Tactical Marketing Plan
Now that we’ve covered the potential market size, and have seen the opportunities that await us…we must act. The following plan describes the general course of action and recommendations with a brief discussion of the organizational strategies and the four P’s of the marketing mix. It is also segmented by product marketing, channel marketing, online marketing, public relations, and advertising.
Before determining the appropriate product marketing mix we first have to consider whether we should attempt either a growth or a consolidation strategy for each existing product (older discontinued products and eval releases are not considered). Currently, the company produces the following products:
Organizational Strategies
| Product | Strategy | Comments |
| Widget 0.0 | Consolidation | This $99 lower-end product will be replaced by the upcoming Widget1. We can still sell existing inventory but we would use a retrenchment strategy |
| Gidget 1.2 | Growth | The Gidget will always be part of the product mix since it provides content for Widget. |
| Rusty Widget | Consolidation | This product has not shown significant revenue and we will use a harvesting consolidation strategy. |
| Widget 1 | Growth | Until our best product is released this will remain our premium product. |
| Widget 2 | Growth | This our introduction into the ACE browser market. An updated release will include ACE 2.0 support. |
| Widget 1.2 | Growth | This product is our $99 saturation product and our first targeted entry into the animal authoring market |
Consolidation Strategies
Of the four consolidation strategies, 1) harvesting (gradual decrease in company support for a product), 2) pruning (eliminate support for certain market segments), 3) retrenchment (continue to offer the same product but retreat to the strongest line), and 4) divestment (sell-off weak “fit” products) only retrenchment and harvesting apply to the Acme Widget 0.0 and Rusty Widget products respectively. We do not have any proactive marketing plans for either of these products but will instead allow their current momentum to carry them throughout their remaining life cycle.
Growth Strategies
Since the Product Marketing section will itemize the details of the growth strategy only a summary treatment will be given here. Growth of the Acme Software line can be achieved through four methods, 1) market penetration (better ingress of existing markets), 2) product development (changing the product or its perception), 3) market development (finding growth in new markets) and 4) diversification (introducing new products).
Market Penetration
Our basic agenda for all growth products will be to better penetrate the market as a whole with a balanced push/pull campaign. We will do this by increasing the number of outlets in the total channel while increasing the throughput of existing accounts. Details of this procedure are covered within the Channel Marketing section.
In addition, we can better penetrate the market by increasing our efforts with partnering. We will encourage more 3rd party products and ensure tighter integrations within existing products such as Acme Wiglets. We would also place a light or demo version of Widget in other packages.
Finally, we would develop marketing partnerships with other vendors to trade lists, run joint promotions, and share booth space to ensure a more robust industry adoption of ACE.
Product Development
We have two major new products that we are introducing, Widget1, and the Widget2. On the marketing side, we will run with whatever product changes that are completed within the required time frame and deal with the existing product’s perception.
Market Development
We can retain our WidgetGiget market, but most of our growth will occur as we move into new markets–specifically the mainstream Internet ACE market. Our efforts in the mainstream channel should also increase our credibility and visibility for the existing Acme Widget 2.2, our current flagship product.
Diversification
Because our Widget2.2 product includes so many enhancements, it will be considered a new product rather than just an update to Widget2 and would thus fall under our diversification efforts.
