Marketing Planning - 8 Hot Tips

Marketing Planning - 8 Hot Tips


1. Research your customer


•How are your customers redefining value? Price elasticity is changing. Consumers are taking the time searching. They are willing to postpone purchases.

2. Focus on family values


•When times get harder we retreat to our villages (Home & Office). Look for home and family scenes to replace extreme sports, adventure, and individualism. Uncertainty prompts us to stay at home but connected with friends and family. They connect via the Internet. Ask yourself if you prepared to grab customers from the Internet?


Don't say - "Yes, I am prepared because I have a web site."


Do say - "How can I improve my current online presence to get more leads and sales?"

3. Maintain marketing spending


•This is the time not to cut advertising! ** A McGraw Hill study researched over 600 businesses during 81-82 slowdown and findings showed that businesses that increased their advertising spending had higher sales growth during slow times – of those companies that maintained or increased advertising had an increase of 256% more sales.


•If you have to cut marketing just maintain frequency. If you do TV ads, go from 30 seconds to 15 seconds or go to a smaller ads, just maintain a regular presence.


If you are online, do it smarter.

4. Adjust product portfolios


•Consumers want brands that are associated with quality and longevity.


•Consumers will favour multi function over specialized products and services.


•Weaker product lines should be eliminated.


•Industrial consumers will want products unbundled and priced separately.


•Gimmicks are out but you should still do some "schwag" like t-shirts and pens.


•New products should still be put out, but advertising should stress price and performance. Your advertising should be thru profitable channels. Don't confuse this with "What has worked in the past will work again". Expand, test and measure.

5. Support Distributors


•Offer early buy allowances.


•Offer extended financing and generous return policies (especially true for new unproven products).


•Drop weaker distributors and expand your sales force.
6. Adjust pricing tactics


•Customers are shopping for best prices.


•Offer more temporary price promotions, reduce thresholds for quantity discounts, extend credit to long-standing customers, and price smaller pack sizes more aggressively. Be creative. Be smart.


•Offer special discounts to offer temporary lower pricing.

7. Stress Market Share


•Know your cost structure – any cut backs should never impact the customer.


•Companies with strong positions and productive cost structures can expect to gain market share.


•Maybe its time to acquire competition?

8. Emphasize Core Value


•Team Leaders, Managers and especially CEO's should cement loyalty with employees by assuring them that the company has survived tough times before and that maintaining quality rather than cutting corners is most important.


•CEO's must spend more time with employees and customers.

SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES DO NOT ABANDON THEIR MARKETING STRATEGIES -

THEY ADAPT THEM.

In the next issue you will learn ground breaking growth strategies, why the old ways of marketing no longer work and how to adopt the “new” way of selling.


Until then, stay tuned, stay hot.