Product Marketing:
MARKETING IS ANY BUSINESS ACTIVITY THAT IS DESIGNED TO:
PLAN PRICE PROMOTE DISTRIBUTE
WANT SATISFYING PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND IDEAS TO TARGET MARKETS SO THAT
AN ORGANISATION CAN ACHIEVE ITS OBJECTIVES.
* IDENTIFY CUSTOMERS
* ATTRACT THEIR ATTENTION
* SATISFY WANTS
Product Marketing: - Definition
"The essential element of marketing is customer want satisfaction
.... the customer's want satisfaction is the economic and social
reason for an organisations existence."
The Marketing Plan: - Definition
".... a document prepared for the purpose of providing guidelines
for a business units marketing programmes and allocations over a
prescribed planning period."
Marketing Planning Definiton:
Is vital for all successful companies because the business environment
is highly complex, dynamic, and competitive. Marketing and market
planning is relevant to large and small organisations in both public
and private sectors.
Acronyms:
Market Segmentation: Marketing Mix: Macro environment:
A ccesible P roduct P olitical
I dentifiable P rice E conomic
M easurable P lacing S ocial
S izeable P romotion T echnological
Proximate environment:
C ustomer
R esources
I ndustry
C ompetitors
The Marketing Plan:
1.Market Research: - Situation Analysis
- A situation analysis, is broken down into several different areas.
These are: SWOT Analysis, Customer Analysis (to establish a target
market), Competitor Appraisal, and Resource Analysis.
- The business must make a Situational Analysis based on the influences
of the Macro environment, as well as the proximate environment
- Market Segmentation (target market) involves deviding up groups of
people into buyers of certain products/services
A. Customer Analysis:
A target market can be established by looking at the following factors:
* Where it is accesible (both the product and message)
* The demography (the population in a group or area(s)) of an
assortment of places
* What size should the market be - In numbers (Sizeable)
- And in boundaries (Measurable)
* What are the identifiable factors of this market (how it differs
to other target markets)
* Psychographically - Lifestyle based/image of the target market
* Geographically - Which regions/areas
* Benefit - Focus on the benefit the product provides, for this
target market, not on the customer characteristics
* Size - Frequency of use/level of demand in the target market,
being either heavy, medium, or light
* Using the above factors in formulating a group which satisfy all
of the above points, you have now established a target market
B. Competitor Appraisal:
Once a target market has been established you must then analyse
the competition (if any). There two three types of competition
a company can have:
1. Direct Competition - When one business aproaches the customers of
another business and attempts to win them over.
This only happens when two or more companies
are producing the same product
2. Substitute Products - Another type of competition which can come
from one company producing a substitute
product of another companies product line
Competitor Monitoring:
This is a vital part of the market research. The best form of
competitor monitoring, is to calculate their market share by
estimating the total value of the market. If a competitor is
gaining a greater market share, it is time for the company to
re-organise their marketing plan
- Competitive advantage refers to all things an organisation can
do better than it's competitors
C. Resource Analysis:
Once you have completed a competitor appraisal you must then do
a resource analysis. The businesses resources are broken down into
three areas, these are:
1. Staff - The marketing plan should analyse the skills of every
employee involved in marketing. Your staff should be
promoting the image you wish the public to think of the
company. They should be well trained in areas such as
the art of selling, good customer relations, and more.
The people should have the following skills: Alertness,
good knowledge of product, good appearance, good
communication skills, and dedication to maintain the
product in a competitive environment
2. Finance - Finance is needed for different methods of advertising
or promoting the product. These needs vary according to
the life cycle of the business. Finance is necessary
for the promotion or development of new products
3. Assets - The fixed assets of a business will determine the
capacity of the production system. A successful
product can be stopped from greater production if
resources are at full usage. The marketing plan
should recognise: * The availability of assets
* The degree of utilisation of
assets
D. SWOT Analysis:
This needless to say means an analysis of the:
Strengths - which areas a business excells compared to it's
competitors
Weaknesses - which areas other businesses has to improve on
in relation to it's competitors
Opportunities - All things which benefit the business
Threats - All things which can threaten a businesses
survival, or a product's survival
Aspects which influence a SWOT analysis are:
- Market share - Sales - Profits
- Competition - Advertising - Size of customer base
- Pricing - Innovative potential.
- Product characteristics (company reputation, price, design,
colour uniqueness, quality, warranty, packaging, sales
support, and positioning in market)
2. Objectives and Stratergies:
A. Specific Objectives:
Establishing objectives it is usually thought of as the most important
in the planning process. The success and failure of a marketing plan
are determined by how well the marketing objective reflects the
organisations needs. Therefore it is vital objectives are set based
around the companies overall goals. This is reflected in the diagram
below:
Goals
|
Opportunities | Resources
|________ Marketing ________|
Objectives
____________ | ____________ Diagram of the
| Marketing Stratergies | Objectives of a
| (Marketing program) | Business
|--------------------------|
| Selection | Development |
| & analysis | of Marketing|
| of target | Mixes |
| market | |
|____________|_____________|
- Essential marketing objectives include the following:
* Increasing market share * Expanding product range
* Targeting the geographical representation
* And expansion of marketing opportunities
1. Market share: An increase in a companies market share shows how the
company is gaining on competitors. To attain greater
market share, the following stratergies, which are
generally thought of as sure winners include:
* More agressive pricing (lowering price or providing discounts)
* Search for new outlets to distribute your products to
* A change in some features of your products, to open up to a
possibly wider market
2. Product Range: By expansion of a companies product range, a company
can attract a wider market than it's inital market,
and maybe also expand into other markets
3. Geographical Representation: Some geographical markets offer greater
market potential than others, and is in
the intrests of the firm to invest there
to reach these markets wether they be
regional, national or international. This
allows a company to maximise on it's
profits
4. Expansion: (I) Through exporting
(II) Maximizing customer service
B. Stratergies to achieve objectives:
Marketing stratergies are the way marketing objectives are
achieved. Development of a stratergy involves:
- Selecting and analysing a target market
- Creating and maintaining a marketing mix
- Creation of advertising and promotional ideas
When properly implemented firm achieves objectives.
Selection and analysing of:
1. Target market: This area must be seperated into three areas,
as different areas have different needs, these
areas are:
(I) Retail market
(II) Wholesale market
(III) Industrial market
Creating and maintaining of:
2. Marketing Mix: This broken down into the four P's, they are:
Marketing Mix - Breakdown:
PRODUCT: PRICE: PROMOTION:
Quality R.R.P. (List Price) Advertising
Features Bulk Discounts Personal/Direct Selling
Options Other Discounts?/Offers?? Sales Promotions
Style Allowances Publicity
Brand Name Payment Period
Packaging Credit Terms PLACE:
Sizes Transport
Service Channels
Warranties Coverage
Returns Locations
Positioning Inventory
An additional part of the marketing mix now exists, it is called
'Service'. Factors here include:
* Customer Needs * Installation, Maintenance, and
* Guarantees/Warranty - repairs
- period * After-sales Service
* Complaints & returns * Comparison to competitors
- procedures * Credit offered
Creation of:
3. Advertising and Promotions:
Once the marketing mix has been established, the companies
promotional aspects have now to be completed, these can be
made up of plans to do: Advertising
Personal or direct selling
Sales Promotion
Publicity (Public relations)
Packaging and design
4. Staff Motivation: The effectiveness of the companies
market will depend heavily upon the staff, and their degree
of motivation.
C. Cost/Benefit Analysis:
As plans and objectives are developed, statements should be
produced which should say what the marketing stratergy is to
accomplish. There are two ways of evaluating the actual
peformance of these plans, these are sales analysis and cost
analysis.
1. Sales Analysis: Sales is usually the best way to measure
the performance of a marketing plan. This
analysis should be broken down into:
- Marketing area (geographical)
- Company devision (eg. NSW devision)
- Individual/Groups of sales
representatives (Quota of sales Vs's
Individual/Group's sale)
2. Cost Analysis: This is a detailed study of the business's
operating section of the organisation's
profit and loss statement. With cost analysis
costs which occured as a result of the
marketing sector of a business are declared
as profitable or unprofitable. This can be
broken down into: (I) Research costs
(II) Order-getting costs
(Promotional costs)
(III) Order-filling costs
(Distribution and
insurance costs)
Additional Notes on Marketing Plan:
- Strategic Marketing plan is usually a 3 year plan (sometimes
5 year plan). It is concerned with positioning the organisation
in it's marketing environment in relation to it's competitors
- Tactical Operational Marketing Plan contains detailed costings,
scheduling and specific things which need to be achieved to
achieve the objectives for each year of the strategic plan
- Marketing is an essential function for all businesses. It covers all
aspects of a business's operations. The process of marketing involves:
1. Communicating with the public at large on what products/services
are available for sale from the company
2. Attracting the public to Point-Of-Sale
3. And lastly, Achieving the sales
Every business must sell it's products or services to survive today, as
well as how others have done so in the past.
Marketing Plan overview:
It involves:
1 - Look at Objectives
2 - Conducting a Situation Analysis
3 - Conducting a Financial Analysis
4 - Setting objectives for Marketing Plan
5 - Formulating a Stratergy to achieve objectives
6 - Formulating tactics to implement the stratergy
5 - Establishing Controls (for monitoring procedures)
Study Notes:
- Be able to devise a marketing plan
- Know examples of a marketing plan
- Know the role of Marketing / Marketing Plan
- Know the difference between Sales and Marketing
Converted on 22 Jul 1996 with RexxDoesAmigaGuide2HTML by Michael Ranner.