can use it. This cost of this product is low as compare to the older ones. This will be cost beneficial for the buyers and the quality is better than the last one. This will solve the quality problem for the customers.

Recommendations for pricing policy, distribution and communication mix

The pricing policy used by Tommy Hilfiger is economy pricing. This strategy is aiming to attract the price conscious consumers. The advertising and marketing cost will be reduced by this in order to keep the cost of the products down. This will changed according to the economy of the country so that all the customer's can buy the product without any hesitation. The distribution strategy of the company is pricing for penetrating the market. This strategy attract buyers by giving them lower prices for the same products and services. This price will initially result in loss in initial income but it will set up more honest and attached consumers (Renz, 2016). For the long term, after the success of market penetration, companies can wind up this strategy by raising their prices so that they can gain more profit. The communication mix are the methods by which the company promotes their products or target their customers. This can be done by advertising, personal selling, discounts and promotions, public relations, direct marketing and from various event sponsorships.

Factors affecting the effective implementation of marketing plan

There are 6 factors which can affect the effectiveness of the implementation of the marketing plan. The first factor is the current economic conditions of UK. Right now it is very stable so it will not have that much effect on the marketing plan. This is followed by market potential and market shares. Tommy Hilfiger is having high market shares so that they will attract more number of consumers. Next will be the customer's composition (Strauss, 2016). This will include the buying behaviour and the buying frequency of the consumers. This age and income level can also put an impact on the marketing plan. Then, they will have the demographic conditions means the problem they are facing while implementing that plan into market. The last is size, growth and prosperity of the market. The size of fashion industry is huge, and it will keep on growing. Therefore it can impact the company's plan in a positive way.

Task 3

The problems company are facing while dealing with the other parties in the market. This include:

Market Research: In researching the problem occurs are the invasion of privacy and stereotyping. If Tommy Hilfiger is not keeping the privacy of their stake holders and consumers, this can lead to the variety of undesirable ethical results (Toledo and et.al., 2014).

Market audience: If the company is not paying attention to the other ethical community of market like gay, ethnic minority and other plus size market, then it can raise various ethical issues.

Delivery channels: The most controversial advertising channel is direct marketing. This will lead to electronic spam or other telemarketing issues which will generate ethics legality more strongly.

Ethics in advertising and promotion: The advertising of certain product in the market are raising ethical issues for some portion of the community. People do not want the company to advertising the products in such manner (Wood, 2014). Therefore, it will directly influence the sales rate of the product resulting in decrease in profitability.

3.2 Response to ethical issues

The best way to response to those ethical issues is to develop such kind of workplace policy which is based on the philosophy of the company, their code of conduct and their mission statement. Tommy Hilfiger have to make sure that they are developing and advertising the products in such a way that it will not effect the ethical conditions of local people (Ruth, 2017). The company can further provide the ethics training to all of their employees so that all the workers respect each others values and religion. The delivery channel which is marketing and advertising, they have to keep in mind that not to use such kind of advertisements which will put a negative image of the company in front of the population. If the consumers are happy, then the company will definitely generate more profit. Another thing, the company have to act under the municipal labour law and employment laws to keep their employee happy. This will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the employee resulting in the good product development.

3.3 Consumer's ethical misconducts

False advertisements: This is one of the critical element of consumer's ethics in marketing planning. If Tommy Hilfiger is showing the advertisement of the new products they have developed, but when the consumer is going to buy that product, they are giving completely different product. This will be misconduct of consumer's ethics (Ethics and Misconduct, 2017.). They are showing something else and selling something else. It will put instant negative impact on the brand image of the company. Customer's will not going to buy those products because they think that the company is lying to them about the products and its quality.

Pricing: Now this one is important to those consumers who are price conscious. The poduct offered by Tommy Hilfiger is same in terms of quality, looks, design to the competitors product but their price is very high. That product is not cost effective. So the consumers will not going to buy that product results in reduction in sales and loss in profitability.

CONCLUSION

Tommy Hilfiger has made the marketing plan in such a way that it will achieve all the objectives set by them. From thuis report it has been concluded that human and financial resources are very important in the effective plan of marketing. It has been found that the company is using corporate marketing strategy with economic pricing strategy. This will be helpful for generating more revenues by increasing the buyers. All the ethical issues are taken into consideration while developing that plan so that in future it will not influence the sales of the company.

REFERENCES

• Armstrong and et.al., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
• Ayub and et.al., 2013. A conceptual framework on evaluating SWOT analysis as the mediator in strategic marketing planning through marketing intelligence. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences. 2(1). pp.91-98.
• Baker, M. J. and Saren, M. eds., 2016. Marketing theory: a student text. Sage.
• Chaffey, D. and Bosomworth, D., 2013. Digital marketing strategy Planning Template. Smart Insights, jan.
• Chaffey, D., Smith, P. R. and Smith, P. R., 2013. eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and optimizing your digital marketing. Routledge.
• Donnelly and et.al., 2015. Digital loyalty card ‘big data'and small business marketing: Formal versus informal or complementary?. International Small Business Journal. 33(4). pp.422-442.
• Hollensen, S., 2015. Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.

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