Transcript The Marketing Planning Process

The Marketing
Planning Process
Strategic marketing: a planning process that
seeks to establish a clear direction and unified
purpose for all marketing efforts.
Its conclusions are documented in a marketing
plan that is regularly updated.
5 Steps of Marketing Planning
chron.com
Small Business
The five steps in strategic marketing are:
1. Identify the mission;
Describe your unique selling proposition (USP)
2. Analyse the situation;
Define your target market
3. Setting objectives;
How do we define success?
4. Develop a marketing strategy;
How do we reach the customer?
5. Planning for evaluation
How will we know if we are successful?
Why Plan for Marketing?
• The Marketing Planning Process focuses
business’s limited resources on opportunities
to increase market share and boost profit by
creating a sustainable competitive advantage.
Situational Analysis
• Product Situation
– What is the current product?
– What is the Core product and Secondary/supporting products?
• Competitive Situation
– Who are the main competitors?
– What are their competitive advantages?
• Distribution Situation
– How is the product getting to market?
– Are new distributors needed?
• Environmental factors
– PEST analysis (Political, Environmental, Social, Technological)
• Opportunity and Issue Analysis
– SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Define your target market
• What group/s are you best placed to serve?
• What are their specific needs, and how can your
product/service meet those needs?
– Demographic (age, income, population factors)
eg Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y
– Psychographic (attitudes, beliefs, intentions)
eg early adopters, laggards, greens
– Behavioural (actions and activities)
eg Sailing club members, basketballers, political
activists
– Geographic (location) eg ACT, Southern NSW Region,
Australasia
Psychographic Segmentation
• Psychographic segmentation divides the population into groups
based on reported beliefs or attitudes.
• One example is based on willingness to adopt new ideas. (Diffusion
curve)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Innovators: Explore what's new.
Generally young, educated and high income, willing to pay high
prices for “leading technology” (sometimes useless) “toys”.
Early Adopters: Seek out the leading edge.
Make serious use of new technology. Keep their eye on innovators
as a source of competitive advantage.
Early Majority: Prefer the market leader. Cautious in adopting new
technologies and seek the opinions of early adopters.
Late Majority: Want 'cheap and easy'. Will put off adopting new
technology until it is as straightforward and inexpensive as possible.
Laggards: Avoid innovations and resist change. Laggards will resist
to the end. May appear to adopt ideas while actually undermining
them. Adopt new technology only when absolutely necessary.
changingminds.org
The Competition
• Look at your business’s opportunities and threats
– Opportunities & threats are external to the business;
you can’t control, but should attempt to plan and
forecast
• What are your competitors doing?
– Where can you locate relative to their offerings?
– How can you keep from being copied?
– What response will your competitors make to your
actions?
Describe the benefits of your
product/service
• Be very clear about your product/service
• How will these benefit your target market/s?
• Can the product/service be modified to suit
another target market/s?
• Who are NOT your target market?
• Don’t target “everyone” – this is a sure way to
be bland, and to be ignored
Position your product/service
• How will your product/service fit into the
market?
– High-end, luxury: high-price, high-quality eg First
Class airline tickets
– Budget: cheap, indifferent or basic quality
eg Economy
– Midrange: serviceable, better than basic but
targeted to specific needs
eg Business class
Describe your unique selling
proposition (USP)
• A Unique Selling Proposition sets you apart from
others
– What makes your product/service offering the best in
its niche?
– Assess Strengths and Weaknesses (internal factors,
under your control)
– How can you get where you want to be?
• Mass marketing is gone!
– Target a specific niche market or target group
– Develop a unique selling proposition for that group
Define your marketing methods
• How will you reach your customer?
• Think about the whole product cycle:
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–
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–
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from idea/design through to
production
packaging
delivery, payment and
After-sales followup (warranty, additional services)
Encouraging word-of-mouth sales and repeat business
Other Considerations
• Ensure sufficient budget, staffing and time is allocated
to marketing.
• Set clear, concrete and measurable steps
– Sales forecasts
– Monthly review, tracking
• Non-monetary measures (eg quality, satisfaction)
• Revise the marketing plan at least each quarter
– perhaps more often, if you are in a fast-moving market
– Clearly schedule and outline marketing in your business
plan
– Periodically, undergo a major/complete overhaul
(2-3 yearly), by an external marketing agency
5 Steps of Marketing Planning
chron.com
Small Business
The five steps in strategic marketing are:
1. Identify the mission;
Describe your unique selling proposition (USP)
2. Analyse the situation;
Define your target market
3. Setting objectives;
How do we define success?
4. Develop a marketing strategy;
How do we reach the customer?
5. Planning for evaluation
How will we know if we are successful?