Marketing Plan for Micron
Sarah Cardinal
Michelle Darnell
Brianne Helser
Carlos Robles
Table of Contents:
Executive Summary
Page 3
Situational Analysis
Page 4
SWOT Analysis
Page 7
Marketing Goals
Page 8
Marketing Objectives
Page 9
Marketing Strategy
Page 10
Appendix
Page 13
2
Executive Summary
Situation Analysis:
The target customers of Micron include, Travelers, Mercedes and Workhorse, with
emphasis on Travelers. Micron itself is a micro computing company that offers efficiency,
affordability, and portability to all of its consumers. Due to our three products and vast locations
we consider all companies within our industry direct competitors. Our external problems stem
from lack of knowledge of future locations, Toronto, Threat of substitutes, and pricing.
Collaborators range from our consumers, suppliers, The United States Patent and Trademark,
sales force, and stockholders.
SWOT Analysis:
Micron’s strengths include human, intellectual and informational resources, reputation
and having the highest demand within our industry. Internally, we have weaknesses in marketing
effectiveness, how we communicate our products to our target market. Externally, we face
opportunities like our diverse market segments, having three different consumers, as well as our
attractive pricing for those three products. Lastly, the threats we face include, high substitution
due to having such a large market and we have exhausted our resource of expansion and growth.
Marketing Goals and Objectives:
Micron’s goals of financial performance, marketing performance and marketing
effectiveness will help to increase our market share and industry lead. In the next quarter, we will
continue to cut cost and reduce prices for our products so we are able to remain competitive in
the market. We will continue to increase demand for our product by introducing a new location.
Lastly, Micron will work to implement new advertisements that clearly communicate to our
target markets.
Marketing Strategies:
The current product lines, “The Journey II”, “Sir II” and “Progress” will continue to
adapt to grow and we hope to introduce “Progress II” in the next quarter. Due to our already
competitive pricing we expect little change for consumers except for “Sir II” which we plan to
decrease cost. We currently have locations in New York, Paris and Tokyo and in the next quarter
will be branching into Toronto allowing us to have locations in all available locations. In quarter
5, we plan to revise our advertisements for all of products so we can communicate more clearly
3
with the target consumer. We also plan to introduce larger numbers of advertisement in Toronto,
since it’s our new location.
Situational Analysis
Customers:
Micron is a company comprised of three distinct customers entering quarter five, those
consisting of: Travelers, Mercedes, and Workhorse. Our first priority segment is Travelers. They
have the distinct need of needing a portable computing device that can link well with other
computers. Our second targeted market is that of Mercedes, their needs are different in that they
want a computing device that is fast and powerful as well as offering engineering applications.
Finally our newest target customer is the Workhorse. Their most important feature is ease of use
followed by a low price.
Company:
Micron is a company committed to brining the best micro-computing experience to our
customers through it's efficiency, affordability, and portability. We are located now in four
markets and have decided the best strategy is to implement a product for each of the three target
consumers and penetrate them hardest in their primary locations.
Firm Demographics and Company Usage Behavior
Throughout our four locations, we have a total of 18 employees. As of quarter four our
financial situation is great: we are having sales volume of 8,145 units between our three
products, revenue of $21,504,900, and a gross margin of $8,844,722. (Table 1) Our first
computer, is a laptop called "The Journey III" making it portable for the on the go Traveler. It
includes the office applications one would need when getting work done out of the office. Our
second computer is called "Sir II." It is a desktop that features a 17-inch monitor and expanded
keyboard with hot keys to create a more luxurious micro-computing machine. Our last product is
called "Progress" and features high performance computing power to allow users to experience
the easiest computing process. We are currently selling the most of ‘Progress” with 3,540 units
followed by “Sir II” and “The Journey III” with 2,331 and 2,274 units. (See table 1) And our
most profitable being “Sir II”. (Table 2)
Competitors:
Our competitors include: JABM, Smart Tech, 3SG, World Wide Tech, and Electro-Knights
4
Inc. because we are currently entering into every location, making every company our
competition. Currently we are the only company with a product for each target market, while all
of our competition has only two products. This leads for the potential for them to generate a new
product and introduce it into current as well as new markets, with a focus on Toronto because no
one is currently there besides us. Although we are in more locations, Smart Tech currently has
the largest sales of 19, which a heavy majority of those sales people focusing on Mercedes in
New York, while we have 18. (Table 3)
Traveler
Within this category our largest competition is JABM, and they are located in New York
and Tokyo. We have exactly the same product with all of the components being the same. They
make up 16 of the market share while we currently have 55%. However the demand for “The
Journey III” is 2,270 while the “MiniA” product for Travelers has a demand of 666, showing a
