Archive for June, 2011

The Benefits of a Marketing Plan

What is a Marketing Plan?

Marketing is to do with matching the features and benefits that your products and services are able to provide with specific customers and then telling those customers why they should buy them from you. Your marketing plan details how to do this. A Marketing Plan is a document that supplements your business plan and brings together all your market research so that you can work out exactly where your business is going and how it is going to get there.

Your plan should include:

• Objectives.
• Details of the current market.
• A full analysis of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. (SWOT Analysis.)
• Your plans for achieving your objectives.

The plan should be flexible and able to be adapted to meet the changing conditions in the market place.

Benefits of a Marketing Plan

Having a marketing plan will help you to focus on your target market and to find if there are any gaps in the market that will provide new opportunities for you. Your marketing plan will also provide you with something that enables you to measure how you are progressing. This can then highlight strategies that are working for you and those that are not.

A good marketing plan will also benefit you in that it provides your outside financiers with confidence that you know your market and that you know how to achieve your objectives.

A good marketing plan will deal with the matter of sourcing new leads as well as creating new networking opportunities for your business. The bottom line means your plan will define your business as well as your customers and your future plans.

What is a Good Marketing Plan

A good marketing plan is really a blueprint for the action that your business needs to take in order to achieve certain goals. It will identify the most cost effective ways of performing certain functions and should show the best way to present your business to your target audience.

A good marketing plan will save you money by cutting out unnecessary expenses while at the same time presenting you with new marketing opportunities. A good plan will work for your business to make sure that what you do fits into your budget and that your marketing drive reaches your target audience.

It will essentially keep all your activities and your budgets on track. If you don’t have a good marketing plan it is possible that you are not taking full advantage of all the ways to reach your target audience. This will result in decreased sales.

A Marketing Plan must Reach People

Your marketing plan will provide you with a track upon which your business needs to run. It is similar to a flight plan for pilots. Their flight plan tells them the direction along which their plane is going to fly, where they are leaving from and the path they have to take to get to their destination.

A sports coach will have a game plan that sets out how the team is going to play the game that particular day. The coach will work on strategies that will effectively frustrate and win out over the competition so they can come out on top.

Your marketing plan should be designed in a similar fashion.

• It has to be built with an end result in mind.
• It should fit the specific markets you are aiming for as well as the people in those markets.
• It has to be flexible to meet the needs of the people in the markets because those needs are constantly changing.
• It must focus on people rather than on products.

Remember to always develop a marketing plan that is specifically designed to reach people.

Copyright 2005 StartRunGrow
http://www.startrungrow.com

StartRunGrow (http://www.startrungrow.com) is a global online information organization that specializes in creating, developing and marketing business help information specifically with the aim of “making business easier” for entrepreneurs around the world. The StartRunGrow objective is to become a dominant player in the business help arena providing end to end solutions for the millions of small and medium businesses worldwide who continue to struggle daily with the difficulties of starting, running and growing a successful business.

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An Effective Approach to Health and Wellness Marketing

With so many products available on the market, marketing new products can be difficult. It only takes one trip to the supermarket or drugstore to be overwhelmed by the wide variety lining the shelves, making it a challenge to stand out from the competition. Fortunately, there are ways to single out your product using various techniques.

In order to make your marketing efforts worthwhile, personalize your concepts. Show customers that you are different by appealing directly to their wants and needs. By adopting a personalized approach to marketing, you will give the impression that you are customizing your services specifically for your consumer.

In order to identify a custom pattern for your product or service, take a look at direct marketing. Direct marketing is an ideal tool for personalizing your marketing plan because it takes you to your customer. Although this method is very effective, it is often overlooked by business owners who focus solely on online contact. Internet marketing can be a great tool when it comes to health and wellness marketing, but it is much more impersonal than direct marketing. In a field featuring such a personal connection, techniques that link directly to the consumer will prove to be more valuable in the long run. Small businesses often struggle to find their place online, and relying solely on Internet tactics may actually work against you. Consumers are also wary of online businesses and have a hard time gaining trust when it comes to web based marketing.

It is important to approach this method of marketing in such a way that it connects you to your local customers and provides them with a personalized experience. To assist in making contacts, participate in workshops, trade events or seminars, and invite current customers to attend, preferably with a friend who has yet to try your product or service. Schedule as many sessions as you can handle and use the opportunity to educate your audience about your offerings. This type of health and wellness marketing will prove to build your contact and client base, in addition to providing you with valuable experience.

At the end of each speaking or demonstration event, push your opportunities by setting aside time for a question and answer session. Provide helpful tips and advice to your customers and the rewards of personal advertising will soon be yours. Once a customer has met you in person, they will be much more likely to continue using your services or buying your products, and subsequently recommend them to others. Health and wellness marketing that takes place through physical meetings will allow you to build a rapport with members of the community. You can also use this opportunity to provide samples of your product or discounts for your services.

Direct marketing is a form of marketing that helps you network while generating leads. If customers believe in your products, they are much more likely to provide your name to friends and family members, who will then tell others. Your business will soon be recognized as one that caters to customers, provides sound knowledge, and is trustworthy, without the necessity for a large health and wellness marketing budget.

With so many products available on the market, health and wellness marketing can be difficult. It only takes one trip to the supermarket or drugstore to be overwhelmed by the wide variety lining the shelves, making it a challenge to stand out from the competition. Fortunately, there are ways to single out your product using various health and wellness marketing techniques.

In order to make your health and wellness marketing techniques worthwhile, personalize your concepts. Show customers that you are different by appealing directly to their wants and needs. By adopting a personalized approach to health and wellness marketing, you will give the impression that you are customizing your services specifically for your consumer.

In order to identify a custom pattern for your product or service, take a look at direct marketing. Direct marketing is an ideal tool for personalizing your health and wellness marketing plan because it takes you to your customer. Although this method is very effective, it is often overlooked by business owners who focus solely on online contact. Internet marketing can be a great tool when it comes to health and wellness marketing, but it is much more impersonal than direct marketing. In a field featuring such a personal connection, health and wellness marketing that links directly to the consumer will prove to be more valuable in the long run. Small businesses often struggle to find their place online, and relying solely on Internet tactics may actually work against you. Consumers are also wary of online businesses and have a hard time gaining trust when it comes to Internet-based health and wellness marketing.

It is important to approach this method of health and wellness marketing in such a way that it connects you to your local customers and provides them with a personalized experience. To assist in making contacts, participate in workshops, trade events or seminars, and invite current customers to attend, preferably with a friend who has yet to try your product or service. Schedule as many sessions as you can handle and use the opportunity to educate your audience about your offerings. This type of health and wellness marketing will prove to build your contact and client base, in addition to providing you with valuable experience.

At the end of each speaking or demonstration event, push your health and wellness marketing opportunities by setting aside time for a question and answer session. Provide helpful tips and advice to your customers and the rewards of personal advertising will soon be yours. Once a customer has met you in person, they will be much more likely to continue using your services or buying your products, and subsequently recommend them to others. Health and wellness marketing that takes place through physical meetings will allow you to build a rapport with members of the community. You can also use this opportunity to provide samples of your product or discounts for your services.

Direct marketing is a form of health and wellness marketing that helps you network while generating leads. If customers believe in your products, they are much more likely to provide your name to friends and family members, who will then tell others. Your business will soon be recognized as one that caters to customers, provides sound knowledge, and is trustworthy, without the necessity for a large health and wellness marketing budget.

Nitin Chhoda has a blog on personal trainer marketing. His physical therapy newsletter is available with a money-back guarantee.

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Imagine that you could continue to market successfully the same way for ten years. Do you like that thought? Well delete that daydream because it just isn’t so. Welcome to marketing 2008. It’s more threatening, more promising and more exciting. Buckle your seatbelt, take your motion sickness pill and be prepared to be amazing. Because that is what you need to compete today.

Still the Same

Of course some things remained the same. Let’s establish our foundation before we venture into the swirl of the Time Tunnel.

The fundamentals are the same. That’s what makes them fundamentals. Marketing is still closely intertwined with selling and the purpose of marketing is to help you sell more. Marketing and selling are both strategies to help you make a profit. In fact marketing was and is a fundamental responsibility running through every function of your business.

“Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the client’s point of view.” Peter Drucker

Strange that even though management guru, Peter Drucker, offered that advice more than a decade ago – many organizations ignored his wisdom. That’s why we still see marketing departments and sales departments with little cohesion and cooperation. Why? Perhaps too many marketers see themselves as artists or statisticians while they see sales representatives as slimy. And the sales department labels marketing as a bunch of flakes who don’t know about the real world.

The purpose of marketing is to do one or more of the following three things:
1. Grab attention
2. Demonstrate value
3. Build relationships

The world is still round – or is it now flat? How is the “How” of those fundamentals changing?

Grab Attention Grabbing attention has always been a prime concern for marketers. Your message needed to defeat the noise of all the other marketers.

In 1998, if you had a huge marketing budget, the place to be was TV and the grand dame was the Super Bowl game at $1.3M for a 30 second spot. Of course ad production costs were extra. The top three ads that year were for Tabasco, Pontiac and Doritos. Do you wonder how many Doritos they needed to sell to pay for that ad? Oh yeah, Denver triumphed over Green Bay.

The Super Bowl is still the place for marketers with multimillion dollar budgets costing $2.6M for 30 seconds in 2007. But the holy grail of marketing today might more likely be to appear number one on a Google search. You don’t need millions to triumph.

Demonstrate Value Value was once demonstrated with celebrity endorsements, quality awards and longevity in the business.

Today client testimonials carry more weight than celebrities. Quality awards and certifications are so common that they have become ho-hum. Depending on your industry, a long time in business could be three years. We’re more interested in the results that you achieved for your recent clients. If you want to demonstrate value be sure to offer a free trial or money back guarantee – without the weasel word clauses.

Build Relationships Relationship building is more important today. Prove to your clients why they should buy from you – every time. Brand loyalty was once given blindly to sellers. Loyalty didn’t die. It shifted. Loyalty is now bestowed more on our friends and family which is why client testimonials become more convincing. And why networking is so much more powerful.

Changes and Trends

Some trends have been going on for longer than the past decade – but they are easier to notice now. We realize that both selling and marketing are more science than art. Sales representatives are no longer allowed to wing it. Of course both sales and marketing staff were being well trained by successful companies before 1998. But the integration of these activities is more evident in today’s training and daily activity. Today you are also more likely to see the large corporations training their sales reps with marketing skills and integrating marketing folks into the front lines. To be competitive small and medium business must convert all staff into marketers. And it will take more than a memo!

Technology

Technology in the form of computers, software and mobile devices has had a huge impact on how we market. The tsunami of influence is the Internet which has presented marketers with new challenges and incredible opportunities.

Mobile Devices

The proliferation of cell phones and Blackberries mean that clients expect to reach you anywhere and any time. In order to compete it seems that you need to be more available and respond faster than your competition. Be careful because that mentality can lead to the worship of instant satisfaction which results in more mistakes, distracted professionals and grumpy people. Too many are adapting their process to suit the tool – instead of using tools to improve the process. Warning Will Robinson!

Database Marketing

Use your database. In 1998 small business had access to PC based contact managers including ACT, Maximizer and Goldmine. Today you need to build on those fundamentals with a CRM (client relationship manager) system and integrate your data between your computer, mobile device, email and website forms.

Networking

Building Relationships is critical to buliding your business. Because of our increased emphasis on building relationships networking activity has exploded both offline and online. We see this in the growth of specialized networking groups and events. Business Networking International (BNI) a lead sharing group has over 5,000 chapters in 36 countries. Online enhancements include social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo plus the business oriented service Linkedin. For more networking tips visit NetworkingExposed.com.

Email

In 1998 folks were exploring the use of email through internet providers AOL and CompuServe. Coincidently the number one movie of 1998 was “You’ve Got Mail”. Today not having email would be like not having a fax machine in 1998. But today it isn’t enough just to have email. You must have an email address with a professional domain. Using a free email address is acceptable for your personal life – but not for business. If you are still using Yahoo, MSN, Gmail or AOL for business you are looking amateurish – or stuck in 1998.

Websites

My first website launched in 1999 when very few small businesses had websites. In those days you were special if you “had” a website. Websites looked like your printed brochure – hence the name “brochure sites”.

It is no longer remarkable to have a website. In fact you must have a website and it must be remarkable just to compete. It’s as necessary as a phone or business card even if you don’t sell on the Internet. Why? Because clients want to check your site before they call or visit you. Your website needs to grab them, identify what you sell in the first five seconds – or they will leave your website. Then you need to engage them, offer them what they seek, do it quickly and capture their contact information for your database. Today the question is not “Should you have a website?” The question is “How many websites should you have?”

Informing your clients A decade ago the way to train, educate and inform your clients was to hold seminars or mail them a printed newsletter. Both still work but are expensive compared to the new alternatives. Today you might inform them with an opt-in email newsletter, articles and FAQs on your website, posting on your blog, and holding teleseminars and/or webinars.

Today everyone on the Internet can be a publisher via their own websites, blogs, article sites and forums. You need to be out-communicating your competition. You might expect your competition to compete with your message but also watch for damaging exposure from disgruntled clients or employees.

