Freaky Weasel - Marketing Plan

Executive Summary

The aim of this marketing plan is to overlook the re-launching of an already existing brand, ‘Freaky
Weasel’ from an events company, to a world-wide online clothing retailer and e-commerce website.

The aim is to allocate the correct marketing strategy campaign and set it in place considering the
types of promotion and advertising that can be done in the first two years of the new venture, in
order to create a sustainable competitive advantage for the brand and obtain the highest possible
revenue with which to keep the company fluid until the website becomes established.

This plan gives a look at the existing company, what its achievements are, but also focuses on its
targets and how these are to be reached; taking into account the customers, the competitors, and
the business environment at the present and future. Objectives both for marketing and finance are
laid down, and then methods of achieving these are investigated looking at the marketing mix for
Freaky Weasel, looking at strategy development and implementation and taking into account the
companies budget.

Background Situation

- Company Analysis
Freaky Weasel is a company based in Peterlee; a small town in County Durham, UK; which
provides entertainment to the youths in the local community via live music events held in
the East Durham Area.

The company began as ‘Sounds Alive,’ founded by students of East Durham College. It was a
small get together for locals with a love of music, hosted in a small room of the college.
After around 2 years of growth, seeing the original audience to the night change from
students to school age teenagers with an equal love for music, two of the founding
members left the company, which then became re-named and re-branded ‘Freaky Weasel,’
and other changes to the event then began to take place.

The event was designed to be one the one of the biggest music events in the local area,
succeeding to attract between 800 and 1000 youths and music lovers a month, the gigs
became more professional, and by January 2009, a new venue needed to be found when
EDC moved to a new premises, which did not have the capacity to hold the event’s followers
who continued to turn up in their droves each month. The age of attendees dropped to
younger teens, and further need for change to the event became apparent. By mid 2009 the
event re-located to Peterlee Leisure Centre where monthly events are still hosted, attracting
an audience of around 500 14 – 17year old (on average) teens each gig.

Subsequently to the success of Freaky Weasel, there became apparent demand for more
popular music events for those less interested in the bands, and hence the ‘Dance’ night,
‘Cathedral’ was born (first tested in 2008/9 then successfully relaunched in the summer
2010), with live dancers and upbeat popular music, attracting yet another crowd of youths
to the events under the Freaky Weasel brand. Cathedral attracted over 500 teens from the
East Durham area on its re-launch in 2010, the growth of the night is forecasted to be rapid
as word within social networking sites appears to be spreading fast rousing even more
interest amongst local youths.

Currently in 2010, the company is looking for expansion, aiming to create a nationwide
interest in the Freaky Weasel brand and selling the event structure and business model to
other venues around the UK, as a means of providing live music events to other
communities and passing on the original company values.

Another method of expanding the brand and creating wider customer interest, which will be
implemented first, this is a Freaky Weasel e-commerce site /online store in order to sell
products online to the current audience, but nationally and worldwide. This will be carried
out via ‘drop –shipping,’ which is a much safer method of entering a new market as it
imposes less risks in an unfamiliar market to the company. The reason for targeting the
clothing industry, is that it is a new expansion of the brand name and will allow it to be seen
and heard of in a market that may have completely dismissed it previously.

Current marketing for Freaky Weasel is done using the social networking websites,
Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Myspace, as well as the currently being developed and
about to expand: www.freakyweasel.co.uk. Other methods include posters – posted locally
around East Durham area, but more importantly, within the local schools where the target
market (14 – 17year olds) spend 5 days of their normal week, word of mouth amongst
attendees of the gigs themselves is also vital, hence each gig must be spot on to ensure
good feedback is obtained and the company receives ‘good press’. Local newspapers are
also given information regarding the events in order to reach potential customers who may
not see the other forms of advertising.

- Customer Analysis
The customers of Freaky Weasel are aged between 14 and 17 years, and attend schools in
and around Peterlee, East Durham. They all have an interest in music in common, be it the
rock/ pop feel of Freaky Weasel itself, or the Dance/ R’n’B vibes of the new sister night
Cathedral.
Freaky Weasel and Cathedral currently provide entertainment to an average of 400 – 600
youths per event.

