1.Executive SummaryEvery product level must develop a marketing plan for achieving its goal. Nowadays, people's living standards improved and information technology developed, the demand for laptops are getting bigger and bigger. China become a rapid growth market in laptop industry, it attracted a lot of PC companies to sharing the market in recent years.The following marketing plan forms the basis for the introduction of an innovative series of laptops produced by the Lenovo. The environment analysis helps to understand the situation and find out the best strategies to achieving the company‟s strategic goals in future. Lenovo marketed as an innovation PC producer: Lunching innovation products and striving reinforce the company‟s status as the market leader in personal technology company. The marketing strategies will help Lenovo to reach the target market: an estimated 2 million people (targeted market in china) with a forecasted sales growth prospect of 3% in 2014, while acquiring the new customer who are still-unserved market for ready-to-buy Lenovo IdeaPad series laptop. With the increase sales revenue of laptop, Lenovo will keep the market leader position in Chinese PC industry.New World, New Thinking.Source from: /lenovo/us/en/our_company.htmlLenovo was established in 1984 by legend hold. Nowadays, it is a US$30 billion personal technology company – and the second largest PC companies in the world, serving customers in worldwide. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo‟s business is built on product quality, product innovation and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group‟s acquisit ion of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the Company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smartphones. Lenovo has major research and development centers in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China;Yamato, Japan and Raleigh, North Carolina. (Lenovo，2013)Lenovo Idea Pad product line have 5 different series of product:IdeaPad Yoga Series, Flex Series, IdeaPad Y Series, IdeaPad Z Series and IdeaPad U Series: (Lenovo, 2013)IdeaPad Yoga Series: The Yoga Series is a series laptop can convert 2 different modes to use: Ultrabook and tablet. Combining the productivity of an Ultrabook with the intuitive touch experience of a tablet, the Yoga will give customers the ultimate in versatility. Convert between the modes to make the most of Windows 8 – any way you want, any time you want.IdeaPad Flex Series: The Flex series is a kind of slim dual-mode laptops, this series of convertible laptops adapt to you and are reasonably priced. Choose classic laptop mode for maximum productivity or flip the screen 300 degrees into stand mode.IdeaPad Y Series: The Y series offer customer gaming and entertainment fuctions. This series laptop is design for high performance in gaming and other multimedia. Y series laptops feature the fastest processors, high resolution displays and studio-class audio.IdeaPad Z Series: The Z series offer customer perfect balance in high performance and unique design. This series laptop slim and colorful, and performance is good.IdeaPad U Series:The U series is a series of notebooks for everyday use with beautiful design. This series of laptops have up to 10 hours battery life with super thin and light body. Making travelling extremely light and compact, be it commuting to office or travelling around.4.Macro-Environment AnalysisThe profile for Lenovo macro-environment analysis consists of the following demographic analysis, PEST analysis and competitive analysis.4.1DemographicsSource from: /us/en/laptops/●Male and female users, with demanding high performance in entertainment and gaming.●Age20-30 ,with requirement in well-thought-out design●College students and fresh graduate, with better demands of their laptops in higherquality but lower price.4.2 PEST AnalysisTo understand the business operates environment is a very important part for a company business planning and find out major opportunities and threats. A PEST (political, economic, social and technological) analysis is a useful business model to help identify company external information like: market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations.(Chen,2006)4.2.1Political Environment1.The impact of fiscal policy on PC industryThe State Council issued " The white paper to further encourage the development of the software industry and integrated circuit industries a number of policy," including: 1) Tax policy: Continuing implementation of software value-added tax preferential policies to enterprises that meet the requirements exempt from sales tax; 2) Investment and financing policies: Encouraging and supporting enterprises to strengthen the integration of industry resources and 3) Open policies: Open Chinese market to allowforeign investment in china, developing free trade.●It provide a large-scale software market to further standardize and strengthengovernment agencies software asset management advice for domestic companies.