Movement Solutions Marketing Environmental Scan

Movement Solutions
Potential Marketing Solutions and Future Positioning
James Larson
ABSTRACT
A competitive marketing strategy is critical in today’s business environment.
There are several marketing channels, platforms, and opportunities to use
said channels that several area businesses are not utilizing. This report
details the platforms, market segments, and an extensive scope of research
and data to support potential new marketing practices.

2 MOVEMENT SOLUTIONS

1. Introduction

Today’s marketing environment has created several new opportunities for small businesses to
expand and gain exposure across several channels. This report will detail in brief the critical
segments and action taken to gain value from said segments with a revitalized social media, web
page, and potential broadcasting strategy—helping Movement Solutions move forward.

i. Current Efforts and Local Competitive Environment

Over the course of the last two weeks I have studied the current website and social media
platforms currently used by your team and those of the local market. The following diagram
depicts the current environment for auto sales and RV/boat sales/rental firms segmented
between the two major markets in the area (general, i.e. car/auto buyers/rentals and
recreational, i.e. RV/boat/outdoor recreation buying/rental) depicted below:

As depicted in the diagram there is some competition that may pose potential threats; however
this will be discussed later in this report.

MOVEMENT SOLUTIONS 3

ii. Current Social Media and Web Presence

Today’s marketing mix is not complete and is heavily reliant on creating a draw through a variety
of social media platforms. A study by Momany and Alshboul surveyed managers of several small
bed and breakfast operations—a very related market with heavy seasonality and dependence on
the tourism industry and word of mouth marketing. When a solid social media branding and
marketing approach was used it had delivered great results; soon these small businesses started
receiving a statistically significant increase in brand recognition, online sales, and public relations
through client social media posts and reviews.

I have researched our presence across several social media platforms in contrast with our
competitive environment and have drawn the following conclusions:

• Facebook
I will use an example and contrast it with two potential local competitors—Lake Time
Boat Club and Billion Ford of Clear Lake. At a glance here are some takeaways:

o The logo and brand is clear and present on the Lake Time Boat Club and Billion
Ford profile and cover photo and not our page. It would be highly recommended
to use only the Movement Solutions logo or potentially have a rotating profile
picture of products available on the lot—this may capture the interest of
prospective buyers/renters during the peak rental season and I will help
maintain this.

o Current statuses on available products are very long and should be shortened. I
have noticed some inconsistencies in statuses with some posts having a
headline/status while others do not. I will maintain this given the opportunity
while providing a “sale of the experience” through the posting.

o I could not find any promotions during RAGBRAI 2017 when Clear Lake was on
the route. Though it was explained in the interview that there would not be any
possible business given Highway 18 was closed for the route recognition of the
event

• Twitter

o There are two Movement Solutions Clear Lake Twitter accounts at this time; one
(@movementclearlake) has been dormant for over a year and I would
recommend closing this as soon as possible. The risk of data/account breaches
by hacking groups (i.e. Sony data breach) in recent events make this clear.

o A majority of tweets on the current Movement Solutions (@movementcl) page
redirect to the Facebook page and its statuses. I would recommend having
unique, short statuses for the account occasionally redirecting to the Movement
Solutions Facebook or webpage; there are millions of users on the platform
contributing at once and we should catch the Twitter attention quickly given the
nature of the platform.


• movementclearlake.com

o The current domain’s user interface (UI) should be looked at in contrast to some
competitors in the area. From the view of a prospective user I found it rather
difficult to find the contact information I needed to submit my resume.

o Browsing through the site some aspects seem somewhat dated and may be a
turnoff for prospective buyers/renters particularly in a higher-income, visiting
family and relatives (VFR) segment. To ensure complete control of site content
and layout I would recommend closing the current domain and potentially use a
service such as Wix.com to create a feature-rich, modernized, mobile-friendly
streamlined interface given information on the current domain subscription fee
and a comparable rate through a Wix.com business account.

