operations and marketing plan

8/12/2019 Operations and Marketing Plan

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Canine Assessment Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (CACTT)

Marketing Plan

Market Segment

We are targeting the segment of the market that are animal lovers. Furthermore we have narrowed thissegment down to the niche of upper middle-class and upper class customers, who reside in the Northern

areas of Trinidad such as Westmoorings, Maraval, Valsayn, Cascade and environs, who are canine lovers.

Because of the new legislation relating to Dangerous Dogs, there is a lot of ambiguity concerning what new

practices should be adopted, accessing licensure, and making the owners compound safe for non-owners.

We are offering our customers the ability to understand the new laws, assist them with acquiring a

Dangerous Dog License, assessment of their compound and dog, behavioral consulting and training their

canine.

Research has shown customers from this market are have achieved an advanced education (mainly tertiary

level and beyond), and hold permanent, successful occupations in prominent businesses in the country,

(such as BHP Billiton and BP). Some also hold high-ranking positions in various government ministries

and come from families that have a sound financial background. Using this data we have decided that this

niche market would have need of security (as well as companionship) and might choose to meet this need

via a well-bred dog. This group of customers tends to have a very hectic lifestyle, eat-out a lot, drive high-

end cars, travel during vacations and spend on re-modeling their homes with the latest technological

gadgets, etc.

This shows they would possess the disposable income to afford this service, despite the more the high

mark-up attached to the cost of the service. Additionally this group considers their canines valuable

investments and an object that symbolizes their wealth and place in society, thus their perspective

guarantees that they should pay the price quoted, because if charged a price that is too low they would

assume that the service is of a poor quality and beneath their dogshigh quality needs.

According to investTTs website1our niche markets position in society is not likely to suffer in the near

future as they state the that Trinidad and Tobago is as the leading producer of oil and gas in the

Caribbeanmaintains the most favorable economic climate in theregion, marked by low inflation,

steady upward growth, a stable economy, falling unemployment, and a well-organized, locally-regulated

financial system. Their website further states that due to above our nation has earned a reputation as an

1http://www.investt.co.tt//


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excellent investment site for international business. We believe this wouldsolidify the upper and upper-

middle classesposition occupation and wealth, in the future. As such, our business has the potential to

grow in the coming years because our niche market would have the funds to sustain us due to their need.

Therefore because their needs coincide with our ability to help them via our services, we believe that we

can be assured of guaranteed success in our business venture.

Price

CACTT will be using the cost plus pricing strategy and the customer based pricing strategy to determine

our price for services offered. The cost calculated, as follows per job, involved both assessment of dog and

compound, licensing and training:

Time to complete job : 4 sessions x 1 hour x 1client Labour and Wages: 2 persons x $30.00 Materials: gas i.e. diesel $50.00 Tools: wear and tear on trainers padding, collar and leash set $100.00 Pamphlets: $5.00 Our Salary: $150.00

Job Cost Total

Wages: 2 x 4hrs x $30.00/hour = $240.00

Materials: $50.00 = $50.00

Tools and Pamphlets: $100.00 + $5.00`= $105.00

Salary: $150.00 = $150.00

Job costs = $545.00

Mark up = $455.00 +

Job selling price = $1000.00

Our customers would pay this price because of the level of awareness due to the present publicity of this

situation in society. Also because of the status these canine owners hold in society they would seek to be

socially acceptable to their peers and comply with the law quicker than other classes in society, and would

jump at the opportunity to be registered, without too much hassle to their busy schedules. Consequentially

we are hoping to get their support because of customer based pricing where, because they are accustomed

to paying more for superior service, they would believe that the higher the price we charge them the higher

the quality of the service they would be getting from us.


