Marketing Strategy and Plan Impression Management

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Strategy and Plan of Impression Management. Answer: Background/Objectives With its thought-provoking, unconventional and sarcastic ethos, Vice has been able to give rise to a number of business lines. The businesses include online ventures with news channels, youth culture and music. Other partnerships include tie up with YouTube, Intel, Williamsburg coffee shop and a London pub. Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi are the two founders of Vice and have established themselves in the field without any formal business training (Vice, 2016). Suroosh Alvi was born and brought up in a house that was full of immigrants from Pakistan. On the other hand, Smith is also a son of the immigrants and his parents hailed from Ireland. The main characteristics of Vice are that it does not flaunt good-looking offices and encourage free flow of ideas. Vice started as newsprint as the voice of Montreal but later moved on to New York City. Vice is known to have a hierarchical structure in the organization, yet the ideas in the organization moved from top to down and from bottom to up. The employees at Vice were extremely loyal to the organization mainly because of the leader who took care of the employees. During the economic crisis in the year 2008, when other companies were unable to carry out the business, Vice supported the employees as well as their families. Due to the positive attitude of the leaders, the employee stated with the organization in spite of being offered high salaries at other organizations. External Analysis Pest Political The political condition of the United States is quite stable and hence it would not be an issue in the home country. However, Vice should keep in mind the legal structure and laws where they are venturing. As Vice is mainly dealing with the online content, the laws should be given special attention (Wilson Gilligan, 2012). Economic The economic condition of the United States is stable. Hence, Vice would not have to think about the economic conditions of the united states. However, even a country like Unites States has suffered recession and economic crisis. Thus, Vice should be prepared for any such crisis and plan the business accordingly so that it is able to face any such crisis in the future (Hutt Speh, 2012). Social The content of the online videos should be given special care. As the business of Vice is spread throughout the world, hence the cultural inclination of the people at various countries should be kept in mind. At times, a misbalance in the social front, lands a company into trouble (Hitt Ireland Hoskisson, 2012) Technological The software that are used to make the online content as well as upload the online content changes at a regular basis. Thus, Vice should keep a constant check on the latest software available so that it is able to high quality video content to the people in the United States. In addition to this, hackers are always prying for any leak (Kapferer, 2012). Hence, Vice should update itself with security services so that the hackers are not able to tarnish the image of the organization. Porters Analysis Industry rivalry The existing organizations are always looking forward to update themselves with the latest changes in the organization (Mudie Pirrie, 2012). As a result, it could be seen that the rate of the rivalry among the existing organization will be high. As all the organizations are constantly upgrading themselves and looking forward to a better pricing strategy hence, stiff competition will always be faced among the companies that are operating in the market. It is expected that the competition will be more mainly because of the price rather than the quality of the video that will be given to the customers. Threat of new entrants The online news and entertainment organization is growing at a steep rate and hence, the threat of new entrants will be high at any point of time (Huotari Hamari, 2012). Thus, Vice should always keep itself updated with the latest changes in the technology so that the new entrants will not be able surpass the business of Vice. Threat of substitution However, newspapers are old-fashioned, yet there is a huge population even in a developed country like the United States that rely on the newspapers. In addition to this, the presence of television at home and at the workplace keeps the people updated about the latest happenings (Terpstra Foley, Sarathy, 2012). Bargaining power of the buyers There are already a number of companies present in the United States that deal with the online news content. Hence, the bargaining power of the buyers is high. The customers will drift away to those companies, which will offer the content at a lesser price than vice (Rosenbloom, 2012). Hence, Vice will have to plan their products intelligently. Bargaining power of the suppliers The bargaining power of the suppliers will be relatively less and there will be a good number of suppliers present in the market of a developed country. As the online news and entertainment companies are growing, hence more suppliers will come into play in such a situation (Shani Chalasani, 2013). Thus, the companies will have more choice of suppliers. Thus, it is expected that the suppliers will provide the materials at a cheaper rate to stay afloat in the market. Competitor analysis Every organization functioning at any field will face the challenges from the competitors. Some of the strong competitors of vice are BuzzFeed and NowThisMedia (Cbinsights.com, 2016). BuzzFeed is a news and entertainment organization that mainly deals with the social news. It mainly deals with the online advertising with its content-driven publishing technology. Cbinsights.com also said that BuzzFeed reaches out to 150 million audiences with its breaking news, entertainment, video and original reporting that the users will be able to share in their favorite social media sites. NowThisMedia was formerly known as PlanetDaily network is also operates in the similar field as Vice and BuzzFeed. It creates video news for the mobiles and that will attract the youth. Kenneth Lerer, Huffington Post co-founder and former Chairman, founded the organization along with Eric Hippeau, former Huffington Post CEO and Brian Bedol who is the Bedrocket founder and CEO. As both organizations function in the similar field, hence, they will pose serious threats to the Vice. Key Success Factors The key success factor of Vice is the decision to concentrate on the taste and preference of the youth and make changes accordingly. Vice has been able to provide a platform where the youth could unite and share the views regarding the news that is being shared in the media (Terpstra Foley Sarathy, 2012). In addition to this, tying up with the investor was helpful for the organization. According to the case study, Vice has been working more realistically after the investors have started investing on them (Vice, 2016). Earlier, they mainly worked on instincts; however, after the advent of the investors, they are able to work in a better manner and with better corporate strategy. Thus, it should look out for more such partnerships so that they are able to grow internally with more number of employees. The employees will further help in the growth of the organization as a whole. Internal Marketing Analysis SWOT Strength The biggest strength of Vice is the relation of the leaders with the employees (Meffert, 2013). During the economic crisis in the year 2008, the leader supported the employees