Fluent Essays

Prompt Submit a first draft of your completed Marketing Plan, including the Executive Summary and the Conclusion. The Executive Summary should include a sentence or two about each section of the plan to be a conclusive summary of the entire plan. The conclusion should reiterate the goals of launching the offering and explain how the reader can help you reach those goals (through monetary investment). The overall Marketing Plan Assignment Instructions have been included below for you to review again prior to submission. A marketing plan is used by marketing departments to create buy-in from company leadership for their new offering. It also enables other departments to figure out what their responsibility will be in the new launch. Marketing plans can cover a variety of spans of time, but this plan should be a one-year plan. Although each marketing plan differs slightly in structure and content, they are all quite similar. The template you will use for this project is made up of six sections: executive summary, the business challenge, the market, the strategy, budget, and conclusion. Each section has subsections that help to explain it in good detail. The template is below. During the first six modules of this course, you will work on various pieces of the project so that by the seventh module, you can submit a first draft of the project. The instructor will review the first draft and provide feedback for you to incorporate prior to handing in the final, graded draft in the final week of the course. The flow of subsections assigned is not in the order of the template to better align with the readings. You will understand how to perform these weekly assignments if you work on them following the readings. By following the assignment outline below, by the end of the sixth module, you will have completed all sections of the plan, except the Executive Summary and the Conclusion. The total length of the plan you submit should be four to five pages, single-spaced, with 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch margins. Refer to the sample marketing plans on MyFire for additional guidance. The Marketing Plan: An Outline Executive Summary The Business Challenge A brief description of the offering and the goals of the plan. This section serves as an introduction. The Market Customers: Who are they, and what do they need? Company analysis: Your firms strengths and weaknesses relative to this market and the offering Collaborators: Your collaborators could include suppliers and/or distributors or retailers. Competitors: Who are they, and what are they doing? Business climate: The business climate includes the opportunities and threats created by environmental forces, such as government regulations and legislation, the economy, and social, cultural, and technological forces. The Strategy The strategy: Why did you choose the strategy you did? Consider including a brief discussion of alternatives that were considered and discarded. The offering: Provide details on the features and benefits of the offering as well as its pricing options. The communication plan: How will the offering be launched? What will the ongoing communication strategies be? This section is likely to be fairly broad and will require collaboration with communication partners such as your firms advertising agency. Distribution: How will the offering be sold? Who will sell it? Who will ship it? Who will service it? Budget Investment: Provide details about the budget needed to launch and maintain the offering. Return: List both the short-term and long-term financial goals of the offering, including its projected sales, costs, and net income. Other resources required Conclusion SAMPLE MARKETING PLAN I. Executive Summary This plan will summarize the launch of a new service that would cater to children 2-12 as well as their caregivers in the Newnan, GA area. Currently, there is not a sufficient supply of quality entertainment for children. We want to provide a modern space that supports independent and group play amongst children, avoiding the use of technology and encouraging the use of imagination. Caregivers would be able to remain on premises, but trust the care of their children to our staff. They could then utilize their free time as they wish, all while being able to view their children through a glass wall. We feel that our current business, a coworking space, has provided us with good knowledge of the market. Connections formed through this business as well as our background in education, will enable us to create this service better than someone just entering the market. Current competition does exist, but serves a different segment of the market. Their service is a lower cost and quality. We will be able to bring value to the market through this service, benefiting our customers in ways that other businesses aren’t. It will be a one-stop shop for children’s entertainment, providing both a play space and a learning space. With a price of $15 per visit and discounts for monthly and yearly memberships, we can meet the needs of our customers in a flexible way. To ensure that the launch of the service goes well, we want to do both a soft and hard launch. The soft launch will allow us to refine the service prior to launching to the open public. With these efforts, we expect to reach a net income of $46,700 in our first year. II. The Business Challenge The challenge we see in the market is that there is not a sufficient supply of quality entertainment for children 12 and under. Creating a space that entertains and challenges children, both physically and mentally is our goal. This new service would cater to children ages 2-12, as well as their caregivers. We want to create a modern, well- equipped, flexible space that allows children to independently explore and learn, unplugged. Children would have access to an indoor obstacle course, playground, books, music, educational toys and classes. Their caregivers would have access to a soundproof, glass-walled room from which to view their children, but to also have some “me time” to relax, catch up on work, or meet other caregivers. They would not have to commit to a set amount of days or hours spent with us. We want this to be a place that is accessible and flexible