Marketing Plan For Social Enterprise Assessment Answer

The organization has about 200 stores available in the different places in Australia. The operation of Salvo stores are retail business, recycling goods and relying on the charity of the people.    The main target of the organization is those people who have no education because of insufficient resources, poor health, no home, and who feel powerless in the society. By serving them, the organization is improving its capabilities and seeking opportunities for the growth. The stores of Salvation Army of Australia are in need of an internal evaluation, market analysis, and an environmental analysis to determine how they will improve upon their main objectives. Assessing the internal and external factors of the organization was essential to study and was conducted through a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis and a comparative analysis.

Mission: The mission of the Social Enterprise Salvation Army is to meet the human needs without any unfairness. The message is based on the Bible. The organization provides quality of resources in its services.

Vision: The vision of the Social Enterprise Salvation Army is to identify and develop the leaders and contribute to increase the self support of human beings. The aim of the Social Enterprise Salvation Army is to increase and innovation in the services of the welfare of the society (Salvation Army, 2016).

Historical development

The organization Social Enterprise Salvation Army was established in 1865 by the Methodist minister named William Booth. The organization was started its journey as the Christian Revival Society. The founder the organization was a social worker and he gave up his comfort for the welfare of the society. He decided to help those people who were poor, homeless, hungry and insolvent in the society. He wanted that the people who are poor and homeless, they came to church and pray with others equally. But soon he realized that it would not work and then he developed a mission to found a church especially for those people named East London Christian Mission. Now the organization Social Enterprise Salvation Army is working around 150 countries. The organization has started its stores in 1880. The organization gets fund from the sales of products in the stores. It stores are accountable for its actions taken for providing services to the society (Salvation Army, 2016)..

Market analysis

Market analysis is an important concept for the non-profit organizations because their mission and vision do not change according to the market situations. There is availability of wide range of marketing strategies for the Salvos stores that can be implemented by the organization without changing its mission. These strategies are identifying the customers who are really in need i.e. market segmentation, developing the image of organization to attract those people i.e. product positioning, developing the communication plan to communicate those people i.e. advertising and communicate with people  by the different channels which they use regularly i.e. place (Basil, Deshpande & Runte, 2008). There are two main points about the Social Enterprise Salvation Army stores. First is that marketing in the stores of Social Enterprise Salvation Army is guided by the consumer-cantered mindset and second is that the marketing framework in Social Enterprise Salvation Army stores is operated by the active staff members. For the market analysis of Social Enterprise Salvation Army stores, there are some factors that are to be considered. The factors are:

Market Size- The size of market refers to the volume of the market in which the organization is operating. The volume of the market depends upon the number of consumers and their demands for that organization. Along with this, market size also includes the market potential which tells about the highest limit of the market. Market size of the Salvos stores is vast. The store operates in most of the cities across the Australia such as Sydney and Melbourne. Salvos give contribution to reduce the unemployment. Salvos conduct job placement services which reduce unemployment. Along with this, vocational trainings are given by the stores.  Organization works for unemployed people and help them to improve their lives (Brace-Govan, Brady, Brennan & Conduit, 2011).

Market trend- Market trend refers to the movement of market upward and downward. It can be analyzed by the marketing mix, product research, competitors’ analysis etc. The organization can offer the best services for the welfare of the people. The stores of Social Enterprise Salvation Army serve those who are need help in the society. The Australian community considers it as a non-profit organization. It provides valuable goods to the people by the stores. The organization depends upon the various funding come from the government trading revenue and investment income (Liao, Foreman & Sargeant, 2001). The different sources of income of Salvos stores can be seen by the graph:

Figure 1: Source of funding

(Source: Salvation Army, 2016)

Market opportunity- For Social Enterprise Salvation Army stores, charity may be an opportunity for the organization. The Salvation Army is operating more than 400 stores in Australia. The stores are selling those goods which are donated by the public. So, people of the Australia can be opportunity for the Salvos stores. Their donation and goods can be helpful to serve more and more people in Australia.  Along with this, by identifying the needs and requirements of the needed people, Salvos stores can earn more profit (Macedo, & Pinho, 2006).

