Maxis Marketing Plan Essay Example For Students

Maxis Marketing Plan Essay Contents Page 1. 0 The Executive Summary 2. 0 Integrated Marketing Plan Introduction 3. 0 The Maxis Company Profile and Background 3. 1 Types of Services Offered by Maxis 4. 0 Mission Statement of Maxis 5. 0 Strategic Thrust of the Integrated Marketing Plan 6. 0 Maxis Company’s Key Success Factors 7. 0 Situational Audit and Analysis 7. 1 Macro Environmental Analysis for the Maxis Company 7. 1. 1 P. E. S. T and S. W. O. T Analytical Frameworks for Environmental Analysis 7. 1. 1 Benefits of Using these Tools 7. SWOT Analysis for Maxis Malaysia 7. 2. 3 The Strengths of the Maxis Company 7. 2. 3 The Weaknesses of the Maxis Company 7. 2. 4 The Opportunities of the Maxis Company 7. 2. 5 The Threats of the Maxis Company 7. 2. 6 Important Findings of the SWOT Analysis 7. 3 The P-E-S-T Analysis for Maxis Malaysia 7. 3. 1 Critical Analysis for the Malaysian Political Trends 7. 3. 2 Economic Trends 7. 3. 4 Social Trends 7. 3. 5 Technological Trends 7. 4 Analysis of the Competition and t he Market Situation in Malaysia 7. 5 Analysis of Customers . 6 Distribution 8. 0 The Marketing Objectives of the Maxis Company 9. 0 The Maxis Marketing Mix 9. 1 The Product of Maxis 9. 2 Pricing of the Maxis Product 9. 3 Placement of Products of Maxis 9. 4 Promotion and Advertising of the Maxis Product 10. 0 The Strategy Recommended for the Improvement of the Maxis Product 11. 0 Controls and Management of Integrated Direction of the Marketing Plan 12. 0 Tactical Plans for Maxis 13. 0 Proposed Sales Forecast 14. 0 Budget 15. 0 Conclusion 16. 0 References 1. 0 The Executive Summary The integrated marketing plan here is very concerned with espousing an integrated strategy that is designed in order to enhance the current competitiveness of the Maxis mobile phone company through its service pack that it currently makes available to Malaysians. The Maxis company is one of the top performers within the Malaysian telecommunications industry. Until now, this market was dominated by Maxis but in these times, other mobile service providers have become more competitive and are competing on equal footing. These competitors comprise of firms like DiGi and also Celcom. The service pack that is provided by Maxis comprises of a SIM card that enables the user of the cell phone to connect with other mobile phone users through their cell phones. Competitors like DiGi as well as Celcom do provide the same kind of service and are drawing more customers away from Maxis and they are gaining a larger market share. Due to this, it will be necessary to formulate this strategy to enable Maxis to become more competitive and to be the leader once again. The macro-environment of Maxis is examined in this plan by using the business tools like PEST. The SWOT tool is used to also analyze the external and the internal business environment for Maxis. Through the use of these tools, it will be possible to get the required information to determine the type of strategies that need to be utilized to make Maxis competitive again. Maxis must give attention for the changes that take place within the external environment, to identify the elements and threats in the environment that are causing it to under-perform and that are restricting its progress. There does need to be enhancements towards the service that it provides or else it will lose out to competitors like DiGi, that are gaining strength and popularity. The primary recommendation here will be to the effect that Maxis is to make enhancements to the Maxis service pack. The service pack will need to be enhanced through the use of customization and to cater to the needs of business users and recreational users as well. Recommendations are made about the price of the service pack, the promotional methods, the distribution and enhancements need to be made the product itself. Maxis need to be more efficient when it comes to research and development of the new service pack and it has to pay more attention towards its competitors. 2. 0 Integrated Marketing Plan Introduction Maxis is a Company is leader in the industry concerning the providing of telecommunication services within Malaysia and it is starting to have a presence overseas as well. The domination of this company in the realm of mobile telecommunications services is now coming under threat from competitors like DiGi. that are fast growing ion popularity among Malaysian phone users. The lack of competitiveness of Maxis has to be cured by making recommendations that will be contained within this marketing plan. Essentially, this plan will contain strategies that can make Maxis more competitive again and that will permit the company to leave its competition behind. Lack of strategic planning can be very bad for a company, especially when competitors are just wanting for the right time to deploy their strategies to annul the competitor. The strategic planner at Maxis has to plan through having the correct and accurate information concerning the macro-environment and the internal processes of the company. It only with such knowledge that Maxis can solve the inefficiencies within its company and to take logical and accurate steps towards improving their competitive position in the industry. With this information, the strategist will be able to devise and deploy strategic initiatives that can enhance the performance of the company and to overtake its competition. 3. 0 The Maxis Company Profile and Background Maxis Communications Berhad, or known as the Maxis company for this report, is an organisation that is dealing in the business of providing various services that relate to the domain of telecommunications. The Maxis Communications organisation is the subsidiary of Binariang GSM Sdn Bhd. This company is based in Malaysia and its headquarters are located in Kuala Lumpur. In addition to having operations in Malaysia, this company also has operations in countries like Indonesia and also in India. (Maxis Company Profile, 2010). This company was founded in 1995. After nearly 7 years, in 2002, this company made its appearance on the stock exchange. This company became a private company in 2007, when it was bought over by Binariang GSM Sdn Bhd for about $4. billion (Yahoo Finance – Company Profile for Maxis 2010). At the end of fiscal 2006, Maxis recorded revenues of about MYR7,706. 