Marketing Plan of a Waste Management Company

Executive Summary: Green Industry is an organization which will provide a complete solution for managing industrial liquid waste to large and medium sized companies. It will be a business to business service. In recent days environment pollution has become a concerning issue for everyone. Marketing Strategy: The marketing strategy is the core of the main strategy: 1. Emphasize high value, high quality products and services. 2. Build a relationship oriented business. 3. Focus on large and medium industries currently producing liquid wastes and polluting rivers severely as our initial markets. Products and Services: Our products and services offer needed solution to the selected industries. We will provide two types of product: 1. Liquid waste solidification service: This service is suitable for those industries that generate liquid wastes required a convenient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly way to dispose of these substances. This solidification process involves mixing liquid waste with selected reagents and/or absorbents to create a substance hard and dry enough to be landfilled. Solidifying liquid waste in this manner allows companies to economically dispose of non-hazardous liquids in a Green Industry Subtitle â€Å"D† landfill while reducing its long-term contingent liability. Our consultant will evaluate the liquid waste to see if it qualifies for liquid waste solidification treatment and then determine the specific reagents needed to solidify it. The recommended treatment will be conducted in a safe and timely manner in full compliance with environmental regulations. 2. Recycling service: This is for those residues which can be recycled from waste to fertilizers and other soil enhancer. Recycling is biological decomposition of organic materials. Bacteria, fungi, protozoan, insects, worms and other organisms typically play a part in the decomposition process. Composting is nature’s means of recycling. It will turn grass clipping, leaves, vegetables, fruit and other organic materials into a very beneficial soil amendment. As a market pioneer we will offer certain services. They are: †¢ We have a well established website to inform our activities and services to our current and potential customers. Moreover, they can place order in our website and we will provide them their desired services within 3 days. †¢ In order to increase the value of waste, we will consult on different options of managing waste taking into consideration risk and cost/benefits and the present legislation of residues treatment and disposal. †¢ We will provide an exclusive service at a low cost to maintain our disposal system to our customer. There will be several teams consisting of technicians and workers who will go to the companies individually on a regular basis to check the system working properly. Product Description: †¢ Liquid waste solidification: A solidified liquid waste is a Six-Step Process. 1. Evaluation: Based on waste profile information provided by the customer or samples taken on site, Green Industry technicians test the samples at the nearest Green Industry landfill and select an appropriate mixture of reagents and/or absorbents for treatment. 2. Transportation: Green Industry transports the liquid waste to a designated Subtitle D landfill where it is weighed. Transport can be accomplished using tanker trucks, drums or roll-off containers. 3. Monitoring: The liquid waste is poured into a specially engineered liquid container basin. This basin is monitored regularly to ensure that its surface remains intact and that no liquids leach into the surrounding environment. 4. Introduction to Mixture: Reagents and/or absorbents are introduced to the mixture. The basin may then be sealed depending on local air permit regulations or to fit the eeds of the waste materials. 5. Tests: The liquid and reagents/absorbents are mechanically mixed. Once the liquid hardens, one or more paint filter tests are performed to confirm that the substance is no longer in a liquid state. 6. Landfill Disposal: Solidified waste is transferred from the engineered basin to a site vehicle and directed for disposal within the adjacent Subtitle D landfill. †¢ Recycling: The residues which can be recycled to fertilizers will be evaluated by our experienced technicians and then will be sent to our recycling department to process it. These recycling/composting units work as follows. The unit is 50 feet long. The sludge is placed into one end of the unit. To make compost, additional dry fibrous material such as sawdust, wood chips, or bark must be added. We will acquire a steady supply of these from International Paper Company. The unit turns slowly, making four revolutions per hour, to ensure that adequate oxygen gets to all of the composting material. Also, the unit is set on a very slight, 2 degree angle so that as the unit turns, the material slowly migrates toward the opposite end of the unit. During the composting process, the material heats up (due to the natural reaction) to temperatures of approximately 140 degrees Fahrenheit; this kills any harmful bacteria in the composting material. Temperature can be controlled to ensure optimum composting environment. Also, the moisture levels can be controlled to ensure optimum composting. After three days, the material has reached the opposite end of the unit where it is removed. Pricing: In Bangladesh most of the industry-owners are not willing to pay high cost to develop effluent management system in their industries. So our main goal will be to provide our service at minimum possible price in the first phase of the business. Place: To reduce our cost we will use direct distribution system which means all our services will be available in our regional office. Promotion: Our promotional strategy will be two-fold: first phase promotion will focus on before, during, and six months following our opening; the second phase of promotion will deal with the long term activities. The purposes of the first phase are to create market for our company and to ensure early and sustained profitability. The purpose of the second phase is to ensure long-term growth and helps boost us toward achieving our goal of expanding new market and sectors throughout Bangladesh. In this report we will describe the first phase of promotion. Personal Selling: Once face-to-face with our