INCEPTION REPORT – MARKETING OFFICER
Introduction
This Inception Report has been created to support growth and Development of the ABC
through input from the marketing unit
Over the next five years, the marketing unit seeks to see an increase in ABC’s distribution
networks, offer new products and services, and win new customers.
It has also been noted that the Marketing Environment is changing. It is therefore
important for ABC to invest in, nurture and grow new markets so as to sustain the
organization’s existence and relevance in the market.
Activities
The officer understands that the following are the major duties to be carried on a daily
Enhancing access of various stakeholders to all institutional materials and services
basis among others
Supervising sales staff
produced by the centre
Developing and implementing integrated and comprehensive marketing strategies.
Managing the sales, distribution, advertising and marketing functions.
Moving extensively in order to meet the quantitative and qualitative sales targets
Studying the marketing needs of the centre and giving guidance thereto
Initiating new ideas concerning the centre’s products and services
Liaising with organisations that are instrumental in meeting the marketing
function of the centre
The following have been noted as ABC’s current product offerings whose distribution
will fall under the marketing unit.
Major (ABC)
School Laboratory Equipment
Secondary (ABC)
School Furniture
Conference Room Facilities
Others
Gardens for hire
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INCEPTION REPORT – MARKETING OFFICER
Preliminary hypotheses
In order to understand how the future of the marketing office will look like over the next
five years, it is important to understand the current status of the market as it stands; from
which the basis for the future will be determined. As such, this level of the report has
been created from the opinions and short research carried out by the marketing officer
within a period of 3 weeks and its importance is to help us know how much ground we
have to cover over the next five years
Target Market Analysis
The Target Market analysis seeks to take up a market segment approach of all
organizations and institutions that have the need and capability to purchase any of our
products on offer. ABC’s ability to differentiate its product has contributed greatly to its
annual returns. ABC’s Target Market Consists of
a. Primary Schools
b. Secondary Schools
c. Tertiary Institutions
d. Bookshops
e. Education Development Partners
f. Others
Market Demographics
Geographic
As a Marketing department, we currently don't have enough flexibility to offer all our
Products and services to our Target Market which is geared towards the Uganda
Education System. However by developing, Improving and marketing our services we
have the ability to grow our community usage
Demographics
Organization size ranges i.e. from small to large.
Most of ABCs Prospects and Clients are influenced by demographic factors such as
Industries vary from Government Institutions, Educational Institutions,
The organizations’ revenue ranges depending on size and industry
Bookshops and stores, NGOs and others
The Decision making unit of the firms vary
Behavior factors
Usage rate is cyclical
The following are the Behavioral factors influencing the ABC market
Buying status tends to lie between potential, first-time users and repeat business
Readiness to buy is usually high (A final sale is attained after a minimum of 1
Customer Loyalty is high.
month)
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INCEPTION REPORT – MARKETING OFFICER
Buyers tend to buy on the basis of product and distribution knowledge making
information very paramount.
Market Needs
Affordable good quality Products i.e. relevant curricula and instructional materials
The ABC Market requires the following in place
Availability of stock as and when required
plus ABC products.
Availability and easy access to the products and services offered to the market
A simplified Buying Process
User Forums and Conferences for awareness and building various user
Adequate Market Collateral and Product/service information for the formation of
communities
Frequent follow ups, visits and reminders plus assistance with communications to
informed decisions.
the key decision makers.
Market Trends
The market trend for ABC offerings has seen a recent increase in sales as well as an
expansion of product offerings.
Product portfolio expansion to include conference room and garden hires
This trend has been fueled by several factors:
Revision of the Curricula
Increase in the number of Education Institutions thus increased demand
Market Growth
The market trends discussed above point toward a market growth for the next five years.
We would like to take advantage of this and try to create more growth in our markets by
expanding our reach, and by matching our offers and accessibility better to needs and
demands of our consumers.
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INCEPTION REPORT – MARKETING OFFICER
Methods
This section seeks to explain the goals and objectives of the marketing unit for a period of
five years after which an overall evaluation of the success or failure will be carried so that
a revision is made for the next period of time.
The single objective is to position ABC as the premier and choice distributor and provider
of all its products and service offerings. The marketing strategy will then first seek to
create customer awareness regarding the products offered, grow the customer base, and
work toward building customer loyalty and referrals. The long-range goal is to not only
to dominate the market, but to create an icon brand.
The Marketing Function therefore seeks to achieve the following in the next five years.
i) Have a major drive for ABC Brand Enhancement, Awareness and market
presence in our market. This is to position ABC as the premier reseller,
distributor and provider of all its products and service offerings which will be
measured by an increase in demand for our services through the websites,
telephone marketing and direct selling.
ii) Maintain a positive steady market growth each year.
iii) Increase sales revenue by 10% annually.
iv) Improve on the efficiency and effectiveness of the product and service
support in the market so as to maintain customer loyalty.
v) Improve and increase the distribution networks so as to Improve Product
Awareness
vi) To develop the leadership and sales abilities of our team.
vii) Achieve and maintain outstanding customer service by benchmarking on
other institutions with superior levels of customer service
viii) Generate and qualify new leads for each product offering every month
ix) Push for new product developments from production units as noted in the
strategic plan so as to satisfy all customer needs
The Marketing Mix
a) Products and Services.