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Product Brand

We will give credibility to our brand, the Canine Assessment Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (CACTT), to

them by stressing our affiliation with other reputable animal groups and dog breeders who already possess

a dominant presence in and are well known to the animal community. Groups such as the Trinidad and

Tobago Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TTSPCA), Animals Alive, Trinidad and Tobago

Canine Advocates and Animal Welfare Network (AWN). Because these groups have already accessed

customer buy-in and trade acceptance through advocating against inhumane animal treatment, providing

quality care for canines, and always having the best interest of mans best friend, we assume our

customers would also associate us with this and we would not have as much struggle to establish our

service-brand in this market. This should lead to higher gross profits and profitability and our association

with these group also justifies the higher price charged for our services.

Additionally, due to our solid ties with the Ministry of Local Development, if we stress that because of

these ties; we are the premier agency to come to, for government compliance (relating to licensure) in this

area of the market, we believe the value of our brand would increase and be regarded in high esteem by our

niche market, dog breeders and animal groups. We deem the use of a dog paw with the font chosen would

be easily memorable to our past customers, which should differentiate us from other services and increase

our ability to cope with competition better. Plus when linked to our outstanding service, they would think

of us when they need to refer to their friends and family who need to access our canine training and

assessment services, making it easier to get new customers.

We should also generate more extensive notice and cope with competition better from dog breeders and

animal groups, because they would use our brand to advertise our services at their various locations in

North Trinidad. Therefore we expect to achieve higher sales through greater awareness of our brand i.e. we

offer a unique and different blend of services to satisfy our clientsneeds.

Place (distribution)

Our customers place of residence will be the place where our service will be tendered. This should work

well with our customers because we are keeping them in the comfort of their own home rather than putting

them through the hassle of getting home after work, getting changed and putting the animal in their

vehicles to bring them to us. This location is most advantageous as well because the dog will be trained in


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the same environment it is familiar with and not a strange one, thus eliminating the need to have additional

training sessions to adopt their new training to their old/regular habitat. Also this gives us the ability to

conduct the assessment of the owner compound without having to schedule another visit to the home, this

difference and ease of comfort is what we offer to our clients by using their homes as our place of

distribution. Additionally by using their place of residence at the start of the business it would keep our

overheads in terms of renting an office space low. So we can focus on building our reputation in our niche

market and achieve our sales objectives.

Promotion

CACTTs promotion strategy will take place over the first year of business, to encourage customers to use

our services. In laymans terms a dangerous dog can be defined as a dog that has the ability to inflict injury

or death upon humans or any living creature however, according to the American Society for the

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals predicting whether a dog willbite or attack depends more on how the

dog is socialized, supervised and humanely trainedBy using the latter of these statements to change

mindsets on training and assessment of dogs as our tagline and philosophy we will engage in:

Advertising by placing ads on the website and web pages of various animal groups, such ashttp://animal.rescueme.org/tt, and http://animalsalivett.com/. On-line ads will also appear on the

various public social media channels like facebook, twitter and instagram. Because our nichemarket needs to stay connected and up-to-date with technology this seems the fastest and cheapest

way to reach a large number of them at once. Some animal awareness groups also utilize social

media2to generate interests and advertise. We can use this to our advantage and place our ads on

their web pages to get customers interested in our services of licensure, assessment and training.

We could also offer a blog for customers to follow us on what they need to do to obey the law. Byoffering such information as changes to the law and deadlines for licensure, legal fines and

conviction time if caught breaking the law, the fact that it would be cheaper to hire us than to pay

the fines inherent in the law would encourage potential customers to reach out to us.

Moreover we can also engage in personal selling with our prospective customers by schedulingpresentations at weekly or monthly meetings with the social groups to which our future customers

2 Examples of these various social media pages are: https://www.facebook.com/AnimalWelfareNetwork,

https://www.facebook.com/TTSPCA andhttps://www.facebook.com/TrinidadandTobagoCanineAdvocates.
http://animalsalivett.com/http://animalsalivett.com/


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belong, such as yachting club meetings and the Trinbago Scooby Owners Club and Trinidad &

Tobago Subaru Owners Club. This has the advantage of answering any queries they might have

about our service and making appointments with those interested for future follow-ups.

We will also engage in the public relations by attending weekly scheduled sessions of variousanimals groups such as the weekly spaying of dogs every Tuesday and Thursday by the TTSPCA,

to meet clients and offer our services. This will be done by our assessors/trainers who are most

qualified to represent us to these clients.

We will also engage in non-personal advertising by printing two hundred (1/2 page sized) fliersand place them in key groceries, animal shelters, pet shops, dog breeders compounds, and the

North branch of the government pound to attract our target market. Additionally we will place

three 18 x 24 banners in closest to the TTSPCA, Trincity Mall and Ariapita Avenue. These

locations were chosen because we observed these areas were most frequented by our target market.

Furthermore, we will be printing business cards to distribute to prospective clients via word of

mouth, as the occasion arises

Competition

Because we alone offer this three-fold service of licensing, assessment and training we believe the degree

of competition will be low. This could also be attributed to the fact this is a new legal development and it

might take other businesses to adapt to it. Since we offer access to other trainers that we are affiliated withas well this should decrease the amount of impact the competition as it relates to training will have on

CACTT. The total cost of this marketing strategy is around $1450.00 at the beginning and an additional

cost of $550.00 every month.

Operations Plan

Service Delivery

Our office coordinator, Aisha, will be working from our office located at her home in Couva. Since the

bulk of our marketing strategies will take place via the internet we expect clients to contact us using this

medium or via the company phone. Using this means of communication allows us to respond in real-time

to customer queries; drastically reduce the amount of waiting time, as well as meet clients needs

efficiently, despite our location.


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We will be catering to clients located in the North Trinidad. As such we need to ensure we have properly

maintained, functioning means of transportation to reach them. Both Lauralyn and Aisha respectively have

brought into the business two vehicles, which they recently acquired. They are a Nissan diesel panel van

and a Toyota Corolla diesel car.

Our customers first contact into CACTT will be Aisha. When Aisha receives the calls or on-line requests

from clients, she will inform them of our services, the fees and process for licensing their dog and our

package cost of $1000.00. If they agree to use our assessment service she will then get their basic

information, i.e. name, address, contact number, and the type of dog they own, and set up a date and time

for a site visit. If they also agree to utilize our training service this will also be noted so our

assessment/training team knows what the clients wants/expects prior to meeting them.

Alerting the customer to the cost of our package and the licensing process and fees gives them a heads -

up on what we offer and what they can expect so that they are not disillusioned, thus ensuring customer

satisfaction and unhindered service. By noting what the client wants we prepare our assessment/trainer to

know how to treat with the client and cuts down on time wastage, between scheduling and first contact

from the site visit.

This will then be logged in our scheduling program by Aisha and an assessor/trainer will be assigned to the

case. We will have two assessor/trainer Anuradha and Reshma. They will be contacted via our company

bought pre-paid, Digicel Smartphone, immediately and informed of their appointments for the following

day or as the case may be. This will allow them to plan for their up-coming work-day. Preparations can be

made on which of the company vehicles either one would be using, or the tools needed either for training

or assessment (or both). These predetermined decisions cuts down on wastage of work-hours and reflect an

efficient use of our tools and assets.

On the day of the scheduled site-visit, the assessor/trainer will perform a pre-service check to ensure they

have all forms needed for the assessment of the dog and owner compound, the contract form for our

services and a licensing form to register the dog and the owner. They will also have the kit needed to

collect blood work for determining the type of dog according to Schedule A. The assessor/trainer will then

proceed to the owners home. Firstly, upon meeting the client the companys contract form will be

completed and signed and our fees will be paid up front. Then an assessment of the dog, behavioral

consulting, blood sampling and assessment of the owners home compound will be conducted to determine

compliance with the law.


