« Liberty League International - Everything You Need To Know Part 2 | Home | The Quick and Easy way to Start a Profitable Home Based Business »
Marketing Basics - Wise Counsel
By Bobby Keating | May 26, 2008
With a little study we can see that there are several concepts and misconceptions about marketing that need to be addressed before we get into the meat of this article. The basic concept of marketing is ‘the diversity of activities used in assuring that we are meeting the needs of our clients and that we are getting a valuable return in response.’ A major misconception of marketing is that it only entails ‘advertising your product or service.’ Advertising is important, however, it is only one component in the process of marketing.
Developing a good understanding of the needs and wants of your customers and developing a plan that addresses those needs is the essential element of ‘marketing.’ For a business owner to want his business to grow is a natural aspiration. Giving close attention to ‘organic growth’ is the most effective way to help your business grow.
One of the most effective ways to grow or expand a business is to concentrate on ‘organic growth.’ For us to understand ‘organic growth’, we need to be aware of the fact that a business is a living organism. We can either let it tend to itself or we can discover what its needs are to help it grow. When determining what the business needs, we can determine what we need to do to make it thrive.
We should look at two basic components of marketing in order to get a better idea of the things that we need to create a successful business. The first component of marketing that we need to consider is ‘developing a marketing plan.’ The second component is the ‘ongoing promotion.’ One mistake that many business owners make is to create a product or service and immediately jump into an advertising campaign. When we define these two basic components, you’ll understand why this mistake can be a disappointing and costly one.
When we develop a ‘marketing plan’ or ‘marketing strategy’, we create a guide that is necessary for the well being of a business. The first consideration in creating a marketing plan is research and analysis. This is not as difficult as it may seem. It may take a little time but it will be well worth the effort.
To help us get started, let’s begin by looking at a simplified explanation of ‘marketing analysis.’ We should apply two of Solomon’s Keys to Success at this point.
Proverbs 1:5 (Amplified Bible) “The wise also will hear and increase in learning, and the person of understanding will acquire skill and attain to sound counsel [so that he may be able to steer his course rightly]” Wise counsel can be found in many forms. We should also remember, for those of us who think we understand better than others, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who listens to counsel is wise.” Proverbs 12:15 (Amplified Bible)
What must we do in ‘marketing analysis’?
1.) Determining our ‘market’ or the groups of potential clients that exist,
2.) Determining our ‘target market’ or which groups of customers that we prefer to serve,
3.) Learning the needs of our target market,
4.) Decide which of your products or services might meet their needs,
5.) Determining the uses our potential clients might have for our products and services,
6.) Learning what our competitors are doing,
7.) Determine the pricing structure that best fits your product and/or service and
8.) Developing a plan for the distribution of our products and services to our target markets.
There are numerous methods of ‘market research’ that can be used to gather information concerning markets, target markets and customer needs, competitors’ products, etc. The ease of Internet research will reveal many sources of specific information. We must target our searches on the Internet search engines. This can be accomplished by beginning from a broad area of possibilities and with each subsequent search get more specific until we have discovered as much as possible about our market in general and specifically our target market. The resulting information will determine our ‘niche’ market, our specific area of a market that is best for our product or service.
After having developed our marketing plan, we should look at our plan for ‘ongoing promotions.’ Our plan for ongoing promotion will include advertising, public relations, sales and customer service to name a few. These terms (advertising, marketing, promotion, public relations and publicity, and sales) can easily become confusing. These are terms that are often used interchangeably. However, they refer to different but similar activities.
Let’s look at a list of definition of each term.
1.) Advertising — effectively presenting a product (or service) to potential and current customers. Advertising must be focused on one particular product or service. This demonstrates that an advertising plan for one particular product or service might not work for another product or service. Advertising is done with signs, brochures, commercials, direct mailings or e-mail messages, personal contact, website banners, etc.
2.) Promotion — Promotion can be defined as the tasks that maintain the product in the minds of the customer (product recognition). The ongoing effort of advertising, sales and public relations are often considered aspects of promotions.
3.) Public relations — Public relations is ongoing activities that ensure your product or service has a strong and positive public image.
4.) Publicity — being mentioned in the media. This is always the review of someone else but can include news releases.
These are only a few terms that are good to learn. The health and well being of a business, your business, is truly determined by the amount of diligent study that you do and the application of the principles that you learn through study. To best know your product or service or customers or competitors, you must develop a sincere determination to be as diligent as possible.
Remember these principles in Solomon’s Proverbs to help you develop a growing and successful business.
Proverbs 10:4 (NASB) “Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
Proverbs 12:24 (NASB) “The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slack hand will be put to forced labor.”
Proverbs 13:4 (NASB) “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is made fat.”
Proverbs 21:5 (The Amplified Bible) “The thoughts of the [steadily] diligent tend only to plenteousness, but everyone who is impatient and hasty hastens only to want.”
Commit this last Proverb to memory. It will serve you well.
Topics: Marketing |
Comments
« Liberty League International - Everything You Need To Know Part 2 | Home | The Quick and Easy way to Start a Profitable Home Based Business »
