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Department of Business Administration

Course Title: Business Marketing Management

Course Code: MKT-610

An Assignment on “Business Marketing Planning: Strategic Perspectives”

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Submitted By-
Md Abdullah Al Mahbub
ID: 2031016001
MBA/EMBA program
Department of business administration

Under supervision-
Anawar Ahmed Arif
Assistant Professor and
Coordinator, MBA/EMBA Program
Department of Business Administration
Leading University

Assignment Submission Date: 10th-Feb-2022

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Business Marketing Planning: Strategic Perspectives

Introduction
Marketing planning strategy is a very broad term that apples to a whole range of
activities starting with the communication of the product or services to the customers or
prospects in the target markets and making them aware of the benefits or the needs
and expectations it is designed to meet (Moore et al, 2008). The marketing planning
deals with all the strategies used by the marketer in eliciting the desirable responses in
the customers and making the sales and revenues possible for the company. Tommy
Hilfiger is a well-known brand selling bags, clothing and luxury lifestyle products in world
markets and the study aims to discuss the various aspects in the marketing planning of
the brand along with discussing the barriers to the process of marketing planning.
The company had long history of using celebrities like Sheryl Crow and Carla Bruni in
its brand endorsements and had been focusing on the design of the products to suit
local need as in case of Europe. Also the paper discusses about how the company has
effected changes in its marketing strategies in order to meet the plans and targets along
with keeping a check on the activities of the competitors in the global markets. In the
process of marketing planning, the process of analyzing the internal and external factors
has a profound effect as studied in case of Tommy. Also the last part of the study aims
to explain the implication of ethics in marketing and consumer behavior in order to
ensure ethical practices in planning for marketing mix.

Compile marketing audits:

 Changing perspectives in marketing planning
The overall strategy and the goals of the organization plays an important role in the
planning and the design of the marketing activities and also marketing helps in the
generation of the strong customer base for the company by making the customers
aware of what they make, sell and provide to the markets (Tedlow et al, 2014).
Marketing environment is seldom stable and due to this nature of the marketing
environment, the company must be capable of planning to accommodate with the
changes and the challenges posed by the environment as in case of Tommy Hilfiger. As
the Tommy Hilfiger faced tough competition from the brands in the European and other
fashion upscale markets thus the changes in the marketing plan helped the company to
accommodate the competitor. The company success was through wholesaling of the
brand products to the departmental stores and making use of celebrity endorsements
while also supporting social causes like Breast Health International. Thus the changing
in the marketing plan

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as in case of Tommy Hilfiger in European markets helped the company gain loyal
customer base in the country. While earlier the company was focusing on only jeans it
later shifted to design of sweaters, leather jackets, slim look jeans, etc for upscale
European customers (Wilkie et al, 2015).

 Organization’s capability for planning its future marketing activities

The capabilities of any organization like Tommy Hilfiger is marked in terms of the
physical, financial and the human resources aspects and its overall ability to grab the
opportunities posed by the marketing environment along with making the most efficient
usage of resources along with being effective in gaining market image (Gordon, 2011).
The capability of Tommy Hilfiger could be described as its ability to design special
products as through design staff in Amsterdam designing new products and luxury
items for the European markets to grab the upscale fashion customers in France and
Italy. Thus the human resource capabilities of Tommy Hilfiger are described in terms of
its new product design as per target customers along with effective use of human
resources in implementation while the financial capabilities refer to its availability of
funds for deploying new markets in world as Europe. This helped the Tommy Hilfiger for
making use of innovative technology and design of European customer needs and thus
gaining market shares there thus helping future marketing activities in Europe after US
(Tedlow et al, 2014).

 Techniques for organization auditing and external factors affecting

marketing
The auditing in any organization including Tommy Hilfiger includes a deeper
understanding of the internal and external factors that have a bearing on the
organization functions and capabilities (Moore et al, 2008). The external environment of
the organization s studied using many tools including PESTEL analysis which
corresponds to the study of the political factors in the country; economy of the nation
including taxation, monetary policies, availability of funds, interest rates, etc; social
aspects as including the society and culture; technological factors as including level of
the innovations in industry and nation; environmental factors as including the
geography, pollution, climate, etc; legal factors as including the laws and regulations
along with government initiatives, etc (Tedlow et al, 2014). The internal environment is
studied through analysis of company mission, strategies, vision, mission along with use
of tool like SWOT analysis which includes the internal strengths and weaknesses of the
company while also looking for the opportunity and threat that underlie its environment
and may impact Tommy Hilfiger’s future.