Marketing Research Gathering Market Intelligence is easier for you, your competition and your clients. You might want to reread that last sentence and think about the implications. Take advantage of the opportunity. Using search engines you can learn about your competition and their offerings. Use “Google Alerts” to stay informed of daily mentions on websites, blogs and news sites of your name, your product name, your industry and your competition. If you are not yet receiving these Google Alerts – you might be missing news about what others are saying about you and your industry. Go to Google and register for this free service. Ignorance is no excuse.

Test opinion by visiting groups and forums on major sites such as Google and Yahoo or on industry websites. Conduct polls on your website or hold a survey with SurveyMonkey.

Client Service

Lots of opportunity here. We still seem to be struggling with customer service. Some shine while others annoy. I experienced a good example of good customer service today when I bought a coffee from Starbucks. I ordered my “small regular coffee”. I refuse to speak their language – no ‘tall latté” for me. The staff still smile at me, deliver what I want and thank me as they give me my change. Compare that to the hordes of sales staff that seem to expect you to thank them for giving them your money. And they don’t thank you for your business. So I pay the $1.75 for the Starbucks coffee and feel good because of the friendly service. I don’t get that consistently from Tim Hortons.

Advertising

The traditional mass marketing avenues – print, radio, TV and signage are suffering from a lot of competition from Internet marketing. Take note of how many TV ads attempt to drive viewers to websites. When you are advertising with those traditional media be sure to enquire about how they will support you on the web. Get them to republish your ad or listing on their website with a live link to your website. At a recent presentation I noticed that the front of the lectern not only displayed the name of the facility but their website address as well. Today any marketing you do must be integrated across the delivery channels.

Media Exposure

Don’t give up on the traditional media for your advertising or media exposure. Get and leverage your media exposure. Use Google Alerts to stay on top of breaking news and media opportunities. A decade ago you could fax or mail your news release. Today all editors are reachable by email for “letters to the editor” Use online new release services. PRBuzz.com is a free service. Or register with PRLeads.com to be informed of media needs for experts. There is no excuse for you and your business not to be featured in the media regularly.

eBay

There’s a new sheriff in town. As a marketer you better be aware of the biggest consumer market in the world – eBay. Every day eBay transacts over $100 M. Over 730,000 people earn their primary or secondary income on eBay. It went public in 1998 and this 10 year old has grown. You can’t ignore an elephant that big. It might move into your market or perhaps it already has. This is entirely new territory for marketers – so new that my best advice at this time is to watch it, study it and be prepared to jump on opportunities. When was the last time you searched eBay for your product? Or threats to your product, your market or your clients?

Search Engine Marketing

This is a completely new side to marketing that did not exist a decade ago. If you want your website to be found by people you must rank high in the search engines – specifically Google, Yahoo and MSN. The two approaches are pay-per-click and natural listings. Pay-per-click means that you buy a paid ranking and you pay when someone clicks on your ad. It is a simple way to pay for leads. Or you apply Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make your website naturally show up high in the search engines.

As you can see it is an exciting time for marketing. There are both new threats and opportunities. Are you reviewing your marketing strategy and tactics to better prepare yourself for the year ahead? Are you equipped to be amazing?

© EZ George Torok is the coauthor of the national bestseller, Secrets of Power Marketing. You can read an excerpt from the book at http://www.PowerMarketing.ca Marketing expert, George Torok is available for speaking engagements and media interviews at 905-335-1997. Get your free copy of “50 Power Marketing Ideas” at http://www.Torok.com

PS: This article was originally published in the January 2008 10th anniversary issue of Enterprise Magazine. George Torok was featured on the cover of that special issue.

Scaling Your Video Marketing Efforts » Adotas

ADOTAS

Columbus AMA April 2010 Luncheon.AVI

Introduction

Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably. In pre-modern economies, the predominance of small enterprise and there was monopoly and there was no recognition of marketing as a separate field of expertise. Marketing emerged as a separate technical field only in the late 19th century.

In the present scenario, the changing needs and wants or taste and preferences among the customers leads to paradigm shift in marketing. This is due to changing attitude and behaviour of the customers, globalization, increasing purchasing power and changing life style of the customers.

Causes for Marketing in Transition

• Globalization – Globalization has brought changes in technology, quality, service, work culture and undoubtedly fierce competition.
• Emerging Middle-Class Consumers – the increasing Purchasing Power of the Middle-Class consumers creates the MNC’s to seek opportunity in the emerging market.
• Changing Lifestyle and attitude of Consumers – since there is a change in the customers lifestyle due to western influence the customer’s needs and expectations has increased.
• Increasing literacy rate
• Children influence in buying decision making
• Changing perspective of rural marketing in India
• Increasing penetration of mass media
• Consumer awareness
• Information revolution
• An Enormous growth in international business

Formation of marketing concepts and practices
• 1905 – the University of Pennsylvania offered a course in “The Marketing of Products”
• 1908 – Harvard Business School opens
• 1940s – electronic computers developed
• 1980s – emergence of relationship marketing
• 1984 – introduction of guerilla marketing
• 1995-2001 – the Dot-com bubble temporarily re-defines the future of marketing
• 1996 – identification of viral marketing

Emerging New Marketing Practices

Due to increased competition the companies had necessity to enhance additional features to their products to promote the sale of their products. Many companies followed different marketing practices to attract their customers.

Winning concepts and marketing practices are
• Relationship marketing
• Co-branding
• Viral Marketing
• Sachet Marketing
• Green marketing
• Rural marketing
• Destination marketing
• Online marketing
• Cause related marketing

MARKETING IN TRANSITION

A transition from a product oriented approach to a resource oriented approach

Transaction marketing Relationship marketing
Focus on Obtaining new customers Customer retention
Orientation to Service features Customer benefits
Timescale shorts long
Customer service Little emphasis High emphasis
Customer commitment Limited High
Customer contact Limited High

Quality

Primarily an operations concern

The concern to all

Nowadays many companies are practicing the new marketing concepts and practices. Some of the examples are as follows.

Relationship marketing:

The domain of relationship marketing extends into many areas of marketing and strategic decision making. In the phenomenon of cooperation and collaboration with customers becomes the dominant paradigm of marketing practices. Relationship marketing has the potential to emerge as the predominance perspective in the paradigm of marketing.

In the fierce competitive market customer relationship management is emerging as the core marketing activity in companies. For that to maintain companies practices customer retention strategies and having good relation with the customers.

Example:
HSBC bank sent greeting cards to the customers on their birthdays to have good relationship
Whirlpool do very good post sale service to the customers.

Sachet Marketing

In India, Unilever successfully markets Sunsil and Lux shampoo sachets sold in units of 2-4 dollar cents; Clinic All Clear anti-dandruff shampoo sachets at 2.5 rupees each; and 16 cent Rexona deodorant sticks.

Idhayam gingili oil available for Rs 4/- package.
To capture the BOTTOM OF PYRAMID also

Green Marketing

It refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in itself or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way.

