Voice Incorporated
Mp3 Player The Commando
Marketing Plan
1
3-Year Marketing Plan
Voice Incorporated
Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary
2. Company Description
3.
Strategic Focus and Plan
4.
Situational Analysis
5.
Market-Product Focus
6.
Marketing Program
7.
Five Year Projections
8.
Organization
9. Implementation Plan
10. Evaluation and Control
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1. Executive Summary
We are at the point in time where everyone has an MP3 player, but not all MP3’s are the
same. Voice Inc.’s MP3 player (Commando) is a voice activated MP3, which would allow the
consumer to play any artist or playlist in the library of music, with the possibility of a playback
to reinsure the correct command.
The device will also consist of a lyrics option, in which the lyrics are displayed on the
screen when that exact song is played. The touch screen is used to access music quicker and
more efficiently for the consumer. Not all music has to be chosen through voice activation, the
touch screen can also be used to give the consumer other options. The screen will be scratch
resistant to increase durability and the device can also be made to be water resistant. With the
water resistant option, the MP3 player will be able to withstand approximately 2 hours of
submersion under a maximum of 30 feet of water.
The Commando will be offered in many colors such as solid black, red, blue, green,
orange and white as well as a sparkle black, red, blue, white, pink and purple. The colors
represent zodiac signs and/or personality traits of the user to better fit them personally. As
opposed to competitors, the Commando will be packaged in the same colors of the actual MP3
player. When consumers walk into the stores, they will immediately recognize Voice Inc.’s
product.
The battery life would be a maximum of 8 hours, where the player will constantly play
music straight. There is also a wireless capability where the consumer can download or upload
music and pictures to the player. With the wireless capability, there is also the anti-theft
accessory that will help protect our consumer from theft. The MP3 comes in a variety of colors
that represent zodiac/personality traits. Other optional accessories include a car adapter, AM/FM
satellite radio. The Commando is priced at an affordable $139.99. The optional features are
subject to additional costs.
Voice Inc’s mission and vision is to supply consumers with high quality voice activated
products at an affordable price.
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2. Company Description
Voice Incorporated was started by a young group of entrepreneurs in early 2000. The group
consisted of Amanda Short, Whitney Charles, Julie Ltaif, and Will Sutherland and they started
with voice technology in multiple electronics and then branched off join the mp3 player craze in
mid 2005. Their idea was to revolutionize the way people interact with their electronics by
introducing multiple hands-free products, which brought to the forefront easy and reliable
products especially made for those who always have their hands full. Their most popular to date
marketed product is the Commando, the multi-featured/ voice activated mp3 player that has
challenged the strength of the market dominated Apple I-Pod.
Voice Inc. originally started online and with the growing success all throughout the United
States and Japan, started to sell the mp3 players in major electronic retail stores. The company
was started in a small town, Oneonta, in upstate New York, where the founders of the company
decided to put their individual expertise into creating all of the voice activated products. They
came up with multiple advances to improve existing devices and started to work with a small
Japanese manufacturing factory in Tokyo to produce their own unique version of popular
products. With the growing size of Voice Inc., they have switched to a larger manufacturer in
Japan and have opened offices all across the United States.
Voice Inc. believes in keeping up the constantly shifting and advancing technological market.
By giving fair prices and constant customer satisfaction, Voice Inc. will strive to become a
household name that people associate with high quality, reliability, and convenience. By the
year 2011, Voice Incorporated will be marketing in more than 10 countries and will expand their
line to include larger and more in-depth household products.
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3.
Strategic Focus and Plan
This section covers three aspects of corporate strategy that influence the marketing plan: (1) the
mission/vision, (2) goals, and (3) core competence/sustainable competitive advantage of Voice
Inc.
1.)Mission/ Vision
The mission and vision of Voice Incorporated is to produce and market various voice activated
high quality inspired products with competitive prices that will ensure customer satisfaction as
well as uphold the reputation and integrity of the company with its career opportunities for
employees as well as giving above average returns on profit for the stockholders.
