[ ACADEMY HOUR ]
PROPOSAL AND MARKETING PLAN Annie Decker, Kasey Ostermann, Sydney Smith
Marketing Plan To Do: (in progress)
●
Create the appendices
Notes from Steyn: 1. The marketing tactics part of your report seems to need more refinement. You have lots of good ideas. You need to get it into plan format.
1.0 Executive Summary Part 2: Situation Analysis ● Market Summary ○ Target Markets ■ Examined Academy Hour’s target markets and identified them as Police and First Responders. ○ Demographics ■ Determined the demographic of Academy Hour is police and first responders. ○ Market Needs ■ Identified the target needs as wanting real time help, pre-emptive actionable tools, and approachable certified counselors. ○ Market Trends ■ Resolved that the social stigma of mental health is the leading trend that has an impact on Academy Hour. ○ Market Growth ■ Looked at the current state of competition and decided with it being low, Academy Hour has a lot of room for growth. ● SWOT Analysis ○ Strengths ■ The first thing that comes into Academy Hour’s client’s minds when they think about the brand is trust; trust in the program, and in the counselors. ○ Weaknesses ■ The growth of the company is being threatened by the lack of development of long term strategies ○ Opportunities ■ Academy Hour and its programs offered allow for the opportunity to be a requirement either in training school, or by departments in all different areas of the U.S. ○ Threats ■ Big external threats we see coming up for Academy Hour are bigger companies entering this market and becoming instant competitors. ● Competition ○ Academy Hour currently has no direct competitors. ○ As far as indirect competitors go, Academy Hour faces the most competition from Police One Academy, CE Learning Systems, and Fox Valley Technical College. ■ Of the indirect competitors, Police One occupies most of the market share
●
with regard to this niche target market. ■ Police One has a strong presence on social media. ■ CE Learning Systems is the only competitor that offers some sort of mental health training. ■ CE Learning Systems is not as widely known as Police One. ■ Fox Valley Technical College offers a wide range of training courses for law enforcement officers. Product Offering ○ This marketing proposal we will focus on its flagship product, Academy Hour Online Training
Part 3: Marketing Strategy ● Mission ○ According to the Academy Hour website, the company’s mission is: “We provide valid, practical, relevant, and supportive mental health education which will help law enforcement officers and first responders gain resiliency, longevity, and overall well-being, on- and off- the job” (Morgan, n.d.). ● Marketing Objectives ○ Decided the main marketing objective is to grow Academy Hour through various methods. ● Financial Objectives ○ Highlighted the current financial state of Academy. ● Target Marketing ○ Believe the target market geographically need to be Texas and Oklahoma for now. ● Positioning ○ Academy Hour should position itself as the leader in online mental health training for law enforcement and emergency responders. Part 4: Marketing Tactics ● Product ○ With 53 online training classes, Academy Hour needs to focus on offering the best service quality to customers. Academy Hour can do this by monitoring customer satisfaction, incorporating the right technology on the website and giving more control to customers. ● Pricing ○ Academy Hour pricing is not sensitive, and demand elasticity is low. Academy Hour needs to use price as a strategic tool to create more profit, through strategies like perceived-value pricing, discounts/allowances, and promotional pricing ● Distribution ○ Academy Hour uses e-commerce to sell online training, but should consider venturing into M-commerce. ● Communications
○
Advised that Academy Hour should enhance their communication efforts through expanding their salesforce, Facebook advertisements, weekly newsletter, and blogging.
Part 5: Financials ● Sales Forecast ○ Anticipated sales of $30,000 for the sale of online training from September 2019 through September 2020. This is based on sales from September 2018September 2019, which capped at nearly $27,000. Part 6: Controls ● Implementation ○ A list of milestones - completing the marketing plan, updating the Academy Hour website, running a Facebook ad and a newsletter campaign - with dates and a budget as a guide for completing the tasks. ● Marketing Organization ○ Amy Morgan and Molly Plaza will be in charge of carrying out the marketing activities. ● Contingency Planning ○ Difficulties and Risks ■ Niche target market contributes to slow customer base build up. ○ Worst-Case Risks ■ Current positive social stigma around mental health changes. Part 7: Appendices ● Research Documentation from Situation Analysis ● Creative Samples Part 8: References
2.0 Situation Analysis Academy Hour first started in 2017 with the goal of introducing counseling sessions for first responders. To date, the programs offered have seen a significant, positive response from the first responder communities across America and Canada. Marketing will be vital for Academy Hour to see exponential growth in their brand awareness and customer segments.
2.1 Market Summary Academy Hour has foundational knowledge about their target market and their needs. This information will support efforts to better understand the target market’s needs, and wants from the company’s mental training courses. According to IBISWorld, the U.S. industry that Academy Hour most closely falls into is the Psychologists, Social Workers & Marriage Counselors industry. This is due to the industry’s definition: “This industry is composed of mental health practitioners that diagnose and treat mental, emotional and behavioral disorders brought about by mental illness, substance abuse or physical and emotional trauma” (Curran, 2019). Target Markets: ● Police Officers ● Firefighters ● EMT ● Security Guards ● Criminal Justice Workers/Investigators ● Corrections Officers ● Counselors/Trainers
2.1.1 Demographics The profile for the typical Academy Hour consists of the following geographic, demographic and behavior factors: Geographics ● By leveraging the power of the internet and personal networking opportunities, Academy Hour is looking to serve a target geographic area of all of North America. ● Academy Hour currently has a strong presence in Oklahoma & Texas but wants to expand. Demographics The only demographic metric that Academy Hour focuses on is career within the law enforcement and first responder markets. Academy Hour does not use age or gender when assessing their customer base. Despite this, it is important for Academy Hour to measure other
metrics in order to be able to better understand their target market. According to U.S. Department of Labor in 2015, there were 1.2 million people making up the population of police and first responders (Schafer, Sutter, & Gibbons, 2015). Of this 1.2 million the mass of the workers are white men ages 25 to 54 years old. In fact, 3 out of 4 EMTs and paramedics, 7 out of 8 police officers, and 19 out of 20 firefighters are men (Schafer, Sutter, & Gibbons, 2015). This is critical to know when producing content for the target market because men and women process trauma differently. Historically, under the societal norms of gender roles, men are supposed to be the tougher sex. In current times, this has lead to men having a harder time opening up about their emotions, consequently making it more difficult for companies like Academy Hour to build up a rapport with this market. However, by understanding this, Amy Morgan and her team can consistently evaluate whether their online courses are correctly targeting this demographic that makes up the majority of the target customers of Academy Hour. Behavior Factors ● Users see a diverse range of potentially traumatic events. ● Users have a dynamic day-to-day schedule. ● Users have a physically and emotionally demanding job.
