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Many people include their marketing plan as a section in their business plan. Really, though, marketing is important enough that it deserves a plan of its own, separate from the technical details of the business. Heres what your marketing plan should include.
Your Marketing Strategy.
It might sound silly, but its good to get the core of your marketing plan written down, just so people can see what the rest of your plan is aiming at. Keeping your strategy in mind can also be good when you receive offers to place ads here, there and everywhere you can ask yourself whether it really fits in with your overall strategy.
Your Competitors.
You should have a list of everyone in your area who could be considered to be a competitor, followed by how you plan to differentiate yourself from them.
Advertising.
Your marketing plan should contain a comprehensive list of all the advertising you plan to undertake. This includes a website, advertising in newspapers, leaflets, and so on. For each method of advertising you should list an estimated cost, and the number of customers you expect the advertising to bring in. This allows you to work out your cost of acquisition, which is how much you need to spend on advertising to bring in a customer. The market works out so that this will be more for higher-end customers, and less for lower-end ones.
Pricing.
Your marketing plan should also list all of the pricing policies you plan to have, as well as any special offers that you think will be good. That doesnt mean that you cant make up new offers later, but its still good to have some on the plan for the long-term.
An Example.
The Catering & Cake Co.: Marketing Plan.
Strategy: Our marketing strategy will be to advertise sufficiently that we will be the first company coming to mind when catering is needed in the Anytown/Othertown area. Marketing will be especially targeted towards people arranging weddings and people planning corporate events, so we will always be looking out for new ways to reach these customers. We will not repeat any marketing effort where the COA proves to be more than 20% of the profit those customers provide.
Competitors: In the Anytown area, the established catering companies are Cathys Catering and Funfoods. Cathys Catering mainly cater for low-end corporate events, while Funfoods specialise in food for childrens parties. Our position in the middle-market means that we would be unlikely to provide childrens birthday cakes, and could provide a higher-quality alternative to Cathys Catering for corporate customers.
The company that we believe would be our main competitor is Luxury Food and Cakes, based in the Othertown area. They serve the same kinds of food we plan to, and to similar events. However, we differentiate ourselves from them by offering our food at far lower prices. While they use more expensive ingredients, our taste tests have shown that most consumers are unable to tell in blind taste tests which food cost more. Offering mostly indistinguishable quality at a lower price gives us a powerful way to move in on Luxurys customers.
Advertising (in order of decreasing cost-effectiveness):
Leafleting. $0.01 printing per leaflet, 10,000 leaflets, plus delivery at $100 = $200. Projected 50 customers. COA $4.
Local newspaper. $500 per half page, run once monthly. Projected 100 customers, COA $5.
Corporate mailshots. $0.10 printing per mail, 100 mails, plus delivery at $20 = $30. Projected 3 customers, COA $10 (however, customers are high-value).
Weddings magazine. $200 quarter page, quarterly. Projected 20 customers, COA $10.
Pricing:
Basic catering: cost + 50%.
Deluxe catering: cost + 70%.
Cake: cost + 100%.
Large cake: cost + 80%.
Personalised cake (large only): cost + 120%.
Special Offers: Business is slower in winter than in summer, so there are special winter deals. For example, we plan to offer every third person free on basic catering to give extra value for corporate functions in the winter months (November, December, January, February). There will also be a free champagne offer with the deluxe catering in these months.
The Next Vital Step: You Need A Marketing Plan
This item was originally published on April 1, 2010 at Fast Company.
I was in a meeting with Vinod Khosla once, about a thousand years ago in Internet time (which would make it roughly 2001). We were discussing how, even then, it was tough to find names for Silicon Valley companies that were interesting and available. I was giving the Catchword speech on trademark availability, and how important it was to avoid choosing a name that was already in use, when Vinod jumped in with “Do you think that when we founded Sun we worried about how many other companies were using that name? We just shouted louder and longer than any of them, and we made Sun our name!”
He had a point. Certain companies have never let trademark law stand in the way of a good name. (Of course, sometimes those companies turn right around and use their legal department like a blunt instrument against other people who have the same idea, but that’s not personal, it’s just business.) In 2007, it seemed inevitable that Apple would call their new device the iPhone, despite the fact that Cisco (via Linksys, and earlier, Infogear) owned a trademark for “IPhone”. That mark had been registered in 1999, giving Cisco a clear right to the name.
Most recently, though, we’ve seen behemoths either shy away from potential trademark conflicts, or get beaten by the little guy. Case in point: Sony’s new PlayStation Move motion controller. Rumors and leaks in early 2010 (most notably by THQ’s CEO Brian Farrell) all but confirmed that the new name would be Arc; Sony even registered “playstationarc.com” and filed for a trademark for “PlayStation Arc” in Japan. But just days before the big reveal at Game Developer’s Conference 2010, new rumors flew fast that Sony was backing away from the Arc name because of Microsoft’s Arc trademark for accessories, including computer mice. On March 9 Sony filed for a European trademark for “PlayStation Move” in Europe and announced the name the next day.
Why did Sony give up on Arc? It’s unlikely that they thought consumers would be confused; the MS Arc products aren’t hugely popular and don’t have a lot of brand recognition. (In fact, before the PlayStation Arc name was floated, I would have challenged you to find three ordinary people who knew about MS Arc.) The MS Arc trademark is specifically for “computer mice and computer keyboards”, and the PS Move mark is for “game controllers” and accessories – which from a trademark point of view, are pretty damn different. But trademark examiners are just humans, and the power of the Microsoft brand (and its 5 story building full of lawyers) is not to be trifled with. Sony probably felt that any risk involving MS was just too big to take. One wonders why this wasn’t all settled behind closed doors months ago. Perhaps it was just the case of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object.
Google, meanwhile, has had its own issues with its Android operating system. They tried to trademark the word “android” in October 2007, but it was rejected for being too similar to an existing mark held by the company Android Data, which was registered in 2002. They went ahead with the name anyway, figuring…what? That Erich Specht, who owns Android Data, would be honored that Google stole his name?
So Specht sued them, to the tune of $94 million in damages. The case is still in motion, and it’s not clear how things will shake out. Google appealed to the USPTO, claiming that Android Data was dissolved in 2004, but they were denied. Another appeal, another denial. Once again, one wonders why this wasn’t all settled months ago…
To add insult to injury, just this month (March 2010) Google was denied the trademark for Nexus One, its Android phone. As with Android, their mark was deemed too close to an existing mark for Nexus, held by Integra Telecom. At the risk of repeating myself, one wonders why….
But it looks like Apple learned their lesson. Fujitsu has been selling a device called the iPAD since 2002, which shared many features with Apple’s iPad product (touch screens, wi-fi, etc.). This time there was no lawsuit: Apple bought the trademark from Fujitsu, just in time for the launch on April 3. Phew! Good move, Steve Jobs! You had me worried for a moment there.
Of course, there are other iPads out there. Will Apple buy the rights to “iPad” from Coconut Grove, a Canadian company that makes bra inserts designed to enhance cleavage? They just might. And then there’ll be an app for that.
Tags: Android, Arc, brand names, iPhone, Microsoft, Move, PlayStation, product names, technology names, technology naming, Trademark
