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Executive Summary
The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the peculiarities of the marketing system in such an organization as Sakhr Software Co. This company is located in Kuwait, and it specializes in natural language processing or NLP. It was established in 1982, and since that time, its popularity has become immense, especially if we are speaking about Arabic countries. However, the full potential of this enterprise has yet to be fulfilled, and this is mostly connected with the approach they take to marketing and promotion of their products and services. Overall, we may say that Sakhr Software is a product-driven organization because the management of this firm attaches primary importance to innovation and development. They only emphasize only the quality of their software solutions without paying due attention to the needs of potential clients.
Furthermore, their research is carried out only to make sure that there is a demand for their goods and services. Our overall suggestion is that Sakhr Software should become more customer-led because, in this way, the enterprise may strengthen its positions in the market, improve the quality of the products and finally increase its profitability. I am employed in this firm; however, I possess accurate and up-to-date information about its current policies. This industry is familiar to me, and I am very much interested in marketing strategies used in this sphere. It should be pointed out that for the purposes of privacy, some quantitative data have been omitted in this report, but this does not distort the key facts.
Research methodology
First, in this section, we should state the sources of primary and secondary data. In this respect, I would point out that I am not currently employed by this firm. Therefore, I can form my judgment only according to the information they provide on their website. On the website, we can find numerous articles describing their background, products and services, major clients, and marketing strategies. This is the primary source. As regards the secondary sources, we should primarily focus on the sources examining such spheres as natural language processing and the current situation in the market, and the strategies, employed by the companies operating in this field. Apart from that, Sakhr Corporation has been the subject of several studies. For instance, we can mention the book by Sébastien Dessus and Julia Devlin, the authors examine the integration of Arabic companies in the European market, and one of the examples is Sakhr Corporation. In this research work, we are going to employ various research techniques, such as, for instance, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. In this way, we would be able to explore the situation in the NLP industry, the demand for Sakhr products, and competition in this sphere. Moreover, it is of crucial importance to examine the companys current marketing approach, which may enable us to map out further strategies and propose some amendments. However, at this point, we need to discuss the background of natural language processing and provide data about Sakhr Software because, without this information, it is utterly impossible to continue.
Industry Background
Natural Language Processing or NLP is a relatively new sphere of information technologies; it aims to improve the interaction between a user and computer. We may single out several aspects, for example, translation systems, recognition of speech and handwriting, insonation of written text, and so forth. There is no doubt that this industry still has much to offer; besides, there is a growing demand for such software, because it enables us to use PC much more effectively, saving our time and effort.
Despite the fact that NLP is now considered a very promising sphere, we should say that the market, itself, remains relatively unexplored. This is not due to the lack of funding or investment; many international corporations have realized NLP may have a huge return on benefit, but these software solutions still contain many deficiencies. It should be taken into account that NLP is a new branch of computer and linguistic science; thus, there are too many gaps and blanks (Sears et al., p 60). Certainly, there are many companies, who specialize in natural language processing, such as Expert Systems, Alchemy API, Quark, Adobe, MontyLingva and some others; they provide various tools and software packages, but it has to be admitted that this field of activity still can offer a great number of opportunities to the new-comers (Sears et al., p 55). This information will help us to assess the peculiarities of the marketing system in Sakhr Software.
Company information
As it has been noted before, Sakhr Software Co. was founded in 1982, yet only three years later, there was a considerable breakthrough, particularly, we should speak about the invention of Arabic morphological and semantic analyzer (Dessus et al., p 74). At this moment, this firm has a wide range of activities; it is engaged with the development of translation systems, software helping to recognize and capture Arabic handwriting, and other projects that facilitate human interactions with the computer. The firms customers are diverse; they can represent a governmental or private organization, various international institutions, telecommunication companies, and so forth. On the whole, we should say that the performance of Sakhr Software Co is quite satisfactory, and its profitability is gradually increasing, but there are some aspects that need to be addressed, in particular, the marketing system, which is mostly product but not customer-led. At this moment, we need to state the major products and services which this company provides.
Services: 1) English-Arabic localization; 2) translation services: 3) Machine translation; 4) Search services for Arabic texts. Thus, it can be observed that the company is interested in the sphere of linguistics (Sakhr Software Co).