customer, we will be unique in our creative and flexible approach in order to solve our clients' waste problems. Our approach will be that of a consulting firm. We will visit the customer and investigate which residues the industry has. We will manage and collect whatever residues exist. The process begins with an evaluation meeting with our future client where our representative will analyze the scrap output and recommend the most efficient collection system. Pick-up will be scheduled on an as-needed basis or on a regular schedule, depending on the situation. The client's needs can be met by a variety of equipment, including special trucks. After the initial consultation, a comprehensive and customized proposal will be submitted to the customer. The result will be a program that fits neatly into an organization's day-to-day activities as well as its long-term planning. Arranging Campaigns: About 6,000 large and medium industries and 24,000 small industries are operating in Bangladesh which discharge effluents directly to the rivers or nearby canal or waterbed without any regard to environment. Green Industry will arrange a huge number of campaigns and seminars to aware people about the river pollution they are responsible of. We will focus mainly on the owners of textile, tannery, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, metal, food industry, fertilizers, cement, and chemical industries to attend these campaigns and seminars. According to an expert, ‘‘an average of 19 cubic liter water containing more than 300 different chemical compounds is being discharged daily from these industries. † So our main objective will be to protect our rivers from pollution by influencing industry-owners to adopt waste management system and for their convenience we will provide our technology. Advertisement: We will utilize direct mail and face-to-face promotional strategies to raise awareness about our products and services in the target markets. Newspaper advertising may also be used. All our advertisement will convey two messages: stop pollution and use our product because we are trustworthy. We will focus on our services in our advertisements. Some Billboards promoting Green Industry will include a statement referring to aware people against river pollution in the industrial areas. The statement could be, â€Å"Can you live without pure drinking water? If not, Save the Rivers and Adopt Waste Management†. Internet: We will have a content heavy website geared toward educating potential customers about the benefits of our products and services. All literature, business cards, etc. ill include our website and e-mail address information. Sales Promotion: We will offer special offers to promote our product in the beginning stage. For example, we will install the plant with no service charge for the first 100 customers. Besides, we will offer discounts and prizes on special occasions. We will also induce product trial but in a limited way. Second Phase Promotion s Publicity: As the business grows and expands we will continue to seek publicity through news media to tout our successes. Advertising: We will continue to make face-to-face contact with customers and potential customers. Mail-outs will be done again within a few months of start up. The second round of mail outs will be updated to reflect the benefits provided to customers thus far. Such mail-outs will be sent periodically. Internet: We will continue to have a comprehensive website. The website will be updated to provide responses to frequently asked questions. After the first six months, and certainly after the first year, we will evaluate the viability of having target clients advertise on our site, and conversely, we will evaluate viability of advertising on our target clients’ websites (if applicable). Product Life Cycle: Every product has a limited life and product sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different challenges, opportunities, and problem to the seller. Introduction Stage: At the introduction stage our sales growth will tend to be slow because it takes time to roll out a new product. Our profit will be low or negative. [pic] fig: Product Life Cycle In the introduction stage our marketing strategies will be: †¢ Product will be introduced to the target market with brand name and trust. †¢ Pricing will be low. We will maintain a lean cost structure. We will dispose of waste in large quantities, thus enjoying lower costs and economies of scale. †¢ Distribution will be selective until customers show acceptance of the product. †¢ Promotion is aimed to building awareness of the product as well as environmental pollution. Growth Stage: When our product will be accepted by the early adopters, we will tend to achieve the growth stage. In this stage, our strategies will be: †¢ Product quality will be maintained and our research and development department will try to add new product features. †¢ Pricing will be lower to encourage the medium and small industries to adopt our waste management system. Distribution coverage will be increased to other division of Bangladesh. We will provide our service in Khulna and Bogra outside Dhaka. †¢ Promotion will be for product preference advertising. We will focus more industries in our promotional activities. Situation Analysis: Dhaka city of ours is affected with various en vironmental problems staking the lives of its inhabitants. Because of highly dense population, lack of environmental consciousness among the inhabitants and absence of proper role of public agencies it is going to be one of the deadliest cities in world as well. At present river pollution in Bangladesh has become a headache for all environment concern people. In Bangladesh, industrial units are mostly located along the banks of the rivers. There are obvious reasons for this such as provision of transportation for incoming raw materials and outgoing finished products. Unfortunately, as a consequence, industrial units drain effluents directly into the rivers without any consideration of the environmental degradation. The most problematic industries for the water sector are textiles, tanneries, pulp and paper mills, fertilizer, industrial chemical production and refineries. A complex mixture of hazardous chemicals, both organic and inorganic, is discharged into the water bodies from all these industries usually without treatment. To improve the situation, the