Marketing Plan Of The Pool Doctor example essay topic

The Pool Doctor The Marketing plan of poll doctor is a little mixed one. Beside the marketing plan of the pool doctor, it is also concerned for the choice of chemicals he has to make as well. Before we begin with the marketing plan of the pool doctor, for reason of ease, I would like to segment the looking ahead section into two parts. The choice of chemical suppliers and the services and products to be offered with the companies marketing plan. As choice of chemicals in an internal procurement decision as well as it influences a major part of marketing strategy. As mentioned in the book, lets start with the first point of the marketing plan, defining the marketing challenge.

In this section we need to focus on the marketing strategy in terms of current strategy is it well implemented or a new or modified strategy should be used to improve profitability. The marketing challenge. The marketing challenge facing Jeff is an interesting one. Let us look at the current marketing plan of the poll doctor. In the previous years Jeff had advertised using direct-mail advertising campaigns which had proved futile.

Then Jeff tried to put adds in the two news papers, Winnipeg free press and the Jewish post. As we look at the "selected 1990 media cost" comparing the circulation of the two new paper except the Jewish post, the metro and Winnipeg free press, Jeff has taken a wise decision to advertise in free press because of it's more circulation. Now as poll doctor wanted to expand it's operation to St. Boniface and St. vital areas of Winnipeg Jeff should probably try advertising in the Lance, which covers both the areas. As the data provided in the advertising in incomplete, I can not predict in details amount of MAL rates would apply, but a equal amount of adds in Winnipeg Free press should be printed as business is more concentrated in these areas.

In addition to direct-mail advertising program Jeff has almost stopped, instead it should be with Aristocrat mailing program and not on it's own. But there is a need to change the look of the fly er and make it more professional. A sample fly er is included at the end of the plan. As we see the distribution of survey thirty percent of had heard about poll doctor from a friend, thirty percent from flies, seventeen from Aristocrat and thirteen from Jewish post and rest by others means. We see that the Winnipeg free press doesn't have significant percent of responses, so we should try advertise in the metro, Jeff also observed that the industry also uses other medias as yellow pages, which Jeff already got a listing, direct-mail which we could not found to be rewarding, bill- board which Jeff doesn't use, print media to a certain extent and radio which we haven't used.

Direct marketing which Jeff hasn't tried using can be used to have a direct interaction with the customers and get there response to pool doctor. In a jeff has to increase his sales from current amount to $100,000 and generate a profit of $22,000. The market opportunities. What are the competitors doing?

The competitors are doing almost the same thing as the pool doctor. Several new people are trying to enter the pool business each summer. In this several established and new firms are also entering into the business. As mentioned in the book one of the former employees of pool doctor had opened a copycat business of the pool doctor. May be Jeff should try signing a non-competition agreement with his employees for stopping such incidents. There are two main competitors the pool doctor is facing is the pool clinic which was competition directly with us also Du guay pool services which is at a minimal competition with us and could be our major competitor if we enter into new markets.

Pool doctor was also in competitor with pool retailers which were offering after sales service, thought the customer were dissatisfied with the after sales service and were not properly treated and also cheated, so in this area the competition was going down. There were areas were pool doctor was not operational in St. Boniface and St. Vital areas, which had major number of pool customers, the market is a huge comparing to number of people who regularly clean there pool, so making a awareness between the people about how effective pool cleaners are instead of servicing the pool by themselves. There were small competitors with an average base of 30-40 customers in the area as well. The other pool companies were using other kind of media advertisements, such as radio and billboards to advertise, therefore keeping in mind new channels we will be also advertising in the new mediums to generate new customer base. The customers needs, want, habits.

The pool owners basically find pool cleaning to be very time consuming, other pool companies were poorly servicing the pools, higher prices were a cause for the pool owners to switch to pool doctor, reliability and poor quality was a factor in switching to pool doctor. Jeff also noticed that the new pool owners were not a good source of pool doctors, the pool suppliers let the pool owners do the servicing on there own. The pool owners were often faced with bad behavior and distrust and had to join the VIP club to get prompt service. Thought the customers tried to purchase automated cleaning devices, which only worked with routine, maintains schedules, they were further de motivated. According to the survey conducted by Jeff, we should look at 26 percent of customer wanted to know more mechanical / technical know how, probably we should teach or impart private lessons on paid basis to customers. As the 26 percent of customer indicated that price was too high, as other competitors are not offering satisfactory and good customer service prices are well placed or we can introduce the new price, which might sound less at 39.99.

To sum up the customers wants, needs and wants customers want a reliable, prompt, well treated, honest and clean pools which pool doctor is already providing. Segmenting the market. The segmentation can be divided into two categories independents and pool stores. There are only two sores and aqua pleasure maintained the pools themselves.

As we have seen the pool stores are very less concerned about after sales service, the independents are where we are in the market, which has more competitors. Select a primary target market. Which customers are particularly attractive? The customers who would be particularly attractive would be families with dual income with children. Also the Customers were coming back from marinating summer cottages to backyard swimming pools. Also hotels and institutions, which have pools and demand services.

Which customers are available? People who were frustrated by cleaning there pool by themselves or we not satisfied with the quality of the service and the next thing to probably would be someone to take care of the pool for them so that they can enjoy swimming rather than spend hours cleanings and maintain it. The customers that are in the area of river heights and tuxedo were available as a prospective customer base. Deciding on the product / service offering What are customers prospective on the product / services ? According to the survey conducted by Jeff we should look at 26 percent of customer wanted to know more mechanical / technical know how, 13% wanted response to quicker response to emergency situation.

Another 13 percent wanted response to their special needs and rest 26% stated that the price was high. 34% percent of customers would like to purchase 03 emitting devices and 17 percent of customers wanted to have swimming lessons to be taught and one of his employee had expressed interest and had plans to expand it further. We can start a quick response service by pool doctor to response for emergency situations, by charging for immediate service or a membership program we can avail them prompt service. As also decide to introduce four new projects offering private swimming lessons, selling ozone devices, installing fiberglass coatings and expanding to new markets. How should the company differentiate from competition? I think pool doctor has already has an advantage over other competitors.

Pool doctors has the best quality control which Jeff himself keep tract of the quality of pools. Pool doctor differentiates in the high servicing standards, low price as compared to other companies, better service than other competitors. Jeff also carried a mid summer evaluation form to get input from customer and measuring there satisfaction levels. Which were not carried out or were not implemented by other competitors. One of the most influential customer retention programs Jeff could introduce is membership program where Jeff could special prices for his members for granted service opportunity and establishes his fixed customer base. Deciding on the distribution approach.

What channels are available and interested? As pool doctor is a servicing company there is minimal distribution involved expect for the university students who are trained as service technicians distributing service to the customers. Other pool stores, which sell pools, pool doctor can take the outsourcing business from the pool suppliers and do the after sales service for them. An aristocrat chemical also refers to the pool doctor, who buys chemicals from them.

The main is self-distribution of service by the own employees. What channels make the most sense? The most channels making the most sense is self-service by its employees, pool stores and aristocrat chemicals and direct marketing. Decide how to attract customers What message should be sent? The simple message that should be sent to customers is that pool cleaning is a professional job requiring trained professional who can maintain your pool and forget all the hassles. Supporting this message should be sent is strict customer satisfaction, polite and reasonable service by pool doctor.

Also a pure enjoyable experience in summers and not getting frustrated. What mix of communication methods should be used? Keeping intact the existing plan of giving pool owners t-shirts and hats to pool owners to generate word of mouth is the most valued marketing strategy and Jeff should keep on doing this along with seasons greetings with early commitments. Flyers shall used to communicate the message to the pool owners as before. Newspapers and radio would be an excellent mix of communication methods that will have the maximum penetration. Also free publicity by aristocrat show where pool doctor can be the only service company offering some technical and information show to generate awareness about pool doctor and it's products and services.

Decide on pricing What should the price be at each level of distribution? The pricing shall be decided by the cost of chemical plus cost of labor plus advertising plus expenses and plus profit. The expected cost of chemicals where $560 for chemicals and 769 for labor. If we look at the income statement it cost us 33,077 for total labor.

That means if we have 65 customers and we bill them 1329 then our revenue would be 86385 minus chemical and labor expense we get 16908 profits of which Jeff had made just made $8000. If we have a customer base of 80 customers Jeff would probably keep the existing pricing competitive and should not make changes to the current profit margin to increase his profit. If he provides the fiberglass coatings he could well gain a profit of $2000 on each installation with other products in the line. How price changes should be handled.

