Duracell Marketing Plan
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Executive Summary
Duracell is a member of the Gillette Co. and is the alkaline battery market leader holding approximately 50 percent of the U.S. market share. Duracell has been forced to realign its prices in order to stay competitive with competitors who have introduced lower-cost brands. New advances in technology calls for the latest devices to be smaller, lighter, and more portable. Additionally, this new technology is placing increased demand for a stronger power supply and that is why Duracell has launched a new line of batteries called Prismatics. Prismatics will utilize a unique flat battery design that will provide a more compact platform for device manufactures to build new products on. The goals in the marketing plan are to:
Establish partnerships with major electronic manufactures, especially Sony, to create products that utilize and capitalize on the lightweight and slim design afforded by Prismatics.
Initiate and achieve full product rollout by the 2004 holiday season.
Capture a significant share of the battery market for digital cameras and portable audio devices.
Duracell’s marketing strategy is based on the creation of co-branding opportunities with major electronic manufactures and a media campaign to educate battery consumers on the advantages of Prismatics. The alliances with manufactures are the key to the long-term success of the Prismatics line.
Situation Analysis
The Internal Environment
Review of marketing goals and objectives
Gillette’s overall goal focuses on the skillful marketing of superior technology to achieve worldwide leadership
Duracell released the promotional campaign “Trusted Everywhere” for their Coppertop alkaline battery that stressed trust and reliability rather than product performance
Duracell lowered list prices for the AAA and AA batteries in response to intense price competition from Rayovac and Wal-Mart
Review of current marketing strategy and performance
They currently hold about 50 percent of the US battery market and are the world’s leading manufacture and marketer of high-performance alkaline batteries
For the period in 2003, Duracell sales were at $816 million which had increased 7 percent from the previous year and their profit had more than doubled from the year before to a total of $93 million
Since consumer use of portable electronic devices has increased over the past few years Duracell has introduced a new battery called the Duracell Ultra, which is just a “juiced up” version of the alkaline battery
Review of current and anticipated organizational resources
Duracell has a work force of 7,700 and sales volume was nearly $1.9 billion in 2002 and their profits have been on the rise in 2003 due to the increase in battery demand
Duracell has an advantage over its competitors because of the relationships that it has with retailers and manufactures
Duracell can use any other Gillette distribution channel and retailer relationships to extend the overall reach of their battery distribution
Review of current and anticipated cultural and structural issues
The “Trusted Everywhere” campaign reflects customers’ basic emotional needs for security and reliability
By answering consumer’s demands for new technology, it shows indicates Duracell’s customer-oriented values
Duracell appears to have a long-term vision to adapt to the changing electronic device market
The Customer Environment
Who are the firm’s current and potential customers?
Dominant users are owners of toys, audio products, cameras, remote controls, and flashlights, which together account for 83.7 percent of the total U.S. market
Virtually all potential consumers can be reached as electronic devices and batteries are now being marketed over the Internet
Customer service can help to determine consumer decision making by retail employees explaining the true value of Prismatics over competing batteries
What do customers