• Understand and use marketing ideas to promote your business
• Design and develop an outcome based marketing plan
• List and evaluate the benefits of various business communications
• Evaluate your current marketing initiatives

2 MARKETING DEFINTIONS

"Marketing involves identifying customer needs, pinpointing target markets and designing products and services to meet the market in a volatile environment".

"Marketing is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customers' point of view." Peter Drucker.

"The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably." Chartered Institute of Marketing.

"Marketing is the identification and profitable satisfaction of customers' needs".

POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND

• Marketable products and services
• Identify wants
• Satisfy wants
• Make profit
• Scan the environment
• Commit to marketing expertise
• Strategic use of the 7 P's - Position, Promote, Product, Price, Place, People and Process

• Research the market - environmental, competitive and customer research
• SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats
• Determine marketing objectives - specific, measurable, accountable, time bound
• Segment the market - general (Coca Cola), niche - (Apple Computers)
• Select target market - your decision depends on your product
• Position your company - can only happen by researching competition
• Develop marketing mix - strategy - reputation, distribution, key differences, market size
• Action plans and responsibilities
• Evaluation - how well you are doing?

4 GETTING TO KNOW YOUR MARKET - MARKET RESEARCH

Market research is the systematic gathering of information, recording and analysing of data related to your goods and services.

Market Research Activities - 1

• What business are you in?
• Who are your customers?
• What do you do for your customers?
• Why do they buy from you?
• Why do they buy from your competition?
• What special skills and talents do you have?
• How are going to overcome your weaknesses?
• What makes your business special?
• How is this different from your competitors?
• Is the difference big enough to give you an operating advantage?
• Is your difference big enough to give you ongoing profits?
• Who can help you-staff-strategic alliances?
• How do you measure success?

Market Research Activities - 2

• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
• Market research - surveys, interviews, focus groups, secondary analysis
• Customers - identifying your customers and knowing their expectations
• Competitors - who are your competitors and how do they operate?

Strategy Directions

• Get new customers
• Preserve existing client base
• Upgrade service or products to sell more to existing customers
• Upgrade services & products to add value & maintain prices

5 CUSTOMER PROFILE

Getting to know your customers

• Geographical - streets, town, region, country, rural, coastal, urban
• Demographic - age, sex, household size, family type, income group
• Psychographic - adventurers, conservative.
• Behavioural - price sensitive, loyal, innovators, early adopters, late majority, laggards

Pareto Law - 80% of sales come from 20% customers - how well are you looking at the 20%?

Customer Profile Activities

• Can you measure customer segment results?
• Can you reach segment cost effectively?
• Is the segment large enough?
• Do you have enough resources to reach it?
• Will they use your services?

6 MARKETING STRATEGY & PLAN

Mission Statement

• Inspirational executive statement that pinpoints the company's vision
• Why the company exists - peace of mind not insurance
• Unique selling advantage
• Commercial imperative - profit, charity
• Company values - creativity, quality
• Positioning - leader, niche, follower

MAP Marketing

We are creative publications marketing firm that helps businesses to grow. Through informed marketing services we strive to enlighten, inspire and add beauty to communications. We value creativity, inventing new products and systems, and creating global quality products. Our vision is to be a leading boutique-communications company.

Ford Motor Vehicle

Ford Motor Company is a worldwide leader in automotive and automotive-related products and services as well as in newer industries such as aerospace, communications and financial. Our mission is to improve continually our products and services to meet our customers' needs, allowing us to prosper as a business and to provide a reasonable return for our shareholders, the owners of our business.

Develop a Brief Positioning Statement

"The Lady is Not for Turning" - Margaret Thatcher
"Informed Creative Services" - MAP Marketing
"See How They Grow" - Avondale
"Space to Grow" - Macarthur
"The Performance Rolls On...." - SKF Bearings

Marketing Objectives

What you want to accomplish in simple terms that you and everybody else understands:

• Ten new clients per week at about $80.00-$800 more dollars a week
• Six trade fairs that bring 120 prospects and 40 new clients
• Three new calls from potential clients a day
• Price increase of $10.00 per client for a head massage

Communications Plan

What makes your product or service desirable?

Product

• What is special about your product/service?
• What does it do for the customer?
• How does it add value?
• Can you change for different outcome it - new package, new colours, new suit

Price

• Is your price competitive?
• Is your service price sensitive?
• Do you focus on adding value or charging an hourly price?
• Can you change trading terms place?
• Type of distributors
• Geographic coverage
• Internet
• Intranet
• Extranet
• Office locations

Promote

• Do you spend enough time on relationship building?
• Do you test your telephone answering service?
• Are you changing the mix?
• Do you know the difference between effective and efficient communications?

Your mix - advertising, internet, email, trade fairs, PR, word of mouth, seminars, sales promotions, product endorsements, posters, signage

What is the Adoption Process?

Awareness, Interest, Evaluation, Trial, Adoption, Confirmation

Advertising Basics-A Reminder!

Textbooks note that the process of advertising is AIDA = Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

Your audience normally moves through this spectrum before they'll buy your services/ product.

Why are you advertising? Is it to get the attention? Or, does your audience already know about your products, but just hasn't decided if they're interested. Or, are you trying to prompt the final "pick up of the phone", "mail the cheque", decision-making?

If advertising budgets are limited, a series of well-designed, noticeable ads may be more productive than a one-page exposure.

Ensure that your creative material is suitable for all four purposes (AIDA). Always include simple calls to action, flyer request, 1-800 number, website information or e-mail for competitions.

Make it easy for interested potential customers to make contact with you so that you can follow them up.

You can easily drop down from a full-page ad to a half-page or 1/3 page ad and still achieve "page dominance". Repeated hits with the same message and a referral to a website, for more detailed and timely information may be quite effective.

If you do something different this year, definitely keep track of what, where, and when you did it and how the results differed from your approach last year.

People

• Attitude
• Training
• Respect
• Flexibility
• Professionalism
• Experience

Process

• How service is delivered
• How products are presented

Action Plan

• Write down what you need to do
• When you will do it
• Who is responsible for doing it

Evaluation

Measuring your performance

Maria Charlton B Com MBA AFAMI CPM
Managing Director - MAP Marketing
+61 2 4929 7766