The primary objective of this report is to develop a three-year business plan for a portable air conditioner for home of a new for-profit business venture. The organisation wants to achieve extensive profits by increasing the customer base through the enhanced sales of the product. Following is the business plan for the product described i.e. the portable air conditioner which comprises of the financial plan, the operational strategy, the marketing and the sales strategy and the business opportunity. A portable air conditioner is basically an indoor air conditioning unit which is can be on wheels or direct that exchange the heat with cooled air by evaporating or by refrigerating. This is one of the increasingly demanded products in such a technological world (Jiajitsawat, 2013).The report will highlight the next three year business plan of a portable air conditioner mainly required for home.
The need for the portable air conditioner is rising with time. In present time, people who have to spend a short span of time at different places require assets and tools that are easily movable. In case of the air conditioners, it is not possible to move it any place as for its functioning it requires all fittings and connections. People usually go through this issue when they have to shift at any other place in short time period. To solve this issue, there is a need generation of a portable air conditioner which is catchy and mobile in nature. The markets and the potential customers can be facilitated and captured by having a strong business plan for the next three years through which all the different aspects of the market will be analyzed (.Cateora, 2008).
(Source: eia, 2011)
The figure shows the increase in the number of homes which are equipped with the air conditioners. In the period of last sixty to seventy years the percentage of homes equipped with AC has risen approximately thrice of the initial percentage. This shows that having an AC is a common element in present time and there is increasing demand for the portable air conditioners as it is not feasible for every individual to buy a non-portable air conditioner. Thus, it is a significant business opportunity for the new business venture to market the portable air-conditioner as with the increasing demand for air conditioner, there is also upsurge rate of switching of preferences from the non-portable air conditioners to portable air conditioners.
To attract potential customers and to enhance the product visibility in the market and the eyes of the customers, it is essential that an appropriate set of marketing and sales strategy must be incorporate by the company selling the portable air conditioners. Following are the sales and marketing strategies which will be used by the company for having effecting marketing of the product in the next three years:
Performing STP Analysis
This is the primary need of nay business before launching the product in the market. The company will perform a Segmentation, Targeting and positioning analysis so that the huge markets can be segmented into small pieces and further the most potential market can be targeted as per the customer availability, need recognition and various other factors. After having targeting analysis, the company will position its product in the market in the particular markets selected in the targeting segment. By having a strong STP analysis, the company will be able to have a better and improved understanding of the market (Strengers, 2010).
Identifying potential markets
The next strategy in the initial phase is to identify the potential markets. The primary and the potential customers for the portable air conditioner will be the medium class and the high class people. Therefore, the company will formulate strategy which can help targeting these customer segments such by making the portable air conditioner available in the supermarkets or at the stores which are located at high class localities.
Started selling products in the potential markets
The company has to start selling the product once the potential market is identified and targeted. Firstly the market g strategy will be selling at the electronic stores and other retail stores of air conditioner hic h are well established and well-known in the target market (Hoffman and Bateson, 2010).
Offering discounts on purchases
In the second year of the business, the company will have enough knowledge of the market and so it will help them in targeting the customers with improved marketing tactics. The company can offer several discounts on purchases as a part of its sales strategy. This will facilitate the customers to buy the portable air conditioner as discounts are one of the widely used selling strategies for the new products.
Advertising and promotion through various media channels
It is the time when the company will advertise and market its producing through the marketing strategy of advertising. There will use newspaper advertisements, promotions on social sites, pamphlet advertising, posters, hoardings, television advertisements, etc. By all these means, the company will have robust advertising of the product on several platforms through strong media channels (Diether, Lee, Werner, 2009).
Expanding into new areas
The one of the major marketing and sales strategy of the companywill be marketing the product in diverse and extended areas. Not only supplying the product s at supermarkets or the electronic stores, the company can extend its supply to various other areas by opening its own stores so that a higher customer segment can be served. The company will also have its supply to areas which have high weather temperature so that more number of potential customers can be targeted (Turnbull and Valla, 2013).
More of online promotions
For having improved and robust marketing of the product, the company will have its reach and visibility at recognized social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram etc. By having presence over these platforms, the higher number of youngsters can be targeted. As there are numbers of youngsters or the people who ate doing job and living far away from their home town have a need of a portable air conditioner which is easy to carry as well as function. Thus, in the third year, the primary focus will be on online marketing and social marketing.
Focus on after sales services
Retaining the customers through efficient sales services is one of the highly recognized sales strategies of the companies. The electronic product demands high after sales services because of number of defects or other mechanicalerror which occur in the electronic goods. If the company will offer efficient and supremeaftersalesservicesthan the customers wallremain loyal to the brand and will also promote the product s nod the services through word of mouth publicity (Smith, et al., 2013).
Following is the various components of the operational strategy of the company in regards with the portable air conditioner.
Location and Size of the product
The location targeted in the premium class such as the electronic stores located at the main and the posh areas. The supermarkets are another location for positioning the production for the potential customersto buy. The size of the product ranges from small to medium as it is a portable air conditioner so the sizes are also required to be small or medium only so that they can easily be carried from one place to another (Rogers, 2012).
Product quality
The quality of the product is very good as all the parts of the portable air conditioner are from recognized and standard suppliers that provide efficient quality of products (Ross, 2013).
Product differentiation
There are offered numb der of designs, colors and size variability in the portable air conditioners. This is the point of product differentiation as the customers can buy the product as per their demandsor according to their home décor. Thus,the diverse availability is one of the operationalstrategies of the company for facilitating the customers (Kuzlu, Pipattanasomporn and Rahman, 2012).
Operational alliance
The company can have an operational alliance with another big companies or stores for selling their portable air conditioner. As it is a small venture, thus having alliances can give a better platform to the product for having greater customer visibility. Alliances can be in the form of percentage commission or offer based selling.
Cost driven
The price of the portable air conditioner is of economics range only so that the medium class people can also afford them easily. The customers will be getting comparatively high value for the money they have given for buying the product.
Online customer interaction portal
The company will have an operational move by the development or creation of an online customer interaction portal so that the customers can get a 24*7 support through the online site. At this online portal, the customers can view the different varieties of the portable air conditioner, cam select the desired product, make enquiries regarding the product and can also buy the same. Thus, by this online portal there will be fore casted to have an increase in the customer base.
Purchasing and Delivery system
The competent purchasing and delivery system is one of the vital operational strategies of the company. There will be development of online portal as well as there is free of cost delivery to the customers in specific areas so that the customer can conveniently purchase the product.
Customer feedbacks
There are automated systems which hj gather the feedbacks of the customer on continuous interval basis regarding the quality of the product, the aftersales service, etc. This helps the company in having a reliable customer base (Kongre, 2013).
Business loan
As it is a new business venture and the capital is also limited so there will be taking a business loan for carrying out the business and operational functions. The company owns few assets and capital but around 50,000 US Dollar will be taken as a loan amount for having effective promotions and other activities (Wilson and Grubler, 2014).