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Organization auditing and external factors affecting

marketing
SWOT ANALYSIS:

 Strengths-

 The brand is recognized throughout the world (Moore et al, 2008)

 Good distribution network as operating in more than 90 countries with around
1000 stores around the world
 Celebrity endorsements helping in generation of good brand image
 Popularity of the established American designs of Tommy Hilfiger

 Weaknesses:

 The cost for the maintenance f the brand is high (Gordon, 2011)
 Competition for the well established brands like Nike, Lee, etc

 Opportunities:

 Design of innovative products in luxury and other segments

 Large untapped potential in emerging nations (Wilkie et al, 2015)
 New product lines and sub-brands under Tommy Hilfiger

 Threats:

 The frequent changes in the fashion trends (Tedlow et al, 2014)

 Rising competition from international brands
 Changes in customer preferences as per the geographies and nations
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PESTEL ANALYSIS:

Political factors- This includes the political stability and the regulations in the
country including power of the politicians in influencing business activities and
the form of government as democracy, etc.

Economic factors- Includes the economy as developed in case of Europe

including taxation policy, interest rates prevailing to avail funds for business
operations as for Tommy Hilfiger investors, etc (Tedlow et al, 2014)

Social factors- The society and the culture in the country impacts the business
organization as it must supply products and services as per the characteristics of
the target markets as Tommy Hilfiger did in case of European fashion upscale
society especially at France and Italy by designing new products.

Technological factors- It includes the level of technological advancements in

the country and industry (Moore et al, 2008).

Environmental factors- The country’s climate, geography and the

overall marketing environment is important consideration as for Tommy Hilfiger
must design warm sweaters and jackets in case of cool regions like US which
may not be same for hot regions as in Arab nations.

Legal Factors-This includes the laws and the legal framework impacting the
organization as including purchases, investments in the country, etc. Flexible
labor regulations will help Tommy Hilfiger in gaining easy labor and it must abide
by all the laws in the country it operates (Gordon, 2011).
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Main barriers to marketing planning

 Main barriers
Any organization including Tommy Hilfiger needs a strong planning of its marketing
initiatives in order to gain success and loyal customer base. In determining the success
of the products of the organization like Tommy Hilfiger the marketing planning lays
important role as deciding fro celebrity endorsement strategy in advertising and
promotions (Wilkie et al, 2015). Though the marketing planning is a very essential part
of any organization but there are certain barriers to this marketing planning that impacts
the organizations like Tommy Hilfiger as:

 Lack of the capability of the stakeholders including the top management to take
the challenges and incorporate changes in order to reap the benefits of the
opportunities. Also the organization culture may be such as to resist any changes
thus playing a barrier to effective marketing planning as was not case with
Tommy Hilfiger.
 Lack of the skills and expertise required for the planning may also act as a barrier
in effective design of marketing plan (Tedlow et al, 2014)
 Lack of cooperation between the management and the other stakeholders
 A dominant firm like Tommy Hilfiger may become overconfident with solving the
issues in the organization environment thus impacting effectiveness of the
marketing planning

 How organizations can overcome these barriers

The organizations like Tommy Hilfiger may overcome these barriers as
through:

 Through auditing of the environmental factors (Moore et al, 2008)

 Involving in situation or SWOT analysis practice in organization
 Design of organization structure around the marketing function
 Development of the skills and attitudes to accommodate changing marketing
environment in marketing planning (Wilkie et al, 2015)
 Avoiding over confidence in planning and decision making as Tommy Hilfiger is a
leader in the industry
 Effective design and implementation of the strategies through co-operation
among the stakeholders (Tedlow et al, 2014)
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Formulate a marketing plan

 Marketing plan
The plan for the new product range of Tommy Hilfiger in Dubai would be as
follows:

 Goal- As Tommy Hilfiger is representing the cool American personality with the
youthful spirit thus it plans to launch a new product ‘Tommy Girl X’ in Dubai to
represent independent modern women with spirit and youthfulness. This range
will comprise various products including perfume, cologne and handbags.
 Situational analysis- Tommy Hilfiger had a good image and name in the top
designers around the world and has a long history of providing lifestyle goods to
meet the changing market needs. Dubai is world shopping destination and has
good prospects for Tommy.