2.)Goals
For the coming 3 years, Voice Incorporated seeks to achieve the following goals:
-Nonfinancial Goals
1. To reach other markets outside of the initial marketed countries (United States
and Japan)
2. To create innovative products beyond the current hand-held products.
3. To have Commando to become the top-selling mp3 player.
4. To have Commando to remain a leading seller on the forefront of technology.
-Financial Goals
1. To have a steady and growing stock for loyal stockholders.
2. To keep up and overcome increasing inflation.
3. To maintain a consistent and economy equivalent salary for employees.
4. To continue to bring in high revenue while selling products at a realistic price
for customers.
3.)Core Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage
In terms of core competency, Voice Inc. seeks to achieve a unique ability to (1) provide high
quality, reliability, and convenient products to customers at a cost sufficient price and (2) to
continue to create top-of-the-line tech savvy electronics and appliances.
To translate these core competencies into a sustainable competitive advantage, the Company will
strive to maintain good relationships with all business partners in order to sustain an adequate
operation to ensure the manufacturing a of successful product.
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4. Situational Analysis
This situational analysis starts with a snapshot of the current environment in which Voice Incorporated
finds itself by providing a brief SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. After this
overview, the analysis probes ever-finer levels of detail: industry, company, and consumers.
SWOT Analysis
Figure 1 shows the internal and external factors affecting the market opportunities for Voice Incorporated.
Stated briefly, this SWOT analysis highlights the great strides taken by the company since its products
first appeared online in year 2000.
Figure 1.0
Internal Factors
Strengths
Weaknesses
Management
All highly educated in their fields of work
Sometimes too detail oriented and project
deadlines do not get met
Offerings
Products with high quality, reliability, and
convenience
Competition brands tend to be similar
enough to our products where they lead in
that market
Marketing
Distribution in two markets and globally
online
Lack of experience in markets outside of US
and Japan
Personnel
Experienced, dedicated, and loyal
workforce
Opinions between workers may not always
agree with each other
Finance
Continuing to increase yearly revenue
Spending more than needed on distribution
costs
Manufacturing
Has high quality and works on schedule
Inconvenient to ship all parts of products to
and from manufacturer.
External Factors
Opportunities
Threats
Consumer/Social
Have a great demographic that is eager and
able to purchase products
Possible consumers have many other similar
options within the market
Competitive
We continue to stay the most up to date in
technological advances/trends
Similar products have a wider range of
strongly established markets
Technological
Constantly improving existing products
with higher voice activation technologies
Economic
Strive to keep prices within economic
reasonability
Consumers looking to by the highest priced
electronic (with excepted highest quality)
will over look our cheaper product
Legal/Regulatory
Law s against monopolies keep brands like
Apple from taking over completely
Copyright Infringement policies could lead to
lawsuits
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Industry analysis: The worldwide market for MP3 players will hit $58 billion by 2010, according
to a study released on by IDC. The reason for this huge market that seems to never end is the
constant innovations and technological advances in the market. People are constantly looking for
smaller, faster, mp3 players with better features and more memory. Consumers cannot keep their
hands off of these products, as soon as a newer better mp3 player comes out the old ones seem to
disappear and there are huge demands for these items. Voice Inc. plans on riding out this wave
created by many name brand products just like the Apple IPod who currently has 68 percent of
the market share (Arthur). Apple has been slowing down and their market share has been slowly
declining the past two years. Our company plans on taking advantage of their smaller market
share leaving consumers looking elsewhere for their portable music needs By producing an mp3
that will surpass the IPod in memory and convince with an industries first, voice recognition
system that will allow the user to play songs by simply naming the artist and song (Markiewicz).
Competitors in the MP3 Market: The mp3 market over the past 5 years as made its way in the
billions of dollar range in revenue, and is expected to reach an all time high of 58 billion dollars
in revenue by the end of 2008 (Authur). Within the market there are multiple companies that
have been manufacturing their version of an mp3 player but a top few really are leading the
industry. These companies are Creative, iRiver, Sandisk, Cowon iAudio, Sony and of course the
Apple iPod (MiniDisk Austrailia).Although the fact that other companies have been coming up
with just as reliable and user friendly mp3 devices has brought some competition to the Apple
Ipod, it still manages to bring in about 69 percent of all unit sales in the MP3Player market.