Major (ABC)
School Laboratory Equipment
ABC
School Furniture
Conference Room Facilities
Others
Gardens for hire
b) Pricing
A price book will be adopted for ABC the products and services. This Price book will be
updated and maintained through the ERP. This price book will reflect the pricing
structure of ABC. Special, Technical and Complicated Pricings which cannot be
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INCEPTION REPORT – MARKETING OFFICER
determined by the price book will be discussed and agreed upon by top management.
c) Promotion
Customers expect continuous marketing. We shall therefore integrate traditional and non-
traditional marketing promotion techniques to drive sales and market growth plus Brand
Enhancement.
Brochure distributions at meetings and events with prospects
Traditional promotions will include:
News letters to our clientele
Sponsorship of Education forums which attract members of our target market.
Branding ABC Organization Vehicles
Introducing a unified, clear and relevant ABC Caller Tune that prospective
Non Traditional Promotions will include
customers can listen to when they call the organization and its staff members to
Monthly Marketing emails, branded with the ABC Logo to give consumers
improve brand awareness
updates and information not only about ABC products but relevant information
Community Outreach: Through Corporate Social Responsibility and Social
about the education sector.
Networking. We will initiate several helpful community features. We will also
create a customer-only section of our website where customer projects will be
featured along with the ability to network with other customers and our design
and project staff especially for the ABC Products. News and announcements will
Sales promotions especially during peak periods. A suggested method would
be added via RSS feeds.
include bundling pricing. Buy many at a reduced cost, Buy some number and get
Promotional gifts for customers. Ideas include maintaining the paper bags and
one free amongst other techniques.
stickers, but we could increase these to include branded bookmarks, Pens and Key-
holders. This will increase ABC’s goodwill and create a positive attitude toward
the company
d) Distribution/place
All distributions will begin at the ABC office. In Areas where we have no physical
presence Intermediaries will be preferred such as bookshops.
There is a need to increase the number of targeted bookshops with emphasis on
bookshops in other key districts like Jinja, Mukono, Wakiso, Mbarara, lira and Gulu.
ABC’s Marketing efforts will be organized around the following customer groups
Book Resellers
Development Partners and NGOs in the Education Sector
Event Planners
Laboratory Equipment Resellers
Others
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INCEPTION REPORT – MARKETING OFFICER
These changes will enable ABC to be more creative and flexible in meeting customers’
needs.
e) People
Companies like British Airways have been benchmarked as their industry models in
customer service. It is our goal to attain a level of excellent customer service so that we
can become the benchmark amongst Government Institutions.
Sales Training Exercises to improve people and sales skills
Some areas to focus on here in include
Daily sales and marketing reports logged in through ERP
Daily Task Plans shared with the Marketing Officer for evaluation
f) Processes
ERP will be used for work allocation and management of the sales team using updates of
the account status and customer contact feedback. The system is to become fully
operational for the marketing department.
We shall use the following table for daily follow ups of prospective and current
customers.
Daily Targets achieved /not achieved
Client Name Product
targets/Activities
g) Marketing Research
When working so hard on a project for a long period of time using one strategy, it is often
difficult to see things from multi-perspectives. Research has a positive, profound effect on
projects and we believe that ABC will be far more successful as a result of market
research. We therefore intend to invest in research of our markets, services and products
to achieve greater results.
Further procedure
Objective Tactics
1. Have a major drive for ABC Brand Unique Identifier Caller tunes for
for the year 2015/16 in our market. This is to
Enhancement, Awareness and market presence ABC
position ABC as the premier reseller, distributor
Corporate Social Responsibility
Branded Marketing E-mails
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INCEPTION REPORT – MARKETING OFFICER
and provider of all its products and service Social Network (Facebook)
offerings which will be measured by an increase
Branded Vehicles
in demand for our services through the
Promotional Gifts
websites, telephone marketing and direct
Design Good standard Brochures
selling.
2. Maintain a positive steady market growth each Build and grow a healthy
year. customer database
Client Visits
3. Increase sales revenue by 10% annually. Build and grow a healthy
customer database
Daily Sales Reports
Daily Task Plans
Client Visits
4. Improve on the efficiency and effectiveness of
Sales Promotions
the product and service support in the market
Customer Follow ups
Basic sales Training for
so as to maintain customer loyalty.
marketing staff
Promotional Gifts
Maintaining the use of the ERP
Customer Relationship
Management Module to produce
5. Improve and increase the distribution networks
the desired outcome
Build and grow a Distribution
so as to Improve Product Awareness Network Database of all our
Product Resellers
Strengthen ABC Website for
6. To develop the leadership and sales abilities of
Marketing Purposes
Sales Training and Internship
7. Achieve and maintain outstanding customer
our team.
service by benchmarking on other institutions
Customer Service Training
Promotional Gifts
with superior levels of customer service
8. Generate and qualify new leads for each
Establish a customer database
product offering every month
9. Push for new product developments from
Aggressive Selling
Work hand in hand with the
production units as noted in the strategic plan Curriculum Development Teams
so as to satisfy all customer needs and ABC to sustain the relevance
of the centre through continuous
product improvement.
For purposes of efficiency and effectiveness, a certain measure of time and success must
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INCEPTION REPORT – MARKETING OFFICER
be included. I therefore seek to have timelines that will guide the implementation of this
plan in its first years.
Monitoring Procedures
To analyze the effectiveness, it is necessary to compare actual performance with plan
objectives. To facilitate this analysis, monitoring procedures should be developed for the
various activities required to bring the marketing plan to fruition. These procedures
include, but are not limited to, the following:
Our two key marketing measures are initial lead conversion and repeat purchases
A perpetual comparison of actual and planned activities will be conducted on a
monthly basis for the first year and on a quarterly basis after the initial
implementation phase. The marketing officer, will report their comparison of actual
and planned outcomes directly to the Finance Secretary.
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