Here's the thing: it's simply not enough to be good at what you do nowadays.
I'm sure you've encountered people in your professional life who have less than stellar professional abilities but are getting loads of gigs. You wonder, "Why?" - when your resume is way better than theirs.
Well, it may simply be because they are better marketers, and they have been implementing a strategic marketing plan.
They may not keep clients over a long time, but you have to admit, they're pretty darn good at reeling them in. And reeling them in means knowing and truly understanding their needs - and knowing your business well enough to be able to address those needs.
You know you need to create a strategic marketing plan that promotes your great abilities or your products and services, but first of all, realize that you might be the best at what you do, but if nobody knows about you and your offering, and why they're of value, then you can't expect clients or customers to come running towards you.
Needless to say, a well-conceived and properly implemented strategic marketing plan is the foundation for your business' success.
So how do you do it? Go back to the basics. Only when all these things are clear to you can you implement a great marketing plan:
# 1 Know EVERYTHING about your business.
What are you product or service strengths? Know all these by heart, including your pricing, sales promotion and distribution methods, etc. Take a look at your industry. Is it growing or declining?
#2 Know your prospects, clients, customers.
Who are they in terms of age, status, income, job title, etc.? Do you know their habits more or less? Where do they shop, what do they read, watch, and listen to? What do they currently value most about your offerings - convenience? Service? Reliability? Affordability? Your friendly face and good looks perhaps? How did previous clients/customers learn about your product or service? Was it through email, public relations, advertising, word of mouth?
#3 Check out your competition.
In your target area, how many competitors do you have? What do they offer that you don't? What online marketing strategies do they use. Is their website and content better than yours?
#4 Know your budget.
What were the methods you have used that had been most effective? Which tools or strategies did you used that required least amount of time and money, yet delivered great results? Do you need to make new action plans? If yes, what's the budget for its implementation?
After you've answered all these questions and are now ready to develop a strategic marketing plan, don't forget to keep this in mind: your prospects ALWAYS want to know what's in it for them. Your marketing efforts are less about you and your business than they are about your clients, and customers. Take with you the confidence that comes from truly knowing and understanding your business, so that you can come up with a great plan that will make you a winning online marketer.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Grow Your Income - Form a Small Business Marketing Consulting Team
Small business owners are typically hands-on and multi-tasking managers who, while having realized the need to take their business to the next level on the Internet, have neither the knowledge nor the time to learn the ropes of online marketing.
Business owners, professionals and non-techies who would like to have their own websites will definitely need the services of marketing consultants to take care of:
* Web design and construction,
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
* Web content writing,
* Sales copywriting,
* Data encoding and everything there is to do for launching and maintaining their websites.
By organizing a small business marketing consulting team, you can accept more clients and charge higher recurring fees than anyone working solo.
Benefits of a small business marketing consulting team
One-stop shop for small business clients
Busy business owners prefer to deal with one person rather than several consultants at a time so that they can turn their attention to other aspects of the business. As a team of consultants, it's easy to offer a comprehensive package of services such as web design and construction, content writing, SEO, copywriting, without having to do them all by yourself.
Share in the workload
As a team, it will be easy for any member to unload some of the work occasionally in case something more urgent like an unexpected family matter or illness comes up. Sharing responsibilities also allows your consulting team to take on more work without overwhelming anyone with too much responsibility.
Higher incomes
While a team of freelancing consultants may work together on some projects, they remain independent of each other and have multiple sources of income outside of the shared consultancy. Moreover, a robust package of marketing services will definitely fetch a higher price than an individual service fee. Having more clients also mean higher revenues as a team.
What you will need
Aside from having a good set of skilled contacts you are willing to work with you as a team, you will also need to develop systems to manage projects and team members efficiently. The fastest way to have a system in place is to either outsource its development or to adopt one that has been developed and tested by an expert.
In fact, even if you work as a small business marketing consulting team, constantly simplifying and systemizing tasks and finding new ways of doing work quickly will promote client satisfaction, improve quality of work, and boost income while enjoying a good work-life balance.
Business owners, professionals and non-techies who would like to have their own websites will definitely need the services of marketing consultants to take care of:
* Web design and construction,
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
* Web content writing,
* Sales copywriting,
* Data encoding and everything there is to do for launching and maintaining their websites.
By organizing a small business marketing consulting team, you can accept more clients and charge higher recurring fees than anyone working solo.
Benefits of a small business marketing consulting team
One-stop shop for small business clients
Busy business owners prefer to deal with one person rather than several consultants at a time so that they can turn their attention to other aspects of the business. As a team of consultants, it's easy to offer a comprehensive package of services such as web design and construction, content writing, SEO, copywriting, without having to do them all by yourself.
Share in the workload
As a team, it will be easy for any member to unload some of the work occasionally in case something more urgent like an unexpected family matter or illness comes up. Sharing responsibilities also allows your consulting team to take on more work without overwhelming anyone with too much responsibility.
Higher incomes
While a team of freelancing consultants may work together on some projects, they remain independent of each other and have multiple sources of income outside of the shared consultancy. Moreover, a robust package of marketing services will definitely fetch a higher price than an individual service fee. Having more clients also mean higher revenues as a team.
What you will need
Aside from having a good set of skilled contacts you are willing to work with you as a team, you will also need to develop systems to manage projects and team members efficiently. The fastest way to have a system in place is to either outsource its development or to adopt one that has been developed and tested by an expert.
In fact, even if you work as a small business marketing consulting team, constantly simplifying and systemizing tasks and finding new ways of doing work quickly will promote client satisfaction, improve quality of work, and boost income while enjoying a good work-life balance.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
5 Step Action Plan For Successful Export Marketing
Export marketing is a serious issue for most growing companies in today's interconnected global economy. Whether to export or not, where to and how to, are the major questions for companies willing to expand their international markets.
Export marketing is not just a process to find buyers/importers and approach them with the expectation of export orders but a well planned strategic marketing process one should follow and performed well to get success in International Market. Since last 10 years of my International Marketing consultancy practice, I have found that major export marketing efforts get failed due to lack of implementing strategic marketing action plan.
So what is that strategic marketing action plan..?
Strategic marketing action plan is a set of key functional areas of export marketing which should be performed well and followed step by step to get succeed in Export marketing. Performing following key tasks step by step will give you a rapid success in export marketing with sustainable and profitable export sales growth.
Step-1 : Identify your target market
First step of export marketing is to identify target market and market needs where your products/services has good market potential and demand. There are many countries in world and you should pick right one(s) for your product and services. If you know your target market and market needs, you could easily get export orders from those countries. You can identify target market by conducting International Market research activity that will give you detailed knowledge of opportunities in International market.
