V. Marketing Plan
Market research - Why?
No matter how good your product and your service, the venture cannot succeed
without effective marketing. And
... [Show More] this begins with careful, systematic research. It is very
dangerous to assume that you already know about your intended market. You need to
do market research to make sure you’re on track. Use the business planning process as
your opportunity to uncover data and to question your marketing efforts. Your time
will be well spent.
Market research - How?
There are two kinds of market research: primary and secondary.
Secondary research means using published information such as industry profiles, trade
journals, newspapers, magazines, census data, and demographic profiles. This type of
information is available in public libraries, industry associations, chambers of
commerce, from vendors who sell to your industry, and from government agencies.
Start with your local library. Most librarians are pleased to guide you through their
business data collection. You will be amazed at what is there. There are more online
sources than you could possibly use. Your chamber of commerce has good information
on the local area. Trade associations and trade publications often have excellent
industry-specific data.
Primary research means gathering your own data. For example, you could do your own
traffic count at a proposed location, use the yellow pages to identify competitors, and
do surveys or focus-group interviews to learn about consumer preferences.
Professional market research can be very costly, but there are many books that show
small business owners how to do effective research themselves.
In your marketing plan, be as specific as possible; give statistics, numbers, and sources.
The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the all-important sales projection.
Economics
Facts about your industry:
• What is the total size of your market?
Page 8 of 31
• What percent share of the market will you have? (This is important only if you
think you will be a major factor in the market.)
• Current demand in target market.
• Trends in target market—growth trends, trends in consumer preferences, and
trends in product development.
• Growth potential and opportunity for a business of your size.
• What barriers to entry do you face in entering this market with your new
company? Some typical barriers are:
o High capital costs
o High production costs
o High marketing costs
o Consumer acceptance and brand recognition
o Training and skills
o Unique technology and patents
o Unions
o Shipping costs
o Tariff barriers and quotas
• And of course, how will you overcome the barriers?
• How could the following affect your company?
o Change in technology
o Change in government regulations
o Change in the economy
o Change in your industry
Page 9 of 31
Product
In the Products and Services section, you described your products and services as you see
them. Now describe them from your customers’ point of view.
Features and Benefits
List all of your major products or services.
For each product or service:
• Describe the most important features. What is special about it?
• Describe the benefits. That is, what will the product do for the customer?
Note the difference between features and benefits, and think about them. For example,
a house that gives shelter and lasts a long time is made with certain materials and to a
certain design; those are its features. Its benefits include pride of ownership, financial
security, providing for the family, and inclusion in a neighborhood. You build features
into your product so that you can sell the benefits.
What after-sale services will you give? Some examples are delivery, warranty, service
contracts, support, follow-up, and refund policy.
Customers
Identify your targeted customers, their characteristics, and their geographic locations,
otherwise known as their demographics.
The description will be completely different depending on whether you plan to sell to
other businesses or directly to consumers. If you sell a consumer product, but sell it
through a channel of distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, you must carefully analyze
both the end consumer and the middleman businesses to which you sell.
You may have more than one customer group. Identify the most important groups.
Then, for each customer group, construct what is called a demographic profile:
• Age
• Gender
• Location
Page 10 of 31
• Income level
• Social class and occupation
• Education
• Other (specific to your industry)
• Other (specific to your industry)
For business customers, the demographic factors might be:
• Industry (or portion of an industry)
• Location
• Size of firm
• Quality, technology, and price preferences
• Other (specific to your industry)
• Other (specific to your industry)
Competition
What products and companies will compete with you?
List your major competitors:
(Names and addresses)
Will they compete with you across the board, or just for certain products, certain
customers, or in certain locations?
Will you have important indirect competitors? (For example, video rental stores
compete with theaters, although they are different types of businesses.)
How will your products or services compare with the competition?
Use the Competitive Analysis table below to compare your company with your two
most important competitors. In the first column are key competitive factors. Since these
vary from one industry to another, you may want to customize the list of factors.
Page 11 of 31
In the column labeled Me, state how you honestly think you will stack up in customers'
minds. Then check whether you think this factor will be a strength or a weakness for
you. Sometimes it is hard to analyze our own weaknesses. Try to be very honest here.
Better yet, get some disinterested strangers to assess you. This can be a real eye-opener.
And remember that you cannot be all things to all people. In fact, trying to be causes
many business failures because efforts become scattered and diluted. You want an
honest assessment of your firm's strong and weak points.
Now analyze each major competitor. In a few words, state how you think they compare.
In the final column, estimate the importance of each competitive factor to the customer.
1 = critical; 5 = not very important.
