Marketing Plan for PM Clean Air Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (PMCASPL)

Assignment Taken

Marketing Department: To propose a marketing plan/strategy for PM Clean Air Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (PMCASPL)

Case Understanding

PM Clean Air Solutions Private Limited (PMCASPL), has been formed by Mohit Singh and Parth Mittal who have been friends since their B.Tech days in Bengaluru. Manoj started his career as an Air Quality Analyst, with an MNC in Gurgaon and Parth joined Patliputra Port Trust, a shipping company in Kolkata. While working for the Air Quality company, Manoj developed a concept to build a hybrid product, a combination of natural plants and machines, to improve the air quality. Manoj and Parth then decided to resign from their respective jobs and start their own company PMCASPL in Bengaluru to work further on this concept. They both invested in the company as directors with 50% equity stake each. Both the directors spent 9 months in the research and development of the product. The final product developed, consisted of 3 separate units of which two are physical units and one software, all synced as one single device. The units are- 1. Air Sense- Type: Physical Unit Function: To sense the air quality of approximately 1900 sq. ft. area and pass the data to AQMS. Size: 5 in * 5 in 2. Air Quality management System (AQMS)- Type: Software Unit Function: Analyse data received from Air Sense and send suggestions to users on how to effectively use Air Loop. Size: Centralised server 3. Air Loop- Type: Physical Unit Function: To purify air up to 1500 sq. ft. closed wall area. Size: 48 in * 24 in PMCASPL further hired software developers, web designer, mobile app developer, field executives and rented a place for office. PMCASPL approached angel investors and got SAIF capital to invest INR 10 Cr in the company for 5% equity stake. They also visited television programme for investment and got the judges to invest INR 10 Cr. INR 5 Cr for 5% equity and INR 5 Cr as term loan for 3 years carrying ROI @12% p.a. PMCASPL has tasked our consultancy firm to advise marketing plans, pricing strategy, IT development and business analysis, HR management along with new production site set up and its operations. We have given a limited budget of INR 10 Crore for FY 2022-23 to work with, so we would be going ahead with the following suggestions.

BCS Solution Summary

PM Clean Air Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is a new company manufacturing air purifier. The proposed solution from marketing department entails a strategic planning of promotion of the air purifiers which would help the company earn the trust and confidence of consumers and become one of the leading manufacturing and marketing companies to help sustain business development. Branding the company with a tagline will help in developing the brand value image. Since a field-tested strategy permits marketers to recognise expected business and creation issues, we conducted a random sampling method of market survey to analyze the current market opportunities, customer awareness and the consumers’ benefits as well as about their increasing concern about the effect of pollution, mold and dust miles on their health. 1. Market Positioning Strategy- Our solution proposes a market positioning strategy that will focus on adding value to the lives of the customers and differentiate our air purifier from the competitive offerings in the existing market. With the existing business challenges, we will plan to approach our potential customers with the “more for more” tactic. The customer will end up getting more than what they have paid for the air purifier. We will be positioning our air purifier as a current necessity in the lives of our potential customers that they will be compelled to rethink on their buying decisions. The approach at the initial stage will be more experimental, which will help us identify the more precise approach needed for building the image of our brand in the coming times. 2. Brand Positioning Strategy- The brand positioning strategy will be in line with the market position strategy as the company will be in the early stage of business expansion. 3. Promotional Strategy- We have to position our company as a trustworthy, high-quality, impactful brand and thus our promotional activities must guide the customers to move from one phase to the next to ultimately purchase stage. This will not only help make sales but develop repeat customers too. We will reach out to our potential customers to favourably influence their perceptions that air purifiers are a necessity of today and should be a part of their homes and offices. Our marketing channels will include mass advertising campaigns, personal selling, direct marketing, collaborations with influencers and cross partnerships, sales promotion and campaigning through electronic media. 4. Acquiring New Target- The target areas of the launch and subsequent expansion of our business are urban and semi-urban areas where population density is more and pollution levels are very high. To encourage quick scaling of customer base, we will do collaborations with influencers, celebrities, schools, colleges, and corporates.

Solution

As a part of the strategic planning process, PM Clean Air Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has to establish companywide objectives, mission/vision, goals and marketing strategy which will give them the strength and show the right path to go ahead.

Marketing Objectives

• Increase sales by 10-12% by September 2023.
• Increase social media engagement by 50% by September 2023.
• Increase website and App traffic by 30%.
• Increase customer engagement by 25%.

 

Buyer Personas

Demographics

Age: 20-55 years

Income: 6 lacs per annum or above

Location: Urban and semi-urban cities

Customer segment: Households, Individuals, Offices, Hospitals

Buyer Profile: Young, Health-conscious people, asthmatic people and people allergetic to dust.

 

Market Strategy

Our Team will consist of 1 Marketing personnel, 4 sales executives, 1 Web designer and 1 Application developer. We have devised a marketing action plan based on the 7 Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Packaging, Positioning and People.