Environmental factors

There are the environmental factors which affect the operations of a non-profit organization. The Social Enterprise Salvation Army operates in many countries. So, the operations of the organization are affected by many environmental factors such as political, legal, economic, technological, environmental and social factors (Bennett & Sargeant , 2005). 

Political Aspect: The stores of Social Enterprise Salvation Army have to face many political factors while operating the business. The country Australia has big society and the stores have to make such policy which covers the whole society. There is another factor in political aspect is that government’s deficit reduction plan has decreased the local government budget and the local government is the channel of funding for Salvos stores. Cuts in the public sector has increased the pressure on Salvos stores and decreased the ability to raise the fund.

Economic Aspects: The stores of Social Enterprise Salvation Army are non-profit stores and are operating in different cities of Australia. Unemployment is the issue for the organization and it is the result of increasing gap between the rich and poor. So, the demand of good work is expected by the Salvos stores.  Although there are many difficulties such as identifying the needed people and providing the services to them but the organization seeks itself that it would be able to have better economic condition.

Social Aspect: Social Enterprise Salvation Army is being affected by the atmosphere of society where it is operating. There are many social aspects such as needs, humanism and social exclusion which are important for the Salvos stores. The Stores always try to provide equal services to all the people of the community. The Salvation Army stores recognize the area of needs which are required to be improved. Along with this, stores always try to maintain good relationships with society by providing better services.

Technological Aspects: Social Enterprise Salvation Army also faces challenges with the new technologies. The organization is trying to adopt the new technologies so that it can provide best services to the needed people. It is using new trends to improve services and events. Social media is very popular to increase the awareness among the people of Australia.

Environmental Aspects: There are different environment and atmosphere in different areas. Social Enterprise Salvation Army has to operate in different environment to ensure that the organization is able to provide better services in different environment.

Legal Aspect: In different countries, there are various rules and regulations imposed by the government of Australia. These rules can be different laws such as tax laws, employment law, health and safety law, import and export law and consumer law etc. The stores of Social Enterprise Salvation Army have to follow these regulations for operating its business in the countries (Vessenes, 2003).

Industry environment

This is the group of the services provided by the organization to its consumers. Social Enterprise Salvation Army stores are famous for its unique service events among the consumers in the society. The stores have unique service features of services such as service events, programs, and activities which are especially for the people who are in need. The organization helps the youth to improve their lives (Courtney, 2002).

Competitors analysis

Competitors’ environment refers to the collection of information related to competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, intelligence and capabilities to operate the business.  The stores of Social Enterprise Salvation Army have already created a brand image among the people of the society and this makes it different from the other organization. It is popular as a non-profit organization in the society. Organization has more than 400 branches of stores in different cities compared to other non-profit organization but it always provides better services to the society (Andreasen & Kotler, 2003).

Market trends and impact

Market trend analysis refers to analysis of the situation of current market. It is helpful to improve competitive ability of any organization. This is the tool of marketing which enables the organization to make effective decision to capture the market and to increase the market share. The study of the market trends of Social Enterprise Salvation Army includes the analysis of the organizations’ strength, weakness, opportunities in market and threats faced by the organization in market. The situation of the organization in market can be identified by SWOT analysis (Ritchie & Weinberg, 2000).

SWOT analysis is kind of similar like the analysis of profit organization. There are other factors in non-profit organization such as fundraising, helping staff, and goodwill of the organization that a profit organization does not have. Non-profit organization must include SWOT analysis wile planning financial development (Williamson, 2009).

Strength: There is some strength which a non-profit organization has as compared to commercial companies. One of the strength which the stores of the Salvation Army have is the tax exemption. The organization gives such services, in which the buyers do not pay service tax and sales tax. When the organization buys the medicines and drugs for the patients, it does not pay tax for such products. Along with this, the stores have helping staff in many fields that provide better quality of services to needed ones. The helping and active staff of the organization is very important part of the business. Salvation Army take benefit from this tool and the different type of staff in who are always ready to help others. The stores have effective website which creates the people awareness.