Due to the fact that the company Voice Incorporated does not have the name Apple, and will
always struggle to overcome the demands competing against such a machine, it will strive to
show costumers of other brands that it has just as much to offer and a whole lot more. Voice Inc
strongly believes with their tough marketing skills and experienced staff that they could one day
become a leading brand in the mp3 market.
Company Analysis: The strong, youthful, and highly experienced team, of what are now post
graduate students from upstate New York, have all the resources and motivation to keep them
working at producing top of the line voice activated, personal, and home products. They are
working with equally determined and equipped manufactures and distributors, to ensure all
products are made and shipped out to their customers with the same confidence and satisfaction
that the 5 founders have in their products.
The company is now working with a large manufacturer in Japan where all products are being
made. Their distributor is efficiently getting their products to markets in the United States and
Japan to sell in retail store, and is working with Postal Services in all countries to get products to
online customers worldwide.
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Customer Analysis:
In terms of customer analysis this section describes (1) the characteristics of customers expected
to buy Voice Inc. products (Commando) and (2) Americans who own MP3 players.
Customer Characteristics:
Demographically, Voice Inc.’s target market for Commando will be middle class young adults
ranging from the ages of fifteen to twenty-five. Commando will also be marketed to people who
are always on the go and don’t have to time to turn on the player or even switch to their favorite
song; the voice recognition feature will be a necessity to them especially when driving.
One of the great features that Commando includes is the lyrics availability. The lyrics feature
will allow customers to display the exact lyrics of the song being played on the MP3 player.
This is an innovative option that hasn’t been incorporated into any MP3 player and customers
will surely enjoy this new, cool feature.
I-Pods and MP3 players have become the must-haves to survive in today’s generation. A survey
from 2005 reports that 11% of U.S. adults (approx. 22 million) have iPods or MP3 players. The
study was taken from adults eighteen and older. Markiewicz analyzed the income of people who
own iPods or MP3 players. Fully a quarter (24%) of those who live in households earning more
than $75,000 have them; 10% of those living in households earning $30,000 to $75,000 have
them and 6% of those living in households earning less than $30,000 have them. (Markiewicz).
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5. Market-Product Focus
This section describes the three-year marketing and product objectives for Voice Incorporated
and the target markets, points of difference, and positioning of its lines of Commando Voice
Recognition products.
Marketing and Product Objectives
Commando’s marketing intent is to become a remarkable brand name while building a base from
which other revenue sources can be mined – online and in electronic retail stores. These are
detailed in four areas below:
Current markets. Current markets will be grown by expanding brand name and product
distribution in all electronic stores at retail level and online. In addition, sales will increase by
increasing consumer awareness with television commercials to educate them about the product,
radio promotion and in-store free giveaways.
New Markets. By the end of Year 3, the portable audio music players will have continued to
spread worldwide. This will represent a majority of sales in the U.S. audio business.
Technological/Audio Service. Technological/Audio service will include other voice recognition
products. Sales are expected to reach $700,000 by the end of Year 2 and $1.4 million by the end
of Year 3.
New Products. Commando’s brand presence will continue to expand at the retail level through
the addition of new voice recognition products. This will be accomplished by concept tests in
Year 1 and 2 to identify new potential products. These products will be brought to market in
Year 3.
Target Markets
The primary target market for Commando products will be middle class young adults ranging
from the ages of fifteen to twenty-five and households with young teenage adults. Commando
will also be marketed to people who are always on the go who don’t have time to turn on the
player and switch to their favorite songs, people who like to workout and especially to those who
enjoy music while driving.
Points of Difference
The “points of difference” – characteristics that make Commando distinctive to competitors–fall
into three important areas:
Convenience. No known competitor offers a combination premium voice recognition product
which also includes lyric availability and a scratch resistant touch screen.
Trend. Americans are prone to purchase products that make their lives easier. The MP3 player
seems to be a long-lasting trend and with new improvements the Commando offers, it’s sure to
be successful.
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Premium packaging. Commando is packaged in unique colorful plastic cases of the same color
of the MP3 player that are inside.
