1

COURSE TITLE: PRINCIPLES

OF

MARKETING

SEMINAR

TERM PAPER ON MANAGEMENT MARKETING

PLAN

SUBMITTED TO

PROFESSOR DR. MIZANUR RAHMAN

DEPARTMENT OF MIS UNIVERSITY OF DHAKA

SUBMITTED BY

MOHAMMAD KOWSER HOSSAIN

BATCH# 10TH DEPARTMENT OF MIS ID#60917-10-029

Table of Contents
1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . 2.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS .................................................... 2.1 Market Summary .. 2.1.1 Market Needs 2.1.2 Market Trends ... 2.1.3 Market Growth .. 2.2 SWOT Analysis . 2.2.1 Strengths 2.2.2 Weaknesses 2.2.3 Opportunities . 2.2.4 Threats ... 2.3 Competition .. 2.4 Services . 2.5 Keys to Success 2.6 Critical Issues 3.0 MARKETING STRATEGY .. 3.1 Mission .. 3.2 Marketing Objectives 3.3 Financial Objectives . 3.4 Target Markets .. 3.5 Positioning . 3.6 Strategy Pyramids .. 3.7 Marketing Mix 3.7.1 Services Offered 3.7.2 Price 3.7.3 Promotion .. 3.7.4 Service 3.8 Marketing Research .. 4.0 FINANCIALS 4.1 Break-even Analysis . 4.2 Sales Forecast 4.3 Expense Forecast 5.0 CONTROLS .. 5.1 Implementation .. 5.2 Contingency Planning 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 11

1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Advanced Learning Institute(ALI) is a seminar production company that offers seminar and training programs to medium and large size companies. The programs are presented by Dr. Mizanur Rahman, a nationally recognized professor and author. Dr. Mizanur Rahman teaches advanced management and marketing. In both topics, Mizanur Rahman is a recognized expert. His expert status will help Advanced Linguistics rapidly to gain market share and long-term customers. The programs will be offered in seminar format (audience as observers) and training program format (audience as participants) around the country.

2.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS

Advanced Learning Institute is in its first year of operation. While Dr. Mizan is experienced in this field, this is his first foray in creating a seminar and training company. In order to gain sufficient revenue, it will be necessary to develop and implement a strategic marketing plan. The basic market need is for a high quality, effective seminar and training production company. This market need will be addressed through ALI's service offerings.

2.1 Market Summary

ALI possesses good information about the market and knows a great deal of information about the wide range of potential customers. This information will be used to generate strategies that will allow it to better understand its customers, their specific needs, and the most effective ways to communicate with them. Market Analysis Potential Customers Large Size Company Medium Size Company Others Total 2005
2,10 6,23 1,08

2006
2,212 6,608

2007
2,323 7,004

2008
2,439 7,424

2009
2,561 7,869

CAGR 5% 6% 8% 6%

1,210 10,03

1,294 10,62

1,350 11,213

1,475 11,90

9,423

2.1.1 Market Needs Advanced Learning Institute is providing its customers with several different seminars and training courses for medium to large size companies. ALI seeks to fulfill the following benefits that are important to customers.

Expert-level knowledge- This is extremely important to customers since they are spending a fair amount of money on the training services. Useful topics- There is little reason to spend money on training seminars if the topics of the training are not helpful for the day-to-day activities of the company. Customer-centric services- The service provider must have flexibility and a customer focus in order to truly meet the needs of each individual customer.

2.1.2 Market Trends Advanced Learning Institute has observed two differing trends within the training industry.
1. Seemingly, short-sighted companies tend to cut back on training during economic

downturns. 2. More holistic companies adopt a proactive attitude that recognizes the value in their employees and do not trim the company budget through massive cuts in the HR department training budget. These two patterns of behavior are fairly indicative of the differentiation between surviving or withering companies, and companies that excel. Despite the growing recognition that cutting the HR budget during downturns is a counterproductive idea, in practice it is still quite common. Fortunately for ALI, the customers that Advanced Learning Institute prizes are the ones that are most likely to make it through economic downturns. 2.1.3 Market Growth The national seminar/training industry has grown into a taka 9 million industries in the last five years. The last four years have seen a 6% industry growth rate. This growth can be explained by several phenomena:

The recognition of value in developing human capital The increased usage of out-sourced service providers, a switch from the previous use of in-house staff The adoption of forward-looking ways of generating operating efficiencies through the application of continuous training

2.2 SWOT Analysis

The following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weaknesses within the company, and describes the opportunities and threats facing Advanced Learning Institute. 2.2.1 Strengths

Expert knowledge in the seminar subject matter Well designed programs Customer-centric business model

2.2.2 Weaknesses

Lack of brand equity, a function of being a start-up business ALI's greatest asset, Dr. Mizan's expertise, takes a while to gain widespread recognition within this new market niche. The inability to rapidly scale up because the organization currently has only one in-house expert

2.2.3 Opportunities

Participation in a growing market space Ability to gather quantitative data supporting the contention that ALI 's services can add to a company's bottom line. The ability to decrease overhead/event variable costs as Dr. Mizan increases the number of seminars that he produces and presents.

2.2.4 Threats

Can be effected by economic downturns Existing competitors A change in the market when companies decide to use in-house staff

2.3 Competition
There are many different competitors in this space:

Seminar production companies that act only as producers of the events, they do not make the actual presentation. These companies typically have a list of different presenters that they use. Independent seminar presenters Independent training program presenters. Both presenters and promoters- like Advanced Learning Institute.

The competition is on a national scale. Being local is insignificant in this industry. Companies will fly a speaker in from wherever they are in the country. Buying habits are based on word-ofmouth referrals, reputation, topic/skill needed, availability, etc.

2.4 Service Offering

Advanced Learning Institute will provide medium to large size companies with training programs and seminars covering the subjects of advanced reading, stress management, and time management. The advanced reading course will teach speed-reading with increased comprehension and memory. Stress management will teach techniques to better deal with stress, and time management will teach methods to become more efficient with the limited amount of time that we all have. The subjects will be taught in either seminar format or training program format. The seminar format is a presentation that concentrates on a specific topic. For the seminars, the audience just observes. A training program is like a seminar but with a twist, the attendees are not merely spectators but actual participants in the entire process. Additionally, Dr. Mizan will offer seminars to the general public. This will not be a targeted segment, but will be used to increase awareness of Advanced Learning Institute to drum up future business.

2.5 Keys to Success

The following are Advanced Learning Institute' keys to success:

Professionalism Usefulness of the service/training Customer satisfaction Repeat use Customer referrals

2.6 Critical Issues

Advanced Learning Institute is still in the speculative stage as a start-up service provider. The critical issues that they face are the need to:

Continue to take a modest fiscal approach to expansion. Expansion should be undertaken only to meet present customer needs. The expansion bandwagon should not be jumped on to meet some future, uncertain need. Establish Advanced Learning Institute as the premier seminar production and presentation company in its specific niche.

3.0 MARKETING STRATEGY

Advanced Learning Institute has a multi-part strategy for targeting the two chosen segments. The first part is through public seminars. A public seminar is a presentation on a subject that is offered to the general public. They are typically held in a library or some other public building. While public seminars are not big money makers and sometimes will lose money, they bring together a diverse audience to view the seminar. This is quite valuable because within this diverse crowd are people that work in companies that would otherwise never have heard about Advanced Learning Institute. It becomes a wonderful advertising tool. The second way ALI will reach its target market is through visibility of printed material, specifically books. Dr. Mizan has published two books, one on advanced reading, the other on stress and time management. Having the speaker published adds invaluable amounts of credibility and authenticity. These books are typically designed for managers so it is not unusual that a manager will have read the book and then become inspired to have the author come and provide a training session for the company. The third method of reaching the target market will be advertisements in several industry journals. Most of the journals will be HR-based. This will develop good visibility as it is, more often than not, the Human Resources department's responsibility for bringing in people for training seminars. Lastly, ALI will utilize a robust website to market their services.

3.1 Mission
Advanced Learning Institute' mission is to provide companies with high quality training seminars. ALI exists to attract and maintain customers. When the company adheres to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. ALI's services will exceed the expectations of its customers.

3.2 Marketing Objectives

Increase the number of clients by 15% a year. Obtain 10% of revenues from repeat customers. The utilization of Advanced Learning Institute by at least five of the top 100 companies

3.3 Financial Objectives

Develop a sustainable business that achieves profitability within the first two years. Decrease production costs by 3% every two quarters. Grow the business to the point where support staff is needed.

3.4 Target Markets

Advanced Learning Institute has two different segments that they are targeting:

Large corporations of 100 or more employees. This segment usually purchases training seminars through specific divisions in the company. Typically, a specific manager will have money in their budget and they will choose to have their department trained. Medium size companies of 50-100 employees. This segment typically purchases the training seminars through the HR manager or the training manager. The medium size companies generally will have the training applied to the entire organization, not just a certain section of the company.

These are the two typical customers that Advanced Learning Institute will serve and therefore they will be segmented and targeted. These segments are good customers because it is normal for companies of these sizes to have earmarked money for training. Presumably, based on their size and degree of success, these companies recognize the value that they hold in intellectual capital and the need for future investments to maintain the intellectual equity. This recognition of value in training makes them ideal customers. Lastly, economic downturns do not seem to effect business from these sources because of the recognition that it is usually more cost effective to have training done by a third party then to try to have a solution crafted in-house.

