Running head: TOPIC 1

Topic

Author

Institution
TOPIC 2

Executive summary
This paper presents the marketing plan for Tynker – an educational programming

company – which is trying to expand its business operations to Mexico. Tynker plans to expand

by getting into partnerships with toy companies. This will help the company in accessing and

therefore, tapping a greater market share. Tynker offers an easy and fun way to learn to code and

therefore, is hopeful to attract more children. Tynker has segmented its market among pre-teens,

their parents and conventional toy companies. Tynker has decided to promote itself via the

digital and print media. To attract more customers, Tynker is advised to keep lower product

prices relative to its competitors such as Globaloria, Codeacademy, and Youth Digital. To turn

itself into a successful brand, Tynker will use effective communication and emotional branding

strategies. It is highly recommended that the company stick to the regulations framed by the

Mexican government and protect the rights of its employees in an atmosphere filled with

corruption and political instability. The introduction stage for Tynker’s product will continue for

the first 6-8 months and its growth stage will extend for another 5-6 years. The marketing plan

will help Tynker achieve its stated objectives, which also includes generating sales of more than

$500,000 by the end of the second year.

TOPIC 3

Company description
We are surrounded by a world where technology plays a significant part in everyone’s

life. It is, therefore, becoming extremely important to take an active part in shaping technology in

the future. The lead has been taken by the educational media market that encourages and helps

children to learn and get familiar with the technology. Tynker, one such educational media

company which specializes in providing programming courses to children, was established in

2012. The company helps children in making programs and games through programming. The

company has been recognized as one of the biggest coding platforms that encourage children to

code. The company provides facilitation to children wherein they do not have to type the source

code. They only have to snap different blocks of code together. It is based on JavaScript and

HTML 5. It can be used without plugins as well, be it smartphones, tablets or browser. It can be

looked upon as a commercial product.

Background
The company was established in 2012 in the United States. The company was able to

successfully raise funds from institutional as well as angel investors. The company launched its

school platforms in 2013 and after one year, they also launched their platform for homes. The

company launched its application in 2014 which made it accessible on Android and iPad.

The vision of the company

The company strives to provide each child with an equal opportunity to practice and

master coding in an easy and fun way. This opportunity is extended to children through content

that is provided by the company via phones, tablets, and browsers. Even though it is an

educational programming tool, the creators have developed it in such a way that it remains

focused on the end user’s experience while also making it more fun. The content provided is

easy and there are myriad of options to chose from.

TOPIC 4

The mission statement of the company - Empowering the Makers of Tomorrow. With its

statement, the company strengthens its resolve to improve the ability of children to code. It also

aims at bolstering the foundation of children regarding critical thinking skills, programming, and

Computer Science.

Situational analysis
This is a technique that managers use to examine different forces that shape the internal

as well as the external environment of the company. It helps in getting insights into the

capabilities of the company, along with its business environment and customers.

SWOT analysis
This is a study that a company undertakes in order to recognize its strengths and

weaknesses, which are internal in nature, along with its threats and opportunities, which are

external (Ivasechko & Dorosh, 2016). The SWOT analysis for Tynker is presented below.

Strengths

 Offers an easy and interactive platform for children to practice coding

 Coding becomes easy as children are not required to type the source code. They only

have to move code blocks and join them together

 The company has a rich product portfolio, which is significantly important for expanding

the current customer base

 Partnerships with toy companies can provide more access to children

Weaknesses

 Since the company is relatively new, its liquidity position might create issues in its

expansion to Mexico
TOPIC 5

 The incompatibility of the technical design with that of the psychological process that

children have towards learning can also be problematic

 Tynker has a range of methodologies used for learning, which might result in

superficiality

 Learning customization is crucial for Tynker but its nature is always inadequate, limited

and unattainable, which in turn, can create problems for developers

Opportunities

 The technology is ever-expanding, which can be looked upon as a chance for Tynker to

create more space for developing and expressing e-learning

 There is a significant market size in Mexico and the company can use its expansion to

generate more revenue

 The costs associated with e-learning through Tynker are low, which is one of the

significant factors that attract customers.

Threats

 The economic instability in Mexico can prove to be a discouraging factor for the

company’s expansion

 Given to low disposable income, customers willing to practice coding through e-learning

in Mexico will not be abundant. Therefore, if the company adopts a poor targeting

strategy, the company can lose out on a significant number of potential customers

 The relative naivety of the company can also prove to be challenging in nature
TOPIC 6

Other factors that can influence future sales

Even though Mr. Trump has scrapped NAFTA, operating a business in Mexico is still

relatively easy. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) provides provisions to

do so. The country is also at the 36th position in terms of easy business doing. The company,

however, has to identify threats related to intellectual property rights, work-for-hire agreement,

and copyright law. Tynker has to ensure that it always complies with these laws when operating

in Canada. Moreover, other laws that are specific to the country should also be followed by the

company because failure to do so can have unintended consequences for Tynker.

The rationale behind the marketing plan

The company is looking forward to diversifying its revenue stream by diving into new

partnerships. The company wants to extend its operations to Mexico and in order to do so, the

company has decided to go into partnerships with toy companies. At present, the company has

launched such partnerships in only two countries – China and the United States. The primary

objective behind this endeavor is to expand its current customer base and Tynker will do so with

the help of an improved user interactive platform.

Tynker’s Objectives
 The company aims at getting into three such partnerships by the end of the 1st year

 The company aims at generating more than $500,000 in revenue by the end of the 2nd

year

 Introduce custom branded content for top employers by the end of the 2nd year

Segmentation and Targeting Analysis

Segmentation of the market is one of the most significant strategies used in marketing.

Segmentation allows the company to tailor its marketing mix in a way that it becomes more
TOPIC 7

adaptable of individual needs (Behe, 1992). It helps marketers spend more effectively.

Segmentation is the basis for marketers to create a marketing mix. It is important for various

reasons. For example, when a company launches its product or services, its target customers are

not always homogenous. Therefore, they can not be made to fall into the same group. In practice,

each buyer is associated with its unique set of interests, preferences, and needs. Companies will

find it impossible to reach to every customer’s individual needs and therefore, they group

different customers by identifying common variables between them. In turn, this segmenting

prepares the foundation for an effective marketing mix.

Tynker will have its market divided into two segments. The first segment will have

customers who use its platform. However, in the second segment, customers will be conventional

toy companies that are trying to reach out to children. It is important to note that customers from

both segments are creative and tech-savvy. Customers from both the segments are looking for a

variety of content such as challenges that range from minutes to hours. The company will also

run its beta test in order to make sure that its modules are bug-free and are user-interactive. This

is because when customers are faced with a bug, or content that advances rapidly, it might lead

them to discouragement.

Platform users
Tynker has a customer base wherein children from age 4 to 18 learn and enjoy coding on

a daily basis. However, the most active group among this target base is that of children between

7 and 12. This marketing report will emphasize on pre-teen or children aging between 10 and 12.

For pre-teens

The company will offer free trials so that a greater number of customers can find it easy

to associate with the product. It will also include popular Minecraft game. Tynker will also allow
TOPIC 8

children to develop in-game content and other coding challenges. The company will also make

available its open-source platform so that children can publish their designs and creations. The

company will bear no additional cost on users for loving custom-crafted design.

Parents

The company will provide a provision wherein parents can buy quarterly, annual or

lifetime subscription. They will cost 60 dollars, 84 dollars, and 168 dollars respectively. Tynker

will also allow parents to purchase family plans that can be extended to four family members.

The quarterly, annual and lifetime charges, in this case, will be 90 dollars, 126 dollars, and 252

dollars respectively. With on-time payments, Tynker will also provide gifts. One-year access will

cost 84 dollars, lifetime access will cost 168 dollars, and family access will cost 252 dollars.

It will not be necessary to download the module. Children can easily access it through the

company’s platform.

Organizations trying to target pre-teens

The toy market in Mexico is growing at more than 15 percent. The current toy market in

Mexico is dominated by five major toy companies, which collectively control more than 50

percent of the toy market. These five companies are Mattel Mexico, Hasbro de Mexico, Edacom,

Mega Blocks Latinoamerica, and Spin Master. These have a market share of 26.2 percent, 13.8

percent, 6.7 percent, 2.6 percent, and 1.7 percent respectively. There is an ever-growing trend of

mobile games, which has left these conventional toy companies trying to expand their customer

base. We will use this opportunity to collaborate with these toy companies in order to promote

our platform along with their toys.

