A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of
a Master’s Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of
Business & Economics.
Marketing Plan for Comet Consular Services
Hans Joachim Trøbråten - #861
A project carried out on the Management course, under the supervision
of: Professor Jorge Velosa
07.01.2013
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 1
Index
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 2
Comet Consular Services is a private company which since 1985 has assisted
travelers with the obtaining of visas, and other consular services such as legalization
of documents or translations. Despite being the market leader in Scandinavia, our
sales and marketing efforts have always been targeted towards B2B, meaning the
B2C-market has remained mostly untapped. This has led to a situation where our
growth is stagnating. Considering the Norwegian visa market, which is the subject for
this study, our main competitor Visumservice has become the market leader.
To sustain our position as Scandinavian market leader, we will explore growth
opportunities in the Norwegian B2C-market. This 3-year marketing plan aims to make
an assessment of the potential need for assistance with visa handling in this market,
and how we should proceed in order to make such a venture successful. Secondary
market research showed that there is a substantial market potential currently uncovered
in B2C, and so primary research was conducted in order to learn more about
consumer preferences and decision behavior.
Our overall strategy to establish in B2C-market will follow market development.
Some key factors here include strengthening our brand awareness, developing channel
relationships, and altering our marketing mix in response to uncovered customer needs.
This includes modifying our service delivery, by introducing new services and applying
a value based price menu which offers our customers the chance to only pay for the
services they need.
Through making these changes and making a successful venture into the B2Cmarket, we aim to significantly increase our market share in the total Norwegian visa
market, and build a sustainable position of market leadership here as well.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 3
In this chapter I will assess the current situation in order to utilize current
strengths in targeting new segments. In short, our business entails assisting travelers
with obtaining visas for travel to visa countries. Instead of going through this intricate
process themselves, the traveler can pay us to take care of the process. We will provide
the applicant with all the info they need, and pick up their passport and application. The
rest of the process including delivery of passports to embassies and managing the
contact with them, checking visas for errors, and delivery back to applicant are key parts
of the service. Before reading further, please refer to Attachment 1 for a more detailed
explanation of our services, in order to fully understand the nature of this business.
Currently, B2B-customers account for more than 90% of our revenues.
Considering our goal to gain market leadership in the Norwegian market, diversifying
the revenue base is becoming a necessity. With this in consideration, the following
sections aim to take a detailed look at needs in the target market, followed by a
SWOT-analysis and an assessment of key success factors.
Based on qualitative research and previous experience, certain definable
segments within the B2C-market that are more likely to be interested in consular
services have been identified. Self-employed persons will be a key segment, though
leisure travelers from different demographical segments will be the largest group.
As a forecast of the potential market, travel data from Norway to the main visa
destinations has been gathered. The numbers are gathered from travel surveys done
in 2003 and in 2011. These numbers are used to make estimations of market shares,
and computing the Compound Average Growth Rate, which I have used as a
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 4
predictor for growth in key countries for the following 3 years. The increasing travel
patterns are apparent, and a positive indicator for the need in this market. Refer to
Attachment 2 for a figure showing the potential market forecast.
2.1.1 Market Demographics
We currently serve the Nordic region, including Norway, Sweden and
Denmark. The focus of this study is the Norwegian visa market, with a population of
5 million people. To get an idea of the dimension in the Norwegian market, there
were a total of approximately 300,000 people travelling to visa countries from
Norway in 2011. Considering that many travelers don’t need a visa for their travel or
have acquired multiple entry visas, we make an assumption that approximately 30% of
these travelers need a visa for their travel. This gives a
total market of
approximately 90,000 visas from Norway each year. To see this figure in perspective,
in 2012 we assisted about 4,700 travelers with handling their visas. This means we
currently have a market share of approximately 5%, which almost solely consists of
visas from B2B-customers, indicative that there still is a lot of potential to cover.
2.1.2 Market Needs
The main customer benefits we have focused on have been reducing time and
effort needed when applying for a visa, and these are perceived as what creates the need
for our service. People are to an increasing extent valuing their time, and queuing at
embassies and spending hours looking for the necessary information are tasks people
would rather not have to do. Our marketing research showed that a majority of our new
target market find the visa process as difficult, and that many would be interested in
paying someone to handle the process, if possible. From this we can conclude that this
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 5
is an area of buyer need and interest where there is a high probability that we can
profitably satisfy a need, and as such, a marketing opportunity has been identified. 1
2.1.3 Market Trends
In addition to the positive trends regarding internationalization and increased
travel, the most relevant trends in our case concern the usage of internet.
- Internet Penetration: Norway has the second largest internet penetration in the world,
with 97,2% of the population connected. 2
- Online ordering: 95% of Norwegian internet users actively use the internet for online
ordering of products and services. Adding that 64% use it for online booking of travels,
we can see indications that this channel will be important.3
2.1.4 Market Growth
Due to their high interest for the service combined with a high willingness to pay, we
have identified self-employed persons as a key segment in B2C. Looking at the growth in
this segment, the number of self-employed persons in Norway is approximately
280,000, and has been growing steadily. 4 Leisure travel will also be central, as it of
2009 accumulated to 65% of all international air travel from Norway, and is still
growing.5 Bearing in mind the previous assumption of 90,000 visas from Norway
each year, and making an arbitrary assumption that the 65% leisure travels are equally
distributed between visa and non-visa travels, we are looking at approximately 58,500
leisure travel visas per year.
The following outlines the most momentous strengths and weaknesses when
looking at the internal levels of Comet, as well as opportunities and threats in the
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 6
external environment.6 Considering strengths, our knowledge and experience put us in a
position where we are able to outweigh weaknesses such as low marketing expertise and
brand recognition. Main opportunities are expansion to B2C-market, as well as
international expansion, service development, and online marketing and sales. Threats
we need to be wary of are regulatory changes and price wars. For a graphical and briefly
summarized version of the SWOT-analysis, please refer to Attachment 3.
2.2.1 Strengths
- Experience: We have been working with visa issuance and other consular services for
more than 25 years. As a result we have amassed such a widespread experience that it
has become an inimitable strength which has no comparison among our competitors.
- Knowledge: The width and depth of the knowledge we have gathered since 1985 is
simply impossible for any individual to summon, and is not possible to gather elsewhere
in any simple fashion. Visiting 60 embassies in Scandinavia each day enables us to
always be up to speed on regulations, creating another inimitable strength.
- Solid economy: A levelheaded approach has enabled us to reach a “Triple Aaccreditation”, meaning we have reached the highest level of creditworthiness, without
taking on any major debt. This places us at a beneficial position considering possible
future downturns, as strong solidity can aid us in enduring harsher times.
