Marketing of Dog-Gone Stylin - Essay Example

Marketing Executive Summary This paper represents a marketing plan of a mobile pet grooming salon. of the business is Dog-Gone Stylin which is located in New Jersey. This business has major strength due its mobility feature which is the core competence of this business. The business also has high opportunity in future if it implements the marketing strategies efficiently. Company Description Dog-Gone Stylin’ is a mobile pet salon founded by Alisa Kane in 2005 b. It is a privately owned small business that offers pet grooming services to the pet owners. Kane identified a potential demand of care and grooming of pets among the pet owners. She is very much passionate and also experienced in per care and grooming services. She has focused on beyond the traditional ways of grooming pets. That means she wants to provide grooming with pleasure to the pets as they pets are very much loving to the owners and they always deserve this types of pet care grooming services from this clinics. Strategic Focus and Plan Mission/Vision Mission of this business is to provide convenient and high quality pet care services to the targeted customers. Goals Key values of this business are honesty, integrity, quality and trust. Core Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage Pet grooming service of Kane is totally different from other businesses in this similar service. Dog Gone Stylkin’ is mobile pet salon and the clients do not need have to transport their pets and take time out of their day to drive back and forth to appointments. Kane goes to clients home with her customized mobile clinic van fully equipped with pet clinical instruments. Therefore it is a unique business concept and also core competence of this business. Another core competence of this business is its quality and ways of grooming service. Kane provided one on one grooming service to provide undivided attention to a particular pet at a time. The absence of unfamiliar animals is what really sets Kane’s idea apart. Situation Analysis SWOT analysis Mobility facili8ty of Kane’s clinic is the major convenience to the consumers as they do not need to bring their pets to the clinic rather the mobile clinic van will come to their house to offer one on one grooming service without the presence of unfamiliar animals as usual in the traditional clinics. Kane’s out of the limb and unique business activity attract the consumers. Again, one to one pet grooming session is the desired service by the consumers. This is a unique business practice and there is nothing to compete with in the market. As, it is a one to one grooming service at home, it is quite more expensive than other clinics. It is a small business and therefore, it can’t invest more on promotional activities for this new brand. Since, it is an innovative and creative, it can create a benchmark among pet grooming service sector. The potential customers can easily distinguish its service from traditional service provider4s and therefore, it has high opportunity of increased future demand. The business has a very small market and it operates in a niche segment of customers. It is a small business, threat of new entrants is very high and new businesses can try to copy this unique business idea. Industry Analysis Unemployment rate in US has increased by 3%. Adversely, average weekly earnings have increased by 2% in New Jersey. Recent economic slowdown has affected the pet grooming businesses and many of these have closed down. This indicates less market competition and increasing in disposable income in New Jersey might drive the growth of this business. Major pet grooming service seekers are the retired people whose children are out of home and need home based pet care service. Another potential segment is the young families with launched professions. These two different segments in the society have enough disposable income but they do not have ability or time to bring their pets to pet grooming salon. Most popular social networking site Facebook is the efficient platform for advertising pet grooming service business. Therefore, Kane can use promote its bui8sness by creating a face book page. Logo of the business, service offered, price etc need to be written in the page can be shared in the community of potential customers. Competitor Analysis One major competitor of Gog Gone Stylin is Nice Doggy Inc which is located within 50 miles from it. It offers skunk baths to the pets and also it has nearness to a big town. But this competitor offers service in very high price and working hour is very shorter. Another competitor is Happy Dog which offers low price pedicure service. Company Analysis Compared to these two major competitors, kane’s pet care service offers flexible working hours and it also offers cat grooming service which widen its market. Customer Analysis Two different social segments of people have rising trend of having pets. These are retired people and young families with launched professions. The retired people are generally older and they are not able to bring their pets to pet salon located in the market. Again, the young families have all working members and not have enough time to drive their pets to a pet salon. Therefore, these two segments of people in the society are potential target customers of this business (Stonehouse, 2004, p.35). Market-Product Focus Marketing and Product Objectives Main objective of marketing is to create sustainable demand of this service among the potential customers in the target location. Therefore, the business needs to follow Ansof’s product market grid models to develop both market and product. Initially it needs to focus on the product development along with developing wide range of service to satisfy the customers’ need and desire. After few span of time, it also needs to focus on market diversification into new potential market to maintain sustainable growth of the business. Target Markets Potential target customers include two different segments of people in the society. One is the retired people with high disposable income and they do not want to drive their pets to the pet salons located at township area. Another potential segment is the young families with also high disposable income but they6 do not have enough time to bring their loving pets to9 the pet salons after driving miles away (Nigro & Nigro, 2007, p.15). Marketing Program Product Strategy This business need to provide quality and customized services according to customers’ preferences. To make an competitive advantage it also need to offer wide range of services so that customers need not go to other4 pet salon for a specific service. Price Strategy This busyness is a mobile pet salon which provides grooming service at customers home. Therefore, price is automatically higher than fixed salons. But, it needs to maintain comparatively higher price to make this a premium brand for niche segment of people with higher disposable income. Promotion Strategy It needs to use both print and digital medium of advertisement for promotion of this brand. Personal selling would be effective which can drive both sales and promotion. Persuasion advertising and free sample distribution can also be effective promotional strategies (Friedman, 2002, p.22). Financial Data and Projections Monthly fixed cost for this business is $500 including travelling and equipment cost for grooming. Five different price ranges of services are priced at $60, $70, $80, $90 and $100 per pet therapy. Therefore, to reach breakeven daily, it needs to provide different number of serviced based on the price range of the service offered. Ultimately, Kane needs to earn more than $ 500 to achieve breakeven daily. But, it is expected that, price can be standardized at $100 per service due3 to niche segment of people and they have higher disposable income. Organizational Structure Dog-Gone Stylin is a very small mobile pet salon. The owner Kane is only the service provider. Therefore, she can hire an assistant to help her during pet grooming. Therefore, it would be a small hierarchical organization structure. Implementation This business need to need implement the above mentioned marketing strategies very efficiently to develop this as a premium brand in a niche segment of target customers. Kane has successfully targeted the potential segment of customers but they need full package of grooming service for their loving pets. Therefore, Kane needs to offers all desired services to the customers. It also needs to diversify into new potential market which will be sustainable business diversification strategy. Evaluation and Control This is a small business and the owner is the only working member of this business. Therefore, Kane needs to focus on both quality grooming service and also strategy development and implementation of those. Though, it would be tough to handle both management and business operations, she need to maintain as much as cost effective. If the business expands in near future, then she can hire few experts who will provide the grooming service but she need to train them well so that customers are ensured about quality of a premium service. References Friedman, L. (2002). Go To Market Strategy: Advanced Techniques and Tools for Selling More Products to More Customers More Profitably. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann Nigro, N& Nigro, J. (2007). 101 Best businesses for pet lovers: What you need to know about starting and succeeding in a pet business of your own. New York, NY: Sourcebooks Publishers. Stonehouse, G. et al., (2004). Global and transnational business: strategy and management. New York: Wiley Publishers Read More