TOPIC 9

Targeting
Companies find it difficult to reach out to every user as it leads to ineffective allocation

of resources. Therefore, in order to serve its customers properly, companies use targeting

(Goldfarb & Tucker, 2011). When companies use this strategy, they essentially group their entire

market into several small segments. It leads to an ease in concentration. These smaller segments

are formed by taking into account their unique attributes and characteristics. Overall, it saves

resources and energy and leads to a better connection with the customers.

The overall population of Mexico is 124,574,795. The people from the 0-14 age group

make up almost 27 percent of the entire population. Moreover, people from 15-24 years make up

almost 18 percent of the entire population. Since the target age group for Tynker is 4-18, the

company is well suited to target around 30 percent of the overall population.

Marketing Strategy
This strategy provides a roadmap for companies to reach out to customers. It helps in

making customers aware of the products and services that a company intends to sell (Slater, Hult

& Olson, 2010). This strategy is also indicative of the value proposition of the company, its data

on the potential customers, its key messages, and other targeting elements.

This strategy also includes the marketing plan of a company. For Tynker, the marketing

strategies will consist of the kind of marketing activities that the company is expected to carry

out in order to reach its customers. It also presents a marketing mix for the company. A

marketing mix is a crucial tool that will help Tynker place the product to customers at the right

time and place (Polo, 2018). The marketing mix for Tynker has been classified into four Ps.

These are the product, price, placement, and promotion. The marketing mix has been presented

below:
TOPIC 10

Product
This is an item or a service that the company intends to sell to customers in order to

satisfy their needs. In this case, Tynker’s product is a coding platform with different template

modules for prevalent toys and games. Tynker intends to sell it to children to help them learn the

concepts of programming by making it learn in a simple way. Other educational platforms

provide theoretical concepts to programming which sometimes make learning process mundane.

Children are usually not attracted to other educational programming platforms because of their

sophistication and theoretical nature. With Tynker, however, children are not required to type the

source code. They are at the liberty to learn coding using code blocks.

Price
This element of the marketing mix indicates the price at which the company intends to

sell the product. It is crucial that Tynker considers keeping the price at a level that helps in

attracting customers. Putting prices too high can discourage customers from buying the product.

The concept behind setting the price for Tynker’s product will be value-based pricing. The

company provides a user interactive platform that makes coding easy. Before setting the price,

Tynker has considered the costs associated with R&D, marketing, manufacturing, and

distribution. The prices have been deliberately kept at a lower level than those of the competitors

in order to increase the market share as more customers will flock to buy the products. The

company has provided several buying options such as quarterly plan, annual plan, and a lifetime

plan. Moreover, customers are also allowed to select a family plan wherein four members of a

family can share the plan. These strategies are intended to make prices customer-friendly while

also maintaining suitable profits level.

TOPIC 11

Placement
This element deals with the strategies that the company is going to use for placing the

product where it is convenient for customers to buy them. Tynker will create a website for

product placement and will also use advertising as a tool to make its website known among the

customers. Tynker is collaborating with toy companies to effectively place its products among

children. Other placement positions will be similar to those that are used by toy companies.

Promotion
This is the fourth element of the marketing mix and it deals with how the company is

going to promote its products. The company will use internet advertisements and print media to

promote its products. In order to stretch its presence, Tynker will also connect with the existing

customer base of conventional toy companies. Since Tynker is positive about its customer

experience, it will also depend on word of mouth recommendations for promotional purposes.

Perceptual map
It can be seen as a diagrammatic tool that marketers use to reflect the perception of their

customer base (Sinclair & Stalling, 1990). Below is the perceptual map for Tynker which takes

into account its pricing and interactive abilities in relation to its competitors.
TOPIC 12

Branding Strategy
This strategy will help Tynker acknowledge its long-term and specific goals that it can

accomplish once the brand becomes successful. Branding strategy is of crucial importance when

it comes to expanding the brand in a new market (Al-Zyoud, 2018). Tynker will bolster its

position in the market by setting a company purpose. Tynker will also inform its employees

about its purpose and other related guidelines.

Next, it will also be important to share the right tools and resources with the employees.

The company will maintain consistency in getting connected with the customers. The company

will regularly monitor its communication efforts with its customer base and will significantly
 TOPIC 13

push its efforts wherever they remain lacking. Tynker will use social media to establish everyday

communication with its customers.

The company will also use emotional branding to remain relevant among its customers.

For example, Tynker can create a community where it allows its customers to share their

experience with one another.

Ethical Considerations and CSR values

Since Tynker is expanding its business operations in another country, it becomes

extremely important to consider various ethical considerations. Mexico is a country where

criminality, corruption, and political uncertainty is rife and therefore, amidst this culture,

protecting the basic rights of employees becomes difficult. Tynker should always ensure that its

business model always respects and protects the prosperity, freedom, and peace of its employees.

In fact, the company can also promote its CSR values by conducting programs that teaches

children the values of freedom, peace and prosperity. Tynker can also conduct free workshops,

as a part of its corporate social responsibility, for children who are willing to learn new

technologies. Moreover, given to the recent presidential push backs from Mr. Trump, there are

various issues related to taxes and tariffs in Mexico. Various companies try to evade these taxes

and tariffs; however, Tynker should make sure to stick to the regulations when dealing with these

issues.

Projections for the first three years

The projections for the first three years are shown in the table below. It also meets the

company’s objective of achieving more than $500,000 in sales in the second year. All the prices

are in USD.

  Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

 TOPIC 14

 Tynker’s products
Pric Volum Sales Volum Sales Volum Sales

Product Category e e (USD) e (USD) e (USD)

Product Quarterly

A Plans 60 540 32400 800 48000 810 48600

Product

B Annual Plans 84 480 40320 920 77280 930 78120

Product Life-time

C plans 168 520 87360 880 147840 890 149520

Product

D Family Plans 252 430 108360 920 231840 960 241920

Total     268440 504960 518160
Table 1: Future sales projections (Created by Author)

Marketing expenses regarding promotion

These are the expected costs associated with promotional activities. It has already been

identified that the company will use the website and digital medium to advertise, along with the

print media. The costs associated with promotional activities are:

Promotional Activities Cost (USD)

Designing a website 1,000

Google Ad Sense 5,000

SEO Content writers 20,000

Printing and Mailing 6,000

Total 32,000
Table 2: Expected promotional costs (Created by Author)

Product lifecycle stages

This is indicative of the sales and profits that are associated with the product over its

lifetime (Norris, 2006). After the product is developed, it is introduced in the market. For
TOPIC 15

Tynker, its introduction stage in Mexico is expected to continue for the first 6-8 months. After

this time period, the product will enter its growth phase. It will continue to grow for another 5-6

years.

Conclusion
The marketing plan identifies the importance of collaborating with toy companies in

order to reach a greater number of customers. Tynker, with its user-friendly coding content, will

make it easy for children in Mexico to learn code. The company will provide different plans to

its customers and will offer gifts on one-time payments. Tynker faces competition from

Codeacademy, Youth Digital, and Globaloria. The company is also advised to address all the

ethical concerns in a country where corruption and criminality are prevalent. The company is

also expected to achieve $500,000 in sales by the end of the second year. This marketing plan

will help Tynker in achieving its stated objectives.

TOPIC 16

References
Al-Zyoud, M. (2018). Social media marketing, functional branding strategy and intentional

branding. Problems And Perspectives In Management, 16(3), 102-116.

Behe, B. (1992). Market Segmentation and Product Targeting at the Conceptual

level. Horttechnology, 192b-193.

Goldfarb, A., & Tucker, C. (2011). Online Display Advertising: Targeting and

Obtrusiveness. Marketing Science, 30(3), 389-404.

Ivasechko, O., & Dorosh, L. (2016). SWOT-analysis of Ukraine's energy security. Humanitarian

Vision, 2(2), 24-30.

Norris, G. (2006). Social Impacts in Product Life Cycles - Towards Life Cycle Attribute

Assessment. The International Journal Of Life Cycle Assessment, 11(S1), 97-104.

Polo, M. (2018). Acts or events? A perspective from the marketing mix. IROCAMM-

International Review Of Communication And Marketing Mix, (1), 56-66.

Sinclair, S., & Stalling, E. (1990). Perceptual Mapping: a Tool for Industrial Marketing: a Case

study. Journal Of Business & Industrial Marketing, 5(1), 55-66.

Slater, S., Hult, G., & Olson, E. (2010). Factors influencing the relative importance of marketing

strategy creativity and marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. Industrial

Marketing Management, 39(4), 551-559.