Marketing Plans
Marketing is more than just selling and advertising. It's about what you need to do to capture and keep your customers over time. Your marketing plan needs to answer the question: Why am I in business, what do customers want, why will customers buy from me and not my competitors and how will I communicate with consumers about my product’s attributes/benefits?
A marketing plan is a document that details the necessary actions to achieve one or more marketing strategies. It can be for a product or service, a brand, or a product line. Marketing plans cover between one and five years, and are usually part of a business plan.
The key is to identify, attract and satisfy customers and consumers. The aim of marketing is to have:
- The right product or service
- At the right price
- In the right place at the right time
- Actively promoted to your chosen target market
These are often referred to as the ‘4 P’s of the marketing mix’. These elements are intertwined and cannot be considered in isolation from each other. Sometimes other Ps are also included – such as People, Packaging and Process. However, the four key P’s are most useful in helping you to target individual people who might, for a variety of reasons, want to buy your product. In the end, every sale results from people connecting with people.
Product
‘Product’ is the ‘goods and services’ combination the business offers to the target market. This includes research, development and testing, the number of items to be included in the product mix, portion size, packaging, branding and product launch.
Price
‘Price’ is the amount of money customers have to pay to obtain the product. Pricing decisions will include assessment of the market conditions and competition, desired returns on investment, product positioning and image through price/quality relationships.
Place
‘Place’ includes all business activities, such as distribution, that make the product available to the target market. Decisions must be made as to whether you retail or wholesale, how many participants there will be in the distribution process, and in which physical locations the product will be made available.
Promotion
‘Promotion’ includes all activities that communicate the benefits of the product and persuade the target market to buy it. This is not just advertising - advertising is just one component of effective promotion. Trade shows, media relations and point of sale aterial are other examples.
There are also specific tools that could be included into any marketing plan, such as the use of websites and the internet.
Different types of websites
It is quite simple to take the step of using the internet to promote your business but does require some financial investment. Before taking this step, take the time to browse the internet looking at different businesses websites, so that you have a clear idea of what you want for a website. Make sure that you have looked at your business plan and set a realistic budget for the development of your website. Unless there is a clear need for a ‘bells and whistle’ website, consider taking a staged approach to the development of your site. This way, you can manage the expense of the development over several years rather than in one hit.
It is important to remember to promote your website in everything you do. This can be as simple as including your email and web addresses on your letterhead, invoices, brochures and business cards, and in your email signature.
Another easy way of promoting your website is to link it with other websites that you know will draw people to it. See if you can get a link through your local food group, regional development board or tourism marketing committee. Your web developer should offer to register your site with search engines such as Google as part of their service.
Australian Domain Name Administrator for further information or talk to a local web designer.
Want more information?
There are many sources of advice and assistance to help develop a marketing plan to suit your type of business.
To begin your main sources of information will be through:
- discussion with knowledgeable peers and potential customers and suppliers;
- desktop research, including web searches, trade/industry material and market statistics, eg ABS, market research reports;
- discussion with business advisers such as the Industry Development Officers at the SA Food Centre.
There are also specific tools that could be included into any marketing plan, such as the use of the internet.
How has the SA Food Centre helped others?
By offering a range of workshops, advice and practical assistance to South Australian food businesses, the SA Food Centre has helped food businesses with their marketing.
Case Study
Who can I contact?
The SA Food Centre can provide advice and facilitate contacts to help your business planning. Contact us to help.
- Page last modified: November 15, 2011, 5:51 pm
- Welcome URL is http://www.safoodcentre.com.au/
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