IMC Project Example - StowaCycle Is A Collapsable Folding Bicycle

1. Executive Summary StowaCycle is a collapsable folding bicycle that is an affordable alternative to commuters living in the city. It allows users to save money on parking fees, fuel, insurance and auto maintenance services. It functions as a road bike that can be used for commuter, fitness, recreation and touring purposes. The main advantage is the sleek design that offers an easy folding method to ensure instant breakdown and enable space efficiency. We are targeting our product to students, people who live in the city and also active people. StowaCycle, is good for student because it is less expensive than another form of transportation, also, they will be able to park it for free which is a very good way for students who can't afford paying high price on parking. For people who live in the city, they can have the advantage of parking for free and also get around the city faster. Active people will benefit from using our product because it is a form of exercising and also they can get to where they need to go at the same time. The folding bike industry is innovative and expanding rapidly; it therefore has various competitors. StowaCycle differentiates itself from competitors by focusing on simplicity, whereas numerous consumers are overwhelmed with the various models offered. In doing so, StowaCycle offers bicycles at a base price to suit all types and budgets. We offer opportunities for customization including different colors, different types of seats, different handlebar shapes, and accessories to fit consumers like of the product. It is a collapsable folding bike, it has the ability to roll or to carry with bag. There is no need for tools or assembly required that need to get with it. StowCycle, is environmentally friendly, it doesn't harm the environment and it is less expensive than another form of transportation. Prices start at $150 for the basic model, and goes up to $300 if you want to customize it to different color, handles, and seats. 2. Review of Marketing Plan A. Industry/Company Review The portable bicycle industry has been around since the 70’s and has many well-established players. Many companies have passed the maturation phase and moved to, or near, the decline phase. StowaCycle is fairly new to the industry but with its own differentiation it will be a key player in the industry. We currently only sell one model that is customizable but that is what our consumer likes. Other brands get confusing with numerous models and specifications that confuse the customer. Our unique hinge technology allows for a more compact folded up bike to make the busy lifestyle easy on the consumer. We aim to make the consumer a big part of the product development process by means of the chat room we provide to each consumer to talk about their bike to fellow users. This is a concept that none of our competitors utilizes, and with the age of social media this will greatly benefit our brand identity. StowaCycle also boasts an outstanding customer relationship management program that in unparalleled. Consumers get a personalized list of bike trails within your city, as well as a list of healthy activities and the best way to utilize your purchase. Buyers will also be given access to a chatroom on the website where they can talk to fellow bike users about experiences or suggestions. StowaCycle ensures lowest cost but maintaining high quality and a sense of community between buyer and brand. We offer a cultural symbol that other companies do not have. The experience of using our bike will be associated with spending time with family, traveling, and convenience. Our target consumer is a young to middle aged with an active busy lifestyle. Our consumer has to go to work or school during the day but still wants to be as active and efficient as possible. This will be for students who have to get the the T quickly or bike between classes. B. Product Review We aim to Promote more that just a product but also a healthy lifestyle, which sets us apart from competitors. We make the consumer a big part of the product development process by means of the chat room we provide to each consumer to talk about their bike to fellow users. StowaCycle also boasts an outstanding customer relationship management program that is unparalleled. Consumers get a personalized list of bike trails within your city, as well as a list of healthy activities and the best way to utilize your purchase. Buyers will also be given access to a chatroom on the website where they can talk to fellow bike users about experiences or suggestions. This is a concept that none of our competitors utilizes, and with the age of social media this will greatly benefit our brand identity. StowaCycle ensures lowest cost but maintaining high quality and a sense of community between buyer and brand. We offer a cultural symbol that other companies do not have. The experience of using our bike will be associated with spending time with family, traveling, and convenience. Strengths: StowaCycle is a young company, but well differentiated among competitors. Our bike design is unique in that it offers a special triangle hinge that makes the folding bike even more compact than the others. StowaCycle also boasts an outstanding customer relationship management program that is unparalleled. Consumers get a personalized list of bike trails within your city, as well as a list of healthy activities and the best way to utilize your purchase. Buyers will also be given access to a chatroom on the website where they can talk to fellow bike users about experiences or suggestions. StowaCycle ensures lowest cost but maintaining high quality and a sense of community among buyer and brand. Weaknesses: Our product is very seasonal. During the winter in most cities, weather conditions do not permit outdoor