7 million and this was an increase of about 21% from 2005. The company’s operating profit stood at MYR2,836. 5 million in fiscal year 2006 and this was an increase of 16. 9% from 2005 (Companies and Markets – Maxis Communications SWOT Analysis, 2010). 3. 1 Types of Services Offered by Maxis As noted previously, this company does offer mobile phone related services and these are categorized as being mobile services, fixed services, and also international gateway services. In much more specific terms, the Maxis company does provide the following list of services: †¢ Mobile telecommunications products and services †¢ Various kinds of multimedia services †¢ Wireless Internet services for residential areas and offices †¢ GSM cellular kinds of services †¢ Telecommunications consultancy related services (Maxis Company Profile, 2010) This company does operate something that can be described as the national public switched network. In addition to this, the Maxis company also takes part in the ownership, the building and the maintenance of certain radio facilities and various associated switches. Maxis does provides high speed internet services and various internet application services. These does include software related services. Far from its original business, the Maxis company does participate within the business of property letting (Maxis Company Profile, 2010). In accordance with its quest for more diversification, Maxis did take the initiative to launch a new kind of service which make it possible for users to be able to control their SMS, to automate it and also to personalize these services. This service does enable its users to block out SMS that are not solicited (IW– Maxis Company, 2010). 4. 0 Mission Statement of Maxis For the Maxis company, the main mission statement will be to construct a foundation that is firmly premised on important concepts like integrity, high level of commitment and superior vision when it comes to helping others to become successful. Maxis does appreciated that it is very commendable to effectively lead others towards the maximization of talents as well as their potential within the working environment. What people at Maxis believe here is that such an adherence will likely to provide them with the ability to serve their customers and to continue to grow to a stronger position for the future (Maxis Company Mission Statement, 2010). 5. 0 Strategic Thrust of the Integrated Marketing Plan Practically speaking, this integrated marketing plan for the Maxis company will be developed in order to propose certain strategic recommendations for the services that Maxis currently specializes in. Then importance of this strategic plan lies in the fact that maintaining competitiveness within this industry will be very important because any lack of strategic direction and improvements will result in Maxis being overtaken by other companies like DiGi, for instance. This plan does make a comprehensive analysis of the internal and the external business environment for the company and the information that is obtained is capable of being used to form some new and effective strategies and other strategic initiatives to enhance this companies competitiveness. 6. 0 Maxis Company’s Key Success Factors It was submitted that there exists about three kinds of critical success factors and these are said to relate to industry critical success factors which are caused by the industry characteristics which are very specific, the critical success factors which are said to be caused by the main competitive business strategy and finally, the critical success factors which are said to be caused due to changes in the economy or technology (Rockart, 1986) For the Maxis company, the following will be the main critical success factors of this company: 1. Highly innovative and advanced IT infrastructure (Rockart, 1986) 2. Elevation in the level of effectiveness of the customer service representatives of the company 3. Very competent and high level of employee morale as well as productivity 4. Good brand recognition in Malaysia 5. Efficient internal operations (Rockart, 1986) These success factors have been largely responsible for assisting this company to gain a lot of success within the borders of the Malaysian telecommunications industry. It is due to the these success factors that Maxis have been capable of sustaining a high and commendable level of growth, efficient development and commendable profitability levels within Malaysia. It is these kinds of critical success factors that can be utilized ion the process of strategy planning. By making an identification of these kinds of critical success factors, it will enable the company to be focused well on moving into the right direction. Through the proper clarification of the order of priority of the critical success factor of Maxis, in terms of measuring the results as well as rewarding very efficient performance, it will make improvements towards the success for the long-term of this company (Maxis Critical Success Factors, 2010). . 0 Situational Audit and Analysis 7. 1 Macro Environmental Analysis for the Maxis Company This analysis will be carried out in order to examine the elements that are present within the internal and external environmental of the Maxis company. This analysis will reveal information that can be used to make new strategies and enhance the success of the company. 7. 1. 1 P. E. S. T and S. W. O. T Analytical Frameworks for Environmental Analysis To do this, certain business analysis frameworks are used and these will include the tools as listed below: 1. P-E-S-T tool 2. SWOT tool 7. 1. 