3.5 Positioning
Advanced Learning Institute will position itself as the premier seminar production company for its subject specialties. The desired positioning will be achieved by leveraging its competitive edge: Dr. Mizans expertise. Dr. Mizan is a nationally recognized expert in the fields that he presents. Much of the recognition was derived through the publication of his books. As an expert and an engaging presenter/trainer, Dr. Mizan is able to offer presentations and training sessions that leave customers with the feeling that they've learned a tremendous amount of information, and consequently, they cannot wait to sign up for another one.

3.6 Strategy Pyramids

The single objective for Advanced Learning Institute is to become the most respected seminar production company in the fields of advanced reading and time and stress management. The marketing strategy will seek to first create customer awareness regarding the offered services, second, develop the customer base, and then work toward building customer loyalty and referrals. The message that ALI will communicate is that they are the most advanced and professional seminar production company available. This message will be communicated by various methods. The first method will be through the use of public seminars. These public seminars are an easy and successful way of introducing Advanced Learning Institute to a large and varied group of people.

The second method will be through promotion of Dr. Mizans publications. Promoting publications is a very efficient way of developing legitimacy and expert status recognition within the different targeted groups. The third method will be with advertisements. The ads will be placed in a couple of industry publications, primarily HR journals. These journals are well read by the respective professionals and are referred to as a good source of service providers. The last method will be a website that will offer general information in addition to examples of presentations.

3.7 Marketing Mix

Advanced Learning Institute' marketing mix is comprised of the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

3.7.1 Pricing The pricing scheme is generally based on an event fee. ALI will, however, offer flexible pricing schemes such as a yearly charge that offers services throughout the year. 3.7.2 Distribution Seminars and training are generally offered at the client company's facilities, nationally or internationally. 3.7.3 Advertising and promotion The marketing campaign will employ several efforts including journal advertisements, public seminars and a robust website. 3.7.4 Customer service A customer-centric business model will be employed ensuring that customer's expectations are exceeded.

3.8 Marketing Research

In order to gain insight into the market, Dr. Mizan conducted market research in the form of questionnaires. The questionnaires were given to the decision makers within 100 different prospective companies. The return rate for the questionnaire was 42%, significantly above the rate of return that is generally expected. Dr. Mizan knew many of the people and that most likely is the reason for the high rate of return. The quality and relevance of the questionnaire was ensured by employing a graduate student in statistics for the production of the questionnaire. The results of the questionnaire were quite insightful. While some of the responses served to confirm already held assumptions, some of the results provided new information and insight for ALI.

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4.0 FINANCIALS
This section will offer a financial overview of Advanced Learning Institute as it relates to the marketing activities. Topics will address break-even analysis, sales forecasts, expense forecasts, and how those link to the marketing strategy.

4.1 Break-even Analysis

The break-even analysis indicates that revenue of $5,667 needs to be generated each month to reach the break-even point.

4.2 Sales Forecast

Advanced Learning Institute' sales strategy is relatively straight-forward. Let the customer see part of a presentation in addition to the information contained in Dr. Mizans book and the product/service will sell itself. The customer will see examples of Dr. Mizans work through three avenues.
1. Purchase a copy of Dr. Mizans book. 2. Receive an excerpt of the book from Advanced Learning Institute' office. 3. View an example of one of Dr. Mizans presentations via streaming media from

Advanced Learning Institute' website. These examples of Dr. Mizans work will speak for themselves. Once the customer is interested, they would only need to contact the office and determine availability, and set up an event. The first month will be used to set up the office and schedule some public seminars for month two. There will be some sales activity during months three through seven. Starting month eight, things will begin to pick up nicely as word gets out that Dr. Mizan is on the circuit.

4.3 Expense Forecast

The marketing expenses will be budged so they are fairly high during the first quarter. This will serve as an introduction of ALI's services to their perspective customers. The expenses will settle down until the last quarter when they will rise again.

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5.0 CONTROL
The purpose of ALIs marketing plan is to serve as a guide for the organization in their pursuit to generate marketing and managerial skill and build a strong network of customers. The following areas will be monitored to gauge performance:

Revenue: monthly and annual, performance compared to planned sales projections. Expenses: monthly and annual, compared to planned expenses. Research and Development: as a percentage of revenue Customer Satisfaction: to result in repeat seminars and training and generating active customer referrals

5.1 Implementation
This marketing plan includes a detail budget, schedule and managerial assignment for every action program. For control purposes, the plan also allows for month-by-month comparison of actual versus projected sales and expenses.

5.2 Contingency Planning

Difficulties and risks:
1. Problems generating visibility 2. Overly aggressive and debilitating actions by competitors 3. Problems with the general economic climate

Worst-case risks may include:

4. Determining that the business cannot support itself on an ongoing basis 5. Having to liquidate equipment or intellectual property to cover liabilities

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