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The marketing audit
Copyright Notices

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical
or electric, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the authors.

Please do ask if you want to use this for your own courses or conducting your own customer audits.

Requests for permission or for more information should be sent to: Jacqui Malpass
jacqui@jacquimalpass.com



Legal Notices

The purpose of this book is to educate, entertain and provide information on the subject matter covered.
All attempts have been made to verify information at the time of this publication and the author does
not assume any responsibility for errors, omissions or other interpretations of the subject matter. This
book results from the experience of the author. The purchaser or reader of this book assumes
responsibility for the use of these materials and information. The author assumes no responsibility or
liability on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of this book.




                                 Page 2 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is a marketing review? .....................................................................................................................4
How to use this workbook .........................................................................................................................4
Before you start ........................................................................................................................................6
Where am I review ....................................................................................................................................8
SWOT Analysis .........................................................................................................................................9
Market Trends ........................................................................................................................................ 14
Market Environment ............................................................................................................................... 15
Who are your customers?........................................................................................................................ 23
Just for fun ..............................................................................................................................................26
List your top 20 customers ......................................................................................................................28
Working with your customers ................................................................................................................. 30
Competitors ............................................................................................................................................ 35
Products ................................................................................................................................................. 39
Prices ...................................................................................................................................................... 47
Distribution ............................................................................................................................................. 54
Promotion............................................................................................................................................... 57
Technology .............................................................................................................................................68
Action Planning ......................................................................................................................................69
Marketing Controls ................................................................................................................................. 73
Where am I going? .................................................................................................................................. 77
Goals and Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 77
From theory to reality ............................................................................................................................. 79
Market Research .....................................................................................................................................80




                                                   Page 3 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
What is a marketing review?




First steps
Simplicity is the key. Treat each section like a mini assignment, put it in your diary, assemble the team,
brief them and assign parts of the audit to each member. As you do each section you will feel a sense of
achievement which will motivate you to complete all of the other stages.




How to use this workbook
The book is set up in sections with a set of questions designed to ignite your thought processes, there will
be other questions that you will come up and in each section there is a space in the workbook to write your
answers.
Your answer




         Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 4 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
Mind mapping
Another way to get your ideas down is to use mind mapping software like Buzan iMindmap. This is a really
useful way to get thoughts and ideas down electronically.




Find a way of capturing information that works for you and your team.




                                  Page 5 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Before you start
Have the following items (either previous or current) ready for review:



 Marketing and advertising budget                              Corporate folder
 Strategic plans                                               Brochures / flyers
 Research reports                                              Catalogues
 Trade information                                             Exhibition Stand (picture of)
 Staff experiences / stories                                   Website
 Branding                                                      Direct mailers / eshots
 Corporate philosophy and mission                              Letterheads, compliment slips, business
  statement                                                      cards
 Key words and phrases to describe your                        Letter and fax templates
  business                                                      Sales proposals and tenders
 Strap line                                                    Case studies / whitepapers
 Use of colours                                                Annual report


 Samples of all past promotions and                         PR plan
  advertising (last two years minimum).                      Copies of PR for last 2 years
 Amount, quantities and timing of co-op
  programs/funds.


    List of campaigns
    Cost                                                    Number of companies
    Responses                                               Number ready to be marketed to
    Which promotional mediums have given                    Other analyses to include, numbers by
     you the best returns?                                    market sector, targeted, in the sales funnel


 By total category for the last three to five               List your top competitors.
  years.                                                     List your second and third-ranked
 By month January to December for each                       competitors.
  year.                                                      Samples of past competitors' promotions.
    By yearly total to date.                                Samples of competitors collateral
                                                                Samples of competitors website


 Current products / services                                Pricing matrix
 Planned products and services                              Cost model


By total category for the last three to five years.        By month, for as many months as possible.
By month January to December for each year.
By weekly total for each year.


 Other political, legal, economic,                          Sales and marketing team structure



                                     Page 6 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
environmental or trend issues that may                      Personal development plans
  affect your business.                                       Skills matrix
 Reasonable and probable growth for this                     Skills gaps
  year and the next four years (i.e. as a                     Training plans
  percentage increase/decrease from the
  previous year).
 The issues or tasks that you wish to
  outsource to 50five.
 Future plans and goals for expansion,
  revenue growth, and timing for these goals.

Chances are this was quite onerous and demonstrates that your systems and structures may be a little out
of whack! Great this is a perfect place to start.

What else can you pull together?
Who can help you?




                                   Page 7 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Where am I review
This is a good exercise to do with others in your business, hand it out and then pull everyone together to
review the answers.

When you have finished try to put it into some order that you can work from and refer back to.

What does my business do?                                      What sort of customers am I most attracted to?




What do they have in common? What common                       How am I giving my customers what they want?
problems, goals, needs, wants or desires do they               Describe.
share?




Who needs what I have to offer?                                What pay off do people get from my expertise?




Who have you already helped?                                   How have you helped them?




What does it tell you about your business?
What does it tell you about what others in your business think about what you do?




                                    Page 8 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
SWOT Analysis
Understanding Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
Why use the tool? SWOT Analysis is an effective way of identifying your Strengths and Weaknesses, and of
examining the Opportunities and Threats you face.

SWOT analysis is a framework for analyzing your strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and
threats you face.

This will help you to focus on your strengths, minimize weaknesses, and take the greatest possible
advantage of opportunities available.
How to use tool:
To carry out a SWOT Analysis write down the answers to the following questions. Where appropriate, use
similar questions:

Strengths:
What advantages do you have?
What do you do well?
What relevant resources do you have access to?
What do other people see as your strengths?

Consider this from your own point of view and from the point of view of the people you deal with. Don't be
modest. Be realistic. If you are having any difficulty with this, try writing down a list of your characteristics.
Some of these will hopefully be strengths!

In looking at your strengths, think about them in relation to your competitors - for example, if all your
competitors provide high quality products, then a high quality production process is not a strength in the
market, it is a necessity.

Your answer




                                     Page 9 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Weaknesses:
What could you improve?
What do you do badly?
What should you avoid?

Again, consider this from an internal and external basis: Do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that
you do not see? Are your competitors doing any better than you? It is best to be realistic now, and face any
unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

Your answer




Opportunities:
Where are the good opportunities facing you?
What are the interesting trends you are aware of?
Useful opportunities can come from such things as:
           Changes in technology and markets, government, social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle
                changes, etc.

A useful approach to looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these
open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open
up opportunities by eliminating them.

Your answer




                                   Page 10 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Threats:
What obstacles do you face?
What is your competition doing?
What specifications for your job, products or services changing?
How is changing technology threatening your position?
What are you doing about bad debt or cash-flow problems?
Which if any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?

Your answer




Carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating - both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done,
and in putting problems into perspective.




                                   Page 11 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
SWOT
Now summarise all of the points above

Strengths                                                    Weaknesses




Opportunities                                                Threats




How are you going to:-

use your strengths to take maximum advantage                 stop your weaknesses getting in the way of
of your opportunities                                        seizing opportunities




use your strengths to overcome or resist the                 prevent the threats taking advantage of your
threats                                                      weaknesses




                                 Page 12 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Key things that have helped you (or prevented) to get to the position you are in today

What are the key things that have      Rate 1-10        What are the key things that have   Rate 1-10
helped you get where you are today?    10 = most        prevented you from going further?   10 = least
                                       successful                                           successful




What does this tell you?
What are you going to do about any of it?



Your answer




                                  Page 13 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Market Trends
To remain competitive you need to get a good understanding of market trends if your business is to make
the most of its opportunities.

It’s a good idea to buy a quality newspaper or trade magazine once a week/month, and subscribe to news
channels / newsletters which affect your market.

These are some things which can affect your market and marketing.
Seasonal / Fashion
Increase/decrease in demand
Change in attitudes
Environmental concerns
Legislation
Outsourcing / Globalisation
Competitors / new entrants / technology

What are the trends affecting your market place?

Your answer




                                  Page 14 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Market Environment

A PEST analysis is an investigation of the important factors that are changing which influence a business
from the outside.

PEST stands for: Political changes - e.g. a change in government, or a change in government policy.
Economic changes - relate to changes in the wider economy such as rises in living standards or the general
level of demand, rises or falls in interest rates, etc. Social changes - relate to changes in wider society such
as changes in lifestyles e.g. more women going out to work, changes in tastes and buying patterns.
Technological changes - relate to the application of new inventions and ideas such as the development of
the Internet and websites as business tools.

What are the main developments with respect to demographics, economy, technology, government and
culture that will affect your organisation's situation?


Political-Legal
 What laws are being proposed that may                     International pressure groups
  affect marketing strategy?                                Government policies
 Current legislation home market                           Government term and change
 Future legislation                                        Are there any insurances that need to be in
 European/international legislation                         place?
 Regulatory bodies and processes                           Trading policies
 What national, or local agency actions                    Funding, grants and initiatives
  should be watched?
 Home market lobbying/pressure groups

Now                                                       Future
Positive                   Negative                       Positive                          Negative




                                    Page 15 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Economic - Demographic
 What effect will forecasted trends in the size,                  market and trade cycles
  age distribution, and regional distribution of                   specific industry factors
  population have on your business?                                market routes and distribution trends
 home economy situation / trends                                  customer/end-user drivers
 overseas economies and trends                                    interest and exchange rates
 general taxation issues                                          What does your company expect in the way of
 taxation specific to product/services                             inflation, material shortages, unemployment
 seasonality/weather issues                                        and credit availability in the short and long run?

Now                                                     Future
Positive                Negative                        Positive                          Negative




Social-Cultural
   business issues                                                consumer buying patterns
   lifestyle trends                                               fashion and role models
   demographics                                                   major events and influences
   consumer attitudes and opinions                                buying access and trends
   media views                                                    ethnic/religious factors
   law changes affecting social factors                           advertising and publicity
   brand, company, technology image

Now                                                     Future
Positive                Negative                        Positive                          Negative




                                  Page 16 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Technology
   competing technology development                               information and communications
   research funding                                               consumer buying mechanisms/technology
   associated/dependent technologies                              technology legislation
   replacement technology/solutions                               innovation potential
   maturity of technology                                         technology access, licensing, patents
   manufacturing maturity and capacity                            intellectual property issues

Now                                                           Future
Positive                  Negative                            Positive                    Negative




Environmental
Climate                                                       Emissions
Waste reduction                                               Recycling
ecological/environmental issues

Now                                                           Future
Positive                  Negative                            Positive                    Negative




                                  Page 17 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Porters 5 forces analysis


                                                        Bargaining
                                                         power of
                                                        customers




                            Bargaining               Competitive                        Threat
                             power of                rivaly within                      of new
                             suppliers                an industry                      entrants




                                                        Threat of
                                                        subsitutes


Power of Customers
This is high where there a few, large players in a market e.g. the large grocery chains. If there are a large
number of undifferentiated, small suppliers e.g. small farming businesses supplying the large grocery
chains. The cost of switching between suppliers is low e.g. from one fleet supplier of trucks to another.

How much power do the people who buy from you have over you? If you only have one or two clients or
main customers they can certainly make or break you.
If you have many more than that, who is most important?
What would happen if they increased their orders dramatically, or stopped buying from you altogether?

Your answer




                                    Page 18 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Power of Suppliers
The power of suppliers tends to be a reversal of the power of buyers.
Where the switching costs are high e.g. Switching from one software supplier to another.
Power is high where the brand is powerful e.g. BMW, Pizza Hut, Microsoft.
Forwards integration e.g. Brewers buying pubs and bars.
Customers are fragmented (not in clusters) so that they have little bargaining power e.g. Petrol stations in
remote places.

You can't survive without your suppliers. The same questions apply.
How many do you have? The smaller the number the more power they have.
Who is most important?
What would happen if they increased their prices, lengthened their delivery times, introduced a different
way of receiving orders, or stopped supplying you?

Your answer




                                   Page 19 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Threat of New Entrants
Be alive to the threat of new entrants into your industry or local marketplace which will increase the level of
competition that you face. This might happen as a result of a change of legislation perhaps deregulating an
industry, or simply because another business feels there are profits to be made by doing things in a different
way. Faced with such a challenge, what would your response be? Economies of scale e.g. the benefits
associated with bulk purchasing.