Green marketing can be a very powerful marketing strategy though when it’s done right. Nowadays all companies are trying to produce eco-friendly products. And many companies have got ISO 14001 awards and strive to get.
Examples are ITC products, in the note books, it is environment friendly notebook.

Changing Perspective Of Rural Marketing In India

The great Indian rural market is characterized by huge untapped potential and opportunities. It is estimated that almost 70% of Indian consumers live in rural areas, which generate almost half of the national income. The number of middle income households in rural India is growing to above 111 million by 2007. There are almost twice as many lower middle income households in rural areas as in the urban areas.

A large number of corporate are excited about tapping the potential of rural areas. The recent entry of some corporate like Bharti, ITC, DCM shriram consolidated, EID parry and Amul etc. proved their fascination towards this sector. These corporates tried to develop successful model of integrating information-technology in rural transformation in a profitable way.

The tamilnadu based EID parry has developed an agro-portal [http://www.indiaagrline.com] to cater the specific needs of the rural farming community. It is an endeavor to catalyze e-commerce in agricultural and non-farms products by offering a network of partnerships. The content is available in local tamil language.

The Anand, Gurajat based Amuls DISK dairy information system KIOSK project is yet another milestone of integrating corporate sector and information technology. These kiosk serve valuable information related to dairying, breeding and rearing cattle .

ITC e-choupal has emerged as one of the most ambitious project integrating information technology and corporate sector for rural transformation. ITC e-choupal network has already covered approximately 3.1 million farmers through 5050 choupal in 29,500 villages. The company has ambitious plan to reach 1,00,000 villages covering 10 million farmers by 2010 with whopping approximately 1,000 crore. It is opening 5-6 e-choupals everyday in six different states of India.

Pepsi rural marketing

Pepsi company India has entered into rural market by having joint programme with the Punjab agriculture university in ludiana and Punjab agro industries corporation in chandigarh. The programme focuses on evolving agricultural practices to help Punjab farmers produce crops that would make Indian products internationally competitive. To cultivate a range of sweet oranges for its Tropicana range.

Apart from that, they have given advertisement to attract the rural people with the celebrity of Amitabh bachchan and star cricketer sachin tendulkar.

Coca-cola rural marketing

With the help of Isha foundation coca-cola released the CD of the coca-cola tamil CSR film “NESA KARANGAL” and also acknowledged and appreciated coca-cola’s efforts in promoting social cohesiveness and sportsmanship with an aim to transform rural lives,

Advertisements to attract the rural customers are maasa-actress Rani Mukherji acted in this advertisement and says “masti ka chataka” , Satis shah’s maaza ad is also based on village background.

Aamir khan acted in the advertisement which showcases a beautiful village background with the punch line “thanda ka matlab cocacola” and also ad title “soni kudi” targeted the villagers.

Destination marketing:

Destination marketing is all about selling the experience. To sell the experience is far more difficult. In destination marketing media plays a major role . word of mouth plays a vital role in destination marketing . people love to discuss their tour, infact they feel proud in telling their experiences, they bring gifts for their close ones they show their photographs and purchases to their relatives and neighbours

Eg . kerala has implemented the destination marketing very successfully and emerged as the most acclaimed tourist destination of the country in the recent past. Because of this destination marketing kerala has achieved remarkable success in generating revenue and employment in state through tourism. It is estimated nearly $100 million which generate the employment opportunity in kerala.

In the recent past all the successful stories of destination marketing that is Malaysia, Goa, Kerala, Singapore etc.

Emergence of theme parks such as ADHISAYAM, MGM , BLACK THUNDER,- all are examples of destination marketing.

Transition from kirana stores to modern organized retail outlets:

Modern retailing in India is growing rapidly. Although it commands just 3% of the overall retail market share, changing demographics and consumer taste are driving the growth of more than 30% of the modern retail formats. It is expected to grow another 9% in the year of 2010. India is more attractive than ever to global retailers.

Major players in India are:

Pantaloon retail India limited or future group, RPG group, Tata group, k.Raheja corp. group of companies, RRL (Reliance retail limited), A.B.Birla group, Gati, Calvin klein,murjani group, Disney artist stores, Vishal group (vishal megamart)
Foreign players in India are
Wal-mart stores, Carrefour, Tesco, Rosy blue group, LVMH Group, Metro
This transition makes the marketing in transition

Transition in Segmentation:
Transition from demographic based segmentation to psychographic based segmentation . since 1950’s market segmentation has been referred to as a process of identifying groups of individuals who are similar in attitudes etc. and the segmentation is of demographic segmentation . after 1970s it is psychographic segmentation , know about the customer taste and preferences and collect at the real time point of purchase data. And now it is need based segmentation is using for different marketing functions like advertising and new product development .

Cause related marketing

Cause related marketing is practiced on the rationale that consumers are human beings are kind hearted. The customer pay the amount with some satisfaction that the specific amount is to for relevant social cause.

Example

A sanitary napkin brand “whisper” announced a contribution o Re.1 on every pack of sales for blind relief society. This helps in improving whisper’s market share.

HLL announced a contribution of Rs 0.50 on the sale of each of its brand of lifebuoy brand soap to a diarrhea project.

Co-branding

Co-branding is when two companies form an alliance to work together, creating marketing synergy. This co-branding is innovative in the marketing practices.

Examples:
• Andhra bank and ICFAI university are using the strategy of co-branding.
• Andhra bank and Hindustan petroleum also launched their co-branded card
• SBI card and LG electronics India launched the LG-SBI card. This is the country’s first co-branded credit card for the consumer appliances industry and can be used at more than 2 lakh outlets in India.
• Idea cellular and HDFC Bank launched two co-branded cards providing multiple benefits to customers of both.
• Pillsbury Brownies with Nestle Chocolate
• Dell Computers with Intel Processors

Online marketing

Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing, Internet advertising, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (E-CRM) systems.

Samsung marketing practices

Viral marketing , interactive marketing

Samsung created its “Fun Club” as a way to engage with Samsung mobile phone owners to help them get the most from their phones. Samsung provides content such as games, ringers, and wallpapers that are designed specifically for Samsung mobile phone models. Hearing about new mobile content is one of the benefits of joining the “Fun Club.” Samsung was looking for a new way to use rich multimedia to promote the game, Skipping Stone, to its customers. Samsung engaged Enpocket to create a mobile marketing campaign promoting Skipping Stone using the graphically rich MMS channel.

Conclusion

In the present competitive scenario, there should be transition in marketing practices in order to survive in the market. Since “change in the only thing which never change” in the world, companies have to adapt themselves according to the changing environment. The best emerging practices in the corporate world is win-win concept to be the leader in the market.

A. ARCHANA

II MBA (2007-2009) BATCH

RL INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES.

