Download Section I - The Challenges of Entrepreneurship

SECTION III. BUILDING THE BUSINESS PLAN: MARKETING
AND FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
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Chapter 8
Building a Powerful Marketing Plan
Part One: Learning Objectives
1. Describe the principles of building a guerrilla marketing plan and explain the
benefits of preparing one.
2. Explain how small businesses can pinpoint their target markets.
3. Discuss the role of market research in building a guerrilla marketing plan and
outline the market research process.
4. Describe how a small business can build a competitive edge in the marketplace
using guerrilla marketing strategies: customer focus, quality, convenience,
innovation, service, and speed.
5. Discuss the marketing opportunities the Internet offers entrepreneurs and how to
best take advantage of them.
6. Discuss the “four Ps” of marketing—product, place, price, and promotion—and
their role in building a successful marketing strategy.
Part Two: Chapter Outline – At a glance
PowerPoint Slides: 8.1 – 8.52
Introduction
I. Building a Guerrilla Marketing Plan
II. Pinpointing the Target Market
III. Determining Customer Needs and Wants
Through Market Research
IV. Plotting a Guerrilla Marketing Strategy
Customer Relationship Marketing:
Focus on the Customer
Devotion to Quality
Attention to Convenience
Concentration on Innovation
Dedication to Service
Emphasis on Speed
V. Marketing on the World Wide Web
VI. The Marketing Mix and the Product Life Cycle
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PPT 8.1
PPT 8.2–8.4
PPT 8.5, 8.6
PPT 8.7–8.12
PPT 8.13
PPT 8.14–8.22
PPT 8.23–8.27
PPT 8.28–8.30
PPT 8.31–8.33
PPT 8.34–8.36
PPT 8.37, 8.38
PPT 8.39–8.42
PPT 8.43, 8.44
PPT 8.45–8.52
Part Three: Lesson Plan
Introduction
Creating a solid business plan improves an entrepreneur’s odds of building a
successful company. The business plan captures many of the topics discussed, and in
addition, it includes a concise statement of how an entrepreneur plans to achieve
success in the marketplace. This section focuses on building the marketing plan.
PPT 8.1
I. Building a Guerrilla Marketing Plan
Marketing is the process of creating and delivering desired goods and services to
customers and involves all of the activities associated with winning loyal customers.
PPT 8.2
Guerilla marketing strategies are unconventional, low-cost, creative techniques –
small companies can get more “bang” from their marketing bucks. The required
marketing investment is scaled to fit the often limited marketing resources of the
organization.
PPT 8.3
A guerilla marketing plan should accomplish four objectives:
PPT 8.4
1. It should determine customer needs and wants through market research.
2. It should pinpoint the specific target markets the company will serve.
3. It should analyze the firm's competitive advantages and build a marketing
strategy around them.
4. It should help create a marketing mix that meets customer needs and wants.
II. Pinpointing the Target Market
Target markets are the specific groups of customers at whom the company aims its
goods or services.
Pinpointing the target market offers greater marketing efficiency. Mass marketing
techniques of the past are expensive and risky. The marketing strategy can then be
built to reach that specific targeted group that has the highest propensity to buy and be
an ongoing customer.
PPT 8.5
Target customers must permeate the entire business—merchandise, music, layout,
décor, Web site, and the total experience.
PPT 8.6
Market research can be invaluable to better understand, segment, and identify target
markets.
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III. Determining Customer Needs and Wants Through Market Research
Market research serves as the foundation for the marketing plan. Its objective is to
learn how to improve the level of satisfaction for existing customers and to find ways
to attract new customers. By performing some basic market research, small business
owners can detect key demographic and market trends. Market research does not have
to be time consuming, complex, or expensive to be useful.
Demographics are the characteristics and trends of a population including age,
income, gender (composition), education, household size, race, and ethnicity. For
example, we can quickly gain information regarding the growth rate of U.S.
populations by many criteria, such as race.
PPT 8.7
Discussion Opportunity: What might this graph (PPT 8.7) tell us about potential
unmet needs of the highest growth segments of the U.S. population? (This may be one
of several opportunities to visit www.census.gov to demonstrate depth of
demographic information available at this site.)
Market research is the vehicle for gathering this information and can avoid basing
your marketing plan on assumptions rather than facts.
PPT 8.8
Tracking trends can be a valuable and affordable way to get a pulse on markets. Faith
Popcorn, a marketing consultant and author, offers tips to help spot significant trends:
PPT 8.9