2.2.2 Weaknesses
Low experience of serving B2C-market: Since we haven’t focused on the B2C-market
previously, we have been unable to accumulate the important knowledge of how to
approach and respond to this market.
Marketing expertise: The fact that we have never actively marketed our services
means that we will more or less have to start from scratch with trial and error here.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 7
Low brand awareness: As we have not served the B2C-market, it is natural that we
will start with low brand awareness. Additionally, our main competitor Visumservice
has gained significant media attention from their start-up, and focusing more on the
B2C-market, it is likely that they have amassed stronger brand awareness in this market.
2.2.3 Opportunities
- Expansion to B2C-market & international development: We have seen that our
concept is transferrable through our international expansion recent years. Expansion of
our service can be done with low costs, and our service is applicable to new markets.
- Service development: Through assisting companies with such intricate processes
as visa handling, we have acquired experience within areas that are closely related to
our core service, such as courier service and additional document handling.
- Online marketing and sales: Targeting the B2C-market brings new vast
opportunities of further exploiting the internet for online marketing and selling.
- New segments facilitating growth in existing markets: Venturing into new markets
can help us expand the existing business portfolio. Leisure travelers applying with our
assistance may bring their positive experiences back to their companies, causing a
positive spillover effect that effectively brings in new business customers.
2.2.4 Threats
- Regulation changes & visa waivers: Even though it might be a threat to the whole
industry, this is an even bigger threat to us as a company specialized on visas. Our core
service is built on the existence of these processes, and changes here may render our
role in the market as completely redundant.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 8
- Price wars with competitors: Visumservice is already established in the B2Cmarket, and they have applied penetration pricing below our rates. Getting a foothold in
this market without entering a price war will be important.
- Main competitor with first-mover advantage in Norwegian market: Our main
competitor has built their business through making full use of the online channel,
and have established quickly in the market due to this. Their head-start both in the
B2C-market and in the online channel is likely to prove a challenge.
This competitive analysis will briefly assess the nature of competition in our
market, with an assessment of specific competitors as well as the different types of
competitors.7 As mentioned, our best estimate for total market is based on travels to
visa countries from Norway, and due to this our market share estimations are unitbased. In a sense our biggest competitor is travelers choosing to lodge applications
themselves, which we estimate account for more than 80% of the total volume. A
weakness here is that accurate market data is not available, so market shares estimates
are based on information from embassies, accounting figures, and from what we can see
our competitors delivering at the embassies. Please refer to Attachment 4 for figures
with estimates of market share for the total Norwegian visa application market.
- Direct competitors: Considering the Norwegian market, we only have one direct
competitor. Visumservice has essentially copied our service down to detail, however,
Visumservice has to a larger extent served the B2C-market, with 25% of their
revenue accumulating from this segment.8 Although only an estimate, judging from
their accounting figures, their market share of the total visa market is
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 9
approximately 7%, and they are growing at about the same rate as us. For a brief
SWOT-analysis of Visumservice, please refer to Attachment 5.
- Courier companies: These companies only function as couriers, and are unable to
offer the same level of service delivery. Moreover, visas are only a small part of their
business, and we estimate their market share at around 1%.
- Major travel agencies: These agencies main advantage is that they can sell visa
handling as an add-on their travelers. Together with the unique distributional access
they get from incoming travel orders, they also benefit from strong brands. This had
made them a significant competitor, and their market share is likely to be around 3%.
- Niche travel agencies: These agencies who have specialized in travels to certain visa
countries also carry the same distributional advantage as the major travel agencies,
though their market share is estimated at a mere 1%.
Service strategy is often defined as what a business chooses not to do. Similarly,
service excellence can be defined as what a business chooses not to do well. This entails
delivering on service dimensions your customers value the most, and performing poorly
on dimensions they value the least. 9
Attachment 6 shows both the present situation of performance, and how it
should become in the future. This gives us an idea of where we should allocate our
efforts to create a “wedge” between us and Visumservice. With no differentiation
between us and our competitors, we give the power to the customer and build a market
where low customer loyalty and downward price pressure will dominate.10
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 10
Lastly, it is advantageous to focus on customer benefits rather than service
attributes to be successful in reaching your targets.11 Following is a brief overview of
the customer benefits our services transform into:
- What they save: Firstly, we aim to save our customers time and effort, and
through liberating our customer’s time and effort, we hope to enable them to save both
money and resources.
- What we reduce: Additionally, our goal is to reduce customer’s liability and
trouble with visa applications.
- To improve: As a result of the above, we hope to improve the perceived safety for
our customers who need a visa, and through this improve their peace of mind.
- Building brand awareness in the new segment. Brand awareness is correlated with
high quality, trust, reliability and a better quality to price ratio. Some of the marketing
advantages of a strong brand are greater loyalty, less vulnerability to competitive
marketing actions, and increased marketing communications effectiveness.12 It will
be decisive for us to gain these benefits to be competitive and reach our goals.
- Service delivery. One way of improving service is to meet customer’s needs more
effectively.13 In order to differentiate and give customers a reason to choose us over
other alternatives, it is critical that we outperform our competitors handling efficiency.
In addition to the alternative channel that is direct selling via our own home
page, online booking sites will become an important channel towards the B2C-market.
Companies such as Expedia and Hotels.com have flourished the recent years, and
have become important distribution channels for reaching B2C-customers.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 11
- Political factors: The main threats here are the aforementioned possible visa waiver
agreements, or other changes such as required personal delivery of applications.
- Economic trends: Recessions can often cause serious implications, and when forced
to cut costs, travel budgets are often the first to suffer.
Social, technological, legal and environmental factors are not likely to cause any
significant changes that are worth mentioning.
Our main objective is to sustain our position as Scandinavian market leader
through gaining market leadership in the Norwegian visa market within 3 years. The
overall marketing strategy to achieve this will be based on market development, as we
are launching an existing service to explore growth opportunities in domestic segments.14
Following is an overview of the different parts that help form our strategy, concluded
with a strategy summary.
Value-based marketing experts recommend that a mission statement should
include the company’s value proposition.15 Our current corporate mission is the
following: “Comet assists companies and individuals to travel to and engage in
business on the international market as easily and efficient as at home. We open the
world for you and your company.”16 By including the most important customer needs
uncovered and adding our market development towards the B2C-market, the marketing
mission statement will be as follows: “Comet will continue to offer companies and
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 12
individuals travelling to visa countries increased convenience, with the safest and
most efficient handling of visas available on the market.”
