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Module 26
Marketing Plan (Cont.)
Target Audience
Determining the right target audience is
probably the most important part of your
marketing efforts, because it doesn't
matter what you're saying if you're not
saying it to the right people.
Demographics
• In this section of your marketing plan, go into as much detail as
possible about who your market is. Describe your typical customer
in detail. What is the age group, gender, education level, family size,
income level, and geographic location. For business-to-business
markets, make sure you include the industry type (or SIC/NAICS),
company size, job titles/departments, annual revenue, and
geographic areas. Have a general picture of who your market is,
then back up that information with concrete numbers and statistics
about the size of your market.
• Determining the size of your market really requires that you already
have a good profile of your typical customer. Once you know
"whom" you're looking for, you need to take into consideration things
like the aging of the population, and regional variations in income
levels and education levels.
Your product offering will also require that
you consider not only income levels, but
also disposable and discretionary
income levels. The former refers to income
after taxes that is used to pay for daily
living expenses, and the latter refers to
income that is left over after those
necessities are paid for and can be
earmarked for luxuries.
The information you glean from a journey into your target
audience's brain is often key to your marketing efforts,
particularly the positioning of your product. It includes the
audience's activities, interests, and opinions. You have to
work through behavioral factors, economic factors, and
even interpersonal factors to get to the root of
purchasing behavior. Answer these questions in your
overview:
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What do they like about your product?
What do they like about your competitor's product?
What made them decide to buy your product?
Did they know which brand they were buying before they
purchased it?
• What advertising messages had they seen prior to
buying?
• How much disposable or discretionary income is
available for this type of purchase?
• What are their hobbies?
• What emotional aspects impact their purchase?
• What is their social class or status?
• Who is the actual decision-maker for this type of
purchase?
• What values and attitudes play a part in this type of
purchase?
• Who do they look to when making purchasing decisions?
Competitive Overview
Describe all of the heavy hitters and answer the
following questions:
• What are their product's strengths and
weaknesses?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses as a
company (financial strength, reputation, etc.)?
• Are there weaknesses you can exploit?
• What are the differences between your product
features and theirs?
• What were their sales for last year?
• What is their pricing structure?
• In what media vehicles do they promote their
products?
• What is their advertising message?
• Where else do they promote their products?
• What were their total advertising expenditures
for last year?
• What is their overall goal (profitability, market
share, leadership)?
• How are they trying to meet their goals (low
prices, better quality, lower overhead)?
• What were their responses to changes you
made in your product pricing or promotions?
Product Overview
Use this section of your marketing plan to fully
describe:
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your product and its purpose
its features
its current pricing structure
its current distribution channels
its positioning within the market
its current promotions and advertising
its current packaging
Positioning
Begin narrowing down your positioning by answering
questions such as:
• What opinions does your audience already have, and
how can you tie your product into them?
• What are your target audience's needs and desires?
• Is there a hole your product can fill by targeted
positioning?
• Are there certain company attributes you can build on,
such as experience, or being the first in the business?
• What are the greatest benefits of the product and how
can you capitalize on them?
• Is there a specific use or application that your
product fits particularly well?
• Is your target audience identified independently
enough to create a position based on their
uniqueness?
• Can you springboard a positioning idea from
your competitor's positioning?
• Can you base the position on quality or pricing
strategies?
• Can you position the product based on
opportunities you've discovered in your
research?
Promotion Strategy
Your promotion section should actually have
six categories:
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advertising
public relations and publicity
direct marketing
promotions and events
product/company marketing materials
premium items
sales force
Public Relations and Publicity
There is a whole set of tools for public relations and
publicity, just as there is for advertising. These include:
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news releases
feature stories and interviews
exclusives
opinion pieces
photos
speeches or appearances at seminars, conventions, etc.
local, regional or national talk shows and other programs
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online chats and forums
community involvement
lobbying activities
social responsibility activities
There are two elements to a PR plan:
What you want to communicate
A hook to make it newsworthy and
interesting