Business plan sample (стр. 2 )

·  XXX will have created the standard for ticket sales on the Internet and be a leader in introducing new concepts, such as new digital channels and electronic ticketing.

·  XXX shall, moreover, be a coveted business partner.

·  XXX ’s workplace shall be a stimulating environment where the employees have fun, earn money and play a hands-on role in making history.

Philosophy of the company

XXX shall be a fast moving, agile, professional company with strong customer focus. XXX shall be attentive to the needs of its business partners and colleagues and use focus, speed, strength and patience to build the business.

Customer value proposition

XXX will offer a simple, convenient, safe and attractive way to find information about, book events and buy related products and services via digital media. Further, XXX will provide personalized information and service, delivered via continuously improving, interactive digital media.[9]

Supplier and partner value proposition

XXX will provide an attractive way of spreading information about events and increase ticket sales. The complete solutions offered, along with customization and valuable content will create an attractive context, where the suppliers want to sell their tickets and other products and services. Further, XXX will provide a strong brand and unique tools for targeted marketing.

Business strategy

The XXX strategy is based on customer focus, brand building, technology, expansion and partnerships.

·  Offer a superior consumer solution through:

-  A comprehensive customer offer

-  Customized content and valuable services

-  A user friendly site where it is easy to navigate and book tickets

-  Security when booking and making payment

-  Outstanding customer support, using customer profiles to respond to individual customer needs

·  Drive traffic by

-  Creating alliances with web portals to build presence on the web

-  Using media barter deals to get good exposure of the brand in TV, newspapers and magazines

-  Building partnerships with large consumer companies to create joint offers and get access to their customer base

-  Reminding the customer of XXX through newsletters and customized special offers

·  Convert browsers to shoppers using:

-  A simple and functional buying process

-  Customized offers during the customer dialogue

-  product bundling

-  cross-selling and up-selling to promote related products

·  Build the brand with the customer

Due to the fact that event tickets are an item seldom purchased and that the Internet is a fragmented medium, it is very important for the consumer to be aware of this alternative. Marketing focused on the consumer will be one of the most prioritized areas for XXX. This means, amongst other things, that a customer-oriented thinking should pervade the entire operations and that XXX should always be the most visible player within the ticket business, both on and outside the web. XXX will also take advantage of the glamour associated with its products to equip the brand with the right values.

·  Rapid geographical and conceptual expansion

A quick geographical expansion is necessary to achieve a critical mass and, at the same time, successively develop the business concept to create new income flows. XXX will achieve this rapid expansion through co-operations and partnerships.

·  Financial and technical independence

XXX shall not own, part-own or have any interests whatsoever in the various ticket booking systems on the market. The company shall be an independent player offering to sell Organizers’ tickets on the Internet and other digital channels.

·  Create new standards, based on leading edge technology, to provide superior solutions

Provide WAP (and other new, digital channels) enabled services. In addition play a leading role in transforming the industry towards for example electronic tickets and pricing experiments e. g. actions.

·  Use an expansive business model with low operational risk, low need for working capital and great organic growth potential.

Due to the fact that XXX does not physically own the tickets, but merely takes an agent’s fee for the purchase of tickets, operations involve a low operational risk and low working capital investment. In order to run the company more efficiently XXX will outsource as many non-core business functions as possible. In all, these factors enables a flexible and expansive business model with a minimum of physical stocks.

·  Establish strategic partnerships

By establishing a collaboration with strategically important partners, XXX will gain the maximum amount of attention, reduce costs and gain access to skills essential to the operations. XXX intends, for example, to collaborate with at least one local media company per market in order to gain a partner who can, cost-efficiently, supply marketing and provide editorial content.

·  Focus on profitable customer groups and products

Companies will be an important customer group due to their relatively few, but large transactions. Gift vouchers are a product on which XXX especially intends to focus. Gift vouchers are highly profitable as they are not all redeemed and they also generate financial returns in that a considerable amount of time often elapses between the time of purchase and the time of redemption.

·  Build a pan-European customer database

The building up of a pan-European customer database containing information on European customers’ entertainment habits, provides the opportunity to create future revenue streams through direct marketing.