●Tax Exemption, expand the scope of high-tech companies to encourage theirdeveloping.2.The impact of monetary policy on PC industryIn response to inflation and achieve economic soft landing, China will continue to implement a proactive fiscal and monetary policy , controlling the local financing platform loans to suppress local government investment impulse and decreasing the new loans amount. The monetary policies will weak the industry cash flow and stretched the operating cycle.3.The impact of industrial policy on PC industry●Implement of …The waste electrical and electronic product recycling regulations‟ willincreasing the cost for PC companies and give a big cost pressure to IT industries.●The State Council will supporting and encouraging software companies. In thissituation, the new information technology applications like: cloud services, LTEnetworking, mobile 3G and other new technologies will be developed. Newapplications development will be the major direction for software companiesdevelopment ;●The five-year plan give a direction of Internet construction in next five years, Homeappliances in nationwide, strong investment in Government Informationization ,increase investment in rural education and comprehensive in health informationtechnology,etc. The PC industry and software industry will become the main drivingforce.4.2.2Economic Environment1.It is because of economic crisis, economic goes down. The PC industry slowly in growthin China's PC industries. The government will take actions to increase the tightness of monetary policy to curb inflation, the European debt crisis and the U.S. GDP double-dip recession.According to statistics, the PC industry in the 2011 first quarter increased slowly, the sales value is 453.4 billion Yuan with 13.9% increasing compared with 2010; Export delivery value is 333 billion Yuan, it is decreased 24.9% compared with the same period last year. Production amount of PC is 61.63million units, with 18.8% increased, it includes 45.42 million laptop units (8.0% increase), accounted for 73.7% totally units production of PC. An intense decrease of off-season shipments, shows that the market is re-entering the slow growth after 2010.2.PC industries maintain a high growth investment in the first quarter of 2011. Thecomputer industry investment in 12.65billion Yuan with 80.6%increase, the growth rate is 25.4% much higher than last year; new investment is 3.37 billion Yuan with 105.1 % increase. Computer industry investment growth is very high, this is a signal for potential risk of overcapacity.3.The continuing appreciation of the Chinese Yuan will increase the cost of Lenovo's sales,thereby reducing net income. Therefore, the whole year, the PC industry is difficult to rebound sharply4.2.3Social EnvironmentWith economic development, the demand of laptops rapid growing, handheld portable PC and mobile devices will be the future trend in PC industry. Since reform and opening, people's life standard has been greatly improved in terms of the consumption. As economic developed and people incomes increased, consumer demand especially in entertainment products demand and innovation products demand is gradually increasing. This give a big chance for laptop and other mobile devices to be widely used in this digital era.4.2.4Technological EnvironmentMost of the computer use a combination of Microsoft and Intel's products, but there are some changes in the market in recent years. With smart phones and tablet selling and popularity, based on the ARM architecture processor Apple iOS system and android system has shaken wintel Alliance. There is a new pattern is emerging. It becomes a trend for PC companies enter the smart phone and tablets market to make profit.4.3Competitive AnalysisLenovo market share and major competitorsSource from: /blog/btl/lenovo-rides-thinkpad-enterprise-upgrade-cycle-china-to-strong-third-quarter/45017Compare with their competitors: HP, ACER and Dell. Lenovo group. Ltd is the market leader in china PC industry from 2009. From the table we can know Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer are the top four band in china, they almost consist 55% of the total market share.Lenovo had good R&D (Research and development) team in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China. It helps Lenovo provided a range of IT solutions and product (Like Idea Pad series) to meet customer needs. The Ideapad series laptop gives customers high performance with an affordable price and domestic players‟ increasingly powerful brands,Lenovo attract the potential customer from urban areas to rural areas to compete with foreign brands (Like Dell, HP, and Acer). Increasing localization strategy helps foreign brands expand their market inChina. The following table shows the major competitor analysis:Dell is one of most major brand in china PC industry. It is targeting meet customer s‟ demand. Dell sales model is different from any other brand. “Listen. Learn. Deliver. That‟s what we‟re about.” is Dell‟s mission. Their customer can direct go to Dell official website can purchase their products which meet their needs. It‟s direct from company to customer, cheaper and efficiency. Dell take low-cost strategy to attract customers to buy their products and online purchase is an excellence distribution channel for Dell to stay competitive with other brand in china market.Another competitor of Lenovo would be the giant corporation named HP, which is known as Hewlett Packard. With the massive growth of economy in China at the rate of 9% per annum, it is accelerating