Marketing
Date: 02/04/2004
By: HaSu Ranch: Susan Muther
Link: www.breedworks.biz
Copyright: BreedWorks
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 What is marketing?
If you ask most people, their answer is, advertising, selling, brand management, promotions, and even pricing. Well this may come as a surprise but, it is not any of these. Although very important, these are all simply tactics. And like the tactics of sports, they are completely useless without a plan. They may all involve a number of activities and they may have varied goals. But it is marketing that is the boss of them all. It is a company's marketing that will drive and focus each and every one of these activities. Marketing is strategy, plain and simple. Well maybe not simple.
While tactical activities are focused on getting your needs met, a successful marketing strategy should focus on your customers needs. No matter what you're selling, today's market place is broad and deep, providing buyers with countless choices and opportunities to buy. Therefore, differentiation is essential and connecting to your buyer takes more than a good product. Today's buyer is savvier, they want what they want--no compromises, and they are most likely a woman.
So what does that mean for your marketing? Well it means in order to succeed you are going to need to find out what your customer wants. This may sound difficult, but it isn't, it just takes time, effort and analysis.
What type of analysis are we talking about? Well to start, we need to identify who actually is our customer. We need a solid understanding of their tastes, behaviors, motivations and perceptions.
This customer analysis will help us to focus our tactical efforts (advertising, emails, pricing etc) for maximum effect. With this information we'll know how to speak to them, where to reach them, and if done right, how to make them want our product.
But that's not the only analysis needed-- we must also look at our competition. It is not enough to merely know who they are; we must discover what they are about. What are their goals and objectives, their capabilities, strengths and weaknesses? What is the public's perception of them and their position in the marketplace. Once we uncover these facts, we'll be better armed to formulate a strategy for ourselves. But wait, we're not done with analysis yet.
Last but definitely not least, we need to turn the mirror on ourselves. Self-awareness is essential for success in any competitive venture. And if you are in business you are in competition. Knowing our strengths and weakness will help us identify opportunities for, and threats to our success. We need to ask questions like: are we good communicators, do we have good people skills, do we have a quality product, do we have a good public image, are we financially strong or weak.
Once we plum the depths of our business and ourselves, we need to compare it to what we learned about our competition. It is here where we can further hone our strategy. What does the competition do well and what do they lack? How does this compare to our particular strengths and weakness? What are the gaps or opportunities that our competitor's strategy and process provides? Basically, where are they not meeting their client's needs and how can we fill the gap?
And where are they succeeding and why? Is this an area in which we are equally strong or do we need to improve? In the final analysis, we should have a clear plan to differentiate ourselves, meet customers' needs, gaining their trust and loyalty.
At this point, we have a clear picture of our competitive situation. We know our customers, our competition and ourselves. We know exactly where we stand today--our "position" in the market place and the publics mind. From this place we can look forward and determine what our "positioning" will be for the future and how we hope to influence public perception. The distinction between these two places is important. Knowledge of where we are now allows us to strategies and navigate our path going forward. One may hear it said, that in the Alpaca Business, you must position yourself one way or the other to succeed. It is true, determining your positioning is a critical piece of strategic marketing. However, it should not be confused with your position. It is not within the power of an individual business to position themselves as anything. We can only focus our efforts and messages in such ways that may hopefully influence our position. In other words, our position is a place, and someone else puts us there: our prospects.
So when thinking about your positioning statement, don't confuse it with your actual position--the cold plain fact of how your prospects perceive you and what you do. Positioning is where you want to be. It's what you want your customers to think and feel about you.
The next step in developing a sound marketing plan, is to set goals. These goals should be specific, time based and measurable. Saying "I want to place and ad" is not a goal--it's a tactic. Goals for an alpaca business might include: I want to sell 4 animals this year; I want to grow my client base by 20 more people this year; I want to host 3 educational seminars this year.
Once we identify what we want to accomplish this year, we'll develop the tactics for achieving them. Having already defined our typical customer, we are armed with useful knowledge about communicating with them. We know where to reach themwhat magazines they read, what make them want our product. With this knowledge as our guide, we choose our tactics. Marketing tactics include everything from advertising, email campaigning, pricing, web sites, newsletters to CRM (client relationship management).
Now the fun really begins. We are ready to put the pedal to the metal and put the plan to work. This of course, assumes that during our self-analysis, we included our farm identity. If this is all in order, consistent and effective, we can begin implementing the plan. This includes designing, building and strategically scheduling our tactics. Well create a calendar to outline the timeline for our plan identifying optimal times to target our customers. Once thats done we begin building our website, our offline printed materials, we'll publish articles, write and schedule emails and newsletters, create a sales catalog, and design and build our show display. And of course, all these items are designed to be consistent and aligned behind our brand--- they share the same visuals, tone and styles established in our farm identity. To make our efforts fruitful, they should be coordinated and all drive back to our web site. It's here where we'll capture helpful information about our customers, and monitor the effectiveness of our tactics.
Measure and Refine
Our job is not done yet. We need to constantly monitor the results. Is our message on target, are people responding well, are we being heard? By keeping an eye on our progress we can refine our message, change gears or simply gain affirmation we are on the right track. In order to make proper assessments we should track the growth of our client list, track responses from printed mailings and emails, evaluate "lead to prospect to customer" ratio, fine tube contact categories, track search engine placement, and continually publish fresh content to our website.
To market effectively, you need a strategy. And to have a good strategy you'll need to spend some time and energy towards developing it. Its time and energy that is best spent by you personally, not any one else. Certainly, Marketing professionals may facilitate the process. But nothing can replace the intimate knowledge you have of yourself, your competition and your customer. If you follow the guidelines put forth here, you can attain your marketing goals, with relative ease and great cost efficiency. Driving your marketing efforts with a solid strategy ensures your tactics are properly targeted and ultimately fruitful.
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