1 Powershop Student Marketing Project Brief Client: Powershop Australia Aim To provide Powershop with a marketing plan to guide Powershop's entry into the south east Queensland market. The target market consists of residential and commercial customers. Your marketing objective is to achieve a market share of 5% in the first year of operation. You have a marketing budget of $50,000. The marketing plan should outline how social media could be used to engage with customers. Website http://www.powershop.com.au/ Background Ed McManus is the Chief Executive Officer of Powershop Australia. Powershop Australia is an online energy retailer. It is owned by Australasia's largest 100% renewable generator, Meridian Energy, and their office is based in Melbourne. Powershop is Australia's only electricity retailer to be certified 100% carbon neutral by the Australian Government. Powershop was ranked by Greenpeace as Australia's greenest energy company in 2014 and 2015. In his role as Powershop CEO, Ed is driving a unique service that gives customers transparency and control like they've never had before over a key part of their household budget – their energy bill. With a strong and growing customer base, Powershop powers more than 70,000 households and businesses from across Victoria and New South Wales. They are investigating adding other states in the near future. The next step is to enter the Queensland market. Ed is excited by the challenge of trying to make a connection with customers in an industry where trust is currently low. But it's also the idea of being a part of a business that strives to have a positive impact on the future of the planet that pushes him daily. Short video introduction to company is here – what is Powershop? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xhhkTlupFA YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/PowershopAustralia Background Since the early- to mid-1990s, energy supply deregulation and privatisation of some state-owned assets has led to the establishment of increasingly open and transparent energy market (AEMO, n.d). The retail electricity market in Queensland was opened for full retail competition in July 2007. Currently, the prices electricity retailers can charge households and small businesses are limited by price controls imposed by state regulators (Australian Government, 2015a). However, there are plans to deregulate retail electricity prices for south east Queensland (SEQ) in the near future. The south east Queensland (SEQ) and regional Queensland markets have developed at a different pace. Consumers in south east Queensland are free to choose their electricity retailer (Queensland Government, 2016b). The SEQ retail market provides a choice of retailers and is dominated by AGL (https://www.agl.com.au/residential2) and Origin Energy(https://www.originenergy.com.au/). Energex (https://www.energex.com.au) is another key player. Competition in regional Queensland is still immature (Queensland Productivity Commission, 2016). The government-owned energy retailer is Ergon (www.ergon.com.au), who offers electricity services to households and businesses in regional Queensland. The Australian energy market is regulated by the Australian Energy Regulator (https://www.aer.gov.au/). Ed is aware that that consumer switching rates in Queensland have been lower than other states (Australian Government, 2015b) but he is confident that Powershop, with its emphasis on customer service and competitive prices, will encourage consumers to switch to a new service provider. References AEMO. (n.d). Energy Markets. Retrieved from http://www.aemo.com.au/About-the-Industry/EnergyMarkets Australian Government. (2015a). Energy in Australia 2015. Retrieved from http://www.industry.gov.au/Office-of-the-Chief-Economist/Publications/Documents/energy-in-aust/Energyin-Australia-2015.pdf Australian Government. (2015b). Energy White Paper. Retrieved from http://ewp.industry.gov.au/ Queensland Productivity Commission. (2016). Draft Report – Electricity Pricing Inquiry. Retrieved from http://www.qpc.qld.gov.au/inquiries/electricity-pricing/ Queensland Government. (2016). Tips for choosing or changing electricity retailer. Retrieved from https://www.dews.qld.gov.au/electricity/retailers/choosing