I’m often asked about how businesses can go about marketing themselves effectively. This is not an easy question to answer, as marketing encompasses many more activities than most people realise. The term marketing clearly comes from the word ‘market,’ which simply refers to the transfer of cash for goods or services. On a more defined level, marketing might be described as a set of processes used to ensure customer satisfaction. The result of customer satisfaction is clear – greater profit in your pocket.
Step by Step Design 1 – Define Your Target Market
The first step in designing a marketing plan is identifying and understanding who you want to sell to, and create relationships with. There are two groups that need to be considered, both of whom need to be marketed to differently.
Consumer Market – these are individuals who are driven by their own motivations which are influenced through demographic, behaviour and psychology.
Business Market – these are individuals or groups who are buying for someone else. In the nursery and garden industry the business market is often the landscapers that deal direct with retailers. The business market is influenced by geographic location, the client, and end use of the product.
2 - The Marketing Mix
Once you have identified your target market, you
are then in a position to develop a marketing mix. A marketing mix identifies a businesses four P’s - Products, Price, Place and Promotion, which are designed and balanced to work together to achieve the businesses objectives.Product: Deciding on what products you carry in your garden centre is critical. They must meet the needs and desires of your current and potential customers. If you have products that appear not to be turning over, it is likely because your customer has no need for them or doesn’t want them. Conducting research through satisfaction surveys or other indirect means may be useful in providing product that they will purchase. It could be as simple as getting staff to log requests of items throughout the year, with the aim of introducing these into your range given demand for them.
Price: Price is a critical component of the marketing mix because customers are invariably concerned about the value of a purchase. Price is the most readily changeable characteristic of the marketing mix due to fluctuations in market share, production costs, competition and the customer’s perceived value. Balancing these influences is the tricky bit, and should be in a state of constant review on each product line.
Place: Place is concerned with where and how your products are distributed to the consumer. This might include on site facilities such as the physical attributes of your store. The Australian Garden Centre Accreditation Scheme (AGCAS) focuses on achieving professionalism in this sector of the market mix. Place may also relate to processes to assist the customer in the purchase of a product such as lay-by, delivery or even on-line stores.
Promotion: Promotion covers the communication tools used to build and maintain relationships by informing and persuading your target audience. There are a number of ways that a business can communicate with customers:
• Personal Selling: Old fashioned customer service, providing the right advice and aiding the customer in their choices for the purpose of a sale.
• Sales Promotion: Price deals, coupons, loyalty programs and rebates.
• Public Relations/Publicity: Participation in community activities, media programs, causes for individuals. Generally presenting your business as an engaged corporate citizen.
• Advertising: Television commercials, radio broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, billboards and websites.
• Direct Marketing: Methods for directly communicating with customers such as newsletters, direct targeted mail outs, emailing and phone calling.
• Combination of above – A customer relationship management (CRM) program may employ a variety of the promotional activities above.
Once you have devised a marketing plan using the processes discussed, it is important to continually evaluate your plan at regular intervals to make sure it continues to be effective. A SWOT analysis can be a very useful tool in evaluating not only marketing plans, but many other aspects of your business too.
SWOT Analysis
Some of you have probably used a SWOT analysis before, or at least are aware of what they are. A SWOT analysis seeks to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within your business. Once identified, these may be compared and analysed, allowing you to be subjective about decisions relating to the development of the business.
The top side of the quadrant, the strengths and weaknesses, are internal influencing factors. These are current and existing issues within the business. The opportunities and threats on the bottom of the quadrant are external influences and can’t necessarily be controlled, but can be used as a tool or guide to your own development.
On the left side of the quadrant you have the positive influencing factors to your businesses growth. The strengths of your business are those that currently exist, it is the things in your business that set you aside from your competition. For many retailers in rural parts of Victoria, AGCAS Accreditation plays a key role as one of their strengths. Their participation in the program assists their businesses development and growth while also being a very marketable attribute. You need to think outside the square and in turn identify the niche that holds current strength and opportunity for growth.
The negatives of your business can be found in the right hand side of the quadrant. These include your current weaknesses such as lack of marketing experience or poor quality stock. External negative influences are considered threats and may be a new competitor, or price wars initiated by an existing competitor.
A SWOT analysis is a very subjective means of identifying your businesses positive and negative attributes and should be used simply as a guide. It would be worthwhile for a SWOT analysis to be carried out at least by the business owner, but also by staff. This allows you to identify the varying perceptions within the culture of the organisation, providing opportunity to turn current negatives, into positives for business growth.
Conclusion
While much of what has been presented here may seem obvious, it is the structured process of analysing your existing and potential markets that will provide opportune benefit to the development of your business. So, grab a pen and piece of paper and start planning! In the next issue of Groundswell I will introduce you to further tools for managing your marketing plan.
References:
Belch, Belch, Kerr & Powell (2009) Advertising and Promotion, An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective, 1st Edition, McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
Elliot, Rundle-Theile, Waller & Paladino (2008) Marketing: Concepts & Applications, 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia.
Summers, Gardiner, Lamb, Hair & McDaniel (2003) Essentials of Marketing. Thomson
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