Marketing of a Backpack
A backpack is commonly used for different purposes and this includes carrying clothes, goods, and books (Bölke, 2015). A person may also use it to carry different things according to the way he or she intends to use it. It must therefore be strong enough to be able to be used for multiple things. We are therefore designing a backpack which will be strong enough to carry different goods. Since this product will be targeting mostly the youths. We will therefore design it in a very appealing way. This will make it easy for the product to be able to attract the attention of the youths (Boussabaine, 2013). The youths often like fancy things and the design which we are going to use will make sure that we are able to reach a greater market. We are therefore going to use a material which is very strong and durable thus making this product to be useful in different ways (Hoffman, & Bateson, 2011). This backpack can therefore be used to carry light things and heavy goods since it is made of a very strong material (McLeish, 2011). It can therefore be used for travelling, hiking and even for carrying books. The backpack will have four separate compartments, the first compartment will be very wide and it can therefore for keeping books, and clothes (Schindler, 2012). The second compartment will be a little bit smaller than the first one and can be used for storing few additional products such as clothes and books. The third compartment will be smaller and it will be used for storing tissue papers, toothpaste, bottled water and a soap. The forth compartment will be the smallest and it will therefore be used for storing a pen, driving license and hand gloves (Smith, 2012).
This product will therefore be designed in a very unique way compared to other backpacks. This will really help in making most customers to be attracted to it since customers want something unique (Boussabaine, 2013). The quality of the product will also be another thing that will give the value for money since it will be used for different activities. On the other hand, the product is unisex since it is made in a way that it can be used by both men and women. This product will come in different colours, since different people are attracted to different colours (McLeish, 2011). We will produce them in both bright and dull colours and this will consequently see most people like the product as it comes in colours that different people like (Hoffman, & Bateson, 2011). The product will also have inner zipper pockets where a person can be able put money. The inner pockets can also be used for storing private things such as sanitary pads for the ladies while travelling or otherwise when in class. This pockets will therefore make sure that no one gets to see the things that are supposed to be private (Schindler, 2012). On the left and right side of the backpack, there will be a pocket which can hold an umbrella. This will make sure that a person can be able to carry an umbrella on the backpack and in case the rain falls, then he or she will use the umbrella (Smith, 2012). The backpack will be so spacious and it will be medium sized hence carrying a lot of goods without any problem. This consequently makes it to be suited for different activities since it can also support multiple use (Bölke, 2015).
We are going to use premium pricing strategy to set the price of the product. Through this strategy, the product will cost more compared to other products in the market. This is one way of attracting customers to our product (Smith, 2012). This is because, most people particularly the youths will consequently go for a high quality product regardless of its price (McLeish, 2011). Furthermore, we will be able to realise our starting capital within the shortest time possible. Set a higher price compared to other products in the market helps in making sure that customers think twice before buying the product (Hoffman, & Bateson, 2011). This is because new products are usually cheaper compared to old products in the market. This will therefore make the buyer to look carefully at the product and since it is unique and of a high quality, then he or she will not hesitate to buy the product (Boussabaine, 2013). On the other hand, the number of people who will be attracted to the product will be very high since it is unique, and its price is higher than that of other products in the market. Most people will consequently be able to buy the product regardless of its price since it is of a good quality. This pricing strategy will also help us when it comes to promotions since we will have to reduce the prices of the product thus attracting many people to the product. After the dropping the prices of the product, the number of sales will consequently increase and the profits realized will be much more compared to the number of purchases before the reduction of the price (Schindler, 2012).
The product will be retailed to different customers and we will use different strategies in order to attract the attention of the customers (Smith, 2012). This includes customizing the product according to the way that the customer wants it to be for example if he or she wants it to have a personal name, then the product will be made with the customer’s name (McLeish, 2011). This will really help in making most people particularly the youths who like customized things to be attracted to the product (Boussabaine, 2013). Customizing the product will increase its prices slightly thus making us to gain a lot of profits. On the other hand, if a customer wants the two or more products to be customized different then the price of the product will reduce slightly (Bölke, 2015). This will make it easy for us to be able to attract many customers who will not only want to buy a single product but they will buy many backpacks thus making us to increase the profits that we will be making. More, we will also be maintaining our customers thus they will be able to market our product thus increasing the number of sales (Hoffman, & Bateson, 2011).
After reaching our sales goals, we will then reduce the price of the product in order to attract the attention of the customers (McLeish, 2011). They will therefore be able to buy the product. On the other hand, we will also use the social media for promotional services (Boussabaine, 2013). This is because, through the social media, we will be able to reach many people. We will therefore be offering vouchers to those people who will have most shares on the social media. This will consequently help in making the product to go viral thus attracting the attention of most people hence being able to reach a wider market (Hoffman, & Bateson, 2011). The product will have its price while being shared on the social media. Since its price will be reduced, this will make it easy as many people will to purchase it (Smith, 2012). This number of vouchers won will be twenty and this will see more than one hundred people competing for the prizes. The small number of coupons will really help since most people will have to share with their friends the product on the social media in order to be able to win the coupons before other people win them (Schindler, 2012). We will also use the radio and television and posters in order to make sure that the promotion is effective and it helps in increasing the number of sales of the product. This will therefore see the product beating other products in the competitive market. Thus making us to be able to boost our sales and increase the profits (Hoffman, & Bateson, 2011).
Profitability Graph.
In the 1st quarter, the profit of our product (cherry) was steady because it was a new product in the market (Smith, 2012). On the other hand, the profits of doll bags dropped steadily due to lack of promotions. The profits of others increased rapidly due to promotions and price reduction.
In the 2nd quarter, the profits of Cherry and Doll bags started rising rapidly due to promotions. On the other hand, the profits others dropped drastically because of poor quality and low prices.
In the 3rd quarter, the profits of cherry rose rapidly due to gentle demand of the product. The profits of Doll bags was steady because of promotions and advertisements (Boussabaine, 2013). The profits of others started rising because of the promotions and marketing strategies they had put in place.
In the 4th quarter, the profits of Cherry were at its peak because of viral marketing and the quality of the product (Hoffman, & Bateson, 2011). The profits of doll bags were slightly lower than that of Cherry because of reduced prices. The profits of others were slightly high because of increased promotions.
Market Share Chart
The product was able to dominate in Oklahoma with a 59% in the market share. This showed how the product had taken over the market as most people were attracted to it because of its quality and the promotions (McLeish, 2011).
Oklahoma was then followed by Michigan where it took 23% of the market share showing that other products could not matched it bearing in mind that it was a new product in the market (Boussabaine, 2013).
The Californian market is mainly dominated by doll bags and this requires us to change our approaches in order to beat the product (Bölke, 2015).
In New York, most people are mainly attracted to products which are on offer thus making it hard for us to be able to lead in the area (Hoffman, & Bateson, 2011).
Sales Chart
The highest number of our backpacks were sold in Oklahoma where 94% of our products were sold (Boussabaine, 2013).
Michigan was our second largest market centre where 53% of our products were sold.
Then California came in the third place with 36% of our products sales.
New York was the last city since most people are majorly attracted to products on offers (Smith, 2012).
Our project however experienced challenges since some of the strategies we used really helped us while others did not work (Schindler, 2012). The use of social media and viral marketing was the most effective method as it attracted many customers to our product. Furthermore, it created the awareness of the product hence most people were able to know the product thus increasing the number of buyers (Bölke, 2015). Most of the buyers who were influenced by viral marketing thus making us to be able to reach out target market. The design and the uniqueness of the product also attracted many customers (Boussabaine, 2013). This is because it was unique in its own way. This made it easy for our product to be able to dominate in the market. On the other hand, most people wanted a backpack which could be able to suit their needs and it was therefore able to suit their needs since it can be used for different activities. The approach of customizing the product and the pricing strategy did not work (Hoffman, & Bateson, 2011). This is simply because most people are only attracted to the end product and it is only companies and organizations which are only attracted to customized products. This did not therefore help us to attract many customers to our product. This was so because we did set a high price for our products thus making it hard for most people to buy the product (Smith, 2012). The 1st quarter of our sales was not good since many people were not used to the product and they were therefore not attracted to the product. This therefore made us to change our pricing approaches and immediately after lowering the price of the product, most people were attracted to it (McLeish, 2011).
Reference
Boussabaine, A. (2013). Risk Pricing Strategies for Public-Private Partnership Projects. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Smith, T. J. (2012). Pricing strategy: Setting price levels, managing price discounts, & establishing price structures. Mason, Oh: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Hoffman, K. D., & Bateson, J. E. G. (2011). Services marketing: Concepts, strategies, & cases. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Schindler, R. (2012). Pricing strategies: A marketing approach. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, Inc.
Bölke, S. (2015). Strategic Marketing Approaches within Airline Management : How the Passenger Market causes the Business Concepts of Full Service Network Carriers, Low Cost Carriers, Regional Carriers and Leisure Carriers to overlap.
McLeish, B. (2011). Successful marketing strategies for nonprofit organizations: Winning in the age of the elusive donor. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
