IN REFERENCE TO PREPARING A MARKETING PLAN FOR

A STARTUP BUSINESS THAT IS FACING CHALLENGES

MARKETING MANAGEMENT MODULE

BY: JUDITH KIFFOLA

EMAIL: [email protected]
COUNTRY: UGANDA

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Table of Contents
BUSINESS AUDIT....................................................................................................................................1
BLACK DRIP UGANDA......................................................................................................................1
Internal Audit........................................................................................................................................1
Product Life Cycle Questions...............................................................................................................1
Political Factors.....................................................................................................................................1
Economic Factors..................................................................................................................................2
Socio-cultural factors............................................................................................................................2
Technological Factors............................................................................................................................3
Competitive Analysis.............................................................................................................................3
Segmentation..........................................................................................................................................4
Product strategy.....................................................................................................................................4
Place (channel) Strategy........................................................................................................................5
Price Strategy.........................................................................................................................................5
Promotion Strategy...............................................................................................................................6
Strength Analysis...................................................................................................................................6
Weakness Analysis.................................................................................................................................7
Opportunities.........................................................................................................................................7
Threats...................................................................................................................................................7
Marketing objectives.............................................................................................................................7
MARKETING PLAN..............................................................................................................................10
Business Situation................................................................................................................................11
Vision....................................................................................................................................................11
Mission.................................................................................................................................................11
Objectives.............................................................................................................................................12
Keys to Success....................................................................................................................................12
OUR MARKET BUDGET..................................................................................................................12

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PRODUCTS.........................................................................................................................................13
Inventory..........................................................................................................................................13
MARKET.............................................................................................................................................14
Target Market..................................................................................................................................14
Advertising and Promotional Strategy...........................................................................................15
Industry Analysis and Trends.........................................................................................................16
Competition and Buying patterns..................................................................................................16
SWOT ANALYSIS..........................................................................................................................16
STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION.........................................................................................17
Philosophy........................................................................................................................................17
Internet strategy..............................................................................................................................17
Marketing Strategy..........................................................................................................................18
Sales Strategy...................................................................................................................................18
FINANCIAL PLAN.............................................................................................................................20
Income statement projections.........................................................................................................20
Cash Flow Projections.....................................................................................................................20
ASSUMPTIONS..................................................................................................................................20

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 BUSINESS AUDIT
The means by which the company can identify its own strength and weaknesses as they relate to
opportunities and threats. Below is the startup business we are looking at;
BLACK DRIP UGANDA
It’s a retail business located in kansanga, along Ggaba road Kampala Uganda. It deals mainly in
men’s clothes (t-shirts, shirts, sweater shirts, two piece outfits, sweatpants, jean trousers, khaki
trousers, plain trousers, suits, jean jackets, sweaters, labeled jackets, caps, boxers, shoes, shorts,
belts, blazers,). It has been running for a five months and has been finding it difficult to start
seeing profits.
Internal Audit
There is a high level of growth in the product market since there are always new trends coming
up and the demand is high from the customers, making the competition to also be high. In order
to be different from the others, the business decided to have almost all men’s clothing products
in the shop to make it easy for the buyer to purchase other items in one shop. The products like
T-shirts, shirts, sweater shirts, plain trousers, jean trousers and khaki trousers are very strong and
has the highest selling rate compared to others like branded jackets, shoes and suits. The strong
products have sustained the growth of the business and pay of the existing expenses. There is a
balance between the existing strength which is having all variety of men’s clothing products in
one shop, the location being near Kampala international university, east African university, has
available parking for customers that come to shop, the shop is spacious and provides a resting
area for customers, near hostels and residential areas of kansanga, Bunga, Ggaba, Buziga,
munyonyo has given the shop the great advantage over other shops and the emerging
opportunities of more residential houses to be built, increased tertiary schools, increased number
of immigrants ( Sudanese, Eritreans, Somalis, Congolese) who are our great clients staying in the
within areas mentioned above.
Product Life Cycle Questions
The T-shirts, shirts, sweater shirts, jean trousers, khaki trousers, and plain trousers are more
profitable products to the company which are helping to sustain the rest.
New products should be added to the portfolio like watches, perfumes, eye glasses to attract
more clients. Many clients request for these products since they now have the trust for the quality
of products in the shop.
Products like two piece outfits, shorts and sweatpants are worth supporting because when each is
sold, the shop gets double the price they bought them. It is better to invest more on them though
they are expensive to purchase from wholesale yet more profitable when sold.

Political Factors
Taxation policy has affected the shop, all the products sold in the shop are imported from turkey
and china, there is an increasing charge in products ordered for each time thus increasing on the
expenses of the company. With the payment of KCCA tax, the business can manage to run the
whole year without any disruption from other city officials.

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The Political holidays that the country recognizes each year affects greatly the growth of the
business, such as Independence day, NRM day. These avails room for customers to purchase
more clothes for functions held that day, increasing the sales of the branded jackets, jean jackets,
shoes because clients want to look different on that day. This leads to competition and high risk
of over taking other customers due to the quality of products one sells.

