Page 106 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

Marketing Plan: Reaching the Customer • 97

Lazybones Marketing Plan

SEction 4: MarkEting Plan

Lazybones is in the business of selling premium services to This is a statement of
college students, and Lazybones is in the business of selling the product/service strat-
egy. Interesting that they
its business model to qualified franchisees. Effectively do not say premium laundry
service, but premium ser-
doing the second depends largely on the effectiveness vices. This implies that Dan
of doing the first. has a view toward increas-
ing their share of college
Our experience with college students has shown that students’ disposable income,
sales success is much more dependent on quality and by adding storage services,
convenience than on marketing spend. Word of mouth for instance. This statement
leaves open the option
and the endorsements of the universities where we that they will add further
services in the future.
operate are historically the main drivers. As such, reaching
a critical mass nationally will increase our ability both
There are over
to secure these endorsements and to reach out to 7,000 higher education
incoming freshmen around the country. Our goal is to institutions in the United
reach target customer levels on each campus as quickly States, with over 15 million
students, according to U.S.
as possible and to expand to a maximum number Department of Education
statistics. This might be a
of campuses via franchising without compromising good place to reinforce the
our brand’s reputation for quality. We intend to achieve size of this opportunity.
this by centralizing the parts of the business that require
more in-depth education and seeking out and training This section identifies
managers and franchisees who will be focused on hands-on at a high level corporate
versus franchise strategy.
delivery of our services to end users. Corporate will centralize
aspects, such as operational
design and creating a unify-
4.1 on campus ing brand, and franchisees
will focus on service
delivery.
Pricing Strategy
The price of the laundry service is seldom the key Notes that their
decision point for our customers. target customer is price
insensitive. Also points
If the quality and reliability of the service are there, they out that students like to
are happy to pay a premium. There is an additional social mimic their friends. This has
important implications for
factor attached to our service: students typically want the rest of the marketing
to do what their friends are doing. These factors work strategy.
heavily in our favor in the long term, but against us in the
Telling the reader
short term. Due to the relative price inelasticity, customers some negatives, especially
cannot be attracted simply by discounting. when you have an answer
to the problem, illustrates
a detailed understanding of
the market.