Marketing

concept | marketing mix | marketing plan | return on investment | understanding your customer | Statistics NZ releases tool for businesses | communications | advertising

Marketing is defined as the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, services, and ideas to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisation objectives. Planning a successful marketing campaign requires that you are clear about what you are trying to achieve and that you know who you are targeting, what drives them, how you will reach them and you must have the ability to create fresh, engaging marketing concepts.

Marketing concept

The marketing concept is a philosophy (not a system of marketing or an organisational structure) founded on the belief that profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs and desires. To fulfill customer needs and desires, clever marketing will provide the right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price.

• Click here to find out how to conduct market research

Marketing mix

Getting the right mix of product, price, place (distribution) a cool tool = The 4Ps

Product

Price

Place (Distribution)


Promotion

The 4Ps is a nifty framework that ensures you to consider the following key business areas in your strategy development:

Product (or service or brand):

Promotion:

Though it’s not always the case most marketing plans will have an element of promotion to them.  Many of the choices represent an opportunity for you to get the experts involved. Remember, you should do what you do best and reserve some budget to get the experts, such as design companies, to do what they do best. It will be worth it when you see the results it will deliver.

There are five aspects to the Marketing Promotion / Marketing Communications mix:

• Advertising
• Direct Marketing (DM) (get the experts involved in this)
• Sales Promotions
• Public Relations (PR)
• Personal Selling

• Partnerships
• Sponsorship
• Events

Remember that the ideal choice of marketing activity for your business is always a combination of:

• your available budget 
• what your analysis has highlighted as imperative for the business
• what offers you the greatest reach to your ideal customer

Price:

Place (distribution of your product/channels to market):

Consider how well your existing channel is serving you, does your environment needs to be updated/revised given who your customer is and what is going on in the market

By using variations of these four components you have the ability to reach multiple consumers within your target market.

Creating a successful marketing mix that will increase results often takes experimenting and market research. There are many methods that can be used, both in person and the use of impersonal presentations. The key is to not always depend on "one" mix, always explore other avenues. The combining and coordination of these elements will be more effective than depending on one.

You must coordinate all elements so that the prospective consumer is not being sent mixed messages that can cause confusion. Do all of your elements contain the same message?

Take for example the following scenario:

We are a company that specializes in marketing services and we cater to physicians, however the products we offer fulfill the needs of lead generation for lawyers. Our price is geared on enterprise budget and our magazine advertisements and promotions are being placed in magazines that have a subscription base of senior citizens.

Do you see a problem with this? While in this scenario it is very obvious, I guarantee that by looking at your marketing mix you may find discrepancies that surprise you. Always make sure that your marketing mix has a message that speaks in unison.

For instance make sure that if you have a practice that caters to a niche market that your product is geared towards the need of that market, your price is within the budget of that market, you are distributing your product or service where it will be seen by that market, and gear your promotion to solve the problems that they are encountering.

If you remember one thing from this article it is that one of the main keys to the success of any marketing program is the ability to work effectively in shaping marketing mixes that meet the nature and needs of your specified target market.

Marketing plan

Objectives

Marketing objectives are specific, measurable aims or expected outcomes of marketing activity to be achieved in a given period.  Simply put, your objectives are what you should expect the plan to deliver for the business.  Another way to look at this is to ask ‘how will I know the plan has worked’?

The SMART plan

In order to get really robust objectives you should use the SMART approach.  Meaning, your objectives should be:

• S pecific
• M easurable
• A chievable
• R ealistic
• T ime bound.
  

Both are likely at different times and both will require very different approaches.

IMPORTANT - Make sure that you have objectives for customer loyalty and new customer acquisition! Remember your current customers represent a significant opportunity to grow your business and this is often forgotten in developing a plan.  If you’re not paying attention to them, remember that your competitors will be!

Strategies

Marketing strategies are those plans designed to reach marketing goals. A good marketing strategy should integrate an organization’s marketing goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive whole. The objective of a marketing strategy is to put the organization into a position to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently.

Marketing strategies are partially derived from broader corporate strategies, corporate missions, and corporate goals. Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive, meaning that they are partially planned and partially unplanned so they can respond to market changes.

Measurables

The last step in the planning process requires us to be accountable for the plan we have developed by measuring how the plan is delivering on the objectives we set.  Plans rarely happen exactly as we hope, so to make it work for your business you must regularly review what it’s delivering.

Depending on the type of activities you’ve chosen in your marketing and promotion mix you will either need to measure daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly (as a minimum).

What you measure you can adjust. What you adjust gives you a better chance of being successful so keep reviewing!

Measurables help you to evaluate whether or not your marketing has been successful. Traditional marketing measures include awareness, preference, loyalty, customer satisfaction, distribution levels, and market share.

• How to write a marketing plan

Return on investment (ROI) A word of caution!

To make sure that advertising (or any alternative) is the right option ask yourself ‘how many customers can I effectively reach & sell to, using this approach’ versus other strategies, like Partnerships.   Another question to ask is ‘will this deliver on my objectives’? 

This thinking is referred to in business theory as Return on Investment (ROI) and small and big businesses alike should consider ROI as a means of being accountable with any marketing funds.

Every dollar spent should equate to dollar/s brought into the business (as a result of any activity you choose).

Marketing ROI is defined as gross margin minus the marketing investment, with that result divided by the marketing investment.

To find out how to carry out an ROI and cost anaylsis please click on the link below.

• http://www.marketingtoday.com/tools/roi_calculator.htm

Critical Path / Time line

Once you’ve selected your strategy/ies the next step is to develop a plan of action that outlines specifically:

• what activities will happen. For example: developing your partnerships; briefing your design partner/agency; booking your stand at the next industry event e
• within what time frame/ by when
• who is responsible for each component
• and it must include your budget in detail

Considerations

It’s important to note up front that there is no one way to do any kind of plan.  What this guide offers is the things you must not leave out!  Other than these key components, you know your business best and your plan must serve the business so make sure you add in any items you feel should be there!

Before you start working on your marketing plan there are a four key considerations:

• Your Vision – what your business exists to achieve?

• Your People – who else should be involved in this process?

• Your Brand – the representation of all you are to your customers!

Consistency is key in building powerful brands so an important context for any marketing plan is what is your Brand Promise.  Another way to consider this is, what is your value proposition?  Your Value proposition is the thing of most value to our customers (about you), such that it makes you stand out from the competition and remain the clear choice for customers.

This is often really hard to nail but it’s not going to change often (unlike a tag line that goes with a your logo or a tag line in an ad) and it needs to be consistently communicated. A key consideration in the development of your marketing plan will be how best you communicate this to get customers to respond.

• Your thinking – your biggest challenge to getting into action

The biggest challenge to great thinking is that we stop when we get stuck. Not good enough! You are capable of great ideas if you persist. 

So how do you get past the proverbial ‘brick wall’? Two tools will make all the difference:

1.  Get good at asking questions that you must answer like:

• What else?
• What have I not considered?
• What have I missed here?
• Am I thinking outside the square enough?
• What’s another way of thinking about this?
• What’s no one else doing that we could do?
• What’s a different way of looking at this?
• Etc etc etc

2.  When you are truly stumped...

Marketplace Analysis = clarity for the right strategy

• Internal – what is changing/evolving inside your business that you must consider
  
• External – what is changing/evolving outside your business that you must consider
  

Analysis tools for creating clarity

• S trengths
• W eaknesses  
• O pportunities
• T hreats
  

• p olitical
• e conomic
• s ocial
• t echnological

Your competition = “keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer”

• Specifically what is your competition now (and in the future)?
  
• What pricing strategy do they have?
  