Each attendee pays £5 per event, on the door, in exchange for entertainment from the DJ,
hired in bands, dance troops and to enjoy a general social event which is safely ran and
monitored with efficient security measures. There is nothing like this event in the local area
and this creates a value for the brand amongst its young customers.

- Competitor Analysis
In a sense, the company Freaky Weasel is very lucky as it is a one of a kind event within the
community where it is currently ran.

However, one competitor is a night called Projekt Sensation (‘Projekt’ for short) – a local
night, also held in the leisure centre where Freaky Weasel itself is held, however, it hosts to
an audience which is similar, and different to Freaky Weasel’s in many ways.

Projekt is also a music night, however, it focuses on a style known as ‘Rave’ and ‘MC’ing,
which in general attracts a much narrower fraction of the market. The night is charged on
the door at £3 per customer, which is cheaper than Freaky Weasel, however, there is a
difference in the age group targeted 11 – 18 as opposed to 14 - 17, and the attendance rate
seems erratic month to month, sometimes a handful of attendees and others up to around
100 – 150/ 200 attendees a month.

Other competition to Freaky Weasel could be gigs hosted in the local area if they target
under 18s, and school discos/ proms, however these are usually held on different nights to
those on which Freaky Weasel is held and do not seem to impose much of a problem.

- P. E. S. T. L. E. Analysis
A PESTLE analysis; this looks at the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and
Environmental aspects of a business; is a very useful way to understand the current
situation of Freaky Weasel as a company, this will be followed up with a SWOT analysis to
further assess the individual company’s situation.

Political – Freaky Weasel is funded by East Durham College, the company relies on this, and
therefore if pending government cuts that currently face the UK have an impact on the
spending of EDC then this may have a knock on impact on the business. However, currently,
this is only a threat, and may not occur.

Economic – Currently the growth of Freaky Weasel is steady, interest amongst year groups
at school becomes more rapid as they approach the age when they are eligible to attend the
events. Cathedral iws the newest event, this is expected to have a faster growth rate as the
‘band scene’ is dying out slightly lately and this hosts an event with a more popular music
choice in the current UK charts.

The door fee is £5 in order to attend the events, this has been the case for about 3 years, up
to now this has not been hit by inflation however economic change with the new
government could pose a threat to this and force the need to inflate the price – considering
the age of the current customers, this would need to be considered carefully before it could
be implemented..

Social – Freaky Weasel is an organised youth event and therefore has heady social
responsibility to maintain a good reputation within the local community. The event is
advertised within schools and therefore it must be ran responsibly to ensure there are no
ethical dilemmas.

Currently the night is ran in a safe environment with ample staff/ security staff to be held
accountable for the safety of the in-taken number of youths. The local police are kept
informed of the events and goings on, this keeps a good repertoire between the local
authorities and the school/ EDC and the event itself. The attendees themselves therefore
feel they are in a secure, fun place and their parents/ guardians can rest assured the events
are above-board and worth the £5 entry fee.

Students of EDC are given the opportunity to work at these events. This creates a value
amongst the college students as it gives them responsibility and a small paid job for each
event they work, which will be of use if they need a reference to work in the future, or just
to note work on their CVs.

Technological – Technologically, Freaky Weasel must be up to date with the current online
trends in social networking (which most school age youths aged 14 – 17 years use) in order
to target them in marketing campaigns, but also to allow them to interact online giving their
views and feelings about the events, and tagging themselves in videos and photos taken at
the events, giving them a sense of community/ participation before and after the gigs
themselves.

Legal – Freaky Weasel must keep up to date with legal policies and legislations regarding
working with 14 – 17year olds/ trading laws and regulations and live music regulations. Also,
regarding online advertising using social websites, the user terms and conditions must be
followed.

Environmental – Freaky Weasel events are held indoors and therefore do not generally
pollute the local environment with litter. For health and safety purposes, drinks are not
allowed to be brought into the venue, nor are drinks bought inside the venue allowed to be
taken outside and all rubbish collected after a gig – pop cans and bottles and sweet
wrappers etc are recycled and disposed in accordance with current government standards.
Noise pollution is also kept to a minimum and generally does not affect the area, the leisure
centre where the events are held is not situated near any housing areas/ or main points of
the town where any sound leakage would cause disturbance to the environment.

The gigs begin at 7pm and end promptly at 10pm, there is no music played for any
extenuated period of time before or after each event.

Attendees are asked to leave the premises with respect for the local town and inhabitants
whilst they make their way home. A police presence is also around after each event to make
sure the teenagers act accordingly.

New lighting equipment has recently been purchased that reduces the amount of power
used on lighting at each event by about 80%.

- SWOT Analysis
After PESTLE analysis that investigates the external environment of a business, a SWOT
analysis is vital to review the internal business environment, and then to derive a marketing
objective for the immediate/ future good of the company.

SWOT looks at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that currently face
Freaky weasel as a business.

Strengths

- Freaky Weasel’s main strength is that it is a one of a kind events company in the
East Durham area.
- The events have a strong and loyal following of 500+ teenagers each month.
- Facebook/ Myspace/ Twitter/ Youtube etc are very popular amongst youngsters
currently and having a huge following locally on these social networking sites
provides effective free marketing.
- Cathedral – new night with a new feel keeps the company fresh and up to date with
what youths currently want.

Weaknesses

- Shifting interests in the current music charts has resulted in a smaller following of
the original Freaky Weasel band night (this is currently being subsided by the new
night on the brand, Cathedral).
- Brand is only known locally within East Durham

Opportunities

- Opportunity for the events to be sold as a business model into other counties and
districts around the UK
 - Widening the brand name – invest into new ventures to get the name heard, music
now days is strongly linked with fashion? Is this a new advantage to target a new
market? So Freaky Weasel is a brand as well as a chain of local events
- Build new night Cathedral up to be as big as the original Freaky Weasel band events

Threats

- The possibility of other youth events being hosted locally (though currently there are
no known plans for this)
- Youth’s showing up to events drunk and being turned away – risk of the social
reputation being damaged/ any youths who get inside the events being under 14 – it
is difficult to monitor age so young as there is very limited ID available.

Objectives

Marketing Objective

Freaky Weasel’s key marketing objectives are:

To launch a marketing campaign to drive Freaky Weasel’s brand further , from a music
events company, to an e-commerce and online clothing store providing the best value
fashion labels and music products to customers , locally, nationally and internationally:
Therefore launching a laser-focused marketing campaign in a controllable and measurable
market that will drive customer's toward the company's website.

Also, to keep relations in the infrastructure for the fulfilment of Web-based sales, whilst
developing social applications combining social networking and ecommerce.

Financial Objective

In the initial set up phase, Freaky Weasel will need to generate will need to generate around
£1500 in revenue per year (from year two) in order to keep afloat. Andrew Rogers, the
founder of the company/ website manager needs also to be able to pay himself £1000 per
month, with the future opportunity to take on an administration employee (£500 per
month) once sales have started to generate at a higher rate monthly.
The aim is for the sales from the company to grow month on month, enough to cover
staffing costs and advertising costs.
Marketing Strategy

Target Market Segments

The first market segment targeted by ‘freakyweasel.co.uk’ (the online e-commerce clothing
store) will be males aged 16 – 40years. This market will be targeted as 16 is the minimum
age a customer can be to buy online for himself, and the range of products is suitable for up
to age around 40 years, the site currently stocks majoritily male clothing and accessories.

The website also stocks a lot of snow sports items and therefore another market segment
would be men and women of any age with an interest in snow sports.

The website will target females aged 16 – 40 once the new ranges come into stock as there
will be more female products available, however currently this is a small market for the
website.

Finally the parents of children ages 0 – 12 will also be targeted as accessories and clothing
for both boys and girls will be available for sale.

Music fans will also be targeted via the sales of music merchandise, i.e. band t-shirts,
memorabilia, etc.

The current market segments of freaky weasel are teenage male and females aged between 14
and 17, located in the East Durham area. The new market segments targeted still relate to the
music industry via music merchandising, however, the age groups and types of products also
available reach out to a brand new customer base, aiming to expand the brand image.

Differential Advantage

The one main advantage Freaky Wesel will have as an online e-commerce and sales site is
that the company runs as a drop-shipping site, this keeps the companies upfront running
costs down to a minimum. Also, because the drop-shipping is linked with larger companies,
they benefit from this as world-wide shipping is available with products. Currently in the
online shopping market, it is mainly larger retailers that ship worldwide, for a small
company this is a fair advantage over other small online retailers.

Marketing Mix

Product

- The products to be sold via freakyweasel.co.uk will be designer branded fashion and
snow sports items. They are of value to customers as they are genuine branded
 items all in original packaging/ with tags etc and are sold at the lowest possible
prices.

Price

- Products are sold at the lowest possible competitive prices. Online discounts and
promotions will be available to create further value to the customers.

Place

- Products are available to be distributed and shipped locally to the company,

nationally within the UK and word-wide.

Promotion

- Advertising will be done in several ways, products to be seen world-wide will be

placed on major online sales sites such as Amazon. The events that FW already host
will be used as a marketing tool to raise awareness of the new company direction
within the current brand following. Online adverts such as Google ads and Facebook
ads can be used, as well as affiliate programmes, blogs, forums, internet TV and if
enough revenue is obtained then there is a possibility to advertise in newspapers/ or
on radio.
- Marketing materials such as posters, flyers and news-letters, business cards, even
online adverts will be imperative in creating awareness of the brand.

People

- The site is currently ran by Andrew Rogers, who will be keeping people up to date
with the site and be in charge of the promotions and brand building for the
company.

Process

- The company will be run online and orders shipped to the delivery address provided
by each customer. Customer services (telephone and the physical shipping process)
are ran by the website provider as the online store is ran via drop-shipping method.

Physical (evidence)

- One form of physical evidence of the company is the website itself, however, for the
customers to perceive physical evidence, this will be via flyers at gigs, posters,
adverts, and of course on receiving a product shipped from the company and the
invoice with the product.
Strategy Implementation

The correct marketing strategy for www.freakyweasel.co.uk will be vital in order to attain a
competitive advantage in the online fashion (including music merch’ and snow sports attire/
accessories) retailing industry. In order to maintain the advantage created in the marketing
process, it is important that customer satisfaction will be at the heart of the project, and
that value is created in order for the customers to feel a desire to purchase the items from
the website itself; after all, creating a need and value amongst the consumers is the goal at
the end of the campaign, as well as obtaining enough revenue to keep the company afloat
(ideally profitable in time).

Target the teens that already attend the gigs via social networking advertising, and flyers/
posters at the events themselves. There could be a possibility of linking the website with the
events themselves via a sponsorship agreement.

Online advertising will be used on websites such as Facebook and Google to raise awareness
of the company and grasp enough customer interest to begin the generation of sales, as
well as attract new people to buy from the company.

Using affiliates to get advertising and sales is also an option, the more people interested in
promoting the business the better so a good percentage rate for each sale obtained by their
help is good to encourage affiliates to support the website. Freaky Weasel’s rate will be set
at 7% of each sale; this is believed to be a good competitive rate for a small company.

Keeping an eye on/ and feeding into internet blogs and forums relating to the products (i.e.
snow sports forums and blogs, fashion pages etc) and affiliate schemes of Freaky Weasel will
also be a way to get the company name spread.

Internet TV advertising, newspapers and radio will also be considered once some return has
been made on the company as these can target customers locally, nationally and also world-
wide, if they are situated in the right places at the right times, i.e. an advert for snow sports
attire via internet TV posted on a relevant website.

Budgeting

The marketing budget is planned to grow from £100 in November 2010 up to a forecasted £1000 by
December 2011, this will be possible by revenue gained over the year and the marketing campaigns
need to be well underway over the Christmas period as this is a key time in retail as customers spend
more on presents over the festive period.

Aside this the marketing budget will range between £500 to £1000 at different times of the year and
in accordance with market trends and promotions/ offers, etc.
Marketing Materials

Below are some examples of marketing materials used, and to be used by

www.freakyweasel.co.uk:

Online Banners

– Online banners would be used as a form of advertising. They would be placed carefully
online in forums/ used by advertisers/ on affiliate web-pages etc and clicked on in order
to go to the online store directly.

Above is Freaky Weasel’s current online banner. The aim of the banner is to create interest
for people browsing the internet, and hence the banner is attractive but simple and not
cluttered, showing some of the bigger name brands that are available for sale on the
website itself.

Business Cards

Above is a mock up (low resolution example) of a business card for Freaky Weasel’s online
clothing store. It is a very simple design and would be made to wallet size (the size of a
credit card). Again the font used is clear and legible, as well as the images are simple and of
a selection of the brands that the company has to offer.

The basic information to contact the company is available on the card, as well as the web
address to encourage people to go online and visit the store itself.

Business cards would be given to suppliers to the company, taken to events and given out,
and perhaps sent out with the products themselves alongside the order being received as an
encouragement to revisit the website. In cases where the customer is satisfied with their
purchase and the way the company has treat them, a repeat purchase would be a larger
possibility.

Newsletters + Flyers

- Newsletters are a great way of connecting with the customers and communicating to
them what is in stock, what is new to the company, what offers are available and
various other methods for marketing. The website will hopefully build a mailing list
of customers, and perhaps seasonally, monthly, etc, a newsletter could be sent out
to those the company has contact with, this could also go to potential stake holders
in the company.

The newsletter would be informal, and brief, but enough to snap the customers
attention to the current goings on of the company, as detailed above – promotions etc.

The format would be by email, and therefore it would be best to keep the look simple
and attractive, like the business card and online-banner shown above.

Many major clothing companies that retail online, i.e. River Island, Tesco and many
others use this method of communicating to their customers. Knowing it is a tried and
tested popular method, Freaky Weasel will be setting a newsletter in place.

- Flyers would be the same format as the newsletters, only a flat postcard size hand
out that could be taken to gigs/ events to promote offers and new product ranges
etc.

Posters

- As noted above, Freaky Weasel as an events company is looking to expand

nationwide (in time and with some well planned and thought out company
expansion), and this is where, in time, posters would come into play at getting the
brand noted at the events themselves as the posters would be being displayed on
the walls.
 Posters would have to be a little more eye catching than the online banners as they
would be displayed around an event where they would not necessarily be the key focus
of the night, in order for people to notice them, bright colours and the up to date images
of popular branded products ought to be used.

Posters are a popular example of advertising, and have been used in advertising almost
every Freaky Weasel event to date. An example of Freaky Weasel’s posters currently
used that have been effective is shown below – the poster used for the clothing website
promotion ought to be designed to a similar format (of course, for a completely different
cause).

(would be A3 size)

Facebook Advertisements

- Facebook adverts are a very current way of marketing and reaching a company’s
target customer segments. The content of Facebook Ads is created by the Facebook
account holder by using Facebook Ads wizard. Here you select the age, gender,
location and interests related to the customer segments you wish to target and
create an advert which will appear to only people with the characteristics that you
have selected.
A daily budget (money) is set and the user chooses what times and on what dates the
advert is to be run. An image can be used with the campaign that will appear on
Facebook.

This not only builds brand awareness but it is a way of generating some sales for the
company.

Below is an example (image) of a previous Facebook Ads campaign used by Freaky

Weasel to promote the launch of its sister night and Dance event, Cathedral.