Strategic Business Proposal 1 of 31 Strategic Business Proposal for Urban One, Inc. For: Urban One, Inc. https://urban1.com/ Prepared On: Feb 10, 2019 Prepared By: Toccara Thomas MBBS Craig Holifield, EBBS Jureesa McBride, MBBS Destinee Ruiz, MBBS Nicholas Potts, SMMB Instructor Name: Myke Fakir Strategic Business Proposal Page 2 of 31 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 3 1. Organizational Challenges & Proposed Solution .............................................................................. 3-4 Organizational Challenges ..................................................................................................................... 3 Proposed Solution .................................................................................................................................. 4 2. Environmental Scanning ..................................................................................................................... 4-5 Internal Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 4 External Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 8 3. Strategy Formulation .......................................................................................................................... 11 Operations ............................................................................................................................................ 11 Sales, Marketing, & Distribution ......................................................................................................... 12 Legal ................................................................................................................................................... 14 4. Proposal Budget & Projections ........................................................................................................... 15 Sales Projections .................................................................................................................................. 15 Project Budget ...................................................................................................................................... 16 5. Strategy Implementation ..................................................................................................................... 17 Timeline and Key Milestones .............................................................................................................. 17 6. Future Plans ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Long-Term Opportunity and Development Plans ................................................................................ 19 7. Appendices and References ................................................................................................................ 20 References ....................................................................................................................................... 20-23 Appendices ...................................................................................................................................... 24-29 Appendix 1:Competitive Analysis ................................................................................................. 24 Appendix 2: Stock Report .............................................................................................................. 24 Appendix 3: Phased Implementation ............................................................................................. 25 Appendix 4: Key Personnel ........................................................................................................... 26 Appendix 5: Sales Projections ....................................................................................................... 26 Appendix 6: Expense Assumptions .......................................................................................... 27-29 Appendix 7: Income Statement Summary ..................................................................................... 30 Appendix 8: Annual Profits ........................................................................................................... 31 Strategic Business Proposal Page 3 of 31 Introduction Executive Summary To Urban One Board of Directors: We live in a technology addicted society where it has become a necessity in terms of everyday life. As technology advances, we heavily rely on our smartphones to do a number of things, and the need for social media goes even deeper than that. The internet has greatly influenced and changed modern society, so much so that we have become codependents of both culture and technology. It’s a proven fact that Urban One is a business that has adapted to the changes to suit the needs of both technology and modern culture. Urban One Inc, in conjunction with its subsidiaries, operates as an urban-oriented multi-media company in the U.S. The four subsidiaries include Reach Media, Radio Broadcasting, Digital, and Cable Television. The fundamental business model for Urban One is representing black culture in a bold and courageous way. And the company’s ultimate goal is to be the most trusted source in the African American community by entertaining and inspiring its audience with culturally relevant integrated content. But what if the company shifted its focus a bit on the needs of their audience by creating more content around topics that appeal to a more diverse audience? While Urban One has done an outstanding job of reaching 82% of African Americans, we’re proposing some changes that will help to win back the community for those who have lost faith and hope in the company’s mission and recapture their attention with something that has never been done. The plan would be to form a partnership with BET involving a joint venture project of a combined platform mobile app with music and video content. Urban One can supply most of the music content and collaborate with BET for video media in the form of documentaries, news, music videos, movies, etc. This collaboration will be sustained with a PR and social media campaign in which our company can offer exclusive content promotions such as free Soul Train cruise tickets, scholarships to African- American college students pursuing a degree in the entertainment field, followed by a social justice campaign featuring well-known hip-hop artists like J. Cole and/or Kendrick Lamar in partnership with Black Lives Matter. Conservatively speaking, based on our past trends, assumptions, and research; if both Urban One and BET were to increase their customer base by 25% with this mobile app, they could see a return on investment of 20% per quarter by executing this plan. A co-branding partnership with BET will allow us to borrow on the strengths of a partner that is quite similar to us; and it would be valuable for everyone involved. Bottom line, a partnership with BET will extend both companies’ reach into the African American market to increase sales. This collaboration will not only put our company ahead of the competition, it will help build a stronger brand that connects better with existing customers and opens a market segment that reaches out to a younger demographic. With Urban One’s 22 business acquisitions since we started in 1980, the company has proven itself as experts in growth by improving the customer experience. _____Toccara Thomas_______ _____Jureesa McBride______ _____Craig Holifield_______ _____Nicholas Potts______ _____Destinee Ruiz-Sapp_____ Strategic Business Proposal Page 4 of 31 1: Challenges & Solutions Organizational Challenges A significant challenge for Urban One, Inc. is not honoring its mission statement to the fullest extent and having a weak social media presence because of it. Per their statement, "Our mission is to be the most trusted source in the African-American community that informs, entertains and inspires our audience..." But on the contrary, complaints were reported for them being a fake and phony network, banning artists from using their platform (Oppan, 2018), using their gravitational pulls toward the African American community to gain their trust under false pretenses, inserting others that will not work to unite the people, and only caring about playing music and pleasing sponsors. In a matter of public opinion from the company’s direct social media page, this is definitely something that should be addressed. Moreover, past studies have shown that African American mobile phone usage rank highest than that of other ethnic groups. Of the eighty-seven percent that utilizes the internet alone and the 91 percent that own smartphones, that's all the more reason for them to strengthen their social media presence. Even more so, African American participation in social media has been spotlighted in recent years. For example, the highly influential community known as Black Twitter has driven many social and cultural issues and become a national political force (Howard, 2018). "Content is king, and professional media will not become extinct, but it will have to accommodate