Marketing 101: Managing Marketing Information: An Overview

Now that we have finished our overview of the Marketing Micro-environment, it's time to begin looking at Managing Marketing Information.

Why do we care about marketing information?  Marketing Information allows the Marketing Manager to do their job; it allows them to make real strategic decisions involving a business's brand, it's products, and the messages communicated to it's Publics.  Marketing Information provides a business with data about it's customers needs, the marketing environment, and it's competition.  A Marketing Information System provides data to key partners and suppliers in the Marketing Micro-environment.  Marketing managers usually need more information, they need the right information.

Over the next few weeks during out discussion of Managing Marketing Information we are going to cover:

- Assessing Marketing Needs
- Developing Marketing Information
- Marketing Research
- Analyzing Marketing Information

Assessing Marketing Needs
A good Marketing Information System balances the information you would LIKE to have with the information you NEED to have.  Remember, you don't need more information, just the RIGHT information.  Your responsibility as a marketing manager is to interview your staff to find out these needs.  Sometimes they may ask for more than they need, and they may not ask for what they really need because they don't know they need it.  Some managers won't ask for certain types of information because they feel they should already know it.

Sometimes it's not possible for your business to provide the information you need, because it is not available, or it is not capable because of your current Marketing Information System's limitations.  Always consider that the costs of obtaining, processing, storing and delivering marketing information can quickly become prohibitive for many business's.  You must decide if the benefits of having more information are worth the costs of providing it to your staff.  However, this can be hard to assess.  Remember that information doesn't itself have value.  What gives data value is how you are using it and the results it is providing your business.

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Marketing 101: The Microenvironment - Competitors

I want to start this week's post with a bit of caution: even though there may not be a lot to write, this part of the Micro-environment is by no means small or light.  In fact, it is complex, requires a lot of thought and study, and must be properly evaluated.  It's your Competitors.

The marketing concept states that in order for your marketing to be successful, your business must provide greater customer value and satisfaction that your competitors.  In other words, you must do more than simply adapt to the needs of your target customers.  Let me state this again:  You must do more than just give your customers what you think they need, or they say they need.  You must gain a strategic advantage by positioning your products and services against your competitors in the minds of your customers.

This is all about positioning.  You have to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You can't do this unless you study your competition.  You have to study them, their products, their marketing messages, and figure out how to stand out above them.

This takes time and a lot of studying.

Remember, no single competitive marketing strategy is best for all companies and situations.  You need to take into account your size and position compared to your competitors.  Large firms with dominant positions in an industry can use certain strategies that smaller firms don't have the ability to from a resource standpoint (money and manpower).  But being large is not enough.  There are winning and losing strategies for all sized businesses.  Small businesses must find the strategies that give them larger rates of return. 

When is the last time you took a hard look at your competition?

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Marketing 101: Microenvironment - The Company

In this continuing Marketing 101 series, I think it's time to begin looking at the Marketing Environment.  The Marketing Environment consists of the factors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management's ability to build and maintain successful customer relationships with target customers.  Within this environment we have the Macro-environment and the Micro-environment.  Let's start with the Micro-environment.

The Micro-environment consists of the factors close to the business (usually involving business relationships) that affect its ability to serve its customers.  We can break the micro-environment down into specific segments:

- The Company
- Suppliers
- Marketing Intermediaries
- Customers
- Competitors
- Publics

Let's start with The Company.

The Company
Inside the Company (think your business), marketing managers must work closely with other company departments.  They simply cannot work within a realm of isolation.  They have to depend on, and take other groups, into account.  These groups can consist of top management, finance, research and development, purchasing, operations, and accounting.  The reality is that these other departments have a direct impact on the marketing department's plans and actions.  In order for these plans and actions to succeed, the "marketing concept" contends that all of these functions must be "thinking consumer", and they must all have bought into the the strategic marketing plan in order to work in harmony to provide customer satisfaction and value.

Top management can directly assist and fast track your plans, or they can stop them in their tracks.  Finance has a direct influence on your budget, and whether money is available for your strategic plans.  R & D has direct influence on product development (think what you are selling).  Purchasing, operations and accounting all influence staffing, media execution and how well you stay on budget.

So the key question is: how is The Company?  Have you taken a hard look at the relationships you and your department have?  How does the rest of the Company perceive you?  Have they bought into your strategic marketing plans?  Are there any conflicts, or relationships that need to be restored?

Take the next few days and sincerely evaluate The Company.

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Marketing Strategies: An Overview

In my relatively short career I've met a lot of people and worked with a lot of organizations.  There are a lot of people who truly know what marketing is, and how to conduct it.  There are also a great number of people who believe that marketing is sending a flyer, an email, or is "just too expensive to do right now".  Many people think they know what marketing and branding are, but in reality, they don't have a clue.

There is a science to it, and more often than not, you need data to determine your strategy.  I'd like to spend the next few months continuing to discuss the basics of marketing.  Today I'd like to start to discuss Marketing Strategy.

Marketing Strategy.  Strategic Marketing.  What is it?  Marketing with a strategy?  Using strategy when you market?  I mean, it seems to define itself.  It seems so logical.  It's a bit more complicated than that.

Marketing strategy is a process that allows an organization to focus it's resources on the best opportunities to grow sales and maintain a competitive advantage.  Let's attempt to break this definition into digestible pieces.

