In 2021, Sybil Jones put the final touches on a product she had worked on for years in her garage. Sybil graduated with a degree in chemistry from a well-known school in Indiana.
However, she has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Initially called Sybil’s Artificial Flowers, the product broke new ground in the flower industry by creating patented, artificial flowers that look real and smell like a flower. In other words, roses smell like roses, and tulips smell like tulips. However, Sybil’s flowers will never expire. The scent typically lasts three months and can be replaced with new scented cartridges. She launched a website and opened a small store in a strip mall at the beginning of 2022. With modest sales, Sybil hired several employees to assist with manufacturing, sales, and administrative duties. In the summer of 2022, a popular morning show interviewed Sybil about her new product. This interview led to lots of other popular coverage on television, and in magazines, blogs, and podcasts. Because this product was starting to be popular on a national scale, she could secure a business loan for $500,000.
Sybil’s biggest concern was her lack of business knowledge, mainly in marketing.
Sybil has just hired you as a marketing consultant/acting manager to assist her in taking the
business to the next level. In your initial consultation with her, she suggested that many sales
were purchased as gifts. The raw materials required for her artificial flowers are paper, cotton,
parchment, latex, rubber, sateen (for large, bold-colored flowers and arrangements), and dried
materials, including flowers, plant parts and berries, feathers, and fruits. For more upscale silk
flowers, silk, rayon, and cotton are the fibers of choice. The cartridges that provide the scents
are produced in Sybil’s manufacturing facility.
General Goals:
• Sell several hundred thousand units.
• Create awareness of new product line to new, prospective clients
• Incorporate digital marketing.
• Hire more employees.
• Identify the best distribution model for selling to customers.
You have just been hired to develop the key components of a marketing plan.
*Disclaimer: The organization and characters depicted in this exercise are fictional. Any
resemblance to real organizations or individuals is purely coincidental. This exercise may
include actual companies and brand names solely for instructional purposes; this exercise is not
associated with any such existing company or brand name. All trademarks remain the property
of their respective owners.