As with the seven questions for the strategy summary, there are seven basic sections or elements of a marketing plan:
 The Benefit to the consumer
 Your positioning in the marketplace: Just what business are you in?
 Your target market
 Your marketing / advertising strategy and positioning
 Your marketing budget
 The tools and techniques (weapons) you will use to reach your audience
 A month-by-month implementation schedule

In this article we will look at Your Marketing Budget, Your Marketing Weapons and the Implementation Schedule.

Your Marketing Budget
When developing your marketing budget, and yes everyone needs a marketing budget for the following reasons.
 There is a natural ebb and flow of the business cycle for every business. Spending your marketing dollars at the wrong time, becomes a double whammy – a) you’ve either spent marketing dollars you could have conserved or didn’t spend enough and b) the return on those dollars will not be as effective as they should be.
 Unless its on paper, it’s a concept not a plan.
 Without setting down a concrete budget you won’t have the road map you need.
 Without setting down a concrete budget it’s too easy to forget, rationalize and justify changing the dollars spent.

When starting your budgeting process the number one thing you need to do is determine what percentage of revenue you are going to spend on marketing. 10% is a good starting point. Review your annual business plan (you have done your annual plan haven’t you) and spend accordingly. Reviewing your annual business plan will also give you an idea of the ebb and flow of your business cycle and tell you when to increase or decrease the percentage.

Another option is to figure out the life time value (and the annual value) your customers and figure out what it is worth to retain your current customers and gain new customers. Gaining new customers is more expensive than retaining current customers. Figure out your current customer base and their annual value to extrapolate your current customer base value. Next, review your annual business plan if your sales are more than this (and it better be) figure out the new customers you are going to acquire. This will tell you, in a bit finer detail how much to spend on marketing and when.

Marketing Weapons
In Jay Conrad Levinson’s recent writings he has come up with 200 Marketing Weapons. These range from Mini-Media (Business Cards, Stationary, Brochures, etc), Maxi-Media (Advertising, Direct Mail and so on), E-Media, Info-Media, Non-Media, Company Attributes and Company Attitude.

Go through these and decide which ones are cost-effective for you to reach your market. Make a list of tools, their cost per use, monthly frequency and monthly cost. Review and refine the list until you have a finely honed batch of tools and weapons.

A month-by-month implementation schedule
Next, layout a 12 month grid with months across the top and the weapons and tools down the side. Determine which weapons you’re going to use and when you’re going to use them. Stick to the plan, review it monthly and revise as necessary.

Now you have a well thought out, coherent and cohesive plan. It’s time to implement it, go get going!!

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In the planning series we tried to give you the tools necessary for formulating a business plan. While a plan is all well and good, most business owners stop at making their plan, and then the plan goes on the shelf gathering dust forevermore.

Dreams and ambitions are great and important, but results are what really count in the business world. Therefore, it is important to establish realistic goals with a sound methodology for achieving them.

A key to a great business plan is actually achieving the plan! Below are the steps I use and recommend to my clients to:
 Set Your Goals & Objectives
 Break your Plans down into digestible and doable portions of an action plan
 Review and Track your progress
 Modify your action plan

The above steps are based on the P-D-C-A (Plan, Do, Check, Act) Cycle used in process improvement. The P-D-C-A cycle is effective in improving processes in a efficient manner. It is also very effective in achieving your Goals & Objectives.

Goal Setting

1) Generate your three to five year Plan; this is your Strategic Plan or Business Plan (the view from 30,000 feet).

2) Generate your one year plan; based on your Strategic Plan, this is your Tactical Plan or Annual Operating Plan (the view from a mile high).

These are your Overall (Strategic) Goals & Objectives and Plans.

Breaking the G & O’s and the Plan into smaller ACTION plans

3) Generate your Quarterly or Monthly Plan; based on your Annual Operating Plan, this breaks it down into much more digestible portions (the view from a thousand feet)

4) Each week break your Monthly or Quarterly plan down into a plan of attack for the week (the view from a hundred feet).

5) Each day break your weekly plan into your daily commitments and to dos to support the weekly plan (the view from eye level).

These are your Tactical Goals & Objectives and Plans. These are your commitments, to yourself, to your business, to your employees and to your clients and vendors.

Some business owners stop at step one or two, this is a huge mistake. How do you review, track or modify your action plan once a year or even worse once every three years?

If you break your Plans into smaller and smaller parts is much easier to determine and therefore accomplish the specific steps necessary to achieving your goals and objectives in an effective and efficient manner.

Periodic Review and Modification of the Plan

Periodically you need to review how your plan is working – compare your actual results and progress against where you intended to be, what you intended to get done. Ask yourself the following questions
     Are my expectations too low?
     Are my expectations too high?
     Is this necessary?
     Why did I fall short in a particular action step or action plan?
     Why was I successful in a particular action step or action plan?
     What methods can I replicate from the successful actions in the actions that need work?

When something is not working, get some outside help to analyze why? This can be a partner, a peer, a trusted business friend or an outside professional. The point is that the extra set of eyes can spot flaws in your plan or your execution that you can’t or – more probably – won’t see.

This is why it’s important for all business owners to have a support group of some kind (we will cover this in another article).

Your Strategic and Tactical plans should take two days each, once a year.

Your weekly plan should take an hour at the most.

Your daily commitments and to dos shouldn’t take more than ten minutes to do.

Are you willing to spend two hours a week and a few days a year to stay on track, work on the critical issues, save yourself hundreds of hours (not working on the wrong or lower priority issues)?

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As with the seven questions for the strategy summary, there are seven basic sections or elements of a marketing plan:
 The Benefit to the consumer
 Your positioning in the marketplace: Just what business are you in?
 Your target market
 Your marketing / advertising strategy and positioning
 Your marketing budget
 The tool and techniques (weapons) you will use to reach your audience
 A month-by-month implementation schedule

In this article we will look at Marketing / Advertising Strategy and Positioning.

Marketing & Advertising Strategy
The key components to determine a Marketing & Advertising Strategy are:
1. Product or Service
2. Target Market
3. Competition
4. The Product’s Benefit
5. How is it differentiated from the competition?
6. What impression would the consumer get from the strategy?
7. What action would the consumer take after being exposed to the Strategy?

We have covered Product or Service, Target Market and Benefits components already so we will concentrate on remaining components (Competition, Differentiation, message or impression and Action by the consumer) in this module.

Competition
Who is your competition? For our liquor store it would be everything from the local liquors stores to Beverages and More, Upscale Wine Cellars in San Diego, Wineries, Super-markets and to some extent the Big Box stores.

Differentiation
How is your product/service/presentation different from your competition? Describe your position and your competitions position. For our liquor store our position was described in Part 3. For the competition’s position it is either an upscale competitor that is a great distance away (inconvenient) or a regular liquor store in close proximity (low knowledge of wines & liquors and poor customer service).

Impression or Idea
What is impression you want the customer to take away from your marketing and advertising? What is the one idea you want them to get out of your ad?
For our liquor store it could be, you don’t have to go a great distance to enjoy a fine wine cellar and stellar service.

Call to Action
What action would you want the reader to take after being exposed to your ad or marketing piece? For our store it would be “don’t drive 30 miles or more, come in and enjoy superlative wines and service here in town”.

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As with the seven questions for the strategy summary, there are seven basic sections or elements of a marketing plan:
 The Benefit to the consumer
 Your positioning in the marketplace: Just what business are you in?
 Your target market
 Your marketing / advertising strategy and positioning
 Your marketing budget
 The tool and techniques (weapons) you will use to reach your audience
 A month-by-month implementation schedule

In this article we will look at Positioning and Your Target Market.

Positioning
It’s much easier to be successful in business when you have created a product or service that the public actually wants (and not necessarily – needs). Positioning is easy – find a need (niche) and fill it.

The most difficult part is determining what the product or service that the consumer will line up for.

First determine the product or service you plan to offer. If you’re going to open a liquor store, don’t say “liquor store”, instead say a “Gourmet wine cellar and upscale liquor cabinet, located in bucolic village of Fallbrook”.

List the features your product or service will offer that will differentiate you from your competition (just how many liquor stores are there):
Low cost / high scoring wines Top of the line Liquors
Wine tasting classes Liquor & Food Parings
Wine & Food Parings Ultimate in service
“No Wine Snobs Allowed”

Now identify the advantages and benefits (go back to Part 2) of your product or service, are your benefits that much more than your competitors?

Target Market
Once you have determined your benefits, the by definition you have virtually identified who your product is for – your Target Market. Now stratify your market further. Using the above example – if you said “Alcohol drinkers”, try again. Create the market in your mind and then fill a need they will have:

Upscale clientele                                                         High discretionary income
Discriminating taste in wine & liquors                    They are still cost-conscious
Don’t want to go all the way to San Diego              A fun & casual approach to Wine

Now you have a market and it time to test your thinking, do a focus group, etc. Test, Test and Test some more until you have your niche completely identified.

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As with the seven questions for the strategy summary, there are seven basic sections or elements of a marketing plan:
 The Benefit to the consumer
 Your positioning in the marketplace: Just what business are you in?
 Your target market
 Your advertising strategy and positioning
 Your marketing budget
 The tool and techniques (weapons) you will use to reach your audience
 A month-by-month implementation schedule

In this article we will look at Benefits to the consumer.

Benefits
Every product or service has Features, Advantages and Benefits(FAB). Mixing them up or misunderstanding the difference between them will cripple your marketing efforts.

Features – are those components that deliver or yield a benefit (or an advantage) or to put it differently; it’s what it does or what it is.

Advantages – the feature must have an advantage (at least a perceived advantage) and are those components that can assist in the solving of problems or fulfilling of needs – as in it’s what it does better (than others).

Benefits – is what the consumer can expect or receive – what it means to the consumer, the results they receive, what they want. Not what you want to give them but what they want to receive. In other words what they want is gospel, everything else is hearsay.

Wants and needs are broken down in to the following (very general) areas:
Profit                                                                    Economy                                                   Security
Health                                                                 Family (Welfare)                                       Beauty
Comfort                                                              Convenience                                             Prestige
Self-expression                                                Social

In some way or another your product or service has to satisfy one or more of these wants or needs. The only products or services that succeed are those whose benefits exceed their cost.

Does your’s?

What benefits does your product or service deliver (what desire does your’s satisfy).

An example of FAB is my own consulting practice:
One of my features is Process Improvement…
The advantages I have are that I can deliver it faster, cheaper and less traumatically that others due to my experience and expertise…
The Benefit to the consumer is whatever they see it being, but usually it is
Comfort / Health (less stress, more peace of mind due to a more smooth and efficient operation)
Profit (more money due to a more smooth and efficient operation)
Security (long term survivability of the business)

You will not have a successful marketing effort if you can’t master these concepts.
What are my features?
What advantages do I have?
What Benefit does it deliver?

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Right behind a Business Plan, a sound, coherent and cohesive Marketing Plan is one the most critical components for becoming a successful business.

A Marketing Plan (as well as a Business Plan) doesn’t have to a lengthy novel – especially for a small business owner.

Why is this so?
1) What is the probability that a small business owner has the time to generate a traditional Marketing Plan?
2) What is the probability that a small business owner has the skills to generate a traditional Marketing Plan?
3) What is the probability that a small business owner has the motivation and enthusiasm to generate a traditional Marketing Plan?
4) Once done what is the probability that the Marketing Plan will go on the shelf and gather dust forevermore?

This is why I am an advocate of the concepts of Guerrilla Marketing. Now I am by no means an “Expert Marketeer”. But I believe I am smart enough to recognize that all businesses are not created equal and traditional marketing theory and concepts are focused on larger companies, with larger budgets for marketing.

The small business owner does not have the resources (Time, Money and Skills) that large enterprises have and therefore must husband their resources accordingly. This is where Guerrilla Marketing excels.

The Guerrilla Marketing series was devised and written by Jay Conrad Levinson and in my opinion is not only brilliant but will fit almost any small business.

Guerrilla Marketing strips away all the big company / big budget “stuff” from traditional marketing and leaves the small business owner with a well thought out and conceptually sound Marketing Plan process that in Levinson’s words “will deliver low cost and high impact” marketing to the small business owner.

This methodology is infinitely scalable and easily replicated (more of my favorite tenets for small businesses).

A Guerrilla Marketing Plan will be seven to ten pages long – this may seem like a lot but when you consider this includes the Marketing Plan Budget and the Marketing Plan Implementation Schedule it is really quite short.

