This Marketing Plan was my final project for my Consumer Behavior class. All research, strategy, and discussion was conducted independently for this was an individual project! I was to build a business and create a marketing plan for it.
Introduction
As we all know, moving can be complicated. There is so much work to do when looking for a new job and a place to live- especially a safe place. If children are involved, finding schools is just an added hassle to find. Single parents have a difficult time working and raising children, and often, the idea of researching these locations can be pretty daunting. However, there is a solution. Changing Zip Codes is a woman-run business equipped with the resources to help you move your living location. Whether you are going through a divorce and you have no time to figure out the next step, or you want to pack up and move somewhere new, we are here to help take that level of stress off you. We are here to help you move and are here to help you start your life.
Changing Zip Codes is a service-based relocation business intended to help women jumpstart their lives in one way or another. The overarching principle of this business is to help women relocate after a significant event in their life; these events can include but are not limited to a divorce, a job loss, or a sudden need move. This business would be located in Atlanta, Georgia, to be a focal point for the Southeast region of the United States. This business would provide services for women who need help relocating to a new city or state. Our job, put simply, is to research. We at Changing Zip Codes pick up the hard work for our clients and helping them with the tasks they may not have the time or mental capacity for. While this company caters more towards women, we open our services to anyone who needs help. Our office will have trained professionals researching childcare services for single mothers in safe locations in their desired city. In addition to single mother help, we also are here to help recently divorced women who are now on their own, taking on the world in a way they are not quite used to yet. Our services will find these women apartments or houses for rent in their desired location and assist in their job search. Research shows that millennials are more willing to relocate than any other age group; in fact, company relocation group Graebal states, "Eighty-four percent [of millennials] are willing to relocate for a job, 72 percent domestically and 41 percent internationally" (Graebal, 2016). Because of that, we want to open as many doors as possible, so our company will also offer an international relocation package.
Each of these scenarios and ones not mentioned will follow a checklist of sorts that we at Changing Zip Codes will design ourselves. While we do not physically help our clients move from one place to another, we hope to get as many things together for them. By doing the research and planning for them, our clients have more time to focus on packing their stuff up and tying up any loose ends they may have in their current location. While other businesses help with relocation, Changing Zip Codes wants to serve individuals of all types. IMPACT Group is a relocation service for families and companies' employees who are in the wake of a company relocation. IMPACT is a group of coaches utilized by companies who are relocating their employees. This is where our business differs. We are a personal company to help individuals who seek our help independently. We are not partnered with any company; instead, we open our services to anyone off the street. If you are an individual seeking help from this group, you are met with the message reading, "IMPACT Group is a business-to-business organization providing corporations with talent solutions that move the business forward. Unfortunately, we do not offer retail job search services" (IMPACT Group, 2021). This is the gap that this company can fill. With our extensive research, moving for individuals or single-parent households can be easy.
Target Market
Changing Zip Codes is a service-oriented business hoping to provide relocation services to anyone who needs help; however, we try to gear our resources towards women who need help and are unsure how to relocate. Our office location will be in Atlanta, GA so that it is in optimal proximity to our target location: the Southeast region of the U.S. Our company will have an in-person physical location, but our primary mode of communication will be online. This method will provide the most interaction with clients outside of our office in Atlanta. Our services primarily cater to single parents, single women needing to move, recently divorced women, and women wanting to retire; however, our mission is to help anyone who needs our services.
After extensive research, we at Changing Zip Codes have labeled our target market as women between the ages of 25 and 39. This age range coincides with the previously mentioned millennial migration availability. This age group also falls within the highest age group for divorces. According to experts at Wilkinson and Finkbeiner Law Firm, "60% of all divorces involve individuals aged 25 to 39" (Wilkinson and Finkbeiner, 2020). By choosing this age range for our target market, we can reach both the average age for first marriage divorced women and millennials willing to relocate if it means a better job. This target market will allow us to market successfully to gain clients. While our expected client age is between 25 and 39, our business will also attract the 65 and up age group because we have the added package of retirement relocation. We chose to add this package because Florida is a high-traffic area for retirement relocation. In 2019, Florida had an influx of retirees into Florida of almost 85,000 people putting the state in the #1 spot for most incoming residents (Hill, 2019, para. 3).
Demographics
Our physical office, as mentioned before, will be in Atlanta, GA, where 39% of the city's population falls in the 25-39 age range (Census Reporter, 2019). Considering Atlanta's population size, which is 506,804 people, our target market will be almost 198,000 people. This percentage opens doors to all potential client groups mentioned at the end of the first paragraph on this page. Race and ethnicity will play no part in our target market because age range is the only demographic we can currently predict. We help all races, ethnicities, and nationalities. We are only choosing age for a demographic category because it is easier to measure and compare against other states.
Psychographics
According to Blue Virginia news source, "[In] Georgia, 14.11 people for every 1,000 married individuals are divorced" (2019). In addition to the high divorce rate, Georgia also holds the 5th highest percentage for single mothers in the U.S., which is yet another reason to make Georgia our home state for our company (Statista, 2019). According to Census data updated in May of 2020, "approximately 80.4% of [single] parents are mothers" and "40.6% are currently divorced or separated" (Wolf, 2020). If we apply that to our target market population size, that means we could reach 159,192 women.
All the numbers mentioned above lead us to believe we could be profitable in our business venture. These numbers are also specifically for our office in Atlanta, GA. We want to have a presence in the surrounding states of Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Florida will bring in revenue from the retirement package we will offer to women who want to relocate for retirement in one of the best states for this purpose. More information on this packet will be available in our product section.
