1.marketing Planning Process

1.
MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS - OVERVIEW

1. overview 2. planning 3. swot 4. marketing plan 5. marketing mix 6. product
7. price 8. promotion 9. place 10. literature 11. public relations 12. promos
13. advertising 14. sponsorship 15. sales
The marketing planning process explained a little more

STEP 1. The SWOT analysis is a very simple but effective means of carrying out an initial
assessment of your business/product.
STEP 2. Once you have done a SWOT analysis. What are your objectives & strategies? You must
decide on these before you start to spend that limited marketing budget!!
STEP 3. This is where you start to spend your marketing budget! These are the actual tactics you
will use to promote your business in the most cost-effective way.
One of the 4 'P's. some products are priced too expensively and hence never generate the volume
they should, and some products are priced too cheaply and never generate the profit they should.
One of the 4 'P's. Place refers to the means by which your customer acquires your product. This
includes the actual place it is purchased (the shop, telephone, web page, warehouse) as well as the
actual route of distribution.
What are the products features? What are the benefits of those features? Do you need all those
features?
Is it the product the customer is really interested in? Or is it the back-up service? Critical to decide
before you print that literature.
Promotion: This is the P that most non marketeers are familiar with, as it includes the elements
that most people believe to be marketing such as selling and advertising etc.
Public Relations is, in my opinion, a vastly underrated and under-used weapon in the marketing
armoury - particularly so because of its potentially low cost
Advertising is the most widely known weapon in the marketing armoury, and tends to be the most
expensive!
You do not have to be Coca Cola to sponsor events/teams/whatever. Sponsoring a local charity can
vastly increase your local visibility. You do not need to give money, it could be goods or services
where the perceived value to them is much greater than the actual cost to you.
In my twenty years experience of marketing one of the biggest problems I come across is the
inappropriateness or mis-targeting of printed material
Marketing has set the back-drop for the salesman to make the sale. When thought through as part
of a targetted marketing plan, this back-drop can make the sale much, much easier to achieve.
Maximise your business potential by producing quality pre-qualified leads or appointments for
your sales team.
A model for thinking through how to generate sales leads
Clear, concise copywriting can make all the difference to your required end result - sales!
The quality of the business decisions you take is dependent upon the quality of the information you
have
As with other weapons in the marketing armoury, be crystal clear about what you're trying to
achieve with a promotional scheme. They can be very costly and very time-consuming if you allow
your enthusiasm to run away with itself.
2.MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS
How to write your own marketing plan
SWOT analysis: The SWOT analysis is a very simple but effective means of carrying out an analysis of a
company/product.
The SWOT analysis is probably the first step in putting together a marketing plan or business plan for your
product/business. If you would like help with your SWOT analysis, please contact us.
Marketing plan. A marketing plan is critical for the development of a successful business. The following marketing
plan table gives you an indication of the marketing process you should be going through in order to produce a
coherent and achievable marketing plan. The large multi-national companies will spend many months on this and
hold many, many internal meetings to debate the options. Smaller companies should at least consider the process
and attempt to answer the same questions - although it should be much quicker/easier.
Marketing mix. You have decided what your overall company mission is. You have then gone through the process of
defining your marketing objectives, and defining the marketing strategies you will employee in order to meet those
objectives. You are now moving into the decision-making process for defining the actual tactics you will utilise.
• Which elements of the marketing mix are most appropriate?
• Which weapons in the marketing armoury should you be using?
3.SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT stands for
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats.
The SWOT analysis is a very simple but effective means of carrying out an analysis of a company/product.
The SWOT analysis is probably the first step in putting together a marketing plan or business plan for your
product/business. If you would like help with your SWOT analysis, please contact us.
Strengths: what are the strengths of your product? What makes it better than other products? Are these
strengths being sufficiently exploited? Are they being sufficiently defended?
Weaknesses: what are the weaknesses of your product? What makes it inferior to other products? Are there
strategies you should be adopting to offset these weaknesses? Should you be removing these weaknesses
completely?
Opportunities: what external factors are there that could be embraced if appropriate resources were
allocated?
(One of the biggest opportunities, especially for a small business, must be the setting up of a web site.
Click here to see the small business package.)
Threats: what external factors are there that threaten to reduce your market share?
Strengths Weaknesses
• No 2 brand in this market sector • Brand not so appealing to youth
market
• Very strong customer loyalty to
the brand • Product specification means it is
difficult to supply variants at short
• Further product improvements due
notice
for launch within next 6 months
will offer real competitive
advantages
Opportunities Threats
• Government legislation about to • Usage figures suggest that
be introduced will enable us to customers in this sector are using
make additional product claims these products less frequently
because of health concerns.
• New technology being developed
will mean a re-allignment of the
market sector
The above table gives an idea of what some of the major issues might be under the four main headings. This is a
very simple exercise that all businesses should do, not least because of its simplicity. It also forces you to take a
much more global view of your business - something which many owner/managers find very difficult when their
working day is completely dominated by day-to-day firefighting activities
Once you have completed this task, you should proceed to the marketing plan.
Why not recruit the hourly consultancy services of a marketing professional?
4.MARKETING PLAN - SAMPLE PLAN
Marketing plan. A marketing plan is critical for the development of a successful business. The following table
gives you an indication of the marketing process you should be going through in order to produce a coherent and
achievable marketing plan. The large multi-national companies will spend many months on this and hold many,
many internal meetings to debate the options. Smaller companies should at least consider the process and
attempt to answer the same questions - although it should be much quicker/easier.
1. Mission What is the overall goal of the company?
2. What are you trying to achieve (usually over the next

Objectives year) must be measureable and specific
3. What resources need to be applied to achieve these

Strategies objectives?
4. Tactics Which elements of the marketing mix are most

(Plan and Time appropriate? Which weapons in the marketing armoury
& Events) should you be using?
Set out the detailed action plan including the time frame
for all elements?
You are currently promoting your products. Why do you promote them in the way you do?
Why do you attend that exhibition?
Why do you continue to reprint that leaflet?
If you can satisfactorally answer questions like these, then that's great. My experience however is that all too often
the answer is
"because we've always done it"
or
"because our competitors do it".
These are not good reasons, and they invariably come about because the above planning process has not been
gone through. The "classic" approach to developing a marketing plan would involve the above process. Those of you
who are not used to a " market led" approach to business might be inclined to think that this approach is too
theoretical and not of the real world. Let me attempt to quash that view immediately.
The most successful, efficient and profitable companies are those that have a very clear vision of what they are trying
to achieve and how they will achieve it. If these goals (objectives) are successfully communicated within the
organisation then everyone is pulling in the same direction and all resources have the same end in mind. Profitable
business growth is then just a matter of time.
Lets take a look at a simple hypothetical example for a car-manufacturing plant in the Midlands
Objective.
(The objective should be specific and measurable. E.g.)
To capitalise on the growing customer demand for energy efficient cars and secure 10 per cent of the small
car market by 2005.
Strategy.
(What resources need to be committed in order to achieve the above objective)
By building a new 800 cc engine at our Midlands plant.
By distributing direct to consumers and bypassing the traditional dealers and showrooms.
Tactics.
(What are the individual activities that need to be carried out in order to fulfil the above strategy)
Explain the new distribution network to consumer and trade journalists.
- PR campaign
- Targetted radio advertisement campaign
- Produce leaflet
Set up a website able to take enquiries and orders
-
etc
Whether the above is a viable projet or not is not the point. What I am trying to demonstrate here is that the individual
tactics (advertising, press releases, leaflets, sponsorship, etc) should be determined by the marketing
objectives/strategies.
Just because you have always attended the Birmingham car show for the last 25 years it is clearly now not a sensible
use of your limited resources given that it is primarily attended by members of the traditional distribution system.
Your current management team (especially your sales team) might argue very strongly for a continuation of
attendance at the show. Also, given that you are attempting to do something different it is quite likely that your
management team have little experience of the marketing tactics (armoury) available to support such a (new)
strategy.
5.MARKETING MIX
Marketing mix. You have decided what your overall company mission is. You have then gone through the
process of defining your marketing objectives, and defining the marketing strategies you will employ in order to
meet those objectives. You are now moving into the decision-making process for defining the actual tactics you
will utilise.
-- elements of the marketing mix.

McCarthy identified the four P's of the marketing mix (40 years ago!)
Product: Defines the characteristics of your product or service

that meets the needs of your customers.
Price: Decide on a pricing strategy - do not let it just happen!
Even if you decide not to charge for a service (a loss leader),
you must realise that this is a conscious decision and forms part
of the pricing strategy.
Promotion: This includes all the weapons in the marketing

armoury - advertising, selling, sales promotions, Public
Relations, etc.
Place (or route of distribution): Some of the revolutions in

marketing have come about by changing this P. Think of
telephone insurance and the internet! A bit of lateral thinking
here might reap rewards for your business.
The leap forward in thinking at the time was that it put the customer at the forefront of the company thinking. Although
marketing has got much more sophisticated over the years, I still find this model a very useful way of communicating
to non-marketers exactly what marketing is all about.
There are a vast array of circumstances that will dictate which elements of the marketing mix are to be employed and
in which proportion. If you have put sufficient time into accurately defining your marketplace, your market segment,
your product positioning, and your unique selling propositions then it becomes much easier to carry out this task.
I cannot stress this point strongly enough. Taking time to think through your marketing strategy forces you to take
some very difficult decisions. The most difficult ones are those where you decide NOT to do certain things; such as
deciding certain market sectors are not key to your company's success due to the difficulty in competing effectively.
The benefits of taking such decisions are that it really helps you to focus on a more limited (and achievable) set of
objectives. It then becomes much clearer which elements of the marketing mix need to be used, and hence you
achieve profitable results from your marketing budget.
A few years ago I took on a senior marketing role within a large organisation and one of the biggest problems I
experienced over the initial weeks was a constant supply of "promotional opportunities" being offered up by a whole
range of agencies and promotional companies. Because I had not inherited a clearly defined marketing strategy I
could not decide which of these opportunities were good and which were inappropriate. Although this is a frustrating
situation to be in, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I could put together an agreed marketing strategy
and then cherry pick the most appropriate of those promotional ideas.
The point is that less experienced managers can easily become totally snowed under by such an array of conflicting
and costly opportunities. This then leads to a promotional campaign based on "which agency sent in the glossiest
brochure" rather than on a promotional campaign that supports the marketing objectives/strategies.
6.MARKETING MIX - PRODUCT


What are the products features?
What are the benefits of those features?
Do you need all those features?

