Marketing Plan II

We have discussed a target market and now I would like to discuss Competition. We always have limited resources and therefore it is imperative that we spend correctly. To do that, we must know who we target and why. Therefore we need to identify the competition.

 

Firstly, identify the five closest competitors geographically to your business. Then;

• Obtain market research data
• Determine the demand for the product or service
• Identify nearest direct or indirect competitors
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors
• Make an assessment of how the competitors business is doing.
• Determine why they are performing well or not
• Describe the unique features of your product or service
• Note the similarities or dissimilarities between your product or service and that of the competitor
• Consider the pricing strategy of your product or service and that of the competition.

Start a file on each competitor and determine why they are successful or why they are not doing so well. Observe how they market and if they do promotions. Attempt to determine if these activities are the cause of success and what is it they are saying in the adverts or promotions. Remember too many promotions say that they are not doing well and are trying to increase business at a discounted rate and hence all the promotions. Alternatively they may be one of those companies with a continual promotion because the target market is a lower income bracket and react well to promotions offering special discounts.

Hence one need to be aware of why the competitor is doing what he is doing and not take things on face value only.

You need to describe your product or service fully. Describe the benefit and why a customer would want to change from an existing product to yours. Would it be financial considerations or quality considerations? We will be discussing Pricing Strategy at a later stage.

You must know what your customers want or expect from you and what your competitors are doing.

From what you have gleaned so far you are able to develop a Marketing budget.

§ Advertising and promotional plan

§ All costs allocated for promotion and advertising

§ Advertising and promotional material

§ List of media to use and decision on what type of media would be best for your product or service and where they should be seen.

To do this you would have to allocate funds from your operating budget and will need to look at your business plan. As this should be an ongoing exercise where marketing has a high value of repetition you need carefully consider as whatever you do will need to be repeated.

Next we will be discussing the next (P) in marketing…Place and the Pricing Strategy.