In this assignment, you will focus on creating the marketing plan for your business. Your chosen company will operate within a 100-mile radius of your h
Overview
- In this assignment, you will focus on creating the marketing plan for your business. Your chosen company will operate within a 100-mile radius of your home address. Your goal is to reach $1 million in sales by the end of the second year.
- Be sure to follow the guidelines below.
- Use the template below to complete this assignment:
Reminders
You are not starting this assignment from scratch. You have already worked on these sections of your business plan in the weekly discussions:
- Target Market (Week 3 discussion).
- Marketing Vehicles – included on assignment template.
You will revise the target market description and marketing vehicles based on the feedback you received in the discussion thread and any changes you want to make to your business plan.
Marketing Plan
In MS Word, write the 3–5 page marketing plan and sales strategy section of your business plan, in which you:
- Complete the company's target market description you developed in the Week 3 Discussion based on the instructor's feedback.
- Be sure to include demographic, geographic, lifestyle, psychographic, purchasing patterns, and buying sensitivities in the target market description.
- Assess the company's top 3 competitors.
- The assessment needs to include a brief description of the exact company and particular product or service you are competing against. For example, Coca-Cola offers a portfolio of products, such as water, fruit juice, and cola. Are you competing against Coca-Cola's fruit juice product? Or its cola product?
- Develop a plan that includes how you compare your business to your competitors currently and how you will differentiate yourself from the competition in the future.
- How will you stand out and why?
- Outline the company's value proposition.
- The value proposition tells your customers why they want to do business with you.
- Detail the marketing vehicles you will use to build your chosen company’s brand.
- Provide a rationale for selecting the vehicles and why you believe they will be effective in promoting your business.
- Insert the final version of the marketing vehicles table adjusted per the feedback received from the Week 4 Discussion.
First Name Last Name
Strayer University
BUS 599: Strategic Management
Professor
April 10, 2024
BUS599 – Strategic Management
© 2024 Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. 2
Document Instructions
Delete the instructions in red before submitting the assignment!
Due: Week 5, worth 125 points
Length: The assignment should be 3 to 5 pages, excluding title page and reference page
Important:
· Review the description of this assignment in Canvas and use the tips provided along with this template to help you write.
· Be sure to review the guidelines provided For-Profit Startup Company Guidelines
· Use the textbook and review the recommended pages. Note that your textbook has sample plans at the end of each paper.
· Review the grading rubric before writing. Know what you are graded for. Always look at the “exemplary” section.
Notes:
· Leave the text in black as it is. You are required to have a heading for each section.
· Use SWS format. Your will respond to each question using indented paragraphs. The preferred font is Times New Roman, size 12.
· The references must be on a separate page at the end of the paper.
· Check your paper for grammar, spelling, and organization in Microsoft Editor ( https://library.strayer.edu/editor) before submitting it.
Marketing Plan
Target Market
Describe your target market (customers) in demographic terms (age range, income range, gender education, etc.) as well as the geographic, lifestyle, psychographic, purchasing patterns and buying sensitivities description.
· You have addressed this topic in week 3 discussion. Be sure to check the feedback provided by the instructor and make changes as needed. Check the suggestions made by other students as well.
· Use the bold subheadings below.
Demographic Description
Age range, income range, gender, family size, education, occupation, et cetera. Example: A likely user for X product is a male aged 25–34 who earns between $35,000 and $55,000 per year and has a four-year college degree.
Geographic Description
Area you would like to serve, density (urban, rural), nature of location (mall, business center, et cetera), climate condition. Example: Atlanta.
Lifestyle Description
Where do your customers shop, what do they do for leisure, what kind of clothes do they wear, what type of cars do they drive, et cetera?
Psychographic Description
How would you describe your target market, for example, socially responsible, trendsetters, or fun-seeking?
Purchasing Pattern Description
How will your target market use the product, how many times will they buy it, where do they buy the product, how do they pay for it, et cetera?
Buying Sensitivities Description
What factors are important to the customer before they buy (price, quality, customer service. packaging, et cetera)?
Market Competition
· Identify and describe your top 3 competitors.
