Spin Cycle Marketing Plan
Spin Cycle Marketing Plan
Spin Cycle Marketing Plan
com
Marketing Plan
Prepared By
EOTO Solutions
Prepared For
Spin Cycle Café Laundromat
Table of Contents
Without a doubt, Spin Cycle Café Laundromat offers its community exactly what it needs: A fun place to hang out while completing a nec-
essary task — laundry. However, if few people are aware of this business and its complete tray of offerings, the business, and the com-
munity miss an opportunity.
After three years of business, Spin Cycle realized its current marketing efforts weren’t enough. New competition had entered the market
and the economy affected the world, including Spin Cycle. Luckily, with a little creativity and a touch of marketing advice, Spin Cycle Café
Laundromat can boom with success. More than increasing profits and improving its brand image, Spin Cycle can become a trailblazer in
a unique industry that’s sure to grow as cities become more populated and demand for both cafés and Laundromats increases.
By understanding the needs and wants of the company’s most important consumers, Spin Cycle Café Laundromat will become a well-
known name in the Hartford area and in the laundry services industry nationwide. It won’t be easy and it will cost money. However, with
social media and other non-traditional marketing initiatives that engage the customer, Spin Cycle will continue to grow its business for
years to come.
After all, no matter what trends go in and out of style, people will always seek Good. Clean. Fun. And they’ll find just that, and more, at
Spin Cycle Café Laundromat.
The following pages explain the current situation of the market in which Spin Cycle Café Laundromat operates. From Spin Cycle’s service
offerings to its financial information to trends affecting businesses worldwide — it all plays a role in Spin Cycle’s future success. There-
fore, if Spin Cycle is to remain successful, all involved with the business must understand the world’s and the business’s current situation
on all fronts.
Service offerings
Target market and segmented target market
Targeted consumers
Distribution network
Competitors
Financial situation
Historical marketing results
Macroenvironment
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
How to use the SWOT to build Spin Cycle’s business
Dry Cleaning
Laundered Shirts $2.40
Blouses/Shirts $6.75
Slacks/Pants $6.75
Sweaters $6.75
Dresses $12.50-85.00
Lab Coats $7.00
Blazers & Jackets $9.25
Other important business features include:
Two-Piece Suits $13.60
Outer Jackets* $13.50-15.00 Ample parking space
Coats $20.00-35.00 Outdoor patio for eating and events (seasonal)
Entertainment, including alternative night, game nights, live music, open mic nights
*$5 extra charge applied for removing Special events, like BBQ showdown, Laundromat dating, sports all day, Halloween party
excess lint or extra-soiled items. Satellite TV with professional sports and cable viewing
Environmental disposal charge may Local talent showcase, including artists, musicians and poets
apply to certain dry-cleaned items. Full-service dine in or take out for breakfast, lunch and light café-style dinner
Leather coat cleaning isn’t available.* Organic fair-trade coffee
Happy hour
Area for studying, meeting or eating/drinking while waiting for laundry
A small meeting area that can fit about 50 people for parties and get-togethers
Within these towns, we must look at permanent residents and college students. Universities and colleges within our target location are:
1. Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), New Britain 7. Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Cromwell
2. University of Hartford, West Hartford 8. Rensselaer at Hartford, Hartford
3. Trinity College, Hartford 9. Capital Community College, Hartford
4. Saint Joseph College, West Hartford 10.Middlesex Community College, Middletown
5. Wesleyan University, Middletown 11.Tunxis Community College, Farmington
6. Briarwood College, Southington
For our primary target, while we will not ignore the other colleges on our list, we will pay special attention to the three colleges in our dia-
gram because they are most likely to use our services. For our secondary market, we must all permanent residents who live in the area,
emphasizing local business owners who have items that need washing.
Broad Target Market All adult residents aged 21-55 in the 15 towns, including
college students.
Demographic Characteristics of Targeted Permanent Residents Getting into the minds of our market
Male and Female In general, members of our secondary market have no children to
Single, Married, Divorced, Widowed, etc. care for. So, they spend time improving and enjoying themselves,
Age range: 18 to 55; Median age range: 25-30. their surroundings and the people around them.
