STAGE 3- DESIGNING MARKETING STRATEGIES.
Steve explained that there are 3 types of market strategy that relate to market share:- Overall Cost Leadership e.g. Dell who promote their prices and sustainability.
- Focus (Niche) strategy that promotes premium prices and has an irresistible appeal to the target audience.
- Differentiation that allows a company to market different products for different markets e.g. gold, platinum and silver cards can be very similar but appeal to different people.
I wasn’t sure initially what type of marketing strategy would most suit my business but after bouncing ideas off with people at the workshop I decided that I was mostly addressing a niche market. This is because from the research I’ve done my clothes would appeal to a very focused target market as there seems to be only 3 competitors who sell clothes specifically for curvy women, unlike everyone else on the high street who either sell extra large sizes or general sizes 6-16. Steve suggested that if appealing to a niche market then it’s important to charge a premium price, as charging too little for a niche product can actually restrict it’s sell-ability.
The Niche market tends to have less than 5% of the market, but offers a high value and can therefore charge a premium price, meaning I could price a suit at £300 instead of £100. Niche markets tend to have a strong corporate culture as everything reflects their image and brand e.g. Harley Davidson’s and Apple have this down to a T! I’m not sure how I would develop this branding because of lack of funds, but by developing packaging, clothes labels, receipts and my website with a logo etc people would become familiar with my brand.
Differentiation
Although I feel I can appeal to a niche market, I also see the benefits of differentiation. I realise that I can actually differentiate my brand for women from different social or cultural brackets as different styles of marketing will appeal to their different needs, even though the garments are the same! Differentiation can be in relation to product, service and positioning.
The example above is a bit confusing, I had to hear it several times before I understood it, but I think it explains differentiation really well! The table shows that if there are 3 markets and 3 types of product, only one market (M1) is being targeted to buy the product (P2), but by using differentiation all 3 markets can be targeted with different marketing techniques, maximising sales and marketing efficiency, as seen below.
For my e-commerce clothing site I could advertise the clothes in different ways to appeal to the needs of the different markets. I could even have different web addresses that market differently according to price as while some people want to know they are getting quality clothing with a classy look, others want to know they are saving money because no alterations are required, but is quality at a low price. It’s all the same clothing but marketed accordingly!
Another factor I could market is customer service. Three different approaches for three different markets could be:
- 24 day returns policy if the clothes do not fit as hoped, so people can be encouraged to buy without trying on.
- Free returns policy for people who are hesitant with paying extra delivery costs.
- Styling advice available online so the customer knows what styles will suit them.
STAGE 4- PLANNING MARKETING PROGRAMMES:
I knew what the 4Ps were, but being presented with the 7Ps made some things clearer, such as the importance of people in a business and how they promote it (in my case-me) and the need for tangible evidence to encourage people to ‘spend spend spend’ on my product e.g. packaging and clothing labels.
Taking an example from the 7Ps I looked closer at pricing for my business…
Steve explained that when pricing our products we needed to select our pricing objective, determine the demand, estimate the costs involved, analyse our competitor's prices, select the pricing method and lastly, select the actual price-but he stressed never to charge too little to begin with as it is much harder to raise your prices than lower them!
Before this workshop, I had always thought that stressing the customer was getting a great ‘price deal’ for the clothing was the best means of promotion, but Steve explained that unless you break the pricing structure down then you can’t assess why it is actually appealing to the customer.
This is explained in the 3C’s of Pricing: Your costs, Competitor's prices and Customer assessment. For each section we had to fill in 3 products or services, which was really tough to think of on the spot! Looking at what directly benefits the customer when marketing is the best method in pricing, e.g. for my brand, customer assessment could be that:
1) They pay a high price as they receive excellent quality and durable garments.
2) The extra sizing available in the garments will also save them time and money as they won’t need to have them altered or have customised clothing made to fit which is much more expensive. Therefore my clothing benefits them and they are happy to pay!
Branding
Steve argued that ‘brand’ was too expensive a concept for small/medium enterprises to have as creating a serious brand can take millions of pounds; cash which is not available to new start-ups! Instead why not develop image, which is different form just having a brand as instead you can promote values etc? This gave me something to think about as I hadn’t realised how expensive branding was and I know I’ll not have the available resources, so instead I’ve started to brainstorm how to promote my image and values through e.g. testimonials and referrals.
Promotion and Marketing Communications
There are so many ways to promote my business through using the marketing mix. Some of the main ways are listed below:
I think the best way for my business is ‘personal selling’ at trade fairs and networking or emails and phone calls to contact women who have left feedback on my website or who have shown an interest. This has much lower costs unlike e.g. Public Relations which isn’t that good for Small/Medium businesses but better for ‘brand’ images, similar to advertising which again is very costly. I could use direct marketing such as using links to problem pages for women struggling to find fitted clothing. Sales promotion could be money off vouchers on first purchases or if women complete a survey they get e.g. 15% off. There are so many ways to market without the associated prices, which I think appeals to any new start-up!
STAGE 5- IMPLEMENTION AND REVIEW:
“Market implementation is the process of turning marketing plans into action assignments and ensuring they are executed in a manner that accomplishes the plan’s stated objectives.” (Steve Baker)
There are several components I have to think about if I want to implement my marketing plan such as:
Developing an action plan. I must follow an objective and stick to it if I want to save money and not get side tracked. I need to assess my desired outcome and figure out how to get there using a timescale and activity description that must have impact. Steve stressed ‘impact’ several times, I guess if my business doesn’t stand out or lacks ‘appeal’ then I’ll never get off the starting block and get the sales figures I need!
Generating interesting, believable and exclusive messages is important if I want to reach my target customers. I have to appeal to them and make them feel valued.
Using appropriate media selection to promote my business through assessing the habits of my target audience e.g. what papers/magazines do they read. As my business is visual, Steve highlighted the importance of using pictures to advertise, not just words! Considering the cost though is important; I need to first asses how much money I have to spend marketing in this way.
Measuring the response form different techniques is essential. There’s obviously no point in continuing to pay e.g. Yellow pages if that’s not how most of the client base heard about the business. Feedback is so important and if I have a page on my website dedicated to this I could learn so much about the target clients to use in the future and make my marketing more efficient.
Conclusion
I felt challenged when I had to think about certain aspects of my business and why each factor was appealing and beneficial to my customer; it’s hard sometimes to think in the mind of the consumer and not the designer or entrepreneur! But when it comes to marketing I realise that understanding the customer is essential. In regards to how I would implement the marketing I have lots to consider and need to remember to be specific in my marketing in order to spend money reaching the target audience and not everyone that breaths!
The most important rule to follow though is that if the marketing message is right then the product will sell. If not, then go back to the drawing board and figure out what your customer needs to hear in order to make them buy!
Thanks for reading, I’d appreciate any feedback!
Faith
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