Victory Motorcycles the Marketing Plan

Victory Motorcycles

The marketing plan for Victory involves a slight increase in spending over the next few years. Three pro forma statements are presented for the marketing plan. Victory represents 3% of Polaris' business, and Polaris spent $111 million on marketing last year, so an estimate of Victory's marketing budget is $3.33 million. As we seek to increase Victory sales by between 20-40% by region, this budget will experience a corollary increase.

Pro Forma Marketing Budget

Advertising

Marketing administrative

Dealer support

Total

Pro Forma Breakeven Analysis

Increase in marketing costs

1,326,000

1,864,000

2,609,600

3,653,440

Avg sale price per unit

16540

17036

17547

18074

# of additional units required

Pro Forma Sales Forecast

Increase in U.S. Sales

62000

86800

121520

170128

Increase in Europe Sales

31000

43400

60760

85064

Total New Sales Expected

93000

130200

182280

255192

Breakeven Sales needed

80,169

109,414

148,718

202,141

Increase above breakeven

12,831

20,786

33,562

53,051

In order to achieve these results, there are a number of controls that must be put into place. The first of these comes with implementation. The strategy that has been proposed consists of a strong increase in marketing spending. In order to implement this spending increase, two marketing units will be created -- one each for North America and Europe -- and within these subunits will be created to specifically target the female market. The spending will be focused on the best media to reach our core demographic, so there will be little change in the types of media we utilize, but to implement this plan will entail greater saturation of these media types and an increase in the number of media outlets used in marketing.

As the pro-form budget indicates, this new marketing plan will entail a significant expansion in the marketing administrative budget. The marketing organization will undergo some adjustment as noted above, specifically with respect to the introduction of a female marketing team. To accommodate this, a new marketing executive will be required, reporting to the VP, Marketing. The European Marketing Director will be elevated to VP Marketing, Europe and there will be greater independence between the continents, which should allow the European marketing division to focus on a more Europe-focused strategy. In addition, greater links will be forged with Polaris marketing teams, in particular in search of effective cross-marketing opportunities and access to existing Polaris distribution channels overseas.

Contingency planning is a critical control element of the marketing plan. The contingency plan for Victory will consist of two main parts. The first part is focused on the spending increases. The company needs to be able to not only measure these increases effectively, but to make rapid adjustments should the spending increases not have the desired impact on unit sales. This could mean scaling back marketing spending or refocusing it. Contracts should have an escape clause and the use of temporary contracts for new hires can allow for rapid scaleback of marketing spending should it be required.