Step-2 : Developing Export Marketing strategies
After identifying target market, second step of export marketing is to develop a right Export Marketing Strategies including market entry strategy, positioning strategy, product strategy, pricing strategy, branding strategy, supply strategy and promotional strategy according to target market needs. Based on the conclusions of the International market research, you will be able to develop the strategy to meet your export marketing objectives. Your Export Marketing strategies should be able to develop a sense,
o To enter in right market where your products/services has good market potential and demand
o To position appropriately that give you and edge over competitor
o To develop products/services that satisfy needs of buyer,
o To offer prices that give both of you and your buyer a competitive advantage,
o To offer own brand or private label solution
o To supply as per ready stock or buyer's requirements
o To promote your company that creates awareness among buyers/importers
If you have developed right export marketing strategies you could enter and develop international market faster with sustainable export sales growth.
Step-3 : Preparing Marketing Communication tools
Once you have developed strategies based on target market needs, third step is to prepare informative and appealing marketing communication tools like Company Profile, Sales letter, Product Catalogue, Brochures, Website etc. that can supports in positioning and promoting your company. Your all marketing communication tools should be well designed, informative, professional and appealing that can deliver all necessary information of your company and products/services to prospective buyers/importers and influence their decision to start business communication with you.
Step-4 : Promotion
After preparing marketing communication tools, next step is Promotion which plays a major role in export marketing success. Main objective of promotion is to create awareness among buyers/importers of what you are and what you offer. Promotional mix should be cost effective and should deliver right message, in right time and at right place. Promotion should lead buyers/importers to get attention, capture interest and take action in initiating business communication with you. Internet is the best cost effective and fastest promotion tool in present export marketing practices. It has been seen that major buyers/importers using search engines, B2B portals and directories to find and contact genuine suppliers. So presence of your company profile and products/services in major search engines like Google, yahoo and B2B portals like Alibaba.com will give your company a global exposure and creates awareness among buyers/importers effectively. Participating in Trade fairs, Exhibitions and catalogue shows is also a good offline promotional strategy which can generate a direct and live contact with buyers/importers.
Step-5 : Generating Export Inquiries
Success in export Marketing begins with generating genuine export inquiries from prospective buyers/importers which requires expertise and focused work of promotion, sourcing genuine buyers and approaching them professionally. One should study buyer's profile and/or buy leads to know whether you can offer them what they requires. It has been seen that many suppliers contact majority of those buyers/importers who have no interest in their product/services without understanding their profile and needs. A Buyer/importer can send you inquiry only when he needs your products/services either better than his existing supplier in terms of either Quality, Price, Services and/or developing more suppliers and/or for other reasons. So contact them by offering competitive advantage which can get them interested to send you inquiries which can be converted in to export orders by communicating and negotiating professionally.
All above steps are inter connected and can only give results if each step performed or performing well. Export marketing is a continuous process and all those key functions can be reviewed and modified time to time as per changing global economic and market situation.
Export marketing is not just a process to find buyers/importers and approach them with the expectation of export orders but a well planned strategic marketing process one should follow and performed well to get success in International Market. Since last 10 years of my International Marketing consultancy practice, I have found that major export marketing efforts get failed due to lack of implementing strategic marketing action plan.
So what is that strategic marketing action plan..?
Strategic marketing action plan is a set of key functional areas of export marketing which should be performed well and followed step by step to get succeed in Export marketing. Performing following key tasks step by step will give you a rapid success in export marketing with sustainable and profitable export sales growth.
Step-1 : Identify your target market
First step of export marketing is to identify target market and market needs where your products/services has good market potential and demand. There are many countries in world and you should pick right one(s) for your product and services. If you know your target market and market needs, you could easily get export orders from those countries. You can identify target market by conducting International Market research activity that will give you detailed knowledge of opportunities in International market.
Step-2 : Developing Export Marketing strategies
After identifying target market, second step of export marketing is to develop a right Export Marketing Strategies including market entry strategy, positioning strategy, product strategy, pricing strategy, branding strategy, supply strategy and promotional strategy according to target market needs. Based on the conclusions of the International market research, you will be able to develop the strategy to meet your export marketing objectives. Your Export Marketing strategies should be able to develop a sense,
o To enter in right market where your products/services has good market potential and demand
o To position appropriately that give you and edge over competitor
o To develop products/services that satisfy needs of buyer,
o To offer prices that give both of you and your buyer a competitive advantage,
o To offer own brand or private label solution
o To supply as per ready stock or buyer's requirements
o To promote your company that creates awareness among buyers/importers
If you have developed right export marketing strategies you could enter and develop international market faster with sustainable export sales growth.
Step-3 : Preparing Marketing Communication tools
Once you have developed strategies based on target market needs, third step is to prepare informative and appealing marketing communication tools like Company Profile, Sales letter, Product Catalogue, Brochures, Website etc. that can supports in positioning and promoting your company. Your all marketing communication tools should be well designed, informative, professional and appealing that can deliver all necessary information of your company and products/services to prospective buyers/importers and influence their decision to start business communication with you.
Step-4 : Promotion
After preparing marketing communication tools, next step is Promotion which plays a major role in export marketing success. Main objective of promotion is to create awareness among buyers/importers of what you are and what you offer. Promotional mix should be cost effective and should deliver right message, in right time and at right place. Promotion should lead buyers/importers to get attention, capture interest and take action in initiating business communication with you. Internet is the best cost effective and fastest promotion tool in present export marketing practices. It has been seen that major buyers/importers using search engines, B2B portals and directories to find and contact genuine suppliers. So presence of your company profile and products/services in major search engines like Google, yahoo and B2B portals like Alibaba.com will give your company a global exposure and creates awareness among buyers/importers effectively. Participating in Trade fairs, Exhibitions and catalogue shows is also a good offline promotional strategy which can generate a direct and live contact with buyers/importers.
Step-5 : Generating Export Inquiries
Success in export Marketing begins with generating genuine export inquiries from prospective buyers/importers which requires expertise and focused work of promotion, sourcing genuine buyers and approaching them professionally. One should study buyer's profile and/or buy leads to know whether you can offer them what they requires. It has been seen that many suppliers contact majority of those buyers/importers who have no interest in their product/services without understanding their profile and needs. A Buyer/importer can send you inquiry only when he needs your products/services either better than his existing supplier in terms of either Quality, Price, Services and/or developing more suppliers and/or for other reasons. So contact them by offering competitive advantage which can get them interested to send you inquiries which can be converted in to export orders by communicating and negotiating professionally.
