Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications

Introduction

Did you ever feel lost while your smartphone was not in your hand? Did you stare at your phone for over 10 hours per day? Communication Technology such as the Internet and cell phones helps businesses grow and creates relationships with their customers. Now, it is even changing the type of messaging strategy businesses use. Knowing how your customers get information and how companies can communicate with you about their products and services is one of the crucial parts of your business. 

In addition, once companies have successfully created a new product, they often try hard to promote its popularity. To do that, all different types of media such as traditional TV, radio, magazines, the Internet, and mobile apps are on the marking list. Therefore, they need a better option, and here are the integrated marketing communications come in. It provides an approach designed to deliver one consistent message to consumers and even span multiple types of media.

Messages Have Seen or Heard from Several Companies

I think a company’s consistent message can be a consistent or very similar design. For instance, South Korean multinational automotive manufacturer KIA put a Tiger Nose grille on its all series of cars. The message is pretty clear that if you see a Tiger Nose grille, it is very likely made by KIA. Not only does KIA use this approach, but you can also see BMW, Lamborghini, or Tesla apply a series of differentiated designs. Even more, 7-11 in Taiwan also apply the same voice while customers enter their stores. Although you are not in their store, you still remember it is the voice of 7-11. 

Are The Companies Being Consistent with Their Messages Across The Markets They Are Targeting?

As mentioned above, KIA and 7-11 in Taiwan are both consistent with their messages across the markets they are targeting. Kia's unconventional approach to design was the Tiger Nose grille and it has become the face of every Kia, which leaves such a lasting impression, has the Kia signature grille to thank for it.

What Factors Are Causing The Media Landscape To Change?

It is very obvious that changes in communication technology and instant access to information through mobile devices boost the importance of integrated marketing communications. Moreover, it also changed how we work, how we interact with other people, and how we use our time. For instance, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, more and more people shopping, doing exercises, and working online. As a result, businesses have realized they need to change their promotional strategies.

Advertisements on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter have become more and more popular since 2005 as businesses explore social media. For instance, Facebook announced an amazing function called, Facebook Business Manager that lets teams at enterprises and agencies manage multiple ad campaigns and Pages in one interface. Traditional media like magazines, newspapers, and TVs are hard to compete with new media now, mobile phones have unlocked the limited of tools and locations. They are movable promotions. 

As the media landscape changes, the money organizations spend on different types of communication will change as well. Some forecasts indicate that in the next five years companies will increase their ex- expenditure on new media from approximately 16 percent of their total promotional budgets to almost 27 percent of their budgets, or $160 billion by 2012. 

How Can You Maximize The Reach of The Promotional Mix on A Limited Budget and Get The Most Exposure for A Minimal Investment?

The Promotion Mix refers to the multiple promotional methods used by the business to increase the demand for goods and services. According to the Principles of Marketing written by Tanner, J. & Raymond, M.A. in 2015, The Promotion Mix is the integration of Advertising, Personal Selling, Sales Promotion, Public Relations, and Direct Marketing. 

Advertising is any paid form of non-personal promotion of goods and services by an identified sponsor. Personal Selling is the traditional to promote wherein the salesman interacts with the customer directly face-to-face. The sales promotion is the short-term incentive to increase sales for a specific period. The Public Relations is to build a favorable image in the market by creating relations with the general public. Direct Marketing means businesses reach customers directly without any intermediaries. For instance, sending emails and direct messages to the customers.

Companies can use any tool of the promotion mix depending on the nature of a product and the overall objectives. However, no matter which promotional methods we use, we all try to grab their attention and influence their purchase decision. But for many companies, the budget available to market a product determines what elements of the promotion mix are utilized. In short, the budget affects a promotion’s reach and frequency. I think if companies want to grab attention within their budgets available, they should targeting a specific group first. Then, put their resources on the most potential one. How do we know which one is the most potential one? Companies all want to know their customers' demands, so they should put some of their resources to do research and analysis. 

Reference

Says, A., Witharana, A., Says, E., Edson, Says, S., Rathnayaka, S., . . . Krikly. (2018, December 11). What is PROMOTION mix? Definition and meaning. Retrieved February 28, 2021, from https://businessjargons.com/promotion-mix.html

Tanner, J. & Raymond, M.A. (2015). Principles of Marketing. University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library. Licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa.

