How To Plan Your Marketing Strategies

By MRJ

Competitive advantage

Something set you apart from your rivals & makes your product more appealing to customers

Strategic marketing planning

Involves: Examining current market situation Assessing opportunities & setting objectives Developing marketing strategy to reach

objectives Purpose:

Help to identify & create competitive advantage

Results: “Marketing Plan”

Strategic marketing planning process

Examine Current Marketing Situation

Review past/current Performance

Evaluate competition

Examine internal strengths & weaknesses

Analyze external environment

Develop Marketing Strategy

Segment Market

Choose Target Market

Position Product

Develop Marketing Mix (4P’s)

Assess Opportunities & Set Objectives

Assess product & market opportunities

Set specific & measurable objectives

Step1: Examining Your Current Marketing Situation Reviewing Performance (how well each

product is doing in each market where it sold)

Evaluating Competition Examining internal strengths & weaknesses Analyzing external environment & tomorrow

changes

Reviewing Performance

Use history of marketing performance to explore: Slowed sales Prices cut & profit rate Improved sales Cash investment in new marketing activities

Review where you are Review how you got there Repeat successes & learn from mistakes

Evaluating Competition

Keep an eye on competition Pay attention to another ways customers

satisfied with Watch horizon for not-existed competitors

Examining internal strengths & weaknesses

Look at: management, financial resources, production capabilities, distribution networks, managerial expertise, promotional capabilities, ability to adjust your operation to different (cultures, customs, legal requirement & product specifications), technological expertise, & business commitment

Identify sources of competitive advantage (strengths) Identify areas need improvement (limitations) Analyze & decide whether:

Limit your business to opportunities which possess the required strengths

Challenge your business to reach higher goals by acquiring & developing new strengths

Analyzing external environment & tomorrow changes

Factors specifics impactEconomic conditions interest rates, inflation,

unemployment, personal income, saving rates

put off buying expensive items, pent-up demand

Natural environment interruptions in the supply of raw materials, floods, droughts, &

cold weather

Affect product availability, affect behavior of target

customers

Social & cultural trends

Trends against product, change in tastes

Needs more advertising to build awareness about

product benefit, products modifications to respond

Laws & regulations On product design, pricing, advertising, activities

Control the marketing

Technology Change in technology Change in marketing approaches

Step2:

New marketing opportunities: market penetration (Selling more of your

existing products in current markets) Product development (creating new products

for your current markets) Geographic expansion (selling your existing

products in new markets) Diversification (creating new products for

new markets) Set SMART objectives (eg.certain level of

market share,…etc) understood & known by employees

Market Share

A firm’s portion of the total sales in a market

Step3: Developing Your marketing Strategy Divide your market into segments & niches Choosing your target customers Position to be established in these markets Developing a marketing mix to help you get

there

Definitions

Marketing Strategy: overall plan for marketing a product

Market: people or businesses who need or want a product & have the money to buy it

Market segmentation: division of total market into smaller relatively homogeneous groups

Dividing Markets Into Segments

Objective: to group customers with similar characteristics, behavior, & needs then target them by offering products Priced, distributed & promoted differently.

Factors to Identify Market SegmentsFactors specifics Effects

Demographics Study of statistical characteristics of a population (age, gender, income, race, occupation, ethnic group)

Poor indicator of behavior

Geographics Categorization of customers according to geographical location (such as regions, cities, counties or

neighborhoods) to customize & sell products meet needs of specific markets (assuming buying behavior influenced by

people location)

-

Psychographics Classification of customers on the bases of their psychological makeup, by focusing on:

* psychological makeup (including activities, attitudes, interests, opinions, & lifestyles)

** why people behave the way they do (by examining brand preferences, media preferences, reading habits, values,

self-concept)

-

Geodemographics Method of combining geographical data with demographics data to develop profiles of neighborhood segments

Ease the customiztion

Behavior Categorization of customers according to their relationship with products (knowledge, attitude) or response to product

characteristics

-

Choosing Your Target Markets

Deciding which segment to target & when Target markets: specific customer groups or segments to whom

a company wants to sell a particular product Criteria to narrow the focus into suitable market segments:

Size of segment Competition in the segment Sales & profit potential Compatibility with company resources Strengths Costs Growth potential Risks

Strategies To Reach Target Markets

Undifferentiated marketing (mass marketing)

Differentiated marketing Concentrated marketing

Undifferentiated marketing

Ignore differences among buyers & offer only one product or product line to satisfy the entire market

Concludes: All buyers have similar needs All buyers can be served with same

standardized product

Differentiated marketing

Sell a variety of products to several target customer groups

Requires Substantial resources, why?

Marketing have to tailor products, prices, promotional efforts & distribution arrangements for each group

Which marketing is mostly used in pakistan differentiated or undifferentiated explain why

Concentrated marketing

Acknowledge that different market segments exist & choose to target just one

Useful when company resources are limited Allows to focus time & resources on single

type of customer Risky strategy (stake company fortune on

one segment)

Positioning Your Product

Using promotion, product, distribution & price to differentiate a good or service from those of competitors in the mind of prospective buyer

Factors: Features Performance Quality Durability Reliability Style Design Customer service (ordering ease, delivery, installation

methods, & customer support)

Developing The Marketing Mix The four key elements of marketing strategy: product,

price, distribution (place), & promotion Product covers Product itself + brand name, design,

packaging, services, quality, & warranty. Price: amount of money paid for product (include

discounts) Distribution: organized network of firms move goods &

services from producer to consumer Promotion: includes communication & promoting

activities of product to target markets (e.g. advertising, personal selling, public relations, sales promotion)

TargetMarket

Ethics

Social responsibility

Society

Tec

hnol

ogy

Politics

Regulation

Nat

ure

Econom

ics

Competition

Distribution

Price

Promotion

product

Positioning & the Marketing Environment