Marketing Communication and Brand Strategy Assignment Steps Develop a minimum 700-word branding strategy and marketing communication plan in Microsoft® Wo

Marketing Communication and Brand Strategy Assignment Steps

Develop a minimum 700-word branding strategy and marketing communication plan in Microsoft® Word. This document should address at least 5 elements of the Situational Analysis and the Product, Place/Distribution, Promotion, and Price Strategies (modified below) sections of the marketing plan (from the Situational Analysis and the Product, Place/Distribution, Promotion, and Price Strategies lists below). The five elements you select should only come from the options provided below. You must include a measurement of customer loyalty and retention in your strategy document. You may include more than the minimum to provide clarity and coherence to your document.

Situational Analysis:
Vision, Mission, Strategic objectives, Values
Strengths/Weaknesses
Competitor’s Strengths/Weaknesses
Market Segments
Product, Place/Distribution, Promotion, and Price Strategies:
Creating a Brand Image
Maintaining Brand Image
Branding Concerns
Promotion/Integrated Marketing Communication
Advertising Strategy/Objectives
Push and Pull
Media Strategy
Advertising Execution
Public Relations/Strategies

Note: Charts/graphs/tables do not count toward the word count.

Cite a minimum of three peer-reviewed references.

Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines. RUNNING HEAD: PRICE AND DISTRIBUTION PLAN
Pricing and Distribution Plan
PRICING AND DISTRIBUTION
Introduction
Pricing is all about assigning a price to a product. It is a very important aspect of marketing and
should be informed by research. Setting a price to a product is dependent on the potential
customers. The business must holistically understand the potential market before arriving at a
price. Once the right price has been set, there is a need to make the product available to customers.
This calls for a distribution strategy that will meet the expectations of customers. Right pricing
and a proper distribution strategy are key to the growth of a business.
Pricing Plan
Introducing a new product in the market can be both difficult and easy depending on the level of
information available. Pricing puts into consideration the cost of production, the competing prices
in the market and demand for the product (Andreti & Zharifa, 2018). Apple as a company must
put into context the purchasing power of its customers. First and foremost, the price of the product
should be more than the production cost to avoid making losses. Secondly, the business must put
consideration the prices similar products already in the market as set by competitors. For a
newcomer in the market, it is wise to beat the prices of your competitors by slightly lowering the
prices. For a product being introduced into the market, the business should adopt static pricing
whereby the product is given a fixed price for an extended period of about one year. The aim of
this move is to sell a perception of stability which in turn creates loyalty among customers. It is,
however, important to note that with internet shopping taking over the world, experts recommend
dynamic pricing whereby prices change now and then depending on demand and supply (Jawad,
2017). Giant business such as Amazon has adopted dynamic pricing. Today, thanks to technology,
PRICING AND DISTRIBUTION
one can easily capture the pricing trends of specific products by following the digital prints of
customers. Pricing has a lot of say in building a brand. To build a brand, the business must first
win the loyalty of customers, and right pricing has a role to play in this. Apple is a brand known
and loved and as such, to maintain its reputation, lowering its prices on a new product because
similar products are already on the market is not an option. The price must, however, be reasonable
enough.
Place/Distribution model
Once the product has been manufactured to completion and has a price tag, it is ready for the
market. The next step is to make it available to the customers through distribution. This answers
the question, where can the product be accessed? This question is very important to any business
entity. The following are the distribution channels available.
Manufacturer
Consumer
Manufacturer
Retailer
Manufacturer
Wholesaler
Consumer
Retailer
Consumer
Everyone picks a distribution channel that best serves its customers. The distribution channels are
hugely dependent on the production capacity of the manufacturer. The more the production, the
wider the distribution channel. When designing the channel to use in the distribution of the product,
the business should have in mind the needs of the consumers, constraints of the channel and the
alternatives available. There is a need for objectivity when designing the product channel. Today,
there are two major mediums of distribution, the traditional physical channel and the internet
channel. The internet channel, popularly known as e-shop is taking over thanks to information
PRICING AND DISTRIBUTION
technology. For now, it is not wise to do away with physical channels since many countries across
the globe still do not have a system that can fully support internet shopping, but it is only a matter
of time. Soon, everything will go digital. Digital marketing gives a business the tools to not only
make products accessible but also to monitor everything to do with a product from the sales,
customer feedback, customer purchasing power and taste, performing resellers, peak seasons and
more.
Channel positioning is important in distribution as it enables the business to view its relationship
with channel members (Lauren, 2018). A company like Apple has a good number of members in
its distribution considering its big market globally. Channel positioning offers a win-win situation
between the supplier and the reseller if harnessed well. There is a need for the company to
determine the reseller performance expectations and to evaluate the value of channel offering
elements. To continue its dominance in the market, Apple should keep members of its distribution
channel motivated.
PRICING AND DISTRIBUTION
References
Andreti, J., & Zharifa, H. (2018). The Analysis of Product,Price, Place, Promotion and Service
Quality on Customers’ Buying Decisions of Convenience Store. Indonesia.
Jawad, K. (2017). What is Dynamic Pricing & How Does it Affect Ecommerce? . Retrieved from
Business,com: www.business.com/articles/what-is-dynamic-in-pricing-and-how-does-itaffect-ecommerce
Lauren, L. (2018, June). What is Positioning in a Marketing Plan? Small Businesses. Retrieved
from Chron.com: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/positioning-marketing-plan-22983.html

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