Bagaimana Rencana Pemasaran Bekerja

Memiliki rencana pemasaran membuat Anda siap untuk kesuksesan yang lebih besar.

Merencanakan program pemasaran perusahaan Anda adalah proses seperti yang Anda lalui sebagai orang muda memutuskan apa yang ingin Anda lakukan dengan hidup Anda. Anda melalui fase:

• belajar dan menemukan dunia di sekitar Anda
• pengembangan dan realisasi diri dari keterampilan, kekuatan dan kelemahan
• penetapan tujuan berdasarkan kekuatan dan kelemahan tersebut
• menetapkan strategi untuk mencapai tujuan Anda
• merencanakan serangan Anda
• mengerjakan rencana itu untuk mewujudkannya

Ini mencerminkan proses yang harus dilalui bisnis Anda dalam merencanakan pemasaran Anda. Dalam artikel ini, kita akan berbicara tentang bagaimana mengetahui bisnis Anda, mengetahui pasar Anda, memahami kekuatan dan kelemahan Anda, dan menemukan peluang dalam kekuatan dan kelemahan tersebut untuk merencanakan pemasaran Anda dan mewujudkannya. Kami juga akan memberi Anda beberapa kiat dan aturan yang dapat dimanfaatkan oleh semua pemasar.

Apa itu Pemasaran?

Menurut Dictionary of Marketing Terms, pemasaran adalah "proses perencanaan dan pelaksanaan konsepsi, penetapan harga, promosi, dan distribusi ide, barang, dan jasa untuk menciptakan pertukaran yang memuaskan tujuan individu dan organisasi".

Apa artinya itu bagi Anda? Artinya, pemasaran mencakup semua yang harus Anda lakukan untuk menghasilkan produk atau layanan yang dibutuhkan, membuat calon pelanggan menyadarinya, membuat mereka menginginkannya, dan kemudian menjualnya kepada mereka.

Jadi, apakah penjualan dianggap sebagai "pemasaran"? Apakah iklan "pemasaran"? Seringkali, Anda akan mendengar fungsi penjualan disebut sebagai "pemasaran", tetapi sebenarnya penjualan hanyalah bagian dari proses pemasaran yang lebih besar, seperti halnya periklanan. Di masa lalu (30 atau 40 tahun yang lalu), pemasaran terutama terdiri dari penjualan. Daripada memiliki departemen pemasaran, perusahaan memiliki departemen penjualan dengan manajer periklanan dan seseorang yang melakukan riset pasar. Terkadang mereka menambahkan manajer promosi atau menyewa agen untuk menangani periklanan dan promosi.

Hal-hal mulai berubah ketika beberapa perusahaan tumbuh lebih besar dan lebih besar dan mulai menawarkan banyak lini produk yang menjamin memiliki manajer merek mereka sendiri, manajer segmen pasar dan banyak lagi posisi khusus yang menangani dan merenungkan kebutuhan pasar khusus mereka. Kebutuhan akan departemen pemasaran mulai dilihat sebagai bagian penting dari bisnis. Departemen pemasaran juga paling bertanggung jawab jika suatu produk (atau perusahaan) tidak berhasil, terlepas dari apakah kesalahannya benar-benar ada di sana atau tidak.

Semua Orang Bertanggung Jawab atas Pemasaran

Hal yang perlu diingat adalah, pada kenyataannya, departemen pemasaran menyeberang ke seluruh perusahaan. Setiap orang di perusahaan Anda harus menyadari pesan pemasaran, visi, dan tujuan perusahaan, dan harus mencerminkan pesan itu dalam segala hal yang mereka lakukan yang berkaitan dengan produk dan pelanggan Anda. Ini disebut sebagai Komunikasi Pemasaran Terpadu , dan berarti bahwa setiap kontak dengan pelanggan dan calon pelanggan, baik melalui iklan, kontak pribadi, atau cara lain, harus membawa pesan yang konsisten tentang perusahaan dan produk. Akibatnya, setiap karyawan adalah tenaga penjualan, dan setiap karyawan adalah perwakilan layanan pelanggan. Jika mereka memberikan pesan yang beragam tentang apa bisnis Anda, maka pelanggan dan calon pelanggan Anda akan memiliki gambaran yang menyimpang.

Pengalaman buruk apa pun yang dimiliki pelanggan dengan perusahaan Anda dapat memengaruhi penjualan di masa mendatang dari pelanggan itu, serta orang-orang yang mereka ceritakan tentang pengalaman tersebut. Pengalaman buruk ini bisa berupa apa saja, mulai dari resepsionis yang kasar, hingga pengemasan produk yang buruk. Ada begitu banyak variabel yang mempengaruhi apakah pelanggan potensial menjadi pelanggan, atau pelanggan saat ini tetap pelanggan, bahwa departemen pemasaran tidak harus selalu bertanggung jawab atas keberhasilan total suatu produk. Namun di banyak perusahaan, itulah yang terjadi.

Apa Peran Departemen Pemasaran?

Departemen pemasaran harus bertindak sebagai pemandu dan memimpin departemen lain perusahaan dalam mengembangkan, memproduksi, memenuhi, dan melayani produk atau layanan untuk pelanggan mereka. Komunikasi sangat penting. Departemen pemasaran biasanya memiliki pemahaman yang lebih baik tentang pasar dan kebutuhan pelanggan, tetapi tidak boleh bertindak secara independen dari pengembangan produk atau layanan pelanggan. Pemasaran harus dilibatkan, dan harus ada pertemuan pemikiran, setiap kali ada diskusi mengenai pengembangan produk baru atau fungsi perusahaan yang berhubungan dengan pelanggan.

Jangan berpikir bahwa pemasaran harus membuat rencana dan rekomendasi ini sendirian. Sangat penting bagi departemen pemasaran untuk mendapatkan masukan dari banyak orang di dalam perusahaan. Memberikan masukan tidak hanya membantu seluruh perusahaan memahami dan mendukung upaya pemasaran, tetapi juga memberikan beberapa wawasan berharga tentang apa yang diinginkan pelanggan dan ide-ide baru yang mungkin terlewatkan oleh bagian lain perusahaan. Misalnya, teknisi servis dan perwakilan layanan pelanggan Anda akan memiliki wawasan yang bagus tentang pendapat dan kebutuhan pelanggan. Libatkan semua orang dan Anda akan memiliki upaya yang lebih kohesif.

Karena tujuan dan pedoman yang ditetapkan oleh departemen pemasaran harus, dengan desain, sejalan dengan visi dan misi perusahaan, manajemen atas harus terlibat dan mendukung kerjasama semua departemen dalam mengikuti dan melaksanakan rencana dan mengintegrasikan pesan yang konsisten. ke semua saluran komunikasi. Jika tidak demikian, upaya pemasaran produk perusahaan akan gagal. Sesederhana itu.

Perkuat gagasan di antara karyawan Anda bahwa pemasaran adalah upaya tim. Individu mungkin memiliki tujuan dan prioritas mereka sendiri, tetapi jika mereka tidak mempertimbangkan tujuan dan kebutuhan yang lebih besar dari perusahaan, mereka dapat menghambat upaya dan membuat upaya pemasaran yang Anda rencanakan dengan hati-hati gagal.

Untuk mengilustrasikan hal ini, asumsikan sebuah perusahaan telah menerapkan program surat langsung dan telah menempatkan kode kunci pada label surat untuk melacak sumber daftar surat dari mana pelanggan yang memesan akan datang. Jika karyawan yang menerima pesanan tidak meminta dan mencatat kode tersebut, maka departemen pemasaran tidak dapat mengetahui daftar mana yang berfungsi dan daftar mana yang rusak. Kerjasama antar departemen dan dukungan manajemen atas untuk menegakkan prosedur yang diperlukan seringkali sangat penting.

Jadi, departemen pemasaran mempelajari pasar dan pelanggan, menentukan cara terbaik untuk menjangkau pelanggan tersebut, dan bekerja dengan seluruh perusahaan untuk membantu menentukan kebutuhan produk baru dari pasar dan mewakili perusahaan dengan suara yang konsisten.

Selanjutnya, kita akan mulai membahas langkah-langkah untuk menyusun rencana pemasaran Anda. Proses ini melibatkan empat tahap tindakan:

1. Meneliti dan menganalisis bisnis dan pasar Anda
2. Merencanakan dan menulis rencana
3. Menerapkan rencana
4. Mengevaluasi hasil

Riset dan Analisis Pasar

Tahap penelitian dan analisis dari proses perencanaan Anda sangat penting. Pada halaman berikut, kami akan membahas langkah-langkah yang perlu Anda ikuti untuk menyusun rencana Anda. Penting untuk dipahami bahwa setiap langkah dibangun di atas langkah sebelumnya.

Anda akan membangun rencana Anda lapis demi lapis. Misalnya:

1. Penelitian dan analisis sangat penting karena dapat mengarahkan Anda untuk mengidentifikasi audiens target produk Anda, serta kekuatan, kelemahan, ancaman, dan yang terpenting, peluang.
2. Mengetahui ancaman dan peluang yang dihadapi produk Anda membantu Anda menetapkan sasaran dan tujuan penjualan secara lebih realistis.
3. Mengetahui peluang, audiens target, dan sasaran penjualan akan memberi Anda informasi yang Anda butuhkan untuk menetapkan sasaran pemasaran guna memanfaatkan peluang dan memenuhi sasaran penjualan.
4. Mengetahui tujuan pemasaran Anda akan memberi Anda informasi yang Anda butuhkan untuk mengatur pemosisian, harga, distribusi, dan strategi pemasaran lainnya.
5. Menyetel strategi akan memberi Anda peta jalan untuk menyiapkan elemen taktis dari rencana pemasaran Anda, seperti iklan, promosi, pencitraan merek, pengemasan, dll. -- semua itu harus Anda sesuaikan dengan pasar Anda.
6. Setelah elemen taktis Anda ditentukan, Anda dapat menentukan elemen kreatif, anggaran, dan kalender Anda.

Jadi Anda lihat, setiap langkah sangat penting untuk keberhasilan upaya perencanaan Anda. Mari kita mulai.

Ulasan Bisnis

Apa ruang lingkup bisnis Anda? Dengan kata lain, bisnis apa yang Anda geluti? Apa inti dari apa yang dilakukan bisnis Anda atau apa yang disediakan produk Anda? Apakah itu membantu orang menurunkan tingkat stres mereka dengan membantu mereka mengatur kehidupan sehari-hari mereka (seperti di Day-Timer, PDA, layanan pengingat)? Apakah membantu bisnis menghemat uang, meningkatkan kondisi kerja dan meningkatkan keselamatan karyawan mereka (seperti dalam konsultasi keselamatan dan layanan pelatihan)? Apakah ini membantu anak-anak belajar membaca sehingga memiliki peluang lebih besar untuk berhasil di sekolah dan karier mereka (seperti di televisi pendidikan, permainan komputer edukatif, atau les pribadi)?

Apa filosofi dan misi bisnis Anda? Apakah Anda benar-benar sesuai dengan apa yang Anda rencanakan pada awalnya? Tinjau kembali pernyataan visi dan misi Anda.

Untuk menyusun rencana pemasaran yang baik, Anda harus memiliki pengetahuan menyeluruh tentang produk Anda. Lakukan tinjauan menyeluruh terhadap :

• fitur
• manfaat
• siklus hidup panggung
• keamanan
• keandalan
• penampilan dan kemasan
• tingkat teknologi (jika ada)
• riwayat penjualan
• musiman
• riwayat harga
• riwayat distribusi
• riwayat promosi
• area lain khusus untuk produk Anda

Ulasan Pasar

Selain ulasan bisnis, lihat juga hal-hal berikut:

• ukuran pasar
• segmen pasar
• siapa pesaing utama Anda adalah, apa kekuatan pesaing Anda apa dan apa kelemahan pesaing Anda adalah
• siapa audiens target Anda adalah, dan apa kebutuhan . mereka adalah, apa keinginan mereka adalah (ya, ini berbeda), apa rasanya adalah, apa pola pembeliannya adalah, distribusi pilihan mereka metode, pendapatnya produk pesaing Anda, pendapatnya produk Anda, fitur mereka ingin melihat produk Anda
• musim pasar
• pertumbuhan pasar, penyusutan, atau perataan

Perhatikan segmen pasar dengan cermat. Pasar menjadi semakin terfragmentasi. Segmen pasar dapat didasarkan pada harga, kualitas, penggunaan produk, atau bahkan manfaat yang ditemukan konsumen melalui penggunaan produk. Jika Anda adalah bisnis kecil, maka menemukan segmen pasar yang tepat sangatlah penting. Ini dapat membantu Anda menargetkan upaya Anda dan bersaing dengan lebih efisien.

Lihat Cara Kerja Riset Pasar untuk informasi selengkapnya tentang melakukan riset atau menemukan sumber riset sekunder.

Sekarang saatnya untuk membahas beberapa elemen perencanaan penting yang biasa disebut sebagai SWOT dan PEST.

PEST

PEST singkatan dari P faktor olitik, E faktor ekonomi, S faktor sosial, dan T faktor teknologi. Ini semua adalah elemen yang mungkin berpengaruh pada bisnis masa depan Anda. Buat daftar semua faktor yang mungkin menguntungkan atau merugikan bagi keberhasilan upaya pemasaran atau bisnis Anda.

Faktor politik sertakan masalah peraturan yang memengaruhi lini produk Anda (mis. masalah ergonomis dan peraturan peraturan saat ini), aspek hukum seperti paten dan hak cipta, atau hanya iklim politik saat ini.

Faktor ekonomi sertakan kekuatan keuangan saat ini pada target pasar Anda. Apakah saat ini sedang terjadi resesi? Apakah pasar saham turun atau naik?

Faktor sosial sertakan perubahan dalam tren sosial, mode, atau kelompok demografis karena hal itu memengaruhi pasar target Anda dan opininya saat ini. Ini bisa termasuk perubahan kebiasaan belanja, seperti peningkatan belanja online atau tren super-mal. Ini juga dapat mencakup penuaan target pasar Anda saat ini, atau peningkatan populasi di kelompok usia di atas 50 tahun.

Faktor teknologi mencakup segala sesuatu yang mempengaruhi produk Anda, pasarnya, atau upaya pengumpulan informasi pasar Anda yang datang sebagai akibat dari perubahan teknologi. Ini mencakup Internet, komunikasi nirkabel, perangkat elektronik genggam, dan apa pun yang digerakkan oleh teknologi yang memengaruhi produk atau layanan Anda.

Semua faktor PEST akan terikat dan mungkin berdampak pada kekuatan, kelemahan, peluang, dan ancaman yang Anda identifikasi untuk produk dan pasar Anda.

SWOT

SWOT singkatan dari S trengths, W kelebihan, O peluang dan T ancaman dan sangat penting untuk rencana pemasaran Anda. Seperti disebutkan sebelumnya, rencana pemasaran Anda dibangun di atas dirinya sendiri, dan salah satu langkah penahan adalah identifikasi SWOT. Dengan menyelesaikan tinjauan bisnis dan pasar Anda, Anda harus dipersenjatai dengan informasi yang diperlukan untuk mengidentifikasi SWOT dan PEST Anda.

Kekuatan dan kelemahan Anda ditentukan oleh elemen internal, sedangkan peluang dan ancaman (OT) ditentukan oleh kekuatan eksternal. Terkadang disarankan untuk mengidentifikasi peluang dan ancaman Anda terlebih dahulu agar lebih cepat mengungkap kekuatan atau kelemahan produk yang harus dipertimbangkan terlebih dahulu. Misalnya, jika Anda menemukan bahwa pesaing Anda kehilangan kontrak distribusi eksklusif dalam dua bulan ke depan, Anda dapat menggunakan informasi ini untuk mengisi celah di pasar dengan cepat. Namun, banyak dari ancaman Anda akan didasarkan pada kelemahan yang Anda temukan.

Apa pun yang Anda bahas terlebih dahulu, Anda perlu memahami apa yang harus dicari. Untuk mendapatkan PL Anda, tanyakan pada diri Anda pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini. Apakah ada masalah atau peluang yang teridentifikasi di:

1. filosofi atau misi perusahaan?
2. fitur, manfaat, atau kualitas produk?
3. keunggulan kompetitif produk? (Apakah ada keunggulan kompetitif?)
4. metode distribusi atau kepuasan distributor?
5. struktur harga? Apakah harganya jauh lebih tinggi atau lebih rendah dari pesaing?
6. kesadaran pasar sasaran terhadap produk Anda?
7. sikap pasar sasaran terhadap produk (atau kategorinya)?
8. loyalitas merek target pasar?
9. kegiatan kompetisi? (peluncuran produk baru, perubahan harga, perusahaan baru, dll.)
10. pasar secara keseluruhan? (pergeseran kebutuhan, tren, perilaku, dll.)

Saat membuat daftar peluang, pikirkan secara spesifik proses berikut:

• Pemecahan masalah - Masalah apa yang dihadapi pelanggan saat ini dengan produk yang belum tentu cukup buruk untuk menjamin tidak menggunakannya atau bahkan mengeluh, tetapi dapat mengambil manfaat dari perbaikan? Misalnya, mewawancarai pelanggan dapat mengungkapkan pernyataan seperti, "Keripik kentang saya selalu hancur di tas belanjaan dalam perjalanan pulang dari toko." Masukkan keripik kentang merek Pringles. Kemasan baru mungkin hanya memberi produk atau layanan Anda keuntungan di pasar.
• Siklus penggunaan produk - Langkah-langkah apa yang dilakukan pembeli untuk membeli, menggunakan, dan membuang produk? Metode ini mungkin memunculkan ide produk baru (atau hanya penyempurnaan atau ide pengemasan), layanan, atau opsi nilai lainnya.
• Skenario ideal - Terkadang pernyataan "Saya berharap..." pelanggan dapat menghasilkan putaran baru pada suatu produk. Misalnya, seseorang pada suatu saat mungkin berkata, "Saya berharap saya dapat memeriksa email saya dari mana saja!" Masukkan tambahan komunikasi nirkabel ke saluran PDA.

