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    A Concise Guide to Marketing Your Business
    A Concise Guide to Marketing Your Business
    A Concise Guide to Marketing Your Business
    Ebook228 pages1 hour

    A Concise Guide to Marketing Your Business

    By Alan Le Marinel

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    About this ebook

    Written in an easy to understand style the book aims to dispel the myth that marketing is a complex subject only of benefit to large businesses and gives a clear explanation of how the theories of marketing can be used in a practical manner. It aims to help you answer the three key questions in relation to your market; where are you now? where do you want to be? how are you going to get there? and includes guidance on how to use the tools of marketing to gain a clear competitive advantage over your competitors The book also provides a framework for doing research on the market and how to analysis the results using segmentation and explains how to manage your product portfolio, set the right price, and select the most appropriate promotion and distribution strategies

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlan Le Marinel
    Release dateJun 9, 2018
    ISBN9780463921807
    A Concise Guide to Marketing Your Business
    Author

    Alan Le Marinel

    Alan worked for a major financial institution for more than twenty years and during the latter stages was a Lending Manager with responsibility for a large portfolio of medium and small businesses. During this time he was also seconded to a Local Enterprise Agency to work with small and medium size businesses on developing Business Plans and Funding Proposals for a wide range of clients. Following this experience he started his own successful consultancy business specialising in strategic planning and marketing. He is also a successful author having written a number of business management books which have been published in various languages throughout the world. He holds a number of professional and academic qualifications including: •Master of Business Administration (MBA) specialising in Corporate Strategy and Change Management •Diploma in Financial Studies – Chartered Institute of Bankers •Diploma in Marketing – Chartered Institute of Marketing

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      Book preview

      A Concise Guide to Marketing Your Business - Alan Le Marinel

      A Concise Guide to

      Marketing Your Business

      By

      Alan Le Marinel

      Copyright Information

      Published by:

      Le Marinel Publishing

      29 Athelhampton

      Washington

      Tyne and Wear

      NE38 8TA

      Text copyright © Alan Le Marinel 2018

      The right of Alan Le Marinel to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Rights Act of 1988

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by print, photography, microfilm, or any other means without written permission from the publisher.

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Also available in The Concise Guide to series:

      A Concise Guide to Business Plans

      A Concise Guide to Financial Accounts

      A Concise Guide to Marketing Plans

      ISBN: 9780463921807

      Table of Contents

      Copyright Information

      About the Author

      Preface

      Chapter One — The Concept of Marketing

      The background to marketing

      Marketing through product orientation

      Marketing through sales orientation

      The advent of modern marketing orientation

      Understanding what marketing can do for you

      Knowing where you are now in relation to the market

      Establishing exactly where you want to be

      Planning how you will achieve your goal

      Relating business objectives to marketing objectives

      SMART objectives

      Incorporating marketing into your business strategy

      Framework for establishing an integrated Marketing Plan

      Making a clear mission statement

      Key points

      Chapter Two — The Importance of Competitive Advantage

      Looking at the competition

      Direct competition

      Indirect competition

      Industry competition

      Linked competition

      Identification is not enough

      Using a SWOT analysis

      Investigate the environment with a PESTE analysis

      Political forces

      Economic forces

      Social forces

      Technological forces

      Environmental forces

      Gaining a unique selling point

      Defining your critical success factors

      Key points

      Chapter Three — Using Market Research and Analysis Methods

      Understanding your potential customers and markets

      The Pareto principle

      Segmenting the potential market

      Geographic segmentation

      Demographic segmentation

      Occupation and social class segmentation

      ACORN segmentation

      Product segmentation

      Benefit and lifestyle segmentation

      Using different research methods

      The importance of having a management information system

      Key points

      Chapter Four — Understanding Marketing Planning Tools

      The product life cycle concept

      Introduction

      Growth

      Maturity

      Decline

      Linking the Product Life Cycle to the market

      The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix

      The McKinsey/General Electric matrix

      The Ansoff matrix

      Establishing clear marketing objectives

      Key points

      Chapter Five — Introducing the Marketing Mix

      Understanding the components

      People

      Physical evidence

      Process

      Summary of the secondary components

      Defining your products

      Considering pricing alternatives

      Evaluating promotion methods

      Being in the right place

      Key points

      Chapter Six — Marketing the Right Products

      Targeting the right product into the right market

      Existing products into existing markets

      Existing products into new markets

      New products into existing markets

      New products into new markets

      Understanding product management

      Developing your product portfolio

      Using the product life cycle for product development

      Introducing new products

      The five options for introducing products

      Key points

      Chapter Seven — Setting the Right Price

      How important is price to the consumer?