Positioning
Past MP3 players have all been the same but the Commando offers many features that
competitors don’t at a reasonable price. Our theme for the Commando is to be as personable as
possible and to be its user’s best friend or sidekick. Commando will be sold on the position of
being the most convenient and easy to use mp3 player out there; a friendly “carry with” to
everyone. Even people who aren’t familiar with MP3 players can operate this product.
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6. Marketing Program
The four marketing mix elements of the Commando marketing program are detailed below.
Product Strategy
After first summarizing the product line, the approach to product quality and packaging
are covered.
Product Line. Commando, retailing at $139.99, is available in different colors. The first line will
come in solid black, red, blue, green, orange and white as well as a sparkle: black, red, blue,
white, pink, and purple. Colors represent zodiac signs and/or personality traits of the user that
they can choose at purchase either in the store or online. Commando earphones are also sold
separately to mix match with music device.
Unique Product Quality. The quality of Commando is made to endure scratches and water. A
water resistant coating can be placed on the player to ensure durability. Along with these features
there are also anti-theft features that consumers can place on their player. These unique features
will be add on features for a small additional price to the product.
Packaging. As opposed to competitors, Commando is packaged in the same colors of the actual
MP3 player. When consumers walk into stores especially, the colors will attract them and they
will automatically know what product it is which will differentiate Commando from any other
packaged MP3 player.
Price Strategy-+
Commando, priced at $139.99 compared to other brands offer a great deal for its price.
By pricing the Commando at odd-pricing, consumers will think they are paying something over
$130 rather than $140 because to consumers it feels significantly cheaper. However, if the price
is less than $130 consumers might think since the price is cheap then the product is cheap
compared to competitors.
To add water resistance and anti-theft features they come in an additional package of an
extra $30. To add all the extra features that the mp3 player can come like am/fm radio etc is a
packaged add on price of $60. Coming to the total $199.99 for the complete featured
Commando, still at an extremely competitive price. Figure 2.0
Break Even Analysis (for easy multiplication reasons we used rounded numbers instead of odd/even pricing)
Quantity Sold | Price/MP3 Player| Total Revenue
| Unit Variable Cost|Total Variable Cost| |Fixed Cost|
|Total Cost|
|Profit|
0
$100
$0
$60
$0
40,000
40,000
-40,000
1000
$140
140,000
60
60000
40,000
100,000
40,000
1000
$160
160,000
60
60000
40,000
100,000
60,000
1000
$200
200,000
60
60000
40,000
100,000
100,000
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Promotion Strategy
A. Target Audience
Target audience for the Commando will be middle class young adults ranging from the ages of
fifteen to twenty-five. Commando will also be marketed to people who are always on the go and
don’t have to time to turn on the player or even switch to their favorite song; the voice
recognition feature will be a necessity to them especially when driving
B. Promotional Objectives
The main promotional objective would be increased awareness among the target audience, as our
company is new in the electronic market and does not have a well known name brand we must
infiltrate the market quickly with the industries first voice activated mp3 player before the more
well known companies such as Apple or Sony can replicate our design. As our company
becomes better known it will become easier to enter other overseas markets with the product, at a
premium price and quality product to compete with the competitors.
C. Promotional Budget
Yes our Promotion budget was considered and was used in the making of our break-even
analysis, our lowest anticipated sales is 40,000 dollars and we plan to use 25 percent of sales for
promotion.
Our company is very new in this market and we will be using the Percentage of Sales Budgeting
strategy and allocating funds to advertising as a percentage of anticipated sales, in terms of either
dollars or units sold.
D. Promotional Tools
The main promotional tool that we have found most effective is advertising to the masses. This
may be expensive to do but it will reach all of our target markets, we can pay for air time on the
radio or commercials on television and know what the exact cost will be. There are no other
variables. This can even be tailored so that we advertise on specific channels that our target
youth market watch or in cities on the radio that has a large youth base audience; Including
college radio and newspapers.
E. Promotion design
Our ads will be colorful, bright and will express our promise of being personable. Our ads will
be marketed in specific magazines and the ads will relate to the magazine’s topic.
