Question

Execu Clean is a 3-month-old start-up enterprise newly established in your area. The company provides dry cleaning, laundry and garment alteration services, with a regular door to door pick-up and delivery service. The company has a production facility as well as qualified drivers and vans. For the time being the production facility is rented and cleaning equipment is leased.

Objectives:

In providing dry cleaning, laundry and garment alteration services the company aims to:

• Establish a sustainable business by the end of the first year of operation
• Have first-year total sales in excess of R 300 000
• Producing net profits

Mission and Vision:

Services are offered with free pick-up and delivery. High quality and convenience will save time and effort for the companies and working customers that we serve.

Keys to Success:

• The business is in the first year of operation, therefore, a comprehensive marketing strategy will be the key to success of the business
• It is important to remember that the customers want high-quality services, they will only use this service if they are entirely satisfied
• Hours of operation must be convenient, and services must be provided timely

Services:

Execu Clean provides services to both industrial and private customers. Customers can sign contracts with Execu Clean to get on-going and scheduled services. Orders are also taken over the phone and via e-mail. The production or operations facility is used for the installation of machines and equipment, washing and cleaning activities, storage of not yet cleaned and cleaned garments, as well as a workplace for garment alterations.

Personnel:

The owner is the director of the business and working part-time. You were employed as the general manager because of your extensive knowledge and experience in the field of business management. The company also has a laundry expert who is in charge of the operation and quality of garment cleaning and a logistics manager in charge of distribution. Two shop workers report to the laundry expert and two drivers report to the logistics manager. The laundry expert and logistics manager reports to you and you report to the owner of the business. A part-time laundry worker and driver are also employed to help out in busy seasons and in case one of the other workers get sick or have other matters to attend to.

Question:

The owner of Execu Clean has requested you to develop a marketing strategy and plan that is consistent with the company’s business strategy. The strategy must be summarised in a formal management report and all research must be based on the area in which you live.

Your report should include the following:

• Executive summary
• Current marketing situation
• Threats and opportunities
• Objectives and issues
• Market and marketing strategies
• Reference list

Tips:

• Ensure that you do marketing research in a specific area familiar to you. "Execu Clean" is a start-up company in your area.
• If you only provide theory as your answer you will lose marks. Your answers must apply to Execu Clean.

Answer 1

Executive Summary

Execu Clean is a 3month old start-up enterprise to be established in XYZ, ABC. The company will provide dry cleaning, laundry, and garment alterations, offered with regular home pick-up and delivery services. The company will need a parmanent production facility. However, we will need more delivery vans, and customer service trained drivers going forward in expansion.

Customers can choose payment either at the time of each delivery, or by monthly credit card billing. At the end of each month we will send statements to each contract customer, itemizing service fees and the charge for the service to their credit cards for payment.

The business provides a new door-to-door dry cleaning, laundry, and alteration service in XYZ, ABC. Our main focus will be on Working Class Customers, beacuse they are always in urgent need of our swrvice and If they are satisfied with the service quality they will likely become repeat customers. As per various reports it has been analysied that a satisfy customer will always recommend the service to another colleagues also.

Sales forecast is expected to reach total sales of R 300,000. We project modest net profits the first year but as our customer data base increases we can expect to grow substantially.

Current marketing situation

Execu Clean will be primarily targeting customers in the XYZ, ABC area. We will start off by offering services to the local residents but will also aim at extending our service offering to the residents of nearby towns also. We will be targeting & increasing both full-time and part-time employed customers who would value the convenience of our service.

It is saying that dry cleaning market is expected to grow exponentially. There was a time when dry cleaning business has seen low times but now situation has been changed and dry cleaning business is booming. With introduction of cheapest modes of Advertisement the small and medium business houses can sucessfully advertise their services. Lets see some of them:

Direct Mail

Direct mail is still effective as a marketing method and it assures a healthy return on your investment along with response rates that will make you smile.

Digital Marketing

We urgently need to make available our company details and other info on Google, Yahoo etc serch engines. This way, when in our community a people searches for “dry cleaners near me,” our business will be more likely to appear. Our website must be search engine optimized, which will also help our business appear earlier in search results.

Mobile Media

Take advantage of our consumers on the go by sending text messages to encourage business during slow times and to remind customers to take benefir of our door-to-door pick up of their laundry and dry cleaning items.

Local Newspaper

This has been an efficient way to get new customers with a very little investments.

Food Vendor & Stalls

Now a days many people kill their hunger at a small food stalls or get their time pass at small stalls, this will also provide a better opportunity to get new customers.

