Atlantic Technologies was founded in January 2017. Since then, it has been underperforming due to lack of resources. From January this year, the company is testing the market at the University of British Colombia. The company is located on Pacific Boulevard, Vancouver. Gen-connect Internet services hosts and maintain the company data.
Solution
Atlantic Technologies enable university students to trade, buy, and sell used textbooks directly to fellow students, avoiding university bookstores. When students sell books through Atlantic website they get higher profits compared to when they sell the books to a bookstore. In addition to textbooks, Atlantic provides a platform where university students sell tutoring services, used compact disks, dorm accessories, computers, old tests, class notes, and other things that are education oriented among students in a student-friendly marketplace. Besides, Atlantic offer customized services like specialized content, weblogs, teacher evaluation, and classifieds.
Atlantic wishes to establish itself as an e-platform where university students from different institutions interact, come together, offer extensive market specific services via the internet, and generate revenue. Intrinsically, it helps talented students earn by providing solutions to fellow learners. In this regard, Atlantic plans to gain market dominance by using the available domain experience, the formation of strategic alliances, superior software, an exceptional management team, a solid marketing strategy, and partnership and membership with organizations within institutions of higher learning market.
The mission of Atlantic Technologies is to provide university students with a unique and valuable source of information, services, and products.
For Atlantic to achieve its mission, the company commits to the following ideologies; keeping employees happy, the customers are king, and the products are the foundation.
Ownership
Atlantic Technologies is a Limited Liability Company and is solely owned by its founder, Trisha Khetia.
Target market analysis
According to the Canadian report on education, higher education student market is growing rapidly but unfortunately, the sector is performing below expectations (Chen, 2017). The Canadian Department of Education expects the higher education marketplace to grow further due to influx of foreign students. Moreover, with the targeted increase in the number of students, their expenditure is also expected to increase and thus avails an opportunity for Atlantic Technologies to excel.
Market segmentation
The segmentation of the market for Atlantic Technologies comprises of male and female students of ages between 18-24 years and those between 25-29 years. These groups of students spend most of their time online, in particular, on social media, playing games, researching, and watching videos. Therefore, they can embrace Atlantic’s mode of providing content which is very much relevant to them. Those who can develop content gets an opportunity of selling them to fellow students at a fee.
Of note, the launching institution, The University of British Columbia has 35,880 full-time undergraduate, 9,350 full-time graduate, 13,920, part-time undergraduate, and 1,410 part-time graduates (Universities Canada, 2018). Furthermore, student enrolment in other Canadian universities shows a significant increase in the number of students. According to universities Canada, the following is a sample of the company’s target population.
Glenn Mendonsa: Persona goals
Glenn Mendonsa is a young ambitious model. She wishes to be Mrs. University of British Colombia and later own her modeling firm with international recognition.
Persona demographics
Glenn is 18 years old and lives around the university. Her role model is Angelina Jolie.
Persona pain
In her life, Glenn gets frustrated whenever she scores low marks in exams and not able to quickly grasp what the lecturer teachers as well as gets bored with fellow students who do not take their academics seriously.. Besides, she is concerned with climate change activities that have totally affected the environment. She wishes to become an ambassador for championing environmentally friendly activities through modeling. In her course, she often gets traveling barriers to travel around and speak about climate change within and outside Vancouver due to lack of adequate finances.
ersona media and devise preference
Glenn usually accesses the internet from home and the university through the broadband connection. She has been using the internet for the past 10 years. Within the university, Glenn prefer using the library connections since it enables her to access more learning materials as well as videos, tutorials among other things. Additionally, she loves shopping and exchanging ideas with fellow students and usually prefer placing orders using university computers. Moreover, she also has a smartphone which she can use to access the web while out of school to access online content.
Persona role and responsibility
Glenn is a model and she heads the modeling club in the university. She helps her fellow students nurture their modeling talents as well as express their confidence, self-esteem, and ambitions. Glenn reports to the club patron, Madam Joy Kandi, where she updates her on their activities and plans for the semester.
Persona biography
Glenn has been very proactive in championing for environmental management. At 11 years, she mobilized a group of fellow students where they planted five hundred trees. Besides, she is also actively engaging the university administration to undertake environment-friendly projects such as installing of solar-powered lightening. On academics, she loves accessing online content, exchanging ideas with fellow students from other universities. As such, Atlantic Technologies is a platform for Glenn to realize her abilities.