government has decided to make it mandatory for all industries to have effluent treatment plants. But in Bangladesh there is no such a company like us to provide the complete solution for managing liquid waste. Therefore it is the high time for us to enter the market and create consciousness among people against river pollution. Customer Analysis: Target Market: ILRM will target the industries which produce liquid and hazardous residues. We will use demographic and geographic segmentation so that we can reach the customer more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match their different needs. Geographic Segmentation: Green Industry will focus on these areas which are being densely polluted by the industrial wastes. The major industrial locations of the country are concentrated in three metropolitan areas: †¢ Dhaka, which includes Tejgaon, Hazaribagh, Demra, Tongi, Savar, and Narayangonj. †¢ Khulna, which includes Shiromoni, Kalishpur, and Rupsha. †¢ Chittagong, which includes Kalurghat, Patenga, Bhatiary, Nasirabad, and Kaptai. Bogra is a rapidly growing industrial center in the northwestern part of the country where many of the machine tools and agro-based industries are located. In the first year of operation, GI will target only to Dhaka and Chittagong and after reaching the break even point in these locations we will expand our area coverage. Corporate/Professional Segmentatio n: As GI’s mission is to reduce water pollution by installing GI’s product in the selected industries, we will keep those industries which are mostly responsible for the pollution on our center of our attention. Estimated industrial pollution has summarized in Table 1 in the index. It shows the top-eleven most polluting industries, which we will focus on. They are- pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, metal, food industry, fertilizers, cement, tanneries, textiles, and industrial chemicals. Market Growth: This market growth is fueled by a more health conscious customer. By different campaigns and seminars we will induce industry owners to adopt waste management process which will enable us to grow our market. Again, our recycling process has a great potential market of selling fertilizers. After a certain period of time when our company reaches to maturity stage, we will introduce more ways of disposing hazardous and non-hazardous industrial residues. This will help us to continue our market growth smoothly through entering into new market segments in different stage. Market Trends: Current trends in the market greatly favor the start-up of our waste management business. Laws have been passed in Bangladesh placing greater emphasis on industrial waste management. These laws take effect in 2009. Large industries are already seeking a means of disposal their waste in an environment friendly way. So Green Industry solves their problem. Again our recycling department also has a great impact on organic fertilizer market. The demand for compost to use in organic farming and other applications is growing rapidly. Marketing Strategy for Small Industries: Some small industries will not have much space for implementing our liquid waste solidification process. Because they also produce toxic liquid wastes which pollute rivers at almost same rate as large industries do, we have special service to offer. We will provide them a special kind of containers to pour their liquid waste into these containers. Then we will collect the ontainers daily and dispose them safely in our company’s personal basin constructed in our factory area. The service charge and transportation cost will be paid by the customers. Level of Competition: In Bangladesh the level of competition for our company is low. There are no companies in the market that have a proposal like ours: to manage all liquid wast e released by a company, either with commercial value or not, in a safe way. The main competitors are the current companies that collect specific types of scrap. Most of these companies are small, offering unprofessional services with low scale economies in their operations. Risks: After evaluating the critical elements of the investment and business risk, we have come to the conclusion that there is an acceptable overall risk for the Green Industry concept for the following reasons: †¢ Industry: We will be a pioneer in a nascent industry. However, this industry has great potential. †¢ Demand assumptions: In our country most of the industry-owners are not willing to allocate their investment for waste management. Rather they will throw their wastes to a river which is cost free. Our main obstacle will be to pursue them to develop a waste management system. Again small industries do not have much space and investment to apply our waste management system. Though we have a different and convenient plan for these small industries, but convincing them will be much tougher than the pursuing big industries. †¢ Technological and operational obsolescence: New operational and technological processes will likely reduce the quantity of waste generated. However, this will not only be a slow process, but not all companies will be willing to pay for the changes required. Some industries will be very difficult and costly to change. We believe there will always be an industrial waste demand. Branding: As a new company brand value is important for the growth of our business. We will create our brand equity by stating the benefits and attributes of our products and services. Our brand will say our core value which is to save our river water from getting polluted. Moreover, our brand promises to provide all stated services to our customers. Benefits of liquid waste solidification: †¢ Cost-savings over alternative treatment and disposal solutions. †¢ Compliance with environmental regulations. †¢ Long-term indemnification. Advantages of this recycling/composting method are as follows: †¢ Recycling is completed rapidly in three days. Other methods take 90 plus days. †¢ Waste materials in the unit are isolated from the environment. †¢ The manager has precise control of moisture, temperature, and aeration during the process to ensure the most efficient composting possible. †¢ In-vessel composting can maintain a rapid decomposition process year-round regardless of external ambient conditions. The material can be used for improvement of organic matter content and fertility of soil.