2.1.2 Market Needs Academy Hour is providing the police and first responder markets with the training and programs needed to equip both segments with skills and tools needed in order to combat the social issues of PTSD, depression, and stigmas against reaching out for help. This is product is vital because “PTSD and depression rates among firefighters and police officers have been found to be as much as 5 times higher than the rates within the civilian population, which causes these first responders to commit suicide at a considerably higher rate” (Heyman, Dill, & Douglas, n.d.). The company achieves these goals through: ● Real Time Help. First responders can get emotional help after traumatic events within their jobs from certified counselors and trainers. ● Pre-emptive actionable tools. First responders in their respective academies and training programs can get tools and coping mechanisms they will need on the job before becoming officially certified and going into the field. ● Approachable certified counselors. Market is in need of specially trained personnel to be able to equip first responders.
2.1.3 Market Trends One major social trend in the macro market environment that directly impacts Academy Hour is the social stigmas toward mental health. In the past, there was a negative stigma around talking about mental health. This held true specifically for men and men in “manly” roles such as police officers, firefighters, EMTs, etc. However, in the last few years this stigma has begun to fade. With its impending extinction, a new positive attitude has begun to sprout. Being open about your mental health has widely been accepted and encouraged in the last few years. This social trend in the marketplace considerably affects the success of a company like Academy Hour. As long as this supportive attitude continues, Academy Hour, should be able to gain traction in the market.
2.1.4 Market Growth Market growth for the services that Academy offers there are mass amounts of opportunity. Since Academy Hour serves a niche market that is underserved, growth potential is incredible. As mentioned in the section above, the current positive attitude toward focusing on and addressing mental health issues adds to the favorable conditions for growth. Much of the general public is realizing the need for counseling and training for battling mental health issues. However, the police and first responder demographic are slower on the uptake of this general public sentiment, because historically the people in these jobs were expected to be ‘superhumans’; tougher than the general population in order to tackle the incredibly difficult tasks they faced each day at work. “Compared to the general population, law enforcement report much higher rates of depression, PTSD, burnout, and other anxiety related mental health conditions” (Asmundson & Stapleton, 2008). This is why Amy Morgan has become specially trained to break down these barricades that police and first responders have built up in order to help them heal from their mental health problems. Due to everything, Amy’s Academy Hour product will do well in the market and as a result, grow indefinitely.
2.2 SWOT 2.2.1 Strengths ●
● ●
Academy Hour’s biggest strength is that it serves a niche target market that has been underserved for years. According to the Ruderman White Paper on Mental Health and Suicide of First Responders, “of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States, approximately 3-5% have suicide prevention training programs” (Heyman, Dill, & Douglas). Academy Hour has a strong brand image. Clients of Academy Hour’s associate the brand with trust; trust in the program and in the counselors. Academy Hour is an online program. This is a major advantage for the company because it expands their capacity indefinitely for who all they are able to serve. This helps to combat the loss of potential clients.
2.2.2 Weaknesses ●
● ●
The growth of the company is being threatened by the lack of development of long term strategies. Since the head of the company is focusing on day to day tasks the vision and the tactics to achieve it are being left apart . Since Academy Hour is still in the introductory phase of the product life cycle, the company has a small team running all of the company’s operations. Again with Academy Hour being a young company, this has resulted in brand awareness being lower currently in the market.
2.2.3 Opportunities ● ●
One way to realize this growth is through a strong social media presence. Academy Hour has the opportunity to have its courses become required material in
learning spaces for the target market such as training school and police departments. This is due to the fact that Academy Hour is serving an overlooked, niche market with low competition levels. Working for these courses to become a requirement at the stateor nation-level to enter this work force should be the goal.
2.2.4 Threats ● ●
Big external threats we see coming up for Academy Hour are bigger companies entering this market and becoming instant competitors. For example, already well-established online mental health training websites finding this niche Academy Hour has already found and just adding an extension of their company to first responders. Companies like BetterHelp, TalkSpace, and ReGain.