Competition Analysis
Atlantic Technologies have competitors in the college students’ marketplace. Some of them include; online content specific sites, online auction sites, textbook price comparison sites, textbook exchange sites, online textbook retailers, and university bookstores that target the student fraternity. In this regard, Atlantic Technologies is developing a system that does not only focus on selling but also elevate the customer experience. It provides a marketplace where students can sell notes, games, computer equipment, and tutorials among others.
Analysis of the common traditional university bookstores shows that they are located within the universities and students can access them easily. However, the main weakness of university bookstore is a limited supply of student-related learning materials. The traditional marketplace lack value addition which Atlantic Technologies offer online. In Canada, there are over 170 college stores. This creates congestion and lack of customized services that students may require. Furthermore, sales volume in these institutions depends on the size and the number of institutions they serve.
On the other hand, online bookstores and retail websites offer product selection and value-added services. Their current string relies on customer relationships and brand awareness. However, major weaknesses of online operations are return processing, shipping charges, fraud, and security (Hou, Chen, & Yang, 2016). Some of the established brands are Amazon, eBay, Ecampus, and versitybooks among others. In this regard, Atlantic Technologies wishes to improve the student experience in the online marketplace by offering real-time service as it encourages a student to student interaction.
Supplier Breakdown
Atlantic Technologies model of supplies rely on university students to provide teacher evaluation, classifieds, auctions, and used textbooks which they post on the website. Intrinsically, the focus of the company heavily relies on the marketing strategy by increasing usage and traffic while we maintain the inventory of our products and services. Notably, the retail component of the business will create strategic partnerships and alliances with distributors and manufacturers to offer direct drop-shipments to our customers. This strategy will enable the company to cut cost related to inventory distribution.
Provision of customized content delivery will seek the services of students who are experts in their field of study on the weblogs. Using expert students will allow Atlantic Technologies to cut cost while nurturing student talent and at the same time providing relevant and interesting content. Furthermore, the company will contract the services of third-party vendors to offer content and value-added services. Such a tactic will enable Atlantic to provide quality services while it focuses on key business elements of providing teacher evaluation, classifieds, and textbooks.
Having a clear and well-defined goal can help any organization grow (Teo & Low, 2016). Achieving set objectives helps a business venture to improve customer service delivery, collaboration, and teamwork. As such, Atlantic Technologies will usually strive to achieve the following objectives;
Offer unique and innovative products and services.
Establish a sustainable profitability within 2018/2019 financial year.
Building a brand that students will always identify with whenever they are online.
Achieve over forty thousand visits per month.
Attract over two hundred thousand registered users in 2018/2019 financial year.
Improving local search engine optimization for Atlantic Technologies to attract local students.
Become a leading marketplace for a student to student over the internet.
Form partnerships and strategic alliances with entities supplying products to the college market.
Create and maintain student-centered marketing campaigns. For example, direct mailing, promotional item distribution, social media pages, advertising at on-campus kiosks, local and university newspaper advertising, sponsorship of community events within the campuses, and outdoor/indoor billboard advertisement during sporting events within the college.
Recruit marketing team and exceptional management who are experienced in domain management in the college market.
Manage Atlantic Technologies’ online reputation by responding to bad views accordingly, maintaining social profiles, and monitoring company’s name.
Become an influencer in students’ marketplace field sending researched trends to registered students’ emails.
Online marketing strategy is a series of steps that entrepreneurs take to engage their leads and customers, where they ultimately make a decision to make a purchase (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). As such, Atlantic Technologies uses the following strategies and tactics to conduct her businesses;
Personal branding
Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick (2016) suggest that branding the company gives it an opportunity to leverage a more trustworthy image to promote its products among students from colleges and universities. By forming partnerships and strategic alliances, the company establishes itself as a force in the market that students can rely on by getting educational materials.
Content marketing
Content marketing of various products the company offer enables the company to attract more customers (Beard & Yang, 2011). For example, advertising Atlantic Technologies’ services in mobile applications, videos, and social media is a way of generating traffic for more students to get to know the existent of our student-to-student services. The company also embraces other forms of marketing like sponsorship of community events to generate leads to Atlantic.
Atlantic Technologies is investing resources to make it more visible in search engines, with a goal of getting traffic that is more relevant for students who seek affordable and flexible learning materials. The website has been structured that it appears among the top ranking in organic searches. This is usually enhanced by continuous content development.
Conversion optimization
These tactics aim to get more students to Atlantic Technologies website. Besides, conversion optimization tactics like enabling students to buy used textbooks, games, electronics, tickets, computer equipment, old test, and class notes from fellow students are very friendly thus enhances closing of business deals. Students also find it easy and motivating to promote one another.
