Entrepreneurship and small business:Marketing Plan(Unique Marketing Issues)

Muhammad Shafiqforshaf@gmail.comhttp://www.slideshare.net/forshaf

Book references:• Entrepreneurship by Bruce R. Barringer•Entrepreneurship by Hisrich

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WEEK 1: Wear only what sparks joyI hired a stylist, who came up with more perfect outfits that looked amazing and felt like me in two hours than I ever found in two years - all within my budget.

If you're confident enough in your style to not want a stylist, though, then this is the main principle to follow: Wear only what sparks joy. 

There are 3 main reasons for this:The slightest bit of discomfort (whether the physical or emotional) will kill your charisma. You'll feel uncomfortable, which gets in the way of charisma. Also, if your clothes make you fidget, feel itchy, etc., people will notice your discomfort - but think that you're uncomfortable with THEM. Wearing only what's comfortable AND makes you feel AMAZING will, well, make you exhibit amazingness. It's also a great confidence booster and

can help kickstart your inner confidence. Making an incredible first impression starts in part with style.

email news list at http://www.jennifer-lowe.com.367.6

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WEEK 2: Hold eye contact longer Everywhere you go, practice holding eye contact with people walking around half a second longer than

you normally would. For a real challenge, let yourself be the last person to look away. In conversations, try to maintain steady eye contact as much as possible.

There's an art to eye gaze - you don't want to stare so intently that you seem weird, or stare at people in a creepy way. So you may need to play with it. 

Always remember: This is an experiment. Whatever happens, we're just playing, seeing what happens.

Before, I very rarely got compliments from random people. When I did this in combination with improving my style, people started asking if I was a model and complimenting my hair a LOT more. One person even asked to take a picture of my hair to show her stylist.

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WEEK 3: Get people to move out of your way without saying a word This is my favorite exercise, which I got from reading The Charisma Myth. 

Imagine a big gorilla charging down a street. Now imagine that YOU are the gorilla.

When you walk around down a street or a hallway, or whenever you're around people, imagine that you're that gorilla. Don't beat your chest or swing your fists - but just imagine that you are the gorilla. 

Over time, you'll naturally find yourself taking up more space and people will be moving out of your way.

What this does is improve your presence and power. This is one of the best ways I've found to learn to take up more space and use more powerful body language without having to be constantly conscious of it. We're creating a sense of power within, at a more subconscious level. 

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WEEK 4: Develop your boundaries Personally, I was an approval-seeking push-over that was constantly worried that no one liked

me, and that I had to do everything anyone asked for them to like me.

What started to help with this was reading a book about boundaries. I read Where to Draw the Line: How to Set Healthy Boundaries Every Day, but there are plenty of books out there that address this topic.

What changed: I started being very clear about what I was and wasn't willing to put up with. I stopped being such a push-over who wouldn't defend myself. I brought closer good people who supported me and made me better. I called out shady people who made weird comments about me, or stopped talking to them. I wasn't afraid to let them go, or need their approval.

As a result, I started developing a stronger inner sense of confidence that yes, I can speak up, and yes, I'm worth it. And the people around me now supported this.

YMMV with this one. If this isn't an issue for you, I would dedicate Week 4 to something that is. You mentioned wanting to become a better speaker. I would look for a public speaking class or coach. The best public speaking training I know of is Own The Room, and I believe they teach out in LA. (Sidetone: I used to coach for them, so I may be biased.) Taking improv classes for a year increased my belief in my competence and comfort with being on stage, but it didn't increase my charisma noticeably

Understanding the Marketing Plan Marketing plan - A written statement of marketing

objectives, strategies, and activities to be followed in business plan.

Ask yourself these five critical questions: 1. What is unique about your business idea? What is the general need that your

product or service aims to meet?2. Who is your target buyer? Who buys your product or service now, and who do you

really want to sell to?3. Who are your competitors? How can your small business effectively compete in

your chosen market?4. What positioning message do you want to communicate to your target buyers?

