Implementation Evaluation Control

The implementation of how this site will come alive is by me and only me. I will be the coding end and the business end of the operation. If you dont need anyone else to do a job just do it yourself. Soon I will find someone to be my partner but for ownership reasons I will hold majority for I am the creator and founder of this project. Like the book says on printed page 50, "To find the best marketing strategy and mix, the company engages in marketing analysis, planning, implementation, and control." The way that we will be viewed as a credible source of information is after we have received funding from the angel and get our 5,000 users from around the nation. From Kotler & Sons "Implementation addresses the who, where, when, and how." So by doing so it will be tricky to get everyone to jump on this bandwagon, not everyone wants to talk about their lives openly in front of people and I have to be understanding when doing so. 

Price

The price for my product is totally 100% free. Throughout all of this their isn't a doubt in my mind that would think otherwise, this site is to only help people. If people want to donate to the cause then they do on their own. We will never put a price on this, it would be very wrong to do so. To prove how important price is to us and everyone else, read this from the printed page 13 "The major marketing mix tools are classified into four broad groups, called the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. To deliver on its value proposition". Price is important to us, so important we made it free. From printed page 79 "Rather than offering high quality at a high price, or lesser quality at very low prices, marketers in all industries are looking for ways to offer today’s more financially cautious buyers greater value—just the right combination of product quality and good service at a fair price." Even though it is free we strive to make sure the value you will receive is the same value that mercedes benz offers to their customers when they sell their cars. 

Promotion

From the printed page 11 from the book, is the definition of how consumers feel about products and promotions "The idea that consumers will not buy enough of the firm’s products unless it undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort." The way that this site is going to promote itself is by getting an angel investor to invest $50,000 in the company. After doing so me and some others from the team will travel the county to mainly retirement homes and any other organization that can provide us with users. Like I said before, everyone is the target audience. The plan is to find atleast 100 people from each state to make an account, after all that is done we will have 5,000 users that will making posts and telling their friends about this. Each person probably has a Facebook and twitter so it will be very easy after this point to get our website going. On printed page 11 "The selling concept takes an inside-out perspective. It starts with the factory, focuses on the company’s existing products, and calls for heavy selling and promotion to obtain profitable sales." Basically to say the website will be our factory and we will have workers working day in and day out to make sure that everything being posted is safe and enjoyable for everyone else. 

Distribution

From the book of printed page 10 "The production concept holds that consumers will favor products that are available and highly affordable. Therefore, management should focus on improving production and distribution efficiency." With that being said the distribution will be very simple but extremely important for this because its a website, all you need is internet to go on so theirs no need to go to a grocery store and pick this up. Why its so important is because someone can go to any website that they can join for free, this will be the best one offering the best value. Sometimes people have this idea that free is a bad thing so making sure that the value is top priority. In the book on printed page 46 "making more sales without changing its original product. It can spur growth through marketing mix improvements—adjustments to its product design, advertising, pricing, and distribution efforts." I like this concept because I never plan to change the price of this but I do plan to accurately weigh sales and accounts on the same level.  

Product

Like many businesses that produce products for consumers I will not follow what the printed page 7 says in the book "The mistake of paying more attention to the specific products a company offers than to the benefits and experiences produced by these products". The product that ThisIsLife.com is offering is a safe, free social networking site for people to channel their emotions and life stories. Its the satisfaction that people will feel when they are on this site, to be able to go through and read about peoples lives and experiences that have changed the lives of thousands. If people choose they can buy ThisIsLife.com merchandise and 20% of the money will be donated to organizations that help kids get through depression. I can only make it a mission that people choose my product other then others because of the value that they will receive when on this site, "Consumers usually face a broad array of products and services that might satisfy a given need. How do they choose among these many market offerings?"

Target Market Strategy

For its ThisIsLife.com their is a wide variety of who is involved in the target market because everyone has a life story and like the book says on printed page 9 "The company must first decide who it will serve. It does this by dividing the market into segments of customers (market segmentation) and selecting which segments it will go after" . To be exact on who would be in the category of target market it would have to be the elderly. Even though a lot of the elderly isn't computer savvy as the young generation I still have faith they will find a way to be able to do this. I would say the depressed is a target audience but that would be wrong to say, I can only hope that people are sad come to my site to channel their emotions. Now because its hard to truly go after everyone it will be a challenge, and like the book says on printed page 9 "By trying to serve all customers, they may not serve any customers well. Instead, the company wants to select only customers that it can serve well and profitably." I will make it my mission to make sure everyone wants to be on my site. 