the corporate spending that HP is well position to benefit from it. The company has been investing heavily on their product and services offerings to the Chinese market, especially with its corporate business and enterprising. These allows HP to offer the most profitable products to the market with its cloud services and enterprise solutions. It is definitely one of the stronger competitive advance for it strategic expansion into the Chinesemarket in the futureAcer Group is another family of 3 brands-- Acer, Gateway, and Packard Bell. Acer has a very unique multi branding strategy characteristics that satisfy the different customers‟ needs in the Chinese P C market. Acer‟s product has been of good quality as Acer tries to break the barriers between people and technology. The Acer Group is No. 4 for PC shipments and No. 3 for laptops shipments in Chinese market.5SWOT AnalysisSWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and treat) analysis is a useful model for company to providing the internal information in marketing research. In order to giving a best strategy to achieve company goal, SWOT analysis should be done to examine the company current situation. The SWOT analysis as shown as follows:Market leader in Chinese PC industriesGood quality of product and servicesStrong brand awareness & recognition Good public relationship and sponsorship Environment FriendlyNational Brand Single market channel Market source not rich Low differentiationOversea market expandNew Products development Tablet and Cross border products Partnership with Government Price WarStrong CompetitorsRapid technological change5.1 Strength●Market leader in Chinese PC industriesLenovo is the first largest PC companies in china. It almost take 25-35% of Chinese market share and it been market leader for 6 years until now.According to “LENOVO REPORTS THIRD QUARTER 2011/2012 RESULTS”,Lenov o China‟s market share rose 3.1% points during the third fiscal quarter in 2012, to an all-time high market share for Lenovo in China of 35.3 %. In the largest PC market in the world, Lenovo widened the share gap between itself and the Company‟s main competitors, and continued to outperform the China market, particularly in emerging cities and amongst rural customers. Lenovo posted US$3.5 billion in consolidated sales in China in the third quarter in 2012. Lenovo‟s PC shipments in China increased 28% year-over-year, almost double the overall industry increase of PC shipments in China of 17% in 2012.●Good quality of product and servicesLenovo have a good R&D team, it helps the company to develop and manufacture good products to give customer the perfect experience for using PC. Lenovo provided good customer service during the whole products lifecycle. Lifecycle process included the process of providing IT solution, transportation the products to customer, installation for customer use, service to help customer recycling or disposal after lifecycle. During the whole lifecycle Lenovo will always provide a good service for their customer.●Strong brand awareness & recognitionLenovo has strong brand awareness and recognition for innovation and quality. It has high brand loyalty in china and customer are willing to Lenovo Products. Its helps Lenovo builtmarket barriers to anti the competitor‟s entry in china markets. And it helps Lenovo become market leader in Chinese PC industries.●Good public relationship & sponsorshipLenovo doing quite well in terms of CSR in china. It has a good public relationship in China. In 2008, Lenovo is one of the major sponsors of 2008 Beijing Olympic Game.The company is supplying more than 500 technicians and approximately 20,000 pieces of hardware infrastructure, including desktop and notebook PCs, servers and monitors, the largest hardware commitment to any Olympic Games in history. (Lenovo, 2008)●Environment FriendlyLenovo is dedicated to follow an environmental leadership which is applicable to the business activities from all perspectives. Which this in mind, Lenovo corporate policy on the environmental issues are duly followed by the company global environmental management system. It is one of the key efforts of achieving results that will consistently follow with environmental leader that enables the company to be vigilant on the global environmental issues.●National BrandLenovo is a company funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1984, it is a national brand which support by government. Also, it has lots of benefits which given by the government: such as lower taxes for Lenovo. The Chinese government only use Lenovo exclusively as their primary computers.5.2Weakness●Single market channelProducts and services of Lenovo are mainly sold by monopolized stores, other market channels are not as good as store. As technology developed, more and more people choose online shopping or TV shopping. Like Dell sales model will be more and more popular. In long term, single market channel can catch less customer than multi market channels.●Market source not richLenovo is established in China in 1984, but start expand market to overseas from 2005, Most market source in worldwide is already taken by the competitors like Dell, HP and Acer. Compared with competitors, Lenovo market source is not rich. It is will restrict Lenovo expand to Worldwide market.