Principles of Marketing

Company Overview

Avaya is one of the leading technology company in USA. It is recognized as a leading global supplier and innovator of solutions for client and team engagement. The corporate provides technologies for unified communications and collaboration, contact center and client expertise management, and networking, along with connected services to massive enterprises, midmarket corporations, government organizations and small businesses round the world. Avaya Engagement Solutions bring people in conjunction with the correct data at the correct time within the right context, serving to change the next level of engagement between customers, teams, workers and partners to boost potency and quickly address crucial business challenges. Designed to be extremely scalable, reliable, secure and versatile, these solutions facilitate scale back prices and modify management whereas providing a platform for next-generation engagement and collaboration. Additionally, they are accessible in the variety of deployment models together with, hybrid, private and public cloud as well as on the customer's premises. Avaya propose solutions in three main categories of solutions for well engagement: Customer Engagement Solutions; Fabric Networking and Team Engagement Solutions. All three are supported through Avaya's portfolio of support and professional services.(Company Overview, n.d.)

A PEST analysis is the most commonly measures the market where a SWOT analysis measures business unit, idea or proposition. While drafting a market plan for Avaya I will examine the various economic, political, technological and social factors that a potential company needs to consider while entering the market.

PEST Analysis: PEST analysis means the analysis of political, economic, social, and technological factors those associated to the business of the company. These are the external factors of the business (Applegate & Johnsen, 2007). Moreover, changes in these factors have an impact on the performance as well as success of the company.

Political: Avaya will operate its business in many countries thatcan create political risks for the company. For case, different taxation policies of countries, employment laws and business regulations can create riskto Avaya. Moreover, government instability may alsocreate political risk to the firm.

Economic: After global financial crisis 2007-08, the growth rate of the nation has been declined. The law growth rate may influence the company in a wide manner. In addition to this, changes in exchange rates may also create economic risks to the firm (Henry, 2011).

Social: Social factors will also influence the company. For case, lifestyle trends, customer preferences, purchasing trends, education, religious factors, etc. are the major social factors that may influence the firm.

Technology: Changes in technology and innovation of new technologies also can create challenges to Avaya (Applegate & Johnsen, 2007).

SWOT Analysis: SWOT analysis is helpful to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a firm.

Target Market: Target market refers as a specific group of consumers that an organization intends its products as well as services. Avaya is a technology company and it should target all the companies related to information technologies, cell phone industries, and automobile industries (Applegate & Johnsen, 2007). In addition to this, it should also target potential customers and youth to expand its business in this more complex and competitive era.

Industry Analysis: For an organization to succeed in the current scenario, it is very crucial for the business to have the most advanced technology. The technology related to the value chain in the enterprise is directly proportional to the business profitability and the successful expansion. But there are many organizations that have a natural tendency to resist the change inside the organization, but it is very important for them to adopt enterprise technology as a change and implement the same. Implementing the technology at the enterprise level means to adopt the competitive advantage in the field of supply chain management. There are many types of technologies that can be adopted by the businesses for the successful operation. Some of them are: (Rafter, 2008)

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Supply Chain Management (SCM)

with the use of enterprise technologies, all the processes in the business can easily be coordinated. This includes procuring the raw materials, warehousing, production of the finished goods, quality control, customer delivery, sales and marketing and many more.

Enterprise technology has changed everything, redefining the way in which an organization operates their business. It is not that all the technology is essential for the organization. Each technology has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some of the times the cost can be high; but the unique features that each technology provides need to be understood carefully before opting for any particular or a group of technologies. It is up to the organization to understand the advantages that a particular technology will provide to the business and take the full advantage of the technology as required. For example most of the big businesses are using ERP, Radio frequency identification (RFID) but many small businesses are still using the ancient method of pen and paper. This can be time consuming for the small business and the chances of errors increases exponentially.

According to Walter & Rainbird (2007), the biggest priority for any business is to work effectively and efficiently so that they can maximize profit. This gives them a reason to implement enterprise technologyat the earliest.

Competitor Analysis 

In order to effectively reduce threats to the company, retaliation by present firms in software services is necessary. Margins of profits are high in enterprise software solutions market and they will have to face stronger than expected competition from present firms. The company should keep on acquiring as many firms to suppress the competition just like the competitors. Growth in computer market is slowing down and will become saturated in near future.

