Creating a Marketing Plan

1 Marketing Plan Super-Fast Shoes is an athletic shoe store that seeks to offer its customers athletic shoes that feature innovative technology and modern style at a reasonable price. Unlike other athletic shoes in the market, Super-Fast Shoes will offer additional benefits to its users. The shoes are designed to give support to people, putting them on whenever they are used. They will help improve a person's life besides improving the wearer's body when used for running or everyday walking needs. Super-Fast Shoes will have an unmatched, extensive selection of various athletic shoes that include different colors and size range. The company’s unique business model permits it to have an extensive selection at the cost equivalent to having to stock one size per style. An excellent relationship with wholesalers makes it possible for customers to receive their required shoe sizes in 24 hours.

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2 Markets and Market Segments Super-Fast Shoes would be sold in three different markets that include the home market, the domestic market, as well as the foreign market. The product will first be made available in the home and domestic market before going international in the third year after a careful study of the international market and getting funds to support such expansion. The targeted segments of the market will be men and women who wear such shoes for running or for any other outdoor activities. The company's primary competitors in the industry comprised all small and mediumsized players who have managed to establish their presence in the market after several years of operation. When not monitored and acted upon swiftly, the competitors' activities can adversely affect the performance or success of Super-Fast Shoes. However, we are hopeful that we will do well in the midst of the competition given that we currently enjoy the largest market share and would soon resort to buying our competitors’ companies once the opportunity presents itself (Candelo 2019).

Customer Needs Customers in the targeted markets are fashion and money conscious. They are looking for fashionable athletic shoes but at affordable prices. They tend to eat out at least twice a week with friends or family members, and they at least read or have subscribed to several fashion-oriented magazines. Super-Fast Shoes will offer its customers athletic shoes that can provide comfort in addition to being stylish and affordable. This will be achieved by giving the customers the opportunity to give their feedback regarding their liking, dislike, or any other improvement idea they would like the company to employ in its next product generation. Customer feedback helps companies make improvements that ensure customer satisfaction (van Tonder et al., 2018).

3 Super-Fast Shoes seeks to position itself as the premier store for both men and women athletic shoes, able to offer them the largest selection that matches some of the well-known chain shoe retailers in the market. To achieve our desired positioning, we seek to leverage our competitive edge. Unmatched selection is the company’s competitive advantage. Currently, there are many retailers in the market offering athletic shoes. However, they do not provide a wide variety of decent quality shoes for a fashionable and money-conscious buyer. Super-Fast Shoes will provide a larger selection of fashionable and price-conscious shoes to the customers through an inventory model that supports the stocking of a variety of styles.

SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is an instrumental environmental analysis tool that helps businesses to understand their associated strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (David and David 2016). Through SWOT analysis, a business can understand the internal and external environmental factors affecting its success (Rothaermel 2016). Strengths and weaknesses are internal positive and negative factors, respectively, while opportunities and threats are external positive and negative factors, respectively, the affect the success of a company or its products (Meyer, Neck, and Meeks 2017). The following SWOT analysis shows the primary strengths and weaknesses within Super-Fast Shoes in addition to describing the opportunities and threats that the company’s athlete shoes are facing in the market.

Strengths  A significantly healthy relationship with wholesalers  Highly efficient staff members that pay critical attention to the needs of the customers.

They are normally given good discounts, have great benefits, and other incentives to enhance their overall job satisfaction.

4  High market share  High customer satisfaction  Top version of product development Weaknesses  The struggle to build the brands equity  Despite being necessary for success, forecasting fashion is normally a difficult thing to do  Inability to offer instant gratification by having all sizes stocked  Not an industry leader  High costs for industry expansion  Retail market’s price sensitivity Opportunities  The industry seems invulnerable to recessions.  Entering foreign markets promises increased profitability due to the foreign market's insensitivity to high prices.  The increasing number of customers in the market who are bothered by having to visit several shoe shops to find one of their liking – fashionable at affordable price  Increased platforms for promotion to increase product awareness Threats  Complete misjudgment of the direction in which fashion is headed  Competitors are increasingly gaining market share.  Increased inventory overhead  Availability of a wider selection of common design elements  New innovative brands keep emerging in the market.

5 Marketing Objectives The company has developed common marketing objectives for all the three targeted markets that include:  Increase repeat customers by 11-16% after every three months  Minimize customer acquisition cost by 7% annually  Develop an effective pull campaign to increase customers by 8% every three months.

On the other hand, the financial objectives include;  Reduce store overhead by 6% annually  Achieve a double-digit growth rate for the firm within the first 36 months  Reach profitability by the end of 24 months of operation.

Marketing Mix Super-Fast Shoes marketing mix will comprise the following product: pricing, distribution, and promotion (Abril and Rodriguez-Cánovas 2016).

Product strategy The company will provide a line of high-quality athletic shoes to both men and women at affordable prices. Super-Fast Shoes has carried out research on the most popular colors and designs for its products and assigned them names enjoyed by the consumers – cactus green, ocean blue, sunrise pink, and sunset red. In the next five years, the company will expand its product offering to include customizable shoes and children's and toddlers' shoes. It is believed that expanding to other product lines will help keep the brand fresh in the customers' minds.

Distribution strategy Currently, Super-Fast Shoes are being marketed in the company’s several stores across the home and national market. The firm’s products have not reached the international market yet

6 through the popular shoe store chains. The company plans to increase its presence in the present markets as well as the international markets. It also plans to expand to online sales, a trend that has been embraced by most customers in this digital edge. Super-Fast Shoes intends to monitor and maintain strong and productive relationships with the members of its distribution channel that include wholesalers, retailers, in-store kiosks, and online platforms to help it reach the target markets.

Pricing strategy The company’s products will be priced according to the competition levels in a given market. Prices assigned to the product will not be too high to signal prestige or luxury. Instead, the company intends to practice value pricing to make customers feel more comfortable acquiring the new product (Faith and Agwu 2018). Such a pricing strategy will make Super-Fast Shoes great gifts for graduation and birthdays. Coming up with the best shoe in the industry while keeping the overall costs low would significantly result in the creation of the most revenue for the firm (Al-Salamin and Al-Hassan 2016).

Promotion strategy The company will be in constant communication with its consumers and employees concerning its products in a number of ways. Information regarding the product will be made available through the internet, direct mailings, and salespeople (Blakeman 2018). The company’s promotional efforts will aim at differentiating its products from the ones offered by the competitors (Hänninen and Karjaluoto 2017). Super-Fast Shoe message will be communicated via social media platforms or sales representatives at the stores explaining the product’s new features to retailers or customers. The company will be increasing its sales staff to ensure that all stores are adequately visited.

7 Budget Estimate Home market

Domestic market

Foreign Market

Product development

Advertising Consumer promotions Sales people (2) Dealer promotions

$1,900,000 $950,000 $170,000 $210,000

Advertising Consumer promotions Sales people (9) Dealer promotions

$1,100,000 $1,200,000 $765,000 $850,000

Advertising Consumer promotions Sales people (12) Dealer promotions

$1,200,000 $900,000 $1,020,000 $950,000 $2,000,000

Controls This marketing plan is designed to help Super-Fast Shoes achieve its strategic goals of differentiating its product from the competitors' to increase its overall revenues. The plan serves as a guide to the company, and the marketing team will see to it that the plan is effectively implemented. Annual and monthly expenses, annual and monthly revenues, and customer satisfaction will be monitored to gauge the performance of the strategy.

8 References Abril, C., and Rodriguez-Cánovas, B., 2016. Marketing mix effects on private labels brand equity. European Journal of Management and Business Economics, 25(3), pp.168-175.

Al-Salamin, H., and Al-Hassan, E., 2016. The impact of pricing on consumer buying behavior in Saudi Arabia: Al-Hassa case study. European Journal of Business and Management, 8(12), pp.62-73.

Blakeman, R., 2018. Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to implementation. Rowman & Littlefield.

Candelo, E., 2019. Marketing Progress: A Never-Ending Story. In Marketing Innovations in the Automotive Industry (pp. 67-78). Springer, Cham.

David, F., and David, F.R., 2016. Strategic management: A competitive advantage approach, concepts, and cases. Florence: Pearson–Prentice Hall.

Faith, D.O., and Agwu, P.E., 2018. A review of the effect of pricing strategies on the purchase of consumer goods. International Journal of Research in Management, Science & Technology (E-ISSN: 2321-3264) Vol, 2.

Hänninen, N., and Karjaluoto, H., 2017. The effect of marketing communication on business relationship loyalty. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.

Meyer, G.D., Neck, H.M., and Meeks, M.D., 2017. The entrepreneurship‐strategic management interface. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, pp.17-44.

Rothaermel, F.T., 2016. Strategic management: concepts (Vol. 2). McGraw-Hill Education. van Tonder, E., Saunders, S.G., Lisita, I.T., and de Beer, L.T., 2018. The importance of customer citizenship behavior in the modern retail environment: Introducing and testing a social exchange model. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 45, pp.92-102.