Marketing Implementation Plan for New Home Security Product

1. Executive Summary

With the ever increasing ratio of crime in the UK and all around the world, an unprotected property has become extremely vulnerable, day or night. This is why, in the presence of current environment it is of utmost importance to keep your loved ones safe at home by protecting it with a professional burglar, fire and intruder alarm system.

After more than 40 years of success in the current business line, it has been thought that the Weather Seal Holdings (Weather Seal) has now got the right strength to diversify its business. Thereby, I have seen an opportunity to introduce Home Security System as a new product for company to be marketed & sold at competitive cost to its existing and new customers through its branch at Romford, Essex (UK). As a result of kind approval by the company’s branch regional manager and area managers (project sponsors), I have fascinated an opportunity to develop a project report regarding introduction and marketing plan of this new product for company. Time period allocated/authorized by Weather Seal branch management for the completion of project work is Six Weeks. The final project report will be submitted to the said project sponsors at Romford Branch (UK) for final vetting and valuation. It would then be on the excretion of branch management to send the report to company head office at Cheshire (UK).

This project experience could give me a personal learning experience of how to introduce new products to companies. Hoping this project report would gain necessary attention of Weather Seal regarding launch of new product in marketplace and thereby creating cutthroat competition for companies like ADT, Chubb securities etc.

The report will be important for the company to launch the fascinating new product among its product range enabling it to not only to diversify its business line but also generate extra revenue in the near future.

Findings will be discovered through the data provided by the company, through company risk assessment form to be completed by customers, by acquiring few statements about the company performance from selected customers and assessing home security and crime survey reports being published by the institutions like Home Office (UK), The British Crime Survey etc. These findings will help the company in launching the new product at right levels.

The strategic marketing implementation plan will be proposed in order to present important factors of success in future such as marketing budgets, marketing tactics and advertising options. Environmental analysis will be presented in order to critically analyze the marketing aspects by using the tools such as SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces Model etc., will help in building the marketing strategies and objectives by highlighting the factors such as Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Promotion & Place), Target Audiences and examining all possible strategic options including financial projections.

The conclusion and recommendation about the new product will be presented in terms of product usefulness for the customers, profit generations, customer satisfaction and different sort of tactics being recommended to increase sales in future.

2. Introduction To The Business

Weather Seal Holdings (Weather Seal) has been the Britain’s largest privately owned manufacturer installer of PVC-u replacement windows, doors, rooflines and conservatoires. The company was founded in 1968 under the prestigious mono of “The Pride of the Nation”.

Since its foundation, huge commercial and public projects has tested company’s technology from time to time and more than a million domestic customers are witness to weather Seal’s craftsmanship. The company continues to grow and in a period of 14 years i-e. From 1995 to 2009, Weather Seal has become a £75.0 Million company. The company is now renowned as an award winning service provider to its customers. The product qualities are of highest possible standards and second to noe.. The head office of the company is located at the heart of the country on the M6 motorway network at Winsford – Cheshire (UK). The company has 21 local branches servicing the UK and 07 Installation Depots all around the country. Weather Seal has got over 1000 trained personnel nationwide and 24 hour customer service response. Local staff includes:

• Designers
• Surveyors
• Fitters
• Service and Installation Engineers
• Administrators

The company rightly claims that with Weather Seal the customers are dealing with the industry No. 1 as it has achieved every industry standard. Among its competitors like Euro Glazing, Everest Group etc, Weather Seal provides 10 year Platinum Guarantee for all of its products. This is the only guarantee worth having is issued by the company who design, manufacture and install the entire product range themselves.

Weather Seal wants to introduce a sophisticated and state of an art Home Security System all around the UK market place. As an Initial phase, company wants to utilize the services of its Romford branch in this regard, which is located in the South region of the company.

