UPS Store

1. Describe The UPS Store.
2. Provide brief background of the organization.
3. Describe small business printing and corporate business printing services.
4. Provide a brief overview of the potential for increased market share against competitors (such as Fedex Kinkos) and the indirect increase in current services.
II. Situation Analysis (4 pages)
Note: Only include sections below in the outline that are relevant. The relevance of each section of analysis should be clear to the reader.
a. External Environment Analysis
i. Context Analysis
• Industry forces that might impact success of any actions taken
ii. Competitor Analysis
• Any organization or message that may prevent any actions taken from being successful
iii. Technological and Economical Situation Analysis
iv. Political, Legal, and Cultural Analysis
b. Customer Environment Analysis
i. Customer Analysis
ii. Collaborator Analysis
c. Internal Environment Analysis
i. Company Analysis
Explain clearly and logically the facts about your UPS and prospective strategy for small and corporate business printing services, and use the required reading below to support your position on the issues.
Look at other credible and reputable sources ones such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, and The Economist, to find the information for your paper.
- Paraphrase the facts using your own words and ideas, employing quotes sparingly.
Use quotes, if absolutely necessary, should rarely exceed five words.
Do not repeat or quote definitions.
It is also important that you reference your sources throughout the text of your marketing plan. Take the following paragraph as an example:
“As a result, telephone interviewers often do not even get a chance to explain that they are conducting a survey (Council for Marketing and Opinion Research, 2003), and response rates have steadily declined (Keeter et al., 2000) to reported lows of 7% (Council for Marketing and Opinion Research, 2003). This decrease presents a problem because not only does it increase the cost of conducting telephone surveys, but it also leads to questions concerning the generalizability of the results (Struebbe, Kernan & Grogan, 1986; Tuckel & O’Neill, 2002).”
- Use third (3rd) person narrative in business writing.
Avoid “we,” “our,” and “you.” DO NOT use contractions in business writing.
Detailed description for writing construction of outline.
Product Statement
Provide background information on the company United Parcel Service (UPS) and prospective success of bringing small business printing and corporate business printing to market on a large scale. Describe how long it has been around, how successful it has been and can be potentially, who the target audience is, etc. Be specific and detail-oriented, and do not assume that the reader is familiar with the company and product.
Situation Analysis
A situation analysis may also be known as an environmental analysis. Conduct an environmental analysis including the external environment, customer environment, and internal organizational environment.
A. External Environment Analysis
In this section, identify/describe all external forces for change that might affect the company, its future, and the future of its industry. Identify the external realities upon which your plan will be based. What are the competitive, technological, economic, political/legal/regulatory, societal/lifestyle/cultural, market, buyer behavior, channel of distribution, and other industry trends that translate into external opportunities and threats? Explicitly state how each of these forces can impact your company, your charge, and the outcomes you wish to accomplish. That is, do not just list these forces; relate them to the task at hand.
Keep in mind that tables and figures cannot stand alone in any marketing plan. In other words, if you want to use tables and figures, use them as support tools to illustrate the points you are trying to make in your written text.
1. Industry Analysis: What is the current situation in the industry? This description includes the size of the particular industry, trends in the industry, the industry outlook (expanding, stagnant, or contracting), success factors and failures of the industry, and so forth. Are these trends and developments likely to affect your charge? How?
2. Competitive Analysis: There are three major types of competitive forces. Brand competitors offer similar products with similar benefits and prices (e.g., monetary cost, time, effort, etc.), and serve/target the same customers. Product competitors offer products that compete in the same product class but have different features, benefits and price. Generic competitors offer products that satisfy the same need or solve the problem, but in a different way.
For example, assume that the brand in question is Apple iPad 4 and your charge is to come up with a marketing plan of how to promote the iPad 4. In your Product Statement you will have already talked about the iPad. Brand competitors in this case would be Samsung Galaxy, Motorola Xoom, Toshiba Excite, Lenovo IdeaPad, and so on. Product competitors could include Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Dell computers. Generic competitors of iPad could include Regal Theatres, Cox Cable and so on, which satisfy consumers’ entertainment needs.
When discussing the competitive forces, focus on the brand and product competitors and describe these competitors in more detail. How big are they? What is their market share (in comparison to that of your company)? What is their income? How is the income derived? How do they spend their moneys? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they pose a threat to your company? What attracts consumers to their products? A detailed description of these competitors will aid your future SWOT and Issues analyses, and will give you ideas about target market and implementation.
3. Technology not only refers to the new types of products such as computers and digital products but also means the processes by which tasks are accomplished. This section examines how changes in technology impact customers’ lives and needs and how marketers respond to their needs. Are these trends and developments likely to affect your charge? How?