Economic Factors
The shop saves 50% of the interest received at the end of the month. This was not implemented
well since the books of accounts didn’t have all the records of each day’s sell. The expenses of
the shop were not recorded to track the rate, at the end of the month, the shop was not realizing
any profits as the money available was used to restock the shop.
Each product in the shop is multiplied 50% the buying price, then added to the buying price to
get the total selling price. It is a good method to regain the money spent and also get interest
since the customers are willing to buy the products no matter the price. With this method, in
future some products can be having 100% interest rate on products like T-shirts, shirts, jean
trousers, sweater shirts, plain trousers. If one t-shirt id bought at 35,000ugx and sold at
70,000ugx the customer still buys it because of the quality of the shop and attention given to
each client. This creates an opportunity of to know what the clients love more and what to invest
in more
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people lost jobs, the shop was able to acquire shop
attendants at a low salary pay since the business also needs to realize its money. There are three
employees in the shop each being paid 300,000ugx per month. It has given the business room to
attend to many customer’s as they come to the shop. This increases the sales and opportunity to
compete with other shops within since customers get fast attendance as soon as they enter the
shop.
The cost of purchasing and availability of some products like branded jackets (Gucci, Louis
Vuitton) is very high and scares compared to the fast selling products like T-shirts, shirts, jean
trousers, plain trousers which are low are easily available. This limits the number of very high
costs products to those that are low costs. Makes it easy for the business to know where to invest
money more and regain profits faster.

Socio-cultural factors
The population rate in kansanga, Kabalagala, Bunga, Munyonyo. Buziga, Ggaba is increasing
each time since many immigrants feel comfortable to stay there as they are within their country
mates. This has increased the selling rate of the shop as they are always known for their spending
(south Sudanese, Congolese) the high number of people has increased the demand for the
products as there are universities and tertiary institutes around. There is a high increase of more
people to reside in the above areas in future to come since it’s a hub for education and
residential.
The lifestyle of the clients keeps changing but still within the original one, slight additions of
latest trending words on t-shirts, sweater shirts, two-piece outfit makes a difference to the
customers. Most of the customers are from age 18yrs to 35yrs. They live the life of partying and
experiencing new places and events each time thus shifts in preferences is always high, this

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improves on the future planning of the stock to be added in the shop because the business knows
the kind of clients it serves. This has increased the demand of products in the business. With the
immigrants around, the income distribution is high since they are given more money to sustain
themselves compared to the Ugandan nationals.

Technological Factors
The business doesn’t maximize the use of technology to promote the business, the use of social
media apps like Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, WhatsApp to show to your clients the available
products for sale and take online orders. The online ordering of products simplifies the customers
comfort to receive the items ordered at their own convince. The world is moving fast into use of
technological markets to promote products such as use of amazon, Alibaba to purchase
wholesale products for sale without the need of physical presence. This creates room for doing
Facebook sponsorships and Instagram yet you spend just $10 for a month promotion, increasing
the awareness of your shop to other promising clients and increases the sales. The use of VISA
card to do payments, MTN MOMO pay, Airtel mobile money has simplified customers that
don’t carry cash bust still want to do shopping, improving on more payment avenues for the
shop. In years to come, most of the transactions will be cashless, this will support the growth of
the business as fast as possible since customers don’t love stress on looking for cash before
making payments.

Competitive Analysis
There are at least three competitors around the area that is Black Continent and Vezu, they deal
in both men’s clothing. There is a low potential of more competitors to emerge since the cost of
fully furnishing the shop to the high standard Black drip is, is very costly. The shop has cameras,
Ac, redeveloped cloth racks, the 3D lighting logo, lighting in the shop, computer to record the
accounts of the shop, waiting areas for clients. These conditions limit other shops from
competition.
The customers prefer our quality of products since they are good material, long-lasting and not
commonly found anywhere while that of our competitors, they sell clothes just to make profits
no matter the quality and availability only and not to focus on making a brand of their own. The
shop has three shop attendants that provide the best quality of service to customers without
waiting to be attended to, there is water available for customers when they need to cool down
and there is music being played in the shop, that encourages the customer to do more of the
shopping. with this, our competitors have only one or two shop attendants which delays the next
customer to be worked on, there is no AC in the shop making it hard for the customer to stay too
long looking for other products in the shop. Black continent and Vezu brands are more aware in
the market than Black drip, but the customers are more loyal to Black drip because of the quality
of the products they get and services offered.
Black drip has the potential of development since they have more available space in the shop for
watches, perfumes, eye glasses since many customers have been requesting for those products to
be added compared to the competitors that fear to develop because they have limited money to
waste on products that might not sell on their side, that’s why Vezu deals in jackets but not
Branded jackets because they are expensive to afford.

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The sales made in Black drip per day is within the range of 300,000ugx – 1,200,000ugx
depending on the day. Most sales are made during midweek that’s Wednesday to Friday and
Saturday sometimes. This gives the shop he ability to manage to add in more products and
sustain the growth of the shop without struggling. The competitors don’t go above 600,000ugx
per day for Vezu and not above 800,000ugx for Black continent and they don’t have a strong
accounting system that trucks their growth, they end up dividing the money between the partners
and forget about the growth of the shop. This gives Black continent the potential to grow faster
since they have a strong accounting system and reinvest in the shop.

Segmentation
Black drip has segmented its customers to Men who are millennials, generation Z and the youth.
These are people of 18yrs to 40years old who can afford the products quality without minding
about the pricing. The outgoing type who enjoy following trends and keeping up with the latest
outfits, the office type who need the latest suits, blazers, jackets, shirts to look fancy.
The Z generation and millennials purchase products occasionally mostly Wednesdays to
Saturdays since they look at the weekend, parties and events that follow. Most of the clothes they
purchase are not for everyday wearing so they are forced to come and buy more clothes for
casual days. They customers are always ready to buy clothes even when it has exceeded the
budget they have come with, they deposit for the product and purchase it later on because they
want to be the only ones with the clothes and different from others. The customers believe all
clothes in the shop are the best quality and that doesn’t affect their attitude on the product if the
price is high such as jackets are sold are range of 150,000ugx – 500,000ugx.
Customers from South Sudan, Congo love dressing to latest outfits and expensive for others to
afford. They love clothes that are bright colored and show their taste of clothes from afar. They
mainly love two-piece outfits, sweater shirts, t-shirts and buggy shirts that makes them standout
in the crowd.

Product strategy
Black drip sells Men’s clothing wear like t-shirts, shirts, sweater shirts, jean trousers, plain
trousers, khaki trousers, caps, boxers, stockings, suits, blazers, belts, jackets, branded jackets,
sweaters, sold at 50% - 100% increase from the buying price of each product. The dogs in the
business are suits, branded jackets, jackets, then the stars in the business are T-shirts, sweater
shirts, shirts, jeans trousers, khaki trousers and plain trousers, then then cash cows are belts,
socks, boxers, caps, sweaters and then the question mark products are two piece outfits.
T-shirts, shirts, sweater shirts jean trousers, plain trousers and khaki trouser bring more sales to
the shop each day and more profits gained from socks, belts, caps as their sales are 100% buying
price. The star’s products have strength since there are many trends coming up and many
customers request for them each time, while the dogs are our weaknesses since it takes a lot of
the business money to purchase them and they stay for more than 3 months in the shop without
purchase.
There are greater opportunities for modification and additions in the businesses since there is
available space to put watches, perfumes, eye glasses, the shop makes more sales each day and

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there is proper accountability of sales, this becomes an opportunity to other products as it can
lure the customer to buy products.
The shop has its own branded packages with different variety of sizes to pack clothes for
customers when they buy. This improves our branding as the shop and the customer feels the
class in buying products from the shop and no need for other people to see what they have
bought. Our competitors still use polythene bags of different color to pack products, which
doesn’t bring out the class and the trust the customer can have for the brand.

Place (channel) Strategy

Customers always walk-in and buy from the shop located in kansanga along Ggaba road,
Kampala Uganda, they prefer to have a look at what they are buying and try on to see if it fits
them or not. The clothing products are got from a whole seller distributor from downtown
Kampala and the store attendants deliver them to the shop, the shop also purchases goods from
turkey as the owner of the business would travel to turkey to purchase the right choice, type and
texture of clothes then also have a supplier from china that deliver the clothes on request. The
clothes are brought to the shop and customers come and buy or we deliver by use of boda bodas
on clothes they have ordered online through Instagram and snapchat.
The shop is performing best on direct sell to the customer through walk-in, this even makes the
customer to admire other products and buy as many as they love to which increases on the sales
and profits of the business. The social media channels have not been performing well as the shop
receives at most three orders a month, the sales are low and losses are got from investment made
on social media marketing. Since the shop is always pushing for more awareness in the whole of
Kampala, the use of social media is the best strategy to get the brand out there, but then the more
sponsorships done on Instagram and snapchat, the shop is not realizing the big number of sales,
hence difficult to sustain the continuous sponsoring. The use of selling influencers and
celebrities’ clothes at quarter price so that they mention and promote the shop has been useful
but also difficult to maintain as some celebrities just want to get clothes for free without pay and
return which is not healthy for the business and other customers.

Price Strategy
The objective of Black drip is to make profits and then penetrate the market when it has grown,
the profits made on the products are 50% increase on buying price. This still maintains the
current customers and the ones we are aiming to get because it does seem realistic and with the
furnished shop and other services offered, this has maintained the brand and now expanding the
knowledge of the brand existence to many clients. When customers’ walk-in and buy products,
that doesn’t affect the pricing as it will be maintained to that compared to social media orders
made, we charge an increase on transportation of the product depending on the location of the
client. The location of the shop also affects the pricing since the shop pays rent of 1,000,000ugx
per month and has salaries to pay too and maintenance of the shop to its standards, some
products are charged 50% increase from buying price which others 100% in order to gain what
has been spent and regain profits. The promotions done on social media doesn’t affect the pricing
of the product for now as the business was to expand on the areas of existence and increase on its

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sales made on products. This has supported the business as some customers that walk-in reveal
that they saw a post on Instagram and needed to see the product.
The shop doesn’t incur a lot in purchasing the products from downtown Kampala, only
transportation of the products is what costs the shop making it still reasonable for the shop to
increase the product price because it’s not affected widely. The quality of the products we sell
are of rare availability to purchase anywhere, high quality of texture and material so the
customers don’t get affected on buying a T-shirt at 100,000ugx because they know what they are
benefiting from.
The competitors pricing in Black continent is over alarming as they charge 80% to 120%
increase on buying price yet the services offered in the shop are not good, the clothes most of
them are rarely wont on each and every occasion, they stay in the shop for long yet they
customer can still get the same with Black drip.
Discounts are inappropriate for the shop now because most the products are easily affordable and
then the customers are willing to buy without any need to over bargain for the price. The
customers need items of quality and that makes them outstanding, it will be good to keep the
prices as they are now and even increase the prices in future since the customers trust our brand
and willing to afford more genuine quality products.

Promotion Strategy
The target audience are the millennials, generation z, and youth. The tools used are promotion
through influencers, celebrities like Eddy Kenzo, Pia Pounds and Tuff B as the shop gives them
clothes to wear and return after use. The clothes they wear, have stayed in the shop for more than
2months like branded jackets, shoes, blazers and jean jackets which gives the feel of trendy and
classic clothes, so we reduce the price by using the known people in the country. whenever they
put on the clothes they tag Black Drip in all their social media platforms which pulls customers
to the shop thus increasing on the sales and higher risk of other clothes being purchased. The
shop also uses STV station the Friday night party program to market their clothes by dressing up
the presenters in the latest outfits and stylish as they keep mentioning the shop name at each
break time and giving the location of the shop. STV also records their fashion show programs in
the shop on some Sundays when the number of customers are few, there presences gives
customers more feel of the shop being legit and having original items because they give a 360
view of the shop and each cloth found in the shop. This gives confidence in our existing
customers to continue coming and also extends the awareness of what is sold in the shop to other
customers in other places hence promoting the shop.

Strength Analysis
The brand attractiveness to the customers is appealing since the shop has parking space for
customers, resting area when they come with other people, drinking water, and good service
provided as the shop ha three shop attendants that work on customers diligently
The shop has the ability to take risks, since it has installed AC, cameras, 3D logo lighter, which
take a lot of electricity but still it attracts more customers because they will feel safe as secure
shopping in such an environment.

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High responsiveness to customer trends, many customers in the shop are celebrities, influencers,
campusers who depend on latest outfits, trendy and stylish to stand out from the crowd. That’s
why the shop has sales of up to 1,500,000ugx per days

Weakness Analysis
Unbalance portfolio as one of the shop attenders purchased perfumes without the consent of the
manager, this put the shops vision away and the money to be shopped for the clothes stock has
been used up on expensive perfumes that take more than 3months to be sold off.
Market failures, during Covid-19 there was lockdown which delayed the opening of shops, yet
the stock had to still be in the shop while paying rent, customers are not paying for the stock, this
pushed back the shop as there were many expenses involved.

Opportunities
Strong growth rates as since January the shop has been growing as at the faster rate, there was a
total of 15,500,000ugx sales made with the expenses of 4,000,000ugx. This has shown that
opportunity of the shop being better than it was during Lock down period.
There is growth in the clothing market in Uganda since many people need new and stylish
clothes each and every day at an affordable price. With the purchase of the latest, trendy and
stylish clothes in the shop continuously, this will attract many customers to the already existing
shop and improve on the growth rate of the business.
The entertainment industry has been opened and many events, parties will be held each and
every day, this will increase on the purchasing rate of the customers and online ordering. With
the use of the influencers and celebrities to market the shop, this will make more people to have
the same outfits like them and want to look greater than them.

Threats
The growth in the clothing market has reduced on the numbers of customers that would come
and shop, many starting shops will sell at a lower price just to make sales and have customers.
This will affect Black Drip because it has created a brand that will provide high quality clothes,
the importing of duplicate clothes from china has affected the growth of the original ones as
people feel they are all the same.
The high tax leveed on imported clothes is increasing each time, as there is the project of “Build
Uganda, Buy Uganda” which has made the price of clothes high when selling to the customers,
making some of the customers to shop in other places, affecting the sales.
The E-commerce is making many shops to go off market, nowadays anyone can be able to order
for items all over the world making it hard for the existing shops from growing. The availability
of amazon, DHL, Alibaba and the rest have hindered and will hinder the growth of day to day
business.

Marketing objectives
Right now the company is able to make monthly sales of 15,000,000ugx with profits of
8,000,000ugx per month with the expenses of 4,500,000ugx per month. The daily sales can be
around 500,000ugx to 1,500,000ugx per day with a number of at least six customers that
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purchase per day with most of the item as requested by the customer is available in the shop.
Restocking the shop is done four times a month with most of them being T-shirts, Sweater Shirts,
Shirts, jean trousers.
The Vision of the shop is to have monthly sales of 30,000,000ugx with profits of 20,000,000ugx
per month with the expenses less than 5,000,000ugx per month. The daily sales ranging from
500,000 to 3,000,000ugx at least per day with more than fifteen customers purchasing a day with
all the items available in the shop. Restocking should be done four to six times a month with
need to provide latest, trendy and stylish limit edition clothing.

The business should follow the steps below in order to achieve the vision;
Develop the present user markets
The men in the millennials, generation z, and youth category. This has been moving smoothly as
it has supported all the existing markets

Discover new user markets

Focus on men above the youth age of 35years, since they love suits for work, shirts, plain
trousers and khaki trousers. This also would support the working class men who love looking
stylish and official.

Improve existing products to increase use

Purchasing new stock each and every weekend to avoid leaving the shop empty and making
customers dissatisfied because they didn’t find what they needed. Inquiring more from customers
what they really love and which texture, opens more knowledge on what to purchase and avoid
or reduce to.

Develop new products

By adding watches, perfumes, eye glasses would really be an additional advantage to the
business as many customers’ request for them and would love to avoid moving from shop to
shop. This will be a comfortable way to provide all services in the shop and increase on the sales
and growth of the shop.

Increase sales and marketing effort

Restocking the shop as soon as many stock has been bought off will increase the chances of
other products from being bought since there is a variety of things to be bought. The use of social
media to do promotion of the products, increases on the awareness since many the world is
moving to digital.

Eliminate unprofitable activities

Branded jackets would not be unprofitable, but is better to buy them in small numbers to prevent
delays in returns of investment. The jean jackets, suits, blazers should be bought in small
quantities to enable the use of the money to be used on fast growing products like T-shirts,
Shirts, jean trousers, plain trouser and khaki trousers.

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Increased efficiencies
In Marketing, provision of finance for shopping when required and reduction the expenses such
as electricity expenses, so as the focus is put in using the money for the restocking and payment
of salaries to the employees of the shop as they are ones that deal with the customers directly.

Improve customer service availability and credit

The present three employees are of service in the business, since they make sure the shop is
clean, customers are attended to and the requested clothes are available when needed. The shop
also provides wine to customers that buy products of more than 500,000ugx, this makes
customers feel appreciated for their support hence retaining them and referring others to the
shop.

Improve product quality

By purchasing products from turkey because of the texture of the clothing, this has made is more
secure for our customers to keep purchasing our products. The shop also recently got a supplier
from china who makes clothes according to the orders they receive, this makes the shop unique
in the products they provide but still maintaining the needs of the customers.
The quality of the shop is of quality that has AC, to maintain a good temperature in shop and for
clothes, camera for the customer security, this makes the quality of the product provided to be of
quality too.

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 MARKETING PLAN

Black Drip Uganda

Kansanga, next to Seroma Hardware
Along Ggaba Road,
Kampala, Uganda
+256706371248
[email protected]

Prepared by
Judith Kiffola
[email protected]
FEBRUARY, 2023

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Business Situation
Black drip Uganda is a locally established trendy boutique clothing store located in kansanga,
Kampala Uganda. Presently, our clothing brand business has been duly registered and we have
the entire required legal documents to fully operate the business in Kampala, Uganda.
Black drip will offer modern and trendy designed clothing geared towards young professionals,
college students, youth, millennials. The following are the Men’s clothes offered;
 T-shirts – all sizes
 Sweater Shirts – all sizes
 Shirts – all sizes
 Jean Trousers – all sizes
 Khaki trousers – all sizes
 Plain trousers – all sizes
 Suits – all sizes
 Blazers – all size
 Branded Jackets, Normal jackets
 Sweaters
 Underwear, belts, caps, socks, shoes
 Shorts, sweater pants, truck suits, two-piece outfit

The business target customer is the fashion-conscious youth, millennials and generation z who
are searching for trendy and unique styles.
Black drip is primed for success by offering the following competitive advantages
 Uniquely tailored and modern designs from Turkey and China geared towards the fashion
conscious youth, millennials and generation z customers
 A database that will store a customer profile created in the store so that the customers can
receive personalized alerts and messages for when their favorite product becomes
available in their sizes.
 The pricing will be affordable yet on par with other competitors to ensure the highest
quality and value for what each customer pays

Vision
Our Vision is to establish a clothing line whose brand will not only be accepted in Kampala but
across the country and in East Africa.

Mission
Black drip is a retail Men’s clothing store specializing in unique clothing and accessories. We
encourage customers to be experimental with new clothing style. Our mission is to understand
what our customers need and hopes, are after buying urban wear clothing.
Black drip will maintain financial balance while delivering a quality product to our customers.
We will make our clothing accessible thought our community by establishing a retail location
and delivering to customers that have ordered through our social media platforms. we will make
a profit and generate cash. We will provide a rewarding work environment and fair

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compensation to our employee, ultimately provide excellent value to our customers, and a fair
return to our owners.

Objectives
Black drip’s main objectives are to;
 Establish a unique clothing retail business in the city of Kampala, Uganda
 Work towards opening many branches across the country and in other East African
countries
 Provide quality clothing and customer service at a reasonable price
 Achieve the largest market share in the city for urban wear
 Achieve a profit of more than 50,000,000ugx within the first year
 Increase average length of customer relationships and decrease customer turnover
 Continuously and consistently increase total number of customers per year

What we aim to achieve from our market effort are as follows

 To compete favorable with the leading clothing brand in Uganda and other East African
countries
 To build a self-sustaining business that will contribute to the growth of the economy of
Uganda.

Keys to Success
Black drip’s keys to success include achieving efficiency, implementing an effective cash flow
plan, running our retail store professionally and maintaining a serious business discipline to
everything we do. Black drip’s cash flow plan is to;
 Identify and eliminate deficiencies or surpluses in cash
 Invest any revealed excess cash in an accessible, interesting bearing, low-risk account
such as a savings account or short-term
 Alter business financial plans to provide more cash if deficiencies are found
 Clearly understand the urban wear market, distribution costs and competition and
continuously adjust accordingly
 Keep enough cash as needed cushion for security on hand to cover expenses
 Reduce accountant expenses by producing our own summary statistics and projections
via accounting software.

OUR MARKET BUDGET

Black Drip’s primary goal is to establish a clothing brand that will compete favorably with
international clothing brands at a global stage, means that we should be willing to spend on
marketing our clothing brand hence we will set aside a budget of 20,000,000ugx for marketing
the first year.
Going forward, we will budget between 10% and 15% of our annual income towards marketing
our clothes.