Where a product is technically orientated it is not uncommon for the product to contain features that have dubious
benefits as far as the customer is concerned.
These features might be very clever, or even technically brilliant but unless they can be appreciated by the customer
and perceived to be of use by the customer then they have no relevance.
Now this in itself is not necessarily a problem except that products with added features usually cost more to
manufacture. Your profits are hit.
Alternatively, I have been involved in the marketing of technical products where some of the more basic requirements
for a successful product are overlooked or ignored - usually because the feature the customer would like to see is not
a technical feature.
An example here is where I was involved with the marketing of the installation of security products such as burglar
alarms. In the company, dominated by engineers, the product supplied was sometimes over specified and yet the
time spent with customers explaining the way it worked was minimal.
And on many occasions the customer was left with either no instruction booklet at all or was left with a document that
more resembled a technical manual! All the customer really needed was something which sets out in layman's terms
exactly how to use the product.
How will the product be serviced? Is it the product you are really interested in or the back-up service behind it? Does
Hewlett Packard make more money by selling printers or by selling print cartridges and other ancillary
products/services? A clear understanding and recognition of points like this will have a dramatic impact on, for
example, your pricing strategy!
Depending on how important this is to you will obviously determine how much resource you put into this area and
how much expertise you choose to develop. It may be that the development of a thorough and efficient servicing
operation provides your company with the competitive edge you are looking for. Alternatively, removing all support for
your product and directing your customers to alternative companies might enable you to reduce your overheads
substantially and give your product a different competitive edge - that of cost (and hence price).
Is there an opportunity for expanding the product range? In the personal finance market, if you already have a
customer who is purchasing a mortgage from you it is not inconceivable that he would be interested in purchasing a
pension plan or an insurance policy from you also. Sometimes the inclusion of additional products like this are not as
obvious as it might seem and a bit of lateral thinking is called for.
7.MARKETING MIX - PRICE
5.
4. marketing
1. overview 2. planning 3. swot marketing 6. product
plan
mix
11. public
7. price 8. promotion 9. place 10. literature 12. promos
relations
As has been already stated in, price is one of the four Ps in the marketing mix and is yet another weapon in the
marketing armoury. The price you decide to charge for a product or service can support its positioning. Likewise
a pricing which appears to be out of synchronisation with the product and with the other marketing elements will
only confuse customers and hence lead to lower sales.
A situation I commonly encounter is where a company bases its selling price on the cost of the product plus an
internally agreed percentage or margin. This calculation is done irrespective of product or market sector or
customer perceived value.
This means that some products are priced too expensively and hence never generate the volume they
should, and some products are priced too cheaply and never generate the volume or profit they should.
Also be aware of the salesman's anecdotal evidence that price seems to be the only factor that a customer
considers in making a purchasing choice. A huge amount of research has been done on this subject. Whereas
the salesman will generally place price as the number 1 factor in a list of factors such as delivery, service
backup, functionality, etc; customers will place it as only the number 3 or number 4 factor.
The production of good sales presentation material can help enormously here in that the salesman can be
guided to promote other positive aspects of the product or service on offer and hence build up its perceived
value to customer. If there is no attempt by the company to influence the sales story then invariably it will be
driven by the customer and this can lead very quickly to a debate on price and nothing else.
To take this argument a little further it is quite possible to sell exactly the same product to two different
customers and charge radically different prices. This is simply because the customers operate in different
market sectors and value the product quite differently.
Do you have a clearly defined and written pricing policy?
I am always surprised by the number of companies who do not seem to have thought through all eventualities
and decided how to charge for the various scenarios. A well thought through strategy can give you the ability to
sell the same products at vastly different prices to different market sectors without upsetting any of your
customer base.
Is your product a loss leader? By offering a product at a greatly reduced price you can generate a lot of interest
from customers in a relatively short period of time and give yourself the opportunity to generate more business
from those customers in the fullness of time. It can even be worth your while to make a loss on this product.
Top of Form
partner-pub-6516 FORID:10 ISO-8859-1
Search
Bottom of Form
8.MARKETING MIX - PROMOTION
5.
4. marketing
plan
mix
11. public
relations
Promotion: This is the P that most non marketers are familiar with, as it includes the elements that
most people believe to be marketing such as selling and advertising etc. Unfortunately it is these same people
who underestimate what marketing can do.
A huge amount of work should have been done prior to arriving at this stage in the market planning process if a
promotion is to be successful and profitable.
Too many managers who have not been exposed to a market led approach all too often jump straight to this
stage in the process and commence to waste large sums of money and effort. Even worse, they recruit a full-
time marketing person to sort out the ailments of the company and then expect the marketing person to produce
a new corporate brochure which will suddenly turnaround the fortunes of the company.
If a company is not generating the sales or profits it should, then it is

usually not simply a failing of the company's promotional tactics! It is
usually something much more fundamental than this.
Hence the benefit of bringing in a marketing consultant such as myself in order to take a more global
look at the company's weaknesses.
This P in the marketing mix deals with all the communication vehicles such as PR, sales, advertising, etc. these
topics are covered in other pages of this site.
9.MARKETING MIX - PLACE
Place refers to the means by which your customer acquires your product. This includes the actual place it is
purchased (the shop, the telephone, the web page, the warehouse) as well as the actual route of distribution.
The distribution chain
Most consumer goods are purchased from a retailer, who purchase them from a wholesaler/distributor, who purchase
them from the manufacture. If the goods were imported there might be more merchants in this distribution chain.
Sometimes, this distribution chain can be bypassed or leapt over. In the security industry, some manufacturers of
security systems sell their product directly to end users at the same time as selling them to security installation
companies at the same time as selling them to national distributors. The point is that these different distribution
channels can provide different levels of profitability and they can quite happily run alongside each other provided a
well thought through pricing strategy has been decided upon.
For example a consumer is likely to want only one variant of your product and expect to purchase it immediately. A
retailer is likely to want limited stock of a number of variants and not expect to pay for 60 days. A distributor is looking
at large volumes of product in all its variants at greatly discounted rates. Your ditribution policy needs to take account
of these variables. If it does not, then you will find yourself in a very embarassing position with a customer sooner or
later which would result in the loss of a sale.
The complication to this approach however is that you need to consider the fact that your 'customer' might be a
consumer, a retailer or a distributor and that each of these customers will be looking for perhaps different features or
different levels of service.
The Internet.
Needles to say the internet offers a new "Place" to many business sectors. It has enabled many middlemen to be
bypassed resulting in a price advantage to be offered to the customer followed by the inevitable increase in volume
for the seller.
This could be selling direct to your consumer and missing out the retailer, or it could be direct to your retailer, missing
out the wholesaler.
Business growth for you?
Is there any way you could generate extra volume on the internet?
Given the relatively low set-up costs, you should be seriously looking at this avenue! You do not need to set up a
complex site, we may be able to set up a simple income-generating site for only a few hundred pounds. I personally
favour this approach because it gives you enormous flexibilty in developing your commercial site - especially useful
for small businesses with little experience in this medium. You literally develop the site over a few months as you
uncover the secrets to success for your market sector. Costs are minimal.
How many small business-owners would like to take on a new business-building strategy that offered almost
no risk?
10.MARKETING & SALES LITERATURE

