Marketing Plan for Sof-A-Logue.com

Introduction 

Sof-A-Logue.com is a state-of-the-art e-communications company that has been in operations for the past decade. Sof-A-Logue has made various attempts in the technology sector by introducing the personal communication platforms that enable people to network with one another in the comfort of their sofas. Sof-A-Logue has made it easier for people to keep in touch with its various channels of communication, which have become more comfortable by the minute. As the company comes up with new products this year, the marketing sector of the company has to come up with technological methods of marketing the new products to generate the maximum sales that the company can have in the year. The strategies have to contribute to the customers' awareness of the brand in the various areas that Sof-A-Logue is targeting. One of the factors that have made it necessary to develop the marketing strategies is the report of a recent survey that most customers do not know Sof-A-Logue brand despite the rapid growth of the company. 

Marketing Goals 

The primary goal of marketing in the case of Sof-A-Logue is the need to create brand awareness among the potential and the existing customers of the company (Luxton, Reid, & Mavondo, 2015). The reports from the recent survey have indicated that the brand is not well known. Therefore, the management at Sof-A-Logue has targeted the engagement in the elaborate marketing as a way to get the market to know the existence of the brand and what it provides to the market (Luxton, Reid, & Mavondo, 2015). The creation of the brand awareness among the potential customers to Sof-A-Logue will also contribute to the widespread knowledge of the brand beyond the current area of focus to span the whole world regarding bettering the personal communications at the customers' comfort (Luxton, Reid, & Mavondo, 2015). The expansion of the company's focus on the international arena is expected to bring about many advantages to Sof-A-Logue, which includes the increase in profits (Luxton, Reid, & Mavondo, 2015). 

The other goal of marketing at Sof-A-Logue is to increase the company's revenues and profits (Tolmachev, Elagina, & Byzova, 2017). The creation of brand awareness in the company is expected to enable the company to explore new markets in the personal communication sector. Consequently, the profits and the revenues of the organization will increase due to the increase in the brand awareness. The increase in the revenues and earnings from the operations of the company will enable the company offer quality e-communication platforms to the customers across the globe, which will lead to increased brand awareness (Tolmachev, Elagina, & Byzova, 2017). The increase in the revenues and the profit of the company will also exponentially increase the salaries of the employees, and more employees will be employed by the company to take care of the burgeoning consumer base. That will lead to a rise in the financial capabilities of Sof-A-Logue (Tolmachev, Elagina, & Byzova, 2017). 

The third goal of marketing is to place Sof-A-Logue at a stable competitive position (Tan & Sousa, 2015). With the increase in the level of technology in the United States of America and the rest of the world, many wireless communication platforms have emerged to replace the traditional methods of communication, which were time-consuming (Tan & Sousa, 2015). That has initiated a race to the advancement of technology in the communications industry. Therefore, Sof-A-Logue expects to have stiff competition against its communication idea (Tan & Sousa, 2015). To edge the competitors and have a competitive advantage in the industry, Sof-A-Logue needs to have an elaborate system of marketing besides the innovativeness of the product (Tan & Sousa, 2015). Thus, the company intends to use marketing as a quintessential tool to the gaining of a better competitive advantage in the personal communications sector (Tan & Sousa, 2015). 

The last goal of marketing at Sof-A-Logue is the launching of new products (Martin & Javalgi, 2016). In line with the celebration of the tenth anniversary for the company's existence, Sof-A-Logue intends to launch new products this year. The first product that the company wants to begin is book-logues to target the book lovers. The application will be run on a low-cost annual subscription from the customers, which will be used to appeal to them even more. The other product to be launched on the tenth anniversary is read-a-logue. Read-a-logue will enable car drivers with the audio systems and the children to be taught using the stories to which they listen. The app will be free of charge to download and will have an affordable annual subscription rate. The last application that will be launched this year will be the coupon-a-logue. The savers of money and those on a tight budget will find this application very useful since it will enable them to download coupons from different merchants to take advantage of various offers (Martin & Javalgi, 2016). 

The Situational Analysis 

Sof-A-Logue has targeted different customers in its communication technique in the past and the future developments such as the three applications that are being launched on its tenth anniversary. The following is the porters five forces industry analysis for the e-communications sector in which Sof-A-Logue has invested. One of the forces is the threat of new entrants into the market (E. Dobbs, 2014). The communications industry is a rapidly developing and changing sector. Hence, there could be new entrants in the market with innovative personal communication technologies that would outdo those of Sof-A-Logue. That would lead to its reduced popularity among the potential customers in the industry (E. Dobbs, 2014). 