2.1 Introduction To The Branch Management

As project work has been conducted under the supervision and guidance of Romford branch management and that is the premises where the final project report would be submitted. Therefore, it is thought to describe the branch management structure as follows:

Owners

Mr. Ian Blackhurst and Mr. Brian Kennedy

Group Head – Marketing & Sales

Mr. Tony Reilly

Director Sales & Marketing (South)

Mr. Mushtaq Zaman

Divisional Manager (South)

Mr. Kevin Brookman

Romford Branch Regional Manager (South)

Mr. Muhammad Ovais Hafeez

Romford Branch Area Manager (South)

Mr. Mudassar Nawaz Khan

2.2 Aims and Objectives

Aims

The aim of this project report is to introduce the desired state of an art Home Security System as a new product to Weather Seal Holdings and also present an appropriate marketing implementation plan.

Objectives

The essential objectives of this report are:

• Present the complete description of the new product and propose the most appropriate manufacturing partner in order to make the new business a successful operation of revenue generation in future.
• Identify the target audience & assess the customer thinking about the company and new product enabling the company to attain the better customer range for the new product.
• To present the appropriate marketing strategy by using tools such as environmental analysis, marketing mix and financial projections for the new product.

2.3 Name of the New Product

The name of the sophisticated home security system (new product) will be PowerMax+ – Wireless Alarm Control Home Security System (PAS)

2.4 Product Overview

The PowerMax+ (PAS) is the latest, advanced and state of an art wireless alarm control home security system that provides protection against burglary, fire and tampering. In addition, it can be used to control lights and electrical appliances within the customer household and/or to monitor the activity of elder or disabled people left at home. Status information is presented visually and verbally, and in most cases a recorded voice prompts customer to take correct action.

The PowerMax+ is governed by a control panel designed to collect data from various sensors that are strategically located within and along the perimeter of the protected site.

In the disarmed state, the system provides the customer with visual and verbal status information, and initiates an alarm if smoke is detected or upon disturbance in a 24-hour zone (a zone which is active 24-hours a day).

In the armed state, the system initiates an alarm upon detection of disturbance in any one of the armed zones.

Customer will need a 4-digit security code to master the system, and he/she can authorize 07 other persons to use the system by providing them with their own security codes. Moreover, customer can obtain up to 08 multi-function key-ring transmitters that will allow the customer and other users to control major functions without approaching the control panel.

2.5 Key Product Features

PAS will offer the customers a personal security guard watching customer’s family and home 24 hours a day seven days a week 52 weeks a year. The Key features are:

• Latest technology
• Invisible two beams, thermal velocimatic system
• Motion sensor
• Wireless (no messy installation)
• Smoke alarm (optional)
• Flood alarm (optional)
• Up to 04 members of family / friends as contacts via text, land line or pager
• Latch key for kids
• Access remotely (if away from home) via landline or mobile
• Can connect up to 15 different electrical appliances (computer, lights etc) with additional X-10 units
• Back up battery if electricity goes down
• Pet friendly
• Panic button (elderly) wrist, pocket etc
• Fire button
• Save on the insurance policy
• Secured by design (police approved)
• Security guard access to premises in case of no contact with alarm
• Complete peace of mind
• Leave voice message for the family
• Codes for false alarm and under duress

2.7 Proposed Partner Company for New Product Business

Honeywell Security and Communications will be the partner of Weather Seal in the manufacturing of PAS and cater off the customer needs from alarm response centre.

This will be the perfect partnership for UK customers security needs. Weather Seal Holdings and Honeywell Security and Communications will jointly deliver a winning combination of expertise in selected home security system, and a proven track record of quality and a firm commitment to their customers.

Honeywell Security and Communications is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of security systems, with 30 million security systems installed. Weather Seal is one of the UK’s leading home improvement companies with a strong heritage in making people’s homes more stylish, energy efficient and secure. Security focused, the fusion of two well-known names in the UK will eventually give their customers the peace of mind that their home security will be in the safe hands.

Why Weather Seal

With a UK wide sales, installation and service network, customers can be safe in the knowledge that they are putting their trust in a reputable business that is here to stay. The Weather Seal name and brand synonymous with the home improvement market for in excess of 40 years and have worked on more than 200,000 people’s homes. The company started out in the business with a clear focus on providing the products that would make its customers’ houses warmer, safer, more efficient and a great place to live. The security elements of Weather Seal doors and windows are something that company has always taken really seriously. With this as central to company’s approach and off course through continual research and development, Weather Seal products have undoubtedly set new heights in security with style in relevant industry.