Table 1: Competitive Analysis
Factor Me Strength Weakness Competitor A Competitor B Importance to
Customer
Products
Price
Quality
Selection
Service
Reliability
Stability
Expertise
Company
Reputation
Location
Appearance
Page 12 of 31
Factor Me Strength Weakness Competitor A Competitor B Importance to
Customer
Sales Method
Credit Policies
Advertising
Image
Now, write a short paragraph stating your competitive advantages and disadvantages.
Niche
Now that you have systematically analyzed your industry, your product, your
customers, and the competition, you should have a clear picture of where your
company fits into the world.
In one short paragraph, define your niche, your unique corner of the market.
Strategy
Now outline a marketing strategy that is consistent with your niche.
Promotion
How will you get the word out to customers?
Advertising: What media, why, and how often? Why this mix and not some other?
Have you identified low-cost methods to get the most out of your promotional budget?
Will you use methods other than paid advertising, such as trade shows, catalogs, dealer
incentives, word of mouth (how will you stimulate it?), and network of friends or
professionals?
What image do you want to project? How do you want customers to see you?
Page 13 of 31
In addition to advertising, what plans do you have for graphic image support? This
includes things like logo design, cards and letterhead, brochures, signage, and interior
design (if customers come to your place of business).
Should you have a system to identify repeat customers and then systematically contact
them?
Promotional Budget
How much will you spend on the items listed above?
Before startup? (These numbers will go into your startup budget.)
Ongoing? (These numbers will go into your operating plan budget.)
Pricing
Explain your method or methods of setting prices. For most small businesses, having
the lowest price is not a good policy. It robs you of needed profit margin; customers
may not care as much about price as you think; and large competitors can under price
you anyway. Usually you will do better to have average prices and compete on quality
and service.
Does your pricing strategy fit with what was revealed in your competitive analysis?
Compare your prices with those of the competition. Are they higher, lower, the same?
Why?
How important is price as a competitive factor? Do your intended customers really
make their purchase decisions mostly on price?
What will be your customer service and credit policies?
Proposed Location
Probably you do not have a precise location picked out yet. This is the time to think
about what you want and need in a location. Many startups run successfully from home
for a while.
You will describe your physical needs later, in the Operational Plan section. Here,
analyze your location criteria as they will affect your customers.
Page 14 of 31
Is your location important to your customers? If yes, how?
If customers come to your place of business:
Is it convenient? Parking? Interior spaces? Not out of the way?
Is it consistent with your image?
Is it what customers want and expect?
Where is the competition located? Is it better for you to be near them (like car dealers or
fast food restaurants) or distant (like convenience food stores)?
Distribution Channels
How do you sell your products or services?
Retail
Direct (mail order, Web, catalog)
Wholesale
Your own sales force
Agents
Independent representatives
Bid on contracts
Sales Forecast
Now that you have described your products, services, customers, markets, and
marketing plans in detail, it’s time to attach some numbers to your plan. Use a sales
forecast spreadsheet to prepare a month-by-month projection. The forecast should be
based on your historical sales, the marketing strategies that you have just described,
your market research, and industry data, if available.
You may want to do two forecasts: 1) a "best guess", which is what you really expect,
and 2) a "worst case" low estimate that you are confident you can reach no matter what
happens.
Page 15 of 31
Remember to keep notes on your research and your assumptions as you build this sales
forecast and all subsequent spreadsheets in the plan. This is critical if you are going to
present it to funding sources.
This is my paper so far
Table of Contents
Table of Contents. 1
1.0 Executive Summary.. 3
2.1 General company description.. 3
3.0 Product services. 4
4.0 SWOT Analysis. 7
Strengths. 7
Weaknesses. 8
Threats. 9
5.0 Marketing plan.. 9
5.1 Industry Environmental Scan. 9
5.2.1 iSqFT. 10
5.2.2 PlanGrid. 11
5.2.3 BuilderTREND.. 11
5.2.4 Xactimate. 12
6.0 Operating Plans. 12
6.1 Operations Strategy. 13
6.2 Professional management in the Entrepreneurial Firm. 13
6.3.1 Major Benefits. 14
6.4 Risk Analysis. 15
6.5 Process value analysis (Outsourcing) 15
6.6 Key assumptions and options analysis. 16
6.7 On-going Operations. 17
6.8 Personnel. 17
Recruitment selection. 17
6.9 training and development 18
6.10 promotions. 19
6.11 legal environment 20
7.0 Management and Organization.. 20
7.1 Leadership Style. 20
7.2 Organization Chart. 21
7.3 IT Governance Plan. 21
8.0 Personal Financial Statement.. 22
Revenues and Costs. 22
Risk Analysis. 23
Sensitivity Analysis. 23
9.0 Startup expenses. 23
7.2 ROI (Return on Investment) 25
7.3 Profit and Loss Statement. 25
11.0 Conclusion.. 28
Appendices. 32 [Show Less]