1. Marketing Plans Chapter 12 T. A. Sgritta UNC Charlotte

2. Marketing Plans • Market research • Sales forecasting • Differential advantage (competitive advantage) • Marketing plan itself • Part of the business plan?

3. Kwok-Kee Restaurant • Keys to success- • Location • Price • Service • Cost

4. Most Frequent Reasons for Failure • Wrong place • Wrong time • Wrong target market (sometimes by omission) • Costs/price • No opportunity • External factors

5. Market Research • Schrello • Is it real? (market, product) • Can we win? (product, organization) • Is it worth it? (financial, other)

6. Market Research • Primary • Secondary • Seat-of-the-pants guessing • Usually a combination of all three

7. Primary Research • Surveys • Formal • Informal • Open ended questions • Closed ended questions • Focus groups • Key groups • Dealers • Customers

8. Secondary Research • Government data • Internet

9. Sales Forecasting • Lots of assumptions (educated guesses!) • Simple math • Potential optimistic, average, pessimistic • See exercise NTSP

10. Differential Advantage • Competitive advantage • Unfilled need • 9 vs. 6 • Target market identification is key • Do not compete on price alone

11. Marketing Plan • Target market • Don’t fall into the “everybody trap” • Differential strategy • Concentrated strategy • Primary vs. secondary vs. casual target markets

12. Marketing Plan • Current situation • SWOT analysis • 3 to 6 critical assumptions

13. Marketing Plan • The four P’s

14. Marketing Plan • Key Factors of Success • Positioning – slogans, taglines as triggers • Action plans

15. Marketing Plan • Getting help- • Score, SBA, banks, community college, consultants, college faculty.

16. Marketing Plan