Marketing Plans

    Marketing is the language of business. Without a solid marketing plan, the business is non-existent and is no business at all. An idea can be the best in the world, but if no one knows about it it profits no one. A marketing plan is a snapshot for the newest product or service to be delivered to the customer and links the current financial situation to the future goal-oriented objective. There are 15 steps in a well-rounded plan and each serves a specific purpose.

      1) Executive Summary- In this section a business identifies a challenge or problem that occurs in the market and to its customers. The challenge must be matched with an opportunity the business can deliver to remedy the challenge. A complete understanding of what to market will be described here.

     2) Company Description- A brief history of the business is included here. The basic operation and day to day functionality is detailed along with how the brand will be recognized is explained.

     3) Strategic Focus and Mission- A mission statement and vision is described here.
 
     4) Industry Analysis-  What kind of trends are occurring in the industry? How are other companies dealing with the marketplace and economic situation? How are customers feeling about the industry as a whole?

     5) Core Competencies/Competitive Advantage- If a company understands what sets them apart from other similar businesses, then it will maximize its profits.
 
     6) Competitor Analysis- Slightly different than the Competitive advantage; here a company is looking at specific competitors that may threaten the business and what they are doing. Why are they different.

     7) Situation Analysis- This is the beginning of the heart of the marketing plan. There is no complete breakdown of objectives here, but a company will identify its budget and basic resources with which it has to implement the entire plan.

Call the SWOT we need your help!

     The Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) team is a specialized force that the police use when an operation is considered high risk or outside the responsibilities of regular officers. These people are trained civilian warriors that may use military-like maneuvers and weaponry to combat situations like hostage rescue, riot control, or counter-terrorism. The SWAT is called to deal with out of the ordinary or extreme measures in policing.
  
      In business, when a situation needs consideration or review, or a major move is made a SWOT analysis is performed. The SWOT is a strategic planning maneuver that takes a look at a company's internal and external environment and identifies the helpful or harmful influences that affect performance.

     SWOT stands for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats. This analysis will begin the process of identifying key components of a business that will allow the most efficient and productive moves to be made while eliminating the most unproductive, or protect and safeguard from potential future challenges.
Strengths- A company should have several factors that will set it apart from its competitors. Brand recognition, marketing expertise, quality process or procedures, CRM, or unique innovative products will add value to the business and these strengths should be identified and magnified.
Weakness- These need to be identified in order to be converted to strengths, or eliminated completely. Too many will severely damage a company. Weaknesses include: damaged reputation, lack of experience, undifferentiated products from competitors, poor customer service/ quality control, limitation of service or product line.
Opportunities-These are external factors that once identified will help a business increase its value. The ability to match an opportunity to a strength will give a company a competitive advantage in the market. Opportunities may include mergers, joint ventures, or strategic alliances with complementary businesses. International expansion, or newly developed markets such as the internet presence may also increase value. Sometimes, opportunities occur when a competitor closes and a market void is able to be filled.
Threats- Any outside influence that may cause harm or damage to a business must be noted and either avoided, or carefully acknowledged in order to protect an even larger potential threat.  Most threats are completely out of the sphere of influence from business, but if identified early a threat can become an opportunity. Threats are caused by government regulation or deregulation of an industry, taxation, international law, price wars, or new emerging competition.

     A SWOT should be performed at the very least once a year, a good business will address some of the components every six months in order to impact its profitability. A business can function without this procedure the same as the police could handle a potential criminal threat, but the SWAT is certainly the better team to handle a high risk situation. The success in using either is the ability to leverage resources and control the internal and external environment surrounding the situation.
 

Dreams, Visions, Missions, Goals, and Purpose, Most importantly, Why?

The most profound wisdom for business is given in scripture; Proverbs 29:18 "where there is no vision, the people perish...". Critics may be skeptical of the truth in scripture, but the words written are no doubt plausible.  Every job, business, personal development group, inspirational book, religion, or organization asks themselves this same question: why do we do the things we do? Some have the answer, and sadly some don't.

There are thousands of lectures, blogs, articles, stories, books, and motivational speakers on the subject; this another article may simply repeat what has been said over a million times.  Nonetheless the secret to any endeavor is finding the real meaning behind these words. According to Miriam Webster: Dream- something that fully satisfies a wish. Vision- a thought, concept, or object formed by imagination. Mission- a pre-established and often self-imposed objective. Goal- the end toward which effort is directed. Purpose-something set up as an object or end to be obtained.

If these definitions were actually used nobody would be inspired by the boring rhetoric they provide.    But each word in itself creates a myriad of possibilities. We are told as little children to dream big, our dreams may come to fruition. The company we work for may have a Vision or Mission Statement-hopefully one that is clearly defined and inspires or motivates the employees to do their best, or sets  the company apart from the competition. Our boss wants us to set goals-most likely some kind of accountability or quota to meet. We define ourselves by having a purpose, or some reason that we do what we do. The most important question still remains. Why?  What is the most compelling reason to face the challenges, resentment, obstructions, critiques, and failures each of us will face? What is the real reason we as entrepreneurs desire to start a business? Is it money? Is it family? Is it freedom? Without knowing this our business will die just as surely as the ancient scriptures taught the people of the Old Testament.