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The owner will then be re-informed of the licensing process, and at that time the forms for licensing will be

filled out and fee collected. The training schedule will be determined, should the owner also decide to use

our training services. The assessor/trainer will then discuss the owners expectations and responsibilities in

the training process (i.e. the owner must continually work with the dog to get the best results). Additionally

the days required (i.e. four days could be non-consecutive days) and amount of time needed for each

training session (i.e. one hour per session) will be determined based on owner availability.

By keeping training sessions to an hour and when owners are available we are increasing our service

efficiency because we will be flexible to their schedules and get them when they are most attentive thereby

increasing our service outcome of their dog being a better trained animal. Additionally we will be

delivering quality to the client as there will be no time wastage during the session as each session will be

planned out to ensure maximum output.

Blood samples will be submitted to Tricia, who is also our marketing director. She will submit the blood

samples to a part-time veterinarian, who will do the blood work and notify her of the type of dog being

assessed. She will do the relevant paper work and pass it to the assessor/trainer to inform the client. When

this is completed, the licensing form and fee (which was given to Lauralyn, our accountant and license

clerk upon the return of the assessor/trainer) will be processed on behalf of our clients. She will also follow

up on the form and give our customers regular feedback to let them know its progress. When the license

process is complete the assessor/trainer will deliver the license to the client.

We will also offer customers the alternative of using other trainers, since we only have two currently on

staff. Should our customers choose this avenue,CACTT will contact one trainer from our list of certified

dog trainers which we are associated with, after the dog and compound assessments are completed. We will

also collect payment on behalf of the other trainer and pay them when the job is completed.

A feedback form will be given to our customers when they receive their license and upon completion of the

four training sessions to monitor our service efficiency, as well as to determine where improvements can be

made to better meet their needs.

Supply Chain for Acquir ing our Trainers Padding, Leash and Coll ar Sets

Our supplier for trainers padding, collars and leashes will be PetSmart. We will use their website to place

orders because it is easier to access their catalogs, they offer competitive prices, better quality products and

are reputable in the field of pet supplies. At a cost of $2440.71 per shipment (includes PetSmart and

shipping fees), the cost factor of acquiring more trainers padding, collar and leash sets is factored into the


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price that the client pays for each job. We will start by placing only ONE order for a dozen trainers

padding, collar and leash set from the website.

This will be cleared by us, as we will use TTPOSTs EZone services. EZone is an international private mail

box service that allows us to have our online purchases delivered to a Miami address, air or sea-freighted

down to Trinidad and Tobago and then delivered to us. We chose EZone because they offer us:

Speed and Reliability - EZone flies to Trinidad and Tobago daily - this means we get our onlinepurchases delivered quicker.

Convenience - We can make payments and collect our items at any of the selected TTPost RetailOutlets nationwide (there is one located close to our Couva office).

Competitive ratesThey have low annual registration fee, freight and delivery charges. Tracking - We can track our items live online at our convenience. This is further supported by their

dedicated customer service representatives.

Skills & Experience - This is their core business, and they have developed a high level of skill andcompetency at it.

Subscription fees At present they have a limited time offer that makes it absolutely free to signup.

Once we have signed up for EZone, we can buy our supplies online from our US based supplier, give them

your EZone address (which is a Miami mailing address) and then once delivered to the Miami address, the

supplies will be delivered to us in Trinidad & Tobago via TTPost.

I nventory Management

We plan to use two sets of trainers padding; collar and leash set for all jobs until they are unworkable, then

another set will be taken out and used. When ten (10) sets have been used we will then re-order more stock

i.e. another dozen sets, thus leaving two sets as safety stock on our shelf and allowing for any delivery

delays. We will notbe selling the collars and leash sets to customers as we anticipate they will already

have their own.

We will ideally try to schedule six 1-hour sessions per assessor/trainer per day giving us a total of twelve

sessions per day. On days when we do not have this quota we can assign our assessor/trainers to assist in

promoting CACTT by scheduling them to attend shelters and make representation on our behalf. For

example, they can attend TTSPCAs free spaying sessions (held every Tuesday and Thursday) to meet

prospective clients.

operations and marketing plan

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