mar·ket·ingnoun
- the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
All marketing uses some form of an appeal to connect with and convince people to engage with their product or service. Here are some common types of marketing appeals. Some appeals are more common than others. You will spend some time with a partner today looking at advertisements and trying to decide what kinds of appeals advertisers are using.
The big idea in marketing is to make you (your company, product, service) special. How is this done? Marketers put a lot of effort into making a product stand out, into making it special. Your goal today is to pick a product you think you could sell.
How Are You Special?
Imagine you had a business idea, and you decided to become an entrepreneur. What kind of product or service would you provide. Think about what you’ve considered about your future career. Could your business be an offshoot of that? It starts with understanding your product. You need to have a clearly defined, accurate perception of what you have to offer. Explain all aspects of your product or service, everything you plan to offer, details, options, extras and anything else.Here are some interesting new products to help get you thinking about the possibilities:
Next, you need to thoroughly understand your competition. List the companies you compete with. If you don’t know any, Google them. Find at least 3 and do a brief comparison of what you have in common with your competition and what makes you different.
Once you know your product, and your competition, you need to find your angle, also known as your “Market Position”, into the market. This is the thing that you do best, the thing that will make you stand out against your competition and eventually draw customers away from them.
It’s important to differentiate yourself from your competition. You need to develop a clear idea for why the world needs another (your product or service). Here’s what Dave Thomas did to make his product stand out.
Finding a Market Position – Wendy’s Old-Fashioned Hamburgers
The first restaurant, which opened on November 15, 1969, was located on Broad Street in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Its menu featured made-to-order hamburgers, “secret recipe” chili, french fries, soft drinks, and the Frosty frozen dessert. Thomas kept the menu simple to save labor costs, remembering his KFC experience. The Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers decor differed from other fast-food joints that abounded with easy-clean vinyl and tiled surfaces. Instead, Thomas put in tiffany-style lamps, bentwood chairs, carpeting, and tabletops embellished with vintage newspaper advertisements. Although his ideas were refreshingly original, some industry experts criticized Thomas’s use of expensive fresh beef and noted that the fast-food industry seemed overcrowded. With all the criticism, Thomas hoped only for a local chain that would provide his children with summer jobs.
Do you know how Dominoes did it (the first time)? Or Geico? Or Baconsalt?
Tease Out Your Company’s Market Position
Think about, discuss and jot down some notes on the following statements and questions. This will help you figure out how you will best market to your potential customers.
Define your customer clearly. Describe the perfect person to buy your product or service?
Understand what emotional elements make them buy. What personality is your brand. How should customers feel about your product or service? What impression do you want to convey? High-tech? Old-fashioned? Country? City? Strong? Soft? Intelligent? Common? List 3-6 words to describe the impression you want to make.
Understand what functional elements make them buy. What features do they want and need? What information (about your product) do they need in order to make a decision to buy?
Marketing Demographics
Assume product is developed, tweaked and ready to sell.
The next thing a company needs is someone to notice, be interested in, engage with and hopefully become a champion of what the company has to offer.
The company has to figure out who these potential buyers might be. The process of figuring this out can also be called “Defining Your Target Market.”
To define a target market, essentially a group of people with similar characteristics, marketers use the concept of demographics.
Demographics split people into broad groups based on age, gender and income level. Marketers divide groups into more specific segments based on more specific characteristics like religious or political affiliation, region of the country, rural, suburban, or city dwelling. Getting even more specific, marketers like information about their target market’s preferences (i.e. food and even flavor preferences, movie and TV show preferences, etc.)
Knowing about demographics can help a business define it’s Target Market.
Assignment #1
All marketing uses some form of an appeal to connect with and convince people to engage with their product or service. Here are some common types of marketing appeals. Some appeals are more common than others. Find 10 magazine advertisement and label the type of appeal they use.
Assignment #2
Copy and paste the questions below into a Google Doc. Title it “My Product/Service Idea”. Replace the directions with your own thoughts and ideas.
Product or Service
Pick a random consumer item that you would like to create a new brand of. You could create a new tire brand, candy brand, scissor brand, whatever you want within reason. Write a clearly defined, accurate, detailed description of what you have to offer. Try to include adjectives that describe your product or services personality.
Competition
What companies or other types of businesses will you compete with?
Customer
Define your customer clearly. Describe the perfect person to buy your product or service? Include age, income level, gender, where they live (rural/suburban/urban) and anything else you can tell about
Price
What is the price point for your product or service: Will you be a discount brand, a premium brand or somewhere in the middle. Will you be going for a vertical pricing structure with different levels?
Placement
Where and When will potential customers see you? Will you have a shop? Be in someone else’s shop? Only be available online or “as seen on TV”?
Promotion
How will you promote your product or service? Ads? Mailings? Brochures? How will you get the word out? Will you go online? Where online? Will you target a certain geographic area? or go global?
How to Create an Ad via wikihow
Assignment #3 – Marketing: Target, Message, Medium
How to Create an Advertisement
Target Market – A specific group of consumers at which a company aims its products and services
Marketing Message – Why people should buy what your selling. The positive benefit, outcome or advantage your customers receive by buying your product. Source
Marketing Medium – The means by which your marketing message is conveyed. See 4
- Energy Juice
- Anti-aging Spa on a Budget
- Neon Play-doh
- Electric Gauges
- Expensive, Funny Message T-shirts
- Frozen Yogurt Cups
- 2 Your Choice – you define the product.
(40 points)