 

• Product

An air purifier is a device which aims to free air from contaminants. The popularity of air purifiers spur from the results from environment researches which claim that the air inside homes are dirtier than the air outside of homes. We have to effectively communicate the value of our product as to the customers an air purifier is a comparatively new product. We will highlight the efficiently compact and sleek design of our air purifier, which makes it more convenient to use as a personal device too apart from using it at homes and offices.

Purifying techniques: Various techniques are used in air purifiers in the current market to accomplish indoor air purification. But our product is a very unique, innovative and hybrid concept which uses a combination of Natural Plants and Machines with greater scope of purification. Our air purifier gives a lot better advantage in terms of air purification as it can purify a closed wall area of 1500 sq.ft. Having proved the worth of the product at offices, homes and hospitals, we will use the product as an example to showcase the quality.

Based on continuous feedback from the customers, we will keep improving the product quality to ensure maximum efficiency.

 

• Price

The customers perception of a product plays a vital role in determining the price ceiling. If they are able to view our product as a necessity product, then they will be willing to pay the premium price that is common for a product like air purifiers. Along with the uniqueness of our air purifier, it is important to educate the customers about the way it is manufactured and the production costs.

We have to determine the actual cost of production of the air purifier. This will include production, processing, labor, transportation, storage and distribution costs along with management and marketing. We have to consider the several external factors too which will affect our final price. Once we have calculated the total production cost, we can try different margins or markup to come up with a price. Time to time, we will have to test offers and review our pricing strategies.

A product is only worth what a customer is willing to pay for it. We have to understand what are the potential customers willing to pay and what is the regular retail price.  

Break Even Point= Fixed Cost/(Selling Price- Variable Cost)

= 2,11,10,000/(17878)

=1,180 units.

The break-even point can be achieved as SOM is higher.

 

• Place

We will target urban and semi-urban locations, i.e. places with higher population density, high pollution levels and having industrial areas nearby in an urban city like Delhi will be the initial focus of all marketing campaigns. We will increase the intensity of our marketing and promotional activities in this pre-diwali season to ensure better reach and consumer engagement.

• Promotion

The objective of the promotional strategy of our air purifier moves through the following phases: Unawareness about the product--> Building Awareness--> Growing Beliefs-- > Positive Attitude-->Purchase. Our promotional activities must guide the customers to move from one phase to the next to ultimately purchase stage. This will not only help make sales but develop repeat customers too. This process is called branding. We have to position our company as a trustworthy, high-quality, impactful brand. The overall brand voice of all our communications has to be serious, thoughtful, powerful, and informative.

We will effectively communicate the decisions of our marketing strategy to favourably influence target customers’ perceptions that air purifiers are indeed a need of today and should be a part of everyone’s home and offices.

• A Relatable Name to the Product: We have to name the product with something that is catchy, appropriate yet generic easy to remember and relate to. A suggestion is to name it “PureAir Ultra 200”.
• Mega Launching Event: We will launch PureAir Ultra 200 at Delhi in November 2022, just after the Diwali and when winter is setting in and people are getting ready for new year celebrations buy buying and bursting crackers. Delhi is already infamous for being a very polluted city in this planet, and pollution is at its peak after Diwali. Also due to winter there happens condition of smog (smoke+fog) at Delhi. So, launching the product in this period will help people relate better to it.
• Mass Advertisement Campaigns: We will focus on this during the launch and after that. We will use mediums and channels like newspapers, direct mail, catalogues and television commercials. We will make them understand that they do not need to compromise with their heath and others’ health when PureAir Ultra 200 exists.
• Collaborations and Cross-sector Partnerships: We will collaborate with micro and nano influencers because their valued opinion will be very important to ensure a cost-effective promotion for us. We will collaborate with celebrities, schools, colleges, and corporates. We will plan for celebrity endorsement .
• Personal Selling: We will do networking and word-of-the-mouth selling with one-to-one interactions with our potential customers. Our focus will be on highlighting the Unique Selling Points (USPs) of our air filter like our product is a very unique, innovative and hybrid concept which uses a combination of Natural Plants and Machines with greater scope of purification. (1500 sq.ft. of closed wall area)
• Direct Marketing: We will sell the product directly to the public through telephone selling or mail order.
• Promotion through Electronic Media: We will create a company website and mobile App and make it easy to use and user friendly. They must have clear insights and information so that customers and potential customers get to know in detail about the air filter. With adequate Search Engine Optimisation and utilisation of appropriate keywords, we will ensure that our website ranks amongst top 3 websites selling air filters. The website and App will reflect the trust factor. During the initial launch of our product, we will carry out an online marketing campaign of our product on social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter as most of the people using social networking platforms is increasing rapidly. We will make the best use of IGTV, Instagram stories feature and Email marketing to share product details.
• Sales Promotion: We will include or organise contests, sweepstakes, scratch cards, coupons etc. at the initial stage. We can provide our repeat customers with promo codes and coupons.
• Customer Advocacy: We will share and promote customer testimonials about our air purifier on our website, mobile application and social media platforms.

