Develop a Simple Marketing Plan for Small Business

Marketing
Strategic Marketing Plan
How to Develop and Use
for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

@ Mike Entreprenovator

Copyright 2010
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http://marketingplanbook.wordpress.com

Copyright 2010
2

Table of Contents
1. On SME and Entrepreneur Business
2. Benefits of Marketing Plan e-Book
3. What is Marketing
4. Misconception about Marketing
5. Elements of Marketing
a. Market Segment
b. Product
c. Place/Distribution
d. Promotion/Advertising
e. Price
f. People
g. Process
h. Environment
i. Communication
6. S6PEC In One-Page
a. The Simplified Marketing Plan
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E1

On SME and Entrepreneur Business
1. Small scale business is on the rise.
2. Early-stage entrepreneurial business increases.
3. Significant increase of entrepreneurial business in post crisis.
4. Almost 10% of entrepreneurs engaged in self learning and observing.
5. Many entrepreneurs focus on market expansion activity.
6. Education to be better entrepreneur still lacking but growing fast.
7. Perceive perceptions of entrepreneurship doesn’t mean anything.
8. In growing economies, entrepreneurship is a desirable career choice.
9. Entrepreneurs are engine of growth and contribute to higher GDP.
10. Most entrepreneurs were pulled because of opportunity recognition.
11. About 55% discontinued business because of financial problems.
12. The 25-34 years old age group is the highest to take up entrepreneurship.
13. Innovation is very important in entrepreneurial business.
14. And a lot more….you need to do research to know more… ☺
Copyright 2010 Source: Author interpretation of GEM Report 2008
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E1 What we can see from the above is that entrepreneurship and small business owners are on the rise. It is never too late to be one and join the
bandwagon. What is crucial for most small business owners and entrepreneurs are access to knowledge. Have you heard of the “mis-informed
case”? Hear how it goes..

Apparently in one of the wars during the old days, a man in Country A heard that the army troops are coming and going to invade his town. He
ran home to tell everybody about it but no one seems to believe him. What he did next was he went home and killed everyone of his family
members and later killed himself. The truth was, what he heard was just a rumor.

The learning from this simple story, we do not want to make decision that are not sure about. We don’t want to be mis-informed because it can
be fatal; just like what we hear from the story.

The whole idea of Marketing Plan e-Book is to facilitate this need; to educate more entrepreneurs and small business owners and provide
simplified knowledge on how to grow their ideas and business. With limited funds, we need to be very careful with what we need to do. A
simple e-Book like this will help you at least write down and cover enough bases to start or grow your business.
Entreprenovator, 17/1/2010

Entrepreneurial Process and Definition

The entrepreneurial process starts before the firm is operational. Someone who is just starting a
venture and trying to survive in a very competitive market is an entrepreneur in spite of not having
high-growth aspirations.

On the other hand, a person may be an established business owner who has been in business for quite
a number of years and still be innovative, competitive, and growth minded. This person is also an
entrepreneur.

Copyright 2010 Source: GEM Report 2008
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Benefits of Marketing Plan e-Book
1. It is SIMPLIFIED!
2. Portable format that you can print, read in laptop and even compose your own slides for
presentation to your partners, bosses, directors etc..
3. Cover all the bases you need in a marketing plan.
4. Affordable source of knowledge! Very cheap!
5. Information provided based on real case studies, happened before, practical approach and
honest.
6. One time download, shareable slides for all your business units and staffs.
7. Extra resources on the blog http://marketingplanbook.wordpress.com
8. Another resource blog http://entreprenovator.wordpress.com
9. Written not by academia or journalist but by practitioners!
10. Combined marketing knowledge from all around the world.
11. Nicely presented with diagrams, colors and highlights.
12. Save lots of $$$ for a marketing consultant or anyone so called consultant!
13. Save lots of $$$ on marketing software, licensing and applications!!
14. Step by step approach.
15. Post worldwide-crisis marketing approach which focus on what-works and profit centric!
16. You can make an income from this book by joining the affiliate program! ☺

Copyright 2010 For any further inquiry, please do not hesitate to contact us at entreprenovators@gmail.com
6

Future, here I come!
“Let’s make a real difference from now on. You don’t
have to dream anymore. What you wish is already
here. Let’s make sure you can start your business real
soon. You will save $$$ for writing your own Strategic
Marketing Plan. Let’s begin.”

