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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

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Introduction
In this report we propose to put forth a marketing plan for a new business venture which
deals in electronic waste reusing. The firm, E.A.R (Electronics Are Reusable ) Pvt. Ltd,
would buy electronic waste(e-waste) of only computers and mobiles from the organizations
and consumers willing to dispose it off ,differentiates reusable parts in good condition and
sells it to customers as second-hand parts at a very low cost.

The firm being a new business venture would bear fruits after few months of just reaching
break-even point. It would be backed financially by long-term debts and loans from banks
and other financial institutions. It would operate only in Ahmedabad,Gujarat initially from
one office and shop premises and one warehouse. It has plans for expansion in Ahmedabad in
first stage. It will also expand its product range from only computers and mobile to other
electronics range like home appliances, industrial machineries etc.

In such a business marketing is of high importance as customer would be drawn to the shop
only by market presence and customer awareness as this business is a business of alternative
and not of necessity. Customer needs to be attracted to come to us, he will not come
searching for us. Our marketing goal is “ customer should come searching for us”. This
business would not enjoy luxury of high repeat customer base and hence marketing would
play key role to attract new customers. Based on the estimates of this plan, future marketing
strategies can be formulated and present results can also be verified.

MISSION

To provide practical, highly affordable and most importantly, highly trustworthy reusing and
repairing solutions for electronics and creating a win-win situation for the buyer, seller and
the environment

VISION

Starting as a small enterprise in a whole new sector we aspire to become the pioneers of e-
waste reuse industry and establish ourself as an example of a business in tune with society
betterment by reducing e-waste.

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

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Situation Analysis
Current products
A current product/range of product does not exist in the market as an organized industry. Few
sellers and buyers exist for electronic waste in interior parts of Ahmedabad city and their
market presence is negligible.

Current target market

This business focuses on the masses and not on a specific group. Large Indian middle class
uses electronic items extensively but can’t afford its high maintenance or don’t want to spend
much on maintenance.
Similarly the student class of age around 20-24 who do not earn yet and live on limited
means also use mobiles and laptops/computers extensively. For them also a low-cost
maintenance option is very attractive. Hence out target customer would be middle class of
society and college going students. So marketing would be done mainly in densely populated
areas and educational areas.
High-end areas can be targeted for procurement of waste. Probability of procurement of
better condition waste is high in high-end areas of society.
Positioning : Customers would consider our service as a low cost reliable repairing and
maintenance service done by using second-hand products.
Here the purchase would be non-impulsive and rational. Purchase would be made directly
by the consumer after proper examining the service and product offered.
Price of the new parts from the company will influence the buying process of our product. If
the difference is small one would rather go for a fresh piece rather than a second hand.
Market sizes are not available as there does not exist a proper market for e-waste reusing but
present market size is very small. This is still an untapped market. The estimates of e-waste
produced in 2008 in major cities on India are as given below and this is bound to grow at a
very fast rate in the coming years and so reducing our procurement cost.

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

Mumbai at present tops the list

Mumbai 11, 017 tones

Delhi 9,730 tones

Bangalore 4,648 tones

Chennai 4,132 tones

Kolkata 4,025 tones

Ahmadabad 3,287 tones

Hyderabad 2,833 tones

Pane 2,584 tones

Seurat 1,836 tones

Current Distributor network

There does not exist a proper distributor network for our service and products. Collection
system of old newspapers and magazines can be adopted to collect e-waste. In this system a
personnel visits organizations and household and collects the waste and pays them amount on
weight basis. Similarly this can also be followed for e-waste.
Collection centres can also be opened to collect e-waste. For selling, contract based or
incentive based dealing can be done with the technicians visiting organizations and
residences to repair computers.
Technicians can be given incentives if they can persuade customers to use second hand
products.
Mobile repair shops can be contacted for initial pushing of our service and product but at a
later stage repairing will be done in our workshop only.

Current competitors
Local sellers of the e-waste are our current competitors. Competition posed from them would
not be a tough one as their market share and market presence is very less. Big companies
which take back electronics are also our competitors as far as procurement is concerned.