• How much market share do they have
  
• How do they positioned themselves (on quality, leadership, best bargain etc)
  
• What marketing strategy are they employing
  
• How would they likely respond to a change to your strategies
  

Understanding your customer

Creating a plan that will work is entirely dependant on an intimate understanding of your customer. If you know your customer, you will know what will and won’t work, what they will and will not respond to and what strategy will or won’t deliver for you.  So take the time to get this right and it will pay dividends for you.

Identifying your target market

Your target market is the group of individuals whom collectively, you want to target with your marketing message.

Identifying your target market involves a process of using income, demographic, and lifestyle characteristics to identify the most favourable locations and recipients for your marketing messages.

• Click here to find out how to identify your target market

Buyer behaviour

An important part of the marketing process is to understand why a customer or buyer makes a purchase. Without such an understanding, businesses find it hard to respond to the customer’s needs and wants.

Marketing theory traditionally splits analysis of buyer or customer behaviour into two broad groups for analysis – Consumer Buyers and Industrial Buyers.

Consumer buyers are those who purchase items for their personal consumption

Industrial buyers are those who purchase items on behalf of their business or organisation

Businesses now spend considerable sums trying to learn about what makes “customers tick”. The questions they try to understand are:

• Who buys?
• How do they buy?
• When do they buy?
• Where do they buy?
• Why do they buy?

For anyone trying to market a product or service, the challenge is to understand how customers might respond to the different elements of the marketing mix that are presented to them. If management can understand these customer responses better than the competition, then it is a potentially significant source of competitive advantage.

: tools for getting to know your customer

Most businesses have a simplistic understanding of their customers.  They can tell you their assumptions and maybe some demographics (statistics such as gender, income, age etc).  This is interesting, it’s just not important as it’s not enough information to determine what activities will create the level of response you need (in term of sales). By all means start with your assumptions and if you feel it would be helpful explore the demographics of your customers but unless you are convinced you have enough information to determine what likely response you will get from any activity you need to persist with your enquiry.The point at which you have enough information to determine how a person will behave is when you know their values. Values determine attitudes and behaviour for all human beings. Finding these out will guarantee you are well on the way to knowing how your customers will likely respond to any activity you do.

In your endeavour to intimately understand your customer a critical thing to bear in mind is that you must to clarify, specifically, who your ideal customer is.

Your ideal customer represents the best match between what you have to offer and their needs (as dictated by their values, attitudes and motivations). Your ideal customer will therefore be the easiest group for you to sell to.

Statistics NZ releases tool for businesses

Statistics New Zealand has just released the Business Toolbox, a free suite of online tools that provide quick and easy access to information for businesses. The Business Toolbox contains two tools:

• Market Mapper – businesses can visually pinpoint their target markets using 2006 Census data.
• Industry Profiler – provides details on industry performance over time, staff turnover, and survival of similar-sized businesses.

For example, using the Market Mapper, you can create a population density map by selecting a number of characteristics such as age, income, household composition, and family type.

Using Industry Profiler, you can search a particular industry and view information such as survival rates, and new and ceased businesses by region over the last five years. To access the Business Toolbox, go to: www.stats.govt.nz/business_toolbox

Statistics NZ can also arrange for its Outreach team to demonstrate the tool and its uses at your place of work. For further information, please contact Graeme Simpson on 04 931 4066 or via email: graeme.simpson@stats.govt.nz.

Marketing communications

Writing effective marketing communications

• Verify the goal of the piece. (Increase sales, provide information, update services, generate leads, etc.)
• Where does the piece fall in the sales cycle? This helps determine the message's tone and detail, for example.
• What are the measurables? How will the client measure the success of the project? This will help focus the call to action.
• Determine audience specifics. (Industry, job role, pain points/fears/concerns, motivation to purchase, purchasing cycles, etc.)
• List key features and corresponding benefits.
• Product/service information (how it works, price/ value, who would use it, capabilities, the problem(s) it solves, etc.). You can use background information from existing product collateral such as data sheets, product reports, articles, marketing plans, etc.
• Get competitor information to examine product differences and positioning.
• Ascertain how much information you have and how much research you will have to do.
• Think about what tone and style is desired (especially if it needs to match other marketing collateral).

• Click here for more tips on writing effective marketing communications

Tips for email marketing

Writing for email marketing has a few basic rules that will guarantee your success. Before you even begin email marketing you should ascertain whether your audience is capable of receiving HTML emails or whether you should stick to plain text.

Also, if you are new to email marketing and you are not getting someone to help you get started, make sure you preserve your clients' privacy and do not put their uncoded email addresses in the 'To:' line.

• Put yourself in the reader's shoes.
• Eliminate as many 'I's' and 'we's' as possible.
• Add as many 'you's' as possible.
• Use titles and subtitles in your paragraphs to make them easy to skim.
• Write in terms of benefits to them.
• Look for ways to add value to your readers.
• Don't ramble on about yourself.

Advertising

Advertising options

There are hundreds of advertising options from the more traditional print media (newspapers, magazines), television and radio alternatives to billboards and brochures to hiring a plane to fly with your company banner, painting your car with your logo and contacts or sponsoring a team or event.

To decide which option is right for you, you need to:

• Decide on a budget and find out what you can afford – it is crucial you shop around as prices vary massively.
• Find out who each of the advertising mediums hit. For example a magazine may be distributed nationally but you need to know what the circulation figure is for the magazine and the demographic profile of its readers.
• If you are at the point of deciding to advertise you should know who your target market is and this will give you some idea of which media you should use for your message (eg are you targeting a national or local market and should you use a national paper or local community papers). Your chosen media may also depend on which medium will suit your target market best (eg if you are selling braille publications, print media is not the best medium).
• Advertising can cost a lot of money, so your message should be well-crafted and not rushed out to fill the space. It may be worth hiring someone to help you put it together.
• In most situations a combination of advertising mediums will work best – see the document below “Getting the right mix” for more help deciding which advertising will suit your business.

• Click here for more tips on getting the right advertising mix

Building a relationship with media

When you are trying to build a relationship with the media, keep in mind that they have a job to do – they are more likely to call on you and listen to what you have to say if you make their job simpler.

Step-by-step guide to building media contacts

• Find out about your local and national media
• Build a list of contacts at each of the papers, magazines, radio and television stations.
• Find out when their deadlines are - your story is more likely to be picked up if you give it to them when they are in their 'looking for stories' mode.
• For the daily papers find out when their 'hot' news days are - your story is more likely to be drowned out on a hot news day when they have plenty of stories to choose from. Monday is a traditionally slow news day and is therefore a good day to pitch stories.

Be available

Always return calls from your local media and be available to provide quotes and comments if they want them - if you are known for being available and providing interesting comments you will become a good contact (and get plenty of coverage)

Never make the media feel they are being obstructed - if there is difficult news being circulated about your company (eg it is being sued, a product is being recalled, financial results are terrible), be ready with whatever information you can give the media. If you can supply some information you have more control over it than if it comes from other sources (eg the company suing your company).

Choose a good angle

When you are pitching a story and trying to get coverage for your business or products, find a good news angle. The fact you are selling a new product is not a news angle, the fact the concept for the product came about while you were mowing the lawns is actually more interesting.

Keep in mind - a news angle needs to be just that, 'new'. So, hundreds of people introduce new products every day but if you have amazing presales figures (with evidence), or it is truly an original product (with evidence) or it has a quirky story around its conception, those are better angles

Let them do their job

No one likes being told how to do their job. Give the media the news story you have, give them the contact details of anyone they might need to follow up with and any useful additional resources or information that you have for the story - then leave them to it. You cannot control the copy and trying to only aggravates most reporters. Note: If you are purchasing an article or 'advertorial' you should have full editorial control.

Keep your media clippings and recordings as they can be great marketing tools. Note: When you are pitching a story to a media organisation do not point out that other publications or stations have covered you before - media are looking for a new story so being covered in other places won't win you any coverage.

Some of the content on this page has been provided by Tara Lorigan at ashe.