Post Net
Business to Business
M arketing Plan
Introduction 3
Situational Analysis 4
The proposed Post Net family of Business Products: 4
Environmental Analysis 4
Competition 5
Post Net’s place in the Environment 5
Strengths: 5
Challenges 6
The Target Market 6
Target Marketing 6
The Brand Image 6
Goals and Objectives 7
Marketing Tactics 7
Pricing 7
Distribution 7
Promotional Plan 8
The Sales Support Plan: 8
The Media Plan: 8
The Trade Show Plan: 8
The Direct Marketing Plan: 9
The Public Relations Plan: 9
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Introduction
Post Net has had great success moving into the local ISP (Internet Service
Provider) market in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. Post Net continues to sign
up home users at a rate which considerably exceeds projections. Post Net
continues to have significant success in these areas for several reasons:
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Post Net is allied with the St. Louis Post Dispatch which has incredible
coverage and name recognition among people in the St. Louis
area.
Post Net has access to news and information through the Post
Dispatch, allowing them to offer much more than mere Internet
Dial-up for the same price as other dial-up services.
Through its alliance with Sports Stats, Post Net has access to local
little league, primary and secondary school sports statistics and
scores. This information is extremely attractive to parents of
athletes who participate in these sports activities.
Post Net has access to very skilled designers and programmers which
helps to ensure that the Post Net site is exciting and attractive to
customers.
Post Net is very well equipped to handle large volumes, which means
that customers get on the Internet right away, not a busy signal.
Post Net intends to extend the success it has enjoyed in the consumer dial-up
marketplace and secure a larger percentage of the business dial-up marketplace.
Many of these products will be very similar to consumer dial-up with some slight
changes in prices and structuring.
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Situational Analysis
The proposed Post Net family of Business Products:
Internet Access: This allows businesses to sign their employees up for access to
the Internet. The access comes at two levels, the common unlimited level, and a
proposed lower priced, high speed level which would only be accessible from 9
a.m. to 7 p.m. on business days. (in an attempt to sell excess bandwidth which is
available during these times.
Web Page Hosting: This is a service which allows businesses and individual
employees to put a web site on the Internet. The site is hosted and maintained
by Post Net for a monthly fee. The sites are sold based on how much computer
storage space is used. (the standard site is 10 MB).
Web Page Creation: With this service, Post Net consults with businesses and
designs, and implements a web page for them.
Environmental Analysis
Businesses are increasingly more interested in using the Internet as a tool for
their employees. Businesses perceive many advantages from their employees
being on line including:
• Sales force can use the Internet to find out more about client
businesses before calling on them.
• Sales force can use the Internet as a prospecting tool to find
new customers.
• Purchasing department can use Internet to find better and less
expensive suppliers for products and services.
• Corporations can use the Internet to find out more information
about their competitors.
• Businesses can market their goods and services on the Internet.
Businesses also have several fears about the Internet including:
• Employees will waste time “surfing” for non-work-related
information on the job.
• Their competitors will find out more about them using the
Internet.
• Other companies can get into their sensitive corporate
information through the company’s web site.
• It will be difficult to use and the boss/person in charge will look
unintelligent.
• Internet access and web sites will be difficult to manage, and
will not be properly maintained.
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As the perceived advantages outweigh the perceived fears on the part of
businesses in the Saint Louis Area, businesses are gradually moving on-line, first
with a business web site, then with Internet access for the employees of the
company.
Competition
Post Net currently enjoys great access to the general public in St. Louis.
However there are several other service providers that customers can choose
from. These include:
• Diamond Net*
• Southwestern Bell*
• AT&T*
• MCI*
• Nine Net
• and at least 50 other small providers in the St. Louis area.
The most significant threats are the ones with an asterisk.
Post Net’s place in the Environment
Post Net has continued to strengthen its position and reputation in the St. Louis
Community. Post Net has established itself as providers of up to the minute local
and national news, and developers of a very rich and stable dial-up service. The
advertising campaign has helped to establish Post Net’s reputation as offering
Internet services for “real people”.
Strengths:
Post Net has several unique benefits to offer its clients:
• Post Net has access to news and information through the Post
Dispatch, allowing them to offer much more than mere
Internet Dial-up for the same price as other dial-up services.
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•
•
Through its alliance with Sports Stats, Post Net has access to
local little league, primary and secondary school sports
statistics and scores. This information is extremely attractive
to parents of athletes who participate in these sports
activities.
Post Net has access to very skilled designers and programmers
which helps to ensure that the Post Net site is exciting and
attractive to customers.
Post Net is very well equipped to handle large volumes, which
means that customers get on the Internet right away, not a
busy signal.
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Post Net is a relatively large and stable product and company.
They are unlikely to go out of business or be unavailable like
some of the other providers.
Post Net is the only company in St. Louis that offers ISDN
connections for the same price as regular phone connections.
Challenges
There are several situations which could be threatening to Post Net’s market
share and product positioning:
• Post Net could get so busy that the quality of service could go
down.
• Post Net could be considered “low tech” compared to the other
competitors in the market due to its connection with the Post
Dispatch.
• A competitor could significantly slash their prices and begin a
price war.
• Other direct competitors could enter the marketplace.
The Target Market
Target Marketing
Obviously Post Net cannot go after every business and organization in St. Louis
simultaneously. Therefore, it is helpful for Post Net to segment the market and
choose the groups most likely to be most profitable. The market breaks into
roughly 3 major segments:
• Fortune 1000 corporations
• Organizations/collections of single person companies like lawyers, real
estate agents, insurance agents, and sales people.
• Other large groups/organizations such as athletic fan clubs, public
radio stations, support groups, societies, etc.
The Brand Image
A specific brand image for Post Net as a business ISP should be established.
While considerable investment has been made in advertising and marketing for
Post Net, a slightly different brand should be built for business. Perhaps a name
like Post Net BIZ or BIZ net, or Post Net Business to Business would work. This
would not require that new name recognition or a new web site be built.
However, this slight change of name would help companies distinguish the
unique advantages for business from general dial-up, and would help further the
perception of a company dedicated to the needs of business users. Other
important aspects of the brand image to focus on are:
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Post Net is a stable, reliable group of people who really understand your needs.
They are technically very smart, but know how to talk to normal people. They
make it really easy to understand how to do this stuff so you can look really
smart. Post Net is very practical; they know that you don’t have unlimited time or
money, so they won’t ask you to.
Goals and Objectives
The goal is to have Post Net known in the St. Louis area as THE source for
Internet dial-up, web site hosting and web site creation. Specifically, Post Net
will sign up 250 new members from 10 companies, and host 50 new web sites
from 10 companies for a total revenue of just under $80,000.
Marketing Tactics
Pricing
The products will be priced at a whole market selling price. Companies can offer
Internet dial-up to employees for $14.95 per month which is $5/month off the
regular price of $19.95 per month. Web sites are generally offered for $49.95
per month. In certain cases, the organizations which sign up with Post Net will
receive a cut for every web site that is established within their organization.
Persons who administrate the Post Net program in their organizations will be
eligible for Post Net points towards free access. Periodically, web sites will be
offered for $39.95 per month.
Distribution
The product is sold through direct channels with salespeople at Post Net
receiving a commission. Also, there is an incentive within organizations for the
administrator of the program, who receives points towards free access.
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?Promotional Plan
The promotional plan is made up of five segments. Each of these plans is set up
as an ideal scenario. Each plan can be scaled back considerably if necessary.
λThe Sales Support Plan:
The first objective of the sales support plan is to get a few basic materials ready
for sales people to use as leave-behind collateral pieces. Ideally these pieces
should be easy to change, flexible enough to use for several different purposes,
and not too expensive. Initially recommended pieces include:
• A 2-pocket folder with die cut for business card, and CD-ROM
• Demonstration CD-ROM
• A list of current Post Net partners printed on letterhead
• A 4 page educational brochure called How to be more productive
on the Internet
• A personalized letter explaining how Post Net can help that
particular business
Of course other pieces can be added like reviews of the site, or reprints of
articles. The folder should be basic enough to cover a wide range of uses.
λThe Media Plan:
The media plan will include the following dates in the following magazines:
In any case, new ads will be required for these publications. The ads must stress
the increased productivity (and profits) that can be gained from using Post Net.
Emphasis will also have to be on reliability and ease of use. They can be similar
in style to the surfer ads, but with a change in emphasis. Care must be taken not
to undermine or weaken the advertising for the core product (consumer dial-up).
In addition, all major Internet directories should be researched to make sure that
Post Net is in them, and the citation is correct. The listing in the yellow pages
should also be spruced up and enlarged.
λThe Trade Show Plan:
Post Net will participate in the ITEC show and other community business shows.
Emphasis will be placed on the Cyber Café concept and special pricing. In some
cases it might be more prudent to participate as a speaker or host a special
event at these shows rather than purchase booth space. More research should
be done here. In addition, Post Net should watch for professional shows in the
St. Louis area like Realty shows, Law Shows and conferences, Insurance
Company Conferences and Special Meetings. Even large scale consumer
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shows like the Home Show (to show off on-line classifieds), the travel and boat
show (tourism and other appropriate sites) and musical festivals (like blues
festival) may be appropriate. Although the cost of booth space may be
prohibitive, there are plenty of other ways to participate.
λThe Direct Marketing Plan:
This is one of the most effective ways to reach many of the members of the
target market. Mailings should be developed on a regular basis to go to many of
the particular groups. These mailings should be personalized as much as
possible. In particular mailings need to go to the RCGA and Realty Association
as soon as possible. These needn’t be fancy. Probably a letter on letterhead in
a #10 envelope with a free offer and a response card is all that is really required.
A trifold postcard sized mailer with a perf'd response card may be more cost
effective. In any case, all mailings should be coded so very simplistic test
marketing can be carried out.
λThe Public Relations Plan:
The public relations plan also should be very basic. The first step is to arrive at a
reasonable media list of St. Louis area television shows, radio shows, and
publications that might have an interest in the Internet. The folders developed
under the sales support plan and the list of partners, the CD-ROM and the 4
page brochure would be a good start on a press kit. All that would be needed
would be a corporate backgrounder that explains how the company got started
and who the principles are as well as a basic news release explaining what is
new and exciting.
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