No children or grown, adult children
Have high school and associate/bachelor degrees They enjoy exercising, including jogging and purchasing or renting
$40,000-$55,000 annual income exercise videos. They also enjoy playing trivia games and sports
like tennis and golf. They rent movies to watch at home, attend op-
Homeowner, renter or living in an apartment/dormitory
era performances and belong to veterans clubs.
Middle class, blue and white collar-type jobs
They tend to shop at department stores like Lord and Taylor and
We will also need to target small and medium-sized businesses
Bloomingdales, while some shop at online department stores like
that have a large volume of clothing/cloth items to be cleaned.
sears.com. Also, many spend time at Ace Hardware creating ways
This might include hospitals, doctor’s offices, restaurants, cafes
to improve their living surroundings and at CompUSA learning about
and athletic/recreation centers.
and purchasing new technology.
They enjoy watching shows like ―24,‖ ―60 Minutes‖ and ―Masterpiece
Theater.‖ Their favorite channels are the Style Channel, HGTV, Dis-
covery Channel, Travel Channel, PBS and the Food Network. Their
preferred magazines include Men’s Journal, Consumer Reports,
Tennis, Cigar Aficionado, Audubon, Oprah, Woman’s Day and Bet-
ter Homes and Gardens.
Obviously, like in most regions around the nation, young college students (approximately age 18-24) have fairly different hobbies and
media habits compared to their older counterparts. Many of today’s traditional college students thrive on technology, including cell
phones, smart phones, laptop computers and iPods. They also value face-to-face interactions with their peers whether that be studying,
watching movies/TV or going out to bars and parties. It’s also important to note that most college students must work hard, but they en-
joy having fun, too. While these characteristics are common among most students, each university usually has students of a particular
personality with diverse characteristics.
Julie wakes up everyday at about 9 a.m.in her small dormitory room. She has her first
class at 10 a.m. After checking her e-mail and Facebook, showering and grabbing a ce-
real bar from her closet, she races to class. Following this hour-long class, she goes to
the library to check her e-mail and Facebook again. She also prints an assignment for
her second class of the day. Around noon she meets her friends at the school cafeteria.
They grab lunch using their college meal plan, but none of them are happy; they hate
the cafeteria food on campus.
After lunch, Julie has two more classes. Once finished in the classroom, she joins a
friend at the gym to work out before eating dinner with friends at the school cafeteria,
once again using her meal plan dollars. She spends some time goofing around with her
roommate until about 8 p.m.
She decides it’s time to do homework. She also has to complete a chore she hates:
laundry. She puts it off as much as she can, but when she finally has to do it, she looks
for the easiest, most pain-free way. Finding quarters to put into the machines on cam-
pus can be a pain, so she decides to call Spin Cycle and have them pick up and drop
off her laundry. This means she can stay in her room with her roommates and her
homework while someone does her laundry for her — It’s almost as good as mom!
She also just learned about the Laundromat’s café and that they use cards instead of
quarters. She’s thinking about grabbing a few friends next laundry day and hanging out
there instead of in the dorm.
Bob White, a certified public accountant, has lived in the central Connecticut region all
his life. As a working adult, he moved to Newington so he could be near Hartford, where
he works, without living inside the city. Bob graduated from the University of Hartford in
1972 and has been practicing accounting ever since.
He works for a small accounting firm located in Hartford. He likes his job and he enjoys
working with people and helping them with their accounting needs. However, he can’t
wait to retire and take it easy. He’s worked hard all his life and it’s something he’s always
looked forward to since his children grew up and moved out.
Typically, Monday through Friday he works 9 to 5. He drives his car to the office every-
day and parks in the parking garage. At 11 a.m. he meets with a client and then he takes
him out to lunch at a café near the office. Around 1 p.m. he returns to the office before
meeting with another client at 2 p.m. At 5 p.m. he heads home to Sue, his wife, who
teaches at a local elementary school. Because she arrives home before he does, she
fixes dinner for the both of them. She also received the couple’s laundry and Bob’s dry
cleaning. She had Spin Cycle pick up and drop off the clothes. She loves not having to
worry about this chore.
