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Market Plan

source by: businesstown.com

 

Sample Marketing Plan

Note: This marketing plan is fictitious.

 

MARKETING PLAN
for
“THE TOOL”
offered by the
INTERNET TOOL COMPANY, INC. (ITC)

 

Summary
Internet Tool Company, Inc. (ITC) has been formed to create Internet development tools. The market for Internet tools is growing very rapidly. ITC’s first development tool, “The Tool,” provides a major technical breakthrough by virtue of its “intelligent agent” feature. The intelligent agent makes it very easy to create documents and at the same time offers great flexibility in changing documents and other graphic material.

 

“The Tool” will be positioned as the premier Internet development tool for heavy computer users. ITC will target its marketing efforts narrowly at the core heavy user market. Because the product’s ease of use is of less importance to highly experienced computer users, ITC will give more marketing emphasis to the product’s other key benefit: flexibility.

 

ITC will completely avoid the retail store marketplace, where its lack of ability to fund expensive national and co-op advertising campaigns and its lack of presence in this marketplace would make it very difficult to compete or even gain entrance. Wholesalers and retailers are often more interested in the marketing support and name recognition that products enjoy than the product’s functionality and features. Instead, the product will be sold direct and via catalogs in a carefully targeted marketing campaign.

 

“The Tool” will be placed at the very high end of the consumer segment at $100 to further emphasize the product’s superiority and take advantage of the fact that consumers buying direct are less price sensitive than retail buyers.

 

1) The Market
Over 30 million people are currently using the Internet. Internet users are expected to grow in number by at least 25 percent each year for the next five years. The potential number of consumers for our Internet development tools is at least 20 million now with the potential for 30 million in two or three years. Recent trends indicate that, while Fortune 500 businesses will continue to seek out the Internet, faster growth will be seen in the home and small business market.

 

2) Market Segmentation
The market is divided into three relatively distinct segments: the corporate/professional segment, the small business segment, and the consumer segment.

 

3) Corporate/Professional Segment:
This market includes large corporations, institutions, government agencies, and professional developers. Internet development tools aimed at this market are expensive, costing upwards of $500; may take some time to master, even for seasoned technical developers; but provide the maximum number of options and flexibility in site design. Small Business Segment:

Internet development tools aimed at this market are mid-priced, typically costing from $100 to $500. They are designed to be used by people without development experience, although ease of use is a secondary feature to the ability to create the broad range of functionality likely to be required by a small business. Consumer Segment:
This segment is driven by low price (under $100) and ease of use, with breadth of functionality typically being sacrificed.

The consumer segment is the segment that ITC is positioning its product for.

 

4) Consumer Analysis
The target group of consumers for this product are heavy recreational computer users. They typically have used computers for three or more years. They have already used a commercial on-line service and have used at least several software packages extensively. They also tend to buy new software from time to time, if not regularly.

 

While the target group is increasingly buying software at retail outlets, many (especially those that tend to use their computers the most) buy their software through mail-order catalogs and quite a few order at least some software directly from the publisher. Even when buying software in retail outlets this group tends less to buy on impulse and are more apt to be looking for a specific item on which they are pre-sold. This group is most likely to be pre-sold by editorial coverage in computer publications such as reviews and product announcements and by word of mouth. Because this audience is exposed to so much information about so many competing products, it is most likely to decide on a particular item as a result of multiple exposure to information about a product—often from different types of sources.

 

Members of the target group tend to live in suburban or urban areas. They are typically male; aged thirty to forty-five; college educated; have a household income range between $40,000–$100,000; are homeowners; and hold professional jobs. Many belong to computer clubs.

 

They read two or more computer publications, a major metro newspaper, and one or more consumer magazines. While they watch television several hours per week their viewing tends to be less than average. They tend to listen to radio stations while they commute in their cars—tuning into a broad variety of formats.

 

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