Marketing
Plan
The marketing
plan is the first key to success. Zig Ziglar tells the story
of the airplane pilot who takes off on a flight from Dallas
to New York, gets blown a little off course and returns
to Dallas to start over again. Very few flights would ever
reach their destination if pilots were this shaky in their
ability to deal with setbacks.
The
key advantage of a marketing plan is that it will allow
you to see the ultimate goal. With the end in mind, minor
setbacks and failures along the way help clarify the plan
even more. What's more, with a marketing plan in your hands
you will be able to measure, record and track how your marketing
plan is doing in regards to meeting your goal. You can then
adjust, revise or increase certain aspects to reach your
goal without disturbing the delicate balance of all the
elements of your plan.
There
are 2 main parts of a marketing plan - Identifying your
specific market. And Identifying your strategy to reach
that market.
Identify
your Market Your
target market - Identifying your specific piece of the
industry market
Your position in the marketplace
- Identify your niche, the portion of the target market
that is yours uniquely, what specific businesses are your
competition to reaching your specific market.
Your
market strategy
Your Policies - and market strategy
- Identify what you will do to make your product most attractive
to your market
We'll
go through each of these steps and help you create your
own plan. The marketing plan you create will be geared towards
a particular product or service. Even though you may have
dozens, hundreds or thousands of products, your marketing
plan is for ONE product or service.
Potential
Market
The
size of the total market should be measured in dollars
of sales per year, but often to get the dollar figure
you first have to estimate the number of potential customers
and their average purchases, and then do some calculations.
You will split the market with competitors, so market
shares become important. Your market share, in turn, will
depend on how you compare to your competitors. Following
is a list of places to look for figures on the number
of customers available and their estimated spending in
your field.
| Contact
federal, state, and local government agencies for
data - particularly helpful are those involved with
commerce and economic development, planning, Housing,
welfare, labor, census and education many are available
online. |
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| Look
for published
data in the library - most carry Thomas Register and
other reports |
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| See
if there is a trade association for your kind of business
and if publishes data |
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| Check
with business faculty at a branch of your local University |
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| Watch
and check out the competition - count the traffic
to their site and estimate their sales. |
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Internet
sources: AllNetResearch: The Superstore for Internet
Research
*Forrester
Research: Helping business thrive on technology
changes
*Idc.com
- technology intelligence, industry analysis, market
data, and strategic and tactical guidance to builders,
providers and users of information technology
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Summarize
your findings
Put
all your figures together to find out how much you
can expect from your percent of the market
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What
is your target market?
Your
target market is your primary customers. Many businesses
also draw significant numbers of customers from other
- secondary - market segments. While
these segments may not be your main source (s) of customers,
the total business you could get from these segments can
be very important So answer the following questions about
both your primary or target customers and any other customers
you may find.
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What
characteristics define your market?
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| How
big and how stable is it? How stable is their purchasing
power? |
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| What
do you believe are the most important factors tat
influence these secondary customers' purchasing
decisions for your kinds of good and services? |
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| What
is the best way to reach or influence these customers? |
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| What
is your niche market - that special group that your
product and/or services are specifically geared
for. |
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Summarize
your findings for
your marketing plan
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What
is your competition?
To
deal with competition, you must understand who your
competitors are, how they compete, and how you can make
your business different enough to offer more value to
your customers. Direct competition offer products and/or
services similar to the ones your business sells. Indirect
competitors offer products and/or services different
from the ones you sell but which to some extent meet
the same needs. (I.e.: video rental and movie theaters)
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Describe
your major direct competition.
List the most important direct competitors by
name, indicate how each competes (or is positioned)
in the market. Estimate what market share each
has.
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Describe
your indirect competition.
When and why do customers turn to the indirect competition? |
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| Describe
how you will make your business differ from you
direct competitors. |
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| Is
there a way you can attract business away from indirect
competitors? |
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Compare You
and Your Competition
| Factor |
ME |
Strength |
Weakness |
Competitor
A |
Competitor
A |
Importance
to Customer |
| Price |
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| Quality |
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| Selection |
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| Service |
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| Reliability |
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| Stability
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| Expertise |
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| Comp
Reputation |
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| Location |
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| Appearance |
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| Sales
Method |
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| Credit
Policy |
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| Advertising |
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What
will be your marketing policies?
You
need to establish basic policies in combinations of
pricing, promotion, product quality, and customer service,
and examine how they differentiate your from the competition.
Another important aspect of your marketing policy will
be the kind and level of sales effort to be made. The
method of selling is to some extent determined by the
traditions in your kind of business and to some extent
determined by your own personality and sales motivation.
Answer these questions and sum them up in a paragraph
- for your policy.
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What will be the
average quality level of your products and/or
services and how does this quality level compare
to that of your competitors?
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| How
will average prices compare to those of your competitors? |
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| How
will sales be made? How does this compare to the
way your competitors make sales? |
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| If
you have sales people, other than yourself, how
will they be compensated |
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| What
advertising will you do? What will you spend on
advertising? How does it compare to what your competitors
do? |
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| What
other promotions will you use to attract customers? |
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| What
level of customer service will you provide? |
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Financial Plan
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