IMPORT/EXPORT MARKETING PLAN:

"Exporting a unique product to a foreign market or importing a unique product from a foreign market"

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Introduction: Why This Company Should Export or Import

Business Description

Business Goals/Mission

Geographical markets

Part I - Situation/Background Analysis

Product or Service

Operations

Personnel and Export/Import Organization & Management team

Part II - Marketing Component

Identifying, Evaluating, and Selecting Target Markets

Market Needs and Trends

SWOT Analysis

Marketing Mix

Market Conditions and Barriers

Distribution Methods

Import/Export Logistics (How do you expect to handle the functions of packaging, insurance, shipping, documentation and so forth)

Sales Goals

Part III - Controls

Implementation Schedule / action plan

Difficulties and Risks

Part IV Supporting Documents

Documents that will establish the information in your plan is correct or that will be useful to the reader, for example: Pictures and information about your product, research, graphs, paper articles, videos, etc. Please make sure that pictures or photos are appropriate for classroom environment.

You can also create a flyer promoting your product. You can make it in both English and foreign language. Here is an example about a company importing Children's costumes from China

I added the screen shots. Please follow the instructions. this is all the information that I have. please help me with this project.

Operations: Flora and Fauna intends to import from partner factories in China experienced in exporting soft goods and children's toys to the West. Many of these factories, such as Dolphine, are already compliant with U.S. Product Safety Commissions requirements. Organization: In the beginning, Flora and Fauna would employ the owner/entrepreneur, plus two employees. Renting a small office space, approximatley 1,000-2,000 square feet, would be necessary, and hopefully, enough for a couple of desks, chairs, work tables, office equipment, and initial inventory. The owner can perform procurement and marketing, and the employees can handle digital marketing and website maintenance. Tasks such as product development, sales inquiries, shipping/receiving (UPS), would be shared by all. The team would have to be flexible to travel to trade shows, and be adept at wearing multiple hats until we hit our stride. During high season (the months leading up to Halloween) Flora \& Fauna will hire temp workers to expedite shippments to our customers. Distribution: This year 35% of Halloween shoppers purchased their goods online and 29% from brick and mortar stores. Flora \& Fauna intends to reach retailers through the tradeshows circuit, exhibiting in toy and gift shows. We will also sell through our own website, advertising heavily to optimize searches. Print catalogues would be costlier to produce, but could be a future channel to pursue. Logistics: The factories package the completed costumes in a poly bag, then boxed 10-20 per carton. When the product is ready for export, shipping can go UPS (air) from the factory for small parcel orders. Shipments can go seafreight scheduled with a freight forwarder if more than 8 cartons. Our freight forwarder would handle the insurance and customs paperwork on our behalf. Pop culture plays heavily each year, with the most popular characters from movie studio heroes. However, animal themes are consistent choices in the 3 size categories, year after year. Below is the NRF's list of 2015 costume trends. SWOT Analysis Weaknesses: Withtransportationcostsfromtheporttomyoffice,maybeanadditional$450500.-Costoffreight-canbesubstantial.A20containerwillrunme$1000. Executive Summary : Flora and Fauna Costumes Flora and Fauna Costumes is a line of costumes, focusing on animal and nature themes for children. Halloween is an $8.48 billion industry. During the season, sales spike beginning in September and peak during Halloween week, with 60% of sales taking place within the month before. Flora and Fauna seeks to fill a niche demand for high quality animal themes, a Halloween staple. Apart from the Halloween season though, the costume industry is also driven by imaginative cosplay and the longing to become someone or something else. Costumes afford children the opportunity to be whatever they want to be. Dress-up play takes place year-round, so this is where the costume segment overlaps with the toy industry, and where Flora and Fauna sees opportunity to grow its brand. Introduction Description: Flora and Fauna Costumes imports quality constructed costumes for Halloween and year-round dress up play. We are focusing heavily on nature and animal themes initially, with the intention to expand our offerings in the future. We purchase ready-made designs (private label), as well as, manufactures original designs from overseas factories. Mission: Our mission is to provide exclusive and playful designs of high quality costumes for year round consumption, and heavy seasonal demand in October, while steadily growing our brand through B2B and B2C channels. Market: The geographical region is the entire U.S. market (to start), with a target of families with young children, aged 3-10. Large segments of the population who is childless, or have pets, also spend billions on costumes for themselves or their cats and dogs. Realizing this, our growth Pt 2-Marketing Component Target Market: U.S. families with young children, parents, grandparents, giftshop, toy and costume retailers. Geographic region is all of the U.S. Trends/Market Conditions: Seasonal--Each year (since the Recession), Halloween spending keeps climbing up. This year it is estimated that Americans spent $8.48 billion on Halloween on costumes, candy, decorations. This is due to the increase in consumer confidence, the lower price of gasoline, and the affordability of Halloween, as compared to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of this spending, approximately 36% of it is on costumes alone (about $3.13 billion)! Non-seasonal--In the $22 billion toy industry, dress up and role play is the second fastest growing category (after building toys). Oddly though, the toy industry does not provide sales numbers for costumes; one is led to believe that the sales figures for Halloween costumes include year-round dress up. Also trending in children's dress up is gender neutral roles, where an animal is just that, and does not have to be female nor male. Needs: In order to outlast year-round dress play, Flora \& Fauna costumes need to have quality workmanship, combined with durable material. A visit to the factories would be necessary in the beginning to stress this point and to advise on QA standards. Barriers: As with any entrepreneurial venture, competition is a barrier. And there are many. Flora \& Fauna's main competition would be Chasing Fireflies, a high-end direct-to-consumer company of children's clothing, with a huge Halloween selection. Chasing Fireflies sells through its Pt 3 -Controls Schedule/Action Plan: We opened the business with a small inventory to show as samples, and to fulfill early orders of product. We had a full size run of each style. This is what we would take to trade shows. Our trade show schedule would start at the beginning of the year, and would be hectic. There is a gift shows somewhere every month year-round, and theme specific, but the really important ones are the toy trade show, which takes place in March, and the Halloween expo, which takes place in January. These are mandatory for us to exhibit in, where we expect to write orders. With the orders written at these shows, we will place orders with our factories for delivery dates planned to arrive before the customers' delivery dates. We will also be working hard to develop our digital marketing campaign with a video uploaded to our website. Hiring a social media influencer later on would not be out of the question either. Difficulty/Risk: The factories not making our deadline would be the most obvious difficulty. We will have to monitor their progress and manage our relationships. The incoming administration is also very anti-trade and protectionist. This may be a difficulty if relations with China change, and they decide to assess import duties on this category, which currently has no MFN (most favored nation). Lastly, not getting paid by our customers, which affects our ability to pay our suppliers is a risk too. We will have to conduct a credit check on our wholesale accounts before they can do In looking at Chasing Fireflies' start, they projected $10 million in sales by their 5th year. They actually reached $10 million at the end of their first year! At a starting price of $40 each, Flora & Fauna would need to sell 5,888 units a year to break even. Our modest projection is to sell 7,500 units in the first year, with Halloween season peaking at 4,500-5,000 units. Marketing Mix Product Pt I-Situation/Background Analysis According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent $3.13 billion on costumes this year. Of this, $1.17 billion was spent on children's costumes, with an average of $30 each. $30 seems reasonable for a costume that is intended to be worn for just one or two occasions for the season, but most are made of thin, flimsy fabric that does not hold up if the child wants to wear it beyond Halloween. Pop culture plays heavily each year, with the most popular characters from movie studio heroes. However, animal themes are consistent choices in the 3 size categories, year after year. Below is the NRF's list of 2015 costume trends. Operations: Flora and Fauna intends to import from partner factories in China experienced in exporting soft goods and children's toys to the West. Many of these factories, such as Dolphine, are already compliant with U.S. Product Safety Commissions requirements. Organization: In the beginning, Flora and Fauna would employ the owner/entrepreneur, plus two employees. Renting a small office space, approximatley 1,000-2,000 square feet, would be necessary, and hopefully, enough for a couple of desks, chairs, work tables, office equipment, and initial inventory. The owner can perform procurement and marketing, and the employees can handle digital marketing and website maintenance. Tasks such as product development, sales inquiries, shipping/receiving (UPS), would be shared by all. The team would have to be flexible to travel to trade shows, and be adept at wearing multiple hats until we hit our stride. During high season (the months leading up to Halloween) Flora \& Fauna will hire temp workers to expedite shippments to our customers. Distribution: This year 35% of Halloween shoppers purchased their goods online and 29% from brick and mortar stores. Flora \& Fauna intends to reach retailers through the tradeshows circuit, exhibiting in toy and gift shows. We will also sell through our own website, advertising heavily to optimize searches. Print catalogues would be costlier to produce, but could be a future channel to pursue. Logistics: The factories package the completed costumes in a poly bag, then boxed 10-20 per carton. When the product is ready for export, shipping can go UPS (air) from the factory for small parcel orders. Shipments can go seafreight scheduled with a freight forwarder if more than 8 cartons. Our freight forwarder would handle the insurance and customs paperwork on our behalf. Pop culture plays heavily each year, with the most popular characters from movie studio heroes. However, animal themes are consistent choices in the 3 size categories, year after year. Below is the NRF's list of 2015 costume trends. SWOT Analysis Weaknesses: Withtransportationcostsfromtheporttomyoffice,maybeanadditional$450500.-Costoffreight-canbesubstantial.A20containerwillrunme$1000. Executive Summary : Flora and Fauna Costumes Flora and Fauna Costumes is a line of costumes, focusing on animal and nature themes for children. Halloween is an $8.48 billion industry. During the season, sales spike beginning in September and peak during Halloween week, with 60% of sales taking place within the month before. Flora and Fauna seeks to fill a niche demand for high quality animal themes, a Halloween staple. Apart from the Halloween season though, the costume industry is also driven by imaginative cosplay and the longing to become someone or something else. Costumes afford children the opportunity to be whatever they want to be. Dress-up play takes place year-round, so this is where the costume segment overlaps with the toy industry, and where Flora and Fauna sees opportunity to grow its brand. Introduction Description: Flora and Fauna Costumes imports quality constructed costumes for Halloween and year-round dress up play. We are focusing heavily on nature and animal themes initially, with the intention to expand our offerings in the future. We purchase ready-made designs (private label), as well as, manufactures original designs from overseas factories. Mission: Our mission is to provide exclusive and playful designs of high quality costumes for year round consumption, and heavy seasonal demand in October, while steadily growing our brand through B2B and B2C channels. Market: The geographical region is the entire U.S. market (to start), with a target of families with young children, aged 3-10. Large segments of the population who is childless, or have pets, also spend billions on costumes for themselves or their cats and dogs. Realizing this, our growth Pt 2-Marketing Component Target Market: U.S. families with young children, parents, grandparents, giftshop, toy and costume retailers. Geographic region is all of the U.S. Trends/Market Conditions: Seasonal--Each year (since the Recession), Halloween spending keeps climbing up. This year it is estimated that Americans spent $8.48 billion on Halloween on costumes, candy, decorations. This is due to the increase in consumer confidence, the lower price of gasoline, and the affordability of Halloween, as compared to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of this spending, approximately 36% of it is on costumes alone (about $3.13 billion)! Non-seasonal--In the $22 billion toy industry, dress up and role play is the second fastest growing category (after building toys). Oddly though, the toy industry does not provide sales numbers for costumes; one is led to believe that the sales figures for Halloween costumes include year-round dress up. Also trending in children's dress up is gender neutral roles, where an animal is just that, and does not have to be female nor male. Needs: In order to outlast year-round dress play, Flora \& Fauna costumes need to have quality workmanship, combined with durable material. A visit to the factories would be necessary in the beginning to stress this point and to advise on QA standards. Barriers: As with any entrepreneurial venture, competition is a barrier. And there are many. Flora \& Fauna's main competition would be Chasing Fireflies, a high-end direct-to-consumer company of children's clothing, with a huge Halloween selection. Chasing Fireflies sells through its Pt 3 -Controls Schedule/Action Plan: We opened the business with a small inventory to show as samples, and to fulfill early orders of product. We had a full size run of each style. This is what we would take to trade shows. Our trade show schedule would start at the beginning of the year, and would be hectic. There is a gift shows somewhere every month year-round, and theme specific, but the really important ones are the toy trade show, which takes place in March, and the Halloween expo, which takes place in January. These are mandatory for us to exhibit in, where we expect to write orders. With the orders written at these shows, we will place orders with our factories for delivery dates planned to arrive before the customers' delivery dates. We will also be working hard to develop our digital marketing campaign with a video uploaded to our website. Hiring a social media influencer later on would not be out of the question either. Difficulty/Risk: The factories not making our deadline would be the most obvious difficulty. We will have to monitor their progress and manage our relationships. The incoming administration is also very anti-trade and protectionist. This may be a difficulty if relations with China change, and they decide to assess import duties on this category, which currently has no MFN (most favored nation). Lastly, not getting paid by our customers, which affects our ability to pay our suppliers is a risk too. We will have to conduct a credit check on our wholesale accounts before they can do In looking at Chasing Fireflies' start, they projected $10 million in sales by their 5th year. They actually reached $10 million at the end of their first year! At a starting price of $40 each, Flora & Fauna would need to sell 5,888 units a year to break even. Our modest projection is to sell 7,500 units in the first year, with Halloween season peaking at 4,500-5,000 units. Marketing Mix Product Pt I-Situation/Background Analysis According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent $3.13 billion on costumes this year. Of this, $1.17 billion was spent on children's costumes, with an average of $30 each. $30 seems reasonable for a costume that is intended to be worn for just one or two occasions for the season, but most are made of thin, flimsy fabric that does not hold up if the child wants to wear it beyond Halloween. Pop culture plays heavily each year, with the most popular characters from movie studio heroes. However, animal themes are consistent choices in the 3 size categories, year after year. Below is the NRF's list of 2015 costume trends