Marketing Strategy and Mission - Research Paper Example

EVENT MARKETING PLAN STUDENT’S NAME: INSTITUTION: INSTRUCTOR’S NAME: DATE: Table of Contents 1.Marketing strategy 3 1.1.Mission 3 1.2.Marketing objectives 4 1.3.Financial objectives 5 1.4.Target market for Comic Con Festival Parade 5 1.4.1.positioning 6 1.4.2.strategy pyramids 6 2.Marketing mix 6 2.1.Product 6 2.2.Price 7 2.3.Promotion 7 2.4.Place 8 3.Marketing research 8 3.1.Internal Factors 9 3.2.External factors 10 3.2.1.Political 10 3.2.2. Economic 10 3.2.3.Social 10 3.2.4.Technological 10 3.2.5. Legal 11 4.SWOT Analysis 11 5.Financials 12 5.1.Budget expense 13 5.2.Sales forecast 14 5.3.Implementation 15 5.4.Alternative plans 17 1. Marketing strategy A strategy is a focus. The focus of the company is on a specific area of event management in Portland Comic con events. The company is a strong event management organization that has been able to meet such demands in the past. We are true experts in event organization through the introduction of new and creative activities annually in the Portland Comic con events. The company will focus on a global scale geographically but mainly in the countries that have been participating in the events annually and it will be segmented based on demographic aspects such as age, gender and incomes. The market will also be segmented in other perspectives such as psychographic segmentation psychological and behavioral descriptions of the market, they include lifestyle, social class and personality and behavior segmentation where customers are segmented into groups based on their knowledge, attitudes, uses or responses to a service. Behavioral segmentation emphasizes on event occasion, enjoyment that the customer needs, readiness of the services and the loyalty of the services by customers. The target market for event organization marketing will be people of all age young and old people. 1.1. Mission Portland Company offers high quality event organization services for comic con festivals and parade. The company organizes for extraordinary events that enable people to display their talents and generate innovative ideas. The parade involves organizing for talents shows, Halloween and tattoo exhibitions, cultural events parades and other events that require exhibitions. The purpose of doing this is to fetch the company higher profits and to also satisfy the customer demands considering the unique events showcased by the company. The company has implemented a unique system of developing a timetable for twelve months whereby each month has a range of events to be accomplished. Customers must know that engaging with Portland Company is more professional, risk free way of getting into the comic festivals with high quality services. Portland must also be able to get more customers for the upcoming festival events and also maintain the current customers annually. We focus on the development of the customer markets globally or regional clients in the market. 1.2. Marketing objectives 1. Portland Company needs to increase sales and therefore generate enough profits so as to expand the business globally. Attracting more participants in the festivals to be organized. 2. To create awareness of the service and products offered and attract more customers. This will be done the marketing campaigns that will attract new customers through strategies that will be set out. 3. To boost the image of the company that will result to recognition globally, it will be done by ensuring quality products, an exhibition through festival parade enables the company to maintain its reputation, and this will. Winning the trust of customers by providing them what they want at exact time and place will prolong the sales during the events enhancing the customer loyalty 1.3. Financial objectives The financial objectives for the company are as follows: 1. Increase sales by $ $ 350,000 in the next year and $ 400,000 in the subsequent year. 2. Gain a gross margin higher than 85 percent. 3. Net income of more than 10 percent of sales by the third year/ 1.4. Target market for Comic Con Festival Parade The target market for the event follows two steps; market segmentation and market positioning. Marketing segmentation is the process of dividing the total market into smaller distinct sub markets basing on the differences in demands, location, and social practices. Market segmentation can be based on geographic segmentation whereby the markets will be divided into different regions so as to enhance service availability to the customers, Demographic segmentation whereby markets will be divided basing on demographic variables such as age, gender, family life cycle and incomes. This is done because customer usage variations ,demands and needs are closely linked to these variables, Psychographic segmentation based on psychological and behavioral descriptions of the market, they include lifestyle, social class and personality and behavior segmentation where customers are segmented into groups based on their knowledge ,attitudes, uses or responses to a service. Behavioral segmentation emphasizes on event occasion, enjoyment that the customer needs, readiness of the services and the loyalty of the services by customers. Market positioning refers to the impact of the product on the mind of the customer with reference to the competing event organizers. The target audience for the company range from old people to young people (Aaker, 2005). 1.4.1. positioning for the festival event customers who are looking for exiciting and innovative festal events to attend, Portland Compnay offers unique term expereince of the event organizer with proven expereince in comic con festivals and parade. Unlike other organizers, Portland Company has a flexible timetable and all inclusive events; Portland Company is specialized in a much focused expertise that cannot be matched by any other company. 1.4.2. strategy pyramids The main focus of the company is in the comic con festivals and parade events. It is the area of expertise that the company is well known for organizing. There is high level of competition in the international market; however, with a focus on comic con festivals and parade, there is no company in the region that will outdo Portland Company. The main tactics to make this a reality? First, is offering quality services. Second is engaging in specialized based marketing. Third, use the new technologies in international communication such as the use of internet technologies if timetabling and booking of events. 2. Marketing mix 2.1. Product Product is defined as the goods and services offered to the market. The case of Portland comic con festivals provides customers with different services in terms of the organized and timetables events. This is a strategy that aims at creating awareness for the recognition of the planned comic events. These services should be of good quality and this maintains the reputation of the company and encourages the customer to continue inviting the company to conduct stage connections for their event. 2.2. Price The price is what the customer pays in order to gain possession of the product or service. The comic con events and parade have been timetables in the sense that the prices charged for every event have been labeled. This helps the company to develop a monitoring and evaluation strategies that will ensure successful planned events and thus making profits. Before determining price, the company will consider the following; the cost of production and Competition. The perceived value of the price by the customers also matters because there is always a value attached to service with high prices, as a result of segmenting the service based on psychological and behavioral descriptions of the customers. 2.3. Promotion Promotion is described as all activities intended to inform and persuade the targeted customer to buy a product or service. Elements of promotion are; advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion and internet selling. The Company will integrate all these aspects of promotion to achieve its objectives. Advertising will involve the use of radio, television and newspapers this targets people at work and old people because they are keen when it comes to listening, watching and reading newspapers. Public relations will aim at creating awareness in the public and bigger organizations. Personal selling will involve use of sales people who will face the customers directly and persuade them to order for the event service, it is the sensitive aspect of promotion since the customers ask questions and demand answers; it therefore means that the company will use resources to train sales persons. Internet selling will involve the use of websites, face book and twitter, the aim of internet selling is to reach customers globally and to avoid the threat of online absence, it also targets and attracts the young generation especially the youth who spend most of the time on the internet. (Philip and Gary, pg. 44) 2.4. Place Place represents the location where the service can be provided. The Company does all the activities that will enable the service to be available to the target customer. The outlets of the Company are located in the appropriate and visible places where customers can easily locate; this will generate more sales because the services are readily available. By use of internet selling, the Company will strategize their place in a manner that customers can order for the service via internet and arrangements will be made. This will enhance appropriate delivery to the customers and hence creating customer loyalty. 3. Marketing research Performing an environmental analysis is essential to identify the factors that could impact on the effectiveness of the planned event. Before embarking on the events planned, the company should carry out an investigation on their internal and external factors so as to develop an implementation program that will adhere to these factors. 3.1. Internal Factors Customers; they form the major part of internal factors of the company, aspects such as customer relationship and customer services should be analyzed in order to ensure that there are loyal customers who will contribute to the success of the company marketing strategies Management; the company has a strong management which has contributed to its success all through from the beginning. When there is good management, the activities of implementing the plan will be successful. Before embarking on a journey towards implementation of marketing plan, the management should be analyzed and the managerial aspects to be reviewed to keep the company up to date. Financial resources; this is an internal factor that should be analyzed to ensure that the finance of the company is sufficient enough to ensure accomplishment of event marketing plan. In every company, financial resource is a sensitive factor that guarantees the success of implementation processes of any plan. Comic Con Festival Parade has enough finance to ensure the success of the planned event (Thomson, 2003). 3.2. External factors 3.2.1. Political Political factors; these are factors that relate to political stability of the country. There has been an enabling environment due to calm political issues of the country and therefore enabling the companies to conduct their event. 3.2.2. Economic Economic factors; focusing on the economic conditions in the country, there has been a challenge caused by rising dollar, as per the stipulations from monetary and fiscal policies. Therefore, the company has to depend on innovative ideas on how to win more customers and hence make more sales. 3.2.3. Social Social factors; most countries comprise of people from different diversities, therefore, when implementing marketing plan; the company has to consider the aspects that relate to the social lives of the customers. 3.2.4. Technological Technological factors; changes in technology impacts on the business forcing the country to embrace new technological advances and therefore it is a requirement for companies to adopt technological changes that will facilitate the achievement of their objectives. 3.2.5. Legal Legal factors; these are factors such as taxes and the form of business structures; they dictate the nature of business to be carried out in the country. The company will have to follow the legal aspect to ensure success of marketing plan. 4. SWOT Analysis The main competitors of the company will be those big event organizers who have been known for organizing and conducting events. These competitors have established customer loyalty and their prices are stable (Calkins, 2008). SWOT analysis of the company focuses on the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It helps to decide which marketing strategy to use. It also helps in determining the target market. Strengths weaknesses The location of the event is efficient for the customers. Innovating different categories of events and developing a timetable has enabled achievement of objectives Inadequate online presence Lack of clear service differentiation compared with competitors Opportunities threats Use of technology to developing new services The use of special media. Example face book and twitter to advertise and sell their services Competitors introducing better services at lower prices Changes in economic environment that encourage customers to be less loyal to the service of the company Changes in customers taste and preference thus reducing the sales. 5. Financials The current plans is estimating that there will be a sale of $600,000 for this year’s festival event then grow to $1.8 million by 2015 based on marketing expenses of approximately $250,000 which is about 30 percent of sales. The previous year’s marketing plan of $480,000 expenses resulted into 25 percent of sales only. The following are assumption that the plan has on important trends: There will be a steady reduction in the cost of sales with an increase in the gross margin percentage as the company builds its image globally. It means that as the company expands, it takes more risks if the plan is put into practice. There will be another trend in the decline in the marketing expenses as a percent of the sale. 30 percent projection for the first year is very high; it is high since we are doing marketing in a very competitive environment with the objectives of building image and expanding internationally. There will be 25 percent of sales expenditure on marketing in the sixth year of the plan. 5.1. Budget expense The overall projected sales and marketing expenses should be $250,000. This is expected to increase to about $ 480,000 for marketing in the sixth year because of expanding internationally. The company believes that having effective marketing requires a high percentage of sales and marketing expenses in the initial years. The percentage can come down with time. The marketing and sales expenses are divided into four categories: public relations travel, advertising and website (online marketing). There is an additional budget that will be allocated to the graphics and printing expenses, as well as a good amount allocated to an alternative plan. 5.2. Sales forecast Our sales for the last year festival events were $90,000. Sales forecast is assuming that the financial for the marketing will be as planned. The annual total of the coming festival is projected to be $600,000 that will increase to $1.825 million in the fifth year. services 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Festival parade $ 150,000.00 $ 300,000.00 $ 400,000.00 $ 450,000.00 $ 500,000.00 Portland Fashion Week $ 200,000.00 $ 290,000.00 $ 290,000.00 $ 380,000.00 $ 430,000.00 Halloween Trail $ 90,000.00 $ 100,000.00 $ 200,000.00 $ 250,000.00 $ 300,000.00 Halloween on a farm $ 41,000.00 $ 50,000.00 $ 90,000.00 $ 120,000.00 $ 200,000.00 Haunted Yard $ 41,000.00 $ 105,000.00 $ 90,000.00 $ 100,000.00 $ 130,000.00 Tattoo Expo $ 70,000.00 $ 55,000.00 $ 100,000.00 $ 200,000.00 $ 265,000.00 Total Sales $ 592,000.00 $ 900,000.00 $ 1,170,000.00 $ 1,500,000.00 $ 1,825,000.00 5.3. Implementation The following table and chart shows the marketing program and how they will be executed with the budgets of each project shown in the allocation of resources. Resource allocation Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors Resource Names Cost Corporate Identity program 20 days Tue 1/28/14 Mon 2/24/14 Tracy $15,000.00 PR development quotes 40 days Tue 2/25/14 Mon 4/21/14 1 James $18,000.00 Website online 23 days Tue 4/22/14 Thu 5/22/14 2 Tracy $12,000.00 Standard page Brochure 28 days Fri 5/23/14 Tue 7/1/14 2,3 John $10,000.00 PR speaking 27 days Fri 5/23/14 Mon 6/30/14 3 James $3,000.00 Targeted advertising 40 days Tue 7/1/14 Mon 8/25/14 5 James $20,000.00 Specific region advertising 21 days Tue 8/26/14 Tue 9/23/14 6 James $12,500.00 Press Release1 20 days Wed 9/24/14 Tue 10/21/14 7 Tracy $30,000.00 Press Release2 20 days Wed 10/22/14 Tue 11/18/14 8 John $3,500.00 close marketing for a year 1 day Wed 11/19/14 Wed 11/19/14 9 James $3,500.00 5.4. Alternative plans The most likely change in the marketing scheme is a major increase on the internet website traffic and the significant of online marketing. The development of the website will be closely monitored plus its activities. There can be increased focus on the online marketing hence increase in the budget for online marketing. The marketing plan assumes that there will be minimal competition in the online brand of the event organizing in the niche of Portland Company. Allocating marketing resources and monitoring Marketing budget   Advertising Graphics and printing Public relations Travel Websites Other Jan $ 2,500.00 $3,000.00 $3,000.00 $ - $ 2,000.00 $1,000.00 Feb $ 2,500.00 $3,000.00 $3,000.00 $ - $10,000.00 $1,000.00 Mar $ 2,700.00 $1,000.00 $3,000.00 $1,500.00 $10,000.00 $1,000.00 Apr $ 9,000.00 $1,000.00 $1,000.00 $9,000.00 $ 3,000.00 $1,000.00 May $ 2,500.00 $ - $3,000.00 $5,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $1,000.00 Jun $ - $ - $3,000.00 $5,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $1,000.00 Jul $ - $ - $3,000.00 $1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $1,000.00 Aug $ - $ - $3,000.00 $1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $1,000.00 Sep $19,000.00 $ - $6,500.00 $2,500.00 $10,000.00 $1,000.00 Oct $14,000.00 $ - $4,000.00 $5,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $1,000.00 Nov $14,000.00 $ - $1,000.00 $1,200.00 $ 1,000.00 $1,000.00 Dec $ - $ - $ - $1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $1,000.00 References Civi, E., & Persinger, E. S. (2011). Marketing Plan Competition For Experiential Learning. American Journal of Business Education (AJBE), 4(12), 51-60. 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