In my twenty years experience of marketing, one of the biggest problems I come across is the
inappropriateness or mis-targeting of printed material.
Who reads your sales literature?
Do YOU read the direct mail, sales letters, and email that turn up on your desk? Probably not!
But occasionally you will come across an exception – apiece that captures your attention. A piece that will draw you
to the sender's message, because the message is clear and genuine and creates a need for that product where a
need may not previously have existed.
So, is your company producing the well read or the unread literature? Can you tell the difference?
Who writes your sales copy at the moment? Is it too technical?
Many companies will give the responsibility for writing the copy for sales leaflets to the relevant product experts within
their company. That makes sense doesn't it? Not necessarily! The product specialist has a technical bias and usually
finds it very difficult, if not impossible to pitch the communication at the right level.
One just needs to look at some of the companies selling computer hardware and software to see examples of this.
Additionally, different customers will require the information to be pitched differently, so you may well need 2 leaflets
selling exactly the same product, targeted at 2 quite different customer segments.
Who writes your copy at the moment? Is it targeted?

Another important issue to consider is ensuring your leaflet range has been organised and targeted correctly. Your
internal product experts will probably produce literature based on your product range – i.e. one leaflet on product A,
one leaflet on product B, etc. The marketing approach (or market-led approach) is more likely to recommend a range
of leaflets based on customer groupings. Therefore, customer group X could be interested in products A and B, while
customer group Y could be interested in products C and D. This approach is much more likely to generate additional
business. It also lends itself much more effectively to mailing and telesales campaigns for example.
What we can do for you

We have an understanding of and access to a range of technical expertise and a long and successful history of sales
and marketing campaigns. Together, these skills enable us to efficiently and effectively translate your selling
argument from your product experts, making it relevant and attractive to the appropriate customer group.
Producing your Marketing Literature

Supporting product literature must present your company image very clearly and professionally. The detail and text
are as important as the overall visual image that it projects.
When producing your literature it is vital to focus on the benefits of your product or service, and just produce a list of
specifications to the reader, and not just list specifications and features. You need to be very clear about your focus
before producing your literature.
• What is the purpose of this literature?
General company information; specific product details and benefits; specialist information?
• Who is the target readership of this literature?

You need to absolutely sure you have this right. It can be very easy to lose focus and end up with something
vague like “working mothers between the ages of 34 and 42”. That is far too general, and if you miss the
mark here, your literature is worthless.
• How do you get them to read it?
Actually, getting their attention is pretty easy – keeping it is the tricky bit. A clear message with a logical
flow, and an understanding of your reader’s needs will keep them reading. If your research has been done
correctly, you should be able to create a scenario that is familiar – and one that your product can improve. A
clear explanation of its benefits should help create a desire for your product or service. Your readers need to
relate your product to real-world situations, and this is where a well-written case study can prove invaluable.
• What is your budget for this literature?

This will help you focus on the level of quality you should expect from this literature?
• Who is the best person within your organisation to co-ordinate this literature?
Marketing department, technical staff etc.
• Should you offer freebies?

Free stuff can be useful and of significant value. Either premium items or information, it should be both
useful and consistent with your company's image and product or service. Be very sure that, as with your
product line, your freebies are of good quality and give a favourable impression.
So, before you start putting together your sales literature think long and hard about what you want it to do for you.
Bad sales literature can be worse than no sales literature. Do consider having your sales literature professionally
produced. We can work within most budgets, and understand the financial constraints often faced by small
businesses.
Please let us know what you are looking for; we are friendly and professional and would love to help. We can work
with even the most basic ideas, and will help you work the smallest thoughts into targeted and meaningful sales
literature
11.PUBLIC RELATIONS / MEDIA RELATIONS

Public Relations is, in my opinion, a vastly underrated and under used

weapon in the marketing armoury - particularly so because of its
potentially low-cost.
With advertising, for every £10,000 spent you will be able to
acquire £10,000 worth of advertising space -- whether it be on TV,
on radio, or in a magazine. The beauty of a Public Relations
campaign is that £10,000 of spend can generate £100,000 or more
of communication space if you know what you're doing.
There is a range of activities which can be included under the "public relations" banner and might involve liaison with
a whole raft of organisations such as opinion formers, trade associations, influencers and of course journalists. As
mentioned earlier however (literature) the argument needs to be pitched quite differently at all these various groups.
By composing copy aimed at these different groups and incorporating it into press releases etc. a very efficient and
productive communication programme can be implemented for relatively little budget. Once again the key is the
ability to understand what information these different readers would find interesting and want to read.
Let's assume you have a locally based or regionally based business, and your customers are therefore local
consumers. Your local newspaper is constantly looking for stories to publish and most businesses (even yours) will
have events every now and again that are worthy of coverage in the local press. A simple press release can be put
together and, provided it is pitched appropriately, stands every chance of being picked up by the local journalist. The
same situation exists if you are operating in the business to business environment. These local newspapers still carry
business sections of some description and hence would be interested in local business stories.
If this strategy is successfully followed, over a period of time opportunities invariably present themselves which really
can provide your company with openings to communicate what would not be available to any of your competitors.
The Trade Press

