Go through this recap material for your marketing report
Marketing plan report
Title page (include your name and the name of your seminar tutor)
Tables of content
Executive summary
Introduction:
III. Situation Analysis – Where are we now?
| Company Analysis
|
Customer Analysis
|
Competitor Analysis
|
Collaborators |
| Goals
Focus Culture Strengths Weaknesses
|
Number, Type
Value drivers Decision process Concentration of customer base for particular products |
Market position
Strengths Weaknesses Market shares |
Partnerships, Subsidiaries, joint ventures, and distributors, etc.
|
SWOT Analysis (can incorporate some PESTEL elements)
| Internal factors | External factors | |
| Positive factors | strengths | Opportunities |
| What are we best at?
Examples of strengths: workforce specific skills, intellectual property, financial resources, Our product or brand(s) reputation makes people buy from us? Note: a growing market or new markets are not strengths; they are opportunities |
Can we exploit:
any environment changes? demographic changes? weaknesses in our competitors? new technology ? Could assets be used in other ways? New markets? Potential successful alliances? . |
|
| Negative factors | weaknesses | Threats |
| What are we worst at doing?
The company’s lack of strength in a particular area may not be a weakness, if competitors also lack this particular strength |
Changes in the environment? What might our competitors be able to do to hurt us?
|
Where do we want to be? Objectives and tactics
(Short and long-term projections of revenues, expenses, break even, brand equity, etc)
Below are a few possible goals you might have:
- Introduce new products or services
- Target a new customer persona
- Extend/regain market
- Build brand awareness
- Develop brand loyalty
- Grow market share
- Build industry authority
- Boost sales
- Enter into # long-term contracts
- Improve delivery and customer service
- Increase brand exposure and engagement
Example of marketing objectives and strategies
How do we get there? Strategic use of technology, selected marketing strategy (STP) and marketing mix
Include specific references and provide evidence from primary research, in possible, and academic references
Market Segmentation ( Present a description of the market segmentation):
Segment 1
| Description /geo-demographics
|
Percent of sales
|
How are they?
Psychographics Personality, attitudes, values, etc |
Behavioural How they use product/service? Key benefit sought?
What they want
|
| How to reach them
|
Support requirements
|
Level of price sensitivity
|
Technology
Segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP)
You could try to find answers to questions like these:
- Who are the types of people your chosen business wants to target?
- What keeps customers loyal and coming back for more?
- What factors does this business have that create interest and adds value?
- Are they missing any gap in the market?
- How do their competitors advertise to and connect with the community they target?
An example of a Buyer Persona Profile Information
- Single
- Young Professional
- Central London, flat
- Income £40,000+
- Values: Human connection, promotes positive social change, educated, long-term dating
- Problems: Has a hard time meeting like-minded and aged people, busy work schedules, wants long-term relationships, sick of the same old bar scenes, wants to create positive social change in communities
- Interests: News and current events, socializing, arts and experiences, communication, gym, healthy lifestyle, Instagram and Facebook, traveling, education, dating sites and services, reading, religion and social issues
Target market
|
The target market consists of the individuals or businesses that you identify as the most desirable customers.
It will determine any business’ marketing practices and not vice-versa.
|
Brand positioning –One of the most important aspects of marketing is to give your customers a reason to buy your products
| What are your products? What are their benefits? How do they differ from competition?
Approaches to positioning:
|
Marketing mix- Strengths, weaknesses and recommendations
| Product
Evaluate the type of products or services the business provides to customers, as well as their physical attributes, including packaging What they do? The key benefits they provide or could provide How they differ, or could differ, from their competitors How could they improve on their augmented product/services such as warranties, delivery, after sales, etc.?
|
| Price
Evaluate the price strategies used (e.g. premium, price skimming, price penetration) Provide suitable recommendations How could they reduce costs? How could they increase their profitability? How can they use price to become more competitive? What Incentives can they offer to increase sales? How can price be used to communicate level of quality offered and status?
|
| Place.
Assess how attractive or not is their business location for their customers? How convenient is it for customers? Suitability to target desired customer segments Target market Channel structure Channel management Retailer image Retail logistics Retail distribution |
| Promotion/ Communication mix-
Evaluate how effective and integrated (IMC) is their marketing communication? How can it be coordinated so customers have a clear, distinct image of the retailer and not be confused by conflicting information? What improvements can be made to their point of sale (POS) and point of purchase (POP) activity, store atmosphere, events/ publicity/PR and branding? Assess their use (or not) of: Advertising sales promotion websites/ SEO in store radio/signage. personal selling Direct marketing, eg email Word of mouth/ reviews, influencers, etc.. Which ones should they invest more on and why? |
| People
Staff capability Efficiency Availability Effectiveness Customer-staff interaction Internal marketing |
| Physical evidence
Shops layout Reception, checkout The shop itself Customer-staff interaction Atmosphere Written or recorded customer testimonials Bill receipts Visual merchandising replenishment levels /out of stocks
|
| Process
Order processing Database management Service delivery Queuing system Standardisation of operations |
| Customer service includes:
The support services that a retailer has The credit policies product returns policies Buzzwords in retail today, aimed at delivering better customer service: Relationship marketing and CRM data warehousing |