After dinner, Bob mows the lawn and Sue works on cleaning up dinner. The laundry’s
done, so the couple relaxes together in the living room. Bob reads a book about busi-
ness while his Sue watches Jeopardy. Around 9 p.m. the phone rings; it’s Bob and
Sue’s daughter. She has just put Bob and Sue’s grandson to bed and called to chat for a
while. She says she would like to come visit Bob and Sue this weekend, and they are
excited to see their daughter and grandson. Bob and Sue highly value any and all mo-
ments with family, especially their young grandchild.
During the week, Clyde wakes up every morning around 6 a.m. He arrives at his 123 around
7:30 a.m. so he can prepare for the morning breakfast rush. Many people stop in and get a cup
of coffee around 8 a.m. When it slows down a bit mid-morning, he works on preparing the din-
ing room for any lunch guests who might come in. His waiters and cooks arrive at 10 a.m.
It’s a busy afternoon for Clyde and the staff, but they like it. It helps the time go by faster and
also means they’re bringing in more money. Around 2 p.m., Clyde takes his lunch break. During
lunch, he runs some tablecloths and uniforms over to Spin Cycle and grabs a bite to eat while
waiting. He enjoys completing his errands during lunch so he can go home at the end of the
day. Clyde stays until about 6 p.m. when a manager comes in to take over for the evening.
When Clyde arrives home, his wife, Lydia, has a quick dinner put together for them. She works
for the restaurant, too, mostly for the catering side of things. Before fixing the couple’s dinner,
she stopped at Spin Cycle to pick up the dry cleaned uniforms she had done; some waiters will
need to wear them this weekend for a wedding catered by 123 Restaurant.
After dinner and clean-up, the couple goes for a walk around the block. The two are trying to
stay healthy, but it’s a challenge for both since they live such busy lives. At home, the couple
sits together on the couch with their two dogs. They watch their favorite show on the Discovery
Channel before heading to bed.
On the weekends, when Lydia isn’t working events, the couple enjoys going seeing a movie or
a show with friends. Although they have no children to care for, they spend a lot of time with
friends and family, including Clyde’s 88-year-old mother and his five nephews.
Lisa graduated from college not too long ago, but she’s already a professional in the
event management world. Her job as the Chamber of Commerce’s events manager is
to come up with and plan events for chamber members and local residents. As a
young professional herself, she loves business networking events and has planned
many around the Newington and Hartford areas.
Lisa grew up in New York but attended the University of Hartford. She loved the area
and decided to stick around after graduating, but once her classmates graduated, she
had few friends left in the area. Luckily, she uses her events management career to
meet new friends in the area.
Someday she hopes to get married and have children. In the meantime, she considers
life an adventure. She’s extremely outgoing but loves occasional quiet time alone in
her apartment, where she reads a good book, writes fiction stories or watches epi-
sodes her favorite TV show, Sex and the City.
While her job requires her to be interested and passionate about the Newington area,
she does have a genuine interest in the welfare of the people who live there. She vol-
unteers a couple times per month at the local soup kitchen and mentors a high school
―buddy‖ from inner city Hartford.
She takes Sarah, her buddy, to cafés and restaurants around the area. They drink cof-
fee or tea and enjoy local music and art. She’s thinking about taking her to Spin City
Café Laundromat next week when a really cool band is supposed to play, but she’s
nervous that it will be awkward hanging out someplace where there are washers and
dryers, too. But, being the outgoing young woman she is, she’s always up for some-
thing new. She tries it and loves it so much she decides to host a couple networking
events there for the upcoming year.
Spin City Café Laundromat does not currently have a lot of financial information available. However, we do know a few things about the
company’s financial status.
As of August 2010, the company’s owners are working on putting reports together.
Before this year, the company was up financially. Unfortunately, overall, the company is trending downward in 2010, partly because
two or three new Laundromats joined the area.
This year’s hot temperatures caused the company to begin running the air conditioning in April, which has led to increased costs for
utilities and energy. However the company is looking to decrease costs by hiring broker energy. This will reduce energy costs by 50%
while making the building as a whole more energy efficient.
When speaking of the company’s financial information, it’s also important to mention the company has paid thousands of dollars per
month for marketing and advertising, but it hasn’t paid off. The company would like to continue working to minimize costs while in-
creasing income and increasing awareness at the smallest cost.
3. Cable TV advertisements
a. Ran through Comcast cable, local Hispanic TV channel
b. Not running right now because low ROI
c. They’re hoping to use TV commercial in social media
7. Yellow Pages
Demographic Forces
The Newington area is heavily populated with aging and youthful populations. People are beginning to move closer to cities because
they are often the easiest places to find jobs. Since Newington is near Hartford, it’s likely to see a population increase.
Economic Forces
The recent economic recession has caused everyone — individuals, businesses and government entities — to cut back spending and
save money wherever possible.
Natural Forces
More and more individuals and businesses living a green, environmentally friendly lifestyle. These entities want to patronize organiza-
tions that do what they can for the environment, including improving energy efficiency.
Technological Forces
More than ever before, laptops, smart phones and netbooks allow for ultimate mobility while working. However, some of these new tech-
nologies come with internet already equipped, meaning they don’t need WiFi. Luckily, most laptops still require WiFi to get online away
from home. Also, online ―mass mingling‖ has begun to occur on sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Mobile devices like those
mentioned above make it possible for people to virtually gather anywhere.
Critical Issues
1. Members of our target market is not aware of us To increase Spin Cycle Café Laundromat’s laundry service
and is not our services Spin Cycle Café Laundro- clients by 50% within one year.
mat as much as we need them to.
2. Spin Cycle Café Laundromat, as a small business,
has limited funding for marketing activities. To increase awareness of Spin Cycle Café Laundromat
3. Many people may not understand the advantages among the target market by 50% within one year.
of using our laundry services over purchasing their
own personal washers and dryers.
4. People may not understand the unique atmosphere To increase Spin Cycle Café Laundromat traffic by 40%
of a café Laundromat. within one year.
Marketing Research Strategy to eat. So simply sit back and make your-
Insufficient time did not allow for much primary research before beginning the marketing
plan. Therefore, we need to survey consumers electronically and via paper surveys self at home…”
before launching the majority of our initiatives. About 12 months later, we will survey
consumers again to see if our initiatives were successful and if we need to change
pieces of the plan. It’s also important for Spin Cycle’s staff to obtain feedback from
customers whenever necessary, even if that means simply recording when someone
says they really enjoyed or disliked something.
www.spincyclecafe.com
Strategy
Issue incentives to bring in more customers and get consumers to take surveys.
Tactics
Consumers may take surveys online, at the café or during one of the street team events.
Those who complete the survey will receive a coupon for half off a non-alcoholic beverage at the café. Those who provide their
name and address will be entered in a drawing to win one of 10 free Spin shirts and one of five Spin gift certificates.
Host a Last Comic Standing contest in January 2010 to combine with the last Saturday of the month. Café customers can vote for
their favorite comic and the winner receives a headline show, a Spin T-shirt and a Spin gift certificate.
Frequent consumers can receive a frequent customer card. When they use the laundry services 15 times, they receive two free
washes/dries or a wash and a dry. Also, those who buy 10 sandwiches can get the 11th free and those who buy nine coffees can get
a 10th for free.
Strategy
Implement student-only discounts for students at CCSU, Trinity and University of Hartford
Tactics
Admissions welcome packets coupons for students at all three schools
Create a relationship with each university’s student activities center and share information about upcoming events.
For two weeks after the launch party, all college students who present their IDs can receive a discount on café purchases.
Strategy
Attract and create awareness among higher-end business clientele
Tactics
Join the local Chamber of Commerce and ask about opportunities to speak Spin’s business.
Offer to host Chamber events and events for other local organizations (Rotary clubs, women’s clubs, etc.)