It's a Process.
Marketing, and developing the strategies you are going to use, are part of a process.  It's not quick.  It's not fast.  If it's going to be effective, it takes time and data.  Don't rush.  Strategies are a fundamental part of marketing plans.  You can't even develop your strategy properly until your environmental scan is complete.  

It's centered on an Organization.
Marketing strategies are meant to help the organization meet it's goals.  They don't exist to meet your personal or departmental goals.  A key component of marketing strategy is to keep marketing in-line with a company's mission statement.  

It's all about Focus.
Marketing strategies are focused.  Focus comes from data.  Data helps you construct your multi-year plans.  That's how you achieve your goals.  When you stray from your focus, your strategies fall apart, and you start to bleed dollars from your marketing budget. 

Marketing requires Resources.
Marketing doesn't just involve the VP of Marketing & Communications.  It involves resources from all over your organization.  It's not just dollars (though you really do need the proper amount of them).  It's people.  It's staff.  It's ideas.  It's a team effort.  

It's about the Best Opportunities.
Creating marketing strategies allows you to focus on the best opportunities to grow.  Notice that I didn't say all opportunities, or some opportunities, or the easiest ones.  I said the BEST ones.  Just because you can do something, or spend your budget towards a certain media buy, doesn't mean you should.  It if doesn't directly fit the focus of your marketing strategy and your multi-year plan, then you shouldn't do it.

Marketing is supposed to help Grow Sales.
Marketing is worthless if it doesn't lead to sales.  Some of us don't want to admit that sales drive your business. Sales feed the company bank account.  Sales create cash flow.  Sales allow you to keep your job.  Never ever forget this.  If your marketing strategies aren't growing sales over a defined time frame, then it's time to change.  Remember, marketing strategies are supposed to have the ability to be dynamic and interactive.

Marketing should give you an Advantage.
Effective marketing gives you a competitive advantage.  You should always be differentiating yourself from your competitors.  You should always be selling your competitive advantage.  If you're not, then you're just blending in with the rest of your market segment.

Are your marketing efforts focused?  Are sales growing?  Are you working with your team?  Are you chasing after every opportunity and wasting precious marketing budget dollars?

Maybe it's time to reconsider your strategy.

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Blogging Effectively

Sage Lewis at the SageRock Digital Marketing Blog wrote that people don't blog as much as they use other social media because, "I think it’s because they see blogging as a big thing." Translation: Blogging is hard.  Blogging is not "hard".  People don't blog, because they are unsure what to do with it.  They don't know how to use it effectively.

Like any use of media, blogging starts with a plan.  Planning helps you set goals, build discipline, and write with purpose.

Goals help you have a purpose.  Without goals, you're blog, or any other type of marketing, is ineffective.  Goals help you focus.  All of your posts should lead towards one common goal, one common claim or idea.  For example, what if you created the most comfortable seat cushion in the world?  What if your goal was to sell one million by the end of the year?  Then all of your posts should be focused on convincing someone of the virtues of properly padded buttocks...which can be achieved with your amazing seat cushion.  Your posts could feature customer stories, or the results of studies about padded versus un-padded seats.  Each post focuses on one reason that someone should buy your seat cushion, which helps you reach one million unit sales.

Regular blogging also helps you develop the discipline you need to reach your goals.  Without discipline, it's impossible to reach a long term goal. Jim Whittaker said, "You can never conquer the mountain.  You can only conquer yourself."  The mountain is the sales goal.  Climbing the mountain means defeating the army of doubt, laziness, and busyness.  Doubt tells you that you will never sell enough of your product, and that no one will read your blog.  Laziness prevents you from spending the time to plan what you are going to write, when you are going to write it, writing it, and editing it.  Busyness lets you make excuses, allowing life's events to constantly get in the way of your online marketing plan.  

Setting goals and practicing discipline with your blogging frees you up to write with a purpose.  If you're not writing with a purpose, your blog becomes a set of random, rambling posts. Start by creating a list of all of the things you want to say that relate to your main goal.  Next, create a short outline for each item on your list.  Spend time each week developing and writing about each item on your list.  Eventually it will become easy, and you will develop a weekly writing routine.  Another benefit to this weekly writing plan is that it will build up content on your blog over time.  That content can be indexed by search engines such as Google.  Eventually you will have a large mass of indexed, searchable content.  Google also grades your blog higher if you're posting relevant content more frequently.  A stale, rarely updated blog will almost never appear on Google search results.  If you're also participating in online forums and other online communities, make sure you are linking back to your blog in your signature.  This helps build a "web" of links going back to your blog, and over time it can improve your search rankings, since Google gives your site a higher ranking when others link to you.

Create a plan, set a goal, practice discipline, and write with a purpose.  You just might find that the skills you develop writing a blog will end up permeating other parts of your life as well.

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Message Overload

John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, recently posted on American Express's OPEN Forum an article on marketing confusion.  He asserts that it's impossible to sell to anyone if you over-complicate your message.  It's a back-to-basics commentary on much of today's marketing, and I have to agree.

Keep It Simple Stupid (or K.I.S.S.) comes to my mind here.  John is completely right.  It is always best to have a single, focused message.  Don't pile on the features and adjectives.  Focus your message into one single, strong, best-case selling effort.  You only get one real shot to implant a positive perception into the mind of the consumer.  It's better to be simple and focused, than over-informative, confusing, and ultimately ... pushy.

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