A Marketing Plan
A marketing plan is important for any given business enterprise because it provides direction and ways through which objectives can be attained effectively. A marketing plan is more like a business plan since it comprises of various components. Thorough and quality planning is important prior to formulating a business plan.
McBride financial services need a marketing plan that would aid in providing guidelines and the steps to take in order to achieve the set objectives. The first step is to identify the target market. For this reason, market analysis is essential in order to identify the position of the business enterprise in the industry. Research on sector growth should also be conducted to determine the growth rate of the market. The other aspect to research on is the customer bases including the demographics of customers for instance their location, income, sex and age. The other aspect that is fundamental is SWOT analysis which helps to identify the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that may affect the business enterprise (Pride and Ferrel, 2008).
A research and analysis on the various competitors should also be conducted. This should entail identification of the various competitors and their location. It is also important to identify the product lines of the competitors as well as the costs of their products and services. The number of employees that such competitors have should also be determines. The other aspect that is important is the weaknesses and strengths of the competitors as well as their market share. The advertisement and promotions of the competitors should also be determined through research (Pride, 2008).
The media sources that would be used are the newspapers, local televisions and radios. Local newspapers can act as a good source for advertising and promoting a business venture. Through newspapers, the local community and a large population can get insight and information regarding a novel business venture. Moreover, promotions and incentives can be advertised through local newspapers and this would help in expansion of the market share and a large customer base. Televisions and radios may prove to be expensive but reliable advertising and business promotion media. Creativity is a fundamental factor that is important when advertising using various media sources. It is important for the advertisers to be as creative as possible so that they can attract as many customers as possible (Pride, 2008).
Advertising and sales promotions are the promotion activities that would be carried out by McBride in the course of marketing. The costs that would be involved in advertising should also be noted down since several promotion campaigns have proved to be expensive. McBride should make a wise decision regarding the spending of money in advertising and make an evaluation of how effective the marketing campaigns are.
McBride target market should be the youth and the average income earners. The youth should therefore be notified of the need to utilize financial services provided by McBride. The marketing base depends of the target market.The other strategy that McBride would employ in promotion and marketing of its services is the education strategy. Through education, the target market and other interested parties can gain knowledge and learn more about the services provided. It is therefore important to look for education experts and initiators who would conduct the training programs. These educators should have adequate knowledge about the business as well as the products and services provided. Moreover, they should have exemplary communication skills to promote understanding and enable the target market to know what to expect of the enterprise. Customers should be made to clearly comprehend and understand the various merits and benefits associated with the products or services provided by McBride.
Since the target market for McBride is the youth, the Internet should be considered as a form of marketing. This is due to the fact that so many youth can easily access the web and hence, information on McBride’s business venture can easily reach them. The other reason is that the youth are the ones that mainly use the social networking sites. These sites can be the best venue for marketing and promoting McBride financial services. One of the considerations that McBride should take prior to conducting marketing on the internet is the safety of the information disclosed (Pride, 2008).
Various concerns have been raised regarding the safety of data and information presented in the Internet. The enterprise should therefore beware of imposters who might take advantage of the new business venture. Not everyone on the Internet should be trusted especially those who wish to be business partners or stakeholders. It is important to perform an intensive research on various individuals interested in the business. It is recommendable to solely use the Internet as a form of advertisement. Through the Internet, McBride can amass a large market base for its products and services.
Reference
Pride, W. M., & Ferrel, O. C. (2008) Marketing (15th Ed). Cengage Learning
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