Situation or SWOT Analysis

Like any good marketing analysis this is ThisIsLife.com SWOT analysis, and by definition in the book printed page 55 "Managing the marketing function begins with a complete analysis of the company’s situation. The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis, by which it evaluates the company’s overall strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T)" We will follow those exact steps to be successful. 
Strengths
         - A positive format that allows people to make accounts and start channeling their feelings of anger, sadness, or any confusing feelings in a environment where you will feel comfortable and safe.
         - Be able to tell your life story in writing in a easy and fun way

Weaknesses 
        - The weaknesses for the project would be that people feel that they dont trust it
"Weaknesses include internal limitations and negative situational factors that may interfere with the company’s performance."
Opportunities
        - Being the best social network online
        - a safe alternative to cure depression instead of medication
"Opportunities are favorable factors or trends in the external environment that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage"
Threats
        - Having a cyber bully threaten any of the users
        - Having someone commit suicide because of someone being mean on the site
"Threats are unfavorable external factors or trends that may present challenges to performance"

Objectives

With every idea that is coming out for how to make a difference its easy to come up with a major idea that can do all that and more. From Kotler & Sons"Broad mission leads to a hierarchy of objectives, including business objectives and marketing objectives"The main objectives of ThisIsLife.com is to do exactly what the project is, make a difference in someones life. I've seen a lot of my close friends and even myself go through this and when you're at a low where nothing seems fun anymore, you need help. No one on this entire planet should feel this way and thats one of the main objectives of this site. The goal of this is to be able to let users channel their bad energy out in words and let people that are going through very similar things read and tell you how they are getting through this. I know that when i was going through depression it was hard for me to be able to talk about it because I was blind to think that other people might be going through the same thing. Another objective is to allow people talk about experiences of their life. Mainly for the elderly because their voice is rarely heard now a days and it shouldn't be that way. In the textbook of Kotler & Sons "This mission is then turned into detailed supporting objectives that guide the whole company" My uncle told me that when ever a elderly person tells you about their life, grab a pen and paper so you always remember what they said. I took that to heart and thats what drives me whenever I have the chance to talk about life with someone. Everyones life is important and deserves to be heard.

Business Mission Statement

In August 2012 I, Ryne Colquitt created ThisIsLife.com. From the textbook printed page 41"Mission statements should be meaningful and specific yet motivating. They should emphasize the company’s strengths in the marketplace. Too often, mission statements are written for public relations purposes and lack specific, workable guidelines" Our mission statement will serve to be on the same guidelines. This site is a different kind of social network and can be best described as the new way to get your life story told for a much larger audience then your family. The characteristics of the site is that for a more enjoyable experience only the people that want to read about your life are going to be the ones reading it. Our target audience are people from any age, but focused more upon the elderly because their voice is rarely heard now a days. For the workers of this site, we will make it our mission to make sure everyone that posts is comfortable when they are on the site, people that include themselves with bullying will have their account terminated as soon as possible. Users on ThisIsLife.com will also be able to post about incidents that have affected their life in a positive/negative way, the intention is that when the user posts they will feel less alone and know that other people are affected by almost the same things. ThisIsLife.com does not intend on focusing energy on making a profit, like the textbook says on printed page 41 " a company’s mission should not be stated as making more sales or profits—profits are only a reward for creating value for customers". ThisIsLife focuses more on the guidelines of allowing people to be more open with their lives in a comfortable environment. 

Week Seven EOC: The Pitch

My pitch idea is a Social network for everyday lives mainly focused towards the elderly to enjoy. The concept is for people to stay more connected with life situations. For the elderly they will be able to tell their life story more fluently and be more comfortable saying it. Getting their full meaning of life out their for people to read and enjoy. On your account you will be able to see how many views and comments people have made on your story. Now for terrible life experiences like 9/11, a loss of a family member, or anything that changed your life,  the site will be a able to track key words from your post and put you into a group of other people that have been through either the same thing or something very close to it. For the users they will make postings by logging into the account and making the posting, now to make sure that everyone is being honest the users will have to agree to the terms of use, basically saying that we would hope for you to tell the truth and certifying everything you state is about your life. Now that everyone on the site feels more comfortable and knows that their not alone in life we can make sure to decrease the percentage of depression or even the amount of suicides. In today's society their are many bullies on the internet, and on this site only the people that want to be their will make an account and talk freely how they choose. How I will receive funding is contacting a retirement home and talking about my idea and to see if they would back my business.