Products: 1) OCR (Optical Character Recognition) solutions, which enable users to scan Arabic texts; 2) Text-to-Speech Solution; 3) Speech Recognition; 4) Mobile Translation Engine (Sakhr Software Co).
Current Approach to Marketing
The concept of marketing
Prior to analyzing the peculiar features of this enterprise, we need to discuss the very concept of marketing and the way it influences the structure and performance of any organization. It can be defined as a set of techniques, which are primarily aimed at the provision of goods and services to the client (Egan, p 23). We should say that even the definition of the notion emphasizes the role of the ultimate receiver. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this process comprises four constituent parts that are also known as the four Ps. They are product development, pricing policy, placement and finally, promotion. The marketing orientation is mostly determined by the external and internal environment, such as competition, quality of the products, the political situation in the region, and so on (Hisrich, p 34). It should be borne in mind that at the time when Sakhr Software appeared, there was practically virtually no enterprise that specialized in this field, particularly if we are speaking about Arabic languages. To some degree, they were pioneers and did not face any competition. In part, this fact shaped the companys approach to marketing and other policies.
Product-led organizations
As a matter of fact, Sakhr Software has transformed into a product-led organization, which means that the management pays special attention only to the innovation and development of the products. Certainly, we cannot say that needs and demands of the clients have been completely disregarded, but they have not the main priority of the company. In some way, such policy is quite understandable because, for a considerable period of time, only this enterprise produced software for the needs of Arabic-speaking people. Now the company places special emphasis on the quality of their NLP products without giving much attention to the needs of the potential clients, and this seems to be the major misconception. The thing is that the situation in the market is beginning to change, and new competitors have emerged. There are several firms based in Arabic countries that may challenge the supremacy of Sakhr Software. Apart from that, we should not forget about multinational giants such as Adobe Systems, Quark and others. They also realized that the market in Arabic countries is still practically intact. Now, the management of Sakhr Software has to decide on marketing strategies and methods to make the firms products more attractive to the would-be buyers.
Customer-led organizations
Presently, the company should reconsider its views on marketing orientation and become more customer-driven. In this respect, we need to mark several important components. First and foremost, it is vital to determine the degree of customers satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the products. Secondly, Sakhr Software has to determine whether potential clients are well aware of their software because very often, many people may not know about the existence of NLP solutions. Additionally, they may underestimate the importance of these programs, regarding them with uncertainty or even apprehension.
Finally, the products should become more accessible. This concept includes several components, first, the adoption of a more flexible pricing policy and the improvement of distribution service. In this case, it is quite possible to employ the so-called SIVA (Solution, Information, Value, and Access) model (Schmidt et al., p 145). The organizations which claim to be client-driven usually use it in order to enhance productivity and increase sales. In order to work out the most optimal strategy, the management should draw a distinct line between long- and short-term objectives. Marketing plans are designed only if the company wants to promote some definite product, but the productivity of the enterprise can be increased only if the management adopts some constant and evidence-based strategies.
Developing a marketing plan
Prior to developing a marketing plan, it is necessary to assess internal and external factors, which may either contribute to the success of any project or cause its failure. As a rule, while examining the environment, researchers focus on such issues as strengths and weaknesses of the organization, its structure, policies, decision-making process, originality of the products, experience, etc. Secondly, they examine outside influences such presence or absence of competitors, the demand, political situation and many other factors. In order to obtain this information and make the most objective assessment, we can employ the method of SWOT analysis.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths: 1) experience in this field of activity; 2) Constant improvement of capacity; 3) a diverse range of products; 4) Specialization in one particular sphere. 5) Constant research and innovation. 6) the companys reputation in this field.
Weaknesses: 1) lack of attention to customers needs; 2) inflexible pricing policy; 3) Inadequate advertising policy;
Opportunities 1) growing demand for such kind of software. 2) The resource, which Sakhr possesses at the moment.
Threats: 1) increasing interest of international companies such as Adobe, Quark and Apple toward the NLP industry, especially for the needs of the Arabic Market.
Defining the objectives of the company.
