Atheneum - Market Plan

1.  Executive summary

XYZ is an online book store with a collection of second hand books ranging from science to management, fiction novels to non fiction novels, children books to religious books etc.

Reading has been one of the most preferred means to spend the leisure time. In fact people nowadays are taking time out of their busy schedule to read, be it a business magazine or a novel written by their favourite author or motivational book or informative books for their children. As mentioned earlier people have very little time and in that most of the time is wasted in to and fro communication to the library. Thus it would be really great from people’s perspective if they get books at their doorsteps thereby saving commuting time (which in big cities is pretty substantial).

With XYZ, the customer will have the option of buying the book or can take away the book for some time to read and once he is done can return the book back with a minimal of charge and all that with a click of mouse on the internet. The company also accepts second hand books if anyone wishes to sell and that too from the seller’s doorstep. There are lot of libraries/ second hand book stores around the corner but the thing which separates XYZ from conventional libraries is that the customer need not come  every now and then, he just has to make a request online and his wish (be it buying a book or selling or renting) would be fulfilled at his doorsteps. For the customers who want to come and read in our store, we have stores with state of art technology built specifically keeping in mind readers comfort. The customers can come to the store and can spend their leisurely time with their craved books.

XYZ has come up with various methods to increase the customer base as well as retaining the existing customers. The company deals with the customers directly thereby it is possible for the company to bond with its customers strongly. The customers can give their feedback or suggestions which can be acted upon very quickly and effectively. The referral system will encourage members to refer the benefits of XYZ to their loved ones or social circle. It is a proven fact that word of mouth is the most effective mode of marketing and on top it it’s free of cost. Since XYZ rely basically on marketing by word of mouth therefore  the cost incurred on marketing is very low thus more of benefits are passed on to the customers.

2.  Situation analysis

XYZ’s top executives analyzed the situation using the 4C framework. 4C stands for customer, competitor, company and context.

2.1        Customer-

·        XYZ has contacted various level of corporations and companies of the city for supplying books for their employees. Apart from this XYZ has also conducted surveys so as to get better understanding of customer demands.

·        XYZ is also exploring the possibilities to get in contact with government offices as well as educational institutions as they will form a major chunk of the customers. Once the monopoly contract is done it would be a long term prospective.

·        For selling old books at cheap rates XYZ is in talks with local raddiwalas. The acquired old books can be made resalable by binding, page pasting etc. and can be made part of inventory of XYZ.

2.2        Competitors-

·        XYZ is aware of the fact that there are some established players in the market like friendsofbooks.com, secondhandbooksindia.com, justbooks.com and some others are also in competition.

·        After detailed analysis XYZ found that the major advantage it has over others is that it deals with old books along with new books whereas almost all the other companies deals with either buying and selling or renting the books.

·        XYZ also realised that the companies will follow the suit soon thereby increasing the competition but being the first one will definitely give advantage to XYZ.

2.3        Company-

·        XYZ is a partnership company with an investment of Rs. 15 lakhs. The promoters (2 in nos.) are young entrepreneurs with management degrees as well as 2 years of work experience in supply chain management in market leaders like amazon.com and ebay.com. The promoters have good amount of experience in this field.

·        The investment will be raised from Rs. 15 lakhs to Rs. 50 lakhs within a period of 3 years as the segment is still in its incipient stage.

  

2.4        Context-

This concept is pretty new in India and it is expected to grow at about 20%. Books have always been individual’s best friend; if they are available at such ease then they will remain individual’s best friend. The rapid growth in income has paved way for e-commerce. People have money to spend but not time. Thus if books are provided to them at their doorstep, they are more than happy to spend more for the same.

3.  Market Summary

3.1        Market Demographics-

·        Geography- Initially target area is Mumbai and Target population is around 5 million users.

·        Behaviour Factors- People are always concerned about usage of old books once they are done with them. Also, there are people who would be looking for old books at cheap prices for reading instead of buying expensive books.

3.2        Market Needs -

·        Quality Delivery Service at zero cost

·        User friendly Online Portal

·        Membership Deals at lower cost

·        Effective Old Book Collection system

·        Outlets with Coffee House

·        Customer Helpdesk

3.3        Market Trends -

·        Providing  replacement at zero cost

·        Books of various genres and segments at one location

·        Books for all Age groups

·        Promotional Offers

3.4        Market Growth –

·        As the awareness spreads with word of mouth publicity and efficient marketing strategies the user base is expected to increase from 5 million to 10 million.

·        The Business can be expanded to other cities as well.

4.  SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis provides information that is helpful in matching the firm's resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates. As such, it is instrumental in strategy formulation and selection.

	Helpful	Harmful
Internal	Strengths (S)	Weakness (W)
External	Opportunities (O)	Threats (T)

4.1        Strengths

·        Team of young entrepreneurs with a dynamic approach.

·        Various promotional schemes to allure new customers as well as retain existing customers.

·        Effective and innovative supply chain management system.

4.2        Weakness

·        Lack of experience since it is a new concept.

·        Investment.

·        Sound IT department.

4.3     Opportunities

·        High potential E commerce market.

·        Huge customer base facilitating expansion in other regions.

4.4     Threats

·        Big players like justbooks.com will definitely enter the market once the concept comes to fray.

·        Shift in customer taste from books to other means of recreation.

5.  Keys To Success

·     To construct a loyal customer and supplier chain.

                                                                                                    

·     To provide customer satisfaction at optimum cost and providing efficient delivery system.

6.  Critical Issues

As a start-up business, XYZ is still in the nascent stage. The critical issues would be-

·      To establish a supply chain and efficient network system.

·      To establish as a premiere Old Book Reseller with Online Delivery System.

·      To pursue controlled growth over a long period of time.

7.  Marketing Strategy

7.1        Mission - The mission is to provide books to the customers at cheap price.

·        Mission statement- “To be the best in book dealing industry in terms of customer satisfaction wherever we serve”.

7.2        Marketing Objective -

·        To focus on growth rate through continual increment in number of loyal customers and suppliers.

·        To maintain strong positive feedback from customers.

7.3        Financial Objective -

·        To increase profit per quarter by 5% through increased customer base.

·        To widen our region based business approach to state based approach.

8.  Review and Control

XYZ , will have simple, decision friendly, weekly , monthly, quarterly , and annual reports focussing on :

·        Overall revenue

·        Unit sales

·        Expenses

·        Customer Feedback

·        Major competitive activities

10. Marketing Organization

        There will be five partners sharing equal control over the company initially. These members will choose one between themselves to act as head of the group and all the decisions will be taken based on voting system. Though one person will be heading the marketing function he will be supported by other board members.

11. Contingency Plan:

 XYZ anticipates strong pressure on price, more so in initial days , due to competitive activities and to satisfy customer needs. Since initially much stress need to be given on gaining customers and advertisements there would be a lot of pressure on price. XYZ also aims at long term contact with its bulk suppliers so as to ensure that demand – supply is well balanced. It is also keeping sufficient capital cushion to manage enhanced working capital requirements due to delays in payment, and the need to keep a sufficient inventory.