The following objectives are formulated in order to function as short-term
destinations along the way towards our main goal to become market leaders in the
Norwegian market. Goals are set in accordance to the overall strategy of market
development, and through application of the SMART-criteria of setting objectives.17
- Market share. Within three years after launch towards B2C-market, we should have
reached sales of minimum 4,500 visas per year from this segment, which would mean
that we have grown our market share in the total visa market to more than 10%.
- Channel relationships. Before launch towards new segment, we will have
established relationships with at least two online booking sites, becoming their
“trusted provider” for visa matters.
- Service development. In addition to offering online ordering and tracking of visas by
the time of launch, we will have developed a system to assist customers with
making guarantee letters and other documentation to accompany their applications.
- Order fulfillment. In order to facilitate and assure the safety in handling of
applications, we should within the first year after launch maintain the existing order
fulfillment rate of 99,6%.
In order to realize our marketing objectives, the following financial objectives
are formulated:
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 13
- Break-even. Taking into account the necessary sales and marketing efforts combined
with service development, the goal for reaching the break-even point for our new
segment is set at approximately 1 year after launch.
- Profitability. Maintain a gross profit margin of minimum 30% for three consecutive
years after launch.
- Sales revenue from new segments. Gain 1,000,000 NOK of sales revenue from new
segments the first year after launch, and achieve minimum 20% revenue growth from
these segments the following two years.
- Sales revenue of new services: Sell 50,000 NOK worth of our new developed
document assistance service three consecutive years after it is launched.
The first step conducted in achieving this is defining the target market
according to geographics, demographics, psychographics and behavior. 18
- Geographics: Our marketing research showed that there is no significant
difference between key variables such as attitude towards service, nor willingness to
pay within the different geographic areas. With this in mind, we will not do any
specific segmentation profiling based on geographical regions within Norway.
- Demographics: We have seen that self-employed persons will be a key segment. Key
demographics for this group are age mostly between 30 and 50 years, and combined
annual household income of 600,000 NOK or greater. Their highest level of
education is in most cases a bachelor or a master’s degree. There were no significant
differences based on gender in the survey.
- Psychographics & behaviors: Due to the high degree of interrelation between these
categories, they will be assessed together. Looking at the overall picture of the B2CWork Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 14
market, price, predictability of costs, safety and experience seem key decision factors.
Functions like online ordering and tracking are also important, and internet seems to
be the best channel to target marketing efforts. Considering usage classification
behavior, we are likely to encounter mostly new category users and other brand loyals.19
As for self-employed persons, more than 80% have previously applied for a
visa, and they find this process as moderately difficult. This segment also consider
price as important, though their willingness to pay is higher than average. This group is
also likely to be new category users, though since they have more experience with
applying, they can possibly be other-brand switchers or loyals.20
The final and essential part of target marketing is focusing on customer
benefits, and through keeping in mind both the tangible and intangible benefits
customers realize, we are more likely to get the most out of our marketing
efforts. 21 Summarized, our main target market within the B2C-segment will be
self-employed persons, although to reach critical mass we need to make sure we
have a broad enough appeal to gain interest with leisure travelers in general.
Positioning is a process where you for each target segment establish and
communicate the distinctive benefits of a company’s market offering.22 In our case we
will look at characteristics that are common for our potential B2C-market, and use this
to perform the subsequent positioning statement. Our approach will be competition
based, meaning we will inform consumers about our brand’s category membership
before stating the points of difference.23
The positioning statement consists of a brief description of the targeted
consumers, as well as a frame of reference, points of difference and the reason to
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 15
believe.24 Connecting and summarizing these elements with findings from our
marketing research, our positioning statement for the new target market is as follows:
“For the traveler who values his/her time and seeks added safety and convenience in
the handling of his/her visa, Comet Consular Services is the brand of visa handling
services which offers the most dependable and convenient visa handling process
available on the market, due to more than 25 years of experience and our state-of- theart online ordering and tracking systems.” For positioning maps, refer to attachment 7.
We have seen that there is a substantial market potential in the B2C-market, and
our objective entails utilizing this to gain market leadership in Norway. Our assessment
of the B2C-market with key segments has highlighted areas where we will need to focus.
We will develop new services to capture currently uncovered market needs, and
developing our direct sales channels to include online selling will be imperative. Brand
recall and online visibility will be paramount, as we shift our positioning from the
current B2B-focus to include the B2C-market and leisure travel to a larger extent. For an
overview that summarizes our objectives, goals strategy and measurement, please refer
to the OGSM-framework in Attachment 8.
The following will assess the different elements of our marketing mix, with our
overall strategy of market development towards the B2C-market in mind. As a roadmap
for our initiatives concerning the marketing mix, we will apply the OGSM-framework.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 16
3.7.1 Services
This will be assessed in light of Lovelock & Wirtz framework for developing
service products,25 where a service consists of a core product and supplementary
services. Our core product with benefits and problem-solving solutions delivered to
customers consists of a tangible possession processing of the visa, which is also
considered the nature of the process.26 Supplementary services are important tools to
differentiate the core service, and information and order-taking will be focus areas here.
Information is always the first thing our customers need, and it continues to be
important during the handling process. Order-taking is also important, and we see that
our target customers prefer to order online. With this in mind we will develop state-ofthe art systems for online booking and tracking of visas, which also provide all
necessary information. We will also develop a service that offers travelers assistance
with additional documentation needed for their applications, a supplementary service
we will become the sole provider of, which also contributes differentiating us.
For the enhancing supplementary services, consultation will be a key part of our
service, as we often will give advice to our customers. Safekeeping is also relevant, and
we will make sure that we remind our customers of the rigorously safe handling of their
visas. Lastly, we will focus on reducing exceptions that are costly and reduce efficiency,
by training and our customers to co-create with us and use our new online systems.
Summarized, our core service is the physical handling and checking of visa
applications.
Supplementary services
consist
of information processing and
consultation, safekeeping, additional documentation services, and online order-handling
and tracking functionality. Finally, in the next chapter I will also suggest a change in
our service delivery, offering different levels of service available at different prices.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 17
3.7.2 Price
The reasoning applied for our new pricing model is grounded in value-based
pricing. Pricing is what helps us create revenue, and is a crucial stage in ensuring
that our additional marketing efforts can be afforded.27 We need to make sure we set a
price were we can reach the equilibrium were our customers feel they are receiving
value for money, while we cover our costs at an acceptable profit margin. Our costs
are similar to those of our competitors, and as we want to leverage other elements of our
marketing mix, we will follow a neutral pricing strategy.