The high or low cost of entry e.g. how much will it cost for the latest technology?
Do our competitors have the distribution channels sewn up?
Cost advantages not related to the size of the company e.g. personal contacts or knowledge that larger
companies do not own.
Will competitors retaliate?
Government action e.g. will new laws be introduced that will weaken your competitive position?
How important is differentiation? e.g. The Champagne brand cannot be copied.

Your answer




                                   Page 20 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Threat of Substitutes
Sometimes a substitute product or service may arrive, reducing demand for yours. This may happen
because of a technological development, (e-mail over fax or mail is the classic example). Is there a risk of
that happening in your industry? This contains an element of crystal ball gazing, but forewarned is always
forearmed.

Where there is product-for-product substitution e.g. email for fax.
Where there is substitution of need e.g. better toothpaste reduces the need for dentists.
Where there is generic substitution (competing for the currency in your pocket) e.g. Video suppliers
compete with travel companies.
We could always do without e.g. cigarettes.

Your answer




                                   Page 21 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Intensity of rivalry between existing firms
The level of competitive rivalry can be intensified if new entrants come into the marketplace, the power of
buyers and suppliers increases, or if there are possibilities for substitute products and services. Where
competitive rivalry increases the likelihood is that profits will decrease. Can you afford to fight the battle in
the way that you are fighting it at the moment?

This is most likely to be high where entry is likely; there is the threat of substitute products, and suppliers
and buyers in the market attempt to control. This is why it is always seen in the centre of the diagram.

Describe the level of competitive rivalry in your market.

Your answer




Porter, M. (1979) "How competitive forces shape strategy", Harvard Business Review, March/April 1979.




                                     Page 22 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Who are your customers?
Objectives
 Know your customers better and use that knowledge to enhance profitability
 Grow the number of customers, the amount of sales per customer, and the lifetime value of the
  customer
 Highly profitable customers: What can we do to keep these customers and keep them spending? How
  can we attract more like them?
 Profitable customers: How do we get more of these customers to adapt the habits (spend) like our
  highly profitable ones?
 Unprofitable customers: How can we phase out these customers and, in the meantime, serve them
  economically?
 Serve each segment more effectively and at a lower cost




                               Page 23 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
How to Profile your customers

Consumer
Demographics      Behavioural                Geographic                    Psychological                  Financial                      Reasons to buy                Other
Age               When do they buy           Where are they?               Social class                   How they pay                   Price                         Do they use
Gender            How often do they                                        Lifestyle                      Disposable income              Quality                       technology?
Occupation        buy?                                                     Attitudes                                                     Brand name recognition        How long can you
Income            How much do they                                         Interests                                                     Customer service              expect to keep the
                  spend                                                    Needs & wants                                                 Variety of services           customer
                  Why do they buy?                                                                                                       Discounts and sales           Social Media fans?
                  (Quality, service,                                                                                                     Attractiveness of packaging
                  guarantees, price,                                                                                                     Convenience of
                  choice)                                                                                                                product/service use
                                                                                                                                         Guarantees/Warranties
                                                                                                                                         Technical support
                                                                                                                                         Flexible payment terms
                                                                                                                                         Financing




                                 Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 24 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
Commercial
Demographics           Behavioural            Geographic                Psychological                    Financial               Reasons to buy                Other
No. employees          When do they buy       Where are they?           Innovative                       Ability to pay          Price                         What problems does
Turnover               How often do they                                Socially responsible             Payment terms           Quality                       your products and
Services & Products    buy?                                             Environmentally aware            Financial data (T/O,    Brand name recognition        services solve for your
offered                How much do they                                 Expect Credit                    profit)                 Customer service              customers?
Sector                 spend                                            Needs & wants                    Credit worthiness       Variety of services           What are your
Type of organisation   Why do they buy?                                                                  TO & profit goals for   Discounts and sales           competitive advantage
Growth stage           (Quality, service,                                                                future                  Attractiveness of packaging   (why do its customers
Competitors            warranty, price,                                                                                          Convenience of store          buy /how you different
Markets                choice)                                                                                                   location                      from your
                       Who buys – authority                                                                                      Convenience of                competitors)?
                       Type of employees –                                                                                       product/service use           What major challenges
                       common                                                                                                    Guarantees/Warranties         are you facing?
                       characteristics                                                                                           Technical support             What are the main
                       How do they buy                                                                                           Flexible payment terms        keys to success?
                                                                                                                                 o Financing                   How long can you
                                                                                                                                                               expect to keep the
                                                                                                                                                               customer



Bottom line a customer is someone:-
    Who wants your product
    Who has the ability to pay for your product
    Who has the authority to purchase your product




                                                                Page 25 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Just for fun
This is one of the more fun things you can do in your business. It means thinking about your typical customer until you can see them in your mind. Then
you’ll develop an intuitive grasp of what they want, need and fear.

Start by asking a few questions and making some (educated) assumptions...then build up an archetype (or 2 - one male and one female).

Question                                             Him                                                           Her
   Personal details: What’s their name, age, job,
    marital status? Any children? Pets? Other
    dependents?

   Personality: are they introvert or extrovert?
    Open or defensive? What’s their attitude to
    risk? Are they assertive? Suggestible?
    Naturally sceptical?

   Learning style: how do they prefer to receive
    information? Do they respond to visual aids?
    Do they look for summaries or details? Can
    they relate to abstract ideas or do they need
    something more tangible?

   Point of view: how do they vote? Which
    newspapers do they read? What are their
    favourite TV programmes, websites and
    other media?

   Lifestyle: how do they spend their leisure
    time? What’s their ideal holiday? Who are



                                                           Page 26 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
their friends? And what type of people would
    they cross the street to avoid?

   Anxieties: what’s keeping them awake at
    night (and how can you make it go away)?
    Think about the symptom and the root of the
    problem – and what their life will look like
    when the problem is solved.

   Needs & desires: what do they want that they
    don’t need? What do they need that they
    don’t want? Finally (a really important one...)
    what would they hate to miss out on?


Developed by www.earthmonkey.co.uk

List all of the people in the organisation that you could “sell” to? (MD, Finance, IT, HR)



Your answer




                                                                   Page 27 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
List your top 20 customers
Name                         Segment   Value £    Profitabi     Number         Products/Services         Frequenc   Date Last   Date Last
                                                  lity %        of sales                                 y of       Sale        Contact (phone,
                                                                                                         Purchase               face to face)




                                                 Page 28 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Who are your top 20%?
Does the 80/20 rule apply to you - 80% of your business from 20% of your customers?
%                  Segment                 Number of sales   Value                   Profitability                    Products/Services   Contribution to total revenue %

Top 5%

Top 10%

Top 20%




                                                              Page 29 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Do you spend the majority of your time supporting your best customers? Which ones?
Which if any customers you should sack?
What is the right mix of products or services for those customers with the greatest buying power?
What do you like most about your customers?
What do your customers like most about you?
What do you each dislike about each other?



Your answer




Working with your customers
How do you deal with your customers

Action                                                   Things to consider
Initial contact                                            How are telephone, fax, e-mail, mail enquiries
                                                             dealt with?
                                                           What impression does the customer get of your
                                                             organisation?
                                                           How fast and efficiently is any enquiry deal with?
Negotiation                                                How do you make sure you understand what the
                                                             customer really wants?
                                                           How do you handle price negotiations?
                                                           Are you flexible enough to meet their delivery
                                                             requirements?
Supply and delivery                                        Do you supply or deliver when and where you said
                                                             you would?
                                                           Do your drivers or logistics company maintain the
                                                             image of your company?
                                                           How do you know if the customer is satisfied?
Complaints                                                 Is the complaints process customer-friendly
                                                           Can the people handling the complaint take
                                                             immediate action?
                                                           Does the customer go away happy - how do you


     Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 30 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
know?
Relationships                                   What is your customers' view of other people in
                                                 your “value chain”?
                                                How do you know?
                                                How are you going to help those on whom you
                                                 depend to add value to the customers who
                                                 depend on

Your answer




Who are the stakeholders?
Shareholders                                           Sub-contractors
Customers                                              Bank
Staff                                                  Unions
Suppliers                                              Local community

Your answer




   What involvement do they have?
   How much power or control do they have?
   Who are your champions?
   Who do you need to change?


                            Page 31 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Rate them 1-10 (1 being the most important)
Who needs me?                                             Who do I need?




Who do I need to keep sweet?                              Who is always in the background?




Why do customers buy from you?

Customers expect quality, delivery and service, how do you add value?

Your answer




Customer Lifecycle
In customer relationship management (CRM), customer life cycle is a term used to describe the
progression of steps a customer goes through when considering, purchasing, using, and maintaining
loyalty to a product or service. Its about :-

      Customer acquisition
      Customer retention
      In short how do you get them and keep them loyal.




                               Page 32 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
What do you have in place to track your customers and keep them loyal?

Your answer




Referrals

Marketing by getting referrals is not only simple, it's low cost. Many people do not bother to ask their
customers, suppliers or others for a referral.

Make a list of those customers or suppliers (or anyone in your network) that you feel you have done a
great job for and who you could ask for a referral.

Your answer




                                Page 33 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
What is your market position
Your market position is the place you occupy in the mind of your prospective clients. It's how they
think of you as compared to your competitors.



                          High price

Products and services                                                                   Unique products and
very similar to                                                                         services
everyone else



                          Lower price


What next
    1.      Database – if you are planning to buy a customer/prospect database you can now
            segment it and only buy relevant data.
    2.      Up-sell/cross – now you can see which additional products you can sell to each
            segment/customer
    3.      Product mix - now you can see which products/services are missing from each segment
    4.      Customer phase out – now you can phase out unprofitable customers
    5.      Campaign management – now you can start to think about how to target each segment




                                Page 34 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Competitors
Objectives
By knowing your Competitor you may be able to predict their next moves, exploit their weaknesses
and undermine their strengths.


Business competitors are:
Other organisations offering the same product or service now.
Other organisations offering similar products or services now.
Organisations that could offer the same or similar products or services in the future.
Organisations that could remove the need for a product or service.

Step 1 – What can you find out about your competitors?

Against each item put s for strength or w for weakness. e.g.
FACTOR          My Business      Competitor 1            Competitor 2             Competitor 3   Importance to
                                                                                                 Customer (rate
                                                                                                 1 to 5 1 being
                                                                                                 highest)
Delivery        Same day (S)     Next day (W)            Next Day (W)             Same day (S)   1

Use the following sheet for each competitor, you can amalgamate them at the end.
FACTOR                           My Business                               Competitor                  Importance
                                                                                                       to
                                                                                                       Customer
                                                                                                       (rate 1 to 5
                                                                                                       1 being
                                                                                                       highest)
Mission Statement
Brands
Products/Services (main)
Products/Services (secondary)
Product supply source
Pricing Strategy
Delivery costs
Quality
Service
Reliability
Stability
Expertise
Company Reputation
Number of customers
Customer retention levels
Location
Where do they sell
Sales Method
Credit Policies
Image

                                Page 35 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
FACTOR                         My Business                               Competitor                 Importance
                                                                                                    to
                                                                                                    Customer
                                                                                                    (rate 1 to 5
                                                                                                    1 being
                                                                                                    highest)
Marketing Methods
Do they have a website
What threats do they pose?
What strategies are your
competitors pursuing and
how successful are these
strategies?
How are your competitors
likely to respond to any
changes to the way you do
business?
Senior Management
Similarity
Differences
How well do they use
technology?

 What else could you monitor?

Step 2 - Getting other data

Data you can collect         Other opportunities                         Internet resources
Annual accounts?             Meetings with suppliers                     Dun & Bradstreet -
Press releases               Trade shows                                 http://dbuk.dnb.com/english/default.
Newspaper articles           Meetings with competitors                   htm
Brochures                    Ex Employees                                Reuters -
Proposals                    Customers                                   http://www.investor.reuters.com/Sto
Presentations                                                            ckEntry.aspx?target=/stocks
Campaigns                                                                Company reports online -
Price lists                                                              http://www.carol.co.uk/
Patent applications                                                      Corporate reports -
Tenders                                                                  http://www.corpreports.co.uk/
Website                                                                  http://www.icc.co.uk/
Suppliers websites                                                       Kompass - http://www.kompass.com/
Search engines                                                           Keynote - http://www.keynote.co.uk/
                                                                         Surveynet - http://www.survey.net/
                                                                         WAG – www.wales.gov.uk
                                                                         European patent office -
                                                                         http://www.survey.net/




                              Page 36 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Step 3 – SWOT
Use the information you have collected to carry out a mini SWOT analysis on your competition.

