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MR. ARFUSO
MARKETING
MOA
MARKETING OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS TEMPLATE
The following is a template for developing your marketing plan. Use this template as your means
to write a meaningful Marketing Opportunity Analysis to effectively and efficiently sell your
product, service or business idea. By no means is this a comprehensive guide to writing your
M.O.A. It is a starting point for developing your idea. This template is not designed as a
question/answer format; it is instead designed to give you an idea of what you need to write. Think
of it as more or a road map that will guide you through the process.
I.
Executive Summary.
An Executive Summary is a one-to-three page synopsis of the plan providing highlights of
the current situation, objectives, strategies, principal action programs, and financial
expectations. Make this portion of your MOA all-inclusive. This section also has to be
written with the executive in mind. Remember most executives that will read this
document only want the down & dirty facts. They do not want to read the “fluff” so, use this
section to concisely convey the meat of your product presentation. This section is done
last.
II.
Situation Analysis. In total, the situation analysis is considered the most important part of
your MOA. Generically, this whole section of the MOA is classically known as a S.W.O.T.
analysis. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
A. Industry analysis.
1. Market. (Where will you do business? Identify the market)
a. Size, scope, and share of the market; sales history of producers and their market
shares. This section requires a total examination of the market potential for
your product. This may include a local, regional, national and international
marketplace. This is part of what you need to determine. Do not assume that
selling locally is the easiest way to go. Sometimes, simply by virtue of how you
market makes you an international player. This is especially true if you use an
Internet web site to sell your product.
b. Market potential and major trends in supply and demand of this and related
products. Potential relates to exactly how your product fits and whether or not it
fulfills the wants or needs of your potential target audience. Describe the
potential your market exhibits.
c. Distribution channels. (How do the players in your industry get their product to
market? Train, truck, air, or ship, this also includes how they distribute
personally. In other words, do they market this product directly; do they use an
Internet site, a bricks & mortar store front or door-to-door?) There are many
ways to distribute, clarify and justify each method used.
d. Selling policies and practices. What are the standard operating procedures
(S.O.P.’s.) These are the rules that typical employees in your industry follow.
e. Advertising and promotion. How do you competitors promote their products? Are
their methods valid, are they effective, can you do better, what do they do wrong,
what do they do right?
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2. Industry attractiveness. What is the market outlook? Is this declining or growth
industry? Describe the life cycle for your product, which stage does the product
fit? Where is the market, does it exist locally, regionally, nationally or
internationally? Is it difficult to bring product to market? Will it be easy or difficult
to commence selling? Are there any issues that must be addressed to begin
doing business?
a. Market factors.
1) Size. What is the relative size of your market? Take these numbers from your
competition. Most companies, especially larger ones will keep a good
accounting of this. The only reason this could be difficult to estimate would be
in the event your product is innovative and new to market. Products that
replicate existing products have an easier time of entering the marketplace.
2) Growth. What potential exists in the marketplace for your product? Do you
anticipate the market to grow? How much? How soon? With relative ease?
3) Seasonality. Is the market for your product seasonal? Is this an issue, what
sort of contingency plan do you have in place to mitigate this? How will you
survive during the off-season? Are there other ways or uses for your product
that will cross over and offer alternatives for your product to be utilized? For
example, pipe cleaners were originally designed specifically to clean pipes.
People who use them in crafting to create all sorts of things developed a
secondary market for pipe cleaners.
4) Stage in life cycle. Make sure to properly identify the stage of the product life
cycle your product fits in. Remember the primary four stages, proper
identification of the placement of your product is crucial. Miss this step and it
could cost you dearly.
b. Industry factors. (Porter’s Five Forces)
1) Capacity. What is the industry capable of producing? Does the capacity meet
existing demand? Will you attack demand by trying to increase it, or will you
simply choose to take or cannibalize demand from your competitors?
2) New product entry prospects. How difficult will it be for you to enter the
market? Or, on the contrary, will it be relatively easy? Explain why? Are you
being realistic? Take into account everything that relates to your product.
Leave no stones un-turned.
3) Threat of substitutes. Based on your evaluation of all your potential
competitors, how much of a threat do they pose? Are there several layers
of substitutes? Are some tougher than others? Will you be able to deal
with them effectively?
3) Power of suppliers. Will this be an issue? How will you counter this? Is
manufacturing on your own a possibility? Is it a realistic possibility? Can you
develop your own means to manufacture or produce your product? Is it worth
it?