Read as many current publications as possible

Watch the top ten TV shows

See the top ten movies

Talk to at least 150 customers a year about what they're buying and why

Talk with the 10 smartest people you know

Listen to your children—What trends are they tracking?
Market research begins with defining the objective and collecting the data. PPT 8.10
This is based on successful one-to-one marketing that:

Collects information on your existing customers

Identifies your best customers

Enhances your products and services

Welcomes customer complaints

Offers exceptional quality

Understands your customers’ buying cycle

Calculates the long-term value of customers
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PPT 8.11
Conducting market research involves four steps:
PPT 8.12
Step 1: Define the objective
Step 2: Collect the data
Step 3: Analyze and interpret data
Step 4: Draw conclusions and act
In addition to the text
YOU BE THE CONSULTANT – Data Mining: A Sure Bet for Harrah’s
Harrah’s Entertainment, the parent company to 26 gambling casinos in 13 states, experienced a
significant increase in market share and profitability through their collection, analysis, and use of
statistical data. Former Harvard professor Gary Loveman, once a consultant to Harrah’s, devised
a system that allows the company to really know its customers and to market accordingly. “This
is the replacement of intuition and hunch with science,” says Loveman.
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Q1. Work with a group of your classmates in a brainstorming session to identify other industries
that could benefit from a data collection and mining system like the one Harrah’s uses so
effectively. In what ways could those businesses use data to become more effective
marketers?
Q2. Discuss the ethical issues that Harrah’s faces as a result of its data collection and mining
efforts.
Q3. What benefits does Harrah’s gain from its efforts? What benefits do Harrah’s customers
gain?
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A1. Students will identify many different businesses that would benefit from market research
and should clearly connect and convert the information to marketing efforts that address
customers’ wants and needs.
A2. Gambling can become a serious addiction that adversely affects the lives of people.
A3. Harrah’s is able to use their knowledge to offer their customers exactly what they want in
terms of gambling, entertainment, and accommodations—much to the delight and
satisfaction of both parties.
Discussion Opportunity: Select a business and talk about how one would begin working
through the four steps of conducting market research.
1. Define the objective
What are the primary objectives of the business?
2. Collect the data
How would we begin collecting data?
3. Analyze and interpret data
How might we make sense of that information?
4. Draw conclusions and act
What conclusions and actions might that support?
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In addition to the text
YOU BE THE CONSULTANT – “What Would Tommy Wear?
A group of entrepreneurs living on Florida’s Gulf Coast created an imaginary figure named
Tommy Bahama. Tommy’s handsome, successful, and stylish image was transformed into a line
of apparel aimed at 35- to 65-year-old men.
The partners experienced a few years of frustration with unsuccessful and changing market
strategies and financial challenges until they finally opened their own model store in Naples,
Florida, that featured a combination restaurant and clothing outlet. That successful venture led to
the opening of 17 more “restaurant-retail compounds.”
The partners are pursuing international sales opportunities and the prospect of opening a hotel
and golf resort. And it all began with the question, “What Would Tommy Wear?”
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Q1. Work with a group of your classmates in a brainstorming session to identify brands whose
names have faded.
Q2. Use the resources of your library and the World Wide Web to research one of the brands
you identified. What went wrong? What caused the brand to lose its popularity?
Q3. What lessons from the Tommy Bahama success story should the managers of the brand you
identified have used to avoid problems?
Q4. What advice would you offer the partners about keeping the Tommy Bahama brand going
strong?
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A1. Students will think of and learn a valuable lesson from several now defunct companies.
A2. Students’ responses should focus on the connection between customers’ specific needs and
wants and their selected company's failures to offer and market the “right” products or
services.
A3. Students’ answers should address both the marketing and entrepreneurial flexibility and
perseverance of the partners.
A4. Students will offer a variety of marketing strategies for the partners to consider.
IV. Plotting a Guerrilla Marketing Strategy: How to Build a Competitive Edge
A competitive edge is attained when customers perceive that one organization’s
products or services are superior to those of its competitors. Successful entrepreneurs
often use the special advantages that flow from their companies’ small size to build a
competitive advantage over their larger rivals.
One way these companies can do this is through relationship marketing, or customer
relationship management, referred to as CRM.
PPT 8.13
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Relationship marketing involves the following five steps:
PPT 8.14–8.16
1. Collect meaningful customer information and compile it as a database
2. Mine the database to identify “best” customers
3. Use the information to develop lasing relationships with “best” customers
4. Attract more customers who fit the “best” customer profile
5. Stay in contact with customers between sales
There are four levels of customer sensitivity, beginning at the base of the “steps” in
the illustration:
PPT 8.17
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Level 1: Customer Awareness