transportation. StowaCycle experiences some downfalls in demand during and just before the winter time. Opportunities: To further establish brand identity and awareness, we will partner with local schools and universities. This way, students can customize their bikes based on school colors and mascots giving them an edge over other competitors that don’t do this. Students and faculty can use word of mouth to talk about how unique their product is to fellow students or pedestrians in the street. Threats: Our direct competitor, Citizen Bike, has most of the market of portable bikes in the US currently. The demand for their product and the higher price they charge as opposed to StowaCycle has increased their market cap significantly. Since the folding bike is a technology that is simple to construct, StowaCycle is also facing the threat of new entrants. C. Consumer Analysis Our target market includes young to middle-aged individuals living in the city, leading a busy lifestyle, that are maintaining a budget. We will focus on students and employees at local universities in addition to the greater Boston area. We realize the demand for safe and efficient commuting as parking, traffic, fuel costs and other issues have increased. However, we are not limited to this segment. StowaCycle is also ideal for families, as they are able to pack them for day trips or vacations and use them in multiple locations without limitations. Our main goal is to promote a healthy active lifestyle community between our company and the consumer. Our brand uses a cultural symbol approach to promote the feeling of community be it with family, friends, fellow consumer, or just between the buyer and company. D. Competitive Review Dohan Dohan bicycles is the largest portable bicycle manufacturer in the world. Their market share in the US is not as large as their Europe or Asia divisions. Aside from that, Dohan has saturated the market by re selling through Amazon, Walmart, and numerous sporting good stores. Their promotional strategy is stagnant. Dohan currently have a sale going on for the holidays but nothing else, and no recent advertisements have been released. Their brand is more directed to just the utility of having a portable bike. They use straight-selling in any advertisements they release: the ads only contain information on model name, price, and functionality. Citizen Bike Citizen Bike is another player in the industry and a direct competitor. They are utilizing all social media to push the product. They currently have many models to choose from. Citizen bike does all its own sales and distribution in-house to cut out the middleman and any excess costs. The emotional appeals Citizen uses are excitement (shown through traveling) and ambition (trying new activities, spending more time outside) in their advertisements. They also use transformational ads to associate riding the bike with an experience of being outside in a beautiful scenery. 3. Analysis of Promotional Situation The following analysis of our promotional situation will include an internal analysis as well as an external analysis. Internally, StowaCycle will implement a promotional program to attract new customers and retain current customers. This analysis will also include a review or previous program results. Furthermore, the external analysis will discuss segmentation, targeting, as well as positioning. The segmentation will include the chosen target market and strategies for positioning. A. Internal Analysis StowaCycle will have a separate Promotion and PR department that is responsible for advertising and sales promotions to attract and retain customers. Sales promotion is defined as an added value or incentive for the ultimate customer for creating an immediate sale. StowaCycle will primarily partake in Consumer Franchise-Building and Consumer-Oriented promotions because they are focused on the development and reinforcement of brand identity, building long-term brand preference, and converting consumers to long-time customers. These following forms of sales promotion will increase promotional sensitivity, accountability, and brand loyalty. Couponing: Consumers will receive coupons that offer them a discount to our product. This will appeal to price-sensitive consumers and reduces the perceived risk of the purchase. Furthermore, it encourages a repeat purchase, which will lead to loyal consumers. These coupons will be distributed in-store as well as employees hired to go flyering in popular areas around the city. Sweepstakes: Consumers will have the ability to partake in sweepstakes in which they can win a collapsable bike. This win will be determined by chance through random selection. Rebates: At the time of purchase, consumers will be given the option to mail in a rebate. This will offer an extra incentive to the customer, as they will receive some of their money back. Bonus Packs: The consumer will be offered an extra product in addition to the purchase of their bike. This promotion will be very relevant, as we plan to market our product as something the whole family can enjoy (see below for segmentation details). Through bonus packs, a parent will be more likely to purchase additional bikes for each member of their family, as they will receive additional products for a lower price. Events: Event marketing will create a memorable experience for the consumer. We plan to make pop ups at special events, fairs, and parks, that will expose our product to large groups of people. At these events, individuals will be able to test out our collapsible bikes as well as take part in sweepstakes. Additionally, coupons will be handed out in which they will receive a discount to our product. B. External Analysis (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) The external analysis will depict our segmentation techniques, targeting techniques, and