Marketing

~ Introduction ~

Marketing is promoting a business or product by advertising in a way which attracts people to buy a product or a service, this has to be achieved in such a way which:

1) Compares your business, product or service with competitive retailers in your area of work and helps improve your own strategies,

2) You have to try to make customers happy in a way that they give you their custom again because without customers and good marketing strategies your business will not succeed,

3) You need to suit the needs of your customers in the present and the future and how and why it will change and you have to form or change customer perception levels to attract them to your business.

Business Proposal:

My business proposal is to set up a small computer shop selling new computers, laptops, computer hardware and software and other computer accessories and perform repairs. The shop will be open Mondays to Fridays 9-5 and Saturdays 9-6 and my business will be situated in the centre of Chester. The reason I chose this business area is because I already have good knowledge about computers and there prices and have seen other companies such as Dixon's, Pc World, The Computer Shop and have seen and acknowledged there marketing and promotional strategies. My target customer group is mainly for adults due to the nature of my products although some aspects of my products i.e. the software will be suitable for all ages this will be explained in more depth in the "segmentation" section.

~ Principles of Marketing ~

The needs of customers:

There are two main needs of customers, which consist of:

1. Firstly maintaining current and future satisfaction, the way my company will go about achieving this is by constant primary research (Questionnaire's, Surveys etc.).

2. Secondly to form and change new or existing company and product perception levels, the main way to achieve this will be by permanently advertising and promoting your business with various sales and campaigns because I want customers and members of the public to have positive perceptions of my company so they can give us custom and recommend our business.

The needs of the organisation:

There are five main needs of the organisation and they consist of:

1. Firstly to ensure my business gains a satisfactory income and profit level which is of satisfactory standards for stakeholders.

2. Secondly achieve a satisfactory level of growth for the company. This means to expand my business by increasing factories, employing more staff and getting enough profit to satisfy the managers and directors of the business.

3. Thirdly all organisations need to work together to co-ordinate marketing policies in the centre of an organisation to ensure the organisation works efficiently to achieve its aims and objectives profitably

4. Fourthly carry out S.W.O.T and P.E.S.T analyses continually. (S.W.O.T = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. P.E.S.T = Political, Economical, Social, Technological).

5. Finally to monitor and analyse the strategies and activities of competitors in our business area to make the business one step ahead of competitors to gain public approval and most importantly to win there customers over to my company to gain more profit and a bigger market share.

~ Business Objectives ~

My five main Business objectives for the first 12 months will be:

1. To achieve a profit,

2. To increase market share's,

3. To increase business awareness,

4. To survive as a Business,

5. To grow and expand,

The way I am going to achieve these objectives is:

* Achieving a profit,

I will find the break-even point at which demand meets supply and add a reasonable amount of profit to my products.

* Increasing market share,

I will achieve this by beating competitors' prices by campaigns and sales, which should gain more customers than my competitors which should increase my market share.

* Increasing business awareness,

I will achieve this by constantly publicising my company, which over a period of time will increase business awareness.

* Survival,

The way my business will survive is by selling my products, generating public awareness beating competition and most of all making sure the business is running at a positive cash flow annually.

* Growth and Expansion,

I