Marketing Plan part C

Marketing Plan

Natalie Locke

Harrychand Kalicharan

MKT 500

02/01/2015

Abstract

Developing a successful market plan for a company demands a strategic analysis of various parameters (Luther, 2011); both within and outside the company. This paper will discuss the market plan for my product company by narrowing down to the following areas: a brief description of the company, analysis of the business external environment, determination of the target market, decision of company objectives, measurement of short term and long term goals, and a SWOT analysis for the product. Company description is next.

Company description

My company, Classy Wear Inc., is a product based revenue generating organization whose head office will be set in New Orleans. The company will design adult women’s office clothing according to their custom specifications. With more than 200 employees to start off, it is crystal clear that a lot has to be done for the company to perform well and outdo its competitors; and establish itself as a leading brand on a global scale.

Environmental analysis

Business external environment consist of the following sub-environments; technological, legal, economic, sociocultural, competitive and political environments.

Competitive environment: recognized clothing brands not only in New Orleans but the US as a whole include but not limited to the following; Adam Jones Fashion, Alexander McQeen Fashion, Armani, Akademics Clothing, and Acne Studios. One notable similarity among them is the lack of specific product definition; they deal in a wide category of clothing, ranging from those of children to adults, men to women, casual to office wear. This is a good indicator to Classic Wear Inc., a company that will specifically narrow in one clothing line. Additionally, many of the competitors in the market release their products in bulk, from which customers make their selection on finished products. Classic Wear Inc. aims to doing the reverse, giving customers the opportunity to describe the design they desire, after which the company production team will design and make according to customer specifications; a factor that will definitely put the company on a better competitive scale.

Sociocultural: Many have described the current human generation, the millennials, as ‘trendy’. This is to mean they go with the demands of the present times; clothing designs is no exception. Presently, women desire clothing that fit their shape, custom-made, ‘fashionable and sexy’ as others would describe. Classic Wear Inc. will be the ultimate designer of choice for many, since social and cultural factors surrounding the millennials is factored in.

Other environments: The political and legal environments in the US are stable; it facilitates efficient transaction of business operations. The economy on the other hand is an indicator of business growth; business sales decrease drastically when the economy is at recess. From a rough analysis, the US economy is way ahead of other countries and the results are expected to improve in the next quarter as evident from Bank of Canada’s projections below ("Bank Of Canada Welcomes A Weaker Currency And A Bullish U.S. Economy - Currency Shares Canadian Dollar Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:FXC) | Seeking Alpha," n.d.).

To improve sales and attract a wide customer base, Classic Wear Inc. will incorporate technology in facilitating marketing of products. The social media will form the central pillar for establishing customer loyalty; sending and receiving information from customers in a bid to establishing a strong link with them.

Target markets

The target market is that which we intend to sell our products to; it should be clearly defined. The following are used in analyzing the target market; 4Ps (product, price, place, and promotions), 5Cs (customers, competitors, company, collaborations, and context), and STP (segmentation, targeting and positioning).

The primary target market for Classic Wear Inc. will be working class women in the larger US. This is because our clothes design will particularly be office wear for women. Our secondary market will be the non-employed women who desire to dress professionally.

Our products will be prime-priced since our target market comprises of the medium and high societal classes. The services rendered and products offered will be of the best quality in order to counter our competitors who might price their products low. Despite our plan to build branches in every state, we mainly aim to strengthen our online presence as our market place. This will enable our customers make orders online without necessarily having to reach our offices. Promotions for our products will mainly be concentrated in the first year alone; otherwise we plan to establish a referral scheme thereafter whereby customers shall get rewarded based on number of referrals they make. For ease of access, locating our outlets where offices are dense will be the appropriate strategy.

After classifying the wider market into various segments, we will bring down our focus to working class women group in the first financial year of our operations. Thereafter, our secondary market will come into consideration depending on the nature of business performance during that period. The illustration below is a general representation of the chronological STP process ("STP - Samsung Mobiles: STP of Samsung Mobiles," n.d.);

As is evident, the market scope narrows down as the plan progresses from segmentation to targeting to positioning.

Main goals

In this context, the short term will refer to a period of one year while the long run will refer to a period of not less than 5 years. Business objectives are the main driving forces for business success.

Our short-term goals will include the following;

· To establish a good understanding of the market in terms of what competitors offer; to help our designers do it differently.

· To monitor market trends; customers’ choices and preferences.

· To contract an advertising firm in a bid to promoting our products.

· To establish a stable website with continuous traffic flow.

Long-term goals will include;

· To establish branches in every state within the US and other countries depending on company performance at that time.

· To be among the leading brands in the market.

· To employ more than 5000 workers and participate in societal developmental projects.

· To grow our annual revenue by double-digit percentage.

Measuring both short-term and long-term goals

Sigma analysis will be used to measure long term goals. However, short run company goals will be monitored using the following parameters; number of website visitors, number of referrals, number of orders made in a specified period of time, and customers’ feedback on the quality of services offered in our outlets..

Short term: The number of company’s website visitors is a direct indicator of popularity of the company’s products in the market. We plan to establish a website that will allow each customer create a portal for ease of communication and viewing available products; a space for them to specify the design they desire and follow up on the progress of manufacture of the product. As Dibb and Simkin (2008) notes, an increase in the number of online visits will be an indicator of good company performance. The referral program will work in a unique way; each customer gets an opportunity to refer their friends to the company (both website and physical outlets) after which they gain credits as illustrated below;

At the end of the financial quarter, customers can order clothing with their accumulated credits. The number of referrals will therefore be another measure of business goals in the short term.

Long term: The sigma process will be our tool of performance measure in the long run. Any deviation from a set goal is named a defect. The number of defects in a six sigma process is 3.4 ppm. Each company sector will therefore be monitored for a longer period and the number of defects noted.

SWOT analysis for customized women’s office wear

Strengths: custom-made designs that are in line with customer preferences, durable materials, trendy look.

Weaknesses: premium pricing of the product, the narrow market scope (mainly working class women), only for women.

Opportunities: Technological advancement which will definitely present options for easy execution of tasks as compared to manual labor that is evident in our competitor’s outlets, diversification of Chinese market which presents an opportunity for our global expansion.

Threats: strong competitors with already established brands.

Needs analysis

The following will be needed for successful development of our products; right from the design stage to sell of finished products: cotton raw material, sewing machines, product designing team, other machines as necessary, a company website, and a sales consultancy.

References

The Bank Of Canada Welcomes A Weaker Currency And A Bullish U.S. Economy - CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:FXC) | Seeking Alpha. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://seekingalpha.com/article/1987731-the-bank-of-canada-welcomes-a- weaker-currency-and-a-bullish-u-s-economy

Dibb, S., & Simkin, L. (2008). Marketing planning: A workbook for marketing managers. London: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Luther, W. M. (2011). The marketing plan: How to prepare and implement it. New York: AMACOM.

STP - Samsung Mobiles: STP of Samsung Mobiles. (n.d.). Retrieved from http:// stpsamsungmobiles.blogspot.com/2012/12/stp-of-samsung-mobiles.ht