Our research showed that predictability of costs seems decisive to achieve
success in this market, a telling sign that our current pricing model with additional
costs which might incur, should be subject to change. This is why we will build a
value based pricing structure through the use of a price menu, with an objective of
maximizing long-term profitability. This price menu divides our service such that
customers can choose to do parts of the job themselves, and pay a lower price. First, we
will offer a service called “Visa Info”, where customers pay a small fee for access to our
online systems, to get all necessary information and application forms. The second level
is called “Visa Basic”, where customers get all the online functions, and we will take
care of the courier service to and from the embassy. This however excludes personal
follow-up, document checking and is limited to online customer service. Our full
service offer “Visa Complete”, will include all our services. This includes document
checking, customer service by phone, etc. Additionally, as we face different levels of
difficulty and costs at different embassies, we will differentiate pricing based on the
respective embassy. This will also help us make sure we have adequate margins for the
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 18
different embassies we handle. In terms of measurement, we will be keeping close track
of profit margins to ensure that we are reaching our goals in terms of profitability.
Our goal with this price menu is that it will clearly identify the value of various
offerings, thus enabling us to charge different prices based on what is ordered. This
allows for less comparison towards competitors who are implementing penetration
pricing, and allows us to tackle differences in willingness to pay in the market. For
further detail on both the new and the existing pricing model, see Attachment 9.
3.7.3 Promotion
Promotion is assessed according to Rossiter & Percy’s framework for
communication campaigns. Integrated marketing communications will be applied, and
the first stage here involves marketing objectives to which advertising must
contribute.28 Our main marketing objective concerns market share, as we aim to capture
4,500 unit sales from B2C, increasing our total market to above 10%.
Our next step is selecting a target audience for our campaign, which is chosen
based on the leverage of expected sales. Of buyer groups, new category users and other
brand loyals have high potential for our new services. Profiling our target audience on
demographics, they can be either male or female, 30 to 50 years of age, possibly selfemployed, with a total household income of more than 600,000 NOK, and seeking to
apply for a visa in the nearest future. Action objectives will be trial and repeat purchase.
Considering positioning, our customers primary motive is a negatively
originated process called problem avoidance, which we will position our brand towards,
using a central and product oriented approach. We will focus on benefits we know are
important to our target audience, and safety and convenience are important benefits we
believe we can deliver better than other brands, and we will use these to identify our
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 19
brand in communication. Our benefit claim will be emphasized by focusing on the
benefit, and use our unique attributes to support this benefit.
Moving to communication objectives, as many in our audience will be NCU’s,
we need to sell the category need. We also need to build brand awareness in terms of
recall, making the brand salient for potential consumers prior to purchase, by
associating the category need and our brand.29 Without an appropriate awareness
response, our campaign will not be effective, which is why we will set our immediate
brand recall goal at a minimum of 70% in our target audience within three years.30
Our next objective concerns brand attitude, and Rossiter & Percy defines this
universal objective as a buyer’s overall evaluation of a brand with respect to its
perceived ability to meet a currently relevant motivation.31 Given that most of our
targets will be unaware of our brand, our goal will be to create brand attitude. We will
set an attitude objective for the campaign at minimum 80% positive within 3 years.
Given this high-involvement category, attitude is not necessarily correlated with
purchase intention.32 Therefore we need to generate positive purchase intention. Our
goal for purchase intention is a minimum of 60% positive intention within a year.
Finally, given how unfamilar our brand is in the B2C-segment, we will assure potential
buyers by incorporating purchase facilitation content such as where and how to buy
from us in our communication.
Moving to creative strategy and execution, our mains tasks are to associate our
brand with the category in our audience’s mind, and persuade them that our brand is the
best alternative, through focusing on the benefit claim being made. Involvement is
relevant for brand attitude strategy, and our consumers will go through a rational high
involvement process, due to the risk and relatively high cost involved. Due to this we
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 20
will apply an informational approach, with a rational selling propotion. This entails
accounting for the target’s initial attitude, which is likely to be neutral. Our benefits will
claimed at an acceptable upper level, and we use a summary benefit claim with our
strongest benefits first, focusing on increased convenience and safety, and the
customization of our different service offerings to fit their needs. The target audience
needs to believe our key points, though they don’t necessarily have to like our ads.
Moving to media strategy and digital environment, we will work to ensure that
our target audience has enough opportunities to process our messages. We will run a
continuous campaign with promotional pamphlets at embassies where applicants queue
up, where the only cost is printing and developing pamphlets, since the embassies don’t
charge anything for this. This will aim to capture their motivation, and inform that there
is a way of avoiding going there. A QR-code will lead to a page where the customer
gets detailed info on how to apply via Comet. Getting across our message to a potential
customer who is experiencing the very reason why they should have used us in the
first place, should prove effective. We will also implement a standard with placing
QR-code leaflets inside passports we have handled, reminding the customer of the
intricate process their passport has been through. This is a mean to catalyze earned
media, in terms of positive word-of-mouth in order to help reaching our brand
awareness goals, as well as building customer loyalty.
Following on digital marketing in terms of owned media, we will use our own
website to market our new services. For paid media we will run a campaign with search
advertising with Google AdWords and Search Engine Optimization. We will also opt
for advertising through partnerships with online booking sites who handle travels to visa
countries. Additionally, we will have ads in other travel related sites. These will be
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 21
flighting advertisements from March to May, to capture both the important high season
for business travel, and in due time for summer.
As for campaign tracking, in order to measure the progress of our promotional
activities, we will execute customer tracking surveys to see whether we are reaching our
goals for communication effects and audience action. Aggregate tracking will be
applied to assess market share. We will use our handling system to look at conversion
rates from our QR-codes, in order to see the conversion rate and traffic they generate.
Finally, Google Analytics software will be used to see whether our initiatives with SEO
and Google AdWords are having the desired effects.
3.7.4 Place (Channels of distribution)
Channel strategy should be thoroughly based on understanding the targeted
segment, including how customers prefer to gain access to the service, and analyzing
how value is added at each connection in the chain.33 Our strategy here includes the
development of our new online order-taking system, which will be our main direct sales
channel. Additionally, we will introduce a new intermediary by selling through online
booking sites. Intermediaries participate in our value chain through adding value and
reducing costs.34 These intermediaries also contribute with reducing our end-user’s
search, as well as other service outputs, in accordance with Bucklin’s theory on channel
structure.35 We will aim to make our channel coordinated through encouraging vertical
integration and a strategic alliance based on mutual benefits of the cooperation.36 This
also gives us the opportunity of a potential synergy effect, as we promote the added
value of our services through these channels as well. It is important to align the
distribution with the other elements of the mix, to make sure we reach a balance
between costs and the level of service desired by potential customers. To measure our
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 22
progress within our new channels, we will utilize our new order-taking system to track
how customer got in contact with us.