our positioning strategy. The process of segmentation is dividing a market into distinct groups that have common needs and will respond similarly to a marketing action. In order to find homogenous clusters in a homogenous market, StowaCycle will use various different bases of segmentation, such as demographic and psychographic. The product will be appealing to both males and females, all household sizes, and all marital statuses. The age is where we will segment; since our product involves people knowing how to ride a bike, we will target individuals 12 years and older. The psychographic basis of segmentation includes individuals with an outdoor and active personality. The needs of our target market will be that they need convenient transportation. In order to target a specific market segment, StowaCycle will use Consumer-Oriented Sales promotion. These promotional techniques will include the previously discussed couponing, sweepstakes, rebates, bonus packs, and events. The positioning strategy will be essential because it will what comes to the mind of the consumer when thinking of our product or seeing an advertisement. Approaches to our positioning strategy will focusing on the consumer and the brand image and being aware of our competition. The strategy will be developed by our attributes/benefits, price/quality, use/application, product class, product users, competitors, and cultural symbols. StowaCycle will mainly be positioned through price/quality and cultural symbol. We offer a very high-quality product at an affordable price. We are aware of our competition and the prices we set are lower than that of our competitors. Furthermore, we offer a cultural symbol that other companies do not have. The experience of using our bike will be associated with spending time with family, traveling, and convenience. 4. Communication Objectives Our communication process will contain multiple channels in an effort to establish and maintain brand awareness. We will incorporate personal and nonpersonal communication channels to reach as many potential customers as possible. Personal channels carry a message between two or more individuals and transpire through interpersonal contact such as face to face, social media, text messages, video chat and email methods. Personal channels are direct and include word of mouth and personal selling, whereas non personal channels are not indirect and include print and broadcast media. Personal channels of communication present the opportunity to tailor the recipients message and offer a more personalized approach. It is an advantageous tool as it offers direct feedback to the sender. Additionally, it generates an abundance of information and reaches a broad audience. Word of mouth is classified as a personal channel of communication and can be oral or written recommendations by a satisfied customer. Word of mouth is an effective marketing tool as it builds trust with customers and encourages users to try a new product based on recommendations (Levy, Shalom, and Gvili). Individuals tend to believe a person that he/she respects in comparison with sources such as commercials and print ads. We will incorporate this by encouraging our cycle enthusiasts to review our product online and suggest it to others. From a business standpoint, word of mouth is advantageous as it is an unpaid form of promotion. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social interaction strategies such as email, blog and buzz marketing provide us the opportunity to interact with new and potential customers. Social media has eliminated many intermediaries as it is a direct and viral process. It enables two-way communication, as we can directly contact our brand advocates and they can contact us. Twitter is a powerful tool in communicating new products, initiatives and gaining essential feedback. Due to limited text and hashtags marketing on Twitter is fast and effective. Hashtags provide users easy search accessibility as they label the content being posted. We will tweet regularly so that we remain fresh in our consumer’s minds and retweet content that is useful for our followers. Facebook is a tool to keep customers informed, broaden demographic reach and develop a brand identity. By utilizing this site, we are able to share links, images/videos and posts that are relevant to our target audience. Additionally, we will implement Facebook advertising to increase our likes and website views. In doing so, we are able to target our audience based on demographics such as age, location, education and interests and monitor ad performance measurement tools. To increase fans and brand awareness, we intend to host Facebook contests that encourage users to enter their information. Instagram offers great marketing potential as it offers users a visual image of our product. By acquiring numerous followers, we are able to encourage customer participation through the use of hashtags. We will encourage users to share photos of themselves using our product in various settings. By doing this, potential customers can gain awareness of our brand, which will generate potential purchases. Similar to social media sites, email is nearly instantaneous and allows us to reach customers in multiple geographic areas. We will obtain users email addresses by hosting contests and various subscriber acquisition lists to target the right audience. We will employ software that allows us to customize features such as recipient's name, previous purchases and monitor the amount of daily email. By focusing more heavily on email rather than direct mail, we can anticipate saving on postage costs, shipping supplies and other resources. We can also decrease customer service support costs by relying on email versus phone based services. Blogging is a valuable public relations tool that directly engages with customers and allows