Cómo funcionan los planes de marketing

Tener un plan de marketing lo prepara para un mayor éxito.

La planificación del programa de marketing de su empresa es un proceso muy parecido al que atraviesa cuando es joven y decide qué quiere hacer con su vida. Pasas por fases de:

• aprendizaje y descubrimiento del mundo que te rodea
• desarrollo y autorrealización de habilidades, fortalezas y debilidades
• establecimiento de objetivos en función de esas fortalezas y debilidades
• establecer estrategias para lograr sus objetivos
• planificando tu ataque
• trabajar a través de ese plan para que suceda

Esto refleja el proceso por el que debe pasar su empresa al planificar su comercialización. En este artículo, hablaremos sobre cómo conocer su negocio, conocer su mercado, comprender sus fortalezas y debilidades y encontrar las oportunidades dentro de esas fortalezas y debilidades para planificar su comercialización y hacer que suceda. También le daremos algunos consejos y reglas de los que todos los especialistas en marketing pueden beneficiarse.

¿Qué es el marketing?

Según el Dictionary of Marketing Terms, el marketing es "el proceso de planificación y ejecución de la concepción, fijación de precios, promoción y distribución de ideas, bienes y servicios para crear intercambios que satisfagan los objetivos individuales y organizacionales".

¿Qué significa eso para usted? Significa que el marketing abarca todo lo que tiene que hacer para crear un producto o servicio necesario, hacer que los clientes potenciales lo conozcan, hacer que lo deseen y luego vendérselo.

Entonces, ¿las ventas se consideran "marketing"? ¿La publicidad es "marketing"? A menudo, escuchará que las funciones de ventas se denominan "marketing", pero en realidad las ventas son solo una parte del proceso de marketing más amplio, al igual que la publicidad. En los viejos tiempos (hace 30 o 40 años), el marketing consistía principalmente en ventas. En lugar de tener departamentos de marketing, las empresas tenían departamentos de ventas con un gerente de publicidad y alguien que hacía estudios de mercado. A veces agregaron un administrador de promociones o contrataron una agencia para manejar la publicidad y las promociones.

Las cosas comenzaron a cambiar a medida que algunas empresas crecían más y más y comenzaron a ofrecer muchas líneas de productos que justificaban tener sus propios gerentes de marca, gerentes de segmento de mercado y muchas más posiciones especializadas que abordaban y reflexionaban sobre las necesidades de sus mercados particulares. La necesidad de un departamento de marketing comenzó a verse como una parte vital del negocio. El departamento de marketing también asume la mayor parte de la culpa si un producto (o una empresa) no tiene éxito, independientemente de si la culpa reside realmente allí o no.

Todo el mundo es responsable del marketing

Lo que hay que recordar es que, en realidad, el departamento de marketing se cruza con toda la empresa. Todos en su empresa deben conocer el mensaje de marketing, las visiones y los objetivos de la empresa, y deben reflejar ese mensaje en todo lo que hacen que esté relacionado con el producto y sus clientes. Esto se conoce como Comunicaciones de marketing integradas , y significa que cada contacto con clientes y clientes potenciales, ya sea a través de publicidad, contacto personal u otros medios, debe llevar un mensaje coherente sobre la empresa y el producto. En efecto, cada empleado es un vendedor y cada empleado es un representante de servicio al cliente. Si dan mensajes contradictorios sobre cuál es su negocio, entonces sus clientes y clientes potenciales tendrán una imagen distorsionada.

Cualquier mala experiencia que un cliente tenga con su empresa puede afectar las ventas futuras de ese cliente, así como a las personas a las que les cuenta sobre la experiencia. Esta mala experiencia puede ser cualquier cosa, desde una recepcionista grosera hasta un embalaje deficiente de un producto. Hay tantas variables que afectan si un cliente potencial se convierte en cliente o si un cliente actual permanece un cliente, que el departamento de marketing no siempre debe ser responsable del éxito total de un producto. Pero en muchas empresas, ese es el caso.

¿Cuál es el rol del Departamento de Marketing?

El departamento de marketing debe actuar como guía y liderar a los otros departamentos de la empresa en el desarrollo, producción, cumplimiento y servicio de productos o servicios para sus clientes. La comunicación es vital. El departamento de marketing generalmente tiene una mejor comprensión del mercado y las necesidades del cliente, pero no debe actuar independientemente del desarrollo del producto o del servicio al cliente. El marketing debe estar involucrado, y debe haber una reunión de opiniones, siempre que se lleven a cabo discusiones sobre el desarrollo de nuevos productos o cualquier función de la empresa relacionada con el cliente.

No se haga la idea de que el marketing debe hacer estos planes y recomendaciones solo. Es muy importante que el departamento de marketing obtenga información de muchas personas dentro de la empresa. Proporcionar información no solo ayuda al resto de la empresa a comprender y respaldar los esfuerzos de marketing, sino que también proporciona información valiosa sobre lo que quieren los clientes y nuevas ideas que pueden haber pasado desapercibidas para el resto de la empresa. Por ejemplo, sus técnicos de servicio y sus representantes de servicio al cliente tendrán una gran percepción de las opiniones y necesidades de los clientes. Involucre a todos y tendrá un esfuerzo más cohesivo.

Debido a que las metas y pautas establecidas por el departamento de marketing deben, por diseño, estar en línea con la visión y la misión de la empresa, la alta gerencia debe involucrarse y respaldar la cooperación de todos los departamentos para seguir e implementar el plan e integrar un mensaje consistente. en todos los canales de comunicación. Si este no es el caso, los esfuerzos para comercializar los productos de la empresa fracasarán. Es así de simple.

Refuerce la idea entre sus empleados de que el marketing es un esfuerzo de equipo. Las personas pueden tener sus propios objetivos y prioridades, pero si no tienen en cuenta los objetivos y la mayor necesidad de la empresa, pueden obstaculizar los esfuerzos y hacer que sus esfuerzos de marketing cuidadosamente planificados fracasen.

Para ilustrar esto, suponga que una empresa ha implementado un programa de correo directo y ha colocado códigos clave en las etiquetas de correo para rastrear el origen de las listas de correo de las que provienen los clientes que realizan pedidos. Si los empleados que toman los pedidos no solicitan ni registran esos códigos, entonces el departamento de marketing no tiene manera de saber qué listas están funcionando y qué listas están bombardeando. La cooperación entre departamentos y el apoyo de la alta dirección para hacer cumplir los procedimientos necesarios suele ser fundamental.

Por lo tanto, el departamento de marketing estudia el mercado y los clientes, determina la mejor manera de llegar a esos clientes y trabaja con el resto de la empresa para ayudar a determinar las necesidades de nuevos productos del mercado y representar a la empresa con una voz coherente.

A continuación, comenzaremos a repasar los pasos para armar su plan de marketing. Este proceso implica cuatro etapas de acción:

1. Investigar y analizar su negocio y el mercado
2. Planificación y redacción del plan
3. Implementación del plan
4. Evaluación de los resultados

Investigación y análisis de mercado

La etapa de investigación y análisis de su proceso de planificación es muy importante. En las siguientes páginas, repasaremos los pasos que debe seguir para crear su plan. Es importante comprender que cada paso se basa en el paso anterior.

Construirás tu plan capa por capa. Por ejemplo:

1. La investigación y el análisis son fundamentales porque lo llevan a identificar el público objetivo de su producto, así como sus fortalezas, debilidades, amenazas y, lo que es más importante, oportunidades.
2. Conocer las amenazas y oportunidades que enfrenta su producto lo ayuda a establecer sus metas y objetivos de ventas de manera más realista.
3. Conocer sus oportunidades, público objetivo y objetivos de ventas le brindará la información que necesita para establecer sus objetivos de marketing para aprovechar las oportunidades y alcanzar los objetivos de ventas.
4. Conocer sus objetivos de marketing le brindará la información que necesita para establecer su posicionamiento, fijación de precios, distribución y otras estrategias de marketing.
5. Tener definidas sus estrategias le brindará la hoja de ruta para establecer los elementos tácticos de su plan de marketing, como publicidad, promociones, marca, empaque, etc. Todas esas cosas que debe adaptar a su mercado.
6. Una vez que haya determinado sus elementos tácticos, puede determinar su elemento creativo, presupuestos y calendario.