●Low differentiationThe IdeaPad series including 5 different product lines. But it is difficult for customer to find out the different of Yoga series, U series and Z series. The products are designed by Lenovo is different from other brands laptop. But the different products of IdeaPad is quite similar. Customer are looking for innovation products with unique designs. The different product lines should designed different.5.3OpportunityAnsoff Matrix●Oversea market expandIn recent years, Lenovo is the market leader in Chinese PC industries. Lenovo already have huge number of customer but it is difficult to catch more customer. According to Ansoff Matrix diagram, company should shift from existing market to new market to make profit. Lenovo should expand market to worldwide and competitive with other PC Brand to make profit.●New Products developmentLenovo has a good R&D facilities in china. Lenovo has developed and launched a wide range of new products currently. Lenovo offers a worldwide product line that included the IdeaPad laptops, IdeaCentre desktops, and convertible PC, data security technologies and cloud service. These kind of product lines offered as technology advances and evolves which give Lenovo much opportunity to expand market in the future and meet customer need of looking for innovation products.●Tablet and Cross border productsAs Windows 8.1 system and Android developed, huge market share are lost in laptop industries. People‟s lifestyle changed, How to survive in this situation is a big challenge for lots of companies. Lenovo R&D developing Tablet and cross border products start its Journey from PC to PC+. (Lenovo, 2012)●Partnership with GovernmentLenovo is a national company with good relationship with Chinese government. From 2007, The Chinese government and military use Lenovo exclusively as their primary computers. This kind of partnership helps Lenovo catch higher market share.5.4Treat●Price WarAs the increased of competition and market-share, home appliances prices goes down. So, the model of increasing sales volume to make profit given the lower margins in the home appliances industry. Laptop industries become less profitable than before. Lenovo also will became threat in price issue. For example, the local brand competitor always research Lenovo product and price, they develop an almost same product with a little bit lower price to compete with Lenovo‟s products. I t‟s a serious problem for Lenovo to setting the price cover their research and development fee for their product to compete with other local brand.●Strong CompetitorsLenovo faces an intense competition in its market share. The competitors such as Dell, Acer, and HP are large MNCs with several years‟ global operations and strong assets. These companies have good market channel, market resource, the technical supports and strong brand image to challenge Lenovo. Intense competition may decrease Lenovo market share, sales revenue and Leader position in Chinese market.●Rapid technological changeNowadays, Information technology developed fast, the lifecycle of laptop become shorter and shorter. As a hardware producer, laptop products need developed good products keep up with the operating system and also need know the trends of hardware. For example, the Windows system is the mainly system in PC industry. The Windows system change generation faster and faster: It takes 4 years Lunching Windows XP (2001) to Windows Vista (2005), But now from Windows 7 (2009) to Windows 8 (2012), It only takes two and half year to change the system. For hardware producer, it is very important to keep up with the operating system and hardware.6Vision & MissionLenovo‟s vision to create, multiple platforms of persona l devices to mass market due to technology emerging massively in the current market while having to create a well-respected company at the same time. With this vision it allows Lenovo to pursuit a mission to becomeone of the largest technological company around the globe.7Marketing objective & goals7.1Marketing Goals●Keeping an industry leader in the China market●Develop market channels and market source●Offer new products that demonstrate market innovation●Shift from a PC company to a PC+ company7.2Marketing Objective●Increase laptop sales revenue by 3 percent in over the next 1 year in china market ●Improve customer loyalty and retention by 35%●Acquire 2 million new subscribers●Develop new technological device: Mobile phone and Tablet.8. Bibliographiesn Worthington and Chris Britton, (2003), Business Environment, 4th Edition, GreatBritain, Prentice Hall Press2.Lenovo, (2005), Introduction of Organization,/about/lenovo/company1959.shtml3.Global M&A Research Center, (2006), China Mergers and Acquisitions Yearbook, 2006annual report, Beijing, Posts & Telecom Press4.Chen, Y. J. (2006). Global brand's marketing communication research - acase study of Lenovo PC, master's thesis, Graduate institute ofcommunication, Shih Hsin University, Taiwan.5.The Marketing Surveillance Center of China, (2008), principal economic policies/zh/2/2008-11-19/47987.htm , accessed 5th Jan, 2009 6.Lenovo. (2008). Lenovo to Conclude Olympic Sponsorship After Beijing 2008 OlympicGames. Available: /article_display.cfm?article_id=1105 . Last accessed 21/11/2013.21。