3.7.5 Process
Service process design is the way in which a system operates, and in our case
this is possession processing with handling of people’s passports, though information
processing is also a vital part of our process.37 As such, our process consists of both
tangible and intangible actions. The degree to which our customers are physically
involved is very limited, as our only service encounters are in cases where documents
are delivered at our office or picked up by our own couriers. Contact is usually
maintained at arm’s length by e-mail, meaning our service is classified as low-contact.38
Our service operations system, the back-stage technical core of our process, is
created in the interaction with the embassy, and in the ongoing process we have of
gathering information. This is the main and most time-consuming part of our service,
and is invisible to the customer. The visible front-stage part of our service is usually
limited to e-mails and phone calls, but from now we will focus on training our
customers to use our new self-service tools such as online tracking of visas. This will
help reduce costs and streamline efficiencies, though it also means we will have even
less “moment of truth” touch points with our customers. In the next paragraph we will
discuss how these decisive touch points should be managed by our service personnel.
For an overview of our service blueprint, please refer to Attachment 10.
3.7.6 People
Our low contact service entails that even a single failure committed front
stage is more serious than in high-contact service. Since we have so few
opportunities to create a favorable impression, it is absolutely essential that we
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 23
manage to make a good first impression.39 This first impression will also affect
customer’s evaluations of the subsequent stages in the service delivery. During the
service encounters we have with our customers, we need to do whatever we can to
impress, even more so since customer perceptions of service experience have a
tendency to be accumulative.40 To manage this we will apply the Net Promoter Score.
This entails simply asking “How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or
a colleague?” With this method we will get higher and more predictable response rates,
and studies have showed that this simple figure has the highest correlation with growth
rates in companies, as well as being the best predictor for customer loyalty.41
Based on this, we will focus on developing an employment management system
where we aim to build service excellence, based on Frei & Morriss’ framework. Firstly,
it is important to realize that employees are not superheroes, and build a system that can
work even with average employees. This starts with selection and training, where we
need to focus on the traits we want our customers to meet, such as enthusiasm and
empathy. Job design is also part of the system, and here we will work towards building
a system that is so intuitive that our employees can focus on delivering service. Clear
responsibilities and a user-friendly handling system will help to reduce complexity,
which is the antithesis of a good system. Performance management is the final part, and
this is about creating incentives for doing a job well, and disincentives for doing it
badly. Our goal here is to build a system that is internally consistent, and recognizes
employees who provide service excellence. Recognition and status is often shown to be
as important as monetary incentives, which is why we will also motivate our employees
through recognition, and to be enthusiastic about the inherent positive difference we
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 24
make through our service.42 To measure our progress here, we will initiate employee
satisfaction surveys.
Furthermore, service excellence is achieved by combining great organizational
design with a culture of service excellence.43 Looking at culture, our focus will be to
build clarity about the organizational culture that must be cultivated in order to win in
this new market. The values that embody this culture will be continuously signaled and
communicated, as we work to sustain cultural consistency.44 Please refer to Attachment
11 for an overview of our organizational culture framework.
3.7.7 Physical Evidence
To reduce uncertainty, buyers will look for evidence of quality, and as a service
provider our task is to manage the physical evidence and presentation of our services.
Customers draw inferences on quality from place, people, equipment, communication
material, symbols and price, and these are our tools to demonstrate our superior service
quality.45 We will make sure our physical evidence is state-of-the art, and communicates
customer benefits in a way that correctly portrays our superior service quality.
- Place: Visiting our offices should be a pleasant experience. The offices will be clean
and tidy with pleasant lighting. The use of colors will be aligned with our profile, and
we will have imagery at our offices communicating our culture of excellence.
Customers will be offered a coffee, and we will make sure we have comfortable seating
and a relaxing environment for customers filling out applications at our offices.
- People: We will have sufficient employees to handle incoming customers without
causing any queues, and our employees will be welcoming and helpful, yet efficient.
- Equipment: Computers at our offices should be “state-of-the-art”, and our courier cars
will always be clean and in good shape.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 25
- Communication material: All material both online and physical will be consistent,
focusing on the unique customer benefits we deliver.
- Symbols: Our name and logo are explanatory of the nature of our service, as the
efficiency and speed of our handling process is communicated.
- Price: Our value based pricing menu allows for predictability and understanding of
costs, and allows for customization as customers only pay for what they need.46
The marketing research was conducted by the framework on the marketing research
process by Malhotra and Birks.47 The research design applied was a combination of
exploratory and descriptive research, with a cross-sectional design. The overall structure
followed problem-solving research, more specifically segmentation research.
In order to make an assessment of the total potential market for visa
applications, total flight data showing the number of people flying to different visa
countries was gathered. Primary research was inititated with a series of 18 in-depth
qualitative interviews, which helped form the basis for the quantitative survey. The
survey was executed with a 5-point Likert-scale where respondents answered to what
extent they agreed on certain statements. With a total of 239 respondents, 196 were
qualified as valid questionnaires after checking data for inconsistency and illogic
answers. Analysis of quantitative data was done using the analytical tool SPSS. For
detailed info on marketing research, including limitations to research and relevant
findings, please refer to Attachment 12.
Please refer to Attachment 13 for financial analysis.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 26
The final element of this plan is implementation and control, which is a crucial step in
monitoring ongoing performance, and if necessary, knowing what corrective measures
that may be needed to reach the preliminary milestones.
Implementation starts in January with service training of employees, and
keyword research ahead of our online campaign. By February we will have initiated
partnerships with the online booking sites, and during February a full SEO of our
home page will be executed, for everything to be in place for launch in March.
According to aforementioned objectives, after the launch we will measure sales and
margins to ensure that markets are being served profitably. We will measure sales of our
new services, and track whether we are reaching our market share targets.
Advertisement performance will also be assessed, to control if our advertising is having
the desired effects, in terms of strengthening brand recall and brand attitude. The
mentioned customer surveys through use of the Net Promoter Score will become a
standard continuous procedure from March and onwards. Regular surveys towards
existing B2B-customers will also be implemented, to assure that the new efforts aren’t
coming at the expense of the attention and service given to existing customers.
A full review with contingency plans will be done in December to see how our
markets are responding to changes to our service delivery and the new price menu.
