Analyzing the Market

In this assignment we do an analysis of the market potential for an Internet Coffee shop that Ms Annabelle's Grocery store is planning to start in Christoval, Texas. As part of the analysis we develop a marketing plan and sales forecasts for the Internet Coffee shop that Ms Annabelle's Grocery store is planning to start.

Marketing Plan

“Marketing Planning is simply a logical sequence and a series of activities leading to the setting of marketing objectives and the formulation of plans for achieving them” (MacDonald, Wilson, 2011, pg. 522). The Internet Coffee shop business seems to be an exciting business because coffee and Internet seems to be very popular especially among students. A combination of coffee and Internet is a winning combination in many markets and it should be successful here as well. The target market for this business should be students, office workers, senior citizens and teenagers.  The marketing plan should focus on customer loyalty and should build a customer base that is loyal to the business. Focus should be on customers who regularly use these services and the company should strive to win loyalty among those customers who use the Internet and coffee services regularly. To win a loyal customer base, the focus should be on the following aspects:

Pricing

The pricing should be competitive. In arriving at the best price, the cost of using other internet servers should be worked out, whether it is a local provider or a major Internet Service Provider (ISP). There are different pricing strategies adopted by ISP's ranging from hourly fees, monthly fees to strategic pricing, such as, using a mix of pricing and schemes.

Other things that need to be considered are, checking out the pricing strategies adopted by other Internet cafes around Christoval and conducting a market survey for different price levels. For this purpose Ms Annabelle's Grocery store can create price level ranges to determine the number of customers that would use its services at different price levels, that is, what would be the number of customers if the price levels were $1-$3, or $3 to $4 etc. After a lot of market research, we came to a conclusion that a price of $3 per hour would be the best price to charge customers for using the Internet service per hour.

Services and  marketing of services

Annabelle's grocery store's Internet coffee shop would provide high speed Internet access, that can be enjoyed with a cup of coffee and a good opportunity to share Internet browsing experience in a comfortable environment. The environment in the Internet cafe would be unique, educational, innovative and  sophisticated so as to facilitate a great experience for people of all age groups and backgrounds.

Promotion

The Internet coffee shop would be promoted on local TV, newspaper and radio besides through the use of brochures, other print materials and through coffee shop events.

Quality of service

The quality of service would be one of the best. It would incorporate quality service programs such as, having knowledgeable and skilled staff to handle the affairs of the coffee shop, creating initiatives like the “Happy Customer Representative”, that would be given to the most competent and valued staff in the Internet cafe of Ms Annabelle's Grocery store.

Market survey

Constant surveys would be conducted on our customers to ensure that the best possible strategies are adopted in the Internet business that focuses on the customer and to improve and innovate on the way Ms Annabelle's Grocery store does the Internet coffee shop business.

The marketing plan aims to keep the marketing budget on percentage of sales revenue basis, strong brand loyalty, marketing, besides keeping a tab on the dollars spent and the revenues generated.

Sales forecast

“A sales forecast is a prediction based on past sales performance and an analysis of expected market conditions” (“Conduct a Sales Forecast”, 2009). We are expecting a 10% growth rate in the revenues during the first year besides predicting a 10% growth in the succeeding years.