Market Plan 13

Posted: August 25th, 2021

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Market Plan 13
The home depot employs an online led marketing plan to execute its marketing strategies. The marketing strategies include the use of social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Vine. It also utilizes online communities where necessary support is given whenever there is an issue the customers want to understand. The following discussion looks at the company pricing analysis and the marketing plan expected to be executed.
Price
The company uses the Everyday Low Price strategy to price its products and attract its customers. Products are offered at the lowest price as possible at their stores. The price levels that should be used are the cost-plus, where the company calculates its cost of production per unit and adds a mark-up that is suitable for the market.
The company is intensively involved in ensuring high quality on both products and services with an emphasis on expert advice (Lamb 107). The mechanism helps to maintain and assure its customers of reliability.
Customers are price sensitive such that a little adjustment, mainly upwards, is likely to discourage some from consuming the company products. They will tend to prefer a substitute product from a competitor.
Any change in price, considering the sensitivity of customers to price, would affect customer behavior. If price increases, the company is likely to attract fewer customers and vice versa, following a decrease in rates (123). The revenue level would follow suit.
The cost-based method is used to establishing the price. The company ascertains its price by adding a markup on the product unit cost.
The company provides discounts to maintain its customers. Discounts range from 20% for items such as professional saws, playsets, and kitchen faucers (Roush 89). Special buys are also offered for some appliances that are discounted between 20% and 25%. Increases in prices have been kept with changes in economic factors such as inflation.
Price promotions are used to increase attraction on the quality of products. Interested prospects are allowed to sample products at introductory prices. The company accepts both online and cash methods. These methods are in substantial interest because of the changing dynamics in technology that are affecting business transactions.
Implementation
The company’s marketing organization is appropriately structured to implement the organization-marketing plan. Particular activities that must take place include improving delivery services aimed at providing a comprehensive option for customers. Besides, there is a need to increase direct fulfillment centers across its expanded stores (Roush 113). The personnel responsible for these activities is Kevin Hoffman, who is the president of the online and the chief marketing officer. The implementation timetable is the next three years. The project began middle of 2018, and it is expected to be completedin the middle of 2021.
Evaluation
The company needs to expand on customer target research to ascertain whether customers are aware of its new products in addition to the current product quality research. However, the study has cost implications, and it is likely to reduce the company’s annual net returns by 20%. Further, failure to implement the plan could harm the revenue, as the company may not venture into new markets to expand on its revenue base (Lamb 177). Thus, the projected income could drastically reduce. The performance standards of the marketing plan include strict adherence to customer needs and high product quality while maintaining affordable prices. In addition, the monitoring procedures include evaluation of the achievements in terms of sales improvement compared to the previous period. Besides, there is monitoring of cost implications when executing the plan, which is expected to be done quarterly.
Control
The company is not trying to do much beyond its capability. The implementation of the marketing plan is informed by the need to adapt to the competitive and rapidly changing market. The core market strategies are sound as there are signs of attained objectives. The objectives are also appropriate because they meant to enhance the ability of the company to venture into new markets. However, there are too many resources budgeted to accomplish the plan, particularly the research and development that has consumed almost 30% of the company’s net income.
Although the company-marketing plan is costly, it is promising at the same time. The strategies undertaken to execute the project would help the company attain its objective of an expanded market. Hence, successful implementation of the strategy would assure the company of a reliable customer base, thus revenue increase.

Works Cited
Lamb, Charles W., Joseph F. Hair, and Carl McDaniel. Marketing. Cincinnati: South-Western College Pub, 2000. Print.
Roush, Chris. Inside Home Depot: how one company revolutionized an industry through the relentless pursuit of growth. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999. Print.