2.3 Competition Academy Hour currently has no direct competitors. However, Academy Hour faces competition from the following indirect competitors: ● Police One Academy ○ This company provides training for first responders in order to satisfy the training hours requirement. ○ This service does not provide mental health training. ● CE Learning Systems ○ This company provides online training to first responders and other professionals in order to help others in their business. ○ This company DOES offer training online for mental health. However, this is not for a first responder’s personal mental health. Rather, it is about dealing with people in their profession that have mental health disorders. ● Fox Valley Technical College ○ This company offers a variety of training geared towards people of law enforcement professions. ○ This institute offers a “wellness” category of online training that focuses on the mental well-being of law enforcement officers. Academy Hour’s competitors hold a larger amount of the market shares be Academy Hour is still a young company in the introductory stage of its life cycle, it has a smaller share of the available market in comparison to its indirect competitors. For example, Police One Academy occupies nearly the whole market with regard to first responder training. These competitors have the following set of strengths and weaknesses relative to Academy Hour. ● Police One Academy: ○ Strengths ■ This company is recognized nationwide and is the most popular form for first responders to acquire their required training hours. ■ This company was founded in 1999, so it has had 20 years of exposure
●
●
and growth. ○ Weaknesses ■ Does not offer any mental health services. a) People going into law enforcement and first responder services oftentimes want mental health training prior to embracing their career to ensure that they know the proper ways to cope and deal with certain situations. b) Law enforcement officers and first responders deal with many traumatic incidents that they do not know how to talk about or cope with, so providing mental health training would be beneficial for the overall wellness of these people. ■ Does not offer lifestyle courses. a) This limits Police One’s reach to consumers. Since Academy Hour does offer these services, they are able to expand their potential target market to more than just first responders and law enforcement officers. b) Lifestyle courses have the ability to help people in aspects of their lives they desire direction for or did not even know they needed help with. CE Learning Systems: ○ Strengths ■ CE offers over 20 courses for law enforcement, many of which involve mental health training. ○ Weaknesses ■ Small brand presence a) This company has not obtained a large customer base. Because of this, their growth has been limited as they face direct competition from sources like Police One. Since Police One is such a dominant force in this industry, a small brand presence burdens CE significantly. ■ Only available on 2 social media platforms a) CE is only able to connect with customers and potential customers through Facebook and Twitter. This limits their reach. Fox Valley Technical College: ○ Strengths ■ Associate degree programs are offered through online law enforcement training. ■ This company does not offer as wide of a range of services as Academy Hour. ○ Weaknesses: ■ Limited brand awareness a) This institution does not do an ideal job of marketing its products online. When searching for police/first responder/other law enforcement training programs, this institute shows up on the first
■
page in search engines, but is located towards the bottom. This limits the amount of clicks this company would get for this specific training. Not specific to police/first responders/law enforcement officers a) This institution offers a wide variety of courses, as they are a college. They do not specialize in the training of law enforcement officers, and this could affect the number of law enforcement officers that decide to use this institute for their training.
Each of these companies also have competitive advantages and disadvantages. ● Police One ○ Advantages: ■ Strong social media presence. a) Facebook b) Instagram c) LinkedIn d) Twitter ■ Brand loyalty a) Since Police One has been around for 20 years, they have built brand loyalty with certain police departments, EMT/EMS departments, firefighter departments, etc. ■ Company growth a) The longevity of the company has allowed it to grow and enabled Police One to grow their staff. Adversely, Academy Hour currently only has two people operating the company. ○ Disadvantages: ■ Too niche a) Police One could offer a broader range of training to grow their business. ● CE Learning Systems ○ Advantages: ■ Personable a) CE Learning Systems displays photos of its employees on its website. It describes each person’s position, and makes the user feel comforted in knowing exactly who is part of the company. ■ Backed by other companies a) Companies and organizations such as Vendome Group, the National Alliance for Grieving Children, Delta State University, and Winston Salem State University have written reviews that have been published on the site. b) Working with various other companies and organizations provides more credibility for CE Learning Systems. ○ Disadvantages: ■ Website
●
a) This company offers online training. As this is the basis of their firm, they should prioritize having a very clean and professional website. The photos used for the employees look as though they were taken from a social media site and cropped. It would be much more professional if employees were represented with headshots instead. Fox Valley Technical College ○ Advantages: ■ Appeals to wide range of people a) As this institute is a college offering a variety of courses, it will naturally have a larger customer base than companies like Police One and CE Learning Systems. This can be seen as an advantage because it can filter people through to its section pertaining to police and law enforcement training. ○ Disadvantages: ■ On-site training a) While this could be seen as a potential advantage, it also provides a significant disadvantage. The number of customers that can be on-site for training is very limited compared to the number of people that have access to training online.
2.4 Product Offering Academy Hours offers several products, however, for this marketing proposal we will focus on its flagship product, Academy Hour Online Training. This product is comprised of an entire course catalog of mental health classes. Amy offers in-person teaching sessions of these courses from time-to-time, but mainly focuses on delivering her training through an online platform for better accessibility. This training is targeted for Law Enforcement, security officers, firefighters, telecommunication workers, corrections officers, criminal justice workers, and investigators.
