Sohar University, Faculty of Business

L3/S1 (2022-2023)
BUBS3401 Small Business Management
How to Prepare Your Marketing plan?

A bootstrap marketing plan should accomplish three objectives:

1. It should pinpoint the specific target markets the small company will serve.
2. It should determine customer needs and wants through market research.
3. It should analyze the firm’s competitive advantages and build a bootstrap marketing strategy
around them to communicate its value proposition to the target market.
Describe your target market:
Hints: target market is the specific group of customers at whom a company aims its goods or services.

Determining Customer Needs and Wants through Market Research:

Hints: Market research is the vehicle for gathering the information that serves as the foundation for the
market plan; it involves systematically collecting, analyzing and interpreting data pertaining to a
company’s market, customers, and competitors.
How to Conduct Market Research?
1. Step 1. Define the objective: e.g. customers’ preferences, taste, ability to pay, etc.
2. Step 2. Collect the data: individualized (one-to-one) marketing: a system based on gathering
data on individual customers and developing a marketing program designed to appeal
specifically to their needs, tastes, and preferences.
3. Step 3. Analyze and interpret the data.
4. Step 4. Draw conclusions and act.

Plotting a Bootstrap Marketing Strategy: How to Build a Competitive Edge

1. FIND A NICHE AND FILL IT
2. USE THE POWER OF PUBLICITY: any commercial news covered by the media that boosts sales
but for which a small company does not pay.
3. DON’T JUST SELL; ENTERTAIN
4. STRIVE TO BE UNIQUE
5. BUILD A COMMUNITY WITH CUSTOMERS
6. CONNECT WITH CUSTOMERS ON AN EMOTIONAL LEVEL: unique selling proposition (USP) a key
customer benefit of a product or service that sets it apart from the competition; it answers the
critical question every customer asks: “What’s in it for me?”
7. CREATE AN IDENTITY FOR YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH BRANDING: branding communicating a
company’s unique selling proposition (USP) to its target customers in a consistent and
integrated manner.
8. EMBRACE SOCIAL MARKETING
9. BE DEDICATED TO SERVICE AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
10. RETAIN EXISTING CUSTOMERS
11. BE DEVOTED TO QUALITY
12. ATTEND TO CONVENIENCE
13. CONCENTRATE ON INNOVATION
 14. EMPHASIZE SPEED: time compression management (TCM) a marketing strategy that relies on
three principles: (1) speeding products to market, (2) shortening customer response time in
manufacturing and delivery, and (3) reducing the administrative time required to fill an order.

Marketing-Mix (4Ps): after collecting information from the customers (target market), you need to
develop your 4Ps strategies, which will be convenient to your customers:
1. Products: product features that meet the customers’ needs and wants
2. Price: how you are going to price your product
3. Promotion: how you will communicate your customers?
4. Place: how you are going to distribute your goods or services?

Using primary and secondary market research:

Demand forecasting and projected sales to be prepared:

For example: suppose you are preparing a sales forecasts for car repair business venture targeting
imported cars in Sohar:
(1) Number of cars in Sohar (can be obtained from ROP) 60,000 autos
(2) Percent of imports (can also be obtained from ROP) × 20 %
(1) × (2) = (3) Number of imported cars in Sohar 12,000 imports

(4) Average expenditure on repairs and maintenance (can be obtained from a × OR 200
customer survey)
(3) × (4) = (5) Total import repair sales potential OR 2,400,000

(6) Estimated share of the market (can be obtained after deducting × 5%

competitors’ shares)
(5) × (6) = Sales estimate 120,000

Sales forecasts for the first five years of the business venture:
Year Year 1 Year 2i (2023) Year 3 (2024) Year 4 (2025) Year 5 (2026)
(2022)
Estimated sales 120,000 126,000 132,300 138,915 145,861

This estimated sales will be a base for your coming income statement and profit/loss accounts. In near
future you will identify your expenses and short-term liabilities which will help you to prepare these
statements.
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You can expect an increase in sales based on an increase in the business capacity e.g. 5% increase in sales each year