Easy Step by Step Guide To Marketing By Pauline Rowson – 1 – Published by Rowmark Publishing Limited 65 Rogers Mead Hayling Island Hampshire PO11 0PL UK ISBN 0 9532987 6 0 First printed 1999 Re printed and revised 1999 Copyright © Pauline Rowson 1999 The right of Pauline Rowson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, England W1P 9HE. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher. Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution. Printed in Great Britain by RPM Reprographics Ltd. Chichester. Note: The material contained in this book is set out in good faith for general guidance and no liability can be accepted for loss or expense incurred as a result of relying in particular circumstances on statements made in this book. eBook edition distributed by: Summersdale Publishers Ltd 46 West Street Chichester West Sussex PO19 1RP UK www.summersdale.com About the author Pauline Rowson is a Marketing, Publicity and Training Consultant who runs her own business, Pauline Rowson Marketing Services and Training. She is qualified in marketing and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She regularly advises businesses on all aspects of their marketing and sales. Her clients are drawn from many sectors including the professions, engineering, manufacturing, farming, education, service and charitable organisations. In addition she runs training courses in marketing, sales, management and personal development. In her spare time she is a writer of crime and historical fiction. CONTENTS Introduction 9 How to use this guide 9 Chapter One What is Successful Marketing? 10 What you will learn from this guide 10 So what is marketing? 10 How marketing orientated is your business? 12 Action Points 16 In summary 17 Chapter Two Know Who Your Customers Are 18 Understanding your customers 19 Dividing your customers into groups 19 Business Customers 21 Consumer Markets 23 Questions to ask about each group 28 Differences between business and consumer buying 29 Your database 30 Action Points 33 In summary 34 Chapter Three Know What Your Customers Are Buying 36 Benefits and features 36 The Product Life Cycle 39 Extending the Product Life Cycle 42 Developing new products/services 43 Action Points 46 In summary 47 Chapter Four Developing a Competitive Edge 49 Why brand? 49 Building a brand 51 Choosing a brand name 51 Image 53 First Impressions Checklist 54 Building a competitive edge through price 58 Product/service differentiation 59 Building and maintaining an excellent reputation 59 Action Points 63 In summary 64 Chapter Five Pricing 66 Setting Prices 66 Pricing Strategies 68 A Word About The Psychology of Pricing 70 When Might You Need to look at Price Changes? 71 Action Points 72 In summary 73 Chapter Six The Market Place and Marketing Planning 74 Strengths and Weaknesses 74 Opportunities and Threats 75 The Marketing Planning Process 77 Setting Marketing Objectives 79 Marketing Strategies 81 Action Points 82 In summary 83 Chapter Seven The Marketing Action Plan 84 Some of the Promotional Tools 86 Questions to ask before using Promotional Tools 88 Action Points 91 In summary 92 Chapter Eight Tips on Using the Promotional Tools 93 Advertising 93 Some Golden Rules 96 Promoting a Service 101 Direct Marketing 101 Secrets of a Good Mailshot 104 Newsletters 105 Corporate Brochures 106 Exhibitions 107 Sponsorship 109 Building a positive press profile 110 In summary 114 Chapter Nine Putting it Together 118 Action Points 119 The Marketing Plan Summary 125 Other Easy Step by Step Guides in the series include: The Easy Step By Step Guide to Telemarketing, Cold Calling & Appointment Making - £9.99 The Easy Step By Step Guide to Selling - £9.99 The Easy Step by Step Guide to Stress & Time Management - £9.99 All the above guides are available on order from all good booksellers and direct from: Rowmark Limited 65 Rogers Mead Hayling Island Hampshire PO11 0PL Telephone: 023 9246 1931 Fax: 023 9246 0574 E mail: Introduction All businesses have one thing in common: they need customers. Without customers quite simply there is no business. Rather obvious you might be thinking but it’s amazing how many people forget this time and time again. So how do you get customers? How do you get them to buy from you - and not just once but again and again? How do you build a competitive edge for your business? How do you develop new products and services and stay ahead of the competition? All these and many more are the challenges for a business. This book will look at these challenges and help you to meet them. It will help you to understand the basic meaning of marketing and take you through a series of steps so that you can make your marketing work for you. There is no jargon and there are no trendy theories, simply tips on how to do it! I hope you enjoy reading it. How to use this guide This guide is written in as clear a style as possible to aid you. I recommend that you read it through from beginning to end and then dip into it to refresh your memory. The boxes in each chapter contain tips to help you and at the end of each chapter are some action points for you to relate to your own business. Also at the end of each chapter is a handy summary of the points covered. EASY STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO MARKETING Chapter one What is successful marketing? What you will learn from this guide This guide looks at how you can market your business more effectively. It will provide you with a greater understanding of what is meant by marketing and, I hope, will help strip away the mystique so that you may win more customers and keep those customers coming back for more. This guide will show you:  how to understand your customers and their needs  how to make your organisation more marketing orientated  how to use some of the promotional tools to target your customers and potential customers  how to build a competitive edge for your organisation  how to draw up a marketing plan for your business by following the steps in this guide. So what is marketing? Successful marketing is about knowing your customers and communicating with them in the most effective way in order to win more business from them. It is about understanding who your customers are and anticipating what they want, not just today or tomorrow, but next year, the year after, and so on. – 10 –