4. The Economic Situation looks at the stability and growth of the market in which the firm operates—for example, country, region, state, or local area. This section may examine inflation, employment, and income levels; taxes; and consumer confidence as they impact the company and the charge of the marketing plan. Are these trends and developments likely to affect your charge? How?
5. Political Trends, Legal Trends, and Regulatory Forces: This section examines how governmental regulations may affect the company and its charge. It also looks at the company’s relationships with elected officials. Is the current administration, Congress, state legislature, county or city government likely to sponsor laws or regulatory changes that will affect the company and the charge, either favorably or negatively? Do recent court decisions have an impact on the operating environment? Do they impact how you will have to carry out your charge?
6. Cultural Trends may have a profound impact on how customers respond to the company’s offering. Examples of lifestyle trends include less leisure time; cocooning; focus on health, exercise and nutrition; and less concern with cleanliness. Demographic trends include aging baby boomers, new boomers (Generation Y), a rise in single-person and single-parent households, more women who work, and increasing population diversity. Some changes in cultural values include less conspicuous consumption, value orientation (quality/price), environmental concern, less tolerance of public smoking, more tolerance of varying lifestyles, and giving back to the community. Are these trends and developments likely to affect your charge? How?
B. Customer Environment Analysis
This section should examine the current situation in respect to the needs of the target market, expected changes in those needs, and how the firm presently meets those needs. Make sure you answer all of the following questions. Keep in mind that this section focuses on the current target market of the company, not the market you propose to target with this marketing plan. At this point, you are still examining the status quo, which should aid your decision making in the remainder of the marketing plan. For example, if the company in question is Apple, and the charge is to promote the iPad 4, the focus in this section of the marketing plan would be on the existing target markets served by Apple and what can be learned from those targets. Consider the following issues for your analysis:
1. Who? Who are current and potential customers of the same customer group? What are the demographics, psychographics, and geographics? Is the buyer the user? Who influences the purchasing decision?
2. How many? How many customers does the company serve? How many does it have the capacity to serve?
3. Where? Where are products purchased? Where do customers buy the products? What are the types of intermediaries? What is the influence of electronic commerce? Where are customers doing non-store buying—Home Shopping Network, catalogs, Internet?
4. When? When are the products bought? What is the frequency of purchasing? Do promotional events affect purchase? How do differences in physical or social environment, time demands, or purchase task affect buying?
5. How and What? What are the basic need-satisfying benefits? Does a competitor’s product fit a need this product/service does not provide? What are changes in customers’ needs? How do the customers pay—cash, credit?
6. Why Are There Non-Customers? Needs not met? Bad fit for lifestyle/image? Price? High switching costs? Competition’s product is better? Poor distribution? They do not know about the product?
C. Internal Environment Analysis
This section should identify/describe relevant internal aspects of the company that will help identify strengths and weaknesses in your SWOT analysis in the Module 2 SLP. This requires the identification and analysis of the organization’s past financial performance (sales, market share, profitability, etc.); marketing strategies (target market and positioning/image); marketing goals, objectives, and past performance; and marketing programs (advertising/promotion effectiveness, product/service offers, distribution effectiveness and channel programs, pricing, sales force effectiveness, sales strategy and programs, public relations/publicity, marketing research/intelligence gathering efforts, etc.). Additionally, the report may need to examine items such as production capacity, technical capabilities, management/leadership, organizational structure and culture, level of available resources and skills, financial stability, the product life cycle (i.e., is the product in introduction, growth, maturity, or decline stage?), and other relevant characteristics of the company that help develop a complete list of strengths and weaknesses in your SWOT analysis. It is important to focus on how the company is perceived by the market and its own customers as the main determinant of market-relevant strengths.
The ability to segment and target audiences is key to online marketing, and e-mail is no exception. According to e-mail delivery and automation provider Emailvision, 96.51 percent of online marketers worldwide placed some importance on the ability to send targeted and segmented e-mail marketing communications to their audiences.
Berger, Joseph (2011). A store where toys must be Kosher. The New York Times (December 15). Available 5/4/12 through ProQuest database.
This Brooklyn toy store serves the Hasidic community. Successful retailers thrive by understanding the needs of their customers, and Double Play Toys in Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood is no exception. The store serves Orthodox Jewish parents with a carefully assembled selection of toys that do not promote TV viewing and violence, and owner Barbara Shine even convinced one manufacturer to change packaging her shoppers would find immodest.
Greenberg, Karl (2011). Wealthy Americans redefining luxury. Marketing Daily (November 28). Accessed 6/4/12 at:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/163072/wealthy-americans-redefining-luxury.html?edition=40685
The wealthiest 1% of U.S. consumers are optimistic about their economic situations, but many say they’ve redefined their definitions of “luxury” in the past five years, according to a recent survey. Many now value trips, spa treatments, and small treats over designer labels and conspicuous consumption.