 

 

• Packaging

Our customers will not only expect a quality air purifier, but a family-sized packaging, precise and informative labelling. We can plan a creative packaging in the shape of a plant to emphasise our unique selling point that our air purifier is made of natural elements. Or we can include a small table-top plant in our packaging as a token of appreciation to customers buying our air purifiers.

 

• Positioning

The air purifier is a necessity in today’s times when pollution levels are increasing continuously. It will be positioned based on its quality and effectiveness in cleaning the air. We will plan to approach our potential customers with the “more for more” tactic. The customer will end up getting more than what they have paid for the air purifier.

We will start with educating our potential customers as to why should they choose us? Our website, mobile application and social media platforms will be informative enough for our customers to know the details. Also we will plan some seminars and webinars around it in collaboration with influencers and cross-partnerships. The innovative hybrid concept of air purifiers made with both natural plants and machines should be the emphasis of the new product positioning of PM Clean Air Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Customers are often unaware if buying an air purifier is really of any benefit to them, or do air purifiers really work. Seeing a demonstrated hybrid concept where natural elements have been used to produce an air purifier will add to the differentiation and the much-needed trust-factor of the product along with a brand name.

 

• People

Initially we will use demographic behavioural and psychographic strategy to target all young health-conscious people of Delhi. We will simultaneously make efforts to sensitise other segments to allow expansion of awareness in all market segments across all demographics.

 

Sales Forecast

We will capture 10-12% of the market in the first year of operation due to competitive pricing and quality air filters.

 

Marketing Metrics

We will measure the success of our campaigns and promotions through the following metrics:

1. Leads generation, which is the most important indicator of marketing success. We will calculate Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) on monthly basis.
2. Return on Marketing Investment (RoI)- it will measure the revenue our marketing campaign generates compare to the cost of running our campaign.  RoI will help us understand how our campaigns are performing and contributing to the company’s growth.
3. Total Website Traffic- It will measure the total number of visitors who visit our website over a certain period of time.
4. Testimonials and Reviews- They will be crucial for us as they will give the credibility to our product and services. In this era, consumers rely on community recommendations to guide their purchase decisions and reviews are one of the most important influencers of purchase. We will combine metrics such as views, profile clicks or leads generated to calculate the effectiveness of testimonials. We will also conduct A/B testing to gauge how and which testimonials resonate with visitors and the types of behaviors they promote.
5. Cost per Lead- It will measure the cost effectiveness of our marketing campaign, i.e. how much it costs to generate a new qualified lead. It will help us rationalize our marketing spend and monitor individual campaigns.
6. Customer Retention Rate- It will measure the number of customers our company has retained over time.  It is a crucial metric as it directly will impact revenue and profitability.

 

Marketing cost

 

Particulars	Cost
Advertising (Public relations-Newspapers and magazines, Billboards and posters, Emails, Television and Radio, social media and pay per click)	Rs. 60 lakhs
Printing (Brochures, Flyers, Posters, Business cards, Catalogs, Banners)	Rs. 15 lakhs
Design and Development services (Freelance designers or artists, Freelance writers or editors)	Rs. 5 lakhs
Promotional merchandise (Clothing, Office supplies, sunglasses, bags)	Rs. 7 lakhs
Tools and Technology (Customer relationship Management Systems)	Rs. 3 lakhs
Event expenses (Registration fees, Travel expenses, Booth or display costs, supplies for hosting events)	40 lakhs
Influencer marketing and collaborations	40 lakhs
	Rs. 1,70,00,000

Conclusion

In the conclusion we can state that PM Clean Air solutions Pvt. Ltd. needs to implement the above proposed marketing strategy phase wise. Phase 1 (Quarter 1): After launching the product, we have to position it as a necessity and valuable thing in the minds of the potential customers. This will help garner their trust that we need. Furthermore, having a good website and mobile application for customer experience and a presence on social media platforms for visibility will help PMCASPL be seen as a more professional brand. MIS data collection would be started which will help us to fine tune the target market and get new customer references. Expansion to new cities can be planned. We will use mediums and channels like newspapers, direct mail, catalogues and television commercials to help the product and the company get the initial brand awareness. Phase 2 (Quarter 2 and 3): By this phase, we can expect people to start believing in our product with a positive attitude. We have to continue our efforts towards brand awareness in newer cities and regions. Based on the subscription received on mobile App and website, we will plan supplier base and marketing channels. And accordingly target-region based advertisement campaigns will be introduced to customers. We will gather continuous feedback and based on the community recommendations along with social media metrics, we will calculate the effectiveness of testimonials. Customer retention rate will be calculated to get an overview if everything is moving as per the plan. We will continue to collaborate with micro and nano influencers who will help us give more push to our product. Phase 3 (Quarter 4): By now many of the customers will have grown a positive attitude towards our product and brand resulting in purchase. Most of our proposed changes and results would also be in place by now. So, more efforts will be given to advertising campaigns and mass broadcasting. Our focus has to be on continuous improvement in the overall infrastructure of the company based on data analysis of the historical data gathered during Phase 1 and Phase 2 so that we are able to accomplish the marketing objectives we have set.

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