1.
Section 3:
Launching the Business
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2.
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Essentials of Entrepreneurship and Small
Business Management
Ninth Edition
Chapter 9
Building a Powerful
Bootstrap Marketing Plan

3.
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Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
1. Describe the principles of building a bootstrap marketing
plan, and explain the benefits of preparing one.
2. Explain how small businesses can pinpoint their target
markets.

4.
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Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
3. Discuss the role of market research in building a
bootstrap marketing plan and outline the market research
process.
4. Describe how a small business can build a competitive
edge in the marketplace using bootstrap marketing
strategies.

5.
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Building a Bootstrap Marketing Plan (1 of 2)
• Marketing:
– The process of creating and delivering desired goods
and services to customers.
– Involves all of the activities associated with winning
and retaining loyal customers.
• A solid business plan needs to contain both a financial plan
and a marketing plan.

6.
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Building a Bootstrap Marketing Plan (2 of 2)
• Bootstrap Marketing Strategies:
– Are unconventional, low-cost, and creative marketing
techniques that allow a small company to realize a
greater return from its marketing investment than do
larger rivals.
– Do not require large amounts of money to be effective
– just creativity.

7.
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A Bootstrap Marketing Plan: Three
Objectives
1. Pinpoint the specific target markets the company will
serve.
2. Determine customer needs and wants through market
research.
3. Analyze a firm’s competitive advantages and create a
marketing strategy to communicate its value proposition
to the target market.

8.
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Pinpointing the Target Market (1 of 3)
• Target Market: the specific group of customers at whom
the company aims its products or services.
– Marketing strategy must be built on a clear definition of
a company’s target customers.
– Example: BlackRapid

9.
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Pinpointing the Target Market (2 of 3)
• Target customer must permeate the entire business –
merchandise sold, background music, layout, décor, and
other features.
• Without a clear image of its target market, a small
company tries to reach almost everyone and ends up
appealing to few.

10.
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Pinpointing the Target Market (3 of 3)
Figure 9.1 U.S. Population by Race, 2020, 2040, and 2060
Source: Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

11.
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Market Research
• Determining customer needs:
– Demographics: the study of important population
characteristics, such as age, income, race, and
education.
– Market Research: the vehicle for gathering the
information that serves as the foundation for the
marketing plan.
 Never assume that a market exists for your
company’s product or service; prove it!
– Market research does not have to be time consuming,
complex, or expensive to be useful.
 Online surveys, social media, etc.

12.
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How to Conduct Market Research
1. Define the objective.
2. Collect the data.
– Individualized (one-to-one) marketing
 Primary research
 Secondary research
– Data mining
3. Analyze and interpret the data.
4. Draw conclusions and act.

13.
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Building a Competitive Edge (1 of 10)
• Bootstrap marketing principles:
– Find a niche and fill it.
– Use the power of publicity.
– Don’t just sell; entertain!
– Strive to be unique.
– Build a community with customers.
– Connect with customers on an emotional level.
 Build trust.
 Define a unique selling proposition (USP).

14.
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Unique Selling Proposition
• A key customer benefit of a product or service that sets it
apart from its competition.
– Answers key customer question: “What’s in it for me?”
– Consider intangible or psychological benefits as well as
tangible ones.
– Communicate your USP to your customers often.

15.
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Building a Competitive Edge (2 of 10)
• Create an identity for your business through branding.
– Branding: communicating a USP to the target market
in a consistent and integrated manner.

16.
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Branding and a USP
Figure 9.2 The Connection Between Branding and a USP
Source: Based on Brand-Savvy, Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

17.
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Building a Competitive Edge (3 of 10)
• Create an identity for your business through branding.
– Branding
• Embrace social marketing.

18.
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Embrace Social Marketing
• Social networks sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and
Twitter, allow entrepreneurs to connect with potential and
existing customers at little or no cost.
• 96% of entrepreneurs use social media to connect with
existing and potential customers.

19.
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Social Media Entrepreneurs Use
Figure 9.3 Social Media Entrepreneurs Use as Marketing
Tools
Source: Based on Michael Stelzner, “2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report,” Social Media
Examiner, May 2016, p. 23.

20.
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Benefits of Social Media Marketing
Figure 9.4 Benefits of Social Media Marketing
Source: Based on Michael Stelzner, “2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report,” Social Media
Examiner, May 2016, p. 17.

21.
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Building a Competitive Edge (4 of 10)
• Create an identity for your business through branding.
– Branding
• Embrace social marketing.
– Start a blog.
 37% of companies use blogs as part of their
marketing strategies.
 Economical and effective online communication.

22.
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Blog Guidelines
• Develop a clear purpose for your blog.
• Position the blog with other blogs that already exist.
• Focus on key words.
• Cultivate the image of an expert or trusted friend.
• Be patient.
• Be honest, balanced, and interesting.
• Ask customers for feedback.
• Use services such as Google Alerts.
• Be cautious.
• Promote the blog via social media and e-mail.

23.
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Building a Competitive Edge (5 of 10)
• Create an identity for your business through branding.
– Branding
• Embrace social marketing.
– Start a blog.
– Create online videos.
– Host a special event.