Weakness: There are most of the non-profit organizations that hardly include their expenses with the revenues. Non-profit staff gets minimum salary. There is always a budget problem in the organization. Salvation Army also has deficit in budget and it needs the support of government and charity. Along with this, there is small number of staff and relevant to the number of duties, proved insufficient to maintain several programs efficiently.

Opportunities: Charity may be an opportunity for the organization. It may be from the government agency or private agency. But finding those grants and applying them is a very critical task. Sometimes, non-profit organizations collaborate with the other commercial business and it becomes an opportunity for the both companies. Use of social media can also be helpful for the stores to increase awareness. Campaign for increasing brand awareness can also be an opportunity for the Salvation Army stores.

Threats: Sometimes organization has to face many economic crises. Charity can be cut by the customers when they want. So, stores have to face difficulties in operating its business. It is not sure for future. So, Salvation Army stores should not be dependent on the charities. Because a small scandal can be damaging for everything. High poverty level is also a threats for the organization.

Impact of market trends

By the analysis of market trends, the Social Enterprise Salvation Army stores will be able to identify the opportunities available in the market and threats which can be faced by the organization in the market. By the analysis, Social Enterprise Salvation Army stores will also be able to know that what is the strength inside the organization to operate the business in the market and what are the weaknesses from which stores have to overcome to compete with other organizations. There are many non-profit organizations in the market who are also trying to serve the community with effective services. For the stores of Salvation Army, analyzing market trends is very important part for business operation. This is very important for the organization to promote and share the information effectively regarding the organization among the customers (Alam, 2014). It is important to find out the techniques of work for the stores. Stores can use social media such as facebook, twitter order to be successful to provide services and increase awareness among the people of Australia. Best practices of social media such as for Twitter include tweeting about things that people care about.

References

Alam, M.M. (2014). Market Orientation and Innovation: Are They Related Concepts: International Journal of Trends in Economics Management and Technology. 3(6). pp. 17–21.

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Basil, D.Z, Deshpande, S. & Runte, M., (2008). The Impact of Cause-related Marketing on Nonprofit Organizations: International Nonprofit and Social Marketing Conference. University of Wollongong

Basil, M., (2011). Marketing and social enterprises: implications for social marketing: Journal of Social Marketing. 5(4), pp.285 - 306

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Brace-Govan, J., Brady, E., Brennan, L., & Conduit, J., (2011). Market Orientation and marketing in nonprofit organisations – Indications for fundraising from Victoria: International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing. 16(1). pp. 84–98.

Courtney, R. (2002). Strategic Management for Voluntary and Non-profit Organisations.  UK: Routledge

Liao, M., Foreman, S. & Sargeant, A., (2001). Market versus societal orientation in the non-profit context:  International Journal of Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Marketing. 6(3).  pp. 254–268.

Macedo, I.M. & Pinho, J.C., (2006). The relationship between resource dependence and market orientation:  The specific case of non profit organisations’, European Journal of Marketing. 40(5/6). pp. 533–553.

Ritchie, R.J.B. & Weinberg C. B., (2000). A typology of nonprofit competition: Insights for social marketers. Social Marketing Quarterly.  6(3). 64-71.

Salvationarmy, (2016). History & Heritage. Retrieved on 12^th October 2016 from https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/Who-We-Are/History-and-heritage/

Salvationarmy, (2016). Vision. . Retrieved on 12^th October 2016 from https://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/vision

Socialtraders, (2016). FINDING AUSTRALIA’S SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SECTOR 2016: ANALYSIS. Retrieved on 12^th October 2016 from https://www.socialtraders.com.au/app/uploads/2016/07/Fases-2016.pdf

Stauffer, D., (2003). The Power of Competitive Intelligence. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Publishing

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Williamson, D., (2009). Marketing & Communications in Non-profit Organizations. Centre for Public and Non-profit Leadership. Georgetown University.