Should this review show unfavorable results, we will perform a thorough revision to
see where in the process we may have taken a wrong turn. If things are moving as
planned, the timelines for the next couple of years will be similar, and we will
continue the efforts we have initiated to reach our new target market. See attachment
14 for a full overview of milestones for implementation.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 27
1
Source: Kotler, Philip & Kevin Keller, 2006. Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Pearson Prentice Hall
2
Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/top25.html
3
Source: http://reise.adressa.no/reise/Nordmenn-er-sinker-pa-nettet-35928.html#.UMI7xoM6v65
4
Source: http://www.ssb.no/emner/08/05/10/oa/200802/stamboel2.pdf
5
Source: Reisevaneundersøkelsen 2009, TØI. (Norwegian Travel Habit Survey 2009)
6
Source: Kotler, Philip & Kevin Keller, 2006. Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Pearson Prentice Hall
7
Source: Reisevaneundersøkelsen 2009, TØI. (Norwegian Travel Habit Survey 2009)
8
Source: http://www.dn.no/talent/article2457072.ece
9
Source: Frei, Francis & Anne Morris. 2012. Uncommon Service. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard
Business Review Press
10
Source: Frei, Francis & Anne Morris. 2012. Uncommon Service. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard
Business Review Press
11
Source: Kotler, Philip & Kevin Keller, 2006. Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall
12
Source: Kapferer, Jean-Noël. 2008. The new strategic brand management. London, United Kingdom:
Kogan Page.
13
Source: Frei, Francis & Anne Morris. 2012. Uncommon Service. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard
Business Review Press
14
Source: Ansoff, Ivan. 1957. “Strategies for Diversification” Harvard Business Review, Vol. 35 Issue
5,Sep-Oct: pp 113-124.
15
Source: Kotler, Philip & Kevin Keller, 2006. Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall
16
Source: https://cometconsular.com/why-comet/corporate-values/
17
Source: Hersey, Paul, Kenneth H. Blanchard & Dewey E. Johnson. Management of organizational
behavior. Pearson Prentice Hall.
18
Source: Berry, Tim & Doug Wilson. 2004. On target: The book on marketing plans. Palo Alto
Software, Inc
19
Source: Rossiter, John R. & Steven Bellman. 2005. Marketing communications: Theory and
application. Australia, Pearson Prentice Hall.
20
Source: Rossiter, John R. & Steven Bellman. 2005. Marketing communications: Theory and
application. Australia, Pearson Prentice Hall.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 28
21
Source: Berry, Tim & Doug Wilson. 2004. On target: The book on marketing plans. Palo Alto
Software, Inc
22
st
Source: Ries, Al & Jack Trout. 2000. Positioning: The battle for your mind, McGraw-Hill, 1 edition.
23
Source: Tybout, Alice & Brian Sternthal. 2010. Developing a compelling Brand Positioning.” In
Kellogg on Marketing 2nd ed. John Wiley and sons.
24
Source: Tybout, Alice & Brian Sternthal. 2010. Developing a compelling Brand Positioning.” In
Kellogg on Marketing 2nd ed. John Wiley and sons.
25
Source: Lovelock, Christopher H. & Jochen Wirtz. Services Marketing. Prentice Hall.
26
Source: Lovelock, Christopher H. & Jochen Wirtz. Services Marketing. Prentice Hall.
27
Source: Kotler, Philip & Kevin Keller, 2006. Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall
28
Source: Rossiter, John R. and Larry Percy, 1997. Advertising Communications and Promotion Strategy,
New York, McGraw Hill.
29
Source: Rossiter, John R. and Larry Percy, 1997. Advertising Communications and Promotion Strategy,
New York, McGraw Hill.
30
Source: Rossiter, John R. and Larry Percy, 1997. Advertising Communications and Promotion Strategy,
New York, McGraw Hill
31
Source: Rossiter, John R. and Larry Percy, 1997. Advertising Communications and Promotion Strategy,
New York, McGraw Hill
32
Source: Rossiter, John R. and Larry Percy, 1997. Advertising Communications and Promotion Strategy,
New York, McGraw Hill
33
Source: Wood, Marian Burk. 2008. The Marketing Plan Handbook, 3
rd
ed, Pearson Prentice Hall,
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
34
Source: Kotler, Philip & Kevin Keller, 2006. Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall
35
Source: Bucklin, Louis P. 1966. A theory of distribution channel structure. University of California,
Institute of Business and Economic Research.
36
Source: Rangan, Kasturi and Marie Bell. 2006. “Transforming your go-to-market strategy , the three
disciplines of channel management.” Harvard
Business School Press, Boston Massachusetts.
37
Source: Lovelock, Christopher H. & Jochen Wirtz, 2010. Services Marketing, 7th ed, Prentice Hall.
38
Source: Lovelock, Christopher H. & Jochen Wirtz, 2010. Services Marketing, 7th ed, Prentice Hall.
39
Source: Lovelock, Christopher H. & Jochen Wirtz, 2010. Services Marketing, 7th ed, Prentice Hall.
40
Source: Lovelock, Christopher H. & Jochen Wirtz, 2010. Services Marketing, 7th ed, Prentice Hall.
41
Source: Reichheld, Frederick F. 2003. “The one number you need to grow.” Harvard Business Review¸
December 2003, 47-54.
42
Source: Frei, Francis & Anne Morris. 2012. Uncommon Service. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard
Business Review Press
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 29
43
Source: Frei, Francis & Anne Morris. 2012. Uncommon Service. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard
Business Review Press
44
Source: Frei, Francis & Anne Morris. 2012. Uncommon Service. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard
Business Review Press
45
Source: Kotler, Philip & Kevin Keller, 2006. Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall
Our services are based on assisting companies and individuals with consular services,
which means serving as an intermediary between the applying party and the embassy in
the handling of a visa application. A visa is a document needed for entry to certain
countries, such as China, India and Russia, and in many cases, this has to be applied for
in advance. In some cases, applicants apply for a single trip, though so called multiple
entry visas where the visa owner can travel an unlimited number of times within the
visa time frame, are also common. Additionally, not all travelers need to apply for a
visa. This may depend on their nationality, which might be affected by a visa waiver
agreement. Furthermore, visas are in many cases obtainable on arrival, in which case
there will be no application process where we might get involved.
Instead of handling the process on their own, applicants can hire our services for
assistance with getting the necessary info beforehand, filling out applications, and
bringing documents to the embassy and back to the applicant. We will also handle the
visa fee at the embassy, and place this cost together with the total billing for the job.
Basically, the applicant only needs to sign the application, and hand over the rest of the
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 30
work to us. Considering the Norwegian embassies, they are all located in the Osloregion. The services we offer are the following:
Visa handling: This is our core business, and the main area of interest for this thesis.
Handling of visas includes picking up documents at the applicant’s desired location, or
in some cases receiving the documents by mail or courier, checking the documents for
errors to avoid the embassy denying them upon delivery, delivery and pick-up at
embassy, and delivery back to customer. In addition to this, we do all the
correspondence between embassy and applicant during the process, as well as making
sure the applying party is fully informed about the process both before, during and after
applying.
Translations: Certain documents need to be translated when applying for a visa, for
instance the Angolan embassy requires a criminal record transcript translated to
Portuguese to issue a visa. We serve as an intermediary between the translator and the
applicant, and this service is mainly sold as an add-on for the two services mentioned
above.
Informational services: In order to facilitate the above processes, we provide travelers
with all the necessary needed information, application forms, and assistance with
supplementary documentation. We also have an online information platform called
“Premium Pac”, which is currently only available for business customers. This
platform contains all the information, templates and forms needed for visas to different
countries.
Additional services: One of the recommendations made in the plan is for us to start
assisting our customers with additional documents. These are documents embassies
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 31
require as attachments to applications, such as guarantee letters explaining who the
applicant works for, the nature of their travel, etc. Different countries have different
demands on the content of these, and getting these documents right is one of the biggest
challenges our customers face today.
Explanation of different service levels suggested in Marketing Plan:
Visa Info: Applicants get access to our online systems with application forms and
information, though they have to deliver applications on their own. With this our
customers can be certain that they get accurate info, so they won’t have to go several
times to the embassy with trial and error.
Visa Basic: Applicants get full access to our online systems with application forms,
information and online booking & tracking functions. Additionally, we will bring their
applications to the embassy, and back to the applicant. With the tracking function,
applicants are at all times able to check where their visa is in the process, and they will
be notified at certain touch points in the process. Visa Basic is limited to online
customer service, and customers are responsible for making sure applications are
correct.
Visa Complete: Applicants get full access to online systems and full scale service also
including customer service by phone. The other major difference from Visa Basic is that
they will get our assistance with checking and filling of applications, and we will be
responsible for making sure that the applications are correct.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 32
Potential
Customers
Russia
CAGR
2003
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
9,19 %
57 206
115 594
126 218
137 819
150 486
164 317
China
13,92 %
29 267
82 999
94 550
107 708
122 697
139 772
Brazil
10,94 %
28 408
65 196
72 330
80 245
89 025
98 767
India
16,43 %
17 787
60 065
69 934
81 424
94 802
110 378
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 33













Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 34
Current Service Performance:
Future service performance:
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 35
Positioning map – Target market & width of service delivery
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 36
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 37
Current Price Model: (Simplified to only include visa services)
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 38
New suggested price menu
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 39
Our mission: Comet assists companies and individuals to travel to and engage in
business on the international market as easily and efficiently as at home. We open the
world for you and your company.
Our vision: Comet shall, as a leading service partner in the Nordic countries for
consular information, document and visa handling, contribute to making business
easier and more successful in a more open world.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 40
Quality policy
Our quality policy states the underlying principles that govern how we act and the
attitude we have towards our operation to ensure that the service we provide our
customers shall be perceived as the best on the market.
 Our most important measure of quality is our customers’ satisfaction in regard
to our service.
 We establish clear performance goals and standards, and regularly measure our
results. The right quality level is achieved when we attain the stated goals.
 We prioritize preventive measures and strive to make error-free efforts in all
areas. We set performance standards and communicate these regularly
throughout our organization to ascertain that work is carried out accordingly.
 We know that quality is a personal responsibility and the task of every
individual. Continuous improvement is a natural way of working within Comet
Consular Services.
 We aim to build a company that is regarded by its employees as one they are
proud to work for, that communicates with them, listens and responds
appropriately, values them and invests in them.
Environmental policy
We shall at all times, and based on our customers’ demands and Comet’s own
resources and conditions, work to:
 Reduce the environmental impact caused by our vehicles.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 41
 Constantly improve operations from an environmental perspective.
 Adhere to current environmental legislation, other societal demands and the
demands of our customers.
 Achieve Comet Consular Services’ environmental goals.
 Ensure that our efforts shall be governed by a combination of what is financially
reasonable and technologically and ecologically motivated.
The quality of a research project is often measured based on validity and
reliability. Validity is the extent to which measurement represents characteristics that
exist in the phenomenon under investigation. Survey responses where checked for
validity by checking and excluding responses where the respondent had shown they
didn’t understand the subject. Validity tests were also run in SPSS. Reliability is the
extent to which a measurement reproduces consistent results if the process of
measurement were to be repeated.
Considering limitations to this research with regard to the above, it needs to be
mentioned that I am not a professional researcher. The sample does not have entirely the
same characteristics as the population, as the mean age is much lower. Furthermore, the
survey was conducted in English, in order for the survey and its findings to be
understood by non-Norwegian readers.
Another limitation concerns our market data. As we are unable to gather actual
market data to calculate market shares, a unit based calculation was executed based on
the total amount of people travelling to Norway from visa countries, and our estimations
of competitor unit sales and growth.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 42
The initial part of the primary research was qualitative interviews, where I
wanted to get opinions from different segments. 18 interviews were conducted, with six
interview objects from each segment. To get opinions from different segments, the
groups interviewed were students, self-employed persons and employed persons
working 40 hours or more per week. These interviews were conducted in Norwegian, to
avoid the potential confusion if interviewees had to be interviewed in a language
different from their own. Findings from these interviews are translated to English for
the purpose of the thesis, and can be found in Attachment 15.
The marketing decision problem for the research was the following:
How should Comet proceed in order to exploit the market opportunities in the B2Cmarket?
The marketing research problem formulated in order to determine the
information needed and how to obtain it was as follows:
Determine consumer needs and preferences within the B2C-market, uncovering factors
that influence consumers, how consumers can be reached, as well as their buying
behavior and willingness to pay.
Considering research design, both exploratory and descriptive research was
applied. Specific for the descriptive research was cross-sectional design. After the
gathering of secondary data, a series of qualitative interviews were executed to gather a
broad understanding of the subject. The findings here helped form research questions
and hypothesis for the quantitative survey.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 43
First off, we wanted to do a measure on the perceived difficulty of obtaining a
visa, and the two following research questions were formulated:
What is the general perceived difficulty of applying for a visa?
Which factors of the visa obtainment process are perceived as the most difficult?
Conclusions: The general perceived difficulty of applying for a visa is relatively high,
with 53,8% of respondents agreeing that the process is difficult. Furthermore, the two
parts of the visa process perceived as the most difficult, are knowing that the visa is
correct, and filling out the application.
Next we wanted to check whether the probability of applying for a visa changed
based on perceived difficulty. Based on this the following hypothesis was formulated:
Is there any relationship between the perceived difficulty of obtaining a visa, and the
likelihood of ordering consular services?
H0: There is no relationship between perceived difficulty of obtaining a visa, and the
likelihood of ordering consular services.
H1: There is a positive relationship between perceived difficulty of obtaining a visa,
and the likelihood of ordering consular services.