us to share relevant information (Onishi, Hiroshi, and Manchanda). By distributing relevant and valuable content, we have the opportunity to attract, acquire and engage to our target audience. Our blog will be published by each group member to share our expertise on the product being offered. We will encourage subscribers to interact by enabling comments and feedback, which will give us insight on our audience. By implementing our bicycle campaign, we have the opportunity to create buzz about our brand. We will initiate this by asking post purchase consumers to share their stories and experiences with others. Additionally, we will encourage them to upload and submit photos on our social media platforms and offer an incentive to win products/accessories. Buzz marketing is highly effective for spreading the word about our product to consumers that are not yet aware of it. We can encourage this form of communication by initiating conversations via social media platforms, posting to our blog regularly, emailing and responding promptly to consumers posts and comments. In turn, people will speak favorably about our brand and recommend it to others in their social network. To incorporate personal selling, we must consider displaying our product at local attractions, public events and universities to attract new prospects. This will allow product demonstration and the opportunity to communicate our products key features. It grants others the ability to observe our product being used properly. By building personal relationships with potential customers, we will gather various types of information such as their concerns about our product. After obtaining this valuable information, we will be able to address any potential concerns by providing clarification and explaining the benefits of our product. This will allow consumers to comprehend what our product is and how it will benefit them. Next, we will attempt to present the sale of our bicycle that best suits the individual and follow up post purchase to ensure satisfaction. As customer service is an integral part of customer satisfaction, we will enable user interaction on each site. Additionally, we will research and listen to customer feedback by tracking online comments and collective survey data. By providing exceptional customer service, we will build trust with new and existing customers, establishing customer loyalty and brand awareness. Non personal channels of communication are messages that are carried without direct, interpersonal contact between the sender and receiver. Therefore, messages are directed to more than one individual and sent to numerous individuals at the same time. We intend to utilize mass communication methods such as print advertisements. We opted to avoid TV commercials as our product is seasonal and our target audience is limited. However, relevant print media will include direct mail, newspapers, magazines and billboards. As stated previously, we will focus more on e-mail versus direct mail. Nevertheless, our direct mail will contact a specific set of targeted individuals and contain promotional material. Our mailing list will consist of individuals that have subscribed to our mailing list. Therefore, we will eliminate sending junk mail and increase the chance our recipient will read it and respond to it. StowaCycle will advertise in newspapers to increase brand recognition and product sales. We will post our ad in multiple newspapers, in a published format in an effort to promote a positive reputation to designated communities. By rarely doing this, readers have the opportunity to nonintrusively hear about our brand. Presenting our ad in cycling magazines is a great way to reach our target audience. It is a valuable way to display high quality images to our intended audience. Typically, magazines have a longer shelf life due to their printed quality. We will also consider targeting specific places to position our magazine such as bicycle shops, gyms, sporting goods stores, nutrition stores and medical/physical therapist offices. Billboards are a great form of advertising for our bicycle since people spend a lot of time in their vehicle. It also offers a lower cost than other forms of advertising and is free to consumers. By advertising on billboards our ads will be seen 24 hours a day and will reach a larger audience. Since bicycles are intended for warmer seasons, we will display our billboards in warmer seasons, as viewers will be more receptive to our message. To take advantage of this, we must place our ad in a good location and direct proximity to the commuter rail/train station and bus stops. We will also consider advertising on a smaller scale billboard on trains and buses as our product is related to commuting. Our promotional campaign will state what StowaCycle aims to accomplish through our marketing communications program. We will avoid issues that may arise by reading and signing a written and approved objective document. This will serve as a guide to our promotional program and facilitate all necessary coordination we intend to enact. Lastly, we will specify a time period to accomplish our objectives. Our social media marketing communication program will encourage our current bicycle users to share their experiences with others and inspire potential users to try our brand over competitors. By establishing such awareness, our brand existence in the bicycle market will increase. 