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Marketing

“Nothing beats powerful communication in marketing implementation.” -
Anonymous

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What Is Marketing

It’s a process of thinking and observing, gathering
information, process information, slice and dice
with few analysis, map it to your business goals,
churn out some strategies to get attention from
your targeted customers (segments). The end
results of marketing are profits creation and
business survival.

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E2

What Is Marketing
Many struggle and sometimes fail to see that
Think our businesses are all about the customers .
& Observe

Gather
Implement
Information

PROFITS

IT’S THE SURVIVAL
CUSTOMER,
STUPID!!
Create Process
Strategies Information

If your business does not give sizable profits for
you to survive, obviously you need to do
Map to something about it including cutting your losses
Business Analyze
Goals
i.e. close shop.

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E2 People are so confused about marketing plan. There are too many versions of it (including mine!) but let me tell you what I am trying to do
here. Am going to give you the most simplified, picture-based and gist of how to develop and use your marketing plan. Even during one session
that I had with some MBA students, they get freaked out when they hear marketing plan and another set of group who aim to be the
consultant started to profess all the jargons and theories of marketing. I chewed both of them! Let’s get to work and be real I said.

Oft times business owners get the consultant to do it and only realizes that it is not implementable because the consultant is not a business
owner.
A real business owner, if you ever met them are super real people. They are realistic to the extent they don’t need almost anything. But that
was traditional type of business owners. Today’s world demand us to work and leverage with other people or knowledge so we can become
better and achieve faster results.

The above show a simple marketing processes. This process varies depending on your business specific, but generally it touches all of the
above aspects. If you can see, the focus is always on the customer. If you don’t do it for the customer, you are not doing the right thing. Even
an NGO has to focus to its customer.

Peter Drucker once said, “An NGO business is more difficult to manage because they don’t have bottom line or profit target!”. Lucky we are not
in the business!! If you are, I think you should start setting some goals (numerical) and watch the results manifold.

What Is Marketing

Marketing planning is a repetitive process. It changes
because the customers change. It’s the customer, stupid! It
is supremely important to understand really well that
marketing must surround the customers, not the products.

Nonetheless the ability to produce what the customer
wants is also very important but that will come after we
truly understand what the customers want.

Marketing is like a rubber band that binds everything in
your company. From finance, human resource, production,
administration, sales etc...

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E3
Marketing is a Business

CORPORATE ALL these, needs to be
COMMUNICATION managed and fall under
VENDORS
marketing concerns, if not
TECHNICAL job. It is marketing
IT SUPPORT SUPPORT
responsibility.

WEBSITE/BLOG HUMAN RESOURCE
OTHERS
DELIVERY SERVICE
SALES MANUFACTURING

PRODUCT CUSTOMER
BUSINESS PROCESS PACKAGING SERVICE

FINANCE MANAGEMENT

BRANDING COMPANY POLICY

SPOKEPERSON

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E3 Marketing is about every facet of your business. Failing to recognize that make your business imbalance. But of course you don’t have to focus
on all thing in the name of marketing. I tried that before and I failed miserably!!! Now that I have just told you about it, you just save $50, 000!
Yes, it cost me that much.

I recently attended a business brainstorming. The idea owner wanted to start something and as usual it gets wild and wilder until he suddenly
owns a few big businesses. I stopped him and asked “why don’t you focus on your core thing first?”. And grow it for few years and then add on
other stuffs that he dreamed about.

His answer was, “I don’t know how to write a marketing plan!”. Because of this consistencies that I always get, I came up with this Marketing
Plan e-Book. I guess it’s the universe calling for me! J


New Marketing Realities
1. Network information information age and mass production,
mass consumption
2. Globalization technological advances in transportation,
shipping and communication.
3. Privatization convert state-owned company to private to
increase efficiency.
4. Industry convergence multi industry converge and create
new products / services.
5. Deregulation many countries deregulated to create more
opportunities
6. Retail transformation entrepreneurial retailers /
businessman are on the rise (Entreprenovator!!)
7. Disintermediation direct to customers such as online
business
8. Heightened competition rising cost, shrinking profits and
powerful competitors.
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E4
Product Launch People?