· When assessing the competition, specify the exact company and particular product or service you are competing against. For example, Coca-Cola offers a portfolio of products, such as water, fruit juice, and cola. Are you competing against Coca-Cola’s fruit juice product? Or its cola product?
Differentiating from Competition
· Explain how you compare yourself to each of your competitors.
· Detail a plan to differentiate yourself from the competition in the future. How will you stand out and why?
Value Proposition
· Outline the company’s value proposition (be specific to the product or service you plan to sell). The value proposition should be a brief description of how your product or service solves a problem the customers may have (or provides an improvement), should list the benefits the customers can expect, and why customers should buy your product or service instead of other similar ones on the market. You should also consider providing some evidence of your claims. The value proposition tells your customers why should they buy from you.
Marketing Vehicles
· Insert the final version of the marketing vehicles table adjusted per the feedback received from week 4 discussion.
· Provide a rationale for selecting each marketing vehicle, clarifying why you believe they will be effective in promoting your business.
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Marketing Vehicles Table |
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Marketing Vehicle |
Frequency |
Cost/Month |
|
Social Media: Facebook and Instagram |
3–5 times per week |
$700 per month |
|
TV Stations: Local Station |
1 time per week |
$500 per month |
|
Free Samples |
2 events |
$500 per month |
|
Website |
|
$2000 (one time) |
|
B illboards |
2 locally around town |
$50 per month |
Sources
· Be sure to cite all your sources.
· Use SWS to format all the references.
· Wikipedia and other similar websites (blogs, opinions) do not qualify as academic resources.
· You can use websites as long as the source is reliable (company websites, forbes.com, fda.com, census.com, etc.)
· For each reference you must have a corresponding in-text citation.
Below are examples of references (please delete and replace them with yours).
1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2016. Causes of Climate Change. https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-change-science/causes-climate- change_.html
2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 2008. Graphic: The Relentless Rise of Carbon Dioxide. https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/graphic-the- relentless-rise-of-carbon-dioxide/
3. Ellie Zolfagharifard. 2014. Tree Roots Act as 'Earth's Thermostat': Mountain Forest
Growth Has Stabilized the Earth's Climate for Millions of Years. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2552933/Tree-roots-act-Earths-
thermostat-Mountain-forest-growth-stabilised-Earths-climate-millions-years.html
4. Ronnie Cummins. 2013. How Factory Farming Contributes to Global Warming. https:// www.ecowatch.com/how-factory-farming-contributes-to-global-warming-
1881690535.html
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Earthly Elegance is a for-profit company offering self-care products to meet the ever-changing self-care needs of the target consumers. The company is selling a vast range of self-care products such as sunscreens, formulations including options for hydrating, volumizing, and accommodating sensitive or complicated scalps, organic shampoo conditioner, face and body wash, deodorants, makeup remover, skin wipes, and fragrances. Earthly Elegance is targeting both males and females and is committed to address diverse care concerns of individuals.
Demographic Description
The primary target market of Earthly Elegance includes women aged 25-45 and earning between $50,000 to $100,000 annually. Women should have awareness of their self-care needs and skin types to have the most appropriate solutions. Family sizes could range from single women to married mothers etc.
Geographic Description
Earthly Elegance aims to serve urban and suburban areas through the ecommerce platform. The target areas should have access to internet connection to access and use the online retail store of the company and to get their products at their doors. Initially, areas with moderate climates such as New York and California would be targeted to align with our mission to provide natural and organic personal care products.
Lifestyle Description
The lifestyle of target population should be modern yet healthy and hygienic. Yoga, exercise, workout and wellness retreats should be the part of everyday routine of our target population. Because along with personal care products having a healthy lifestyle is crucial to achieving expected outcomes. Customers prioritizing natural and organic products and fashion wise consciousness would be the focus of our business.
Psychographic Description
The target customers of Earthly Elegance would be socially responsible and would value sustainability and ethical sourcing in the manufacturing of products they use. Trendsetters, wellness-conscious, and those who prioritize self-care would be the target of Earthly Elegance. These customers would drive sales as well as promote sustainable and organic focused initiative of the brand to attract unique customers. Unmarried and young women are more conscious about their skin and body, meanwhile educated women are concerned about the manufacturing process of products they use thus we will target self-conscious educated women to be the part of our brand.
