Entrepreneurship Chapter 8 - The Marketing Plan

Textbook Reference: Entrepreneurship, 8th edition by R.H. Hisrich, M.P. Peters and D.A. Shepherd, Mc Graw Hill Irwin, Copyright 2010. Chapter 8: The Marketing Plan INDUSTRY ANALYSIS ▪ Provide sufficient knowledge of the national and local market that can affect marketing strategy decision making. ▪ Competitor Analysis is the documentation of the current strategy of each primary competitor. MARKETING RESEARCH FOR THE NEW VENTURE 1. Define the purpose and objectives. What is the information needed to prepare the marketing plan? ▪ How much would potential customers be willing to pay for the product or service? ▪ Where would potential customers prefer to purchase the product or service? ▪ Where would the customer expect to hear about or learn about such a product or service? 2. Gathering Data from Secondary Sources. ▪ Trade magazines, newspapers, government agencies, etc. ▪ Before paying for a company to do this, you should exhaust all these resources through the internet. ▪ A university library can usually provide access to all of these secondary database sources. 3. Gathering Information from Primary Sources. ▪ Interviewing, focus groups, networking, etc. ▪ Observation is the simplest approach. ▪ Interviewing or surveys are most common methods. Please see table in the book for samples/illustrations. ▪ Questions should be designed to fulfill the objectives. ▪ Focus groups should be led by an experienced monitor. 4. Analyzing and Interpreting the Results. ▪ You can hand tabulate results or enter on a spreadsheet. ▪ The evaluation should be based on the objectives of the venture. ▪ Can provide valuable insights regarding the segmentation of the market. Understanding the Marketing Plan 1. Where have we been? 2. Where do we want to go? 3. How do we get there? 4. Please see table illustration in the book that “Outlines the Marketing Plan.” Characteristics of a Marketing Plan ▪ Should provide a strategy for accomplishing the company mission and goal. ▪ It should be based on facts and valid assumptions. ▪ An appropriate organization must be described to implement the plan. ▪ It should provide continuity so that each annual plan can build upon it. ▪ It should be simple and short. ▪ The success of the plan may depend on flexibility. ▪ It should specify performance criteria that will be monitored and controlled.

Internal Variables of the Marketing Plan 1. Financial resources. 2. Management Team. 3. Suppliers. 4. Company Mission. STEPS IN PREPARING THE MARKETING PLAN 1. Define the business situation which analyzes past and present business achievements of the new venture. 2. Define the target market, opportunities and threats. A target market is a specific group of potential customers toward which the venture aims its marketing plan. 3. Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into definable and measurable groups for purposes of targeting marketing strategy. 4. Considering Strength and Weaknesses in the target market. 5. Establish goals and objectives to measure the level of performance desired by the new venture. Defining Action Programs ▪ Specific activities to meet the ventures goals. ▪ Create a description of the new product or service in the new venture. ▪ Pricing will need to consider costs, margins or markups, and competition. ▪ Distribution makes the product convenient to the customer.