I want to HIRE PRODUCT LAUNCH PEOPLE..
I want to hire PEOPLE THAT HAVE EXPERIENCED IN
ADVERTISING..
I want people that HAVE BRAND EXPERIENCE..
I want someone that works in PUBLIC RELATION

Marketing Man needs to have business sense. If you hire
showbiz marketing man, you surely will get the show but at
loss! You end up promoting your marketing manager/director
more than the products!
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E4 Firstly you need a Marketing man, not Advertising, PR or product people, not to mention showbiz man! Marketing needs someone who can
understand, chew, work and convince the management about how to approach marketing. The marketing manager/director needs to see the
business in totality; not just his own territory.

The above a real case when at one time I was applying a Marketing Manager job. They told me I don’t have product experience and I don’t
come from brand agency. The good news was, I am glad I wasn’t in that part of business thought it would have increased my potential to
getting the job. I am not a showbiz guy, I am a boring guy with an interesting approach to my work because I love my work. I can make
business sense out of every business and understand the gist of it. I am not a subject matter expert either. By the end of that interview, one
thing I am glad they picked up was, “ I think you are more marketing strategist than product launch person.” I am really glad they exactly
grasped what I am trying to tell them. Obviously they should refine the job title as “Product Launcher or Product Manager”. :P

Misconception of
Marketing

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” - Anonymous

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Misconception of Marketing
The funny thing is, it is common to observe misconceptions of
marketing. There are ubiquitous. While many actually aware that
the new customers are demanding and very different (because
we wear customer hat too!), but when it comes to their own
organization, many business chiefs have no clue where to start.
Many also still holding on old mantras from old eras and watch
their sales dwindled. What they normally say is, ‘Increase
marketing!!”.

What they mean by increase marketing is usually increase sales
people, increase advertising, increase commission, launch new
product, expand territory, cut down training, slash cost, cut
salary, work longer hours, use manual processes and many more.
I am sure many of you also fall into this trap. One big thing they
forget, “it’s the customer stupid!”. The new age customers are
unpredictable and everywhere!! Do you agree?
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Many of us forget to come back to our customers (which the very reason
we are in business) and ask them what exactly they want from us. From
my observation, more than 50% of companies don’t track their
customer’s purchases. Because of that they can’t track the purchasing
patterns. And because of that when there is new product launch, they are
struggling to find people to buy and try. The biggest sin of all is not to ask
to our current customers why they buy from us. Let’s don’t make the
same mistake. Track your customer’s purchase please.

Another misconception on marketing is “it’s a department that deals with
buntings, brochures, printing and press conferences.”. If you suddenly say
that this is what your marketing department does, don’t tell me you are
in the marketing department. By the way, if you are in that kind of
marketing department, you definitely just made a breakthrough by
purchasing this material. ☺ Congratulations!! If you are about to start
your business, don’t repeat the same mistake.
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While this is true in the 1950’s era, today’s marketing is a business
function. There was a consulting company that claim to their clients to be
specializing in e-business, but fail to have their own website equipped
with e-business functionalities and tools. The worst is when the website
always jammed because the hosting it uses is the lousiest in town. So
what kind of credibility is that? And how to market “e-business specialist”
when you can’t even fix your own house?

Let’s take a look on how their marketing department works. The
department consists of 4 personnel. The manager deals with endless
press conferences and social events. Wherever the GM will be, there will
be some news about her. Whenever there is launch of new product, the
GM will be there and officiate and the next thing you know that news will
be distributed to few countries where the company has businesses.
Good? Yes, until you ask the actual customers who buy their product.
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The most common complaint was “late and underperform”. The
staffs are complainer lots because their bosses “over promise and
under deliver” the customers. As a result they are not motivated to
work and always criticized by the customers. When things go awry,
the GM will interfere and diplomatically swept the problems under
carpet. And this has been going on for long time and the marketing
has nothing to do with it (that’s what they said). Are you familiar
with this kind of approach? They need to be rejuvenated.

Another personnel in the marketing department deals with graphic
design. He will design 1001 things squeezing his creative juice but
only to find out that the bosses only like certain type of designs. So
to make his job easier, he only follow what his boss wants instead of
the customers.
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And there is another personnel is to check on daily basis any news featured
about to them. This is a good intelligence work but what they do after that
with all those paper cuts? Collectibles and get dusted. The funny part was
are not about competitive updates. There is no new product specifications
by other competition, new players in the market, new technology adopted
and R&D items. There are all PR works. And worse of they forget to cut
about their clients.

