Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................. 2

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3

Current Market Analysis – Marketing Audit ....................................................................... 4

Internal Marketing Environment...................................................................................... 4

External Marketing Environment .................................................................................... 7

Conclusion & Recommendations ........................................................................................ 9

Brand Name ..................................................................................................................... 9

Promotional Mix ............................................................................................................ 10

Relationship Marketing Techniques .............................................................................. 12

Financial Viability ......................................................................................................... 15

Annexure ............................................................................................................................ 17

Sample Questionnaire filled by the SME’s .................................................................... 17

References .......................................................................................................................... 18

2

Executive Summary

The ‘Divi Neguma’ national development programmed could be considered as a

new venture to expand our service in the business sector and it could be viewed as a

major promotional opportunity for our company as well, since the idea of introducing a

‘Business solution package’ is an innovative concept which has never undertook in Sri

Lanka before.

Under the ‘Divi Neguma’ national development programmed, industrial tool kits

worth over Rs. 53 million are provided to 4901 local industrialists to assist the initiation

of industrial ventures. Under this programmed potential industrialist with the requisite

knowledge, skills and competencies would be identified and industrial tool kits would be

provided. This is the light of the support provided by SME’s to realize the country’s

economic growth provided to the sector necessary backing to achieve diversity and

competitiveness.

This marketing solution package could be successfully initiated via ‘Divi

Neguma’ hence the best program to begin with.

We are hoping to introduce various tiers of solution packages starting with a silver

package and moving p to gold and platinum to make customers more attracted to be a

partner of a higher tier while selecting the most suited tier to suit the individuals’

financial status.

Since this is a new product launch it will be a big challenge to us because people

lack knowledge and experience of such a service. The main task that we will have to

perform is to persuade our potential customers about the product and induce them to buy

it. Other than that a huge cost will have to be incurred in the advertising campaign that we

are hoping to carry out.

In the latter part of this report we have mentioned the most feasible and practical

methods to initiate, implement and evaluate the program activities.

D. N. Dharmarathna

The Head of the Marketing Project

3

Introduction

The Innoidea is a newly established consulting firm which has been established in

the recent and has a short history of 02 years. However as a result of the expertise set of

management and diligence of our employees we were able to achieve a 25% growth rate

in the market. At present we have 25 employees with us along with an expertise corporate

level.

Our vision is to create a ‘Prosperous Future through consultancy’ & our mission is

to ‘Gain profits through fulfilling the expectations of the community’.

Our values help us to work in the most effective and fulfilling ways which helps

us to be more congruent to global level organizations.

We are committed to our community – we act as responsible corporate

citizens by broadening our skills, experiences and perspectives through

understanding the communities

We are open and honest in our communication – sharing the information

without ulterior motives

We act with thorough diligence and integrity

We work together while respecting the individual attitudes

We seek the facts and provide insight

Intrapreneurship is promoted within our company which evokes creative

idea expression of our employees

Our culture extends good business practice, since we are making efforts to

alleviate poverty, protect the environment and support education, also we address the

areas of local communities’ education, health and welfare to the extent we can as a newly

established organization.

Innoidea Consultants

4

Current Market Analysis – Marketing Audit

In the marketing audit we are looking in to the areas of,

Financial data

Product data

Sales and distribution data

Advertising, merchandising and sales promotion data

Market data

We have interviewed 8 SME’s to get information and the sample questionnaire filled by

them is attached in the annexure.

Internal Marketing Environment

The employees of the company are the dynamic force which enables the company

to operate successfully. Although our company has a short history we comprise of total

25 people including the corporate level. We have recruited a young staff with specialist

knowledge in various areas and our director board consists of some of the experienced

executives.

The financial level of our company is stable and currently we have assets worth of

50 million Rs. Also the financial statements have positive figures at present so through

contemplated allocation of monetary resources will not have adverse bearings over the

company.

Right at the moment our company provides services to the customers only 06 days

per week & 9 hours per day from 8a.m. to 5p.m. anyway this time is at present enough for

us to provide the desired service that we are planning to provide to our customers.

The basic materials we need are the information regarding the operating processes

carried on in the initiation of SME’s so that our processes could be planned with

clairvoyance. If planned carefully we can even grasp the potential SME initiators since

they need advice to begin with.

