James International Forwarding - Marketing Audit

Résumé du document

James International Forwarding is a company specialized in the transport of 'time critical' and 'temperature sensitive' products. With over 25 years in the business, they offer a reactive and flexible service throughout Europe, in the sectors of pharmaceutical or food for example. The company is operational 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, all year long. The vision of the company sums this up well: Door-to-door, on time, every time at the right temperature. James International owns a large range of refrigerated vehicles, with the aim to satisfy their customers' needs. These vehicles allow transporting products between -25 and +25°C. According to the needs, the company can propose additional services, like for example continuous satellite tracking; non-stop, door-to-door transport; full Client control with remote vehicle lock/unlock, barring driver access; remote access to self-track; strict scheduling etc. Due to its large offer and services, including import and export, international shipping, air freight, sea freight, transport logistics, and supply chain management, James International is recognized to satisfy its customers. But, like all companies, it has some weaknesses.

Extraits

[...] James International owns a large range of refrigerated vehicles, with the aim to satisfy their customers' needs. These vehicles allow transporting products between -25 and +25°C. According to the needs, the company can propose additional services, like for example continuous satellite tracking; non-stop, door-to-door transport; full Client control with remote vehicle lock/unlock, barring driver access; remote access to self-track; strict scheduling Thanks to its large offer and services, including import and export, international shipping, air freight, sea freight, transport logistics, and supply chain management, James International is recognized to satisfy its customers. [...]

[...] Mix assembly We see that James International has made efforts in term of communication. The communication with the customers is good, they tried several methods, and they have used a different mix during the last two years All these elements are really good. The problem is that, even if the company has some communication plans, it never evaluates the impacts. Consequently, they don't know if it has been efficient. We can also see that the company is not able to have a specific communication with potential customers. [...]

[...] Their bad business plan prevents them to have a good long term vision of their activities. And the last negative point looks like the one in the previous field. It concerns the lack of return about the impress of the customers. Thanks to the 3 tables concerning the strategy, we can already highlight 3 principal weaknesses: the problem of long-term strategy, the lack of customers' feed-back, and the problem with analyze of the competitors. Positioning strategy James International is extremely strong in its positioning. [...]

[...] That's why James International should concentrate its effort on a long-term vision, and not only on 5 years. However, thanks to its strengths, we can say that the strategic decision is quite good. Strategic audit This field is not as good as the previous. Indeed, there is as much strength as weaknesses. We can see that the company knows its market. It has a good knowledge of the gaps, the segmentation, and the needs at medium and long term. That is a very good point. [...]

[...] Conclusion James International is an SME. It has several problems about its strategy on the medium and long term and with the importance of marketing in this company. So we can conclude that in SME strategic plans are essentials. The company has a lot of very important strengths. But, the problem is that some elements are totally neglected. I think there are 4 points on which the company must work: Customers feed-back. The company must know the impression of its customers, because it's the best source to improve the quality of its offer. [...]