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?

Follow @macdailybites

Read More

Marketing 101: The Micro-environment - Customers

Next in the Marketing Micro-environment, we come to Customers.

Customers are the key to sales.  If you don't have customers, you can't sell anything. Managers must continually study customer needs and try to anticipate how they are developing so they can meet these needs effectively now and in the future.  However not all customers are the same.  Managers must actively study five distinct categories of customer markets.

Consumer Markets
Consumer Markets are made up of individuals and household units.  These customers buy products and services for their own personal use.

Business Markets
Customers in Business Markets typically purchase products and services that will be further processed or used in their own internal business processes.  These customers are commonly referred to as B2B, or business-to-business customers.

Resellers
Customers in Reseller markets purchase products and services specifically to resell them to others for a profit.  Well known resellers in the United States are "big box" stores, such as Target or Walmart.

Government Markets
Customers in Government Markets consist of government agencies that purchase products and services from private companies, and provide public services or transfer products and services to others who they deem need them.  Some industries are much more dependent on Government Markets than others.

International Markets
Customers in International Markets are buyers who reside in other countries.  These buyers include consumers, producers, resellers and even governments.

A business will typically sell it's products and services to multiple Customer Markets.  Customer markets can also provide areas for a business to grow into.  Each market requires it's own special strategic marketing to properly "sell" to it's distinct type of customer.  Each Customer tastes and preferences will also change at different rates, and are effected by larger economic factors in different ways at different times.  A good marketing manager will always have a good sense of what is going on in each of the Customer markets he or she is strategically marketing to.


Follow @macdailybites

Read More

Data: Knowing How Your Customers Use Media

I can't say this enough, so I will say it again:  It's all about Data.

Another illustration: today the Pew Research Center released the results of a recent survey, stating that less than 10 percent of people are using social media for up-to-date news.  So what does this mean?

I think we can gleam a few points:

1) This shows that your customers are probably using Facebook and Twitter for other types of information.  Social media is a losing proposition and a waste of resources if it isn't used properly.  Know where your customers are looking before releasing any type of news.

2) Press releases and other types of media announcements should not be on social media as a primary method of dissemination.  Social media should be a part of the whole information release strategy.  As with any properly constructed strategic marketing, a variety of communication methods should be used.  Social media may be cheaper to use, but it's going to cost you real dollars through lost sales if you're not getting information out via the proper channels.

3) Social media's value is in it's ability to give marketer's a more direct, personal connection with their customers.  Press releases and product information don't build customer equity.  Personal, meaningful connections with products and brands build customer equity.  Social media gives us one of the best avenues ever to build equity with our customers.

As always, armed with the right data, our jobs as marketers becomes much easier.  Don't waste your company's time or money.  Arm yourself with the right data so you can use the tools available in the most effective manner.

Read More

Media Consumption In A Digital Age: It's One Big Experiment

In the past, there was a silver screen, a few broadcasters, and a lot of paper.  If you wanted to watch something, you sat in front of someone's television or a theater screen.  If you wanted to listen to music, it was on a stereo - home or portable.  If you wanted to read something, or take something with you, it was most likely printed on paper.  You were in your home, in a movie theater, picked up the mail, or you went to a store to purchase your entertainment.

A few large companies controlled the publishing and availability of the media you chose to consume.  Prices were pretty much the same everywhere you went.  Competition was non-existent.  That's the way it was.  Then this "thing" called the personal computer appeared.  Then the internet appeared.  Everything changed, and it still is.

Last year Time, Inc. hoped to take advantage of it's multiple consumption and distribution publishing model. Time Inc. was attempting to bundle "digital" media with a traditional print subscription under an "All Access" strategy - which would have eliminated print-only subscriptions in the process - and would have allowed Sports Illustrated to raise its price to $48 from $39. Sports Illustrated reversed course in January.  Said Steve Sachs, Executive VP of Consumer Marketing and Sales, "That price, we found, was higher than the market commanded.  Monica Ray, the Executive Vice President of Conde Nast, commented, "The whole industry has the opportunity to redefine what a subscription is."

What kind of subscriptions do consumers want?  Is a "subscription" model appropriate anymore?  How do I find out?  The only way you can find out is by collecting data.  Without data, you're making decisions in the dark, you are walking around blind.  Since the way consumers consume media is changing, we need to be collecting data and study how our customers are using our media products.  If we don't adapt, if we aren't willing to constantly evolve our model of media delivery, we will forever be stuck in our traditions, and more media institutions will perish.

There are no longer a few ways to consume media.  Now there are many publishers, many screens, and the vast majority of them are portable.  Oh ... there still is some paper too.  Because traditional publishing methods have changed drastically from decades of old, traditional media publishers are walking around blindfolded, feeling their way around a media consumption environment that they no longer control.  Today publishing in a digitally dominated ecosystem has become one big experiment, and understanding what will work for you is all about knowing your customer ... and that requires data.

Read More

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.

Read More