5

Marketing force available is planning to have a geographic sales organization

structure; this is the least specialized most generalized type of sales force.

A structure example:

In preparation of the structure the following should be thoroughly considered;

Degree of specialization

Centralization

Span of control

Levels of management

Line positions

Staff positions

The effectiveness and the efficiency of the sales force should be evaluated time to

time in order to ensure that our marketing efforts are going on well.

National sales manager

Eastern regional manager

Zone sales manager

District sales manager

Sales people

Western sales manager

Zone sales manager

District sales manager

Sales people

Sales training manager

6

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is another internal factor to be

considered, CRM could be defined as,

“CRM is a business strategy to select and manage the most valuable customer

relationships. CRM requires a customer centric business philosophy and culture to

support effective marketing, sales and service processes. CRM applications can enable

effective customer relationship management, provided that an enterprise has the right

leadership, strategy and culture”

Sales Management – Analysis & Decision making 06th

Edition, By Ingram, LaForge,

Avila, Schwepker Jr., Williams

Other than the above the current marketing process and the information update

and the accuracy should be considered.

In the marketing audit we specially focused on the 7P’s, the elements of the

marketing mix.

Product – ‘New business solution package’ for the emerging entrepreneurs is the

product that we are introducing to the market. This could also be recognized as an

innovative product which is going to be a very profitable portfolio.

Price – through the audit we came across the best pricing strategy which could be

implemented. The SME’s are of various financial levels will be coming to us

hence we are hoping to introduce 03 tiers of marketing packages, namely;

o Platinum tier – for entrepreneurs who can afford a high budget

o Gold tier – level below the platinum tier

o Silver tier – for comparatively low budget allocators for the marketing

activities

Place – efficiency and the effectiveness in the distribution network

Promotion – the promotion strategies that are most suitable for the campaign and

budgeting and implementation

People – the sales-force in the field in order to inform and introduce this new

scheme to the target segment should be carefully screened. Recruiting the correct

persons for this is essential.

Process – the effectiveness in dealing with the customers

Physical evidence – tangible attributes of the service

7

External Marketing Environment

Though the internal marketing environment is controllable the external

environment is beyond the control of the organization.

Identifying and verifying the customer is the first task that should be done. Here

clearly identifying the needs and wants of customers, identifying the buyer decision

process and consumer behavior, recognizing customers values, segmentation, targeting

and positioning plus building a positive brand perception are the most important.

The competition in the target market is another external factor. Since we are the

innovators of this new concept we will be having no competitors in the beginning,

however strategic planning is a must in order to build a strong base for the future.

The success of the marketing plan also depends on the environment within which

we are operating. Beliefs and religion, standards and average level of education, lifestyles

of the target market, and the receptiveness of the market should be considered.

Demography of the customers is another fact, the type of media that we are to use,

information systems, technology used to get closer to the customer etc. are affected by the

demographic distribution of the target segment.

Economy of the target segment has a direct influence since this will decide the

amount of disposable income with the target segment.

‘Divi Neguma’ itself is a sole idea of the current government so it’s obvious that

this process is directly influenced by politics, legislative systems and the legal system

within the country.

The above information was collected via SME owners and it was conducted in

‘The questionnaire filled by the investigator’ format since these people value time a lot.

8

Current marketing plan

Objectives of Innoidea

Marketing strategies

Marketin mix

Marketing process to

be followed

Marketing buget

SMARTNESS of the objectives

Performance

Staff

Experience & learning

9

Conclusion & Recommendations

The above marketing audit revealed many aspects that we should look into in

implementing the new product. The information was used further for making conclusions

and recommendations.

Brand Name

After contemplating over several brand names we decided to name our

product/business solution package as ‘Athwela by Innoidea’. The other proposed names

and reasons for the names were;

Idiriya – since this program is for entrepreneurs; but this name doesn’t imply

anything about ‘Divi Neguma’, the name implies that the business is totally

depended on us, therefore we declined the name.

EntraSol - a combination of Entrepreneur & Solution, our target segment majorly

comprises of village people therefore English names most of the time might not

give them any idea about the product.