Level 2: Customer Sensitivity

Level 3: Customer Alignment

Level 4: Customer Partnership
Guerrilla marketing strategies complement this and propose that a company:
PPT 8.18
1. Find a niche and fill it
2. Don’t just sell, entertain
3. Strive to be unique; create an identity for your business
4. Connect with customers on an emotional level
The unique selling proposition offers a key customer benefit of a product that sets it
apart from its competition. It answers the question: “What’s in it for me?” The unique
selling proposition should be communicated consistently and often!
PPT 8.19
Guerilla marketing strategies can be instrumental in building a brand for your
business in a number of ways as long as you always focus on the customer.
PPT 8.20–8.22
We can think about this process in five steps and apply guerilla marketing strategies
to each:
1. Focus on the customer
2. Devotion to quality
3. Concentration on innovation
4. Dedication to service
5. Emphasis on speed
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Focus on the customer allows you to optimize your marketing and profitability
potential.
PPT 8.23, 8.24
Every business depends on customer satisfaction. If you can't take care of your
customers, someone else will.
The Principles of Customer Experience Management (CEM) address the need to
establish:
PPT 8.25

An intimate understanding of each customer’s needs, want preferences, and
peculiarities

A personal, customer-specific message in marketing, sales, service, and
advertising

A consistent, courteous, and professional treatment by everyone

A responsive, rapid handing of requests, questions, problems, and complaints

Helpful information and advice delivered proactively

The involvement of caring, well-trained people

Long-term view of the company/customer relationship with an emphasis on
sustaining an ongoing relationship

Frequent and visible demonstrations of commitment to nurturing this
relationship
A focus on the customer can directly correlate to higher customer retention rates and
is based on the response to these four questions:
PPT 8.26
1. What are we doing right?
2. How can we do that even better?
3. What have we done wrong?
4. What can we do in the future?
Guerrilla marketing strategies help to attain customer focus in a direct and economical
manner.
PPT 8.27
Devotion to quality is another point of differentiation. Quality goods and services are
a prerequisite for survival. Today quality is more than just a slogan. Businesses buy
into operational strategies like total quality management (TQM) where quality is in
the product or service and in every other aspect and component of the business as
well. It is important to understand how customers (American customers and others)
define quality in the products and services they purchase.
PPT 8.28–8.30
Attention to convenience is an important part of this relationship experience.
Customers want convenience. Studies show that customers rank convenience at the
top of their purchasing criteria. Successful companies must show that it is easy for
customers to do business with them.
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Areas of customer convenience include:

Location

Hours

Delivery services

Payment options

Transaction efficiency

Additional “extra” experiences

Product bundling

Product adaptation

Communication efficiency
PPT 8.31–8.33
Concentration on innovation is a key to future success. In order to keep up with
changing markets, small businesses must be innovative. Small businesses are frequently
leaders in innovation even though they may lack resources compared to larger businesses.
PPT 8.34–8.36
Dedication to service and to consistent customer satisfaction is one way to achieve the
goal of “customer astonishment.” Dedication to service deals with these twelve attributes:
PPT 8.37, 8.38

Listening

Defining a “superior space”

Setting standards and measurements for performance

Examining your service cycle

Hiring the right employees

Training those employees to deliver superior service—every time!

