Marketing Strategy for Success – Part One
Colin Thompson
Managing Partner Cavendish/Author/International Speaker/Mentor/Partner
All organisations need a Marketing Strategy to be successful.
Marketing is the process of planning and executing the development, pricing, promotion and distribution of products and services to targeted customers. Using this standard everyone in your organisation is ultimately involved in marketing in some way, not just some narrowly defined "marketing department."
Marketing-oriented organisations focus like a laser beam on customer needs and wants. They anticipate demand. They enlarge demand through promotions and advertising. Then they satisfy that demand.
Unfortunately, too many companies either do not?understand this basic principle or lack the resolve to see their strategies through to completion. In fact, many businesses start thinking about marketing campaigns only after sales have begun to sag.
Other reasons why marketing plans fail:
No sense of the future. Successful marketing is an investment in your organisation's future. Be creative. Focus on new opportunities. Always think of new ways to enhance exposure for your product.
No measurement of results. Like any other initiative, marketing projects must be tested and measured. To measure results, assign someone to capture sales and customer information and give them access to all revenue and expense data. Once results are measured, analyse them and share them throughout the organisation. Then spend money on what generates the best return.
Too much interference. Some CEOs approve a marketing plan, then insist on constantly making adjustments. Sometimes, the best approach is to wait until marketing efforts can be suitably measured and then fine-tune the plan. Constant meddling only distorts results and demoralises the people in charge of driving the campaign.
For some organisations, maintaining a full-blown marketing department may be too costly and impractical to justify itself. One option in these circumstances is hiring a professional marketing consultant to ensure that your product meets customer demands the way it should.
We suggest the following to ensure getting the most out of a marketing consultant:
Start with clear goals. Define what you want from him or her, and do not?hold things back. Keep in mind that no one understands your company's culture or history as thoroughly as you do. Offer all the details you can so the consultant has more to work with.
Do not?leave the consultant dangling. The marketing consultant you hire is a technical expert; he or she uses specialised tools to solve the problems you know intimately from your day-to-day business dealings. If you take the time to work together, you'll see better results than if the consultant is left trying to figure out everything on his or her own.
Marketing Strategy
Effective marketing doesn't come naturally to most businesses.
When reaching out to customers, many companies describe what the product/service is, explain their product better, and then explain to the customer why they should buy it. This is also how most salespeople make sales presentations. All too often, however, they leave out the part about how the product benefits the customer. But the only time the customer is ever interested is when you tell him how the product will improve his life.
Of course, it's impossible to highlight your product's/service benefits if you do not?know what your customers want. That's where market research comes in.
Step one in market research is determining what you genuinely need to find out. Are you considering entering a new market? A new market area? A new product line mix? The kind of information you're after will influence the type of research you want to do.
Other key questions:
What's the current size of the market?
How fast is it growing?
How can we hope to reach it?
Can the market be segmented into targeted customer groups?
What makes our product distinctive among others in the marketplace?
What types of people buy our product or service?
What's most important to buyers when choosing a product (price, quality, delivery time, etc.)?
?? What do customers like about our competitor's products that we're not offering?
The Marketing Plan
The best marketing plans always focus on the customer. Therefore, the plan should be organised to address specific questions:
What does the customer really need?
Where do they want to buy it?
How do they want to buy it?
How much are they willing to pay?
A solid marketing communications strategy is also crucial as well. Do you know what your target customers read and listen to? What are the best ways to get their attention? This aspect of the plan should address your organisation's promotional goals ("promotions" include everything from advertising to public relations). Other key questions:
How can you communicate more about your product's/service specific benefits?
How much money are you willing to spend to get your message across?
What media would work best for your specific product?
How will you evaluate the results of your promotional efforts?
Plan ambitiously but be realistic about your objectives. Consider what you hope to accomplish in terms of what can be realistically achieved. Ask yourself:
How can we want to set ourselves apart from our competition? By price? Product benefits? Other attributes?
Is our ultimate goal improving sales of a specific product or service or do we want to focus on generating more qualified leads?
Is customer retention our real objective?
General statements like "We're committed to getting more business" or "We want to boost sales" are essentially meaningless. Ask questions in order to clarify your goals. Keep working on your answers until you've identified your most important objectives.
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Now go forward and enjoy 2024 and beyond with your customers, employees and suppliers.
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What are your plans?
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To help you in your pursuit for the future, please invest into the following publications;
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Creative and Successful Solutions
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`Cracking the Success Code`
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Plus, many more great publications for your success;
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Dr Colin Thompson | Barnes & Noble? (barnesandnoble.com )
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Together we can make a difference...
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Have fun, learn heaps, and enjoy every step of your journey!
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Life is fun; life is hard work, but just look at the success you will have in life.
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“The Capacity to Learn is a Total Gift, the Ability to Learn is a Great Skill, and the Willingness to Learn is a Choice for Your Future”
- Colin Thompson
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Success is a journey, not a destination
Our goal is simple…to help you reach yours
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Together we can make a difference in life...
Have fun, learn heaps, and enjoy every step of your journey!
The only moment that matters is the one that is happening right now - whatever your desire, go for it and enjoy the moment in your life.
Life is fun; life is hard work, but just look at the success you will?have?in your life.
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Enjoy life and be happy.
Together, we can do it one step at a time.
Sharing successful information for your success from many sources.
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