 Marketing strategy –

 Product-Range will include various women oriented products like perfumes,

bags, etc
 Price-Will be high as products will be designed for high end users.
 Place- As Dubai is world famous shopping destination thus Tommy Hilfiger will
work on placing the new product and promoting Tommy Girl X range as through
store in Dubai Mall.
 Promotions- Including displays in Carrefour, Ibn Batuta Mall, etc. Also it will
work on sales promotion to attract more customers to its stores as putting 20%
on weekends.
 Competitors- Wrangler, Lee, Levi, Adidas, Nike and many other fashion upscale
brands
 Customers- The customer to this range of Tommy Hilfiger would be mostly
women in the higher sections of the society in Dubai who love being independent
and youthful and will mostly include women in 20-40 years age groups.
 Performance measurement- As Tommy Hilfiger has many branded competitors
at Dubai thus it will measure self performance through revenues along with the
market shares at Dubai
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 Marketing planning for strategic planning process

The strategic planning is related with the basic decision on the company mission, vision
and the overall objectives of the organization (Gordon, 2011). The marketing plan is
derived from the overall objectives of the organization as in Tommy Hilfiger and helps in
measurement of the success of the company in terms of the attainment of the marketing
and overall objectives. Marketing planning helps in analyzing the potential customers
and the demand in the target markets along with analysis of the taste and preferences
of the customers as done by Tommy Hilfiger in case of its entry in Europe thus leading
to design of new range of sweaters, leather products, slim look jeans, etc. Marketing
planning helped Tommy Hilfiger in realization of target market shares in Europe and
other parts through placing focus on customers and their expectations which changes
often in fashion industry. Also marketing planning helps Tommy Hilfiger in analysis of
the competitors as including Nike, Lee, Levi, etc in Europe and other markets across the
world and effective strategic planning as through BCG matrix and Porter five forces
analysis in order to beat the competition while also gaining competitive advantage for
Tommy Hilfiger as through innovativeness in design (Tedlow et al, 2014).

Techniques for new product development

The new product development as in case of Tommy Hilfiger is a necessary function in
order to continuously meet the needs of style and fashion conscious customers in world
markets (Kotler et al, 2012). The various techniques involved here are:

 Experimentation- This involves the generation of the various product ideas as

done at Tommy which is followed by Concept testing and development in later
stages. The experimentation helps in design and development of new products
based on the needs and wishes of the target markets as Dubai thus helping
Tommy in ensuring keeping up with the fashion trends in the target markets
(Moore et al, 2008).

 Test marketing- This involves the marketing of the new products build on
different ideas on small areas of the target customer groups in order to analyze
the response of the customer in the target markets as Dubai and this helps in
understanding the overall success rates of the product if they are launched with
full marketing efforts on the bigger or country wide or global levels (Gordon,
2011).  This technique also help the company as Tommy Hilfiger in making
 changes in potential new products based on feedback from the customers
selected for test marketing analysis.

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Recommendations for pricing, distribution and

communication
For the launch of new range of products of Tommy Hilfiger at Dubai, the
recommendations would be as follows:

 Pricing- As the Tommy Hilfiger places emphasis on quality of products thus the
prices will be high and also the range will be targeted on the high end clients,
which are numerous at Dubai including high per-capita income.
 Distribution- As Dubai is world famous shopping destination thus Tommy
Hilfiger will work on placing the new product and promoting Tommy Girl X range
as through store in Dubai Mall. Also it will have shelves at Carrefour and other
prime malls of Dubai.
 Communications or promotions- The promotions will include fashion
magazines along with outdoor publicity while also including displays in Carrefour,
Ibn Batuta Mall, etc. Also it will work on sales promotion to attract more
customers to its stores as putting 20% on weekends. The digital media including
television advertisements will also be considered important for Tommy Hilfiger.