Do you liaise regularly with your various trade publications, either in person or in writing? It has never ceased to
amaze me how often I acquire novel and inexpensive marketing ideas over a cup of coffee with an editor or
journalists from one of these publications. Why not let us visit some of your trade journalists and open up these
communication channels? Another by-product of this approach is that very often they will then come to your company
and ask your advice and views when they next come to write an article on your industry/market sector. There is no
reason why members of your own management team cannot takeover from these activities once I have been able to
set up the core system. Hence my comments at the beginning of this page about the cost effectiveness of the PR
weapon.
10 tips for an effective Press Release

The first simple step towards starting a public relations campaign. Here are10 tips to
help your press release makes the news.
1. Make sure the information is as newsworthy as possible.
2. Tell the audience that the information is intended for them and why they should
continue to read it.
3. Start with a brief description of the news, then distinguish who announced it, and
not the other way around.
4. Ask yourself, "How are people going to relate to this and will they be able to
connect?"
5. Make sure the first 10 words of your release are effective, as they are the most
important.
6. Avoid excessive use of adjectives and fancy language.
7. Deal with the facts
8. Provide as much contact information as possible: Individual to contact, address,

phone, fax, email, Web site address.
9. Make sure you wait until you have something with enough substance to issue a
release.
10. Make it as easy as possible for the journalists to do their jobs.
11. Do not give up! How many customers buy from you the first time they hear from
you? The same situation exists here - but establishing contact with them is the first
hurdle
12.PROMOTIONAL SCHEMES
5.
4. marketing
plan
mix
11. public
relations
As with other weapons in the marketing armoury, be crystal clear about what you're trying to achieve
with a promotional scheme. They can be very costly and very time-consuming if you allow your
enthusiasm to run away with itself.
Conversely it can be a very targeted weapon and an appropriate creative approach can increase its perceived
value well above its actual cost. An example I would cite of this is a promotion carried out by a leading condom
brand to young people to encourage them to carry condoms just in case. The condom key-ring was developed
which was a small plastic sleeve on a key-ring and just large enough to hold a single condom.
These plastic sleeves were produced with appropriate "slogans" on the front face. The result of this promotion
was that the company were inundated with requests for this item by both consumers and health care
professionals involved in promoting safer sex. This then resulted in considerable media attention and hence
considerable free advertising of the brand. It even resulted in this promotional item being sold to health care
professionals as they proceeded to be of great help in spreading the safer sex message.
This promotion did not cost money; it actually turned in a profit!
Your promotional scheme might be aimed at:
• consumers
• your retailers
• your distributors
With your customer audience of consumers/retailers/distributors. The objective of your promotional
scheme might be:
• to generate new customers
• to entice current customers to use the product more frequently
• to entice current customers to purchase other products from your company
• to reward current customers
Suffice it to say promotional schemes can be put together to meet a wide range of marketing objectives. All I
would add is that they can become quite costly and they can take up considerable management time if they are
to work effectively.
13. ADVERTISING
Advertising is the most widely known weapon in the marketing armoury. This is a paid medium involving radio, TV,
poster-sites, press, or direct mail. Each medium offers several advantages and disadvantages which I will touch on
below. However, it is not my intention to say much about advertising for the following reasons.
1. As far as small businesses are concerned, this is the marketing weapon they are most familiar with and
have most expeience of.
2. It can be a very expensive weapon and one that has very often left the small business owners feeling
'cheated' because it has not generated the results they were looking for.
3. One of the goals of this site is to point out to small businesses that there are a number of other weapons
that can be used to communicate their wares apart from advertising, and that these other methods need not
be expensive.
4. Any advertising that is done by a small business is (or should be) very targetted and as such would not
necessarily fit into any generalised 'rules' I might set out here.
Television
Television, with its properties of sound and moving pictures, makes it the fastest and most dynamic medium for
selling products and services. Also consider the fact that most people relax in front of the television and tend to
"surrender" to it. The brain becomes relatively inactive, therefore advertisements with a production quality that are
often far better than the quality of the surrounding programmes can have quite a dramatic impact. This is particularly
useful for products with minimal intrinsic interest whose advertisements in the press for example would be largely
ignored.
Television is a useful medium for telling a story or for demonstration purposes. The fact that viewers are very often in
a relaxed mode also leads to one of the disadvantages of this medium -- namely that the message needs to be easily
understood. It is not like a press advertisement where are you can re-read the information in order to clarify the
message.
Historically, television has been a pure mass media method of advertising and so has been used extensively by
companies promoting F.M.C.G. (fast-moving consumer goods). With the explosion in television channels this is now
not necessarily the case and a relatively high degree of targeting can be achieved.
Cinema
The cinema is superficially very similar to television. But with two key differences.
1. The audience tends to be much younger -- in the 15 to 25 age bracket. This is good for certain clothes
manufacturers as well as for less (cool) service providers such as banks and building societies.
2. The audience is much more awake and hence more inclined to become involved in a more complicated story.
Radio
With the high regionalisation of radio stations this medium can be very popular with small to medium-size companies
attempting to build up a local or regional business. It goes without saying that the production costs of radio
advertisements are a lot less than a TV or cinema advertisement and of course the cost of the advertising space itself
is a lot less because of the greatly reduced size of audience.
Press
Press is a static medium - words and still pictures. It is therefore the prime medium for communicating information in
detail such as financial interest rates, performance of cars, etc., etc.. Also, press advertisements can be kept and
referred to at a later date.
Reading is a dynamic activity and the mind is very much awake. The reader is very likely to be actively seeking
information and when the advertising message coincides with the reader's interest the probability of the sale is
massively increased. However, the readers are also very selective and given the huge number of printed
advertisements available it is very easy for them to skip over the vast majority of them.
The key objective therefore in press advertising is to make sure the attention of the reader is grabbed!
Posters
The poster, because of the way in which it is seen, is very different from newspaper or magazine advertisements.
Reading is usually a private activity and therefore newspapers and magazines can carry advertisements for personal
products which could look out of place in more public settings such as on television or on posters. Conversely, the
poster is a highly public medium that can be seen by crowds of people at any one time.
They also have the very distinct advantage of being at very specific locations. This factor has been extensively used
by the large supermarkets who wish to make the local population aware of the proximity of their local store.
Of course the major disadvantage is the fact that posters are usually seen on the move, often at 40 mph, and of the
hundreds we pass in any given week very, very few are actually looked at. Good posters demand strong graphics
and few words!
14.SPONSORSHIP
I am sure we can all think of companies
who have used sponsorship to generate
exposure for itself and its products. A
certain insurance company has become
a household name in the UK as a result
of sponsoring cricket over many many
years - even before sports sponsorship
became so popular.
"Fine" I hear you saying "but we do not have a budget of many millions of pounds." I agree, but are there no similar
but smaller scale examples in your area?
Also sponsorship does not necessarily mean that you have to provide money, you could be simply providing the
product you normally sell but for free or at a radically reduced price. The key is to provide something of high
perceived value to an organisation that is of much lower cost to yourself.
I give you an example of a company who had a very basic printing machine and which was largely unused in its
basement. I struck a deal with a national charity that desperately needed printed promotional material as part of its
fund-generating process.
By agreeing to print their literature for them at very very little cost my company was given the credit on the bottom of
all printed material.
The Result. My company received national visibility and achieved "independent" endorsement by an
influential charity - for almost no budget at all.
15.SALES
It bothers me enormously the amount of times I have had conversations

