marketing for small businesses 2012
DESCRIPTION
This is a presentation om my website on the basic principles of marketing from a small business perspective. It is argued that marketing strategy is basically very simple, it is the tactics which can be complicated.TRANSCRIPT
Richard Masters
Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses: 2012
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Marketing Strategy
Whether or not digital marketing is right for your depends on if it fits in with a clearly thought out Marketing Strategy
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Why Marketing Strategy?Marketing tends to be dominated by a
considerations of marketing tactics.Digital Marketing is, in essence, just a host of new
tactics enabled by the internet.It is patently useless, for example, to pursue a
Facebook marketing strategy if none of your customers are not present on Facebook!
Similarly, the best tactics available to a major multinational brand are very different to those of a small business!
To be able to select the most appropriate tactics to deploy it is therefore essential to develop an appropriate Marketing Strategy as a framework.
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The principles of marketing
The best place to start with developing a marketing strategy for your business is with a basic understand of what marketing is all about.
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Principles of marketingMost marketing discussions are about
marketing tactics. These can be very complex and expensive experts abound
It is my contention that the principles of marketing are in fact very simple- especially for small businesses
To develop a successful marketing strategy (combinations of tactics) you have to get the basics right.
This section looks at the basic principles as they apply to small businesses.
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Definitions of MarketingHeidi Cohen asked eminent marketers for a
less than 5 line definition of marketing.She got 72 very different responses ranging
from the very simple to impenetrable, buzz word filled gobbledegook!
I have selected the few that, i think, are most relevant to small businesses. These are shown on the next slide......
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My 4 best definitions!“Marketing is defined as: we help people
sell more stuff.” Joey Iazzetto “Marketing is helping people buy your
product or service.” Jason Falls “Marketing is helping your customers
understand how much they need something they never knew they needed”. Doreen Moran
“Marketing is discovering what the prospect wants and demands and delivering it more efficiently and effectively than the competition”. Paul Kulavis 08/04/20237
Core ElementsThe forgoing identify that there are 3 key
elements that are core to marketing. Understanding these is therefore vital to developing a successful marketing strategy:
1. Your Products and Services2. Customers and Clients3. Markets and Competitors
How to approach the analysis of each of these for your business is covered in the subsequent sections below.
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Marketing Strategy: Key Drivers
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1. Products and Services
Understanding your products and services from a customer perspective is vital to a successful strategy
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The Customer PerspectiveMost businesses perceive their
products/services from a components and features point of view. This is understandable because this is how they design and put them together!
The customers perception of your products can be very different because they see them from a different perspective!
Customers view product/services from the perspective of what benefits they will bring to them
It is vital to turn this through 180 degrees and get a customer centric view of your products/services.
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Customer benefitsTraditionally, it was assumed , ultimately,
there were only two real customer benefits:1. Saving Time 2. Saving Money
More recently, it was acknowledged that some people get genuine utility from being associated with brands/groups and a third has been added:
3. Image
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Articulating benefitsA simple tool exists for small businesses to help
with identifying customer benefits: FAB AnalysisThis involves converting Features. firstly into
Advantages, and then into BenefitsA link to download it are contained in the
resources sectionClearly, all of your marketing messages should
look to demonstrate how your products/services provide these customer benefits ( and are better than the competitions!)
If you have different groups of customers then you may require different sets of marketing messages!
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Customer Value Proposition(CVP)A useful way of summarising and understanding
your customer benefits is to construct a Customer Value Proposition (CVP).
This describes the unique mix of product and/or service attributes, customer relations and corporate image that a business offers.
A downloadable pro forma for a CVP is contained in the resources section
In conjunction with an analysis of your competitors market positioning (see 3 below), this allows the identification of which benefit messages to use in your marketing activities. This is called your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) (see below).
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2. Customers and Clients
Once you have fully understood your own products and services, it is vital to gain an in-depth understanding of your potential clients.
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Types of Customers/ClientsIn order to be effective in marketing you
have to target your marketing activities at certain groups of individuals.
This is often refereed to as Target Marketing and the groups identified as Target Markets
For small businesses it is useful to look at four types of target marketing:
A. PersonasB. Socio Demographic GroupsC. Hybrid TypesD. Local 08/04/202316
Customer Types: Schematic
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A. PersonasPersonas are “fictional representations of
your ideal customers” ( Wikipedia)They help you build a picture of your ideal
customer in terms of understanding his needs ,wants and behaviours; and therefore, how to present your products/services benefits to greatest effect
I find it useful to imagine these as Cluedo like characters, where the characters embody all sorts of assumptions about their behaviours......
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Personas as Cluedo Characters!
Colonel Mustard Miss Scarlett
Miss Scarlett is the resident femme fatale in Cluedo. She is typically portrayed as young, cunning, and highly attractive.
Colonel Mustard is the stock character of a great white hunter and colonial imperialist. He is usually a military man both dignified and dangerous.
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Personas: Typical profile Info.DemographicsNeeds/Wants/ “Pain” pointsBehavioursWhere they typically “hang out” (frequent)Where they typically get their
information/influence fromHow computer literate they are ( important
for digital marketing)See an example below....
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Example- Social Media Persona Types http://socialmediatoday.com/node/564409
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How to use personas in your marketing strategyDecide which of your benefits are likely to
be most important for each persona typeTailor your marketing messages to be most
relevant to themSelect the most appropriate tactics! If your
target clients are not online then Digital Marketing is a waste of time & effort!
Target the media they use to find out about things
Persona types are particularly important if you want to target new customers for your products. It helps you to understand them and what messages are most relevant.
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B. Socio Demographic GroupsBefore Personas became popular targeting
was often done by reference to Socio Demographic groups
The logic behind these types were that they were classifications of people into groups who showed similar patterns of behaviour.
Classically these have been classifications such as Social Class or Social Economic Groups (SEG’s)
More recently Generational Groups have become more widely used. These are outlined below.
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Generational GroupsThis is recent approach based on the premise that
birth date is a key behavioural determinant. This believed to be the case due to the rapid, and
increasing, pace of change in society leading to successive generations showing different behaviours
These Generation Groups are believed to be differentiated particularly in the attitude to, and use of, technology. This is because the sheer pace of technological developments and its implications over the recent past.
The table below summarises the various generation groups and their characteristics from a marketing perspective.
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Generational Groups
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C. Hybrid TypesThese are neither pure groups nor
individuals but, more, ad hoc groups (or typologies), defined for target marketing purposes . These tend to be based upon a combination of demographics and behaviours.
The most famous example is the first Obama presidential campaign who identified “Soccer Moms” and “Nascar Dads” as key groups to develop specific messages for.
More recently groups such as “Smartphone Moms” , “Social Junkies” and “Techno Geeks” have been used to effect.
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Use of Hybrid TypesHybrid types have been proved effective in
target marketing- especially where it has not been possible to identify ideal personas. However there are some limitations:
1. By their more general nature they allow less specific message targeting.
2. They are not comprehensive like socio demographic groups.
3. They tend to be very geographically and culturally specific. Are Smartphone Moms or Nascar Dads relevant outside the US?08/04/202327
4.Local Local, can be regarded as a particular “persona”,
rather than a type of its own. I treat it separately, as it is a very important and distinctive customer type.
Generally speaking, if your business caters for mainly local customers/clients, then you approach to marketing is dominated by this fact.
Examples of businesses where local is pre-eminent includes: local shops, coffee bars, restaurants and other local service providers.
A list of potential marketing tactics are on the next slide.
This is a very specialist area and a link to an introductory resource paper appears at the end
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Local Marketing tactics
Traditional Digital
Word of Mouth Local NetworkingLocal AdvertisingLeaflets & FlyersLocal NewspapersSupport local
eventsPhysical directories
Local search listings
Google Places/G+Online Directories FoursquareLocal deals
(Groupon)Location specific
adverts.Mobile
website/offers
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Summary on Customers & ClientsThis section has presented a number of different
methods of looking at clients in order to understand their characteristics in order to target your marketing messages.
Generally, the more specific and personal you can get the more focussed and effective your messages can be. Personas are therefore the preferred method.
Generation groups provide a useful context and Hybrid groups can be useful in some contexts. Beware national cultural differences
Where Local is the overriding factor, this largely determines your approach to marketing.
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3. Markets and Competition.
Marketing is not undertaken in a vacuum but in a highly dynamic environment. It is vital to understand this to develop an effective marketing strategy.
