1	Market Opportunities & Marketing Dr. Jeff Shay
2	Marketing Concept A marketing concept is a “Customer-oriented philosophy that is implemented and integrated throughout the business to serve customers better than the competitors and achieve specific goals.”
3	Customer orientation A customer orientation is very important for entrepreneurs to possess. Here are some key questions that your team should address: What are some reasons why identifying customer needs and desires is important? Why is it critical that entrepreneurs have a customer orientation at the start? Some of the other orientations that entrepreneurs often have include: A Technology orientation A Production orientation A Sales orientation
4	Entrepreneurs who have customer orientation… Gather information on customers Meet the needs of specific customer groups Train employees to meet customer needs Make follow-up calls to customers Develop Unsatisfiedè Satisfied customer conversion plans Utilize strategies that build around understanding of customers Coordinate activities among employees to ensure that customers are satisfied
5	Components of a Marketing System
6	Knowing your Product or Service Having a clear understanding of your product or services is very important Can you… Describe your product/service in terms Products: Size, shape, ingredients, colors, weight, speed, packaging, texture Services: Speed, experience, expertise, clients, services What are the additional services that you offer? Have you considered personalized attention, guaranteed response time, custom ordering, trial offers, money-back guarantees? These should all be part of your marketing plans
7	Marketing plan Consider the following questions: What is a marketing plan? Is it separate or part of the strategic plan? Now, let’s see how you did…
8	Marketing Plan – What to include Situational analysis of the competitive environment Marketing goals and objectives Marketing strategy Action plan Basically, the marketing plan answers the questions: Who? What? Where? When? How? Why?
9	The first step is to assess the market opportunities. This includes: Identifying the business environmental forces Describing the industry and its outlook Analyzing the key competitors Creating a target market profile Setting sales projections
10	Market Segmentation Will your new business focus on a specific market segment? If so, consider the following forms of segmentation: Geographic Demographic By benefit By usage rate Psychographic
11	Customer profile Discuss the following questions with your team to develop a customer profile. You will probably find that you will want to revisit the profile and make changes later: What are the customers like? How do the customers make purchasing decision? What external forces influence the purchase decision? How do you reach more definitive conclusions regarding these questions?
12	Marketing Research Process There are four basic steps that you will go through in the market research process…
13	Sources of Data Most new ventures utilize secondary data. Sources for secondary data include: Internet Libraries Governments SBA Chambers of Commerce Better Business Bureau Trade associations Small business associations Marketing research firms Trade journals and trade shows These and many other sources are available on the RockyMountainBusiness.com site
14	Sources of Data There are two forms of primary data Observation Involves watching potential customers make their purchasing decisions Survey questionnaire In person Over the telephone By mail
15	Analyzing the industry and competitors Industry analysis Key competitor analysis Financial size and strength Objectives Target market requirements Technical, marketing, and management capabilities Marketing strategy
16	Indicators of competitors’ objectives and capabilities Mission statement Market position and sales trends Management capabilities and limitations Target market strategies Marketing objectives Marketing strategies and tactics
17	Setting Marketing Objectives Here are some key questions that your team should address: What are marketing performance objectives? What are marketing support objectives? Why should these be measurable? Is one harder to measure than the others? If so, how could you begin to measure it?
18	Marketing strategy Your marketing strategy should address: Product decisions Brand name, trademark, warranties, packaging and labeling Distribution decisions Transportation, storage Pricing decisions Objectives, flexibility, strategies, setting the price, price floor Promotion decisions Sales promotions, advertising, publicity, personal selling
19	Promoting your product: Consider the appropriateness of each of the following for reaching your customers Newspapers Yellow pages Television Telemarketing Brochures Press releases Magazines Radio Direct mail Flyers Coupons Promotional items
20	Most Common Marketing Mistakes Failure to develop a sustainable competitive advantage (“Cheap Hamburger” mistake) Focus on the product or service instead of the benefit (Dominos sells pizza mistake) Failure to define the target market (Everything to everybody mistake) Underestimating the competition (No other business like ours mistake) Excessive optimism (We can’t be beat mistake) Establishing prices without knowing the effect on demand (Cut prices to make more money mistake)
21	Next Module In the next module we’ll discuss writing a business plan Writing a business plan is a critical step in order to gain access to financial resources from investors or financial institutions