How can you position your business or product to let people know about your product?

5. What is your sales strategy? How will you get your product or service in the hands of your customers?

Steps in Preparing the Marketing Plan Defining the Business Situation

Situation analysis - Describes past and present business achievements of new venture.

In case of a new venture, information should relate to how and why the product or service was developed.

After a new venture has started up information should relate to:

Present market conditions. Performance of the company’s goods and services. Future opportunities or prospects.

Selecting a Market and Establishing a Position in the Market Important Questions That All Start-ups Must Ask

In order to succeed, a new firm must address this important issue: Who are our customers and how will we appeal to them?

A well-managed start-up approaches this query by following a three-step process:

Segmenting the market Selecting a target market Establishing a unique position

The Process of Selecting a Target Market and Positioning Strategy

Market Segmentation Geographic:

Regions Urban-rural Size/density Weather Climate

Demographic: Age Gender Race Ethnicity Family size/life-cycle Social Class Education Income Occupation Religion

Psychographic: Lifestyle (AIO)- VALS Model Personality Values

Behavioral: Occasions (daily, weekly, monthly, events

etc) Benefits User status Ex-user, 1st time user, regular user Usage rate (low, medium, high) Loyalty status Hard-core loyals Split loyals Shifting Loyals Switchers Attitude toward product( -ve, +ve etc.)

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Establishing a Unique Position  A helpful technique is to develop

a product attribute map, which illustrates a firm’s positioning strategy relative to its major rivals.

The way by which the marketers attempt to create a distinct impression in the customer's mind.

The positioning concepts focus on the rational or emotional benefits that buyer will receive or feel by using the product/service.

Establishing a Unique Position

Positioning (continued)Firms often develop a “tagline” to reinforce the

position they have staked out in their market, or a phrase that is used consistently in a company’s literature and thus becomes associated with the company.

An example is Nike’s familiar tagline, “Just do it.” The beauty of this simple three-word expression is that it

applies equally to a 21-year-old triathlete and a 65-year-old mall walker.

Branding Establishing a Brand

A brand is the set of attributes—positive or negative—that people associate with a company.

These attributes can be positive, such as trustworthy, dependable, or easy to deal with.

Or they can be negative, such as cheap, unreliable, or difficult to deal with.

The customer loyalty a company creates through its brand is one of its most valuable assets.

Brand ManagementSome companies monitor the integrity of their

brands through a program called “brand management.”

Branding

What’s a Brand?

Branding

Establishing a BrandSo how does a firm establish a brand?

On a philosophical level, a firm must have meaning in its customers’ lives. It must create value—something for which customers are willing to pay.

On a more practical level, brands are built through a number of techniques, including advertising, public relations, sponsorships, support of social causes, and good performance.

A firm’s name, logo, Web site design, Facebook page, and even its letterhead are part of its brand.

Branding Power of a Strong Brand

Ultimately, a strong brand can be a very powerful asset for a firm.

Over 50% of consumers say that a known and trusted brand is a reason to buy a product.

A brand allows a company to charge a price for its products or services that is consistent with its image.

A successful brand can increase the market value of a company by 50% to 75%.

Brand equity is the term that denotes the set of assets and liabilities that are linked to a brand and enable it to raise a firm’s valuation.15

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• Most experts warn against placing an overreliance on advertising to build a firm’s brand.

• A more affordable approach is to rely on word of mouth, the media, and ingenuity to create positive buzz about a company.

• Creating buzz means creating awareness and a sense of anticipation about a company and its offerings, it hopes that people start talking about it and its exciting new product or service.

• In addition, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and trade journals are always looking for stories about interesting companies. Focusing too much on the features and benefits of their products is a common mistake entrepreneurs make when trying to gain attention from the media.

The Four Ps of Marketing for New Ventures

Set of marketing tools used by a firm to pursue its marketing objectives in a target market.

OrCombination of a number of policies to realize profit through customer satisfaction.

Product May consider more than the physical

characteristics. Involves packaging, brand name, price, warranty,

image, service, delivery time, features, style, and even the Web site.