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

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Financial Analysis
Every business requires initial working capital to start and run the business. Here capital
required would be to manage inventory and manpower. Acquiring office premises,
advertising expenses, miscellaneous expenses would also require capital for few months in
starting. As per the analysis below and keeping some money for contingencies and safety
margin, initial capital requirement will be of Rs 5,00,000.

Analysis of waste procurement

Though the waste produced would have increased by a substantial amount we take 2008
figures as our base to be on the safer side.

Total E-waste produced in Ahmedabad in 2008 was 3287 tonnes. Therefore 274 tonnes of E-
waste produced per month in Ahmedabad.

Considering 10% reusable out of total waste, we get 27.4 ton reusable waste per month.

Out of which 25% of waste will be of mobile and computers and this is the useful waste for
us. This 25% accounts to around 7 tonnes per month.

Hence 233 Kgs of mobile and computer waste will be produced in the market everyday. We
assume that out of the total produced in Ahmedabad everyday we would be able to procure
20% of it i.e. approximately 46 Kgs expected to come to us daily.

The rate of e-waste procurement per kg is Rs 25-30per kg. Hence taking 46 kgs as reference
Rs 1300 would be the procurement expense everyday.

Analysis of Manpower required

3 skilled computer and mobile technicians with salary of Rs. 10,000 per month = 10,000 * 3
= 30,000 per month

Therefore skilled labour expense= 1200 Rs per day.

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

2 daily workers/labourers with Rs 100 per day = 100 * 25 days * 2 labourers = 5000 per
month

Therefore unskilled labour expense = 160 Rs per day

TOTAL manpower expense per day= 1200+160= Rs 1360 per day

Analysis of Advertising expenses

Rates in different newspapers:

Gujarat Samachar – Rs 125 per square centimetre(B&W), Rs 160 per square

centimetre (colour) except first and last page.

Times of India- Rs 130 per Sq.cm

Sandesh Rs 140 per sq/cm

Rates of Hoardings

C.G road : Rs 35,000 per month(20x20 ft), Rs 40,000 per month for hoarding with
backlight

Rs 80,000 per month (40x25ft).

Iskon circle-S.G Highway-almost same rates

Giving advertisements of 5cmx10cm on 2nd page twice a month and putting up one hoarding
at the existing computer market off C.G Road, the total monthly expenditure on advertising
would be Rs 90,000.

Therefore daily advertisement expenditure would be Rs 3000.

Other Expenses including telephone bills electricity bill etc = Rs 8000 per month

Analysis of space required

Office premises rate:

Vastrapur @ Rs 32-35 per square feet.

C.G Road @ Rs 30-35 per square feet.

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

Maninagar @ Rs 36-40 per square feet.

Warehouse premises rate:

Aslali- Rs 7/sqft-1000 sq.ft

Starting with one office premises near Swastik Char Rasta,C.G Road in the existing computer
market working as collection ,selling and repairing centre and one warehouse the total
expense for office premise of 500sqft will be 18,000 per month and for warehouse of 4500
sq.ft will be Rs 30,000 per month.

Total budget

Calculating all expenses for a single day

1) Procurement cost- Rs 1300.

2) Other expenses – Rs 300.
3) Salary and wedges - Rs 1460.
4) Office rent- Rs 600.
5) Warehouse rent – Rs 1000.
6) Transport – Rs 100.
7) Advertisement expenses – Rs 3000 ( newspaper and hoardings).
Total = Rs 7800 approximate per day.

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

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SWOT Analysis
Strengths

The product we are trying to sell will never exhaust and very cheap to produce.

Size of market is large.

A triple benefit idea
o Benefit to the seller.
o Benefit to the buyer.
o Benefit to the environment.

Being first of its kind.

Weaknesses

Higher initial working capital.

Just in Time (JIT) not possible.

Large inventory to be managed.

A common set of problem occur to major part of audience.

A tedious task to differentiate good condition part.

Opportunities

Untapped market.

Horizontal expansion very much possible.

Ever growing market.

Threats

Easy to adopt business plan by competitors.

Threats from Chinese market.

