BUS 211_M&A Summer 2006 Courtesy of sjh 1 Marketing & Promoting Your Small Business WANTED: CUSTOMERS For a Lifetime! What to do? What should it cost?

BUS 211_M&A Summer 2006 Courtesy of sjh

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Marketing & Promoting Your Small Business

WANTED:

CUSTOMERS

For a Lifetime!

What to do?

What

should

it c

ost?


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The 3 R’s of Target Marketing

• Researching Your Market

• Reaching Your Market

• Retaining Your Market


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Pre- Marketing Tactics

• Determine if you have a market

• Determine if your market is profitable

• Determine the “uniqueness” of your product or service

• Protect yourself: your product & service


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Protecting Your Product or Idea

• Protect Your Work (and make sure you are not infringing on the rights of others)

• Disclosure Letter– For your records– To have potential stakeholders sign

• Journal…demonstrate you are an active rather than passive business activity

• Copyright, Trademark and Patents


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Protecting Your Ideas

• Patent – a grant from the Patent and Trademark Office to the inventor of a product, giving the exclusive right to make, use, or sell the invention for 20 years from the date of filing the patent application.

• Check out:– www. uspto.gov– www.nolo.com


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• Trademark – any distinctive word, symbol, design, name, logo, slogan, or trade dress a company uses to identify the origin of a product or to distinguish it from other goods on the market.

• Service mark – the same as a trademark except that it identifies the source of a service rather than a product.

• Check out Secretary of State Trademarks/Service Marks www.ss.ca.gov/business ™


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• Copyright – an exclusive right that protects the creators of original works of authorship such as literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works.

• Copyrighted material is denoted by the symbol ©.

• Check with the Library of Congress Copyright Office- www.copyright.gov


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Market Researchan organized objective way of learning about your customers

• Get to know your marketGet professional help, use the local library and on-line databases

• Evaluate Current Buying Trends…evaluate growing NEEDS in your community

• Find a NEED and Fill IT!


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Conduct Market Research

• Identify your Target Market

• Get to KNOW your Target Market

personal observation, sample questionnaires, how will your product/service benefit the Target Market, Ask Questions

• Identify Your Competition

We can learn so much from our competition- both direct and indirect.

DO a Strength- Weakness Evaluation

Find out YOUR NICHE!


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Keys to Market Research on the Internet

1. In-depth analysis of your industry

2. Identify Your Customers

3. Recognize Your Competition

4. Put it all together, and have vision for the future


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Step 1: Understand Your Industry

• An in-depth analysis of the industry is important and essential for market-research. It shows you’re the industry “business environment” and the trends. It helps you answer the questions-

• What are future industry tends?• What current economic or

regulatory issues impact the industry?

• How are your suppliers doing?

For industry information Check out:

Small Business Associations: BusinessTown

Encyclopedia of Associations

www.findarticles.com

SCC on-line Trade Associations

Trade Publications & Groups


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Step 2: Identify Your Customers

Consumer information is a Key Element in the market research process. What do you need to know about your customers and clients in order to best meet their needs?

• Trade & Professional Organizations can help with customer profiles

• Demographic information can help you target and determine “buying behaviors.”

Check out: click on 2000 Census Profiles)– National: www.census2000.com – State: www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/ – SCC on-line databases RAND

www.americandemographics.com

http://www.census2000.com/


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Step 3: Recognize Your Competition

Knowing what your competition is up to is critical to the survival of your business…

Always ask..Who are my competitors?What do they offer?Where do they advertise?What unique features and

benefits do they provide?

Check out:

www.dogpile.com (meta search)

The Yellow Pages

www.thomasregister.com (B2B Directory)

http://www.dogpile.com/


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Evaluating the Competition: Through the Customer’s Eyes

• The “weaknesses” of your competition are the keys to your success

• They help you determine your UNIQUE benefit for your customer


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Evaluating Your Business with the Competition

DO a SWOT AnalysisStrengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats

• Profile the competition• What do they do right?• What do they do

different?• Would could you do

better?• What is your competitive

advantage?