Determining the product or products to be sold is central to the firm’s entire marketing effort. The most important attribute of a product is that it adds value in the minds of its target customers. Let’s think about this by comparing vitamins with pain pills;

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We all know that vitamins are good for us and that we

should take them. Most of us, though, do not take

vitamins on a regular basis, and whatever benefits

vitamins provide do not seem to be greatly missed in the

short term. People therefore pay relatively very little for

vitamins. In contrast, people know when they need a pain

killer. And they know they need it now, not later. They

can also tell quite readily whether the reliever is working.

People will be willing to pay a great deal more for a pain

reliever than they pay for a vitamin. In this context, the

pain reliever provides a much stronger value proposition

than does a vitamin—because the need is felt more

acutely, the benefit is greater and is perceived much more

quickly. (Henry W. Chesbrough, a professor at Harvard University)

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This example illustrates at least in part why

investors prefer to fund firms that potentially

have breakthrough products, these products

are pain pills rather than vitamins because

their benefits would be felt intensely and

quickly. In contrast, a new restaurant start-up

or a new retail store may be exciting, but these

types of firms are more akin to a vitamin than

a pain pill. The benefits of these businesses

would not be felt as intensely.

Product Levelsi. Core benefit- The fundamental

benefit or services that the customer is really buying.

The CORE product is NOT the tangible, physical product. You can't touch it. That's because the core product is the BENEFIT of the product that makes it valuable to you. So with the car example………..!

ii. Basic Product- Marketer turns benefit into basic product.

iii. Expected product- A set of attributes & conditions buyers normally expect when they purchase product according to their purchasing power.

Augmented product- Products that exceeds consumers expectations. Competition usually takes place in this level, for which you may or may not pay a premium. So when you buy a car, part of the augmented product would be the warranty, the customer service support offered by the car's manufacture, and any after-sales service.

v. Potential product- All possible augmentations & transformations the product might undergo in future.

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Pricing The amount of money consumers pay to buy a

product. It is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue; all other elements represent costs. Price is an extremely important element of the marketing mix because it ultimately determines how much money a company can earn.Costs based/markup pricingTarget Return pricingValue-based pricingCompetition based (going-rate) PricingAuction based pricing

Strategies 1,5 & 9 (diagonal) show prices according to quality offered

Strategies 2,3 & 6 to attack the diagonal position Strategy 4,7 & 8 show overpriced products

Nine Price-Quality Strategies

Placement Refers to providing the product at a place which

is convenient for consumers to access. Various strategies such as intensive distribution, selective distribution, exclusive distribution, conventional marketing system, vertical marketing system, and franchising can be used by the marketer to complement the other aspects of the marketing mix..

Level of Marketing ChannelsChannels for Consumer Products

Conventional marketing System- comprises of independent producers, wholesalers or retailers who business just to maximize their own profit even if it reduces profit for a system as a whole. In this there is no control upon any member of channel

Vertical Marketing Channel/system (VMS) by contrast, comprises the producer, wholesaler, or

retailers acting as a unified/coordinated way. The high degree of control and coordination in VMS is achieved through one of the three means:

Corporate VMS: common ownership of successive level of a channel.

Contractual VMS: contracts between independent channel members to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of distribution (franchises etc)

Administrative VMS: Coordination in distribution through market/economic power of one of channel members.

Conventional Versus Vertical

Marketing System

Promotion General Definition- activity that supports

or encourages a cause, venture, or aim. Promotion refers to the activities the firm

takes to communicate the merits of its product to its target market. 

Marketing activities to communicate positive, persuasive information about an organization, its products and its activities to a target audience to increase sales & profit of organization.

Advertising

Personal Selling

Any Paid Form of Non-personal Presentation by an Identified Sponsor.

Sales Promotion Short-term Incentives to Encourage Sales.

Public RelationsBuilding Good Relations with Various Publics by Obtaining Favorable Unpaid Publicity.

