Marketing plan

In today's very competitive marketplace a strategy that insures a consistent approach to offering your product or service in a way that will outsell the competition is critical. However, in concert with defining the marketing strategy you must also have a well defined methodology for the day to day process of implementing it. It is of little value to have a strategy if you lack either the resources or the expertise to implement it.

In the process of creating a marketing strategy you must consider many factors. Of those many factors, some are more important than others. Because each strategy must address some unique considerations, it is not reasonable to identify 'every' important factor at a generic level. However, many are common to all marketing strategies.

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Marketing strategies and paradigms

It originated in consumer markets where relatively low-valued products were sold to mass markets using mass media. Marketing theory held that the first step was to determine customer needs, then next, produce a product or service that will satisfy these needs. The underlying philosophy was that all the firm's strategic decisions were driven by customer expectations. This core idea has gone though many incarnations in the intervening decades, and gone under various names including: marketing orientation, customer driven, the marketing philosophy, customer intimacy, customer focus, and market driven.

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There was a group of theorists that felt this gradual evolution was unsatisfactory. They saw marketing, not as a continuously evolving discipline, but as an established discipline ripe for a paradigm shift. They felt that a radical new perspective was required. These theorists are typically associated with either relationship marketing, customer experience management, or network marketing. Relationship marketers, for example, feel that the shift from single transaction marketing to long-term relationship marketing will require a complete revamping of the discipline. Customer experience marketers feel that the relationship marketers started in the right direction but were derailed by their dependence on customer relationship management software, which caused them to lose focus of the individual customer's experience of the service encounter. Network marketers stress the interconnectedness of market actors and transactions and can be seen as the application of systems thinking to marketing.

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Marketing Fundamentals

Many proven marketing processes, like lead generation, branding, PR, and product innovation, are increasingly hard to achieve with any degree of predictability - both in terms of measurable results as well as costs.

The Marketing Fundamentals Unit develops a basic knowledge and understanding of marketing, marketing process and the marketing mix. It aims to provide participants with a framework on which to build marketing knowledge and skills through the units of this level, through units at later levels and in the workplace. Students will not be expected to have any prior knowledge or experience in a marketing role.

The reason for this is that some of the context in which we market products and services has gone through a fundamental transformation, enabled by a participatory technology infrastructure. But unlike what some marketing pundits are claiming - not all the marketing fundamentals have changed. In fact there may be more fundamentals that remained the same than those that changed.

In recent years, the technical, engineering, and industrial communities have migrated to the Internet to search for components and services, and to locate manufacturers, distributors, and service companies. New and innovative online marketing tactics help companies build their brand and generate leads online. Some of the leads are “hot” and ready to buy, while others are long term and need nurturing. To turn these leads into customers, marketing and sales teams must have dedicated and collaborative lead management practices.

• Explain the development of marketing and the ways it can benefit business and organizations
• Identify the main steps in, and barriers to, achieving a marketing orientation within the organization
• explain the context of, and process for, marketing planning and budgeting including related models
• Explain the concept of segmentation and the different bases for effective market segmentation
• Identify and describe the individual elements and tools of the marketing mix
• Identify the basic differences in application of the marketing mix involved in marketing products and services

Grey marketing

Grey marketing is nothing to do with the neither Grey color nor Grey is the name of a commodity. Ah yes, the word commodity reminds me to tell you that Grey marketing is something to do with the stock market. Marketing is absolutely legal but it is the trading transaction done through unofficial and unauthorized distribution channels the grey market of goods is to import and sell products through market channels which are not authorized by the manufacturers. It occurs when the prices of a product differs significantly in different countries.

Adding another interactive agency to its stable, Grey Digital acquired Beyond Interactive, a full-service online advertising agency in July, 1999. Beyond Interactive served such clients, as Nickelodeon, Primedia, Advanta, Borders Books & Music, Petstore.com, Third Age, FortuneCity and Newspage. Beyond Interactive started operating as an independent brand and its management team continued to run the company.

At that time Beyond Interactive offered the following services: the online media planning and buying; the campaign management; the return on investment (ROI) analysis and optimization; the affiliate program management; the permission marketing; the viral marketing and online promotions.
That there is a marketing consulting and advertising design agency truly created for small businesses. That there really can be a new, revolutionary approach to small business. Marketing and affordable services that are exactly what small business owners. Everywhere has been seeking --- services that are truly budget-friendly and designed with entrepreneurs in mind. In your business and that it can and will grow with the help of a professional marketing consulting agency.