All above steps are inter connected and can only give results if each step performed or performing well. Export marketing is a continuous process and all those key functions can be reviewed and modified time to time as per changing global economic and market situation.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Six Tips For Becoming an Independent Consultant
Many people think about life as an independent consultant, but something holds them back. Still, the dream may come back to them over and over. If you've ever contemplated becoming an independent consultant, you may want to think not just about the dream, but about what holds you back from achieving it.
Six tips for unblocking the road to independent consulting
* Why not? What's holding you back from independent consulting? Write, draw, mindmap and brainstorm reasons you feel keep you from independent consulting.
* Go deeper. What's scary about those reasons?
* Can you do anything to resolve those fears? For example, if you're worried about having a stable income, perhaps you would start consulting part-time, use that income to build up an emergency fund, secure some stable clients, and plan to have a part-time job when you do move to full-time consulting.
* Are any of your concerns all or nothing scenarios? If you see things in black and white, are there any opportunities to bring in shades of gray? For example, if you see working on your own as a huge risk, could you involve partners, find a mentor, join a professional association, take a course or get involved in an online community?
* Talk to others to find out how they have tackled similar problems. Sometimes, by reaching out to others - whether they are mentors, teachers or colleagues - we can learn from the wisdom of experience, without having to suffer for that experience.
* Work on a plan for becoming a consultant.
Becoming an independent consultant may well be within your reach - if you're willing to work out a plan for getting there. It's often the lack of a plan that makes things feel out of control. If you can work out goals and obstacles and a plan for dealing with both, you may find yourself on the road to independent consulting.
Six tips for unblocking the road to independent consulting
* Why not? What's holding you back from independent consulting? Write, draw, mindmap and brainstorm reasons you feel keep you from independent consulting.
* Go deeper. What's scary about those reasons?
* Can you do anything to resolve those fears? For example, if you're worried about having a stable income, perhaps you would start consulting part-time, use that income to build up an emergency fund, secure some stable clients, and plan to have a part-time job when you do move to full-time consulting.
* Are any of your concerns all or nothing scenarios? If you see things in black and white, are there any opportunities to bring in shades of gray? For example, if you see working on your own as a huge risk, could you involve partners, find a mentor, join a professional association, take a course or get involved in an online community?
* Talk to others to find out how they have tackled similar problems. Sometimes, by reaching out to others - whether they are mentors, teachers or colleagues - we can learn from the wisdom of experience, without having to suffer for that experience.
* Work on a plan for becoming a consultant.
Becoming an independent consultant may well be within your reach - if you're willing to work out a plan for getting there. It's often the lack of a plan that makes things feel out of control. If you can work out goals and obstacles and a plan for dealing with both, you may find yourself on the road to independent consulting.
Friday, September 3, 2010
4 Strategic Planning Tools For Business Model Innovation and Business Strategy Design
There are strategic planning tools for pretty much any objective a business executive can conceive of. However, for managers and entrepreneurs wishing to innovate their business model, it can be challenging making the leap from conventional thinking to the sort of creative but realistic thinking from which the next generation of sustainable profits can develop.
Knowing the types of tools you can use for various kinds of business strategy tasks can you get far more innovative results from your strategy development sessions while cutting the time it takes to arrive at good business models.
Tools for Mapping and Dominating Uncontested Market Spaces
1. Strategy Canvas
The Strategy Canvas is a tool first introduced in the book, "Blue Ocean Strategy" by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. It is a chart that plots the positions of business competitors relative to the factors important to the customer marketplace. The horizontal axis plots the factors of competition (hopefully established through customer knowledge), and the vertical axis plots the degree of offering or service level.
Using this chart differences between current and potential business competitors can be graphically portrayed. The primary point of the strategy canvas is to illustrate divergence between market and business strategies as it relates to customer needs. By using a strategy canvas, you can create a new value innovation that breaks the conflict between low cost and differentiation - the heart of blue ocean strategy.
The strategy canvas is also a great tool for USP development.
2. Strategic Control Point Index
This is a tool used to assess the level of strategic control a business has in its industry relative to competing businesses and organizations. It was best articulated by management consultant Adrian Slywotzky in "The Profit Zone" (a book which I highly recommend). The strategic control point index classifies these control points according to the level of "profit-protecting power" they confer to a business.
Simply put, it is a simple description of the path to monopoly power (or at least near-monopoly) in any business design. The profit protecting power of these strategic control points go from "None", "low", "medium" to "high". Some examples of strategic control points given by Slywotzky include:
* 10 to 20 percent cost advantage in commodity product (low)
* One-year product development lead (slightly higher, but still low)
* Two-year product development lead (medium)
* Brand, copyright (slightly higher, but still medium)
* Customer relationship ownership (High)
* String of superdominant market positions (Higher)
* Management of the Value Chain (Even higher)
* Standards Ownership (Highest)
3. 6 Paths Framework
This analytical tool is another from "blue ocean strategy" and masterfully gives strategists a way to think across the "six conventional boundaries of competition" to systematically construct new assumptions and stimulate product or business design breakthroughs. The idea is that one of these unconventional ways of looking at the competitive landscape may crack open a strategic breakthrough.
a) Look across industries - Compete with alternatives and substitutes for your product/service rather than those you think are your competition.
b) Look across strategic groups - Look at how your new strategy can be developed between the naturally assumed strategic boundaries in your industry.
c) Look across the chain of buyers - Consider how you can change the game by changing the defined "primary buyers.
d) Look across complementary products and services - Thinking about the whole system of your customer's typically solution (in which your current offering might be just a small part).
e) Look across functional or emotional appeal - Examine how you may be able to create a new value curve by adding emotion to a functionally oriented industry, or removing stripping out emotion and reducing a product or service to its functional core.
f) Look across time - Adjust your time horizon to a different point or cycle than is typical in the rest of your industry.
4. Business Design Matrix
The business design matrix is a great analytical tool that you can use to help understand and analyze "at a glance" the business models of your competitors. It is largely derived from the work of Dr. Adrian Slywotzky. The criteria across which you analyze your competitors as well as your own organization include:
* Customer selection
* Profit Capture System(s)
* Differentiation / Strategic Control
* Scope of offerings and presence
These core four considerations provide a foundation for deciding marketing strategy - a foundation upon which a larger business strategy can comfortably rest.
Knowing the types of tools you can use for various kinds of business strategy tasks can you get far more innovative results from your strategy development sessions while cutting the time it takes to arrive at good business models.
