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Malleri Bush

Stahle

MKT 351

17 October 2020

Buhi Marketing Plan

Executive Summary

Buhi Supply Co. is an e-commerce and retail bag supplier. It specializes in backpack, purse,
wallet, satchel and duffel products. Its business goals are to find bags that resonate with a design-
conscious audience, manufacture them at affordable costs, and sell them for a profit at
competitive prices. Buhi aims to design functional bags that evoke nostalgia, bags with enough
personality for even the choosiest of Millennials. Currently, Buhi Supply Co. estimates its
market share to be about 0.25% of all retail bag sales. The company’s gross revenue last year
was $15 million, and their end of year goal is to reach $17 million with 0.3% market share. My
goal as their social media manager is to help Buhi reach this goal by increasing the number of
visitors on social media, increasing engagement, and building revenue.

Definition of Goals

Buhi Bags has hired me as new social media marketer, and it is important that I create a plan for
strategy and reaching the companies goals. A few of these goals include spending all of the
budget given and spending it wisely, building brand awareness, increasing engagement, and
outperforming class competitors. It is important that I follow the direction of the CMO by
achieving these goals, and in return building a better improved business.

Getting our name ‘out there’ will include a few strategies such as creating and posting eye-
catching media, influencing interaction, and converting visitors into customers. Over the next
few weeks, I hope to build a media schedule that is appealing to a few specified audiences, as
well as general interest to build the companies brand awareness, engagement, and revenue.
While the company is available to share media on many platforms, the best options that I will be
growing and focusing on will be Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. I feel like the audience I am
trying to target, ages 19-32, will be most easily accessible and entertained through these
platforms.

Increasing this interaction will build distribution measurement, and then in return build higher
revenue. As long as I will focus on these key goals and make sure the media is engaging for
targeted audiences, I will increase followers and interaction, build brand reputation, and create
higher revenue. Overall, as I pursue to follow these goals for the company, I will grow a better
brand for Buhi Bags, and hopefully outperform classmates.
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Research and Findings

SWOT Analysis

POSITIVE NEGATIVE

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

• Online shopping is convenient • Learning what social media

• Media designed for millennials
• Durable high-quality bags
• Affordable
• High customer service and
satisfaction
INTERNAL
strategies work best, still
learning through trial and error
• Limited budget
• Limited content options
• Limited influencer connections

• Instagram • No coordination with CEO

• Support travel and adventure while posting
• Clear strategy and marketing
goals

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

• Can watch competitor behavior • Competitor lowers prices

• Holiday campaigns and Ads • Customers don’t connect with
EXTERNAL

• New customers media

• Wide range of audiences • Product quality lowers
• Changes in technology • Supplier shuts down

Content Analysis

After researching media posts from our competitor, Herschel Supply Co., on Instagram
and Facebook, I found interesting data that will be beneficial to report and compare to our
marketing approach for Buhi. I found that they post consistently every single day on both
platforms, at a few different common times. I was interested to find that their Facebook
platform does not perform very well with engaging comments and likes data. Their
Instagram performed better out of the two, with higher likes and followers, but still
performed low in comments and engagements. We can learn from this by making sure
that our posts have higher engagement and interaction through comments, shares, and
likes.

Starting off with analyzing their Facebook platform, most of the media they posted
consisted of non-promotional images with no links, promotional images with links, and
few promotional videos. The content that produces the most likes are their non-
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promotional images with no links, meaning they did not include anything to do with the
product or advertisement. Their highest likes day of the week was by far Wednesday,
with their highest shares being Thursday, and their highest commenting on Tuesday. The
most common times that they posted were at 3 pm, 4 am, 5 am, and 12 pm.

Next analyzing their Instagram platform, their highest common media they posted was
just the product indoors, following with people outdoor with the product, and images
containing no product. The content that produces the highest amount of likes and
comments was just their product indoors. Their Instagram platform performed drastically
better than their Facebook platform with higher engagement and likes.

In taking this data into consideration, I would suggest building higher engagement in
comments and shares for our marketing team. It seems like Herschel struggles a little bit
with getting followers to interact with their media, so we can be different by creating
engaging content that is both aesthetically pleasing, a good blend between promotional
and non-promotional, and encourages higher rates of sharing and commenting. Both
platforms were consistently posting every day, and I think we should try to approach it
differently by switching off and on the different platforms, essentially posting every other
day. This would create content that is more engaging and fun to see, instead of feeling
overwhelmed and advertised. They build up their engagement from their weaker posts by
posting promotional videos once a week, to exponentially build up their follower count
and brand reputation. Which I believe would be beneficial if we follow similarly.

We will switch off platforms every other day to avoid over advertising, create engaging
post captions that will encourage comments and shares, and continue building Buhi Bags
into a better competitor.

Target Audience

Buhi’s primary market (90 percent of customers) falls between the ages of 19 and 32.
With the majority of the market being 55% women and 45% male. Our top four market
demographics consist of Daypacker Tom, Back-to-School Mindy, Up-and-Comer Raj,
and City-Hopper Sue. Their interests in our bags via their liked activities, age, gender,
and income create these demographics that we are able to better focus on and market to.

The largest portion of the market share goes to Daypacker Tom who is roughly 29% of
the market, being male ages 18 to 26 who are interesting in backpacking, hiking, travel,
camping, and exploring. This is one of our best marketing groups because they are
interested in and like the adventurous atmosphere our company promotes. They like
when the content we post is geared to exploration, sight-seeing, and our product outdoors.

The second largest portion of the market share goes to Back-to-School Mindy who is
roughly 20% of the market, being female ages 18 to 26 who are college students
interested in having a unique and durable bag for their studies. This is a big target market
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because all students need a backpack, and one of our best-selling products consist of our
sleek, durable, and affordable bags to take with them.

The third largest portion of the market share goes to Up-and-Comer Raj who is roughly
16% of the market, being male ages 18 to 26 who are office workers looking for
professional and stylish bags to commute their laptops and documents. Being the highest
income market, it is important that we market towards this group in hopes of generation
well revenue.

The last largest portion of the market share goes to City-Hopper Sue who is roughly 12%
of the market, being female ages 18 to 35 who are inspired by travel, exploring, and road
trips. They are easily marketed to and essential buyers of our fashionable but practical
travel bags.

These top four target markets are essential to Buhi’s marketing plan and promote the
business well. It was anticipated that our bags are being promoted to a design-conscious
audience, and these audiences are the perfect to do so. Essentially our bags should be
marketed as essential for outdoor adventure and travel, useful to college aged students,
stylish and professional to businessmen, and affordable stylish travel bags.

Examples of Social Media Content

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Definition of Social Media Distribution Channels

While we were given the opportunity to use all social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube, I have found it most beneficial to use only
Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. These are the platforms that I believe we will be able to
easily market to our specified audiences and increase profitability. After a few weeks of trial and
error, I have organized a specified marketing and social media strategy plan to perform and
create media each week.

I find it most favorable to our audience when alternating promotional photo content between
Instagram and Facebook every other day. Meaning that Instagram will be promotional on
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and Facebook being promotional on the other days.
This creates a balanced promotion between our top two platforms and doesn’t overwhelm our
audience with advertised marketing. Throughout the week I will pick 2 to 3 of the best composed
media posts that are geared towards our biggest audience and post similarly switching between
Instagram and Facebook so that way that content is being shared twice on different platforms,
once promotional, and once non-promotional. I have found it useful to also post those few
engaging media posts on Pinterest organically, non-promotional, to increase engagement and
followers through that audience.

The best times of day, through experimental trial, for posting and creating media on Facebook is
posting from 2-4 pm and on Instagram from 4-6 pm. This is when most people from our targeted
audiences are on social media whether it be during a lunch break, on the way home from work,
while making dinner, and relaxing after a long day. I haven’t found a specified time that works
best for Pinterest yet, but I have been experimenting with posting in a general time of 8-10 pm
where women are scrolling through late night ideas before bed. These three social media
channels are the best marketing strategy to build our brand and increase profit.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Buhi Supply Co. is a phenomenal business with potential to grow and expand
through social media and new marketing strategies. Our company, while competitively growing
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next to similar vendors, has the opportunity to market specified audiences and build a better
brand. My goal as their social media manager is to help them reach their goal of $17 million with
0.3% market share by the end of the year. By increasing the number of visitors on social media,
increasing engagement, and building brand awareness, I plan on meeting and exceeding those
expectations for Buhi.

Through performing and conducting research through a SWOT analysis, competitor content
analysis, and identifying our target audience, Buhi now has a foundation to improve their growth
and go beyond their competition. They can focus on improving a few of their internal and
external weaknesses by learning what social media content works best, rising above their
competitors, and creating engaging and uplifting content to represent their brand. By
representing and building their company through social media marketing, Buhi can now grow
and become a better company.