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Importance of Market Intelligence In my experience this is the area that a
large number of marketing strategies fall down upon
Marketing strategy cannot be constructed in isolation. Understanding the wider context, such as the dynamics in the marketplace, and in particular of the activities of your competitors, is absolutely vital
Market Intelligence is looked at below under two headings:
1. Markets2. Competitors
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1. MarketsIt is vital to understand what is happening in your
overall marketplace as context to setting marketing strategy
Generally growing markets provide more opportunities as the number of potential customers is growing and competition is less.
Declining markets are the reverse with falling demand where a number of legacy suppliers are competing for less business. Price is likely to be more important.
A third important market type is a market where a major change is occurring- often called a market discontinuity- as this provides an opportunity for new products and services to succeed.
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Marketing Opportunity
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Marketing InformationPerhaps the simplest, and most overlooked,
method is to simply ask your potential customers what they want. Alternatively you can describe your product and ask them if they would buy it.
Over and above this, there are many publishes sources of information. These provide invaluable information and intelligence on markets.
The table below summarises some of the main sources and the resources paper contains further more in depth information and links etc.
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Markets: Information Sources
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2. CompetitorsUnderstanding who your competitors are, and their
competitive positioning, is vital to arriving at your own.
It is also useful to try and anticipate their future strategies as well. Never forget that they are actively planning at the same time you are!
I suggest you try and pull together an implied marketing plan for each of your major competitors!
Fortunately, in most industries, information on competitors is fairly easy to come by!
The next few slides looks at some sources of competitive information.
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Sources Of Competitive Information
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Social Media as a Competitive Source Twitter
Follow to identify: Marketing messages and tactics, Customers: who they are what they are saying, hash tags (#) used etc.
Facebook Identify Company Pages: Key messages and promotions, numbers
and characteristics of followers, customers views of offerings. LinkedIn.
Company Pages. Identify the core products and services and the value proposition. Contains numbers and roles of employees, marketing messages and blog posts. Slide Share presentations
Google+ Local( ex Places)Location (Maps), opening hours, Customer Reviews, Customer
References YouTube.
Identify video marketing strategy Pinterest
Identify image marketing strategy
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Marketing GraderTool provided free by Hub SpotVery valuable for assessing you own digital
marketing strategyIn addition it can compare your online
presence with your competitors.Number of pages, numbers of inbound links
and where from.Summary of social media activity on major
platformsAssessment of comparative weaknesses
and strengths of inbound marketing strategy
More information in resource doc.
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Unique Selling Proposition (USP)The culmination of the marketing strategy process
described above is the formulation of your USP’sYour CVP may well be similar to your competitors.
The USP attempts to capture what makes you different from your competitors. A definition is:
“The factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product or service is different from and better than that of the competition”
This is the driving force for all of your marketing messages
The resources document contains guidance details on how to put these together.
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Summary: Marketing StrategyMarketing strategy need not be complicated for
small businesses.You do need to have an understanding of:
Your products and services and their customer benefits.Your customers, and potential customers, needs and
wantsThe wider marketplace trends and your competitors
strategies and tactics.Based upon the above you can select your USP’s and
the marketing tactics most likely to be successful for your business.
Digital Marketing tactics may, may not, or have only limited applicability to your business.
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Downloadable ResourcesDocument Link
Products & Services Resource Doc.
https://www.box.com/s/xirhcdxani33dmz2lf3c
FAB Analysis Pro Forma https://www.box.com/s/q45tzkarn73s1utyzgvd
CVP Pro Forma https://www.box.com/s/nvs1355pquoecixsjni3
Customers & Clients Resource Doc.
https://www.box.com/s/gcgjge3xvbdfdjyme1ek
Markets & Competitors Resource Doc.
https://www.box.com/s/5xm6ktqbx2oa6fdyuqok
Competitor Analysis Pro Forma
https://www.box.com/s/2sfyw0k34ake369z1l3o
Localisation Resources Doc. https://www.box.com/s/p1nl29m2ffqeqhbw9m0p
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Further Information/ContactEmail: [email protected] Website: www.rjmasters.co.uk Linkedin: http://lnkd.in/vTp8KwG+ :
http://www.google.com/profiles/richardmasters.richard
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richardmastersj
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mastersassoc
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