chapter 12
Focus Group
a small group (8-20 people) that's asked to meet to discuss a series of questions about a particular product or service
marketing plan
a systematic written plan of all phases of marketing for a business, including information on the product, price, promotion strategy, and distribution, as well as a clear identification of the target market and competition
Bot
a web-based program that uses artificial intelligence techniques to automate tasks such as searches
If you are able to create a prestige image in your customer's mind then what can you do?
charge a higher price than the going rate prestige firms often lose customers by lowering prices because the product is perceived to be not quite so good
what is the first step in putting together your business plan?
creating your marketing plan
Personality Segment
dealing with an individuals' hobbies, culture, religion, and sports
Benefit Segmentation
divides customers into groups based on what benefits they seek when making product or service decisions; such as a customer buying toothpaste because it has a cavity fighter versus a toothpaste that gives someone a fresher breath versus whitening power
What are the sites that sell services?
elance.com and smarterwork.com
When starting a business, what is the best information you can get?
go to a competitor's place of business and scope it out such as at a restaurant: see how the long the wait is, see what their menu has to offer and you can get an idea of how many customers you may potentially get (however this is subject to error such as under/over estimating)
Secondary Research
information already collected for some other purpose than the current problems or questions
In order to have people invest huge sums of money in your company data needs to be accurate and to accomplish this
study a good marketing research text or hire outside help
Marketing Research
systematic collection and interpretation of data to support future marketing decisions
30-50,000 products ae introduced each year and if history proceeds about 75% of these will fail simply because
they were at the wrong place, at the wrong time, sold at the wrong price, to the wrong person
What are the 3 most important numbers for a marketing plan?
total size of market for geographic area of your focus, typical price of product or service, and typical profitability of that product or service
Branching
using multiple screens of questions, respondents can select the screen they will see based on their responses to an earlier question (form of internet survey)
Demographic Segmentation
valuable way to divide target market; teenagers have different needs than babies, whether you are married or single plays a different role as well, and household or individual income
Differential Advantage
(also known as Competitive Advantage) the characteristic that separates one company from another in product, price, promotion, and/or distribution
who makes sure questions are asked right and data systematically collected conducts these meetings
A Skilled Researcher
Bizstat numbers give you an idea and can also provide a breakdown of financial information for major categories and includes a report for "Clothing and Accessory Stores."
TRUE
The key is not really to be "cheaper" than your competition but to be "different" in terms of your product and/or service
TRUE
It is wise to depend on one source when performing secondary analysis
FALSE
Identifying competition does what 2 things?
Gives you an idea of how crowded the market is and gives you a chance to find out what its strengths and weaknesses are
what is the most expensive form of surveys?
In person
What is the least expensive form of surveys?
Which data is specific to the problem you are solving and the information is extremely current but it will take more money and time to gather it
Primary Data
Good tool for analyzing the current situation of a business would be?
SWOT analysis
What are the 4 steps to Determining Differential Advantage?
Select a product category and target market, List four or 5 competitors in the category, Use the 4 P's, and Analyze your Results
Written Plan
ncludes specific details about target market you consider useful, info. about your present and future situation including competitors, identify your differential advantage, financial projections, your budget for doing things and a schedule of how it will be done, also projected sales and forecasting methods
Primary Research
new information collected to solve a problem at hand or answer current questions
What is the easiest way to find selling prices for products?
on the internet using google product search service, Pricescan.com
Direct Competition
other companies that make a similar product or provide similar service; such as direct competition for Coca Cola includes all other soft drink providers
Market Segmentation
process of dividing the market into groups that have somewhat homogenous needs for a product or service
Categorical Questions
questions answered by selecting the proper category such as: what is your ethnicity White, African American, Asian, American Indian, Hispanic, other.
Scalar Questions
questions answered by some sort of scale [ For EX: "On a scale of 1-10 how much do you like this class?"]
profitability for particular store is nearly impossible however industry standards for profitability are easier than most realize (Bizstats.com)
TRUE
Indirect Competition
companies that provide alternatives that are dissimilar to your product/service that consumers might choose to meet a similar need; For EX. Coca Cola's would be any other company providing items to quench your thirst
Secondary Target Market
customers who might be interested in using your product or service but are not whom you probably start out targeting; although you need to consider who they are and keep them in mind for future expansion
Ethnographic Research
data gathered by simple observations seeing what consumers do rather than asking them
Survey
more typical data gathering tool using a questionnaire in person, on phone, on paper, or the internet
Once you have figured out your capacity and how many customers on average you will be serving at certain times of the day the next step is to?
estimate the average amount of sales per customer
Survey Monkey
helps with professional work and is an online survey with small samples and short questionaries'
On a regular basis you should tweak your marketing plan and decide what it is you want to accomplish next such as??
increase sales, introduce new product, or move into a new market
What is one of the most important pieces of the marketing plan and business plan?
knowing what your sales will be because this determines your profitability and whether or not you will stay in business or not
Concentrated Strategy
marketing strategy in which a marketer selects one specific group of consumers and designs a marketing mix specifically for that group
Differentiated Strategy
marketing strategy in which a marketer selects two or more distinct groups of consumers and designs specific marketing mixes to meet their needs
Undifferentiated Strategy
marketing strategy that uses no segmentation; assumes that all consumers have virtually identical needs and can be reached by the same marketing mix
What are some problems with secondary data?
may not be timely, don't always know why data was gathered and if gathered correctly (bias), hard to find exact details you need, and good starting point to tell you if you are in the ballpark
Geographic Segmentation
method frequently used; businesses large or small choose to operate in one country while multinational companies choose manageable number of countries
Open-Ended Questions
questions that allow respondents to express themselves as they choose such as: "What do you like about this book?"
Dichotomous Questions
questions that have only two possible choices such as: Male or Female, have you shopped here before, are you employed or not?
What is an example of an underserved market?
rapid new home construction in the area and not having enough housecleaning services to take care of all the new potential clients
What can a Marketing Research do?
reveal where potential customers are likely to shop, see advertisements, and what they consider a reasonable price
Filtering Process
where you put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customer and consider that you are searching for something to solve the problem your particular product or service will solve
What are resources out there to help you with a marketing plan?
www.sba.gov, www.entrepreneur.gov (entrepreneur magazine ), or contact local community such as 4-year college that has entrepreneur department or campus clubs