Marketing paper

1. Executive Summary

· The executive summary clearly communicates the critical elements of the marketing plan so that it reads as a stand-alone document. The length of the executive summary is sufficient to cover the critical information, but no more than two pages long.

2. Introduction

· Overview of the company, its main products, main target markets, previous and current marketing efforts, current competitors and customers.

3. Industry Analysis

The industry analysis is the section of your marketing plan in which you demonstrate your knowledge about the general characteristics of the type of business you're in. You should be able to present some statistics about the size of the industry (e.g., total U.S. sales in the last year) and its growth rate over the last few years. Is the industry expanding, contracting or holding steady? Why? 

Who are the major industry participants? While you might not compete directly against these companies (they are likely to be large national or international corporations), it's important that you can identify them, and have a good understanding of their market share and why they are or aren't successful. 

You should also be able to discuss the important trends that may affect your industry. For example, significant changes in the target market, in technology, or in other related industries may affect the market's perception of your product or your profitability. 

This kind of information is often available for free from the following sources: 

· trade association data 

· industry publications and databases 

· government databases (e.g., Census Bureau, state trade measurements) 

· Annual reports 

Things to consider:

· the underlying forces at work in the industry

· the overall attractiveness of the industry

· the critical factors that determine a company's success within the industry.

4. Competitor Analysis

In the industry overview section of your plan, you may have identified the largest players in your industry. Not all of these businesses will be directly competing with you, however. Some may be located in geographically distant locations, and others may have pricing or distribution systems that are very different from those of a small business. 

Therefore, in your competition analysis, you'll focus on those businesses that directly compete with you for sales--the specific companies or brands that are direct competitors to your product or service, in your geographic locality. In many cases, these competitors offer a product or service that is interchangeable with yours in the eyes of the consumer (although, of course, you hope you hold the advantage with better quality, more convenient distribution, and other special features). For example, if you operate a local garden center, you may compete against the other garden centers within a 10-mile radius. You may also want to include in your analysis some competitors who offer similar products in a different business category or who are more geographically remote. 

Basic information every company should know about their competitors includes: 

· each competitor's size and market share, as compared to your own 

· how target buyers perceive or judge your competitors' products and services 

· your competitors' financial strength, which affects their ability to spend money on advertising and promotions, among other things 

· each competitor's ability and speed of innovation for new products and services 

Things to consider:

· What is each competitor's market share?

· What type of media are used to market their products or services?

· What are each competitor's strengths and weaknesses?

· What potential threats do your competitors pose?

· What potential opportunities do they make available for you?

5. SWOT Analysis

A key component to marketing strategic planning is conducting a SWOT analysis. SWOT is the acronym for analyzing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and is an effective tool for developing overall marketing strategy, or for planning individual campaigns.

The SWOT analysis looks both inward (strengths and weaknesses) and outward (opportunities and threats) to develop strategy and make the best use of resources.

· Strengths and weaknesses are elements the organization has control.

· Opportunities and threats are elements the organization does not have control over but would be wise to anticipate.

Strengths

· What is going or went well?

· What gives us an advantage in the marketplace or over our competitors?

· What do our current resources excel at? Was the return on investment again?

Weaknesses

· What did not go well?

· What gives us a disadvantage in the marketplace or among our competitors?

· What are weaknesses among our current resources?

· Was the return on investment a loss?

Opportunities

· What is going on outside of the organization that we can capitalize on?

Threats

· What are things going on outside of the organization that can negatively impact our business?

Imagine you are building a marketing campaign for a local, independent bakery/coffee shop, with the goal of increasing breakfast traffic, and competing against nearby national chain restaurants.

The SWOT analysis may look something like this:

Strengths · Talented bakers with innovative creations using local ingredients; location within walking distance of several large office buildings; long history in community.	Weaknesses · Small advertising budget; limited resources.
Opportunities · Fall and holidays coming soon; popularity of locally sourced and sustainable ingredients.	Threat · Within walking distance of two or more national chains; increasing prices of ingredients.

6. Recommended Marketing Strategy

· Examples of marketing strategies includes increasing sales, increasing market share, brand awareness, establish your brand.

7. Marketing Objectives

· Your marketing objective is tied to your strategy. If your strategy is to increase sales your objective would be the following: “increase sales by 10% within the first quarter of 2020”

· The objective has to be quantifiable and measurable over a period of time.

8. Target Markets Identification and Segmentation Strategy

In an ideal world, a business would sell its products to everyone, but that's unrealistic. A business that sells expensive Russian caviar is not going to attract low-income consumers, for example, and a retired couple won't be interested in a range of organic diapers. Because of this, businesses seek to identify the specific group of people or businesses they hope to sell their products to. This group of people is called the target market. This group of people is called the target market.

Examples of target markets include:

· Mothers of school-aged children

· Affluent seniors who own their own homes

· Single millennials

Think of target markets as a big river. Potentially, there are plenty of fish to catch in the river, but it takes a lot of effort. You need a different type of bait to catch each type of fish. To put that in marketing terms, some customers will respond to your advertising while others will be indifferent to it or not even pay attention. That's because the people are individuals, and target markets are too large for everyone in them to be motivated by the same things.

It critical that you persuasively communicate your marketing messages. To do that, you need to be able to adapt your messaging so that it appeals to the consumer's needs, wants and values. The smaller and more homogeneous your target market, the more likely it is that everyone within that market will respond to the same messaging.

Market segmentation is the act of dividing a large target market into distinct groups of consumers who have similar characteristics, needs or behaviors. For example, instead of targeting law firms in Miami, you might break that down to law firms in Miami who have a minimum annual revenue of $2.5 million and who specialize in family law.

This process is called segmentation because you're splitting the large target market into smaller segments.

9. Market Positioning

Market Positioning refers to the ability to influence consumer perception regarding a brand or product relative to competitors. The objective of market positioning is to establish the image or identity of a brand or product so that consumers perceive it in a certain way.

For example:

· A handbag maker may position itself as a luxury status symbol

· A TV maker may position its TV as the most innovative and cutting-edge

· A fast-food restaurant chain may position itself as the provider of cheap meals

Examples:

· Tesla positions themselves as a luxury electric vehicle.

· McDonald’s and Wendy’s position themselves as a place to get cheap and quick meals.

· Starbucks positions itself as a source of upscale quality coffee and beverages.

· Apple position themselves as a tech company that offers innovative and user-friendly products.

Example of a positioning strategy:

If you are a business like Amazon your positioning statement be:

“For internet users who want things fast and easy, Amazon.com is an ecommerce retailer that provides instant access to millions of items. Unlike traditional retailers, Amazon.com provides a combination of extraordinary convenience, customer services, low prices, and comprehensive selection.”

"To discerning people who want the best, Mercedes is the car that will give you the benefits of the latest technology combined with safety and power, offering maximum reliability and state-of-the-art quality".

10. Marketing Mix

Provide a detailed explanation of each.

· Product

· Price

· A number of issues are important in pricing products:

· How will product price be determined (demand-based or cost-plus, marginal costing or full costing)

· Price level compared to competitors (premium, parity or discount)

· Penetration pricing, market skimming etc.

· Distribution

· How the product/service reaches the end-user (consumers)?

· Promotion

· How is the product/service communicated to consumers?