5. Budget Request In order to develop our promotional budget, we figured out our total contribution margin. We also looked at a marginal analysis of other competitors and the success they have seen in sales by allocating an appropriate advertising budget. By doing this we were able to evaluate how much of our net profit should be allocated towards advertising and promotions. We decided that 10% of our yearly net profit will be used for advertising. Our net profit this past year was $45,000 which means our advertising budget will be $4500. Being that StowaCycle is a new startup company we have chosen to employ the top down budgeting method to ensure we do not spend more than we are able to. We chose to go with the affordable method of top down budgeting in which we will be able to set an amount ahead of time and allocate it accordingly. In order to determine how we would allocate our budget we looked at both the size of our market and also the market potential for our product. Our budget will be allocated between traditional advertising, public relations, sales promotions and digital/internet marketing. For traditional advertising we will allocate 50% of our advertising budget which go towards non-personal media commercials and direct mail. For public relations we will allocate 40% of our budget which will go towards our various events held throughout the year. Lastly 10% of our advertising budget will be allocated towards internet marketing and sales promotions. This allocation is the smallest due to the fact that most of our digital/internet will be through social media which is a free and wide reaching marketing tool. The 10% will be used in sales promotions and giveaways which will be featured on our various social media sites. In total after evaluating the best advertising strategy, we will submit a budget request for $4500 to be allocated appropriately. 6. Integrated Marketing Communications Program A. IMC Mix The three out of six IMC Mix principles that StowaCycle has chosen to focus on include advertising, public relations, and digital/internet marketing. Advertising is any non-paid form of nonpersonal communication. Since there is no personal or one on one communication, it is a very cost-effective strategy to gain awareness of prospective consumers. Even though there is no immediate feedback, individuals will be interested in our product and conduct further research made available from our second product mix, digital/internet marketing. Digital/Internet marketing is interactive media that allows users to actively participate in the content of and information of our product. This form of promotional mix enables users to create their own content and express their opinion via social media such as Facebook and Instagram. Lastly, public relations, which is the process of establishing and maintaining a positive image among a company, will build the relationship of our product with the community, leading to brand loyalty. 1) Advertising a. Advertising Objectives - The objectives of our advertising strategy is to mainly increase awareness of our product as well as persuade our target audience that our product is superior to our competition. Lastly, advertising will also remind our audience of our product which will build repurchase rate and building brand loyalty. b. Advertising Budget - $2,250 c. Advertising Message The use of this product will allow individuals an easy, affordable, and convenient means of transportation. While using this product, individuals will also participate in exercise without making separate time for it, since commuting to and from work or school will be part of their workout routine. This benefits the overall health of our customer, as they are training their muscles and relieving stress. d. Advertising Media Strategy Our advertising media strategy will include using non-personal media such as television. We will air commercials on channels that are most frequently watched by our target market, such as FreeForm, CBS, and USA Network. Furthermore, we will also target specific segments via direct mail. These contacts will be derived from individuals who sign up for information on our company from community events from Public Relations. Additionally, anyone who releases their information in bike stores will also receive advertisements via print and mail. 2) Public Relations a) Public Relations Objectives - The objectives of our PR strategy include creating awareness and interest in our product, providing information, creating a higher sense of demand, as well as reinforcing the brand by building brand loyalty and creating relationships between our product and our community. PR will also build the brand image and build reputation. b) Public Relations Budget - $1,800 c) Public Relations Message - At our PR events, the message of StowaCycle will be reinforcing easy and environmentally conscience transportation and using the product for family time and traveling. d) Public Relations Media Strategy - The public relations team will create planned events that build the brand image of StowaCycle. We will create community events, advertised through social media and digital/internet marketing, that will build relationships between our company and our prospective consumers. Our tools for PR will include community activities in which StowaCycle will have various bikes out to be used by the community, sponsoring special events at schools and work, and creating campaigns revolving around corporate social responsibility. Since StowaCycle will benefit the environment by reducing the carbon footprint of transportation vehicles, it will be a perfect company to be the image of reducing environmental issues. 