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

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Marketing strategy and

objectives
Marketing strategy

The strategy is simple. Repeat customers expected less so attracting new customers to
shop is the target. Retaining old customers is also important as they would act as
ambassadors for our service.

As we are starting with one only city Ahmedabad, being present in minds of the
people, who are about to dispose off electronic waste or are planning to repair it, is
very important as repeat customer are least expected and hence marketing strategy
would be to keep the brand name fresh in everyone’s mind. Such a business requires
higher trust from the seller’s side and so monthly publicity would be the best strategy
to go for.

The target audience is the big middle-class of Ahmedabad for whom saving money on
repairs is important. Students living on limited means also care for money savings.

The strategy would be of market penetration. More and more market of computers
and mobile repairing should be captured. After a proper hold is made on these 2
sectors, strategy of selling to different segments will be adopted for expansion. Home
appliances, industry electronics etc would be later covered in second stage of
strategy.

The stability would be ensured by keeping the brand alive in minds of customers
hence attracting new customers. Diversification into other segments would also add
to stability of the firm.

Cost control can be done by relying more on mouth publicity in long by supplying
good condition goods.

Customer trust and loyalty will be ensured by providing guarantee of 1 or 2 months
on the parts sold by us depending on the condition of the good.

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

Hoardings and advertisement in middle-class and educational areas will be the

strategy.

Providing two months warranty period to build customer loyalty and retention.

Word of mouth publicity is also very important for customer trust and loyalty.

Financial objectives

Estimated selling per day in the first few month

Particulars Quantity Market rate of new Our selling rate of

part second hand part

Monitor/Screen 1 5000 1500

Hard-disk 2 3000-4000 900-1200

RAM 3 1000-2500 300-7500

Mobile parts - - 1000

Other computer parts - - 2000

Total 8000 approx per day

Gross income per day: Rs 8000 when business establish itself after few months of
operations

E-waste in India to rise by 500% by 2020

For first few months the business would not be earning any profits but would be able to
survive at the break-even point. But as projected, the procurement would go cheaper and
marketing strategies would result in clear profits.

Assuming 0 sales in first few weeks and then if sales rise only by 10% every month, the
gross profit would be

Month 1: Rs 0. Month 7: Rs 1,61,051

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

Month 2 : Rs 1,00,000 Month 8: Rs 1,77,156

Month 3: Rs 1,10,000 Month 9: Rs 1,94,871

Month 4: Rs 1,21,000 Month 10: Rs 2,14,358

Month 5: Rs 1,33,100 Month 11: Rs 2,35,794

Month 6: Rs 1,46,410 Month 12: Rs 2,59,374

Figure 1: Monthly sales

Figure 2: Monthly expense

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

Figure 3: Break-even point

From the above graphs it can be concluded that break-even point will be reached in 9th month
of operationa and henceforth the compnay would start making profits.

Annual analysis

Consolidates expense of 12 months: Rs 23,40,000

Cost of capital @ 8.5% on Rs 5,00,000 : Rs 42,500

Total annual expense: Rs 23,82,500

Total annual gross income for 1st year: Rs 19,03,114

Total loss in 1st year: Rs 4,79,386

As per the growth rate assumed of 10% per month, this loss of Rs 4,79,386 would be
recovered in next 3 months of second year.

After 9 months of operation the firm would start making monthly net profits

After 15 months of operation the firm would start making annual net profits.

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

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Marketing Plan for e-waste reusability business

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Additional Considerations
External factors

Factors that may affect the implementation of marketing plan outside the organization are

1.Changes in prices of parts of electronics.

2. Pace of market and entry of new electronics in the market.

3. Entry of new competitors and their marketing strategy.

4. Changes or addition of new government policies regarding e-waste.

Internal factors

Factors that may affect the implementation of marketing plan from inside the organization are

1. Loss of funding resources

2. Loss of key personnel

3. Availability of good condition parts

Research limitations

This research is mainly based on secondary data collected regarding e-waste. Primary data is
difficult to collect. Primary data has been collected only to improvise marketing and
advertising budget.

B.K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad