MSS - Course Pack - Marketing and Branding Your Business
MSS - Course Pack - Marketing and Branding Your Business
MSS - Course Pack - Marketing and Branding Your Business
BRANDING YOUR
BUSINESS
MSS19
MANAGEMENT SKILLS
FOR SUPERVISORS
2017
© This publication is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the prior permission in
writing from the Copyright holder, Continuing Education, University of the Fraser
Valley. Enquiries about reproduction should be sent to the Continuing Education
Department of the University of the Fraser Valley.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................... 3
DAY 1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................. 6
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 6
BENEFITS OF STRATEGIC MARKETING ....................................................................................................... 6
5 PARTS OF STRATEGIC MARKETING ................................................................................................... 7
.......................................................................................................................................................... 7
TARGET MARKET................................................................................................................................ 8
TARGET MARKET ACTIVITY ................................................................ ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
TARGET MARKET SEGMENTATIONS .......................................................................................................... 8
MARKETING MIX................................................................................................................................ 9
PRODUCT ...............................................................................................................................................................9
Price .......................................................................................................................................................................9
Place ....................................................................................................................................................................10
Promotion ............................................................................................................................................................10
Process (Service) ..................................................................................................................................................10
People (Service) ...................................................................................................................................................10
Physical evidence (Service) ..................................................................................................................................10
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MARKET RESEARCH ................................................................................................................................. 19
Primary ................................................................................................................................................................19
Secondary ............................................................................................................................................................19
PRIMARY RESEARCH METHODS .............................................................................................................. 19
MARKET RESEARCH ................................................................................................................................. 20
MARKETING PLAN ................................................................................................................................... 20
PARTS OF A MARKETING PLAN................................................................................................................ 20
DAY 4 LEARNING OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................... 21
PROMOTION ............................................................................................................................................ 21
ADVERTISING ........................................................................................................................................... 22
INCENTIVES.............................................................................................................................................. 22
PUBLIC RELATIONS .................................................................................................................................. 23
PERSONAL SELLING.................................................................................................................................. 23
PUBLICITY ................................................................................................................................................ 23
NETWORKING .......................................................................................................................................... 24
PROMOTION PLANNING.......................................................................................................................... 24
CREATING MESSAGING ........................................................................................................................... 24
EVALUATING YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY ........................................................................................... 24
DEVELOPING A MARKETING PLAN .................................................................................................... 25
WHY DEVELOP A MARKETING PLAN?...................................................................................................... 25
BEFORE WRITING YOUR MARKETING PLAN ............................................................................................ 25
Market research ..................................................................................................................................................25
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Project where you will be in one, three, and five years - What are your long-term goals? ................................29
Provide a date at which to review your marketing plan - When will I review my plan? .....................................29
MARKETING MIX SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ 30
PRODUCT ................................................................................................................................................. 30
PRICE........................................................................................................................................................ 30
PLACE ....................................................................................................................................................... 30
PROMOTION ............................................................................................................................................ 30
PROCESS .................................................................................................................................................. 30
PEOPLE..................................................................................................................................................... 30
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE ................................................................................................................................ 30
THE 5 STEPS TO DELIVER A CLEAR BRAND ONLINE AND KEEP CUSTOMERS COMING BACK ................. 31
1. MESSAGE: ......................................................................................................................................... 31
2. EMOTION: ........................................................................................................................................ 31
3. CREDIBILITY ...................................................................................................................................... 31
4. MOTIVATION: ................................................................................................................................... 32
5. LOYALTY ........................................................................................................................................... 33
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DAY 1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Define “marketing”
Explain the 5 parts of strategic marketing
Identify who your customers are
Define and use the “marketing mix”
Explain how marketing interacts with the rest of your business
INTRODUCTION
Marketing is…
“Determining the value of your product or service and communication that information to
customers” (Canada Business Network, 2012).
“Without a strategy you are likely to try to be all things to all people and end up with a product
nobody likes or a service that doesn’t meet anyone’s needs” (Kurtz, 2010).
Gastin, M. (2011)
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5 PARTS OF STRATEGIC MARKETING
Target
Market
Right
Evaluate
"Mix"
Marketing
Branding
Plan
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TARGET MARKET
“a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately
it’s merchandise toward” (Kurtz. D. (2010).
