Executive Training Inc.

Executive Training Inc.

Case 2

Applied Marketing

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Problem Statement

Situation Analysis:

Part 1-Industry Analysis

Part 2-Competitor Analysis

Part 3-Company Analysis

Part 4-Customer Analysis

Part 5-Planning Assumption

Summary of Situation Analysis

Implementation

Decision Criteria's

Alternative Analysis

Planning Assumptions

Alternatives (Financials)

Choice and Rationale

Bibliography

Executive summary

Executive Training Inc. is a successful firm providing marketing and sales training for agricultural companies. Tom Jackson, president and owner of ETI (Executive training inc.) started the business 17 years ago. Due to the rapid expansion of internet use, Tom decides to investigate the idea of an online version of his training programs, whether this initial investment, at first thought to be very high, is worth the risk, and whether the preservation of this capital until the market is safe enough to expand into is a better idea.

The following pages show an analysis of this particular problem, and how we chose to resolve it. Before deciding on any marketing actions, we analyzed the company and the agribusiness industry situations to ensure that problematic areas would be defined and dealt with before any money was spent. Also, by using different marketing mediums and promotional tools along with financials we were able to calculate breakeven's along with the number of students that would be required in order to make this idea become a success. We found that out of all the alternatives, Direct Mail was the most promising of all methods. The following sections will display why exactly we made that choice.

Problem Statement

Tom Jackson, president and owner of ETI (Executive Training Inc.) are investigating whether or not expanding his training programs to an added Internet delivery based system is a good idea. While analyzing this case, the biggest problem was whether or not the target market for this new product line is substantial enough and would not take away from his existing services.

Some key issues that developed in making the decision of incorporating online courses was the high initial investment versus an equally high risk. The market is new and a customer base is questionable and although high start up cost, barriers to entry are relatively small, and risk of future competition exists, especially since other similar training programs exist already. The return on the expansion and profit margin also propose a warning signal that the original investment may not be worth the risk. Another issue was the implementation of a new marketing division to reach this untapped market. ETI has previously gotten by through either return customers or word of mouth. A new salaried sales person or advertising scheme may prove to be unsuccessful or the method of the marketing plan chosen could be incorrect considering the firm has never had to market themselves to anyone before.

The solution we chose to answer these key issues and our main problem of a questionable market for this new product line and whether it could take away from his existing services was to choose alternative two. A marketing plan that would have a one time fixed cost to create demo CDs of the course. Most people who have heard of online training discovered it on the internet according to the questionnaire, so its reasonable to say most people interested would also have a computer This method would provide not only a way to see if online training is correct for each company but also guarantee every possible consumer is made aware of our product, how it works, and its benefits

Situation Analysis

Industry analysis

ETI (executive Training Inc.) is a marketing and sales training firm concentrating on agricultural companies. Tom Jackson, owner and president, is exploring options of an added online delivery based training