4) Power of buyers. As in the Wal-Mart Example, will you be chained to one or
more powerful buyers that will dictate what you will sell your product to them
for? Can you sustain this? Is this a viable way to conduct your business? Can
you source or find other means to sell your product to lessen your dependency
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on the powerful buyer?
5) Rivalry. Does this exist? One of the world’s greatest known rivalries exists
between Coke & Pepsi. Each must constantly match the other tit for tat while
doing business. One failed move allows to the other to gain valuable market
share. Each must match the other’s moves simply to remain on par, and
certainly not to gain an advantage. This competition teeters constantly. Neither
really gains an advantage, the sad truth is that each must spend 100’s of millions
of dollars to simply hold share and remain on par.
c. Environmental factors.
1) Social. What sort if any social issues exist? Is yours a socially sensitive
product? Why is it a socially sensitive product? An example of a socially
sensitive product would be a tattoo parlor. Anything that society may frown on is
considered to fit in this category. Another example would be so-called sin
products such as alcohol, tobacco or gaming. On the contrary, your product
may be socially sensitive such as being green or environmentally sensitive.
These products may be difficult but rewarding to bring to market. An example of
this would be Star-Kist’s Dolphin-free tuna.
2) Political. These issues typically center on products that garner political attention.
Cigarettes, alcohol, gaming and gasoline fit this category. Products that attract
political attention may be somewhat difficult to market. A recent example of this
would be both the banking and mortgage lending industries. Now that the
federal government has had to intervene to stave a major market meltdown,
government will take a proactive role in monitoring and watching these
industries. This will change the climate forever more in terms of how lending for
housing will occur moving forward in time.
3) Demographic. What demographics factors are affected? Why are they an
issue? An example would be marketing to an ethic group, such as selling a
Latino/Latina geared product in or out of the correct market place. Does it make
sense to market your product if the target market is not represented where you
plan to sell? Another consideration would be age sensitive products, for
example would you sell skate boards in a neighborhood where the average
resident’s age is 60 years old? Or, would you take on the challenge McDonald’s
did by selling hamburgers in India?
4) Technological. Does it make sense to sell your product in a place where
technology is not accepted? Would you attempt to sell technological products in
an Amish community? (The Amish are a sub-culture or religion that lives
primarily back east. Pennsylvania has the largest Amish population) They are
technology resistant. No cars, no TV - I believe they use electricity, but to a very
limited extent. Or, in a country where the technology is not available?
5) Regulatory. Is the industry you have chosen highly regulated? Why is it
regulated? Does this help or is it a challenge? Why is it a challenge or why isn’t
it? What exactly is regulation? Why do you think or why is that your industry is
regulated? Typically, industries are regulated because of past issues in the
industry itself. A recent example is the medical profession in Las Vegas. A
rogue doctor practicing medicine in an unsafe and unethical manner put
thousands of patients at risk for contracting HIV. The agency responsible for
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monitoring the practices of physicians will certainly be more diligent in auditing
physicians. Is your industry similar?
B. Sales analysis. Do a complete analysis based on sales. Where do you think you fit? Can
you meet your goals? Are they attainable? Use the templates/spreadsheets provided on
my website or on the Arfuso 562 to forecast or predict sales for both your product and the
industry.
1) Market area performance versus company average. How do your projections
compare to industry? Do you project higher or lower sales than the industry?
Why? Can you explain or rationalize the difference? Is it normal or abnormal? Is
it manageable? Does it matter?
2) Trends of sales, cost, and profits by products. Are sales and costs following a
pattern? Is the pattern consistent? Why is there a trend? Is it manageable?
3) Performance of distributors, end-users, key customers. You must know the
ability of key players in your industry to perform. If there are powerful suppliers or
buyers in your industry, you must be able to identify and understand their
influence in your market.
4) Past results versus current results by area, product, channel, and so on. Again,
it is important to understand every aspect of sales both past and predicted.
Failure to properly estimate this could seriously impact your product’s success.
C. Competitor and company analysis. Take a complete and thorough look at each and every
competitor that you will compete with on every level. You have to be comprehensive here,
make sure to include all of your competitors. Don’t overlook anyone. The competitor you
ignore could easily become the competitor that takes your target audience and market away
from you. GM, Ford and Chrysler did this in the 80’s with the Japanese auto makers. The
early 2000’s gave American auto makers a serious wake-up call after getting slammed by
the Japanese who took advantage of the America automakers inability to recognize them as
a competitive force to reckon with. Make a product book that depicts all of the comparative
traits of all of your competitors. List their attributes and their flaws. Pay special attention to
what they do well and what they poorly. This will be the basis for your marketing strategies.
1) Behavior. What is it that influences your consumer’s purchase? You must
clearly identify what it is that drives the market. Once you have a handle on this,
it becomes a relatively easy task to pinpoint and target your market. The
following are the major issues to consider when deciding consumer sentiment
and behavior.
a. Product features. What features or utility do you offer? Bells & whistles, are
you different, are you better, are you faster, slower, shorter, fatter, tastier,
more buttons, less buttons, more functional, more modern, up-to-date,
innovative, inspirational, motivational, you name it. Customers purchase for
many reasons, features can be an important reference point for choices.
b. Objectives. Your Goals – make them measurable, you have to include
metrics that will allow for you to objectively decide if you meet your goals.
c. Strategies. Your plan, how you are going to get where you need to go.
Have to know where you are going in order to be able to get there.
d. Marketing mix. The four P’s (product, place, price & promotion)
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e. Profits. Is your product profitable? Can it be made more efficiently? The
more efficient the production process, the sales process, the operational
process, the more the potential for profitability. Focus on the entire process
surrounding the marketing of the product makes you efficient. Stick to the
knitting, do what you do best! Focus on core competencies.
f. Value chain. Value added features or attributes. The more you offer, the
more you can charge. The more utility, the more customers are willing to
pay.
2) Resources. What sorts of resources are there? Is or are they readily available?
Is there a need or demand for more? Can they be accessed? Are new sources
available or necessary? Is there competition for these resources? Is the source
for these resources renewable? Is this even an issue? Could it become an
issue in the future? Make sure you thoroughly investigate this. Whatever your
product, you need to insure a constant flow of the raw materials that are
necessary for the production of your product.
a. Ability to conceive and design new products. What will this take, is this an
easy or a simple process? Can new products be brought to market without
issue, or with relative ease? Is your product or service something that can
change with the times, whatever they may be?
b. Ability to produce or manufacture. Will you manufacture in the US or
abroad? Availability to resources, is it cheap to manufacture, will you have
to outsource? Will you make it, or will someone make it for you? Explain
how this process works.
c. Ability to market. Is there a complexity of being able to deliver your product
or service? Is it a easy or difficult proposition to conceive?
d. Ability to finance. Expensive, or reasonable to buy, manufacture, sell? Is
money tight, easy to acquire? Given today’s economic climate, getting
money to finance operations, introduce new products, or buy new
equipment is relatively difficult to obtain.
e. Ability to manage. Explain how this will be done – either in theory or reality.
f. Will to succeed in this business. How serious and committed are you? Are
you willing to work and do what it takes to make your product a success?
3) Expected future marketing strategies. Do you need to adjust to accommodate
and insure your product’s sustainability in the future? What sort of adjustments
to your strategy do you need to make to guarantee your product’s success over
the long haul? Do you need to develop new products to continue the life of your
product line? Can one product carry you for the long term? Will your product
require a constant flow of newer generation modifications? Can you afford this?
D. Customer analysis. This is possibly the most important individual component of your MOA.
Knowing your customer from every angle will certainly insure or at least assist you in being
successful in marketing your product. To know your customer is to be successful. That
success is sustainable through knowing every possible subtle aspect of your target market.
1) Who are the customers? Age, race, sex, ethnicity, preferences? Or, does your
product cross-demographic boundaries? Do multiple age groups, both sexes,
many races buy equally? Is this intentional or purposeful? Is it necessary, or an
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issue? Is it better for one specific demographic group to buy? Why, or is this not
an issue? Is there a way to cross market – for example a country western singer
would typically not attract a hip-hop generation of music listeners, however, there
are artists that do exactly this. Carrie Underwood is one such example, her
popularity transcends simply being classified as solely being marketed as being
in the country genre.
2) What do they buy? How much, in what quantity, what sort of packaging, what
color, what texture, what size, how large, how little, how often?
3) Where do they buy? Is your product a convenience item, is it a want, a need?
Do they buy in bulk, over the Internet, at a warehouse store, from a catalog, over
the phone?
4) When do they buy? Is yours a seasonal product? Do people typically buy your
product once a year, for an annual holiday or time of year? Is your product
something that is easily substituted, is it needed daily, weekly or less often? Is
this a product used during the day or even at night? Does it matter? Or does it
not matter?
5) How do they choose? Are the consumer’s choices easily influenced? Is the
demand elastic or inelastic? Why do they choose they way they choose? Is their
demand cyclical? Is demand connected to anything? Are there any
complimentary products? Does it make sense to advertise one over the other to
stimulate sales?
6) Why do they select a particular product? Convenience, inertia, laziness,
familiarity, convenience, utility? Do people buy because they have to, or need
to? Can people do without your product, is it necessary, and is it substitutable?
7) How do they respond to marketing programs? Is marketing a vital part of their
choosing, or decision-making process? Is marketing necessary, or do they buy
regardless, as in the purchase of staples items such as milk, eggs, bread, and
gasoline? Does marketing incrementally increase sales? Is marketing vital?
How much or how little is needed? Some products sell themselves, does yours?
8) Will they buy again? (Loyalty) How do you know? Market research, repeat
intentions, why do they buy again, is your product disposable, it is long lasting,
and does it have a short useable life? Does it make sense to increase the useful
life of your product; can you charge more by adding life to your product? Or, in
the final analysis, does it make no sense at all to increase the useful life? Las
Vegas is king in terms of loyalty rewards. All of those player cards are intended
to do one thing and one thing only – generate repeat intentions/business.
9) Long-term value of customers. How much is each customer worth? Calculate
the value of a customer that is loyal and buys your product exclusively over the
length of their entire life. Companies like Wal-Mart have this down to a science.
They know the exact worth for their customers. Can you do the same?
10) Segmentation. How is the market divided? Can you gain more? Is it feasible, or
possible? How long will it take, will it require a long time, or is it relatively easy to
accomplish.
E. Planning assumptions and forecasts. Projections of future sales and trends in the
market are essential to the long-term success of your product. Making a valid
projection requires a little bit of luck, intuitiveness, insight, research and gut feel.
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The closer you get, the better you are at gauging your business, and the better your
projection will be.
1) Market potential. Where do you see the market going? Is it favorable or
not? Is there anything you can do to improve the direction your market is
taking? Why is potential an issue, why should you strive to improve it?
2) Projections, predictions, and forecasts. Being able to predict where the
market is headed is a useful tool in your arsenal to effectively market your
product. Research is key and crucial in being able to predict where things
are going to go and how they will get there. Perfect information makes the
unclear, crystal clear. Obviously, it is almost impossible to predict
everything with absolute accuracy. Try to achieve the best possible
outcome by spending as much time as necessary to improve the likelihood
of success in your forecasting & predictions.
III. Objectives.
A. Corporate objectives (if appropriate). Only if this is applicable. This may not be an issue
and will depend on the business structure you choose. This may also not be an issue for
many years and is certainly dependent on the growth you anticipate your product will
exhibit. For this exercise, pick your businesses’ structure and then move forward with
the assumption that this is how you will proceed.
B. Divisional objectives (if appropriate). Again, this choice will be up to you. Be realistic and
consistent. Make your choice and stick to it. Obviously, you will have to make an
educated decision here. But, make the obvious choice, pick according to what is
reasonable. Don’t be unrealistic; pick your choices as predicated by your industry. If the
majority of those that operate in your industry do things one way, it is not reasonable to
suggest you will do things very differently. Yes, in order to differentiate yourself, you will
do some things differently, however, for the most part, your operation will very similar as
opposed to being dissimilar.
C. Overall marketing objectives.
D. Sales volume and profit (sales, share, and so on).
E. Market acceptance (brand equity; customer acquisition, retention, expansion, deletion).
F. Program objectives. Pay close attention to these. These aspects of your MOA are very
important. You can afford to maybe skip on some other portions of your MOA, but this is
not the case here. You have to be spot on with these vital pieces of the marketing plan. If
you miss the mark on any of these components, you will face dire consequences. Miss
any of the following decisions and you will find yourself in the dreaded .99cent store.
1) Pricing. What and how will you price? Will you offer quantity discounts, will
you offer coupons to entice sales, will you price differently based on location,
will price be flexible, will there be wiggle room, who sets the final price, do you
offer a product that has a extraordinary margin, can and will you offer a
discount to seniors, school teachers, fellow Latinas/Latinos etc.? There are
many considerations in pricing. Will you practice pure pricing discrimination,
where patrons that utilize your service are offered different prices? An
example of this is movie pricing; patrons that go earlier in the day are offered
matinee prices. Or how about early bird specials in a restaurant or happy
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2)
3)
4)
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MOA
hour in a sushi bar?
Advertising/promotion. TV, radio, print, billboard, face-to-face – how will you
perform this function? Give this a lot of thought; the way you send your
message is crucial to your success. Maybe products fail because of failed
advertising or promotion. Think this through; some means of advertising
are more efficient while others are less expensive. Maybe you need to do a
combination of several methods. Some may be more conducive to your
product. For example, a product such as a computer/gaming console game
may require an actual demonstration. A service is very hard to describe,
some are impossible to describe, maybe in these cases, a TV spot may be
necessary. For even more complex ideas infomercials may fit the bill. This
is not easy; make a reasoned and rational choice.
Sales/distribution. How will you get your product to market? Which
method/s makes the best sense? If your product is being manufactured in
another part of the world, costs to get your product to the end location may
be restrictive. The costs to getting product to market are as important a
component in the pricing of a product, as is the actual cost of making the
product itself. For example, if you are selling things that could potentially
weigh a significant amount say a washer/dryer – it may cost as much to
transport your product from its manufacturing site as it cost to make it in
the first place. This is a vital consideration in determining price.
Product. How many do you offer? Will there be multiple choices? Multiple
colors, multiple sizes? If your product is a clothing item, how do you decide
which sizes to offer? Do you only offer the most popular sizes, or do you
cater to those that are normally left out. Lane Bryant makes it their primary
mission to supply clothes that are fashionable and that come in all sizes for
plus-size women. After all, the average woman is not a size 2, 4, or 6. In
doing this, they differentiate themselves from most clothing manufacturers.
They are narrowing their segment and clearly they are choosing to do
business in a niche market. Maybe this is a consideration in the marketing
of your product. Give this some thought. It may work in marketing your
product.
Service. During and after the sale. How will you address warranty issues?
Who will your customers call? Will you outsource this? Why, is it cheaper to
do this, or is it more efficient and cost is not an issue? Remember, larger
companies outsource tech support. It is cheaper and more efficient, mind you;
it may not be more effective. Being efficient and effective normally does not go
hand in hand.
IV. Marketing Strategy. (How your objectives will be achieved.) After completing the bulk of
your research, you will formulate your strategies based on what you have discovered. This
is truly the culmination of all your work. Everything you have done thus far was to be able to
come up with a working strategy to sell lots of what it is you make or market. This is where
you will have to think and think hard using all of the information you have compiled so far.
Easily, this is the second most vital portion of the MOA. The first was to figure everything
out; the second is what you do with the information you have gained. This or these become
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your Marketing strategies.
A. Customer targets. Who do you go after? Why? Explain this in detail. This may be
obvious and it may not be obvious. Remember the Victoria’s secret example:
women are the obvious target market; however, men who buy lingerie for their
wives and men that buy for their girlfriends are a secondary market for lingerie
purchases. Sometimes a large segment of potential customers are not so obvious.
B. Competitor targets. Who are your primary competitors and who will you focus your
attention on? Why do you choose them, why are they your primary targets? How
do you decide, what factors did you consider? Do you have many or are you
shielded? Why do you have more or less? Is this significant, does it give you an
advantage? Can you mitigate this, or is it just a fact of life? Can you work with this,
or is it a deal-breaker? When does it become an issue, or is it an issue from the
get-go? What happens if a new competitor comes to bear in the market? When
and how do you assess the market? Do you periodically check to see if more
competitors are entering the market? How do you do this?
C. Core strategy. What is your overall strategy; this is usually the underlying and most
basic strategy. This is usually a function of what you do best.
D. Strategic alternative/s considered. What is your plan B? Hopefully, you do need a
plan C. Poor planning would require you stick to what you have developed. In a
perfect world, you do not deviate from your plan. If, you did your homework, your
plan based on that work, should be sound.
V. Marketing Programs. After doing the S.W.O.T. analysis, this is the second most important
section of your MOA. This is the reason you do a MOA, so that you can effectively and efficiently
develop a marketing program. Marketing will make or break your efforts at selling your
product/s. Without good marketing, your product will certainly fail, and we all know what this
means. We never want to find ourselves in a position of having to give our ‘stuff” away just to
break even.
A. Product development. Why? When? And How? There are very few products that
are timeless, meaning that they will always remain exactly the same. In fact, even
the most boring and mundane products get a face-lift every so often. Take a
hammer for example; there really aren’t too many things you can do to make a
hammer better. Especially with the intent of adding utility or to charge more. But
even the lowly hammer gets a re-vamp every once-in-a-while. With the advent of
newer, lighter composite materials, handles for hammers are being made out of
carbon fiber. Hammer heads are being made are of stronger and rust resistant
metals. So, regardless of your initial product design, invariably, you will need to
constantly develop newer versions of your original product. You will know what to
make based on what your customers tell you. As an effective marketer, you need to
listen.
B. Advertising/communication. Which mediums do you choose, some are better than
others, and some make better sense? For example, if your product is a sports drink,
you may want to choose a celebrity athlete to endorse your product. However, be
warned, celebrities do not come cheap. The credibility that they bring to the table is
costly. Well-chosen endorsers will pay for themselves many times over. For
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D.
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example, Nike paid tens of millions to have Tiger Woods endorse Nike products. The
perception was that because Tiger was so good at his profession, most believe that
by using the same products they too can improve their golfing game. Is this rational?
Actually, it really doesn’t matter; you have to do what your customers want. It is not
about doing what you want. Ignore your customers and again, you know where your
product will end up.
Pricing/promotion. What are your pricing objectives? Based on these objectives, you
build your marketing programs. This process is intuitive, first you assess your
industry, then you evaluate your customers, then you make some decisions, then you
implement them.
Distribution. Again, based on your strategy, your distribution portion of your
marketing program should align with your overall intent.
Sales. Explain the sales process. How are sales consummated? What is logical?
Make sure you understand how to implement sales. Knowing this process without fail
will give you direction in terms of how to improve, correct, manipulate or project your
sales.
Direct marketing and customer management. Will you direct market? How will you
accomplish this, in order to direct market, you have to have detailed customer lists.
An example of this is a person that is able to gather lists of people that need a
good/service. A person that offers smog tests as their service can purchase lists
from the DMV that states whose cars need to be registered in the next 90 days.
From this list, mailing lists can be developed and these people can be direct
marketed. A mailer offering a needed service is a good ploy. The intent is that
because the service is needed, the recipients of the direct mailer are more likely to
respond. But do they really? Managing customers typically requires the
management of databases with customer information. Many do this today. It is an
efficient means of targeting their customers with “offers.” Hotel/casinos do this very
well with their players/rewards cards. Casinos know their customers and they do
everything under the sun to keep their customers. Using elaborate databases,
casinos are able to send their loyal customers offers at whatever interval they
desire. With the sole intent of getting them to visit their property again and again.
The more they visit, they more they play.
Internet. This poses its own set of challenges. Getting people to a website to
begin with is the difficult thing to do. This is also a case where people’s privacy
and personal information are at risk. Many savvy marketers employ cookies to
track their customer’s preferences and their buying habits. This is exactly what
made Google’s developers so incredibly rich. They developed a way to “monitor”
customer’s buying habits and how to tailor marketing materials to those individual
habits. Very effective and very expensive technology. The average Joe cannot
afford to do this. Being the first name on the top of an Internet search i s not a
cheap proposition. Anyone can make a website; the question is how do you get
people there to visit and to buy? This is where the whole notion of free offers and
pop-ups came from. This is merely a way of getting people to visit websites in
hopes of “claiming” their free prize. Unfortunately, people figure out quickly that
“free” certainly is not free. Once there, people are asked to give information such
as their email address. Armed with this, marketers can now bombard potential
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customers with offers. Some buy, most do not.
H. Service. Explain the service aspect of your product.
I. Partnerships/alliances. Sometimes it is cheaper to partner up than to go it alone.
This is a viable choice; it also offers smaller players economies of scale, which in
turn benefit both partners. For example, two companies that basically do the
same thing can become one and in doing so, save in the costs of doing business.
Maybe by partnering up, you will now be able to save a significant amount of
money on shipping, because your shipping requirements put you into the next
pricing tier. The same holds true for the purchase of the resource s needed to
make your product. By partnering up, it may now be possible to buy larger
quantities of raw materials. Overall, partnership or alliances can make smaller
companies more competitive by joining forces. This may or may not be a
consideration for your market. Understand the term of economies of scale, and
this will make total sense.
J. Market research. Market research is imperative, do not guess, make educated
decisions. Market research does not have to be tedious and costly, there are
many ways to measure customer sentiment. It can be as simple as just asking
your patrons what they think, to offering incentives for customers to complete a
satisfaction survey.
VI.
Financial Documents.
A. Budgets. Budgets are just elaborate and detailed “guesses” This is especially true in
the development of a brand new product. If the product already exists, it is possible to
make an educated guess of associated costs and market potential based on what
others have done. In the case of a brand new product, the guesswork is not so easy.
This is when you have to create many “what if?” scenarios. The more “what ifs?” the
better. It is better to over think here than you may want to. It is better to err on the side
of caution and to overestimate. In this way, you are not caught in a situation of being
undercapitalized.
B. Pro forma statements. Again, as with estimated budgets, you just have to do your
best. Leave no stone unturned. Think things through, be prepared for every
possibility. Leave yourself some wiggle room, be realistic, then add 15 -20% to the
bottom line for the “Oh No!” factor. It is better to overestimate, than to under
estimate.
VII.
Monitors and Controls. (Specific research information to be used:)
A. Secondary data. After you have built a system and it is put in place, you have to
monitor its effectiveness. You want to be dynamic rather than static in assessing the
effectiveness of your control systems. Failure to do this will cost you dearly. The
more often you re-evaluate the better. Don’t just assume all is well and never
double-check your efforts. Owning a business and making a product successful is
an ever-constant job. You cannot check too often. The more you check things the
better. Never leave anything to chance. Be proactive; don’t wait for your accountant
to tell you your system has failed. By then, it is too late. Best to just move on.
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MOA
However, the sooner you catch your mistakes, the better also. Better to catch a
mistake after hours and not days. In either case, you lose money. The more often
you check, the less you lose. Several hours are better than several days, anyway
you look at it. You should know this by doing your own hourly, daily, and weekly
evaluations. The more often you perform this function, the better.
1. Sales reports. How are your sales teams doing, are the meeting your
expectations, are they meeting quotas or goals? Are they following your
S.O.P. to a tee? Or are they just doing their own thing? Which do you
prefer, the answer should be obvious. Pull reports often, again, as with the
above example, trying to solve issues long after the fact, are difficult to
handle.
2. Orders. Are your product orders being handled as directed? What can be
done to correct, or is correction even necessary? Is the product fulfillment
department efficient and effective? There is nothing worse than to work hard
and spend good money to get people to buy from you, only to screw things up
when it comes to product delivery and order fulfillment. It is hard enough to
compete for limited consumer dollars. Make sure your system allows for a
way for customers to tell you how their overall buying experience was. Don’t
be defensive, for every customer that tells you everything is fine, ten others
that experience a problem say nothing. Just because no one says anything,
doesn’t mean that everything is fine. In fact, quite the contrary, if you do not
develop a way for customers to tell you what you do wrong, you will simply
fade away thinking all is well, when invariably it is not.
A. Primary data.
1. Sales records (Nielsen, IRI). Sometimes it is hard to gauge how well you are
doing. Small Mom/Pop businesses usually can do this internally; larger
companies are usually not well equipped to do this on their own. In many
cases, a firm that specializes in this sort of research handles this sort of
feedback.
2. Specialized consulting firms. There are firms that specialize is telling you how
to address the concerns of your business. This can be valuable or it can be a
total waste of time. Everything is relative, if you ask a brain surgeon to look at
a bad knee, chances are, he/she will find an explanation that has to do with
something being wrong with your brain. You should know your own business
well enough to know if things are not functioning well. In the event you
become myopic, an outside set of eyes can be invaluable. For example, If
you run a restaurant, ask a fellow restaurateur to watch, listen and evaluate
your business. Someone with industry specific knowledge is best. A generic
business consultant may or may not have intimate knowledge of your product
or your industry. Stick to the experts in your field.
3. Customer panel. A group of customers that give you valuable feedback.
VIII. Contingency Plans and Other Miscellaneous Documents.
A. Contingency plans. Be prepared! Know what to do in the event of a market
inconsistency. You can never address all possibilities, but it is certainly a good idea
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MARKETING
MOA
to sit down and think of as many as you can. This is like practicing for a game, or for
a concert if you play an instrument. You will play, manage, and produce the way you
practice or plan. If you practice or plan for everything, you will be able to deal with
anything that comes your way. Of course, as stated above, you never be prepared
for everything, but it is better to be prepared for most abnormal events than none at
all.
B. Alternative strategies considered. Think everything through!!
C. Miscellaneous. What else can you think of?
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