Mr. Phillip Winter, the CEO and Co-founder of Nebia has just hired you to develop a marketing plan on how to penetrate UK market with Nebia’s innovative shower system. Details about Nebia shower system (functionality, features, design etc.,) can be found on www.nebia.com.

Nebia, originally an American company, has established its branch in the UK and has already licensed a manufacturer named QPS Ltd to produce shower systems for them. To make and deliver one shower system to their warehouse, QPS will charge Nebia £106. This price is expected to remain at the level for the output capacity of the QPS factory which is at the moment 300,000 shower units per year.

The UK based branch of Nebia rents offices and a warehouse in Oxford at a rate of £13,000 per calendar month. There are 18 members of staff at the moment - 12 sales representatives each salaried at £41,500 per year, 3 warehouse workers each salaried at £19,500 and 3 members of management board each salaried at £68,500 per year. So far Nebia, has invested a total of £175,000 in staff training, office equipment and customer relationship management software.

Nebia does not have its own distribution fleet. Indirect overheads are projected at £50,000 for the first year. Nebia does not own or rent any retail stores. Technical details aside, Nebia has high expectations from you. Your marketing plan and a proposed set of marketing actions should, upon their implementation, result in a positive financial result. It is also expected that Nebia becomes a well-known and highly reputable brand in the UK. Having this in mind, Mr Winter and his management board have many questions. In an email sent to you they say:

“We want to have a clear picture of UK shower market. We want to know what is the market potential with respect to shower systems? What are the opportunities and threats we should be aware of? Who are our competitors in the UK? What are their marketing strategies? How are they positioned? What is the attainable set of marketing objectives we should achieve in the first year? What different types of potential buyers/consumers for our product do exist? What are their characteristics? Which market segment(s) are most attractive for targeting? Why? How should we position our brand? How should we go about our marketing strategy given the identified circumstances? What pricing strategy should we apply and what price should we charge? What is the best way to distribute our shower systems? How to go about promotion? How much do we need to sell and at which price to achieve the break-even? What level of sales and projected net profit can we expect in the first year based on your plan? How to keep sales team motivated and willing to go an extra mile for each potential and actual client? What are the best ways to monitor and control implementation progress of your plan? How much of the marketing budget do you expect to use for the proposed marketing activities?”

The questions raised above should be answered in a form of thoroughly explored, well justified and carefully crafted marketing plan that will focus on the first year of Nebia’s business in the UK. Marketing plan has to be very concrete, has to contain up to date evidence and reliable sources, and exert a high level of market and customer understanding. The CEO has secured a generous marketing budget of £1,250,000 which you are allowed to use for marketing expenses given a sound justification. Being efficient with the entrusted budget will be highly appreciated and well rewarded. Mr. Phillip Winter and his management board are eager to learn from you.