CHAPTER 3: MARKETING PLAN

3.1 MARKET DESCRIPTION

 1 L LPG = 1.05 m3 of biogas

 1 kg LPG = 2.1 m3 of biogas

No of cows 6
Temperature 22 °C
Cow dung 10 kg/day
Total cow dung 30 kg/day
Inflow (1:1 mixing with water) 60 L
0.06 m3/day
Retention time 30 days
Digester volume (Vd) 1.8 m3
Yield (Y) 5.35 m3
Volatile solids 1.42 kg/day
Initial concentration of volatile solids (S) per cow 23.67 kg/m3
Total VS 142
Gas yield (Y*Vd*S)/1000
1.37 m3/day
https://energypedia.info/wiki/BLEENS_-
_Biogas,_Liquefied_Petroleum_Gas,_Electricity,_Ethanol,_Natural_Gas,_and_Solar

The target market includes all rural and urban households as well as universities,
hospitals, schools, hotels, and restaurants around Harare.
Families, households, and companies have been greatly affected due to load shedding
across Zimbabwe. As a result, not only, rural areas require alternative cooking sources
but those in urban too. LPG is widely becoming an alternative however it is
considerably expensive for others. Another source of fuel is firewood, but it can also
be difficult to acquire in urban areas

According to ZERA, Zimbabweans used 13 million kg of LPG in the first quarter of

this year which is a 2 million kg increase from the same period last year and
consumption is expected to increase especially in the winter season. By introducing a
cheaper alternative to LPG which performs at the same efficiency rate, there is great
promise of market acceptance. Currently, there are 42 biogas masons registered in the
ZERA database and spread out across the country, meaning competition is spread out
more. it is an attractive and promising market.

The current trend in the market is that biodigesters are constructed for small scale use
only and mainly in rural households and communities, but there have not been any
advancements towards selling bottled biogas and this innovation will change our
country now and into the future. Biogas has various uses such as cooking, heating in
homes and for livestock rearing, lighting, etc. Going into the future, biogas can be
used to generate electricity with the use of biodiesel generators.
***Alternate providers of this service include Rural Electrification Fund (REF). They
help in constructing and maintaining biodigesters as well as using biogas along with
offering suppliers for biogas stoves and accessories. They also provide training and
support with any biodiesel-related work. We will work with organisations like these
for supplies and staff training.

3.2 CUSTOMER PROFILE

Our target market are people in the urban areas of Zimbabwe especially in medium to
high density. These types of communities are bound to be greatly affected by load
shedding and have higher cooking requirements during the day. Of course, it does not
disqualify anyone who might fall outside this who might require our service. We
expect to capitalize on the national population that are in the civil service. If we
manage to capture this market, this can guarantee a sure and safe market by offering
the service in monthly installments that will be paid off through the bank and the
Salary Services Bureau (SSB). We are expecting an average number of 5000 clients in
the first 3 years with an estimated revenue of US$300 per client.
We want to reach the customer who lives mainly in the high-density suburbs of
Harare like Warren Park, Kuwadzana, High Field, Mufakose, Budiriro, Domboshawa,
Haatcliffe, Chitungwiza, etc. We will be looking at both men and women but with
minimum cooking requirements especially for smaller digesters. Our digesters are
portable and can vary in size therefore our clients can have sallies starting from
US150,00.

3.3 COMPETITION
Competition in the library management systems is high due to existence of generic
software companies and other that develop specifically library systems. These
companies include Koha, Evergreen and Ex Libris Alma.
Competitors seem to be better since they offer open-source software that requires no
licencing thereby making it affordable to clients and some of the companies have
been in the market for some time and have gained market share.
Koha
Koha is a free software library automation package. It is used worldwide; it was
developed by a growing community of users collaborating to achieve their technology
goals. Koha’s feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user
base. In the educational institutions it has a market share of 54% all over the world.
KOHA offers cataloguing and circulation of books. It accounts for the mass market
constituting of libraries, educational institutions and museum. Consumers purchase
KOHA because it is open source and doesn’t need any subscriptions thereby
affordable to clients. The system offered caters for most needs but doesn’t allow
operations to proceed during power failures. KOHA does not have a mobile
application KOHA utilizes online advertising to promote the system usage to clients.
Ex Libris Alma

Ex Libris Alma is a secure, scalable end-to-end library software system (ILS) for
managing the acquisition, sharing, cataloguing, and use of all kinds of resources,
including physical and electronic books, physical and electronic periodicals, and
digital resources (such as audio, image, and video files). It has a market share of 26%
in the educational institutions all over the world. Libris Alma offers services such as
book acquisition and reports but has an extension of a cloud-based platform that can
be utilised from any smart device. However, it doesn’t offer a mobile application for
library operations. Libris Alma caters for mass market consisting of city libraries,
educational institutions and museum. Consumers tend to purchase this system due to
the cloud-based feature that is not platform dependent. Libris Alma satisfies consumer
needs to a greater extend but has drawbacks such as the security threat imposed by
having only one super user account. It is costly since the system requires internet for it
to work, resulting in high internet costs and ongoing subscription fees.
Ex Libris Alma pricing strategy is based on the number of users e.g., number of
librarians, number of digital resources hosted on the cloud platform and amount of
storage occupied.
Ex Libris Alma doesn’t offer credit terms as they require prompt payments upon
usage of their system.

SWOT ANALYSIS FOR KOHA AND EX LIBRIS ALMA

KOHA EX LIBRIS ALMA
STRENGTHS
It is configurable and adaptable -Has a unified design
-Translated into many languages -Comprises of a strong suite of
analytics tools.
-No license fees needed -Allows full customization
-Platform independent
WEAKNESSES
-Installation requires technical -Time consuming to input data into the
knowhow of Linux, MySQL and system
Apache
-Changes require scripting and Perl - Requires professional help to install
and manage.
-Requires professional help to install
and manage.

SWOT ANALYSIS FOR MURUTSVA

Internal environment
Strengths Weaknesses
-new products like mobile application -The subscription is a bit lengthy
version of the website -Content that is not customer-centric
-e-library
-online bookstore
-digital data capturing system which is
fast
-impressive Global navigation bar
-Easy to navigate through the website
-Attractive banner
External environment
Opportunities Threats
-more customers shifting to digital -Unique app function by competitor
libraries due to easy management of
books
-Government’s support in emerging local
markets

3.4 MARKETING MIX

Marketing Objectives

1. To attain a market share of 3% by the end of 2022.

2. To be a regional supplier of library system by end of 2022.
3. To achieve a sales revenue of $1500 by end of 2022.
Marketing Mix Elements
Product
The software comes with a mobile application that can be used even when there is no
power and the information recorded during that period will be automatically updated
to the servers when power is restored. Customers will most definitely be attracted to
our services due to this mobile application. Instead of using cloud storage a local
database will be integrated within the application.

Pricing

Library system costs

Library software $1500 /unit
development and installation
Maintenance and Support $500/month

After consideration of development team wages, website hosting and domain name
costs we arrived at the above prices. YoLibrary incorporates cost plus pricing method
which accounts for costs incurred during system development i.e. a mobile phone
($100). Our prices are relatively lower than competitor which range from $2 000 to $
5 000 per system.
Distribution

YoLibrary plan to utilize direct channels to sell the software to clients whereby there
are no intermediators who will resell the software. Direct channels facilitate direct
user feedback which ultimately helps the development process. The direct channel of
distribution will remain the same for the first 3 years since the company intent to
retain full system control. Most competitors use direct channels to have full control of
the system, however, some companies offer software to other software vendors who
can resell and redistribute. Profits can be greatly boosted if channels of distribution
are reduced since the main company will be accounting for all its clients and no
competition exists from software vendors who resell the software.
Advertising and Promotion

YoLibrary plans to use personal selling and advertising as forms of promotion. The
software will be advertised both on the internet and television. This strategy is the
most effective in reaching our target market as television adverts impact almost
everyone including members of institution boards. Again, Facebook ads is another
effective way to reach our clients since we could set ads to show up if terms related to
our system are searched for. Television advertising costs 1000RTGS per ad and
internet advertising using organic results if free of cost. We plan to use different
promotional methods as our competitors to stand out from the competition.