Host a business networking event for professionals of all ages and stages of life. While there, have Spin owners network with others
as well so they can inform businesses of with these groups to hold their events at the Spin. This would networking events in the
Greater Hartford area.
Strategy
Hire an outside entertainment promoter and agency to arrange the events so the business can focus on its business operations.
Tactics
Hire the Entertainment Promoter, starting in September 2010.
They will book, promote and market entertainment that has a following for Friday Jazz Nights, Comedy Nights (last Saturday of each
month) and other events.
Also, Spin Cycle should create entertainment and event booking guidelines based on what the Entertainment Promoter learns.
Strategy
Increase consumer awareness and company credibility through pitching stories and hosting speaking engagements
Tactics
While the student intern works on pitching stories to campus media, Spin Cycle employees can focus on local and national
media outlets.
Possible media outlets: The Hartford Advocate, The Hartford Courant and Hartford Business Journal.
Spin Cycle should also consider national publications, especially those in the Laundromat industry. Being one of the first Café
Laundromats in the Hartford area, Spin Cycle could be considered a trailblazer. Possible media outlets include: Babbalu, BizNewEng-
land.com, Inc. Magazine and the Coin Laundry Assocation’s The Journal.
Pitch visual stories on Spin performances to local TV news and shows
Offer to speak with students, especially business students, at colleges about operating a small, family-owned business
Tactics
Create a social media presence using Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare.
Update website to be user-friendly and intriguing
Create an event calendar on the website that’s private but that allows others to
post approved events
Allow clients to set up web accounts through which they can use the laundry de-
livery service, pay with credit cards and protect it all with a password.
On Yahoo server and Domain from Domain Registry of America and other ex-
ternal websites, use www.spincyclecafe.com and avoid the longer version (www.spincyclecafelaundromat.com).
Create two e-mail distribution lists
1. Distribute monthly to entire list with past events and happenings.
2. Distribute weekly with upcoming events, specials and promotions.
Management should set aside at least six to eight hours per week to discuss marketing initiatives, including press releases,
the email newsletter, website updates, following up on press requests and calls, etc.
Sep10 Oct10 Nov10 Dec10 Jan11 Feb11 Mar11 Apr11 May11 Jun11 Jul11 Aug11
Entmt. Promoter/
St.team
H. Courant Ad
CCSU Planner
T-shirt sales
Online, print survey
Last Comic Standing
Contest
Frequent Customer
Passes
Launch Party
CCSU ID promo
Join Chamber, host
business events
PR Intern
Pitch stories to publi-
cations, TV
Speak to college stu-
dents about biz
Social Media
Email newsletters
Yard Signs
Décor Improvements
TOTALS
To increase brand awareness among the target market by 50% within one year …
Measure how aware the target markets are of Spin Cycle Café Laundromat’s services and offerings.
Track brand awareness by surveying a sample of the target market population in September 2010 about the Spin Cycle Café
Laundromat brand. Give the same survey in August 2011 to see what has worked best and perhaps what should be modified.
It’s a simple concept, but most of the time, simple works best. We don’t want to clutter our customers’ minds. For those who just care
about the laundry piece, we have easy-to-use online options for pick up and drop off. For those looking for fun, we’ve got that, too.
Rather than telling potential customers how great our business is, we want them to experience it for themselves. We want them to come
inside Spin Cycle Café Laundromat and feel what it’s like to relax, eat, drink and have fun. When customers have that experience, they
will come back, and, even better, they will tell their friends or bring their friends with them next time. That’s the power of word-of-mouth.
It’s simple and it’s cost-effective. All it takes is stellar service, a comfortable environment and a fun experience.
And that’s exactly what Spin Cycle Café Laundromat gives its customers today and will continue to give years and years from now.
http://local.yahoo.com/info-10537096-maple-laundromat-llc-hartford#overview
http://www.coinlaundry.org/resources/industryoverview.cfm
http://new.hartford.edu/aboutuofh/quickfacts.aspx
http://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=62
http://www.trincoll.edu/AboutTrinity/CollegeFacts.htm