Geographic (location)
Demographic/socio-economic (gender, age, income, occupation, education, household
size, and stage in the family life cycle)
Psychographic (similar attitudes, values, and lifestyles)
Behavioural (occasions, degree of loyalty)
Cohen, A.W. (2005)
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MARKETING MIX
“a set of controllable tactical marketing tools that a business blends to produce the response it
wants in the target market.”
Putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.
PRODUCT SERVICE
Product Product
Price Price
Place Place
Promotion Promotion
Process
People
Physical Evidence
PRODUCT
Describe the product/service you are selling?
What needs does it satisfy?
How is your product/service unique?
What does the customer want from the product/service?
Are these the right products or services for your customers today?
PRICE
What does it cost your business to offer the product or service?
What is the value of the product or service to the buyer?
Are there established price points for products or services in this area?
Is the customer price sensitive? Will a small decrease in price gain you extra market
share?
How will your price compare with your competitors?
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PLACE
Where do buyers look for your product or service? Is it a physical or virtual location?
Is the place you’ve chosen a good fit with where your target customer shops?
Are you going to sell your product directly to the end consumer yourself or will you sell
to wholesalers or retailers who will sell it for you?
Do you need to use a sales force?
What do your competitors do, and how can you learn from that and/or differentiate?
PROMOTION
Where and when can you get across your marketing messages to your target market?
How will you reach your audience – media, internet, PR, direct marketing mailshot?
When is the best time to promote?
How do your competitors do their promotions? And how does that influence your choice
of promotional activity?
PROCESS (SERVICE)
Describe the customer’s experience from start to finish.
By what criteria is the process organized?
How is quality controlled?
PEOPLE (SERVICE)
Who is involved in offering this product or service?
What is their role in offering this product or service?
Are these the right people for our target market?
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MARKETING IS INTEGRATED
Research and development needs to focus on developing products/services that meet the
needs of clients.
Production has to keep up with the demand and live up to quality promises.
HR has to hire and train people to sell your product and create a strong image for the
business.
Finance assists in pricing your product.
Legal assesses the implications of marketing techniques.
Environmental team reviews the packaging/process of your product/service to ensure
that, while still being attractive, it has a low impact on the environment.
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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
ASSIGNMENT #1
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REFERENCES
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DAY TWO LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Define “branding”
Explain the importance of branding
Build, manage, and review a brand
DEFINITION OF BRANDING
“a unique and identifiable symbol, association, name, or trademark which serves to differentiate
competing products or services” (Yan, 2007).
“The intangible sum of a product’s attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its
reputation, and the way it’s advertised” (Ogilvy, 2008).
Branding is how your markets see you, knows you, and ranks
you from your competitors.
A brand is not…
A Logo
An Identity
A Product
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EXAMPLES OF BRANDING
McDonald’s
Lay’s
BENEFITS OF BRANDING
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BRANDING
BRANDING
“Your brand should communicate something important about your product or service – its core
concept or reason for being. It should be short, memorable, pronounceable, and distinguishable
from competition” (Entenmann, 2007).
Build
Review Manage
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BUILD YOUR BRAND
1. Planning
Identify current strengths, organization values, and customer requirements
Determine what is possible
Prioritize your findings
Set your branding
Integrate into the marketing plan
2. Communicate internally
Branding research results (the why)
Branding criteria (the what)
Illustrative examples of the brand in use (the how)
Share and execute the marketing plan (the when)
3. Tell your customer
All forms of promotion, experience, in-person
Market Marketing
Evaluation
Research Plan
MAR
KET
MARKET RESEARCH BENEFITS
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WHEN TO CONDUCT MARKET RESEARCH
MARKET RESEARCH
PRIMARY
To gather first-hand data Triangulation
Generally qualitative
Answer specific questions
SECONDARY
To gather second-hand data
Generally quantitative
Applies information to specific questions
Surveys
Direct questioning
Interview
Focus Groups
Market Research
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MARKET RESEARCH
Tips for developing questions:
MARKETING PLAN
Executive Determine
Marketing review date
summary
Plan and criteria
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DAY 4 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
PROMOTION
Promotion is:
Advertising Incentives
Publicity Personal
Selling
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ADVERTISING
Advertising Examples:
PROS CONS
Print: Print:
Inexpensive to produce Inexpensive to produce
Easy to switch out Easy to switch out
Different rates and sizes Different rates and sizes
Magazine: Magazine:
Access to a specific customer base Ads can be expensive
More bang for your buck Tricky to schedule
Help brand your business
Television: Television:
High impact Expensive
Ability to connect emotion Slow medium to release
Carefully chosen time slot
Radio: Radio:
Affordable Listeners may be geographically
Select a station with similar scattered
location/demographics “cluttered” back-to-back ads
Immediate medium Impact is limited due to lack of detail
and visual
INCENTIVES
Incentives are invitations for the customer’s repeat business.
Examples:
Coupons and vouchers
Frequency rewards
Competitions
Free samples
Gifts
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PUBLIC RELATIONS
Public relations involve creating, promoting and maintaining goodwill and a favourable image
among the public towards a business.
Examples:
Sponsorship
Charity events
Goodwill initiatives
Lending resources
PERSONAL SELLING
Personal selling occurs when you or sales staff contacts the client directly.
Examples:
Telemarketing
Product/service follow-up
Customer profile/history
Email blast
PUBLICITY
Examples:
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NETWORKING
Networking refers to having informal contact with people of similar personal or business
interests for mutual assistance or support.
Examples:
PROMOTION PLANNING
When planning a promotion, consider the following:
Purpose/objective
Type of promotion
Materials and resources
Key messaging (AIDA)
Schedule
Follow-up
CREATING MESSAGING
Use AIDA to help you create your promotion:
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DEVELOPING A MARKETING PLAN
WHY DEVELOP A MARKETING PLAN?
Your marketing plan is an essential part of your overall business plan. When you start a business
or introduce new products or concepts, the plan will help you:
Assess the needs of your customers and develop a product or service to meet those needs
Communicate the attributes of the product or service to the customer
Establish distribution channels to get the products/services to the customer
Developing your marketing plan will, first and foremost, help you think of all aspects of
marketing; aspects which you could otherwise overlook. To produce a sound business plan you
will need to outline things such as the nature of your customers, and how and why they will buy
your product or hire your services. Secondly, your banker or lender will want to see the
marketing section of your business plan before considering lending you money.
Styles, markets, and goals change and so should your plan. Your marketing plan should be
readily accessible to consult, revise, and update. You should update your plan regularly,
adjusting it according to business activities and predictions of new trends.
MARKETING PLAN
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - WHAT IS MY OVERALL PLAN?
The executive summary is an overview of the key points contained in your marketing plan and
although it is written last, it should be positioned at the front of the plan. This summary is usually
the first section that a potential investor or lender will read. You need to give proper attention to
this important part of your marketing plan. The executive summary should:
Include highlights from each of the other sections to explain the basics of your marketing
plan
Be interesting enough to motivate the reader to continue reading the rest of your
marketing plan
Be short and concise
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IDENTIFY YOURSELF - WHO AM I AND WHAT ARE MY VALUES?
If you haven't already done so in your overall business plan, you'll want to clearly describe who
you are, what your business is about and its goals, and what has inspired you to start, buy or
grow a business. For example:
Include the company name, address, phone number, and names of owners/partners
Indicate the business' vision, mission statement and beliefs (this should align with your
target market)
Indicate the core values and goals of the business and its owner(s)
W HO IS YOUR CUSTOMER ?
Before you begin selling something, you need to know who you are selling to. If you haven't
determined who your target market is, you are likely to try to be all things to all people and end
up with a product nobody likes or a service that doesn't meet anyone's needs.
When developing a general profile of your customers, you might want to define them by their
demographic characteristics, such as:
Age, usually given in a range (20-35 years)
Gender
Marital status
Location of household
Family size and description
Income, especially disposable income (money available to spend)
Education level, usually to last level completed
Occupation
Interests, purchasing profile (what are consumers known to want?)
Cultural, ethnic, racial background
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Once you have defined your target customers, you must learn about their needs and preferences.
What challenges do they have that could be solved with your product or service?
What are their needs and expectations regarding this product or service?
What types of things do they desire?
What do they spend their money on?
Where do they shop?
How do they make spending decisions?
To develop a profile of your customers and understand their needs, you will have to do some
market research.
Traditionally, customers shop at stores to find the products they want. Similarly, we often
assume that we need to go out to a specific location for services such as a massage or a haircut.
However, there is nothing that dictates this is how you should serve your customer. What is
important is that you detail who the middle players are and how much they will cost. For
example, you could decide to:
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GROUP YOUR MARKETING ACTIVITIES - HOW WILL MY MESSAGE
REACH POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS?
Create a table or chart and provide your estimate as to how much of your total marketing budget
you plan to spend on each media type. In another table or chart, detail how much of your time
you plan to spend on each. You could break down each group by specific media. Some
suggestions are:
The following are some marketing challenges for which you could plan:
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INDICATE YOUR PRICE OR PRICING STRATEGY - HOW MUCH SHOULD I
CHARGE?
Determining the right price is yet another aspect of marketing. If your price is too high, you may
alienate customers, and if it's too low, you may give the impression that your product or service
is cheap and below standard. Some businesses purposely charge a very high price so that their
customers feel that they are getting a better product or service. Some sell at a slightly higher than
average price in order to be able to offer exceptional customer service.
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MARKETING MIX SUMMARY
PRODUCT
Product means the goods-and-services combination the company offers to the target market.
Kotler and Armstrong (2010).
PRICE
Price is the amount the consumer must exchange to receive the offering.
Solomon et al (2009).
PLACE
Place includes company activities that make the product available to target consumers.
Kotler and Armstrong (2010).
PROMOTION
Promotion includes all of the activities marketers undertake to inform consumers about their
products and to encourage potential customers to buy these products.
Solomon et al (2009).
PROCESS
Process is) . . . The actual procedures, mechanisms, and flow of activities by which the service is
delivered – this service delivery and operating systems.
Zeithaml et al (2008).
PEOPLE
(People are) . . . All human actors who play a part in service delivery and thus influence the
buyers' perceptions; namely, the firm's personnel, the customer, and other customers in the
service environment.
Zeithaml et al (2008).
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
(Physicalevidence is) . . . The environment in which the service is delivered, and where the firm
and customer interact, and any tangible components that facilitate performance or
communication of the service.
Zeithaml et al (2008)
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THE 5 STEPS TO DELIVER A CLEAR
BRAND ONLINE AND KEEP
CUSTOMERS COMING BACK
1. MESSAGE: Is it clear and concise? Your own customers should be able to easily
talk about you in 1 sentence to others so that your message is easily spread and
remembered. This is not the same as your elevator statement. It should communicate the
main benefit that you offer. Think about something you just bought or are thinking of
buying. If you had to tell a friend about why you are buying it what would you say? It
might be something like – “I love their customer service” or “They have the best design”
or “I always feel so happy when I show off my newest purchase from them” or “I know
when I go there I will always get the same service” or “I know I always get the best deal
there”. These statements are not talking about a list of features. They are the standout
thing that the customer takes away from their experience. What is your standout
statement? If you are just getting started you can always help this message spread by
writing it on your website in the form of a tag line, use variations throughout your copy,
and in your testimonials.
2. EMOTION: Have you inspired your customer to feel something? What are the one
or two emotions you want someone to feel when they use your product or service? Fun,
fearlessness, prestige, speed, ease…don’t try and be all things to all people. What works
already with your personality and systems you are using? Then do a clean sweep of your
site, copy and emails to make sure they communicate this with the right look and
words. You can always ask your friends what they feel when they see your site and get
your emails. And if they all come back with similar answers you have nailed it.
3. CREDIBILITY: Always work to improve and strengthen it. It takes the most time
to build it, but it can also be the fastest thing to disappear if you have made a faulty claim
or not managed your client’s expectations. A word that can be overused but is SO
IMPORTANT to use is “transparency”. If anything you are saying or doing with your
online business feels strange to you then perhaps it is because you are going against your
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values and what you stand for. If you are transparent then your customer comes in
looking for what else they can get or learn. If you are covering up a few things, spinning
your message, or trying to be something you are not your customer will come in looking
for ways to not buy what you offer. Think about a few times this has happened to you
when shopping around online. Being consistent and being yourself are the best
ingredients to build your credibility.
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5. LOYALTY: Keep the customer wanting more. Often times the easiest way of doing
this is by staying in touch with great offers and freebies and reminding them about the
success stories of others who have used your products or services. A fantastic email tool
to use that is automated is AWeber. All you have to do is spend a day thinking about
what you can offer your clients over the next month (like ebooks, MP3s or discounts).
Then create them, load them to a hidden page on your website, and write the emails
telling your clients how to get them. You can set the emails to go out at a future
date. Another great way is by making sure you offer special things on your blog or other
social media accounts from time to time. Birthday cards work well too. What do you get
from companies now that make you think ‘WOW, what a nice surprise”? Think about
provide a nice surprise for your clients at least quarterly.
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