Brand positioning

Overall Communication Objective

The overall objective is to build XXX as a brand with customers, investors, suppliers, partners and potential employees and thus establish a basis for long-term growth in sales and profitability.

Target groups for communication

Customers: XXX ’s primary target group is men/women, 15-45 years, who currently buy tickets through existing channels (both via the web and conventional channels). The relatively wide span of ages is due to the fact that the consumers differ in type according to the sort of tickets they buy (sports, ballet, etc.). Some customers will also be companies who buy tickets as gifts or for entertaining employees and guests.

Other: Other important target groups for XXX ’s communication are suppliers, partners, investors and potential employees.

Overall Positioning - Functional qualities

XXX shall be the superior alternative to the competitors by offering:

·  Simplicity and speed when booking tickets

·  Extensive range of products and services

·  Interesting, attractive, customized and useful site with many peripheral services

·  Security (when making payment via the web) and reliability

Overall Positioning - Emotional qualities/Brand personality

·  XXX shall be perceived as friendly, innovative and modern without, for that reason, deterring customers in the 35+ age group.

·  XXX makes life more fun and offers a pleasant way of buying event tickets and related products.

Communication goals, strategies and activities by target group

In the table below the communication goals, strategies and activities are summarized.

Target group		Goals	Value proposition	Strategies	Key activities
Customers	Companies Consumers	Maximize -awareness -trial -loyalty Maximize -awareness -trial -loyalty	XXX will offer a simple, convenient, safe and attractive way to find information about, book events and buy related products and services via digital media. Further, XXX will provide personalized information and service, delivered via continuously improving, interactive digital media As above.	-  Provide detailed information on offer to selected group of high-volume potential customers -  Personalized cost-effective communication with current customers to increase loyalty and re-purchase -  Co-advertising with organizers of events -  Image-building campaigns -  Consumer loyalty building campaigns -  “Stocking” incentives to increase no. of tickets and other items sold with each purchase	-  Direct mail, -  electronic newsletter, -  PR Direct sales Site adjustments & campaigns -  TV/Print advertising -  PR -  Loyalty programs -  Personalized content and communi-cation, and community building Site -  Special offers, Give-aways etc
Others	Suppliers and partners Investors Potential employees	Maximize awareness and create positive attitudes among suppliers and partners Maximize awareness and create positive attitudes and desire to invest in company Maximize awareness and create positive attitudes. Maximize number of applicants.	XXX offers: increased ticket sales, an attractive content with a high degree of customization, a strong brand and unique tools for targeted marketing. XXX offers highly interesting investment opportunities. Key words: professional, fast-growing firm with new European digital eCommerce concept XXX offers a highly professional, fast-growing firm that provides a dynamic and rewarding working opportunities	-  Provide detailed information on offer to selected suppliers and partners -  Corporate information -  Corporate information	-  Personal contacts -  Personalized newsletters -  PR Site -PR Site -PR Site

Revenue streams

XXX ’s main source of revenue will be service charges for tickets sold. Aside from that, there are, however, several attractive revenue flows. These will grow as XXX builds the brand, and will in the long run make a substantial contribution to profits.

Service charges – a fee per ticket administered, charged directly to the consumer.

Electronic gift vouchers– apart from normal service charge, this product also generates interest revenue and additional revenue when vouchers are not redeemed.

Online Advertising – charges for advertisements (banner or other) placed on the XXX site.

Third quarter XXX ad spending, grew 30% over the previous quarter. It is the first time a quarter has broken the billion dollar revenue mark.

Advertising revenue has, in general, grown dramatically on the Internet and is becoming an ever more important source of income for Internet companies.

US ad spending. Jupiter XXX

Affiliate Program Commission Revenue –commission revenue generated from items purchased by XXX customers via banner click-through advertisements or referrals.

Gallery Ad Revenue – advertising fees collected from a separate advertising gallery section on the site.

Premium Content (Event Driven) Charges – charges for access to special online events or programming distributed through the site.

Concierge Service Charges– charges for concierge services ordered through the site. Services could include, but are not limited to, restaurant reservations, baby/dog sitter reservation and other arrangements.

Customer Data Profile Revenue – charges for data profiles of registered users to the site. This source of revenue is not yet incorporated in the business model, as it will not be used unless the customer feels that it will provide added value. XXX will use this opportunity with restraint to begin with. Special offers in collaboration with suppliers is a possible early application area. However, XXX will collect customer data from the start, to build value for the future.

Marketing process

The purpose of the marketing process is to plan and efficiently execute market activities in order to increase brand awareness, attract traffic and to increase sales. This is realized through market strategy and planning, analysis of current market situation and customer segments to target, market activities.

Customer service

The purpose of the customer service process is to serve the company's customers by answering questions either by email or by phone, develop an "internal" and "external" FAQ and to gather and save product development - or site improvements ideas in a local and central dB.

In doing so it is very important to build an internal working FAQ in the local language, develop external FAQ in local languages, identify specialists to handle difficult answers, implement a question repository, implement a idea exchange dB and to manage agreed lead time of answers.

Order fulfillment

XXX ’s aim is to simplify the purchase, payment and distribution of event tickets as far as possible. Simultaneously, the customer integrity and security when making payment must be guaranteed. The chosen solution must also be economically viable, both for the consumer and for XXX.

XXX will, therefore, offer several alternatives for payment, to fit different customer segments:

·  Customers who only make occasional purchases pay for their tickets immediately on purchase by credit card or through advance payment either directly through withdrawel from own bank account or using a postal/banking giro service number.

·  Corporate customers will be manually registered as members with XXX and can pay for their tickets against an invoice or by credit card.

The rules and regulations, as well as infrastructure, in some countries can either facilitate or obstruct any of the above solutions. At the same time, new and more modern methods of payment are being developed, which will, in all probability, become available within the next 12-24 months. XXX will follow this development very carefully and intends to be amongst the first eCommerce companies in Europe to implement new, better payment systems than those currently available.

Distribution is a very important part of creating an attractive customer offer. It has a strong influence on the perceived convenience and the total cost for the customer. XXX will therefore offer several options, with varying service level and price, in order to serve different customer needs.

Using the competitors’ online booking services, customers are obliged to collect the tickets they have booked at the Arena where the event is to take place or at an advance booking point, such as the Post Office, or local agents affiliated to various booking systems. To save the customer time and provide the best possible service, one of XXX ’s distribution options will be to distribute the tickets to an address specified by the customer.

XXX intends to actively lead development in so-called electronic tickets. The idea is to develop a ticket-free check-in system in collaboration with the ticket offering such a system, the need for physical distribution of event tickets will be eliminated which will simplify the buying process for the customer and provide XXX with greater opportunities to increase revenues. Electronic tickets will dramatically increase the differentiation of online ticket sales compared to traditional channels. The development of this system can be expected to take two years. It will probably take another three to five years before the majority of organizers accept and work with ticket-free check-in systems.

Content management

•  Content management consists of event management, arena management and editorial management. The purpose of event management is to assure that that the site is filled and continuously updated with attractive events. Editorial management assures that the site is filled with quality editorial content that is attractive to customers and that make them choose XXX when looking for tickets. Editorial material is provided by external partners.

Technical infrastructure

The technical infrastructure is a core component of XXX ’s business. It is the major cost driver but also the very essence of the business. The main areas of the technical infrastructure are hardware and software configuration, application functionality, financial system, connections to external systems and call center setup.

XXX will employ technically competent staff that will have the overall responsibility for the technical infrastructure. This includes overall responsibility for the development of the application and the financial system, as well as supervising operations and maintenance. XXX ’s will also reach an agreement with different booking system suppliers that they offer systems with as simple interfaces as possible.

The following tasks are not planned to be conducted by XXX :

·  Hosting

·  Functional design, application development and technical architecture

·  Technical setup of call centers

XXX will choose partners who cover the areas mentioned above. The goal is to find a business partner who will develop the technical infrastructure for the whole European market. XXX ’s business partner will have the knowledge and skills necessary to implement the application, suggest layout and design for the site, technically setup the call centers and participate in discussions concerning the prioritization of different implementation alternatives.

In addition to a partner for the development of the service, XXX will also collaborate with a company responsible for hosting, traffic, infrastructure, access and the operating and maintenance of the servers. This partner can be the same as the one developing the service. Provided that the reply times when dealing with transactions to and from the booking systems in Europe are acceptable, the aim is to handle all traffic and other technical work from Stockholm, at least initially.

As for content management the goal is to automate this process as much as possible. Depending on the conditions in the different countries, one or more partners for content management will be used across Europe or in the individual countries.

In short, the technical infrastructure consists of

·  A web application with CRM capabilities

·  A pre packaged financial system with logistics functionality

·  An interface for the various ticket booking systems

·  An interface for various other on-line systems

·  A ‘ticket allotment’ application

·  Call center maintenance applications

· 

Future functionality will be WAP and Digital TV enabling

The technical infrastructure will consist of a pan European web application with CRM capabilities. CRM, Customer Relationship Management, allows the content to be customized and personalized. Every customer has a profile with information about preferences given by the consumer, web site navigation history, recently bought items (tickets, travel, merchandise, etc) and much more. The profiles are stored in a customer database that is a part of the CRM service. Using the customer profile, special offers can be given to the individual customer, personal information about events can be given, loyalty programs can be implemented. CRM requires dynamic web pages, i. e. all pages are forms that are filled with information by the CRM service. CRM allows multiple languages for the customers without them having to state their language every time they enter the application.

The technical infrastructure will also incorporate a financial system handling receipts and expenditure to and from customers, organizers and suppliers. The financial system will also provide logistics functionality containing customer’s order, delivery status, etc. The financial system will be a pre-packaged solution, integrated in the technical infrastructure.

An interface is to be built for the various ticket booking systems throughout Europe. The different systems all have different functionality and means of access. The interface must therefore be indifferent to functionality and support all different means of access. For the web application, the interface provides a range of functionality that is pre defined. Depending on what underlying ticket booking system that is accessed, parts of the functionality is used. For the parts that can not be given by the ticket booking system, a standardized error message is given by the interface that can be handled by the web application.

Also, an interface is to be built for various other on-line systems like travel, hotel, merchandise etc.

The technical infrastructure will also include a ‘ticket allotment’ application for tickets administrated directly by XXX . This application will also be used for creating special offers (i. e. packages that contain event tickets and flight tickets to the event) that will be promoted by XXX.

The technical infrastructure must be extendable allowing new functionality to be added in the web application, rollout in new countries, new interfaces to be added to other systems. Since content management will be a major cost, the technical infrastructure must allow this process to be automated as much as possible. In the near future, WAP and digital TV will be common.

Geographic strategy

Although Internet has global reach, the event ticket market is mainly local. The arenas and organizers primarily operate locally and the customers generally look for events in their region. Also the booking systems are largely operating within national boundaries. All these factors combined makes it suitable to discuss geographic strategy in terms of countries.

When selecting in which countries to implement the XXX concept, and prioritizing among them, a number of criteria have been used.

·  Event ticket market size

The estimated total number of tickets sold in the country is critical to determine the potential revenues for XXX.

·  eCommerce market size

This factor describes the total eCommerce market in absolute numbers, i. e. the number of Internet users and the total eCommerce B2C revenue (today and forecasted).

·  eCommerce maturity

eCommerce maturity describes the relative eCommerce market, i. e. Internet penetration in % and eCommerce revenue per capita, as opposed to the absolute described above. This tells us how likely it is that people will buy tickets online, as well as how quickly XXX or a competitor can establish itself as a player in the market.

·  Synergies with Sweden and/or Germany

This factor takes into account that XXX will be able to reuse some of its work and knowledge from the first launches in Sweden and paring similarities in language, consumer values, the way of doing business as well as the possibility to use same distributors/partners and existing contacts.

·  Competition

The level of online competition, and threat of coming competition, affects the attractiveness of the market negatively. Not only because more players implies lower market share and revenues. More players also makes it more difficult to build the XXX brand.

