Guerrilla marketing plans
a major part of an entrepreneur's business plan is the marketing plan, which focuses on the company's target customers and how best to satisfy their needs and wants. A solid marketing plan should pinpoint the specific target markets the company will serve, determine customer needs and wants to market research, analyze the firms competitive advantages and build a marketing strategy around them, and create a marketing mix that meets the customer's needs and wants.
Sound market research helps that under pinpoint his or her target market. The most successful businesses have well-defined portraits of the customers they are seeking to attract.
Market research is the vehicle for gathering the information that serves as the foundation of the marketing plan. Good research does not have to be complex and expensive to be useful.
Conducting a market research:
- define the problem: "what do you want to know?"
- collected data from either primary or secondary sources
- analyze and interpret the data
- draw conclusions and act on them
When plotting a marketing strategy, owners must strive to achieve a competitive advantage, some way to make their companies different from and better than the competition.
Guerrilla marketing strategies to develop a competitive edge:
- nichepicking
- entertailing
- Building a consistent branding strategy
- emphasizing their uniqueness
- connecting with their customers
- focusing on customer needs
- emphasizing quality
- paying attention to convenience
- concentrating on innovation
- dedicating themselves to serve
- emphasizing speed
the Web offer small-business owners tremendous marketing potential on a par with their larger rivals. Entrepreneurs are just beginning to uncover the Web's profit potential, which is growing rapidly. Successful web sites are attractive, inviting, easy to navigate, interactive, and offer users something of value.
The four P's of the marketing mix:
- Product. Entrepreneurs should understand where in the product lifecycle their products are.
- Place. The focus here is on choosing the appropriate channel of distribution and using it most efficiently.
- Price. Price is an important factor in customers purchase decisions, but many small businesses find that nonprice competition can be profitable.
- Promotion. Promotion involves both advertising and personal selling.
