Marketing Plan

Lawrence Bagwell
BUS 122 R Marcus
Marketing Plan
October 6th, 2008



The 4 P’s to marketing:
Product: Our product is both our expertise and our service. The service we will provide is simple, yet effective. What we are looking to do is open a website that provides both an auction and trading style website that also allows users freedom and creativity with their profiles. The idea is Myspace meets eBay as far as allowing users the ability to create individual pages where the website provide forums and other forms of communications between other users for the purposes of providing more business to the company.
Initially, our business model centers near the premise of providing a centralized area for the sports card and memorabilia industry. The sports industry is a fairly versatile market. With sports teams going for hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, the sports collections business will provide an ample area for profitability and expansion. With proper marketing and exploitation of the market, we can meet our goals within first three years realistically.
Despite the dedication to the sporting collectibles and memorabilia, within the first three years we will look to expand into entertainment collectibles, as well as pop culture collectibles. For this reason, our logo will not be one of an athlete or communications between computers. We have decided to go with an animal to include with the logo. The animal, currently a penguin but subject to review, will be used to market the website in a way that gives potential customers another way to remember our company. For example, frosted flakes by themselves are well known, but if you show everyone a picture of Tony the Tiger, a majority would know what product he’s associated with. Similar examples can be referenced with Lucky from Lucky Charms, Trix Rabbit from the cereal with the same name, and Mr. Clean for cleaning products.


Place: Our marketing plan begins locally, but what we have is a global product. Looking ahead to one of our goals, we’d like to provide international and domestic transaction options. This will expand our market share almost immediately. We want to utilize pre-existing models of websites and marketing plans to propel our business forward in the global online market.
This does not mean marketing by copycat. This means taking models from previous companies to shove our brand name forward in the industry. Our industry is both competitive and seemingly unorganized. Some sports cards manufacturers and dealers of memorabilia have websites but no business structure on them. Others carry a website as a majority of their communications, advertising, specials, promotions and events are all held on their webpage and through email.
Here at Set Filler Cards, our plan is to utilize the website as our address in the world, both physically and virtually. What this will do well provide us a centralized business center, while being able to expand with little to no effort. This comes from us hiring qualified business people who are knowledgeable about computers, online sales, and experienced in versions of online marketing. Initially, new employees will not be given responsibilities to servers, finances or any other pertinent business information until after meeting with the owners and the network administrator of the business. This will incur the business some cost, but this prevention by meeting with the potential hires will eventually save more than an expense incurred.
Our five year plan is simple. The first year will be spent marketing the name, the business and looking for more capital investment in the day to day operations of the business. The second and third year, we expect to see business trickle in. The second year we are looking for a 5-8% profit margin, but realistically will face a 10% loss due to labor, material, and startup costs. The third year, I am hopeful that we will see somewhere in the area of 10-15% of maximum business that we may be able to do. I.e. we meet a goal of 20-50 transactions per day. The fourth and fifth year plans are simple, just increase business by 10% over previous years. Our long term goal is profitability following 30-36 months.