Levitz, Jennifer (2011, November 28). State’s new trick: Old Dogs. Maine sees retirees as assets, seeks to attract them with tax cuts on pensions. The Wall Street Journal. A3. Accessed 5/4/12 through ProQuest database.
This is a very interesting example of target marketing. Maine wants retirees because older residents volunteer, help fund schools, and create demand for service jobs.
McDonald, Malcom (2009). Market segmentation: A case study. Accessed 5/4/12 at:
This video outlines a marketing program for fertilizer.
Medina, Jennifer (2011). Casino Town Puts Its Money On Hispanic Market. New York Times (August 30).
Available 5/412 through ProQuest database.
This article describes a casino’s comprehensive effort to target Latinos.
Nokia’s market segmentation (2006). Accessed 3/3/12 at:
This video links cell phone models to personality types.
Patton, Leslie & Coleman-Lochner, Lauren (2011). Supervalu-Led Stores Chasing $55 Billion in Food Stamps: Retail. Bloomberg. Available 5/4/12 through EBSCO database.
Supermarket chains that used to highlight their Starbucks cafes and upscale olive bars have shifted their focus as more consumers faced with long-term unemployment are shopping with food stamps, a program that rose to a record $71.8 billion last year. The Supervalu-owned Save-A-Lot chain promotes bulk items and pricier meat cuts early in the month as shoppers stock up, and highlights smaller packages and less-expensive items later as funds dwindle.
Reaching Black Customers (2011). Accessed 5/4/12 at:
http://www.reachingblackconsumers.com
This website allows marketers to better understand black consumers.
Roberts, Andrew (2011). Vuitton Sees Growth Tied to Invitation-Only Luxury Salon: Retail. Bloomberg Businessweek (November 16). Available 5/4/12 through EBSCO database.
Louis Vuitton faces a dilemma enjoyed by successful luxury retailers: how to stay exclusive while growing. Part of Vuitton’s solution is to offer exclusive, invitation-only outlets. “What we have now is another layer on the cake,” said Peter Collett, a psychologist, author and consultant. “You’re not just bringing people into the shop, where anybody can come. You’re going to bring people into the inner sanctum.”
Wieners, Brad (2011). Lego is for girls. Businessweek. (December 19):68-73. Available 5/4/12 through EBSCO database.
Focusing on boys saved the toymaker in 2005. Now the company is trying to crack the code for “the other 50 percent of the world’s children.”
York, Emily Bryson (2011). More men take over grocery shopping. Los Angeles Times (December 29):B6. Available 5/4/12 through ProQuest database.
Research shows that more men are taking over grocery shopping—17 percentage points more than in 1985. Retailers and food manufacturers are responding by making products and store layouts more male-friendly, even creating “man aisles” to make men’s shopping experience easier. “Our intent in creating guy aisles was to give them an experience that was comfortable for them and [make] it easier to navigate the store,” said Procter & Gamble spokesman Damon Jones.
This article explains considerations internal to the firm that affect its financial health:
Porter, Michael (1980). Generic strategies. Accessed 5/4/12 at: http://marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-generic-strategies.html
These Web pages explain the forces external to the firm that affect the financial health of a product or company:
PEST Analysis (n.d.). MarketingTeacher. Accessed 5/4/12 at:
http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_PEST.htm
Managing External Forces (n.d.). Marketing Tutorials. KnowThis. Accessed 5/4/12 at:
http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials/managing-external-forces/
The following articles explain and illustrate the roles of the environment external to the firm in marketing decisions:
Eihorn, Bruce (2012) China Mobile pays a price for being first. Bloomberg Businessweek (January 9). Available 5/4/12 through EBSCO database.
China Mobile has the largest share of the Chinese mobile telecommunications market, making it the biggest mobile-phone operator in the world, but it is struggling to get a handle on the data-hungry devices that consumers like. The Chinese government ordered China Mobile to use locally developed technology, but imposed no such restrictions on smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom. “China Mobile’s mission in life now is to lose market share gracefully,” says Paul Wuh, a Samsung Securities analyst.
Li, Shan (2011). Beverly Hillbillies’ actress settles suit over Barbie doll. Associated Press, LA Times (December 30). Available 5/4/12 through ProQuest database.
Guidelines for handling quoted and paraphrased material are found at:
Anonymous (n.d.) Purdue Online Writing Lab. Copyright ©1995-2011 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. Accessed 3/9/12 at: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
Anonymous (n.d.) Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing. Purdue Online Writing Lab. Copyright ©1995-2011 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. Accessed 3/9/12 at:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/
Anonymous (n.d.) Avoiding Plagiarism. Purdue Online Writing Lab. Copyright ©1995-2011 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. Accessed 3/9/12 at:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/1/
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