Our marketing plan is designed around a dynamic internal and external business environment. We will complete this topic as we gain new insight into our market and program effectiveness.

The first milestone is distribution of a flyer to announce our grand opening celebration. The flyer will appear on telephone poles (where legal), in outdoor stores, and will be mailed to our list of direct-mail customers. Our celebration will consist of an outdoor barbecue, gunny sack races, climber-dunking festivities, and llama racing. Local vendors have been invited to set up booths and participate, subject to prior approval.

During the flyer campaign, Pan Silverton will arrange for Yellow Pages print ads and Internet Web banner advertising within the Bend/Redmond area, as well as the Portland area. The Yellow Page ads are purchased through a flat-fee to USWest Dex, and The Yellow Pages company. Banner ads are more complex and require a media kit with a value-added offering to retailers with Internet websites. The pitch will be - help us market ourselves and we will add your company to our online listing of outside resources.

The first annual Llama Run is a special event for the St. Charles Medical Center in Bend. Llamas and their owners will converge on Redmond for races that include 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-place winners. First prize wins $1,000, 2nd wins $750, and 3rd wins $250. The Most Colorful Llama award will be given to one winner at the end of the show, and will include a bag of llama feed and a $100 gift certificate to the Heathman restaurant. The entry fee will be $100 per llama, and all fees will go directly to St. Charles Medical Center.

The Perry Claw Rock Festival will bring big-name climbing stars such as Louis Baruqe and Sheri Lassiter to Smith Rock for a full day climb. Climbers will be available to sign autographs on gear and such. Admission will be $7 and all proceeds will go to support prostate cancer research.

The Boulder Stop will be one of the sponsors of the PA Golf Classic held in Bend, OR on Sept. 1, 1999.

We are a small company where sales and marketing consist of two to three people. Bill Walsh and Pan Silverton will lead and implement the marketing programs, while part-time employees will carry out many of the tasks. The marketing organization is very informal, but tightly managed, with clear obtainable goals, and a thorough list of deadlines. Details are very important to the implementation of our marketing plan, the most important being those that are unseen. Marketing will do its very best to plan for the unforeseeable.

Contingency planning is an important part of the marketing organization, as noted in the previous topic.

Our biggest potential problems, the ones that will limit our ability to create programs, are financial. Our budget relies on sales figures that are reliable and well-researched, but are also affected by such things as weather and political difficulties. Our first plan is a 'scale-down' plan; that is, we will eliminate the Llama run, Rock festival, and PA Golf sponsorship and wait out the year, relying on website and direct sales to cover our cost of doing business. The direct business alone will not support our financial commitments, but with excellent credit, inventory as collateral, and basic Smith Rock foot traffic, we will survive without popular marketing programs.

If we lose a part-time employee, there will be plenty to find elsewhere. If we lose Pan Silverton, his skills will be difficult to replace, but we will have plenty of quality applicants living in the Bend/Redmond area. Will also have the option of hiring away competitors' employees, as they are poorly paid and are given very little company ownership.

Our climbing gear supply chain will survive as long as there are many competitors making climbing gear and powerful international service companies to deliver the gear. We will never have difficulty finding coffee, because this IS the Pacific Northwest and fresh-roasted coffee/espresso beans are available in abundance.