                                                                                                Rate
                Total
Name            Market   Strengths                                     Weaknesses
                Share


You

Competitor 1

Competitor 2

Competitor 3

Competitor 4

Competitor 5


What Next?
Competitive strategies:
 Cost leadership: Can you be a low-cost producer and sell equivalent or better goods in the
  marketplace for less?
 Differentiation: How can you distinguish your product in the marketplace?
 Innovation: Is there opportunity to create a new way of doing business, perhaps one that
  changes the nature of the industry?
 Growth: Are there opportunities to expand production, sell into new markets, and introduce new
  products?
 Alliance: Can current or prospective production, promotion, and distribution be improved
  through partnerships with suppliers, distributors, and others?
 Time: Can your business reduce product cycle time? Offer express customer service? Use time in
  other ways that your competitors are not doing?

Your answer




                               Page 37 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Other
How can you lock in customers and suppliers?
What are the switching costs for customers and/or suppliers?
How can you improve business processes?
How can you raise entry barriers for rivals and substitute products?



Your answer




                                Page 38 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Products

Product management is the day-to-day management your products/services at all stages of the
product lifecycle.




Product Levels
There are 3 levels of products:-

       the CORE product
       the ACTUAL product
       and the AUGMENTED product

The CORE product is NOT the tangible,
                                                                                           • Core
physical product. You can't touch it. That's
because the core product is the BENEFIT of
                                                                   Product                 • Actual
                                                                                           • Augmented
the product that makes it valuable to you.

The ACTUAL product is the tangible,
physical product. You can get some use out
of it.

The AUGMENTED product is the non-physical part of the product. It usually consists of lots of added
value, for which you may or may not pay a premium.




                                   Page 39 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
What are your main products/services?

Your answer




                              Page 40 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
What are the features, benefits and USP’s (unique selling points) of each product ?

Your answer
Products/services                    Features                                                Benefits (Which means that)                            What makes it different?




                                Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 41 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
What after sales /warranty do you offer?

Your answer
Product/Service                                                   After sales service/warranty




Summary

Product / service               Core (Benefits)                   Actual                            Augmented




     Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 42 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
Where are they on the product lifecycle?


       Introduction                 Growth                        Maturity                   Decline




    Introduction Stage              Growth Stage                       Maturity Stage               Decline Stage

 •At the Introduction (or     •The Growth Stage is               •The Maturity Stage is       •In the Decline Stage, the
  development) Stage           characterised by rapid             when competition is          market is shrinking,
  market size and growth       growth in sales and                most intense as              reducing the overall
  is slight. Substantial       profits. Profits arise due         companies fight to           amount of profit that
  research and                 to an increase in output           maintain their market        can be shared amongst
  development costs may        (economies of scale) and           share. Here, both            the remaining
  have been incurred.          possibly better prices.            marketing and finance        competitors. At this
  Marketing costs may be       Businesses usually                 become key activities.       stage, great care has to
  high in order to test the    continue to invest in              Marketing spend has to       be taken to manage the
  market, launch it and set    increasing their market            be monitored carefully,      product carefully. It may
  up distribution channels.    share. Promotional                 since any significant        be possible to take out
                               resources are                      moves are likely to be       some production cost, to
                               traditionally invested in          copied by competitors.       transfer production to a
                               products that are firmly           The Maturity Stage is        cheaper facility, sell the
                               in the Growth Stage.               the time when most           product into other,
                                                                  profit is earned by the      cheaper markets. Care
                                                                  market as a whole.           should be taken to
                                                                                               control the amount of
                                                                                               stocks of the product.
                                                                                               Depending on whether
                                                                                               the product remains
                                                                                               profitable, a company
                                                                                               may decide to end the
                                                                                               product.



In reality very few products follow such a prescriptive cycle. The length of each stage varies
enormously. The decisions of marketers can change the stage, for example from maturity to decline
by price-cutting. Not all products go through each stage. Some go from introduction to decline. It is
not easy to tell which stage the product is in.




          Sales &
         profitabilit
              y




                                      Introduction          Growth                maturity      Decline




                                  Page 43 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Where are your products?
Your answer


Products/services          Embryonic                 Growth                  Maturity         Decline




Are there elements of your offering which can be removed or added? What are these

Your answer
Product/Service                Feature to be added                             Feature to be removed




                           Page 44 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
 What if any products/services be phased out?
 What if any products/services be added to the line? Have you included in your range those
  products or services which are more likely to be in demand in future?
 What is the general state of health of each product/service and the product mix as a whole?

Your answer

Product/Service         Phased out                        Bought in / developed       State of health




                              Page 45 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Are some of products/services that are seasonal – how can you maximise the 'quiet
times'?

Your answer




How does the profitability or the future potential of each product line compare?

Your answer
Product/Service               Profitability                                   Future potential




                          Page 46 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Prices
Price is the amount of money or goods for which a thing is bought or sold

For your customers, price is the monetary expression of the value to be enjoyed/benefits of
purchasing a product, as compared with other available items.

A products perceived value may be increased in one of two ways – either by:
(1) Increasing the benefits that the product will deliver, or,
(2) Reducing the cost

Knowing the difference between cost and value can increase profitability.

 The cost of your product or service is the amount you spend to produce it.
 The price is your financial reward for providing the product or service.
 The value is what your customer believes the product or service is worth to them.

For a product:
   Quality of the materials used
   Finished product performance
   Packaging
   Delivery
   After sales service
   Warranty

For a service:
Level of experience
Responsiveness
Ability to meet deadlines
Value add




                               Page 47 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Analyse your costs

The first step in developing a pricing strategy is to collect data about the buying habits of your
customers. You can use that data to calculate a product's price elasticity of demand, which is a
measure of how price changes affect consumers' willingness to buy a product. You can:-

 Sell your product in a limited number of markets to get a feel for how your customers react to
  the product.
 Sell your product at slightly different prices in each market to determine the price that produces
  the most revenue.
 Analyse historical data
 Ask your customers

All prices must, in the long term, cover the costs of generating or marketing your product or service
and produce a reasonable profit.

Use the following table to analyse your products / prices.

Product/Service        Cost of            Overheads              Distribution            Commissions    Profit
                       production                                costs
                       (materials,
                       labour etc)




Compare to your competitors
You need to consider the prices charged by your competitors, to give you a benchmark against which
to position your own price.

Product/Service                      Your price                                     Competitors price




                                 Page 48 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
How is your product better value than the competitor's?
Are you getting as much (£) for your product as your competitor?
Are your customers paying more for the extra value they receive? What will your competition do if
you change your prices?

Your answer




                               Page 49 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Describe your pricing strategy

The following is a description of a variety of methods.


                                               •After you’ve calculated your cost based price, you can
          Competitor based
                                                compare this price against market prices.

                                               •Set a high price when you have a unique (and possibly luxury)
           Premium pricing
                                                product or service.

                                               •This is a no frills low price when you have no frills products or
           Economy pricing
                                                services.

                                               •This focuses on the price you believe customers are willing to
         Value based pricing
                                                pay, based on the benefits your business offers them.

                                               •The price charged for products and services is set artificially
         Penetration pricing
                                                low in order to gain market share.

                                               •Charge a high price because you have a substantial
           Price skimming
                                                competitive advantage, i.e. you may be first to market.

   Psychological / odd value pricing           •£9.97 instead of £10.00

                                               •Different prices for different elements. E.g. Basic wash could
         Product line pricing
                                                be £2, wash and wax £4, and premium car care £7.

       Optional product pricing                •Add in optional extras.

                                               •When you have a product, that only you can service, or where
       Captive product pricing
                                                you have a product where only your refills will fit.

        Product bundle pricing                 •Bundle several products together and set a new price.


   Promotional / discounted pricing            •E.g. BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free).

                                               •Prices are reflected in the additional costs to get it
         Geographical pricing
                                                somewhere. Or it is rare in a location.

                                               •Set a very low price to attract customers and then try to up
          Loss leader pricing
                                                sell them.

                                               •This method takes into account your costs, your desired
               Cost plus
                                                profit, and then totals these into a price.




                                  Page 50 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Cost plus
Example: Full cost plus pricing seeks to set a price that takes into account all relevant costs of
production. This could be calculated as follows:

      Total budgeted cost + selling / distribution costs + other overheads + MARK UP ON COST

                                          Budgeted sales volumes


E.g. Consider a business with the following costs and volumes for a single product:
Fixed costs:
Production costs                                                        £ 100,000
Research and development                                                £    25,000

Fixed selling costs                                                                      £   55,000
Administration and other overheads                                                       £   32,000
TOTAL FIXED COSTS                                                                        £   212,000

Variable costs
Variable cost per unit                                                                   £      2

Total variable costs                                                                     £   200,000

TOTAL COSTS                                                                              £   412,000

Mark-Up
Mark-up % required                                                                                      45%
TOTAL COSTS plus MARK UP                                                                 £   597,400
Budgeted sale volumes (units)                                                            £   100,000

SALES PRICE                                                                              £      5.97

Describe your pricing strategy


Product/Service                      Lifecycle                                       Pricing strategy




                                 Page 51 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
 What would be the likely response of demand to higher or lower prices?
 To what extent are prices set on cost, demand, and/or competitive criteria? Why?
 What temporary price promotions do you use, how effective are they?
 How do customers perceive the link between price and quality in your product
 What would be the likely response of demand to higher or lower prices?
 Why did you introduce the product / service? If you have already covered your overheads and are
  using spare capacity you can use marginal costing and lower prices.
 How could you 'skim the cream'? If your new product is superior to the competition you can sell
  it at a higher price than competition. The volume sold may be small, but the profit margins will
  be high.
 How could you adopt 'penetration pricing'. Low prices and high volumes.

Your answer




                              Page 52 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Measure
But above all remember you need to make a profit. So analyse and measure what you do.

There will be times when you need to change your prices. Before you do, you should analyse the
impact on your profitability.
  What effect will the price change have on the volume of sales?
  What will the effect be on the profit per sale?
  What effect will this have on my customers?
  How will my competitors react?
  What tactics could we use, e.g.
            o introduce new, higher-priced products or services and make old, cheaper ones
                 obsolete
            o lower the specification - and your costs - while maintaining the same price

Your answer




Remember work on profits not sales volume.




                               Page 53 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Distribution

Getting the right product to the right customers in the right place at the right time

Distribution decisions have significant implications for:
  pricing
  margins and profits
  marketing budgets
  sales techniques

Distribution channels can include one or more of these options:



              Retail                 • selling to final consumer buyers

            Wholesale                • an intermediary distribution channel

           Sales force               • employees who sell on your behalf

   Brokers/agents/associates         • who sell for a commission

             Internet                • Online channels

How do you distribute your products / services

Your answer




 How else could you distribute your products and services?
 Which are the most effective? Why?


                                Page 54 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Identify how your competitors distribute their products

Competitor                          Product                                         Distribution method




How does your direct competition sell their product? Is it effective enough to follow?

Identify costs associated with your distribution channels

Product                             Distribution method                             Costs




Which channels will maximise sales and profit?
What alternative methods of distributing your product that would result in more service or less cost?

Your answer




                                Page 55 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Match your methods to your strategy

Product                  Target Market                   Distribution method          Alternatives




What are the main channels bringing products to customers?
How convenient is it for them to purchase your product or service
Who is your target audience
How does your organisation give adequate service, along with the product, to customers?
What are the efficiency levels and growth potentials of the different trade channels?

Your answer




                              Page 56 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Promotion
Promotion is just one part of the marketing mix. It involves communicating information about your
company, brand, products/services.

