Strategies in Business Plan

Marketing Strategies
Positioning

PDAware will initially be positioned as the premier product for project managers in the IT industries. Our strategy is to build a strong loyalty within this key market before moving on to the phase two and three markets. The product will be promoted as the most technologically advanced on the market, and the use of wireless technology will be key to achieving this image.

Pricing
The product will be priced in line with the other leading products. A pricing chart listing leading competitors' products along with PDAware is below.

Promotion
We will begin promoting PDAware to the IT market through several avenues. These include:
Special IT and Project Management Conference sponsorships and demonstrations
Direct mail campaigns
Print advertising campaigns
Email and web promotional campaigns

Supplemental to these efforts will be development of the company web site, development of supporting print and electronic literature and multi-media presentations.

PDAware will be promoted heavily at the 2001 National Project Managers' Professional Development Conference in July, to begin to build product awareness in the overall project management market. A special open invitation session and cocktail reception will be held at the end of day two of the conference to introduce and demonstrate the product, focusing on it's PDA link and its benefits. Demo CDs will be placed in each attendee's seat prior to the session. This promotion will act as a practice run for two national IT conferences held in August and October of 2009 where a similar special session, demonstration, and reception will be held. While the goal of these sessions is to build brand awareness, ordering opportunities will also be available during and after conferences.

A direct mail campaign will begin immediately following the October IT conference with special time-limited pricing discounts for those on the mailing list who also attended the special demo sessions.

Print advertising campaigns will begin in July with prominent placement in the show programs, as well as in publications that will be available at the conferences. This campaign will be continue through January of 2010.

Email and web campaigns will also begin in July, with email announcements sent out to the pre-registered conference attendees notifying them of the special PDAware session and reception. A link to the PDAware web site will be included. The site will include a Flash demonstration of the PDAware concept for "successful project management." The site will not limit its audience to the IT market.

Distribution
The product will be initially sold through our direct sales force and company web site then gradually introduced into key software retail chains and direct mail catalogs beginning in May.

It will be available introduced into retail outlets where PDAs are sold in July.

Negotiations are also under way with the Project Management Institute to offer the product to their members at a slightly discounted price through both their website and other membership publications.


Sales Strategies
Our sales strategy is oriented toward the idea of arming the sales force with information so they completely understand both the product and the market and can hit the ground running. We will also be using the project management software within our own company, so the sales staff will have first hand knowledge of the product.

Our sales team (initially three representatives and a sales manager) will be divided by geographic territory and will be on a base salary plus commission structure. They will each go through two week-long training sessions on basic project management, as well as a week-long training session on project management needs in the IT field. (Led by a leading IT project manager.)

Special product training will also be done for retail merchants.

Sales Forecasts
We are forecasting the following sales for the first twelve months.

Strategic Alliances
PDAware has strategically aligned itself with the Project Management Institute to be the software vendor of choice for their members. The product will be offered to members at 35% off the retail price from August 2009 through December of 2009.

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