and in turn got the support of the employees on a long-term basis. As far as the customers are concerned, they get high quality video content from the organization and they are able to access that free of cost (Fisk, 2013). The customers are happy, as they do not have to pay the extra charge for accessing any video. Weakness The main weakness in Vice is the poor planning during the expansion (Selnes, 2013). Vice planned to expand the business in Europe and Asia. Bulgaria and Romania could not support the huge business of vie. In addition to this, Japan, which was mainly interested in fashion, halted its partnership with Vice when vice shifted from the fashion base. Opportunities Once the employees will be happy working with the organization, they will stay with the company for a long-term basis (Czinkota, Ronkainen, 2013). Hence, Vice will not have to indulge in frequent recruitment to keep the organization going. Threats There are number companies in the United States that work in the media field. As there will be stiff competition among the companies, hence the presence of other media houses will pose as threats to the organization (Davis, 2013). While exploring the international market, Vice had to face the companies who are successful players in the international market (Lusch, Vargo, 2014). It would be a threat for Vice, as they had to tackle local companies and then launch their own business (Papadopoulos, Heslop, 2014). Market Analysis The strategic planning done by Vice helped the organization to grow at a fast rate. 21st century fox invested $70 million in the operations of Vice. In the year, 2012, Vice was already gaining good amount of revenue of $175 million. The company said that the growth already started in the year 2008. With the help of the investors, Vice had been able to grow further. With the help of the investors, Vice not only grew externally but internally as well. In 2008, Vice worked with 100 employees and by the end of the year 2013, it increased to 350. However, with the growth of the number of employees, they also had to enhance the standard of work among the employees. The leaders at Vice agreed with the fact that the before the advent of the investors in their field of work, the organization used to work with reactive, organic and instinctive approach. However, after the advent of the investors they work in a realistic manner by maintaining the culture and enthusiasm at the same time. In spit e of expanding its business globally, Vice kept a check on the content of the magazine. In the year 2013, it was evaluated that 80 percent of the online content was global and the remaining 20 percent of the content was local. The Williamsburg office decided about the global content of vice. 4 Ps People The business of the organization is mainly directed towards the people who are within the age of 18 to 34 years. The people within this age group mainly prefer to keep up with the latest happenings in the world (Foxall, 2014). In addition to this, of the customers are able to get the videos free of cost. Place The headquarters of Vice is in the United States and it has spread its business in international location as well. The business has spread to United Kingdom, France, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and Japan. Thus, marketing at the different places should be done in a different manner to satisfy the taste and preference of the customers (Wilson, Gilligan, 2012). Promotion As the business of the company is mainly based on the web content and online media, hence the perfect way of marketing will be through the online sites. Hence, personalized e-mail will be the best-suited method that will help the organization to make its presence felt in the competitive market (Hutt Speh, 2012). Price The main source of revenue for Vice is the price of the online content, the price of the advertisement in the print magazines and through the fees that is earned by the advertising agencies, Virtue and AdVice. However, the pricing is done by keeping in mind the pricing strategy of the competitors in the local as well as in the global locations (Hitt Ireland Hoskisson, 2012). Market Segmentation The market of Vice will be segmented by keeping mind the youth and the working class who would prefer to get the news while they are travelling for business or for personal reasons (Kapferer, 2012). The division of the age between 18 to 34 years would be perfect for Vice. The younger generations like to get the news and want to see the actions that happened at the real location. Thus, the online news video will be famous among the youth as they might not like to read it from the newspapers and might prefer to see it online. The inclination of the younger generation towards the online content will help voice gain business from the young crowd (Mudie Pirrie, 2012). On the other hand, the working population likes to refer to the online news to get an idea about latest happenings in the world. When on one hand, the younger generation might not be ready to pay for the video contents; on the contrary, the working population will not have any issue for paying for the video contents (Huotar i Hamari, 2012). Hence, segmenting the market and concentrating on the working population will help the organization gain proper revenue from the market. Alternatives Recommendations and Action Plan While working in the online world, at times organization loses touch with the normal world. Hence, to create awareness among the minds of the people, one alternative for Vice can be to promote itself through a medium that is different from the print and online media. Hence, it is recommended that Vice should take initiative in television and other way of spreading the news. When they are concentrating on the younger generation for the business, hence they can tie up with the colleges and other educational institutions and promote themselves among that population. In addition to this, Vice will be able to attract the teachers and faculties of the institutions. Thus, it will help them expand their area of business among the teachers as well. The second alternative to promote the organization in a new manner will be by going back to the basics. Vice has already established itself through the glossy magazines, but if they publish newspapers, it will help them to connect with all types of customers. They can either publish online newspaper and can take initiative to print newspapers. Hence, it is recommended for Vice to explore different kinds of field rather than sticking to the one type of media to promote itself. Action plan Action Area Tasks People responsible for the tasks Resources needed Expected outcome Timeline Educational institutions To promote themselves in the educational institutions with the content video The marketing department Online resources mainly that will have the information regarding the educational institutions working in the market Will be able to make the teachers understand the importance of video news in the lives of the students and how it will help them in their curriculum 2 months Print media ( not magazines but only newspapers) Research the newspapers that are currently performing well in the market. The market research team and the marketing department Online resources that will have the information regarding the famous news papers in the market. Will gain a good amount of knowledge regarding the newspaper and then launch the newspaper accordingly 1 month References Cbinsights.com. (2016).Vice Media Competitors - CB Insights. 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