They faces tough competition from rivals in terms of, brand, technology, price, quality, distribution channels and range of products. In addition to this, customer requirements are altering and customers are keener to buy different products and services. One key threat all tech companies including them are facing is a constant and rapid technological change. Companies are under great pressure to launch the new products continuously. This is particularly frightening for them as the company is already at the back of its rivals in terms of quality, price and technological improvement of some of the products.

Products, Product Lines, and ServicesOffered By the Avaya:

Avaya offers numerous products and services to its customers. The products, product lines, and services offered by the organization are described as below:

Products and Services:

Avaya offers a wide range of products and services in order to fulfill the needs of customers in an effective and a more comprehensive manner. The major products and services offered by Avaya are as below:

Avaya Data Networking Solutions: The data networking solutions of Avaya provide a flexible portfolio of networking products thatpermit enterprises to erect data networks that are described as always-on, extremelyproficient,and highly scalable (Avaya Inc.2012).

Avaya Unified Communications Solutions: The Unified Communications and Collaborations (UCC) Solutions of Avaya presents an unsurpassedindustry portfolio of products that agree to organizations to assemble communications as well as collaboration networks that are characterized as very efficient, best-in-class, andextremely scalable.

Avaya Contact Center Solutions: Avaya presents extremely trustworthy,scalable contact center solutions that are helpful to improve customer service and to assist companies so they can compete in a more effective way (Avaya Inc.2012).

Avaya Services Solutions: The professional services of Avaya are helpful to businesses in order to use communicationstechnology and applications to mitigate and to reduce communications barriers in an effective way.

Product Line:

The product line of Avaya involves the Access Point VPN routers, super-pipe routers with VPN capabilities, the VPN firewall product family, the QVPN policymanager, and an IP security client (Avaya Inc. 2012).

On the other hand, Avaya gives a limited warranty on its products and also completes the whole installation process with the help of expert. Moreover, the product/services of the company would be considered business to consumer (B2C). The main reason behind it is that Avaya does not only deal with the business organization but offer its products or services to the customersalso (Avaya Inc. 2012).

In addition to this, the company has a competitive advantage with respect to product. The main reason behind it is that the price of its product is less than the competitors of the firm. Along with this, it offers quality products as well as timely services to the customers. That attract more customers and as a result the revenues of the firm increase more than its customers (Avaya Inc. 2012). In this way, it can be said that in today's more competitive business era, Avaya is doing well and also success in order to create its brands in the minds of customers.

References

Company Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.avaya.com/usa/about-avaya/our-company/company_overview/company-overview/

PEST Analysis: Definition, Examples & Templates. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5512-pest-analysis-definition-examples-templates.html

Henry, A. (2011).Understanding Strategic Management. USA: OUP Oxford.

Applegate, E., & Johnsen, A. (2007). Cases in Advertising and Marketing Management: Real Situations for Tomorrow's Managers. USA: Rowman & Littlefield.

Rafter, M.V. (2008). Let's Get Visible: Supply Chain Technology. Retrieved from http://technology.inc.com/2008/05/01/lets-get-visible-supply-chain-technology/

Walters, D., & Rainbird, M. (2007). Strategic operations management: A value chain approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Avaya Inc. (2012).Avaya AuraContact Center Planning andEngineering. Retrieved From: https://downloads.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100141712.

Can you provide a comprehensive discussion of place or distribution strategies of Avaya. Provide a comprehensive look at the distribution strategy of Avaya. Identify the distribution route that should include the path that the products travel form the manufacturer too the final consumer. Including manufacturing, plants, wholesalers, distributors, retailers and various other intermediaries. Why and how does Avaya use the intermediaries? Include the physical facilities if any.

Competitive advantage include if Avaya has a competitive advantage with regards to PLACE. Ideal answer would be to discuss whether Avaya has a competitive advantage with respect to how they distribute their products. Include their distribution channel and maybe a unique retail location (if important). state your position and include a rationale for your position. Please do not copy from anywhere. Short suspense.

The paper should be minimum of two pages and double spaced reference page will be included just add additional references. Please use APA guidelines.