24.
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Building a Competitive Edge (6 of 10)
• Create an identity for your business through branding.
– Branding
• Embrace social marketing.
• Be dedicated to service and customer satisfaction.

25.
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Focus on Customer Satisfaction
• 79% of unhappy customers tell others about their
experiences.
– 48% of shoppers say they won’t patronize stores where
they know others have had negative experiences.
– For every complaint a company receives,17 other
complaints go unspoken.
– Disgruntled customers often post their experiences
online.
• Address comments and complaints!

26.
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Addressing Comments and Complaints
• Humanize your responses.
• Respond quickly.
• Respond publicly.
• Avoid a defensive tone when confronted with negative
comments.
• Set up alerts.
• Create a database of complaints and suggestions.

27.
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Achieving Stellar Customer Service and
Satisfaction (1 of 2)
• Listen to customers.
• Define customer service expectations.
• Set standards and measure performance.
• Examine your company’s service cycle.
• See customer complaints as a mechanism for improving
customer service.
• When you create a negative customer experience,
apologize and fis it – fast.
• Hire the right employees.

28.
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Achieving Stellar Customer Service and
Satisfaction (2 of 2)
• Train employees to deliver superior service.
• Empower employees to offer superior service.
• Treat employees with respect and demonstrate to them
how valuable they are.
• Use technology to provide improved service.
• Reward superior service.
• Get op managers’ support.
• Give customers an unexpected surprise.
• View customer service as an investment, not an expense.

29.
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Building a Competitive Edge (7 of 10)
• Create an identity for your business through branding.
– Branding
• Embrace social marketing.
• Be dedicated to service and customer satisfaction.
• Retain existing customers.
– Customer experience management

30.
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Retain Existing Customers (1 of 2)
• About 20% of a typical company’s customers account for
about 80% of its sales.
– Focusing resources on keeping the best (and most
profitable) customers is a better investment than
chasing “fair-weather” customers who will defect to any
better deal that comes along.
• One way that companies can entice current customers to
keep coming back is with a loyalty program, which many
companies are linking to their social media presence.

31.
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Retain Existing Customers (2 of 2)
• Companies that are successful at retaining their customers
constantly ask themselves:
– What are we doing right?
– How can we do that even better?
– What have we done wrong?
– What can we do in the future?

32.
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Building a Competitive Edge (8 of 10)
• Create an identity for your business through branding.
– Branding
• Embrace social marketing.
• Be dedicated to service and customer satisfaction.
• Retain existing customers.
– Customer experience management
• Be devoted to quality.
– Total quality management (TQM)

33.
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Devotion to Quality
• World-class companies treat quality as a strategic
objective, an integral part of company culture.
• Total Quality Management (TQM):
– Quality in the product or service itself.
– Quality in every aspect of the business and its
relationship with the customer.
– Continuous improvement in quality.
• Get it right the first time!

34.
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Building a Competitive Edge (9 of 10)
• Create an identity for your business through branding.
• Embrace social marketing.
• Be dedicated to service and customer satisfaction.
• Retain existing customers.
• Be devoted to quality.
• Attend to convenience.
– Make it easy to do business with you.

35.
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Make it Easy to do Business (1 of 2)
• Questions to ask:
– Is your business conveniently located near customers?
– Are your business hours suitable to your customers?
– Would customers appreciate pickup and delivery
services?
– Do you make it easy for customers to buy on credit or
with credit cards?
– Do your employees treat customers with courtesy?

36.
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Make it Easy to do Business (2 of 2)
• Are your employees trained to handle business
transactions quickly, efficiently, and politely?
• Does your company offer “extras” that would make
customers’ lives easier?
• Can you bundle existing products to make it easier for
customers to use them?
• Can you adapt existing products to make them more
convenient for customers?
• Does your company handle telephone calls quickly and
efficiently?

37.
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Building a Competitive Edge (10 of 10)
• Create an identity for your business through branding.
• Embrace social marketing.
• Be dedicated to service and customer satisfaction.
• Retain existing customers.
• Be devoted to quality.
• Attend to convenience.
• Concentrate on innovation.
• Emphasize speed.

38.
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Emphasis on Speed (1 of 3)
• Use principles of time compression management (TCM):
– Speed new products to market.
– Shorten customer response time in manufacturing and
delivery.
– Reduce the administrative time required to fill an order.

39.
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Emphasis on Speed (2 of 3)
• Re-engineer the process rather than try to do the same
thing – only faster.
• Create cross-functional teams of workers and empower
them to attack and solve problems.
• Set aggressive goals for production and stick to the
schedule.

40.
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Emphasis on Speed (3 of 3)
• Rethink the supply chain.
• Instill speed in the company culture.
• Use technology to find shortcuts wherever possible.
• Put the Internet to work for you.

41.
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Conclusion
• You don’t need a large marketing budget to successfully
reach your customers!
• Use clever, innovative bootstrap marketing strategies to
put your company in the spotlight and make a special
connection with your customers.

42.
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Copyright