Implement and Monitor marketing activities Essay

BBQfun is company specialised in outdoor lifestyle supplies. The company is mainly implemented in Brisbane and its surroundings and aim at growing throughout the country. In order to achieve this goal, BBQfun has established a few marketing strategie. The goal of this report is to analyse these strategies and ultimately their efficiency. BBQfun marketing strategies analysisAt BBQfun, stakeholders are responsible for the management of the company’s operations. Indeed, according to the CEO’s statement, â€Å"For our stakeholders it has always been about stewardship and to adhere to professional and moral standards of conduct in all that we do†. Although the organisational review does not expand on the stakeholders’ moral and professional standards, it can be assumed that the word â€Å"stewardship† means management. Management is a broad word that would need to be defined in more details. Indeed, it does not appear throughout the organisational review that the different stakeholder’s roles are clearly and precisely defined. Hence questions can be raised about who is responsible for the marketing activities at BBQfun and how implementation and monitoring are conducted. According to the organisational review, the marketing and non-marketing professionals are â€Å"self-directed teams†. Hence another question can be asked on how strategies are communicated to them and what kind of briefing they had received to implement such strategies. It also raises the question of consistency throughout the different stores, especially if BBQfun aims at being a national company. Indeed the BBQfun’s big pic ture is to be a national leader in its industry within the next ten years. However, there is no information on the short term objectives that would lead to the achievement of this goal. Their role and responsibilities are not mentioned either. This is even more concerning as according to the  organisational review, BBQfun overall SWOT analysis remains the same as the one made in 2008. This indicates a lack of performance measures or at least issues in their ability to act on their weaknesses and take advantages of their opportunities. Also, it can be noted that there are discrepancies between BBQfun vision statement and their actual focus. Indeed, in their vision statement the chair of the board insist on delivering high quality product, but in reality a cost cut strategy is put in place as price of sourcing has been prioritised. This indicates a poor communication strategy throughout the company and can easily counter act the flow of the marketing strategies that have been chosen by the stakeholders. Additionally, a review of their PEST analysis should be performed as the organisational review shows a change in economic and social behaviours. Indeed it is mentioned that interest rates are rising, that the employment rat e is different than the one estimated and that the â€Å"trend towards house proud purchase is growing stronger than anticipated. This statement should give rise to new opportunities for BBQfun. The objective of the marketing campaign is to increase sales. Three types of products have been identified: BBQs, outdoor furniture and BBQ consumables. Three types of marketing activities have been put into places: radio advertisement, magazine/PR and direct marketing campaign and advertisement through loyalty programs. The resources required for the first strategy are straight forward yet pricy. For that type of campaign financial and human resources are needed as well as the appropriate choice of channel. If BBQfun intends to grow nationally, it might want to choose a national radio station. Human resources would include the marketing project and designers personnel. The same kind of resources is needed to implement the second type of strategy, although the channel would be different. The third strategy requires building a customer database. Hence little is needed but a website, an email address and the designer and IT personnel. Communication and team building are something lacking when only referring to the organisational overview. This should come first from the board to communicate clearly the objectives and the process of implementing these strategies. These should be clearly thought and put in place along with the marketing plan. Change of suppliers has been one way of implementing their strategies along with finding the right channels to implement their radio and PR strategies. BBQfun also managed to increase  their customer database to implement their third strategy. Monitoring the return of their investment is mostly done through sales figures. ConclusionBBQfun has a vision to expand nationwide. In order to achieve their goal they put into place a few marketing strategies. However it seems that a proper marketing plan is lacking and this issue should be addressed as soon as possible in order for them to maximise their return and have a higher impact.