Answer

1.0  Executive Summary

Sirromet, located at the Gold Cost and Brisbane, has recorded increased number of customers in the recent past. In the tourists list of priority, Sirromet ranks top for both local and international visitors. The organization is sensitive and this has played a key role in its operations and management. The hotel deals in various events but winery stands out as the major business segment. The current trends indicate that tourists that love wine would always travel to share their experience and have fun. Sirromet is one of its own entities that mainly focuses on high end users, probably with high income levels. Sirromet has managed to achieve competitive edge over other business enterprise because of the services it offers. The customer experience the hotel provides to its clients is classy and legend.  The segmentation of the markets based on demographics, behaviors and geography have also contributed to its success. The site is open to all kind of people that need a serene location for their accommodation. The distribution strategy is also key in both internal and external populace. Sirromet prides itself in terms of competitive edge. It has achieved this through its unique model that focuses on provision of highly expensive and quality services and products.

Despite its success, there are recommendations for the organization to change for better for the benefit of the Sirromet and its partners. Expansion of the business and change of new strategy is thus highly recommended.

Table of Contents

1.0      Executive Summary. 2

2.0      Introduction. 3

3.0      Portfolio Analysis. 4

4.0      Market Segmentation Analysis. 6

5.0      Organization Competitiveness. 8

6.0      Recommendations. 10

7.0      Conclusion. 11

8.0      References. 12

Market Research Report on Sirromet’s Competitiveness, Marketing and Distribution Channels

2.0  Introduction

Organizations engage in market research as their initial and continuous strategy to gain in-depth understanding of the dynamics to adopt suitable strategies to enable them remain competitive (Stefanovska & Soluncevski, 2015). The focus of this discussion is on Sirromet, a family enterprise that takes charge of winery products. The enterprise is situated at Mount Cotton, a location that has picaresque view, just in close proximity to Gold Coast and Brisbane. Sirromet’s business focus includes offering food for the art facilities as well as winery experience to the lovers of wine. Its main business focus is in winery and related activities. Other services the company offers include non-winery events such as drinks and cocktails (Gallowayet al., 2008).  Because of the company’s proximity to Gold Coast and Brisbane, the number of tourists has continuously increased over the years. The new arrivals are estimated to have already exceeded the 2.5 million expected every year. The tourists visiting the company include both domestic and international. The hotel targets high-income earners evidenced through its high pricing and provision of high winery services. Other characteristics that define the target customers at Sirromet include music, revelers, and entertainment thrillers.  Like any successful company, Sirromet has its own unique distribution channel that has played a pivotal role in the achievement of its success. Its distribution channels are a combination of both direct and indirect channels; leeway through which the services and products get to the target customers (Guo & Hese, 2017). Sirromet prefers indirect channels for its international tourists while for local ones, the widely used channel is direct. The channels adopted are convenient and potent the ability of the strategy to accrue the company profits and facilitate in achievement of its objectives.  This paper presents a market research that provides more details on the various aspects including, customer experiences, market segmentation analysis, organizational competitiveness and recommendations on how Sirromet can become more competitive.

3.0  Portfolio Analysis

Analysis of a business provide an opportunity to interrogate the various aspects that makes the business thrive or more successful than others (Venter, Wright & Dibb, 2015). Through the portfolio analysis of Sirromet, more fruitful detail will emerge that would inform the most appropriate course of action that will drive the business towards success. The experience of customers about a company, its services and the surrounding environment allows analysts to adopt strategies that are relevant and appropriate. In reference to Sirromet customers, experiences differ but serve to strengthen the level of performance of the company.  One of the three experiences that Sirromet provides is exclusive club Sirromet event. This event is held around the bar and it is usually on specific preplanned dates. For instance, the event is proposed to happen on Thursday 31 May 2018, Thursday 30 August 2018 and Thursday 29 November 2018 starting from 1700 hours. The event is educational and social. The theme is to provide experience of social event as people get to mingle and share with one another. The educational part is that it offers opportunity for people to get to learn new things and gain knowledge. The event, in brief, involves a series of activities for the loyal members of the club. The distinguished wine professionals are the host and they ensure that the attendees enjoy to the fullest. The activity is usually arranged in cellar door as visitors have a chance to get bonus to sneak the previews often blind and vintage tasting and they get to have a better understanding about the wine realm.  This is an opportunity for customers learn and improve their level of understanding about wines. This experience is, therefore, worthwhile because, provides additional advantage for one to learn something they did not know.  This event is so special only to loyal members of Sirromet who have the permission to attend and participate.  Both local and regional segments are catered for because of the participation of the local and international guests.  This event suits people that like social places, business groups and those that have interest over wine knowledge. It is an opportunity that would equip one with the necessary knowledge.