The market is already highly priced and pool doctor's prices are already low and very well justified the cost. If the competitors reduce their prices, then pool doctors shall reconsider new packages which are cheap or reduced or limited service to compete with the new prices. Decide how to keep / grow the customer base. What customer service program should be offered and retention / development programs. The customer service programs that can be offered should be more know how about mechanical / technical details. A toll free number can be introduced for clients of pool doctor about any information they want to gather.

Message should be sent to customers is that pool cleaning is a professional job requiring trained professional who can maintain your pool or give them tips on maintain pools and managing pool equipment which pool doctor is already giving. Certain customers wanted private lessons to be offered in swimming and should start this year on a full scale. The existing seasonal greetings program was Jeff's strategy of pre assuring fixed customer base and early commitment is a successful idea. Jeff should also start a newsletter to its customers on details of pool maintenance and tips so that owners feel very privileged and informed. Merchandise T-shirts and caps of pool doctor are an excellent ides to generate the word of mouth. A membership programs can be started for prompt service from pool doctor and help them avail discount on early commitment and satisfactory service.

Jeff should expand his product service offering to existing market place and new markets to generate new customer base. Ensuring the financial make sense. Well deciding on the financial and marketing program lets start with Jeff's existing advertising expense, which is at 4.85% of net sales. Jeff is trying to expand his customer base from 65 to 80 of which 50 customers are expected to come back for sure and get new customer which would generate sales of 1'00'000. So to be on he safer side we need to generate 30 new customers as only 50 had committed. This would incur us a cost of 80 x 30 = $2400, this will be our new marketing budget.

The new marketing medium we should use is Radio, we shall place our ads in the class 'AA' from 10: 00 am- 8: 00 pm on Saturday and Sunday in 60 second slots as the target audience are mostly would be using the pool and listen to radio. The number of ads would cost us 201 x 16 (2 months) = $1608. On a trial basis we can evaluate the number of responses generated from radio ads and also look at competitors timings to decrease or increase the ads timing and frequency. As previously mentioned in the book Jeff's prediction was he going to cut unnecessary expense by 11,000, we could use this money to spend more on advertising expenses.

Jeff should keep on advertising at Aristocrat pool show which attracted, so many customers and if Jeff stops promotion at the show he could loose the 10% of the customer base as compared to cheaper chemicals which out weight the chemicals and being only pool company at the show he has a big advantage and keep on his partnership with Aristocrat. We probably can not afford to spend money on Transit shelters or Buses, if we use the radio as we would, not be left with enough budget. If we don't use radio we can use only Buses. We can use 30 buses at an expense of $2905, to generate new customers. The adverting cost of the metro would be an approx of 50 MAL at $1.08 at $54 and we can advertise on Saturday and Sundays of the week and for two months it would be approx $850. This amount plus the radio advertising cost would sum up to $2400, and we can expect a customer base of 80 customers and generate sales of 1'00'000.

This amount would be for the current existing areas River heights and tuxedo, we should try a different marketing plan for new areas, as it has more poll owners and we have to establish our new base there. Jeff could either give a franchise with the same procedure and practice standards as in the poll doctor and earn a royalty or start its own branch to look into expanding markets. As Jeff had billed an average customer $1,329 and the total sales would now be at 106'320. The new market share Jeff would have at an customer base of 65 customers would be out of 353 customers or lets estimate another 50 pool owner join the segment, we would have a total of 400 customers, so the pool doctors share of the market would be at 20%. The sales growth is about 2% and there are plenty of pool owners in the area and future markets and there is enormous growth potential for pool doctor. Decide how to learn for the next round of decisions What market research should be done?

The possible market research that should be done is why the rest of the pool owners don't use any service company only 3.53% of 10,000 pool owners use services. More of market research should be done in other areas where there are more pool owners and about the competitors operating there and Jeff's had already done a research on the new pool services and got the responses. Further market research should be done in exploiting the current base of prospective customers and ways to lower price and maintain the quality of service. What results and experiences should be monitored.

Jeff already has a customer feed back form and he himself inspects the pools for regular quality control and has always maintained high customer satisfaction and good works man ship for his customers. He should keep tract of responses from the customers and keep making new steps in keeping pace with customer needs. The growth in sales should be a result of increased marketing plan and monitor statistical data as he has been maintained. He should keep cutting cost not at an expense of quality as he planned to save 11,000 dollars. He should monitor his marketing expenditure to sales growth and alter his marketing plan to increase in sales in case current marketing plan doesn't work.