M.M.Lafleur: Market Segmentation and Targeting Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

M.M.Lafleur: Market Segmentation and Targeting Case Solution

Alternative 01: product development

The option of product development is discarded on account of various reasons, which are as follows:

• Even though, the option of product development would allow the company to cater-women of different age group, demographic characteristics and buying behavior; the strategy of product development would lead the company towards various risks, such as: failure of its products in the market.
• Also, the company would need more financial and non-financial resources to serve its customers with different and new products.
• Additionally, the company’s efforts of embracing of new product development task would lead towards the dilution of resources and it would also require a high amount of investment in marketing and promotional activities.

Alternative 02: diversify the target audience

The company should not pursue the option of diversifying the target audience based on various disadvantages and risks related to the growth strategy, which are presented below:

• The diversification of the target audience would lead towards the risk of product cannibalization – reduction in sales volume and market share of women apparel as a result of introducing new products in the market.
• It would lead towards the dilution of core products and services.
• The brand would lose its value in the market as M.M. LaFleur is known for catering its services to only professional-women.
• For diversifying its target audience, the company would be required to make significant investment on advertisement and promotion, as a mean of brand awareness in order to drive more sales and to generate higher financial outcomes.

Recommended strategy integrated Promotional/Communications Plan

Increasing magnitude and extending as well as establishing its current distribution, communication and marketing strategy, would allow the company to grab the larger share of the market. Furthermore, the success of the geographic expansion strategies would be driven by the effective marketing and promotional-strategies. The social media marketing strategy would help in increasing the brand awareness and improving the sales results, because the content-based internet marketing campaigns can have a greater impact over the business’s performance as compared to the traditional media advertising.

Advertising&communication objectives

The advertising objectives of the company, include; increasing the availability of products for the customers, leading them towards the intent to buy, to increase its sales  and to create-economies of scale, to extend its presence on social media, to promote its brand to mass market-and to reach the new customers while retaining the existing ones.

The objectives of the communication strategy is to motivate the buying behavior of customers and building customer loyalty. The company should provide products of uncompromising quality to its customers in order to meet the standards of its customers.

Target audience

The target audience of the company would be extended by including:millennial, fashion followers and young female customers, because millennial are poised to be the biggest spenders of the nation and they tend to remain loyal if treated well through customer-centric experience.

Values

By expanding the business operations in the international market, the company would be required to reflect the values that brands should cater upon, such as: ethical production, local sourcing, authenticity as well as great shopping experience. Moreover, the target market of the company is different, so the company would be required to grab their attention. (Costin, 2019).

Media advertising-strategy

Television

Advertising the content via television would allow the company to expand its brand into the medium, which would last greater impact on the target audience. Also, it would allow the company to reach its goals for each month of advertising.

Outdoor

Another way of advertisement is that the company would spend on outdoor advertising, such as: large billboard advertisements as such advertisement would be visible all the time, also it would be placed in high traffic flow areas,when the customers would be stuck in heavy traffic and where they could see the ad for M.M. LaFleur, which could tempt them to make purchases of the advertised products.

Magazines

The advertisement of M.M. LaFleur in magazine would help the company in maximizing its market share because these ads would likely be seen particularly by the target-audience, hence helping the company in increasing its frequency and reach.

Motion-picture advertising

The company can create advertising motion picture for the purpose of establishing thegood image as well as the goodwill of the company.

Internet

It would allow the company to reach the national as well as the international audience in a manner that the company would not be able to do so via other mediums. Not only this, it would also help the company in speaking to its specific target audience. The company should develop sites and pages where the customer can post their reviews regarding quality of the products. The company should also strengthen its social media presence, because by doing so it would be able to measure the engagement, responsiveness and impact across Instagram, twitter and Facebook.

Discounts and special offers

The company could also increase the sales of its products in international market by offering marketing support for geographic sales. This includes advertising in local newspapers and radio stations, as well as in the placement of special offers and promotions throughout the year. Additionally, the millennial are frequent users of internet and a majority of millennial make most of their purchases based on the reviews made on social media. Also, they seek discounts on the items and make comparison between the products of different competitors and make purchase decision, which is based on various factors, such as: ease, convenience, discounts, fast delivery of the products etc.

Execution Plan

M.M.LaFleurto is advised to execute the social media marketing strategy by creating website that would bring together key messages, create conversation platforms for customers and prospects. The overall objective of the company for creating website would be to drive action and engagement, and the social media platform would be primarily used as a channel to drive reach and awareness.

The social media allows the company to get real feedback from its customers. The impact of social media marketing on business performance is not limited to direct feedback from customers as social media also provides a platform for sharing information with a wider audience, which the company can use to its benefit related to the communication of its mission, vision and values.

The company can execute the media plan by creating a viral marketing campaign, which would help the company on spreading the word about M.M.LaFleurto Company. The viral campaigns would include twitter, Facebook and YouTube channel and a website dedicated to company. Such socialization tactics would help the company in enhancing the product branding and reach the targeted audience critical to the success of M.M.LaFleurto Company.

In addition to this, the company should engage with its customer on Instagram, Facebook and twitter, the company need to reply them on their query and engage in the conversation about the company and its products. It would strengthen the relationship between the company and its customers. The company can introduce special prices and giveaways for both online as well as offline customers.

By doing so, the company would be able to leverage its production capabilities as well as to boost its sales by making the customers aware about the company and its product. The company would also be able to penetrate the market with new marketing and brand awareness strategies. Furthermore, the company would be able to not only succeed in terms of attracting new customers, but it would also gain the loyal customer clientele that have knowledge regarding the company as well as its products.

Monitoring and evaluation

The company would measure the number of likes, followers and congruent measurements each site has. The company should run analytics for the purpose of determining the engagement level, which groups are interested in viewing the sites and how the group are getting to the company’ page or if they are sharing information with their friends, family or relatives, and whether they are reaching out to M.M.LaFleurto Company.

Moreover, the company would survey the customers in order to find the attachment level they feel towards the brand, also the personal relationship that the company has developed over the period of time. Also, the company would survey for baseline of customers’ knowledge of the company’ cause marketing campaigns. Also, the company would evaluate that how many customers are attracted through the company’s attempts for grabbing the attention of the customers.

Implementation Timeline

Gantt chart

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