Harvey Norman Holdings Limited Essay

Introduction: Terms of Reference:This Report is designed to demonstrate the students understanding of IMC. The report was prepared for Mr. Paul Morrissey, Lecturer of Integrated Marketing Communications. Background:The purpose of this report is to help the student get a understanding of hold different marketing techniques are used in everyday situations through different forms of advertising campaigns. The purpose of this is to reinforce the knowledge the student has acquired in class. The company that will be subject of this report is Harvey Norman Holdings Limited. Objectives:To provide and overall situation analysis of the company. To research the company’s advertising campaign and determine who the target  market are. Analyse the key form of marketing communication used and the company’s Unique Selling Point (USP). To analyse the media planning used for the campaign.To provide a detailed overall evaluation of the marketing campaign.Methodology:The information used in this report was found through the use of secondary research in the form of internet based searching. Findings:Overview of Harvey Norman Holdings Limited:Harvey Norman is an Australian company and is a worldwide retailer of furniture, bedding, electrical, and computer. It has been in operation since 1961 when founders Gerry Harvey and Ian Norman set up the business. Harvey Norman has almost 300 stores worldwide. CITATION Har12 l 6153 (harveynorman.ie, 2012)Situational Analysis:Porter’s Five Forces:This model helps illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of an industry through five factors that are as follows: Competition in the market Potential new Entrants Power of suppliers Power of customers Threat of substitute products CITATION Inv12 l 6153 (Investopedia.com, 2012)Competition in the Market: There is large competition in this industry as it is an industry that has been around for a relatively long time. Therefore more companys such as Currys, Ikea, and D.I.D electrical, also compete in this market. Potential New Entrants There is a low threat from potential new competition as there are substantial barriers to entry in this industry. These barriers include: 1. High Capital Requirements: for this industry a new company would be required to stock a large volume of a large range of relatively expensive products as well as a large store to hold it all and large amount of staff and distribution costs. 2. Brand Loyalty because Harvey Norman has worldwide recognition and a strong brand awareness customers would be more inclined to stick with what they know already ie Harvey Norman products. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: For Harvey Norman there is a large range of suppliers for all the types of  products the company sells. Because there is such a large volume of suppliers in this industry ,the suppliers Harvey Norman uses have little to no bargaining power against Harvey Norman as they could just switch to another supplier and so the supplier would lose out on the high volume bulk buying that Harvey Norman would be using. Bargaining Power of Customers: Because Harvey Norman deals in such a large variety of products, from Furniture to computers, it attracts a large volume of customers for each of these product categories. This gives them a large base of customers to start with. Also the fact that Harvey Norman sells alot of recognised brands customers are inclined to purchase what they know. But due to the high competition from other similar businesses, such as Ikea, the customers have a decent amount of bargaining power as they may chose to take their business elsewhere. Threat of Substitute Products: There is very little threat from substitute products to Harvey Norman as a whole due to the large variety of products stocked and the types of products stocked. CITATION wik12 l 6153 (wikiwealth.com, 2012)