Why Honeywell

Part of a global technology and manufacturing leader with revenues in excess of $30 billion, Honeywell Security and Communications has been designing and manufacturing security systems since 1923. With expertise in every area of security, the company provides advanced security solutions for residential and commercial applications. Honeywell works closely with professional security installers and alarm monitoring providers to ensure our products are designed and manufactured with the flexibility to be tailored to each individual customer’s security needs. Be it private homes or global corporations, around I million customers trust their security to the company each year. Designed for customer convenience, Honeywell intruder alarm systems like PowerMax+ have a wide range of user-friendly features gives the customer’s peace of mind that their property is secured, with round the clock monitoring in the hands of professionals.

2.8 Importance of the Topic

• This is an interesting project studies as this will offer an opportunity to the renowned company like Weather Seal to introduce a diversified new product in the market place thus enhancing its business line.
• Companies are becoming more global day by day and to be able to have a critical insight of the marketing strategies and implementation plan of a new Home Security System product of successful UK Company can be an important reference when conducting other marketing activities.
• This project study will offer an opportunity to Weather Seal to create massive partnership with globally recognized company like Honeywell in order to successfully run its new product in UK market place. As a result of this partnership, Weather Seal could make a global presence with the help of Honeywell and thereby giving more competition threat to its competitors.
• As a part of research, risk assessment questionnaire has been presented to the customers to be filled out by them in direct interaction with them. The response from customers would enable Weather Seal to better understand the customer’s security urgency level.
• The project studies helps researcher in understanding how to introduce new product by making the appropriate marking strategy and provides an opportunity to look into insight of the Weather Seal operational activities.

3. Literature Review

Most break-ins are opportunistic, not planned and with statistics revealing that burglaries are on the rise day by day not only in the UK but globally, thereby, now is the time for the consumers to take next step in protecting their homes and thus their loved ones too.

Summarized important facts that evoked Weather Seal to work on the idea of introducing PowerMax+ – Wireless Alarm Control Home Security System as a new business product and researcher to introduce this new product to the company are as follows:

• Households with no security measures in place are 10 times more likely to be burgled than those with such simple security measures.
• Results from the British Crime Survey demonstrated that having security measures in place was strongly associated with lower level of victimization.
• Government officials predict that the economic slow down will lead to “upward pressure” on levels of property crime.
• As property crime increases, insurers demand better security to stem losses.
• 1.7 million burglaries were reported to police in England and Wales during 2007/2008.
• Home burglaries recorded by the police have risen by 4%, the largest rise in seven years for the period July-September 2008.

On the basis of these facts and figures and data already revealed the research has been made via internet to explore the best possible system in order to develop the desired new product for the Weather Seal. As a result of internet research, Stage-Gate System of product development has been shortlisted.

STAGE-GATE – THE ROADMAP FOR NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The need for lean, rapid and profitable new product development has never been greater. Product life cycles are shorter, competition is more intense and customers are more demanding. Companies that fail to innovate face a grim future. The problem is that winning with new products is not easy. An estimated 46% of the resources that companies devote to the conception, development and launch of new products go to projects that do not succeed – they fail in the marketplace or never make it to market.

Leading companies have overhauled their product innovation processes, incorporating the critical success factors discovered through best practice research, in the form of a Stage-Gate new product development process. According to several independent research studies (i.e. Product Development & Management Association, AMR Research, Booz-Allen Hamilton, etc.) between 70-85% of leading U.S. companies now use Stage-Gate to drive new products to market.

A Stage-Gate System is a conceptual and operational road map for moving a new-product project from idea to launch. Stage-Gate divides the effort into distinct stages separated by management decision gates (gatekeeping). Cross-functional teams must successfully complete a prescribed set of related cross-functional activities in each stage prior to obtaining management approval to proceed to the next stage of product development.

How Does the Stage-Gate^®

Product innovation begins with an idea and ends with the successful launch of a new product. The steps between these points can be viewed as a dynamic process. Stage-Gate divides this process into a series of activities (stages) and decision points (gates).

