Executive Summary
Kiai marketing group intends to offer a product promotion service in London, targeting the students of Western. The product entails sticking skins onto laptop lids, bearing graphical advertisements. Kiai intends to make a profit by exploiting the difference between the price paid by advertisers and the pay offered to the student team.
Kiai will serve the small businesses of London by providing a means of reaching sections of the student population to promote specialized products. Preliminary research has indicated that the student population is a much sought after demographic. Student governments have limited access to this demographic by preventing marketing companies from advertising on university campuses. This proposal by Kiai marketing Group will offer a new way to reach these 30,000 strong demographic.
The main competitors in this industry are The London Free Press, Western News, The Gazette, Orientation Week Packages and Immobile Poster Campaigns. To be able to provide clients with guaranteed exposure, Kiai will world with a core group of highly active and involved western students who are certain to use their laptops every day of the week and in every class.
Kiai will source for investors who will take up a laptop skin for the entire eight month duration of the academic year. From an exhaustive analysis of the deals offered by the competition, an investor will pay $1062 per skin for the full academic year.
This price will enable Kiai to pay the team members at the determined rate of $10 for a 10 hour work week. It will also enable the realization of a profit of $5,000 in the first year as envisioned by the founder, Roger Mills and to defray for printing costs for the skins, brochures, posters and business cards and other operational and incidental expenses.
Kiai will pursue an intensive course of marketing and will pursue all promotional channels. Kiai will participate in the Business Opportunities Trade Show for two days in August. This show, attracting between 500 and 1500 people, many of them from the small business community, will be a brilliant and effective opportunity to expose the product.
Roger Mills will also enroll in the Small Business Center, in London. This association will provide valuable business plan reviews and networking opportunities. The membership fee of $95 will include a business card display in SBC’s display case and discounted room rentals to hold meetings, providing credibility.
Kiai will also procure posters, brochures and business cards at a combined cost of $275 to distribute to potential clients. However, Kiai will not set up a website in the first two years of operation. A website will not add considerable value to this brand as it requires a personal approach to sell the idea. Before Kiai has established a reputation, the site is likely to have few hits, proving to be a poor investment.
The price offered of $1,062 is very competitive as it covers an entire eight-month academic period. It is significantly more cost effective than the other options available to small businesses. This medium offers a maximum CPM of $19.65 which is much lower than the average.
Introduction
Roger Mills of The University of Western Ontario (Western) established Kiai Marketing Group (Kiai) as a marketing firm that aims at providing new and innovative marketing solutions for businesses in London, Ontario. It aims to provide small businesses with a marketing product that reaches groups of Western’s student population.
Roger Mills of Kiai has developed laminate laptop skins to use as a form of advertisement space. These skins will bear varied promotional messages and graphics affixed to laptop lids. These laptops skins, used in classrooms and around the campus will create exposure for their clients’ products.
This advertising specifically targets the students of Western, and the community of London, Ontario, a total population of over 430,000. The marketing will target interested local businesses. The chosen student team bearing the promotions on their laptops will be adequately compensated.
A small one-man printing operation in downtown London will manufacture the laminate skins. A prototype skin has already been developed using laminate materials. It has a white adhesive backing that can be easily applied to and removed from laptop lids. This prototype cost $25 to develop.
This report will analyze the industry, the competition, the corporate capabilities and consumers to determine the viability of Kiai’s product. It will also offer recommendations to help improve the product’s performance.
A financial analysis has also been carried out to determine the right pricing for compensating the students and pricing the product. There is a separate analysis to determine the cost per impression for the product.
Analysis
Corporate capabilities
Kiai marketing Group was established by Roger Mills as a student marketing firm, to engage in product promotion. It operates in London, Ontario. It intends to do this by affixing skins with promotional messages and graphics onto students’ laptop lids. The charges levied on advertisers will partly go to compensating the students.
Kiai looks to make a profit by exploiting the difference between the price paid by advertisers and the pay offered to the student team. Kiai will serve the small businesses of London by providing a means of reaching sections of the student population to promote specialized products.
This product requires a significant amount of printing and design. However, Kiai will limit operations to its core activity; product promotion. Kiai will outsource all none core activities. Roger Mills will carry out the design of the adverts in conjunction with the clients. A printer has already been identified in downtown London who will handle the printing of the actual skins. A local printing shop has also been identified to undertake the printing of promotional brochures, posters and business cards.
This implies that Kiai does not need to outlay capital for printing equipment and expertise. Selection of the team to bear the advertisements will guarantee the highest business exposure. Therefore, the team members have to be highly active individuals who will use their laptop in public places in a consistent manner. They will also be outgoing individuals who are capable of making a small sales pitch in favor of the product upon inquiry.