MADURAI

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Without marketing your business has no revenues. This marketing may be from word of mouth of clients you’ve served already. Or it may be intentional marketing you create your self. Either way business marketing works. Marketing is the only way to your business success.

Traditional Business Marketing Techniques that Work

Traditionally, we know that ads in magazines, direct-mail postcards, direct-mail sales letters, business networking, telephone calls, and building business relationships all work. In fact, if you’re business marketing strategies are not working, take a look at the copy. What does each ads say? Are you tracking the results of the ad? Did the ad generate revenues for you? If not, you may have had an expense as a result of applying the traditional business marketing techniques. It could be costly to run the ad again using different copy until you find the copy that gets the result you want.

Combine Tradition Business Marketing with Internet Marketing Strategies that Work

Putting internet marketing strategies to work in your business can give you an opportunity to test your ads in a cost effective way. Using internet marketing strategies you can discover what works and doesn’t work with your ad for little or no cost.

Once an ad is getting results using internet marketing strategies, you can put the successful ad in magazines, postcards and even use it on your business card. With an ad that you know gets results the expense of the more traditional marketing techniques is viable.

Powerfully Effective Business Marketing

The combination of internet marketing strategies with traditional business marketing techniques is a powerful way to move your business forward and increase your revenues. It can take as little as three weeks to 90 days to begin seeing new results in your business.

It’s a Magical Combination.

Combining internet marketing strategies with traditional marketing techniques gives you a freedom for expressing yourself uniquely, unlike ever before. Your unique selling point can be easier to create. Your purpose becomes more defined. You are able to attract your ideal clients to your business more easily as a result

Just as business marketing is systematized and repeatable using traditional methods, internet marketing is repeatable and predictable as a clear system to follow. Learn these systems and surge your business revenues forward using the “magical combination” of traditional business marketing and internet marketing.

You’ll be smiling as you check your continuously increasing bank balance.

Juanita Bellavance is an internet marketing mentor with a focus on passive income streams combining internet technologies with other business models.

Create the Magical Combination of Business Marketing and Internet Marketing in 90 Accelerated Days!

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BRILLIANT MARKETING… sounds great, but what is it?

Is it the marketing idea that results in the mailman ringing your doorbell, signaling in a caravan of postal workers with mounds of letters – all in response to your latest advertisement? Is it the idea that brings a 35% response rate on a direct mail campaign… or the one that sends gigabytes of good news in the form of PayPal payment receipt notifications?
Surely all of these ideas would be considered brilliant marketing ideas…right?

Well, maybe… it depends on the cost of generating the response. If the cost of marketing is greater than the income generated, it doesn’t matter how great the response, it’s not the result of brilliant marketing idea!

So what is a brilliant marketing idea? Simple: a brilliant marketing idea is one that brings in profits far greater than the marketing costs associated with generating those profits. Simple in concept, but not so simple in application… unless your marketing focuses on those key elements that make the difference between disappointing marketing results and brilliant marketing results.

Marketing brilliantly means:

Creating Rapport – All of your messages, materials, and tactics must be based on creating rapport with your prospects and customers. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of all business transactions take place because of sense of rapport – a statistic that just can’t be ignored. For example, use phrases like “For Your Convenience” or “Questions Welcome”.

Using the Principals of Psychology – There is a lot of information readily available that tells us what makes prospects buy… incorporating this knowledge in your marketing is critical. For example, did you know that the majority of response from a direct mail campaign comes after the seventh mailing? Why? Because the repetitive exposure finally gets through that part of your prospect’s brain that tries to ignore all of the “noise” coming at it every day.

Affordability – Marketing brilliantly is all about developing materials and tactics to be as inexpensive as possible. This is vital for most small businesses (most of which have a nearly non-existent marketing budget). As simple as this sounds, most businesses focus on designing materials that focus on ego-gratification… after all, it’s more impressive to see a four color ad in print than it is to see one in black and white. BUT… did you know it costs less to print the black and white ad and it actually generates greater response rates than a larger ad (or a four color ad) if it is designed using design tricks like a THICK black border. Marketing brilliantly means knowing these tricks of the trade – and using them to decrease costs while increasing response rates.

Maximizing Everything — Maximizing everything you do as a part of your daily business operations activity – so that it becomes a marketing activity also – is critical to marketing brilliantly. It also means maximizing every element of your marketing materials and activities to bring maximum response. For example, if you are sending our invoices (or any other customer communication for that matter), be sure to include marketing messages or materials in that routine mailing.

Creating Enthusiasm — Every one of your marketing materials must focus on the benefits (and supporting features) of your products and services; this is the most inexpensive and highly effective way to create the energy, enthusiasm, and emotion your prospect must feel in order to buy. People rarely buy because they need something… they buy because they WANT it. For example, just using exclamation points can create enthusiasm and energy in your prospect’s mind!

Being Totally Comprehensive — There are many different ways to market your business and you need to take advantage of every applicable avenue. This includes using business communications to market your business as well as advertising, direct mail, internet marketing, networking, public relations, and customer development tactics. (Customer development includes the more familiar category of customer service but it goes beyond that… incorporating strategies specifically for developing customers into better, repeat customers.)

Using Self-Sustaining Strategies — Operations are the life-blood of every small business; marketing brilliantly means your marketing almost operates on auto-pilot and takes minimal time away from operations. For example, every marketing material you create should be used as many times, as many ways, as possible. Forget the prominent mentality that says every time you need to market something that you need to create from scratch. Not only is it more expensive, but it takes valuable time away from business operations.

Okay, so there you have it: simple, logical, and amazingly powerful techniques for marketing brilliantly.

Alex Barrington, creator of The Brilliant Marketing!™ System is the micro-business marketing pioneer of our time. As a degreed consultant, speaker, author, and regular radio talk show guest, Alex has worked with thousands of micro businesses over the last 15 years developing.

The Brilliant Marketing!™ System is Alex’s innovative, fresh approach to micro-business marketing. Following this brilliantly simple, step-by-step system results in a custom Living Marketing Manual — a marketing tool that focuses on using only low-or-no-cost ideas to successfully market a small business… and it’s so revolutionary that it virtually makes marketing plans obsolete. Complete information on The Brilliant Marketing!™ System and how you can create your own Living Marketing Manual (as well as info on Alex’s books) is available at [http://www.brilliant-marketing-for-small-business.com/ebooks.html] (And while you’re there don’t forget to get your FREE copy of Alex’s quick-read eBook, Brilliant Marketing!™

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The first major marketing concept that small business owners and managers need to understand is consistency. Consistent marketing starts with the creation of an idea then the mission statement, and everything else to follow. Consistent marketing also lowers the cost of marketing, increases synergy among employees, and projects the proper image in advertising and promotions.