How Does The Product Life Cycle Relate to Stages in The Diffusion of Innovation Model? Marketing

How Does The Product Life Cycle Relate to Stages in The Diffusion of Innovation Model? 

The product life cycle refers to the length of time a product is launched into the market until it's been removed. It is broken into introduction, growth, maturity, and decline stages called the four stages. It helps businesses with decision-making such as pricing or promotion to expansion. For instance, when an electric car like Tesla Model 3 is newly introduced into the market, demand increases, therefore increasing its popularity. Then, more and more competitors join the profitable market make it harder to increase its sale for companies who step into it earlier.

According to the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, developed by E.M. Rogers in 1962. It uses the five stages, Innovators, Early Adoptors, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards to explain how, over time, an idea or product diffuses through a social system. People, as part of a social system, adopt a new idea, behavior, or product. For instance, recently, electric cars have become more and more adaptable by people. People must perceive the idea or products as new or innovative so that diffusion is possible. When Tesla planned to IPO and made more and more electric, most people thought Elon Musk was crazy. However, he is so successful today.

I would like to explain the model with five stages, awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption. And also, all use electric cars as examples. Awareness can be applied to all the five stages (Innovators, Early Adoptors, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards) because they are aware of the new products or new ideas at different precedence. After they noticed, they probably get interested in it or not. So, here's the bifurcation point. Be an early adopter or a laggard depends on their choices. Then, people evaluate if the products really fit their needs. During the evaluation period, the early adopters and the majority will provide their experience of using the products. The late majority will now consider joining the game since they have seen the other people's successes. The third stage is trial. This is where most people are trying to accept new ideas after doing their homework. The final stage will be the adoption. Everyone now feels much freer to choose among new products since they already know the pros and cons. 

The Overlaps and Relationships

I think from the early adopters to the laggards, it represents some kind of growth already. The innovators are those who introduce the new ideas or products. The early and late adopters are also representing different levels of the majority. The laggards mean they are too late to jump on the ship, so it means the decline stage is coming soon.

Reference

Behavioral change models. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2021, from https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/mph-modules/sb/behavioralchangetheories/behavioralchangetheories4.html

Chaffey, D., & Hanlon, A. (2019, October 25). What is the the diffusion of Innovation model? Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://www.smartinsights.com/marketing-planning/marketing-models/diffusion-innovation-model/

Kopp, C. (2021, January 28). Understanding product life cycles. Retrieved February 23, 2021, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/product-life-cycle.asp

Tanner, J. & Raymond, M.A. (2015). Principles of Marketing. University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library. Licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa.

What Are The Seven Steps in The Offering Development Process? The Key Activities in Each Step

What Are The Seven Steps in The Offering Development Process? The Key Activities in Each Step

To learn the seven steps in the offering development process, we must learn what is offering development means and how to process them. Having excellent products that customers desire to own is important to any company. Most startups are started by people who get a new idea about how to make something better. However, companies face dangers not just from competitors but consumer needs, technology, and even product life cycle. Waste too much money and time on an unpopular product can lead to big troubles for companies. Therefore, companies are following the staging process for product development, nowadays. The seven steps are idea generation, idea screening, feature specification, testing, launch and commercialization, evaluation. Why? Because each step respectively has its own key activity that crucial to the overall process.

I. Idea Generation

Of course, first of all, you need a whole new idea such as develop an app like Uber to provide a more convenient way while grabbing a ride. Not only the funders but also their employees can come up with new product ideas. Elon Musk may be the founder of Tesla, but not every idea is from his head. Ideas can come from anywhere, even from your customers, if you keep following their favorite activities. For instance, if you provide Nintendo with feedback while you playing its games, your feedback may alter the final style you receive, and Nintendo will develop more popular games inspired by your idea.

Moreover, your suppliers can provide another source of ideas for new products. For instance, Tesla's battery suppliers might develop a new advance 4680 battery cell. It is bigger, offers six times the power of Tesla’s previous cells, and five times the energy capacity. 

