Winning Without Competition: How to Break Out of a Commodity ...

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• Achieve a 90% repeat purchasing with top tier contractors this year • Drop the block business • Be positioned to offer steel and precast frames to the top-tier contractors by Quarter 3 • Secure $2M in orders in Quarter 4 Step Five is the marketing plan strategy development stage. In this case, we are referring to the plan strategies which will enable the organization to execute its competitive and growth strategies. There are two types of plan strategies: the communications positioning strategy and marketing strategies. The communications positioning strategy summarizes what you will communicate about your product and business relative to competitive offering. It is the “umbrella” or basis of all of your communications. It defines, confirms and reaffirms the most important reason for the product’s existence and why it should be purchased. It must be consistent with the strategic positioning of the organization. Communications positioning differs from strategic positioning in that the former speaks to a very strong emotional appeal of working with the company, while the strategic positioning speaks more to "objective and rationale" basis of superior value. There are a number of different approaches to communications positioning, each centered on one theme. Consider a precast bridge company that wants to compete on speed: • Focus on a product difference. Steel bridges takes five times longer than precast bridges. Can you afford the difference? • Focus on the key attribute or benefit. You get to drive faster and get home to your kids earlier. • Focus on problems with the category to show that you’re different, e.g., if building material subs only create headaches for you, you’re talking to the wrong sub. • Focus on the competitor. Steel can save you money, but only on the bid. We save you time. That’s real money. • Associate with something that the target market already likes. Taxpayers love parks, city services and grade schools. With precast bridge expanders, you too can be loved by taxpayers. • Focus on a problem that your product or service solves. There’s $2M of new funds available from the Feds for bridges. Too bad you lack the staff to go after this goldmine. With the precast industry’s help, you too can get bridges designed and erected fast. Which communications positioning do you choose? Select the one that: • Is most meaningful • Is feasible. • Creates the greatest differentiation versus the competition • Is completely consistent with the strategic positioning Pamphlet #5 Page 206
• Creates an umbrella that will be enduring over time You may also want to actually test your communications positioning with several groups of customers from each target market group. Since there is considerable overlap in different communication tools, it is critical that the chosen communications positioning be consistent across all target markets. Marketing strategies explain how you will achieve a specific marketing objective. They are descriptive, and neither quantifiable nor measurable. Areas to consider include: • Build market or steel share strategies • Location-specific strategies • Seasonality strategies • Competitive strategies • Product strategies • Pricing strategies • Selling strategies, e.g., bridge strategies, price justification and target customer profile • Promotion strategies • Advertising strategies • Merchandising strategies • Publicity strategies Communications programs help you achieve your marketing objectives. The communication goals are therefore sub-objectives of marketing objectives. Goals are developed by first asking, "What does the marketing plan hope to accomplish in terms of sales, awareness, image, education, leads and new accounts, etc.?" From this, you then establish what you have to accomplish in terms of your communication pieces. Communication objectives can be broad, (i.e., create a positive company image) as well as very specific (i.e., generate 50 Class A sales leads during fiscal year ’01). Always keep in mind that marketing communications is an arm of marketing and its primary purpose is to help you achieve your marketing objectives. Don’t begin by saying, "I need a brochure." Rather begin by analyzing your marketing objectives and strategies and asking, "What objectives can communications potentially help you achieve?" (See Chart Thirteen: The Marketing/Communications Link) for an example of how communications can help achieve marketing objectives and strategies.) Note that in looking at the target markets, communication tools will focus on both broad audiences as well as narrow audiences. Advertising is often times focused on members of a target market as well as others, whereas a direct mail program would be directed to a very specific group of people within a target market. Also keep in mind that your employees and members of your community are important target audiences as well. Pizza Hut and British Air campaigns are Pamphlet #5 Page 207
Page 1 and 2: Winning Without Competition: How to
Page 3 and 4: Introduction One of the greatest fa
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What did I learn? FOLLOW UP LATER T
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