TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................ 2

CONCEPT ........................................................................................ 3

MARKET ANALYSIS ....................................................................... MARKET SEGMENTATION ........................................... 5 COMPETITOR ANALYSIS ............................................... 8

BRAND POSITIONING ............................................................... DIFFERENTIATION ......................................................... 9 POSITIONING STRATEGIES ......................................... 12

MARKETING PLAN ....................................................................... 17

OPERATIONAL PLAN ................................................................. 19

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Turn old fabrics into new favorites. Cover & Carry provides a way for people to integrate their belongings with new products, transforming an item of their past into something fresh and original that they created.

Cover & Carry is a one-stop shop for protective coverings fit for any electronic device. While other businesses offer customized cases from preselected materials and designs, our company stands out by allowing customers to create new products from their personal belongings.

A pure play business, Cover & Carry will have no bricks-and-mortar storefront and our manufacturer-direct model will focus on creating one-to-one relationships with customers. Our target is composed of heavy electronics users, from the young adults entering college or the workforce to the middle-aged professionals with multiple gadgets they want to cover. We hope to position Cover & Carry as as a high-quality, high-value brand, distinguishing ourselves through our personalized shopping experience and devotion to customer service.

Cover & Carry’s 30 IT, Creative, and Marketing employees will be managed by 3 executive board members. While our unique business concept will allow us to save on production costs, we need approximately $42,000 to cover start-up materials, machinery, website development, facilities, and other costs.

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CONCEPT

The concept behind this new business venture is creating a customized product through a unique service:

Cover & Carry allows customers to turn their favorite material – whether an old pair of jeans, team jersey, sentimental blanket, or any other kind of fabric – into a tailor-made cover for their laptop, iPod, phone, camera, or any other digital device. This incorporates the “Do-It-Yourself-Design” (DIYD) system, which puts the customer in the driver’s seat when it comes to creating the product they want.

Our service will also allow users to choose from in-stock fabrics to create a customized cover without sending in their own materials. As the idea of customizable laptop cases is not an original one, we will differentiate ourselves by providing greater customizability, a more user-friendly online experience, along with more education and marketing content on how users can take advantage of this service. In the future, we will consider expanding our target market beyond the individual electronics users to include consumers such as:

colleges & schools• sports teams• businesses • clubs• 3

Business Model:The pure play business model will be adopted, as Cover & Carry will have no bricks-and-mortar shopfront. This directly complements our main model as a “manufacturer-direct business,” which aims to create personal, one-to-one relationships with our customers.

The manufacturer-direct model takes advantage of the web’s powerful ability to allow us to reach customers directly, thereby compressing the distribution channel and reducing costs by eliminating the middlemen.

In addition, through this model we can closely monitor sales, inventory purchased, the general industry climate, effectiveness of advertising efforts, and commissions paid to affiliate advertising. From this information, a Return On Investment (ROI) can be established and used to later refine or expand the business.

Our manufacturer-direct model will focus on the key areas of efficiency: customer service and customer preferences. Through excelling in these key areas with our customers, we anticipate a strong word-of-mouth channel to develop through our target market.

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MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Segmentation:As Cover & Carry is a provider of electronics accessories, we want to target people who are heavy users of electronics.

According to studies conducted by the Pew Research Center:

71% of teens and 77% of adults have a cell phone• 74% of teens and 46% of adults have a computer• 60% of 12 and 13-year-olds have a computer• 73% of 14-17-year-olds have a computer• 75 %18-24-year-olds have an mp3 player• 66% of 18-29-year-olds have a laptop or netbook• 56% of 25-29-year-olds have an mp3 player• 55% of 30-49-year-olds have an mp3 player• 20% of people 50 or older have an mp3 player•

The previous statistics tell us that our target audience of heavy electronics users range from 14 to 50-years-old. Since the target is so big, it needs to be broken up into smaller segments:

The main difference between these two groups is the fact that the younger group is more likely to be in school full-time and not yet financially independent. The second group is more likely to be working full-time and self-sufficient.

young adults aged 14-25• people aged 25-50+•

Target Audience:

Their Voice:My name is Thomas and I am a 36 year old sales associate. I use my laptop and Blackberry a lot and want to protect them while I am on the go. I am not a fan of the pre-made options, and would rather spend the money to make one I really like.

My name is Amy, and I am an 18-year-old high school senior. I just got a new laptop to use as I finish up this year and go to college. I want my computer to be protected since I know my parents spent a lot of money on it. I also want a case for my iPod. I don’t want them be just plain cases. While I was cleaning out my closet, I found a bunch of clothing and blankets that I really like but don’t use anymore.

“ “”

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Customer Profile:Our target lives in North America and has disposable income. They consume a lot of media, especially electronic-based. Some websites they visit regularly include Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter. Many also frequent several blogs.

Our target market is people who want to protect their electronics while still maintaining a sense of style and individuality. They value customer service and the ability to customize products to their own specific needs and aesthetic.