Conclusion: The bivariate correlation analysis showed a positive medium relationship
between the two variables. This confirms that a higher perceived difficulty of applying
for a visa does in fact increase the likelihood of ordering consular services. Thus, H0 is
rejected, and H1 is accepted.
Our next research question aimed to see whether the country applied for would
change the applicant’s perceived difficulty of applying for a visa.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 44
How does the perceived difficulty of applying for a visa change based on which country
the applicant previously applied for?
Conclusion: The ANOVA-test showed that perceived difficulty of applying for a visa
only changes slightly based on which country previously applied for, though not
sufficient enough for there to be any statistically significant difference.
The next research questions aims to assess the differences in likelihood of
ordering and willingness to pay, based on segment:
How does the perceived likelihood of ordering a consular service change across
different segments?
How does the willingness to pay change across different segments?
Conclusion: There is no statistically significant difference between the segments on any
of the two variables at hand. However, the self-employed segment had a higher score
both on likelihood of ordering and willingness to pay.
The next research questions and hypotheses aims to uncover whether the
distance to Oslo where the embassies are located has significant effects.
How does being situated more than 100 kilometers from Oslo affect a person’s
perceived likelihood of ordering a consular service?
H0: There is no relationship between being situated more than 100 kilometers from
Oslo and the likelihood of ordering a consular service.
H1: There is a negative relationship between being situated more than 100 kilometers
from Oslo and a person’s perceived likelihood of ordering a consular service.
How does being situated more than 100 kilometers from Oslo affect a person’s
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 45
willingness to pay for a consular service?
Conclusions: The ANOVA-test showed that being situated more than 100 kilometers
from Oslo does not have any significant effect either on likelihood of ordering, nor
willingness to pay for a consular service. H0 is accepted.
In order to see which parts of our service delivery we should leverage in
communication, the following research question was formulated.
Which areas of the consular service are perceived as most important?
Conclusion: Being assured of safety in the handling process is perceived as the most
important part of the consular service, while receiving all needed information before
applying is the second most important.
The next research question aims to see what we should focus on in order to
differentiate us from our competitors:
Which company and service delivery attributes are considered the most important?
Conclusion: Predictability of costs and total price were considered the two most
important parts of the service offering. Regarding online attributes, home page quality
and possibility of ordering online were the most important areas.
To learn more about which methods of order we should focus on developing and
improving, the following research question was developed:
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 46
Which methods of order are considered most likely to be used when ordering a consular
service?
Conclusions: Online ordering is considered the most likely method of ordering a
consular service. E-mail is considered the second most likely.
In order to see to what extent we would possibly have to change our service
delivery, the following research question was formulated:
What sort of expectations do potential customers have concerning this service?
Conclusion: From the statements tested in the survey, the only one where the
respondents had noteworthy expectations was regarding online tracking of visas.
It seems evident that this needs to be a part of the service offered to these segments.
Finally, a vital question we wanted to learn more about was how we should
proceed with marketing of our service, and what we should focus on in our marketing.
Which marketing channels are most likely to reach the new target segments?
What should be the main focus of the advertising in order for it to gain attention?
Conclusions: Internet is the marketing channel most likely to reach the new target
segments. The survey also indicates that increased convenience and safety in handling
should be the main focus in advertisements in order for it to gain target segment’s
attention.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 47
Assumptions:
1. Only sales of services discussed in this marketing plan is included. Sales of
existing services to current segment are excluded from the financial sales
forecast.
2. Following the point above, only incremental costs of introducing the new service
such as increased personnel costs are included. Incremental fixed costs are
estimated to approximately 40,000 thousand NOK per month.
3. Sales of units are estimated based on historic growth rates, and sales of existing
services. There are no market data available for the new services, so these are
pure estimations based on growth rates for similar services and the anticipated
need for these services in the market.
4. For growth rates in sales forecasting I have used historic growth rates, though I
have factored in that these services are in the beginning of their life cycle, and
that previous growth rates have been achieved with no marketing. With this in
account, I have predicted 25% growth in the second year, and 20% in the third
year.
5. Unit costs are based on precise calculations from a cost study executed by our
financial department.
6. Costs for printed ad-materials are based on actual cost/price levels. I have
anticipated that these costs will grow at the same rate as sales.
7. Google AdWords costs are estimated on numbers provided by Google.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 48
8. Online advertising and website expenses are based on a price estimation given
by an online advertising agency.
9. Direct unit costs are assumed to stay at approximately the same level for the
three years accounted for in the plan.
10. Development costs for new systems are accounted for in fixed costs, even
though not explicitly mentioned.
11. For the NPV-calculation, a discount rate of 10% is assumed.
12. For market share, the total market including B2B and B2C is included. Total
category growth for the complete visa market is estimated at 10%. With our
recent stagnation in B2B-growth, we assume a growth equal to the category
growth at 10%.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 49
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 50
NPV= 343,000 NOK / (1+0,1) + 438,563 NOK / (1+0,1) 2 + 528,675 NOK / (1+0,1) 3
=1,178,615 NOK
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 51
Market Share
Estimation
2012
2013
2014
2015
Unit Sales B2B B2B
B2C
Total Category
Market
& B2C
Growth Growth Unit Sales
Growth Share
4700
90000
10 %
5%
7810
10 % 100,0 %
99000
10 %
8%
9137
10 %
25,0 %
108900
10 %
8%
14311
10 %
20,0 %
119790
10 %
12 %
Total unit sales for B2B and B2C are calculated with adding 10% growth each
year to our current unit sales in B2B, and adding our yearly sales forecasted from B2C
in the marketing plan. Additional document assistance is excluded from this equation,
as it is only an add-on to the unit sales that count towards the market share.
Summarizing this financial analysis, the viability of this marketing plan is
positive. We can see that this project has a positive NPV of 1,178,615 NOK, assuming a
10% discount rate. Considering our goal for the break-even point, this is achieved at
263 monthly unit sales, which we are scheduled to reach in less than a year. For the
profitability goals we had set for minimum 30% profitability, we are at a gross margin
of more than 38% for three consecutive years. This means that even if costs go higher
than expected, we will still remain ahead of our goal, and our targets for revenue and
growth are also accomplished in this financial forecast. From the market share
estimations, we can see that our efforts towards B2C help us reach our total market
share goals, even with the very moderate growth rates we have applied for B2B here.
Achieving this growth over the three following years, we are likely to have
outcompeted our competitors to become Norwegian market leaders, and sustaining our
position as Scandinavian market leader.
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 52
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 53
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 54
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 55
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 56
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 57
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 58
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 59
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 60
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 61
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 62
Work Project – Nova School of Business & Economics
Page 63