Marketing assignment report help on: Marketing plan for online T-shirt store
Executive summary
The purpose of the business plan is to launch a new business venture for the development of an online printed t-shirt store and raising appropriate funds for the launch while explaining the expected operations, strategies and financials of the company for the next one year. The store named “T4Teens” will focus on both sales of customized printed t-shirts with designs asked by customers and the sale of t-shirts with designs that are produced by the company in the target market under the brand name itself.
As the target market for the store is teenagers and young people, creation of online store is preferred as most teenagers and young individuals enjoy shopping through the World Wide Web. In order to drive the traffic on internet on the t-shirt store portal and convert the browser into the customer of the company, there is requirement of production of quality products and offering of appropriate services. The marketing plan is aimed at raising $120000 for the capital required for the new business venture with overall details of IT strategies, product and services, personnel and marketing strategies, and financial statement.
The marketing plan includes detail of product and service, detail on external stakeholders and staff, funding plan, marketing strategy, growth and commercialization plan, projection on financial statements and the overall layout of the business plan.
Detail on product/service
The product of the online store “T4Teenss” comprises of two kinds of t-shirts. One is the t-shirt with customer designs that include t-shirts with the desired logos and images ordered by customers. This segment of customers includes small businesses and corporations that want to get their logos and images embossed on t-shirts. It also includes other customers that want their ideas or images embossed on t-shirt with creativity and uniqueness. Businesses that want to go for promotional distribution of t-shirts having their logo and other images to their staff and customers will be the main customers of the company. Other artists who want to get their own ideas and logos embossed on t-shirt will also be a part of the customers of the company in production and sale of this type of t-shirts with customer specifications.
The other t-shirt product from which revenue will come is company-made specific t-shirts that will have unique and stylish logos and artwork from designers and artists that want to show their creativity. These t-shirts will be branded as company’s specialized t-shirts and will be provided on sale through the e-commerce website of the company along-with other online distribution channels, such as Amazon.com, e-Bay, and so on, so that a large customer segment can be reached over internet.
The company will collect logos, designs for t-shirts and graphics from graphic designers and will in turn sell the t-shirts under the brand name of the company itself through the personal website of the company as well as several online sales channels available.
Management expects that 60% of the revenue of the company will come from company’s designed t-shirts and 40% revenue will come from customers’ designed t-shirts. The aim of the company is to provide quality printing services to individuals and small businesses along-with development and sale of company’s own designed t-shirts to a large customer segment that prefer doing shopping through internet i.e. teenagers and young individuals.
Management team, staff and external stakeholders
The founding team of the company includes experts in the field of marketing and in the field of making online web portals. Regarding the staff, although it is an online business, but, maintenance of operation and administration of the company will require operations staff and administration staff. Operations staff will look after customer service and facilities management. The administration staff will look after administration, accounting, and sales and promotion activities for online shirt store.
External stakeholders of the company will comprise of investors who can invest in the company by providing adequate capital to start the venture. They are assured appropriate returns for their investment in the company.
Detail on the funding plan
The company is new and does not hold adequate funds to start and run the business successfully. Therefore, the company will raise funds from financing institutions as a means of financing option. Other than raising funds from these institutions, company will also obtain a bank loan from a commercial bank for a term of five years on fixed rate of interest. At the initial level, the company cannot raise funds from public as there is no goodwill of the company in the market; therefore, obtaining funds from bank loans and other financial institutions for long-term will fulfil the financing need of the company in order to run the store with no financial obstacles (Sherman 2012).
Detail on the marketing strategy
Industry and market analysis
The online t-shirt store industry has seen significant growth in past five years and is expected to grow continuously on the global level as more and more people are getting connected to internet and have started preferring online shopping specifically young people. Presence of virtual online store makes the industry successful (Rivoli 2009). The competitors of the company include t-shirt companies providing printing services and those engaged in proprietorship in distribution of t-shirts. There are several small and large online t-shirt printing stores which are in direct competition of the company.
In order to remain in competition, the company provides better quality product and services with a low pricing strategy in order to attract large traffic onto the website. T-shirts of ‘T4Teenss’ are less expensive than that of competitors with creative artwork on them that will attract a large of teenagers and young people. Low prices will also enable the company to attract small businesses and corporations that want to use their logo t-shirts for promotional activities.
Marketing plan
The company has intentions to go on for an extensive marketing campaign so as to ensure that the online store of the company gets maximum visibility over internet for its target market. The marketing objectives of the company are:
- To promote the company with the use of e-newsletter, online newspaper classifieds and the word of mouth advertising.
- To establish strong online presence by development of website and getting registered with online classifieds and directories.
Marketing strategies
The company intends to place its promotional advertisements on search engines on World Wide Web. As the t-shirts are for sale to both general people as well as business class for their respective purposes, the company maintains its own website as well as will use online distribution channels such as Amazon and eBay for selling its own brand t-shirts having artistic and creative work in the form of logos and other graphics (Spindler 2010).
In order to attract potential customers, there will be use of e-newsletter that will contain information about the new t-shirts available in store for general public. The newsletters will be sent to individual customers in order to maintain their privacy over internet (Gay et al 2007). There will be use of cookies to track the behaviour of the customer. It will also be used when the customer later visits the website in order to greet him so that the customer can feel special.
Another special feature of the website as a part of promotional and marketing strategy is use of a tool that will help the customers decide which t-shirt with which logo suits them best. The web tool will enable the customers to upload their photo on the website and see how they look wearing a particular t-shirt. Thus, the photo upload tool will enlarge the perspective of customers, and as the target market for own t-shirts of the company is teenagers and young people, they will be amused to see themselves on screen wearing t-shirt with logos of their choice (Piller and Tseng 2010).
The e-commerce platform of the business will use state of the art technology for placing the order, getting the order fulfilled and distribution of t-shirts. The company will also work with online advertising agencies and classifieds along-with use of search engine optimization so that the company’s name appears on preference in search engines when searched by as browser.
In order to market the t-shirts extensively over internet, the company will contact experienced online writers for writing a copy of the website and promote its unique features. There will also be development of targeted e-mail marketing by registration with t-shirt ranking websites, for instance, ‘T-Shirt links’ so as to direct potential customers on the online platform of the store.
Along with the online promotion, there will also be press releases and creation and distribution of professional business cards for reaching business customers who can place their orders with the company for customized t-shirts (Danna 1992).
Pricing
The price of the company’s own brand t-shirts will be low. Penetration pricing will help the business remain firm in the market. The first preference of the company is sales. Therefore, in order to attract large number of target people, prices are kept low (Fifield 2012). Low prices will also attract small businesses and other corporations for customized t-shirts. This will help in making customer pool.
Growth and commercialisation plan
The management of the company believes to grow the business at the rate of 4% every year. In order to attain the growth rate, the company intends to make a pool of loyal customers and reach more people every day over internet. The company has plans to make contracts with more graphic designers for creating variety in company’s own branded t-shirts. Along-with this, the company will make contracts with online screen printing companies that process large orders, for instance PrintMojo. Increase in design inventory will get the company better prices on wholesale rate in future (Rafinejad 2007).
Projection on financial statements
Finance is a critical part of every business. Without adequate funds and proper financial activities, success of the business cannot be ensured (Baker and Powell 2005). In order to ensure smooth functioning of the business, the financial projections of the company includes balance sheet, income statement and the projected cash flow analysis. Projection of the above-mentioned financial statements is required to assess the viability and feasibility of the business, thus finding appropriate sources of funds and their uses for the operations and administration of the new business venture.
Following is the projection on financial statements of the company.
| Projected Statement of Income | ||
| 2012 | ||
| Amount ($) | Amount ($) | |
| Sales | 1800000 | |
| Less; Expenses | ||
| Cost of goods sold | 650000 | |
| Advertising | 200000 | |
| Depreciation | 30000 | |
| Insurance expenses | 12000 | |
| Interest expenses | 160000 | |
| License | 10000 | |
| Office supplies | 44000 | |
| Professional fees | 30000 | |
| Repair & maintenance | 9000 | |
| Taxes | 58000 | |
| Total expenses | 1203000 | |
| Net income | 597000 | |
| Projected Balance Sheet | |||
| Assets | Amount ($) | Liabilities | Amount ($) |
| Cash | 594000 | Account payable | 700000 |
| Account receivable | 672000 | Notes payable | 501000 |
| Prepaid insurance | 12000 | Accumulated Depreciation | 30000 |
| Inventory | 200000 | Other current liabilities | 200000 |
| Equipment | 500000 | Other reserves | 100000 |
| Building | 750000 | Long term debt | 1200000 |
| Land | 600000 | Net income | 597000 |
| 3328000 | 3328000 | ||
| Projected cash flow Statement | ||
| A. Cash flows from operating activities | ||
| Net profit | 597000 | |
| Add: taxes | 58000 | |
| Depreciation | 30000 | |
| Interest | 160000 | |
| 248000 | ||
| Operating profit before working capital changes | 349000 | |
| Adjustment for changes in working capital | 0 | |
| Cash generated from operation | 349000 | |
| Less: income tax paid | 58000 | |
| Net cash from operating activities | 291000 | |
| B. Cash flow from investing activities | ||
| Capital expenditure | -450000 | |
| Net cash flow from investing activities | -450000 | |
| C. Cash flow from financing activities | ||
| Long term debt | 600000 | |
| Interest paid | -80000 | |
| Net cash flow from financing activities | 520000 | |
| Net increase in the cash | 361000 | |
| Forecasted Revenue & Cash flow | |
| Sales | 1800000 |
| Net income | 637000 |
| Cash flow from operating activities | 827000 |
| Cash flow from investing activities | -900000 |
| Cash flow from financing activities | 1040000 |
| Financing from long term debt | 1200000 |
The net income is projected to be $597000 for the first year and it will grow as per the assumed growth rate of 4%. Net increase in cash will be $361000 for the financial year 2012. The projected financial statements give details of the financial status of the company for the coming period.
Overall presentation of the business plan
New business venture constituting of online t-shirt store named ‘T4Teens’ is discussed for attracting investors. The customers include teenagers as well as small businesses and corporations. The company has projected growth rate of 4% and has strong marketing and growth plans. Funds of the company will be raised from long-term loans from banks and financing institutions. Strong online marketing and key features of the website will help the company attain its marketing goals and run the business successfully by driving more and more traffic to its website. Financial statements of the company help in estimating income for the initial year and cash flow from the business activities.
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