with senior managers who seem to think that sales is the same as
marketing.
I started my commercial career many years ago as a salesman working in the pharmaceutical industry. I was very
privileged to have received a great deal of training from my employers and in particular I remember a slide which
spoke a great deal to me. It went something like this
......................
• What sort of reputation

does your company
• Who is your company?
have?
• How long has your
• Why should I be
company been around?
interested in your
• What is your company products?
good at?
• Who are you?
• How big is your company?
• Can I believe what you
• What is your company's tell me?
product range?
• What sort of training
have you had?
Now what did you say you wanted? You want me to buy a product from you?
The point is that the customer needs to be

satisfied on a very wide range of questions
Conversely a marketing campaign
before he is in the position to talk seriously
employing a wide range of
with a salesman about the purchase of
weapons in the marketing
product. Usually, if these questions have not
armoury can answer many of
been answered then it is impossible for a
these questions before the
sale to be made. If the salesman himself
salesman even enters the office
needs to attempt to answer all these
of the customer. Thus, marketing
questions, it will probably take him an
has set the back-drop for the
enormous amount of time and probably over
salesman to make the sale.
a prolonged period of time and many visits -
not an efficient approach.
Selling material?
Do your sales force have all the selling material they require to do a professional job? In a competitive market place if
your salesmen do not have well rehearsed and logical arguments for why your product or service is better, then the
customer will drive the conversation onto the subject he knows will put the salesman on his back foot - price.
However, if the salesman can control the conversation by discussing other positive aspects then the probability of
sales success at a more profitable price is vastly increased.
If you have adopted some of the other weapons in the marketing armoury then has this been put together as part of
the sales literature? Not only is this an effectve way of making sure your customer is aware of the professionalism of
your company, but it is also another opportunity to ensure the conversation is within your control and hence away
from the subject of price.
SALES LEAD GENERATION

Below is a model for thinking through how to generate sales leads. You might think this model looks too complicated
for you and your business - you could be right.
However, it still sets out the general principles that should be considered. Once again, my experience tells me that
many companies look at the generation of sales leads in an overly simplistic way and as a consequence their plan
doesn't work and/or they waste large sums of money. This particular model was used by one of my clients that had
an annual turnover of over £100 million - hence the need to go into the process in some detail.
A Model for generating sales leads
Buying customer
1 3
(has bought within defined period)
Working Prospect
3 7
(firm proposal on the table - awaiting decision)
Prospect
4 10
(needs and wants to be understood)
Hot Lead: They want to see you. "We've been

A 5
seriously thinking about it"
Warm Lead: Seems very interested. Open to
B 10
exploratory chat or meeting
C Future Lead: "Contact me again in 4 months" 35
Potential Lead: Not interested. "Happy with

D 50
current arrangements"
Suspects
We think they could use our services/products
4 Reactive activity Proactive activity 100

contacts contacts
Yellow Pages ® respondents Cold calls, perhaps after mailer
selling vs other companies selling the need
Left Right
START
The model is split into two halves and attempts to do a number of things.
1. It explains the process a contact would need to go through from