Product
Changing Zip Codes' product is the planning service that our employees prepare for clients who are needing relocate for their specific purposes. Because every client is relocating for a different reason, we want to offer different bundles for different circumstances. We will have 4 packages for clients to choose from; however, within those packages there are customizable options. The different packages will be the following: The Retirement Package, The Single-Parent Package, The Individual Package, and The Pick Your Own Package. Excluding the Retirement Package, all of our packages will have a component that conducts a job search for our clients. This job search will be based on a questionnaire submitted by the client with a list of their capabilities and a resume. With this information, we will try our best to match up potential job prospects and send them to our clients to apply for themselves. The customizable option mentioned earlier comes into play here; if our client is not in need for a new job, they can choose to omit this component.
The Retirement Package will help plan precisely that. This package will provide clients with all the information needed when retiring to a new place. Depending on the client's desired location, we will configure a list of retirement communities in the area. We will provide options on the cheaper, mid-way, and more extravagant price range to show off all available options. We will ask our clients to fill out a questionnaire to gauge their desired community. The three main senior living communities are active adult communities, independent living communities, and assisted living residences (familydoctor.org, 2019). The difference between these and other communities is the available help on hand for any medical or need-based daily living assistance. Through the questionnaire, we will match up our clients with the living center they most desire. We will also provide information on trusted moving companies that can help our clients pack up their houses and move them to their new location.
The Single-Parent Package will benefit our single parents and their relocation for their various reasons for moving. As mentioned earlier, a job search will be conducted if needed for their desired location. Once we have the job nailed down, we will search for apartments/houses within 15 miles of the job. We will provide apartments/houses in a cheaper, mid-way, and more extravagant price range and present them to our client to choose. Our ideal living location for a single parent is 15 miles or less from their job, and 5-10 miles within a daycare facility if our client is in need of that component. We will also do our research to find safe and affordable daycare options for our single-parents so that they can rest assured their children are in good hands. If their children are within the K-12 school age range, we will research local schools that are of substantial educational quality and we will compare that with the job options as well. Another component we want to provide for single-parents and their children are counseling services in their new locations. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2015):
Frequent moves or even a single move can be especially hard on children and adolescents. Studies show children who move frequently are more likely to have problems at school. Moves are even more difficult if accompanied by other significant changes in the child's life, such as a death, divorce, loss of family income, or a need to change schools. (para.1)
We believe in making the relocation process as seamless as possible, and because of that we will conduct research to find credible and affordable counseling services for both parents and children. This package will match closest with our target market of divorced or single parents between the ages of 24 and 39; we expect to make our main source of revenue from this package.
The Individual Package option is catered to our independent, busy working adults in need of a relocation, who have zero time to plan for it. Like other packages, we will search for housing in cheaper, mid-way, and extravagant pricing that will best suit their needs and income. An additional component of this package will include access to a Facebook page created by our company that can provide connections to people in their desired area. This will hopefully dimmish a small amount of dread that can sometimes be associated with moving to a new place alone. This group can be a source of potential roommates or friends for anyone in need of that service. We will also find the best cities to live in for the client's desired state. More specifically, we will look at the local day and nightlife to see what activities and events occur in the area. As always, we can research any further aspects of their move they may be interested in. We will provide contacts for trusted, and reliable moving companies who can help individuals moving if requested.
The Pick Your Own Package will be our "à la carte" option for our clients. These components will be individually priced for individual services. If the client has everything covered except for a good school for their children, we can provide that service outside of the Single-Parent Package. If our clients need government assistance for any reason, we can do research to figure out what they are eligible for and what they need to do in order to get help. If our clients have specific requests that are not in the pre-made packages, we will do our best to satisfy any requests they have as long as it falls within our expertise.
Place
Our chosen physical location is in Atlanta, GA; however, as mentioned previously we will utilize the internet for the majority of our business and as our main servicescape. We chose this option to reach as many clients in the southeast region as possible. Clients in proximity to our office will have the opportunity to visit us in person or can interact with us strictly via website, teleconferences, or email. By extending our reach to surrounding states, we can optimize our services and reach more clients who need our help. Our storefront will be located in the heart of the business sector of Atlanta, GA and it will be big enough to encompass three employees and their office spaces. We will operate during the hours of 9 am to 6 pm, and we will be open Monday-Friday. We can hold teleconferences on Saturday by appointment only, and those sessions will be priced individually. Our aspirations for the future are to have an office in each region of the United States; however, we want to start small and service just one region until we get our business afloat.
Price
Our pricing strategy will be two-fold: we will charge hourly, and per service. Our hourly charge will be utilized mostly for our packages which will include multiple meetings or correspondence with clients. Any clients who choose our "à la carte" option will be charged based on the service they request. Simple services such as providing a reliable moving company will run on the cheaper side; whereas, more time consuming services such as researching jobs for a client will run on the pricier side. With that being said, our individual services will range in price from $40-$200. Our packages will range from $250-550. And an hourly charge will be charged based on how many meetings we have to discuss client's preferences. With these prices and our overhead startup costs, we expect to breakeven within the first year and a half of operation.
Promotion
Our promotion strategy will focus on advertising on various social media platforms as well as television and billboard advertisements. We also plan to put brochures describing our company and our services in local law firm, counseling, doctor, and career service offices. Our main advertising source will be through social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. According to Chron column writer Ruth Altman, "Over 80 percent of young adults use social media" and more specifically, "paid search, such as search engine optimization or pay-per-click, Facebook ads and email marketing are all effective ways to reach an audience 18-49" (para. 2, n.d). By utilizing these advertising outlets, we will reach our target market in multiple ways. Our billboard ads will specifically reach our 9-5 job client because they will probably drive on the highway or interstate at least 3 times a week on the way to and from work. To start, we will most likely partner with an advertising agency to get our name into the business world. Once we have a presence in Atlanta and offices in surrounding states, we will eventually hire on a marketing specialist to have our own in-house marketing and advertising department.
References
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