Marketing Plan
Marketing Plan
Tools available:
1. observing consumers firsthand
2. benchmarking competitors’ products
3. conducting online research
4. monitoring social and mobile media in real-time.
Sources of data:
the U.S. Small Business Administration offers dozens of free publications and a website (www.sba.gov) that give
advice on topics ranging from starting, financing, and expanding a small business to ordering business cards.
Other excellent research resources for small businesses include the U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov) and the
Bureau of Economic Analysis (www. bea.gov).
online product and service review sites, use internet search engines to research specific companies and issues, and
scour competitor and customer web, mobile, and social media sites.
In summary, secondary data collection, observation, surveys, and experiments can all be used effectively by small
organisations with small budgets. However, although these informal research methods are less complex and less
costly, they still must be conducted with care. Managers must think carefully about the objectives of the research,
formulate questions in advance, recognise the biases introduced by smaller samples and less skilled researchers,
and conduct the research systematically
Marketing Research: can allow for deeper, more focused probing, especially into
the whys and wherefores of consumer attitudes and behaviour.
After the problem has been defined carefully, set the research objectives.
▪ Can have Three types of research objectives:
➢ Exploratory: is to gather preliminary information that will help define the
problem and suggest hypotheses.
➢ Descriptive: is to describe things, such as the market potential for a
product or the demographics and attitudes of consumers who buy the
product.
➢ Causal: is to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.
To meet the manager’s information needs, the research plan can call for
gathering secondary data, primary data, or both. Secondary data consist of
information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for
another purpose. Primary data consist of information collected for the
specific purpose at hand.
research consumer buying decisions in great detail to answer questions about what
consumers buy, where they buy, how and how much they buy, when they buy, and
why they buy.
How do consumers respond to various marketing efforts the company might use?
Need Recognition: At this stage, the marketer should research consumers to find out
what kinds of needs or problems arise, what brought them about, and how they led
the consumer to this product.
Information search: A company must design its marketing mix to make prospects
aware of and knowledgeable about its brand. It should carefully identify consumers’
sources of information and the importance of each source.
Purchase decision: purchase decision will be to buy the most preferred brand, so
aim to deliver on the customer perceived value.
Post-purchase behaviour: sellers should promise only what their brands can deliver so
that buyers are satisfied.
Thus, the marketer’s goal is to deeply understand the ongoing customer journey,
mapping customer touch points and experiences in detail. By understanding the
customer journey, marketers can work to create brand experiences that will result in
positive purchase behaviour, engagement, and brand advocacy over time.
Five characteristics are especially important in influencing an innovation’s rate of
adoption.
Relative advantage
Compatibility
Complexity
Divisibility
Communicability
The new product marketer must research all these factors when developing the new
product and its marketing program.
Listen & watch the feedback very closely to provide better solutions than
competitors
• Work hard to ensure good word of mouth
• Online social networks
• Buying decision affected by personal factors such as
1. Age
2. Occupation
3. Lifestage (PRIZM)
Linkedin.
Many business buyers prefer to buy a complete solution to a problem from a single
seller rather than buying separate products and services from several suppliers and
putting them together. The sale often goes to the firm that engages business
customers deeply and provides the most complete system for meeting a customer’s
needs and solving its problems. Such systems selling (or solutions selling) is often a key
business marketing strategy for winning and holding accounts.
General Need Description: In this phase, the alert business marketer can help the
buyers define their needs and provide information about the value of different
product characteristics.
Supplier Search: The supplier’s task is to get listed in major directories, create a robust
online presence, and build a good reputation in the marketplace. Salespeople
should watch for companies in the process of searching for suppliers and make
certain that their firm is considered.
Proposal Solicitation: when the item is complex or expensive, the buyer will usually
require a detailed written proposal or formal presentation from each potential
supplier. Business marketers must be skilled in researching, writing, and presenting
proposals in response to buyer proposal solicitations. They should be skilled at
connecting digitally with buyers to understand their needs and requirements.
Proposals should be marketing documents, not just technical documents.
Presentations should inspire confidence and should make the marketer’s company
stand out from the competition.
Performance Review: The seller’s job is to monitor the same factors used by the
buyer to make sure that the seller is giving the expected satisfaction.
Market segmentation:
business marketers also use some additional variables, such as customer operating
characteristics, purchasing approaches, situational factors, and personal
characteristics.
Market Targeting:
1. segment size and growth: right size and growth” is a relative matter. The
largest, fastest-growing segments are not always the most attractive ones for
every company. Smaller companies may lack the skills and resources needed
to serve larger segments. Or they may find these segments too competitive.
Such companies may target segments that are smaller and less attractive, in
an absolute sense, but that are potentially more profitable for them.
• aggressive competitors
• Low barriers to entry
• Substitute products
• High power of buyers
• Powerful suppliers
Beyond deciding which segments of the market, it will target, the company must
decide on a value proposition—how it will create differentiated value for targeted
segments and what positions it wants to occupy in those segments.
Consumers position products with or without the help of marketers. But marketers do
not want to leave their products’ positions to chance. They must plan positions that
will give their products the greatest advantage in selected target markets, and they
must design marketing mixes to create these planned positions.
A product line is a group of products that are closely related because they function
in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through
the same types of outlets, or fall within given price ranges.
The major product line decision involves product line length—the number of items in
the product line. A company can expand its product line in two ways: by line filling
or line stretching. Product line stretching occurs when a company lengthens its
product line beyond its current range. The company can stretch its line downward,
upward, or both ways.
Width: refers to the number of different product lines the company carries.
Length: refers to the total number of items a company carries within its
product lines.
Depth: refers to the number of versions offered of each product in the line.
Consistency: of the product mix refers to how closely related the various
product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels,
or some other way.
SERVICES MARKETING
Steps to take:
1. the service provider’s task is to make the service tangible in one or more ways
and send the right signals about quality.
PRICE DECISIONS:
Economic considerations.
Personalised pricing: adjusting prices in real time to fit individual customer situations,
locations, and buying behaviours.
Promotional mix:
communications process should start with an audit of all the potential touch points
that target customers may have with the company and its brands. For example,
someone purchasing a new wireless phone plan may talk to others, see television or
magazine ads, visit various online sites for prices and reviews, and check out plans at
Best Buy, Walmart, or a wireless provider’s kiosk or store. Marketers need to assess
what influence each communication experience will have at different stages of the
buying process. This understanding helps marketers allocate their communication
dollars more efficiently and effectively.
the sender’s encoding process must mesh with the receiver’s decoding process. The
best messages consist of words and other symbols that are familiar to the receiver.
The more the sender’s field of experience overlaps with that of the receiver, the
more effective the message is likely to be. Marketing communicators may not
always share the customer’s field of experience. For example, an advertising
copywriter from one socioeconomic level might create content for customers from
another level—say, wealthy business owners. However, to communicate effectively,
the marketing communicator must understand the customer’s field of experience.
1. Identifying the Target Audience: The target audience will heavily affect the
communicator’s decisions on what will be said, how it will be said, when it will
be said, where it will be said, and who will say it.
2. Determining the Communication Objectives: marketing communicators want
to help build customer–brand relationships and guide customers through the
five As of the customer journey: awareness (I know about the product),
appeal (I like the product), ask (I want to know more about the product and
be more engaged with the brand), act (I’m buying and relating to the
product), and advocacy (I’m telling others about the product).9 The goal is
to create content experiences that will keep customers on the path from
brand awareness and preference to purchasing the brand and advocating it
to others.
3. Designing a Message:
• Message Content. The marketer has to figure out an appeal or theme
that will produce the desired responses. There are three types of
appeals: rational, emotional, and moral. Rational appeals relate to the
audience’s self-interest. They show that the product will produce the
desired benefits.
• Message Structure. Marketers must also decide how to handle three
message structure issues. The first is whether to draw a conclusion or
leave it to the audience. Research suggests that, in many cases, rather
than drawing a conclusion, the advertiser is better off asking questions
and letting buyers come to their own conclusions. The second
message structure issue is whether to present the strongest arguments
first or last. Presenting them first gets strong attention but may lead to
an anticlimactic ending. The third message structure issue is whether to
present a one-sided argument (mentioning only the product’s
strengths) or a two-sided argument (touting the product’s strengths
while also admitting its shortcomings). Usually, a one-sided argument is
more effective in sales presentations
• Message Format. The marketing communicator also needs a strong
format for the message. In a print ad, the communicator must decide
on the headline, copy, illustration, and colours. To attract attention,
advertisers can use novelty and contrast; eye-catching pictures and
headlines; distinctive formats; message size and position; and colour,
shape, and movement.
4. Collecting Feedback After sending the message or other brand content, the
communicator must research its effect on the target audience. This involves
asking target audience members whether they remember the content, how
many times they saw it, what points they recall, how they felt about the
content, and their past and present attitudes toward the brand and
company.