Establishing a Brand

When an entrepreneur starts a business, they decide what they are going to sell. Sometimes, they find a want or need in a certain market and create a product or service to fill that void. They buy necessary products or design the proper services, and then they begin selling. They sell to a few customers, get a few more, break even, and even begin to make money. Then sales drop. They are doing okay with their current customers, but some are not buying again, and they are not bringing in more business. They add other products and services, but these just cost more to offer and eventually cost the company more money than they are making. They run advertising campaigns that don’t really connect with the business, and they can’t understand what is wrong.

Here is the answer: Consistency. All marketing activities and concepts revolve around consistency. If owners and managers neglect consistency when it comes to their marketing, which includes collateral, advertising, promotions, and even products and services, they face huge up-hill battles that often are not won. Consistency plays a big part in other aspects of the business: sales, employees, physical locations, and many other elements.

When you begin a business and decide what it is you will sell, you must create a brand immediately. What is meant my creating a brand is determining who you are, who you sell to, what exactly you will sell, and how you will sell it. You must decide upon the specifics that make you unique and what makes customers come to you. While making these decisions you must remain consistent. It is not consistent for a bakery to open and say they are going to sell to health-conscious customers when all they sell are huge, fresh-baked chocolate cookies covered in mounds of peanut butter. There is no consistency to who they are selling to and what they are trying to sell.

There are many aspects to establishing a brand, which we discuss in later topics, but consistency must be a key element in every part of establishing a brand.

Consistent Marketing Collateral

We touched on consistent marketing collateral in “How Much Does Marketing Cost?” but we must reiterate that point here in consistency. If you are creating your marketing materials yourself, or you are obtaining the services of a professional designer, make sure everything is consistent with your brand, image, and the other pieces.

It does your business no good to have a beautiful logo, eye-catching business card, and top-notch brochure if they don’t complement each other and lose consistency. The logo should match what you sell and to who. Next, the business card should match your logo in color schemes, appearances, and what it conveys. Many business owners don’t value consistent marketing collateral and will decide or demand inconsistent elements because they look nice or they think it will make people pick up their card. You want to create business cards that are unique and eye-catching, but potential customers should know it belongs to you, the computer repair guy, and not a fashion designer.

Consistent marketing collateral also means to portray your company in brochures and websites the same way as you do in person. Make sure customers know what they will receive from you when they do reach the physical part of your relationship (i.e. consultation or online order). It will leave a negative result with a customer that sees a brochure with a downtown hi-rise pictured, model-quality customer service reps, and a $1 million dollar reception area and is presented with a small metal building in the middle of no-where and they have to wait in the sun to talk with you. There is nothing wrong with the latter part of that example, but don’t build customers up with different expectations that what they will receive. Being a successful business doesn’t require a huge investment in an office and personnel, but it does require consistent branding and image. A potential target will become a loyal customer if they are prepared before-hand for what they will receive and the business delivers the same way or better each time. Consistency is another name for success, and that includes marketing collateral.

Online Marketing

There are many arguments to be had on the difficulty or simplicity of online marketing. Some professionals will say that online marketing, social networks, and a web presence are easy and anyone can be successful. Others will tell you that it is a complicated process that should be left to professionals that know how to manage it. Either way, they will agree on one thing: consistency.

The online world has attracted a lot of players, and not all are good. For this reason, any business trying to establish their brand online must develop trust and lasting relationships with customers and potential targets. The easiest way to do this is through consistent marketing. Using the same avatar, posting similar ads, and targeting similar groups are examples of consistent marketing. Keep in mind, once someone sees any of these consistent examples and decides to surf to your web site, it must remain consistent. Using a crazy animated ad to draw attention may get clicks to your site, but those clicks will mean nothing if the user leaves your site immediately because it is not what they expected.

One major area that must remain consistent with the rest of your marketing efforts is your social network. As a small business, the owner or general manager will probably be in charge of social networking sites, blog postings, and other social activities on the web. You may also decide to outsource this work, and find a marketing firm that can handle these tedious tasks for you. Either way, you must make sure that you, your employee, or your hired firm produce a consistent image with what you sell, who you sell to, and how you sell it. You don’t want your myspace page to be full of teen pictures, music, and alcohol bottles if your company sells computer equipment to doctor’s offices. Your networking pages can have a personal twist to them, especially if your business is small and the owner is the one managing this segment of your marketing, but make sure you are attracting potential customers and delivering the proper brand image.

Another mistake that is made in online marketing is an inconsistent website. Some businesses will never make use of social networking sites like facebook or myspace, but everyone must have a web site. Today’s society demands some type of online presence even if that means just a website. 66% of consumers surf the web before making purchases. Unfortunately, many business owners fail to convert potential customers because their website turns customers away. Businesses must realize that a website is just like a physical store. If it looks cheap, cluttered, and dirty, customers will leave. They will not dig deep, ask many questions, or make purchases. They will just leave!

Web design can be an expense that many businesses can’t see a need for, but a properly designed site will go a long way. Many owners and managers feel that they can design their own website with the help of a book and Microsoft Frontpage, but more times than not, that is not true. Some owners and managers have the experience and know-how to produce a professional website, but if you don’t have that ability, you should seek help. In the end, the site must be consistent with your other marketing collateral and your brand. When a customer takes a brochure and then looks to your site for more information, it must give them the same feeling and expectation as the brochure and your sales staff does.

Sales Management and Other Employees

One major key to success in your business is creating synergy among your employees. By establishing a consistent mission statement, purpose, and cohesive goal, you can bring your employees together and allow them to provide consistent results with that of your other employees and your brand image.

There is an ongoing feud between sales and marketing departments between who is responsible for what. By creating consistency between your marketing and sales management, these two departments can come together and work together instead of against each other. The primary item to understand is to make sure you are directing your company and its staff in a similar and consistent manner. Each department must perform their tasks in unison with the others so that you deliver a consistent message, product, and service to your customers.

Advertising and Promotions

The final area of marketing consistency is advertising and promotions. Once you have defined who your company is, what is will sell, and who you will sell it to, you have to maintain this consistency in promotions and marketing.

Pay attention to the various marketing campaigns you encounter. Compare them to the rest of the message that you receive from that company. Is it consistent? Do you get the same image and feeling from that advertising campaign as you do from their online efforts? Think about this when creating and implementing your marketing campaigns.

To create consistent marketing and advertising campaigns doesn’t mean you have to run the same ads everywhere. Many times this is effective, but it is not always the case. Creating consistent campaigns means to analyze your basic brand and be sure you are conveying the right message. If one campaign positions your company as a traditional accounting firm with solid experience, and the next campaign portrays your company as the cutting-edge modern accounting agency with young professionals, your target audiences will get confused.