3) Digital/Internet Marketing a) Digital/Internet Marketing Objectives - the objectives of digital/internet marketing will be growing the platform of followers and subscribers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to grow the community and grow awareness of our product. As more people are aware of our product, the knowledge of StowaCycle will grow exponentially. Individuals will share our site, tag others in photos, and build an online community. This brand awareness will lead to an increase in sales and increased brand loyalty. b) Digital/Internet Marketing Budget - $450 c) Digital/Internet Marketing Message - Our determined slogan of StowaCycle is “Stow & Go” which will appear as a hashtag in all images and photos posted on all social media platforms. This logan will be recognizable by all consumers. This statement will cause the company to be positioned as a convenient, quick, and affordable means of transportation. It will enable the consumer to get to their desired location without much added effort. d) Digital/Internet Marketing Media Strategy - The digital/internet marketing media strategy will include creating a social media department of our company. This internet marketing team will be responsible for posting to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on a bi-weekly basis. Furthermore, these sites will be highly interactive with our consumers; consumers are encouraged to post their own pictures of our product, with our determined hashtag (#stow&go), with the chance of our official sites to repost them. This will create a sense of community between our riders 7. IMC Strategy A. Creative Strategy Statement : StowaCycle has a diverse IMC strategy. The integrated marketing communication is the integration of all of our company’s marketing channels. The main goal is to seamlessly present a unified message to customers using advertising, public relations, promotion, branding, direct marketing, and other tools by listening and communicating. Using IMC principles will help us target and deliver our message to customers that is both clear and compelling. As a result, we can achieve maximum cost effectiveness and improve sales. B. Specific Media Objectives/Mix: Our diverse mix of advertisements on social media, print, and video along with PR and CSR events will be ideal to reaching our target market. Social media advertisements will be relatively inexpensive and will appeal more to the younger audience. Our print ads on major public transportation medium will speak more to the busy working type. Finally our use of PR, my means of local events, and CSR will push our inclusive brand identity even more. Share-of-Voice (SOV) total value of media exposure, this would be a way of tracking how our bike stand and how people feel about it. In other word this is going to be used to represent the relative portion of our ad inventory available to our StowaCycle within a defined market over a specific time period. With our hashtag #Stow&Go, users will be able to generate their own images and opinions about the company. Also with the use of our many social media accounts, we will ensure that there is content on them periodically. We will keep posting images that promote brand identity as well as re post some of our consumers to make them feel more included. Geographic Scope, is the area in which network devices are located. As the area of network coverage gets bigger, the number of workstation grow. Which mean a special devices are going to be used to boost signal. This could be a way for us to track our sales network in order to keep up with the sale. We will be heavily advertising and promoting inside major cities like Boston. As we gain enough consumers through advertising in the heart of the city, we will expand outwards to some suburbs whose residents commute to work. This group will be exposed to our print ads on public transportation as they will be strategically placed in many trains, busses, and their respective stations. Scheduling Pattern Our social media accounts will be active all year round. Our execution style will sometimes be not only social media, but print and video ads. We plan to expose new customers to our brand by using print ads at some public transportation mediums during the spring when people are most outside. And since this is a seasonal product, we will cut costs but adopting a flighting pattern with our advertisements. Right after Christmas and up to late March, there will be little to no advertising due to the cold weather and the inability to use our product. Reach and Frequency We plan to reach 80% of our target market using our IMC strategy. The other 20% will be reached through word of mouth and limited exposure to our print ads on public transportation. If not, the hashtag #Stowe&Go will be seen on their social media pages or their friends’. During Christmas time, we plan to roll out holiday inspired advertisements through our medium. We know that during the winter no one will be riding their bikes but we can ensure that many will receive it as a Christmas gift for later use. Therefore, we will do our heaviest advertising from late March till October. This timeframe is ideal for our target market since if they are students they will have a break in the Spring and enjoy the product then, or in September when they are just about to start school and see how our product will help them. Cost-per-Thousand (CPM) is a marketing term used to denote the price of 1,000 advertisement impressions on one webpage. StowaCycle website publisher charges going to charge $2.00 CPM, that means our advertiser must pay $2.00 for every 1,000 impressions of its ad. Cost-per-Point (CPP) refers to the the cost will take to reach our objective. We are looking for cost that will take to reach 1% of our audience in ads and print magazines. This number is very helpful when it comes to planning out our media budget. We are going to consider few things in order to achieve our objective. We will understand the basic internal perimeters. This refers to the media placement and how well it did by being placed in a specific outlet. We also will consider how many people are using the media outlet, as well as which of the target demographics are being reached the most for our ad campaign and audience. The main purpose of using the CPP is to determine if the numbers are actually telling our company the truth. Also to make sure that we are not spending more than what we need to, just so we can reach our target audience. 