The passive nature of this advertising means that it does not prevent the team members from engaging in other income generating activities. Therefore, it is possible to offer the team the average wage rate earned by students of $10. Kiai will not rent out offices. Roger Mills will utilize the discounted offices offered by SBD as part of the membership deal.
Industry analysis
The target area of London, Ontario has a target population of over 430,000 people and is the 10th largest city in Canada. Preliminary research has indicated that the student population is a much sought after demographic. Student governments have limited access to this demographic by preventing marketing companies from advertising on university campuses.
This proposal by Kiai marketing Group will offer a new way to reach these 30,000 strong demographic. The municipal and the provincial governments in London were hugely supportive of local small businesses. They factored the future growth of the small business community in the downtown planning criteria. This has led to a large number of small businesses operating in London, which has created a demand for a service such as Kiai proposes to offer.
The work week, in London, is 5 days. Kiai’s marketing, however, does not need to stop over the weekends as it is a passive process. The Kiai Marketing Group will only be active during the eight months when Western is in session. This weakness means that it will not be ideal for cases where advertisers wish to reach the student population while away from Western, or to reach the rest of London’s population during these months.
The City of London has a population of over 430,000 while the student population at Western is over 30,000 and growing. The large population of the city means that there is a potential to grow the market in the future to target sections of the public outside of Western. With this large student population, it will be easy to source team members who will bear the laptop skins, and the medium will have a large impression. London small businesses owners have a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
Therefore, they are likely to embrace a marketing medium that will offer them the advantage of well-placed niche advertising to reach their clients. The manufacture of the laptop skins is from recycled paper and are themselves recyclable. This environmental consciousness in the product will make an impression on the clients and targets that are environment conscious. The design and printing of the skins provides for three laptop sizes. Laptops that have a lid diagonal dimension of less than 13 inches will not be eligible.
Competitive analysis
A number of media operating in London will offer stiff competition. Some of this media is commercial while some of university affiliation.
The London Free Press (LFP) is London’s foremost daily newspaper and averages 226,000 readers every weekday, 250,000 readers on Saturdays and 140,000 readers on Sundays (“Advertising”). The LFP also has an online readership of 65,000 aged between 18 years and 34 years, with over 4 million page views per month. The distribution of pre-printed advertisements in the daily newspaper is based on designated market zones, corresponding with the advertisers’ target market.
Research and analysis of similar media indicates that The LFP may charge in the neighborhood of $3,200 for a one-time front page advert during a weekday (“Media kit”). A section front page advertisement in black and white would cost $1,400 for each weekday. For smaller advertisements, the cost would be about $380 for each weekday.
The LFP also offers online advertising campaigns on its website. A banner promotion with a guaranteed 100,000 impressions in a month costs the advertiser $450 a week for at least one month. There are also a number of alternatives in their website ranging from $175 to $450 a week with a minimum six month contract.
Western News is Western’s free weekly newspaper and electronics news about Western, catering primarily to staff and faculty, and available to all interested students. They publish a tabloid type paper with thirty four editions every academic year. They dispense 10,000 copies every week to forty news boxes. Advertisements in the Western News could be up to half a page, and prices range from $31.64 for a 2 inch wide advertisement to $497 for a full page.
The Gazette is Western’s student funded, student run newspaper published by the USC. Each regular academic week has four separate issues. The Gazette distributes 44,000 papers free of charge each week during the academic year to over 50 drop points on campus. Advertising in the Gazette for one week ranged from $124 for a sixteenth of a page to $1430 for a full page(“Media kit”).
Orientation Week at Western offers interested businesses direct exposure to over 5,000 first-year students over a five-day period. A “Welcome to western” Package costs $3,000. The company’s logo appears on the Orientation week website main page for this price.
The business’s logo appears on 5,000 laundry bags issued to first-year students. There is a banner display with the business’s name at the large orientation week event. A golf cart mounted with a mobile banner advertising the business travels around campus during the week among other promotional activities.
Another option available to target Western students is an immobile, framed poster campaign. Poster campaigns were typically owned by media companies, and spaces leased out to businesses targeting Western students. These campaigns are commonly used in university washrooms and the bar or restaurant areas. Depending on the number of frames, locations could be acquired at a cost of $110 per month.
Kiai’s product targets small businesses. Advertising investment decisions for small businesses are usually based on perceived value (CPM), results and the originality of the media choice. Although it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of a new advertising campaign, there is an attempted application of reasonable estimates of exposure. Kiai’s form of advertising will make more meaningful impressions compared to the standard, more traditional advertisements offered by the competition.
Most of these competitors, especially The LFP and its online edition, and Western News do not have the ability reach segments of the student population. Because many companies experience this difficulty reaching relevant university demographics, Kiai has only a few key competitors. Kiai also has the advantage of being a product initiated within Western and is, therefore, very likely to have preferential treatment from all advertisers originating from the Western community, like The USC.