Tools for Mapping and Dominating Uncontested Market Spaces
1. Strategy Canvas
The Strategy Canvas is a tool first introduced in the book, "Blue Ocean Strategy" by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. It is a chart that plots the positions of business competitors relative to the factors important to the customer marketplace. The horizontal axis plots the factors of competition (hopefully established through customer knowledge), and the vertical axis plots the degree of offering or service level.
Using this chart differences between current and potential business competitors can be graphically portrayed. The primary point of the strategy canvas is to illustrate divergence between market and business strategies as it relates to customer needs. By using a strategy canvas, you can create a new value innovation that breaks the conflict between low cost and differentiation - the heart of blue ocean strategy.
The strategy canvas is also a great tool for USP development.
2. Strategic Control Point Index
This is a tool used to assess the level of strategic control a business has in its industry relative to competing businesses and organizations. It was best articulated by management consultant Adrian Slywotzky in "The Profit Zone" (a book which I highly recommend). The strategic control point index classifies these control points according to the level of "profit-protecting power" they confer to a business.
Simply put, it is a simple description of the path to monopoly power (or at least near-monopoly) in any business design. The profit protecting power of these strategic control points go from "None", "low", "medium" to "high". Some examples of strategic control points given by Slywotzky include:
* 10 to 20 percent cost advantage in commodity product (low)
* One-year product development lead (slightly higher, but still low)
* Two-year product development lead (medium)
* Brand, copyright (slightly higher, but still medium)
* Customer relationship ownership (High)
* String of superdominant market positions (Higher)
* Management of the Value Chain (Even higher)
* Standards Ownership (Highest)
3. 6 Paths Framework
This analytical tool is another from "blue ocean strategy" and masterfully gives strategists a way to think across the "six conventional boundaries of competition" to systematically construct new assumptions and stimulate product or business design breakthroughs. The idea is that one of these unconventional ways of looking at the competitive landscape may crack open a strategic breakthrough.
a) Look across industries - Compete with alternatives and substitutes for your product/service rather than those you think are your competition.
b) Look across strategic groups - Look at how your new strategy can be developed between the naturally assumed strategic boundaries in your industry.
c) Look across the chain of buyers - Consider how you can change the game by changing the defined "primary buyers.
d) Look across complementary products and services - Thinking about the whole system of your customer's typically solution (in which your current offering might be just a small part).
e) Look across functional or emotional appeal - Examine how you may be able to create a new value curve by adding emotion to a functionally oriented industry, or removing stripping out emotion and reducing a product or service to its functional core.
f) Look across time - Adjust your time horizon to a different point or cycle than is typical in the rest of your industry.
4. Business Design Matrix
The business design matrix is a great analytical tool that you can use to help understand and analyze "at a glance" the business models of your competitors. It is largely derived from the work of Dr. Adrian Slywotzky. The criteria across which you analyze your competitors as well as your own organization include:
* Customer selection
* Profit Capture System(s)
* Differentiation / Strategic Control
* Scope of offerings and presence
These core four considerations provide a foundation for deciding marketing strategy - a foundation upon which a larger business strategy can comfortably rest.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
4 Conventional Strategic Planning Tools For Business Executives, Entrepreneurs and Consultants
Strategic planning tools are important components of any competent manager's toolkit. However, they cannot replace your individual or organizational ability to execute effectively. Treat the following tools as what they are - aids to competent management.
1. Situational Analysis
A situational analysis allows you to get a comprehensive view of the basic problems facing your organization, as well as the opportunities you may be overlooking. You have to take great care in how you frame and define the problems or else much of your subsequent analysis and corrective actions could be a total waste. An effective situational analysis does not just identify problems or opportunities, it also prioritizes them.
2. SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is a simple analytical framework for deriving strategic implementation options from the results of a situational analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The results of a SWOT analysis are usually summarized with a simple matrix that categorizes findings under Internal, external, positive and negative groupings.
* Strengths are related to organizational attributes (internal) and positive.
* Weaknesses are also internal to the organization, but have negative implications.
* Opportunities are external conditions that have positive implications.
* Threats are external conditions that have negative implications for an organization.
3. PEST Analysis
The PEST analysis tool is particularly appropriate for really big organizations or small organizations with a particularly large (or international scope). PEST stands for Political, Environmental, Socio-cultural and Technological. It is used to enable brainstorming and help flesh out some of the "biggest picture" scenarios that may affect an organization or enterprise.
4. Boston Matrix
The Boston Matrix (also known as the BCG-matrix or the "Growth-share matrix") is a strategic decision making tool that can be used to help make decisions regarding business lines, product lines and brand marketing. It is employs a graphic matrix that shows the relationship between market growth, market share and a given opportunity.
In the Boston Matrix, business line or product line opportunities are grouped in 4 areas depending on the combination of market share and overall market growth.
Dogs - These are product lines or businesses that have a small market share in a low-growth market. These are generally the most undesirable to have in your portfolio (unless of course your individual "dog" is highly profitable).
Cash Cows - These product lines or businesses are also in a low-growth market, but have high market share within those markets. Because you have a high market share, it may be possible to extract maximum leverage from that high share position. However, you should be looking for the next growth market even as you exploit this one.
Question Marks - These exist in high-growth markets, but have low market share. They are also referred to as "problem children". These opportunities give strategists the most headaches and should be carefully analyzed before more investment is poured into them as they could go on to become stars or dogs if the market matures before returns are realized.
Stars - These products or businesses have high market share in high-growth markets. Given these facts, you should prioritize these stars and work hard to exploit the opportunities you find here.
Conclusion
Applying the right strategic planning tools to the right problem is crucial. However, even more important that planning is excellence in business execution.
1. Situational Analysis
A situational analysis allows you to get a comprehensive view of the basic problems facing your organization, as well as the opportunities you may be overlooking. You have to take great care in how you frame and define the problems or else much of your subsequent analysis and corrective actions could be a total waste. An effective situational analysis does not just identify problems or opportunities, it also prioritizes them.
2. SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is a simple analytical framework for deriving strategic implementation options from the results of a situational analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The results of a SWOT analysis are usually summarized with a simple matrix that categorizes findings under Internal, external, positive and negative groupings.
* Strengths are related to organizational attributes (internal) and positive.
* Weaknesses are also internal to the organization, but have negative implications.
* Opportunities are external conditions that have positive implications.
* Threats are external conditions that have negative implications for an organization.
