The Marketing Plan /
Kokomo Technology Consulting Company /
Team C /
8/12/2015 /
Product/Service Concept
In regardless of the increase in technology based strategies around the world, ,KokomoTechnology company is an IT company that aims at meeting the needs of people technologically. The company will particularly provide topnotch technology consultancy services spanning a broad range of areas including IT strategy and governance, management information systems, information security, systems integration, e-commerce, database management, social media, documentation, system maintenance, network operations, and IT training. The ability of the company to provide a wide variety of IT services under one roof will actually be one of its key competitive advantages. To ensure optimal delivery of these services, the company will have highly qualified technology professionals with expertise and experience in diverse sectors. The competence of personnel is actually a key source of competitive advantage as far as IT consulting is concerned.
Target Market and Segmentation
Geographically, our company will be located in the city with an aim of offering our services to all people especially from the city. Since we offer several services under the same roof, our company will be 50m by 50m, which we believe will be good enough to accommodate several people with different needs from us. The greater metro area has grown about 1% since the 2010 census. This brings the total populations of portions of Illinois, southeast Wisconsin and northwest Indiana a total of 9,554,598 (Hinz 2015). Given that we are the only technology company offering multiple services under the same roof, we expect our growth rate to be relative to population growth in the area and our marketing initiatives. The company will mainly target medium-sized companies as well as middle- to high-income individuals in Chicago breaking down the market in four segments: Individuals, family and home office businesses, small and medium sized businesses, educational and medical facilities, and government entities. The technology consultancy business in Chicago is dominated by big names such as IBM, HP, Deloitte, Ernest & Young, Unisys, and Xerox. These firms mainly target Fortune 500 and other large companies, leaving a significant gap for individuals and medium-sized companies in need of consultancy services in the area of technology. In Chicago, there are more than 5,000 medium-sized companies (Thomas, 2012). This is a clear indication that the market is huge given that medium-sized companies are adopting technology at an exceedingly fast pace. The viability of the market is further compounded by thetens of thousands of individuals in need of technology services.
Psychographic segments: It will be a good company or every individual that values technological services, as well as those people especially youngsters that love their needs to be considered in the society.
Behavioral segmentation: We offer a number of services in our company, but our services will not be limited to people away from town. We shall also offer home services once contacted, as a way of ensuring we reach to as many people as possible. This is one way of winning people’s trust on our services and we shall be committed to give the best services, even to the outsiders.
Below in table 1 we present some importantdemographic and economic data about the city of Chicago:
Table 1. Chicago’s demographic and economic facts
Population 2013 (estimate) / 2,718,782Population 2010 / 2,695,598
Persons under 5 years 2010, percent / 6.9%
Persons under 18 years 2010, percent / 23.1%
Persons 65 years and over 2010, percent / 10.3%
Companies established 2010 / 255,459
Source:(U.S. Census Bureau, 2015)
As illustrated by the table above, we offer several services in our company so as to accommodate the needs of all people regardless of age, sex, or even income levels. Even though the population growth differs with age, our main target is to ensure that none of the age group is left behind by the growing technology, hence the desire to offer our services to all.
Kokomo will particularly target mid-sized companies operating in diverse sectors including manufacturing, finance, education, healthcare, management consulting, agriculture, fashion, retail, media, real estate, transportation, construction, publishing, and hospitality. These are clients who seek to support their business strategy using IT. Focus will also be on first-time, regular, and prospective clients. The company will, therefore, target a diverse clientele in terms of Demographics. As part of the data collection and analysis a survey was conducted through Survey monkey of 31 participants from Social media, email, and text messaging. The results are available at this link After analysis of the data, we were able to determine the geographic location, target market, and marketing strategies.
It is important to mention the information provided by some studies showing that in recent years, the City of Chicago is one of the preferred metropolitan areas for mid-size growing companies to set up or expand their operations and activities. The publication Chicago Growing identifies 57 growing companies setting new facilities in the area (including five headquarters). This can be interpreted as opportunity, 57 mid-size companies representing fresh customers for IT companies such as Kokomo Technologies (Chicago Growing, 2015). Therefore, we target at least 200 clients daily, on all our services.
One reason that many firms seek outside help from an IT consultant is to enable them to analyze customer buying patterns, tastes, and preferences closely so that they efficiently pitch advertising and marketing campaigns to smaller and smaller target markets (Laudon 98). This is why it is important for Kokomo to the make the same use of information systems in order to hone in on as specific of a market as possible. As time goes by, Kokomo will use a strategy of focused differentiation in order to develop new market niches for specialized services where a business can compete in the target area better than competitors.
Value Proposition
The significance of a compelling value proposition in today’s rigorously competitive and dynamic business environment cannot be overemphasized (Baines, Fill & Page, 2011). This is particularly because a value proposition is the most crucial determinant of whether customers will buy the product or not (Wilson & Gilligan, 2005). Kokomo seeks to deliver a wide variety of technology services under one roof. A major shortcoming of the prevailing technology consulting firms in Chicago, particularly those that target mid-sized companies, is that they specialize in a few IT fields, often compelling clients to work with more than one IT services providers at the same time. In the 21st century, consumers of IT services, especially businesses, increasingly desire to shop for all their technology from one place. Kokomo, therefore, seeks to help mid-sized businesses achieve this objective by being the number one source for all IT needs.