The operational strategy of competing media is to reach as large an audience as possible. Kiai’s strategy should be to reach as many relevant targets as possible. This is done by strategically placing advertisements near interested parties. The greater resources that are available to the other media will not affect Kiai’s strategy significantly. Kiai does not require a massive capital outlay for its operations.
Consumer analysis
Kiai laptop skin marketing promotion targets the small business community which is truly vibrant in London. These small businesses deal in niche products, which require relevant advertisement placement, for effective marketing. The City also has a vibrant academic side to it with The University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College which attract thousands of students from outside the city.
The presence of larger companies and a favorable environment for small business outlook has encouraged a number of entrepreneurs to start small businesses.
These businesses benefited from the direct targeting of students at Western. As a result of the small scale of these businesses, most of them operate on a tight budget and are cautious with new investments. These small businesses cater mostly to students, and they would make significant clients. Their reservation with big investment decisions would not be a factor since Kiai offers a cost friendly solution.
Western University Students Council (USC) is a nonprofit recreational and educational corporation for student life on campus. It has the objective of getting students involved and to provide the best student experience among research universities. It has the responsibility to organize clubs, university functions and retail spaces in the University Community Center.
The USC makes use of the HYPE Street Team to create awareness on various on-campus events, formals, fundraisers and concerts by designing and executing creative promotional strategies. HYPE Street Team will make a significant client since Kiai’s media method is an excellent complement to HYPE’s existing promotional campaigns, It is unlikely that Westerns’ administration would have reservations.
Recommendations
To be able to provide clients with a guaranteed exposure, Kiai will world with a core group of highly active and involved western students who are certain to use their laptops every day of the week and in every class. These students should also attend homework sessions, meetings, presentations and conferences at which their laptops will be on display. This manner of placement will guarantee clients broad exposure on campus and with everyone that interacts with the core group.
Kiai should also conduct surveys around the campus to determine the actual exposure rates. Clients approached with factual data on the proficiency of the medium will be more willing to invest than those required to invest in good faith. Kiai should as part of its sells pitch, emphasize the ability of the team to vocally advocate for the brand upon inquiry. This lends an aspect of human interaction to the media which is an advantage over the competition and a significant differentiating factor for Kiai.
There is a change in the size of the laptop skin. It will now be printed in three sizes, 13, 15 and 17 inches, to fit the different laptop sizes common on the campus. It will also allow a larger number of students to be eligible to joining the team.
From the nature of the competition, it is advisable not to offer the same product they do but to create a niche product which will be attractive to a select clientele with a relevant target within the student population. For instance, a small business dealing in products that are relevant only to members of one faculty will require that their products are advertised only in that faculty.
Kiai will source for investors who will take up a laptop skin for the entire eight month duration of the academic year. From an exhaustive analysis of the deals offered by the competition, an investor will pay $1062 per skin for the full academic year.
This price will enable Kiai to pay the team members at the determined rate of $10 for a 10 hour work week. It will also enable the realization of a profit of $5,000 in the first year as envisioned by the founder, Roger Mills and to defray for printing costs for the skins, brochures, posters and business cards and other operational and incidental expenses.
Kiai will pursue an intensive course of marketing and will pursue all promotional channels. Kiai will participate in the Business Opportunities Trade Show for two days in August. This show, attracting between 500 and 1500 people, many of them from the small business community, will be a brilliant and effective opportunity to expose the product. Roger Mills will also enroll in the Small Business Center, in London. This association will provide valuable business plan reviews and networking opportunities.
The membership fee of $95 will include a business card display in SBC’s display case and discounted room rentals to hold meetings, providing credibility. Kiai will also procure posters, brochures and business cards at a combined cost of $275 to distribute to potential clients. However, Kiai will not set up a website in the first two years of operation. A website will not add considerable value to this brand as it requires a personal approach to sell the idea. Before Kiai has established a reputation, the site is likely to have few hits, proving to be a poor investment.
Conclusion
The price offered of $1,062 is very competitive as it covers an entire eight-month academic period. It is significantly more cost effective than the other options available to small businesses. This medium offers a maximum CPM of $19.65 which is much lower than the average.
Exhibits
Table 1: Statistical distribution of CPM across competing media
Table 2: Cost outlay
PREFERRED PROFIT = RECEIVED PAYMENTS – EXPENSES
Therefore,
RECEIVED PAYMENTS = PREFERRED PROFIT + EXPENSES
= $5,000 + $5,620
= $10,620
Therefore cost per skin = $1,062
Table 3: Impressions per week
Calculating the cost per impression based on the maximum exposure
Client cost per week = 1062/28
= $37.92
CPM = $37.92/1.93
= $19.65
Works Cited
“Advertising.” The London Free Press. https://lfpress.com/. Web.
“Media kit.” The Windsor Star. https://windsorstar.com/. Web.