Sales forecast
There has forecasted the following sales figures in the three years business plan of eth product:
|
Year |
Sales Forecasted |
|
1st Year |
Of around 200 units i.e. of $100,000 |
|
2nd Year |
10 percent increase in the sales |
|
3rd Year |
15 percent increase in the sales |
Expenses budget
There are several expenses which are required to be met such as interest for loan, marketing and promotion charges, transportation and other charges. So the overall expenses budget for three years is:
Year 1st: $50,000
Year 2nd:$55,000
Year 3rd: $85,000 as there will be setting up of physical stores also
|
2017 |
Sales Budget |
|||||
|
Quarter 1 |
Quarter 2 |
Quarter 3 |
Quarter 4 |
|||
|
Sales Units |
800 |
1,250 |
600 |
2,650 |
||
|
Unit selling price |
$13.50 |
$13.50 |
$13.50 |
$13.50 |
||
|
Portable air conditioners |
300.00 |
450.00 |
150.00 |
1050.00 |
||
|
Window air conditioner |
200.00 |
350.00 |
200.00 |
600.00 |
||
|
Split system Air conditioners |
300.00 |
400.00 |
250.00 |
1000.00 |
||
|
Sales revenue |
$10,800 |
$16,875 |
$8,100 |
$35,775 |
||
|
2018 |
Sales Budget |
|||||
|
Quarter 1 |
Quarter 2 |
Quarter 3 |
Quarter 4 |
|||
|
Sales Units |
900 |
750 |
600 |
2,250 |
||
|
Unit selling price |
13.50 |
13.50 |
13.50 |
13.50 |
||
|
Portable air conditioners |
250.00 |
200.00 |
150.00 |
700.00 |
||
|
Window air conditioner |
350.00 |
250.00 |
200.00 |
600.00 |
||
|
Split system Air conditioners |
300.00 |
200.00 |
250.00 |
950.00 |
||
|
Sales revenue |
$12,150 |
$10,125 |
$8,100 |
$30,375 |
||
|
2019 |
Sales Budget |
|||||
|
Quarter 1 |
Quarter 2 |
Quarter 3 |
Quarter 4 |
|||
|
Sales Units |
850 |
975 |
950 |
2,775 |
||
|
Unit selling price |
13.50 |
13.50 |
13.50 |
13.50 |
||
|
Portable air conditioners |
250.00 |
225.00 |
250.00 |
1250.00 |
||
|
Window air conditioner |
350.00 |
350.00 |
300.00 |
1025.00 |
||
|
Split system Air conditioners |
250.00 |
300.00 |
400.00 |
500.00 |
||
|
Sales revenue |
$11,475 |
$13,163 |
$12,825 |
$37,463 |
The total revenue is forecasted as in the first year of commencement there will be limited profit and sales because of the fact that the product has just entered. In the second year of commencement, it is forecasted that the company can have revenue of $45000 to $50,000 after clearing all the expenses. In the third year, the company can have a good amount of warning such as $60,000 to $70,000.
References
Cateora, P. R. (2008). International Marketing 13E (Sie).Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Diether, K. B., Lee, K. H., & Werner, I. M. (2009). Short-sale strategies and return predictability. Review of financial Studies, 22(2), 575-607.
Hoffman, K. D., & Bateson, J. E. (2010). Services marketing: concepts, strategies, & cases. Cengage learning.
Jiajitsawat, S. (2013).A Portable Hybrid Thermoelectric-Direct Evaporative Air Cooling System. 20(1), 1-8.
Kongre, U. V. (2013). Design Methodologies of air-conditioner cum water dispenser. Differentiation, 2, 4.
Kuzlu, M., Pipattanasomporn, M., & Rahman, S. (2012).Hardware demonstration of a home energy management system for demand response applications. IEEE Transactions on Smart grid, 3(4), 1704-1711.
Rogers, M. (2012). Energy= innovation: 10 disruptive technologies. McKinsey on Sustainability & Resource Productivity, 10-15.
Ross, D. F. (2013). Competing through supply chain management: creating market-winning strategies through supply chain partnerships.Springer Science & Business Media.
Smith, R., Meng, K., Dong, Z., & Simpson, R. (2013). Demand response: a strategy to address residential air-conditioning peak load in Australia. Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy, 1(3), 223-230.
Strengers, Y. (2010). Air-conditioning Australian households: the impact of dynamic peak pricing. Energy policy, 38(11), 7312-7322.
Turnbull, P. W., & Valla, J. P. (Eds.).(2013). Strategies for international industrial marketing.Routledge.
Wilson, C., &Grubler, A. (2014).A comparative analysis of annual market investments in energy supply and end-use technologies.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download