3. PEST Analysis
The PEST analysis tool is particularly appropriate for really big organizations or small organizations with a particularly large (or international scope). PEST stands for Political, Environmental, Socio-cultural and Technological. It is used to enable brainstorming and help flesh out some of the "biggest picture" scenarios that may affect an organization or enterprise.
4. Boston Matrix
The Boston Matrix (also known as the BCG-matrix or the "Growth-share matrix") is a strategic decision making tool that can be used to help make decisions regarding business lines, product lines and brand marketing. It is employs a graphic matrix that shows the relationship between market growth, market share and a given opportunity.
In the Boston Matrix, business line or product line opportunities are grouped in 4 areas depending on the combination of market share and overall market growth.
Dogs - These are product lines or businesses that have a small market share in a low-growth market. These are generally the most undesirable to have in your portfolio (unless of course your individual "dog" is highly profitable).
Cash Cows - These product lines or businesses are also in a low-growth market, but have high market share within those markets. Because you have a high market share, it may be possible to extract maximum leverage from that high share position. However, you should be looking for the next growth market even as you exploit this one.
Question Marks - These exist in high-growth markets, but have low market share. They are also referred to as "problem children". These opportunities give strategists the most headaches and should be carefully analyzed before more investment is poured into them as they could go on to become stars or dogs if the market matures before returns are realized.
Stars - These products or businesses have high market share in high-growth markets. Given these facts, you should prioritize these stars and work hard to exploit the opportunities you find here.
Conclusion
Applying the right strategic planning tools to the right problem is crucial. However, even more important that planning is excellence in business execution.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Strategic Marketing Tips From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
Being strategic and thinking strategically in developing your marketing plan means you understand the needs and desires of your clients and customers, and you show them how your product/service satisfies those needs. You must know:
what value your product or service offers and what benefits it provides; what differentiates you and your product/service from the competition; who are your stakeholders, which may include: your suppliers, your bank, your subcontractors or vendors, your associates, your staff, your clients or customers, and of course the general public; where your clients and customers are located geographically; and what are the most effective distribution channels to deliver your product or service? When developing a strategic marketing plan, your strategic thinking business coach provides the following ten (10) strategic marketing tips.
Strategic Marketing Tip #1: Develop a strategic plan with a clearly defined and focused vision and mission for your business, along with core values and goals
As the foundation for all your business, marketing and other plans.
Strategic Marketing Tip #2: Develop a Strategic Action Plan that breaks down your goals into tasks with assigned leaders and completion dates.
Strategic Marketing Tip #3: Develop strong relationships with your stakeholders. People want to do business with people they know or with whom they have a positive relationship.
Strategic Marketing Tip #4: Be positive, persistent and patient.
Strategic Marketing Tip #5: Focus your primary marketing efforts on existing clients and customers since they are already doing business with you.
Strategic Marketing Tip #6: Develop and implement an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) plan.
Strategic Marketing Tip #7: Develop your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to differentiate you and your business from the competition.
Strategic Marketing Tip #8: Make effective use of the Internet by having an effective website.
Strategic Marketing Tip #9: Develop and implement an evaluation program for your marketing efforts and commit to continuous improvement of your marketing
program.
Strategic Marketing Tip #10: Develop and implement a customer contact management system to promote Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA) as part of your marketing program.
what value your product or service offers and what benefits it provides; what differentiates you and your product/service from the competition; who are your stakeholders, which may include: your suppliers, your bank, your subcontractors or vendors, your associates, your staff, your clients or customers, and of course the general public; where your clients and customers are located geographically; and what are the most effective distribution channels to deliver your product or service? When developing a strategic marketing plan, your strategic thinking business coach provides the following ten (10) strategic marketing tips.
Strategic Marketing Tip #1: Develop a strategic plan with a clearly defined and focused vision and mission for your business, along with core values and goals
As the foundation for all your business, marketing and other plans.
Strategic Marketing Tip #2: Develop a Strategic Action Plan that breaks down your goals into tasks with assigned leaders and completion dates.
Strategic Marketing Tip #3: Develop strong relationships with your stakeholders. People want to do business with people they know or with whom they have a positive relationship.
Strategic Marketing Tip #4: Be positive, persistent and patient.
Strategic Marketing Tip #5: Focus your primary marketing efforts on existing clients and customers since they are already doing business with you.
Strategic Marketing Tip #6: Develop and implement an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) plan.
Strategic Marketing Tip #7: Develop your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to differentiate you and your business from the competition.
Strategic Marketing Tip #8: Make effective use of the Internet by having an effective website.
Strategic Marketing Tip #9: Develop and implement an evaluation program for your marketing efforts and commit to continuous improvement of your marketing
program.
Strategic Marketing Tip #10: Develop and implement a customer contact management system to promote Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA) as part of your marketing program.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Branching Out Into Online Marketing? Hire a Marketing Consultant For Optimal Success
If the small business you own is experiencing growing pains, hire a marketing consultant to help you branch out into online marketing. The internet is not only a veritable necessity for virtually every business these days but it also creates a global marketplace for you to compete in. No longer would you be tied to the regional confines of your small business's scope. You could establish a new customer base halfway around the world if you wanted to do so.
Entering the World of Online Marketing
When you were first starting out in your business, it was probably enough to create a simple website from the free templates your internet service provider offered. However, to be more competitive these days, a website alone will not suffice. You need an easy-to-navigate website that not only looks professional but also generates traffic.
A marketing consultant would be able to offer your small business a whole host of web services from new web designs to pay per click advertising. First off, the consultant would evaluate your current website and online presence. With that data in hand, the marketer would then be able to create a sound plan for not only increasing traffic to your website but also turn those web visitors into sales.
Typical Online Marketing Activities
Integrating an internet strategy is important when dealing with your website. Do you have a counter to track visitors? Do you have a way to capture IP addresses to determine where in the world your website visitors are? Can you collect email addresses? Consider these things when you design a new website for your business.
Learning about keyword optimisation is important if you want to drive more visitors to your website and have your business turn up at the top of the search engine page results. Writing articles, how-to tips and even blogs with the right keyword phrases can help generate more traffic to your website. Conversion techniques and managing pay per click advertising are other areas of online marketing an outside consultant can handle for you.
The internet is perhaps one of the most important tools in your arsenal when it comes to growing your business and marketing it. Even if you are savvy in navigating cyberspace, it does not mean you know the best ways to market your business to increase growth and profits. Instead of wasting time trying various strategies that do not work very well, if at all, hire a marketing consultant for your online marketing needs.
Entering the World of Online Marketing
When you were first starting out in your business, it was probably enough to create a simple website from the free templates your internet service provider offered. However, to be more competitive these days, a website alone will not suffice. You need an easy-to-navigate website that not only looks professional but also generates traffic.
