So what is marketing?
“Marketing is a process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational objectives.” (Steve Baker)
Defining what you view as success will help you define your objectives for your company and ultimately keep you on track with your aim. I realised I hadn’t fully assessed what I believed success was for my business. I know I like designing and have always wanted my own business, but were is the success in that? Thinking harder I reached the conclusion that to me success is to ‘conquer’ the UK fashion industry sector that caters for curvy women, whilst helping women love their natural curves. I know that to do this I need a successful marketing campaign that will promote my brand and promote the need for extra sizing in clothing as well as making curvy women aware that there are clothes available for their shapes, which are my objectives that I can build on.
Marketing is a two way thing, you have to find out and understand what the customers want and then sell it to them. The model below shows how marketing links a business with potential customers (customer centric):
Using this model in relation to my business I feel I have identified a need for better fitting clothing for women and need to understand their shopping habits and requirements, define a specific age group and match my designing style to that, in order to produce an effective marketing campaign.
The Marketing Process
Marketing strategy is comprised of market analysis, strategic planning, approved business goals, marketing plans, marketing implementation and results. When analysing the market there are two approaches; product approach and marketing approach. The first is more of a ‘push’, where consumers buy good products and the company’s focus is on making good products. However the marketing approach is when the company determines the needs of a specific market which allows them to deliver satisfaction more efficiently. The approach can of course be both methods, however marketing tends to be more effective.
As my fashion business is a clothing label for curvy women I feel my business fits in with the marketing approach as I knew there was a gap in the market for this. However, because one of my USP’s is the high quality of the clothing, my business could also be considered as taking the product approach.
Overview of the Stages in Marketing (Only the first 2 boxes in red were covered in our workshop):
ANALYSIS STAGE1- MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES:
The process above suggests how businesses should analyse opportunities. This includes analysis of market research, the marketing environment, competitors and buying behaviour.
1) Analysis of Market Research (getting data)
Within the market research process it is important to firstly define the objectives of your business, then develop the research plan, collect this information, analyse this information and lastly present the findings. For example, one objective I have for my fashion business would be to assess if and how often my target customer would shop on line. Do they even have access? I need to then assess the best way to gather this data e.g. surveys or online statistics. I had never sat down and actually written a list of objectives for my business that would help with market research, so I found this guidance by Steve really useful.
The Data sources can be primary or secondary. Primary is basically asking questions such as surveys or focus groups. The prior I have attempted, although only on a small scale, but Steve pointed out that this was not accurate research as collecting primary data should normally be conducted with a minimum of 50 people and an optimum of 250 people. I know now that I need to hand out a lot more surveys to women, whether it’s on the high street or online, but it needs to be done before I properly move on!
Secondary research can be internal, government, periodicals and books or commercial data, e.g. the ‘Mintel report’ in libraries covers the last 12 months of data, e.g. in my case fashion. Again this is something I need to research as I didn’t know it existed before the workshop.
2) Analysis of the Marketing Environment
In the workshop we then discussed the essential PEST model to help determine external factors that can help make or break any business. This is an area I had already covered in a previous module and was confident that I understood PEST in relation to my e-commerce fashion business, however, as with many topics in the workshops, I realised I had only half assessed this. Some brief points I have began to develop include:
Political being legislations, enforcements and imports/exports.
Economic referring to levels of income, spending patterns and of course the current recession. Unemployment levels of professionals means less disposable income to spend on luxuries such as shopping. On the high street the middle market seems to be hit the hardest as people are budgeting, with Primark booming due to it’s cheaper than cheap prices!
Social factors include demographic, which in my case is the internet and is potentially set to get a bigger market share than the high street. Trends are influential such as the average age of the population. In regards culture, western society is very demanding and constantly demands new fashion and collections.
Technological advances and the pace of such change are also relevant to my businesses. For e-commerce fashion this may be in regards the internet, e-commerce or the efficiency of machines in factories.
3) Analysis of Consumer and Business Markets
Things that can affect consumer behaviour and my fashion business include: cultural factors, social factors, personal factors and psychological factors. This does overlap with PEST, however it focuses on consumers, not just the environment in which we live. Below is a diagram that displays this information better:
How a consumer acts can change depending on what they are purchasing e.g. from a psychological approach, women shop as a type of ‘retail therapy’ or to motivate themselves as a treat. If I establish a marketing campaign that addresses the relaxing feeling of shopping then my brand can relate to the women whose consumer behaviour is psychological.
Another way of explaining buyer behaviour is in this diagram below. It clearly shows that the 4P’s of marketing and PEST factors affect how a consumer chooses products or brands, depending on the market. This image is again from tutor2u.net which is definitely worth checking out for more in-depth understanding of marketing.
Business behaviour is different again from general consumers. There tend to be fewer buyers than the latter but are larger in size and need. Buyers often have close relationships with suppliers and are geographically concentrated. The business environment tends not to be as price driven, however there are always several buying influences. By attending trade fairs and networking, my business could secure deals on a larger scale, so ensuring that I market my brand correctly to such clients is essential e.g. if they are not as price driven, I shouldn’t market the clothes as being value for money etc.
4) Analysis of Competition
As part of successful competition within marketing any business should assess the industry concepts for the sector it is entering into. The number of sellers, degree of differentiation (e.g. costs), entry and mobility barriers, exit and shrinkage barriers, cost structures and vertical integration are all important factors. The market concepts include assessing the needs, segmentation, strategy and positioning of competition. Previously I had only really assessed who the completion were, but not really their in-depth strategy, cost structures etc, but after talking to Steve about the potential competitors for my business, I have learned how to analyse their structure and how that will help me compete in the sector.
ANALYSIS STAGE 2- RESEARCHING AND SELECTING TARGET MARKETS:
Market Segmentation and Market Targeting
Steve clarified that effective segmentation within target markets needs to be measurable, sustainable, accessible and actionable but it can be broken down into two main areas; Consumer and Industrial:
To begin with I wasn’t sure what consumer psychographics were, so encase like me you don’t either, here it is defined: "Psychographics refers to the attempt to evaluate the purchasing intentions of consumers from a study of their emotional and psychological responses to qualitative surveys. The aim is to match standard demographic Data (such as age, income, marital status, socio-economic group) to more amorphous characteristics (such as values, interests, self-image)."
Understanding this helps me to see that many issues concerning these two areas are very different. If your business sells directly to the public like mine does, then the whereabouts of your business is important, for example if I had a shop in West Yorkshire then I would only be selling to women there. However, if I have an e-commerce fashion site then I can sell and market globally, but in doing this I must take into account the cultural differences etc.
However, if selling business to business I need to understand that it is a very different approach, so by segmenting the market I can market accordingly and much more effectively. Although I knew that there are many different markets that I could sell to, I never realised how important it was to be specific and segment markets, as they all have different appeals. I will definitely spend more time assessing the different markets and how to market to them.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed the workshop as I felt challenged to define the goals for my business, and by doing so have had to really think about what success is to me! By listening to the many different aims of people in the workshop I realise how every new start-up business is different but needs to keep hold of their aims so they don’t get side tracked but use marketing effectively.
I now feel that I understand what marketing is, the necessity of market research and the reasons for assessing external and internal aspects of my business. It helped me understand areas I need to research further before launching my business which I had previously not realised the importance of. I am looking forward to the second marketing workshop, but in the meantime I have lots to reassess and develop!
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave feedback,
Faith
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