F.Promotion Schedule
The demand for our product does not vary seasonally. But purchases of this product could spike
during the summer and fall when most of our younger buyers from the ages of 15-22 have their
summer jobs outside of school they will have more disposable income to purchase our product.
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In Store demonstrations. Voice Incorporated hopes to strike deals with popular computer
companies to make bundle pricing deals where consumers could receive a discounted
Commando with the purchase of a computer. Voice Incorporated thinks this tactic would help
introduce new users to the Commando product and start word of mouth promotion amongst
buyers.
Since the Commando is directed toward the younger generation on the go, we would target
colleges and other younger population outlets to promote special education discounts and to sell
to school stores and magazines at discounted prices, such as 10 percent off deals.
*Every packaged Commando will include a post card with the questions:
1.) How did you hear about the Commando?
2.) What features do you like best about the Commando?
3.) What do you not like about the Commando?
4.) Would you/have you recommended this product to friends or family? Why or why not?
This post card will already have our address to send to on it, and can easy be sent to us by the
consumer, for use to receive feedback on our products.
Place (distribution) Strategy
Voice Incorporated is continuing to partner with our Japanese manufacturer and their distributor.
The distributor works solely with this manufacturer and efficiently exports their products to the
specific markets of the products company. So far the distribution process has been very efficient
and as Voice Incorporated grows we assume we will stay with this distributor but expand the
amount of markets.
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7. Five Year Projections
Voice incorporated has seen modest revenues since its introduction in 2000. in 2005, when voice
incorporated branched off and entered the more affluent mp3 market they saw large increases in
received revenues as well as huge gains in future expected revenues due to their expected
expansions in many new foreign markets as well as the never ending demand for newer mp3.
These gains can be viewed in figure 4.0.
200
150
100
Revenue (Thousands)
50
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Five year projections
Five-year financial projections for
Voice Inc can be viewed below:
Projections
Actual
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Financial
Element
units
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
MP3s Sold
1000
430
780
862
1259
1566
1890
Net Sales
140000
60200
109200
120680
176260
219240
264600
Gross
Profit
100000
43000
78000
86200
125900
156600
189000
Operating
Profit (loss)
-40000
-17200
-31200
-34480
-50360
-62640
-75600
These projections reflect our goals of continuing growth in foreign market and becoming a more
household name across the world. They also show our future increased production and
distribution as the sale volume increase in the domestic market.
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8. Organization
Voice Inc.’s present organization appears below. It shows the five people that report to the
President. Below this level are both full time and part time employees of the company.
Board of Directors
President and CEO
Director of
Operations
Vice President
Marketing
Director of
Finance and
Administration
Director of
Sales
Director of
Technology
At the present Voice Inc., there are full time employees in all of the top positions. The full
time staff expands to the consultants, key advisors, subcontractors, developers for technology,
and testers. As the firm grows, more options for full time positions will be available.
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9. Implementation Plan
Introducing Voice Inc.’s Commando to more overseas markets will be extremely difficult. Many
countries have not yet began the huge mp3 player craze as much as the United States, Japan and
regionally close by countries have. The anticipated rollout schedule to enter these metropolitan
markets appears in figure 3.0
5.0 Rollout Schedule to Enter New Over Seas Markets
Year
New Markets Added
Cumulative
Markets
Cumulative Percentage
of Market
2008 (present)
0
4
2
2009 (year 2)
1
5
2
2010 (year 3)
2
7
5
2011(year 4)
1
8
11
2012 (year 5)
2
10
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The different languages and costumes of the different countries and regions that the Commando
is sold in will need to be carefully inspected and integrated into the voice activated personalized
mp3 player. Voice Incorporated’s ability to be precise with the technology so that it stays
personalized and easy to use in any country will be a very important and rigorous process.
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10. Evaluation and Control
Monthly sales targets in cases are going to be set for Commando MP3 Player for each
metropolitan area. Actual case sales will be compared with these targets and tactical marketing
programs modified to reflect the unique sets of factors in each metropolitan area. The speed of
the roll-out program will either increase or decrease; depending on Voice Inc.’s performance in
the successive metropolitan markets it enters.
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