Direct MarketingDirect Communications With Individuals to Obtain an Immediate Response.

Personal Presentations by a Firm’s Sales Force.

There are five main aspects of a Promotional Mix

Type of Advertisement Television Radio Print Online Billboards Mobile Billboards In-store advertising Infomercials Covert advertising Celebrities

Google AdWords and AdSense Program AdWords

Allows advertisers to buy keywords on the Google home page.

Text-based ads to the side of (and sometimes above) search results when the keyword is used.

The program includes local, national, and international distribution.

Advertisers pay a certain amount per click.

AdWords has evolved into Google's main source of revenue.

Google's total advertising revenues were USD $42.5 billion in 2012.

AdSense Allows advertisers to buy ads that

will be shown on other Web sites instead of Google’s home page.

Google selects sites of interest to the advertiser’s customers.

Advertisers are charged on a pay-per-click or a per-thousand impression basis.

Advertisers benefit because the content of the ad is often relevant to the Web site.

Web site owners benefit by using the service to monetize their Web site.

In Q1 2011, Google earned US $2.43 billion ($9.71 billion annualized), or 28% of total revenue, through Google AdSense

Other Promotions Techniques

Viral Marketing

Facilitates and encourages people to

pass along a marketing message about a

particular product or service. . (through

social media and emails usually by including jokes, games, video

clips, etc)

Guerrilla Marketing

An approach to marketing that relies on cleverness, and surprise rather than traditional

techniques

Public Relations Public Relations

One of the most cost effective ways to increase the awareness of the products of a company is through public relations.

Public relations refer to efforts to establish and maintain a company’s image with the public.

The major difference between public relations and advertising is that public relations is not paid for—directly.

Public Relations Techniques

Press release

Social mediacoverage

Blogging

Civic, social, and communityinvolvement

Traditional mediacoverage

Articles in industrypress and periodicals

Monthly newsletter

Social Media

Social Media Consists primarily of blogging and connecting with

customers and others through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Blogging The idea behind blogs is that they familiarize people with a

business and help build an emotional bond between a business and its customers.

Facebook and Twitter Businesses establish a presence on Facebook and Twitter to

build a community around their products and services.

Marketing Strategy: Consumer versus Business-to-Business Markets

Business-to-business markets involves selling of products or services to another business.

Usually aims at selling a large volume in one transaction. Involves a more direct channel of distribution. Use trade magazine advertising, direct sales, and trade

shows. Consumer markets involve sales to households for

personal consumption.

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Monitoring the Progress of Marketing ActionsInvolves tracking results of the marketing effort.Entrepreneur should prepare for contingencies. Minor adjustments in the plan are normal;

significant changes indicate a poorly prepared plan.Weaknesses in market planning may be due to:

Poor analysis of the market and competitive strategy. Unrealistic goals and objectives. Poor implementation of the outlined plan actions. Unforeseen hazards like weather or war.

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Mian Zeeshan Akhtar, CEO, Chairman and mastermind behind the success of Q Mobile. After completing his education from the United States in 2003, he work for LG & Samsung distribution in Pakistan. In 2009, Akhtar took charge of a company that soon became a corporate giant. Today, Q Mobile is the biggest player in Pakistan’s mobile phone industry.

Along with sound strategy, quality emphasis and effective distribution, a heavy marketing campaign has also helped the company build a strong brand name. Qmobile’s advertising budget is higher than even that of multinational brands. The company uses product placement, celebrity endorsements as an advertising technique to promote its products.

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Company operates with a different business model as compared to companies like Samsung and Microsoft: although it calls itself a mobile phone company, QMobile does not manufacture its own devices; instead, it imports them from vendors in China, and sells them under its own brand. The same phones are sold in India under the Micromax label.

Qmobile provides fairly high-end features at prices affordable for most Pakistanis: you can now buy a branded Android smartphone for as low as Rs 4,500, complete with a warranty, thanks to QMobile. This may well be the primary driver behind QMobile’s growth.

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The end