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Competitor Analysis:

company overview strengths weaknesses

Timbuk2 Bags mainly internet-based retailer• recently opened a retail store • in San Franciscooffers custom bags• distributes products to inde-• pendent retailers across the country

many varieties of bags • such as messenger style, backpacks, & laptop sleeveslifetime guarantee•

no cases for mobile • devices/mp3 playersmust choose from • pre-selected materials for DIY bagsno DIY laptop cases/• sleeves

Personalized Laptop Sleeves

internet based retailer• offers customizable laptop • sleeves

bulk discounts• many options•

minimum quantity • requirements, so not good for individualsmust choose from • pre-selected materials

Waterfield internet based retailer • offers quality electronic cases•

made in San Francisco• high-quality materials• many varieties of cases • for many devices

only options for di-• mensions & colormust choose from • pre-selected materials

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BRAND POSITIONING

Product Differentiation:

“Differentiation is the process of adding a set of meaningful and valued differences to distinguish the company’s offering from the competitors’ offerings (Kotler and Keller, 2006). [It] is what a company does to the product, as opposed to positioning, which is what it does to the mind (Strauss, 202).”

Our product is the only one that allows you to send in your own material (or choose from our selection of fabrics on-hand) and create a new, custom product based on a variety of options. Because no other company allows such customization, this will be Cover & Carry’s main selling point. By giving the customer the ability to make and preview their own electronic cover online with our options, we are creating a one-to-one relationship with each consumer.

Channel Differentiation:The Internet functions as the communication and transaction channel for Cover & Carry. People anywhere in the world or at any time of day can access our site and, thus, our product. Our highly-personalized experience could only really succeed online, since the Internet gives consumers the ability to feel products out visually or through reviews before actually purchasing them.

Strauss, Judy, and Raymond Frost. E-Marketing. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.

Service & Personnel Differentiation: Our company will have round-the-clock online customer service through email and instant-messaging and the website will also provide a phone number for service calls. Because of our emphasis on one-to-one relationships, we need consultants to handle customer inquiries, such as questions about the process of sending in their belongings and what options would work best with their material. Despite this need to in-office personnel, it is still cheaper and more efficient than operating out of a brick-and-mortar location.

It is extremely important for our customers to trust us because we are, in essence, taking something of potentially strong emotional meaning or even monetary value and changing it into something else. We need customers to be assured that we are here to serve them and help turn their ideas into reality. It must be clear that it is 100% the cus-tomer’s idea, their unique product.

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Image Differentiation:

Cover & Carry’s website is also experience branding, because the product is not the only thing that a consumer receives from visiting our site. The whole process – the first step of which can take place entirely on the consumer’s own – ultimately makes the experience special for each shopper:

M1. aterial Decision: customer decides what pair of jeans/baby blanket/jer-sey they want to transform OR customer chooses from in-stock materials

P2. roduct Decision: customer chooses what product (ex: laptop sleeve) to create with their material

D3. esign Process: customer creates their product (choices for laptop cover may include size, type of protective covering, type of closure, etc.)

R4. eview: customer views draft of their product (received from virtual de-signer if using personal materials or received automatically if choosing from in-stock material)

P5. ayment & Delivery: customer pays by credit card or PayPal and receives their product in the mail

Our company wants consumers to come back to our website, if they get a new technological product or if they simply enjoyed our work. Repeat purchases and word-of-mouth marketing are essential to the success of our brand.

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“Positioning Strategies help to create a desired image for a company and its products in the minds of a chosen user segment. Positioning is the process of creating this image, and a position is the resulting view of the firm or brand from the consumer perspective (Strauss, 202).”

Strauss, Judy, and Raymond Frost. E-Marketing. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.

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Benefit Positioning:

Product Attribute Positioning:

The product our company specializes in is inherently unique because it is created from the customer’s personal belongings and design preferences. We can also add initials or a logo to their design.

Cover & Carry provides a way for people to integrate their belongings with new products, transforming an item of their past into something fresh and original that they created. This adds tremendous sentimental value to an otherwise simple product.

Since Cover & Carry will conduct business with domestic wholesalers and per-form all production in-house, consumers can also feel good that they are buying an American brand.

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Integrator Positioning:We hope that customers will choose us first when they want a one-of-a-kind electronic protector that is made for them, by them.

Cover & Carry’s website is a consumer’s one-stop shop for protective coverings for all their portable technology needs:

laptops• cellphones, iPhones, & other smart • phonesiPods & mp3 players• cameras• digital book readers (iPad, Sony • Reader, Amazon Kindle)portable DVD players• speakers•

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Technology Positioning:

Our website will feature many pull-down menus, allowing people to choose the type of product and the product attributes they want. For example, we will have the following options available for laptop sleeves:

product type• : sleeve, backpack, messenger bag, etc. certain layout or

design of case, shaped like something, rectangular)

size• : 13”, 15”, 17” MacBook & PC models

type of protective covering• : none, vinyl, clear or colored plastic for keyboard protection

type of closure:• none or slide-in, loose flap, buttoning flap, string, 3-sided zipper, 2-sided zipper, etc.

extra design requests• : if customer has specific ideas about layout, wants their product shaped like something, etc. they can leave comments/instructions

As previously mentioned, there will also be a virtual designer that will send the customer drafts of their personalized cover for review and confirmation. If a customer takes the in-stock material route, virtual models will be available for view at each step of the customization process.

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User Category Positioning:

colleges & schools• sports teams• professional organizations & brands• hobbies & interests• kids’ area•

Different portions of the website will target different types of consumers. These include:

A simple category breakdown is not only helpful to the user but, from an outside perspective, it can help Cover & Carry draw business from other sites. For instance, our future plans to become affiliates with sites such as etsy.com – which features the specialty products created and sold by individual designers – would include advertising on existing hobby/interest-related product pages to pull customers to our own respective categories.

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MARKETING PLAN

Since our target market is made up people age 14 to 50, we must have a range of media channels to advertise our new business. The target market spends a lot of time online – browsing, buying, and networking. We will advertise on web sites that have the most user traffic:

Advertising:

digital device review websites (ex: www.notbookreviews.com)• Facebook• Twitter• LinkedIn: • this networking site will hopefully be very profitable, as it is for people in the workforce and those searching for job opportunities; our target market is made up of people in or entering the business world who are heavy users of electronics.

blogs: • our target market is filled with bloggers; we will advertise on the top blogs within categories such as business, technology and style, which include:

- iblogbusiness.com - thesartorialist.blogspot.com - technospot.net/blogs

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Public Relations & Promotions:Cover & Carry will also have Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as a blog.

Facebook• :

- general company information - product pictures - post contests to win coupons

- “Before & After” customer-designed product shots

Twitter:• - post news (upcoming promotions and service options available to customers, new products, contest results, company information, etc.) - post links to contests on the Facebook

- post links to webpage and blogs

blog:• - satisfied customer comments & stories - pictures of upcoming products - news, updates, results of contests

With these media communication strategies, Cover & Carry will gain awareness and traffic from the target market.

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OPERATIONAL PLAN

Organization Structure:As a start-up business, Cover & Carry will initially conduct most operational activities – from material and equipment storage, to production and distribution, to customer service – from one physical office-warehouse unit located in New York. Business growth permitting, a similar unit will be developed on the West Coast in the future. As an e-business, we can also handle some to all of customer interactions remotely once business is established.

Management Plan:

department activities performed personnel needed

Management executive tasks• wholesaler & distributor relationship • management

3-- managing 30 employees

IT website management• customer service (website, payment, • delivery queries)

5-- servicing an average 40 customers per week

Creative production• design & customer service (provide • drafts in design process)

20-- servicing an average 10 customers per week

Marketing advertising, promotions, etc.• social media management• affiliate relationship management•

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Based on a projected 10,000 customers served in the first year of sales, Cover & Carry will need the following personnel as broken down by department and activities performed:

Capital Requirements:While receiving fabrics from customers allows Cover & Carry to save on production costs, we still need bulk fabrics for lining all products and for creating the more traditional customized covers (ones without the customer’s personal belongings as the main material).

The table to the right provides a rough outline of start-up capital requirements. Buying materials wholesale from local companies like trimfabric.com will be most economical.

materials unit price calculations total costfabric such as

foam lining• cotton spandex• cotton flannel (prints)• vinyl•

$3.50 per yard/unit $3.50 x 1,000 units $3,500

thread $1 per 500-yard spool $1 x 1,000 spools $1,000trimmings such as

designer buttons• appliques•

$0.75 per piece(a piece can be a bag of 10-50 buttons depending on size)

$0.75 x 500 pieces $375

shippingsupplier flat rates (ex: $50 • for purchases over $600)shipping materials•

$350 -- $350

equipmentindustrial machines w/ accessories

$1,500 per unit $1,500 x 20 units $30,000

rent & utilities $1,000 per month $1,000 x 6 months $6,000website development $1,000 -- $1,000

$42,225

(material pricing based on averagetrimfabric.com, esupplystore.com listings)

(equipment pricing based on averagesewingmachineoutlet.com listings and allbusiness.com, )

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Revenue Breakdown:

Cover & Carry will break down revenues to cover costs as follows:

5%

75%

20%

marketingoverheadequipment/materials

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Workflow Diagram:

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

TRANSACTION

PRODUCTION

CONFIRMATION

SHIPMENT

design process• review with C&C • virtual designer

customer payment through credit • card or PayPalstorage of customer information in • C&C databaseretrieval of material from customer•

correspondence between • design & production teamsphysical product creation•

quality testing• packaging• distribution•

order received• follow-up email (discount offers, • customer satisfaction inquiry)

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