5th Bridge Mouth Scout Troop Fundraising - Case Study Example

Introduction Marketing plan refers to a document that is written containing the steps of actions needed to be taken in order to achieve the goals and the objectives of the business. The plan can be of a service, brand, product or the entire product line. It should be a plan that covers a period of one up to five years. It can be a business plan or part of it. This plan is also called a marketing strategy of a business. The following are the contents of a marketing plan, the strategies of pricing, market segmentation, description of the location of the business alongside the disadvantages and advantages of marketing in that place. It also contains the budget of the advertisement and the promotion strategy (Armstrong & Kotler, 2007). Finally, it contains the detailed description of the service and the product including the entire features that are special about it. This answers the following question, the current marketing objectives and strategies. How effective the marketing process is controlled, the achievement of the marketing budget, how to realize or if there is a realization of the objectives in a smart way, the level of staffing, the way to develop staff and train them and finally the experience and learning achieved as per that level. 5th Bridge mouth Scout Troop Scouting movement was established in the year 1907 by the Army Lieutenant of the British through general Baden-Power Robert. This man’s intention was at one point supplement all the existing organizations at that time. Some of the organizations he wanted to supplement include the famous boy’s brigade. He intended to do so by offering through his organization observational skills, initiatives and training. The organization was admitting only boys because of some of the activities that were to be done which were not favourable for the girls like hiking and camping. Therefore, only boys at the age between eleven and eighteen years were admitted. This changed as years went by because to date, there are more than twenty five million scouts all over the world made up of all genders joining from the age of six. The 5th brigade scouts in specific came into existence in the year 1916. An organization is greatly benefiting so many young people. It offers the members great opportunities for getting involved in so many activities like summer camps, orienteering exercise, quiz nights, swimming, courses of life skills and first aid skills. Statement of the problem Financially the organization is doing well but at this particular moment, it is in great need for the some finances because of the construction it intends to undertake. This is because there is a very old hut around 47 years old, which needs to be reconstructed after it was declared unfit structurally and in need of being demolished and reconstructed. If the plan goes on, then it means that the members of the organization will be left without a place for meeting leading to the disbandment of the troop. This will not be a good reputation for the organization especially bearing in mind that there are so many people who are currently using the facility to hold the meetings. In addition, it will affect the lives of many people who are currently its members and who will be members in the future. There is no plan for renovating the building because it has been going through renovation for long hence the reason as to why it has managed to exist for that long. This leaves the organization with only two options, the first one being to relocate to a new building and the second one to demolish the existing building and rebuild a new one. The former solution is not an option due to the ct that the organization will lose some of its premises in existence like the climbing wall, which is situated outside the building. There has been an estimate of about £300,000. This amount will involve all professional services like the design work as well as the legal fees to ensure the process is legal. The problem with all of this is that the organization has less the £20,000 in its bank and the only period of time it has to find the rest of the money is about two year. This kind of amount the organization needs cannot just be raised by simple activities like charity walks alone. There is more to that and that is why there is more to the weekly subscription fees from the members, jumble sales and sponsored walks. The organization needs to come up with great strategies for activities that will enable the funds to be raised. The organization needs o start its fundraising as soon as possible to ensure the amount of money needed is raised by the end of two years. What the troop is doing As it has been mentioned earlier, the amount of cash the organization needs to raise is very much. This means that many plans are underway to try to cut the costs of construction where possible. The organization on that note is doing a number of things to cut short it budget. One of the things that the troops are doing is to consult some of the local architect who will do the designs at a cheaper price or even free of charge. Another strategy the troops are doing is to contacting national Lottery. The Lottery will help the organization in the sense that it will given it £2 for every £1 it raises. This method may make the organization go at a loss but at least it will help it to raise some money even if it is very little. The company has been in search for other ways in which it can raise the money until it is enough to cater for all of the needs. As one of the marketers, Mr. Graham has requested me to come up with ways in which the organization can sufficiently raise the total amount enough for all the needs as far as the construction of the new building is concerned (David, 2002). The following represent the ideas, which I came up with, and the anticipated money to be raised by each of the method. Market identification This particular marketing plan entails a plan that the 5th brigade scouts intend to use to market its ideas for the fundraising. The need for the plan came because of some findings. The information was gathered after the department of development and research did a through research to identify the trend pod the most of the possible donors and possible ways to raise the money (Susan, 2002). This was because the company needed to understand the purchase habits of the consumers. There was also a need for the troop needed to understand any of its unique things that it deals with and equips its members to be able to attract the attention of the world so that it can come into its rescue. This is for the organization to be able to anticipate the best methods, which will raise the most amounts of funds for it. The target market refers to the identification of the possible people, institutions and organizations that are likely to raise the amount of money the organization needs. It enables the troops to recognize the people’s diversity without trying to impress them all at ago. It is dependent on the segmentation (Hisrich, 2000). This refers to the process of identifying the portion in the market exhibiting differences in preference from each other. This process enables the company to meet the needs of the consumers. It also enables the organization to be in a better position of competition as far as getting the money is concerned with their competitors who are also seeking to raise some finances. This means that the 5th brigade scouts must ensure it gets the first priority as far as its funding is concerned. . The following are the criteria of identifying market segments; accessibility, identifiable, uniqueness of the needs, substantiality and acceptability of the need the organization has. For a market segment to be good then it should contain members that are externally heterogeneous and internally homogenous. The following are the bases of segmentation (Hisrich, 2000). A. Geographical: The fundraising activities will take place in different towns of America like the new yolk city. The reason being that it is densely populated and the climatic styles are not likely to affect the sales of the activities. This means that many people as much as possible will have an opportunity to participate and offer their help to the organization. B. Demographic: Being international cities, it will likely capture the attention of people of different age, gender, family lifecycle, family size, social class, religion, occupation, ethnicity and nationality at the same time. C. Psychographic: this will group the anticipated participants into very different lifestyles. Since the fundraisings will be in town which is actually are international cities then it will actually attract and involve people with different opinions, attitudes, interests, value and activities. Some may offer more than just financial help. Help in terms of required services will also be accepted. D. Behavioralistic: this is basing the segmentation according to the behaviour exhibited by the people. Some will come due to their readiness to help, benefit they will be seeking, brand loyalty that is scouting and due to the existing occasion. All of which perfectly suits the place of the fundraising. E. Location: it will be located in the area of great cities because the cost of hosting is very low. However, it will be far from the other area hosting the same function. It is evident that marketing planning has never been the simple systematic approach described so enthusiastically in most prescriptive texts and courses. According to the researches that have been carried out, the moment any organization embarks on the marketing planning path, it can expect to encounter a number of complex organizational, attitudinal, process and cognitive problems, which are likely to block progress. This means that there is a great need for any organization to carry out a market research to be able to make the right decision (Dennis, 2001). There are a number of considerations in formulating marketing objectives for any given organization depending on the industry involving. It should be noted that the entire objective must be SMART. This means Specific, measurable, achievable, realist and time bound. In order to achieve a smart objective in the market, any the marketers must consider the profit margin that they want to reach. This means that before setting any market objective, they should make a cost benefit calculation to decide the profit they intend to achieve, by doing that they will be able to come up with a good objective (Donald, 2008). This is to ensure that an activity is not put forth and yet there is no one to perform it. Ideally, if an activity is put in the plan and there is no one to carry it out then it is just but a waste of time. This means that there should be a great consideration put in place to ensure that all what is planned is implemented. The environment to which that particular plan will be implemented must be carefully assed before making the plan. This is because some of the decisions, which will be made directly, depend on the environment where the business will be located. The reason as to why the environment must be assessed is to get to know how many competing business are around the area or the location where the business will be set. In addition, the number of consumers that are likely to benefit from the business will be determined. The issue of raw materials, infrastructure and communication will be determined comfortably in the planning process. This will ensure that the plan will be efficient for the business (Finlay, 2000). The last and the most important decision is the type of product that will be dealt with. The decision for which product will be dealt with will enable all other planning decisions to be made. Proposed Activities There are a number of activities, which the organization may use to raise the funds. It should be noted that those ideas are of different sizes and shapes. For us to arrive to the ideas we had to think a little more beyond the box. The ways in which we came up with needed we to do some brainstorming form the members of the organization as well as reading many articles, magazines, newspapers and books (Dennis, 2001). It needed a lot of creativity in putting the ideas in place. After all the ideas were sampled, there was only one activity that fitted for the fundraising, which was sport activity Sports competition The members of the organization who are over twenty five million are talented in different fields. This means that each of them is good in a certain sport. Therefore, the organization will be holding a sport day, which will be in the New York City. A sport will require anyone to pay a fee for the entrance to watch the sports. This kind of fundraising will be perfect because first and fore most the people who will be attending will not just be wasting their money or rather offering the organization their money for a free (Dennis, 2001). Their will in return get to enjoy the sport. Some of the sports that will be shown include gymnastics, football, handball, basketball and swimming. The sales of the tickets will be done two months before the real day. This will allow the organization to have sufficient time to sell its tickets to the willing attendants. Another very important fact is the collaboration with different governments of the countries around the world who will help the organization to advertise the activity through their relevant ministry of sports. This will help the organization to cut down the cost of advertisement since the governments will do it for them. However, the organization will also incur a cost of advertisement through the internet and the global DSTV, which is likely to react many people. The ticket will be sold for a cost of £2 each. It should be noted that the sport activity will be held, one this year and the other one the following year. This is to ensure that the organization has a probability of collecting the desired amount of money. Another reason for having the sport held twice before the two years ends is to give the organization time to perform a post modern evaluation to be able to master any mistake that may have occurred during the first sport and then rectify. This will also give the organization time to evaluate the amount of money collected during the first sport activity so that it can be able to decide whether to carry on with the second edition of the sport (Erica, 2006). If the sport will yield the amount of money anticipated in the budget then the organization will be glad to hold the second sport. In case the organization does not get the amount of money, it has indicated in the budget then it can consider other ways of fundraising like the charity walks. In each of the days of the sports, the expenses are anticipated to be about £100,000. This is because of advertisement as well as other expenses that will be incurred in the preparation. The organization is privileged to host the sports in the existing fields of the country where the sports will be hosted free of charge. This means that the expenses in terms of field preparations will be minimal. TABLE REPRESENTATION OF THE INCOME AND EXPENES DURING THE ACTIVITY ITEM QUANTITY EXPENSE INCOME TOTAL First sport day Ticket each for £2 150,000 tickets £300,000 Expenses in form of advertisements and other preparations £100,000 Total income after day one sport £200,000 Second sport day Tickets each for £2 150,000 tickets £300,000 Expenses in form of advertisements and other preparations £100,000 Total income after the day two sport £200,000 Total Gross income after the two days of sports £400,000 Miscellaneous expenses during the two days £50,000 Total net income after the two days of sports £350,000 Conclusion It is expected that this method will even earn the organization more money than it has been anticipated. This particular activity is very appropriate because of the fact that it will not involve any participants in the different sports who will need to be paid after the sports. This is because the sports will only involve the talented members of the scout. This will ensure that there are no extra cost incurred as well as motivate many people to attend and see what the children have been doing (Armstrong & Kotler, 2007). Another advantage is the fact that the people expected to attend the function will also be gaining and not just offering their money for charity. The fact that they are offering their money in exchange of something means that many people will be encouraged to attend. It is obvious that unlike charity walks where people will take part in walking long and tiring distances without any gain, this form of fundraising will attract the attention of many. Reference Armstrong, G. & Kotler, P. 2007. Marketing: an introduction (8th Ed). Pearson Prentice Hall: New Jersey. David, F. 2002. Strategic management: concepts (9th Ed.). Prentice Hall: New Jersey: Dennis, A. 2001. Marketing: principles and practice (4th Ed.). Financial Times, Prentice Hall: New York. Donald, F. 2008. Entrepreneurship: theory, process and practice. Oxford: University of oxford press. Erica, O. 2006. Strategic planning for Dummies. Cambridge university press, Amazon Finlay, P. 2000. Strategic management: an introduction to business and corporate strategy. New York: Pearson Education. Hisrich R. 2000. Marketing, 2d Ed. Barron's Educational Series: New York. Susan, B. 2002. Rapid strategic planning, Oxford University Press, Amazon, Read More