Levinson suggests that you start by doing a one page strategy summary by answering seven questions before your write your plan.

Those seven questions are
1) Explain the purpose of the strategy.
2) Explain how you will achieve this purpose. It describes your Features, Advantages and Benefits (FAB).
3) Describe your Target Market.
4) Outline the Marketing Weapons you will use.
5) Describe your niche.
6) Reveal the identity of your business.
7) Define your budget, which should a percentage of sales.

Once you have done this one page summary you are ready to do your Marketing Plan in detail.

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One of the techniques that is used in the Lean Manufacturing World is “The Five Why’s”. The Five Why’s is a method of getting to true root cause of an issue or problem.

It is the practice of asking why repeatedly whenever a problem or issue arises. Below is an example (adapted from the Lean Lexicon – Lean Enterprise Institute, www.lean.org ) of what this means.

For instance, Taiichi Ohno gives this example about a machine that stopped working (Ohno 1988, p. 17):
1. Why did the machine stop?
There was an overload and the fuse blew.

2. Why was there an overload?
The bearing was not sufficiently lubricated.

3. Why was it not lubricated?
The lubrication pump was not pumping sufficiently.

4. Why was it not pumping sufficiently?
The shaft of the pump was worn and rattling.

5. Why was the shaft worn out?
There was no strainer attached and metal scraps got in.

They go on to discuss why there was no strainer and it turned out that the Preventative Maintenance Program schedule wasn’t being followed and this was the root cause of the problem, not that the machine broke down. The machine breakdown was a symptom and not the disease.

While here they were discussing a manufacturing problem, this technique can be used in any kind of problem solving, analysis or brainstorming – from analyzing financial results to problem solving sales or marketing issues.

Try it out and you’ll find that you will get to the root cause much faster and eliminate the real issue and not simply place a band-aid on a symptom.

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The second module of the Marketing Plan Series is now up in the Resource Library, give it a look and send me your comments.

Also the latest edition of my Business Alert newsletter  (Vol 8. No. 3) has been posted.

Okay, so far in the series we have been in the “softer” side of planning, what planning can do for you, how to fit your business into your lifestyle (and not the other way around), staking out exactly where you are now (benchmarking) and doing your Vision & Mission Statements.

Now its time for the rubber to meet the road. Doing your “Roadmap”, again going back to the journey analogy I have been using. The roadmap is the tangible and practical set of methods for getting where you want to go.

The roadmap has three parts
 Goals & Objectives
 Strategies
 Plans

Goals & Objectives – we have defined our Vision. So what accomplishments do we have to achieve to arrive at our Vision? These are the concrete, definable, measurable and specific both in terms of target and time frames. Obviously these must be written down and published – if only to yourself. My goals and objectives are on a 2’ X 3’ poster over my desk, I review them every day – this is my motivation even when I am not in the mood.

The Goals and Objectives are designed to focus your scarce resources, the most scarce being your time, on those activities that achieve your targeted and specific results. For many businesses the most critical categories will be Marketing and Financial, although your’s may be different. There is no template for G&O’s – every business is unique, but the same (business is business) so make sure to cover all the important aspects of your business. Always ask the question What is this for? Or even more simply Why? These two questions will help keep you from pursuing goals that do not come from your needs or values.

Your Goals and Objectives should be SMART

S is for Simple. Your goals should be clear and easy to describe. You want to weigh 175 pounds, or save $10,000 this year. Your goal is to run a marathon or to purchase a computer by the end of the year. If it takes more than 25 words to describe your goal, simplify it!

S also stands for Significant. Don’t waste time chasing trivial goals! If you are merely thinking about a goal, forget it! Goals must have significance for you. Choose things that are important, that get you excited, things that will make a difference in your life.  . A goal without a specific result is just a pipe-dream. You can’t achieve a pound of "happiness", or a foot of "self-esteem", but you CAN get a new job. You CAN run a mile in under 7 minutes or do 100 sit-ups. You CAN spend Saturdays as a family, or increase your sales by 10% this month. Someone has wisely said, "What gets measured, gets done!"

M is for Measurable  A goal without a specific result is just a pipe-dream. You can’t achieve a pound of "happiness", or a foot of "self-esteem", but you CAN get a new job. You CAN run a mile in under 7 minutes or do 100 sit-ups. You CAN spend Saturdays as a family, or increase your sales by 10% this month. Someone has wisely said, "What gets measured, gets done!"

A is for Achievable. "Goals should be just out of reach, but not out of site." You want to stretch yourself, not strain after impossible dreams. If you haven’t run in years, don’t set a goal to run a marathon! Your brain won’t "buy it"! Set a goal to run around the block, and then set a new goal to run for 20 minutes. Then, go farther. Nothing succeeds like success! Set goals you can and will ACHIEVE, then aim higher!

R is for Rational. To reach your goal, you will need a plan, a path, and a vehicle for getting there. Your goals should make sense when you explain them to family and friends. You can become a millionaire by methodically saving 10% of your income; you probably won’t get rich playing the lottery. Play the odds, have a plan, and work your plan!

T is for Tangible! Choose goals that you can see, hear, smell or touch. Go for things your senses will enjoy and that you can clearly visualize. The brain has a hard time going for "financial security", but it can visualize a bank statement with large numbers on it! Even things like "peace of mind" are more powerful if you re-word them in terms of a meditation room in your house, or an hour a day, just for you.

Keep your G&O’s concise and measurable – those items which can be measured will improve. Measure them often – at least quarterly, more likely monthly. I measure my marketing goals weekly, though that may be too much for you.

Strategies – are a bit more expansive than goals and objectives, but have the ability to create the direction and operating guidelines for building and or managing your business.

A good way visualizing strategies would be to think of them as the best practices for your business or industry. What company in your industry has had the most success in obtaining and keeping market share? Investigate them; find out what they do and how they do it. You’ll learn some valuable lessons.

Your Core Strategies (usually four to six for any single company), when properly constructed will address both external influences and internal influences. They will define your business and keep it focused.

Plans – are the specific action items and their related action steps that you must make in a specific timeline to achieve your desire objective.

We all, as business owners, have a to-do list, this list usually has too many to-dos on it, some urgent (pay the utility bill), some important (execute this month’s marketing plan) some both urgent and important (follow up with hot-hot-hot prospects) and so on.

A well thought out plan will keep you focused on the important but not necessarily urgent actions.

These are the one that will maintain your current market base, capture new market share and grow your business. A good plan will help you prioritize and keep a balance between the urgent, important and important but not urgent actions you will face every day.

Plans need to be broken down into specific and “do-able” projects and steps that can be achieved in a reasonable timeframe – do not try to eat the elephant in one bite.

Each project has both a time and cost element, both need to reasonably estimated and compared to the return you’ll receive.

Achieving your plans, goals and objective will be addressed in a future article

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Your Vision Statement is the basis of your entire journey – where do you want to go? Without the Vision, not only don’t you know where you’re going, but there is no reason to go in the first place!

There are as many opinions on how to do a Vision Statement as there are Vision Statements. Some “experts” claim it should be clear and concise, some claim it should be expansive and idealistic and others fall everywhere in between. I tend to fall in the expansive and idealistic camp, but that doesn’t matter, as long as you make it your’s, not someone else’s idea of what it should be.

A Vision Statement should stimulate the reader (as well as yourself), promote discussion, create possibilities, ask why not and communicate your belief in the Vision.

You can hardly make your Vision Statement too grand. If your company has been a million dollar revenue business for many years, why not make your vision to become a five million dollar business. So what if you don’t get there – this is one of the times when goal achievement is not necessarily the purpose. The purpose is the journey. What if you get to three million dollars, are you going to be disappointed – you just tripled your revenue.

Don’t make your Vision to plain or analytical, think big, go big, explore, create and show your passion. If you’re not excited, how can you expect the reader to be excited, have your desire or passion? Have fun, be wild; the time for cold, hard analysis is not when writing your Vision Statement.

The Vision Statement can be the most difficult part of the planning process, especially for those businesspeople that worry about what others may think – forget them, go for it!

Use powerful words, strong adjectives to describe your dream. Start with the five W’s – Who, What, Where, When, Why (and How). The answer to those questions will form the foundation to formulate your Vision.

Put your Vision on paper, stay with it for awhile, then go back and edit it, you may be surprised to find that you decide to do something more exciting that you originally thought.

There are lots resources for writing and formulating a Vision Statement – many are free – go find them and get started today!

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