It also provides an opportunity for Easter at Sirromet, usually done once a year during Easter holidays. The event was held on Sunday 1 April 2018.  This gives the participants a feel on cultural aspects and offers relaxation (Barnett, 1949). The opportunity accords the participants’ time to spend quality time relaxing with their families and friends. Sirromet serene is quiet far from the usual environments hence a place one can forever remember for having quality time.  It has enough spaces to accommodate picnic rugs apart from the onsite cheese bar, food trucks, ice cream and the visit to Easter Bunny. These activities will be refreshing to the participants.  Such experience targets families with children from middle to high class, families and friend that look for something to do during Easter holiday and international and local tourists.

The last experience that Sirromet offers is the Sirromet Pakrun held every Saturday from 1900 hours across the year. The activities aim at relaxing and exercising the body. All people in the vicinity, local community have an opportunity to regularly enjoy the picaresque sight of Sirromet winery and participate themselves in the event.  During the period of its operation, post parkum coffee is offered at wines Cellar Door.  After this, participants are at liberty to participate in a 5 km run in any direction. This running is what helps in their physical fitness and exercise. Both adults male and female, local communities residing nearby, people pursuing fitness and health and healthy and those without physical impairment or injury participate in the experience.

4.0  Market Segmentation Analysis

Market analysis based on segmentation provides a clear picture on the major customers or markets that an enterprise such as Sirromet should offer. According to Smith (2007), market segmentation is dividing a broad consumer or business into sub groups of consumers based on shared characteristics. In this case, Sirromet’s three major customers are segmented in terms of behavior, demographic and geographic aspects.

 One category is segmentation based demographically. Demographics are quantifiable population characteristics such as socio economic, age, gender, income, education and family size (Venter, Wright & Dibb, 2015).  Based on demographics, Sirromet focuses on young and old people with high levels of income. Its customers need to have enough income to enjoy the high-end services that Sirromet offers. Based on demographics, customers must not come from one culture, but all people from across cultures and backgrounds have the opportunity to be served. The religious affiliation of the clients does not matter at Sirromet. As long as customers meet the threshold in terms of age bracket and have the capacity to afford the products and services, there are no restrictions. Furthermore, allowing families to pay a visit at Sirromet promotes the spirit of positive family nurturing, love and unity.  According to Backer and Lynch (2017), the model of between travel engagement and family life cycle is important in tourist center and it helps to acknowledge the need to factor in the travel patterns and the consumer behaviors. A family has an opportunity to pay a visit at Sirromet just to relax and to get to learn other concepts.

The second market segment is based on geographic dynamics. Geography is defined in terms of physical location or region such as country, state suburb, city and region and so forth.   Sirromet targets both local and international customers.  The customers can be from any part of the globe as long as they have the craze for wines and enjoy the experiences that Sirromet provides.  According to Carlsen et al. (2007), tourism marketing and management has helped in opening up various destinations for tourist. The latest trends indicate that most travelers are attracted to wine regions through the wine events tours and festivals. Therefore, by Sirromet focusing on both international and local markets, it stands an opportunity to get more tourists and this would have positive impacts on its revenue collection. Furthermore, the increasing craze and love for wine by tourists, makes geographical market segment remain a viable option. It allows both local tourist and international tourists an opportunity to visit the hotel to enjoy with others.

The last customer segment is based on behavioral attributes. The behaviors of customers vary from one customer to another when it comes to how they purchase or consume various products and services (Lawson, 2005).  Consumption, purchasing behavior, age, behavior, usage, occasion, benefit sought, purchase frequency, customer loyalty and buyer readiness are some of the parts of the attributes that companies use to segment their target markets (Lawson, 2005). For the sake of Sirromet, the loyalty status is what will determine legibility of a person or a client to share their experience of Sirromet. Providing services to these kinds of customers will continually enable the organization to remain active and definitely break even.  Loyal customers are also supportive and gain trust in the organization, something that contributes to the growth of the organization as well as enhancing the public image of the entity.

