Practical marketing Part 2

Marketing plan




Simply put : what is marketing:


Find out what your customers WANT and NEED & GIVE it to Them !

Know your market !

Why do I have to do MARKET RESEARCH !!??

No matter how good your products and/or services are, the venture cannot succeed without effective marketing. This begins with systematic and careful research. What do you really know about your intended market ? This is why you need to do market research to make sure you’re on track. Use the marketing planning process as your tool to uncover data and to clarify your marketing efforts. This is not an option - it is the first step

Market research – how?

There are two kinds of market research: primary and secondary.


Secondary research means using published information such as industry profiles, trade journals, newspapers, magazines, census data and demographic profiles. This type of information is available by just Googling it . Look on websites like industry associations, chambers of commerce, from companies who sell to your industry and from government agencies. You need to know who your competitors are - have a look on their websites

Your chamber of commerce has good information on the local area. ( By the way - Join them !)Trade associations and trade publications often have excellent industry-specific data.

Primary research means gathering your own data. For example, you could do your own traffic count at a proposed location (if this is relevant to your product ) use the Yellow Pages to identify competitors and do surveys or focus group interviews to learn about consumer preferences. Professional market research can be very costly, but there are many books that show small business owners how to do effective research them
selves.

In your marketing plan, be as specific as possible; give statistics, numbers and sources. The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the all-important sales forecast.

Facts about your industry:

How big is this market of yours and what percentage share are you going to have. This might not be too important if you are not planning to knock the competition totally out. Do not dwell on these figures too long - Rather place your focus on your CUSTOMERS - they are the guys with the money !

What is important is the current demand in target market.What does your customers want and need !

Trends in target market – growth trends, trends in consumer preferences and product development.

( No sense in trying to sell them something that is already obsolete)

Growth potential and opportunity for a business of your size.

What barriers to entry do you face in entering this market with your new company? Some typical barriers are:


o High capital costs
o High production costs
o High marketing costs
o Consumer acceptance and brand recognition
o Training and skills
o Unique technology and patents
o Unions
o Shipping costs

How will you overcome these barriers?

How could the following affect your company?
o Changes in technology
o Changes in government regulations
o Changes in the economy
o Changes in your industry

To be continued ..............Become a follower of this blog - it might just be the best thing you did this year !

Practical marketing Part1

Following our very successful marketing workshop I am going to post some of the discussions on this blog in the next few days and weeks. The first of these will be written today and probably posted here by tomorrow
Some of the needs that came out of the discussions are the need to get up to speed with technology, the drafting of a 90 day action marketing plan and monitoring every action done in the process.  The absolute need for all staff to buy into such a plan is the most vital part of it.

So............Watch this space >>>>>>>>>>>>>