At this stage, we should single out the strategic and marketing objectives of the company. First, we should say that they are related as the whole and the part. Strategic goals include such aspects as constant improvement of the firms operations, increase in productivity, the growth of sales, the improvement of employees skills and human resource management, and so forth. In turn, marketing objectives concentrate predominantly on the promotion of products, advertising, pricing policy and delivery. Yet, we can say that very often. These tasks are closely intertwined.
The objectives, which the management sets while developing a marketing plan, have to meet certain criteria; they are usually called SMART, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-efficient. In the case of Sakhr Software, we may single out several tasks which need to be fulfilled. 1) First, it is necessary to make the companys products more customized. It does not necessarily mean that they must be individual tailors because this will necessitate significant changes in the structure of this firm. However, the management has to introduce a separate department that would deal with consumer research and customers feedback.
This goal is quite realistic and quite attainable. It stands to reason that the organization would incur considerable expenses, but in the long term, they are bound to break even. 2) Secondly, the company should increase clients awareness of the software, which developed by Sakhr Software. Again, natural language processing is a relatively new industry. Thus, many people may not know about the new products. 3) Finally, the management has to develop certain methods, which can make their NLP programs more accessible. Provided that these tasks are accomplished, the firm will increase its profitability and productivity. However, we have just made a general overview. In this case, we should use the so-called marketing mix, consisting of three Ps (product, pricing, placement, promotion). This method is more systematic and gives specific guidelines for the implementation of the marketing plan.
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Marketing Mix
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Marketing mix element
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Current Situation
Recommendations
Product
At the moment, the company is mostly product-led, which means that the management focuses mainly on innovation, which makes their solutions less user-friendly.
1)The first task that should be carried out is the development of customer research service, which may improve the overall quality of the product in the long run.2) The second step is to reduce the costs needed for the process of production. 3) Finally, the company has to continue its research and development activities.
Price
Currently, the programs created by Sakhr corporation are accessible predominantly to international organizations or large companies. At the same time, individuals companies are not always able to purchase them.
Price: it is vital to adopt more flexible pricing policies, which would be convenient not only for large organizations but also for individual clients. Secondly, Sakhr Software has to familiarize would-be clients with the benefits of their products. The major task is to prove that the company provides the best price-quality ratio.
Place
At present, Sakhr products can be purchased only at the Web site of this company. Subsequently, this creates difficulties for those buyers who do not know about this firm. Certainly, the company tries to avoid mediators, but it still requires some distributors. This can be done with the help of those websites that sell software online.
In order to cut down operating expenses, the management has to shorten the supply chain, which means that there should be practically no mediators between the manufacturer and the customer. The products should be made more accessible to potential clients, and they must not experience any difficulties while searching for them. In order to do it, the company should find reliable and efficient distributors.
Promotion
Presently, the company does not invest sufficient capital into the advertisement of its solutions. Some clients are not even aware that new programs or updates to the old ones have been created.
Therefore, the management has to make sure that customers know about modifications and updates of previous products. This can be done with the help of mass media, trade shows, direct mailing to returned customers, and other forms of presentation.
Feedback
Sakhr Software organization has recently changed its attitude toward the relations with clients. We are currently trying to customize our products and services and make them more user-friendly. At this point, our main priority is to adjust our software solutions to the requirements of our customers. Furthermore, we are striving to make our service more available by optimizing the supply and distribution chain. The plan has yet to be fully implemented, but this policy is oriented toward long-term results, and its benefits will manifest themselves only in the near future.
Conclusion
Therefore, we can arrive at the conclusion that the development of a marketing plan requires an in-depth analysis of internal and external factors, which might influence the companys performance. The organization, which we have discussed, is an example of a product-driven firm. Our suggestion is that it should become more customer-oriented. In this paper, we have tried to assess its potential and work out certain strategies that can increase productivity and make Sakhr Software more competitive in the market. Our plan is based on the results of SWOT analysis, which enables us to gain a better understanding of the companys organization and its position in the market. We have tried to use the so-called SIVA model and apply it to the traditional marketing mix, which facilitates the relationships between the enterprise and its clients. In order to increase, profitability Sakhr should 1) pay more attention to the customers needs, and this will make their programs and services more user-friendly. 2) Secondly, the company should adopt more flexible pricing policies and find well-known distributors. Finally, the firm should invest more capital into the advertisement of their software solutions.
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