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PRODUCTS
Modern Men’s urban wear has increased in popularity as the number of new music artists,
influencers, socialites has increased over the past several years. Black drip will sell products that
satisfies the taste of the above listed group. Products like branded jackets, jackets, sweaters,
sweater shirts, shirts, t-shirts, jean jackets, jean trousers, plain trousers, shorts, khaki trousers,
suits, blazers, watches, eye glasses, perfumes, caps, shoes and many other Men’s clothing
products.
Black drip decided to carry a line of clothing that is a “more simple” but still gives off a unique
changing type of feel in which “it can fit to any type of setting- not too bright or loud”. This kind
of urban wear has a projected sale of 150,000,000ugx to 200,000,000ugx per year. The new
growth developments in the urban wear industry have made obtaining the clothing much more
simple and easy. This clothing can also be sold at festivals and fashion shows.

Inventory
Black drip inventor tracking system will tell the management what merchandise is in stock, what
is on order, when it will arrive and what was sold. With such system, black drip can plan
purchases more intelligently and quickly the fast moving items we need to reorder and the slow
moving items we should markdown or specially promote.
We will control inventory right to the cash register with our Point-of-sale (POS) software and
equipment. Our POS software records each sale when it happens, so inventory records are
always up-to-date. We will get more information about the sale than we would gather with a
manual system. By running reports based on this information, we will be able to make better
decisions.
The POS equipment includes electronic cash drawers, bar-code scanners, credit card reader and
receipt printers. The POS software package includes integrated accounting modules including
general ledger, accounts receivables, accounts payables, purchasing and inventory control
systems. In essence, our POS system is an all-in-one way to keep track of our business cash
flows. The reporting capability of our POS programs include sales, costs, and profits by
salesperson or by category for the day, month and year-to-date.
We will count our inventory once every two weeks (the count cycle). Processing paperwork and
placing orders with our suppliers will take two weeks (the order cycle). The order will take two
weeks to get to us (delivery cycle). Therefore, we will need six weeks’ worth of inventory from
the first day of the count cycle to stay in operation until the merchandise arrives. We will have
on hand a six-week supply of inventory and turn it over 8 times a year
For inventory valuation we will use the last in, First Out (LIFO) method. We will sell the most
recently purchased inventory first. This method will also help us pay less in taxes.
Our inventory control system will tell us when to buy replacement inventory, what to buy, what
not to buy and how much to buy.
We will have to established list of possible suppliers and requested quotes, prices, available
discounts and delivery terms in Turkey, China and downtown Kampala. We will ask them for
customer preferences and try and establish accounts with these suppliers’ prior.

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MARKET
Target Market
In accordance with the purchase from the suppliers and my own experience, Back drip will be
tapping primarily into the following markets;

Target Market A
Sex: Male
Type: Youth
Age: 29 – 40
Monthly Income: < 2,500,000ugx
Source: job, friends

Target Market B
Sex: Male
Type: Millennials
Age: 24 – 28
Monthly Income: < 1,500,000ugx
Source: jobs, family, friends,

Target Market C
Sex: Male
Type: Generation Z
Age: 18 – 23
Monthly income: < 500,000ugx
Source: Family, friends, job

The choice for location is kansanga along Ggaba road, which offers large scale customers for the
shop. All the three target markets are found along kansanga – Ggaba road. Near the business
thoroughfare is new residential subdivision under development, where houses are priced at
1,000,000ugx and above. Also the area is a campus of East African University, Kampala
international University and other institutions which all serve as potential customers.
We will use social media platforms to act as our representative. Here are some of our marketing
programs and strategies;
1. Designing good advert copy to reach our customers through social media
 Have a goal for our advertisement
 Involve the audience
 Inform the buyer
 Headline and illustrations grab attention
 Give them something
 Always be specific
 Make our offer a good one

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Customer loyalty is much more important in Black Drip than customer satisfaction. We will
serve our customers so that they will brag about us to others. This will keep them loyal, and also
provide a continual flow of customers. We will maintain our customers’ happiness by using our
self-evaluation program.
Self-evaluation program asks the following questions;
 Are Black Drip’s products the best they can best they can be?
 Is the appearance of our cashiers, managers, business surroundings, and appearance of
our store professionally?
 Can we clearly describe our business in 25 words or less? Can our customers describe our
business in 25 words or less?
 Do our customers know about all of our products and services?
 Do we have a well-developed marketing plan that we follow on a consistent basis?
 What if our marketing plans work? Will we be able to handle the increased volume of
sales without harming our customers or the quality of our work product?
 Do we treat others with honesty and respect at all times?