large difference. The price of JAMB’s “MiniA” product is $2,399 with a $150 rebate, which
makes it cheaper than “The Journey III” which has a price of $2,600, and a $100 rebate. The
advertising between the companies has two distinct differences. First, JAMB mentions how they
have the most powerful processor on the market and also mentions the rebate- special price deal
they have. Second, our company mentions the ability to link computers with networks/internet
and how low of a price the product is. Also our media placements are very different with “Your
Journey” being shown 23 times and “MiniA” being shown only 10 times. Our ads are also in the
lead based on ad judgment by 2 points.
Mercedes
Within this category our largest competition is Smart Tech, in New York and Tokyo. Our
products are almost identical in that the only difference is that we have games on our computer.
They make up 20% of the market share, while we currently have 41%. However, the demand for
“Sir II” is 2,285 while Smart Tech’s product for Mercedes is 1,164. The price for “Sir II” is
$3,500 with a $200 rebate making it $700 cheaper than the average for Mercedes. However our
largest competitor’s iQ+ is priced at $4,300 with a $250 rebate making it $50 more expensive
than average. The advertising “At your Service” and “iQ second ad” is only different in one way:
Smart Tech mentions how they are the highest rated brand among Mercedes while we do not
have that claim and instead mention local service and support. The media placement between the
two was very similar with our ads running 24 times and our competitors running 20 times.
5
Although we are closely aligned in ads with “iQ second ad” we are third to last in ad judgment
with “Reach Infinity taking the first spot. The major difference starts where they place more
emphasis on their product being the picture of engineers/scientists and we place the emphasis on
feature engineering applications.
Workhorse
Within this category our largest competition World Wide Tech and our products are
completely identical. They are located in New York and Paris and make up 14% of the market
share while we have 56%. However, “Progress” has a demand of 3,590 and World Wide Tech
only has a demand of 1,564 showing a large gap. The price for “Progress” is $2,100 with a $100
rebate and World Wide Tech has their product “Quick Book” in the same range with a price of
$2,199 with a $10 rebate. The ad “Evolution” for our company differs in one way from our
competitors “Quick Book” ad in that they mention they are the highest rated brand for
Workhorse and we do not. Though we currently have the largest sales, our Ad judgment is in
second place with “Einstein first” by Smart Tech in the lead by one point.
Context:
The biggest external problems that face our company are the lack of knowledge about our
competitors. Since no one is currently in the Toronto segment, we see it as a perfect opportunity
to take over, however others may also be making this move. Our other biggest challenge is that
of competitive price. We tried to price our products close to the market average each segment is
willing to pay, only to find out that some of our competitors have priced their similar product for
much cheaper causing us to have to lower price in order to stay competitive. The threat of
substitutes is also great because almost all of our products are exactly the same, making the issue
of price more important.
Collaborators:
For our company there are many people involved in helping Micron reach its potential.
Our downstream channels would be the people that ultimately buy our products. Our upstream
channels would be our suppliers of equipment to manufacture the computers as well as transport
them. Our industry level alliances would be The United States Patent and Trademark Office
(Department of Commerce). Our technology alliances would be our sales force that could
potentially answer customer concerns via the Internet. Our financial linkage would be the board
and our stockholders. Our International linkage would be government approval to sell our
6
product in those counties.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
• Human, intellectual and informational
resources
• Reputation
• Highest demand
Opportunities
• Diverse market segments
• Attractive pricing
Weaknesses
• Market effectiveness
Threats
• Substitute products
• No more opportunities to expand
Strengths:
Micron has numerous strengths that have resulted in a positive outcome with our
products and our company as a whole. Each member of our business team possesses unique
qualities that are utilized when making decisions. Obtaining human resources has enabled us to
create a structured and well balanced team. Some employees exert great leadership skills by
providing relevant insight during discussions as well as excellent communication skills. Our
team also acquires intellectual resources, which have been significantly beneficial to us in
Quarters 1-4. Micron believes in innovation and because of that, we have all agreed to expand
whenever possible. By creating various products for different market segments as well as
opening new offices in multiple locations; we have earned the highest demand, compared to our
competitors. Micron's final strength is product reputation. All of our products have been
excepted by Customer Union and would be recommended to the specified segment.
Weaknesses:
Our major weakness is market effectiveness because some of our market segments are
not clear on what we are intending to sell, by looking at our advertisement. From Quarter 5 and
on, we plan to convert our threats into strengths by applying all of our resources to gain better