A marketing consultant would be able to offer your small business a whole host of web services from new web designs to pay per click advertising. First off, the consultant would evaluate your current website and online presence. With that data in hand, the marketer would then be able to create a sound plan for not only increasing traffic to your website but also turn those web visitors into sales.
Typical Online Marketing Activities
Integrating an internet strategy is important when dealing with your website. Do you have a counter to track visitors? Do you have a way to capture IP addresses to determine where in the world your website visitors are? Can you collect email addresses? Consider these things when you design a new website for your business.
Learning about keyword optimisation is important if you want to drive more visitors to your website and have your business turn up at the top of the search engine page results. Writing articles, how-to tips and even blogs with the right keyword phrases can help generate more traffic to your website. Conversion techniques and managing pay per click advertising are other areas of online marketing an outside consultant can handle for you.
The internet is perhaps one of the most important tools in your arsenal when it comes to growing your business and marketing it. Even if you are savvy in navigating cyberspace, it does not mean you know the best ways to market your business to increase growth and profits. Instead of wasting time trying various strategies that do not work very well, if at all, hire a marketing consultant for your online marketing needs.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Business Consultant Internet Marketing Small Strategy - Article Submissions
Running a business consultant internet marketing firm is one of the best types of businesses these days. In here, you assist other business establishments in making their names flourish in the industry. Now, who would have though that you can make money from lending others a helping hand? If you are running a similar business as this one, pay close attention to the business consultant internet marketing small strategy that I will be providing you with in here. Make sure to take note of the advantages that article submissions can offer you and your small business consulting firm.
Here are a few of the advantages that article submissions can offer you and your business consulting firm:
1. Articles submissions show your credibility to your target market.
Writing a few articles in a day about your personal experiences will allow your readers to know about your credibility and expertise in the business. Articles can become a medium that you can make use of in spreading the word about how good you are in the business.
2. Article submissions enable you to become uncovered in a lot of search engines on a variety of conditions.
One of the strategies of content submission is usually to intersperse your primary website search phrases into your write-up to ensure that your content articles will aid you in improving your look for engine ranking on your search terms. This will help you in getting organic targeted visitors on your web site on an array of keywords and phrases. You will discover that nearly all of these would have certainly not occurred to you as search conditions. Nevertheless, these conditions will be present in one or more articles or blog posts that you will write. Now, your goal in here would be to produce a call to action on your individual post pages to improve the number of subscribers to your newsletter, which serves as the primary call to action on your website.
3. Article submissions establish you as an expert.
With this, I will give an example about my personal experience. I submit 10 to 12 articles within a month through the use of a content submission service. Anyone seeking content articles that I have written in any of the major content banks will possibly locate at least 10 that I have authored. These days I searched my name, and observed numerous sites have listed me. I would say that about 98 percent of the results refer to me, and that a huge portion of those varieties are links to content blogs, articles banks, and ezines publishing my content articles.
4. Article submissions encourage joint ventures or strategic alliances with organization owners in other industries pursuing exactly the same target market.
I have been previously approached by a variety of other organizations who are seeking link exchanges, strategic alliances, and referrals solely based on reading about me. I have decided to pursue some of these, and I would have certainly not had the opportunity without applying article submissions as a way to spread the word out about my services and my firm.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Marketing Consulting Services - How to Authoritatively Position and Presell Your Expertise
If you currently offer consulting services or are thinking of adding consulting services to your offerings, one of the most important skills you need to master is how to strategically position and package your expertise in a way that can be promoted across multiple media and marketing channels.
This is easier said than done if your consulting area is not in the personal branding or marketing category. Here are a few tips that can help you systematically create a highly marketable package out of what you know and do so in a way that helps you convert more prospects and attract powerful strategic partners.
1. Systematize Your Expertise
By this I mean that you should translate your expertise into branded packages, products and programs that prospects find easier to understand and more accessible. While you may not always be able to get prospects to understand the detailed (or technical) aspects of what you do, they should be able to understand:
* What their benefits will be
* The philosophies that guide your practice
* The process by which you deliver results
* The difference between you and your competitors
You should work hard to provide your marketplace with resources that help them identify the difference between your philosophies, processes and practices and those of your competition.
2. Branding
While personal branding is a popular catch phrase in entrepreneurial circles, successful consultants and business coaches learn how to brand concepts, philosophies and approaches. In the arena of consulting where your "products" are intangibles, the importance of this skill can not be overstated.
In my consulting practice, we teach our clients how to apply the "4P strategic thinking framework" to the area of concept branding. Not only should you brand your concepts, you should also make sure to brand yourself by:
* Developing a unique selling proposition (USP)
* Compressing your USP into a memorable tag line
* Assigning yourself a congruent personal tagline
3. Book Authorship
After you have developed your concepts, branded them and developed a unique selling proposition for yourself and an appropriate personal title, it's time to get the word out about your concepts and the problems that you help solve.
One of the most powerful ways to do this is by authoring a book on your specialty area. A book is the best business card money can buy and can help you land lucrative speaking gigs, media publicity and the attention of valuable strategic partners.
You can learn how to properly pre-sell your services in books by reading the works of the most successful consultants like Dan Kennedy, Ram Charan, Jack Trout and Geoff Smart.
4. Assessment Tools
Developing assessment tools help you engage book readers beyond the purchase of your book. Your assessment tools could be located on a website to which members gain access when they register with their email addresses. You may also include other interactive and educational elements that deepen the connection between you and your prospects.
By carefully designing your assessment tools, you can virtually sell your consulting services and make sure that the people who call your office or organization already need and want your services. The Kolbe Index from Kathy Kolbe is a great example of a powerful assessment tool that pre-sells higher level consulting services.
5. Syndicate Your Content
If you are starting without a national audience or a high-profile platform from a previous career, you are going to need all the promotional help you can get. Content marketing online and off is a great way to spread the word about your expertise and your business.
Break up the areas of your expertise to address the problems that give your target prospects headaches. Share this content in ways that people like to receive information - especially online. Then syndicate your content through tools like social media websites, article marketing directories and even video screencasts on video sharing and syndication sites.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Choosing a Marketing Consultant - 10 Questions to Ask Before You Hire
Marketing consulting services might appear to be a dime a dozen when you first begin your search for a marketing consultant. Appearances are deceiving. What you are likely to find is that many advertising and media sales representatives find it convenient to call themselves marketing consultants. In truth, only a small fraction of these sales people truly qualify to be considered media-neutral (or "method-neutral") marketing consultants.
