Download What is Marketing???

Welcome to MT209 Seminar 8
Unit 7 Review

Any questions regarding Unit 7 assignments
or the Course Project?
Unit 8 Assignments


Read Chapter 8 – Building a Powerful
Marketing Plan
Discussion Question – Answer and post
response to at least 2 classmates’ answers
–
Use articles from the Internet to support your
answers
Course Project



Third portion of business plan (Marketing
Plan) due!
Analysis of info and write-up are real “meat”
of the business plan – Competitive Edge,
Marketing Strategy, Milestones Table,
Explain Milestones
Keep a copy to include in your final business
plan for Unit 9
Unit 8 Highlights

Build a marketing plan
–
–



Who is target market?
What does target want / need?
Research!
Go get them (marketing tactics)
Now keep them
What is Marketing???
There are many definitions of marketing. The better
definitions are focused upon customer orientation
and satisfaction of customer needs.
 Marketing is the social process by which individuals
and groups obtain what they need and want through
creating and exchanging products and value with
others …Kotler.
 Marketing is the management process that identifies,
anticipates and satisfies customer requirements
profitably - The Chartered Institute of Marketing
(CIM).
The right product, in the right place, at the
right time, at the right price - Adcock.
This is a snappy and realistic definition that
uses McCarthy's Four Ps.
 Marketing is essentially about marshalling
the resources of an organization so that they
meet the changing needs of the customer on
whom the organization depends - Palmer.

This is a more recent and very realistic definition that
looks at matching capabilities with needs.
 Marketing is the process whereby society, to supply
its consumption needs, evolves distributive systems
composed of participants, who, interacting under
constraints - technical (economic) and ethical
(social) - create the transactions or flows which
resolve market separations and result in exchange
and consumption. Bartles. This definition considers
the economic and social aspects of marketing.
The Philosophy Marketing and the
Marketing Concept.


The marketing concept is a philosophy. It makes the customer,
and the satisfaction of his or her needs, the focal point of all
business activities. It is driven by senior managers, passionate
about delighting their customers.
Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a
specialized activity at all It encompasses the entire business. It
is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final
result, that is, from the customer's point of view. Concern and
responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas
of the enterprise. Drucker.


This customer focused philosophy is known
as the 'marketing concept'. The marketing
concept is a philosophy, not a system of
marketing or an organizational structure. It is
founded on the belief that profitable sales
and satisfactory returns on investment can
only be achieved by identifying, anticipating
and satisfying customer needs and desires.
Barwell
Now that you have been introduced to some definitions of
marketing and the marketing concept, remember the important
elements contained as follows:
 Marketing focuses on the satisfaction of customer needs, wants
and requirements.
 The philosophy of marketing needs to be owned by everyone
from within the organization.
 Future needs have to be identified and anticipated.
 There is normally a focus upon profitability, especially in the
corporate sector. However, as public sector organizations and
not-for-profit organizations adopt the concept of marketing, this
need not always be the case.

More recent definitions recognize the influence of marketing upon
Easyvsteps to create a marketing
plan

Put yourself in the shoes of your customers.
Do you know why they buy your products or
services? Is your pricing appropriate? Do you
simply knock off 20% to 30% whenever
clients turn scarce or inventory creeps up?
Have you set any marketing targets or sales
goals for the next 12 months or so?




A marketing plan gives you a roadmap that
can drive action and point the way. A
marketing plan can help you:
• Identify which customers are your best
prospects.
• Evaluate company data against your
industry or market.
• Track results so you learn what works.

Without a plan, you may be moving fast, but
you may not be moving in the right direction.
Here are five steps to creating a strategic
and practical marketing plan.
Step 1: Position Your Product

Many business owners blur the lines among
promotion, advertising, and public relations.
Those are the channels of a message or
campaign, not marketing itself. The four Ps of
marketing are:




• Product: Having the right product or service for
your market.
• Price: Selling your product or service for an amount
that makes your target customer feel it's a good deal.
• Promotion: Creating appropriate perceptions
across multiple channels, including, print — direct
mail, flyers, brochures, and postcards, TV or radio
spots, newspaper or magazine ads, online and
more.
• Place: Distributing your product to locations where
your target customers can readily find it.

If you can put the right product or service at the right
price in front of the right customer, you're cooking.
Keep in mind that a high volume of sales isn't the
key. Profit is. The goal of marketing is to generate
the interest or recognition that will lead to the sales
that will boost profits. That's the reason to create a
strategy. You want to craft persuasive messages for
the customers you target. You also want messages
that promise only what you actually deliver.
Step 2. Tap Your Brain Trust

To define appropriate marketing for your company,
set up some brainstorming meetings with advisors
you trust, such as family, friends, staff, or other
professionals. Meetings can be brown-bag lunches
or formal offsite meetings. Just stay away from
ringing phones and don't expect to get everything
done in one meeting. At these sessions, explore
answers to these questions:






• Who are you selling to?
• What do those customers need?
• What distinguishes your product or service from the
competition?
• Which marketing tactics will make your products
noticeable?
• When and how often should marketing efforts be
used?
• Where do you want your company to be in a year?

You might consider taping these sessions
and distilling the best ideas and suggestions.
Start putting notes on paper. Describe the
state and size of your marketplace, how
sales and distribution will work, your target
customer (age, income, locations, and
purchase patterns) and how your products
rate against competitors.
Step 3: Listen to Customers

Next, you need to know how customers react
to your quality and price, service and
delivery, image and brand—everything, in
short, that influences their purchasing
decision.


To discover what customers think, just ask them.
Survey some of your current customers as well as
customers you want to reach. Make personal calls or
send them surveys via e-mail or postcards. Include
an incentive to boost participation, such as a
discount or a free sample.
Business owners are often surprised by what
customers say. For instance, one firm learned from a
survey that its receptionist was surly on the phone to
customers. How would you know that if you didn't
ask customers?
Based on what you learn, prepare a SWOT analysis
that deconstructs your business in fresh ways:
 • Strengths: What makes your business thrive?
 • Weaknesses: What are your vulnerabilities?
 • Opportunities: What market conditions or
segments can lead to growth?
 • Threats: How are competitors snapping at your
heels?
Step 4: Draft the Plan

Now that you have an overview of customers
and market conditions, you can flesh out
your plan. This plan needn't be a formal
document, but should at least consist of a
written outline to share with staff or outside
consultants and to refer to later. The plan
should cover:




A summary of your market position and goals.
• A definition of what you expect to accomplish in a
specific time period (e.g: "We will sell 150 widgets by
the fourth quarter.")
• A list of target markets, including segmentation and
niche areas
• An appropriate strategy for each segment or
market.



• Expenses and resources, and how they will be
allocated.
• Marketing channels. This is where you choose the
types of marketing materials and distribution vehicles
that you will use to attract target customers,
including flyers, postcards, email marketing,
newsletters, Web site and more.
• Competitive strategies. How will you respond to
your competitors, for example, if a competitor lowers
his price?
Step 5: Track Results


Include benchmarks in your plan. Use these
benchmarks to take stock of whether your
marketing efforts are paying off or if you
should rethink your approach.
Calculate the category and cost of marketing
communications and compare with set
specific sales forecasts.

Benchmarking is the process of comparing the
business processes and performance metrics
including cost, effectiveness, productivity, or quality
to another that is widely considered to be an industry
standard benchmark or best practice; it involves
management identifying the best firms in the industry
and then comparing the performance standards
including quality-of these business with those of their
own business.

Essentially, benchmarking provides a
snapshot of the performance of your
business and helps you understand where
you are in relation to a particular standard

For direct mail efforts, check how the campaign is
going by creating a spreadsheet in Excel that
includes specifics of each order as well as a way to
identify customers (like a customer identification
number). Also make sure to include plans for
implementation or a marketing calendar. Plans are
great, but if you don't also designate responsibility,
set deadlines and hold people accountable,
marketing efforts can't succeed.

Finally, don't rest on your laurels. Markets
change all the time and you must be ready.
Make sure to review the plan every year to
see if you must revisit any goals.
Questions?? Wrap-up