IndaEntra – again due to English language barrier we dropped this name, the name

stands for ‘Intrapreneur in the Entrepreneur’

The name ‘Athwela’ implies that a business which has already being implemented

would be given support by the Innoidea team. Also the name is in Sinhala which is

understandable by majority of the target population. The name also is inviting and

soothing winning the confidence of the target segment. The 03 dimensions of the market

cube are responded that is; type of customers, motivations and consumption contexts.

Also the name is easy to recall, pronounceable, transferable and mentions the benefits of

the product.

10

Promotional Mix

The marketing mix of the service sector comprises of the 7P’s; product, price,

place, promotion, people, processes and practices. Promotion is an important attribute in

the marketing context since;

“The promotion mix is the specific blend of promotion tools that the company uses to

persuasively communicate customer value and build customer relationships”

Kotler et al (2010)

Our promotional plan is targeted for 1 year.

Personal selling –this is an expensive method because we need to train our

employees, teach them the approaches and techniques used in the process. But this

should be carried out in small scale since our target segment are farmers and

villagers who are willing to get information and enthusiastic.

Public relations – is defined as “The deliberate, planned & sustained effort to

establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its

publics” Institute of Public Relations. This is a very good method to grasp the

expected customers for our new product. Temples, religious places and other

places where people gather together would be effective places for this.

Direct marketing – also could be recommended. Distributing leaflets via mail

without any intermediaries or distributors will help us to give out clear cut

information to the potential customers clearly and specifically.

Trade fairs & Exhibitions – these could be carried on to increase the awareness

and encourage trial since this is a new product. Getting closer to the customers,

understanding them and rectifying our activities that will best suit them are other

objectives.

Advertising – in order to create awareness. Since our company is a small one it

will be hard to carry on heavy advertising campaigns yet we can use media such

as newspapers (local, national, free trade), magazines and journals, TV (local and

national) and outdoor advertising such as posters and leaflet distribution. Since

television ads are expensive we can carry on the tagline advertising strategy.

11

Methods such as sales promotion, online advertising are not suitable for this. The

reason is that most of the entrepreneurs are busy people and most of them lack IT

literacy.

‘Divi Neguma’ is a SME oriented program and it takes time and effort for success,

these people who are partners of the ‘Divi Neguma’ likes to get constant advice, guidance

and motivation from the industry related people since running a business is not an easy

task to handle.

Out of the above mentioned promotional tools the best method is to go and meet

people, through winning the hearts of the people we can earn their trust and confidence

and according to our point of view positive word-of-mouth is the best promotional tool

available which will be the final result.

12

Relationship Marketing Techniques

As mentioned above the best promotional strategy that we can follow is creating

profitable customer relationship management and through that creating greater customer

life time value.

Relationship marketing is based on customer satisfaction and customer retention.

Customer satisfaction in return promotes viral-marketing and is considered as one of the

best means to reach potential customers.

Though relationship marketing consumes time and money it also has positive returns such

as;

Longer the relationship easier to amortize the cost in gaining customers

They are less likely to move towards competitors (though we don’t have none a

present they will emerge soon) less price sensitive and tend to purchase in a

specific pattern

Viral marketing, free word of mouth promotion and referrals

Regular customers will be less expensive to work with because they will know the

processes and require less knowledge regarding the subject

Persistent customers get closer to the employees and this will motivate the

employees as well

Relationships with the potential customers could be boldly formed by using many

techniques such as,

Customization – since we are initially going to operate in a typical area the sales

force should be advised to identify the customers and build mutual relationships

with them identify the unique needs, wants and desires of the customers and cater

the particular needs. It would be easier if separate accounts are opened for

individual customers with their basic information, attitudes towards their business,

and their observable characteristics. Actually this is going to be an expensive

method but implying the customers that we are concentrating only on one person

at a time will bring long term benefits. For an example the customers would be

13

delighted rather than being satisfied and positive word-of-mouth will be dispersed.

As we all know referral marketing is one of the strongest marketing tools because

potential customers will get a positive impression about our company via current

customers and as we can understand will be a beneficial outcome for us

Building up a society for small and medium scale entrepreneurs - this will help to

gather people with common interest, also it will have long term benefits and they

will get the chance to meet themselves. Here our firm will get a rare opportunity

to clearly understand our target segment and adopt our methods to suit to them.

Also emerging entrepreneurs will be a light to our company which itself is going

to be a huge promotion for us. First our customers should be informed that we are

having a small scale society for SME’s and that we are providing special facilities

to them such as,

o Informing about the current market trends

o Advice on how to run a profitable business

o Presentation of bibliographies of unique personalities in entrepreneurship

that will motivate and strengthen the backbone of our clients etc.

14

CSR – corporate social responsibility could be considered as a mean to develop

and expand relationships by depicting ourselves to be socially responsible. Since

we are going to start operate in the village level getting closer to the religious

institutions and leaders of them would be a big help. Helping the students of the

SME’s students in education and starting a fund to give out loans and the like to

them are feasible options which are available which do not incur higher costs.

15

Financial Viability

After completion of the marketing plan assessing the financial viability will be

carried on. Time and money are the main considerations that we look into and assessing

and estimating the cost would be easier while the ideas are on mind.

The allocation of the budget would be a huge challenge because it will not meet

all the activities that we are planning to do.

Financial success could be measured in many aspects such as;

Stays in the black and turns out a profit

Has a healthy balance sheet

Generates good cash flow

Produces a good return on investment (ROI) for the investors

Attaining financial success starts with a financial assessment that’s based on

historical record and future projections. By looking at the past to help plan and predict the

future, we can gain much better control over our company’s financial performance.

A good financial plan will give us a detailed picture of the financial health of our

business and the viability of our strategic plan. It also helps us to know whether we are

getting off track during implementation so we can take action before anything serious

occurs — like running out of cash.

The following steps will be followed in conducting the financial assessment of our

strategic plan.

Estimation of the revenue and expenses

Conducting contribution analysis time to time to determine whether our strategies

positively contribute the bottom line

Short term and long term targeting and planning

with good correspondence

16

Intrapreneurship is promoted by Innoidea since we follow the same policy; hence

marginal costing (mark-up-pricing) strategy is the best policy that we could follow.

Here we are going to add the profit margin to the marginal cost (either the

marginal cost of production or the marginal cost of sales), we perceive that it would be

better to add up the marginal cost of sales to the profit margin since we are providing a

service and our variable cost would be changing drastically (transportation fee, food and

beverages for our sales people etc.)

Advantages of this method are;

Simplicity

Mark-up can be conveniently varied to suit the demand conditions

This method is more convenient if the variable cost stays constant

The growth rate of our company for the past 02 years is in a healthy status to practice this

method as well. (25%)

There are potential drawbacks as well;

Impossible to ignore the fixed costs

Actually since we are not having competitors right now the issue of overlooking

the competitors’ prices and profit maximization points are just potential

consequences that are likely to occur

17

Annexure

Sample Questionnaire filled by the SME’s

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are conducting a survey to get information and suggestions in order to

develop a Marketing solution package for the SME’s. So please be kind enough to

give out your frank and direct ideas and answers to the questions given below. Your

privacy will be protected.

Age group of the proprietor of the S/ME

o 20-25

o 26-30

o 30-40

o 40-50

o Above 50

Type of business

o Agriculture – vegetables and fruits

o Animal husbandry

o Other – Please specify

The price that you are expecting to give out the product and the reason for

selecting that price (a short, direct answer)

How are you going to distribute the product, in what places do you expect to

sell them, if there is a particular reason specify

According to your point of view what sort of promotions are best suited for

your company, why?

What sort of customer service you are going to provide to your customers via

your employees?

What type of culture exists within your company?

What steps are you hoping to take in order to shape the lives of your

employees?

18

References

‘Financial Accounting – a new perspective’ By Paul Solomon, Mc Graw Hill

publications

From Brand Vision To Brand Evaluation, The Strategic Process of Growing &

Strengthening Brands – 03rd

Edition, By Leslie de Chernatony

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.marketingteacher.com

https://www.kpmg.com/Global

Institute of Public Relations (UK-2008)

Integrated Advertising, Promotion & Marketing Communications – 04th

Edition,

By Kenneth E. Clow, Donald Baack

Managing Finance – Viva Student Edition, 01st Indian Edition, By Pippa Riley

Sales Management – Analysis & Decision making 06th

Edition, By Ingram,

LaForge, Avila, Schwepker Jr., Williams

Strategic Planning, 02nd

Edition By Erica Olsen