However, some new ideas are not completely new, they are just versions of existed products and services. For instance, the newly released iPhone 12 with the Ceramic Shield have the toughest glass ever in a smartphone. Tough may be great, but Apple also wanted to make it scratch-resistant, which helps protect it even more and amazingly quadrupled the drop performance. 

One thing we must understand is that idea generation is typically the least expensive step. As you move on to the next coming steps, they are usually more expensive. Because ideas are relatively cheap to generate, making them become reality is difficult and expensive.

II. Idea Screening

Although new ideas are usually good things for companies, not all new product ideas are good ones, even the big companies can make stupid mistakes. Why do we fall? So, we can learn to pick ourselves up. Therefore, idea screening is to try to early avoid mistakes before it too late. If you discard bad ideas sooner, the less you waste on it and the less investment made and lost. Most of the time, this step is to try to figure out the proposed product actually adds value for the customer and satisfies the demand or not. 

Sometimes, demands have their own periods. For instance, vaccines are highly demanded during the pandemic of COVID-19. So, can your company get the right products to the right markets within the right time? That's a crucial question before you move on to the next step. Moreover, can your factory manufacture the products within budget and sell them at great prices to make profits?

Another aspect you need to think about is that the new products fit the vision, mission, and objectives of your company. For instance, if you are a supercar maker like Lamborghini, but you try to make a car like KIA Picanto. It can be a huge mistake since it doe not fit the image of your brand. However, under the limited damage, some companies choose to conduct testing their new ideas at this stage, in order to get early consumer feedback before investing too much money.

III. Feature Specification

This step is also highly focused on what consumers want and need. To process a deployment with the customer’s desired benefits such as how the product is designed. In this step, we have to bundle the right features targeted to specific customer needs. 

IV. Development

After the thinking parts, the development step is where the actual offering is designed and the prototypes of it are developed. For instance, we already make our decision to make electric cars, but how or what shapes to make? Before a new drink can be sold on its menu, Starbucks may have already tested and simply the preparing process for their barista to learn and prepare it quickly.

V. Testing

Just like the vaccines of COVID-19, during the testing stage, the offering is tested. However, all conditions that can change how well the product works such as the variant virus. Therefore, we must consider all conditions we can before we start to sell the products. Bad reviews can make your company hard to reverse the thoughtless brand name.

VI. Launch or Commercialization

Once your offerings have been designed and tested, it is made available to customers. To fit your strategy, you can choose to launch them all at once or choose to use the rolling launch that some products first and then others later. For instance, if you are a cookies maker, you can choose to launch a spicy new taste first to test if it is popular or not.

VII. Evaluation

After an offering is launched, it is not the end. Companies still need to executives closely monitor it. For instance, after people get their first Tesla and drive them for a period of time, their feedbacks can help you fix the possible issues and make your products even better. Therefore, firms must constantly in the process of evaluating their offerings and modifying them by either adding or subtracting the features and services associated with them. If everyone wants a car with 7 airbags, you may consider adding them as your standard offerings. 

How Should A Company Evaluate New Ideas? 

When you got a new business idea, you can take some useful steps to evaluate your idea before setting up a business. For instance, write your business plan, assess market demand, research the competitors, and ask for real feedback.

What Are The Criteria?

It’s important that you focus your time and energy on the ideas you believe will have the most impact, so how you evaluate ideas is key. The criteria of new idea evaluation can be very different depending on what your company is offering and what you are trying to do. This can be achieved by using an idea evaluation matrix. For instance, if you running a company like Facebook, the criteria for the new idea evaluation can be how much time they stay on your websites within a specific period. An excellent idea evaluation matrix enables you to screen and rank each idea.

What Strategies Do Firms Pursue When Their Products Enter The Decline Stage?

Truth, no matter how good your product is, it still obeys the rules of the product life cycle. As more and more advanced offers regularly replenish the market, the decline stage is going to come, eventually. However, there is still money to be made if you can handle it correctly. Firms have to know what are the true issues, first. If you know what the problem is, you have solved half of the problem. The reasons can be the product itself(people simply don’t need this item or service), competition, technological advance, financing, economic issues(During the crisis, people cut costs and buy only essentials). Now, firms have to rechoose or adjust their directions. And, as always, they can choose to leave or stay until it is unprofitable anymore.