a "cold call" to a "buying customer".
2. It compares this proactive activity with the reactive activity
whereby customers come to you via advertising etc like Yellow
Pages ® .
3. By comparing this proactive activity and reactive activity it gives
you an idea of the relatively high number of "suspects" needed
in order to generate a handful of "buying customers".
4. By considering the different stages of this process it becomes
easier to decide how to make the sales generation process as
efficient and non-wasteful as possible. For example, all those
classified as "future leads" can be put into a database and
contacted in four months time. Likewise, all those classified as
"potential leads" can be put into a different database that could
receive three standard company mailings at Christmas, Easter
etc.
The left-hand side (reactive activity) is relatively The right-hand side (proactive activity) is a little more
straightforward and demonstrates the process whereby a complicated and demonstrates the process whereby a
suspect contacts you following an advertisement such as suspect is contacted "cold" by your company and the
Yellow Pages ® . As you would expect, you need a mechanism that should be considered in order to verify
relatively small number of these suspects in order to that this "suspect" is actually a "prospect". The initial
generate a buying customer. sales conversation is likely to require you to sell him the
The other thing to note is that in the initial conversation need for the sort of products that you sell; it is unlikely
with the suspect, the sales argument is likely to revolve you would get into a conversation where your products
around the products and services that you sell versus are compared to those of the competition.
your competitors
• A suspect who responds to your proactive
. activity has not demonstrated any prior interest
in your products or services. Hence you would
• A suspect telephones your company and expect a high failure rate. In the marketplace we
requests information or an appointment. were considering when we drew up the above
model, we assumed that 50% of these suspects
• 3 out of 4 of these prospects are sufficiently were happy with their current arrangements and
interested whereby you provide them with a firm were not interested. This does not mean that
proposal. they will never be interested. You might wish to
• 1/3 of these proposals are taken up by the consider contacting them again at a later date.
prospect and hence he becomes a buying • We assumed that 35 % of these suspects
customer. expressed some kind of interest, but not for
now.
• We assumed that 10 % of these suspects
seemed very interested and quite willing to
have an exploratory chat on the telephone or an
initial meeting.
• We assumed 5% of these suspects definitely
wanted to see us - we had contacted them at
the right time!
• Out of the 4 categories of A,B,C and D we
assumed that only 10 % became a prospect.
• 7 out of 10 of these prospects were sufficiently
interested for us to provide a firm proposal.
• 3 out of the 7 prospects actually became a
buying customer.
Lack of credibility with your salesforce?

A common problem I have come across is where salesmen have little or no confidence in the sales leads that are
being provided to them. Invariably this is because the sort of mechanism set out above has not been gone through.
There is absolutely no point in your company spending valuable marketing resources on the sales lead-generation
process if that process has no credibility in the eyes of the salesforce. Additionally, most salesmen do not respond
positively to being given a list of "suspects" whereby they have to do the sifting process. Under normal circumstances
I would recommend you use other (cheaper) personnel to carry out this sifting process and allow your salesmen to
get on with their major task of selling.
Yellow Pages is a registered trademark of Yell Ltd
MARKET RESEARCH
The quality of the business decisions you take is dependent upon the quality of the information you have.
The profitable development of a company can only come from the continual attempt to match the company's
capabilities with customer needs. In order that a company can be sure that this matching process is taking
place effectively, it is necessary for some type of information flow to be organised between the customer
and the company.
I have been involved in the production of a large number of market research projects over the years and one thing
has always been true - I have always learnt important pieces of market information that have enabled me to make
wiser business decisions. As a consequence market research has always provided excellent value for money.
Market research need not be expensive; even a small focus group can produce invaluable information. And
many people (customers) are more than willing to attend such an event simply because you have
demonstrated a clear interest in hearing their views.
Most people like to share their opinions with others!
Market research can be either quantitative or qualitative.
Quantitative. This is designed to produce quantitative numbers on customer behaviour, attitudes or needs. For
example the research might clarify that 35% of customers preferred option X, 48% preferred option Y, and 17% were
not interested in either option. To acquire data like this you would generally require a large number of customers
(respondents).
Simple telephone survey?
Qualitative. This is designed to produce qualitative information on customer behaviour, attitudes or needs.
For example the research might give you a much clearer insight into the way a customer considers the purchase of a
certain product.
What he knows about the product category.
How well he understands the advantages of the product.
Misconceptions of the product.
The production of this research might involve the use of a focus group where only six to eight people are sat around a
table and invited to discuss their views on your (carefully chosen and controlled) questions.
One of the topics I discussed elsewhere in this web site is the appropriate pitching of sales literature for customers.
As the owner of a small business, I have absolutely no doubt that you fully understand how your products work.
Unfortunately, there is a tendency to produce sales literature which assumes that the reader has the same level of
knowledge and the same level of enthusiasm for your products as you do. In my experience this shared level of
knowledge and enthusiasm is rare. Likewise if you are the supplier of a product with technical aspects your are quite
likely to be technically orientated and as such will believe that its these technical aspects that are of greatest interest
to your customers; whereas the customer is much more interested in how easy the product is to use, its instruction
booklet, and your company's support packages.
This was exactly the circumstances I encountered in my work with a leading installation company of electronic
security equipment. The company was, as you would expect, dominated by very clever engineers who were always
striving to make available to their customers the most recent "gadget" because they assumed their customers were
as technically orientated as they were. My research with their customers said something quite different. Their
customers believed the current service delivery was very poor in some areas (especially the support services for the
more complicated "gadgets") and what they wanted most of all was a simpler security system that was easier for
them to use and that was supported by a rapid and efficient engineer call out service.
TELEMARKETING OR TELESALES?
SEMINARS TO IMPROVE YOUR IN-HOUSE SKILLS.

Telemarketing: Telesales:
If you would like your people to If you would like your Telesales
learn how to maximise on your Team to manage and service your
business potential by producing accounts by telephone, then the
quality pre-qualified leads or Telesales Programme is for you.
appointments for your sales team
then the Telemarketing Programme
is for you.
click here and we will email back a
copy of the agenda.
click here and we will email back a

copy of the agenda.
Why not acquire the skills and learn about the tips and scripts to
do your own telemarketing and/or telesales?
Why use your marketing budget to employ outside companies to
do it, when for a fraction of the price you can acquire the skills and
techniques yourself.
Places are strictly limited to allow for maximum benefit for delegates. Fill
in the form below to reserve your place. Joining instructions together
with the programme will be sent to you. Payment with reservations
please £129 per person.
Top of Form
seminars@consu email,telephone
your name:
Telesales seminar
seminar:
Telemarketing seminar
your position:
your company:
your email address:
your telephone number:
Seminar details Reset

Bottom of Form
COPYWRITING FROM COPYWRITERS AGENCY

Sales Literature
The most important copy is your sales literature and there are a number of very simple but vital rules and guidelines
you should always bear in mind.
The heading must be immediately appealing

