Marketing Plan

Our marketing plan will be very simple. Satisfy our customers and provide them with the desire to continue dancing and learning music. A happy customer will not only keep coming back, but they will tell other people about Aura Music & Dance. We will offer discount awards as an incentive to people who provide us with referrals. We will market fun! What better product could we possibly have than that?! Our biggest challenge will be getting people who have never been in a dance studio before to come and try us out. Many people have never considered taking dance lessons before. Our marketing message will emphasize the opportunity to meet people, to enhance the quality of leisure time, to gain health benefits and gain life-long skills that will give them respect from their peers. Sales Strategy One of our marketing strategies is to advertise discount specials or introductory offers. These are designed to introduce people to the different dances and musics our institution offers, and the dances and different music our customers want to learn. Our instructors will work with the customer on these specials to discover what it is they are looking for in dance and music, and to outline a course that suits the customer's wants and needs. When a course outline is agreed upon by customer and instructor they will meet with a manager for a brief consultation to make sure the customer is satisfied with the lesson outline and that the course will meet the expectations of the customer. The customer will then sign up for the lessons by contract and commit to a series of appointments; the institution also commits to these appointments. We will offer a variety of courses, all mixed with combinations of private lessons, group lessons, classical music, and practice parties. Our course outlines will follow industry standards of recognized progression in dance, referred to as program dancing. The different levels of music and dance are recognized as Social Foundation, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, which is consistent with the dance industry. Although our instructors will be designing course outlines according to the specific needs of our customers, there are basic packages that we can offer in these different levels. Also, because of the size and amount of time required

for those levels after Social Foundation, we have divided them into Bronze I, and Bronze II, Silver I, and Silver II, and Gold or our Showcase Level. Aura Music & Dance also offers the ability for customers to take group class packages. These may be more affordable, and although take longer for advancement, might be more preferable to some of our customer. In addition AURA Music & Dance offers something unique from other dance institutions, which is a membership card. There are three different memberships offered: 1. The Basic, which allows unlimited admission to music and dance parties as well as discounts to special events. 2. The Gold, which allows limited access to group classes, unlimited admission to dance parties, five party guest passes, and discounts on special events. 3. The Platinum, which allows unlimited access to group classes, unlimited admission to parties, ten party guest passes, and discounts to special events. These memberships will last one year.

Advertizing and product promotion

Focusing on the unique aspect of the product theme a mix of marketing vehicles will be created to convey our presence, our image, and our message.

Print media -- local newspapers, magazines and student publications Broadcast media -- local programming and special interest shows, radio Misc. -- yellow pages, charity events mail -- subscriber lists, flyers

A public relations firm has been retained to create special events and solicit print and broadcast coverage, especially at the start-up. We will advertise in the yellow pages, local newspapers, flyers, coupons, discount books, radio, and signs around town.

Customer Service:

AURA Music and Dance will offer discounts for larger dance packages. All payments for dance lessons will be collected at time of purchase. Customers may be given 30 days to pay with a down payment of 50%. We will accept payment in the form of cash, check, or credit card. We have separate instructor for separate groups. We give special services to our customers through giving them privilege card, coupons and discounts.

Sales Forecast: This sales forecast is estimation on the number of customers we acquire while open, and an average cost of lesson outlines. The Social Basics Introductory special is averaged at 400, but this may vary depending on the special running that month. The special is not an accurate count for the cost of lessons, and is used primarily to bring people who may be interested to our studio so that they may continue with more lessons. We are forecasting that we will sell 20 introductory packages in our first month, and 30 each month thereafter, as this is what we can handle with the hours we have available. The Social Foundation average package price is Tk. 1720. It is an average price based on the assumption that students would buy a package containing 2 private lessons and 2 group lessons. We offer a 20% for paying in cash, and have therefore shown Tk. 600 for our package price to show the discount. We are forecasting to sell a social foundation dance package to 25% of the people who come to take the introductory special. Bronze I is priced at Tk. 2,200, and is based on the assumption that students would buy this package with 4 privates and 4 groups. We offer a 20% discount to people who pay cash for their lesson, and show this in our forecast by making this package show at Tk. 1,000. We are forecasting to sell a bronze dance package to 50% of the people who bought the social foundation package. Bronze II is priced at Tk. 2,440, and based on the assumption that students would buy a package containing 5 privates and 5 groups. We offer a 20% discount for paying in cash, and show this in our forecast by showing this package price at Tk. 1,200. We do not expect to sell any Bronze II packages the first couple of months. Starting on the third month we are forecasting to sell 50% of those that were in Bronze I.

Silver I and Silver II Tk. 2,620. These are both based on the assumption that the student buys a package of 6 privates and 6 groups. We offer a 20% discount for students who pay in cash, and have shown this in our forecast with our package being Tk. 2,350. Starting in the fifth month we are forecasting to sell at least two Silver I dance and music package per month. We have estimated that we will not sell any Silver II packages until the end of the first year of business. We have kept our estimates low, knowing that we are not only a new business but a new type of business in this Country, trying to break through with our marketing. Therefore, we are showing a 25% closing ratio for new students. That is saying that 25% of the customers who come in for the introductory special will buy the next level of dance, Social Foundation package. We then show a 50% closing ratio for existing student, 50% of Social Foundation customers will move on to Bronze I, etc. Mary's previous sales results were 70% (out of every ten potential customers she sold a dance package to seven). Memberships were forecasted to show that people would buy the Gold at Tk. 1,600 each. We forecast to sell an average of five memberships per month, with that average increasing to 10 during the peak months of November-February. Miscellaneous sales include series group classes and kids group classes averaged at 20 people per class.