2.5 Critical Issues and Keys to Success ●
Critical issues: ○ Academy Hour has the ability to utilize and analyze far more demographic measures than it currently is. This poses an issue for the company, as Academy Hour is missing an opportunity to study trends in its market and create a broader customer base. ○ There is no long-term direction. Academy Hour does not have any long-term goals besides “growing.” This term is vague and is difficult to measure. Without financial projections and extrapolation or current data, Academy Hour will continue to struggle and will not be able to achieve the growth it desires. ■ Along with this, the methods for receiving data, be it sales, demographics, etc., are unorganized. Academy Hour uses 2 separate analytics platforms
●
to assess its market, but there is a lack of organization and understanding of the data. This makes creating goals extremely challenging. ○ Academy Hour is currently only operated by 2 people. It will be difficult for Academy Hour to obtain a greater number of customers if the company is only being operated by 2 employees. External growth can form when internal growth does. Tasks need to be delegated to a larger number of people, so each area of business can be tackled and handled efficiently. ○ Competitors have large brand awareness. This is a two-sided issue. One aspect of this pertains to the competitors, and the other aspect pertains to Academy Hour. Though Academy Hour does not have any direct competitors, it faces heat from indirect competitors that have a strong presence in the niche market of law enforcement training. This poses a significant threat to Academy Hour, as it is a small company attempting to grow against large, well-established companies. Academy Hour has a very small presence in the market, as it is only well-known in Oklahoma. Academy Hour does not have a ton to offer in the way of marketing, which makes this issue a double whammy. Competitors have strong marketing practices and large customer bases, and Academy Hour has weak marketing practices and a small customer base. Keys to success: ○ To better understand the market Academy Hour is serving, it should analyze multiple demographics. Currently, the only demographic that is looked at is the customer’s profession and branch of law enforcement. It would be helpful to understand trends in sales based on gender and race, as well. This would be key to determining which demographics are not being reached, as well as the ones that are. It serves as an opportunity to increase its number of customers. ○ Academy Hour needs to create SMART goals for its company. This includes goals that are specific, measurable, aggressive, relevant, and time-oriented. Creating goals that align with the SMART format will give Academy Hour structured guidance, as well as specific and tangible goals to strive towards. ○ Academy Hour should increase its number of employees. Running an entire business and expecting to grow is not feasible with only 2 people. It would serve in the company’s best interest to begin to hire more people. A candidate with marketing experience would be ideal. ○ It is vital to increase brand awareness for Academy Hour. This should be done through advertising and marketing practices. Academy Hour should study its demographics to help determine different types of people to target through social media, emails, fliers, radio, etc. Academy Hour will have to decide the best ways to implement these advertisements, as well, be it pulsing, a one-time advertisement, etc.
3.0 Marketing Strategy Currently, Academy Hour is a market leader for online mental health training for law enforcement and first responders. This marketing strategy’s goal to focus on expanding the total market demand by reaching new customers in new geographic locations. As of now, Academy Hour does not need to worry about protecting market share as they are the only company serving this niche market. Academy Hour’s products are in the growth stage of the product life cycle because the customer base is growing quickly and there is strong growth in sales and profit. Since the company is in the growing stage it is important to continue advertising the products aggressively to promote further growth. As for online mental health training for law enforcement and first responders, the industry is still in the introduction stage. Many companies and consumers are realizing the need and importance of these products. This will introduce new competition into the market eventually for Academy Hour, however, there is a large amount of growth opportunity as well.
3.1 Mission Academy Hour is a training service providing mental health and leadership courses to law enforcement, first response teams, and public safety personnel. The primary goal of this organization is to create a foundation of trust among law enforcement in order to improve their mental health wellbeing. According to the Academy Hour website, the company’s mission is: “We provide valid, practical, relevant, and supportive mental health education which will help law enforcement officers and first responders gain resiliency, longevity, and overall well-being, on- and off- the job” (Morgan, n.d.).
3.2 Marketing Objectives ●
●
Based on Situation Analysis and AH Mission, a value proposition needs to be set for AH as part of the marketing objectives. The remainder of your marketing plan will stipulate how this value proposition is created for (product), packaged for (price), delivered (place), and communicated (promotion) to the identified target market(s). The primary differentiating aspect of Academy Hour is its ability to offer mental health training in an industry where access to that specific resource is extremely limited. The main marketing objective will be to grow Academy Hour through its mental health training program for first responders and law enforcement employees. Academy Hour will have to market to a broader audience to grasp the attention of police departments, fire departments, counselors, and other members of this industry to be able to expand outside of its current market, which currently is limited almost entirely to the state of Oklahoma. Another marketing objective will be to emphasize its accessibility to anyone in any place. While competitors also offer online training, they lack in offering training specific to mental well-being. That being said, Academy Hour can use its mental health training program as leverage to aid in emphasizing its universal accessibility (online). This is an important selling point because in order to grow the company, many
customers will not have access to on-site training. Academy Hour should focus on reaching its online capacity of 20,000 users (logged in within the past 30 day period) through the strategy of accentuating its online offerings of mental health training.
3.3 Financial Objectives ●
● ● ● ● ●
●
As per the financial data provided, Academy Hour completed 71 online sales in the past month, resulting in a net revenue of $701 (for the specific date range of August 11, 2019 to September 11, 2019). The number of monthly net revenue capped at nearly $4,000 in December of 2019, so Academy Hour has the potential to increase its monthly net revenue of $701 significantly. If the monthly net revenue for the past year (September 2018 to September 2019) was averaged, Academy Hour would be making approximately $1,073 per month. This was found by taking the total online net revenue of $13,951.20 and dividing it by 13 months, as this is the time frame provided by Academy Hour. This is only with regard to online sales. With that being said, Academy Hour should strive to make a net revenue of at least $1,100 each month. Academy Hour should encourage police Chiefs to purchase these training programs in bulk for their officers. This would guarantee a larger stream of income. Academy Hour also offers a sales report for its Certified First Responders Counseling (CFRC) program. As this program was launched this past May, only 6 months of data are available. On average, Academy Hour sold approximately $4,422 per month. This was found by taking the total revenue ($26,531.50) and dividing it by 6 (representing the number of months of data offered). Academy Hour should strive to sell at least $4,500 of the CFRC program per month.
3.4 Target Markets ● ●
The obvious target market for Academy Hour and programs offered are first responders. More specifically, we believe right now that the target market geographically need to be around where Amy Morgan lives, so Texas and Oklahoma. Texas being one of the largest states, there is huge growth potential, and both states have a sense of pride in their first responders health, giving importance to law makers within each respective states.
3.5 Positioning Academy Hour will position itself as the leader in online mental health training for law enforcement and emergency responders. This positioning will be achieved by leveraging Academy Hour’s first-mover advantage in this market space and through the industry experience and achievements founder and operator Amy Morgan holds. Amy Morgan has a Master’s degree in Counseling and has served as Training Officer for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
4.0 Marketing Tactics The objective of Academy Hour’s marketing program is to position the company as the premier online mental health training provider, serving law enforcement and first responders. The marketing program will strive to build customer awareness concerning the company and its online offerings. Specifically, Academy Hour’s marketing program is composed of the approaches to product, pricing, distribution, and communications.
4.1 Product Academy Hour’s product is their online mental health training. There are 53 online training classes for law enforcement and first responders offered. Currently, the product is not marketed to its fullest ability, and not offering customers the best quality possible. Below are a few recommendations for AH in how to heighten both aspects they are currently lacking in. ●
Since AH has multiple training videos/classes, the firm needs to keep a constant eye on quality control in their products. Variability is a big characteristic of service. The quality of these training videos depends on all who provides them, when and where, and to whom. AH needs to take steps to take control of the service quality they are putting out by investing in good hiring and training, standardize the service-performance process, and monitor customer satisfaction. -Down the road, AH will want hire on more certified counselors and trainers to help create these online classes. When doing so, AH needs to determine if the person they are hiring is the right fit for this line of work and market, then train then thoroughly. -AH needs to put into place a standardized system or process of how these training classes are made, and more so, how customers interact with these classes. For example, AH should look at every point a customer must interact with either the AH website. Whether that means browsing on the website, buying a training, or actually interacting with a class itself. AH needs to evaluate all of these points of contact for the customers and create better service strategies, better customer service, and hopefully create a zero-defect, yet easy culture throughout the website. -AH most importantly though, needs to start to monitor customer satisfaction. The main way we are recommending AH to do this, is by customer surveys. “Organizing a survey is the first step in assessing customer reaction” to AH’s services (Deeb, 2017). A survey though must be followed by making the needed changes and improvements brought to light through the survey, which in turn will help ensure AH’s future growth and success. AH can implement these surveys in a variety of ways through a variety of channels. But, we are recommending that AH sends a survey out through email or a pop-up once a training class is finished by a customer. The survey should ask vague questions about their satisfaction of the specific course they took,
about their overall interaction experience with AH, and ask for any recommendations/comments about the service quality they received. ●
Overall, AH needs to start to let their customers have a bigger part and say in their service delivery. Customers do not just purchase and use a service anymore; more and more each day, customers are expecting to play an active role in the service delivery. The customer’s words and actions affect the quality service experience, so AH needs to start to combat this customer lack of understanding or mistakes made on their part. We recommend AH to do this by two main ways: -AH should redefine processes and customer roles to simplify service encounters on the AH website. They can do this by incorporating the right technology to aid customers in their purchasing and utilizing process. One way we believe AH can redefine a huge process, the browsing/selecting process, on their website is by adding a filter feature. Currently when browsing online training classes on the AH website, there is no way to quickly and efficiently find specific classes or even just a broad topic of classes. -Customers want to feel like they have a say in the service quality they receive, both actual customer support but also product quality. To put some power back into the customer’s hands, AH needs to start allowing a 3 to 5 minute preview of the training to the customers before purchasing. This allows customers to be more confident in their purchase, contributing to the overall satisfaction.
●
Once AH hits a later point in the growth stage, the company needs to have a topmanagement commitment to quality, a better laid out strategic concept, and set high standards for both their actual product and for customer service. Firstly, AH should hire someone in top management whose job it is to solely look at service performance. Whether this be a client customer officer, a chief client officer, or chief experience officer, AH needs someone focused on the customer experience and satisfaction at all times. Next, AH should create a clearer strategic concept for the firm. AH can start to become more focused on who their target customers are, what they need/expect in an online training class and from that, create a detailed plan for satisfying them. Lastly, AH should start to set higher standards for the company. These higher standards can fall into the classes themselves, the customer experience, who the target customers are, prices, etc. Every standard/aspect of the business can be heightened to a new level once AH claims a loyal customer group, has better financials and most importantly markets itself better.
●
Lastly, AH needs to have a better grasp on managing both service quality and support services. -Since service quality is tested at every single service encounter, AH needs to evaluate all aspects of service to determine if the firm is succeeding. One way to make sure AH’s service quality is the best it can be, AH needs to have a good, quick response to service failure. One way we are recommending AH to achieve
this is by one of two things: (1) adding a chat (live or not live) feature onto the AH website, so if a customer has a technological error, buying error, or any problem, they can get into touch with AH’s management quickly and easily, and (2) AH already has this to some extent, but an “Contact Us” page and contact information in the bottom section of the website. Currently, AH has its phone number and an email address on the Contact Us page, and on some of the bottom ribbons, but we are recommending better consistency. AH needs to make sure the contact information is on the bottom ribbon, no matter where you are on the AH website. With this, AH has to make sure all service encounters, whether over chat, email or phone, need to be caring and responsive. Another way to make sure AH’s service quality is the best it can be, AH needs to manage customer expectations. AH customer expectations come from past experiences with training (online or in person), word of mouth from fellow first responders or other departments, and just the overall expected service they have. We believe the biggest gap that might prevent successful delivery on AH’s part is the gap between consumer expectation and management perception. Considering AH is a new, smaller business ran by a couple of people, AH needs to take a step back to make sure with great certainty that they are fulfilling customer expectations with the current services they are providing right now online. -AH also needs to manage support services to guarantee customer satisfaction. This goes into a little bit about what was mentioned above. Some key differentiators when it comes to service online for AH are ordering ease, delivery, customer training, and maintenance. AH needs to make sure their website’s technology is user-friendly with ordering/purchasing an online training class, and the actual delivery of it. Customer training is a little bit more difficult for this, but one recommendation we have for AH is to simplify the training class catalog. Currently, each training class has pictures above each class, and only a brief description once you click on the actual class itself. We are recommending that AH takes away all pictures, and if AH is uncomfortable with that, put in simpler pictures. We are also recommending that AH puts briefer descriptions of the online class on the main catalog screen, so customers do not have to click the link to the class to see the details of the class. All-in-all, these two things will help AH’s customers have an easier time navigating the course catalog on the website. Finally, AH needs to focus on maintenance of the website. The company needs to find inconsistencies and fix them continually, to help make sure there is no confusion on the customers’ side.
4.2 Pricing Pricing is determined on an hourly rate with discounted rates for greater amounts of time. Individual training courses range from $9.38 to $25 per hour. Just $15/month, for 12 months, (or choose 1 payment of $175) and you have all of our classes at your fingertips, at your convenience, for one year from your enrollment date. Price-quality inferences are relevant for AH because AH has no true competitor. There is not
appropriate information to know the difference between prices and quality, therefore AH’s prices are the sole indicator of its quality. Price endings of “9” are the most appropriate for AH, since they suggest a discount in consumers minds. AH is still in its growth stage, trying to gain its customer base, which will help with since it heightens demand. Consumers’ price knowledge is also poor since it is new to the market, so the pricing cue of the price ending in a 9 will be more influential. AH’s pricing objective should be a mixture of product-quality leadership and a smaller lessknown objective. In product-quality leadership, AH’s online training program will strive to be an affordable high-quality product. The online program will be characterized by high levels of perceived quality, taste, and status with a price just high enough to not be out of customer’s reach. This is where another smaller objective comes into play for AH. AH needs to set its price just high enough that customers can afford the product, but also the price needs to be geared to client’s incomes, considering target customers for AH are state workers. All of this will combine to create a loyal customer base for AH. The influence of price sensitivity and elasticity is low on AH’s demand. Since customers are less price sensitive to items they buy infrequently, and when are are few competitors, they do not readily notice a higher price. And if they do notice a higher price, they believe it is justified due to the little bit of information they have. All-in-all, AH has inelastic demand, hence the demand hardly changes with a small change in price. When estimating AH’s fixed, variable, and total costs, AH firstly needs to use price as a strategic tool to create more profit instead of letting fixed, variable and total costs or the market determine the pricing of their online training product. With this, AH should be using target costing, meaning the whole company needs to have a concentrated effort to reduce costs in every area of the business, during this growth stage of the business. Since there are no true competitors there are no competitor costs, prices and offers to evaluate to help AH. But, AH is definitely the sole market leader, they can afford to charge a bit more than any potential new competitors. The most appropriate pricing method for AH is perceived-value pricing. It is made up of multiple inputs, like customer’s image of the online training program, what channel deliverables AH uses, customer support for the program, and softer attributes like AH’s reputation, trustworthiness, and esteem. With the use of marketing communication, AH will need to enhance the perceived value in their customer’s minds; AH will do this by showing customer's the unique value AH brings to the market. To do this though, they must first determine the value of its offering by two main ways: (1) surveys and (2) analysis of historical data. Survey implementation was briefly mentioned in the previous section (4.1 Product) to help improve customer satisfaction. But, AH can also implement surveys at the end of the current user’s online trainings to find out value offerings reasons like why they took that specific course, whether or not they bought the all access pass, and if they were required by their employer to take the course or not. Also, AH can
analyze historical data from their past customers. The company can look at what courses are their most popular and what time demand is highest for them, this will help them know what customers value and how to market that the best way possible. AH needs to consider other factors when selecting a final price. They need to look at the impact of other marketing activities. Since AH has average relative quality, they could up their advertising budget to be able to charge premium prices. If they do this, consumers will be more willing to pay higher prices since it is a known product instead of an unknown product. This strategy though would be best used when AH is later on in the stages of the product life cycle. For now, AH should have set-in-stone company pricing policies. The company needs to set up a pricing department to develop policies and establish or approve decisions, with the purpose of ensuring the company sets prices that are reasonable to customers and competitors that are profitable to the company. AH should consider price discounts/allowances, promotional pricing, and differentiated pricing when adapting prices. For discounts/allowances, AH should determine what works best at what time for their business. Whether this means a quantity discount for certain departments, seasonal discounts during the end of the year or holidays, or just discounts in general to create buzz and demand in their down times. Promotional and differentiated pricing is talked about below. AH should do some promotional pricing. AH already participates in longer payment terms by allowing customers to pay per month instead of just a one-time payment. But, AH should start participating in both special event pricing and special customer pricing. In special event pricing, AH can establish special prices in certain seasons to draw in more customers. For instance, AH can offer special end-of-year/holiday discounts. Since most first responders (officers, EMT, etc) are required to have certain training at the end of the year, AH’s demand already goes up, so offering a discount can draw in more traffic to the online training programs. AH can also offer special customer pricing, where they offer departments a special group discount, whether all the time or just first-time users. This will give departments a better chance to be able to afford these trainings for all of their employees, which in turn will gain customer loyalty in the long-run. AH should differentiate prices when it is in line with promotional pricing. If AH is using special customer pricing, for example group pricing, AH will be participating in second-degree price discrimination. This means that they are selling less to buyers of larger volumes. When approaching price changes, AH needs to make sure they aren't making any dramatic changes. Especially if cutting prices, AH wants to make sure they are not setting any traps for themselves. The prices of AH need to be high enough that consumers don’t start to think quality is low, and need to stay high enough that AH creates a loyal customer base, for when competitors come along that they don't switch. If AH is wanting to increase prices, AH may in the far future need to use anticipatory pricing. This is where AH will have to raise prices due to the anticipation of government price controls over these nationally (hopefully) required training programs.