Como puede ver, cada paso es fundamental para el éxito de sus esfuerzos de planificación. Comencemos.

La revisión de negocios

¿Cuál es el alcance de su negocio? En otras palabras, ¿en qué negocio estás? ¿Cuál es la esencia de lo que hace su negocio o lo que proporciona su producto? ¿Está ayudando a las personas a reducir sus niveles de estrés ayudándoles a organizar su vida diaria (como en Day-Timers, PDA, servicios de recordatorio)? ¿Está ayudando a las empresas a ahorrar dinero, mejorar las condiciones de trabajo y aumentar la seguridad de sus empleados (como en los servicios de capacitación y consultoría de seguridad)? ¿Está ayudando a los niños a aprender a leer y así tener una mayor oportunidad de tener éxito en la escuela y en sus carreras (como en la televisión educativa, los juegos de computadora educativos o la tutoría personal)?

¿Cuál es la filosofía y misión de su negocio? ¿Está realmente encaminado con lo que se propuso hacer inicialmente? Revise sus declaraciones de visión y misión.

Para armar un buen plan de marketing, debe tener un conocimiento profundo de su producto. Realizar una revisión exhaustiva de:

• características
• beneficios
• ciclo de vida escenario
• seguridad
• confiabilidad
• apariencia y empaque
• nivel de tecnología (si corresponde)
• historial de ventas
• estacionalidad
• historial de precios
• historial de distribución
• historial de promociones
• otras áreas específicas de su producto

La revisión del mercado

Además de la revisión comercial, también eche un vistazo a lo siguiente:

• el tamaño del mercado
• los segmentos del mercado
• quiénes son sus principales competidores son, cuáles son las fortalezas de sus competidores son y cuáles son las debilidades de sus competidores son
• quién es su público objetivo es, y cuáles son sus necesidades son, cuáles son sus deseos son (sí, esto es diferente), cuáles son sus gustos son, cuáles son sus patrones de compra son, su distribución preferida método, su opinión del producto de sus competidores, su opinión de su producto, características les gustaría ver en su producto
• la estacionalidad del mercado
• el crecimiento, contracción o aplanamiento del mercado

Preste mucha atención a los segmentos del mercado. Los mercados se han vuelto cada vez más fragmentados. Los segmentos de mercado pueden basarse en el precio, la calidad, el uso del producto o incluso los beneficios que los consumidores encuentran a través del uso de un producto. Si es una pequeña empresa, es muy importante encontrar el segmento de mercado adecuado. Puede ayudarlo a orientar sus esfuerzos y competir de manera más eficiente.

Consulte Cómo funciona la investigación de mercado para obtener más información sobre cómo realizar su investigación o encontrar fuentes de investigación secundarias.

Ahora es el momento de cubrir algunos elementos de planificación importantes comúnmente conocidos como FODA y PEST.

PESTE

PEST significa P factores politicos, E factores económicos, S factores sociales y T factores tecnológicos. Todos estos son elementos que pueden tener un efecto en su futuro negocio. Haga una lista de todos los factores que pueden ser beneficiosos o perjudiciales para el éxito de sus esfuerzos de marketing o de su negocio.

Factores políticos incluya cuestiones reglamentarias que afecten a su línea de productos (por ejemplo, cuestiones de ergonomía y las normas reglamentarias actuales), aspectos legales como patentes y derechos de autor, o simplemente el clima político actual.

Factores económicos incluya las fuerzas financieras actuales en su mercado objetivo. ¿Hay actualmente una recesión? ¿Está subiendo o bajando el mercado de valores?

Factores sociales incluir cambios en tendencias sociales, modas pasajeras o grupos demográficos que afecten a su mercado objetivo y sus opiniones actuales. Esto podría incluir cambios en los hábitos de compra, como el aumento de las compras en línea o la tendencia de los súper centros comerciales. También podría incluir el envejecimiento de su mercado objetivo actual o el aumento de la población en el grupo de mayores de 50 años.

Factores tecnológicos incluya todo lo que afecta su producto, su mercado o los esfuerzos de recopilación de información de su mercado que surgen como resultado de los cambios en la tecnología. Esto incluiría Internet, comunicaciones inalámbricas, dispositivos electrónicos portátiles y cualquier otra cosa impulsada por la tecnología que esté afectando su producto o servicio.

Todos los factores PEST se vincularán y posiblemente tendrán un efecto en las fortalezas, debilidades, oportunidades y amenazas que identifique para su producto y mercado.

FODA

FODA significa S fortalezas, W debilidades, O oportunidades y T amenaza y es fundamental para su plan de marketing. Como se mencionó anteriormente, su plan de marketing se basa en sí mismo, y uno de los pasos de anclaje es la identificación de FODA. Al completar la revisión de su negocio y su mercado, debe contar con la información necesaria para identificar sus FODA y PEST.

Sus fortalezas y debilidades están determinadas por elementos internos, mientras que las oportunidades y amenazas (OT) están dictadas por fuerzas externas. A veces, se recomienda identificar primero las oportunidades y amenazas para sacar a la luz más rápidamente las fortalezas o debilidades del producto que se deben considerar en primer lugar. Por ejemplo, si descubre que su competidor está perdiendo un contrato de distribución exclusivo en los próximos dos meses, podría usar esta información para llenar rápidamente ese vacío en el mercado. Sin embargo, muchas de sus amenazas se basarán en debilidades que haya descubierto.

Independientemente de lo que cubra primero, debe comprender qué buscar. Para llegar a su OT, hágase estas preguntas. ¿Se identificaron problemas u oportunidades en su:

1. filosofía o misión de la empresa?
2. características, beneficios o calidad del producto?
3. ventaja competitiva del producto? (¿Existe una ventaja competitiva?)
4. métodos de distribución o satisfacción del distribuidor?
5. estructuras de precios? ¿Tiene un precio mucho más alto o más bajo que el de la competencia?
6. el conocimiento del mercado objetivo sobre su producto?
7. las actitudes del mercado objetivo hacia el producto (o su categoría)?
8. la lealtad a la marca del mercado objetivo?
9. las actividades de la competencia? (lanzamientos de nuevos productos, cambios de precios, nuevas empresas, etc.)
10. mercado general? (cambios en las necesidades, tendencias, comportamientos, etc.)

Cuando cree su lista de oportunidades, piense específicamente en términos de estos procesos:

• Resolución de problemas - ¿Qué problemas tienen los clientes actualmente con el producto que no son necesariamente lo suficientemente malos como para justificar no usarlo o incluso quejarse, pero que podrían beneficiarse de una mejora? Por ejemplo, entrevistar a un cliente podría sacar a la luz una declaración como:"Mis papas fritas siempre se aplastan en las bolsas de la compra en el camino a casa desde la tienda". Entran las papas fritas de la marca Pringles. El nuevo empaque podría darle a su producto o servicio una ventaja en el mercado.
• Ciclo de uso del producto - ¿Qué pasos sigue el comprador para comprar, usar y desechar el producto? Este método podría sacar a la luz nuevas ideas de productos (o simplemente mejoras o ideas de empaquetado), servicios u otras opciones de valor.
• Escenarios ideales - A veces, las declaraciones de los clientes "Deseo..." pueden dar lugar a un giro completamente nuevo en un producto. Por ejemplo, alguien en algún momento probablemente dijo "¡Ojalá pudiera revisar mi correo electrónico desde cualquier lugar!" Ingrese la adición de comunicaciones inalámbricas a la línea PDA.

Es posible que también deban abordarse otras áreas según su empresa, producto o mercado.

Ahora identifique las fortalezas y debilidades. Las fortalezas se pueden definir como cualquier recurso disponible de la empresa que pueda utilizar para mejorar su participación en el mercado o su desempeño financiero. Las debilidades son cualquier recurso de la empresa que puede hacer que usted pierda una ventaja competitiva, una posición o un estado financiero. Califique las fortalezas de su producto (o empresa) en estas categorías en una escala del uno al cinco. También puede calificar cada uno por importancia. Recuerde, muchas de sus debilidades se basarán en las amenazas que identificó anteriormente.

