Business Marketing Plan

There are always a number of critical success factors that you need to take into account when developing a business marketing plan.

First, you need to assess what your desired outcome is. What’s your business objective, what are the milestones on which you’ll determine whether the marketing’s been effective, or not effective? If you clearly define, up front, what you would like marketing to do for you, you are better positioned to manage the business marketing planning implementation and therefore are more likely to stay on track.

Second, you need to take a good look at the macro environment within which you trade. Is there anything happening that could affect your ability to maintain sales or pick up additional sales? For example is there a strong chance that a change in legislation could significantly impact your ability to run your business effectively. How is the current economic crunch going to affect the spending habits of your existing/potential customers? You need to look at all the macro issues to ensure you are not caught unawares with a side on swipe that capsizes your marketing and business needs.

Third, clearly define who you are targeting. What makes a good customer for you? A lot of business marketing plans define “everyone” as their target market, but this clearly cannot be the case, it’s just lazy strategy development. Challenge yourself, and your team. Describe the type of people that have problems you can provide the solution to. What is the problem? Who are the people? Where do they live? What do they read etc? Really focus your brainstorming and drill it down until you get into the minds and hearts of the type of people that are ideal customers for you. Focus in this area will ensure the rest of your marketing plan will be based on a solid foundation. Lack of focus in defining your primary target market will mean a business marketing plan that is wishy-washy, unstructured and ineffective.

Last but not least, decide what you want to tell those people about you, your products or your services that will make them sit up and take note. For example what are the benefits of people using your products/services in order to solve their problem? What makes you an essential product/service?
People only buy products and services because they have a need (real or perceived) that needs satisfying. The job of your business marketing plan is to determine what that need is and then work with your team to deliver the solutions to those needs profitably!

If you’d like to develop an effective business marketing plan follow the link now.

Cleaning Up Messy Business

If your business is in a mess, and your thoughts are in a mess then everything is perfectly aligned! Do you agree?

Whether we like it or not our businesses are a direct mirror of what our thoughts have created and if our minds are currently bouncing all over the place then more likely than not so are our staff. And, who feels that first … the customer!

Now, more than ever, you need to develop a business strategy to assist you in gathering your thoughts and preparing a plan of action that allows you to think through the options twice, and act once. This will enable you to step into your business on a daily basis displaying confident leadership that will have your staff and customers wanting to support you. After all, everyone likes to follow a confident leader.

You can start developing a clear plan of action today by developing a business strategy that will enable you to begin where you are, right now, no matter what your circumstances but will ensure you don’t stay in the same situation in the months ahead.

First though you have to get your mind right. You have to really want to change how you think and what you do. No-one can do that for you.

Don’t let fear, worry or anxiety freeze your future. Develop a business strategy now and you’ll see the difference in how you feel, how you act and what results you get.

Why wait?

Making Sense of Pricing – Part 2

Following on my previous post regarding the apparent lack of any logic in the pricing of a leading brand of automatic dish-washing soap products, I can now confirm that there appears to be a complete lack of interest in what the consumer thinks! I received no response to my e-mails to the retailer and the manufacturer so I thought that I would follow a different route.

First I phoned the Customer Care line of the manufacturer (probably better described as the “Customer Don’t Care line”) and asked if they could explain the logic to me. “Sorry we don’t discuss pricing”, I was advised.” you need to speak to the retailer”.

So I went back to the chain store and asked the manager to explain the logic behind the fact that smaller packs of the dish-washing tablets were cheaper per unit than the larger packs. Once he had wiped the amazed look off his face, his first response was “the smaller packs must be on a special offer”.

“Not so”, I said as we traipsed off to the aisle to check – sure enough, not on special!

“I will have to check with Head Office” said the Manager.

“Fine – I’ll be back tomorrow to hear the answer” I said.

On my third return visit (he had forgotten the first time and claimed that he had not heard from Head Office the second time) he informed me that he could not get any explanation from Head Office nor from the rep from the manufacturer.

“So, I said, you are happy to keep ripping off consumers in your store?” I asked.

This at least provoked some reaction – albeit a very defensive “How can you say that?”

So I asked him if it made sense to him that I should pay 10% per unit more for the dubious “privilege” of buying a 25% larger quantity of one of his products. After he had grudgingly admitted that it probably didn’t really make sense, I asked him if the same applied to say, mealie meal or rice or sugar or any other product that perhaps less discerning or less educated consumers may purchase regularly. Or would it make sense that you charged me R50.00 a kilo for sliced ham if I buy 250 grams and R55-00 a kilo of I buy 500 grams?

The comparison of course is ridiculous but I was trying to get him to understand the principle!

So the bottom line is that I cannot explain the logic in the pricing of this product and I am now actively seeking other similar examples.

