A New Marketing Mix for Pc Technology Co

                    A new marketing mix for PC Technology Co

  PC Technology Co is a big personal computer retailer in Shanghai, and my new position is the new Marketing Manager of the company. After founded in 1990,the company had a remarkable sales success and expansion More recently, it has started to sell laptops and notebooks apart from table desktop computers since 2010.However, the company faced the hardest situation of decreasing market share from 25 percent to only 8 percent because of changes in technology in 2014. In order to regain the company's sales and improve the profitability, the essay will first analyze the market share of the company, followed by a new marketing mix to change the situation.

  Successful marketing requires understanding of what the company's share of the market is. Since PC Technology Co's market share decreased from 25 percent to only 8 percent in 2014,the primary task is to regain its market share. As stated by Stimpson (2015), market share refers to the proportion of the total market in sales by one business in a time period. Total sales can be affected by many factors such as economic growth and changes in tax policy, but market share can only measure whether one business has the ability to win or lose against its competitors. (Marcouse, 2003). So if managers know the market share of all firms in the PC market, they will have a better idea of their relative success in marketing strategies and the biggest competitors with a higher market share. As we can see from the pie chart(Figure 1), four PC retailers sell products to a market in Shanghai and PC Technology Co occupies the least proportion with only 8%. This means that the company's sales are less than other competing business and this may lead to lower profits.

  A new marketing mix should be adopted by PC Technology Co to increase its market share. According to Stimpson, P(2006), four main elements-product, price, promotion and place will be decided on and well blended in order to meet consumers' needs, leading to increasing sales and profits.

 First, consumers need the right product. As a big personal computer retailer, PC Technology Co mainly sells table desktop computers and has added laptops and notebooks since 2010. However, these products are relatively traditional ,low-tech and inconvenient to carry. So the new products should be handier and higher-tech such as tablet personal computers, which complement the product line to address customers. For example, the company can struggle for the Apple official agents to sell its IPAD or IWATCH. Apart from the product modification, a business aiming to launch right products must be aware of the product life cycle. It's shown that the company is in the stage of "decline" as its sales has been decreasing in the last five years. This is always due to developing technology, changing consumer tastes or the introduction of new products, so the company should extend product life by using extension strategies. ( Hall,2008) One point is that the company can use market research. In detail, the company can set questions about which computer people prefer to and test a new product in the primary research. And in the secondary research, it can use market research publications by the competitors and other sales figures in the annual report.(Stimpson,2006) Another point is that the company can use market segmentation to target different products to different segments. ( Hall,2008). Moreover, demographic segmentation related to age can be applied. For example, tablets and notebooks are to aim young students who require convenience and desktop computer is to aim office workers which is equipped with every table in the office. The last point is to rebrand, as shown by Jobber (2013). This means that PC Technology Co can create a new image by dropping its old-fashioned name.

 Secondly, a business must get the product to the right place. According to the Ansoff matrix, four strategies are provided to increase sales as the changing in markets and products. It's more suitable for the company to adopt product development, which offer new products in the existing markets. If PC company uses diversification by changing locations with new product, the risk will be so high that it can't afford with the decline situation. So the company can open more stores in Shanghai to increase sales without expanding to other cities. Apart from the environment, changing the way of selling is also considered. As stated by Hall(2008), an efficient channel of distribution can help the company transport products quickly at a minimum cost to itself. As a retailer, the common intermediaries between producers and retailers are agent, wholesaler and direct support. The best way is producer to retailer because it can avoid the costs of other intermediaries. However, new channels have been created by the technology. PC Technology Co can use "cyber intermediaries" transferring from the store-based retailer to Internet retailer ,which supply computers directly from the website.(Jobber,2013) Meanwhile, people can also have access to computer support ranging from a keyboard's replacement to a computer. For example, the company can use "Taobao" as a platform to sell its products online. This means that the company can target a larger audience to increase sales through the Internet.

 Thirdly, price have a great influence on the sales and profits made by a company. There are several pricing strategies to meet different market situations. Aiming at the new products, the company will use cost-based pricing and penetration strategy. Since the company is in the stage of decline with decreasing market share, it's more suitable for it to adopt the penetration strategy, which combine low prices with high promotional expenditure. (Jobber,2013). The purpose is to use mass marketing to attract more consumers, thus regaining the market share in a short time to enter a new market. Meanwhile, Stimpson(2015) stated that the price could slowly be increased if the company has gained a huge market share. It seems that the PC company can gradually increase its profits after recovering its market share. In order to meet the penetration strategy, the company can choose mark-up pricing, which includes a fixed mark-up for profit to the unit price of a product(Hall,2008). This method can control the new product in a lower price. However, aiming at the old products, the company will use competitor-based pricing. According to Stimpson(2015), it's necessary for firms with low market share like PC Technology Co to be price-takers and the company face the competitive conditions more flexibly. In the analysis, costs of production, competitive conditions, competitor's prices, marketing objectives, price elasticity of demand and whether it is a new product are all considered.