Not only do you have to screen out salespeople posing as marketing consultants, you also have to watch out for marketing consultants with a bias for one marketing medium or method. For example, some social media tacticians who have no understanding of direct response marketing or strategic marketing but are positioned as marketing consultants.
In the section below, I'm going to share 10 questions that you can ask to make sure that the marketing consultant you hire is perfectly matched to the needs of your business.
1. Why should I spend money on marketing consulting instead of just doing my own marketing?
I often tell my marketing consulting clients that marketing should be their biggest personal priority in their business. A marketing consultant is most worth the expense when they extend your ability to see new opportunities and threats, or when they close the "knowing-doing" gap by implementing strategies that your business cannot. Just dumping 65 pages of recommendations on your desk can no longer cut it in today's world.
2. How does a marketing consultant differ from an advertising representative or sales representative?
An advertising representative is paid by an advertising outlet or media platform to recommend and sell one offering or one family of offerings. Many advertising reps and sales reps can ad value to your business, but you must know exactly what you stand to gain from doing business with them and how their incentives might affect their recommendations.
3. Why should I do business with you instead of with any other marketing consultant or marketing consulting firm in the area?
If they cannot provide you with a clear differentiating argument, they are not likely to help you come up with one for your business.
4. Do you have a way for me to know what I'll be getting before I sign up with you?
In today's world, every consultant must have a publicly accessible portfolio of articles, columns, or materials that demonstrate their expertise. If they don't, they should be able to offer you some sort of free consultation.
5. What is your favorite marketing medium and why?
The reality is that a favorite marketing medium really should not exist for a marketing consultant. Although many professionals suffer from "marketing method madness" (irrational attachment to one medium), marketing media should be matched to the needs and circumstances of each individual business.
6. How do I know what you suggest for us to do will work?
You don't. If they are honest, this is what they will tell you. The best a good consultant can do is to give you examples, case studies and the principles and factors that affect what you should expect.
7. What are some things you suggest for business owners to lower their risk just in case the marketing campaign fails?
A capable strategist will teach you how to monitor and test marketing campaigns before a lot of money and time gets spent.
8. What would other marketing professionals in the area say about you when I ask them?
This is to help you determine whether the consultant is considered a leader in the area and what they think their reputation is. This is particularly effective when asking in person.
9. Who do you study and what thought leaders do you learn a lot from?
Beware of a consultant or strategist, who "has no teachers" or won't confess to learning anything. They might be too insecure to listen to useful input from you or your staff. That arrogance and insecurity could end up costing you in wasted money or lost business performance.
10. Can you provide me with some past clients I can talk to about your work?
Do not be afraid to ask for references whenever you are hiring a vendor, contractor or professional to do specialized work. Make sure to actually call these people. You will screen out more sub-par consultants doing this than doing any other single thing.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Strategic Marketing Planning Made Simple - The 4P Business Thinking System
An effective strategic marketing planning framework is a must-have element for any small business that wants to become a big business "when it grows up". Unfortunately, many small business owners have as much interest in strategic marketing planning as a turkey has for thanksgiving. They avoid it.
Part of the reason why they avoid this very important process is because consultants and MBAs have conspired to make it a topic that only egg heads could love.
In working with my consulting clients, I have developed a simple framework for helping the every day business owner articulate a plan for strategic engagement with the marketplace. I call it the 4P Business Thinking framework.
The 4P Business Thinking Framework is a robust system for matching your solution to the needs of a marketplace, and then communicating that match in a way that results in sales and profits. Here is a brief overview of the 4Ps of the 4P framework.
1. People (or Profile)
For you or your business to exploit a market opportunity or overcome an industry challenge, you must have a very clear definition of the target customer. In the B2B (business-to-business) space that customer may be an organization, but the approach must still be crafted with individual decision makers in mind. In a B2C (business-to-consumer) context, you may have to define the demographic, psychographic or geographic profiles of your target prospects.
2. Problem
You must clearly define the problem your marketplace is desperate to solve for which you have an answer. In business, many ships have crashed on the rocks of market indifference because a company manufactured a solution for which the market had no problem. The time proven approach to value innovation in business is to deeply examine the clearly identified challenges of the customer.
3. Process (or Product)
What is your particular way of solving the market's challenge that differentiates you from every other competitor?
This 3rd P in the framework is where you have a chance to stand out from the crowd of competitors for solving the problem of your chosen target market. Your process or product must be meaningfully different.
4. Passion (or Personality) and Proof
This last element is often flubbed badly by small businesses who blindly emulate the sanitized and often colorless communications of much larger firms. One of the embedded advantages a small business has is the ability to be "personal" and to communicate passion to the marketplace.
One large company that successfully communicates passion and personality in marketing is Southwest airlines. As a result of their commitment to personality in business, they continue to be rewarded with some of the highest customer approval ratings in the domestic airline industry.
If you manage a manufacturer of colorless widgets, or a buttoned-down professional service firm, you cannot afford to pass up the power of personality, passion and social proof in your marketing.
Some simple things you can do include digging through early stories of your company for narratives that may resonate, or capturing the experiences of your staff, clients and managers for your marketing campaigns.
Conclusion
Whether you're planning for a new product or service, approaching a new target market or writing a direct mail sales letter, the 4P framework can be used to create tremendous value in your marketing planning process.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The 3 Steps to Strategic Marketing Consulting
The most productive way to get ahead in online marketing is to have a strategic plan of action, which will save you tons of time. Here are the benefits of this program.
Strategic marketing consulting is by far the quickest way to get your online business up and running. Finding the right consultant saves a vast amount of time. Work with experts, who know how to take you through a step by step system, proven to work. They will help you build a powerful internet business and you will start to see results quickly. While others are floundering trying to figure out the next step. You will be learning proven valuable marketing techniques.
The key to success in an online business is getting it off the ground quickly. Many make the mistake of trying to figure out how it all works, and waste hundreds of hours, doing so. Strategic marketing consulting has proven to be a major factor in building a list and generating money. By having a concrete, step by step plan in place, you will learn marketing strategies and get an overall picture of how internet marketing works. Another major benefit is you will be introduced to top leaders in the industry. Many of the better consultants, network with top leaders and leverage their expertise, which will benefit you.
Laser focus is key, when starting a business. This is where strategic marketing consulting has major leverage. One of the necessities is to have a good flow of traffic coming to your sites. Consultants can get you setup with a traffic generation blueprint, which will detail the path you take to getting traffic flow. This will be well organized and thought out. There are many ways to find cash engines on the internet. The problem is many people jump from one strategy to another and never truly learn how to use them the right way. Good consultants can explain the process in detail.
