Smart Marketing

The 3 Most important things to consider when writing a marketing plan

All too often writing a marketing plan is considered a daunting task. I think this is because most growing companies consider a marketing plan to be a be-all-to-end-all document. It shouldn't be.

A marketing plan is really a snapshot of a growing company's market, at that time, and the resultant follow ups the company will pursue. That's all.

To help you understand the importance of a marketing plan, keep these 3 considerations in mind as you work with a marketing consultant to develop a marketing plan:

1. All marketing plans are not created equal - Just because your nephew has a 100 page marketing plan that can be used as a spare booster chair doesn't mean your company's has to be. His company may be national while yours is regional. His may have multiple distribution channels while yours has only one. His may have external financing sources while yours is funded internally. Resist "keeping up with the Joneses" when it comes to your marketing plan. Make your marketing plan fit your company, not someone else's.

2. Every marketing plan is dynamic - I get a confused look when I finish developing a marketing plan for a growing company, then turn to the owner and announce "OK, let's get cracking, this plan will start becoming obsolete next week". Markets, competitors and information move too fast in today's society to think that a marketing plan developed today will still be relevant 6 months later.

3. Overhaul your marketing plan every 6 months - Because markets are dynamic, marketing plans need to be reviewed, at a minimum, every 6 months. During these sessions the company leader and plan author should review the plan and ask the following questions:

• Are our goals still the same?
• Is our target audience still the same?
• Which strategies have worked? Which have not?
• Which tactics have worked? Why?
• Which have not? Why?

Marketing plans are the single most effective weapon against marketing complacency. Keep these three considerations in mind when your company develops its marketing plan.

Marketing ethics; How would you handle this marketing dilemma?

Yesterday, I was a table leader for the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce's Ethics Day. Put on jointly by Concordia College and the TwinWest Chamber, the day sought to shed light on ethical challenges in our society.

During one of the breakout sessions, I led our group in a discussion about how they would address a specific marketing dilemma. Here it is:

You join an e-commerce company as a marketing manager. On this company’s website there is a very well-defined privacy policy that says the company will never sell or otherwise make available a customer’s name to another company.

The next week, a leading e-mail marketer, approaches you and says they will pay you $500,000 for a one-time use of the list. Your company’s bottom line is only $250,000, so this would mean you would be personally responsible for increasing the company’s bottom line to $750,000.

In addition, the president promised you that if you doubled the bottom line (to only $500,000) you would receive a promotion and very lucrative stock options.

 · What do you do? Why?

So I’m curious. How would you handle this situation?

 

Open Source Marketing: Is it for real?

Yesterday I was contacted by a major advertising  journal for my thoughts on the rise in Open Source Marketing. In case this term is new to you it means the development of products or promotional  efforts that are created or co-created by vast numbers of consumers themselves.

The Linux computer operating system is the classic example of a product that is being developed using not only consumer input, but direct consumer action. Mozilla's Firefox web browser is another example of a product physically constructed (or "manufactured") by consumers - so successful it has now been downloaded over 20 million times.

On the promotional front, Open Source Marketing is even more noticeable. Companies like Volkswagen, Nike and Apple are all turning over a select group of reins to consumers of their products. And what better way to develop a grass roots marketing campaign that looks the way the audience wants it to and says the things that are most important to it?

By its nature, Open Source Marketing  is challenging the very foundation of the advertiser/client model. More and more companies will rely less and less on the traditional top-down, broadcast nature of agencies and instead turn to more networked, dialogued marketing efforts. Whether or not agencies adapt to this turn in the market remains to be seen.

From the Open Sauce Live website, here is a listing of thoughts from some of the US's largest company's CEO's who are starting to take notice of this paradigm shift in marketing:

The traditional marketing model we all grew up with is obsolete," James R. Stengel, CMO, P&G

"Mass marketing no longer works. It's the end of brand positioning as we know it”.  Larry Light, CMO, McDonalds

“To me, the challenge is not awareness, the challenge is engagement," John Hayes, CMO, American Express

"JWT client Ford now spends only 30%-40% of its ad budget on traditional advertising, compared with as much as 80% five years ago."  Bob Jeffrey, CEO, JWT

"The less control a company has over its marketing message, the greater its credibility" Economist 31.5.05

"What I worry about much more is our ability to make the necessary cultural changes to meet the new demands of the digital native." Rupert Murdoch, 14.4.05

To learn more Open Source Marketing, visit the following sites:
Collaborate Marketing
Open Sauce Live
WebProNews on Open Source Marketing

It seems to me this is a train quickly gaining steam. What do you think? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

Target marketing the Segway way

In today's Investors Business Daily print newspaper, there was a great article about Segway, the company behind the unique Human Transporter. In a previous post I wrote about the vertical marketing efforts of Segway, and I'd like to talk more about this today.

Segway has identified several hot vertical markets it is capitalizing on that include:

• Walking tour operators - Walking tour companies in downtown cities have emerged as a growth market for the Segway transporters. Not only does the company sell the vehicles to the tour operators, but the product gains awareness from being seen by the urban masses.
• Police departments - More than 100 police departments are now using the Segways, including the Chicago Police Department. Again, the company benefits from both the sales AND the credibility that is established as a consumer sees a police officer using the vehicle.
• Epcot - Those of you who have visited Epcot in Disneyworld know how spead out it is. Recently, Epcot celebrated the 10,000th customer rental.
• Commercial warehouses - FedEx, UPS and Gillette use Segways at large warehouses for maintenance and logistics purposes.
  
  The point of this post is to underscore how valuable it is for companies to divide up their markets into more meaningful segments. Once a company does this, it establishes the proper marketing basis for meaningful sales, credibility and brand awareness.

One of the biggest reasons why marketing projects fail

Think about this for a minute.

When your company develops a timeline for any marketing event - a new product launch, a new advertising campaign, a line extension -  isn't most of your marketers' energy focused on the intermediate deadlines leading up to the project launch?

These project hurdle dates are what the organization manages to and many times they can help determine the level of success or failure around the project , right?

But, the real (and often overlooked) job of job of marketing lies in establishing analysis, control and follow through processes long after the initiative is launched.

I tend to use project meetings (one client of mine calls them "bring ups") and marketing reporting sessions as key milestones AFTER an initiative is launched. Committing time and energy to the marketing process, with tools like these after the  initiative launches, can be just as important as the actual launch itself.

I think too few companies (large and small) understand this...

Do you tend to agree or disagree?