      Buyer behaviour factors

      Selecting the right price for your products

      Techniques for fixing a price

      Using price as an effective marketing tool

      Key points

      Chapter Eight — Using the Correct Forms of Promotion

      Understanding the importance of promotion

      Introducing the marketing communication mix

      Evaluating the options you have for promotion

      Using promotion methods to achieve objectives

      Key points

      Chapter Nine — Being in the Right Place

      Understanding the logistics of place decisions

      Establishing the methods of distribution

      Designing the right distribution system

      Managing the supply chain effectively

      Key Points

      Chapter Ten — Pulling it all Together

      Establishing your marketing budget

      Writing your marketing plan

      Reviewing your performance

      Staying ahead of the competition

      Starting the process again

      Key points

      About the Author

      Alan Le Marinel

      Alan worked for a major financial institution for more than twenty years and during the latter stages was a Lending Manager with responsibility for a large portfolio of medium and small businesses.

      During this time he was also seconded to a Local Enterprise Agency to work with small and medium size businesses on developing Business Plans, Marketing Plans and Funding Proposals for a wide range of clients. These included small business start-ups right the way up to management buy-outs and raising venture capital for substantial capital expenditure.

      Following this experience he started his own successful consultancy business specialising in strategic business planning and marketing together with advice and guidance on the prevention, detection and investigation of fraud.

      He is an accomplished author having written a number of business management books which have been published throughout the world.

      Preface

      Marketing is not a new concept. It has been used for hundreds of years by traders throughout the world. Nor is it a mystical subject requiring hours of study. It is merely a logical process which brings together the needs of the customers in the market and you as a business.

      This book aims to dispel the myths relating to marketing and explain the tools that you can use to successfully market your business. Approach the subject with an open mind and you will quickly see how supposedly complex theories can be easily understood and used to your advantage.

      By using these tools you can understand exactly where your business stands in the market and subsequently plan to exploit the opportunities available to you. You will also be able to recognise any potential threats and take early action to counter them.

      The whole key to successful marketing is about gaining a competitive advantage by having the right products, in the right place, at the right time. You may have invented the greatest product of all time but unless you have a customer willing to buy it you are unlikely to make any money.

      Chapter One — The Concept of Marketing

      The whole concept of marketing is to be able to place your business in the most favourable environment. It means listening to the demands of the customers in the market and meeting their needs. You may have little success if you try and operate the process in reverse by producing something that you think they need. Unless you have something that they want you are unlikely to make many sales.

      From the outset you must concentrate on —

      Selling the right products

      At the right price

      In the right place

      At the right time

      The concept of marketing concentrates on these key issues and gives you a logical framework to enable you to research and analyse the market. From this you can formulate a strategy to position your business and gain a competitive advantage.

      The Background to Marketing

      Marketing in one form or another has been around for centuries. Some would argue that basic marketing has been on the earth since its creation with people exchanging goods or services with others.

      The background to modern marketing was, however, established in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the concept of marketing was initially based on the thought that whatever was produced could be sold.

      Marketing through product orientation

      This first modern concept of marketing concentrated solely on what could be produced and had no direct relationship to what the consumer might have wanted. There were, in effect, three basic marketing assumptions:

      There was a ready market for anything that could be produced

      Costs of production should be kept as low as possible

      Consumer choice should be limited to basic products

      From this you can see that marketing was based on keeping prices low which would effectively stimulate demand. Production was the key activity although the fact that consumers may actually not want the products being produced was never considered. Even if they did, choice would be limited to the specifications of the product as defined by the producer.

      One example of this particular production orientation strategy which in this modern day would fail totally was the production of cars by Henry Ford. He will perhaps always be remembered for his immortal words customers could have any colour they wanted as long as it was black.

      Whilst this philosophy worked at the time, mainly due to demand exceeding supply, sooner or later the consumer would become more discerning. This would lead to a change in strategy which concentrated on what could actually be sold.

      Marketing through sales orientation

      It was the previous concentration on mass production that led to the demise of the production orientation theory of marketing. It meant that supply outstripped demand which then created competition between manufacturers.

      To counter this change in market conditions firms now had to concentrate on two new marketing techniques:

      Products had to match the demands of the consumer

      Consumers had to be persuaded that the product was better than that produced by competitors

      Even at this stage the relevance of competitive advantage had been recognised although it subsequently led to some fairly dubious selling techniques. Marketing was then based on the assumption that consumers were there to buy products and it did not matter how exactly they were persuaded to buy one particular product as opposed to another.

      This led to the employment of a number of selling techniques, many of which were totally dishonest making false claims about the product itself. Sooner or later the consumer would rebel against these techniques and as a consequence force yet another change in marketing methods. This was also assisted by the introduction of consumer protection legislation which was designed to stamp out dishonest and unethical marketing.

      The advent of modern marketing orientation

      Modern marketing

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