Reference

Decline stage of product life cycle: Overview and strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2021, from https://www.eleken.co/blog-posts/decline-stage-of-product-life-cycle-overview-and-strategies

Tanner, J. & Raymond, M.A. (2015). Principles of Marketing. University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library. Licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa.

The Four Types of Consumer Offerings, Principles of Marketing

 Introduction

Offerings as tangible goods or intangible services designed to deliver value to customers either to fulfill their needs, satisfy their wants, or both. To know what are the consumer offerings, we need to understand that the offerings include tangible products, intangible products like services, and prices. The concept of Total Cost of Ownership is for businesses to compare their offerings. It is the total amount of time and money spent to acquire and use an offering. For instance, Costco or Walmart may offer you better prices, but their locations can be very far away from you. So, if you add the fuel costs, and the time your drive to their store, the prices may be approximately the same or even more costly. It is one of the basic rules of how we make our purchasing decisions. According to the book, Principles of Marketing, written by Tanner, J. & Raymond in 2015, there are four types of consumer offerings, Convenience offerings, Shopping offerings, Specialty offerings, and Unsought offerings. Each of the four types is intended for customer use. So, let's discuss each of these categories.

The Four Types of Consumer Offerings

I. Convenience Offerings

Just like the word convenience, they are products and services consumers don’t want to put much effort into because there is very little difference between competing brands. For many consumers, bottled water is an example of convenience offering. A consumer might choose the store in which to buy the bottled water but be willing to buy whatever brand of bottled water the store has available. Therefore, marketing convenience products often limited to put the effort into getting the products available in as many places as possible. You may find it is very similar to impulse offerings, since they are both not planned ahead. 

II. Shopping Offering

Different from convenience offerings, a shopping offering means consumers tend to make an effort to compare and select their favorite brands. Most of the time, they want and try to find the right products at the best prices. For instance, I buy a car recently and I have visited many websites of multiple car brands, try to the best car within my budget. Generally, consumers care about brands when they’re deciding on shopping brand-sensitive products. We probably do not care about the brand of bottled water, but when we plan to purchase a new car, brand names and their reputations are an important reference. 

III. Specialty Offerings

After discussed shopping offerings that putting effort into it and convenience offerings, specialty offerings is a very different concept. Typically, specialty offerings are purchased less frequently than convenience offerings. They are highly differentiated offerings and available only through limited channels. For instance, a Lamborghini Huracán is likely to be far different feature-wise than the Toyota Corolla series. However, marketing specialty goods requires building brand name recognition and it is critical to show your customers your product’s key differences. Most of the time, marketers spend much money and effort to try to get consumers to perceive these specialties.

IV. Unsought Offerings

Unsought offerings are those that consumers do not generally want to have until they need them such as insurance claims or medicine. Marketing unsought products can be more difficult than the other offerings because unsought products consumers do not generally want to have. That means there is a strong wall of mind stand between you and your potential customers. Therefore, you must put much more effort to persuade them. To persuade them, companies' reputations, reviews, authorities, and consistency are all important factors that can influence customers' decisions. For instance, I tend to buy insurance policies from a reliable insurance institution.

Conclusion

The four types of consumer offerings help us better understand how to carefully marketing these different types of products. Some mistakes you don't want to make such as advertising your funeral services are trying to help people heading to heaven or professionally avoid your customers down to hell. Although ideally we always try to make good decisions, we are just some kind of animals and always make mistakes. We are not always trying to find the right products at the best prices all the time. For instance, if we do our online shopping at night, we probably tend to make our decisions more impulsively because we are falling asleep and tired.

Reference

Tanner, J. & Raymond, M.A. (2015). Principles of Marketing. University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library. Licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa.

How Do Culture, Personality, and Experience Influence Buyer Behavior?

How Do Culture, Personality, and Experience Influence Buyer Behavior in Taiwan?

Start with the culture, each different country and race have their own culture. From where they lived, what they want, to how they think. Cultures can be changing over time, but it takes a very long period. When a culture has been built, it is hard to change it at short notice. Before 1979, there are no 24/7 open convenience stores in Taiwan. After Uni-President Enterprises start to operate more and more 7-11 in Taiwan, the consumer behavior and the retailers have been changed. For instance, during New Year's Eve and vacations, most of the traditional retailers are close, you must purchase all your necessities before New Year. However, with more and more 7-11 stores around the country, people don't have to worry about this issue anymore since 7-11 is always open. That means they can make their purchasing decisions just when they need them rather than plan ahead. This change may lead to some impulse purchases because they have more opportunities to walk into retail stores or put some spending backward since they don't have to purchase them too early.