Price: Our business model is dependent on a large user base. Our price structure is as well. This may lead to losses in the first year to two years of business but as long as we stay on the plan, we will be able to hit our target profit margin within 30 months.
Our prices are simple, 50 cents total between two users for trades. Trades will be described as any deal that allows two users to come to an agreement on compensation for a product that does not involve the exchange of monetary means. Trades will be our biggest money maker initially, as users will look for ways to avoid the cost of doing business and trading with another user utilizes this thinking. Auctions will be slightly different. The website, business, takes a percentage of the sale from the two parties in the transaction. The user listing the initial auction will pay a listing fee of between 50 cents and one dollar. Users may select an option of paying a $4.99 listing fee per month rather than a flat rate per upload of 50 cents or more. The other party in the transaction will be a 5% fee on the listing price. This would be the equivalent of a sales tax that the purchaser pays in a normal transaction. We just call this fee a purchase fee.
We will have the payment structure set up to distribute the appropriate funds to the appropriate accounts. We will handle payments through a third party that distributes the money to the appropriate parties in the appropriate amounts. This will keep our hands off the transactions for the users, while providing them a service medium for the purposes of carrying out a transaction. We want to do this to minimize our interaction with the transactions. This allows the invisible hand of the free market to reign over the site, while allowing us to focus on the necessary components of keeping the business successful and profitable.
Promotions: This is where the fun will be for our employees. Every employee will get business cards in the design of sporting cards. This will convey a message of experience and expertise in the field while showing that we are still in touch with what is trendy and popular in today’s culture. We will also have other items specifically for employees to use in dealing with potential customers.
We will encourage a guerilla marketing aspect for our employees to take advantage of. The moderators, network administrators, and even owners will be on forums trying to push the brand name. We will market our ideas to multiple trade shows and industry events. Our employees will be given as much freedom, within the bounds of good taste, when it comes to guerilla marketing. All attempts at marketing under the company name must be pre-approved by the owners.
Attending trade shows, employees will be given marketing goods such as, but not limited to, foam bats and gloves, promotional footballs, trading cards with slots to place a picture for customers to visualize their own sports card. These items will contain promotional codes that provide discounts or prizes. Each customer who receives a promotional item will receive one free transaction, one half price trade, and one Set Filler Cards sticker. This is just a chance to get them in the door early on. As we expand our business model to include entertainment and popular culture items, we’ll expand our marketing efforts and references.
The entertainment and pop culture areas will allow a greater freedom of parodying or referencing recognizable items or logos to help propel our brand name into the market. These are but a few of the options we have in promotions. Our marketing plan will, for the most part, remain the same even as we grow. There will be points where we adjust or implement new items discovered by employees, and always open to customer suggestions. We will be aggressive and out front in marketing this business, we need our products and services to be as well.

Comparing Two Competitor Websites

With SetFillerCards, we need to look at our competitors for both ideas, innovations, and possible errors in business model. Our main competitors, and who we'll look at for purposes of this discussion, in this industry will be eBay (for shear volume of products) and Beckett.com (Beckett Marketplace, specifically).

eBay Auctions Online:

When we look at eBay, we see a shear force in the world of business in volume alone. They cover everything and anything in between. Their market share for online auctioning is as high as one company can make it. While they do encourage online stores, they social networking aspects are often lost in the pages. We can access forums but again, the user interaction seems minimal beyond the transactions.

What we can gain from this look is simplicity. EBay has simplified their business model to the point where they are almost completely hands off, besides occasional disagreements between individuals. The online submissions are a thing we would like to duplicate for SetFillerCards.com. Their user friendly tools allow for users to with minimal experience to utilize their services.

Beckett Marketplace:

As far as market and industry, Beckett has the consumers coming to them at a regular rate. They provide online search tools capable of uniting you with the cards and products you are looking for. They deal with target specific consumers, as opposed to eBay which deals with as many consumers as it can. User interaction is encouraged through forums but there is no emphasis on individual pages on the site, more about product.

What we gain from looking at Beckett is consumer base and product expertise. They have a firm grasp on the consumer's we are looking for. We'll have to make a dent in their appeal by offering something unique to the card and memorabilia acquisition experience.

LMB

Business Idea for BUS122

The Idea:

Initially, I set forth to do an online photo publishing and art creations style of studio. Allowing users to submit digital imagery for prints and quality reproductions on anything from canvas to a cereal bowl. The idea was fairly simple and start-up was the initial drawback. The more I thought of it, the less I liked the idea.

I decided to change my mentality and set forth for another online business venture. One that would incorporate already popular models of websites, such as eBay, craigslist, and social networking such as myspace, and incorporate them into a business area that needs a fresher appeal.

The website will be named Set Filler Cards (http://www.setfillercards.com). The site will cater to individuals seeking completion to their favorite sports card and memorabilia sets, and eventually incorporate other collectibles into the model. With SetFillerCards.com, we'll have provide a medium for dealers, buyers, sellers, amateurs and everyone in between a forum to buy, sell or trade their favorite collectibles. Sports cards and memorabilia has seen a decline since the late 80's, despite recent innovations in marketing and new products. We need to help move this same popular form of collectibles and hobbies to a more current and updated appeal. Kids to grandparents still have baseball cards. How many times has someone asked about a collection they once had, and the reply is almost always the items are in an attic or basement somewhere. This gives the folks who don't want to deal with an eBay style crowd, that are consuming mass items on a global scale, but want to deal with target specific audience while using an eBay style website.

The Plan:

The initial plan is a simple one. Setup a forum and online bartering site for users to share, trade, and sell memorabilia and collectibles. In the beginning the plan will not be one of competing with the giant eBay or similar sites, what we'll strive to do is allow individuals to set prices for cards and collectibles, including trades for the items. Users will have a feedback and reliability system to grade others on, this will allow for proper review from potential buyers or sellers.

We will be for the most part a hands off site. We'll allow users the forum and medium for the transaction while collecting our fee (more to come on that). Users will review and rate others in order to regulate individuals. We will on occasion need to step in for disputes and act as arbitrators. In that event, the final decision is left in the sole discretion of the website with users abiding by the decision or face punishment. Set Filler Cards will encourage users to resolve disputes between disagreeing parties before seeking website interaction. We want to remain as hands off from the transactions as possible. For this reason, we will employee moderators who will monitor and maintain forums for proper applications of the terms of service of the website. Moderators will act as representatives of the website for recommendations in forums for remaining within the guidelines of the website. Moderators decisions do not make decisions in regards to disputes but can assist in being a reference point to where the dispute falls within the rules of the website.

Set Filler Cards is in the market to profit off of these transactions. For selling items on the website, the user listing the item will pay a monthly fee of 4.99 or a one time fee of 55 cents. For trades, Items listed will be listed for a fee of 25 cents, no matter how expensive or low priced the item may be, the upload fee is 25 cents. The user who accepts the trade for whatever goods or services will match that 25 cents fee for completion of the deal. All fees may be requested refunded to the purchaser or the seller except the monthly fee, if submitted within 24 hours and the transaction has been cancelled. The website retains the right to review and accept or deny these requests for refund if it chooses.

The Expectations:

The first six months of business will be difficult and heavily laden with advertising expenses. We'll encourage linking of our website where ever possible to encourage higher traffic. We'll also be advertising on individual websites for increased exposure. TV and radio ads may not be in our future but depending on the market, billboard ads or newspaper ads may be able to pursue.

After pursuing our advertising dollars as widely as possible, we'll look to build a consistent user base. If we look to attain a consistent user base, we can attain a healthy profit margin dependent on daily transactions. Initially, all transactions will be set to three days so as not to lag down the server with dead transactions.

If we can meet and maintain transactions in the numbers of 100 a day that's 50 dollars per day of incoming revenue in trades, and anywhere between 10-50 dollars per day for transactions (depending on monthly subscriptions). Our operating budget, after initial start-up, will be in the range of 10 dollars per day before labor additions. With labor costs factored in, we'll be around 250 dollars per day with three employees, material and operating costs considered. Obviously, in the short term those numbers do not add up and signal a 200 dollar loss per day. That is where the reliable user base comes in, with 1000 transactions per day, we are looking at an income level of 100-500 dollars for selling and buying, and/or 500 dollars for trades. The larger the user base, the more the transactions, the increased revenue we see.

The Social Networking Aspect:

One thing we'll have on top of others, we'll allow a youtube or myspace style individual home page for users. Buyers, Sellers, and others may create a web space that allows individuals to comment on potential sales. For example, if users become familiar with one another enough they can notify them of sales or trades they're interested in. Our moderators will also incorporate this method to notifying individuals, when not in the forums. These moderators will also review pages to make sure they conform with terms of service and decency standards. We want all individuals to use our site, but prefer content stays on topic and tries to remain decent and somewhat family friendly.