The benefits of working with a consultant are, you will save a ton of time, maybe even years, finding the right solutions. You will get the benefits of being introduced to some of the top leaders in the industry. You will be kept up to date on workshops and seminars, where many god contacts are made. These benefits you get starting day one.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Marketing Consulting Services - How to Authoritatively Position and Presell Your Expertise
If you currently offer consulting services or are thinking of adding consulting services to your offerings, one of the most important skills you need to master is how to strategically position and package your expertise in a way that can be promoted across multiple media and marketing channels.
This is easier said than done if your consulting area is not in the personal branding or marketing category. Here are a few tips that can help you systematically create a highly marketable package out of what you know and do so in a way that helps you convert more prospects and attract powerful strategic partners.
1. Systematize Your Expertise
By this I mean that you should translate your expertise into branded packages, products and programs that prospects find easier to understand and more accessible. While you may not always be able to get prospects to understand the detailed (or technical) aspects of what you do, they should be able to understand:
- What their benefits will be
- The philosophies that guide your practice
- The process by which you deliver results
- The difference between you and your competitors
2. Branding
While personal branding is a popular catch phrase in entrepreneurial circles, successful consultants and business coaches learn how to brand concepts, philosophies and approaches. In the arena of consulting where your "products" are intangibles, the importance of this skill can not be overstated.
In my consulting practice, we teach our clients how to apply the "4P strategic thinking framework" to the area of concept branding. Not only should you brand your concepts, you should also make sure to brand yourself by:
- Developing a unique selling proposition (USP)
- Compressing your USP into a memorable
tag line - Assigning yourself a congruent personal tagline
After you have developed your concepts, branded them and developed a unique selling proposition for yourself and an appropriate personal title, it's time to get the word out about your concepts and the problems that you help solve.
One of the most powerful ways to do this is by authoring a book on your specialty area. A book is the best business card money can buy and can help you land lucrative speaking gigs, media publicity and the attention of valuable strategic partners.
You can learn how to properly pre-sell your services in books by reading the works of the most successful consultants like Dan Kennedy, Ram Charan, Jack Trout and Geoff
4. Assessment Tools
Developing assessment tools help you engage book readers beyond the purchase of your book. Your assessment tools could be located on a website to which members gain access when they register with their email addresses. You may also include other interactive and educational elements that deepen the connection between you and your prospects.
By carefully designing your assessment tools, you can virtually sell your consulting services and make sure that the people who call your office or organization already need and want your services. The Kolbe Index from Kathy Kolbe is a great example of a powerful assessment
5. Syndicate Your Content
If you are starting without a national audience or a high-profile platform from a previous career, you are going to need all the promotional help you can get. Content marketing online and off is a great way to spread the word about your expertise and your business.
Break up the areas of your expertise to address the problems that give your
Monday, August 16, 2010
4 Conventional Strategic Planning Tools For Business Executives, Entrepreneurs and Consultants
Strategic planning tools are important components of any competent manager's toolkit. However, they cannot replace your individual or organizational ability to execute effectively. Treat the following tools as what they are - aids to competent management.
1. Situational Analysis
A situational analysis allows you to get a comprehensive view of the basic problems facing your organization, as well as the opportunities you may be overlooking. You have to take great care in how you frame and define the problems or else much of your subsequent analysis and corrective actions could be a total waste. An effective situational analysis does not just identify problems or opportunities, it also prioritizes them.
2. SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is a simple analytical framework for deriving strategic implementation options from the results of a situational analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The results of a SWOT analysis are usually summarized with a simple matrix that categorizes findings under Internal, external, positive and negative groupings.
- Strengths are related to organizational attributes (internal) and positive.
- Weaknesses are also internal to the organization, but have negative implications.
- Opportunities are external conditions that have positive implications.
- Threats are external conditions that have negative implications for an organization.
The PEST analysis
4. Boston Matrix
The Boston Matrix (also known as the BCG-matrix or the "Growth-share matrix") is a strategic decision making
In the Boston Matrix, business line or product line opportunities are grouped in 4 areas depending on the combination of market share and overall market growth.
Dogs - These are product lines or businesses that have a small market share in a low-growth market. These are generally the most undesirable to have in your portfolio (unless of course your individual "dog" is highly profitable).
Cash Cows - These product lines or businesses are also in a low-growth market, but have high market share within those markets. Because you have a high market share, it may be possible to extract maximum leverage from that high share position. However, you should be looking for the next growth market even as you exploit this one.
Question Marks - These exist in high-growth markets, but have low market share. They are also referred to as "problem children". These opportunities give strategists the most headaches and should be carefully analyzed before more investment is poured into them as they could go on to become stars or dogs if the market matures before returns are realized.
Stars - These products or businesses have high market share in high-growth markets. Given these facts, you should prioritize these stars and work hard to exploit the opportunities you find here.
Conclusion
Applying the right strategic planning tools to the right problem is crucial. However, even more important that planning is excellence in business execution.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Marketing Contractor - Developing a Strategy and Marketing Plan Using a Consultant
Developing a market strategy and plan is simple in concept; however it requires strategic expertise in knowing how to apply data correctly and draw the appropriate conclusions. Using a consultant, independent contractor, or contract employee gives you the ability to get exactly the expertise you need to best address the issues you have. Additional benefits of this approach are lower risk, no on-going commitment, and the flexibility to respond to transient market dynamics quickly and cost-effectively.
Start by gathering intelligence on the market. This includes macro environment observation, obtaining consumer insights, and a business landscape assessment.
The macro environment observation will include social, demographic, and economic elements. Look for pop culture trends and what the media is focused on. Consumer insights equates to market research. You can either purchase existing studies, or work with a research company to design a study specific to your needs. For the business landscape assessment, look at activities in your industry, what your competitors are doing, and where entrepreneurial ventures are focused.
The next step is to evaluate all the info you have gathered to discern trends and identify unmet needs for which you might create a profitable solution to address. Consider organizational and brand competencies (both what you are actually good at, and what you are perceived to be good at), potential market size, and possible competitive dynamics.
Use creative problem solving exercises and ideation techniques to design solutions for needs and ways to leverage emerging trends with your existing products and services. Go beyond marketing management; involve people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives to ensure high quality output and to maximize the potential for unique approaches to be identified.
The output should be a few well defined concepts, not hundreds of ideas. Work with finance and analytical resources to assess the market potential and model the business opportunity. The business model will identify key assumptions that can/should be tested with the
With vetted concepts and a
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