Stages are where the action occurs. The players on the project team undertake key activities to gather information needed to advance the project to the next gate or decision point. Stages are cross-functional (there is no research and development or marketing stage) and each activity is undertaken in parallel to enhance speed to market. To manage risk, the parallel activities in a certain stage must be designed to gather vital information – technical, market, financial, operations – in order to drive down the technical and business risks. Each stage costs more than the preceding one, resulting in incremental commitments. As uncertainties decrease, expenditures are allowed to rise and risk is managed.

In addition to the discover stage, there are five key stages:

Stages

The structure of each stage is similar:

Activities: The work the project leader and the team must undertake based upon their project plan.

Integrated analysis: The project leader and team’s integrated analysis of the results of all of the functional activities, derived through cross-functional interaction.

Deliverables: The presentation of the results of the integrated analysis, which must be completed by the team for submission to the gate.

Preceding each stage is a decision point or gate which serves as a Go/Kill and prioritization decision point. Gates are where mediocre projects are culled out and resources are allocated to the best projects. Gates deal with three quality issues: quality of execution; business rationale; and the quality of the action plan.

Gates

The structure of each gate is similar:

Deliverables: Inputs into the gate review – what the project leader and team deliver to the meeting. These are defined in advance and are the results of actions from the preceding stage. A standard menu of deliverables is specified for each gate.

Criteria: What the project is judged against in order to make the go/kill and prioritization decisions. These criteria are usually organized into a scorecard and include both financial and qualitative criteria.

Outputs: Results of the gate review. Gates must have clearly articulated outputs including: a decision (go/kill/hold/recycle) and a path forward (approved project plan, date and deliverables for the next gate agreed upon).

What are the benefits of using Stage-Gate^®?

The Stage-Gate Product Innovation system has been referred to as the single most important discovery in product innovation – empowering almost 85% of all North American companies to achieve improved returns on their product development dollars and to achieve new growth.

When implemented properly, Stage-Gate delivers tremendous impact:

• Accelerates speed-to-market
• Increases likelihood of product success
• Introduces discipline into an ordinarily chaotic process
• Reduces re-work and other forms of waste
• Improves focus via gates where poor projects are killed
• Achieves efficient and effective allocation of scarce resources
• Ensures a complete process – no critical steps are omitted

The results:

A more effective, efficient, faster process that improves the company’s (in this case Weather Seal) product innovation results.

4. Cost Incurred on Facilities and Resources Utilized

Following are some of the items and their approximate costs that were required for the conduction of project work.

5. Sources and Methods

In order to answer the key aspects of the project studies i.e. how to introduce new product for the company and how to prepare the marketing plan, secondary and primary research will be collected. Both types of research are essential in this project work as they offer crucial results regarding finalization of project report. Furthermore, qualitative data has been collected instead of quantitative data, this is because the available time was not enough to collect and analyze a wide range of data.

Secondary Research

The secondary research consists of “reanalysing data that have already been collected for some other purpose” (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2003: 188). In this project studies, we will be interested in information about this national level company overall, the importance and impression of the company in the marketplace and among its customers prior to the launch of new product and off course the utmost important strategic marketing issues affiliated with it. One of the main books used for this is Principles of Marketing (Kotler et al, 2005). These sorts of usage create the part of theoretical frame.

The information needed to conduct the project will be collected through the use of external sources of secondary data such as published books and online articles and survey reports. However, the main part of the research focuses on the introduction of new product for the company. In order to collect all the necessary information the researcher will gather internal sources of secondary research. This information includes corporate documentation such as company reports and earlier marketing plans which are available due to solid professional relationship of the researcher with the branch management. The internal sources of secondary research will be backed-up by other external sources such as published general statistics and industry statistics, which have been collected through the use of the internet. Some of the most relevant information collected from online sources regarding UK burglary, fire and child abductions incidents and statistics will be presented in Appendix. This information will be essential to collect and analyzed in order to make the company enable to assess the urgency of new home security system product among the UK citizens.

