Building a Powerful Bootstrap Marketing Plan Chapter 8

Marketing the process of creating and delivering desired goods and services to customers. Involves all of the activities associated with winning and retaining loyal customers.

Guerrilla Marketing Strategies Unconventional, low-cost, creative marketing strategies, designed to give small companies an edge over their larger, richer, more powerful rivals.

A Guerrilla Marketing Plan should accomplish three objectives: 1. It should pinpoint the specific target markets the small company will serve. 2. It should determine customer needs and wants through market research. 3. It should analyze the firms’s competitive advantages and build a guerrilla marketing strategy around them

Pinpointing the Target Market One of the first steps in building a guerrilla marketing plan is to identify a small company’s target market –the specific group of customers at whom the company aims its goods or services. The more a business knows about its local markets and its customers and their buying habits and preferences, the more precisely it can focus its marketing efforts on the group(s) of customers who are most likely to buy its products or services.

Determining Customer Needs and Wants through Market Research Market Research.. the vehicle for gathering the information that serves in the foundation for the marketing plan, it involves systematically collecting, analyzing and interpreting data pertaining to a company’s market, customers, and competitors.

How to conduct Market Research: Step 1. Define the objective. Step 2. Collect the data Primary Research: Customer Surveys & Questionnaires, Focus Groups, Social Media conversations & monitoring, Test Market, Daily Transactions, Other Ideas Secondary Research: Business Directories, Direct mail Lists, Demographic data, Census Data, Forecasts Step 3. Analyze and Interpret Data Step 4. Draw Conclusions and Act

Plotting a Guerrilla Marketing Strategy Building a Competitive Edge Guerilla Marketing principles: The following 14 principles can help business owners create powerful, effective guerilla marketing strategies:

Guerilla Marketing Principles p.1 Find a Niche and Fill It. Use the Power of Publicity. Publicity is any commercial news covered by the media that boosts sales but for which a small company does not pay. Strive to be Unique.

Guerilla Marketing Principles p.2 Build a community with customers Connect with customers on an emotional level Create an identity for your business through branding. Embrace Social Marketing

Guerilla Marketing Principles p.3 Don’t just Sell, Entertain …Create Online Videos, Host a Special Event Dedication to Service and Customer Satisfaction Retain Existing Customers

Guerilla Marketing Principles p.4 Be devoted to Quality Attention to Convenience. Concentration on Innovation Emphasis on Speed

Terms to Know Customer Experience Management – the process of systematically creating the optimum experience for customers every time they interact with the company. Total Quality Management (TQM) - The philosophy of producing a high-quality product or service and achieving quality in every aspect of the business and its relationship with the customer, the focus is on continuous improvement in the quality delivered to customers.

Terms to Know Time Compression Management (TCM) – A marketing strategy that relies on three principles: Speeding Products to market Shortening Customer response time in manufacturing and delivery Reducing the administrative time required to fill an order.