1 Benefits of Using these Tools The PEST tool will bring out the information concerning factors relating to politics, economy, socio-culture and technology. The S-W-O-T tool will bring out information about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats that being currently being experienced by the company. All this information will be vital to the strategy plan as it will give the relevant managers of Maxis with very vital information concerning the business environment that the company does operate within. The P-E-S-T tool reveals information concerning the trends that the company has to be concerned about and the S-W-O-T tool will be used to find out what the company is good at doing, what it is not good at doing, and what the chances it has to improve and enhance itself to become successful. The output that is obtained from these tools will form the basic ingredients that will be used in the process of forming the strategies for the Maxis company. Hundreds of years ago, an unconscious culture diseased the female population EssayThe customers can be further categorized in terms of being users of cell phones for the purposes of business and users of cell phones for recreational activities. At present, the customers seem to prefer buying their service packs from two main companies, that being Maxis and DiGi. The disturbing trend among these customers include the fact that more and more of them are starting to be attracted more to DiGi and this is causing Maxis to lose market share to its competitor. What these customers want from their mobile phone service provider is convenience, affordability and richness in features. At present, DiGi are more capable of providing these benefits to the customers, which explains why it is very popular. 7. 6 Distribution Maxis distributes its products through the use of licensed Maxis dealers that are located all around Malaysia. It has a few of service centers located all around Malaysian but its products are also widely available at mobile phone dealers in Malaysian. These dealers are located in various locations like shopping complexes and in many areas within city centers. Customers can buy service packs from any one of these dealers or service centers. 8. The Marketing Objectives of the Maxis Company The plan is now concerned with outlining the strategic marketing objectives for the Maxis Company. These sort of marketing objectives are understood to concern the Maxis company will be the following objectives: 1. To increase the sales of the main Maxis service pack by 35% by 2011, 2. To increase the amount of revenue that is generated from the sales of the Maxis service pack within Malaysia by about 25% 3. To elevate the levels of market share within the within the Malaysian telecommunications industry by up to 10% 9. 0 The Maxis Marketing Mix The marketing mix is conducted now to determine issues and to extract information in relation to the Maxis product, its price, its placement and distribution and its promotions. 9. 1 The Product of Maxis Maxis provides a wide range of services and these includes mobile services, fixed services, and also international gateway services. These services are not simple to differentiate and the only part of it services that is capable of being subject to differentiation is Maxis service package, that contains the SIM card used to enable the use to make phone calls and various other activities relating to the use of a mobile phone. This will be the product that will the subject for analysis. There is clearly a need for more diversification of the features of the service pack in the sense that the services need to be enhanced and differentiated from the competition, which is the service pack provided by the Maxis company. What is needed is more attractive features and bonuses that are not offered by competitors like DiGi or Celcom. There needs to be an incentive to encourage the users of the mobile phone to select the Maxis package in contrast to other packages. . 2 Pricing of the Maxis Product Concerning pricing issues, the price at present is not very different from that of competitors and hence there needs to be a change in the pricing strategy of Maxis in order for the pricing to be even more competitive than that of its competitors. Through proving the customers with better prices than its competitors, Maxis can go a step closer to achieving its marketing objectives. 9. 3 Placement of Products of Maxis Maxi s has a number of branches all around Malaysia and it is based in KLCC. There are thousands of dealers that sell Maxis products all over Malaysia and these dealers are licensed to sell Maxis products. Through the use of this strategy, Maxis increases its reach and strengthens its presence. This is an important consideration and what can be recommended here is that Maxis continue to enhance its reach all over Malaysia and overseas as well. This is something that DiGi has not do yet and to be the first to do this will be a good opportunity for Maxis to increase its reach, performance and profitability. 9. Promotion and Advertising of the Maxis Product Promotional activities have to be enhanced in order to deliver the message about the benefits of the improved product and hence, there will be a need for a more intensive promotional campaign within Malaysia. The following are some of the tools that can be used by this company to advertise its services more effectively: 1. Newspapers advertising 2. Television advertising 3. Radio advertising 4. Sales promotio n 5. Public relations 6. Magazines advertising 10. 0 The Strategy Recommended for the Improvement of the Maxis Product Through the analysis of the information which was acquired previously, it is not possible to identify the areas that are in need of enhancements and the various opportunities that are open for Maxis to improve its product. The following strategy concerns the a combination of various aspects that form major parts of this plan. This strategy is designed to make positive improvements towards the mobile, fixed, and international gateway services package that is offered by the Maxis Company. Target Market for Maxis The target market for the Maxis company in relation to the product selected will be cell phone users that need to communicate, for business, recreation etc, wherever they are and at any time The Product of Maxis There needs to be some investments that need to be made to enhance the product and a 15% increase in the budget for investment is needed to permit the product development team at Maxis to be able to enhance the service pack of Maxis, and this means that there has to be inclusion of features that are attractive for normal users and also for business users. The product needs to be enhanced to cater for business users as well and a separate type of service pack needs to be made for business users, which means more features for business use. This means business users will find the service pack more relevant to their business needs. Price of the Maxis Product For pricing, there needs to be a reduction of 3% for local calls and 2% for international calls. SMS services are recommended to be provided for free between Maxis phone subscribers in order to attract more customers. However, this needs to be seasonal and free SMS services are only to be provided for 2 weeks every month for Maxis subscribers. The price needs to be set at RM5. 00 and then increased to RM5. 50 in the thirst and fourth quarter of 2011. Promotion of the Maxis Product There has to be an increase in the budget for the Maxis advertising campaign and these are to be directed towards the promotion of the improved Maxis product and the campaign must be long enough, effective enough and intensive enough to reach out to the target market. Maxis Marketing Research A very crucial investment here needs to be make in market research and the investment needs to be increased by 10% in order to have enough resources to be made available so that the marketing researchers at Maxis will able to research more intensively about the way that the Malaysian consumers make their purchases. The research will also be focused on monitoring competitors like DiGi, the progress that they are making, the strategies that they are using, and the way that they are marketing their products. This research will be vital to gain the necessary information to improve Maxis. 1. 0 Controls and Management of Integrated Direction of the Marketing Plan An integrated marketing plan like this can only be of use when it is well managed and developed (Kotler et al, 2007). This means that it will be very essential for the plan’s strategic direction to be managed properly so that it will help Maxis achieve what it is meant to do, that is, to assist the company, to enhance their profitability, to increase growth rate, enlarge its marketing share and to increase the level of brand awareness between cell phone users within Malaysia. Due to the level unpredictability concerning the future, what will be very important here will be for the managers of Maxis to prepare themselves to handle external and internal factors which are capable of compromising and preventing the plan to be effective and applicable (Kotler et al, 2007). The Maxis managers have to manage the plan through ensuring that various negative elements which have the potential of compromising the plan have identified and eliminated. 2. 0 Tactical Plans for Maxis Below is the tactical plan outline for the Maxis company in promoting the new service pack (Kotler et al, 2007): 1st quarter of 2011 (January to April) – Launch of new service pack and will be made available in all Maxis service centers and dealers 2nd quarter of 2011 (April to July) –Massive promotional campaign around Malaysia to inform Malaysian mobile phone users about the new service pack rd quarter of 2011 (July to October) – Launch of contests that offer cell phone users to participate and win attractive prizes when they win contests. These are designed to help customers learn more about the new service pack and to understand its benefits 4th quarter of 2011 (October to December) – Implementation of new website that is highly interactive and that assists the organisation to extensively promote the product 13. 0 Proposed Sales Forecast YEAR 2011 |JAN |FEB |MAR |APR |MAY |JUNE | |Website |3800 |3800 |3800 |3800 |3800 |3800 | |Advertising |8000 |8000 |8000 |8000 |8000 |8000 | |Public Relations |15000 |15000 |15000 |15000 |15000 |15000 | |(PR) | | | | | | | |Exhibitions |7,500 |7,500 |7,500 |7,500 |7,500 |7,500 | |Other |20,000 |20,000 |20,000 |20,000 |20,000 |20,000 | |Total Sales |54,300 |54,300 |54,300 |54,300 |54,300 |54,300 | |Marketing Expenses | | | | | | | 15. 0 Conclusion Maxis is one of the more successful Malaysian companies that has had a very strong presence and wide brand recognition in Malaysia. The strong presence that Maxi s once enjoyed is not possible any longer and this is because of the growth of competitors like DiGi. In the event that no improvements are made to the services provided, then it is very likely that DiGi will be the dominant force within the industry and Maxis will decrease in strength and recognition. In this plan, much empirical information was obtained through the situation analysis and this information has revealed trends in the environment and many kinds of opportunities that can be used by Maxis to achieve its business objectives. In this integrated marketing plan, the strategy that was recommended with having in mind these factors, was a strategy which can ensure that the Maxis service pack is elevated in terms of quality, attractiveness and value. The main recommendation was for there to be separate kinds of service packs for business users and recreational users. This strategy has yet to be implemented by DiGi and will be a strong point for Maxis in differentiating its services from that of the competitors. 16. 0 References Rockart F 1986 in, A Primer on Critical Success Factors in ‘The Rise of Managerial Computing: The Best of the Center for Information Systems Research, Dow Jones-Irwin, 1986. 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