Although secondary research has a number of advantages such as the fact that it is readily available, it saves money and it is not time consuming it also has some disadvantages. In order to use secondary data effectively it is important to make sure that the data is relevant to the specific issue addressed and that it has been classified in a way that is consistent with the study at hand. This consists in making sure that such things as variables and measurements are “in line” with those used in the investigation. It is also important to make sure the data is accurate and that it comes from the original source and not an intermediate or third-hand report (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2002).

Primary Research

The secondary research conducted, will be further backed up, by some primary research. This is “data gathered and assembled specifically for the project at hand” (Zikmund, 1994: 40).

5.2.1 Security Risk Assessment Check Questionnaire

The Weather Seal will create Security risk assessment check questionnaire and researcher will carry the assessment visits with company assessor to observe and record the individual customer needs for statistical purposes. The said questionnaire will be closed end and enable the company and researcher to approve or disapprove the installation of PowerMax+ – Wireless Alarm Control Home Security System at the premises. This will also enable the company to estimate the correct number of new product to be remained in stock. The Security risk assessment check questionnaire will be presented in the Appendix.

Customer Survey Questionnaire

As business can only run on the basis of customers. Therefore, it is critically important for Weather Seal to explore the customer views about the company and its new product. A sample close end survey questionnaire will be presented to 50 selected customers along with Security risk assessment check questionnaire to be directly filled by the customers during our visit at their premises. The responses against the survey questionnaire would enable the company to assess the attitude of customers towards the company and its new product.

5.2.3 Interviews

No specific interviews will be conducted. This is due to the already available massive customer pool of the company all around the UK. However, the researched has suggested the company to publish the comments of few prestigious customers of the company about its performance and customer support and services. These comments will be published in the company new product brochure for the product promotional purposes. Few customer comments will be presented in Appendix.

Data Analysis and Interpretations

After conducting both the primary and secondary in depth researches, it has become possible to present the key findings and data analysis both in terms of figures and percentages.

Data Analysis -Secondary Research

British Crime Figures

As a result of this type of research, the following key findings have been revealed relating to British crime figures:

• A home is burgled in UK every 20 seconds.
• There were 943,000 reported domestic burglaries in year 2007-2008.
• 1 in 30 homes were affected by at least one domestic burglar.
• Property crime accounts for 78% of all reported crime.
• A house with no security is 7 times more likely to have an attempted burglary.
• 50% of homeowners were at home when the burglary took place.
• Violence was used in 55% of those cases.
• Only 28% of homeowners have a security alarm on their property.
• 2 out of 10 homes still need a smoke alarm.
• An unexpected 25% increase in personal thefts and a 4% rise in domestic burglaries in the official quarterly crime figures published on 23^rd April 2009.
• The number of child abductions was soared by 45% as at 2004-2005.

All those facts and figures will help researcher and Weather Seal to establish a comprehensive marketing strategy for PowerMax+ - Wireless Alarm Control Home Security System.

Data Analysis - Primary Research

The sample customer survey questionnaire has played an important part in introducing the home security system by the company. The questionnaire comprises of 06 questions to be directly filled by respondents. Each question is related to the specific aspect either about the company or the new product. Each question has got the special attributes to be acceptable or non acceptable by the customers. On the basis of acceptable ratios, we can consider the introduction of new product as a successful launch.

Activity Timescale Sheet

Activity

$description = "This Management report will look at the Recruitment Processes with an NHS Acute Trust and identify if E recruitment can help with the difficulties experienced in the Trust. Alongside a literature review of Recruitment difficulties,"; March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

Week commencing

2

9

16

23

30

6

13

20

27

6

13

20

27

Project Proposal (Draft)

X

Project Proposal (Final

X

Meetings with Section Manager/Project Sponsor on Research Design

X

X

Survey Distribution

X

X

Presentations/finalization of Research Design to Project Sponsor

X

X

Updates to Project Sponsor & Closure on Data Collection

X

X

X

Data Analysis/Data Interpretations/Graphical Representations

X

X

X

Conclusion, Recommendations & Proposed Action Plans

X

X

Bibliography & Appendices

X

Document Compilation/Proof Reading/Printing

X

Project Report Submission

X

Presentation

X

Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J., Armstrong, G., (2005). Principles of Marketing. 4^th ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall.