Marketing Plan – “PCHS Vision Productions
Fantastic Four – Kristie, Mari, Crystal, Kaci
Marketing Environment
Demographics
For the PCHS Vision Productions’ video yearbook, part of the environmental analysis includes the demographics of the school. At Pearl City High School, there are approximately 2,150 students enrolled, and 15.9% of them are geographical exceptions. In the past three years, the total enrollment has remained stable.
Economic Environment
The economic environment for the PCHS Video Productions’ video yearbook is affected by the family income of students. According to Pearl City High School's last accreditation report and the U.S. Census bureau, the median household income was
$51, 499 compared to $38,829 in the state of Hawaii. 3.8% of those households receive public assistance income compared with 6.8% for the state of Hawaii. Because the discretionary income of our target market is higher than the average in Hawaii, PCHS students will be more willing to purchase our new product, thus, ensuring a successful business.
Natural Environment
The location of which the video yearbooks will be produced is negligible. It really does not matter where they are produced; however, the place of distribution is a factor that will affect sales. We plan to distribute the video yearbooks in two separate locations: the place of pick-up for the traditional yearbooks and at B301, which is a school-based store. By having two different pick-up locations, students will be encouraged to buy our product because these rooms are easily accessible. Those that are picking up the traditional yearbook will have a chance to purchase a video yearbook at that same location. Similarly, by partnering up with the DECA store, which is a central classroom on campus, DECA’s daily customers will also have an opportunity to purchase one before or after school again creating time and place convenience. Because they will be distributed from an easily accessible room, people will be more likely to purchase a video yearbook, therefore increasing sales.
Technological Environment
To create the video yearbook, special equipment is needed to film and process the specific events that will be featured. So far, a Sony camcorder, a digital camera, and a G4 Macintosh with I-movie will be the minimum amount of equipment that will be used in the developing process. Restricted budgets might make getting and using other equipment a little difficult.
Political/Legal Environment
There are guidelines and laws for the PCHS Vision Productions Company in the Political/Legal Environment to take into consideration. The D.O.E. and school administration require that money raised must be deposited into an account through the account clerk in the office. PCHS Vision Productions must also follow all school and D.O.E. policies for our financing. Copyright laws require that the music used in the Video Yearbook must gain permission from the copyright holder. If there is no permission acquired, then charges may be pressed against our company. “Educational Fair Use” of copyrighted software must also be obtained. Waivers are needed for students featured in the video yearbook. Students who don’t give an okay and are featured in the video could press charges against the company for no permission. Students who are viewed in public places are ruled as OK in photographs.
Customer Market Analysis
For our Customer Market Analysis, we will include an evaluation of relevant buyer characteristics describing how these are likely to influence buying behavior for the chosen product-market, considering decision-making models that may shed light on various stages, and presenting relevant marketing research findings.
In our evaluation of relevant buyer characteristics, our customer is likely to be upperclassmen that are active in school extracurricular activities, such as student government, sports, or clubs. We can conclude this because in our survey results, 22% of juniors and seniors participate in one club, 22% of juniors and seniors participate in at least one sport, and 19.3% of both juniors and seniors participate in at least one club and one sport. These characteristics are likely to influence buying behavior because the more active you are in school, the more likely you are to be included in the video
One of the influences of students buying the product would be how much of their own and their parents money they will be spending. This is an influence because in the article Children as Consumers of Entertainment Media, “older children, ages 12 to 19, have spent more than $94 billion of their own money in 1998.” It also says, “Since 1989 there has been an increase of 300%.” These children most definitely spent money from their parents.
Another influence would be that our product is a part of the entertainment business. This influences the buying behavior of the student because in the article, Children as Consumers of Entertainment Media, “Of the $140 billion teenagers spent in 1998, $22 billion was spent on entertainment products.”
The last influence would be peers of the customer. Peers influence the target customer because in the article it says, “51% of teens ages 12 to 17 cite their friends as the biggest influence on how they spend their money.” It also says that “teens cite friends as the top influence on the music they listen to (71%) and the movies they see in the theater.”
We can conclude that our target customer is an upper classman who is in at least one sport, club or both. We found that our target customer is they are influenced by money they are willing to spend, their involvement in the entertainment business, and by their peers.
S.W.O.T. Analysis
STRENGTHS
Experienced Staff
Because the PCHS Vision Productions is a school-based company, many strengths follow. The video yearbook will be produced by the students of Pearl City High School, so we needn’t pay for labor fees. Also, because the staff is our own peers, they pretty much know what kind of video we would want. PCHS Vision Productions is fully staffed with second-year students in the advanced photography class. This means that they are experienced and knowledgeable, ensuring a great video yearbook. They already know how to capture the moments of Pearl City High School and put them collectively into one video.
No Expectations
This is the first year a video yearbook will be sold. Since this will be its first appearance, there will be no expectations from the students. A video yearbook hasn’t been introduced yet, so the students can’t compare our product to previous video yearbooks. If there are no expectations, there will be no disappointments.
WEAKNESSES
Lack of Committed Staff
For the PCHS Vision Production’s video yearbook, some weaknesses of this project could be the lack of staff. Since only Mr. Abe’s advanced photography students will be putting the actual DVD together, there is a limited amount of people that can work on it. There is also the possibility of the students having a lack of commitment to the project because not all of them may be interested or care about their grades. The students might only videotape their friends or end up falling through on assignments and deadlines, leaving Mr. Abe to do most of the work. Without an abundance of people working on this project, the quality of it may be sacrificed.
Another weakness of this video yearbook is that this is the first year that it is being done, so a lot of students may not know about it or what exactly it is.
OPPORTUNITIES
Upgrading Equipment
There are many opportunities for the PCHS Vision Productions to enhance the PCHS Video Yearbook and its sales. One opportunity is to have an upgrade in the equipment used to make the video yearbook. This benefits the video yearbook because it can improve the quality of the video’s picture and sound. Another opportunity would be to include the video yearbook as an option with school fees. This benefits the sales of the video yearbook because students will have an easier time purchasing it. Along with having an easier time purchasing the video yearbook, there could be a discount when students purchase it with their school fees. This benefits the video yearbook because more students will be likely to buy it because it’s discounted. Another opportunity would be to have school partnerships. This benefits the sales of the video yearbook because there’s more people involved causing more people to know about it and to purchase it.
THREATS
Some of the threats facing the video yearbook are the regular yearbooks. Some of the students might prefer the traditional style of keeping their high school memories as in the form of the traditional book form of the yearbook. This factor definitely might draw away customers from the video yearbook. Another threat towards the video yearbook is the graduation/project graduation videos. Especially the seniors might pick these forms of capturing their last high school memories. And lastly, DVD burners are the ultimate threat. Students can just buy one video yearbook and pass it around throughout their friends and burn copies so they don’t have to actually buy one for themselves.
Marketing Problem
The PCHS Video Productions faces many challenges as it opens as a new and unknown company to the student body. Our company consists of a small, but highly qualified group of students from the advanced photography class. With limited financial backing, we cannot over invest in the first year. Being a new product for PCHS students to purchase, product, price, promotion, and target market is very unclear.
Because this is the first year a video yearbook is being produced, the specific content desired by the student body is unknown. We are unsure of what events and activities are most valued by the students of PCHS.
Pricing is another issue to be determined by the PCHS Vision Productions. We need to find right pricing to suggest value to the student customers.
Promotion is also a key factor in the first year to launch this new product. We need to find the best promotion technique to draw in customers during the first year of development.
Much research will have to be done to determine PCHS Vision Productions’ primary and secondary target market in order to limit risk in the first year.
Marketing Strategies Proposal
Price
The PCHS Vision Production’s video yearbook will be sold for $15. Since the actual cost to make the video is $13, we priced it at $15 to a reasonable profit of $2 on each video without the price being too high. After doing research, 54.9% of the student body said they would be willing to pay this amount for it.
Product
This year PCHS Vision Productions is putting out a Video Yearbook for the PCHS seniors. From our primary research, we found that 95.1% of the surveyed students from different grades want it available in DVD format. We also found what activities and events are important to the PCHS students. From the most important to the least important are prom, homecoming, sports, winterball, then assemblies. We discovered that 57.2% of the people surveyed wanted the whole school to be featured in the video yearbook. It also revealed that 31% want their own particular class covered. However, this year we are going to only focus on the senior class.
Promotion
For the promotional aspect of the video yearbook, we will advertise and create awareness by designing posters and posting them around the school. We will also announce the selling of the video yearbook in the daily school bulletin and at the various events that will be covered in the video yearbook itself. We can also show a preview of the yearbook during one of our many assemblies to reach pretty much all of our target market at one time while creating awareness also.
Budget
The materials needed for advertising will include one ream of paper that will be used for flyers to be posted in the classrooms. The cost of this will be approximately four dollars. We will also post announcements in the daily bulletin. Because the announcements are free, this form of advertisement will not be of any cost to our business. We would also have a preview for the Video Yearbook at one of the assemblies which would be no cost. There will also be a $25.00 cost for the early bird promotion.
Evaluation Plan
The success and profitability of the marketing plan will be measured by how many video yearbooks that we sell. One hundred yearbooks sold at $15 each with a profit of $2 will generate a profit of $200 which will mark our success. As we said earlier, the only business ethical concerns would be the copyright laws for any music that is not paid for. Since this is a new product, market share doesn’t really apply in our situation. We conducted primary research through the distribution of surveys to various classrooms at Pearl City High School. After compiling the results of the survey, we will see how effective our marketing plan was.