o The “Silent Salesman” is a good idea; however in the context of maintaining
LEAN practices and a triple-bottom-line this may need to be phased out
considering the paper waste created from making the Silent Salesman packets. I
would instead recommend using a QR code instead as depicted below:

This can provide a more eco-friendly approach to inform prospective buyers and
renters on some products on the lot. One in six adults used QR code scans and
QR scanning software in 2014 and can provide a great opportunity to garner
traffic on several of Movement Solutions’ social media platforms as well. (Smith)

• Youtube

o There is presence though there has not been activity on the page in two years.
This may create a legal liability given applicable bait-and-switch laws. I had also
noticed the products presented on the lot at the time of the page’s opening
seem rather detached from a prospective buyer/renter’s goal and should convey
selling an experience as stated earlier. To keep up with recent developments on
the platform I would consider doing the following:

§ Creation of a “channel trailer,” a short video explaining our business,
introducing our team, and some of the experiences from known clients
would be very advantageous. This could be compiled through a drawing
from videos submitted by clients compiled into a potential trailer.


§ Video blogs (VLOGs) have heavily increased in popularity over the last
two years. This may provide a great opportunity for B2B networking
and branding efforts as well as possibly showcasing some of the
vehicles on the lot. Creating a “guide” approach for prospective
customers may be a great way to convey the product and
events/locations in the area (i.e. Clear Lake 4
th
of July, Surf Ballroom
visit and discussion near the Buddy Holly crash anniversary, etc.) while
solidifying Movement Solution’s brand presence in the area. (Weiler
and Walker 91-92)

• Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr, Snapchat, Tumblr, etc.
o No/little presence at this time.

I will be able to maintain and update our presence on these platforms given this amazing
opportunity. The next section explains some approaches to help the Movement Solutions brand
and marketing messages on the social media platforms mentioned and other marketing channels.

iii. Product Dimensions and Future Branding Opportunities

The potential marketing message through our current and prospective social media channels with
respect to the variety of products offered will take some reflection. A traditional approach of an of
using a total product dimension/Levitt ring diagram will help conceptualize this—a depiction of
the core, basic, and augmented product—depicted below:

At the core of our business there is the differentiation of the outdoor recreational goods and
vehicles as well as the cars available for sale. For example, consider some of the RVs on the lot: at
the core it is a recreational vehicle though at its basic level it can be taken as a mode of
transportation, “home away from home,” etc.; at the augmented level (pitch via status/tweet) this
can bring about one of several messages:

• “The missing piece to great summer memories…”
• “The start to your outdoor adventure…”
• “The great first step to experience the outdoors…”

Through internal deliberation, further approval, and elaboration these ideas we should be able to
convey our message across our available and new marketing channels easily and attract
customers.

Augmented
Basic
Core


2. Prospective Consumer Dimensions and Related Research

We are hitting a particular niche with the products we provide as shown in the environmental
scan shown earlier; we provide car sales but also outdoor recreational sales/rentals as well. With
respect to this it would be crucial to consider the prospective clients in the following Venn
Diagram: those in the local market, the professional market, and visitor/tourism segments (i.e.
Tree Town, the early February Clear Lake area growth in tourism on the anniversary of Buddy
Holly’s passing, those going to the Tree Town Festival in Forest City, Iowa, and the general
vacationers and the VFR segment) depicted below:

Movement Solutions has several offerings that competitors in the area do not; it will be of the
important to start engaging these segments through the social media channels stated earlier in
context of a low- to no-budget solution. The following describes an analytical summary of the
outdoor recreation market environment, key insights for the potential renters/buyers of our
products available.

a) Survey of the Outdoor Recreation and Recreational Vehicle
Market and Segments of Interest

I initially contacted the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for historical data pertaining
campsite reservations/capacity and possibly hunting license registrations. Unfortunately after
several attempts they have been unavailable for comment and disclosure of said data. The
following points describe the data and statistical process used to make actionable suggestions.