Empowering employees

Treating employees with respect and value

Using technology to provide improved service

Rewarding superior service

Getting top managers’ support

Viewing developing stellar customer service as an investment, not an expense
Emphasis on speed enables companies to be competitive and reduce the time it takes to
develop, design, manufacture, and distribute a product, which results in reduced costs,
increased quality, and increased market share.
PPT 8.39–8.42
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Discussion Opportunity: What businesses do you know of that provide this high quality,
exceptional type of an experience? Why did those businesses come to mind? What have
they done to create that perception?
In addition to the text
YOU BE THE CONSULTANT – The Power of the Little Blue-and-White Boxes
Jiffy baking products (the little blue-and-white boxes), once a sideline operation of the Chelsea
Milling Company commands over 50 percent of its market. The company seems to defy modern
day business practices by remaining privately held and by not advertising.
That strategy has paid off handsomely by allowing the company to maintain a low overhead and
a small management team that can make decisions and take actions efficiently. The result is a
high-quality product with strong demand and a price that no one can beat.
The third generation family business owner has upgraded the company’s manufacturing facilities
and general business practices and now has the company exploring a variety of new markets
(exporting, institutional markets, and food service).
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Q1. What is the basis for Chelsea Milling’s marketing strategy? How effective is it?
Q2. How easily could a competitor duplicate Chelsea’s marketing strategy for Jiffy?
Q3. How successful do you think a company launching a product such as Jiffy today would be if
it never advertised?
Q4. How would you evaluate the opportunities Chelsea Milling faces for Jiffy products?
———————————————————————————————
A1. The basis for the company’s marketing strategy is cost efficiency. It is very effective
because many of its customers are price-sensitive shoppers.
A2. Under the right business conditions, a competitor could start locally with the same strategy
and grow it over time. Students should be encouraged to present and defend their options.
A3 and A4: Same answer as above.
V. Marketing on the World Wide Web
The Internet is a vast network that links computers around the globe via the World
Wide Web. A small business Web site can enable it to sell its products around the
world. It is a phenomenal commercial opportunity that offers businesses a worldwide
marketing and distribution system. The Internet is the “Great Equalizer” for
entrepreneurs in a world of larger and more powerful competitors.
PPT 8.43
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Today’s business students and entrepreneurs are on the frontier of an industry and
market that will likely see tremendous growth in the next few years. The opportunity
is now. We will talk more about the power of the Web throughout the course and how
it is continuing to change the face of business.
PPT 8.44
VI. The Marketing Mix
The “four Ps” of the marketing mix are essential elements in developing a solid
marketing strategy and an executable marketing plan.
PPT 8.45
1. Product
2. Place—or distribution
3. Price
4. Promotion
Establishing a sound marketing strategy—that fits the resources and objectives of the
organization—is a critical aspect of the plan and future for the business.
Discussion Opportunity: Some marketing experts have added “service” to the four
Ps. This addition is based on the premise that the quality of service—particularly
exceptional service—can influence buyer behavior and customer loyalty. This is most
evident in markets where products are mature and are considered as commodities.
Would you consider service as an important addition to the four Ps? If so, why?
The product life cycle plays an important role in the marketing mix. It is important to
realize that the five stages of the PLC impact marketing strategy. The five stages of