Led by author and small business marketing consultant, Paul Cwalina, Grey Ghost
Marketing serves the underserved. Whether your business is a one- location beauty
salon, professional office or a small manufacturer, Grey Ghost is your source for
affordable marketing advice and services.

Telemarketing

While there are many legitimate companies that use the telephone for marketing, consumers and business lose millions of dollars to telemarketing fraud each year. It's sometimes hard to tell the difference between reputable telemarketers and criminals who use the phone to rob people.

You can protect yourself by learning how to recognize the danger signs of fraud. If you are a victim or attempted victim of telemarketing fraud, it's important to report the scam quickly so that law enforcement agencies can shut the fraudulent operation down.

You can do telemarketing from home. Usually companies will pay you at least ten dollars an hour to do this from your home. One company that hires telemarketers is known as BabyToBee. This job is better than your average telemarketing companies because you are calling expectant mother and fathers and offering them baby coupons. Usually these people sign up on the website to receive these things and they are happy to hear from you. It's probably one of the only telemarketing jobs that people will be excited to talk to you.

Provides a venue where you can easily interact with the prospect, answering any questions or concerns they may have about your product or service. It's easy to prospect and find the right person to talk to. It's cost-effective compared to direct sales. Results are highly measurable. You can get a lot of information across if your script is properly structured. If outsourcing, set-up cost is minimal.
Increased efficiency since you can reach many more prospects by phone than you can with in-person sales calls. Great tool to improve relationship and maintain contact with existing customers, as well as to introduce new products to them. Makes it easy to expand sales territory as the phone allows you to call local, national and even global prospects.

Database marketing

Database marketing is a systematic approach to the gathering, consolidation, and processing of consumer data (both for customers and potential customers) that is maintained in a company's databases. Although databases have been used for customer data in traditional marketing for a long time, the database marketing approach is differentiated by the fact that much more consumer data is maintained, and that the data is processed and used in new and more sophisticated ways. Among other things, marketers use the data to learn more about customers, select target markets for specific campaigns (through customer segmentation), compare customers' value to the company, and provide more specialized offerings for customers.
Database Marketing is a powerful competitive weapon for companies - especially large ones. The growth of database marketing is rooted in the small business philosophy of staying close to the customers, under-standing and meeting their needs and treating them well after the sale.
Much corporate marketing is tied to big, general marketing or advertising campaigns with a single message - the same for everyone. This message may be based on the companies Unique Selling Proposition (USP). However, customers have different needs and a single USP spelt out to the whole market is no longer enough.
Messages must be tailored to specific segments of the market and ultimately to the market segment of one, the individual customer. Computerizing the customer database makes it possible to address messages more specifically and market additional products to each customer.
In an effort to more effectively target potential customers, many enterprises use database marketing to build models of their target demographic group, track down these groups and focus their advertising budgets on them in the hope that it will result in an improved return on investment (ROI) from their advertising spend.

At its most basic level, database marketing is the analysis of databases holding information about previous or potential customers. These databases usually consist of basic personal details of customers along with details of their past transactions. The information is either gathered from internal sales data or bought in from other organizations.

Direct marketing

Direct marketing is any unsolicited contact your business makes with existing or potential customers in order to generate sales or raise awareness. For many businesses, it's by far the most cost-effective form of marketing. From direct mail and leaflet drops to telemarketing and email marketing, it allows you to target customers with greater accuracy than any other method.

Direct marketing addresses some of the biggest challenges in marketing a business - lead generation, converting those leads into high quality customers, and then systematically growing customer profitability. Marketing experts estimate that your prospects and customers are bombarded with more than 3000 marketing messages (direct mail, email marketing, radio/tv advertising, billboards) – every day. Direct marketing helps you get through the ‘marketing noise’, and delivers a high return on investment for your marketing spend.

But careful preparation of direct-marketing campaigns is essential if you are to make the most of your investment, get the response rates you want and ensure you do not contact individuals who have decided they do not want to receive direct marketing mailings.

This guide sets out the different types of direct marketing and outlines the advantages and disadvantages of each. It gives details of current legislation and industry best practice, and tells you where to get more help and information on both.
In order to attract, retain and nurture a list of highly profitable customers, you need to craft your direct marketing strategy around a number of marketing activities that can start in a fairly simple way, but over time develop into a fairly sophisticated set of direct marketing processes.

Market buildup method

Method of estimating the revenue potential of an industrial market by identifying the number of potential buyers in the market and the purchase requirements of each. The source of the data may be published sic coded data, primary research like questionnaires or surveys, or sales history. In the absence of actual purchase data, the annual revenue or number of employees of a buyer may be used to estimate their purchase requirements by assuming their requirements are the same as those of customers with similar revenues or numbers of employees.

Information acquired by a market competitor about the companies with which it competes. Competitive intelligence might include pricing, advertising strategies, names of clients, technical advantages and disadvantages, market strengths and weaknesses, and so forth. Competitive intelligence may be acquired from the competitor's customers (current and former), suppliers, former employees, stockholder meetings, industry associations and trade shows, trade journals, newspaper articles, research studies, or advertising copy.

When gathering intelligence, the marketer must be careful to avoid unethical or illegal methods such as using a job interview or bribery to elicit information from a competitor's employee. The marketer's sales force is usually a prime source of competitive intelligence and should be trained to recognize and report this information.

Marketing research system

System-level software is the largest segment of the systems infrastructure industry and consists of operating systems (OS), utilities, and networking software. Operating systems are master programs that perform basic computer functions as well as act as underlying platforms for application programs. OS software is required for all computer platforms. The most common are Windows, Unix, and Macintosh. Utilities are programs that enhance a computer’s capabilities or perform support functions such as file management and file compression. more...

Marketing decision support

Marketing decision support systems (MDSS) in companies. In a conceptual framework five categories of factors are distinguished that potentially affect adoption, use, and satisfaction: external environment factors, organizational factors, task environment factors, user factors and implementation factors. Hypotheses are developed and tested on data from a survey of 525 companies. The factors that determine the adoption of an MDSS are different from the factors that affect the success of an MDSS, once it has been installed. For adoption, support from inside the company, communication and knowledge about MDSS are crucial. For the subsequent success of an MDSS, involvement of the user, sophistication, adaptability of the system and the possibility of direct interaction with the system are important. MDSS are primarily adopted to obtain information and not to upgrade (add value to) existing information. Companies in consumer goods are ahead of companies in the business-to-business sector, but this difference is likely to decrease in the future.

Discusses the application of decision support systems (DSS) to assist in solving marketing decisions. As the marketing environment becomes more competitive the pressure to gain the “edge” over your competitors becomes more intense. Marketing decision support systems (MDSS) are valuable tools to assist in making marketing decisions to do just that! MDSS can be used to support, rather than replace, decision makers in the complex, semi or unstructured situations which are common in marketing problems. They incorporate the personal judgement and experience of the user to improve the effectiveness, rather than the efficiency of decision making. This means that managers will have more “quality” time to spend on analysis and planning for the future, rather than merely reflecting on the past.

Marketing decision makers are confronted with an increasing amount of information. This leads to a complex decision environment that may cause decision makers to lapse into using mental-effort-reducing heuristics such as anchoring and adjustment. In an experimental study, we find that the use of a marketing decision support system (MDSS) increases the effectiveness of marketing decision makers. An MDSS is effective because it assists its users in identifying the important decision variables and, subsequently, making better decisions based on those variables. Decision makers using an MDSS are also less susceptible to applying the anchoring and adjustment heuristic and, therefore, show more variation in their decisions in a dynamic environment. Low-analytical decision makers and decision makers operating under low time pressure especially benefit from using an MDSS.

Modern marketing information system

Every Company Wants to Be a Peacock in the Land of Penguin in order to appreciate the importance of being different than your competition. One has to admit that the copycats at best, may only get the crumbs and the crumbs are not going to sustain a viable business.

Having said that, there is no other way to gain market dominance but by having an outstanding product and market it similar to a peacock in the land of penguins. Of course, it is easy to be a penguin, they all look alike and they all are a copy of one another. Obviously, it is extremely difficult to be a peacock in the land of penguins, but it is not impossible and when you achieve it, I am sure you will enjoy maximum market share and you will find that all of the difficulties were well worth the effort.

Marketing information systems (MKIS) are decision support systems targeted at marketing-specific decisions. One of the most widely disseminated MKIS models divides the marketing decision universe into four domains and links these domains to each other and to other marketing activities. Unfortunately, there is little guidance on the construction of specific MKIS targeted at problems in these domains or to the construction of integrated MKIS that span domains.

This paper advocates the use of geographic information systems (GIS) as a DSS generator for constructing MKIS. The paper reviews the technical capabilities of GIS and shows how these capabilities align with accepted elements of MKIS. We see that a unique advantage of GIS over other MKIS technologies is its ability to integrate information from disparate sources and spanning multiple decision domains when a single decision requires this capability.

The paper then uses a decision making resource-based approach and the four elements of the marketing mix to propose a research agenda for increasing our understanding of GIS as an MKIS technology.

Develop a Market Intelligence System

Do you have products sitting in your business waiting for customers to come in to purchase, or do you have customers that come to you wanting to buy your products and services? In today's price competitive environment, the successful business will be customer driven rather than product driven. They develop their product line and service menu first by testing them in the marketplace and then developing and broadening only as their information or intelligence system applies.
A Market Intelligence System employs various methods of collecting valuable data or information that enables you to forecast the direction of your market. The key is to be sure you are gathering quality information. Truly, the quality of information that you gather will dictate the quality and success of your decisions over time.
Businesses do not fail because they don't have good ideas; they fail because they make poor decisions based on a lack of information. A Market Intelligence System that is tailored to the size of your business helps you fulfill customers' needs because it identifies their profiles, purchasing habits and motives and their wants and needs.

A method is described for real-time market intelligence and competitive analysis. News stories are collected online for a designated group of companies. The goal is to detect critical differences in the text written about a company versus the text for its competitors. A solution is found by mapping the task into a non-stationary text categorization model.

The overall design consists of the following components: (a) a real-time crawler that monitors newswires for stories about the competitors (b) a conditional document retriever that selects only those documents that meet the indicated conditions (c) text analysis techniques that convert the documents to a numerical format (d) rule induction methods for finding patterns in data (e) presentation techniques for displaying results. The method is extended to combine text with numerical measures, such as those based on stock prices and market capitalizations that allow for more objective evaluations and projections.

Research in the Social Marketing Process

The social marketing approach differs greatly from how public health agencies have typically gone about developing programs or materials. In the past, health educators often focused on providing information to the general public about a particular topic, with the hope that the people who needed it would realize they are at risk and change their behavior as a result. In contrast, social marketers know that there is no such thing as "targeting" the general public. To be most effective, a program must precisely specify its target audience and use very customized methods to reach those people. In addition, social marketing does not rely solely upon educating people about an issue, but uses persuasive messages developed through research with members of the target audience. The participation of the people for whom the program is intended is critical. more.....

Process is another element of marketing

The aim of marketing in profit-oriented organizations is to meet needs profitably. Companies must therefore first define which needs—and whose needs—they can satisfy. For example, the personal transportation market consists of people who put different values on an automobile’s cost, speed, safety, status, and styling.

No single automobile can satisfy all these needs in a superior fashion; compromises have to be made. Furthermore, some individuals may wish to meet their personal transportation needs with something other than an automobile, such as a motorcycle, a bicycle, or a bus or other form of public transportation. Because of such variables, an automobile company must identify the different preference groups, or segments, of customers and decide which group(s) they can target profitably.

Process is another element of the extended marketing mix, or 7P's.There are a number of perceptions of the concept of process within the business and marketing literature. Some see processes as a means to achieve an outcome, for example - to achieve a 30% market share a company implements a marketing planning process.

Another view is that marketing has a number of processes that integrate together to create an overall marketing process, for example - telemarketing and Internet marketing can be integrated. A further view is that marketing processes are used to control the marketing mix, i.e. processes that measure the achievement marketing objectives.

All views are understandable, but not particularly customer focused.
The Marketing Process Company is a management consulting company specializing in marketing strategy development and business process change. The company aims to deliver enhanced business profitability through improved marketing strategy and marketing plan development. The company's processes, systems and software are robust, tried and tested in the real world, delivering real and ongoing benefits to clients.