X+4.2+Market+Planning

4.2 Market Planning


//"You aim at everybody, you'll hit nobody & aim at nobody, you'll hit them every time"//

Fans of Animal Planet will contest that a __**lion**__ begins his hunt by focusing on one particular animal - it doesn't just rush blindly at the whole herd! A comparison that has its limitations but makes the point : //know who you are aiming at//.

__KEY TERMS__ : DIMENSIONS POSITIONING TARGET AUDIT MARKETING MIX THE 4 P'S THE 8 P'S PACKAGING PHYSICAL EVIDENCE PEOPLE [CUSTOMER CARE] PROCESSES POSITIONING DIMENSIONS ETHICS RESEARCH [PRIMARY/FIELD] RESEARCH [SECONDARY/DESK] DATA [PRIMARY/SECONDARY] QUALITATIVE/QUANTITATIVE SAMPLE RANDOM QUOTA SNOWBALL STRATIFIED CLUSTER PORTERS 5 FORCES SEGMENTATION / NICHE U.S.P.

Key Ideas
 * The Marketing is __NOT__ the same as "the 4P's" nor is it the same as "the Marketing Mix"- this is a common mistake. Sure they are connected - and here is how :
 * Marketing is defined as "// Appropriate __research__ to establish needs and wants and then the thoughtful __application of the 4 P's__ to meet those needs and wants //"!
 * So Marketing serves a purpose - like HRM serves the purpose of 'getting the right people, with the rights skills to do the right jobs'. Here is Marketing's purpose : "// To produce a product customers like and get them to purchase it, over the rival choices //."

There are 2 certain ideas that we need to clarify.
 * 1) __No__ firm aims its products at 'everybody', none, not even Coca Cola!
 * 2) However a firm will __not__ (usually) stop a customer purchasing their product just because that customer is not part of their target market.

But in order to make its marketing decisions it needs to know who its customer is. A few examples from a thousand possibilities are below..

Depends on who our customer is... __Bad answer__ - our customer is 'everybody'- so how to make a choice? Rock? Jazz? Pop? Folk? Metal? Reggaeton? __Good answer__ - our customer is 'families with children'. OK, so play some inoffensive Pop
 * What background music to play ?**

Could depend on who our customer is... __Bad answer__ - our customer is 'everybody' - so 10 cents? will appeal to low income groups but probably lose the high income who will choose a 'posher' alternative. OK, so 25 cents? well now you'll lose the low income customers etc etc etc __Good answer__ - our customer is 'middle income'. OK, so 25c! If low income want to treat themselves and buy ours then great, if high income groups want to save a bit of money and buy ours - then double great, but the decision was taken with the middle income target in mind.
 * What price to set ?**

So Marketing could well begin with the best of ways to start : **A MARKETING __PLAN__.**

It can be difficult to evaluate the success of marketing! - why ?!?! because customers seldom tell you why it is they chose your product and your marketing is not the only factor affecting their choice. eg 1 You change location (Place) from a supermarket to online - and your sales go up. So you think to yourself 'OK good marketing decision.!' but what you don't know is the reason for the increase is a temporary offer by an internet provider. eg 2 You reduce your Price and find that sales go up. So you think to yourself 'OK, good marketing decision!' but what you don't know is that the reason for the increase is more due to the start of a external event (such as the World Cup Football)

However a Plan will give you [i] a guideline of how to go about your decisions and //[i]// allow you to //some degree// to measure wether the decisions were the right ones.

So what goes in a Marketing Plan?

BMW advert - highlighting its 'Ultimate Service'

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