Tracking Device Maker Business Plan

Differentiate ourselves from our competitors.
This will be easy, as our PTD product has more capabilities, is easier to use, is more concealable and will work with most cellular providers. We need to establish our products as cost efficient, viable solutions for our target markets.

Build a relationship-oriented business.
For clients such as our channel market resellers, and institutional consumers like the military, relationships will be important. We will become a revenue-generating partner for them, not just a vendor, making these market segments increasingly receptive to our offerings. We must effectively convey the potential monetary value of the relationship, as well as the intrinsic value in being able to offer life-saving, user-friendly devices to their end-users and members.

Focus on target markets.
We need to focus our sales and marketing efforts strategically in order to succeed in our target markets. As a start-up company, we believe the consumer market and channel sales will give us the quickest launch and penetration while immediately generating revenues to sustain our company’s growth and expansion into other markets. The business market will likely be the next key, as we promote our products as tools for businesses to manage outside personnel and fleet costs and logistics.

Fulfill the promise.
We can’t just market and sell our products, service and support; we must actually deliver as well. We need to make sure we have the technological knowledge we claim to have, while keeping up with evolving technologies to advance the capabilities of our newest products and services.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Our competitive edge lies with our innovative products, as well as the successful planning and implementation of our marketing plans.

RQM Technologies’ unique application of a remote miniaturized unit that incorporates an end-user programmable transmitter/receiver inside a unit only 2″ x 2″ x 3/8″ that has GPS/GSM technology is relatively new to the marketplace. It is this new technology which will make our Personal Locator Device(s) attractive to resellers such as our channel market segment. While not widely known, most of the major cellular phone manufacturers will be incorporating GPS technology into their newly manufactured cell phones over the next three years. We believe this is a key advantage for us, as our remote unit has been designed to work with these next-generation cell phones. We are a couple of years ahead of our competition in the sense that our remote unit will immediately work with these “new technology” cell phones.

Another competitive edge is our positioning as a strategic ally with original equipment manufacturers of PDAs and cellphones, who are clients more than customers.  By building a business based on long-standing relationships, we build defenses against competition through the demonstrated efficacy of our products, and our partners’ loyalties.  For our channel sales partners, our products translate into new customers and additional recurring revenues. The longer the relationship stands, the more our clients will understand what we offer them and why they need it, further solidifying our intended relationships with major cell phone carriers and computer manufacturers.

Competitors’ Disadvantages
While RQM Technologies competes against other companies and technologies meant to provide similar products and services, they cannot match ours. Our competitors have several disadvantages:

Effectiveness:

• Most competitors do not offer remote miniaturized concealable units which users can wear; their devices would be especially bulky, awkward, and obvious on children.
• Their products do not allow for a locating “home-base” which is a cell phone, Palm Pilot or wireless mobile computer or desktop anywhere in the world, which can report on the unit’s location instantly, even while both units (remote and base units) are in transit.
• Our competitors’ devices cannot be programmed for individual remote unit applications, such as water activation, parameter limit alert, medical history of the wearer, etc.
• The units cannot be armed from a remote location.

Price:

• Greater initial cost to the end user ($200-$2000), with fewer features and capabilities.
• Recurring monthly fees to the end user with most systems.

The most significant difference between our system and our competitors’ is our use of “unassisted” GPS/GSM technology. Unlike our competitors’, our system is not reliant on being in an area where cellular towers exist. Our competitors’ products do not work in areas where there is no cellular coverage, or less than the three three cellular towers needed for triangulation. Our system uses military inspired radio frequencies which transmit directly to the GPS satellite network. Our system will work anywhere in the world, including deserts, mountains, oceans and all other remote locations.

RQM Technologies also eliminates the need for the “tracker” to -hone into a call center, or to sit in front of a computer to download from a our website (both for a monthly fee ranging from $20-$40/month) in order to find someone who is missing, losing valuable minutes which can mean the difference between life and death. Our Personal Locator Device(s) allow the chase unit (wireless Palm Pilot, laptop, and most cell phones) to follow the remote unit, even as both units (remote and “base unit”) are in transit.

5.2 Marketing Strategy

Our most important marketing goal as a start-up is to build product and brand awareness. The way we go about this task will vary from one market segment to another.

Family Consumers

While it is widely know that child abductions are on the rise every year, and that Alzheimer’s disease afflicts more seniors annually, it is not well known that products such as the RQM Technologies’ Personal Locator Device(s) are available at such an affordable cost. We are anticipating the end-user’s cost at less than 33 cents per day for one year, based on a price point of only $120.00 per unit to the end user.

To raise awareness of our products among Family Consumers, our main marketing strategy hinges upon a high-publicity, one-time “stunt,” to take place in late October or early November of 2004.

With the knowledge, assistance and approval of a respected police department, (and media outlets) we plan on staging a demonstration child abduction and rescue to show the system’s immediate response and efficacy. In order to comply fully with the law, we will ask a police officer to perform the character of the abductor, in portraying the “abduction” of his/her own child; this will minimize any potential risk, keeping the child firmly under the protector of his or her own parent throughout the demonstration. After a 10 minute head-start, another officer, with no foreknowledge of the “abductor’s” intended destination, will then track down the “abductee,” in order to demonstrate how quick and easy it is to locate the abducted child in a timely manner that could ultimately save the child’s life.

For this demonstration, we will invite a respected television news crew or popular talk show to follow the staged abduction in order to document our success, while broadcasting this life-saving demonstration nationwide. As an incredibly worthy cause, we believe that many media outlets will want to run this human-interest story in an effort to help aid against child abductions and wandering Alzheimer’s patients by helping to make our technology public knowledge. We expect this nationwide publicity to break down most existing barriers of entry into our other targeted markets.

We will aggressively target publicity of our staged abduction through TV shows such as Oprah, The Maury Povich Show, Regis and Kelly, 60 Minutes, and all others that can sway national opinion that cater to family and safety issues. We believe that this and further demonstrations will be very well received, while gaining invaluable exposure as we begin branding our name while positioning our company.

We will then market heavily in publications geared towards parenting and Alzheimer’s associations for the consumer market, while aggressively seeking free publicity through print, radio and television, specifically once our Personal Location Device has demonstrated its efficacy during the staged abduction.

Channel Market to OEMs

We will focus our efforts to partner with Original Equipment Manufacturers on nationwide cellular providers and computer manufacturers. We will emphasize our products’ potential as an additional source of revenue for them, both at the front end for product sales, and in the case of cellular providers, with recurring monthly revenues; this should make our product very desirable as part of their product lines. By solidifying these partnership agreements, we will also enable cross-marketing back into the consumer market through their sales forces’ efforts and their advertising, increasing our sales efforts nationwide without the expense of additional personnel to cover the entire U.S. We believe that once partnered with these companies, our channel market partners (resellers) will advertise the RQM Technologies Personal Locator Device(s) as new features in their traditional outlets, primarily print advertising and in-house POS material, in order to increase mutual sales and brand awareness, benefiting both organizations, while fitting a nation of families with our potentially life-saving device.

Business Market

We will be marketing to businesses through traditional sales efforts, such as advertising in trade publications and establishing a presence at select trade shows geared towards businesses in our market segment. For the larger companies we target, we will offer the free use of a limited number of our products for a limited time, to prove their efficacy in controlling costs of outside fleets and personnel, in order to penetrate and gain market share in this segment. We believe once senior management of these businesses feel more in control of the whereabouts of their outside concerns (personnel and vehicles, deliveries, packages, equipment, etc.) they will understand that they can, in essence, manage their outside logistics from the comfort of their office more efficiently than through traditional methods.

Military and Political Markets

Our military and political markets will necessitate a slightly different and more personal approach through specific relationships we have developed with individuals inside these market segments. We feel these markets are worth pursuing aggressively. We are currently in discussion with a consultant to the U.S. Navy, who feels the military is looking for a device such as the RQM Technologies’ Personal Locator Device(s), in order to better protect their servicemen.

5.3 Sales Strategy

We need to convince consumers of the serious benefits of RQM Technologies’ Personal Locator Devices. Except for vehicle, equipment or package tracking, we sell a “life-saving locator-rescue product,” not an electronics system that relays GPS/GSM location data. Once our device has been proven effective in a real-life situation, we firmly believe that multiple media sources will want to run our product’s life-saving results as a human interest story. Any press, print or broadcast third party endorsements will be included in future sales and marketing literature. We are planning to stage a mock-abduction, with the media present in order to document and feature the efficacy of our product on their respective television programs or in their print media.

We have to sell our service and support. The RQM Technologies’ Personal Locator Device(s) remote unit, while very easy to program and facilitate, will be better received if we offer (fee based) training services for our larger clients, such as our channel sales partners and large corporate accounts. Simplifying the understanding and implementation of our system will help encourage the daily use and sales efforts of our product, while generating additional revenues for RQM Technologies, our channel market resellers while increasing the ROI for our investor/partner(s).

The Yearly Total Sales chart summarizes our ambitious sales forecast. We expect sales to increase dramatically as the RQM Technologies’ Personal Locator Device(s) demonstrate its efficacy, and is well received in our target markets. Once our system saves a life, we will aggressively pursue widespread press and publicity, at which point, we believe all barriers into the consumer markets will be eliminated, while opening markets we may not have targeted as primary markets.

5.4 Sales Forecast

The important elements of the sales forecast are shown in the table below. We are using aggressive forecasts that will achieve momentum, revenues, positive cash flow and profitability. We feel these are attainable goals, as we plan to offer our Personal Locator Device(s) in minimums of 1000 unit orders to our channel, military and political markets. Units will be sold to our individual and family consumer market either through our channel markets, or directly for a slightly higher fee through our website.

5.5 Web Plan Summary

The RQM Technologies’ website will be the virtual business card and portfolio for the company, as well as its online “corporate home” for business-to-business marketing and investor relations. It will showcase our products and services, as well as hosting a portfolio of all past and current real-life testimonials. The website needs to be simple to navigate, yet well designed and flexible, to accommodate changes in our online needs.

RQM Technologies is dedicated to helping find those who are lost, and will entertain adding links to recognized agencies that have the same goals, as long as it adds value to the company. To show our concerns and good will, while reminding visitors of our products’ potential, we will add banner links to agencies such as The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), AMBER Alert, Child Search and other national missing children’s programs. We will also have a link to the National Alzheimer’s Association.

The key to the website strategy will be combining a very well-designed front end, with a back end capable of recording leads, processing online orders and information requests, offering online manuals and running RQM Technologies’ own online marketing program for OEM affiliates.

5.5.1 Development Requirements

The RQM Technologies’ initial website will be developed with few technical resources; a simple hosting provider will host the site and provide the technical back end.

The design, updates and maintenance of the site will be done by contracted web designers, for a more professional image of our company, freeing up senior management to focus on company growth and product development. As the website rolls out future developments such as new products, product add-ons and software updates, ancillary products, newsletters and downloadable market research reports. We may need to contract further technical resources to build the trackable download information with the capabilities of transmitting and organizing extensive information.

5.6 Milestones

The following table lists important program milestones, with dates and managers in charge, and budgets for each. The milestone schedule indicates our emphasis on planning for implementation.

What the table doesn’t show is the commitment behind it. Our business plan includes complete provisions for plan-vs.-actual analysis, and we will be holding follow-up meetings every month to discuss the variance and course corrections.