Marketing – Everything you need to know 2009-10
Contest Details: A Day of Mentorship - Marketing Planning
Marketing can be defined as the establishment and building of long term business relationships. Simply put, it is all about connecting with your potential customers in a meaningful way such that they want to do business with you and you have a product or service that meets what their expectations.
Marketing is a whole lot more than simply selling a product or a service. It is a way of thinking that encompasses every aspect of your business. It starts by understanding and connecting with your customer. It follows with responding to your customer in a continuous manner to ensure that you are able to meet their expectations and adapt to new competitive offerings. Finally, it means always being on the lookout for change, assessing the implications of that change, and making the adjustments necessary to keep your business competitive.
A day spent addressing your marketing opportunities, challenges and questions will look like this:
| Step |
What Will be Covered? |
| Introduction |
Let’s get to know each other; learn a bit about each others background. Most importantly, let’s identify the key questions or issues you wish to address. |
| History of your business |
We will start by learning about your business? What is your product or service? Where did you get the idea or motivation? What was the key trigger or starting point? What are the accomplishments or achievements to date? What are the biggest challenges or issues that you are facing? |
| Understanding your marketing strategy |
We will address the following questions:
- Describe who would buy your product or service and why?
- Describe the general marketplace for your product or service? Identify key trends, issues and developments in this marketplace.
- Who or what is your competition?
- What is your competitive advantage relative to your competition?
- What market research have you done to assess your product or service?
- What might be some of the weaknesses or disadvantages of your products or services?
- How do you deal with these in the marketplace?
|
| Analyzing your marketing strategy |
This is where we undertake a detailed assessment of your marketing plan and assess your strategy and tactics relative to your objectives, target customers and activities. Do they line up? Are you employing the right strategy and tactics? |
| Opportunities and Issues |
The most important area of the day will be dealing with the opportunities and challenges that you are currently dealing with. Again, we will ask many questions such as:
- Describe the profile of your customer.
- Explain why they will buy from you and not your competitor?
- How do you communicate or connect with your potential customers to make them aware of your offering and convince them to buy from you?
- How does your product or service reach your customer?
- What are your biggest competitive challenges?
- Are there key alliances you should be considering?
|
| Developing the Action Plan |
We will complete the day by developing an action plan with you. The plan will lay out what is to be achieved; what actions will be required to accomplish these objectives; what resources will be required and how these will be sourced; what measures will be used to determine if you are making progress; and finally who you should contact for future assistance or support. Most importantly we will review the expectations you had for the day and ensure that your questions or concerns have been addressed. |
Funded in part by the
