Executive Summary
SolarTech is a solar panel production company that provides photovoltaic and application services for customers all over the U.S. The company’s goal is to make solar panels that are attached to fences, also called the solar fence. Notably, the sun delivers 1370 watts of power for every square mile daily (Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, n.d.). The challenge is inexpensively harnessing this energy for millions of homes with fences in their backyard. The fencing operates as the mounting system for the solar panels, where each foot of an 8-foot high fence can generate 720 Watts per hour. At the typical value of 1 square kilowatt per meter, a single cross-section of a 10 m2 fence can generate 10,000 Watts of solar insolation. The key selling point of SolarTech solar panels is the use of bifacial solar cells in parallel connection. A bifacial cell ensures the solar panel generates electricity where the sun strikes the front or back, while a parallel connection minimizes the effects of partial shading.
The marketing plan is to establish a multi-level and multi-channel fast and efficient customer team that offers technical solutions, technical cooperation, product application, pre-sales, and after-sale consulting. It comprises the customer team developing trust by providing the client with relevant content and a variety of knowledge to fulfill their demands at each stage of the purchasing process (Cardoso et al., 2022). Primarily, the company will find clients and do the sales through its customer team, focusing on three states for the first year of operations. Since the company is new in the solar energy market, offering a special promo, network events, and live event hosting would be a priority in the selected states. However, the company will invest heavily in social media to build a pipeline, including working with influencers to popularize the product.
Environmental Analysis
Market Environment Factors
The main market environmental factor in the solar energy industry is technological development. Existing solar panel makers are already developing technologically advanced solar panels to maximize output and reduce cost. For instance, the Monocrystalline Solar Panels is the current innovation that is most popular in the solar energy sector (Zito, 2022). Monocrystalline Solar Panels are made of pure silicon crystal and produce more efficient (Zito, 2022). Technology is the main disruption in solar energy with each competitor striving to innovate and improve their solar efficiency.
Target Market
SolarTech currently targets residential users, small business markets, and constructors of new residential properties. Particularly, the company plans to capitalize on the rising popularity of solar energy and supportive policies, appealing financial options, and energy independence to popularize the installation of solar fences in residential and small business properties. It entails promoting the application of renewable energy andcompany’s creating a green, livable environment is a global initiative that receives much attention today.
Current Market Objectives and Performance
The availability of various incentives for residential end users to install solar P.V. systems has boosted the solar energy market. Notably, the market size of the Solar Power industry in the U.S. has grown by 34% from 2.9 gigawatts in 2020 to 3.9 gigawatts in 2021 (Leppert & Kennedy, 2022). The company seeks to exploit the growing campaigns and conducive policies to launch the SolarTech products and gain market share in residential and small business domain. Key performance measure for the company success would be gaining at least 300 loyal customers by the end of the second quarter.
SWOT Analysis
The company is investing in a relatively stable and fast-growing market that has recently gained popularity. In addition, the solar energy industry receives various incentives, and supportive government policies have enabled the solar energy industry to expand and attract interest from corporate and residential users (Bryce, 2020). Therefore, the company is investing in a relatively new sector yet a promising market. Additionally, SolarTech is venturing into a unique niche, solar attached on the fence, which is more suitable for growing cities with limited panel space.
The main weakness of SolarTech is its lack of financial muscle to rival industry giants like Hanwha Qcells, Jinko Solar, Silfab Solar, and Mission Solar. Moreover, the company lacks the expertise to implement innovative solutions beyond what other companies already offer. Nevertheless, there has been increased use of solar energy among America’s top corporations, with approximately 4% of homes in the U.S. powered by solar energy (Cerullo, 2021). The incentive offers reassurance that the opportunities in the environment and industry are increasing significantly. Despite this increase, consumer acquisition remains a challenge for solar panel manufacturers. Potential buyers are increasingly conducting online research before chatting with a sales representative. Therefore, building trust in the company among clients may be a stumbling block.
Marketing
Marketing Objectives
The first objective during the first year of operation is to improve brand awareness of SolarTech products. It entails increasing social media impressions among residential and small business owners by 35%. Currently, the company ranks among solar panel companies in the U.S. The aim is to increase market share by the end of the fiscal year, raising the ranking to the top 20 in the U.S. Similarly, SolarTech will reevaluate its market research in the first half of quarter two and develop an appropriate messaging strategy by the end of the second quarter. Finally, the company will reduce paid social ads by 30% and improve search engine marketing with two weekly blog posts in quarter four.
Marketing Strategies
The target market is mainly residential users, small businesses, and construction companies interested in cost-saving and renewable energy. SolarTech seeks to improve awareness, create trust, raise the market share ranks, and reevaluate market share through digital and public relations strategies. Residential owners are primarily adults 25 years and above, meaning the company can reach them through online marketing, SEO, social media lead generation and performance marketing. Furthermore, having a dedicated public relations team in charge of the brand’s image would be ideal for engaging small business owners and construction companies (Cardoso et al., 2022). It includes offering low prices without sacrificing efficiency and using social media to build a reputation with the community, promoting clean energy and sustainable environment marketing.
Marketing Implementation
The Chief Strategic Operations officer (CSO) heads the marketing department, comprising the lead market analyst, information strategist, public relations officer, and customer team at the bottom of the hierarchy.
Performance Evaluation
The company will evaluate the performance of the marketing plan through new customers registered during the first year of operations. It includes assessing the number of clients that initiated conversion through social media, email, and the company website, which turned into actual sales. Construction companies becoming partners of SolarTech will also provide a substantial lead on the effectiveness of the market plan. Similarly, overall sales revenue attributed to the marketing strategies, such as promos, live events, and networking events, shall help evaluate the performance of the marketing plan. Finally, SolarTech will review its solar panel market share ranking at the end of the financial year to determine if the marketing plan succeeded.
References
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology. (n.d.). The solar constant. Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology. Web.
Bryce, R. (2020). Why is solar energy getting 250 times more in Federal tax credits than nuclear? Forbes. Web.
Cardoso, A., Gabriel, M., Figueiredo, J., Oliveira, I., RĂŞgo, R., Silva, R., Oliveira, M., & Meirinhos, G. (2022). Trust and loyalty in building the brand relationship with the customer: empirical analysis in a retail chain in Northern Brazil. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 8(3), 109-110. Web.
Cerullo, M. (2021). Number of Americans using solar power expected to more than triple by 2030. CBS News. Web.
Leppert, R., & Kennedy, B. (2022). Home solar panel adoption continues to rise in the U.S. Pew Research Center. Web.
Zito, B. (2022). The most efficient types of solar panels of 2022. Forbes. Web.