Purchasing Pattern Description
Purchasing patterns refers to the ways by which consumers purchase or acquire a product or service from a company (Waldroof, 2021). Customers will be purchasing Earthly Elegance’s personal care products from their website. Through e-commerce retailing the company has made it convenient for customers to have their products at their doorsteps. After ordering from the website within five days they would have their products on dressing tables. Customers will use our self-care products daily as a part of their self-care routine. Refilling or replenishment cycles depends on how frequently a customer is using our product.
Buying Sensitive Description
Different customers' buying behavior is sensitive to different factors. Such as some customers will be concerned about the price while others will be concerned about the quality, packaging etc. To strengthen consumer’s buying decisions and to convince them to purchase we have everything briefed on the website to help customers clear their insecurities and make an informed decision. For example, our products are organic, natural, and affordable and the packaging is eco-friendly. Earthly Elegance owns its commitments and is answerable to its valuable customers. Excellent customer service and brand success are also important considerations to make our visiting customers, returning customers.
To conclude, Earthly Elegance aims to be the trustworthy personal-care brand for its customers and for this, we are committed to every word we say to establish brand image in consumer’s minds. By targeting educated, women aged 25-45 married or single we will differentiate their personal-care experience. The company’s target market is majorly urban areas having awareness of the importance of personal care on everyday basis.
References
Waldroof, C. (2021). Buying Patterns: Leverage Consumer Insights | Mailchimp. Mailchimp. https://mailchimp.com/resources/buying-patterns/
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COMPANY GUIDELINES
· You will create a business plan for a for–profit startup company of your choice and you must adhere to the guidelines in this document.
· You will be the CEO of the new business.
|
Explanation |
|
|
Business Size |
· Your business is a for profit startup starting operations in January of the current year. · Your sales must be over $1 million by the end of the second year in business. |
|
Product or Service |
· Be specific about the product or service you plan to sell and how you will differentiate yourself from similar products or services in the marketplace. · You will list any variations of the product (product lines) or services you sell (service lines) |
|
Market Size |
· You will start marketing and selling the product or service in your geographical area within a 100-mile radius from your home and/ or online. |
|
Intention to Raise Money |
· You will develop the business plan with the intention to raise funds from investors and grow the business. · You will raise funds from outside investors, either angel investors or venture capitalists and you will give equity in your business in exchange for the money you raise from investors. |
|
Facility |
· You will rent or purchase. You will need to identify the cost of rent or purchase price and the cost of utilities. · You cannot operate from your home. |
|
Employees |
· You will have employees, a management team, and you will develop your own organizational hierarchy. · You will have more employees and managers in the second year than in the first year as your sales are increasing. |
|
Equipment |
· You will need to purchase equipment, computers, furniture, vehicles (etc.), as applicable, to run your business. |
Key Business Plan Parameters
*The instructor will approve your company in a reply to your Week 1 discussion post in which you will describe this business.
1
1
1
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Overview:
Earthly Elegance is commited to develop opulent yet reasonably priced self-care products that satisfy customers' changing demands without sacrificing environmental sustainability. At Earthly Elegance, self-care is a way to develop confidence and self-expression. We have developed distinctive personal care products that empower people and enhance their timeless appeal by fusing natural ingredients with in-depth research. Consumers in today's market place a premium on environmental responsibility and are growing increasingly conscious of the consequences of their purchases. Consequently, we supply them with sustainable and organic self-care and environmental products.
|
Marketing Vehicles Table |
||
|
Marketing Vehicle |
Frequency |
Cost/Month |
|
Social Media: Facebook and Instagram |
3-5 times per week |
$700 per month |
|
TV Stations: Local Station |
1 time per week |
$500 per month |
|
Free Samples |
2 events |
$500 per month |
|
Website |
|
$2000(one time cost) |
|
Billboards |
2 locally around town |
$50 per month |
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