4.3 Distribution Academy Hour Online Training is distributed through its website. This direct-to-consumer approach allows Academy Hour to maintain relationships with customers more easily. This also allows for higher margins, and for the customer base to be larger. The online training that Academy Hour offers varies from leadership courses to life skills courses to law enforcement training. There are multiple distribution channels that Academy Hour uses, as well. These include direct channels such as in-person training and online training, as well as indirect channels such as the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) system. CLEET is training that is required of law enforcement officers, and there are certain mandates and requirements of trainings that will be accepted by the CLEET program. With that being said, Academy Hour must ensure that the training offered to members of law enforcement positions is going to be accepted by CLEET. CLEET offers licensing to training programs, which means that CLEET oversees the training options that Academy Hour has developed. Academy Hour needs to continually update its training to fit within the bound of CLEET requirements, and be watchful for any policy changes within CLEET. The use of online training makes Academy Hour’s services accessible to anyone with access to an internet network and some sort of digital device used to access the web. However, the trainings offered to law enforcement officers will be limited to those residing within the United States and Canada, as these are the countries in which Academy Hour’s training has licensing and approval from CLEET. This limits potential customers from a geographic standpoint, but allows for a more focused target market. The use of online training means that the process to enroll and complete classes should be simplified as much as possible. Customers are not going to want to deal with a complicated website when their main goal is to simply complete required training hours for their career. The navigation of the website needs to be simple, as well as the training courses. With the primary focus of Academy Hour’s business being through e-commerce, there are several factors that the company must consider. These include customer interaction with the website, the delivery of the product, and the ability to address and resolve issues when they occur (Kotler & Keller, 2016). Only 2-3% of visitors to online retailers end up purchasing a product or service, so Academy Hour needs to be careful and meticulous with the design and format of its website (Kotler & Keller, 2016). One design factor that Academy Hour should consider implementing is using other websites as a means to market in order to draw in new customers. For example, Facebook Ads provide the opportunity for Academy Hour to reach a larger audience than it currently is, and it creates the potential for a larger number of people to make purchases on the website. Another strategy Academy Hour should consider is the implementation of an avatar, or an employee that is involved in a live chat system for when any customers or website visitors have any questions. This will allow new customers to have any questions or reservations answered, which can help lead to a sale. Another option of business operation is through m-commerce, or the use of mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets to conduct business. This would be a smart move for Academy Hour
to works towards, but they should wait until after the e-commerce side of their business has implemented the changes recommended above, as well as growing their business. Mcommerce only accounts for roughly 11% of online sales, so it is not vital that Academy Hour dives into this aspect of business quite yet (Kotler & Keller, 2016). However, as business grows, it will provide an opportunity for further sales and expansion.
4.4 Communications The message that Academy Hour wants to communicate with its target market is that it offers the premier online mental health training for law enforcement and first responders. Academy Hour communicates with its customers through a variety of mediums. Amy Morgan focuses on establishing her network primarily through Facebook, LinkedIn, and email. The goal of having a strong network is for Academy Hour and Amy to build trust with potential and current clients. This helps to generate positive word of mouth that helps her network to continue to grow. Currently there is only a logo for Academy Hour that says the name with a clock in ‘o’. One recommendation we do have for the brand is to keep a blanket logo over all programs and over the whole company. Currently, the slogan or words underneath “Academy Hour” when changes with different classes or for different programs. But, we believe there needs to be a consistent slogan, that reflects the mission statement, to create a feeling of familiarity and brand recognition for her customers. As for advertising, Academy Hour should not consider direct mail campaigns or outbound telemarketing campaigns because in this digital era, they are not effective. Despite their low costs, most people are not willing to pick up their phones for numbers they do not recognize, and if they do, they will often react poorly to someone trying to sell them a product. As for mailings, many people only glance at the sender’s address to see if it’s a bill before tossing the mail into the trash. Academy Hour should definitely use it’s database of customer information to consistently determine whether its customers belong to their target market. It’s also very important to use the database to identify prospects. By allowing potential customers to fill out a contact form, Academy Hour would be able to measure interest in their product and communicate with potential new customers through email to convert them into a company. Academy Hour can also use their database to understand the patterns in their customers buying behavior. By knowing who your customer is and what products they consistently purchase, a discount or special offer can be sent to them. This also creates an opportunity for Academy Hour to further their customer loyalty. By remembering who the customers are and tailoring personal offers to them, they will be more willing to continue their relationship with the company and to recommend others. This is essential for Academy Hour to build their customer base, since they are serving such a niche market. In order for the company to expand its salesforce and improve its current marketing program, Academy Hour should strongly consider bringing on a marketing specialist. This specialist could
work behind the scenes, devoting time to market research, keeping their advertisement campaigns up-to-date, taking on some of the communication responsibilities, and more while allowing Amy to focus on being the mental health subject matter expert. As the company continues to grow, Amy and the marketing specialist should consider growing their marketing team based on their current and anticipated needs. As for compensation, I think a larger salary and smaller bonus is appropriate for the initial hiree because while they will be focusing on generating new customers, much more of their job responsibility will be to build brand awareness. As the salesforce grows, salaries could dwindle slightly and be given bonuses appropriately. For the time being, below are some tools Academy Hour should consistently and deeply depend upon in order to see their customer base and sales grow. Integrated Marketing Communications Matrix Tool: Facebook Ads ● Target Audience: Police and First Responders ● Communication Objective: Build brand awareness ● Message Strategy: Value of brand ● Creative Strategy: Informational ● Communication Channel: Social media ● Frequency: Weekly ● Reach: Varies based on settings ● Cost: Varies based on reach and length of time ad is run ● Notes: ○ Start out running ads weekly as a beta and then up communication as you learn what resonates with the target audience and how to effectively get your message in front of them Tool: Newsletter ● Target Audience: Police and First Responders ● Communication Objective: Build brand awareness ● Message Strategy: ● Creative Strategy: Informational ● Communication Channel: Email ● Frequency: Weekly ● Reach: Varies ● Cost: Free ● Notes: Reach is based on the growing number of customers and contacts that Academy Hour has Tool: Blog ● Target Audience: Family members of police and first responders, police and first responders, mental health activists, members of back-the-blue community
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Communication Objective: Build brand awareness, establish need for category Message Strategy: Establish and communicate the brand’s points-of-parity and pointsof-difference Creative Strategy: Informational Communication Channel: Online blog Frequency: Bi-Weekly Reach: Varies Cost: Free Notes: Reach will expand based on consistency of posting, sharing the posts on multiple mediums and tagging posts appropriately. “By blogging consistently, you give Google and other search engines new content to index and you create opportunities to plug in those all-important keywords to increase your visibility on search engine results pages (SERPS)” (Mango, 2019).
