MARKETING My Company

My Company

First I would like to think a little about what and why more and more people become so interested in marketing? Some say that marketing is the identification and profitable satisfaction of customers' need's. It is true in a way, but still, why should we adopt a marketing orientation? Simply, because it makes firms more profitable.

My recepy for success is actually made out of a marketing plan which helped a company be successful in the ceramics business. As all firms do, they established a target, the segment markets they wanted to cover, the needs/desires of their potential customers, the benefits, the competition, pricing, distribution, promotion and so on.

One of the most important things they did was to make a list of objectives so that strategy could be drafted to achieve them. The company's objectives were to return on the investment in 12 months and so their targets were sales of 10,000m² per month to have also an honourable profit).

Their strength is that they offer high level quality products and services: safe transport, large range of distribution (in all the country ), and some special products such as: diverse design collections for the floor and wall tiles and also glazed, polished porcelain tiles. However, at the beginning their weakness was that they started with an inadequate working capital and the competition was tight. On one hand the environment brings them a lot of unsatisfied needs as always there is something that must be built, and every couple of years there is a change of taste and so gaps in the market are created. On the other hand the environment means also ruthless competition and bothering legislation.

In the battle with the competition which are the Romanian factories (Cesarom and Sanex) they chose as placement, a modern and elegant complex in the area where everybody comes to buy building materials(Militari, Valea Cascadelor, Bd. Timisoara). But the way they managed to defeat (at least many times) the competition was trough the diversity of their products of high quality sold at almost the same price as those produced by the Romanian factories whose inferior quality can be noticed by everybody and also because of the fact that if you go to their shops one will surely find the flavour of the day in ceramics.

After all that, they divided the market into segments of potential customers who have similar characteristics and they came out with three board 'customer' segmentation: building industry, clients from province or from Bucharest.

Another important thing is that they always had in mind the customer's needs, wants and desires so that they could be more effective in selling their products. They import ceramics (different qualities and prices) from Italy, Spain, Germany and Turkey. Nevertheless they seriously took into consideration some benefits to customers so they have a 15% discount for anyone who buys over 100m² of tiles, free delivery on a radiance of 30 km, special orders can be made if the customer wants a specific design, shape, quality and so on.

If you go there to buy ceramics they will give you a general catalogue where you'll find different collections for floor and wall tiles made of porcelain or not, sticks, borders and skirting boards available in any colour, dimension or design and they also present a collection of coordinate series so that the customers shouldn't waste time in trying to combine them; another key customer benefit.

For the distribution channels they have an average of 60% for the building firms, 30% for provincial clients and 10% for those who live in Bucharest. The products are also presented in their own shops, or catalogues, showrooms, department stores, superstores and what's interesting is that their newest project they are working at is a virtual store on the internet.

Pricing differs from tile to tile because they are imported from many countries and it also contains the transportation price and the custom duty so it is between 180,000 - 360,000 lei/m2 for the normal gritstone and faience and between 460,000 - 1,000,000 lei/m2 for special designs or porcelain tiles. As I noticed they are always thinking to please the customers so they have different ways of payment: in rates, cash, checks, cards or through banking transfers. But why does it matter if everything is expensive, that's only a first impression because in comparison with what the Romanian factories have to offer - at the same price - you will chose this company's products without questioning, just look at the photos in the catalogues.

Their promotional strategy is now based on making the customer aware of the products (especially those who live in Bucharest) and convince them that their services are the best. They started by putting adds in specialized magazines, on the internet, making a web page, and every time they had a promotion going on they announced it through the radio or mail. Their sign is a turtle and the logo is '' Slowly, but sure! '' meaning that they evolve slowly but their products are a sure thing regarding value for the customer.         

Nowadays this company is still successful and will definitely continue to grow and that is why I chose to speak about it and try to convince everybody that their products are the best in this field - ceramics, and I am not just saying that. When I started to write about this I compared their products and services not only with the Romanian factories but also with other firms who import floor and wall tiles whose services are not as good as these firm's are and the results are in favour of my company, as I like to call it. All in all, in my opinion, this is the recepy for a successful business in ceramics and not only.