This is your most important goal. Always assume that your reader is just scanning and your headline has to stop
them in their tracks.
The benefits must be attractive and realistic
Build on your headline. The first two or three words are critical. There can sometimes be a case for headline poppers
such as: FREE; AMAZING; ATTRACTIVE; EASY; GUARANTEE; WIN etc. Always bear in mind that you have only a
few seconds to grab your reader. Now you've got them, keep them. Your copy needs to follow on the promise of the
headline.
Keep your message clear.
It must be straightforward and easily understood. There should be no doubt about what your message is. Don't use a
long word where a short one will do. Don't try to impress with your knowledge. Bear in mind, not everyone is blessed
with good reading skills. At the same time don't dumb it down so that your readers get bored.
Keep your message short
You may think your product or service is wonderful and you could think of a thousand things to say about it – but your
reader may not feel the same. Tell them what they need to know, then stop.
Focus on the benefits
Copy often neglects to mention how the features of a product or service will benefit customers.
• A feature is a function of your product or service. You sell digital cameras that come packaged with a set of
free batteries - that's a feature.
• A benefit is the thing that your product or service will do for your buyer to somehow offer a solution to a
problem. Your cameras come with free batteries, making it easier and more convenient for your buyers to
use their cameras immediately without any additional purchase, that’sa benefit.
Target your Audience

Your product or service is never going to appeal to everyone. In fact, if you try to market it to everyone, you will end
up with a less well-defined product and therefore fewer sales. So take the time to ensure that you are targeting the
correct audience, and then create copy that will be attractive and appealing to them. Different customers may require
the information to be pitched differently, so you might have two leaflets selling exactly the same product, but targeting
two quite different customer segments.
Include a Call to Action
This seems fairly obvious – Buy Now - a call to action.
Oh, if only it were that simple; we’d all be rich! There are two things that you must remember when putting together a
call to action:
• What action you want people to take
• Why they should take this action
Think carefully about exactly what you are trying to do. Are you trying to generate leads? Do you want people to sign
up for your free newsletter? Are you trying to attract a specific audience and hoping to convert as many of those
people as possible into sales?
It is vitally important to understand that all copy, should, if possible, contain a call to action that clearly identifies what
action is desired.
Plan your layout carefully
Making the most of your layout is especially important when you're writing short copy. The right blend of emphasis
and information is the best way to attract viewers.
Too much information can appear unattractive, unappealing, and unprofessional—and the clutter will detract from the
meaning of your message.
On the other hand, too little emphasis leaves you in danger of never catching anyone's eye. If your ad is totally
boring, no one will ever even see it—and if they somehow do, they probably won't look at it long enough to find out
what it's about.
It is important to find the balance. A strong message that is clear and easily readable, and also aesthetically
appealing with a good blend of colours.
Check spelling and grammar
Spelling and grammar should be checked and re-checked, and then checked again.
Other business copywriting

Never under-estimate the value of good copy in other business literature. Attention to content is often overlooked in
the myriad of other things involved in running a business, but its importance cannot be over-emphasised.
So, whether it is a marketing message or administrative correspondence, a well-written document will convey your
message in a powerful and effective manner.
Well-written business literature should not only convey your message, but also be appealing and informative. It
should be immediately clear and engaging, and reflect your knowledge, skills and professional attitude.

1.marketing Planning Process

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

1.marketing Planning Process

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1.

MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS - OVERVIEW

The marketing planning process explained a little more

1. Mission What is the overall goal of the company?

2. What are you trying to achieve (usually over the next

3. What resources need to be applied to achieve these

4. Tactics Which elements of the marketing mix are most

-- elements of the marketing mix.

Product: Defines the characteristics of your product or service

Promotion: This includes all the weapons in the marketing

Place (or route of distribution): Some of the revolutions in

6.MARKETING MIX - PRODUCT

13. advertising 14. sponsorship 15. sales

What are the benefits of those features?

Do you need all those features?

If a company is not generating the sales or profits it should, then it is

13. advertising 14. sponsorship 15. sales

The distribution chain

10.MARKETING & SALES LITERATURE

13. advertising 14. sponsorship 15. sales

Who writes your sales copy at the moment? Is it too technical?

Who writes your copy at the moment? Is it targeted?

What we can do for you

Producing your Marketing Literature

• Who is the target readership of this literature?

• What is your budget for this literature?

• Should you offer freebies?

11.PUBLIC RELATIONS / MEDIA RELATIONS

13. advertising 14. sponsorship 15. sales

Public Relations is, in my opinion, a vastly underrated and under used

The Trade Press

10 tips for an effective Press Release

1. Make sure the information is as newsworthy as possible.

6. Avoid excessive use of adjectives and fancy language.

7. Deal with the facts

8. Provide as much contact information as possible: Individual to contact, address,

10. Make it as easy as possible for the journalists to do their jobs.

13. advertising 14. sponsorship 15. sales

13. advertising 14. sponsorship 15. sales

It bothers me enormously the amount of times I have had conversations

• What sort of reputation

The point is that the customer needs to be

SALES LEAD GENERATION

A Model for generating sales leads

Hot Lead: They want to see you. "We've been

C Future Lead: "Contact me again in 4 months" 35

Potential Lead: Not interested. "Happy with

4 Reactive activity Proactive activity 100

selling vs other companies selling the need

1. It explains the process a contact would need to go through from

Lack of credibility with your salesforce?

SEMINARS TO IMPROVE YOUR IN-HOUSE SKILLS.

click here and we will email back a

your email address:

your telephone number:

Seminar details Reset

COPYWRITING FROM COPYWRITERS AGENCY

The heading must be immediately appealing

Target your Audience

Other business copywriting

You might also like