Strength
1. The four marketing majors were so interested in marketing planning and strategy and was working hard towards it in making the project successful and started a small business that could fund their graduate school students about $2500 per year per student. 2. Product selected had no competition at FAU because the sports calendar market was an untapped market. 3. Advertising the product and also for generating additional sales they rented a booth at FAU events.
Weaknesses
1. Since the product was being to launch for the first time in market at FAU, they were not sure if the market would accept it or reject. 2. There were only two months in the fall to sell the calendar which could retard their selling numbers. 3. If they even decide to make a personal contact selling, each could carry about 10 to 12 calendars and also takes away a lot of their time. 4. There was still a confusion about what kind of calendar to be made, whether to add athletes pictures or others. 5. The startup capital was only $8000 and to break even they needed at least profit of $8000 and $18000 to pay for the capital and tuition.
Opportunities
1. The selecting sports calendar was good because there was no such product on FAU market and it could be a successful product. 2. There is a huge market at FAU to be captured for the selling of the sports calendar. 3. The FAU store was ready to buy the product in bulk. That means they could reach their break even and was also possible to pay back their investments right away.
The Business plan on Market Segmentation, and Product Positioning
For the purpose of this assignment, I am assuming myself as the owner of a plastic molded toy company in United States that manufacturers, and distributes plastic molded toys through retailers across the country and around the world. The company is capitalizing on the strong growth in the children’s toys segment and planning to expand in an aggressive manner throughout the nation. The company ...
Threats
1. Can expect others to come up with similar product and a room for competition would arise. 2. If they distribute calendars to the bookstore, then they should surrender a lot of pricing power to them. 3. There could be an additional cost, if FAU claims a royalty on athletes’ pictures. 4. Since, they have entered a new market and there could be chances of product failure.
Segmentation and Targeting
Variables that could be used for marketing segmentation:
1. What gender? Male or Female. 2. Which Campus? Boca Raton or Davie or Jupiter or others. 3. What is your class standing? Freshman or sophomore or junior or senior or graduate or unknown? 4. Does the student like sports (or will buy Sports calendar)? Yes or no? 76.9% (that is 253/329) of students are interested in buying a calendar. If extrapolated to 22,000 students the number of students buying the calendar will be 16,918 students. But based on calendar sales from other universities around 20% to 29% will be willing to buy the calendar. That translates to a realistic count of 4,400 to 6,380 calendars. Among respondents, 60.87% are females and 39.13% are males.
More females, from cross tabulation data 68% are interested in buying calendars. Booths are then rented and retail stalls should be set up where events and seminar are attended by females. 69.2% of respondents were from Boca Raton campus and they also comprise 68% of all students. Hence most of the advertisement and product placement in events need to be done at Boca Raton. This also reduces the expected count of calendars to be sold. We get a count of 3,300 to 4,350 calendars on applying the same percentages that of other universities again. We need to remember that 18.97 for survey respondents stay in Davis. This too can be targeted to generate sales of 836 to 1,212 calendars.
The Marketing Mix
Product:
31.23% of students want all female calendars and 42.69% want all male calendar. Since there is not a big majority in particular preference, we recommend 40% female athletes and 60% male athletes. This mix should also attract to remaining 26.09% of respondents.
Some of the pictures male or female need to be synchronized with the time when a particular sport is played. 70.36% of students prefer athletes in uniform, so the calendar should have pictures of athletes wearing the uniform. 24.51% preferred swimsuit models. So it is better to go with mix of male and female athletes in the calendar. And also need to have some pictures of female athletes in swimsuits with other pictures of male only athletes in uniforms. 77.87 % of respondents preferred the calendar to coincide with school start year. Hence the calendar should be made accordingly.
The Essay on Title IX and the female athlete
TITLE IX AND THE FEMALE ATHLETE Since the beginning of humankind, women have been viewed as the weaker sex and in turn have been discriminated against in all aspects of society. Females have not received the respect and opportunities that they deserve and have not been given the opportunities that males have to succeed. Women finally began to have their voices heard after the post World War II ...
Pricing:
A survey conducted tells that, students prefer to buy the calendars when the price is $8, around 20% or 4,840 students will like to buy the calendar. The price of $8 will also undercut bookstore price of existing calendars.
As far as the quality is concerned, we recommend a heavy stock similar to that of U of C which has the most attractive calendar and also to be same as that of U of M which had higher revenue per student.
Promotions:
We have understood that the booths to sell calendars need to be set near events where high female students are present. An article about the new upcoming FAU calendar need be published in the FAU news letter. This will give some free publicity the new calendar. Some flyers need to be printed, and posted and handed out around Boca Raton and Davie Campuses.
Summary:
It is better to publish large size heavy stock $8.00 calendar with both male and female athletes. The calendar needs to match the school starting year. Both Boca Raton and Davie campuses are the target markets for the calendar.
