I.  Write a summary of possible strategies and ideas you will consider in your marketing mix to market the product/service you have identified as your business.  Some questions you might answer include:

Product:

• Who is the product aimed at?
• What benefit will customers expect?
• How will you design, package or otherwise add perceived value to your product/service in the eyes of your customers?
• Price (discounts, sales, list price, credit terms):
• How will you price your product/service for different customers?
• How will you make money based on your costs and desired profits?
• Will you have different prices for different customers?
• How might you have to adjust your prices to take into consideration different products or services in your marketing mix?
• Place (distribution, locations, inventory, logistics and transportation):
• How will you distribute your product/service to customers to best advantage?
• How will you make your product available to your targeted customers?
• Will you sell directly or produce your product and like Ford or GM, use dealers to market and sell your product or service?
• Promotion (communications, public relations, personal selling and advertising):
• What kinds of communications will you use to tell potential customers about the features and benefits or your products?
• Will you use direct selling, advertising, newsletters and special sales?
• Choose your pricing strategically.
• Decide on the location that is best for your customers.
• Determine the mix of promotion to use for your business.
• Use breakeven analysis to evaluate your marketing plan….this data will be used in your Sales Forecast coming up!
• Use your text as a source from the business/market plan sample.  This will be an active part of your business plan.  You may incorporate tables, graphs or spreadsheet in your document.   

2. CALCULATE YOUR BREAK EVEN ANALYSIS for your ‘top’ selling item.  If you have a variety of items, take an average selling price for your top 2-3 items and use that information for calculating. 

Scenario #1: Use and submit the Breakeven Analysis Template below to calculate your break-even in dollars and units, with “0” profit. 

Scenario #2. For your second calculation, add a reasonable dollar amount to the ‘profit’ cell on the template to see what your required units/dollars to make that amount in profit per year.

Be sure you show your Variable costs as UNIT costs and Fixed costs on an Annual basis.  For instance, rent is 1,000/month, so, you would show $12,000 as rent in fixed costs.

 Submit both scenarios of breakeven analysis.