Another place to consider consistency is within an individual campaign. Let’s say you are trying to drive your existing customer base that is used to coming into your physical store to your website. You have created summer-long campaign filled with instructional brochures, direct mail pieces, in-store promotions, and various other activities. Consistency will become an issue and this campaign will probably end up a failure, if each activity is different. You give away golf balls in your store, but your direct-mail pieces are themed with cook-out imagery. Your brochures pitch your website as easy to use, but your sales staff tells you customers they need to sit through 8 seminars to be able to log on. All of these are inconsistent and don’t produce a similar theme or message.

There are several reasons for consistency, especially in advertising and promotional campaigns. First, potential customers are bombarded with advertising every where they go, everything they hear, and everything they see. Second, it takes at least 3 real impressions before a potential customer will take notice of something new that was not referred by word-of-mouth. Some sources say it is as many as 7 impressions before your campaign will take effect. Consistency in campaigns will result in more impressions that have effect on potential customers. This also relates to the rest of you business. Once you have a customer, you must continue to remind them who are and why they should continue to buy from you. Consistent letterhead, websites, brochures, advertising campaigns, and sponsorships all contribute to consistent branding and image-building.

Nate Stockard offers free consulting at freemarketinganswers.com, created by Stockard & Associates, Inc, a marketing and design firm in Houston, TX specializing in small business solutions.

His 13 years of marketing experience is also put on display at The Market Seedling, an informative source of information, articles, tips, and advice for small business owners and marketers.

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There are many simple, infallible ways to earn income, and one of the surest ways is through marketing your business on the internet. When you learn basic internet marketing techniques, you’ll wonder why you haven’t already jumped on the bandwagon. When you think about it, the only things you’ll need to make money is a vision of what you want out of life and the wisdom and energy to put your ideas into motion.

Basic internet marketing techniques can teach us how to acquire wealth, and an important factor is to provide something the public needs (or think they need) whether it is a product, a service, information or something else entirely – there are many choices.

Every business has a goal of making money, and every business has something to sell. You will need knowledge and a product before you begin your internet marketing. You may need at least a small amount of capital to start your business, although the outlay could be relatively small if you are selling information or services as opposed to a tangible product.

You will need to develop a web site for advertising and informational purposes; if you have the ability to do it yourself, so much the better. If you don’t then consider one of my business partners Plug-In Profit Sites, they are an excellent way to start out in online business.

Like any other business, internet marketers need sales leads. Retail merchants who set up offices or shops are able to buy lists of potential customers, or they may ask their employees and acquaintances to provide them with lists of names to get their business started and begin making sales. The world of internet marketing utilises marketing leads, which you can purchase from reputable companies.

Internet marketing is a very competitive market, and a large portion of your time should be spent generating new marketing leads to drive your sales. You can generate these through your own advertising or by growing and developing an opt-in e-mail list of potential prospects to which you can send your offers.

New services and products are introduced over the internet every day as fast as a speeding bullet. Some of the reasons for these new developments can be attributed to market conditions, new technology, improved search engines, or totally new concepts or products. There are services that will help you develop your internet marketing leads and attract new clients, but use them with caution and always make sure your leads are double opt-in to avoid any potential spam complaints.

One of the most common ways to attract new customers is to develop an email list. Although email marketing may not be as effective as it once was due to software that filters out “spam,” it does still work. One of the best features of email advertising is that it is a free method of getting the word out that you’re in business. The response to emails is still good when it does reach the intended party. Incentives such as freebies of reports, programs or products entice potential buyers to read the email.

You can see how I do this on my website http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com. I capture signups to my newsletter through a signup form and this produces me a list of targeted prospects to which I send my newsletter and any hot offers I decide to endorse.

An important part of email marketing is that it can be repeated again and again. You can start out with a small list of marketing and sales leads for your online business, and then build from a few email recipients until you have established a loyal clientele. In addition to generating email marketing leads, you may want to consider a couple of other methods of “getting the word out.”

Another internet marketing technique involves utilizing pay-per-click (referred to as PPC) advertising, whereby participants bid on keywords and pay a varying sum of money every time someone clicks on you advert. The two biggest PPC services are Google Adwords and Overture, but it’s definitely worth your while investigating smaller services as the competition is less and prices cheaper. A click is click, as long you hyper target your market it doesn’t matter where it comes from.

An excellent way to inform others about your business is to join one of the many forums related to marketing. You can post information, ask questions and receive answers from other internet marketers, it is also a good way to gain name recognition and credibility within you niche market, which in turn will gain you extra traffic to your website and should increase your sales.

When you begin your internet marketing endeavours, be sure to establish enough marketing leads to sustain your business and make it profitable, develop a good internet marketing strategy early on in your planning stages. An excellent course on how to market your business online is Cory Rudl’s #1 Training Course and provides everything you need to know about marketing your business online.

Copyright © Ian Canaway, A Successful Home Business 4 U

(Feel free to use this article online and in your email newsletters as long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. The byline and biography must remain in the article.)

Ian Canaway is a home business entrepreneur and the owner of http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com and also a home business based blog at [http://www.ahomebusinessblog4u.blogspot.com] ; providing high quality information and resources. Check us out Now!

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What EXACTLY Are You Marketing Anyway?

When you’re networking, creating a brochure, writing an article or conducting any other activity to market your small business, do you have a clear idea of what EXACTLY it is that you’re marketing?

Of course – you’re marketing your small business, but do you have a clear sense of what you need to… in fact, absolutely have to… actually market to prospective clients?

What about marketing, what you do? Sure, that’s an important item to market about your business.

Most small business owners believe they know exactly what they do. And they believe they can convey what they do, to prospects in a way they’ll understand.

If you’re an accountant, you probably think you do “accounting.” If you’re a business consultant, you probably think you provide “consulting services” for businesses. But when it comes to marketing, generalizations and labels aren’t enough. If you don’t have a laser-focused description of EXACTLY what you do, your prospects aren’t going to know. And if nobody knows exactly what you do, how will anyone know they need your services?

So, of course, if you want to succeed with marketing, start by developing a crystal clear description of what you do. But, marketing what you do really is NOT exactly what you should be marketing about your business…

Okay then, what about marketing who your target market is?

Of course a target market is important. I preach and preach to choose a niche and specialize in that niche. Of course you should choose a niche and indicate that niche in your marketing.

But really, is your niche what you are marketing? Is it what you should absolutely be marketing?

The answer is no.

The thing that you’re marketing, the thing that you should be marketing, the thing that will make a huge difference in your marketing is…

Marketing EXACTLY you do for your prospects that solve their 3Ps — pain, problem or predicament.

You see, what you do, in the form of accounting or business consulting or dental work or massage therapy or whatever else is really important. Who you work with in terms of moms, or corporate CEOs or IT departments is imperative too. But the most important thing you’re marketing is solving problems, fixing problems, what’s in it for them, alleviating the 3Ps that every prospect has.

And too many small business owners miss this.