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Testing the Market

Survey people are asked questions. In person, telemarketing, focus groups

Questionnaires data gathering form used to collect information by a personal interview or through the mail

What to consider…1. Types of information

determining need, indicating lifestyle, figuring the best channel to reach, how they feel about the competition

2. Distribution- mail, telemarketing, interviews, group

3. Evaluation of Responsescolor-coding prior to sending


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Your Marketing Mix is Unique! The right ingredients include a “mixture of the FOUR P’s

•Product (or service)

•Place (or distribution)

•Promotion (communication that influences the buyer)

•Price (not always the KEY factor)

• Also “positioning, packaging and personal relations”


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Part II: Reaching Your Target Market

• Develop a strategy to cost

effectively REACH your market

• By studying your TM you know where they shop, what conveniences they like, what they will be willing to pay…

• Develop the Marketing Mix!• Price, Product, Place & Promotion!

Wanted:

Nice,Nice,

RichRich

ClientsClients


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Develop a Realistic Budget

• What can I afford? Why?• How can I get the best “bang for the

buck”?• What channels are used in your

industry & by your TM?• Prioritize your marketing choices • Often the type of business dictates

the type of marketing (personal services rely on referrals and word of mouth more)

• What if I cannot afford to market???


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Putting Your P’s to Work for You• All of your P’s work together to

design a “marketing strategy”..this is the mix that reaches your Target Market

• Product/Service Positioning- keep the needs of the customers in mind!

• Place- means distribution and the distribution channels used

• Price- Recognize the Price Ceilings & Floors

• Promotion- Timing of Market entry, Advertising, Publicity, Alternative Marketing, Marketing on the Net, Community Marketing


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Product- Service Line

• Positioning the Product/ Service Line is critical

• Distribution channels are ALL of the individuals and organizations involved in moving your product (or service) from producer to the end-user

• Many of these folks are your Internal Customers (Internal Market)

• Developing “strategic alliances” is key


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PLACE…the Pipeline to the Customer

• Consider the needs, attitudes and location of your target market & your suppliers and employees

•What is the primary method?Direct Sales, Mail Order, Wholesale, Consignment

•Where will the “service” be provided?

•Location & Distribution Factors to consider (market, supplies ,labor force, competition,

cost, home-based or not)


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Price…with a profit margin•Biggest obstacle…pricing a product or service for what we WANT to sell it for, rather than what it WILL sell for…

•Price Ceiling is the top amount the market will bear and is determined by the market

•Price Floor is the lowest amount you could sell & still meet expenses

•Profit Margins differ greatly in every industry and in business size

•When determining your pricing strategy take into account all the costs involved!


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Promotion…anyway to advertise your business.

Evaluate Your Options •Timing of Market Entry -adjust to the nature of your business. Is your product seasonal?

•Advertising -reminding customers about the benefits of your product in printed or spoken matter

•Publicity or PR -“free advertising”

•E- Marketing

•Alternative Marketing – Displays, Community Involvement, Networking, Trade Shows, Direct-Mail, Brochures, Telemarketing , promo gimmicks


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Thoughts for Next Week

Doing the SWOT…For your business, or potential business, do a

quick scan of the business environment and review of your business. Ask yourself these

questions...What are your businesses…

Strengths & Weaknesses? (internal)What is the current business environments’..

Threats & Opportunities ?(external)


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Group Work

• Where to look for help?• Please create a group of 3

– Write your own ideas down– Write a survey questionnaire together– Surveys– At home, Do a Google or Yahoo Search

[dogpile]• “How to write a planning survey”


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For Next Week

• Please read the text Chapter on Marketing.

• Please hand in one SWOT for your dream company/business.

• Please hand in your group work.• Wanted one suggestion to make this

program “better” for you. [Is this a survey?]

Documents

BUS 211_M&A Summer 2006 Courtesy of sjh 1 Marketing & Promoting Your Small Business WANTED: CUSTOMERS For a Lifetime! What to do? What should it cost?