All these “phonies” you can observe mostly in a mammoth, once-succeed
company and high growth industry. In fact in some multinational
corporations (MNCs), it is so centralized that only the few top executives
make decision for the entire strategies for the companies. This also includes
marketing strategy. How can the few top executives that mostly in the high
office can know about their customers? Do they have a comprehensive
marketing information system (MIS)? Not really. Sometimes we don’t know
what we don’t know. Hey, don’t make the same mistakes.
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The rests in the company are just the order takers. It is believed
that time will come when the small business (like your’s and mine)
are the big business because of their ability to change and agility to
move forward. I think we are experiencing it already. This thought
can be observed from Jacques Barzun on what is lacking:

“I grieve to see the most advanced physical and social organization
of the last century go down in shabby disgrace for lack of the same
comprehensive imagination that built it up. What is lacking is the
will of the companies to survive and to satisfy the public
inventiveness and skill.” (marketing myopia- Theodore levitt)

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Segment/ Product P lace/ Promotion/
Market Distribution Advertising

Communication

Price People Process Environment

Summary

“Gifts are like hooks.”- Martial (A.D. 86)

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S6PEC in ONE PAGE
BUSINESS GOALS

Marketing Strategy
-How to achieve the
business goals Marketing Budget
-what do we need? -Revenue projection
-P&L
Marketing Objectives
-How much? MKTG
-What measure? PLAN

Marketing Elements Monitoring & Controls
-Segment -Correction Plan
-Product
-Place
-Promotion
-Price
-People
-Process
-Environment
-Communication
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S6PEC in Application

Key result for any marketing activity is ACTUAL PURCHASE. If it doesn’t we need to
change or do other activity. Nonetheless there are also other sub-measurement
such as click rates, inquiry, trial, redeem and many more. It depends on what type
of campaigns or activities that you do. Different marketing activities and strategies
will give different results.

Let say after few marketing activities, then you examined that you have low brand
awareness. You can remedy this by improving your media selection and increase a
little bit on your marketing budget. You also want to consider advertise a little bit
more. Show the presence. A small advertisement but in 10 places are a lot better
than 1 supersize advertisement in just one place.

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But then when you realized you have high brand awareness (people heard or know
of your brand), but attitude and purchase don’t follow suit. At this juncture you
need to do a little bit of positioning. In other words you are trying to send a
message to your target group of what your product can do for them.
After positioning, if you still experience weak sales then you probably want to check
your pricing or distribution. Talking about distribution, this is where multi-level-
marketing (MLM) beats many of us. They have very strong network and distributors
(agents).

Finally if you have achieved high brand awareness, positive attitude, actual
purchase happened but then low repeat purchase in the usual sales cycle, time to
check your product quality or performance.

These are some real-life examples and remedies for your marketing activities. One
key secret is to always going back to S6PEC.

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E55

1 2 3 4

Negative attitude Strong brand Strong sales but
Low brand
and low purchase awareness, but low repeat
awareness
intention weak sales purchase

Improve media Product quality
Brand positioning Test different pricing
selection issue

Test to different
Increase advertising Focus on benefits Increase trials
niches

Create positive
Increase frequency Increase distribution Purchase points
environment

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E55 The above is to give some ideas what you can do in your existing business or product.
Let say you have Low Brand Awareness, you have three areas to look into.
Improve media selection
Increase advertising
Increase frequency
Same goes with the rest. These are quick tips for you. You don’t have to follow exactly like the above and I encourage you to mix-match
depending on what you need and suitable for you.

Just in Case

In case, you don’t have much time and you get this
material from someone (but don’t cheat and promise you
will come back and review all the slides!), you can straight
away use the following slides to develop and use your
marketing plans.

But make sure you come back and enhance it, because a
good marketing plan is adaptive to the changing time.
Cheers!

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the
one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
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Market Summary

Market Review: Past, Present, and Future
o Review changes and updates in market share,
management, players, market shifts, new trends,
costs, pricing, advertising and distribution
o Do a simple diagram of Past, Present and Future
o If it’s your new business, based in on your
observation

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Segments

Market Opportunities/Business Gap
o Discuss specific market segment opportunities
o Address distribution strategies for those markets
or segments
o What’s the gap?
o How you can fill the gap?