the product life cycle are:
1. Introductory
PPT 8.46
2. Growth and acceptance
PPT 8.47
3. Maturity and competition
PPT 8.48
4. Market saturation
PPT 8.49
5. Product decline
PPT 8.50
Channels of distribution for consumer goods, or the “place” aspect of the four Ps,
may be direct—manufacturer to consumer—or through a more complex channel
delivery system that involves wholesalers, distributors, and/or retailers.
PPT 8.51
Channels of distribution for industrial goods, or the “place” for business-to-business
dealings, may be direct or simply through a single wholesaler.
PPT 8.52
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Part Four: Suggested Answers to Chapter Discussion Questions
1. Define the marketing plan. What lies at its center?
The marketing plan focuses the company's attention on the customer and recognizes
that satisfying the customer is the foundation of every business. Its purpose is to build
a strategy for success with a focus on the customer.
2. What objectives should a marketing plan accomplish?
The marketing plan has four objectives:
1. Determining customer needs and wants through market research
2. Pinpointing specific target markets the small company will serve
3. Analyzing the firm's competitive advantages and building a marketing strategy
around them
4. Helping to create a marketing mix that meets customer needs and wants
3. How can market research benefit a small business owner? List some possible
sources of market information.
Market research provides the foundation for the marketing plan. By performing basic
market research, small business owners can identify key demographic and market
trends. Possible sources of market information include:
1. Current publications
2. Top ten shows
3. Top ten movies
4. Customers
5. Smart people you know
6. Children
4. Does market research have to be expensive and sophisticated to be valuable?
Explain.
No, market research does not have to be expensive and sophisticated to be valuable.
For example, for most business owners, information is often floating around. It is a
matter of collecting and organizing the data to make it valuable.
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5. Describe several market trends and their impact on small business.
Six market trends that affect small business include:
1. Increasing population diversity offers special challenges to business owners.
2. Changing family patterns will force marketers to rethink their strategies.
3. Greater environmental and health concerns have consumers more focused
on the environmental impact of the products and services they buy.
4. Emergence of “premium” and “discount” niches as an increasing number of
lower income households force more buyers to become bargain shoppers.
5. Surge in “baby boomers” and the elderly results in changing needs for those
consumers.
6. Greater emphasis on social responsibility has a growing number of
consumers buying products associated with a cause they care about.
7. Slower growing markets and shorter product life cycles require businesses to
focus on narrow niches, understand customer needs and wants, and give them
value.
6. Why is it important for small business owners to define their target markets as
part of their marketing strategies?
Small businesses must be more focused on the types of customers they want to target.
Small firms are ideally suited to reach market segments that their larger rivals
overlook or consider too small to be profitable. A clear, concise target market allows
a small business to increase its marketing efficiency and be profitable.
7. What is a competitive advantage? Why is it important for a small business
owner to create a plan for establishing one?
A competitive advantage is an aggregation of factors that sets a company apart from
its competitors. Developing a strategic plan allows a small business to differentiate
itself from other companies. Developing a strategic plan allows the small company to
meet the customers’ needs of today, while looking one step ahead to what they will
need tomorrow.
8. Describe how a small business owner could use the following sources of a
competitive advantage:

Focusing on a niche: Target a specific segment of the population that your
business can efficiently serve—senior citizens.

Entertaining: Offer a service that customers enjoy and actively seek out—
gambling.
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
Striving to be unique: The latest look in body piercing and tattoos.

Creating an identity for the business: A name or a song that everyone associates
with your product.

Connecting with customers on an emotional level: Environmentally safe
products.

Focusing on the customer: Specialized exercise equipment for disabled people.

Focusing on the customer: Health and beauty aids—hair coloring.

Devotion to quality: Specialty food products.

Attention to convenience: Business location.

Concentration on innovation: Battery powered blenders.

Dedication to service: Installation and maintenance of product lines.
9. One manager says, “When a company provides great service, its reputation
benefits from a stronger emotional connection with its customers, as well as from
increased confidence that it will stand behind its products.” Do you agree?
Explain. If so, describe a positive service experience you have had with a
company and your impressions of that business. What are the implications of a
company providing poor customer service? Describe a negative service
experience you have had with a company and your impressions of that business.
How likely are you to do business with that company again?
It is true in most cases that a great service experience creates a bond, confidence in
the product or service, and the desire to be a repeat customer. Students will share their
positive and negative service experiences and comment on the business implications
of each.
10. Consumer behavior expert and retail consultant Paco Underhill says, “A [retail]
store is a 3-D brand. Everything that’s there has to be there for a reason.” Do
you agree? Explain.
Yes, the most successful retail stores create a complete 3-D retail and entertainmentlike experience. From their merchandise, the store layout, the music, the atmosphere,
their complementary Web site—it all is tailored to communicate a consistent look,
feel, and message that appeals most to their target market. Ultimately, the total
“entertailing” experience catches the attention of customers and encourages them to
shop longer and buy more goods and services. This 3-D brand approach further
differentiates the business, enhances customer loyalty, and impacts profitability.
b. Find two retail stores in the local area – one that offers a good example of a 3D brand and one that does not. Prepare a one-page summary explaining your
reasoning for selecting these two stores.
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Discuss and compare the stores presented and highlight the reasons these stores came
to mind for the students.
11. What marketing potential does the World Wide Web offer small businesses?
What does it take for a company to market successfully using the Web?
The Web is a vast network connecting the world’s computers and information
sources. With its ability to display colorful graphics, sound, animation, video and text,
the Web allows small business companies to equal and even surpass their larger
rival’s Web presence. It offers businesses a worldwide marketing and distribution
system. Successful companies must have a marketing strategy that will get them a
high volume of Web attention and recognition and a line of products and services that
people want to buy.
12. Explain the concept of the marketing mix. What are the four Ps?
Applying the concept of the marketing mix requires a company to conduct useful
market research and to develop and market each of the four Ps—Product, Price, Place,
and Promotion.
13. List and explain the stages in the product life cycle. How can a small firm
extend its product’s cycle?
The stages include: the introductory stage, the growth stage, maturity, market
saturation, and decline. A focus on product innovation and change, as well as the
development of more stable products versus fad merchandise, can extend the product
life cycle.
14. With a 70 percent customer retention rate (average for most U.S. firms,
according to the American Management Association), every $1 million of
business in 2000 will grow to more than $4 million by the year 2010. If you retain
80 percent of your customers, the $1 million will grow to a little over $6 million.
If you can keep 90 percent of your customers, that $1 million will grow to more
than $9.5 million. What can the typical small business do to increase its customer
retention rate?
Practice the company philosophy of dedication to service, customer satisfaction, and
customer astonishment.
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Part Five: Lecture or Critical Thinking Case Studies
Text Cases
The following cases presented in the text may be used for lecture and further
consideration of the topics presented in this chapter.
Case #2: Timbuk2
www.timbuk2.com
Timbuk2 took a huge risk to pull out of a large, established retailer that promised
huge sales volumes. The trade-off was to seek out larger numbers of smaller, boutique
retailers and reach a different, more affluent target market. The motivation to pursue
this strategy was to enable the company to better control their brand image as a higher
end, more elite product offering larger margins and, ultimately, sustainable
profitability.
Case #4: WindVest
www.windvest.com
Identifying new domestic and international markets is a focus for this growing
company. The case offers information that may provide insight into the U.S.
expansion with the dilemma of entering the European market looming ahead. The
