Marketing Mix and Critical Success Factors

Target Customer

The company targets security agents from bodyguard companies, the army, security companies, and the police in New Brunswick country. These are the individuals tasked with protecting offices, schools, shopping malls, restaurants, high profile officials like regional government officials or company CEOS, residential homes and general community surveillance. The products will be available to all security agents aged 18 years old and above as long as they have the role of keeping the public safe. The institutions that will be targeted will be those that are willing to invest in high-quality premium-priced bulletproof vest to ensure the safety of its officer. This means that the institution should have the financial ability to allocate a sizeable part of its budget to the safety of officers.

Product/ Service

The bulletproof vest being offered is an ultra-lightweight, thin, high-quality vest that is both comfortable and convenient. The bulletproof vest use nanotube that is extremely light and tiny despite being up to a hundred times as strong as steel. The lightweight bulletproof like other bulletproof vests will absorb the bullet energy and rebound the bullet force in a single area hindering bullets from entering the human body. However, unlike the regular bulletproof vests, nanotubes will prevent bullet force from causing damage to security agents such as bruising their skins, severely injuring their internal organs and knocking them off their feet. Our bulletproof vest will have several carbon nanotubes made up of carbon nanofibres that are interwoven to form a significantly lightweight material. These carbon nonfibres are significantly good at energy absorption. The carbon nanofibres energy absorption ability and its ability to not fail or deform permanently makes is what makes it a suitable option for our vests over Kevlar as it will not only absorb energy but also rebound it instead of dispersing the bullet force all over the vest.

Place

The company will use a direct channel of distribution whereby intermediaries will not be involved, and the company will directly get into contact with the consumers at points of sale. The company will take orders from its website, which will be available to the public and facilitate the orders itself. The direct channel of distribution is also considered appropriate for this business because the company’s target audience is concentrated geographically in New Brunswick country. Since the business is a startup it is not financially positioned to hire other organizations to take care of its shipping, sales and marketing needs; therefore, a direct channel of distribution offers a cost-effective approach of serving customers.

The products of the company will be available at its offices which will be located in the York area of New Brunswick country where the head office will be located. The institutions that the company is working with will place their orders online, which will be completed through its main office that is located in York. Once an order is completed, the order information is shared with the manufacturing sector that liaises with the factory to have the orders that are made delivered to the customers.

The manufacturing of the lightweight vests will be at its factory, which will also be located in the York area. The factory will be responsible for manufacturing the lightweight vests, packaging them for delivery and shipping them to the customers. Production at the manufacturing factory will be based on the specifications received from the head office and once an order is completed by distributing products to the customer’s location purchasing orders are completed at the head office. A central manufacturing location will be important for the startup since it facilitates easy coordination between the different arms of the organization as well as an efficient and smooth serving of customers.

Price

The pricing strategy that will be used in the company will be profit-oriented. When setting the ideal price for the products of the company, the top priority will be making profits. The goal of the business is to set product prices which guarantees that the company makes a profit in every sale. The company will charge as much as possible for its products while ensuring that it sets a price that does not cause it to lose money via missed sales and alienate possible customers. Since the objective of a profit-oriented pricing strategy is to maximize profit per unit relative to operational costs such as transportation costs and cost of the goods sold as well as set a competitive price that increases the volume of units sold.  In setting the prices of products, the company will determine the cost of manufacturing every vest and then add a margin for profit.

Just like its competition SafeGuard Armor that provides premium high-quality lightweight bulletproof vests, the company will also charge premium prices for its lightweight bulletproof vests. The prices that SafeGuard Armor charges for its vests are approximately $450 (SafeGuard Armor, 2019). However, the company uses Kevlar in its vests implying that it still causes some risks to its wearers like bruising their skins, severely injuring their internal organs and knocking them off their feet because it spreads bullet force throughout the vest.  Taking into account the costs associated with the additional security and the need to ensure profitability, the company will charge a higher price than that of SafeGuard Armor.

The premium price being charged by the company will also communicate the quality of the products that the company is selling. Premium prices have always been associated with high quality, and in charging a premium price, the company will position itself as the manufacturer of high-quality lightweight bulletproof vests. As such, in charging premium prices, the company will be able to appeal to the institutions that are looking for high-quality vests.

Promotion

To create awareness about the products of the company, the organization will use personal selling. Members of the team will personally visit the institutions that are being targeted and sell our ideas. The task will be carried out by salespeople, who will pitch the product’s idea to the target customers. In selling the products to the target customers, the salespeople will highlight the product features that will assure consumers that it will add value to the companies. In addition to personal selling, advertisements will also be used by the company. On the company’s social media platform, the company will post content about the quality of its services. Also, posters about the services that the company is offering will be distributed to the different institutions it is targeting and different social points in the county frequented by executives of the target institutions. Magazines commonly read by the target customer will also be used as part of the marketing strategy. The magazines that will be used will be business magazines, and they will outline the benefits associated with its lightweight bulletproof vests. Finally, the company will use public relations to create awareness about its products. Using funds raised through crowdfunding, the company will organize a career fair to raise awareness about its products. The career fair will attract the participation of local institutions who will use the opportunity to interact with students and the market their services. The company will also use this opportunity to market its products to the local communities by using this open platform to network with the local companies.

Key Success Factors

The key success factors that will contribute to the failure or success of the firm will be an effective marketing strategy. Since the company is a startup, creating awareness about the company and its products is very important. Thus the success of the business will depend on the effectiveness of its marketing strategy. How effective the marketing campaign of the company has been in getting the target customers to demand its products. The effectiveness of the marketing strategy will be based on the sales level of the company, and the number of companies reaches out to it to inquire about the products. The other key success factor in employee skills. Being that the company will be manufacturing its products, it must maintain a highly skilled workforce that will produce high-quality products. These are employees who are well versed in nanotechnology. The skilled marketing team is also very important. Personal selling can only yield positive results if it is done effectively. Thus the company has to ensure that its team is made up of highly experienced sales team.

Reference

SafeGuard Armor. (2019). Bullet Proof Vests From SafeGuard Armor. Retrieved from: https://www.safeguardarmor.com/bullet-proof-vests/