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Product Definition

Describe the product or service being
marketed
o Ask question, What Why When Where Who and
How (5W 1H)
o Write them down

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Competition

The competitive landscape
o Provide an overview of product competitors, and
their strengths and weaknesses
o Position each competitor’s product against your
new product
o Also observe other complementing or substituting
products and take notes

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Positioning

Positioning of your product
– Statement that distinctly defines the product in its
market and against its competition over time
– Don’t crack your head, “how is your product
better to the customer?”
Consumer promise
– What is it that you want to deliver?
– How your customer can benefit from using it?

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Communication Strategies

Message to your target groups
o One message at a time, don’t confuse your
customer
o But you can have multiple promotions at one
time, the one message is “PROMOTION”

Target customer demographics
o Their age, income group, gender, location, why do
you think they will buy?
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Packaging

• Product packaging
– Discuss form factor, pricing, look, and strategy
– Think on the delivery process
– If you don’t have delivery service, then think how
your customer is going to get access to your
product
– Product performance also is a packaging. So you
induce repeat purchase

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Launch Strategies

Launch plan
o Ask the 5W 1H questions, make sure you know
how each of your people job for the launch
o Over communicate!
Promotion budget
o Spend with what you can afford. You still have a
long way to go
Post launching monitoring and plan

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Public Relations

Strategy and Implementation
o PR strategies
o Don’t bother PR if you just started doing business
because there is a huge chance that your product
needs to be modified
o PR can be expensive such as sponsorship, sponsor
only that aligns with your product values and
message
o Don’t overspend!!
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Advertising

Strategy and Implementation
o Use the easiest-to-you-and-customer strategy first
o Slowly builds up
o Spend with what you can afford
o Your product performance is also a form of
advertising
o Create the need to repeat purchase such as
coupon, voucher, add-on, membership etc..

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Pricing

Pricing
o Use multiple pricing strategies to the same
product in the different periods
o Compare to similar products in the market

Policies
o Have pricing policies so you know where is your
minimum and maximum (and your profits too!!)

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Distribution

Distribution strategy
Channels of distribution
o Online, Shoplots, Salesman etc..
o Check your incentives too!
Distribution by channel
o (use mix distribution)

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Performance Monitoring

First year targets (half year is applicable too!)
o How much, what’s the achievement?
Additional year targets
o Is it realistic? Then stretch it a bit. Aha!
What else do you need to make it more
successful?
o Resources?

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Conclusion

There is nothing to rush for, but don’t procrastinate too
much too. If you loan money from someone for your
business, you need to tighten your seat belt now and
focus on your business.
Don’t forget to smell the roses along the way. I can
assure you a wonderful journey and wish you a blissful
experience!!
Don’t change your goals/dreams, change the platforms.
You will thrive and the rest let the universe decides.

Future, here I come! ☺

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S6PEC in ONE PAGE

1. Marketing Strategy
2. Marketing Objectives
3. Marketing Elements:
1. Segmentation 6. People
a. Segment & Business Gap 1. People Management
b. How to Segment 2. People’s Motivation
c. Segmentation Strategy 7. Process
d. Market Research 1. Process Strategies
e. Positioning & Value 2. Process Management
Propositions 8. Environment
2. Product 1. Current Market Position
1. Product Levels 2. Trends
2. Product Development 3. Government Policies
3. Product Design 9. Communication
3. Place/Distribution 1. Action Plans
1. Distribution Channels 2. Goals Setting
2. Sales Plan 4. Marketing Budget
4. Promotion/Advertising 1. Revenue Projection
1. Promotional Plan 2. Profit and Loss
2. Advertising Approach 5. Monitoring and Control
5. Price 1. Correction Plan
1. Pricing Strategies
2. Pricing Method
3. Margins and Commissions
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Get this E-book S6PEC Framework

Buy the complete e-Book only for USD 20 (digital content). You can
pay using to ba3aadmin@gmail.com
(KHAIRUL ANWAR KAMARUDIN).

Want to have more content freely? Visit our blogs
http://marketingplanbook.wordpress.com and
http://entreprenovator.wordpress.com

See you soon!!

Copyright 2010
43

On Strategy
Title: Strategy B

1. What Do You Want to Achieve

2. Current Situation

3. Goals/Targets

4. Analysis

5. Proposed Solutions

6. Action Plan

7. Follow Up

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44

MY
NEXT
BOOK?

Thank You
Segment/ Product Place/ Promotion/
Market Distribution Advertising

Communication

Price People Process Environment

ABOUT
ME

http://entreprenovator.wordpress.com
Copyright 2010
45

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