customer knowledge. From there we plan to modify our advertisement, making it more straight
forward and easy for our customers to understand.
Opportunities:
Micron's biggest opportunity is our diverse market segments. We are entering Quarter 5
with three different segments which gives our company a big advantage. Each segment has
specific needs for microcomputers and our job is to monitor these needs and alter the product
features when necessary. Since we expanded early on, we are able to focus on these segments in
7
Quarter 5 and pursue an aggressive approach to maintain our competitive advantage. Micron's
attractive pricing has also been an opportunity because we have been able to gain a competitive
advantage by strategically pricing our products to appeal to all segments. Our team plans on
matching our strengths to our opportunities by using our intellectual, informational, and human
resources to focus on our divers target market and creatively modify our brands when necessary
to meet each segment's needs.
Threats:
One of Micron's threats is substitute products. We have a variety of competitors with very
similar products. If we do not closely monitor our competitors, we will lose our current
customers to our competitors. We plan to convert this threat into an opportunity by implementing
attractive pricing. Another threat we can potentially face is our competitors rapidly expanding.
Because we are the only business who expanded rapidly early on, we are not able to expand in
the future. This can become a threat if our competitors decide to imitate our strategy because
they can potentially steal our customers. We plan to convert this threat into an opportunity by
focusing on our current customers and taking advantage of their diversity wants and needs.
Marketing Goals:
Financial Performance:
Due to Micron’s financial performance in the previous quarters, we have been able to
gain a substantial competitive lead. However, our goal for the next quarter is to continue to cut
costs and increase sales for all segments by implementing strategic pricing for all three products.
Marketing Performance:
Since our company has surpassed the average marketing performance within our industry
by more than 50 points, Micron is marketing leader within the industry. Our goal is to continue
to increase demand to sustain our industry lead by introducing another location for our products
to be sold within the next quarter.
Marketing Effectiveness:
Marketing effectiveness is an area that our company needs to improve to better
communicate our products and the compatibility they have with the needs of our target
consumers. Our goal is to implement marketing that clearly communicates our products and the
8
needs of our customers through effective media and ad placements to increase our effectiveness
score by 8-10 points in the next quarter.
Business Outcome:
Our overall goal for the company is to create and market a product that meets the needs
of all the consumers in which we target while creating value within our brand to further increase
return on revenues.
Marketing Objectives:
Financial Performance:
In quarter 5 and 6, Micron plans to introduce cost cuts by decreasing advertising
placement in the preexisting locations. By doing this, locations where the brand name and
products are known will not have wasted advertising and our new location can obtain more funds
for advertising. Also, without an introduction of a new product, we will cut the cost of starting a
new product item within our product line, which we have incurred cost for new product items in
the past four quarters. Strategically, we will reduce the price of “Sir II”, to become more
competitive against other products that our competitors have introduced in the market.
Marketing Performance:
Due to our past success with the introduction of new locations for stores, in quarter 5 we
plan to introduce a new location, Toronto, to our World Wide brand. Micron sees this as an
opportunity since Toronto is the final market that has yet to be penetrated by any competitors in
the industry. We have a substantial lead within the market and plan to further this lead by
expanding our brand name into this location before our competitors do.
Marketing Effectiveness:
Although we have the highest market share in all three target markets, our brand is not
rated exclusively number one in any of those markets. Our overall objective is to have our
products advertised correctly to communicate the needs of the target consumers. We will
implement this by improving our advertising for our products “Evolution” and “At Your
Service” by decreasing the information placed on the ad. By decrease clutter, we will be able to
reach more of our target audience.
Business Outcome:
With the adjustments of cost, locations and advertising messages, we at Micron see these
objectives as plausible and important to meet the overall goal of the company. The overall
9
objective of the company is to sustain our competitive lead and continue to produce products and
services that meet the needs of our consumers.
Marketing Strategies
Primary and Secondary Target Markets:
Our primary target has been the Traveler market, due to their flexible nature. Our
secondary targets were the Mercedes group and the Workhorse group. With changes to our
product in quarter 4, Micron has become the leading force in the industry in every segment. In
quarter 5 Micron seeks to reinforce their original target market and to expand into the untouched
branch of Toronto. We will rely on our competitive advantages of fast adaptability, costumer
oriented nature and our economies of scale.
Current Products

The Journey III – This our main product brand that we will continue to promote into
developing markets. In quarter 4 Journey III finally reached the level of “acceptance”
within our target audience of the Traveler. This is the most flexible item in our Product
line. This item features a slim design and is backed by local services.

Sir II – The second launched line item has had a positive effect on the Mercedes
audience. In quarter 4 Sir II has reached the level of “acceptable”. This computer
features scientific/engineering software to appeal to its high-end demographic.

Progress- Inspired by World Wide Tech’s “Quick Book” our Progress model computer
penetrated deep into the Workhorse segment. Currently this product is not at optimal
design position.
Complete Product Information Appendix {Table 4}
Changes to the Product
We cannot continue building new brands within our target segments due to the high risk
of cannibalization of sales. We will however, refine our products to remain competitive. We
realize competition will more than likely copy our current microprocessor computers in the next
two quarters. Micron’s main concern for quarter 5 and 6 will be the copycat effect stealing from
our market shares. Micron’s physical product changes will revolve around the newly released
Progress. Modifying the brand from Progress to Progress II. We expect to use our brand name
and brand equity to reinforce ourselves in the minds of our customers. We will continue to
10
expand our control with the Workhorse segment with the release of Progress II. We will also
modify The Journey III and Sir II. We hope to gain a 90 rating on our brand and we will push for
this outcome. We will continue to monitor our brands closely. If a brand falls too far behind in its
main category, we will either lower the price to retain some profitability or terminate the brand
completely. Worst case scenario planning, we will return to our main focus group with a new
model computer for the Travelers. We expect to maintain our advantage in product design and
eventually break ahead from the current tied leaders. In quarter 5 we will focus on obtaining a 90
rating on all our brands but our main focus will be the Travelers and the rising Workhorses. .
Changes to the Price
We anticipate that our competitors will lower their prices in order to gain more market
share. We have the industry’s average lowest prices and will continue to be at the head of the
pricing challenge. In order to stay competitive our main strategy for pricing will be a decrease in
price with our Sir II model and gain 100 percent acceptance in all audience markets.
Changes to Places
We discussed at length how to continue our strategy. We expect our competitors to
follow in our paths. We have the advantage of already being established in every available
country, but the threat of new entrants in these areas is very likely. In quarter 5, we will focus on
our new branch in Toronto since it has yet to be explored by any of our competition. This area is
also very high on the Workhorse desired locations. Toronto paired with our new Progress II, we
will gain a solid advantage in this new found area focusing on the Workhorse community. We
will keep a close eye to competitor activity and consumer fluctuations. Future closing of an
office has been discussed for quarter 6 if we can no longer gain advantage or the cost incurred
are too high. We expect to maintain our advantage in locations through the careful manipulation
of ad frequency and sales representatives.
Current Promotion
Micron has been following a solid pattern of increased sales personnel and ad frequency
to promote ourselves in new countries. With our focus remaining on Travelers, we have chosen
to keep a minimum of 2 service reps in each country. In quarter 4 we increased our sales
representatives and ad frequency in Tokyo. We modified all our brands and introduced the
“evolution” ad for our model Progress computer. We have yet to receive the status of “very
good” in any of our brands those showing a weakness in our copy.
11
Changes to Promotion
We realize that we are behind Smart Tech’s “Einstein” when it comes to Ad copy. In
order to make the most out of our Ad’s we must understand how Smart Tech has accomplished
this goal and act on it. We will have to redesign all of our ad copy to align with the needs of the
clients. We have always used the tactic of Mentioning Brand Name as our first priority. It seems
that leaving it last is more effective than first mentioning it. In quarter 5 all our ads (Your
Journey, At your Service and Evolution) will be modified to obtain the highest ad judgment
rating available. After discussing the pros and cons of promotion, we have come up with a
strategy to tackle our future competitors in our new location. We expect our competitors to enter
the area of Toronto eventually, so we will preemptively deploy a barrage of ads and sales
personal on this new territory. In quarter 5, we will closely follow our previous pattern of success
with 2 service representative in Toronto and 2 sales personal for the workhorse community.
Since Toronto is one of the least viewed areas, we hope to surpass the competition through
having a complete control of the area. We will lower our sales personal in other areas in order to
cut back on costs and maximize profits. For quarter 5 we expect to optimize all our brands to
level of 90’s. We will focus to push our Journey Ad to the maximum rating available.
Final Round up
In quarter 5 we will: (See Tables 5,6,7)

Adjust all our brands to meet the maximum available ratings. Specifically bring our
Journey III to the maximum height of interest in the Travelers section. All other
brands will also be updated.

Retain competitive price. Maneuver our Sir II price into being acceptable by all
segments.

Initiate operations in Toronto. The new office branch requires personal and service
reps

Alter our promotions. We will redesign all our brands to reach the maximum
available rating. Specifically we will modify our Your Journey ads to optimum level,
and our Evolution ad will follow Smart Tech’s Einstein ad.
12
Appendix
Table One:
Table Two:
Table 3:
13
Table 4:
Main Target
Secondary Target
Secondary Target
“The Journey” Series
“Sir” Series
“Progress” Series
“Your Journey” Ads
“At your Service” Ads
“Evolution” Ads
Traveler Segment
Mercedes Segment
Workhorse Segment
New York, Tokyo
New York, Tokyo
Paris, New York
Table 5:
Brand Judgment
Table 6:
Price Judgement
14
Table 7:
Ad Copy Judgment
15