The other force is the bargaining power of the consumers (E. Dobbs, 2014). The company has targeted definite consumers and has plans underway to increase the scope of the consumers and target new markets. At present, the consumer power in the personal communications sector is growing as more and more companies join the industry. Therefore, Sof-A-Logue has to come up with innovative applications, which are running smoothly and fulfill the customers' needs as far as personal communications are concerned. That will reduce the bargaining power of the consumers and therefore place Sof-A-Logue in a better position to market the applications it has specially designed for its various consumers (E. Dobbs, 2014). 

The other force is the bargaining power of the suppliers (E. Dobbs, 2014). Sof-A-Logue has been dependent on many suppliers to provide it with the resources that are required to design and develop the platforms that are supposed to ease the personal communication for the potential consumers. The company has, however, been involved in the quest to reduce the number of its external suppliers. The reduction of the eternal suppliers has exponentially reduced the bargaining power of the suppliers and consequently given the company more power to regulate the prices and the subscription rates of the applications by the consumers (E. Dobbs, 2014). 

The other force is the threat of substitute products and services (E. Dobbs, 2014). For instance, the communications industry has led to the increase in the telecommunication companies, which have dropped the calling and messaging rates for the customers in the various capacities. The consumers who have rapidly migrated from the more expensive networks in the industry have since celebrated the move. The increase in the number of the networks may reduce the popularity of the e-communications platforms such as Sof-A-Logue. Thus, Sof-A-Logue has to come up with innovative ways to solve the issue lest it affects the company negatively (E. Dobbs, 2014). 

The other force is the existence of rivalry owing to the presence of competitors in the communications industry (E. Dobbs, 2014). With the current race in technological advancement, more companies are joining the personal communications industry with new ideas and applications that have eased the communications between two or more people, regardless of the distance between them. That has led the globe to become a small technological village with real-time connections and interaction between the inhabitants of the world. The increasing competition is a threat to the platforms of Sof-A-Logue in communications as they may outdo it. Thus, Sof-A-Logue has to continually keep innovating new ideas and platforms that affect the world in a different way than the previous applications. Through that, the company will have the ability to tap the markets in the communications industry (E. Dobbs, 2014). 

SWOT Analysis 

One of the strengths that Sof-A-Logue has depended on is the presence of dedicated employees. The employee base of Sof-A-Logue has been nominated as the best supportive employee base in the United States of America three years in a row, winning the award each year. The employees are going to be inherent to the success of the company in the marketing to create brand awareness, to launch the new applications at the celebration of the tenth anniversary and the increase in the revenues and profits. The employees are also going to communicate the brand to the potential customers. The other strength of Sof-A-Logue is the diversity of its products. Sof-A-Logue targets schoolchildren, adults, business people as well as financial analysts and drivers. The difference creates multiple sources of income for the company. 

A weakness of Sof-A-Logue is that it lacks proper brand awareness in the target market in and out of the USA. Despite Sof-A-Logue being a rapidly growing organization and mainly due to the mergers that the company has been involved in for the last five years or so, many target customers out there still have not known of the existence of Sof-A-Logue as a brand. They also do not know of its amazing products and services that are meant to make the lives of the potential customers easier than they have been in the past as far as communication is concerned. The other weakness of the company is that the management has not been fully cooperative to the marketing efforts that have been developed by the marketing department even when the employees have abided by such developments. 

One opportunity that Sof-A-Logue has in the e-communications filed is the advancement of technology in the USA. The USA is an example of a country that has been at the forefront of technological progress. Sof-A-Logue has the opportunity to expand in the rapidly expanding avenues of technological innovation in the country. The other countries in the world are also having efforts in technological advancement. The additional opportunity that Sof-A-Logue has in e-communications is the increase in complexity and need for personal communication that is real time. That has provided Sof-A-Logue with the potential opportunities that are supposed to help the company have a steady source of revenue from the burgeoning customer base in the industry. 

A threat that may be faced by Sof-A-Logue in its business operations is the increasing competition in the e-communications sector. As more players join the industry, the opportunities to serve the customers in the various regions of the world may reduce owing to the increase in the e-communication companies. The reduction in the customers will be exacerbated by the slow growth of the customer base requiring the personal communication services. The other threat that Sof-A-Logue may be faced with is the imposition of restrictions to the use of the applications in various countries. Different governments in the world may inhibit the use of Sof-A-Logue apps in their country to promote their local applications. That will potentially infringe the market opportunities of Sof-A-Logue. 