Advertising and Promotional Strategy

With our promotions we will compare results, analyze, track responses, and measure profitability
to insure our promotions are profitable
Our advertising budget will be equal to 2 or 3 percent of our projected gross sales. The budget
will be based on the cost method which theorizes that an advertiser can’t afford to spend more
than he or she has.
We have taken the following steps to insure our money will be wisely spent on advertising;
 Established our target market by asking ourselves who our customers are and therefore
whom we want to reach with our advertising
 Setting a rough budget for broadcast adverting
 Contacted sales managers at TV (STV and NBS) and radio station in Kampala and
arrange to have to have a sales person visit
 Talked to other business people in our area about their experiences with broadcast
advertising
 Asked about the audience delivery of the available spots
 Inquired about the production of our commercial
Our social media adverts will attract attention through a truly arresting headline and visual
element. It will appeal to the reader’s self-interest or announce news. It will communicate our
company’s unique advantage and it will prove our advantage over our competitors. Finally, it
will motivate readers to take action. All our adverts will answer the customers’ number one
question “what is in it for me?”
Intensive use of influencers and celebrities to market our products will increase on the sales, it
will force other customers to purchase them.
Point-Of-Purchase (POP) advertising appears in various forms inside our retail store. It is
designed to influence the buying behavior of our customers. POP advertising may take many
forms in our store, each bearing a sales message, here are a few examples;

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  Counter cards and displays
 Window displays
 Animated 3D logo poster
 Business cards

Industry Analysis and Trends

Retailing has experienced more changes during the past decade than it did in the preceding
generations. While supercenters and megastores ruled the past two decades, more and more
consumers are looking for change. They are searching for a more serene and customer friendly
shopping experience. This is true especially for those millennials and youth. In reality, as the
generation Z numbers increase, there will be higher customers to sell the clothes to. Even then,
clothing will always be in high demand as seen by the thriving fashion industry in Uganda and
other East African Countries

Competition and Buying patterns

Black Drip is located in kansanga, along Ggaba road which has a variety of businesses, but with
a few competitions. Traffics moderate to heavy, especially during lunch and dinner hours. Below
is the projected consumer spending patterns average of the products popularly bought in the
shop;
T-shirts = 7,000,000ugx each month
Shirt = 5,000,000ugx each month
Sweater shirts = 4,000,000ugx each month
Jean trousers = 4,000,000ugx each month
Khaki trousers = 2,000,000ugx each month
Plain trousers = 2,000,000ugx each month
Shorts = 1,000,000ugx each month

SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
 Experience and understanding of the fashion industry. We provide the latest trendy, urban
and stylish clothes that makes our customers uniquely standout
 Unique shopping experience with exceptional customer service. The shop has three full
time employees that respond to the customers as soon as they report to the store of
inquire online
 Great location. The shop is surrounded and near residential houses, hostels, universities,
business hub. This gives the shop a variety of customers who will shop thus having many
walk-in customers
 Large and growing consumer base. The shop keeps receiving new customers through
referrals made by other customers, social media growth and by use of influencers and
celebrities

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  Quality of employees. The employees are given a three-day training on how to handle
customers and respond to them without affecting their rate, this has retained most
customers and increased on the market.

Weaknesses
 Being a new clothing brand business and we don’t have the financial capacity to compete
with the already existing ones. The customer level isn’t that high compared to the
existing clothing brands
 Growing market. Every day, there is a new clothing shop that is opening and they are
dealing in the same products that we are, this makes it hard to retain customers and get
new customers

Opportunity
 The need for clothes by customers each and every day. Clothes get out of trend and
fashion each and every day, so new clothes are produced each time to suit the current
situation and trends.
 Outstanding shopping experience will lead to repeat business. With the availability of
enough employees, the customer will have the best attention offered to them immediately
they contact or arrive at the store. This makes customers to desire to buy more clothes
and return again sometime to do shopping.
 Growing online clothing store. With the increased use of social media to promote
business, the shop has taken the advantage to use applications like Instagram, snapchat to
promote their product and reach to a large number of people.
 Establish a booming boutique line. With the vision of the business, the shop has managed
to captured an average number of customers who are loyal to the brand and quality of
products being provided, this will increase on the shop referrals.

Threats
 Cost and effectiveness of marketing to men. Most men love to walk-in to shop and buy
the clothes they need according to the occasion. They shop once in a month most of them,
this challenges the shop on how to persuade them to keep shopping every week,
increasing the budget for social media promotions on products.
 New retail shops that may or may not open in future. With the growing market, many
shops will be opened that will affect the numbers of customers the shop will receive or
the number of clothes being shopped due to price changes or quality of product.

STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION

Philosophy
Black drip’s core business strategy is to combine exceptional and knowledgeable customer
service with quality stylish merchandise. And in return, we will provide an enjoyable shopping
experience for our customers. Black drip is to offer men with a wide selection of fashionable,
figure-flattering clothes. Our aim is to establish our business as a fashion revolutionary store.

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Internet strategy
As the internet has become a staple of Ugandan’s life and retail merchandising. Black drip will
build a website on which we will sell our products, too. We have secured the domain name
Blackdrip.com and will begin site development. these platforms allow us to create an online
storefront quickly and will manage all aspects of it including accepting payments, monitoring
inventory. Customers will also be bale able to create wish lists for items they want to purchase
later.
Having this online presence will allow us to build our email marketing list and send regular
promotions to customers with new product announcements, discounts, specials, birthday coupons
and fashion ideas.
Foremost, we intend to showcase our brand, our clothing and provide customers with the ability
to purchase items online. As the site progresses, we will include features such as fashion advice,
designer interviews, newsletter and internet-only specials. Eventually, we hope to establish and
nurture an online social community where Men can gather and discuss topics of the day, network
and share clothing secrets.

Marketing Strategy
We expect our strategy to draw consumers into Black drip from the very beginning. Moreover,
we will hire a local PR firm to help us develop and implement a strategic marketing plan and
guide our publicity efforts in a cost- effective manner. Our marketing message, logo and slogans
will revolve around the idea of the unique, fashionable trend setters.
Our goal is to keep our marketing budget to no more than 5% of our gross annual sales. We will
work with STV station in the fashion program to host their shows at least once a month in our
store. This will rely heavily on local print and broadcast media coverage, traditional advertising,
signage and networking.

Sales Strategy
Black drip plans to generate sales via strategic marketing efforts. These concentrated efforts will
be targeting new and returning customers as well as single – visit tourist consumers. We will also
implement a referral program rewarding customers who refer new customers with discount
coupons. The shop will also give a bottle of wine to each and every customer who shops more
than 300,000ugx products form the shop.
Black drop will accept cash and payment via major credit and debit cards. Returns and exchange
must be done within 24hours from the time of purchase and receipts are mandatory.
Our sales staff will include both co-owners and three shop employees. One of the co-owners has
seven years’ experience in fashion and has been participating in fashion runways. We will
provide comprehensive training to each sales employee. This will include how to sell
merchandise as well as how to provide fashion advice to customers. Our employees will be paid
monthly with an addition of commission on each sale.

Benefits our Clients Stand to Gain When they purchase our clothes

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The fact that our clothing brand will be designed for both the high profile customers and the low
profile customers.
In the view of that, here are the benefits our customers and potentials customers’ stand to benefit
when they purchase our clothes;
 Good quality and long lasting clothes
 Affordable clothes
 Good value for their money
 Opportunity to order customized clothes for special occasions either as individuals or in
group

Our customer retention strategies

The success of any business is directly proportional to the numbers of repeated business they are
able to generate. If a company is able to achieve over 60% retention the company will sure
experience huge turn over. We have a perfect plan on how to improve our customer experience
from time to time as follows
 Ensure that we only roll out to the market good quality clothes free from defects
 Ensure we get feedback from our customers at all times
 Give our customers the option to choose from a wide range of colors, sizes and design
 Make sure of effective customer relationship management (CRM) software to effectively
manage our clientele base
 Ensure that we carry our customers along when making decisions that directly affect
them

The possible ways we intend offering incentives to our customers

Part of our marketing strategies which is clearly stated in our business plans is to ensure that we
offer our customers incentives in order for us to retain them and of course continue to generate
repeated sales from them and also to attract new customers. We know that if we are going to win
our own fair share of the existing market, then we must be willing to outsmart our competitors
A matter of fact, we have perfected plans to sell our clothes to 30% discount during off peak
periods like valentine’s day, Easter period, independence day, Christmas day and others so as to
attract potential customers who may eventually become our loyal customers.
We will create a loyalty plan that will enable us reward a loyal customer who have been
consistent in purchasing clothes from us. Rewarding them could be giving them discounts on
every purchase they make and also giving them gifts during special occasions like wine.

AFTER SALES SERVICE AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT

We are all out to favorably compete with leading clothing brands in Kampala and in other parts
of the country hence we have put a team that will help us handle any complain that those who
purchase our clothes may have
We have a customer care number, social media accounts, email and walk in store where anyone
who purchased our clothes can call in or visit to lodge their complaints if they have any and as a
matter of fact they will get a replacement right on the spot. We will do all we can to ensure that
we only release high quality clothes without any error
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So most likely the kind of complaints that we envisioned is the issue of size. For example, a
customer may purchase our clothes only to realize that it is not their size, in such cases, when
they visit our walk-in store, we will change it for them without delay or additional cost on their
part.

Possible questions we intend asking our customers during our market survey
These are the possible questions we are going to put forward when conducting marketing survey
on our customers
1. Are you satisfied with the quality and design of clothes?
2. If you’re not satisfied with the quality and design of our clothes – what areas would you
want us to improve on going forward
3. What is your size and preferred color?
4. How would you want us to communicate with you when we roll out new designs of
clothes? (call, Text message, email, social media apps, or WhatsApp)
5. How much are you willing to pay for customized clothes
6. How often do you buy new clothes?
7. Where do you buy your clothes from? Online boutique or physical store visit
8. Ig you are given the opportunity to change one thing in our clothing brand/ style, what
would that be?
9. Can you comfortably recommend our clothes to your family members, friends and
colleagues?
10. Are you satisfied with our customer service deliver? If not what areas would you want us
to improve?
11. How did you hear about the clothing brand?

FINANCIAL PLAN
Income statement projections
Based on our marketing plans, location, store size and product offerings, we expect to collect
annual sales of 150,000,000ugx in a year, 250,000,000ugx in two years and 400,000,000ugx in
third year.
Our average cost of goods sold will be 40% which leaves us with a gross margin of 60%. Our
minimum monthly fixed costs are 3,500,0000ugx per month, so we will need to generate sales of
10,000,0000ugx per month to break even. We will become profitable on a monthly basis before
the end of our first year.
In our third year, we will earn net income of 70,000,000ugx. The accompanying income
statement demonstrates our company’s profitability.

Cash Flow Projections

Our business will collect immediate payment from customers, so our cash flow statement will be
substantially similar to our income statement. Our cash flow statement clearly demonstrates our
ability to cover all bills

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ASSUMPTIONS
We base our projections on the assumption that the economy, consumer spending habits and
population growth in Uganda and other East African countries will continue for the foreseeable
future.
We must also assume that our present and future suppliers will continue to sell inventory to us at
prices that allow us to maintain our present margins. It is also important that we are able to hire
reliable employees at reasonable wages.

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