Marketing and Business Strategy Guide
Marketing
identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential.
Business plan
is a written document that describes how a business (new or established) achieve its goal. It’s going to achieve its goals from a marketing, commercial, financial and operational view point. New economic cycle (adapt to market reality) and new strategic direction.
Marketing Plan
written document that supports the business plan objectives and describes the marketing efforts for the coming year to achieve more goals. How its going to achieve its goals: steps: 1) research, 2) determine the purpose of your plan (scope); 3 to 5 year plan, divided in short and long time, internal attract investors, clear, concise and realistic. 3) create a company profile; mission, vision, value targets. 4) document all aspects of your business, 5) have departmental plan in place – fundamental a strategic marketing plan, (value creation), 6) make it adaptable based on your audience and 7) explain why you care= balance profit and purpose.
Macro environment:
the large societal forces that affect the micro environment. PESTEL: model that helps us to identify the variables that are going to be a significant impact on the companies activity. Politics; government policy, political stability, labour law, tax policy. Economic; economic growth, exchange rates, interest rates, inflation, unemployment. Social & cultural; age distribution, health consciousness, lifestyle attitudes. Technological; level of innovation, technological awareness, automation. Ecological; weather, climate, environmental policies, climate change and NGO’S. Legal; discrimination laws, employment laws, consumer protection laws.
Micro environment:
the actors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers (company, suppliers, (intermediaries; promote, sell and distribute. Customer markets; aim of the entire value delivery that creates strong relationships. Competitors and publics; citizens; internal, local; financial and media; government.) SWOT: is an analytical framework that assesses what a company can or cannot do. Internal: Strengths; advantages, what stands out, unique n cost, unique selling proposition. Weaknesses; what can be improved, what should you avoid, what others see, what factors impact negatively your sales. External; Opportunities; interesting trends, local events, changes in patterns. Threats; obstacles, competitors, quality of specifications, new business models disrupting your industry.
Acquisition Strategy;
A company with extra capital may use it to gain a competitive advantage. Entails purchasing another company, or one or more of its product lines
Maslow’s hierarchy needs
NEEDS: States of felt deprivation. WANTS: shape adopted by human needs when are conformed by culture and individual personality.
Self actualization
; inner potential morality acceptance. Self-esteem; confidence, achievement respect and need to be a unique individual. Love and belonging; friendship, employment, property, family and social connection. Safety and security; health, employment, family. Physiological needs; breathing, food, water, shelter clothing, sleep.
Segmentation:
identifiable group of individuals, families, businesses or organizations sharing one or more characteristics or needs in an otherwise homogeneous market. generally responding in a predictable manner to a marketing or promotion offer. THE MOST IMPORTANT VARIABLES: Geographic’s: Continents, countries, cities, regions, districts…, Demographics: Age (baby boomers, Millennials,), gender, marital status, incomes, education, occupation…, Psychographic: Lifestyle, shared activities, social status, opinions, values of customers…, Behavioralistic: purchase frequency, loyalty, ticket value average, Brands segmentation answers the evolving nature of customer’s segments.
Steps for positioning a brand; SEGMENTATION:
Define the criteria to segment the market, Develop profile / clusters for each segment. TARGETING: Measure the potential of each segment, Select the segments: Target Group/s. POSITIONING: Develop the Positioning for each Target Group, Define the Marketing Mix for each Target Group. Brand segmentation; luxury/ premium/ select/ long stays/ collections upscale/ midscale.
Define your company
; why is it important ? : to be understood by the clients, to be positioned, to know which are your competitive advantages and strengths, to know your weaknesses and threats, to take decisions, to focus your strategy and to create branding and content.
Company’s mission
; company’s purpose reason for existence and vision: (future) plans and hopes, inspirational and motivational.
Business strategy;
action or set of decisions which assists the companies in achieving specific business objectives.
Growth strategy
; introduce new products or add new features to existing products.
Product differentiation strategy
; Small companies will often use it when they have a competitive advantage, such as superior quality or service. Set themselves apart from key competitors and create brand loyalty.
Price strategy;
cost plus pricing; simply calculating costs and adding a mark-up. Competitive pricing; setting a price base on what the competition charges. price skimming; setting a high price and lowering it as the market evolves. Penetration pricing; setting a price low to enter competitive market and raising it later. Price bundling; combining products and/or services to increase value and price.
Competitive Advantage:
production of goods or services at a lower price or in a more desirable fashion. Factors; cost structure, branding, quality of product offerings, distribution network, intellectual property and customer service.
3 determinants; 1) Benefit
; truly needed and offers real value, constantly be aware of new trends that affect product especially new technology. 2)target market. 3) competition; what customers could do to meet the need you can fulfill.
Marketing plan:
written document that describes all your marketing efforts for the upcoming year.
Marketing plan steps:
Executive summary; t has a section that summarizes each component that your marketing plan covers n detail. investors use t to determine if they want to delve into the marketing plan. Keep it less than one and a half pages. Design with this question in mind; ¿ why is this information important for the success of my business? Key components; Subsections: Plan purpose and product description, market analysis, competitive analysis, product development, operations, goals and marketing strategy and ROI; expected results.
Research & situational Analysis;
Macro environment (PESTEL); agents, how to analyze each one. and Micro Environment (SWOT); Agents, where to get the info.
Strategic plan & goals: Strategy;
plan of action to achieve a goal or solution to a problem. Goals; SMART; Specific area of improvement, Measurable, Attainable given available resources, relevant in accordance with plan, vision and mission. Time related; when will be achieved? type of goals; in accordance with; Nature (financial or strategic), time frame (short mid or long term) precision degree (open or close), level implementation (corporate, regional or functional). Marketing functions; (branding, guest experience, business growth, loyalty)
Actions and timeline
Marketing tools
; helps marketers to deploy marketing actions and take decisions with data; implement media campaigns, monitor performance and get valuable information related to customer behavior and demographic information.
Create; CMS; Content management system: supports the creation and modification of websites.
Advertisement; customer life cycle: monetary value of customer relationship. Generation and acquisition basic funnel; upper funnel; Awareness, Mid funnel; consideration and Low funnel; book. Media mix; upper funnel; brand display and off line, mid funnel; emailing, OTAS, top destinations. low funnel; web media. Emailing. PR; communication; PR agencies, gross selling coordination, collaboration with NGO.Social media; hoot suite and influencers.
Budget
Control methods;
Specific tools to monitor KPI’S by each marketing goal. Business intelligence- sales (TREV, ADR, REVPAR), Brand tracking studies, CRM reports for direct marketing, Generation and acquisition, campaigns metrics (google analytics, ROA), PR action evolution, Ex; google analytics, GAP, media tools, google searchers, SOV.