Customer Profiles and Target Markets 

Sof-A-Logue will be based in the city of Annapolis, the state of Maryland in the United States of America. Annapolis has a population of over 39000 inhabitants of different ages (Census.gov, 2018). Most of the inhabitants of the city are below eighteen years of age (Census.gov, 2018). Therefore, the city has many school-going children at the different levels of education. With the rapid increase in the integration of technology in education, the city of Annapolis has technologically changed its education system. The students are continually using the audiovisual facilities in schools, both public and private, to contribute to more understanding of the content that is being taught in class. Therefore, Sof-A-Logue will have an advantage in the school-going children as a target market. Sof-A-Logue will supply the schools and their students with the read-a-logue app, which will change the perception of education. 

Most people in the city who are over 25 years of age are high school graduates or a higher level of education (Census.gov, 2018). Therefore, the company in its target of the book lovers, the coupon lovers, and the drivers will have targeted a large percentage of the Annapolis residents. Research has also indicated that there are over 400000 merchant sales in a year in the city (Census.gov, 2018). Most of those merchant sales will often give out coupons and massive discounts in an attempt to market their goods and services. Sof-A-Logue with its coupon-a-logue app will target the customers of such merchant sales with the ability to compile the merchant coupons in a single place. The compilation will offer the customers in Annapolis the ease of accessibility of their coupons. 

The median household income in the city of Annapolis amounted to over $ 74000 between 2012 and 2016 with only about 10.9% of the residents being below the national poverty line (Census.gov, 2018). That means that most of the residents in the city can afford to pay the low rates of the annual subscription that Sof-A-Logue has attached to the use of its applications in e-communication as well as the applications that are almost being launched. Road transport has been emphasized in the city with the increase in the people who are buying cars. The drivers have gone digital and have preferred cars fitted with google maps to those which do not have. The maps have had a visual aspect, which may not be helpful to the drivers as they concentrate on the road. Sof-A-Logue will provide the audio elements of the maps to help the drivers get the directions around the city more conveniently. 

The residents of the city of Annapolis have been found to value connections and communication with one another, but may often lack time off their busy schedules to hold meaningful conversations. Therefore, the e-communication applications developed by Sof-A-Logue may come in handy to ensure they communicate with one another without physically doing it. Also, the city of Annapolis has a significant number of book lovers. The same problem of time affects them, and they may not have the time to visit the local libraries. Sof-A-Logue has them sorted with the upcoming book-a-logue app. The city of Annapolis has residents who value shopping quality over their finances. They are hindered by the constant needs to cut on their expenditure and save up some money, which they can use later in their shopping. Such people will make good customers of the coupon-a-logue application to be launched on the tenth anniversary of Sof-A-Logue. 

Product Strategy 

The first product that Sof-A-Logue intends to launch is the book-logues application. The application targets the large numbers of book lovers in the city of Annapolis, the rest of the state of Maryland and in the United States of America. In future, book-logues will expand its target market to the neighboring countries such as Canada and Mexico and later across the Pacific to Asia and across the Atlantic to Europe and Africa. The product will have the following features to benefit the customers. Primarily, book-logues will be downloadable over the electronic devices such as cell phones and personal computers. The availability of the application will be of benefit to the marketing efforts of Sof-A-Logue. Book-logues will also have a low priced annual subscription rate. The low-cost subscription rate will; benefit the customers in their reading at an affordable rate. Additionally, the affordability of the application will make it easier for Sof-A-Logue to market the app. Book-logues will also have a customized online book availability with the best sellers and the newly released books covering the different topics in the various parts of the world. 

The other product to be launched under the Sof-A-Logue brand will be the read-a-logue application. The read-a-logue app will cover the increase in the need for audio applications with its amazing features for the various target customers. The read-a-logue application will be a free downloadable audio app. The company will benefit from this in the marketing since most of the consumers in the technological platforms seek the cost-effective solutions to what they presently have. The other feature is that read-a-logue can be fitted into the car's computer system. That makes it easy for the users such as the drivers to read the directions to their intended destinations without having to get their attention off the road to read the map's directions. Therefore, the application will sell to the drivers and thus contributing to the achievement of the marketing goals at Sof-A-Logue. The low-cost annual subscription fee for read-a-logue will ensure that the drivers and the students have cost-effective solutions to the traditional driving and library systems respectively. Read-a-logue will benefit the students in learning. 

The last product under the Sof-A-Logue brand will be the coupon-a-logue application. The application will have a broad target in the market since it will involve the people who shop. That will be a potentially broad market. The coupon-a-logue application will enable the customers to download the available coupons from the merchants near them as well as from those who are located in the major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, all in the United States of America. Coupon-a-logue will be a low-cost application just like the other two. The benefit arising from the affordability of the application will cut across the numerous advantages it has to offer the customers the ease of marketing the app on the side of Sof-A-Logue. The other feature of the application is that it connects the merchants and the customers technologically. The application enables the customers at the merchant locations to transfer the amount from their bank accounts to those of the merchants minus the money accorded to the customers as the discount. Such innovation will contribute to the unique selling proposition of the app. 

Advertising Plan 

The Logo/Slogan 

The slogan of the company will be "Being at the cutting edge of technological advancement." The slogan of the company will be used in the various marketing strategies that the company will put in place to market the three applications to be launched at the 10th anniversary of Sof-A-Logue. The slogan will be included in the various advertisement plans in which the company will be involved. The applications will be advertised in both traditional and modern advertisement methods. Some of the conventional advertising methods to be used will be the word of mouth and the newspaper advertisements. The state of the art advertisement techniques will be the use of social media and mass media. The ad using the logo and the slogan is expected to contribute to rapidly increasing brand awareness of the Sof-A-Logue brand. 

The Company's 10th Anniversary 

The 10th anniversary of the company is expected to be a crucial part of the company's advertisement plan. During the celebration of the tenth anniversary in the existence of the company in the e-communications industry in the USA, the three new applications will be launched. The launching of the applications is expected to put the company in the open for the knowledge of the brand by the customers. The 10th anniversary is expected to advertise the impact of the company not only in the state of Maryland and the whole of the United States of America but also in the whole world as well. Therefore, the marking of the company's tenth anniversary will be a critical factor to the success of the brand awareness efforts of Sof-A-Logue. 

One Promotional Campaign 

The promotional campaign to be used in the marketing of the products at Sof-A-Logue will be the digital advertisement in the various media (Cambini & Soroush, 2016). The digital promotional campaign will be affordable for Sof-A-Logue by gaming the company access to a large market in a short time. That will help the organization save the money it has intended to be used in the marketing and the promotion of the applications. The digital promotional campaign will also personalize the marketing process (Cambini & Soroush, 2016). It will enable Sof-A-Logue to know and understand what each customer requires concerning e-communication inventions. The digital promotional campaign can also be measurable after the implementation of the promotional campaign for the different products and services at Sof-A-Logue (Cambini & Soroush, 2016). The promotional campaign will, therefore, be the best in the integration of technology in the marketing of the applications developed for the consumers by Sof-A-Logue (Cambini & Soroush, 2016). 

One Evaluation Method in the Post-Marketing Phase 

An evaluation method in the post-marketing phase will be the monitoring of the sales in six months after the launching of the applications at the 10th anniversary of the company. The sales are expected to shoot in the post-marketing phase since the company will already be known among the potential customers. The increase in the sales is supposed to be contributed to by the following factors. The first one is the growth of the customer base. The three applications are expected to increase the customer base exponentially since their innovative approach to the lifestyle of the customers will offer a unique selling proposition for the company. The second factor is the launching of the applications itself. The launched applications will diversify the products of Sof-A-Logue. That means that the company will have many different products over time, which will lead to an increase in sales. 

The Media Plan 

Sof-A-Logue will need the assistance of the media in the different states of the United States of America to market the applications to the customers. The marketing department will, therefore, be involved in the media planning process. The marketing department will outsource the advertisement and marketing services to form a selected media station. One of the outcomes expected from the media planning is the massive increase in the customers requiring the services and the products of Sof-A-Logue due to increased brand awareness. The other result is the gaining of a competitive advantage in the e-communications industry in the USA. Sof-A-Logue expects to edge its competitors in the race towards technological advancement with the integration of the media planning approaches to improve the quality of the advertisements that the company sets up for its products and services. 

Conclusion 

The marketing of the three applications to be launched by Sof-A-Logue in its 10th anniversary has to be carefully thought about by the marketing department before being executed. The department has to come up with goals that will direct the marketing process. The various analyses have to be conducted to ensure that the right marketing technique is put in place at the company. The SWOT analysis provides the avenues or the opportunities that Sof-A-Logue can take advantage of to develop and sell its new applications. The best marketing strategy is the advertisement plan which happens over the various media. 

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Census.gov. (2018). U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Annapolis city, Maryland . Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/annapoliscitymaryland/PST045217 

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