By: Betty Moore, (Founder, Ignition Point)
http://www.ignitionpt.com/tools/artic04.htm
The company
marketing plan is
undeniably a powerful foundation for any company. Another critical
element is the business plan, followed by the sales plan. These
nested strategies form the basis for a highly effective business
rollout. Consider this analogy: If the business plan sets the stage
for war, then the marketing plan provides the intelligence on the
enemy and prescribes the battle strategy, while the sales plan decides
how to deploy the troops and secure the specified targets.
But how does a
company marketing plan fit
inside the business plan? Should it be detailed? Should it be specific
on its budget expenditures and tactics? Should it be separate? Who
should write it? There are many ideas on how to relate the two
documents, but I have found one approach which seems to work best.
Big picture, little picture
In the business plan, the
company’s mission, vision, and objectives are clearly stated. Within
that document, an overview of the essential information contained in
the marketing plan should be provided. Marketing goals should be
stated, and they should directly support the overall goals of the
business, as stated in other sections of the business plan.
For example, if the business plan
suggests that the company’s opportunities for wireless
telecommunications will emerge in Europe within 2 years, then some of
the related marketing objectives might be to:
• undertake research to segment
and understand European markets;
• find out the anticipated price
tolerance for wireless in that market;
• create advance demand;
• create awareness of its
benefits;
• establish strategic alliances to
create European distribution channels;
• build links with key European
telecommunications analysts; and
• generate early publicity to
create the perception that your company is the leader (or preferred
supplier) in wireless.
There are really two parts of the
company marketing plan at heart: the strategy and the tactical plan. The
marketing strategy identifies and addresses the various issues related
to mobilizing the marketing effort, while the tactical plan provides
specific dates, tools, budgets, and measurement initiatives needed to
implement the program. Within the business plan, the full strategic
company marketing plan should be present, while an overview of the tactical
plan’s contents suffices. These two portions of the marketing plan
should then be able to be peeled away and augmented to include the
full tactical plan.
While the marketing strategy would
benefit from a joint effort between the President and the VP
Marketing, the tactical plan must be written by the dedicated
marketing professional: someone who deeply knows how to leverage the
attributes and budgets of each marketing element.
The marketing strategy
The goals of your company’s
marketing initiatives are to create demand, awareness, and preference
for your products or services. We need to examine these three distinct
issues.
What exactly is "demand
creation"?
If your business wishes to
succeed, the market must have a need, or want, to satisfy. Simply
stated, in marketing, the first goal is to identify, create or augment
the need or want, so that when the sales force offers the product, it
is relatively easy to secure a sale.
In other words, "They’ll buy a
beverage if they’re thirsty". Imagine escalating that statement to
"They’ll buy more of that beverage if they’re really
thirsty", or even to "They’ll buy lots more of that beverage if
they’re really thirsty and there’s no other beverage to be
had." Wise marketers, however, realize that not all sales of
product relate to needs — as a beverage, how much Scotch is consumed,
unrelated to thirst?
It is important to note that
initiatives designed to create demand are aimed at building demand for
the overall product or service category, not for your specific brand
within that category. This is an important distinction.
Understanding the motivations that
will lead to customer demand is a very deep science. "Need" is easier
to identify than "want", but "want" is easier to create. The Mecca of
marketing is to convert your market demand from "want" to actual or
perceived "need". Also, it is key to understand which segments of your
market are more likely to want or need it more urgently than other
segments. These segments provide your first target.
How do I create awareness?
There are a number of tools for
creating awareness, such as direct mail, advertising, sales calls,
telemarketing, Internet, trade shows, public relations, and more. Each
of these vehicles has its advantages and disadvantages, which must be
weighed by your marketing team to build an effective mix.
Creating awareness requires a
number of initiatives, and your choice of awareness vehicles will
depend on a number of factors, the most significant of which are:
• how many sales need to be
secured, and in what time period?
• how many target prospects are
within my first priority target group?
• what is the geographic territory
able to be serviced by the sales team?
• what is my budget for creating
awareness?
Once these few specific questions
are answered, awareness initiatives can be undertaken. These
initiatives are intended, however, to generate leads. And not just any
lead: qualified leads. The science of lead generation is just as
complex.
How do I increase preference?
Once there is demand for your
product or service category, and you have decided on the vehicles for
creating awareness and lead generation, the next piece of the puzzle
is preference. In high technology, this has often been the most
overlooked issue, to the detriment of sales, and hence, overall
business success.
The issue is this: Why would a
customer buy mine instead of someone else’s?
This requires a combined effort
between three key functions within your organization: marketing,
sales, and product development. Remember: it’s not why the customer
would want the product (that’s demand creation), it’s why ours,
not theirs. This is a tough question, but the quality of its
answers will have a significant impact on your success.
The tactical plan
The tactical plan now lays out the
specifics of what you will use, when, and how, to achieve your desired
results. The company marketing plan is best presented in a table that has the following
columns:
