Module 26 Marketing Plan (Cont.)

Target Audience Determining the right target audience is probably the most important part of your marketing efforts, because it doesn't matter what you're saying if you're not saying it to the right people.

Demographics In this section of your marketing plan, go into as much detail as possible about who your market is. Describe your typical customer in detail. What is the age group, gender, education level, family size, income level, and geographic location. For business-to-business markets, make sure you include the industry type (or SIC/NAICS), company size, job titles/departments, annual revenue, and geographic areas. Have a general picture of who your market is, then back up that information with concrete numbers and statistics about the size of your market.SICNAICS Determining the size of your market really requires that you already have a good profile of your typical customer. Once you know "whom" you're looking for, you need to take into consideration things like the aging of the population, and regional variations in income levels and education levels.

Your product offering will also require that you consider not only income levels, but also disposable and discretionary income levels. The former refers to income after taxes that is used to pay for daily living expenses, and the latter refers to income that is left over after those necessities are paid for and can be earmarked for luxuries.

The information you glean from a journey into your target audience's brain is often key to your marketing efforts, particularly the positioning of your product. It includes the audience's activities, interests, and opinions. You have to work through behavioral factors, economic factors, and even interpersonal factors to get to the root of purchasing behavior. Answer these questions in your overview: What do they like about your product? What do they like about your competitor's product? What made them decide to buy your product? Did they know which brand they were buying before they purchased it?

What advertising messages had they seen prior to buying? How much disposable or discretionary income is available for this type of purchase? What are their hobbies? What emotional aspects impact their purchase? What is their social class or status? Who is the actual decision-maker for this type of purchase? What values and attitudes play a part in this type of purchase? Who do they look to when making purchasing decisions?

Competitive Overview Describe all of the heavy hitters and answer the following questions: What are their product's strengths and weaknesses? What are their strengths and weaknesses as a company (financial strength, reputation, etc.)? Are there weaknesses you can exploit? What are the differences between your product features and theirs? What were their sales for last year? What is their pricing structure?

In what media vehicles do they promote their products? What is their advertising message? Where else do they promote their products? What were their total advertising expenditures for last year? What is their overall goal (profitability, market share, leadership)? How are they trying to meet their goals (low prices, better quality, lower overhead)? What were their responses to changes you made in your product pricing or promotions?

Product Overview Use this section of your marketing plan to fully describe: your product and its purpose its features its current pricing structure its current distribution channels its positioning within the market its current promotions and advertising its current packaging

Positioning Begin narrowing down your positioning by answering questions such as: What opinions does your audience already have, and how can you tie your product into them? What are your target audience's needs and desires? Is there a hole your product can fill by targeted positioning? Are there certain company attributes you can build on, such as experience, or being the first in the business? What are the greatest benefits of the product and how can you capitalize on them?

Is there a specific use or application that your product fits particularly well? Is your target audience identified independently enough to create a position based on their uniqueness? Can you springboard a positioning idea from your competitor's positioning? Can you base the position on quality or pricing strategies? Can you position the product based on opportunities you've discovered in your research?

Promotion Strategy 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

Public Relations and Publicity There is a whole set of tools for public relations and publicity, just as there is for advertising. These include: 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