Download Marketing Plan Questions File

Marketing 101
By Rosalie Wilson
Rosalie J. Wilson Business Development Services
www.rosaliewilson.com
Marketing
Marketing is involved with all facets of the
buyer/seller relationship and thus much of
the business plan decision making.
marketing includes:
Markets
Products
Distribution
Promotion
Price…
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Principles of Marketing
5 P’s & 1 C
– Product
– Packaging
– Placement
– Promotion
– Price
– Customer
Customer
Who is your target audience?
Who could benefit from your product or service, or
who do you want to service?
How can you reach them?
Effective marketing, whether it’s
product, placement, promotion,
packaging, or price, takes your
customer into account first.
Class Exercise: Customer
How did you determine who your target
market(s) would be?
1. Explain why you choose this target
market
2. List what you know about them or what
would be helpful to know about them
3. Explain what steps you can take to find
out this info
Product
Successful products/services
1.meet an unmet need
OR
2.meet a need better than an existing product or
service
Products and services are defined by their
“feature/benefits.”
Class Exercise: Product
Features- List the key/unique/special
features of your market garden/products.
Taking Your Customer Into Account:
Benefits- Explain how your features benefit
your target market.
Packaging
Packaging is the visual representation of the
product or service. People do “judge a book by
its cover.”
Consumers associate how a product looks
with the operation itself:
Clean, Neat, Done Right = good
Dirty, Unkempt, Hasty = encourages misgivings
It doesn’t need to be fancy, but it does need to
look like you care!
Class Exercise: Packaging
How will you present your market garden
and your products to the public?
Describe the visual appearance of the
physical location, and the finished products
Placement
Placement is where/how your product gets in front
of your customers.
You can have a great product people might want
or need, but if people can’t get to it, they can’t buy
it.
Class Exercise: Placement
How will you know the customers you are
targeting will buy from this venue? How will they
reach and see the product?
Distribution: How will your products be
available? (on-farm, wholesale, farmers markets, etc.)
Accessibility: Are they easily accessible?
Promotion
You can have a great product, but if no one
knows about it, they won’t go buy it. And if they
can’t easily find it in the store, they won’t buy it.
Promotion includes point of sale materials, P/R,
paid advertising. It is all the communication tools
you use to let the public know:
1. You exist
2. Where/how to find you
3. What makes you and your product
unique/special
4. What benefit/value that provides to them.
Class Exercise: Promotion
How will you promote the market garden?
How does your target market absorb
information?
Price
Product/services pricing needs to cover cost of
production, debt service, family living,
depreciation, and profit for
savings/retirement/vacation/reinvestment.
Features/benefits convey the “value
proposition” to your customer to encourage
them to evaluate pricing based on what they
get in return, not based on the competition.
Class Exercise: Pricing
How did you determine your price?
It is higher or lower than your competition,
and why?
Budget and Objectives
How much will your marketing activities cost,
and what do you hope to achieve with them?
Class Exercise: Budget, Planning &
ROI… How do I know it’s working?!
For each promotion/marketing activity
1.List what it will cost.
2.List the outcomes you hope to
achieve.
At the end of the season, review your
“Return On Investment”- the cost vs
outcomes. Did outcomes outweigh the
cost to implement?
Sample Marketing Plan Budget
Tactics
Cost
Objective
Develop logo
Graphic design/ownership fees
$1,040
Graphic design, Marketing Consultant, Printing costs
$750
Present professional, polished
image
Increase average dollar value
per transaction from $9 to $12,
Assuming 10 transactions/day x
$3 x 22 wks x 7 days = $4,620
Secure 20 new CSA customers @
$400 = $8,000
To be measured by an increase in
customer base and gross sales
4,620-750 =
$3,870
Create On Farm Point of Sale Signage
Projected ROI
Outcome
Develop and distribute CSA brochure
Graphic design, Marketing Consultant, Printing costs
$1,500
In-kind product donations to charities
Cost of goods donated, man hours and travel
$1,000
Increase awareness of our
products to 500 members of the
community
To be measured by an increase in new
customers, community support and
word of mouth
Booth at Farmers Markets
Man hours, travel, cost of booth,
decorations/equipment
8hrs x $15 x 22 wks+25$/wk+$250/wk+$500 = $3,690
Graphic Designer, Cost of Materials
$300
Secure 30 transactions/mkt @
$12/transaction x 30 x 22 mkts
= $7,920
increase
Average # of transactions per
day from 10 to 12 = $9 x 2 x 7 x
22 = 2,772
7,920-3,690 =
$4,230
New Road Sign
Overall Marketing Budget
$8,280
$8,000-1,500 =
$6,500
2,772-300 =
$2,472
$17,072 net ROI. Equals 1:2 ration.
Every dollar spent on marketing yields
$2 more dollars to gross income