Marketing Plan

Stephen Lawrence and Frank MoyesGraduate School of BusinessUniversity of ColoradoBoulder, CO 80309-0419

Company Overview

Company Overview Introduction (1 paragraph)

Name, location, organization Slogan Mission Statement History and Current Status (1 paragraph) Markets and Products Objectives Length: about 1 page

Slogan Pithy 4 to 10 word statement of

company purpose Use in business plan, advertising,

descriptions of business, business cards, …

Mission Statements Examples…

Mission StatementSemiconductor Equipment

[Semiconductor Equipment] will become a world leader in supplying lithography automation and productivity enhancement products for the semi-conductor industry through innovative design and unique customer insights.

Mission StatementWebsite Management Co

The mission of [Website Management Technologies] is to help businesses engaging in e-commerce achieve their sales and customer service objectives by enabling a better understanding of Web site visitors’ behavior.

Mission StatementTech Support Company

[Tech Support Company] exists to provide outstanding technical support service and technical training to its customers. The Company’s target customers are developers of computer applications, companies with high demands for technical service and support, and retail consumers of computer products. We are committed to becoming the premier provider of technical help desk solutions and professional training for IT personnel. Towards this end, our management has affirmed that it will adhere to the qualities of integrity, challenge, innovation, enjoyment, shared leadership and customer satisfaction.

Mission Statements What is a mission statement? What makes a good mission

statement?

Mission StatementsFast Food Industry

To make, distribute and sell the finest quality all-natural ice cream and related products in a wide variety of innovative flavors made from Vermont dairy products.

Ben & Jerry‘s

To satisfy the world's appetite for good food, well served, at a price people can afford.

McDonald’s

The Entrepreneurial Environment:

Mission StatementLL Bean

Sell good merchandise at a reasonable price;

Treat your customers as you would your friends.

Leon Bean, 1911

Collins and Lazier, Managing the Small to Mid-sized Company

Mission StatementGeneral Electric

Become #1 or #2 in every market we serve and revolutionize this company to have the agility of a small enterprise.

Jack Welch, 1983

Collins and Lazier, Managing the Small to Mid-sized Company

Mission StatementShipbuilding

We will always build good ships.At a profit if we can,At a loss if we must,But always good ships.

Bath Ship Works

Mission StatementGreat Britain – WWII

Our whole people and empire have vowed themselves to the single task of cleansing Europe of the Nazi pestilence and saving the world from the new dark ages. We seek to beat the life and soul of Hitler and Hitlerism. That alone. That all the time. That to the end.

Winston Churchill, 1941

Collins and Lazier, Managing the Small to Mid-sized Company

Mission Statements

What makes a good mission statement?

Compelling Inspiring Clear, measurable objectives Concise

Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan Objectives Most important piece of your plan Build on industry and marketplace analysis –

define your niche Identify your customers Demonstrate how you will solve problems for

customers Describe how you will reach customers –

advertising sales

Convince reader that there is an eager market for your product or service

Marketing Plan Outline Introduction Target Market Product/Service Strategy Pricing Strategy Distribution Strategy Advertising and Promotion Sales Strategy Sales and Marketing Forecasts

Introduction Seven sentence introduction

1. The first sentence tells the purpose of the marketing strategy.

2. The second tells how you’ll achieve this purpose, focusing upon your benefits.

3. The third tells your target market – or markets.4. The fourth, the longest sentence, tells the marketing

weapons you’ll employ.5. The fifth tells your niche.6. The sixth tells your identity.7. The seventh tells your budget, expressed as a

percentage of your projected gross revenues.

Introduction – Example

The purpose of Prosper Press is to sell the maximum number of books at the lowest possible selling cost per book. This will be accomplished by positioning the books as being so valuable to free-lancers that they are guaranteed to be worth more to the reader than their selling price. The target market will be people who can or do engage in free-lance earning activities. Marketing tools to be utilized will be a combination of classified advertising in magazines and newspapers, direct mail, sales at seminars, publicity in newspapers and on radio and television, direct sales calls to bookstores, and mail-order display ads in magazines. The niche to be occupied is one that stands valuable information that helps free-lancers succeed, the ultimate authority for free-lancers. Our identity will be one of expertise, readability, and quick response to customer requests. Thirty percent of sales will be allocated to marketing.

Target Market Strategy Identify the market niche you will

serve Be as specific as possible

Better to be too specific Benefits to target market

What problems do you solve? What needs do you fulfill?

Two Types of Benefits

Emotional Hope, fear, love guilt, greed,

convenience

Financial Increased profit, value pricing, save

money, payback period

Talk to Your Customers Imperative that you talk with customers!

Casual conversations Interviews Surveys Focus groups

Identify needs Listen!

NOTE: see “The New Market Research” (online INC article)

Target Market Questions

What buy now? How get service? Would you be interested in …? Demographics Newspapers, magazines, TV Would you buy? Where would you expect us to advertise? Who do you consider our competition? Other comments?

Levinson, “Guerrilla Marketing” 3rd edition

Creating New Market SpaceHBR, Kim & Mauborgne

New New MarketMarketSpaceSpace

What factors might beWhat factors might beeliminated that theeliminated that the

industry has taken forindustry has taken forgranted?granted?

EliminateEliminate

What factors might beWhat factors might becreated that thecreated that the

industry has never industry has never offered?offered?

CreateCreate

What factors might be raised well beyond industry standards?What factors might be raised well beyond industry standards?

RaiseRaise

What factors might be reduced well below industry standards?What factors might be reduced well below industry standards?

ReduceReduce

Product/Service Strategy

Describe how the design of your product/service fulfills unmet marketplace needs

Differentiate your product/service from the competition

Explain why and how customers will switch to your product or service

Describe how you will defend your product or service from competition

Product Attribute MapAttribute 1

Attribute 2

You

Competitor 2

Competitor 3

Competitor 1

Pricing Strategy

Describe and justify your pricing strategy

Provide evidence that your target market will accept your price

Position your strategy relative to current and potential competition

NOTE: Low price often (usually) is NOT a good strategy for a startup!

Advertising/Promotion

Describe how you will communicate with current and potential customers Advertising Public relations Personal selling Printed materials Other means of promotion

Explain why this be strategy is most effective in reaching your target market

Note: See Guerrilla Marketing

Distribution Strategy

Explain how you will deliver your product or service to your customers How will your customers acquire your product

or service Describe and justify the distribution

channels you will use Describe how you will gain access to your

planned distribution channels

Sales Strategy Describe to whom you must sell your

product or service (not always obvious) Explain how you will “sell”

An internal sales force Manufacturer's representatives Telephone solicitors

Describe how you will support your sales effort internal staff service operations

Goals for Marketing Plan Compelling “story” that there is a need in

the market Need flows logically from industry analysis Product/service designed to fulfill market

needs Advertising, price, distribution, and sales

all flow logically, convincingly from characteristics of the market

“WOW! What a great idea! I wish I had thought of that…”