organization will benefit from having a good marketing plan as they consider these
options and develop their marketing strategy. Their Web site offers an interesting and
progressive e-commerce approach to marketing products to this targeted audience.
Case #9: TerraCycle
www.terracycle.net
This unique “green all over” product has demonstrated impressive marketing success
by tapping into major retailers Wal-Mart and Home Depot. With a distinct point of
differentiation in a highly competitive area, TerraCycle’s management team continues
to base their product development and design on guerilla marketing research as they
connect with their environmentally conscious customers.
Case #10: Handmark
www.handmark.com
This dominate PDA software player became concerned about the shifting
technological trend as this technology was now being integrated into cell phones.
Their research combined with a keen observation of these trends motivated them to
reposition the business, modify their product capabilities, and create strategic
alliances with cell phone manufacturers to open new opportunities.
Additional Case
The following case titled “Are We Making the Grade?” is in addition to the student text.
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Are We Making the Grade?
On the surface, Granite Rock Company looks like any other small, family-owned
construction material supplier. However, a closer examination reveals a highly
sophisticated, quality-conscious, customer-oriented industry leader in what is
ordinarily considered a commodity business.
Granite Rock quarries produce concrete, asphalt, sand, and gravel; they sell brick,
drywall, cinder block, and masonry tools. On average, Granite Rock customers pay a
6 percent premium over competitors' prices. How, then, does Granite Rock maintain
its leadership position in such a cutthroat industry? “Our competitors tend to see price
as the main wedge,” says general manager Wes Clark. “We are not low price, but we
are high value.”
Selling value can be a successful marketing strategy if customers recognize and are
willing to pay for it. Granite Rock concentrates on understanding exactly how its
customers define such nebulous terms as value, quality, and service. The company
also regularly monitors its performance (from the customer's perspective) and feeds
all of this information directly to its workforce.
Here's how Granite Rock's customer satisfaction system works.
Every three or four years, the company conducts an extensive survey of its customers
to determine their needs and wants and what factors are most important to them when
choosing a supplier. Granite Rock sends a report card to customers each year, asking
them to grade their top three suppliers on these factors. The factors include various
measures of product quality and customer service, and the grades range from A (“the
best”) to F (“terrible”), with a “No Opinion” option.
Granite Rock then combines the results of the survey with those from the report cards
to generate a Customer Service Graph. The graph has two axes: the importance axis
and the performance axis. The importance axis depends on the results of the extensive
customer survey. (In its most recent survey, Granite Rock found that on-time delivery
and product quality were most important to customers, whereas credit terms and
salespeople's skills were least important.) The performance axis plots the results of
the report card. The company's grade is determined by adding the number of A’s and
B’s it gets.
Questions
1. What benefits does Granite Rock's customer satisfaction system offer to its
customers and to the company itself?
2. Which areas of the Customer Service Graph would be most and least
important to Granite Rock? Why?
Source: Adapted from Edward O. Welles, “How're We Doing?” Inc., May 1991,
pp.80-83.
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Part Six: The Business Disc
Open The Business Disc and go to the “Reference” menu item at the top of your screen.
Click on the “Marketing/Advertising/Selling” topic and you will find four subtopics:
“Advertising a Small Business,” “Creative Selling: The Competitive Edge,” “Marketing
Research,” and “Sales Marketing Strategy for Start-up Businesses.” What steps can
business owners take to become effective marketers, even if they lack the resources of
their larger, more established competitors?
Review the marketing concepts presented in Chapter 8 and outline the steps of the
guerrilla marketing plan you intend to implement in your business. From that perspective,
consider the following questions:

What type of market research do you plan on conducting?

How will you reach your target market based on your available resources?

What is your unique selling proposition and how will you communicate that
through your advertising and promotional activities?
Part Seven: Supplemental Readings
Dell, Michael, “Thrive in a Sick Economy,” Business 2.0, December 2002/January 2003,
p. 88.
Kerin, Roger A. and Peterson, Robert A. Strategic Marketing Problems: Cases and
Comments, 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
Kotler, Philip and Armstrong, Gary. Marketing: An Introduction, 8th ed. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
Kotler, Philip, Bowen, John T. and Makens, James C.. Marketing for Hospitality and
Tourism, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006.
Best, Roger. Market-Based Management, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice
Hall, 2005.
Additional online supplemental readings and reference materials regarding marketing
plans are available at www.prenhall.com/scarborough under the “Chapter 8” tab.
Chapter 8
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