5.0  Organization Competitiveness

Organizations must at certain predetermined dates, work to assess their level of performance to strategize on the next best decision (Gilligan & Wilson, 2009). Organization performance is the ability of an organization to reach its goals, vision and mission.  Performance assessment guides an organization’s strategic management. Sirromet has for the last three years has performed and surpassed its level. The level of performance is also based on quantified terms. Even though various methods or considerations are used to measure this performance such as financial performance and referrals, it is necessary to consider or to measure this success from a competiveness angle. On competitive angle, it is important that the organization assesses its level of competition before making the requisite decision.

In terms of competitiveness, Sirromet is not doing badly as it has managed to sustain its annual profits and retain its customer base. It has also managed to increase the number of clients by 500, which is a positive trend for the company. This success has been realized because of a number of things. First is the structuring of the organization culture by focusing more on the clients. Ensuring that customers receive the best quality services within a short span of time have contributed to this competiveness.

Porter’s five forces provide a suitable model for understanding and appreciating the competitive environment of the market that Sirromet operates in (Kirchner, 2012).  In the tourist industry, the bargaining power of the threat of substitutes is moderately low. The industry rivalry is also experienced as most mega companies are building hotels to tap on the increasing tourism demands. Such moves are putting pressure on the existing companies engaging in genuine business. 

The threat of entry arises when new firms join the market. This is usually a threat to existing companies such as Sirromet which face the risk of recording lower sales volume compared to the previous days. Bargaining power of buyers increases when there are many   suppliers.  When bargaining power of the suppliers is higher, then it means that the markets face inadequate supply. Industry rivalry is yet another factor that has a direct impact on the company. When companies are competition for the same market, prices fall as they fight for dominance (Gilligan & Wilson, 2009). Sirromet is operating at a location that has many customers both local and international. These tourists have established a relationship or have an attachment with the location and this has continually driven their profits upwards. The industry, therefore, is still lucrative and can attract larger customers because of the good customer experience at the hotel.

 Furthermore, competitiveness is also manifest with the kind of services that a company provides.  The quality of the products and services offered will as well to greater magnitude affect the level of competition. Customers often want value for their money. At Sirromet, they are assured of getting value for their money and this means that as for long as Sirromet remains the best and high-end, it remains to be a competitive company edging out some of its bigger competitors.

Distribution strategy at Sirromet has also been instrumental in ensuring that the company reaches to local and foreign customers. Furthermore, the strategy to provide experience is well targeted to help the organization accrue high profits (Smith, 2007).

6.0  Recommendations

Market analysis gives the pictorial structure of how an entity appears. Through the market analysis, tangible findings emerge that inform the best practice decisions that can enhance success of an institution. From the market analysis, it is recommended that Sirromet develop a new distribution channel to reach many clients. In the current distribution channel strategy, Sirromet reaches to both the local and international institutions and customers through their correspondence. The changed strategy in the distribution is to provide multiple media that would help her reach to the target audience hence, beneficial distribution strategy (Guo & Heese, 2017). For instance, in the local market, the intermediaries or business through which the services pass to reach clients should be shorted to reduce the cost of publicity hence saving lots of money. Furthermore, shortening distribution channels remain critical as most people resort to alternative ways of consuming information such as through social media platforms.

Equally, the international channels require a shortened distribution channels. People from other countries can as well learn about the country economic features that can be applied to ensure that the message reaches them within short period at lower costs. The essence of this is to reduce the costs and the adverse effects. Therefore, reliance on technological platforms to establish relations and conduct of business is proposed. The world is quickly turning to digital platforms hence, forcing companies to comply to remain competitive.

The second recommendation is development of a new experience. The already existing experiences have been in existence for long. People would want to experience changes.  This is also going to attract them to the site to share in the new experiences. New experiences also suggest that the company is creative and innovative and this is a positive idea in attracting more clients.

7.0  Conclusion

 Sirromet is a family enterprise that has shown positive performance. The enterprise remains an iota of hope that indeed it would come and overpass its expectations. Market analysis suggest that Sirromet offers unique customer experience, exclusive event hosted around the bar, Easter and Sirromet Pakum. The experiences have been instrumental in propelling the organization towards attainment of the goals. Market segmentations are based on demographic, behavioral and geographic dimensions. Sirromet remains competitive in the market because of the unique customer experience it offers.  However, even with these successes, it is recommended that the company change tact through developing new experience and new distribution channel.