Local Market
Professional
Visitor/
Tourist


i. A General Demand Model of Outdoor Recreation

To best gauge the outdoor recreation market I had compiled results using data from the St. Louis
Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED), the United States Energy Information Administration
(EIA), and the United States Department of Transportation (DoT) to construct a demand model.
Using the statistical programming language R and general econometric theory the model
constructed had taken into account the real value (in terms of 2017 dollars) of the log-
transformed quarterly total revenue of recreational vehicle parks (lnRVTR), median United States
household income (lnYMed), quarterly average prices of gas (lnPGASUS) and diesel (lnPDIESUS)
per gallon, the price of domestic flight tickets (lnPTIX), and seasonal dummy variables (Q2, Q3, Q4)
with the first quarter acting as the base level for the time Q2 2012-Q1 2016. To ensure the best
linear unbiased estimator for this analysis some variables contributing to the scatter in the data
were omitted; the model and its summary are shown in the section labeled “R Code and Output”
in this document.

In brief the final model used the log price of gas, log median income, and the quarterly dummy
variables to explain the seasonality and effect of these variables on RV park revenues; the model
explains roughly 93.91% of the error and is statistically significant (p<.05) from the data and
process used. Interestingly a 1% increase in RV park revenue is explained through a 13.53%
increase in median incomes; the analysis also shows Q2 and Q3 having the highest, statistically
significant seasonal contributions to RV park revenues.

From this model it would be recommended to be aggressive in future social media campaigns
during Q2 (April-July) and Q3 (July-October) in order to capture value from a potentially higher-
income market.

ii. Target Segments

Building on the prior analysis it can be said the RV and outdoor recreational market has grown in
recent years. However prior studies have shown similar if not better results investigating
segments and potential applications of these findings for future social media campaigns.

It can be easily said our local market is a “self driving” market due to the long distance between
small towns and key commercial and retail establishments in the rural North Iowa area (i.e. Clear
Lake, Mason City, etc.). (Yi, Day and Cai 148-149) A much more sophisticated duration model with
respect to the length of a trip contingent upon the gender, party size, age, marriage status, and
other characteristics of outdoor recreational vacation participants in the rural Midwestern United
States was performed by Yi, Day, and Cai; this survey provided the following vital insights:

o A major contribution to the length of a trip in this context was ownership of an RV
o Most (over 60%) trip participants surveyed were between ages 35-55
o Ownership of other vehicles (typically 2-3) had contributed to the length of a trip
o A majority of those surveyed were at least high school educated and married with either
at least one child (aged 0-5) or no children.

A quick survey of Nielsen/Claritas PRIZM (hereon referred to as “PRIZM”) shows these segments
are present in the immediate Clear Lake and surrounding area. For example the Garner, Iowa,
area is of particular interest due to the “Big Sky Family” segment (25-45 year old married
households with 1-2 children with upper middle-class incomes) and the potential value that can
be captured promoting the RVs for sale/rent on the lot through the several media/marketing
channels discussed earlier.


b) Insights from the Recreational Vehicle Market

With respect to a prior quantitative analysis I had done using quarterly reports from Winnebago
Industries, Inc., has provided these additional insights for products and models similar to what is
and may be offered—the Class A Gas, Class B Eurovan Campers, and Class C “Minnie Winnies” in
particular; the fifth wheel and toy trailer lines are not considered due to an insufficient sample
(roughly 10 quarters worth of data). These gauge the amount of deliveries of the product lines
over the the period Q2 2003-Q3 2015 in relation to some of the same metrics in the prior RV park
revenue/demand model including personal consumption expenditures in recreational services and
recreational goods and vehicles (lnCRec and lnPCED, respectively) in terms of 2016 dollars;
average incomes (lnYr), gas (lnPgas) and diesel (lnPdies) prices per gallon were used for this study.
Deliveries were chosen given individual behavior of those in the order backlog (some rescind on
their order agreement and the deliveries have had the models delivered to a household or
dealership lot). The following are some findings from this study by product line:

o Class A (Gas/Diesel)
There is a statistically significant relationship in a percentage increase of Class A
deliveries in relation to lower incomes for both gas and diesel models from the process
and data used. Interestingly both demand models exhibit a strong complimentary
relationship with domestic airline ticket prices (lnPATix) and have a strong positive
relationship with personal consumption expenditures in recreational goods/vehicles—
they are in demand and we have several target demographics in the immediate area
(discussed later) to promote to if we provide a similar model given enough lot space or
potential future expansion
o Class B (Eurovan)
Models similar to the Class B Eurovan camper line may be of greater interest to slightly
higher than average income individuals very interested in outdoor recreation given the
data and process used. This can be attributed to the finding that every 1% of Class B
deliveries is explained by a roughly 20% increase in personal consumption expenditures
in recreation and a 5% increase in average incomes respectively; however, models similar
to this may not be of interest to the market as a whole given a 1% increase in deliveries
resulting from a roughly 7% decrease in personal consumption expenditures in durables
(recreational vehicles)
o Class C
Assuming the 1988 Toyota RV for sale is very similar to the Class C “Minnie Winnies,”
these will possibly be of interest higher income, spendthrift individuals given the negative
effects of gas prices and recreational consumption spending on the Class C demand
model

All models and summaries are given in the “R Code and Output” section under “Winnebago
Demand Models.”

3. Recommendations, Creating Engagement, and Conclusions

PRIZM’s most recent income distribution and percent of population by age data in the Clear Lake
area (Clear Lake, Garner, Britt, Forest City, etc.) brings the following insights and
recommendations:

o Insight:
A majority of individuals in the area are earning incomes of less than $35,000 per year
with a majority of elderly/retired segments (55-65+ years old); it may be wise to
advertise offerings in local free publications (i.e. shoppers) and radio given these


segments and the drive market stated earlier (they have to travel and will listen to radio
advertising)
o Recommendation:
A strategy for low cost (even free) radio advertising slots may be available: a car
dealership in New Brunswick, Canada, had made an agreement with local Top 40 radio
stations to preset said stations on car radios available on the lot in return for free radio
advertising resulting in nearly $2,500 worth of ad space for the dealership (Winter)

The use of social media will be crucial for younger, higher income, and the visitor/tourist market.
A study by Ewert, Gilbertson, Luo, and Voight reveals the following:

o Insight:
Prospective participants are mostly self-motivated with self-image, sensation-seeking,
and social goals; sea kayakers in the study had lower sensation seeking goals at beginner
experience levels while the opposite can be said for those with more experience and
canoeists had higher social motives than all other groups studied. Females had higher
social motives than males while males had higher sensation seeking and self-image
motives
o Recommendation:
The opening of image-based social media accounts (i.e. Instagram) alongside existing
platforms (Twitter, Youtube once revitalized) will create a great PR opportunity; the
popularity of recent social media challenges (i.e. Running Man Challenge, ALS Ice Bucket
Challenge, etc.) and the development of a campaign will create engagement for all
motive facets from the study stated—#SummerMovementChallenge. This can be
expanded to product/discount/coupon giveaways given the campaign’s budget.

Maintaining a triple-bottom-line will also be essential for our business practices and may present
opportunities future PR campaigns. A campaign for conservation/sustainability efforts will help
Movement Solutions gain needed attention—ensuring the outdoors is there for future
generations to enjoy will solidify brand presence since businesses in the competitive environment
have not acted on this.

The transfer of this responsibility from the public to the private sector over time has several
implications given this current caustic political environment and general distrust in legislators and
government; this will help increase awareness of these issues and offset some potential damages
caused by eco-tourists. (Byrd, Cardenas and Greenwood 193-201) Doing a drawing competition
such as the #SummerMovementChallenge will help our brand recognition and will delegate the
bulk of the work needed for these sustainable practices to interested prospective consumers and
the community.

In conclusion I hope you have gained insight to the current social media and competitive
environment and use of new marketing channels; however this will take help from the great,
motivated team at Movement Solutions. I thank you for your time interviewing me on December
5
th
and would be honored if I was chosen for this exciting position.

1
0
MOVEMENT SOLUTIONS

Works Cited
Byrd, Erick T., Davod A. Cardenas and Jerusha B. Greenwood. "Factors of Stakeholder Tourism: The Case of
Eastern North Carolina." Tourism and Hospitality Research 8.3 (2008): 192-204.

Momany, Muaid and Alshboul Abdullah. "Social Media Marketing: Utilizing Social Media to Advance Brand
Awareness ande Increase Online Sales." International Journal of Business, Marketing, and Decision
Science 9.1 (2016): 33-54.

Smith, Dan. Should Your Dealership Use QR Codes? 15 October 2014. 3 December 2017
<http://www.dealermarketing.com/should-your-dealership-use-qr-codes/>.

Weiler, Betty and Betty Walker. "Enhancing the Visitor Experience: Reconceptualizing the Tour Guide's
Communicative Role." Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 21 (2014): 90-99.

Winter, Amy. Operators Share Successful Marketing Campaigns . 1 December 2014. 6 December 2017
<http://www.autorentalnews.com/channel/rental-operations/article/story/2014/11/operators-
share-successful-marketing-campaigns.aspx>.

Yi, Sangchoul, Jonathon Day and Liping A Cai. "Rural tourism Demand: Duration Modeling for Drive
Tourists' Length of Stay in Rural Areas of the United States." Journal of Tourism Challenges and
Trends 4.1 (2011): 147-168.

1
R Code and Output

1. Outdoor Recreational Demand Model

RSDAT<- read.csv(file.choose(), header = TRUE)
RSDAT
lnPGASUS<- log(PGASUS)
lnPTIX<- log(RSDAT$PTIX)
lnRVTR<- log(RSDAT$RVTR)
lnPDIESUS<- log(PDIESUS)
lnYMed<- RSDAT$lnMEDYQ
Q1<- log(RSDAT$Q1)
Q2<- log(RSDAT$Q2)
Q3<- log(RSDAT$Q3)
Q4<- log(RSDAT$Q4)
lnLATS<- log(RSDAT$LATSales)
DRECUS<- lm(lnRVTR~lnPGASUS+lnYMed+lnPTIX+Q2+Q3+Q4)
summary.lm(DRECUS)

Call:
lm(formula = lnRVTR ~ lnPGASUS + lnYMed + Q2 + Q3 + Q4)

Residuals:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0.037681 -0.075754 -0.005731 0.085976 -0.079158 -0.036063 0.097964 -0.085976
9 10 11
0.041477 0.111817 -0.092233

Coefficients:

Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) -129.552 47.8259 -2.709 .042335 *
lnPGASUS 1.9231 0.6676 2.881 .034563 *
lnYMed 13.5326 4.3062 3.143 .025592 *
Q2 0.763 0.104 7.336 .000738 ***
Q3 0.3923 0.1211 3.24 .022955 *
Q4 0.1096 0.1039 1.055 0.339785
---
Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1

Residual standard error: 0.1112 on 5 degrees of freedom
Multiple R-squared: 0.9391, Adjusted R-squared: 0.8782
F-statistic: 15.42 on 5 and 5 DF, p-value: 0.004653

1
2
MOVEMENT SOLUTIONS

2. Winnebago Demand Models

wgoemet<- read.csv(file.choose(), header = TRUE, sep = ",")
lnCag<- log(wgoemet$Cag)
lnCad<- log(wgoemet$Cad)
lnCb<- log(wgoemet$Cb)
lnCc<- log(wgoemet$CC)
lnPprop<- wgoemet$lnProp
lnPgas<- wgoemet$lnPgas
lnPdies<-wgoemet$lnPdies
lnAutoSI<-wgoemet$lnAutoS.Inv
lnPATix<-wgoemet$lnPATix
lnYr<- wgoemet$lnYr
lnPCED<- wgoemet$lnPCEdur
lnCRec<- wgoemet$lnCrec
DQag<- lm(lnCag~lnPgas+lnYr+lnPATix+lnPCED)
DQad<- lm(lnCad~lnPprop+lnPdies+lnYr+lnPATix+lnPCED+lnCRec)
DQb<- lm(lnCb~lnPprop+lnPgas+lnYr+lnPCED+lnCRec)
DQc<- lm(lnCc~lnPgas+lnYr+lnPdies+lnPATix+lnPCED+lnCRec)

#Demand Model for Class A Gas
summary.lm(DQag)

Call:
lm(formula = lnCag ~ lnPgas + lnYr + lnPATix + lnPCED)

Residuals:
Min 1Q Median 3Q Max
-0.67125 -0.17455 0.01623 0.21291 0.68618

Coefficients:
(Intercept) 5.0181 10.4323 0.481 0.63359
lnPgas 0.6130 0.3025 2.027 0.05062 .
lnYr -7.9113 1.0489 -7.543 9.29e-09 ***
lnPATix 3.8165 1.3936 2.739 0.00975 **
lnPCED 8.7929 1.1050 7.958 2.86e-09 ***
---
Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1

F-statistic: 30.62 on 4 and 34 DF, p-value: 7.657e-11

3

#Demand Model for Class A Diesel
summary.lm(DQad)

Call:
lm(formula = lnCad ~ lnPprop + lnPdies + lnYr + lnPATix + lnPCED +
lnCRec)

Residuals:
-0.67201 -0.16908 -0.03774 0.20792 0.62925

Coefficients:
(Intercept) -9.6690 17.1586 -0.564 0.57702
lnPprop 0.4061 0.2344 1.732 0.09283 .
lnPdies 0.4776 0.5122 0.932 0.35813
lnYr -9.4675 2.6870 -3.523 0.00131 **
lnPATix 4.3267 1.7953 2.410 0.02187 *
lnPCED 7.7249 1.4699 5.256 9.45e-06 ***
lnCRec 5.7968 3.1510 1.840 0.07511 .
---
Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1


#Demand for Class B (Eurovan Camper)
summary.lm(DQb)

Call:
lm(formula = lnCb ~ lnPprop + lnPgas + lnYr + lnPCED + lnCRec)

Residuals:
-3.5208 -0.6132 0.0899 0.6806 4.0262

Coefficients:
(Intercept) -134.6277 41.6985 -3.229 0.00281 **
lnPprop -1.6772 0.8901 -1.884 0.06836 .
lnPgas 2.6880 1.8814 1.429 0.16247
lnYr 5.5432 10.7302 0.517 0.60889
lnPCED -6.9020 4.9042 -1.407 0.16867
lnCRec 20.4507 13.0230 1.570 0.12587
---
Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1


1
4
MOVEMENT SOLUTIONS

#Demand Model for Class C
summary.lm(DQc)

Call:
lm(formula = lnCc ~ lnPgas + lnYr + lnPATix + lnPCED + lnCRec)

Residuals:
-0.70215 -0.07070 0.04084 0.14581 0.67485

Coefficients:
(Intercept) -13.4608 10.7165 -1.256 0.21791
lnPgas -0.5910 0.4002 -1.477 0.14927
lnYr 2.6306 2.5361 1.037 0.30715
lnPATix 2.9729 1.3743 2.163 0.03787 *
lnPCED 4.2761 1.2586 3.397 0.00179 **
lnCRec -9.0612 2.9114 -3.112 0.00382 **
---
Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1


Movement Solutions Marketing Environmental Scan

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Movement Solutions Marketing Environmental Scan

Similar to Movement Solutions Marketing Environmental Scan (15)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Movement Solutions Marketing Environmental Scan