Jaclyn A Smith
Week 4 Assignment 1: Your Marketing Plan
Dr. Dotty Heady
Mkt 500 - Marketing Management
11.2.15

Backpacks are an essential part of every young child’s life. From the moment a child begins their educational career, backpacks become a necessary component in order to transport required materials. There are a myriad of choices when it comes to backpacks from superheroes, princesses, generic colors, etc. The right backpack can represent a child’s individual personality just as the wrong backpack can make the best child child extremely unhappy. The issue with these backpacks, however, are that they are not truly unique to that child. If ten children all purchase the same “Frozen” or Pottery Barn Kids backpack, they are truly not capitalizing on their own unique personality.
To that end, my company New Me, is an online backpack boutique in which children can create their own unique backpack design. The site allows each child (or adult) to create a unique backpack with their choice of colors, prints, and even a name personalization tool. With a wide array of colors, patterns, and prints to choose from, the chances of any individual mimicking the same exact creation is virtually impossible. While this idea is innovative in the sense that each bag will be unique, there are several factors that must be considered when launching a business. The key to being a success in an industry that is already oversaturated with products is to do a good job of not only gathering intelligence information but also successfully disseminate and use that information to overcome these obstacles (e.g. Le Bon, 2014).
Competitive/Economic Forces The concept of creating a backpack itself is not innovate. We wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel whereas the structure or functionality of the bag is concerned. We’re merely focusing on the design aspect of the backpack and making