8. Evaluation of IMC Program In order to evaluate the success of our IMC plan we will measure the effectiveness of our IMC strategy by tracking our sales in connection with advertising and promotions. We will measure our sales after recent promotions and advertising campaigns to evaluate if there was a rise in sales in connection with promotions. This will help us to understand if our IMC plan was successful and which promotions generated the most increase in sales. By evaluating this we will be able to better focus on where to allocate our advertising budget. Due to the fact that we are a new company we do not currently have the funds to hire focus groups and conduct concept testing so in the beginning we will primarily be focusing on inquiry tests and tracking sales. We will also be able to evaluate the breakeven rate by dividing our advertising investment with the result in follow up sales after promotions. This will allow us to understand how successful our advertising and promotions have been. To evaluate the success of our commercials and direct mail advertising we will monitor the inquiries and sales after commercials run and direct mailers are sent out. This will help us to understand if our commercials are resulting in the most amount of sales because they do receive the highest percent of our advertising budget or if we should focus elsewhere. For evaluating the success of our public relations program we will track inquiries and sales after our various PR events. We will also track how many people sign up to be on our email list while at our events. In order to track the success of our sales promotions we will track how many people use the coupons we have mailed out compared to the total amount of coupons produced. We will also measure the amount of rebates returned in comparison to how many were mailed out. To measure the success of bonus packs we offer we will track how many consumers opted for the bonus compared with how many were offered. The sweepstakes will be measured by how many people enter to win. By understanding this information we will be able to better allocate our funds on what result in the most continued sales. Our digital/internet marketing will be measured by the amount of likes, media buzz and hashtags that we will be able to track on our various social media sites. Twitter - Hashtags offer itemized content, by clicking on it we can see each tweet related to it and a snapshot of how our campaign is performing can be accessed in one click. Facebook - By using Facebook advertising to increase our “likes,” we can gain numerous followers and our posts will automatically appear on their Facebook news feed. As a result, more users will interact with our brand and conversions will increase. We will also monitor our Facebook contests by observing the amount of subscribers. Instagram - By tracking the amount of followers on our page, likes for specific photos and hashtags we will be able to evaluate how many people are interested in our products Blog - Google analytics will allow us to track our readers and blog traffic through clicks, popular topics, shares and comments. By adding this tool, we can see statistics for search engine optimizations and marketing purposes. Useful statistics such as bounce rate, visit duration, page goals, comments and other useful information such as pageviews by countries, browsers and operating systems. Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who navigate to another site after viewing one page. Visit duration shows the amount of time spent on our site. Page goals tracks the number of pages each visitor views before they leave. Comments are critical to our blog, as they present user experience and feedback. By viewing pageviews by countries we can see where our target market is located or restricted to. Pageviews by browsers shows which browser is favorite by our users. Lastly, pageviews by operating system shows us the devices our subscribers are using to access our site. 9. Conclusion StowaCycle is the best buying decision that anyone could make. Thinking of the convenience of the product as well as the features are the encouragement reasons that people take into consideration for buying our product. We will be holding events to introduce our product to people who don't know our product as well as people who's interesting to know more about the product. That could be a way to let consumers test the product and have a close look to it before making the final buying decision. In conclusion, we used several way to introduce our product as well as ways to advertising it. StowaCycle will had a separate Promotion and PR department that was responsible for advertising and sales promotions to attract and retain customers. Several ways and techniques was used in order to promote our product. Rebates, and discounts were ways to advertise our product and get more sales. Events, were a way to introduce the product as well as giving cupones out during the event to consumers as a way of encouragement to buy our product. The promotional program was used to attract more customers and attract sales. It was an affecting way of increasing sales by giving different type of discounts like coupons, rebates and free customization. Social media was highly used to promote our product as well. Twitter, was a way for people who bought our product to insert a picture of the StowaCycle with a hashtag sign so everyone can retweet or post a related pictures to the post. Facebook was another form of promoting. Consumers were able to post their pictures on the bike and post feedback about it and gets a lot of likes. Blog-google analytics was used as a way for us to track the readers and also track comments and likes posted by people who’s interesting in buying one or getting more information about the features of the bike.