I am aware of the principle of “Caveat Emptor” or buyer beware. But I have also a concern that we, as consumers, are unsuspectingly being exploited. By whom, I am not certain at this point in time.

How many busy working people have the time to “do the math” on every supermarket item when we rush in to do a quick shop on the way home from work. How many consumers do not have the wherewithal to do this?

I do know that some supermarkets are moving in the direction of displaying unit prices on their shelves but these are in the minority. I am now hell-bent on finding similar examples of how we are being “ripped off” and if that term is too harsh for you, how about systematically milked!! Of real interest to me, however, is that no one has yet leapt to the defence of the retailers and FMCG manufacturers. Nor apparently felt as strongly about this as I do and added their tuppence worth. Apathy reigns!!!

Watch this space!!!

Making Sense of Pricing

I have just sent off e-mails to both the manufacturer and the retailer of a well-known brand of dish washing tablets for automatic dish washing machines. My question to them was how they could explain the differences in the pricing of the various sized packs in which they supply their product. I am not often moved to go as far as taking up cudgels with retailers and/or manufacturers (although I know that I should become a more active consumer particularly when I see something that smacks of ripping off the consumer!)

Let me start from the beginning – I went into a leading national chain store to buy tablets for my automatic dishwasher. Thinking that it is something that I would like to have to remember to purchase as infrequently as possible and that commonsense dictates that the larger the quantity you purchase, the lower the price should be, I automatically grabbed the 60 tablet box and put it into my trolley. Happily, as I did so, I ran my eye over the prices of the other smaller packs and an alarm bell went off in my head. I then started to do something that I seldom have done in the past but will most certainly make a habit of in future – I did the maths to see whether I was getting a good deal.

To my shock and horror, I discovered that I was being ripped off!! The largest pack of 60 tablets worked out at R2,08 per tablet – the next size of 45 worked out at R2,22 per tablet and the smaller size pack containing only 30 tablets cost only R1,99 each!! Go figure? My immediate reaction was to question my own mathematics – but established that I was actually correct. I then checked to see whether the smaller pack was on special and that was not the case. So why the difference? I wish that I knew. My reaction was therefore to look at other brands to find one where there appeared to be some logic in the pricing and, having done so, I changed my brand from a product that I have been using for years to one that is, at least for me now, untested. But I certainly felt better for it.

I am looking forward to receiving the explanations from the retailer and the manufacturer but the bottom line is that they will have to be pretty convincing to persuade me to go back to my original brand of choice.

So what is the Marketing lesson? Well, the first one seems to be that in these tough times, consumers are becoming more discerning – if I extrapolate from a sample of one! But research has suggested that this has been a trend for some years. The second one is that if you are a supplier, you had better be able to explain yourself if you are guilty of this sort of practise. And the third very clear marketing lesson for me is that you need to ensure that whatever you do (to the consumer) you know exactly what the impact is going to be. For my part, I am going to follow this one through and “name and shame” if I have to – I would be guilty of dereliction of my duty as a marketer to let it lie. I am also going to look very much more closely at the relationship between pricing and quantity when I buy in future and I am going to be finding more and better ways to find out from my customers whether they are convinced that they are getting value for money.

What I am also going to do is take a while to get over my sense of being ripped off – and if that applies to other purchasers of the same product, then perhaps the fact that I will no longer support them will be irrelevant as they will find themselves going out of business.

PS:  If you have a story to share please register for our Business Forum and look for the Pricing Issues thread, you can have your say there and learn lessons from others.

Business Dreamers – Where Are You?

Where have all the business visionaries gone? As we celebrate 40 years since Neil Armstrong landed on the moon much has changed.

Where that event left us with an expectation of great futures filled with possibility and achievement, the water that has gone under the bridge since has definitely discoloured and become polluted, figuratively and literally!

History tells us that the companies that positively get out there and market themselves now; focus on improving their service delivery levels and introduce some cost effective new product/service offerings are the ones that will not only survive, but thrive. They’ll steal market share from their competitors who are too busy crying over spilt milk to do anything constructive.

Your customers and your staff need you to become a true leader and show them the way. Most of them can’t see the way forward because they’re so caught up in their own personal problems right now. Besides, if they were capable of seeing the way forward they’d be sitting in your chair!

Have you got a clear strategy for your business for the next 12 months? If not, why not?

Look at signing up for The Small Business Strategy Toolbox if you need assistance in structuring your thinking and ensuring you cover all the critical success factors. Usually outside, professional yet practical advice is just what’s needed when you don’t know which road to take and you don’t have the time or money to try several options before you find what works for you.

If you don’t have the expertise and experience to find the opportunities that already exist get help earlier rather than later. To call for help when the creditors are already shouting is too late, develop your plan of action now and ensure you are still in business this time next year.