Marketing the GPS Business

MKT/431
January 14, 2013

Marketing the GPS Business In marketing a business of any kind first a company or individual business owner selects a service or product they will endorse. With choosing the product, such as the GPS as Team D has chosen a pricing strategy is chosen such as competitive with others already in the market. Developing a relationship with marketing, advertising, and promotions is necessary for a successful business also the technology in marketing the GPS.

Distribution Channel An appropriate distribution channel for the GPS unit would be to sell the units wholesale to one or more retail outlets, such as Best Buy (Best Buy, 2013) or Frys (Frys.com). Selling the units directly to the national retailers on a mass scale will enable the company to keep the product pricing steady from one region or location to the next. The company will likely still have to handle the logistics of delivering the units to each individual store location across the nation, or internationally, if possible, unless the retail businesses that will be selling the units to the consumers have central warehouses for his or her own distribution.

Pricing An effective pricing strategy for the GPS unit would be to sell them wholesale to the retailers for an amount slightly lower than the suggested retail price, which should be between $99 and $129. So the idea is to sell the units to retailers at around $80 to $110. Whereas the company will be making a nice profit at that price over the low cost of production per unit, the wholesale cost to the retailers will also permits them to make a profit as well. Retailers do not want to sell a product that they will not be able to make a profit on. If the retailers have to pay too close to the suggested retail price for the products. The retailer would be forced to mark the prices up higher than the suggested retail price to make a profit.

Relationship Marketing It is important to determine the level of relationship marketing that would be appropriate for the NAVSTAR GPS System (Miltitlary, 2006). The level best is relationship marketing. This is defined as a form of marketing, which leans toward customer retention and satisfaction, instead of a major focus on sales transactions. Relationship marketing is different from other forms of marketing because it recognizes the long-term value of customer relationships. Trust is largest part in building long and lasting relations with customers who purchase the NAVSTAR GPS System in person and online. Trust will be built both online and in stores where the NAVSTAR can be purchased. Team D’s website will be user-friendly, professional, trustworthy, and an inviting source of information. It will include also include transactional assurances, safety, and consensus of peers to ensure a place where customer can feel good. This will help Team D’s customers to become trusting shoppers that in turn leads to loyal customers. When prospect and future customers begin they, will be able to go to an inviting and informative website. The website will be very user-friendly with live online help to answer any questions if a person is confused. It will have a professional design, which includes easy understanding of the NAVSTAR and the company. The site will be well organized. Transactions on our website will be streamlined and extremely secure. There will be communication on the website that states how secure our payment information. Such communication will state that NAVSTAR takes the current security tactics, secured payment, and protection policies to offer the best safeguard online transactions. NAVSTAR will also brand to achieve trust and authority in the marketplace. Prospects may have heard about the product, but the company will also have reputable current customers leave testimonials of the NAVSTAR. By listing what our loyal customers are experiencing NAVSTAR will encourage websites prospects and trust the company.

Advertising and Promotion
The strategy for the new GPS would be to promote the device to local businesses that could utilize a GPS or can help spread awareness of the availability; such as offering a trial of the device on a few top-model vehicles at a dealership. The marketing plan would be to effectively sell the dealership on the benefits of the device to their customers.
Another form of promoting the GPS would be to create short videos of the GPS system and post them on YouTube and share the link on appropriate message boards and blogs. Spreading the news can also be done utilizing social media portals such as Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. GPS World (GPSworld.com) would also be another method of advertising that could be utilized.
Taking part in conference events where the GPS can be displayed and tried by customers would be another form of exposure. By registering for a booth at GPS wires less conference event (GPSwireless) would give the company an opportunity to offer a simulation of the product.
Advertising would be done through the company’s website and placing ads in the local paper and large banners posted on intersections in order to raise awareness of the new product and its features.
Offering customers discounts on the newly released GPS system, it would help to introduce the product by competing with other similar GPS products on the market in terms of pricing.

Best Uses for Technology It is important to identify the best uses for technology in terms of marketing for the NAVSTAR GPS System. Our team business goal is to reach a large target market through the use of technology to meet the needs of GPS users. NAVSTAR is a technology business with the website as the main source to purchase the product. With this much of Team D’s communication to prospect and customers will take place. It will be important to make sure the marketing message is delivered in the most efficient way. The company will reach out to prospects and customers to build relationships with those on social media sources. The media sources will include facebook, media blogs, twitter, and any others to gain a competitive advantage. E-mail will also be used as a medium to get information out about product and company. Email will include pictures, incentives, future promotions, and links to the website for more details. The target groups for the NAVSTAR include a large range of age groups. Other ways to reach target markets is through technologies publications. These publications will also extend out to their websites as well as print advertising. In conclusion Team D has chosen to use companies such as Best Buy and Fry’s as distribution centers for the Navistar GPS system. Team D’s pricing is relatively low to the distributers. The relationship with our disturber’s relies on customer retention and satisfaction rather than the ticket price. Team D’s website presence is user-friendly, professional, trustworthy, and an inviting source of information. The advertising that Team D uses is Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking cites to invite the consumers to acquaint themselves with Navistar.

References
Best Buy. (2013). Retrieved January 13, 2013, from Best Buy GPS: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&st=gps+navigation
Frys.com. (n.d.). Portable GPS naviagtion . Retrieved January 13, 2013, from Frys Elctronics: http://www.frys.com/catreq/-19078
GPS Wireless. (2013). Retrieved January 14, 2013, from GPS Wireless 2012 http://www.gps-wireless.com/

GPS World. (2013). Retrieved January 14, 2013 from GPS World http://www.gpsworld.com/

Miltary. (2006, January 17). Retrieved January 13, 2013, from Navstar Global Positioning System: http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/nav/gps.htm