Nurturing and building social media audience will help the company to get more customers since links to the company website will always be available. Moreover, more content of our services, offers of the days will aim to attract more customers to the company.
Once students register with Atlantic Technologies, they will be getting regular emails on new items, discounts, offers with a goal of generating more sales. Besides, the company will be wishing customers birthday anniversaries just to keep them informed that the company values them and their support.
Epstein and Yuthas (2007) suggest that the process of evaluation involves a systematic determination of Atlantic Technologies’ merit, worth and significance in the student-to-student business of selling games, used textbooks, class notes among other based on the goals and objectives of the company. As such, the company will evaluate the following since they form the fundamental driving force of the organization.
Business goals
Evaluating business goals will enable the company to know whether it is moving in the right direction because goals are the driving force of entrepreneurship (Epstein & Yuthas, 2007). It is achievable by setting specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and having time period attached (SMART) goals. For example, by aiming to get over 40, 000 visits per month will be measured through real-time count on the number of visitors per day, month, and the whole year. It will help evaluate the marketing strategies whether the tactics are working.
Checking on the overall business plan will help reveal if there are some aspects that are lagging behind (Beard & Yang, 2011). A business plan acts as the marking scheme of the project. Counterchecking on the plan and what has been achieved will enable Atlantic Technologies to adjust its operations adequately to the rising demand for student-to-student online relationships.
The financial statements
Preparing the statement of financial position and the income statement will enable the company to know whether the financial goals are being achieved. For example, preparing a statement of income at the end of the 2018/2019 financial year helps the company to know whether the venture is sustainable over the coming years. Moreover, the statement of financial position also helps evaluate the sustainability of the business and the company will know whether the plan is working if the prepared statements match the projected amount.
Customer, employee, and business associate survey
Evaluating the success of Atlantic Technologies will involve evaluation of the key stakeholders since they are the driving force of business activities. For example, evaluating customer return rate will enable the company to know whether it has a solid brand loyalty. Additionally, good relationship with strategic partners and alliances signifies that the business is in the right direction to realizing its goals. The customers may also evaluate the company by filling anonymous survey responses to gauge if their responses are in line with the mission and vision of the company.
Keeping track of promotional activities
After carrying out a robust advertising campaign over social media, the company can keep track on the number of customers and traffic generating to the company’s website. This metric helps the company know whether the online marketing strategies are working or not (Rzemieniak, 2015). As such, the company will know the strategy that works better for optimization purposes if the numbers of visitors increase or remain the same.
Conclusion
Up to this end, Atlantic Technologies is out to revolutionize students’ experience in the online marketplace. The company will not only focus on making sales but also provide a platform for students to nurture their expertise. Besides, electronic commerce and marketing is the big thing today in retail marketing. Established companies like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba is a testimony that online marketing pays and it provides an opportunity for growth and development. As such, Atlantic Technologies is out to compete and curve its market share not only in Canada but also in the global marketplace.
References
Beard, F. K., & Yang, A. (2011). Choosing and Evaluating Digital and Online Media: A Conceptual/Instructional Model. Journal of Advertising Education, 15(2).
Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016). Digital marketing. Prentice Hall.
Chen, M. (2017). Education in Canada. Retrieved on April 8, 2018 from https://wenr.wes.org/2017/09/education-in-canada
Epstein, M. J., & Yuthas, K. (2007). Evaluating the effectiveness of Internet marketing initiatives. Society of Management Accountants of Ontario.
Hou, Y., Chen, H., & Yang, S. (2016). Research on the business model of e-commerce platform based on value co-creation theory. International Journal of u and e-Service, Science and Technology, 9(3), 415-424.
Rzemieniak, M. (2015). Measuring the Effectiveness of Online Advertising Campaigns in the Aspect of e-entrepreneurship. Procedia Computer Science, 65, 980-987.
The University of British Columbia, (2018). Undergraduate students. Retrieved on April 8, 2018 from https://www.ubc.ca/undergraduate-students/
Teo, T. C., & Low, K. C. P. (2016). The Impact of Goal Setting on Employee Effectiveness to Improve Organization Effectiveness: Empirical Study of a High-Tech Company in Singapore.
Universities Canada, (2018). 2017 full-time and part-time fall enrolment at Canadian universities. Retrieved on April 8, 2018 from https://www.univcan.ca/universities/facts- and-stats/enrolment-by-university/
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