Most entrepreneurs have difficulty starting a marketing plan for their own business, even if they have solid experience in the job market. For many, the topic causes fear, since it is outside of a familiar area and requires new learning.
However, planning your company's marketing is essential for success. It is through this that you will be able to operate in the market competitively, increase sales, attract new customers and position yourself correctly.
The marketing plan should be seen by the manager as a taiwan whatsapp data management tool to direct the business.
According to Philip Kotler, one of the most respected authors in world marketing, three points are essential to make a good marketing analysis:
1 – Market analysis
It is ideal for the entrepreneur to make a list of the internal characteristics of his company and evaluate points such as the quality of the raw materials used, the products, the service, among other factors.
Once this is done, the impact of these points must be related to the external environment, by performing a SWOT analysis – a matrix that helps identify the business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Since the analysis of strengths and weaknesses refers to the internal environment, the market analysis must focus on the external environment.
SWOT analysis may seem simple, but it can be a powerful tool for analyzing opportunities and threats in the external environment, i.e. the market. For example, the entrepreneur must look to the external environment in search of opportunities, such as the emergence of a new consumer market. Threats can be mapped by analyzing macroeconomic forces, such as the economic downturn with reduced employment and income that we have experienced in 2016.
2 – Market positioning
Defining a company's market positioning is essential for any type of business. New entrepreneurs often find it difficult to do this positioning because they believe that all they need to do is simply put the product on the shelf or provide the service and wait for the customer to arrive – which is a big mistake. For Kotler, positioning is the image that the offer occupies in the minds of consumers.
You need to think about differentiating your offering and building your brand so that consumers have a clear idea of what your company offers and what its strengths are in relation to your competitors.
3 – Market segmentation
Targeting your business is a fundamental step in getting your marketing strategy right. Let's imagine that you have a pet shop and are considering offering day care services, since many people spend the whole day away from home and leave their pets alone.
Targeting the target audience for the offer is essential for the success of the strategy. For example, if you want to attract people from the Jardins or Higienópolis areas (upper middle class neighborhoods in the city of São Paulo), you will probably have good results. Many residents of these areas live alone and do not like leaving their pets alone in their apartments all day.
Now, if your pet shop is in the interior of São Paulo or in a more peripheral region, the offer will probably have very little uptake, since the characteristics of the public are completely different. Those who have a home in the interior can get around more easily and be home after work in 20 minutes, something that does not happen in the city of São Paulo. And in the outskirts, although many consumers demand this service, there is no extra income for this type of investment.