Obviously, different personalities lead to very different purchasing decisions. For instance, people with open minds tend to try new things such as being one of the early electric car owners even though they know Tesla's superchargers are rare in Taiwan for now and the bonus for driving electric cars is also less than in developed countries. 

Experience also badly influence the purchasing behavior in Taiwan real estate. Taiwan experienced a demographic dividend after World War 2, and the government always want to stimulate the economy, plus mostly the prices are going up. Therefore, they think real estate is the best option to protect their purchasing value. As a result, the housing prices are incredibly high compare to the average income in Taiwan. A 40-year old apartment in Taipei can cost you nearly NT$ 20,000,000 or even one hundred million Taiwan dollars. They can eat less and cut down many other spendings just for their houses since they think the housing prices are always going up. The experience teaches me that if you see the same products with a different aspect such as see it as an investment, you are more willing to spend more on it. With budget constraints, they may tend to reduce other expenditures. So, in Taiwan, the brokers always tell their customers that the house they are selling is worth to invest rather than telling them it worth the cost when you live inside the house.

Conclusion

Although each of these factors has apparent effects on consumer behavior independently, they also influence each other. For instance, experience in the Taiwan housing market can also influence the culture. Now, many parents love their children to buy their own houses rather than buy cars. When it becomes a spreading culture, our purchasing decisions are not as free as we want.

Reference

Principles of Marketing. (2015). University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library. Licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa.

Why Study Consumer Behavior? The Five Personality Traits, What Products or Services Would Someone Who Is Extremely Open to New Experiences Be Likely to Buy?

Why Study Consumer Behavior?

How do you make your buying decisions throughout the day? What should I wear for an important date with someone you like a lot? Do you ever consider putting on perfume before went out? Which restaurant did you book for dinner? As you can see, we make many buying decisions every day. Business owners all desire to decode the processes behind their targeted customers because they can use that info to boost revenue. 

The Five Personality Traits

The Five Personality Traits, also called, the big 5, are broad categories of personality traits. Although not every researcher always agrees on the exact labels for each dimension, it still helps companies to find some cues to make some profit by it.

The five personality traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Each of the five personality factors represents a range between two extremes. 

Let's discuss each of them. 

Openness

People who are high in this trait tend to have a broad range of interests. They are curious about the world, love to discover new things, eager to learn new things, and enjoy new experiences.

Conscientiousness

People who are high in this trait tend to have high levels of thoughtfulness and great impulse control. Highly conscientious people tend to be organized and mindful of details. They often plan ahead, think in detail, and are always complete tasks before deadlines.

Extraversion

Extraversion is mostly characterized by sociability and talkativeness. Generally, people who are high in extraversion tend to gain energy in social situations. They feel energized and excited with other people. In contrast, people who are low in extraversion tend to have less energy to expend in social settings. 

Agreeableness

Generally, this dimension includes trust and kindness. People who are high in agreeableness tend to be relatively more cooperative. 

Neuroticism

People who are high in this trait tend to experience more anxiety and sadness. In contrast, people who are low in this trait tend to be more emotionally resilient and also more stable.

However, both biological and environmental influences play a role in shaping personalities and they are not born unchangeable. So, be careful while applying them to any long-term marketing strategy.

Products and services that would likely be successfully marketed to individuals at both ends of the spectrum.

What Products or Services Would Someone Who Is Extremely Open to New Experiences Be Likely to Buy?

Extremely open people are curious about the world, love to discover new things, eager to learn new things, and enjoy new experiences. So, they may tend to buy an electric car like Tesla Model S or Model X if they need a car in 2020 or earlier. Although electric cars are not as common as gasoline cars, they still much more willing to try new things. 

Someone Who Never Tries Anything New?

A person low in openness tends to prefer routine and stick to their comfort zone. So, they tend to wait until electric cars are commonly used or become the only choice when they need a car. People like this tend to buy big brands such as Toyota or Ford since they are more likely to limit their options in a safe zone even though they have plenty of alternatives.