to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. We plan to collaborate with playground and décor design companies to make the most of our space, utilizing square footage in the best way possible. III. The Market a. Customers: Children - ages 2-12, living within a 15-mile radius of zip code 30265, seeking entertainment of various types in one location Adults - any age; living within a 15-mile radius of zip code 30265; caregivers of children; disposable income to spend on entertainment; seeking high quality entertainment for their children, seeking an “unplugged” lifestyle, a flexible schedule, some “me” time while knowing their children are being taken care of. b. Company analysis: Strengths • Existing coworking business in this market • Educational background • Prior experience developing work space that will transfer to development of play/learning space Weaknesses • Leadership to focus on two businesses • No prior experience developing children’s programming c. Collaborators: Space Design - We will partner with Landscape Structures to design a one-of-a-kind indoor play space that encourages age appropriate development for 2-5 year olds and 6-12 year olds. We will research and interview a variety of design companies to assist in the modern décor design of our learning space to ensure correct ergonomics and aesthetics for the children. Program Design - We will hire consultants who specialize in Elementary Education and Physical Education to help us design our programming. Distribution/Marketing/Selling – This will all be handled internally by our part-time and full-time staff of about 10 people. d. Competitors: Children Connect This would be considered our most direct competitor due to the variety of programs they offer. Children Connect’s mission is to engage children and families in the joyful discovery of connecting to the world around them through meaningful play. We have similar missions and values, but our service will be a higher quality service. This business is very small, requires adult supervision for most daily activities, and has limited programming. They do have future plans to expand; however, the type of programming they provide is different than ours will be. While they may react to our launch by expanding their programming quicker than planned, we do not foresee any issues with this on our end. Our consumers may overlap somewhat, but our quality and angle we’re taking will differ enough to each attract our own segment of the market. We do not want to hurt their business, but simply offer a new level of entertainment attracting a different segment of the market (childrenconnect, 2019). e. Business Climate: Opportunities • Utilize current coworking customers to gain customers and spread information about our new service through grassroots marketing efforts. • Offer an indoor play space for hot summer months and cold winter months. • Provide a flexible offering that allows customers to not have to commit to a monthly or yearly fee, increasing our potential market. • Create a place that people come to in order to unplug, committing to a movement that encourages children to be imaginative and social without the use of technology. Threats • Businesses in the surrounding area, who currently focus on only one form of entertainment or education, expanding their offerings. • Parents being tentative about their children adjusting to an “unplugged” environment. • Issues with programs that we develop or injuries during play. IV. The Strategy a. The Strategy: We wanted to serve an underserved area of the market we are currently in. Children do not have enough quality entertainment in our market, but this new service will address this issue. The strategy of creating a new product for an existing market we’re already serving is called Product Development. We feel that the knowledge we already have about this market will help us create this new service in a way that other businesses just entering the market would not be able to. While there are other markets surrounding us that could also use this service, we want to focus on our current market to introduce and perfect the business model before we would consider market development later on down the road. Diversification would be too risky for the level of investment required for this type of service. We know our current market and feel comfortable with the level of commitment and investment required of this service due to our experience in this market. The value this service will bring to the market is that it will be a one-stop shop for children’s entertainment, providing both a play space and a learning space. Children will be able to play in a unique environment without technology, increasing their social skills and confidence in their abilities. Exposure to new subjects will add to their experience as a child, possibly fostering a love for a new subject and aiding in their career choices as an adult. Adults can relax knowing their children are being cared for and challenged while they take some time for themselves or connect with others. b. The offering: Features • Indoor play space catering to ages 2-5 and 6-12. There will be two custom play spaces designed for each age bracket in mind. The 2-5 age group will have a variety of small obstacle course type structures and other structures fit for their age with plenty of space for imaginary play and reading. The 6-12 age group will have a large multipurpose play structure with typical playground activities, obstacle course structures, books, and simple toys. We want the activities to be ones they can’t find at a typical playground, but also somewhat familiar. The design will be modern and simple. Creating these custom structures will allow us to have a mesh of the two, familiar but challenging. We want to encourage group play and have activities that keep the children’s attention, time after time. A child will tire of any toy, but if group play and imagination is at the center, the activity will be new each time! Instructors will be charged with keeping the spaces safe as well as suggesting group play activities throughout the day. Cleanliness is a top priority, which is a secondary reason we are going to have simple structures and toys, ones that are quick and easy to clean. • Classes that cover a variety of subjects like art, music and theater, which some children are not getting enough exposure to in school, as well as some unique skills to teach children such as Imagineering and problem solving. Classes will be offered for ages 2-5, 6-9, and 10-12. Class subjects will be on a weekly rotation. • Caretaker space with one-way window for viewing of children and soundproofing (caretakers would need to remain on premises). Space will include comfortable seating, outlets for computer and phone charging, a few workstations, and complementary bottled water. Once a week, we will host a caretaker session in this room to foster community and support. The topics during these sessions will range from motivation, budgeting, self-care, and free discussion. Benefits • Children are able to play in a unique environment without technology, exercising their bodies and minds. This will increase their social skills and confidence in their abilities. • Children can learn about subjects and skills not offered at all or as extensively as other subjects in their schools. This exposure will add to their experience as a child, possibly fostering a love for a new subject and aiding in their career choices as an adult. • Adults can relax knowing their children are being cared for and challenged while they take some time for themselves or connect with others. Pricing • $15 per visit – Covers all day play and classes. Slightly higher than competition due to higher quality and programming, while still maintaining an affordable price for children’s entertainment. • $100 monthly membership – Covers all day play and classes, unlimited days within a month. $20 discount based on average of visiting 2 times per week. • $1100 yearly membership - Covers all day play and classes, unlimited days within 1 year of sign-up. $460 discount based on average of visiting 2 times per week. c. The communication plan: Launch – We will host a soft launch and hard launch. The soft launch will be invite only. It will be utilized to gather initial thoughts and make improvements prior to the hard launch to the open public. We will extend invites to local influencers, educators, leaders, and entrepreneurs who have experience working with caregivers and children. We will do so through leads from our existing networks as well as social media. We will reward their attendance with a free 3- month membership card, so that if they like it, they can return with their children and continue the experience, encouraging them to share what they like about the service via their channels of influence. The soft launch will also prepare us by helping us to refining our target market and ensure we are ready for a specified launch date. The hard launch will be a widely-marketed, week-long launch. We want it to be a week-long event because we want to present each of our programs as a part of this launch, not just a few on a single launch day. We will market this grand opening calendar for at least 1 month, inviting people via social channels, influencers, schools, and key partners that we build throughout the creation of this service. We will post grand opening materials in our windows and hand out invite cards the week leading up to the grand opening. The grand opening calendar will be a sampling of all programs we’ll offer on a monthly basis. Programs offered this week will be a sampling and, therefore, shorter, to allow for more people to be able to preview more of our service during this week. Regular fees will apply. Ongoing - Our primary methods of communication moving forward will be social media and our website. We know that remaining top-of-mind to our consumers is key and having an active, relevant social media presence is crucial in this effort. We will plan a monthly social media calendar 2 months ahead of the prior month to ensure our communications are consistent, yet vary in content. We will host giveaways to free visits and classes through social media. Ensuring that our website is user-friendly and offers the information our consumers are looking for is vital. It will be simple and always up-to-date in hopes of cutting down on unnecessary communications and misunderstandings. We will offer live chat on the website to ensure ease of communications. Customers will be able to sign up for our monthly newsletter via our website, which will include the current month’s calendar as well as any news, including improvements or changes to our schedule. d. Distribution: We will have only one location in Newnan, GA. Customers will be able to come in anytime to play and learn in our open spaces. They can reserve spots in classes ahead of time or walk-in if there is still an open spot. V. Budget a. Investment: Launch Costs Renovation of Space (structural and paint) $30,000 Furniture $1,500 Play Space Equipment and Supplies $15,000 Class Space Equipment and Supplies $7,500 Caretaker Space Equipment and Supplies $500 Office Space Equipment and Supplies $1,500 Marketing $25,000 TOTAL $81,000 Ongoing Costs Cleaning $3,500/year Lease $60,000/year Maintenance $500/year Utilities $6,000/year Marketing $10,000/year Part-time Employee Pay $62,400/year Full-time Employee Pay $62,400/year Play, Class, Caretaker, and Office Space Supplies $5,000/year TOTAL $209,800 b. Return: Short-term Sales $337,500 Year 1 (average of 50 children per day 9 months/year and 150 per day 3 months/year; 25 days per month) Short-term Costs $290,800 Year 1 Short-term Net Income $46,700 Year 1 Long-term Financial Goals Increase average children per day by 50\% within 3 years. c. Other resources required $5,000 to fund a focus group to gather information from local influencers, parents, caregivers, educators, leaders, etc. VI. Conclusion Thank you for taking the time to read our marketing plan. Our community has a need for higher-quality child entertainment, and we believe that we have created a great solution, one that we serve both the children as well as their caregivers. We hope you will support our goals and help us meet them through monetary investment in this service. Please reach out with any questions. References childrenconnect. (2019). childrenconnect. [online] Available at: https://www.childrenconnectmuseum.com/ https://www.childrenconnectmuseum.com/