Externo - Orientado al mercado

1. Reputación de la empresa/producto
2. Cuota de mercado
3. Capacidad de la empresa/producto para satisfacer las necesidades y tendencias del mercado
4. Valor que su empresa aporta al mercado
5. Calidad de su producto
6. Calidad de su servicio al cliente y soporte (u otra área de servicio)
7. Calidad/efectividad de promociones pasadas y otros esfuerzos de marketing
8. Precios
9. Distribución
10. Ventajas geográficas

Interno

1. Liderazgo operativo
2. Fortaleza financiera
3. Capacidades de fabricación
4. Capacidad de respuesta de la fuerza laboral

Amplíe estas categorías según sea necesario para su producto o empresa.

También tenga en cuenta que, a menudo, una amenaza también puede ser una oportunidad, y una fortaleza también puede verse como una debilidad, todo dependiendo de la perspectiva del espectador. Por ejemplo, usted puede ver su gran selección de productos como una fortaleza, mientras que sus clientes pueden considerarla confusa y ver que les dificulta encontrar lo que necesitan. Póngase en el lugar del consumidor y sea objetivo al tomar sus determinaciones.

Asegúrese de revisar la hoja de trabajo FODA que se encuentra en la página de herramientas de marketing.

El esquema del plan de marketing

Tal como descubrió si alguna vez ha escrito un plan de negocios, hay muchas, muchas variaciones en el formato y los esquemas de los planes de marketing. Estudie ejemplos que vea en Internet y de otras fuentes, y modifique este esquema como mejor le parezca. Sin embargo, por lo general, su plan de marketing escrito debe incluir las siguientes secciones:

1. Resumen ejecutivo
2. Revisión del mercado:  Resumen de tendencias, segmentos de mercado, mercado objetivo (primario y secundario)
3. Revisión de la competencia
4. Revisión de productos y negocios
5. Fortalezas, Debilidades, Oportunidades, Amenazas
6. Metas y objetivos:  Objetivos de ventas, objetivos de marketing
7. Estrategias:  Posicionamiento, Producto, Precio, Distribución, Comunicaciones/Promoción
8. Plan de acción e implementación:  Plan de medios, Presupuesto, Programa, Asignaciones
9. Evaluación:  Sistemas de seguimiento de clientes potenciales, revisiones de ventas

Hablaremos de todas estas partes diferentes en las siguientes secciones.

Resumen ejecutivo

Por lo general, la primera sección de un plan de marketing es la Descripción general ejecutiva . La descripción general ejecutiva resume su plan para que sus ejecutivos lo revisen rápidamente. Aunque es lo primero en el plan de marketing, el resumen ejecutivo generalmente se escribe al final, después de que haya analizado, redactado y resuelto los detalles de su plan. Entonces, una vez que haya escrito la esencia de su plan, regrese a esta sección y escriba su resumen ejecutivo.

El resumen ejecutivo debe cubrir brevemente:

1. Resumen del mercado
2. Resumen de la competencia
3. Descripción general del producto
4. FODA (Fortalezas, Debilidades, Oportunidades y Amenazas)
5. Metas y objetivos
6. Estrategias
7. Plan de acción y cronograma de implementación
8. Métodos de evaluación

Visión general del mercado

En la fase de investigación de este ejercicio, hizo el trabajo preliminar necesario para las primeras secciones de su plan de negocios. Ahora solo necesita compilar la información en un documento claro y conciso para que pueda hacer uso de ella y otros puedan leerla y entenderla (y respaldarla).

Con ese fin en mente, revise las pilas de estudios de mercado y las hojas de trabajo que ha completado y comience a darle sentido a todo. Una vez que lo domine, comience escribiendo una buena descripción general del mercado. De hecho, puede obtener cierta información de su plan de negocios siempre que la información del mercado sea actual y específica para los productos que está planeando. Si no tiene un plan de negocios o no tiene acceso a él, las preguntas que debe responder en este resumen son:

• ¿Qué tan grande es el mercado potencial?
• ¿El mercado está creciendo, estancado o se está reduciendo? ¿Qué cambios ve que suceden?
• ¿El mercado está segmentado por precio, calidad, edad, ingresos o uso del producto?
• ¿Quién es su público objetivo?
• ¿Quiénes son sus competidores?

Al igual que con todas las demás secciones de su plan de marketing, no existe un absoluto para organizar su plan. Organice la sección de descripción general del mercado de la manera que parezca más lógica y mejor ilustre el mercado de su producto.

Segmentación del mercado

Debido a que es difícil (y costoso) ser todo para todas las personas (o mercados), es aconsejable apuntar a segmentos específicos de su mercado, especialmente si está en una empresa más pequeña. Esto no solo le permitirá llegar a más personas que finalmente comprarán su producto, sino que la orientación a segmentos también puede reducir la competencia a la que se enfrenta. Encontrar su nicho es a menudo la clave del éxito para las pequeñas y medianas empresas e incluso para las grandes.

Su mercado puede estar naturalmente segmentado por precio, calidad, región, edad del cliente, ingresos, comportamiento de compra, industria o cualquier otra cosa. Por lo general, el precio y la calidad son los más evidentes, seguidos por el uso del producto y los beneficios que obtienen los consumidores al usar el producto. Algunos segmentos serán muy distintos y otros más sutiles.

El mejor ejemplo de segmentación del mercado se ilustra en la industria automotriz. Todos son autos; pero vienen en todos los niveles de lujo y utilidad, precio y calidad, etc. Algunos incluso pueden cruzar a más de un segmento, o pasar de uno al siguiente.

Determine los segmentos de su mercado y describa a los que se dirigirá. Tenga en cuenta que su producto puede cruzarse en varios segmentos del mercado. Finalmente, recuerde abordar cada uno de estos segmentos cuando planifique sus actividades de marketing.

Público objetivo

Determinar el público objetivo correcto es probablemente la parte más importante de sus esfuerzos de marketing, porque no importa lo que diga si no se lo dice a las personas adecuadas.

En esta sección de su plan de marketing, entre en tantos detalles como sea posible sobre quién es su mercado. Describa a su cliente típico en detalle. Cuál es el grupo de edad, género, nivel de educación, tamaño de la familia, nivel de ingresos y ubicación geográfica. Para los mercados de empresa a empresa, asegúrese de incluir el tipo de industria (o SIC/NAICS), el tamaño de la empresa, los cargos/departamentos, los ingresos anuales y las áreas geográficas. Tenga una imagen general de quién es su mercado, luego respalde esa información con números y estadísticas concretos sobre el tamaño de su mercado.

Determinar el tamaño de su mercado realmente requiere que ya tenga un buen perfil de su cliente típico. Una vez que sepa "a quién" está buscando, debe tener en cuenta aspectos como el envejecimiento de la población y las variaciones regionales en los niveles de ingresos y educación.

Su oferta de productos también requerirá que considere no solo los niveles de ingresos, sino también los desechables y discrecional niveles de ingreso. El primero se refiere a los ingresos después de impuestos que se utilizan para pagar los gastos de la vida diaria, y el segundo se refiere a los ingresos que sobran después de que se pagan esas necesidades y se pueden destinar a lujos.

Llegar a este nivel de datos demográficos probablemente requerirá una investigación de mercado. Busque datos sobre las regiones donde se pueden encontrar densidades más altas de estos grupos específicos. La Oficina de Estadísticas Laborales y la Oficina del Censo de EE. UU. tienen información sobre los niveles de gasto anual en las principales categorías de gastos. También puede encontrar datos sobre concentraciones de grupos de edad en regiones específicas.

Psicografía

Aunque haya determinado su grupo demográfico, las personas dentro de ese grupo aún tienen percepciones muy diferentes sobre los beneficios o el valor de su producto y estarán motivadas por diferentes razones. Estas diferencias se conocen como psicográficas . Para orientar mejor sus esfuerzos, debe determinar no solo quién compra (o hará comprar) su producto, sino lo que les hace querer comprarlo. Incluya toda la información psicográfica que pueda encontrar, como cuáles son sus patrones de gasto, si son conscientes de la marca en lo que respecta a su tipo de producto, qué influye en su comportamiento de compra, a qué esfuerzos promocionales responden con más frecuencia, etc. también quiere saber cómo hacen para comprarlo y qué puede hacer para alentarlos a comprar más. Necesita esta información para que pueda, en efecto, clonar a sus mejores clientes. Es importante distinguir realmente lo que los motiva a comprar.

La información que obtiene de un viaje al cerebro de su público objetivo a menudo es clave para sus esfuerzos de marketing, particularmente para el posicionamiento de su producto. Incluye las actividades, intereses y opiniones de la audiencia. Tienes que trabajar a través de factores de comportamiento, factores económicos e incluso factores interpersonales para llegar a la raíz del comportamiento de compra. Responda a estas preguntas en su descripción general:

• ¿Qué les gusta de su producto?
• ¿Qué les gusta del producto de su competencia?
• ¿Qué les hizo decidir comprar su producto?
• ¿Sabían qué marca estaban comprando antes de comprarla?
• ¿Qué mensajes publicitarios habían visto antes de comprar?
• ¿Cuánto ingreso disponible o discrecional está disponible para este tipo de compra?
• ¿Cuáles son sus pasatiempos?
• ¿Qué aspectos emocionales afectan su compra?
• ¿Cuál es su clase social o estatus?
• ¿Quién es el verdadero tomador de decisiones para este tipo de compra?
• ¿Qué valores y actitudes juegan un papel en este tipo de compra?
• ¿A quién miran cuando toman decisiones de compra?

Ahora que conoce su mercado objetivo y los segmentos de mercado, defina su mercado usando números y porcentajes concretos. En otras palabras, ¿cuántos usuarios tiene actualmente y cuántos usuarios potenciales existen para su producto o servicio? Si está ofreciendo un servicio regional y descubrió que hay 80.000 clientes potenciales en su área geográfica, aquí es donde debe colocar esa información.

Explique el crecimiento y otros cambios que ve en el mercado y cómo la competencia está fallando, tambaleándose o prosperando como resultado. Incluya algún historial de mercado si se aplica a su producto y mercado. Consulte las estadísticas y los datos que descubrió a través de su investigación de mercado y asegúrese de citar la fuente y la fecha.

Aquí es donde incluiría la información PEST (política, económica, social y tecnológica) que recopiló sobre influencias externas en el mercado (es decir, regulaciones gubernamentales, actividades sindicales, cambios sociales, etc.). Además, no olvides la estacionalidad del mercado, y el típico ciclo de vida del producto .

Resumen de la competencia

Dar una visión completa y exhaustiva del mercado competitivo. Cubra no solo las empresas competidoras directas a las que se enfrenta (aquellas que ofrecen un producto muy similar con atributos similares), sino también otras variaciones de productos con las que pueda estar compitiendo. Por ejemplo, si vende tés de hierbas, ¿también está compitiendo con los tés normales? ¿Tés instantáneos? ¿Tés enlatados? ¿El mercado de las bebidas en general? Revise estos tipos de competidores, así como sus competidores directos.

Describa todos los pesos pesados ​​y responda las siguientes preguntas:

• ¿Cuáles son las fortalezas y debilidades de su producto?
• ¿Cuáles son sus fortalezas y debilidades como empresa (fortaleza financiera, reputación, etc.)?
• ¿Hay debilidades que puedas explotar?
• ¿Cuáles son las diferencias entre las funciones de su producto y las de ellos?
• ¿Cuáles fueron sus ventas el año pasado?
• ¿Cuál es su estructura de precios?
• ¿En qué medios de comunicación promocionan sus productos?
• ¿Cuál es su mensaje publicitario?
• ¿Dónde más promocionan sus productos?
• ¿Cuáles fueron sus gastos publicitarios totales el año pasado?
• ¿Cuál es su objetivo general (rentabilidad, cuota de mercado, liderazgo)?
• ¿Cómo intentan alcanzar sus objetivos (precios bajos, mejor calidad, gastos generales más bajos)?
• ¿Cuáles fueron sus respuestas a los cambios que realizó en los precios o las promociones de sus productos?

La información es a menudo la clave para una fuerte ventaja competitiva. Si ha tenido dificultades para obtener información sobre sus competidores, pruebe con sus proveedores. Pueden ser buenas fuentes de información. Visite las ubicaciones, los sitios web, los puestos de exhibición de sus competidores; probar sus productos. También puede recopilar una gran cantidad de información de medios y publicidad sobre sus competidores en Internet a través de empresas como Competitive Media Reporting y USAData. Estas empresas y muchas otras brindan acceso a bases de datos que cubren muchas áreas de la industria, los medios, la publicidad y la información competitiva.

Descripción general del producto

Utilice esta sección de su plan de marketing para describir completamente:

• su producto y su propósito
• sus características
• su estructura de precios actual
• sus canales de distribución actuales
• su posicionamiento en el mercado
• sus promociones y publicidad actuales
• su embalaje actual

Asegúrese de que la información sea específica y precisa. Si su producto es nuevo, simplemente describa su producto y sus características... ¡Pero espere!

Esta sección de su plan de marketing debería ser pan comido. Conoces tu producto, ¿verdad? Conoces sus características, ¿verdad? Sin embargo, ¿sabe los beneficios que obtienen sus clientes de su producto? Será mejor que lo hagas, porque eso es lo que va a vender.

Esto probablemente se te ha metido en la cabeza si has estado en marketing o publicidad, pero ¿qué significa? ¿Sus clientes no hacen la conexión de que si la caja dice "baterías incluidas" eso significa que no tendrán que tomar esos pasos adicionales para comprarlas e instalarlas? Claro, podrían, pero si dices "Baterías incluidas:¡Listo para usar nada más sacarlo de la caja!" obtendrá su atención más rápidamente y tal vez le dará a su producto una ligera ventaja que convencerá al cliente de elegir su producto en lugar del de su competencia.

En pocas palabras, hay que dejar muy claro el resultado final esa es, en última instancia, la razón por la que alguien debería comprar su producto. Conecte los puntos para ellos y tendrá muchas más posibilidades de tener un producto exitoso. Agregue a la lista anterior una gran categoría de "beneficios", especialmente si su producto es nuevo.

Cuando llegue a Estrategias y Plan de acción , use la información de beneficios que encuentre aquí para hacer que sus esfuerzos creativos y posicionamiento funcionen para usted.

Escribir FODA

The content that this section of your plan communicates is some of the most important. Up until now, you've been talking about the past, so to speak. From this point on, you're moving into the future and ultimately the meat of your marketing plan.

With that in mind, write this section of the plan with particular clarity and substance. Pull out those lists of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that you came up with during the research phase and put them in order of importance within each category.

Remember, these should include anything that might affect sales of the product. Make it detailed enough to fully explain each strength, opportunity, etc., but keep the format clean and graphically easy to read.

Goals and Objectives

Your goals and objectives are simply the hard facts describing where you want to be a year from now, or five years from now, or whatever your time frame may be.

Start with your sales goals. In this section, you should include goals that are:

• concrete and measurable (in terms of dollars and units)
• set at a level that is challenging but not impossible to reach
• set on a specific timetable for measuring success
• linked to projected profits (which should also be estimated in the marketing plan)

To do this, you have to accurately estimate the market and what you can expect to get from it for your piece of the pie. There are several methods for doing this. Go through each one and compare your results in order to come up with your sales goals.

• The first method requires that you look at total industry sales over the past five years for your product category. From that information, estimate total industry sales for the next three years for your product category. From that number, figure your market share and extrapolate your annual sales estimates for those years.
• The second method is more limited to your business itself. Basically, you go through the same procedure, but you use your own product's sales figures instead of the total product category for the market. You can further break this information down by the specific distribution channel from which the sale came.
• The third method is important because it is based on the sales levels you need in order to meet your expenses and product costs and make a profit. After all, that is the ultimate goal, right? Estimate your overhead expenses for the year. From your expected Gross Margin percentage, subtract your expected profit percentage. This will give you an estimated expense percentage. Divide the estimated overhead expense dollars by the estimated expense percent to arrive at the magic number of sales dollars necessary to cover your expenses and make a profit.

If you have a new product or business, you'll need to use the industry information to estimate your sales. This analysis should include the average cost of goods, operating margins, overhead expenses, and profit levels for businesses that are similar to yours.

To come up with your final sales goals, you can either average the numbers you came up with using for the three methods we just covered, or you might see a need to weight one method's results more than another. Look at your market data and your opportunities and threats data to determine if the actual potential should be estimated to be higher or lower than your numbers are stating, and then work from there to arrive at your final sales goals.

Marketing Objectives

Your marketing objectives should be the means to achieve your sales objectives. By working through your target market data and your market segment data, you should come up with marketing objectives that address every group. Your marketing objectives should follow the same rules as the sales objectives, and be measurable, quantifiable (meaning there is a specific number of some sort assigned to each one), and time specific.

You should have a marketing objective that addresses each group in your target market. For this reason, you need to have good data about the sizes of your market, potential market, and your current customer base. To this data, add information such as recognized opportunities, your customers' buying rates, and other behavioral issues. This information will help you estimate the numbers you need to attach to your marketing objectives.

For example, imagine this scenario:

1. You know your 2,500 customers each bought an average of 2.5 of your widgets last year.
2. You've also identified a new market of 3,500 potential customers (at your current market share percentage) that you're estimating will buy an average of 2 widgets each for the year.
3. In addition, you've identified an opportunity to add a service contract for customers that would cost 10% of the product cost.

Your marketing objective for existing customers could then be:To increase your current customers' buying rate by 20% and sell service contracts to 50% of those customers.

Your marketing objective for new customers could then be:Sell your widgets to 50% of the new market, create a buying rate within that group of 2 units per year, and sell service contracts to 50% of that group.

Keep in mind that your current customer base may not all buy again, so you should probably account for the drop in that group's purchases by also adding a goal to retain a specific percentage of your existing customers. Set objectives like these for every segment of your market, based on your data. Then, set up a chart to show the math involved in how your marketing objectives meet your sales objectives. Plug in numbers for your percentages and product prices to show that the totals add up.

Strategies

Okay, so you know where you want to go. Now, you just have to determine which roads you're going to take to get there. These are the strategies you'll use in your marketing mix. Your marketing mix is the combination of elements that make up the entire marketing process. By using a variety of modes to reach your goal, you have a better chance of actually doing it. It requires the right combination, however, so be careful when putting it together.

Traditionally, the marketing mix refers to the four P's:product, price, place, and promotion. There are folks who will tell you that those are old-fashioned, and that there are new hip terms to use, but they really all boil back down to... product, price, place and promotion.

We'll go through each of the Ps and talk about the inherent elements in each that can be strategically modeled to help you meet your goals. In addition to the traditional Ps, and probably the most important when it comes to your marketing communications, is positioning. Let's begin there.

• Have a good variety of people involved; include people who know your product, as well as those who know absolutely nothing about it.
• Don't shoot down any ideas until after the session is over. Even bad ideas can beget further good ideas.
• Conduct the session in an exciting and creative environment.
• Start by exhausting all initial ideas and listing them out.
• Use toys, gadgets, photographs, puzzles and other items to stimulate creative thoughts and ideas.
• Encourage outrageous thoughts and bizarre ideas.
• Use your competition by tearing its product apart and thinking about how you can steal their customers away.

Positioning

Think of positioning as the perception your target audience has of your product. You have total control over this element of your marketing efforts, and it is critical to how you develop the rest of your plan. Planning your product's positioning must involve taking into consideration such issues as the competition and how its products are perceived, the needs and desires of your target audience, and the element of mystique or drama that your product or service naturally has about it.

In crowded markets, it is very important to position your product appropriately. Think about the advertising messages your audience is bombarded with every day. In order to stand out, your product has to have a clear position in your audience's mind. But how do you come up with the positioning for your product?

First, you have to determine a broad positioning . This means determining if your product should fall into a niche, be a low-cost leader, or a product differentiator. These are each very different strategy highways, and will take you in different directions when fine-tuning your message. Think of the qualities of your product, its strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities you've uncovered, the pricing you've considered, and your target market to determine which broad position you will take.

Next, you will have to determine specific positioning . This could be based on a certain quality or benefit of your product, such as ease of use, durability, reliability, safety, convenience, etc. In some cases, you may even be able to position your product based on two qualities. For example, think of Volvo. Safety and durability are Volvo's primary and secondary positions.

Begin narrowing down your positioning by answering questions such as:

1. What opinions does your audience already have, and how can you tie your product into them?
2. What are your target audience's needs and desires?
3. Is there a hole your product can fill by targeted positioning?
4. Are there certain company attributes you can build on, such as experience, or being the first in the business?
5. What are the greatest benefits of the product and how can you capitalize on them?
6. Is there a specific use or application that your product fits particularly well?
7. Is your target audience identified independently enough to create a position based on their uniqueness?
8. Can you springboard a positioning idea from your competitor's positioning?
9. Can you base the position on quality or pricing strategies?
10. Can you position the product based on opportunities you've discovered in your research?

It may help to chart these issues out to compare and narrow your options for positioning. By doing this, you can also incorporate importance levels to some of the issues you bring up. For example, if you list the needs and desires of your target market, it might be helpful to rank those according to importance to your target audience. If you list the strengths and weaknesses of your product, it may also be helpful to put those in order from greatest to smallest.

Once you have determined your product's positioning, go through these questions to further refine it:

• How can you simplify the message so it gets through? - Remember, more is often less.)
• Does the name of your product fit with its positioning? - Your product's name is an important part of your positioning strategy. If it doesn't fit, you're going to have a much harder battle.
• Is the position believable?
• Is the position one that your target audience will care about and notice?
• Is the position too broad or too narrow?
• Is the position clear and understandable?

Your product's position, along with your pricing and distribution channels, will also determine its value position . The value position is basically the product's perceived ranking of either high-quality/high-cost, average-quality/average-cost, low-quality/low-cost, or even average-quality/low-cost or higher-quality/lower-cost. What you are trying to get across to your target audience is the value/cost relationship of your product as it relates to the user.

See our Positioning Worksheet and other marketing worksheets on the Marketing Tools page. Now, let's move into the four Ps we mentioned above.

Marketing Mix Strategy

As we mentioned earlier, your marketing mix is the combination of elements that make up the entire marketing process. It requires the right combination, however, so be careful when putting it together. Let's go over the Ps you need to address in your strategy section.

The first P is product. You may be thinking, "Haven't we talked about the product enough already? Geez!" Yes, we have talked about the product and its strengths and weaknesses, but as part of your strategy you also need to think about elements of the product that can be strategic to its success, such as its packaging and warranty. These elements help create the value the customer sees in the product. So, let's talk about packaging and its importance as far as your strategy goes.

The main thing to remember about your packaging is that it communicates to the person buying it right up until they make the decision to plunk down their money and take it home. If it's sitting on a shelf with eight similar products, it can't just look nice, it has to scream its message out in order to get noticed. Your packaging should be noticeable within three seconds in a store-shelf situation. But can packaging really make a difference in your strategy? Of course it can. Think about the convenience factor as well. Remember Pringles? Think about the products you buy that are well-protected by their packaging and are convenient to use because of the packaging. You just might buy them again because you like their convenience. Also, don't forget to consider your competitor's packaging. How can you make yours better?

The same goes for warranties. Particularly if yours is a new product, make sure you give buyers some level of comfort that if the product doesn't do what they thought, they can easily get their money back. The key here is easily. Make sure they know just how easy it will be if they are unhappy with the product. Think about Land's End clothing company's policy:You can wash and wear, wash and wear, wash and wear, and then decide you don't like the shirt or something about it isn't quite right and send it back for a quick and complete refund. The return authorization slip is right there in the box. It doesn't get much easier than that.

So in this section of your marketing plan, describe the strategic use of your product's packaging, warranties, and whatever else you come up with. Explain the benefit you expect to see from it and how it relates to the overall success of the marketing program.

The next P is price .

Price Strategy

How do you know how to price your product or service? Your product's price often communicates as much to the consumer as its advertising. People perceive a product's value based on its price in many situations -- it depends on what your product is and who your market is.

Here is an example:An established restaurant that had just started getting fresh seafood daily from the coast (which was about a four-hour drive away) and was charging eight dollars for a typical seafood dinner entree. They couldn't sell it at all. Rather than lower the price or drop it from their menu, they decided to raise the price to $12.95. The fish sold like crazy. The moral of the story is that people are leery of cheap seafood.

The moral for you is:Be wary of super low pricing. Your customers are looking for value, not the cheapest product they can find. Price your product strategically by looking at:

• The competition (or lack of it) your product faces - If your product is one of a kind, particularly if it's in the technology field, then higher initial prices may be more palatable to consumers (and even expected).
• The sensitivity (or insensitivity) of your customers to pricing for your type of product (as in the case of airlines)
• The price elasticity (the lower the price the more you sell and vice versa) - Keep in mind what you have to sell in order to make a profit, and then chart out the variations in prices and quantities to sell in order to pinpoint the right one.
• The value of the product as it relates to the value of the price - People may pay more for a similar product if they think they will get more out of it.
• The positioning you've established for your product

Write the pricing strategy section of your marketing plan and back up your pricing decisions with current data about competitors' prices, price surveys, etc.

Place Strategy

The third P stands for place , although it's really referring to distribution. I guess you can think of it as the "place" of purchase. The strategy behind how you sell and distribute your product is a very important element of your marketing mix. Do you want your product to be available everywhere? If you do the math, that could be a very lucrative strategy. Or, do you want to create demand for it because it's exclusive and hard to find, requiring the right connections or even traveling to large cities? (The latter would also allow for higher pricing, by the way.)

Just like with pricing, the places where your product is available say a lot about both the quality and "status" of the product. Your channels of distribution must match the image goals of your product. In other words, if you're selling hand-made exotic wood picture frames with luxurious cloth matting, you probably don't want to go to Wal-Mart to sell them. You would use the high-quality, luxury-item image and sell them in an exclusive boutique or other shop. On the other hand, if your product is a mid-line car-care product, then Wal-Mart would be perfect.

Here are some things to remember when planning your distribution strategy:

• Match your product's "image" with that of the distribution channel and with your customers' perception of your product.
• Stay on top of changes in the market that should also make you change your distribution strategy.
• Make sure your product can get the attention it needs in your chosen channel -- both from the sales staff (are they knowledgeable?) and from a shelf-space standpoint (how many competing products does the distributor also carry?).

Promotion Strategy

The fourth and final P is promotion . This is the communications strategy of your plan. Here you'll plan not only the message you want to use, but also the tools you'll use to spread it to the world. 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

Basically, it should cover every communication mode that would appeal to your target market and help drive them to not only be aware of, but also to act on your offer. This would also include other things like client/customer newsletters, a company Web site, etc. It is in this section of your plan that you should make certain you are following an Integrated Marketing Communications plan. This means that each of these tools must follow the same rules and spread the same message. Having separate PR groups and promotions groups and sales groups makes the job very difficult unless you make sure they are all in agreement about what you are saying and how you are saying it.

Advertising

Your task now is to translate all of your objectives into a specific advertising message to meet your goals. Your advertising strategy (aka creative strategy) will need to address not only the awareness-building requirements of your plan, but also attitudes and actions you want to provoke in your audience. Set your advertising strategies to portray exactly what you are going to communicate in your message. This should be based on the positioning you've established and should be tested and refined until it says exactly what you need it to say. It has to portray your product in the right light and bring to mind the right image.

For this section of your marketing plan, clearly describe the creative strategy. Include the following:

• Advertising promise - The promise you are making to your audience in your advertising
• Support for the promise - Bulleted statements that support your claims
• Advertising tone - The emotional images conjured by your message that are appropriate for both the product and your audience
• Rationale - Statements referring back to your product/market research that back up your creative strategies

The actual finished creative effort typically comes after (or else during) this exercise and should be detailed in your product's Advertising Plan.

You will also need to identify which types of media you will be using to carry your message. This is referred to as your Media Plan (another separate document) and can include magazines, newspapers, billboards, Web banners, radio spots, TV spots, sponsored TV and radio programs, product packaging and inserts, movie trailers, posters and flyers, directory listings, and in-store displays.

When writing this advertising section of your marketing plan, keep your strategies clear and focused on what you are trying to achieve. For example, if you know you are introducing a new product in nine months, then one strategy could be to announce the product with a series of ads in a trade publication. Tie in your display advertising strategies with your other media strategies to form a cohesive chain of communication to your target audience.

We'll go over reach and frequency, impression rates, and how to select specific media vehicles within each category on the next page of this article.

Marketing and Public Relations

Public relations can be a very powerful tool in your marketing belt. Often, however, it is an afterthought, while it should actually be one the first things you tackle as you develop and bring to market a new product or service. Begin planting your PR seeds early in the game.

The mantra of your public relations staff should be the Integrated Marketing Communications idea. Their most important function is to ensure that everything the press sees or hears is controlled and is consistent with the image plan. It is therefore recommended that only your PR people actually communicate with the press. This includes all areas of PR, such as corporate announcements, defensive PR, and marketing PR.

PR won't just happen. You have to work at it, plan it, and execute the plan. There is a whole set of tools for public relations and publicity, just as there is for advertising. Estos incluyen:

• 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

Use this section of your marketing plan to determine those two pieces of information. Here are some strategy ideas for types of information to communicate to the press:

• Prior to your product release, submit sneak previews to the press.
• Find a good spokesperson to help promote your product.
• Find the right angle for your press release.
• Include both trade press and consumer press.
• Build the excitement (hype-up) in your story by finding a new twist on the information.
• Offer co-sponsorships for media to events you are planning.
• Create your own scheduled media blitz.
• Schedule press releases so that various media sources publish information that builds on itself and progressively includes new tidbits of information.
• Build your newsworthy info on one of the product's benefits used in its positioning.
• Develop an interesting and fun idea centered around your product's release or upgrade.

Write out your PR strategies for your marketing plan and include specifics. Remember, this section will act as the guide for scheduling, which we'll cover next.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing, or database marketing, is growing exponentially with the emphasis on very tightly targeted efforts. The growth in e-mail and Internet use, along with the general upward trend in all media subscriptions, is making it an easier and more profitable way to market your product than it was in the past days of mass mailings.

With a database (either a purchased one or your own customer database) of names and very specific demographic information, you can select specific subsets of groups very easily and send very targeted messages about your product or service. By more finely targeting your marketing efforts, you'll also improve your response rates simply because you can come closer to reaching the exact profile of your best customers.

You'll also need to think about the purposes of your direct marketing efforts. Here are some examples uses of direct marketing:

• Generating inquiries
• Opening doors
• Building traffic (for your store, Web site, trade show, etc.)
• Generating awareness (for new product introductions, etc.)
• Fund raising
• Selling products (mail order)

Make sure you've determined the purpose of your direct mail prior to selecting the specific tool, because some tools are inherently better for certain purposes.

Your direct marketing options include:

• USPS direct mail
• Self-mailers
• Mailing packages that include a letter, brochure, and response card
• Post cards (used as inexpensive reminders)
• Mailed premium items and other types of gifts
• Opt-in e-mail campaigns (aka permission marketing) - Make sure your clients are requesting your e-mails, otherwise it's spam.
• Fax campaigns - Remember, you can only fax to existing customers. Faxing to non-customers is actually illegal.
• Telemarketing

Here are some tips to improve your direct marketing efforts:

• Test your lists. Try a test mailing of 500 or less to determine the quality of the list prior to sending out your larger scheduled mailing.
• Test your mailer design. Divide your mailing into groups that each get a slightly different design, and track the results. You may be surprised at how much better some designs and color combinations do than others. This is particularly valuable if your marketing schedule includes a lot of direct mail projects.
• Supplement your large, expensive catalog mailing with more frequent and inexpensive post card mailings. This will reinforce your message so you get more mileage out of the catalog and better ROI (return on investment).
• Include an easy-to-understand and prominent response card.
• Include a deadline for action so your recipient will be encouraged to respond quickly rather than wait and think about it.
• Include an incentive for action. This could include an early bird discount, a free copy of some publication, or a free trial offer of something.

Detail your direct marketing strategies as they relate to your overall marketing mix. For example, you may be planning a PR blitz that is to be followed by an ad in a prominent publication that is then to be followed by a direct mail piece that requests some action, such as a request for a sales representative to call, or even the option to purchase the product.

Promotions and Events

Because your advertising efforts primarily affect the opinions of your target audience and don't always create an immediate action (at least not initially), you also need to plan special promotions that will encourage quick action. A promotion, as opposed to advertising, is based on incentives to act, such as a two-for-one sale, a price discount, or a free gift with purchase. Promotions are useful for encouraging potential customers to try your product and hopefully increase your base of loyal customers.

Here are some examples of promotion types used by marketers today:

• Price discounts/sales
• Coupons
• Samples
• On-pack or in-pack discounts - or even near-pack discounts (from point-of-purchase displays)
• Rebates
• Premium items - either in the package or sent by mail
• Sweepstakes/games
• Packaging
• Events

It is important to watch the promotions your competition offers, but be careful about always reacting with a similar promotion. It is easy to lose market share if you overuse promotions. Customers begin to buy only when your product is on sale. A better strategy is to competitively price your product in the first place, and then use some of the money you would have spent on promotions to improve your products or increase your advertising instead. If your product is better, and you've advertised this, then the customer may have more inclination to buy your product even though the competition's is cheaper... I mean, less expensive.

Sales promotion does have a place in your marketing efforts. Just remember to avoid the loser promotions. Estos incluyen:

• Doing the same promotion more than twice - For some reason, the magic number is two (for promotions that worked the first time, anyway).
• Boring promotions - People will snooze through contests that don't seem to fit the positioning of the product. If there's no connection, typically they won't work.
• Premium offers - "Send three proofs-of-purchase and $3.99 for shipping and handling to get this great coupon organizer!" Overused and usually disappointing to the consumer.
• Overpromising odds of winning - Don't make consumers think they're going to win every time they open a soda.

Just like everything else in your marketing mix, your promotions have to stay on target with your objective and your marketing message or position. To put together promotions that work, you should keep that in mind and put on your "customer" hat. What would get you excited about a product or service? What would be fun and give you the feeling that you really have a chance to win? What could you win that would make you think more highly of the product being promoted? What is your most desirable prize?

Once you've brainstormed some ideas, make sure you make it simple to register, provide good odds, and have a unique idea that is of great interest to your market.

Special Events

If you're planning special events as a way to promote your product or business, then there are a few other guidelines that will help you stay on target and be more successful. Sponsored events are increasing in popularity and account for billions of dollars annually for marketing. They are extremely useful when launching a new product, increasing a product trial, or building consumer relationships with the company name. They require a lot of planning, resources (money and people), and can flop without proper advertising, but they can also launch a product to success very quickly.

Here are few tips to give your event a better chance of success:

• Make sure the event ties in with your company and product.
• Make sure your company and product name are very prominent.
• Make sure your audience knows why it should come. In other words, make sure there is a compelling reason to attend.
• Make sure there is some newsworthiness to the event so you'll also get some PR.
• Make sure your marketing message and position are clearly communicated.

Detail each promotion or event and refer back to the specific marketing objective it addresses. Scheduling and costs will be covered in the Action Plan and Implementation section of your plan.

Now, when writing your promotion strategies, address these issues as they relate to the promotion ideas you've come up with:

• Type of promotion
• Incentive for the promotion
• Open or closed promotion - Open promotions don't require any action from the customer. An example would be a sale. Closed promotions require the customer to do something to take advantage of the promotion. An example would be a rebate, or a contest entry.
• Delivery method for the promotion

You're getting close -- now we just have to cover your sales force strategies, and then you can move on to scheduling and implementation, and, finally, evaluating the whole effort!

Product Marketing Literature

Supporting product literature and other company collateral materials will be key to many of your marketing and sales efforts. These items must present your company image very clearly and professionally. Not only is the text and wording of your literature important, but also the visual image and quality that it projects.

In your literature, it is critical to highlight and emphasize the benefits of your product or service and not just the specifications and features. When planning the literature needs, consider these issues:

• What will the literature be used for? Overall company information, specific product specs and benefits, special information folders?
• Who is the audience for each piece? Investors, partners, customers?
• What approximate quantity do you anticipate for each piece? This will help you not only budget for it, but also get an idea of what level of quality you should go for?
• Who will develop the piece? Internal staff members, a printing company, a design firm? (Cost will vary tremendously with each.)

Premium items are the trinkets and goodies you give away at trade shows or other events. They typically have the company name branded on them and are of little or no value. If you need premiums for trade shows or other events, the best advice is to stick with something that is both useful and consistent with your company's image and product or service line.

For example, a beer manufacturer might give away bottle openers, or a book store might give away book marks or coffee mugs. Pens, note pads, and refrigerator magnets are also good choices. Look for innovative features and good quality if you go with these items (or any premium item), like magnets that have clips to hold larger notes, or pens that will stick to your file cabinet. Just like with your product line, you want your premium items to stand out, be of good quality, and make a favorable impression.

Sales Force

Not to beat a dead horse, but your sales force is another group that has to totally adhere to the Integrated Marketing Communications theme we've been talking about. They see and talk with your customers every day and absolutely must be consistent with your planned image and position. Their one-to-one marketing efforts are very important for many types of businesses, and not as important for others. Investigate your need for a direct sales force and cut your costs if you can. If you determine that you do need a sales force, then here are some suggestions for making them successful and worth the costs (paying your sales team's bills is expensive).

The key to making your sales force effectively communicate your marketing message and sell your products is to educate them on the objectives and strategies you've planned, as well as keep them constantly updated and fully informed on advertising, promotions, direct marketing, and any other marketing tool you are using.

In the sales force section of your marketing plan, also be sure to include trade shows and conferences your sales team (or others within your company) need to attend. Your company's presence at key trade shows and exhibitions can increase your sales and improve recognition of your name and products within your target market. Trade shows are excellent for introducing new products, services, or changes in your company name or image. See How Trade Shows Work for detailed information on managing this process.

Action Plan and Implementation

Let's talk about the tactical and implementation issues of your marketing plan. How do you decide exactly which magazines or newspapers in which to advertise? What is the difference? This is called your Media Plan and can actually become a separate, and much more detailed, document. For this article, we will cover the basics and help give you an idea of what goes into planning your media advertising and what should be included in your marketing plan. It's time to get out your calculator and put on your math hat.

Your media plan should:

• specify which media you will be using to carry your advertising message, such as magazines, newspapers, direct mail, Internet, etc.
• detail the specifics, such as which publications
• detail even more specifics, such as which issues, times, dates, etc.
• list the budget for each vehicle
• describe the rationale behind each selection

How do you go about determining those things? First you have to weight your media.

Weighting your Media

Weighting your media refers to determining the potential exposures of your marketing message to your target audience that each of your chosen media can produce. Basically, by weighting your media, you are trying to determine how much advertising is enough to reach your objectives. To do this, you'll come up with a total number of gross rating points. To do that, you need to understand a little bit about reach, frequency, and impressions.

• Impressions are the number of times your audience sees your advertising message.
• Reach refers to the number of individuals within your target market that are exposed to a specific ad over a specific period of time. This number is expressed as a percentage of your total market.
• Frequency refers to the number of exposures those individuals got to your specific ad over the same specific period of time.
• To get your Gross Rating Points (GRPs) , just multiply the percent reach (% of your total market) by the frequency.

For example, if your marketing strategy is to reach 70% of your market for a specific campaign, and you know you want to reach them at least 10 times in order to convince them to act, then you would need a schedule that would give you 700 GRPs.

Each medium will have a slightly different calculated GRP, so go through each and determine those numbers before you begin planning your media schedule. As a general rule, just make sure you are calculating the percentage of your target audience as a part of the total circulation, exposure, etc., and then multiply that by the number of insertions, or ads you run should.

To help you estimate the total GRP needed to reach your sales goals, here are some rules of thumb:

• Try for a reach of 50 to 90+ of your total market.
• Assume it will take at least three exposures for your target audience to act on your offer.
• New products will need more frequency than established products.
• Complex products will need more frequency than simple products.
• Products with a lot of competition will need more frequency.
• An average GRP goal for a typical packaged product is 1,000 to 5,000 in a year.
• An average GRP goal for a service or retail establishment is 2,000 to 10,000 in a year.
• An average GRP goal for business-to-business is 600 to 4,000 in a year.

Determining these numbers isn't easy. There are some resources on the Web that might help. Check out the last page of this article for some sites that offer calculators and guidelines.

Other things to consider when planning and scheduling your media include:

• Your media vehicle's Cost per Thousand (CPM) . This is useful because it helps you compare the values of different vehicles. For example, you may have two publications you are considering. Both reach your target audience, and all other aspects are equal. One, however, is more expensive than the other. Determining the CPM can help you decide which is the better vehicle for your advertisement. You can get the CPM by dividing the total number of subscribers that fall into your target market by the cost of running an ad. This is expressed as the cost per thousand impressions.
• Strive for a good balance of various media. In other words, don't put all of your eggs in one basket.
• Don't forget new media, such as the Internet and other interactive media like CD-ROM.
• Look at the strengths and weaknesses of each medium as it would effectively carry your marketing message and product positioning. Some media can't effectively communicate certain information. For example, a complicated product would not make good use of a billboard or other "quick" impression media.
• Don't forget to consider the seasonality of your product and geographic concentrations of your audience when selecting and scheduling your media.
• Remember that the percentage of your target audience that a particular media vehicle reaches will not be the number that actually see your message. Many will skim, change channels, or just miss it. So keep your expectations realistic in this respect.

Scheduling

Based on the information and the results you calculate from your media weightings, you should be able to put together a schedule of advertising, promotions, and events that will match your goals. There are some scheduling techniques you should consider when planning media advertising:

• Front loading - This refers to heavier advertising for the introduction phase of a new product.
• Heavy-up - This refers to specific times throughout the year that need heavier advertising (usually timed out with new introductions, promotions, or increased market activity).
• Flighting - This refers to shorter periods of advertising (three to six weeks) that are followed by periods of no advertising.
• Pulsing - This refers to a regular schedule of on-again/off-again advertising.
• Continuity - This refers to a steady fixed rate of advertising for continuous exposure (often used to try and even out a fluctuating buying pattern).

Look at your goals, product seasonality, special events, and other marketing factors and select the scheduling strategy that would work best for the situation. Remember, while the different media types can follow different schedules, you should also consider the added impact of combining media on the same schedules. It all depends on your objectives and goals.

Now you need to think about your marketing budget. No matter how hard you try to be frugal, you'll probably never have enough marketing funds to really do what you want. Solo recuerda, no estás solo. Your competitors are probably facing the same issues you are.

There are three steps you should take when setting your budget. When you get all three results, set your budget based on comparisons of each finding.

1. Set your budget based on your plan's goals and objectives and the schedules you have recommended.
2. Look at the industry average of marketing dollars spent as a percent of sales for similar companies in your industry. There should be data available for the average in your industry. Using this second method will let you see if your budget appears to be realistic in comparison to other similar companies. This figure will help you determine if your budget is too high or low compared to the industry average.
3. Go through a third exercise which involves estimating your primary competitor's advertising and marketing budget based on what you know about their activities. This is a good way to help you be more competitive and possibly gain more market share.

Next, construct your final budget sheets. You should include:

• an overview sheet illustrating your total budget
• a breakdown by medium
• a breakdown by product/market

See our sample budget forms on the Marketing Tools page.

Putting the Marketing Plan Together

Now for the finishing touches of your marketing plan. You should now have the message and media selected, your scheduling determined, and a budget. In this section, you'll need to set up some charts to illustrate everything in your plan. These charts will not only help you present your plan to the powers that be, but they will also help you implement the plan.

Start by putting together a Graphic Media Calendar . List your media on the left, followed by columns that correspond to the calendar or fiscal year for which you are planning. In the last column to the right, summarize the frequency and include the GRPs for each vehicle. At the bottom of that column, total the GRPs. See our sample Media Calendar and other worksheets on the Marketing Tools page.

Then set up a similar calendar for each media type with the same elements included.

Compared to implementation, planning is a breeze! It is in this part of marketing that you call in the reinforcements. It is very important to schedule the events in your plan and assign responsibilities well in advance. Use a very large scheduling board, and put it in an easily viewed spot. Set up a reporting structure with progress reports and regular communications that will keep your plan on target. Making deadlines in the marketing world can be critical to the success of your product (or business).

Magazines typically require insertion orders at least three months in advance. Press releases for monthly publications should also follow a three-month lead-time schedule. Newspapers allow shorter lead times, and so do some other types of publications.

Make sure you know every deadline. Flag them wildly and stay on your toes!

Now, how are you going to make sure the plan is working? Go on to the next page and find out.

Evaluation

Just like in every other facet of life, you have to learn from your mistakes. The best lessons are learned the hard way. So with that in mind, how do you know which parts of your marketing plan are actually generating sales and making your company money?

This section of your plan should include plans and procedures for tracking each type of media you are using. And, as a subset of each of those procedures, you should identify specifically which vehicle within those media groups is being the most effective. This isn't easy for all mediums, but for some it's pretty manageable.

Here are some types of media along with ideas for tracking their effectiveness. The techniques will vary wildly depending on your product type and market.

• Display advertising - With traditional consumer publications, tracking can be done through the use of different phone numbers, special offers (specific to that advertisement or publication), or reference to a specific department to call for information. When those calls come in, your call-center staff must be prepared to record the information so the results can be tallied for that publication. Many trade publications also include Reader Service Cards that allow the reader to circle a number that corresponds to your ad on a mail-in postcard in order to get more information about your product or service. While you may get a lot of junk requests (competitors, shoppers, or literature collectors), you also can get some good leads. Keep a record of these leads and follow-up on the final result.
• Direct marketing - With postal mailings, tracking is relatively simple. Include on the mailing label a code (called a key code or a source code) that corresponds with the mailing list so you know which list is producing, and instruct your call-center staff to record the information by asking the customer for the code. You can also include customer numbers here and record repeat orders without the problem of re-entering their information into your customer database. For telemarketing campaigns, tracking is also relatively simple since a live person is communicating with the customer throughout the entire process, in most cases.
• TV or radio ads - These require similar tracking methods as consumer publications. They can be tracked through the use of different phone numbers, special offers (specific to that advertisement) or reference to a specific department to call for information. Again, when those calls come in, your call-center staff must be prepared to record the information so the results can be tallied for that particular spot. Another less exact method, if you're marketing on a very large scale, is to track immediate sales along with the timing of the advertisement.
• Internet marketing - Usually, this is easily tracked because it is based on click-throughs or page impressions. Your Web administrator should be able to provide reports that indicate the number of click-throughs that actually led to the purchase of your product. You may also experience call-in sales as a result of your Web site. Make sure your call center is aware and records the information accurately.
• Promotions - Most closed promotions are basically "self-tracking" because they require the customer to do something, such as fill out an entry form (trackable), turn in a coupon, return a rebate slip (trackable), or log-on to a Web site to claim a prize (also trackable). Open promotions , such as sales, require a little more work to track, although they can be tracked in a general way by noting increased sales for that time period, store, region, or whatever the parameters of the sale.
• Events - An event is also tricky to track. You know how many people attended, but do you know how many sales occurred as a result? You can issue coupons at the event that could be tracked, offer other special deals, or even allow attendees to join a special club. You have to be creative in order to track the true sales results of a big event. A trade show's effectiveness can be tracked by collecting the right information at the show and following up on it. These results must also be tallied and recorded.

The tabulated results and customer information is very valuable information. Make sure you routinely back up the system where this data is kept and keep copies in safe places. The customer data is extremely valuable to your future direct-marketing efforts, and must be keyed in correctly and accurately.

Before your marketing plan is kicked off, make sure you have the database structure in place to record this information. Use codes for every level of information so that you can sort by various specifications. This takes a lot of planning, as well as training for your staff. Setting up the records with drop-down boxes for selecting preset information such as product numbers, list codes, publication codes, or department codes, will make your records much more consistent and useable.

Checking out the effectiveness of your marketing campaign from a product sales standpoint is critical. Begin the review process early and repeat it often. You can tweak your plan along the way to eliminate or shift schedules if you find that some element of the mix is definitely not working. Don't wait until it's too late.

Review your quarterly performance goals. Check your market share. Look at your sales figures based on not only the origin of the sale, but the type of customers as well. In other words, is this an existing customer, a new customer, or a new customer with a totally different demographic profile? Are you retaining existing customers, or are most of your sales coming from new customers? What is your competition doing?

There are a number of marketing audits not covered in this article that you can and should perform on an annual basis. For more information on marketing and related topics, check out the links below.

Artículos relacionados con HowStuffWorks

• How Market Research Works
• How Trade Shows Work
• How Building a Business Identity Works
• How Creating an Online Business Works
• How Franchising Works
• How Building a Sales Team Works

Demographic Information

• Demographics Now
• AdAge Magazine
• Neilsen Net Ratings
• The Right Site:Demographic reference and site selection

Market Research

• U.S. Census Bureau
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• USAData
• Competitive Media Reporting

Media Planning

• Magazine Publishers of America - Includes many resources for media planning for magazine advertising
• Nielsen Media Research - Terms and Formulae
• AdNoir.com - The tool for advertising and media professionals