CASE 2 - 4 MARKETING - SIMPLY SHOES Founded in 2003, Simply Shoes had grown to six similar sized outlets by 2014, and was headquartered in Winnipeg Manitoba. For the past year, management had been debating the value of the money being spent on advertising and promotions. Mathew Micheli, the controller emphatically stated, "I am of the opinion that we should simply stop advertising altogether." Mathew stated, "We are facing tough times and all that money would simply go to our bottom line and Bob has not shown us that it really pays for itself." "Well I don't know how I can convince you, Mathew," stated Bob Merlin, the marketing manager, "but I can't imagine maintaining our market share without advertising. All our major competitors spend about the same percentage of their sales on marketing as we do, as best as we can figure. How would our customers find out about our special sales? No we should not cut our advertising budget - we should increase it by 30 per cent. "That's a lot more money, about $285,000 if I'm not mistaken," stated Jasmine Kilby, manager of stores. "Why not put more emphasis on direct mail campaigns or even do better job on our in store signage and displays". We've got about 53,000 names in our customer data base, and they are almost evenly distributed between our six outlets. It would cost about $1.00 to mail each customer a letter, which would be a lot cheaper than our advertising, and would probably be much more effective as well. Not to mention, our in-store merchandizing can be done for around $28,000 per event, and about $10,000 in production and $2,000 per store to implement. "I'm tired of these disagreements," stated Janet Jones, president. "It's time we resolved this issue. We've got our big Father's Day event coming up in six weeks and there are several items that we were going to promote heavily. Then there is the Canada Day sale shortly after that. Let's try some testing of these ideas around these two week-long events to find out which way is the best to spend our advertising, direct mail, and merchandizing dollars. Now, I know that none of our store managers or buyers will want nothing short of a full ad and promotional effort in their areas. I think we can convince then otherwise if we have a good test design to offer them. We had originally set aside $40,000 for advertising and $28,000 for merchandizing for these two events. Bob, would you please design a couple of effective tests and get back to me by the end of the week. Question:

Prepare executive summary of this case study in the following format

1. Date:

2. To:

3. Subject:

4. Recommendation(Short and long term):-

4.1 Short term

4.2 Long term

5. Control and feedback

6. Contingency plan

7. Introduction

8. External Analysis(Opportunities and threats):-

8.1 Opportunities

8.2 Threats

9. Internal Analysis (Strength and Weakness)

9.1 Strength

9.2 Weakness.

10. Key success factors

11. Feasible alternatives

12: Implementation

12.1 Short term (Immediately to one year)

12.2 Long term (One year to two years)

Answer:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

SIMPLY SHOES Company was founded in the year 2003 with its headquarters in Winnipeg Manitoba .The Company has been in operation and has since opened other six similar outlets by the year 2014 where it has been manufacturing and supplying quality shoes to its customers.

Step-by-step explanation

Subject

Due to the growth of technology and change in the market due to competition the company has been weighing various options into which they can advertise their products and remain relevant in the market by ensuring that customers will not seek other revenues.

Recommendation

During a meeting that was held by the members of the company there were different recommendations on the means and ways to be applied in marketing some are short term and others are long term. 

Short term advertisement strategies include; that the company stops advertising at all simply because the company facing challenges and its not able to keep up with advertising costs, there was another suggestion that the company increase the advertising cost with 30% as their competitors are investing heavily on marketing and by not advertising their products customers would not know about their new products and special sales. 

The long term strategies that were suggested were that the company put more emphasis on direct mail tactic and improve on store signage and displays. The mails would be sent to customers on the database around all the outlets (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985).  

Control and Feedback

Having that each person has their own take on the actions to be taken; a good research would work best to ensure that they take the best root.

Contingency Plan

The company has a contemplated big father's day which was to happen in six weeks and it would use the platform to advertise. Further, there was the Canada day sale and it would be fair if the company decides on which strategy to use (McCloskey, 1999). 

Introduction

This is a thriving company which has been in the market for many years and it has good quality products but there are still other companies coming up and thus there is a need to be strategic to maintain the position. Marketing plays a very crucial role for the productivity of any given company.

External Analysis (Opportunities and threats):-

Opportunities

The opportunities available to the company are unlimited.  Shoes are basic needs for every person and thus the demand will always be available. 

Threats

The threat that is likely to face the company is the competition that is in the market and lack of effective marketing plans 

Internal Analysis (Strength and Weakness)

Strength

The company's strength is based on the fact that it has the best quality of products and has so many outlets meaning that they are able to reach out to a range of people (M., & Leidner, 2001). 

Weakness

The company weakness would be failure to identify the most effective marketing strategy.

Key success factors

The company has key factors to facilitate its success such as; 

• Having many outlets in that the products can reach a wide range of people
• Having a well refined system and most qualified and experienced personnel.

Feasible alternatives

The company is flexible to indulge into different alternatives like marketing on social media like Tvs.

Implementation

 Short Term

The company has set out guidelines and some structures are to be set immediately for example conducting interviews and employing qualified people.

Long Term

The company has the vision of opening four other outlets in the next two years.

References

McCloskey, D. (1999). Economical Writing: An Executive Summary. Eastern Economic Journal, 25(2), 239-242. 

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V., & Berry, L. (1985). A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research. Journal of Marketing, 49(4), 41-50. doi:10.2307/1251430

Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. (2001). Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues. MIS Quarterly, 25(1), 107-136. doi:10.2307/3250961