Area lain mungkin juga perlu ditangani tergantung pada perusahaan, produk, atau pasar Anda.

Sekarang kenali kekuatan dan kelemahannya. Kekuatan dapat didefinisikan sebagai sumber daya perusahaan yang tersedia yang dapat Anda gunakan untuk meningkatkan pangsa pasar atau kinerja keuangan Anda. Kelemahan adalah segala sumber daya perusahaan yang dapat menyebabkan Anda kehilangan keunggulan kompetitif, posisi, atau kondisi keuangan. Nilailah kekuatan produk (atau perusahaan) Anda dalam kategori ini dalam skala satu sampai lima. Anda juga dapat menilai masing-masing berdasarkan kepentingannya. Ingat, banyak kelemahan Anda akan didasarkan pada ancaman yang Anda identifikasi di atas.

Eksternal - Berorientasi pasar

1. Reputasi perusahaan/produk
2. Pangsa pasar
3. Kemampuan perusahaan/produk untuk memenuhi kebutuhan dan tren pasar
4. Nilai yang dibawa perusahaan Anda ke pasar
5. Kualitas produk Anda
6. Kualitas layanan dan dukungan pelanggan Anda (atau area layanan lainnya)
7. Kualitas/efektivitas promosi sebelumnya dan upaya pemasaran lainnya
8. Harga
9. Distribusi
10. Keuntungan geografis

Internal

1. Kepemimpinan operasional
2. Kekuatan finansial
3. Kemampuan manufaktur
4. Responsivitas tenaga kerja

Perluas kategori ini sesuai kebutuhan untuk produk atau perusahaan Anda.

Juga perlu diingat bahwa, seringkali, ancaman juga bisa menjadi peluang, dan kekuatan juga bisa dilihat sebagai kelemahan, semua tergantung pada perspektif pemirsa. Misalnya, Anda mungkin melihat banyak pilihan produk sebagai kekuatan, sementara pelanggan Anda mungkin menganggapnya membingungkan dan menganggapnya sulit untuk menemukan apa yang mereka butuhkan. Tempatkan diri Anda pada posisi konsumen dan bersikap objektif saat membuat keputusan.

Pastikan untuk memeriksa Lembar Kerja SWOT yang ada di halaman Alat Pemasaran.

Garis Besar Rencana Pemasaran

Seperti yang Anda temukan jika Anda pernah menulis rencana bisnis, ada banyak variasi dalam format dan garis besar untuk rencana pemasaran. Pelajari contoh yang Anda lihat di Internet dan dari sumber lain, dan ubah garis besar ini sesuai keinginan Anda. Namun, biasanya, rencana pemasaran tertulis Anda harus mencakup bagian berikut:

1. Ikhtisar Eksekutif
2. Ulasan Pasar:  Ikhtisar tren, Segmen pasar, Target pasar (primer dan sekunder)
3. Ulasan Kompetitif
4. Ulasan Produk dan Bisnis
5. Kekuatan, Kelemahan, Peluang, Ancaman
6. Sasaran dan Sasaran:  Tujuan penjualan, Tujuan pemasaran
7. Strategi:  Pemosisian, Produk, Harga, Distribusi, Komunikasi/Promosi
8. Rencana Tindakan dan Implementasi:  Media plan, Anggaran, Jadwal, Tugas
9. Evaluasi:  Sistem pelacakan prospek, Ulasan penjualan

Kita akan membahas semua bagian yang berbeda ini di bagian berikut.

Ringkasan Eksekutif

Biasanya, bagian pertama dari rencana pemasaran adalah Ikhtisar Eksekutif . Ikhtisar eksekutif merangkum rencana Anda untuk tinjauan singkat oleh eksekutif Anda. Meskipun didahulukan dalam rencana pemasaran, ringkasan eksekutif biasanya ditulis terakhir, setelah Anda menganalisis, menyusun kata, dan menyelesaikan detail rencana Anda. Jadi, setelah Anda memiliki inti dari rencana Anda, kembalilah ke bagian ini dan tulis ringkasan eksekutif Anda.

Ringkasan eksekutif harus mencakup secara singkat:

1. Ikhtisar Pasar
2. Ikhtisar Kompetitif
3. Ikhtisar Produk
4. SWOT (Kekuatan, Kelemahan, Peluang, dan Ancaman)
5. Sasaran dan Sasaran
6. Strategi
7. Rencana Aksi dan Jadwal Pelaksanaan
8. Metode Evaluasi

Ikhtisar Pasar

Dalam fase penelitian latihan ini, Anda melakukan kerja keras yang diperlukan untuk beberapa bagian pertama dari rencana bisnis Anda. Sekarang Anda hanya perlu mengumpulkan informasi dalam dokumen yang jelas dan ringkas sehingga Anda dapat memanfaatkannya dan orang lain dapat membaca dan memahami (dan mendukungnya).

Dengan tujuan itu, bacalah tumpukan riset pasar dan lembar kerja yang telah Anda selesaikan dan mulailah memahami segalanya. Setelah Anda menguasainya, mulailah dengan menulis tinjauan pasar yang baik. Anda benar-benar dapat menarik beberapa informasi dari rencana bisnis Anda selama informasi pasar ada saat ini dan spesifik untuk produk yang Anda rencanakan. Jika Anda tidak memiliki rencana bisnis, atau akses ke sana, maka pertanyaan yang perlu Anda jawab dalam ikhtisar ini adalah:

• Seberapa besar potensi pasarnya?
• Apakah pasar tumbuh, datar, atau menyusut? Perubahan apa yang Anda lihat terjadi?
• Apakah pasar tersegmentasi berdasarkan harga, kualitas, usia, pendapatan, atau penggunaan produk?
• Siapa audiens target Anda?
• Siapa pesaing Anda?

Sama seperti semua bagian lain dari rencana pemasaran Anda, tidak ada yang mutlak untuk mengatur rencana Anda. Atur bagian ikhtisar pasar dengan cara yang tampaknya paling logis dan paling baik menggambarkan pasar produk Anda.

Segmentasi Pasar

Karena sulit (dan mahal) untuk menjadi segalanya bagi semua orang (atau pasar), adalah bijaksana untuk menargetkan segmen tertentu dari pasar Anda, terutama jika Anda berada dalam bisnis yang lebih kecil. Ini tidak hanya akan memungkinkan Anda menjangkau lebih banyak orang yang pada akhirnya akan membeli produk Anda, tetapi segmen penargetan juga dapat mengurangi persaingan yang Anda hadapi. Menemukan niche Anda sering kali merupakan kunci sukses untuk bisnis kecil dan menengah dan bahkan besar.

Pasar Anda mungkin secara alami tersegmentasi berdasarkan harga, kualitas, wilayah, usia pelanggan, pendapatan, perilaku pembelian, industri, atau apa pun. Biasanya, harga dan kualitas adalah yang paling jelas, diikuti oleh penggunaan produk dan manfaat yang diperoleh konsumen dari penggunaan produk. Beberapa segmen akan sangat berbeda, dan beberapa akan lebih halus.

Contoh terbaik dari segmentasi pasar diilustrasikan dalam industri otomotif. Mereka semua mobil; tetapi mereka datang dalam semua tingkat kemewahan dan kegunaan, harga dan kualitas, dll. Beberapa bahkan mungkin menyeberang ke lebih dari satu segmen, atau berpindah dari satu ke yang berikutnya.

Tentukan segmen pasar Anda dan jelaskan yang akan Anda targetkan. Ingatlah bahwa produk Anda mungkin melintasi beberapa segmen pasar. Terakhir, ingatlah untuk menangani setiap segmen ini saat Anda merencanakan aktivitas pemasaran Anda.

Pemirsa Target

Menentukan audiens target yang tepat mungkin merupakan bagian terpenting dari upaya pemasaran Anda, karena tidak masalah apa yang Anda katakan jika Anda tidak mengatakannya kepada orang yang tepat.

Di bagian rencana pemasaran Anda ini, jelaskan sedetail mungkin tentang siapa pasar Anda. Jelaskan pelanggan khas Anda secara rinci. Apa kelompok usia, jenis kelamin, tingkat pendidikan, ukuran keluarga, tingkat pendapatan, dan lokasi geografis. Untuk pasar bisnis-ke-bisnis, pastikan Anda menyertakan jenis industri (atau SIC/NAICS), ukuran perusahaan, jabatan/departemen, pendapatan tahunan, dan wilayah geografis. Dapatkan gambaran umum tentang siapa pasar Anda, lalu buat cadangan informasi tersebut dengan angka dan statistik konkret tentang ukuran pasar Anda.

Menentukan ukuran pasar Anda benar-benar mengharuskan Anda sudah memiliki profil yang baik dari pelanggan khas Anda. Setelah mengetahui "siapa" yang Anda cari, Anda perlu mempertimbangkan hal-hal seperti penuaan populasi, dan variasi regional dalam tingkat pendapatan dan tingkat pendidikan.

Penawaran produk Anda juga mengharuskan Anda mempertimbangkan tidak hanya tingkat pendapatan, tetapi juga sekali pakai dan tidak terikat tingkat pendapatan. Yang pertama mengacu pada pendapatan setelah pajak yang digunakan untuk membayar biaya hidup sehari-hari, dan yang kedua mengacu pada pendapatan yang tersisa setelah kebutuhan tersebut dibayar dan dapat dialokasikan untuk kemewahan.

Untuk mencapai tingkat data demografis ini mungkin memerlukan riset pasar. Cari data tentang wilayah di mana kepadatan yang lebih tinggi dari kelompok khusus ini dapat ditemukan. Biro Statistik Tenaga Kerja dan Biro Sensus A.S. memiliki informasi tentang tingkat pengeluaran tahunan dalam kategori pengeluaran utama. Anda juga dapat menemukan data tentang konsentrasi kelompok usia di wilayah tertentu.

Psikografis

Meskipun Anda mungkin telah menentukan grup demografis Anda, orang-orang dalam grup tersebut masih memiliki persepsi yang sangat berbeda tentang manfaat atau nilai produk Anda dan akan termotivasi untuk alasan yang berbeda. Perbedaan ini dikenal sebagai psikografis . Untuk lebih menargetkan upaya Anda, Anda harus menentukan tidak hanya siapa membeli (atau akan membeli) produk Anda, tetapi apa yang membuat mereka ingin untuk membelinya. Cantumkan sebanyak mungkin informasi psikografis yang dapat Anda gali, seperti pola pengeluaran mereka, apakah mereka sadar merek dalam hal jenis produk Anda, apa yang memengaruhi perilaku pembelian mereka, upaya promosi apa yang paling sering mereka tanggapi, dll. juga ingin tahu bagaimana mereka membelinya dan apa yang dapat Anda lakukan untuk mendorong mereka membeli lebih banyak. Anda memerlukan informasi ini sehingga Anda dapat, pada dasarnya, mengkloning pelanggan terbaik Anda. Penting untuk benar-benar membedakan apa yang memotivasi mereka untuk membeli.

Informasi yang Anda peroleh dari perjalanan ke otak audiens target Anda sering kali menjadi kunci upaya pemasaran Anda, terutama penentuan posisi produk Anda. Ini mencakup aktivitas, minat, dan pendapat audiens. Anda harus bekerja melalui faktor perilaku, faktor ekonomi, dan bahkan faktor interpersonal untuk sampai ke akar perilaku pembelian. Jawab pertanyaan ini dalam ringkasan Anda:

• Apa yang mereka sukai dari produk Anda?
• Apa yang mereka sukai dari produk pesaing Anda?
• Apa yang membuat mereka memutuskan untuk membeli produk Anda?
• Apakah mereka tahu merek mana yang mereka beli sebelum membelinya?
• Pesan iklan apa yang mereka lihat sebelum membeli?
• Berapa banyak pendapatan yang dapat dibelanjakan atau pendapatan tambahan yang tersedia untuk jenis pembelian ini?
• Apa hobi mereka?
• Aspek emosional apa yang memengaruhi pembelian mereka?
• Apa kelas atau status sosial mereka?
• Siapa sebenarnya pengambil keputusan untuk jenis pembelian ini?
• Nilai dan sikap apa yang berperan dalam jenis pembelian ini?
• Siapa yang mereka lihat saat membuat keputusan pembelian?

Sekarang setelah Anda mengetahui target pasar dan segmen pasar Anda, tentukan pasar Anda menggunakan angka dan persentase yang konkret. Dengan kata lain, berapa banyak pengguna yang Anda miliki saat ini dan berapa banyak pengguna potensial yang ada untuk produk atau layanan Anda? Jika Anda menawarkan layanan regional dan telah menemukan bahwa ada 80.000 calon pelanggan di wilayah geografis Anda, maka di sinilah Anda meletakkan informasi tersebut.

Jelaskan pertumbuhan dan perubahan lain yang Anda lihat di pasar dan bagaimana persaingan gagal, gagal, atau berkembang sebagai hasilnya. Sertakan beberapa riwayat pasar jika itu berlaku untuk produk dan pasar Anda. Lihat statistik dan data yang Anda temukan melalui riset pasar dan pastikan untuk mengutip sumber dan tanggalnya.

Di sinilah Anda akan memasukkan informasi PEST (Politik, Ekonomi, Sosial, dan Teknologi) yang Anda kumpulkan tentang pengaruh luar di pasar (yaitu peraturan pemerintah, kegiatan serikat pekerja, perubahan sosial, dll.). Juga, jangan lupa musim pasar, dan siklus hidup produk typical .

Ikhtisar Kompetitif

Berikan gambaran lengkap dan menyeluruh tentang pasar yang kompetitif. Mencakup tidak hanya perusahaan pesaing langsung yang Anda hadapi (mereka yang menawarkan produk yang sangat mirip dengan atribut serupa), tetapi juga variasi produk lain yang mungkin menjadi pesaing Anda. Misalnya, jika Anda menjual teh herbal, apakah Anda juga bersaing dengan teh biasa? Teh instan? Teh kalengan? Pasar minuman pada umumnya? Tinjau jenis pesaing ini serta pesaing langsung Anda.

Jelaskan semua pemukul berat dan jawab pertanyaan berikut:

• Apa kekuatan dan kelemahan produk mereka?
• Apa kekuatan dan kelemahan mereka sebagai perusahaan (kekuatan finansial, reputasi, dll.)?
• Apakah ada kelemahan yang bisa Anda manfaatkan?
• Apa perbedaan antara fitur produk Anda dan fitur mereka?
• Berapa penjualan mereka tahun lalu?
• Bagaimana struktur harganya?
• Dengan media apa mereka mempromosikan produk mereka?
• Apa pesan iklan mereka?
• Di mana lagi mereka mempromosikan produk mereka?
• Berapa total pengeluaran iklan mereka untuk tahun lalu?
• Apa tujuan keseluruhan mereka (profitabilitas, pangsa pasar, kepemimpinan)?
• Bagaimana cara mereka mencapai sasarannya (harga murah, kualitas lebih baik, overhead lebih rendah)?
• Apa tanggapan mereka terhadap perubahan yang Anda buat pada harga atau promosi produk Anda?

Informasi seringkali menjadi kunci keunggulan kompetitif yang kuat. Jika Anda mengalami kesulitan menggali informasi tentang pesaing Anda, cobalah pemasok Anda. Mereka bisa menjadi sumber informasi yang baik. Kunjungi lokasi pesaing Anda, situs Web, stan pameran; sampel produk mereka. Anda juga dapat mengumpulkan banyak informasi media dan iklan tentang pesaing Anda di Internet melalui perusahaan seperti Competitive Media Reporting dan USAData. Perusahaan-perusahaan ini dan banyak lainnya menyediakan akses ke database yang mencakup banyak bidang industri, media, periklanan, dan informasi persaingan.

Ikhtisar Produk

Gunakan bagian rencana pemasaran Anda ini untuk menjelaskan sepenuhnya:

• produk Anda dan tujuannya
• fiturnya
• struktur harga saat ini
• saluran distribusinya saat ini
• posisinya dalam pasar
• promosi dan iklan terkini
• kemasannya saat ini

Pastikan informasinya spesifik dan akurat. Jika produk Anda baru, cukup jelaskan produk Anda dan fitur-fiturnya... Tapi tunggu!

Bagian dari rencana pemasaran Anda ini harus mudah. Anda tahu produk Anda, kan? Anda tahu fitur-fiturnya, bukan? Apakah Anda tahu manfaat yang diperoleh pelanggan Anda dari produk Anda? Anda sebaiknya, karena itulah yang akan menjualnya.

Ini mungkin telah dipalu ke kepala Anda jika Anda pernah dalam pemasaran atau periklanan, tapi apa artinya? Tidakkah pelanggan Anda membuat koneksi bahwa jika kotak mengatakan "termasuk baterai" itu berarti mereka tidak perlu mengambil langkah ekstra untuk membeli dan memasangnya? Tentu, mereka mungkin, tetapi jika Anda mengatakan "Termasuk Baterai:Siap digunakan langsung!" Anda akan mendapatkan perhatian mereka lebih cepat dan mungkin memberi produk Anda sedikit keunggulan yang akan meyakinkan pelanggan untuk mengambil produk Anda daripada produk pesaing Anda.

Singkatnya, Anda harus memperjelas hasil akhirnya itulah akhirnya alasan mengapa seseorang harus membeli produk Anda. Hubungkan titik-titik untuk mereka, dan Anda akan memiliki peluang yang jauh lebih baik untuk memiliki produk yang sukses. Tambahkan ke daftar di atas kategori besar "manfaat", terutama jika produk Anda baru.

Saat Anda sampai ke Strategi dan Rencana Tindakan , gunakan informasi manfaat yang Anda dapatkan di sini agar upaya kreatif dan pemosisian berhasil untuk Anda.

Writing SWOT

The content that this section of your plan communicates is some of the most important. Up until now, you've been talking about the past, so to speak. From this point on, you're moving into the future and ultimately the meat of your marketing plan.

With that in mind, write this section of the plan with particular clarity and substance. Pull out those lists of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that you came up with during the research phase and put them in order of importance within each category.

Remember, these should include anything that might affect sales of the product. Make it detailed enough to fully explain each strength, opportunity, etc., but keep the format clean and graphically easy to read.

Goals and Objectives

Your goals and objectives are simply the hard facts describing where you want to be a year from now, or five years from now, or whatever your time frame may be.

Start with your sales goals. In this section, you should include goals that are:

• concrete and measurable (in terms of dollars and units)
• set at a level that is challenging but not impossible to reach
• set on a specific timetable for measuring success
• linked to projected profits (which should also be estimated in the marketing plan)

To do this, you have to accurately estimate the market and what you can expect to get from it for your piece of the pie. There are several methods for doing this. Go through each one and compare your results in order to come up with your sales goals.

• The first method requires that you look at total industry sales over the past five years for your product category. From that information, estimate total industry sales for the next three years for your product category. From that number, figure your market share and extrapolate your annual sales estimates for those years.
• The second method is more limited to your business itself. Basically, you go through the same procedure, but you use your own product's sales figures instead of the total product category for the market. You can further break this information down by the specific distribution channel from which the sale came.
• The third method is important because it is based on the sales levels you need in order to meet your expenses and product costs and make a profit. After all, that is the ultimate goal, right? Estimate your overhead expenses for the year. From your expected Gross Margin percentage, subtract your expected profit percentage. This will give you an estimated expense percentage. Divide the estimated overhead expense dollars by the estimated expense percent to arrive at the magic number of sales dollars necessary to cover your expenses and make a profit.

If you have a new product or business, you'll need to use the industry information to estimate your sales. This analysis should include the average cost of goods, operating margins, overhead expenses, and profit levels for businesses that are similar to yours.

To come up with your final sales goals, you can either average the numbers you came up with using for the three methods we just covered, or you might see a need to weight one method's results more than another. Look at your market data and your opportunities and threats data to determine if the actual potential should be estimated to be higher or lower than your numbers are stating, and then work from there to arrive at your final sales goals.

Marketing Objectives

Your marketing objectives should be the means to achieve your sales objectives. By working through your target market data and your market segment data, you should come up with marketing objectives that address every group. Your marketing objectives should follow the same rules as the sales objectives, and be measurable, quantifiable (meaning there is a specific number of some sort assigned to each one), and time specific.

You should have a marketing objective that addresses each group in your target market. For this reason, you need to have good data about the sizes of your market, potential market, and your current customer base. To this data, add information such as recognized opportunities, your customers' buying rates, and other behavioral issues. This information will help you estimate the numbers you need to attach to your marketing objectives.

For example, imagine this scenario:

1. You know your 2,500 customers each bought an average of 2.5 of your widgets last year.
2. You've also identified a new market of 3,500 potential customers (at your current market share percentage) that you're estimating will buy an average of 2 widgets each for the year.
3. In addition, you've identified an opportunity to add a service contract for customers that would cost 10% of the product cost.

Your marketing objective for existing customers could then be:To increase your current customers' buying rate by 20% and sell service contracts to 50% of those customers.

Your marketing objective for new customers could then be:Sell your widgets to 50% of the new market, create a buying rate within that group of 2 units per year, and sell service contracts to 50% of that group.

Keep in mind that your current customer base may not all buy again, so you should probably account for the drop in that group's purchases by also adding a goal to retain a specific percentage of your existing customers. Set objectives like these for every segment of your market, based on your data. Then, set up a chart to show the math involved in how your marketing objectives meet your sales objectives. Plug in numbers for your percentages and product prices to show that the totals add up.

Strategies

Okay, so you know where you want to go. Now, you just have to determine which roads you're going to take to get there. These are the strategies you'll use in your marketing mix. Your marketing mix is the combination of elements that make up the entire marketing process. By using a variety of modes to reach your goal, you have a better chance of actually doing it. It requires the right combination, however, so be careful when putting it together.

Traditionally, the marketing mix refers to the four P's:product, price, place, and promotion. There are folks who will tell you that those are old-fashioned, and that there are new hip terms to use, but they really all boil back down to... product, price, place and promotion.

We'll go through each of the Ps and talk about the inherent elements in each that can be strategically modeled to help you meet your goals. In addition to the traditional Ps, and probably the most important when it comes to your marketing communications, is positioning. Let's begin there.

• Have a good variety of people involved; include people who know your product, as well as those who know absolutely nothing about it.
• Don't shoot down any ideas until after the session is over. Even bad ideas can beget further good ideas.
• Conduct the session in an exciting and creative environment.
• Start by exhausting all initial ideas and listing them out.
• Use toys, gadgets, photographs, puzzles and other items to stimulate creative thoughts and ideas.
• Encourage outrageous thoughts and bizarre ideas.
• Use your competition by tearing its product apart and thinking about how you can steal their customers away.

Positioning

Think of positioning as the perception your target audience has of your product. You have total control over this element of your marketing efforts, and it is critical to how you develop the rest of your plan. Planning your product's positioning must involve taking into consideration such issues as the competition and how its products are perceived, the needs and desires of your target audience, and the element of mystique or drama that your product or service naturally has about it.

In crowded markets, it is very important to position your product appropriately. Think about the advertising messages your audience is bombarded with every day. In order to stand out, your product has to have a clear position in your audience's mind. But how do you come up with the positioning for your product?

First, you have to determine a broad positioning . This means determining if your product should fall into a niche, be a low-cost leader, or a product differentiator. These are each very different strategy highways, and will take you in different directions when fine-tuning your message. Think of the qualities of your product, its strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities you've uncovered, the pricing you've considered, and your target market to determine which broad position you will take.

Next, you will have to determine specific positioning . This could be based on a certain quality or benefit of your product, such as ease of use, durability, reliability, safety, convenience, etc. In some cases, you may even be able to position your product based on two qualities. For example, think of Volvo. Safety and durability are Volvo's primary and secondary positions.

Begin narrowing down your positioning by answering questions such as:

1. What opinions does your audience already have, and how can you tie your product into them?
2. What are your target audience's needs and desires?
3. Is there a hole your product can fill by targeted positioning?
4. Are there certain company attributes you can build on, such as experience, or being the first in the business?
5. What are the greatest benefits of the product and how can you capitalize on them?
6. Is there a specific use or application that your product fits particularly well?
7. Is your target audience identified independently enough to create a position based on their uniqueness?
8. Can you springboard a positioning idea from your competitor's positioning?
9. Can you base the position on quality or pricing strategies?
10. Can you position the product based on opportunities you've discovered in your research?

It may help to chart these issues out to compare and narrow your options for positioning. By doing this, you can also incorporate importance levels to some of the issues you bring up. For example, if you list the needs and desires of your target market, it might be helpful to rank those according to importance to your target audience. If you list the strengths and weaknesses of your product, it may also be helpful to put those in order from greatest to smallest.

Once you have determined your product's positioning, go through these questions to further refine it:

• How can you simplify the message so it gets through? - Remember, more is often less.)
• Does the name of your product fit with its positioning? - Your product's name is an important part of your positioning strategy. If it doesn't fit, you're going to have a much harder battle.
• Is the position believable?
• Is the position one that your target audience will care about and notice?
• Is the position too broad or too narrow?
• Is the position clear and understandable?

Your product's position, along with your pricing and distribution channels, will also determine its value position . The value position is basically the product's perceived ranking of either high-quality/high-cost, average-quality/average-cost, low-quality/low-cost, or even average-quality/low-cost or higher-quality/lower-cost. What you are trying to get across to your target audience is the value/cost relationship of your product as it relates to the user.

See our Positioning Worksheet and other marketing worksheets on the Marketing Tools page. Now, let's move into the four Ps we mentioned above.

Marketing Mix Strategy

As we mentioned earlier, your marketing mix is the combination of elements that make up the entire marketing process. It requires the right combination, however, so be careful when putting it together. Let's go over the Ps you need to address in your strategy section.

The first P is product. You may be thinking, "Haven't we talked about the product enough already? Geez!" Yes, we have talked about the product and its strengths and weaknesses, but as part of your strategy you also need to think about elements of the product that can be strategic to its success, such as its packaging and warranty. These elements help create the value the customer sees in the product. So, let's talk about packaging and its importance as far as your strategy goes.

The main thing to remember about your packaging is that it communicates to the person buying it right up until they make the decision to plunk down their money and take it home. If it's sitting on a shelf with eight similar products, it can't just look nice, it has to scream its message out in order to get noticed. Your packaging should be noticeable within three seconds in a store-shelf situation. But can packaging really make a difference in your strategy? Of course it can. Think about the convenience factor as well. Remember Pringles? Think about the products you buy that are well-protected by their packaging and are convenient to use because of the packaging. You just might buy them again because you like their convenience. Also, don't forget to consider your competitor's packaging. How can you make yours better?

The same goes for warranties. Particularly if yours is a new product, make sure you give buyers some level of comfort that if the product doesn't do what they thought, they can easily get their money back. The key here is easily. Make sure they know just how easy it will be if they are unhappy with the product. Think about Land's End clothing company's policy:You can wash and wear, wash and wear, wash and wear, and then decide you don't like the shirt or something about it isn't quite right and send it back for a quick and complete refund. The return authorization slip is right there in the box. It doesn't get much easier than that.

So in this section of your marketing plan, describe the strategic use of your product's packaging, warranties, and whatever else you come up with. Explain the benefit you expect to see from it and how it relates to the overall success of the marketing program.

The next P is price .

Price Strategy

How do you know how to price your product or service? Your product's price often communicates as much to the consumer as its advertising. People perceive a product's value based on its price in many situations -- it depends on what your product is and who your market is.

Here is an example:An established restaurant that had just started getting fresh seafood daily from the coast (which was about a four-hour drive away) and was charging eight dollars for a typical seafood dinner entree. They couldn't sell it at all. Rather than lower the price or drop it from their menu, they decided to raise the price to $12.95. The fish sold like crazy. The moral of the story is that people are leery of cheap seafood.

The moral for you is:Be wary of super low pricing. Your customers are looking for value, not the cheapest product they can find. Price your product strategically by looking at:

• The competition (or lack of it) your product faces - If your product is one of a kind, particularly if it's in the technology field, then higher initial prices may be more palatable to consumers (and even expected).
• The sensitivity (or insensitivity) of your customers to pricing for your type of product (as in the case of airlines)
• The price elasticity (the lower the price the more you sell and vice versa) - Keep in mind what you have to sell in order to make a profit, and then chart out the variations in prices and quantities to sell in order to pinpoint the right one.
• The value of the product as it relates to the value of the price - People may pay more for a similar product if they think they will get more out of it.
• The positioning you've established for your product

Write the pricing strategy section of your marketing plan and back up your pricing decisions with current data about competitors' prices, price surveys, etc.

Place Strategy

The third P stands for place , although it's really referring to distribution. I guess you can think of it as the "place" of purchase. The strategy behind how you sell and distribute your product is a very important element of your marketing mix. Do you want your product to be available everywhere? If you do the math, that could be a very lucrative strategy. Or, do you want to create demand for it because it's exclusive and hard to find, requiring the right connections or even traveling to large cities? (The latter would also allow for higher pricing, by the way.)

Just like with pricing, the places where your product is available say a lot about both the quality and "status" of the product. Your channels of distribution must match the image goals of your product. In other words, if you're selling hand-made exotic wood picture frames with luxurious cloth matting, you probably don't want to go to Wal-Mart to sell them. You would use the high-quality, luxury-item image and sell them in an exclusive boutique or other shop. On the other hand, if your product is a mid-line car-care product, then Wal-Mart would be perfect.

Here are some things to remember when planning your distribution strategy:

• Match your product's "image" with that of the distribution channel and with your customers' perception of your product.
• Stay on top of changes in the market that should also make you change your distribution strategy.
• Make sure your product can get the attention it needs in your chosen channel -- both from the sales staff (are they knowledgeable?) and from a shelf-space standpoint (how many competing products does the distributor also carry?).

Promotion Strategy

The fourth and final P is promotion . This is the communications strategy of your plan. Here you'll plan not only the message you want to use, but also the tools you'll use to spread it to the world. Your promotion section should actually have six categories:

• advertising
• public relations and publicity
• direct marketing
• promotions and events
• product/company marketing materials
• premium items
• sales force

Basically, it should cover every communication mode that would appeal to your target market and help drive them to not only be aware of, but also to act on your offer. This would also include other things like client/customer newsletters, a company Web site, etc. It is in this section of your plan that you should make certain you are following an Integrated Marketing Communications plan. This means that each of these tools must follow the same rules and spread the same message. Having separate PR groups and promotions groups and sales groups makes the job very difficult unless you make sure they are all in agreement about what you are saying and how you are saying it.

Advertising

Your task now is to translate all of your objectives into a specific advertising message to meet your goals. Your advertising strategy (aka creative strategy) will need to address not only the awareness-building requirements of your plan, but also attitudes and actions you want to provoke in your audience. Set your advertising strategies to portray exactly what you are going to communicate in your message. This should be based on the positioning you've established and should be tested and refined until it says exactly what you need it to say. It has to portray your product in the right light and bring to mind the right image.

For this section of your marketing plan, clearly describe the creative strategy. Include the following:

• Advertising promise - The promise you are making to your audience in your advertising
• Support for the promise - Bulleted statements that support your claims
• Advertising tone - The emotional images conjured by your message that are appropriate for both the product and your audience
• Rationale - Statements referring back to your product/market research that back up your creative strategies

The actual finished creative effort typically comes after (or else during) this exercise and should be detailed in your product's Advertising Plan.

You will also need to identify which types of media you will be using to carry your message. This is referred to as your Media Plan (another separate document) and can include magazines, newspapers, billboards, Web banners, radio spots, TV spots, sponsored TV and radio programs, product packaging and inserts, movie trailers, posters and flyers, directory listings, and in-store displays.

When writing this advertising section of your marketing plan, keep your strategies clear and focused on what you are trying to achieve. For example, if you know you are introducing a new product in nine months, then one strategy could be to announce the product with a series of ads in a trade publication. Tie in your display advertising strategies with your other media strategies to form a cohesive chain of communication to your target audience.

We'll go over reach and frequency, impression rates, and how to select specific media vehicles within each category on the next page of this article.

Marketing and Public Relations

Public relations can be a very powerful tool in your marketing belt. Often, however, it is an afterthought, while it should actually be one the first things you tackle as you develop and bring to market a new product or service. Begin planting your PR seeds early in the game.

The mantra of your public relations staff should be the Integrated Marketing Communications ide. Their most important function is to ensure that everything the press sees or hears is controlled and is consistent with the image plan. It is therefore recommended that only your PR people actually communicate with the press. This includes all areas of PR, such as corporate announcements, defensive PR, and marketing PR.

PR won't just happen. You have to work at it, plan it, and execute the plan. There is a whole set of tools for public relations and publicity, just as there is for advertising. Ini termasuk:

• news releases
• feature stories and interviews
• exclusives
• opinion pieces
• photos
• speeches or appearances at seminars, conventions, etc.
• local, regional or national talk shows and other programs
• online chats and forums
• community involvement
• lobbying activities
• social responsibility activities

There are two elements to a PR plan:

• What you want to communicate
• A hook to make it newsworthy and interesting

Use this section of your marketing plan to determine those two pieces of information. Here are some strategy ideas for types of information to communicate to the press:

• Prior to your product release, submit sneak previews to the press.
• Find a good spokesperson to help promote your product.
• Find the right angle for your press release.
• Include both trade press and consumer press.
• Build the excitement (hype-up) in your story by finding a new twist on the information.
• Offer co-sponsorships for media to events you are planning.
• Create your own scheduled media blitz.
• Schedule press releases so that various media sources publish information that builds on itself and progressively includes new tidbits of information.
• Build your newsworthy info on one of the product's benefits used in its positioning.
• Develop an interesting and fun idea centered around your product's release or upgrade.

Write out your PR strategies for your marketing plan and include specifics. Remember, this section will act as the guide for scheduling, which we'll cover next.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing, or database marketing, is growing exponentially with the emphasis on very tightly targeted efforts. The growth in e-mail and Internet use, along with the general upward trend in all media subscriptions, is making it an easier and more profitable way to market your product than it was in the past days of mass mailings.

With a database (either a purchased one or your own customer database) of names and very specific demographic information, you can select specific subsets of groups very easily and send very targeted messages about your product or service. By more finely targeting your marketing efforts, you'll also improve your response rates simply because you can come closer to reaching the exact profile of your best customers.

You'll also need to think about the purposes of your direct marketing efforts. Here are some examples uses of direct marketing:

• Generating inquiries
• Opening doors
• Building traffic (for your store, Web site, trade show, etc.)
• Generating awareness (for new product introductions, etc.)
• Fund raising
• Selling products (mail order)

Make sure you've determined the purpose of your direct mail prior to selecting the specific tool, because some tools are inherently better for certain purposes.

Your direct marketing options include:

• USPS direct mail
• Self-mailers
• Mailing packages that include a letter, brochure, and response card
• Post cards (used as inexpensive reminders)
• Mailed premium items and other types of gifts
• Opt-in e-mail campaigns (aka permission marketing) - Make sure your clients are requesting your e-mails, otherwise it's spam.
• Fax campaigns - Remember, you can only fax to existing customers. Faxing to non-customers is actually illegal.
• Telemarketing

Here are some tips to improve your direct marketing efforts:

• Test your lists. Try a test mailing of 500 or less to determine the quality of the list prior to sending out your larger scheduled mailing.
• Test your mailer design. Divide your mailing into groups that each get a slightly different design, and track the results. You may be surprised at how much better some designs and color combinations do than others. This is particularly valuable if your marketing schedule includes a lot of direct mail projects.
• Supplement your large, expensive catalog mailing with more frequent and inexpensive post card mailings. This will reinforce your message so you get more mileage out of the catalog and better ROI (return on investment).
• Include an easy-to-understand and prominent response card.
• Include a deadline for action so your recipient will be encouraged to respond quickly rather than wait and think about it.
• Include an incentive for action. This could include an early bird discount, a free copy of some publication, or a free trial offer of something.

Detail your direct marketing strategies as they relate to your overall marketing mix. For example, you may be planning a PR blitz that is to be followed by an ad in a prominent publication that is then to be followed by a direct mail piece that requests some action, such as a request for a sales representative to call, or even the option to purchase the product.

Promotions and Events

Because your advertising efforts primarily affect the opinions of your target audience and don't always create an immediate action (at least not initially), you also need to plan special promotions that will encourage quick action. A promotion, as opposed to advertising, is based on incentives to act, such as a two-for-one sale, a price discount, or a free gift with purchase. Promotions are useful for encouraging potential customers to try your product and hopefully increase your base of loyal customers.

Here are some examples of promotion types used by marketers today:

• Price discounts/sales
• Coupons
• Samples
• On-pack or in-pack discounts - or even near-pack discounts (from point-of-purchase displays)
• Rebates
• Premium items - either in the package or sent by mail
• Sweepstakes/games
• Packaging
• Events

It is important to watch the promotions your competition offers, but be careful about always reacting with a similar promotion. It is easy to lose market share if you overuse promotions. Customers begin to buy only when your product is on sale. A better strategy is to competitively price your product in the first place, and then use some of the money you would have spent on promotions to improve your products or increase your advertising instead. If your product is better, and you've advertised this, then the customer may have more inclination to buy your product even though the competition's is cheaper... I mean, less expensive.

Sales promotion does have a place in your marketing efforts. Just remember to avoid the loser promotions. Ini termasuk:

• Doing the same promotion more than twice - For some reason, the magic number is two (for promotions that worked the first time, anyway).
• Boring promotions - People will snooze through contests that don't seem to fit the positioning of the product. If there's no connection, typically they won't work.
• Premium offers - "Send three proofs-of-purchase and $3.99 for shipping and handling to get this great coupon organizer!" Overused and usually disappointing to the consumer.
• Overpromising odds of winning - Don't make consumers think they're going to win every time they open a soda.

Just like everything else in your marketing mix, your promotions have to stay on target with your objective and your marketing message or position. To put together promotions that work, you should keep that in mind and put on your "customer" hat. What would get you excited about a product or service? What would be fun and give you the feeling that you really have a chance to win? What could you win that would make you think more highly of the product being promoted? What is your most desirable prize?

Once you've brainstormed some ideas, make sure you make it simple to register, provide good odds, and have a unique idea that is of great interest to your market.

Special Events

If you're planning special events as a way to promote your product or business, then there are a few other guidelines that will help you stay on target and be more successful. Sponsored events are increasing in popularity and account for billions of dollars annually for marketing. They are extremely useful when launching a new product, increasing a product trial, or building consumer relationships with the company name. They require a lot of planning, resources (money and people), and can flop without proper advertising, but they can also launch a product to success very quickly.

Here are few tips to give your event a better chance of success:

• Make sure the event ties in with your company and product.
• Make sure your company and product name are very prominent.
• Make sure your audience knows why it should come. In other words, make sure there is a compelling reason to attend.
• Make sure there is some newsworthiness to the event so you'll also get some PR.
• Make sure your marketing message and position are clearly communicated.

Detail each promotion or event and refer back to the specific marketing objective it addresses. Scheduling and costs will be covered in the Action Plan and Implementation section of your plan.

Now, when writing your promotion strategies, address these issues as they relate to the promotion ideas you've come up with:

• Type of promotion
• Incentive for the promotion
• Open or closed promotion - Open promotions don't require any action from the customer. An example would be a sale. Closed promotions require the customer to do something to take advantage of the promotion. An example would be a rebate, or a contest entry.
• Delivery method for the promotion

You're getting close -- now we just have to cover your sales force strategies, and then you can move on to scheduling and implementation, and, finally, evaluating the whole effort!

Product Marketing Literature

Supporting product literature and other company collateral materials will be key to many of your marketing and sales efforts. These items must present your company image very clearly and professionally. Not only is the text and wording of your literature important, but also the visual image and quality that it projects.

In your literature, it is critical to highlight and emphasize the benefits of your product or service and not just the specifications and features. When planning the literature needs, consider these issues:

• What will the literature be used for? Overall company information, specific product specs and benefits, special information folders?
• Who is the audience for each piece? Investors, partners, customers?
• What approximate quantity do you anticipate for each piece? This will help you not only budget for it, but also get an idea of what level of quality you should go for?
• Who will develop the piece? Internal staff members, a printing company, a design firm? (Cost will vary tremendously with each.)

Premium items are the trinkets and goodies you give away at trade shows or other events. They typically have the company name branded on them and are of little or no value. If you need premiums for trade shows or other events, the best advice is to stick with something that is both useful and consistent with your company's image and product or service line.

For example, a beer manufacturer might give away bottle openers, or a book store might give away book marks or coffee mugs. Pens, note pads, and refrigerator magnets are also good choices. Look for innovative features and good quality if you go with these items (or any premium item), like magnets that have clips to hold larger notes, or pens that will stick to your file cabinet. Just like with your product line, you want your premium items to stand out, be of good quality, and make a favorable impression.

Sales Force

Not to beat a dead horse, but your sales force is another group that has to totally adhere to the Integrated Marketing Communications theme we've been talking about. They see and talk with your customers every day and absolutely must be consistent with your planned image and position. Their one-to-one marketing efforts are very important for many types of businesses, and not as important for others. Investigate your need for a direct sales force and cut your costs if you can. If you determine that you do need a sales force, then here are some suggestions for making them successful and worth the costs (paying your sales team's bills is expensive).

The key to making your sales force effectively communicate your marketing message and sell your products is to educate them on the objectives and strategies you've planned, as well as keep them constantly updated and fully informed on advertising, promotions, direct marketing, and any other marketing tool you are using.

In the sales force section of your marketing plan, also be sure to include trade shows and conferences your sales team (or others within your company) need to attend. Your company's presence at key trade shows and exhibitions can increase your sales and improve recognition of your name and products within your target market. Trade shows are excellent for introducing new products, services, or changes in your company name or image. See How Trade Shows Work for detailed information on managing this process.

Action Plan and Implementation

Let's talk about the tactical and implementation issues of your marketing plan. How do you decide exactly which magazines or newspapers in which to advertise? What is the difference? This is called your Media Plan and can actually become a separate, and much more detailed, document. For this article, we will cover the basics and help give you an idea of what goes into planning your media advertising and what should be included in your marketing plan. It's time to get out your calculator and put on your math hat.

Your media plan should:

• specify which media you will be using to carry your advertising message, such as magazines, newspapers, direct mail, Internet, etc.
• detail the specifics, such as which publications
• detail even more specifics, such as which issues, times, dates, etc.
• list the budget for each vehicle
• describe the rationale behind each selection

How do you go about determining those things? First you have to weight your media.

Weighting your Media

Weighting your media refers to determining the potential exposures of your marketing message to your target audience that each of your chosen media can produce. Basically, by weighting your media, you are trying to determine how much advertising is enough to reach your objectives. To do this, you'll come up with a total number of gross rating points. To do that, you need to understand a little bit about reach, frequency, and impressions.

• Impressions are the number of times your audience sees your advertising message.
• Reach refers to the number of individuals within your target market that are exposed to a specific ad over a specific period of time. This number is expressed as a percentage of your total market.
• Frequency refers to the number of exposures those individuals got to your specific ad over the same specific period of time.
• To get your Gross Rating Points (GRPs) , just multiply the percent reach (% of your total market) by the frequency.

For example, if your marketing strategy is to reach 70% of your market for a specific campaign, and you know you want to reach them at least 10 times in order to convince them to act, then you would need a schedule that would give you 700 GRPs.

Each medium will have a slightly different calculated GRP, so go through each and determine those numbers before you begin planning your media schedule. As a general rule, just make sure you are calculating the percentage of your target audience as a part of the total circulation, exposure, etc., and then multiply that by the number of insertions, or ads you run should.

To help you estimate the total GRP needed to reach your sales goals, here are some rules of thumb:

• Try for a reach of 50 to 90+ of your total market.
• Assume it will take at least three exposures for your target audience to act on your offer.
• New products will need more frequency than established products.
• Complex products will need more frequency than simple products.
• Products with a lot of competition will need more frequency.
• An average GRP goal for a typical packaged product is 1,000 to 5,000 in a year.
• An average GRP goal for a service or retail establishment is 2,000 to 10,000 in a year.
• An average GRP goal for business-to-business is 600 to 4,000 in a year.

Determining these numbers isn't easy. There are some resources on the Web that might help. Check out the last page of this article for some sites that offer calculators and guidelines.

Other things to consider when planning and scheduling your media include:

• Your media vehicle's Cost per Thousand (CPM) . This is useful because it helps you compare the values of different vehicles. For example, you may have two publications you are considering. Both reach your target audience, and all other aspects are equal. One, however, is more expensive than the other. Determining the CPM can help you decide which is the better vehicle for your advertisement. You can get the CPM by dividing the total number of subscribers that fall into your target market by the cost of running an ad. This is expressed as the cost per thousand impressions.
• Strive for a good balance of various media. In other words, don't put all of your eggs in one basket.
• Don't forget new media, such as the Internet and other interactive media like CD-ROM.
• Look at the strengths and weaknesses of each medium as it would effectively carry your marketing message and product positioning. Some media can't effectively communicate certain information. For example, a complicated product would not make good use of a billboard or other "quick" impression media.
• Don't forget to consider the seasonality of your product and geographic concentrations of your audience when selecting and scheduling your media.
• Remember that the percentage of your target audience that a particular media vehicle reaches will not be the number that actually see your message. Many will skim, change channels, or just miss it. So keep your expectations realistic in this respect.

Scheduling

Based on the information and the results you calculate from your media weightings, you should be able to put together a schedule of advertising, promotions, and events that will match your goals. There are some scheduling techniques you should consider when planning media advertising:

• Front loading - This refers to heavier advertising for the introduction phase of a new product.
• Heavy-up - This refers to specific times throughout the year that need heavier advertising (usually timed out with new introductions, promotions, or increased market activity).
• Flighting - This refers to shorter periods of advertising (three to six weeks) that are followed by periods of no advertising.
• Pulsing - This refers to a regular schedule of on-again/off-again advertising.
• Continuity - This refers to a steady fixed rate of advertising for continuous exposure (often used to try and even out a fluctuating buying pattern).

Look at your goals, product seasonality, special events, and other marketing factors and select the scheduling strategy that would work best for the situation. Remember, while the different media types can follow different schedules, you should also consider the added impact of combining media on the same schedules. It all depends on your objectives and goals.

Now you need to think about your marketing budget. No matter how hard you try to be frugal, you'll probably never have enough marketing funds to really do what you want. Just remember, you are not alone. Your competitors are probably facing the same issues you are.

There are three steps you should take when setting your budget. When you get all three results, set your budget based on comparisons of each finding.

1. Set your budget based on your plan's goals and objectives and the schedules you have recommended.
2. Look at the industry average of marketing dollars spent as a percent of sales for similar companies in your industry. There should be data available for the average in your industry. Using this second method will let you see if your budget appears to be realistic in comparison to other similar companies. This figure will help you determine if your budget is too high or low compared to the industry average.
3. Go through a third exercise which involves estimating your primary competitor's advertising and marketing budget based on what you know about their activities. This is a good way to help you be more competitive and possibly gain more market share.

Next, construct your final budget sheets. You should include:

• an overview sheet illustrating your total budget
• a breakdown by medium
• a breakdown by product/market

See our sample budget forms on the Marketing Tools page.

Putting the Marketing Plan Together

Now for the finishing touches of your marketing plan. You should now have the message and media selected, your scheduling determined, and a budget. In this section, you'll need to set up some charts to illustrate everything in your plan. These charts will not only help you present your plan to the powers that be, but they will also help you implement the plan.

Start by putting together a Graphic Media Calendar . List your media on the left, followed by columns that correspond to the calendar or fiscal year for which you are planning. In the last column to the right, summarize the frequency and include the GRPs for each vehicle. At the bottom of that column, total the GRPs. See our sample Media Calendar and other worksheets on the Marketing Tools page.

Then set up a similar calendar for each media type with the same elements included.

Compared to implementation, planning is a breeze! It is in this part of marketing that you call in the reinforcements. It is very important to schedule the events in your plan and assign responsibilities well in advance. Use a very large scheduling board, and put it in an easily viewed spot. Set up a reporting structure with progress reports and regular communications that will keep your plan on target. Making deadlines in the marketing world can be critical to the success of your product (or business).

Magazines typically require insertion orders at least three months in advance. Press releases for monthly publications should also follow a three-month lead-time schedule. Newspapers allow shorter lead times, and so do some other types of publications.

Make sure you know every deadline. Flag them wildly and stay on your toes!

Now, how are you going to make sure the plan is working? Go on to the next page and find out.

Evaluation

Just like in every other facet of life, you have to learn from your mistakes. The best lessons are learned the hard way. So with that in mind, how do you know which parts of your marketing plan are actually generating sales and making your company money?

This section of your plan should include plans and procedures for tracking each type of media you are using. And, as a subset of each of those procedures, you should identify specifically which vehicle within those media groups is being the most effective. This isn't easy for all mediums, but for some it's pretty manageable.

Here are some types of media along with ideas for tracking their effectiveness. The techniques will vary wildly depending on your product type and market.

• Display advertising - With traditional consumer publications, tracking can be done through the use of different phone numbers, special offers (specific to that advertisement or publication), or reference to a specific department to call for information. When those calls come in, your call-center staff must be prepared to record the information so the results can be tallied for that publication. Many trade publications also include Reader Service Cards that allow the reader to circle a number that corresponds to your ad on a mail-in postcard in order to get more information about your product or service. While you may get a lot of junk requests (competitors, shoppers, or literature collectors), you also can get some good leads. Keep a record of these leads and follow-up on the final result.
• Direct marketing - With postal mailings, tracking is relatively simple. Include on the mailing label a code (called a key code or a source code) that corresponds with the mailing list so you know which list is producing, and instruct your call-center staff to record the information by asking the customer for the code. You can also include customer numbers here and record repeat orders without the problem of re-entering their information into your customer database. For telemarketing campaigns, tracking is also relatively simple since a live person is communicating with the customer throughout the entire process, in most cases.
• TV or radio ads - These require similar tracking methods as consumer publications. They can be tracked through the use of different phone numbers, special offers (specific to that advertisement) or reference to a specific department to call for information. Again, when those calls come in, your call-center staff must be prepared to record the information so the results can be tallied for that particular spot. Another less exact method, if you're marketing on a very large scale, is to track immediate sales along with the timing of the advertisement.
• Internet marketing - Usually, this is easily tracked because it is based on click-throughs or page impressions. Your Web administrator should be able to provide reports that indicate the number of click-throughs that actually led to the purchase of your product. You may also experience call-in sales as a result of your Web site. Make sure your call center is aware and records the information accurately.
• Promotions - Most closed promotions are basically "self-tracking" because they require the customer to do something, such as fill out an entry form (trackable), turn in a coupon, return a rebate slip (trackable), or log-on to a Web site to claim a prize (also trackable). Open promotions , such as sales, require a little more work to track, although they can be tracked in a general way by noting increased sales for that time period, store, region, or whatever the parameters of the sale.
• Events - An event is also tricky to track. You know how many people attended, but do you know how many sales occurred as a result? You can issue coupons at the event that could be tracked, offer other special deals, or even allow attendees to join a special club. You have to be creative in order to track the true sales results of a big event. A trade show's effectiveness can be tracked by collecting the right information at the show and following up on it. These results must also be tallied and recorded.

The tabulated results and customer information is very valuable information. Make sure you routinely back up the system where this data is kept and keep copies in safe places. The customer data is extremely valuable to your future direct-marketing efforts, and must be keyed in correctly and accurately.

Before your marketing plan is kicked off, make sure you have the database structure in place to record this information. Use codes for every level of information so that you can sort by various specifications. This takes a lot of planning, as well as training for your staff. Setting up the records with drop-down boxes for selecting preset information such as product numbers, list codes, publication codes, or department codes, will make your records much more consistent and useable.

Checking out the effectiveness of your marketing campaign from a product sales standpoint is critical. Begin the review process early and repeat it often. You can tweak your plan along the way to eliminate or shift schedules if you find that some element of the mix is definitely not working. Don't wait until it's too late.

Review your quarterly performance goals. Check your market share. Look at your sales figures based on not only the origin of the sale, but the type of customers as well. In other words, is this an existing customer, a new customer, or a new customer with a totally different demographic profile? Are you retaining existing customers, or are most of your sales coming from new customers? What is your competition doing?

There are a number of marketing audits not covered in this article that you can and should perform on an annual basis. For more information on marketing and related topics, check out the links below.

Related HowStuffWorks Articles

• How Market Research Works
• How Trade Shows Work
• How Building a Business Identity Works
• How Creating an Online Business Works
• How Franchising Works
• How Building a Sales Team Works

Demographic Information

• Demographics Now
• AdAge Magazine
• Neilsen Net Ratings
• The Right Site:Demographic reference and site selection

Market Research

• U.S. Census Bureau
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• USAData
• Competitive Media Reporting

Media Planning

• Magazine Publishers of America - Includes many resources for media planning for magazine advertising
• Nielsen Media Research - Terms and Formulae
• AdNoir.com - The tool for advertising and media professionals