Factors affecting effective implementation of marketing plan

There are certain factors that have impact on the proper and fruitful
implementation of the good market plans as:

 Skills and expertise of the management to develop changes in the marketing

plans as per changes in the outside environment which keeps changing
 Lack of the synergy and the cooperation may affect the implementation of the
marketing plan (Moore et al, 2008)
 Insufficient budgets for implementation of plans (Marilyn, 2007)
 Communication gaps among the parties involved in implementation of marketing
plan
 If some parts or whole of the plan violates the law then it cannot be implemented
by government opposition (Tedlow et al, 2014)
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Understand ethical issues in marketing

 Ethical issues influencing marketing

Code of ethics in the business implies the decision making and the behaviors in the
organization to be based on certain desired or acceptable guidelines (Kotler et al,
2012). While practicing the marketing strategies and the activities, the marketers must
be fair and just in behaviors including advertising and does not make fool out of the
customers and thus the moral principles must be incorporated in to marketing (Gordon,
2011). Thus the organization like Tommy Hilfiger must be planning the marketing not
just in order to fulfill the needs and expectations of the customer but practicing ethics in
marketing. This will help the customers to develop a trust and good attitude towards the
brand thus the marketing plan must be based on ethical conduct in order to generate
long term relationships (Christopher, 2010). While the unethical conduct of the
marketers may reap bad image, customer disloyalty and legal suites against the
company thus making it fail completely.

 Organization responds to ethical issues

The customers may not wish to make future purchases from the organizations that
make false claims through advertisements, where product performance is low, provide
impulse in customers to purchase the product by giving fake information, etc (Tedlow et
al, 2014). The management of Tommy Hilfiger is concerned about the ethical practices
in whole organization including the marketing function thus it provides Code of Conduct
while also providing training and relevant information to its employees to make ethical
decisions and take care of the rights and benefits of the customers and other
stakeholders like suppliers and investors. Tommy Hilfiger had developed a socially
responsible image as through promoting social causes like Breast International and the
organization culture towards the ethical practices in the organization. The company
involves in legal suits against the employees or other stakeholders following the
unethical behaviors in organization. This helps Tommy Hilfiger to maintain its image in
minds of the customers as providing reasonable goods with ethical advertising (Kotler et
al, 2012).
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 Consumer ethics and its impacts on marketing planning

A ethical consumer is one who in their shopping behaviors make decisions as being
concerned towards the society, environment, animals and the entire nature and thus
prefers to buy the products from those brands which ensures all such considerations in
their operations (Gordon, 2011). The ethical consumer will not involve in purchase of
the goods that are prohibited by law or harms the nature or society. Tommy Hilfiger is
concerned about the rising awareness and ethics in the consumers around the world
and thus in its marketing planning it incorporates promoting social causes like child
education and Breast International campaign to develop socially responsible image of
Tommy Hilfiger in minds of target customers (Phatak et al, 2009). Also Tommy Hilfiger
has a policy of getting raw materials from suppliers practicing sustainability and are
responsible towards the environment (Tedlow et al, 2014).

Conclusion
Tommy Hilfiger is well established brand worldwide and the marketing planning is an
essential part of its functioning. This helps the organization auditing as through the
analysis of the internal and the external factors that have a bearing on the organization.
There are certain barriers to marketing planning like the attitudes and the cooperation
amongst the employees or the top management which Tommy Hilfiger must overcome
to gain over business strategy. New product development is important for Tommy
Hilfiger as it operates in lifestyle segment where the rend changes frequently. Tommy
Hilfiger must continue to make products as per the research on the consumer needs,
tastes and preferences to keep abreast of competitors like Nike, Wrangler, etc (Tedlow
et al, 2014). Based on the study it is quite evident that how important is the ethical
decision making and practices for the marketers including Tommy Hilfiger as not making
use of children in advertising and making false claims about product performance
making the customers to purchase instantly.
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