If you market your services in a way that details EXACTLY how you can solve your prospects’ pains, problems, or predicaments, they’ll be much more likely to identify with and respond to what you’re saying. They’ll know you’re talking to THEM.

When you really stop to think about this… you see that it’s absolutely true. The reason people buy from serviced based businesses is to solve a pain, problem or predicament. That’s basically about it. The level of severity varies greatly, but it is all about problem, pain, predicament solving.

So, drop the labels = accountant, business coach, dentist, chiropractor. Quit focusing too much on processes and procedures. Identify your target, but don’t forget that the exact thing you are really marketing is EXACTLY how you will solve a prospects’ pain, problem or predicament.

When you know EXACTLY what you’re marketing, you’re much more likely to succeed. Now you know. So, go forth and fix it, solve it, remedy it and profit from it.

If you’re having a hard time figuring out how to market to the 3P’s (pain, problem or predicament) of your prospect, I suggest picking-up a copy of my book (see below for details) or seriously consider joining the next round of my Marketing Mentoring Groups program (details coming soon).

Copyright © 2008-2009. Jeanna Pool. All rights reserved. If you liked this article, learn even more proven small business marketing ideas for marketing your services successfully. Jeanna Pool is the author of the When Your Small Business is YOU Marketing Handbook and a small business marketing consultant who can help you attract many more clients consistently. Visit Jeanna’s website at http://www.MarketingThatWorks.com for more information.

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E SPOT PROMO VIDEO

Is marketing one of the last bastions of unregulated expenditure within a business?

There is growing pressure from the Boardroom and Executive Management Committee’s to bring marketing and communications expenditure to heal. However, this is more fundamental than simply requiring the Marketing Director to take an obedience class. It’s not just about control, but increasingly performance, measurement and extracting a true understanding of the genuine return on investment that marketing and individual marketing campaigns are bringing to the business.

Too long perhaps has the Industry been hiding behind the excuse that marketing is a complex function, with multi-dimensional facets that embrace social, behavioural and emotional attributes whose very subjectivity tends to mean that they can only be assessed by qualitative assessment and not by any more stringent quantitative cost benefit modelling.

There are a plethora of quotes which more often than not are used by senior executives when talking about or even to their Corporate Communications or Marketing Directors… ‘I know half of my marketing expenditure is working. I’m just not sure which half that is…

One conclusion might be that this is just a sort term macro-economic driven response. When times are hard, budget pressures increase and expenditure levels are subject to greater scrutiny. It has always been so…and it will all be forgotten once the good times start to flow again…but will it?

Perhaps not. True CFO’s maybe using the current macro-economic situation as a stalking horse, but this simply reflects their long held belief that marketing needs to be subjected to the same financial rigours as the rest of the business.

So be prepared. Be very prepared.

So is there cause for communications consternation or marketing mayhem… amongst the marketing departments up and down the land?

Not necessarily. Firstly though it’s important to recognise and accept the fact that this
is and will continue to be a reality of business life. Secondly, to plan for it and to pre-emptively prepare for it. This will help to ensure that the initiative still rests within the marketing function and not elsewhere within the organisation.

There are three steps that need to be taken to help move marketing into the realms of business metrics normality:

- Accountability

- Measurability

- Return On Investment.

Individual businesses might well have addressed some of these elements, but very few have done so as a single end to end process.

The first step like many things the hardest. But critically having done it once, it gets easier – because once a base line has been established a reference point exists against which all future analysis can be benchmarked.

In addition it’s worth remembering is that the process is an iterative one and can and should be evolved and developed campaign on campaign, and year on year.

Accountability

This is already well established within most organisations marketing departments, in terms of business & personal objectives, project team management, performance reviews, internal publication of these on the corporate intranet and in the more advanced companies agency & supplier objectives and performance reviews.

What’s important here is not only that the team knows whose doing what and whose responsible for delivering it, but also that the rest of the organisation has the same level of understanding and sense of transparency into the marketing department.

Measurement

This is where for many people it gets a bit harder. But it’s doesn’t have to be. The starting place quite clearly is in the setting of the key objectives for the given campaign or individual activity.

The process of measurement is simply to be able to have in place a structure or format that allows an exercise to be undertaken that can determine whether the agreed objectives have been achieved. This means defining key criteria that can be monitored, can be collated and then assessed against a meaningful target – either a previous year’s benchmark or an industry reference indicator or indeed ‘best effort insights’.

The challenge is identifying the criteria and then being able to find the most appropriate method of credibly and cost effectively monitoring them.

Return on Investment

Typically ROI has been defined as the money the business makes on any given project/activity that is greater than the original investment made or cost incurred. Marketing has always found it hard to be included within any given ROI as anything other than a pure cost. An almost necessary evil, CEO’s may think ‘as everyone else is doing it, it can’t be wrong’ or ‘if I don’t and my competitors do – can I afford not to?’

There is a potential solution though.

Smart:ROI Index though looks not simply at the pure numerical functional analysis of the marketing campaigns but also the wider picture. It is designed to express the benefits and impacts of both the formal quantitative financial analysis and the qualitative market performance assessment. The combination of these two gives a broader and more balanced understanding of how effective marketing investment projects, campaigns and activities have performed.

Smart:ROI Index is determined by calculating the financial cost/benefit ROI %, together with the combined total of 4 qualitative performance indicators or metrics, such as % market share increase/decrease, % brand awareness increase, or media coverage growth.

To work through an example. If a given marketing campaign has costs of £100,000 and produces (directly/indirectly) revenue/benefits of £130,000, the Financial % ROI is £130,000 divided by £100,000 multiplied by 100 – equalling 130%.

On the Performance Metric side there are in this example four metrics, Market Share, Brand Awareness, Advertising Responses and Media Coverage. The percentage increase (or decrease) is calculated for each of these – based on historic data.

So let’s assume that market share has increased by 2%, brand awareness by 3%, advertising responses by 6% and media coverage by 8%. These are then added together to give a total Performance ROI of 19%.

The two totals are then added together to give a Smart:ROI Index of 149%

So what does this actually tell a company? Well it certainly reflects a more balanced and realistic view of the marketing campaign by demonstrating not simply the pure cold financial calculation, but also the other contributory factors that will impact the success of a campaign and the overall business.

The Smart:ROI Index therefore allows Marketing Directors and CFO’s to both have a better understanding of how effectively the marketing budget is being managed.

So there will be no need for the Marketing Director to ‘sit and beg’ in front of the CFO for more budget next year, as the CFO will already pavlovian like believe that he is as happy with the marketing spend as a dog with two tails…

This article was originally printed on the Strategic fusion website, and you can learn more about Smart ROI [http://www.strategic-fusion.com/our_articles/index.php] here.

Stephen Rogers has over twenty years’ experience in strategic marketing and corporate communications gained across the government, business and consumer arenas.

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