What Products Appeal to Someone Who Is Outgoing? Shy?

People who are high in extraversion tend to gain energy in social situations. Therefore, they tend to spend more money on their clothes, haircut, shoes, transportations, vacations, or luxury goods such as LV, Montblanc, Rolex, or even Patek Philippe. Because social situation or how they look in other people's eyes is very important to them.

Shy people dislike being the center of attention. Shyness is a learned behavior of discomfort and anxieties. They may tend to buy a product that promises to protect their privacy. The appearances of their car tend to be more general, not attractive supercars.

Reference

Cherry, K. (2020, July 13). What are the big 5 personality traits? Retrieved February 11, 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-big-five-personality-dimensions-2795422

Tanner, J. & Raymond, M.A. (2015). Principles of Marketing. University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library. Licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa.

What Is A CMO?Why do you believe so many other employees participate in marketing planning?The Most important Part of A Marketing Plan?

When companies develop strategies for their daily operations with limited resources, they must consider the internal conditions and the external environment. The economy, competitors, and government regulations that could affect what the firm wants to do are the external factors. And also, the contingency plans. The strategic planning process can help companies allocate their resources to capitalize on opportunities and gain their market share. 

Generally, organizations have their own structures and parts to operate efficiently. A CEO may have too many tasks and too many decisions to make. They know where the treasure is, but they don't know how to move their ships. Even they know, they can not do this alone. They have to stay on track with the most valuable things. So, lower the opportunity cost, let the professionals do what they can do best.

What Is A CMO?

A CMO is a chief marketing officer, a marketing director that responsible for marketing activities in an organization. The CMO of a company is likely to be responsible for the creation of its marketing plan.

However, many CMOs are under unfair pressure like impossible sales forecasts. The CEOs may want their car to move like a Lamborghini, but they often find themselves in a 150 horsepower engine vehicle chasing their unrealistic goals. The forecasts are just what the investors and Wall Street analysts want. So, when CMOs overpromise and underdeliver, they set themselves up for a fall.

Therefore, one of the important functions of the marketing plan is communication. To inform everyone in the organization who has what marketing-related responsibilities. For instance, Facebook announced an excellent feature called, Facebook Business Manager. It helps companies to allocate their resources and to assign permissions to a lot of people working together. 

In addition to CMOs, why do you believe so many other employees participate in marketing planning?

Generally, CMOs must set their organization’s marketing expectations. A well-designed marketing plan can help. It set realistic expectations and communicates to the CEO and other related stakeholders. CMOs are likely to be responsible for the creation of a company's marketing plan. However, they should be assisted by other professionals and other staff. For instance, to create a marketing plan on social media, you need staff who very familiar with those apps or even programmers to do it much more quickly.

One of the important functions of the marketing plan is communication. To inform everyone in the organization who has what marketing-related responsibilities. For instance, Facebook announced an excellent feature called, Facebook Business Manager. It helps companies to allocate their resources and to assign permissions to a lot of people working together. 

So, What Is A Marketing Plan?

Typically, a marketing plan includes an overview of your business’s marketing, advertising goals, the current marketing position, the tasks within a limited time, the performance indicators for tracking efficiency, and the overall target market. And most importantly, it must meet customer needs. After all, if your customers do not like your products, all your marketing goals are very likely to fail.

The Most important Part of A Marketing Plan? Why?

The most important part of a marketing plan I think is your targeted customers and why you are targeting them.

Because your marketing plan is developed based on what your targets are. And also, you must set a goal for a plan, it is the crucial part of a business plan. For instance, if you are operating a coffee shop in the US, and you are setting your marketing goal as people all around the world. Some people just hate coffee and some even have a coffee allergy. You can not get everyone like you, but you can get loyalty from people already like you and people who have not made their decision yet. 

Customers are central to all marketing plans. Business owners can break the market into customer segments and try to figure out each segment's needs. Because a kid's need is not the same as a gentleman or a teenager. What happens if Lamborghini tries to sell their cars to kids? They don't even know what it is, not to mention they are not allowed to drive or buy a car. But the customer segments do not only mean ages, for a coffee shop, but the customer segments can also be like "people who live nearby", or "people who just pass by". 

