Marketing

  1. What are you promoting? In some cases, it will be your organization as a brand and public image. In other cases, it will specific products or a line of products.
  2. Design. Design your product or service to be what your buyers want to buy. If you miss this step, you might wind up trying to sell something that most people don’t want, even if you thinkit has very good features.

 

Your marketplace

  1. Frame of reference. What market are you in? This will define your competitors. It is fairly simple in many clearly defined industries. If you can redefine your competitors, you can move into innovative markets where you competitors might not be who you think they would be:
    1. A chain of coffee shops saw instant coffee in office kitchens as its main competitor. It aimed to attract office workers to their coffee shop to buy much better coffee.
    2. Another chain of coffee had mediocre coffee but built the atmosphere in its shops as a cool place to hang out and meet with friends.
    3. Another chain of coffee shops was mainly used as a venue for various kinds of business meetings. It was seen to be neutral ground out of the office. It was also a good place for home-based businesses to hold business meetings.
  2. Market position. Where do you stand in relation to a group of other providers in the same industry? For example, you might be big enough to calculate your market share in a particular location.
  3. Clientele. Who are your target customers? If you can precisely define a specific target audience by their buying habits and their demographic and cultural characteristics, you can better focus your advertising. The more focussed your advertising can be, the more return you get for your advertising dollar.
    1. Direct competitors. Who offers products or services that are comparable to yours? For example, if you have a venue for live performances, other live performance venues are your direct competitors.
    2. Indirect competitors. Who offers products or services that are different from yours but make adequate substitutes? In our example of a venue for live performances, your indirect competitors are TV stations, movie theaters and on-line video services.

 

How does your product or service compare?

  1. Points of difference. What makes you different from others? How are you different? What are the "selling points," that is, the features of your services of products that will make them attractive to prospective customers?
    1. One hamburger chain used atmosphere and plastic toys as it main selling points.
    2. Its main competitor provided better quality food in larger portions.
  2. Points of parity. What aspects of your brand and products only need to be as good as your competitors? If you have strong enough selling points, other points need only to be as good as your competitors. In other words, eliminate features that are clearly inferior or detrimental.
  3. Marketing mix. What combination of characteristics does a defined group of prospective customers want and will pay for?
  4. The value proposition. What will make your product better value for money than its competitors? This is not just about price, because an expensive product might offer better value for money than a low-priced product.
  5. Product mix. What range of products should you offer? Too wide and nobody really knows what you offer. Too narrow and you put all your proverbial eggs in only one basket.
  6. Pricing. How will you price your product or service compared to going rates on the market? (Keep costing as a separate process; it is working out how much it costs to provide that good or service.)
  7. Marketing balance. What is the optimum balance of costs, sales volume, profit, product mix, and marketing mix to get the best profit?

 

Going to market

  1. Market timing. When is the right time to come onto the market?
  2. Take-up patterns. What kinds of take up patterns do you expect? For example, do you expect a relatively small take-up from high-paying early adopters, which you can follow up with a mass-market version? Or are you aiming for relatively slow growth with more conservative buyers?
  3. Advertising. How will you advertise? What medium will be effective for your target market?
  4. Selling. How will your sales force actually handle customers and close sales?
  5. After sales service. What will you do for refunds on returns. Will you give guarantees? If so, what will be the terms and who will be your service providers? How will you process this feedback?