In order to capture the attention of our customers, we decided to come up with the best hook for all our clients. Our customer will enjoy a free WI-FI within our company. Our trainees will also be offered free practical classes and weekend classes will be free. At the end of training, our company will collaborate with other companies for job placement for our trainees.
Kokomo’s competitive advantage also stems from the fact that the company understands the business perspective of its clients. It is worrying to note that most technology solutions providers do not connect with their clients’ business perspectives. In other words, they have a vague understanding of how IT fits with the overall business strategy. Therefore, they primarily focus on helping their clients achieve their technical objectives. In this regard, Kokomo will have insight into its clients’ businesses at the strategic, tactic, and operational levels. The company will particularly have functional experts (in fields such as finance, customer service, marketing, human resources, and economics) that have a solid understanding of the drivers that propel the business of its clients. Kokomo will, therefore, seek to implement IT solutions that meet not only the technical but also the business objectives of its clients.
We also conducted 5 interviews with managers and business owners in the field. All of the participants were directly involved in the IT services at their firm. We asked the following questions: 1. What IT services does your firm currently use? 2. What IT services does your firm need now or in the near future? 3. How many people do you currently have in your IT department if any? 4. How much does your firm spend on IT services (including salaries) per year? The participants were in both the private sector and public sector profit and not for profit businesses. For Question number 2, 4 out of the 5 participants cited that their firm currently uses some sort of security software and hardware for the protection of their company’s assets. The range of money spent on IT services was $2,000 to $500,000 per year.
We carried out behavioral observation in various IT companies in Chicago, and we noted that their services are different from ours. In most of those companies, they only offered one or two services, unlike our company that offers more than those under the same roof. In addition, we noted that they don’t do deal with out-of-town services even if their customers request.
We also managed to carry out a focus group. We gathered ten people who were potential customers. They all responded well to our questions. Three of them said that they had hard tasks on moving from one company to another in search of different services, some of which were not successful. They were happy that we could offer those services under the same roof, and were glad that their needs will be met quickly and easily without struggle.
Pricing Strategy
Kokomo Technologies will face strong competition from several local and nationwide IT services companies. We consider that companies such as Smart Technology Services, Inc. ( Agility Computer Network Services ( SWC Technology Partners ( and the Geek Squad ( service offered at the local Best Buy retail storesare our main competitor. Our advantages to prevail against those and other competitors arethe excellence provided every time and affordability, offering insuperable services at a lower cost.
Determining an appropriate pricing strategy can particularly be difficult when the product is intangible. Ineffective pricing is actually a major mistake made by new entrepreneur consultants. This is occasioned by factors such as limited knowledge of going rates since most consultants warily guard their rates, lack of strong relationships with clients, and underestimation of operational costs (Crane, 2006). A major point of consideration when it comes to setting rates for consultancy is whether to charge per hour or per project. Since clients tend to be skeptical about first-time consultants, they are often comfortable with a per-hour arrangement. Kokomo will, therefore, charge its services on a per-hour basis. As mentioned earlier, studying the competition may be quite tricky since most consultants treat their fees as trade secrets. Nonetheless, it is known that entry-level consultants charge an average of $175 per hour (Crane, 2006). To offer a more competitive rate, and considering its first-time status, Kokomo will charge $170 per hour. After a careful analysis, we noted that charging $170 per hour will be fair to all our customers, and we shall be able to pay for our technicians as well as sparing a profit for the company for future development.The competitiveness of Kokomo’s rates further stems from the fact that the company offers more at a relatively cheap rate. The competition charge will ensure that we offer different services to different people, thereby making an extra profit. This low-cost pricing strategy will be important for helping the company gain ground in the highly competitive technology consulting business.
Sales and Marketing Strategy
A compelling marketing strategy will be important in the engagement of customers.Kokomo will position itself as the number one provider of affordable consulting services in all spheres of IT. The marketing strategy of the company will, therefore, center on delivering this message. To engage its clients, Kokomo will mainly rely on unconventional marketing techniques such as direct marketing, internet marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, trade shows, and media advertisement. The choice of these techniques is informed by their significantly lower costs compared to conventional techniques such as billboards as well as television, radio, and print advertising (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2012; Burrow, 2009). It is also informed by the fact that these techniques are increasingly overtaking conventional techniques. Unconventional marketing techniques will significantly reduce the company’s customer acquisition costs. Though television advertising will be used, it will only be used to a limited extent. The breakdown of the marketing budget for the first three years is as shown below.
Year 1Year 2 Year 3
Internet marketing$10,00012,00015,000
Direct & email marketing$250350500
Trade shows$3,0003,500 5,000
Referral marketing$1,000 1,500 3,000
In-store advertising$400 400 400
Television advertising$3,0003,5004,000
Total $17,65021,25027,900
References
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Burrow, J. (2009).Marketing. Mason: Cengage Learning.
Chicago Growing . (2015, 07 25). Chicago Growing, Second Quarter 2015. Retrieved 07 25, 2015, from World Business Chicago:
Crane, M. (2006). How to set your consulting fees. Retrieved from: cx_mc_1106pricing.html
Hinz, G. (2015, March 26). Chicago-area population growth grinds to a halt. Retrieved August 13, 2015, from
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Laudon, Ken Laudon and J. Management Information Systems, 12/e for DeVry University, 12th Edition.Pearson Learning Solutions.VitalBook file.
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