What Is The Least Important? Why?

I think it is hard to say which one is the least important. An excellent marketing plan is like a Chess game. Each step you take and all the pieces are both counts, they all influence the final result. Although the queen can go almost everywhere, it is still limited by the pieces in front of it. I tend to think that the collaborators are relatively less important than the others because not every business needs collaborators to help them with marketing. 

What Is The Most Important Part of A Marketing Audit? Why?

The marketing audit refers to the comprehensive, systematic, analysis, and evaluation of the business marketing objectives and performance. In short, It is an examination of all of the company’s marketing activities. 

When you implement a plan, you must audit it regularly. Or, you are very unlikely to get success eventually. This means you must review your strategy regularly and adjust it if needed. 

I think each part of a marketing audit is crucial and needs to be individually addressed to get the best outcomes. And you have to apply the right metrics. What happens if you measure temperature with cm and km? Or, measure a battery range with Gb or Mb? It can mislead you to the wrong conclusions. To be more specific, you have to identify your strategy and your objective first. 

What Is the Least Important Part? Why?

As I said earlier, each part of a marketing audit is crucial and needs to be individually addressed to get the best outcomes. When I look at each factor of a marketing audit, it is hard to choose an unnecessary one. In the modern world, businesses are much more complicated and connected with each other. 

Finally, a marketing audit is an examination of a company’s marketing strategies as the strategies are actually implemented. So, it is a great tool for companies to win their business chess, and each piece on the board counts. You need to see it as a player, not as a piece. That way, you can see the overall position you are in.

Reference

About Sara McGuire Sara McGuire is the Content Marketing Manager at Venngage. She believes that growth by content doesn't require a big budget if you're scrappy. Her writing has been published on Marketing Profs, & McGuire, A. (2021, January 06). What is a marketing plan and how to make one? Retrieved February 06, 2021, from https://venngage.com/blog/marketing-plan/

Principles of Marketing. (2015). University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library. Licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa.

What is a marketing STRATEGY? And why a MARKETING audit is important - SESOME - a digital marketing and SEO consultancy. (2019, December 30). Retrieved February 06, 2021, from https://sesome.co.uk/strategy/what-is-a-marketing-strategy-and-audits-important/

What Skills and Knowledge Do You Need To Possess in Order to Develop A Useful Marketing Plan?

What Skills and Knowledge Do You Need To Possess in Order to Develop A Useful Marketing Plan?

At the foundation of any good business, the initiative is a solid marketing plan. A marketing plan is a detailed description that outlines your marketing strategy during a specific period. So, typically, a marketing plan includes an overview of your marketing goals, current marketing status, a timeline, tracking indicators, and most importantly, your target market and customer needs.

To set a marketing goal, you need knowledge like SMART(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time). The marketing goal should be clear and specific, otherwise, you won't be able to focus your efforts. Setting a measurable goal is also very important because you can track your progress and stay motivated. In addition, the marketing goal should be achievable, not just a dream. Finally, you must set a deadline. Or, failure is the only result.

To understand your current marketing status, you need to draw a target market and your company's position in it. To know the targeted market you must do your research on it and analyze it. So, those data collection and analysis skills are the basic abilities. In addition, it is also necessary when you try to discover your target market and your customer needs.

You must know how to use SWOT Analysis to assess your company's current position before you decide on any new strategy. SWOT is Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Each part of the SWOT is crucial when you decide to apply a strategy. For instance, even a queen on a chessboard has its weakness. So, keep your strengths stronger and hide your weakness. Find your opportunities, avoid threats. 

Furthermore, you have to set the tracking indicators in order to keep your plan on track. Therefore, you must know your business very well so that you can identify those key indicators. For instance, if you are running a company like Tesla, you must know the KPIs such as average downtime, utilization rate, or throughput. Otherwise, you just look at the sales number and don't know if they still on your plan ship.

Finally, due to you must set a correct timeline for your marketing plan, you better know how to create a reasonable, logical, and visual timeline when communicating with your clients and the management. Otherwise, it just a confusing plan.

Reference

Tanner, J. & Raymond, M.A. (2015). Principles of Marketing. University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library. Licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa.