G
amers
U
nited
Section One: Executive Summary
Page 1
Section Two: Business Description
Page 2
 Mission Statement
 Brief History/ Background
Section Three: Discussion




Pages 3 - 4
Current Needs/Wants
Target Market
Consumer Demand
Potential Problems
Section Four: Product
Page 4
Section Five: Promotion
Page 4
Section Six: Price
Pages 4 - 5
Section Seven: Place
Page 5
Section Eight: Conclusion
Page 5
Section Nine: Appendix
Pages 6 - 8
Section Ten: Bibliography
Page 9
Executive Summary
This marketing plan elucidates our market segments and the tactics we are employing to get
customers and obtain a successful business. GamersUnited (GU) is a video game store located at
North Park Secondary School. GamersUnited is a partnership between Tuvraen Gill, Iqra Malik,
and Mehakdeep Dhot. Premeditated and effective plans have been made to ensure the long
term success of the business and the contingency plans have been made for challenges and any
future potential problems.
GamersUnited provides consumers with various video games, which they could buy at
reasonable prices. GamersUnited also allow consumers to exchange video games with us, and
sell video games to us. The video games will go through a channel of distribution starting at a
producer, to a retailer (GamersUnited) ¸ to the consumer (Staff and students of North Park
Secondary School). The store will be located at the Common’s Corner, an unused portion of
North Park Secondary School.
We conducted surveys, primary research, to determine if our business would be successful. The
surveys were handed out to random teachers at North Park. The age group of the respondents
varied. This method of research is called random sampling. In the end we received positive
feedback, which encouraged us to continue building our business. Through the surveys, we
were also able to gain a general idea about what video games are most prevalent, and which are
in more demand. We collected some secondary research from previous surveys done in the school.
These surveys helped conclude the most effective way to advertise our business. We also
discovered that there is wide range of gamers in our school. By opening a video game store at
school they will have easy access to video games, will be paying less, and making great deals
with us.
Newer video games will be sold for $42.99, while old and used video games will be sold at
$24.99. The trading and exchanging of video games will solely rely on the game being
exchanged. The business will be promoted through a series of mediums. Posters will be put up,
flyers will be distributed, and the method of personal selling will be used to promote our
business.
Just like every other small business, GamersUnited will start off with a negative capital since we
will have already made some initial investments. The only current liability the company will
have is the bank loan which will mostly be paid off in four to five years.
The business will operate during 3rd and 4th lunch and after school for 45 minutes.
In the end our business will have the ability to generate a pleasing amount of revenue, and
prove to be successful. “We believe the true road to preeminent success is any line to make
yourself master in that line.” Andrew Carnegie
Page 1
Business Description
Mission Statement
Our mission is to turn the currently vacant Common’s Corner into an efficacious business while
offering an enticing service for the students of North Park. GamersUnited will present students
with newest games, and opportunities to get and make the best deals.
Brief History and Background
North Park Secondary School is a very prestigious school in the Peel District School
Board located in Brampton. It currently hosts the International Business and Technology (IBT)
Program. It is an advanced program that enhances and prolongs the outmoded secondary
school curriculum by integrating 21st century skills, preparing students for the challenges of the
technological demanding world. The first IBT class graduated last year. North Park was
founded in 1978 and started the IBT program in 2006. The school has approximately 1200
enrolled students throughout grades 9 and 12. The school has also held the International CO-OP
Program in unification with AFS (American Field Service), which has sent a trifling number of
students for one semester to Paraguay, South America for volunteer work. Presently the
Common’s Corner is an unused portion of North Park. In the past, it was a semi-successful store
and sold a variety of products such as school memorabilia. As sales plummeted, the store was
forced to close, and still needs to find a better purpose for this location. Presently the principal is
Pat Geale. The mascot is the Viking, and the school colours are blue, orange, and white. Just last
year, North Park added a new wing to the school. The new wing mainly consists of language
and history classes.
The idea of opening a video game store was inspired by the students at the school. Due
to the IBT Program, half of the students have laptops. Many of these students play games on
their laptops during lunch. When asked if they play video games on their laptop at home too,
they said that they play with their game consoles at home. They also included that there are
more accessible games on the internet, and it takes too much time to go buy newer ones from
the store. Then it came to us, that what if they had access to the newest video games every day.
We set out to work, and created GamersUnited.
Page 2
Discussion
Current Needs/Wants
Most consumers told us that they were not willing to buy things from school that they could
buy from shopping malls, such as clothes, toys, and etc. But when presented with the idea of an
available video game store, we received positive feedback.
Target Market
Psychographic segmentation is a method of dividing markets on the bases of psychology and
habits of customers. We split our market into technology-savvy gamers, and other teenagers.
Our main target is the teenagers that have an interest in playing video games.
Consumer Demand
The most critical piece of information that one must possess is the research.
GamersUnited needs to know whether the students of North Park would be interested in a
video games store. 64% of the students who were surveyed said that they would be interested
(Figure 1). 67% of the students surveyed said that they play video games either once, twice, or
every day in a week (Figure 2). To further initiate the target market, GamersUnited
researched the number of times students buy games in a year. 52% of students surveyed (who
buy games) said that they buy one game per year and the other 48% said that they buy a game
once or twice a month (Figure 3). A previous research showed that a major reason why students
do not buy video games very frequently is because of transportation reasons and video game
stores are not very accessible during day-to-day life, making Gamers United very appealing due
to its accessibility. While deciding the price, the company decided it would be important to
ask the consumers what a reasonable price for new and old video games would be. The
majority of the customers surveyed preferred a price of $40 for new video games and $20 for
old video games. According to research, GamersUnited believes that 65% of students will be
willing and able to purchase the company’s products.
Potential Problems
The term customer loyalty is used to describe the behaviour of repeat customers, as well as those
that offer good ratings, or reviews. This may end up being a budding problem, since it will be
Page 3
hard to break faithful customers from other video game stores. Any technical difficulties can
reduce revenue. For example if we fortuitously sell a damaged video game to a customer, they
will demand refund, and can damage our reputation by spreading such news.
Product
GamersUnited provides consumers with affordable and reasonably priced video games. The
available genre of video games will vary according to consumer demand (Figure 4). Consumers
will be given the chance to bring in old games, to either exchange for other or newer video
games. Research shows that 84% of students have game consoles at home (Figure 5), be it a
Wii®, PlayStation®, Nintendo®, and Xbox®. Study indicates that 71% of students have video
games at home that they do not play anymore (Figure 6), and are willing to exchange or sell
those video games (Figure 7). When we obtain these used games, we can resell them to other
patrons, or sell them on e-bay for judicious prices.
Promotion
Promotion comprises of marketing communication activities, advertising, public relations, and
personal selling that stimulate consumer purchases and dealer effectiveness. GamersUnited will
use a series of mediums to promote our business. Posters will be placed in well-populated areas.
They will be created using the AIDA formula. This will help guarantee consumer desire and
action. Flyers will help promote available video games, and equitable prices. Personal selling is
considered one of the most effective promotional techniques because it expedites interaction
between consumer and seller.
Price
Research shows that consumers are willing to buy old video games for $20.00 and new video
games for $40.00 (Figure 8 and 9), but the company initiated a premium price of $24.99 for old
games and $42.99 for new games to help attract status-conscious consumers. This method of high
pricing of premium product is used to enhance the product’s luxury image. The students are
likely to buy a premium priced product because they believe the high price is an indication of good
quality and a sign of self-worth. The products at GamersUnited are competitively priced so it
Page 4
increases the possibility of consumers purchasing products from the company rather than other
video game providers. While making an increase in prices, the company has still maintained
lower prices than the competition. By pricing the product based on the money that they
consumers are willing and able to pay, the company is creating a link between the selling price
and the research.
Place
GamersUnited video games will be going through a channel of distribution starting from a
producer, to a retailer, to a consumer. The producers that will be retailing to GamersUnited
include Bungie Studios, Game Freak, Neversoft, Nintendo and Ubisoft. After we acquire these
video games GamersUnited, the retailer, will sell directly to the consumers who include the staff
and students of North Park. GamersUnited, the store, is located in North Park Secondary School
in the Common’s Corner. The store is on the first floor, it consists of 2 sections, a store room and
the main selling area. The store itself is 220.30 sq. feet. The extents of the storage room are 81.36
square feet and the serving area measures 138.94 square feet.
Conclusion
GamersUnited has many favourable characteristics, such as affordability, a large target market,
and a convenient location which emphasizes the success of the company’s plan. While
comparing the company’s prices to stores such as EB Games, Game Stop, and Gamebuzz, the
company’s prices are always found to be more affordable. The company’s adequate pricing
allows the customers to buy games without feeling like they spent too much. GamersUnited has
assiduously analyzed and diminished any possible challenges and defects in the plan. The
marketing team has done significant and well planned research that was executed properly.
Since the store is located at a school where we, the management team, resides, we will have no
problems retaining customers and doing little things that make the business successful such as
remembering customer names and providing or suggesting games that are in their field of
interest. These are some factors that will help make GamersUnited successful. “There are no
secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.” Colin Powell
Page 5
Appendix
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Page 6
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Page 7
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Page 8
Bibliography
Hiebing, Roman. Cooper, Scott. 1997. The Successful Marketing Plan:
A Disciplined and Comprehensive Approach. Ntc Publishing Group.
Mackenzie, Grayson. 1998. How to Write a Marketing Plan.
http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials/how-to-write-a-marketing-plan/
(accessed April 1st, 2011)
2011.http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingbasics/marketingplan/article43018.
html# (accessed March 22nd, 2011)
Page 9