An analysis of the European countries, given the criteria above, supports XXX ’s decision to launch first in Sweden then in Germany. Germany is a very large market, where XXX has good potential to act as a first-mover if speed is maintained. The XXX management team has large personal networks and good understanding of the markets both in Germany and Sweden. Sweden is also a very mature market for eCommerce, and a suitable test market to launch in.

For a detailed presentation of the country analysis, see Appendix 3.

Why pan-European?

There are a number of benefits for XXX competing as a pan-European player, rather than acting locally.

·  A larger market is covered, and thus customer base, makes XXX a more interesting player for partners and suppliers.

·  XXX will be able to build a critical mass of users more quickly, when launching the site in many European countries.

·  The experience gained in the first markets will provide valuable knowledge when launching in the next countries. This will improve performance and speed, as well as reduce costs.

·  The customer value increases as XXX will make it possible to order tickets from all over Europe. This will add value for tourists as well as business people.

·  XXX can afford to build superior technical platform and functionality, due to economies of scale.

·  The larger XXX gets, the more influence it can have in a potential industry consolidation.

·  The XXX brand will grow stronger if spread in many markets.

·  XXX will be able to define the European standard for buying event tickets on the Internet. No local player will ever get the chance to do that.

Organization

The parent company XXX, will have one subsidiary in each country of operation,. These subsidiaries will be wholly owned by the parent company.

·  The parent company’s areas of responsibility are as follows:Product development and implementation

·  Marketing planning

·  Budgeting, controlling and finance

·  Development and implementation of business processes.

·  Coordination of legal issues.

·  investor relations.

·   

·  Negotiations with international suppliers/organizers.

·  Establishment of partnerships with international business partners.

·  Development of international strategies and frameworks.

·  Dissemination of knowledge between the local companies.

HR strategy and recruiting

The goal for HR is to attract, motivate, develop and keep talented professionals. The overall vision is to develop a dynamic setting, that mirrors and stimulates the commitment of the team members. XXX will create a team, where everyone is aware of the fact that they are creating industry history.

The focus of the HR strategy is to develop a corporate culture around three key concepts:

1.  Commitment

Everybody in the organization will participate in and have a personal commitment to the company vision and concepts. All team members shall act as owners of the concept as well as the company itself.

2.  Entrepreneurship

Everyone will, from day one, have the ambition to build a big and great company that is expansive and fast paced. The culture will stimulate constant improvement and development.

3.  Sense of urgency

We are passionate about what we are doing and what we do is important. We are creating history within the industry and thus have to be smarter and faster than the competition. Simplicity, possibility to influence and stock options/ ownership will support the entrepreneurial culture.

XXX will invest a lot of time and effort in finding the right people. The objective is to attract highly talented people, devoted to the task..Large parts of the planned recruiting will be made from the extended networks of the management team. This will ensure good team work dynamics and speed.

Management team

XXX

Subsidiaries

The organization of the subsidiaries is assumed to be identical in all countries. However, the total number of employees per country depends on the size and complexity of the market. The total number of employees is expected to grow to 196 by the end of year XXX. The table below describes the personnel need for the typical subscribing.

Position / Function	Number of employees[10]	Responsibility
Country Manager	1	-Overall responsibility for the local business -Negotiations with local suppliers and partners -Recruiting and training for local organization -Reporting of business results
Marketing Manager	1	-Local adaptation and execution of marketing & PR campaigns -Local consumer tracking and research
Financial & accounting manager	1	-Cash flow and accounting
Product & partner developer	1	-Close deals with new partners and keep good relations with existing once in order to have an attractive product portfolio to offer the customers
Technical Support and Maintenance	1	-Technical support -Operation and maintenance of back end solutions
Operation Manager	1-2	-Operation and maintenance of the service center
Office services	1	-Administration
Customer Service	5-15	-Call center operations
Editorial Manager	1	-Provide the site with interesting editorial material

Roll-out strategy

XXX will gradually build up the business from the core service of event tickets. The goal is to quickly expand geographically and then gradually develop the business concept in order to create new revenue flows. See the illustrative picture below.