The name of your prospective hypothetical service business and its probable location.
A brief description of the nature of the business, ("body-guard service", "bar", "child-care", etc.). You will expand on this in MOD02. (Reminder: There are detailed notes on how to approach each section of the SLP in the Background Information page).
2. SELF-ANALYSIS. For this you should: . assess your skills, abilities and competencies, (strengths as well as weaknesses) and . compare these with the demands of potential markets, and . the offerings of competitors. Ensure that the self-analysis is relevant to the proposed service and that you make the comparisons.
3. CUSTOMER ANALYSIS. . Identify potential customers you could serve. . Identify the benefits they seek. . Describe and label your market and any segments there are. - Estimate the size and value of the potential market. - Estimate the size abnd value of the (to be) served market.
4. ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY COMPETITORS: In a table identify the main competitors and provide a brief summary of how each competes. For example, does the competitor use low-price, reliability, reputation, high quality or some other basis for positioning itself in the market?
5. To complete sections 3 and 4 you should do some MARKET RESEARCH, i.e. talk to people and gather some data to get some relevant information for your business idea. Briefly explain what you did and indicate the sources you have used.
6. Analyze the MARKETING ENVIRONMENT. The Marketing Environment is covered in a Powerpoint presentation provided for MOD01. Excluding any factors which are not important or which are analyzed in other sections (e.g. competition), analyze the other major Marketing
Environment factors which need to be taken into account in the development of your marketing strategy, e.g.: . Political factors . Economic factors
. Social and cultural factors
. Technological factors
. Legal or Governmental factors
. Non-marketing costs (supply purchases and manufacturing)
Note that though the sections above are to be presented individually the analysis which underlies them is inter-related and you will probably have to think about yourself, the possible market, and potential and actual competitors at the same time, and to revise your thinking about them as you progress.
Questions/Issues: COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ANALYSIS: How well does the proposed service meet the demands of the market compared with the competition? To help do this analysis:
- Create a Product/Market Matrix. This is a table listing the various segments you identified in the Customer Analysis section for MOD01 and the products which those segments buy. (This is NOT to be confused with a table of a similar name developed by Igor Ansoff.)
- To analyze the competitive situation show the competitors providing those products for each segment in each cell as appropriate.
- Don't just present the matrix; explain what it shows. Which are MY TARGET SEGMENTS your business will focus on and why?
Using the information from section 3, present a table that lists the primary potential target markets with information for each drawn from all prior sections to explain your decision as to which you will focus on.
Describe THE SERVICE that you will provide using your analysis of yourself, the market and the competition to explain how you reached this conclusion.
Describe the People who will deliver the service, the Physical Environment (if any) in which the service will be provided and the Process through which the service will be provided.
Statement of your business's MISSION (what business are you in or what are you supposed to do). The GENERAL OBJECTIVES or GOALS of your business (for example, achieving sales of X% by date A).
Each time you submit a new section of the Marketing Strategy, include the prior sections, revised in the light of feedback and any further research you have conducted, as necessary.
Make those revisions in color. Though these prior sections are not graded again, (they already have been graded when first submitted), including them helps the grader understand your analysis, and enables you to tell a coherent story. For example in SLP01 you described the market and market segments for your firm's products.