A number of activities will go to make up the promotional mix, these can include:-




Likes and dislikes
We all have likes and dislikes, if you keep
information sent, given or collected you will soon                                     Attention

start to see what is real rubbish, what was the
visual impact, do the messages actually mean
anything to you, did you understand them, did it
get your attention, did they stimulate any interest,
did it create any desire by offering something you
                                                                          Action
                                                                                       AIDA        Interest


want OR helping you to avoid pain, did they make
you want to take action.

       Go through items that you have collected,                                       Desire

        put them into piles of likes and dislikes
       Write down what you liked and disliked
       Are there things that you could use in your business?

Your answer




                               Page 57 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Personal Selling
The primary function of sales is to generate and close leads, educate prospects, fill needs and satisfy
wants of consumers appropriately, and therefore turn prospects into customers.
What is the format of your sales force, is it large enough, right mix of people / skills?
How can it be organised along the best lines of specialisation (territory, market, product)?
Are they split for customer retention and new business?
Does the sales force show high morale, ability, and effectiveness?
Are they sufficiently trained? What training do they need?
What incentives do you offer? Do they have enough incentives?
What are the procedures adequate for setting quotas and evaluating performance?
How could you use a telemarketing team or use an external source to increase appointments and
leads?

Your answer




                                Page 58 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Advertising
Advertising includes billboards, bus stops, printed flyers, radio, cinema, TV, web banners, web pop-
ups, magazines, newspapers, sides/backs of buses, taxis, tubes and trains, product placement, the
backs of event tickets, car park and supermarket receipts.
  What are your organisations advertising objectives?
  How does your advertising get its messages across? How do you know?
  Are the themes, graphics and copy consistent? Test this.
  Who writes your copy? Is it effective? Too much jargon? Ask.
  Are the chosen media adequate?
  What is your budget, what is your ROI?
  Why are you advertising?
  What are you advertising?
  What is the typical response rate?

Your answer




                               Page 59 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Internet
   Do you have banner ads on other sites? Which ones? Which are effective?
   Do you use pay per click? How effective is it?
   Do you have a blog? When did you last write on it?
   Have you entered your details in online directories? Which ones?
   Do you Twitter or Facebook?
   Do you have a newsletter? When did you last send it out? What was the response?

Your answer




Incentives/Gifts
What incentives and gifts do you use and where? How effective are these?
What is missing?

Your answer




                              Page 60 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Networking
 Which networking events do you regularly attend? How are they working for you? Who goes and
  what are their objectives?
 When did you last ask for a speaking slot?
 What business clubs can you join? List them? Who can you go with?

Your answer




Website
   Do you have a website? How would you describe it?
   How well can you navigate the website?
   Does it have a search facility?
   Do you have separate sections for each product or service?
   Do you have downloadable collateral, video or other interesting information?
   Can you buy online? What methods can you pay with?
   Have you optimised your site?
   Do you swap links with other organisations?

Your answer




                              Page 61 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Events/Exhibitions/Seminars
   Do you attend any regular exhibitions or events? Which ones, why, how effective are they?
   Do you run any in-house seminars? How effective are they?
   Can you partner with anyone? Who?
   Can you get your suppliers to co-fund?
   Describe your event planning process.
   List exhibitions you have been too and describe your success rate?

Your answer




Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is a way of sending your messages directly to your prospects and customers, using
things such as mail (direct mailers, postcards, mail order catalogues, newsletters ), email and SMS.
  What direct mailers do you have? What campaigns are they linked to?
  How often do you send them?
  What are the messages? How do these fit in with other messages?
  Are they addressed to the right person? When did you last check?
  Have you regularly unsubscribe emails users who request it? What process do you have in place
     to do this?
  Do you have an anti spamming policy? When did you last update it?
  Do you use pre-paid envelopes?
  How often do you send newsletters? Where is your plan?
  How often do you follow up? Who does it? Do you have a telemarketing team?

Your answer




                               Page 62 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Database
   Do you have a sales and marketing database? What format is it in? Who keeps it up to date?
   Is it used by the sales team / customer service / marketing?
   What kind of data does it contain? Can you segment customers for campaigns?
   Do you buy mailing lists? From where? How often?
   Have you cross checked your data with the telephone preference service?

Your answer




                              Page 63 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is marketing communications employed for a pre-determined, limited time to
increase demand of your products and services.
Which of these do you use and how effective are they:-
  Money off offers
  Price reductions - A temporary reduction in the price, such as buy before October 12th and get £x
     off
  Repackaging price - Get 25% extra
  Coupons, or a coupon booklet is inserted into the local newspaper or delivery by the postman,
     on checkout the customer is given a coupon based on products purchased, on-line coupons
  Rebates offered if the receipt or label is mailed to back to you
  Competitions
  Point-of-sale displays:
  Incentives for customers and sales
  Training
  Marketing development funds
  Do you offer any package (bundled) deals?
  Can you make an offer with a partner? (Cross promotion)
Your answer




                               Page 64 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Publicity
Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a product, service or
organisation.
  Does your organisation have a carefully formulated program of publicity?
  Who is your PR company? Who manages them?
  What is your PR plan?
  Who will do this for you internally (if you don’t use an external one)?
  Do you have publicity photos? Who took them? How up to date, relevant and interesting are
     they?
  When did you last send press releases, letters to editors, write whitepapers or expert pieces?
  What is your policy for crisis management?
  What events are you speaking at?
  How often do you make announcements for appointments, annual reports, events etc?

Your answer




                               Page 65 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Sponsorship
 Who and why do you sponsor?
 How effective is your sponsorship?
 What is the cost and ROI?

Your answer




                            Page 66 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Collateral
Do you have the following?
Logo                   Business Cards               Company Folder                     Brochures
Catalogue              Flyers                       Compliments Slip                   Letterhead
Exhibition Stand       Presentations                Sales Proposals                    Proposal Cover
CD/DVD Covers

Go back to your pile of likes and dislikes and compare those with your collateral.
  Are the themes, colour, graphics and copy effective?
  How effective is your packaging?
  Did you use the same designer for all of your work?
  Are your designs consistent?
  What quality does your collateral convey?
  Are you embarrassed to hand out your business card?
  Does you corporate literature reflect what you do?
  Is your identity rubbish but you don’t know how to sort it out?
  Is it a painful and time consuming process getting new collateral done?
  Does your designer understand your business objectives and reflect them back in your identity?

Your answer




Not having a good identity will damage your reputation and cost you valuable sales.

Demonstrate that you mean business and ensure that your target market knows who you are and
then remembers what you stand for by having consistently designed high quality collateral.




                               Page 67 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Technology
Marketing needs to make use of a vast amount of technology, for example:-

    Database
    Customer relationship management software (CRM)
    Email & E-newsletters
    Website
    Blog
    Social networking sites
    Auto responders
    E-books
    Graphics packages
    Office products
    Google Adwords

Make a list of all of the technology you employ which impacts your marketing.

Your answer




Are you properly trained, and use it all effectively? If not book some training.
What other technology do you need?

Your answer




                                 Page 68 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Action Planning
Push and Pull
There are two main kinds of promotional strategy - "push" and "pull".
A push strategy tries to create consumer demand for a product.
A pull strategy tries to build up demand for a product.


Campaign Management
Describe the process you go through when planning a campaign.
What meaning do the campaign codes have?
Do you have a promotional plan which ties in with your objectives? Describe it.
List campaigns, tactics, costs and ROI

Your answer




                               Page 69 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Create an action plan a direct mailer.
Example:
What is the purpose of this marketing activity?              To up-sell my support services package to my
                                                             existing customers
What are the expected results?                               Get 80% of my customers to take out an annual
                                                             support contract.
                                                             Develop better marketing materials
                                                             Clean up database
                                                             Get better at following up direct mailers
Who is your Target Market?                                   Existing customers who have bought a solution
                                                             from me in the last 2 years.
What are your strategy and tactics?                          Direct mailer and email, follow up calls
                                                             Create copy and test it
                                                             Get names and clean up
                                                             Send and follow up
                                                             Try to get a meeting so that we can talk about
                                                             other things that we do.
What is your marketing message?                              Peace of mind
                                                             Free updates
What marketing materials do you need (website,               Postcards, email template, names, website
flyers, brochure, proposal etc)
Key to the plan                                              Well thought out
                                                             Affordable –
                                                             good value
What is the offer                                            By spending just £450 per annum you will get
                                                             access to a fully qualified support person who will
                                                             help you out within 8 hours (or 4 if you take the
                                                             premium contract), and free upgrades to the
                                                             system, within that version.
What is the call to action?                                  Order now at introductory prices
Follow-up - How and when will you follow up?                 1 week after it goes out follow up calls
What is the cost?                                            60p per postcard incl. telephone calls
What is the timeline?                                        3 months from April 1st




                                 Page 70 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Create an action plan for your activities.
Objective:-
Marketing Activity

What is the purpose of this marketing activity?



What are the expected results?



Who is your Target Market?



What are your strategy and tactics?



What is your marketing message?



What marketing materials do you need (website,
flyers, brochure, proposal etc)

Key to the plan



What is the offer



What is the call to action?



Follow-up - How and when will you follow up?



What is the cost?



What is the timeline?




                                 Page 71 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
How do you follow up your campaigns?

Write down 3 ways you will follow up each campaign.

Your answer

   1



   2



   3




                              Page 72 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Marketing Controls
There is no planning without control. If an objective states where you want to be and the plan sets out
a road map to your destination, then control tells you if you are on the right route or if you have
arrived at your destination.
Resources
 What resources are allocated to accomplish the marketing tasks?
 What marketing resources are allocated to various markets, territories and products?
 What marketing resources are allocated to the major elements of the marketing mix (i.e.
  product quality, personal selling/contact, promotion and distribution)

Make a list of your available resources.

Your answer




What else do you need?

Your answer




                                 Page 73 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Budgets
Where is the budget? How and when do you set it?
What are your campaign/promotion etc costs and what your ROI (return on investment)

Your answer




You should develop a simple spreadsheet which enables you to cost out each campaign or activity.
You can then measure the returns you get against each one. Do not expect miracles, its takes time
for your marketing messages to get through.


Implementation
 Where is your annual marketing plan? When do you start the planning? How often do you up
  date it?
 Does your organisation implement control procedures (monthly, quarterly, and yearly) to ensure
  your annual objectives are being achieved?
 How does your organisation carry out periodic studies to determine the contribution and
  effectiveness of various marketing activities?
 What is your organisations marketing information system to service the needs of managers for
  planning and controlling operations in various markets?

Your answer




                               Page 74 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Organisation
 Who is your high-level marketing officer/manager to analyse, plan and implement the marketing
  work of your organisation?
 Who else is directly involved in marketing activity?
 What training, incentives, supervision or evaluation is needed?
 How are the marketing responsibilities structured to serve the needs of different marketing
  activities, products, markets and territories in the best way possible?
 What other resources do you need?
 Do the staff understand and practice the marketing concept? If not what are your plans to
  change this?

Your answer




                             Page 75 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Measurement
How do you measure success?

Write down 3 measurements of success for your business

Your answer




Congratulations and well done. You are now ready to create your marketing action plan.




                              Page 76 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Where am I going?

Goals and Objectives




Setting goals and objectives is the most important aspect of any plan. Without these you will be
going no where.


Goals
Goals are the large statements of what you hope to accomplish but usually aren't very measurable.
Goals are more vague and focus on the longer term. They create the setting for what you are
proposing.

The overall goal should define the long-term communications aspirations:-

       Increase turnover to £1 million in 3 years


Objectives
Under the goal, you set specific objectives. Objectives differ from goals in their specificity and ability
to be evaluated and measured

Marketing objectives develop out of your business goals and objectives. And they should be driving
your marketing strategy. Meeting marketing objectives should lead to sales - if they don't, then you
probably have established the wrong objectives, or you aren't executing them effectively.

Objectives should seek to answer the question 'Where do we want to go?'. And ‘how do we get
there?’


What are your marketing / financial objectives?
The purposes of objectives include:
  to enable a company to control its marketing plan.
  to help to motivate individuals and teams to reach a common goal.
  to provide an agreed, consistent focus for all functions of an organisation.

Goals are broad                                             Objectives are narrow
Goals are general intentions                                Objectives are precise
Goals are intangible                                        Objectives are tangible
Goals are abstract                                          Objectives are concrete
Goals can't be validated as is                              Objectives can be validated




                                 Page 77 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
 Your goals/objectives should include financial elements, such as revenue, gross profit, sales per
     salesperson, and so on Number of leads needed to get the right number of visits, quotes and
     orders
  Number of Customers
  Market share
  By market segment
For each.

However, they should also include non-financial elements such as units sold, contracts signed, clients
acquired, and articles published.

Sales levels
       product and service


Examine the objectives

SMART Objectives

There are a number of business objectives, which an organisation can set, e.g.:

Market share objectives: Obtain 3% market share of the [your industry] by 2013.

Profit objectives: To increase sales margins by 10% from 2010 – 2012.

Growth objectives: To grow by 15% year on year for the next five years.

Brand awareness objectives: To increase brand awareness over a specified period of time

However, whenever you set your objectives you need to remember SMART

S       Specific
M       Measurable
A       Achievable
R       Relevant
T       Time bound

Set objectives that you can really do something with.




                                Page 78 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
From theory to reality

Write down 3 objectives for your marketing.

Objective                                                                                      Long / Medium
                                                                                               / Short Term
1


2


3



How will you meet your goals and objectives?

First you will have undertaken some analysis of your business and performed some market research
to ensure that these are realistic and relevant.

Example.

                                  Target                                               Price

                                  Mark
Objectives: I want to attract 10 new businesses who will spend an average of £5400 each on our
document managements solutions over the next 12 months


                 Product


Break it down into small chunks, and start asking some relevant questions.


The Plan
Now that the objectives are set, and have been broken down into bitesized chunks, you can now
begin to pull together a plan to meet them.




                               Page 79 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
Market Research
In order to obtain information about the wants, needs, preferences, beliefs and likely behaviour of
potential consumers of your products and services you need to conduct some market research.

There are two ways to do market research:
Secondary Research involves analyzing information that already has been gathered for another
purpose.
Primary Research involves collecting new information to meet your specific needs.
Primary research can be:
  Qualitative: Gathering descriptive information, usually representing verbal or narrative data
    through open-ended interviews or focus groups.
            o Open-ended interviews are composed of questions that can not be answered with a
               simple yes or no. This type of interview gives you a lot of information, but is time
               consuming for both you and the person you are interviewing. The greatest benefit to
               you is that you will learn a lot about the group you are studying including common
               trends, emotional motivators, and general likes and dislikes of your primary market.
            o Focus groups should be led by professionals skilled in leading small groups of 6 to 12
               people through a series of questions ranging from specific to general in nature.
               Usually, focus group sessions last for at least an hour. Since focus groups must be
               lead by trained professionals to be most effective, they are the most expensive form
               of market research.
  Quantitative: Gathering numerical information that can be analyzed statistically through
    surveys.
            o Surveys take longer to develop, but are generally easier to administer than other
               types of market research. Since they take less time to complete, people are usually
               more willing to answer them. Also, surveys provide excellent information if they are
               well-constructed with thoughtful questions. The easiest and most cost effective way
               to conduct surveys is either by telephone or where the product is sold.


Planning your research
What information is required
     Identify search methods
     Set a timeframe for the research
     Establish the research budget
     Compile and analyse the results
     Present the results in a plan

Now you have completed your research you can start to plan!

END




                                Page 80 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011

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Marketing review workbook

  • 2. Copyright Notices No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electric, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the authors. Please do ask if you want to use this for your own courses or conducting your own customer audits. Requests for permission or for more information should be sent to: Jacqui Malpass jacqui@jacquimalpass.com Legal Notices The purpose of this book is to educate, entertain and provide information on the subject matter covered. All attempts have been made to verify information at the time of this publication and the author does not assume any responsibility for errors, omissions or other interpretations of the subject matter. This book results from the experience of the author. The purchaser or reader of this book assumes responsibility for the use of these materials and information. The author assumes no responsibility or liability on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of this book. Page 2 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 3. TABLE OF CONTENTS What is a marketing review? .....................................................................................................................4 How to use this workbook .........................................................................................................................4 Before you start ........................................................................................................................................6 Where am I review ....................................................................................................................................8 SWOT Analysis .........................................................................................................................................9 Market Trends ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Market Environment ............................................................................................................................... 15 Who are your customers?........................................................................................................................ 23 Just for fun ..............................................................................................................................................26 List your top 20 customers ......................................................................................................................28 Working with your customers ................................................................................................................. 30 Competitors ............................................................................................................................................ 35 Products ................................................................................................................................................. 39 Prices ...................................................................................................................................................... 47 Distribution ............................................................................................................................................. 54 Promotion............................................................................................................................................... 57 Technology .............................................................................................................................................68 Action Planning ......................................................................................................................................69 Marketing Controls ................................................................................................................................. 73 Where am I going? .................................................................................................................................. 77 Goals and Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 77 From theory to reality ............................................................................................................................. 79 Market Research .....................................................................................................................................80 Page 3 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 4. What is a marketing review? First steps Simplicity is the key. Treat each section like a mini assignment, put it in your diary, assemble the team, brief them and assign parts of the audit to each member. As you do each section you will feel a sense of achievement which will motivate you to complete all of the other stages. How to use this workbook The book is set up in sections with a set of questions designed to ignite your thought processes, there will be other questions that you will come up and in each section there is a space in the workbook to write your answers. Your answer Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 4 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
  • 5. Mind mapping Another way to get your ideas down is to use mind mapping software like Buzan iMindmap. This is a really useful way to get thoughts and ideas down electronically. Find a way of capturing information that works for you and your team. Page 5 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 6. Before you start Have the following items (either previous or current) ready for review:  Marketing and advertising budget  Corporate folder  Strategic plans  Brochures / flyers  Research reports  Catalogues  Trade information  Exhibition Stand (picture of)  Staff experiences / stories  Website  Branding  Direct mailers / eshots  Corporate philosophy and mission  Letterheads, compliment slips, business statement cards  Key words and phrases to describe your  Letter and fax templates business  Sales proposals and tenders  Strap line  Case studies / whitepapers  Use of colours  Annual report  Samples of all past promotions and  PR plan advertising (last two years minimum).  Copies of PR for last 2 years  Amount, quantities and timing of co-op programs/funds.  List of campaigns  Cost  Number of companies  Responses  Number ready to be marketed to  Which promotional mediums have given  Other analyses to include, numbers by you the best returns? market sector, targeted, in the sales funnel  By total category for the last three to five  List your top competitors. years.  List your second and third-ranked  By month January to December for each competitors. year.  Samples of past competitors' promotions.  By yearly total to date.  Samples of competitors collateral  Samples of competitors website  Current products / services  Pricing matrix  Planned products and services  Cost model By total category for the last three to five years. By month, for as many months as possible. By month January to December for each year. By weekly total for each year.  Other political, legal, economic,  Sales and marketing team structure Page 6 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 7. environmental or trend issues that may  Personal development plans affect your business.  Skills matrix  Reasonable and probable growth for this  Skills gaps year and the next four years (i.e. as a  Training plans percentage increase/decrease from the previous year).  The issues or tasks that you wish to outsource to 50five.  Future plans and goals for expansion, revenue growth, and timing for these goals. Chances are this was quite onerous and demonstrates that your systems and structures may be a little out of whack! Great this is a perfect place to start. What else can you pull together? Who can help you? Page 7 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 8. Where am I review This is a good exercise to do with others in your business, hand it out and then pull everyone together to review the answers. When you have finished try to put it into some order that you can work from and refer back to. What does my business do? What sort of customers am I most attracted to? What do they have in common? What common How am I giving my customers what they want? problems, goals, needs, wants or desires do they Describe. share? Who needs what I have to offer? What pay off do people get from my expertise? Who have you already helped? How have you helped them? What does it tell you about your business? What does it tell you about what others in your business think about what you do? Page 8 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 9. SWOT Analysis Understanding Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Why use the tool? SWOT Analysis is an effective way of identifying your Strengths and Weaknesses, and of examining the Opportunities and Threats you face. SWOT analysis is a framework for analyzing your strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats you face. This will help you to focus on your strengths, minimize weaknesses, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available. How to use tool: To carry out a SWOT Analysis write down the answers to the following questions. Where appropriate, use similar questions: Strengths: What advantages do you have? What do you do well? What relevant resources do you have access to? What do other people see as your strengths? Consider this from your own point of view and from the point of view of the people you deal with. Don't be modest. Be realistic. If you are having any difficulty with this, try writing down a list of your characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths! In looking at your strengths, think about them in relation to your competitors - for example, if all your competitors provide high quality products, then a high quality production process is not a strength in the market, it is a necessity. Your answer Page 9 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 10. Weaknesses: What could you improve? What do you do badly? What should you avoid? Again, consider this from an internal and external basis: Do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that you do not see? Are your competitors doing any better than you? It is best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible. Your answer Opportunities: Where are the good opportunities facing you? What are the interesting trends you are aware of? Useful opportunities can come from such things as: Changes in technology and markets, government, social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, etc. A useful approach to looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them. Your answer Page 10 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 11. Threats: What obstacles do you face? What is your competition doing? What specifications for your job, products or services changing? How is changing technology threatening your position? What are you doing about bad debt or cash-flow problems? Which if any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business? Your answer Carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating - both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done, and in putting problems into perspective. Page 11 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 12. SWOT Now summarise all of the points above Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats How are you going to:- use your strengths to take maximum advantage stop your weaknesses getting in the way of of your opportunities seizing opportunities use your strengths to overcome or resist the prevent the threats taking advantage of your threats weaknesses Page 12 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 13. Key things that have helped you (or prevented) to get to the position you are in today What are the key things that have Rate 1-10 What are the key things that have Rate 1-10 helped you get where you are today? 10 = most prevented you from going further? 10 = least successful successful What does this tell you? What are you going to do about any of it? Your answer Page 13 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 14. Market Trends To remain competitive you need to get a good understanding of market trends if your business is to make the most of its opportunities. It’s a good idea to buy a quality newspaper or trade magazine once a week/month, and subscribe to news channels / newsletters which affect your market. These are some things which can affect your market and marketing. Seasonal / Fashion Increase/decrease in demand Change in attitudes Environmental concerns Legislation Outsourcing / Globalisation Competitors / new entrants / technology What are the trends affecting your market place? Your answer Page 14 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 15. Market Environment A PEST analysis is an investigation of the important factors that are changing which influence a business from the outside. PEST stands for: Political changes - e.g. a change in government, or a change in government policy. Economic changes - relate to changes in the wider economy such as rises in living standards or the general level of demand, rises or falls in interest rates, etc. Social changes - relate to changes in wider society such as changes in lifestyles e.g. more women going out to work, changes in tastes and buying patterns. Technological changes - relate to the application of new inventions and ideas such as the development of the Internet and websites as business tools. What are the main developments with respect to demographics, economy, technology, government and culture that will affect your organisation's situation? Political-Legal  What laws are being proposed that may  International pressure groups affect marketing strategy?  Government policies  Current legislation home market  Government term and change  Future legislation  Are there any insurances that need to be in  European/international legislation place?  Regulatory bodies and processes  Trading policies  What national, or local agency actions  Funding, grants and initiatives should be watched?  Home market lobbying/pressure groups Now Future Positive Negative Positive Negative Page 15 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 16. Economic - Demographic  What effect will forecasted trends in the size,  market and trade cycles age distribution, and regional distribution of  specific industry factors population have on your business?  market routes and distribution trends  home economy situation / trends  customer/end-user drivers  overseas economies and trends  interest and exchange rates  general taxation issues  What does your company expect in the way of  taxation specific to product/services inflation, material shortages, unemployment  seasonality/weather issues and credit availability in the short and long run? Now Future Positive Negative Positive Negative Social-Cultural  business issues  consumer buying patterns  lifestyle trends  fashion and role models  demographics  major events and influences  consumer attitudes and opinions  buying access and trends  media views  ethnic/religious factors  law changes affecting social factors  advertising and publicity  brand, company, technology image Now Future Positive Negative Positive Negative Page 16 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 17. Technology  competing technology development  information and communications  research funding  consumer buying mechanisms/technology  associated/dependent technologies  technology legislation  replacement technology/solutions  innovation potential  maturity of technology  technology access, licensing, patents  manufacturing maturity and capacity  intellectual property issues Now Future Positive Negative Positive Negative Environmental Climate Emissions Waste reduction Recycling ecological/environmental issues Now Future Positive Negative Positive Negative Page 17 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 18. Porters 5 forces analysis Bargaining power of customers Bargaining Competitive Threat power of rivaly within of new suppliers an industry entrants Threat of subsitutes Power of Customers This is high where there a few, large players in a market e.g. the large grocery chains. If there are a large number of undifferentiated, small suppliers e.g. small farming businesses supplying the large grocery chains. The cost of switching between suppliers is low e.g. from one fleet supplier of trucks to another. How much power do the people who buy from you have over you? If you only have one or two clients or main customers they can certainly make or break you. If you have many more than that, who is most important? What would happen if they increased their orders dramatically, or stopped buying from you altogether? Your answer Page 18 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 19. Power of Suppliers The power of suppliers tends to be a reversal of the power of buyers. Where the switching costs are high e.g. Switching from one software supplier to another. Power is high where the brand is powerful e.g. BMW, Pizza Hut, Microsoft. Forwards integration e.g. Brewers buying pubs and bars. Customers are fragmented (not in clusters) so that they have little bargaining power e.g. Petrol stations in remote places. You can't survive without your suppliers. The same questions apply. How many do you have? The smaller the number the more power they have. Who is most important? What would happen if they increased their prices, lengthened their delivery times, introduced a different way of receiving orders, or stopped supplying you? Your answer Page 19 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 20. Threat of New Entrants Be alive to the threat of new entrants into your industry or local marketplace which will increase the level of competition that you face. This might happen as a result of a change of legislation perhaps deregulating an industry, or simply because another business feels there are profits to be made by doing things in a different way. Faced with such a challenge, what would your response be? Economies of scale e.g. the benefits associated with bulk purchasing. The high or low cost of entry e.g. how much will it cost for the latest technology? Do our competitors have the distribution channels sewn up? Cost advantages not related to the size of the company e.g. personal contacts or knowledge that larger companies do not own. Will competitors retaliate? Government action e.g. will new laws be introduced that will weaken your competitive position? How important is differentiation? e.g. The Champagne brand cannot be copied. Your answer Page 20 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 21. Threat of Substitutes Sometimes a substitute product or service may arrive, reducing demand for yours. This may happen because of a technological development, (e-mail over fax or mail is the classic example). Is there a risk of that happening in your industry? This contains an element of crystal ball gazing, but forewarned is always forearmed. Where there is product-for-product substitution e.g. email for fax. Where there is substitution of need e.g. better toothpaste reduces the need for dentists. Where there is generic substitution (competing for the currency in your pocket) e.g. Video suppliers compete with travel companies. We could always do without e.g. cigarettes. Your answer Page 21 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 22. Intensity of rivalry between existing firms The level of competitive rivalry can be intensified if new entrants come into the marketplace, the power of buyers and suppliers increases, or if there are possibilities for substitute products and services. Where competitive rivalry increases the likelihood is that profits will decrease. Can you afford to fight the battle in the way that you are fighting it at the moment? This is most likely to be high where entry is likely; there is the threat of substitute products, and suppliers and buyers in the market attempt to control. This is why it is always seen in the centre of the diagram. Describe the level of competitive rivalry in your market. Your answer Porter, M. (1979) "How competitive forces shape strategy", Harvard Business Review, March/April 1979. Page 22 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 23. Who are your customers? Objectives  Know your customers better and use that knowledge to enhance profitability  Grow the number of customers, the amount of sales per customer, and the lifetime value of the customer  Highly profitable customers: What can we do to keep these customers and keep them spending? How can we attract more like them?  Profitable customers: How do we get more of these customers to adapt the habits (spend) like our highly profitable ones?  Unprofitable customers: How can we phase out these customers and, in the meantime, serve them economically?  Serve each segment more effectively and at a lower cost Page 23 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 24. How to Profile your customers Consumer Demographics Behavioural Geographic Psychological Financial Reasons to buy Other Age When do they buy Where are they? Social class How they pay Price Do they use Gender How often do they Lifestyle Disposable income Quality technology? Occupation buy? Attitudes Brand name recognition How long can you Income How much do they Interests Customer service expect to keep the spend Needs & wants Variety of services customer Why do they buy? Discounts and sales Social Media fans? (Quality, service, Attractiveness of packaging guarantees, price, Convenience of choice) product/service use Guarantees/Warranties Technical support Flexible payment terms Financing Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 24 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
  • 25. Commercial Demographics Behavioural Geographic Psychological Financial Reasons to buy Other No. employees When do they buy Where are they? Innovative Ability to pay Price What problems does Turnover How often do they Socially responsible Payment terms Quality your products and Services & Products buy? Environmentally aware Financial data (T/O, Brand name recognition services solve for your offered How much do they Expect Credit profit) Customer service customers? Sector spend Needs & wants Credit worthiness Variety of services What are your Type of organisation Why do they buy? TO & profit goals for Discounts and sales competitive advantage Growth stage (Quality, service, future Attractiveness of packaging (why do its customers Competitors warranty, price, Convenience of store buy /how you different Markets choice) location from your Who buys – authority Convenience of competitors)? Type of employees – product/service use What major challenges common Guarantees/Warranties are you facing? characteristics Technical support What are the main How do they buy Flexible payment terms keys to success? o Financing How long can you expect to keep the customer Bottom line a customer is someone:-  Who wants your product  Who has the ability to pay for your product  Who has the authority to purchase your product Page 25 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 26. Just for fun This is one of the more fun things you can do in your business. It means thinking about your typical customer until you can see them in your mind. Then you’ll develop an intuitive grasp of what they want, need and fear. Start by asking a few questions and making some (educated) assumptions...then build up an archetype (or 2 - one male and one female). Question Him Her  Personal details: What’s their name, age, job, marital status? Any children? Pets? Other dependents?  Personality: are they introvert or extrovert? Open or defensive? What’s their attitude to risk? Are they assertive? Suggestible? Naturally sceptical?  Learning style: how do they prefer to receive information? Do they respond to visual aids? Do they look for summaries or details? Can they relate to abstract ideas or do they need something more tangible?  Point of view: how do they vote? Which newspapers do they read? What are their favourite TV programmes, websites and other media?  Lifestyle: how do they spend their leisure time? What’s their ideal holiday? Who are Page 26 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 27. their friends? And what type of people would they cross the street to avoid?  Anxieties: what’s keeping them awake at night (and how can you make it go away)? Think about the symptom and the root of the problem – and what their life will look like when the problem is solved.  Needs & desires: what do they want that they don’t need? What do they need that they don’t want? Finally (a really important one...) what would they hate to miss out on? Developed by www.earthmonkey.co.uk List all of the people in the organisation that you could “sell” to? (MD, Finance, IT, HR) Your answer Page 27 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 28. List your top 20 customers Name Segment Value £ Profitabi Number Products/Services Frequenc Date Last Date Last lity % of sales y of Sale Contact (phone, Purchase face to face) Page 28 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 29. Who are your top 20%? Does the 80/20 rule apply to you - 80% of your business from 20% of your customers? % Segment Number of sales Value Profitability Products/Services Contribution to total revenue % Top 5% Top 10% Top 20% Page 29 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 30. Do you spend the majority of your time supporting your best customers? Which ones? Which if any customers you should sack? What is the right mix of products or services for those customers with the greatest buying power? What do you like most about your customers? What do your customers like most about you? What do you each dislike about each other? Your answer Working with your customers How do you deal with your customers Action Things to consider Initial contact  How are telephone, fax, e-mail, mail enquiries dealt with?  What impression does the customer get of your organisation?  How fast and efficiently is any enquiry deal with? Negotiation  How do you make sure you understand what the customer really wants?  How do you handle price negotiations?  Are you flexible enough to meet their delivery requirements? Supply and delivery  Do you supply or deliver when and where you said you would?  Do your drivers or logistics company maintain the image of your company?  How do you know if the customer is satisfied? Complaints  Is the complaints process customer-friendly  Can the people handling the complaint take immediate action?  Does the customer go away happy - how do you Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 30 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
  • 31. know? Relationships  What is your customers' view of other people in your “value chain”?  How do you know?  How are you going to help those on whom you depend to add value to the customers who depend on Your answer Who are the stakeholders? Shareholders Sub-contractors Customers Bank Staff Unions Suppliers Local community Your answer  What involvement do they have?  How much power or control do they have?  Who are your champions?  Who do you need to change? Page 31 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 32. Rate them 1-10 (1 being the most important) Who needs me? Who do I need? Who do I need to keep sweet? Who is always in the background? Why do customers buy from you? Customers expect quality, delivery and service, how do you add value? Your answer Customer Lifecycle In customer relationship management (CRM), customer life cycle is a term used to describe the progression of steps a customer goes through when considering, purchasing, using, and maintaining loyalty to a product or service. Its about :-  Customer acquisition  Customer retention  In short how do you get them and keep them loyal. Page 32 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 33. What do you have in place to track your customers and keep them loyal? Your answer Referrals Marketing by getting referrals is not only simple, it's low cost. Many people do not bother to ask their customers, suppliers or others for a referral. Make a list of those customers or suppliers (or anyone in your network) that you feel you have done a great job for and who you could ask for a referral. Your answer Page 33 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 34. What is your market position Your market position is the place you occupy in the mind of your prospective clients. It's how they think of you as compared to your competitors. High price Products and services Unique products and very similar to services everyone else Lower price What next 1. Database – if you are planning to buy a customer/prospect database you can now segment it and only buy relevant data. 2. Up-sell/cross – now you can see which additional products you can sell to each segment/customer 3. Product mix - now you can see which products/services are missing from each segment 4. Customer phase out – now you can phase out unprofitable customers 5. Campaign management – now you can start to think about how to target each segment Page 34 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 35. Competitors Objectives By knowing your Competitor you may be able to predict their next moves, exploit their weaknesses and undermine their strengths. Business competitors are: Other organisations offering the same product or service now. Other organisations offering similar products or services now. Organisations that could offer the same or similar products or services in the future. Organisations that could remove the need for a product or service. Step 1 – What can you find out about your competitors? Against each item put s for strength or w for weakness. e.g. FACTOR My Business Competitor 1 Competitor 2 Competitor 3 Importance to Customer (rate 1 to 5 1 being highest) Delivery Same day (S) Next day (W) Next Day (W) Same day (S) 1 Use the following sheet for each competitor, you can amalgamate them at the end. FACTOR My Business Competitor Importance to Customer (rate 1 to 5 1 being highest) Mission Statement Brands Products/Services (main) Products/Services (secondary) Product supply source Pricing Strategy Delivery costs Quality Service Reliability Stability Expertise Company Reputation Number of customers Customer retention levels Location Where do they sell Sales Method Credit Policies Image Page 35 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 36. FACTOR My Business Competitor Importance to Customer (rate 1 to 5 1 being highest) Marketing Methods Do they have a website What threats do they pose? What strategies are your competitors pursuing and how successful are these strategies? How are your competitors likely to respond to any changes to the way you do business? Senior Management Similarity Differences How well do they use technology?  What else could you monitor? Step 2 - Getting other data Data you can collect Other opportunities Internet resources Annual accounts? Meetings with suppliers Dun & Bradstreet - Press releases Trade shows http://dbuk.dnb.com/english/default. Newspaper articles Meetings with competitors htm Brochures Ex Employees Reuters - Proposals Customers http://www.investor.reuters.com/Sto Presentations ckEntry.aspx?target=/stocks Campaigns Company reports online - Price lists http://www.carol.co.uk/ Patent applications Corporate reports - Tenders http://www.corpreports.co.uk/ Website http://www.icc.co.uk/ Suppliers websites Kompass - http://www.kompass.com/ Search engines Keynote - http://www.keynote.co.uk/ Surveynet - http://www.survey.net/ WAG – www.wales.gov.uk European patent office - http://www.survey.net/ Page 36 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 37. Step 3 – SWOT Use the information you have collected to carry out a mini SWOT analysis on your competition. Rate Total Name Market Strengths Weaknesses Share You Competitor 1 Competitor 2 Competitor 3 Competitor 4 Competitor 5 What Next? Competitive strategies:  Cost leadership: Can you be a low-cost producer and sell equivalent or better goods in the marketplace for less?  Differentiation: How can you distinguish your product in the marketplace?  Innovation: Is there opportunity to create a new way of doing business, perhaps one that changes the nature of the industry?  Growth: Are there opportunities to expand production, sell into new markets, and introduce new products?  Alliance: Can current or prospective production, promotion, and distribution be improved through partnerships with suppliers, distributors, and others?  Time: Can your business reduce product cycle time? Offer express customer service? Use time in other ways that your competitors are not doing? Your answer Page 37 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 38. Other How can you lock in customers and suppliers? What are the switching costs for customers and/or suppliers? How can you improve business processes? How can you raise entry barriers for rivals and substitute products? Your answer Page 38 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 39. Products Product management is the day-to-day management your products/services at all stages of the product lifecycle. Product Levels There are 3 levels of products:-  the CORE product  the ACTUAL product  and the AUGMENTED product The CORE product is NOT the tangible, • Core physical product. You can't touch it. That's because the core product is the BENEFIT of Product • Actual • Augmented the product that makes it valuable to you. The ACTUAL product is the tangible, physical product. You can get some use out of it. The AUGMENTED product is the non-physical part of the product. It usually consists of lots of added value, for which you may or may not pay a premium. Page 39 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 40. What are your main products/services? Your answer Page 40 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 41. What are the features, benefits and USP’s (unique selling points) of each product ? Your answer Products/services Features Benefits (Which means that) What makes it different? Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 41 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
  • 42. What after sales /warranty do you offer? Your answer Product/Service After sales service/warranty Summary Product / service Core (Benefits) Actual Augmented Copyright jacquimalpass.com :: Marketing Audit :: Page 42 of 80 Pages :: December 2010 v2.0 :: Jacqui@jacquimalpass.com
  • 43. Where are they on the product lifecycle? Introduction Growth Maturity Decline Introduction Stage Growth Stage Maturity Stage Decline Stage •At the Introduction (or •The Growth Stage is •The Maturity Stage is •In the Decline Stage, the development) Stage characterised by rapid when competition is market is shrinking, market size and growth growth in sales and most intense as reducing the overall is slight. Substantial profits. Profits arise due companies fight to amount of profit that research and to an increase in output maintain their market can be shared amongst development costs may (economies of scale) and share. Here, both the remaining have been incurred. possibly better prices. marketing and finance competitors. At this Marketing costs may be Businesses usually become key activities. stage, great care has to high in order to test the continue to invest in Marketing spend has to be taken to manage the market, launch it and set increasing their market be monitored carefully, product carefully. It may up distribution channels. share. Promotional since any significant be possible to take out resources are moves are likely to be some production cost, to traditionally invested in copied by competitors. transfer production to a products that are firmly The Maturity Stage is cheaper facility, sell the in the Growth Stage. the time when most product into other, profit is earned by the cheaper markets. Care market as a whole. should be taken to control the amount of stocks of the product. Depending on whether the product remains profitable, a company may decide to end the product. In reality very few products follow such a prescriptive cycle. The length of each stage varies enormously. The decisions of marketers can change the stage, for example from maturity to decline by price-cutting. Not all products go through each stage. Some go from introduction to decline. It is not easy to tell which stage the product is in. Sales & profitabilit y Introduction Growth maturity Decline Page 43 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 44. Where are your products? Your answer Products/services Embryonic Growth Maturity Decline Are there elements of your offering which can be removed or added? What are these Your answer Product/Service Feature to be added Feature to be removed Page 44 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 45.  What if any products/services be phased out?  What if any products/services be added to the line? Have you included in your range those products or services which are more likely to be in demand in future?  What is the general state of health of each product/service and the product mix as a whole? Your answer Product/Service Phased out Bought in / developed State of health Page 45 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 46. Are some of products/services that are seasonal – how can you maximise the 'quiet times'? Your answer How does the profitability or the future potential of each product line compare? Your answer Product/Service Profitability Future potential Page 46 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 47. Prices Price is the amount of money or goods for which a thing is bought or sold For your customers, price is the monetary expression of the value to be enjoyed/benefits of purchasing a product, as compared with other available items. A products perceived value may be increased in one of two ways – either by: (1) Increasing the benefits that the product will deliver, or, (2) Reducing the cost Knowing the difference between cost and value can increase profitability.  The cost of your product or service is the amount you spend to produce it.  The price is your financial reward for providing the product or service.  The value is what your customer believes the product or service is worth to them. For a product:  Quality of the materials used  Finished product performance  Packaging  Delivery  After sales service  Warranty For a service: Level of experience Responsiveness Ability to meet deadlines Value add Page 47 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 48. Analyse your costs The first step in developing a pricing strategy is to collect data about the buying habits of your customers. You can use that data to calculate a product's price elasticity of demand, which is a measure of how price changes affect consumers' willingness to buy a product. You can:-  Sell your product in a limited number of markets to get a feel for how your customers react to the product.  Sell your product at slightly different prices in each market to determine the price that produces the most revenue.  Analyse historical data  Ask your customers All prices must, in the long term, cover the costs of generating or marketing your product or service and produce a reasonable profit. Use the following table to analyse your products / prices. Product/Service Cost of Overheads Distribution Commissions Profit production costs (materials, labour etc) Compare to your competitors You need to consider the prices charged by your competitors, to give you a benchmark against which to position your own price. Product/Service Your price Competitors price Page 48 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 49. How is your product better value than the competitor's? Are you getting as much (£) for your product as your competitor? Are your customers paying more for the extra value they receive? What will your competition do if you change your prices? Your answer Page 49 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 50. Describe your pricing strategy The following is a description of a variety of methods. •After you’ve calculated your cost based price, you can Competitor based compare this price against market prices. •Set a high price when you have a unique (and possibly luxury) Premium pricing product or service. •This is a no frills low price when you have no frills products or Economy pricing services. •This focuses on the price you believe customers are willing to Value based pricing pay, based on the benefits your business offers them. •The price charged for products and services is set artificially Penetration pricing low in order to gain market share. •Charge a high price because you have a substantial Price skimming competitive advantage, i.e. you may be first to market. Psychological / odd value pricing •£9.97 instead of £10.00 •Different prices for different elements. E.g. Basic wash could Product line pricing be £2, wash and wax £4, and premium car care £7. Optional product pricing •Add in optional extras. •When you have a product, that only you can service, or where Captive product pricing you have a product where only your refills will fit. Product bundle pricing •Bundle several products together and set a new price. Promotional / discounted pricing •E.g. BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free). •Prices are reflected in the additional costs to get it Geographical pricing somewhere. Or it is rare in a location. •Set a very low price to attract customers and then try to up Loss leader pricing sell them. •This method takes into account your costs, your desired Cost plus profit, and then totals these into a price. Page 50 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 51. Cost plus Example: Full cost plus pricing seeks to set a price that takes into account all relevant costs of production. This could be calculated as follows: Total budgeted cost + selling / distribution costs + other overheads + MARK UP ON COST Budgeted sales volumes E.g. Consider a business with the following costs and volumes for a single product: Fixed costs: Production costs £ 100,000 Research and development £ 25,000 Fixed selling costs £ 55,000 Administration and other overheads £ 32,000 TOTAL FIXED COSTS £ 212,000 Variable costs Variable cost per unit £ 2 Total variable costs £ 200,000 TOTAL COSTS £ 412,000 Mark-Up Mark-up % required 45% TOTAL COSTS plus MARK UP £ 597,400 Budgeted sale volumes (units) £ 100,000 SALES PRICE £ 5.97 Describe your pricing strategy Product/Service Lifecycle Pricing strategy Page 51 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 52.  What would be the likely response of demand to higher or lower prices?  To what extent are prices set on cost, demand, and/or competitive criteria? Why?  What temporary price promotions do you use, how effective are they?  How do customers perceive the link between price and quality in your product  What would be the likely response of demand to higher or lower prices?  Why did you introduce the product / service? If you have already covered your overheads and are using spare capacity you can use marginal costing and lower prices.  How could you 'skim the cream'? If your new product is superior to the competition you can sell it at a higher price than competition. The volume sold may be small, but the profit margins will be high.  How could you adopt 'penetration pricing'. Low prices and high volumes. Your answer Page 52 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 53. Measure But above all remember you need to make a profit. So analyse and measure what you do. There will be times when you need to change your prices. Before you do, you should analyse the impact on your profitability.  What effect will the price change have on the volume of sales?  What will the effect be on the profit per sale?  What effect will this have on my customers?  How will my competitors react?  What tactics could we use, e.g. o introduce new, higher-priced products or services and make old, cheaper ones obsolete o lower the specification - and your costs - while maintaining the same price Your answer Remember work on profits not sales volume. Page 53 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 54. Distribution Getting the right product to the right customers in the right place at the right time Distribution decisions have significant implications for:  pricing  margins and profits  marketing budgets  sales techniques Distribution channels can include one or more of these options: Retail • selling to final consumer buyers Wholesale • an intermediary distribution channel Sales force • employees who sell on your behalf Brokers/agents/associates • who sell for a commission Internet • Online channels How do you distribute your products / services Your answer  How else could you distribute your products and services?  Which are the most effective? Why? Page 54 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 55. Identify how your competitors distribute their products Competitor Product Distribution method How does your direct competition sell their product? Is it effective enough to follow? Identify costs associated with your distribution channels Product Distribution method Costs Which channels will maximise sales and profit? What alternative methods of distributing your product that would result in more service or less cost? Your answer Page 55 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 56. Match your methods to your strategy Product Target Market Distribution method Alternatives What are the main channels bringing products to customers? How convenient is it for them to purchase your product or service Who is your target audience How does your organisation give adequate service, along with the product, to customers? What are the efficiency levels and growth potentials of the different trade channels? Your answer Page 56 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 57. Promotion Promotion is just one part of the marketing mix. It involves communicating information about your company, brand, products/services. A number of activities will go to make up the promotional mix, these can include:- Likes and dislikes We all have likes and dislikes, if you keep information sent, given or collected you will soon Attention start to see what is real rubbish, what was the visual impact, do the messages actually mean anything to you, did you understand them, did it get your attention, did they stimulate any interest, did it create any desire by offering something you Action AIDA Interest want OR helping you to avoid pain, did they make you want to take action.  Go through items that you have collected, Desire put them into piles of likes and dislikes  Write down what you liked and disliked  Are there things that you could use in your business? Your answer Page 57 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 58. Personal Selling The primary function of sales is to generate and close leads, educate prospects, fill needs and satisfy wants of consumers appropriately, and therefore turn prospects into customers. What is the format of your sales force, is it large enough, right mix of people / skills? How can it be organised along the best lines of specialisation (territory, market, product)? Are they split for customer retention and new business? Does the sales force show high morale, ability, and effectiveness? Are they sufficiently trained? What training do they need? What incentives do you offer? Do they have enough incentives? What are the procedures adequate for setting quotas and evaluating performance? How could you use a telemarketing team or use an external source to increase appointments and leads? Your answer Page 58 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 59. Advertising Advertising includes billboards, bus stops, printed flyers, radio, cinema, TV, web banners, web pop- ups, magazines, newspapers, sides/backs of buses, taxis, tubes and trains, product placement, the backs of event tickets, car park and supermarket receipts.  What are your organisations advertising objectives?  How does your advertising get its messages across? How do you know?  Are the themes, graphics and copy consistent? Test this.  Who writes your copy? Is it effective? Too much jargon? Ask.  Are the chosen media adequate?  What is your budget, what is your ROI?  Why are you advertising?  What are you advertising?  What is the typical response rate? Your answer Page 59 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 60. Internet  Do you have banner ads on other sites? Which ones? Which are effective?  Do you use pay per click? How effective is it?  Do you have a blog? When did you last write on it?  Have you entered your details in online directories? Which ones?  Do you Twitter or Facebook?  Do you have a newsletter? When did you last send it out? What was the response? Your answer Incentives/Gifts What incentives and gifts do you use and where? How effective are these? What is missing? Your answer Page 60 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 61. Networking  Which networking events do you regularly attend? How are they working for you? Who goes and what are their objectives?  When did you last ask for a speaking slot?  What business clubs can you join? List them? Who can you go with? Your answer Website  Do you have a website? How would you describe it?  How well can you navigate the website?  Does it have a search facility?  Do you have separate sections for each product or service?  Do you have downloadable collateral, video or other interesting information?  Can you buy online? What methods can you pay with?  Have you optimised your site?  Do you swap links with other organisations? Your answer Page 61 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 62. Events/Exhibitions/Seminars  Do you attend any regular exhibitions or events? Which ones, why, how effective are they?  Do you run any in-house seminars? How effective are they?  Can you partner with anyone? Who?  Can you get your suppliers to co-fund?  Describe your event planning process.  List exhibitions you have been too and describe your success rate? Your answer Direct Marketing Direct marketing is a way of sending your messages directly to your prospects and customers, using things such as mail (direct mailers, postcards, mail order catalogues, newsletters ), email and SMS.  What direct mailers do you have? What campaigns are they linked to?  How often do you send them?  What are the messages? How do these fit in with other messages?  Are they addressed to the right person? When did you last check?  Have you regularly unsubscribe emails users who request it? What process do you have in place to do this?  Do you have an anti spamming policy? When did you last update it?  Do you use pre-paid envelopes?  How often do you send newsletters? Where is your plan?  How often do you follow up? Who does it? Do you have a telemarketing team? Your answer Page 62 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 63. Database  Do you have a sales and marketing database? What format is it in? Who keeps it up to date?  Is it used by the sales team / customer service / marketing?  What kind of data does it contain? Can you segment customers for campaigns?  Do you buy mailing lists? From where? How often?  Have you cross checked your data with the telephone preference service? Your answer Page 63 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 64. Sales Promotion Sales promotion is marketing communications employed for a pre-determined, limited time to increase demand of your products and services. Which of these do you use and how effective are they:-  Money off offers  Price reductions - A temporary reduction in the price, such as buy before October 12th and get £x off  Repackaging price - Get 25% extra  Coupons, or a coupon booklet is inserted into the local newspaper or delivery by the postman, on checkout the customer is given a coupon based on products purchased, on-line coupons  Rebates offered if the receipt or label is mailed to back to you  Competitions  Point-of-sale displays:  Incentives for customers and sales  Training  Marketing development funds  Do you offer any package (bundled) deals?  Can you make an offer with a partner? (Cross promotion) Your answer Page 64 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 65. Publicity Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a product, service or organisation.  Does your organisation have a carefully formulated program of publicity?  Who is your PR company? Who manages them?  What is your PR plan?  Who will do this for you internally (if you don’t use an external one)?  Do you have publicity photos? Who took them? How up to date, relevant and interesting are they?  When did you last send press releases, letters to editors, write whitepapers or expert pieces?  What is your policy for crisis management?  What events are you speaking at?  How often do you make announcements for appointments, annual reports, events etc? Your answer Page 65 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 66. Sponsorship  Who and why do you sponsor?  How effective is your sponsorship?  What is the cost and ROI? Your answer Page 66 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 67. Collateral Do you have the following? Logo Business Cards Company Folder Brochures Catalogue Flyers Compliments Slip Letterhead Exhibition Stand Presentations Sales Proposals Proposal Cover CD/DVD Covers Go back to your pile of likes and dislikes and compare those with your collateral.  Are the themes, colour, graphics and copy effective?  How effective is your packaging?  Did you use the same designer for all of your work?  Are your designs consistent?  What quality does your collateral convey?  Are you embarrassed to hand out your business card?  Does you corporate literature reflect what you do?  Is your identity rubbish but you don’t know how to sort it out?  Is it a painful and time consuming process getting new collateral done?  Does your designer understand your business objectives and reflect them back in your identity? Your answer Not having a good identity will damage your reputation and cost you valuable sales. Demonstrate that you mean business and ensure that your target market knows who you are and then remembers what you stand for by having consistently designed high quality collateral. Page 67 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 68. Technology Marketing needs to make use of a vast amount of technology, for example:-  Database  Customer relationship management software (CRM)  Email & E-newsletters  Website  Blog  Social networking sites  Auto responders  E-books  Graphics packages  Office products  Google Adwords Make a list of all of the technology you employ which impacts your marketing. Your answer Are you properly trained, and use it all effectively? If not book some training. What other technology do you need? Your answer Page 68 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 69. Action Planning Push and Pull There are two main kinds of promotional strategy - "push" and "pull". A push strategy tries to create consumer demand for a product. A pull strategy tries to build up demand for a product. Campaign Management Describe the process you go through when planning a campaign. What meaning do the campaign codes have? Do you have a promotional plan which ties in with your objectives? Describe it. List campaigns, tactics, costs and ROI Your answer Page 69 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 70. Create an action plan a direct mailer. Example: What is the purpose of this marketing activity? To up-sell my support services package to my existing customers What are the expected results? Get 80% of my customers to take out an annual support contract. Develop better marketing materials Clean up database Get better at following up direct mailers Who is your Target Market? Existing customers who have bought a solution from me in the last 2 years. What are your strategy and tactics? Direct mailer and email, follow up calls Create copy and test it Get names and clean up Send and follow up Try to get a meeting so that we can talk about other things that we do. What is your marketing message? Peace of mind Free updates What marketing materials do you need (website, Postcards, email template, names, website flyers, brochure, proposal etc) Key to the plan Well thought out Affordable – good value What is the offer By spending just £450 per annum you will get access to a fully qualified support person who will help you out within 8 hours (or 4 if you take the premium contract), and free upgrades to the system, within that version. What is the call to action? Order now at introductory prices Follow-up - How and when will you follow up? 1 week after it goes out follow up calls What is the cost? 60p per postcard incl. telephone calls What is the timeline? 3 months from April 1st Page 70 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 71. Create an action plan for your activities. Objective:- Marketing Activity What is the purpose of this marketing activity? What are the expected results? Who is your Target Market? What are your strategy and tactics? What is your marketing message? What marketing materials do you need (website, flyers, brochure, proposal etc) Key to the plan What is the offer What is the call to action? Follow-up - How and when will you follow up? What is the cost? What is the timeline? Page 71 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 72. How do you follow up your campaigns? Write down 3 ways you will follow up each campaign. Your answer 1 2 3 Page 72 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 73. Marketing Controls There is no planning without control. If an objective states where you want to be and the plan sets out a road map to your destination, then control tells you if you are on the right route or if you have arrived at your destination. Resources  What resources are allocated to accomplish the marketing tasks?  What marketing resources are allocated to various markets, territories and products?  What marketing resources are allocated to the major elements of the marketing mix (i.e. product quality, personal selling/contact, promotion and distribution) Make a list of your available resources. Your answer What else do you need? Your answer Page 73 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 74. Budgets Where is the budget? How and when do you set it? What are your campaign/promotion etc costs and what your ROI (return on investment) Your answer You should develop a simple spreadsheet which enables you to cost out each campaign or activity. You can then measure the returns you get against each one. Do not expect miracles, its takes time for your marketing messages to get through. Implementation  Where is your annual marketing plan? When do you start the planning? How often do you up date it?  Does your organisation implement control procedures (monthly, quarterly, and yearly) to ensure your annual objectives are being achieved?  How does your organisation carry out periodic studies to determine the contribution and effectiveness of various marketing activities?  What is your organisations marketing information system to service the needs of managers for planning and controlling operations in various markets? Your answer Page 74 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 75. Organisation  Who is your high-level marketing officer/manager to analyse, plan and implement the marketing work of your organisation?  Who else is directly involved in marketing activity?  What training, incentives, supervision or evaluation is needed?  How are the marketing responsibilities structured to serve the needs of different marketing activities, products, markets and territories in the best way possible?  What other resources do you need?  Do the staff understand and practice the marketing concept? If not what are your plans to change this? Your answer Page 75 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 76. Measurement How do you measure success? Write down 3 measurements of success for your business Your answer Congratulations and well done. You are now ready to create your marketing action plan. Page 76 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 77. Where am I going? Goals and Objectives Setting goals and objectives is the most important aspect of any plan. Without these you will be going no where. Goals Goals are the large statements of what you hope to accomplish but usually aren't very measurable. Goals are more vague and focus on the longer term. They create the setting for what you are proposing. The overall goal should define the long-term communications aspirations:-  Increase turnover to £1 million in 3 years Objectives Under the goal, you set specific objectives. Objectives differ from goals in their specificity and ability to be evaluated and measured Marketing objectives develop out of your business goals and objectives. And they should be driving your marketing strategy. Meeting marketing objectives should lead to sales - if they don't, then you probably have established the wrong objectives, or you aren't executing them effectively. Objectives should seek to answer the question 'Where do we want to go?'. And ‘how do we get there?’ What are your marketing / financial objectives? The purposes of objectives include:  to enable a company to control its marketing plan.  to help to motivate individuals and teams to reach a common goal.  to provide an agreed, consistent focus for all functions of an organisation. Goals are broad Objectives are narrow Goals are general intentions Objectives are precise Goals are intangible Objectives are tangible Goals are abstract Objectives are concrete Goals can't be validated as is Objectives can be validated Page 77 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 78.  Your goals/objectives should include financial elements, such as revenue, gross profit, sales per salesperson, and so on Number of leads needed to get the right number of visits, quotes and orders  Number of Customers  Market share  By market segment For each. However, they should also include non-financial elements such as units sold, contracts signed, clients acquired, and articles published. Sales levels  product and service Examine the objectives SMART Objectives There are a number of business objectives, which an organisation can set, e.g.: Market share objectives: Obtain 3% market share of the [your industry] by 2013. Profit objectives: To increase sales margins by 10% from 2010 – 2012. Growth objectives: To grow by 15% year on year for the next five years. Brand awareness objectives: To increase brand awareness over a specified period of time However, whenever you set your objectives you need to remember SMART S Specific M Measurable A Achievable R Relevant T Time bound Set objectives that you can really do something with. Page 78 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 79. From theory to reality Write down 3 objectives for your marketing. Objective Long / Medium / Short Term 1 2 3 How will you meet your goals and objectives? First you will have undertaken some analysis of your business and performed some market research to ensure that these are realistic and relevant. Example. Target Price Mark Objectives: I want to attract 10 new businesses who will spend an average of £5400 each on our document managements solutions over the next 12 months Product Break it down into small chunks, and start asking some relevant questions. The Plan Now that the objectives are set, and have been broken down into bitesized chunks, you can now begin to pull together a plan to meet them. Page 79 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011
  • 80. Market Research In order to obtain information about the wants, needs, preferences, beliefs and likely behaviour of potential consumers of your products and services you need to conduct some market research. There are two ways to do market research: Secondary Research involves analyzing information that already has been gathered for another purpose. Primary Research involves collecting new information to meet your specific needs. Primary research can be:  Qualitative: Gathering descriptive information, usually representing verbal or narrative data through open-ended interviews or focus groups. o Open-ended interviews are composed of questions that can not be answered with a simple yes or no. This type of interview gives you a lot of information, but is time consuming for both you and the person you are interviewing. The greatest benefit to you is that you will learn a lot about the group you are studying including common trends, emotional motivators, and general likes and dislikes of your primary market. o Focus groups should be led by professionals skilled in leading small groups of 6 to 12 people through a series of questions ranging from specific to general in nature. Usually, focus group sessions last for at least an hour. Since focus groups must be lead by trained professionals to be most effective, they are the most expensive form of market research.  Quantitative: Gathering numerical information that can be analyzed statistically through surveys. o Surveys take longer to develop, but are generally easier to administer than other types of market research. Since they take less time to complete, people are usually more willing to answer them. Also, surveys provide excellent information if they are well-constructed with thoughtful questions. The easiest and most cost effective way to conduct surveys is either by telephone or where the product is sold. Planning your research What information is required  Identify search methods  Set a timeframe for the research  Establish the research budget  Compile and analyse the results  Present the results in a plan Now you have completed your research you can start to plan! END Page 80 of 80 pages :: © jacquimalpass :: 2005 - 2011