Marketing Plan 20 hrs

Marketing Plan 20 hrs

You will create a marketing plan for your PT/Fitness business where you were interning at. You are tasked with coming up with a marketing plan that will generate more clients to come to your facility and utilize your services. To market your product or service effectively, you must identify your customers, know their needs and wants, and satisfy those needs and wants. Developing a simple marketing plan is not as time consuming and expensive as you may believe. While a marketing plan is not the sole factor in ensuring success for your business, it will greatly increase the likelihood that your business remains relevant and has the greatest chance of succeeding.

Here are 8 steps to help guide you through the process.

Step 1: State your marketing objectives -Rubric (valid for 2.5 hours)

You would like to increase awareness of the product or service you provide, increase sales and revenues by a certain percentage, and/or increase the number of customers who utilize your product or service. For example, your objective(s) could be to increase the number of clients by 25 percent by the end of next year, sell more of your products/services.

Step 2: Identify demographics of your target market -Rubric (valid for 2.5 hours)

One way to determine your customer demographics (e.g., age, sex, profession, income level, education level, residency, individual or business, etc.) is to write a description of your target audiences. Once you have done so, focus on only those customers who are most likely to utilize your service. As your business and resources grow, you can focus on a wider segment of the overall market.

Step 3: Identify your competition -Rubric (valid for 2.5 hours)

There are several ways to go about identifying the competition. One way is to identify other businesses that are offering somewhat similar services to the customers you are targeting and within your price range. Once you have identified your competitors, analyze two to four such businesses by answering the following questions. How are these businesses doing in terms of demand for their product/service? What are the similarities and dissimilarities between your product/service and theirs? What are some of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses? What do the customers think about your competitors’ product/service? Can you capitalize on some of your competitors’ weaknesses? How can you create better value for your customers? What pricing strategies are your competitors using? Can you improve on their strategies?

Step 4: Describe your product/service -Rubric (valid for 2.5 hours)

A product may be a commodity or service, or both. What products/services are you offering? How is what you offer different from your competitors’ product or service? How do customers perceive the benefits of the product/service you are providing? What do customers perceive as the special features of your product/service?

Other questions to keep in mind when defining your product/service include the following: Can you appeal to environmentally conscious or health-conscious customers? How are you going to present your product/service to customers? Is there an increase or decrease in the supply of your product/service on the market?

Step 5: Define place (distribution strategy) -Rubric (valid for 2.5 hours)

When we talk about place, we are thinking about more than just the physical location of a business; place also includes how you plan to get the product/service into the hands of your customers (the place they need it). To do this, you need to answer the following questions: How widely do you plan to geographically distribute your product/service (e.g., locally, in-state, multi-state, nationally, internationally)? Are you going to be selling directly (direct marketing) to customers?

Step 6: Choose your promotion strategy-Rubric (valid for 2.5 hours)

Promotion refers to the entire set of activities that inform people about your product/service. Promotion induces customers to prefer your product/service over those of your competitors. Promotion is simply how you get people to know about the product/service you provide. It deals with how and what you want to communicate to customers/ buyers. Several tools can be used, including mass media (radio, television, internet, newspapers, magazines, yellow pages, billboards, etc.), direct mail, personal contacts, trade associations, and social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest). You also need to identify the amount of resources (human and capital) you can set aside for your promotions

Step 7: Develop a pricing strategy -Rubric (valid for 2.5 hours)

There are several pricing strategies such as cost-oriented pricing, flexible pricing, and relative pricing. Cost-oriented pricing strategy involves setting your price at a certain percentage level, say 25%, above your service and time cost. Flexible pricing strategy is where you vary the price depending on the buyer or time (e.g., time of year). Relative pricing strategy is simply using the prevailing market price to set your own price whether it is above, below, or at the same price. No matter which pricing strategy you use, you need to be aware of the following: What are the pricing strategies used by your competitors? What is your cost of production? Typically, your price should be based on the prevailing market prices and your costs. It should cover your full cost of production and include a profit. You can do simple market research to learn about what prices customers would be willing to pay and what prices your competitors are charging.

Step 8: Create a marketing budget -Rubric (valid for 2.5 hours)

Since you do not have unlimited resources, it is best to identify how much time and money you want to allocate to marketing.

Marketing Plan should be written in APA style, 10 to 15 pages long (not counting Cover and Citation Pages), double space, one inch margins. Use font Times New Roman size 12. Correct grammar is important.