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To quote an
ongoing philosophy for business success … "Marketing
brings the money in". And while marketing is more of an art
than a science, unlike finances, you can never read enough or
listen to enough opinions on marketing. The more you imbibe in
other peoples thoughts on the subject … the more ideas you
get! And … the more ideas you get … the more you find ways
to market your business! The better you market your business …
the more revenues you generate!
Remember New Coke? Coca-Cola’s marketing campaign raised brand
awareness. One little problem; customers hated the stuff. And
how about hand-held organizers? People love them, yet millions
of marketing dollars couldn’t make the Apple Newton or
Microsoft Pocket PC fly. Palm simply trumped the bigger guys
with its superior product.
As for
e-retailers? Isn’t it curious that old-line catalog companies
are the victors? And that they’re mailing more rather than
fewer catalogs since the explosion of the Web?
Lessons abound
in the parables and paradoxes of contemporary marketing. The key
for business owners is to learn about the successes and failures
of other businesses marketing ventures. Mainly, learn what works
and what doesn't, then emulate the successes as much as
possible. Of course the difficult part is finding resources
where you can learn those lessons from others who have been in
your shoes.
One of those
resources is a book with the title of The
Marketing Plan - How to Prepare and Implement It by William
Luther. This book has gathered lots of lessons and put them into
a sort of how-to manual.
The
Marketing Plan breaks down the marketing madness into three
essential processes. First, you have to create your Fact Book
– that means determining what your customers want, how
you’ll develop or service it, where you’ll sell it most
profitably and who will compete with you. Second, you must use
that information to create a desirable positioning or
personality for your business. Third, you’ve got to translate
that personality into a preferred brand, using all the tools
available.
The Internet,
of course, is one such tool. In The
Marketing Plan the author steps back from the dot-com boom
and bust to dispassionately analyze the powers of the Web and
e-mail. As Luther says: “The question relative to e-commerce
is not whether you should participate, but how.”
The
Marketing Plan covers
many of the marketing channels – from advertising and
couponing to pricing strategies, trade shows and shoppertainment,
with dozens of recent and instructive usage examples. And,
because marketing demands number crunching, the book includes a
detailed what if revenue model that facilitates creation of
realistic marketing budgets.
So, if you
want to make your product or service more visible, more
desirable and more profitable? One of the first most important
things you’ll need is a solid marketing plan. The
Marketing Plan shows you how to develop and implement a
marketing plan that will help you:
This book is
packed with valuable tools, including thumbnail case histories;
compelling examples from print, television and the Web; forms;
self-tests; customer analyses; a list of the 38 market
characteristics that can influence profit potential; the What-If
revenue model for determining marketing objectives and budget
and a comprehensive outline that will help you create your own
winning marketing plan.
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