5.0 Financials - 1 page This section will highlight Academy Hour’s sales over the past year. This data will be used to extrapolate a sales forecast for the time period of September 2019 to September 2020. This information will provide numeric information that will help Academy Hour determine how it is going to structure its marketing activities for the coming year.
5.1 Sales Forecast The following graphic indicates Academy Hour’s online sales from September 2018 to September 2019. As Academy Hour is a new company still within its first 2 years of launching, this data is the only available data that provides a year’s worth of information.
Based on the sales data from September 2018 through September 2019, Academy Hour can expect online revenue of about $30,000 from September 2019 through September 2020. The data from 2018-2019 shows an annual revenue of nearly $27,000. Academy Hour is anticipating growth through the next year, so just over a 10% increase in revenue was applied to the revenue made from the past year. This suggests conservative growth, as Academy Hour is still a new company attempting to reach its target audience.
6.0 Controls The goal of Academy Hour’s marketing plan is to serve as a handbook for the company. In order to measure performance, the following metrics should be monitored: ● Revenue: monthly and annual ● Expenses: monthly and annual ● Customer base growth ● Customer satisfaction
6.1 Implementation The milestones identify the key marketing programs (Table 1). It is important to accomplish each one on time and on budget.
6.2 Marketing Organization Amy Morgan and Molly Plaza will be in charge of carrying out the marketing activities, however, appointing someone to be dedicated to run marketing activities is imperative for success.
6.3 Contingency Planning Difficulties and Risks: ● Slow customer base build up due to being an Internet-based start-up for a niche target audience ● New market entrants by well-known, established organization, e.g. NYPD, government, etc. Worst-Case Risks ● Determining that the business cannot support itself on an ongoing basis ● Current sentiments about mental health turn back to favoring silence over open communication and seeking help
7.0 Appendices - 5 to 10 pages 7.1 Research Documentation from Situation Analysis 7.2 Creative Samples â—?
The picture below shows one current row on the Academy Hour website training class catalog. Our recommendation for AH is to delete or simplify the pictures over the class title. We believe this will help make the website look more professional, and more simple. Another recommendation we have is to add brief descriptions of each class on this page. We believe this adds to the overall ease and quickness of a customer purchase, considering they won't have to manually click into each class they are interested in to see details.
â—?
The first picture below shows the ribbon at the bottom of the main page of the AH website. The second picture below shows the ribbon at the bottom of the Course Catalog page on the AH website. And the third picture below shows the ribbon at the bottom of the About Us page. Overall, this is one of many consistency issues we see on the website. AH needs to hire a website builder/creator, to go in and make things like this consistent as they can, so that both customers can have all the information they need no matter where on the website, and for overall appeal and aesthetic of the website.
8.0 References Asmundson, G. J. G., & Stapleton, J. A. (2008). Associations Between Dimensions of Anxiety Sensitivity and PTSD Symptom Clusters in Active�Duty Police Officers. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 37(2), 66–75. doi: 10.1080/16506070801969005 CE Learning Systems. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://celearningsystems.com/. Council for Law Enforcement Education and Training. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2019, from https://www.ok.gov/cleet/. Curran, Jack. (2019, July). IBISWorld Industry Report 62133. Retrieved November 17, 2019 from http://clients1.ibisworld.com.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/reports/us/industry/default.aspx? entid=1561 Deeb, C. (2017, November 21). Importance of Customer Satisfaction Survey. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-customersatisfaction-survey-40463.html. Fox Valley Technical College. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://www.fvtc.edu/. Heyman, M., Dill, J., & Douglas, R. (n.d.). Mental Health and Suicide of First Responders. Retrieved November 17, 2019, from https://rudermanfoundation.org/white_papers/police-officers-and-firefighters-are-morelikely-to-die-by-suicide-than-in-line-of-duty/. Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Mango, K. (2019, June 27). Benefits Of Blogging For Your Small Business. Retrieved November 17, 2019, from http://www.openvine.com/small-business-internet-blog/5-benefits-ofblogging-for-your-small-business Morgan, A. (n.d.). Academy Hour Training Services & Online Options. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://www.academyhour.com/. Schafer, K., Sutter, R., & Gibbons, S. (2015, August 6). Characteristics of Individuals and Employment Among First Responders. Retrieved November 17, 2019, from https://www.dol.gov/asp/evaluation/analyticsreports/CharacteristicsOfIndividualsAndEmploymentAmongFirstResponders.pdf? The One Resource for Police Officers and Law Enforcement. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://www.policeone.com/.