Threats and opportunities

Threats:

• If the business is successful, there will be new competitors who supply the same kind of service.
• New technology changes may bring out new family washing machines for dry cleaning.
• Competition from already established competitors in XYZ, ABC.
• Starting at no market share at all.
• Less experience than competitors.

Opportunities:

• We offer a relatively new, door-to-door service for dry cleaning, and laundry, providing another choice for customers.
• We provide quality services.
• We provide time convenience of service
• We provide quick and convenient service in order to save customer’s time.
• Expenditures on clothing is increasing, including expensive clothes; therefore the demand for taking care of clothes also increases.
• There are more and more women – who traditionally have done the laundry and cleaning work in the family – going to work outside the home. The target market of this business is working class and professional class customers, both men and women.
• Average income of our community is increasing.
• People tend to spend more time on leisure activities rather than doing the house work.
• There is a high likelihood of repeat business.
• The ability to decrease the fixed costs as the sales volume increases.

Objectives and issues

In providing laundry and garment alteration services for customers in the XYZ, ABC, Execu Cleaners aims to:

• Establish sustainable business by the end of the first year
• Have first year total sales in excess of R300,000
• Producing net profits

Mission

Services are offered with free pick-up and delivery. High quality and convenience will save time and effort for the companies and working customers that we serve.

Keys to Success

1. The business is entering the first year of operation, therefore, a comprehensive marketing strategy will be the key to success of the business.
2. It is important to remember that the target customers have money and want to be provided high quality service, therefore, they will only use this service if they are entirely satisfied.
3. Furthermore, the hours of operation must be convenient and service completion must be timely in order that customers are not harried after a long day working.

Issues:

We are new, so we might face some issue building trust with our customers. We also need to have our own production facility to save rent cost. We need more trust worthy employees to serve quality service to our potential customers. New technology also put us at risk as new laundry machine requires less time to be given by persons.

Market and marketing strategies

Place: Dealing directly with customers, conveniently in the customers' houses in XYZ, ABC. Execu Cleaners will receive clothes from and return them to customers' houses. Requests for any time pickups and deliveries will be accommodated.

Product: Free home pickup and delivery service, coming to customers' houses. We provide convenience and high quality dry cleaning, laundry, and alteration services.

Price: Normally, new businesses set their initial prices lower than their competitors. In our situation however, the business has higher costs for our delivery service and promotions to increase customers' awareness and establish our brand name. We will set our prices to match those of our competitors. The pricing scheme is based on a per service price. Moreover, the business targets working and professional customers who often pay less attention to price than the quality and convenience of service. People with higher incomes are willing to pay more for features, customer service, quality, and convenience.

Promotion:

Advertise our new service in the local press, the Internet, public areas such as buses and train stations, shopping centers and supermarkets etc., and drop advertising material into families' mailboxes. Mobile media etc will also be used on hard basis.

Reference list

Data collected from multiple sources. Extensive servey have been conducted to get the response from the local residents. We have distributed questionaire to the local residents asking their need as well as their requirements. We have also conducted a research on our competitior and their market share also to ascertain our position if we need to do extension.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

The following areas will be monitored to evaluate the business performance:

• Monthly and annual sales
• Monthly and annual profit
• Repeat business
• Customer satisfaction

The business success will depend on quality and convenience of the service, customer opinions, and competitor response.

The business provides a new door-to-door dry cleaning, laundry, and alteration service in XYZ, ABC. Our main focus will be on Working Class Customers, beacuse they are always in urgent need of our swrvice and If they are satisfied with the service quality they will likely become repeat customers. As per various reports it has been analysied that a satisfy customer will always recommend the service to another colleagues also.

If we attain monthly and annual sales at least as forecasted, total costs and expenses, including any unanticipated charges, will not exceed our estimates and therefore the monthly and annual profit will be satisfactorily achieved.

Execu Cleaning is a start-up and as such has less experience and begins with no market share at all. Assertive, effective initial marketing efforts will be necessary to gain a customer base. If existing competitors see us as a major threat and they resort to overtly aggressive and debilitating actions it will be very difficult for us to become an established player in the marketplace. Risks caused by competitors are possible, therefore the business has to monitor and evaluate its performance frequently, and collect customer evaluations and suggestions in order to continually improve.

The worst case scenario would be that the business cannot support itself on an ongoing basis. The costs of doing business may be under-estimated, or sales and profit may be less than expected, making the business difficult to finance. Moreover, in case of social economic recession, political changes, or inflation, the business may perform even worse than has been forecasted.