Marketing and Revenue SERVICES

Creation of MIS (Marketing Information System)

I propose a Marketing Plan that starts directly from the analysis of economic data, primarily primis from the MARGINALITY of individual products or services segmented for each channel. A MIS (Marketing Information System) must be implemented immediately that serves to:

THE MIS represents the heart of the company's strategic activity, it is made up of an Excel file, divided into several sheets: all company data is entered and analyzed here QUANTITATIVE (everything that can be measured: economic data, metrics development, purchase frequencies, loyalty indicators, SEO metrics, SEA metrics, Social Insight) and QUALITATIVE (everything that can be counted and definable in variables qualitative: data relating to sales channels, the sales path, the life cycle of the products, lead generation, all metrics related to Brand Equity). The crossroads of this data gives rise to INDICATORS which serve to guide marketing actions. The MIS is continuously updated and Data Analysis before any operational marketing action.

Internal and Market Analysis

The internal analysis serves to concisely define the Business Model, it is one overview of all business factors which are then analyzed individually. The questions from to be done are: which main consumer needs are to be satisfied; in what way and which ones particular benefits are offered (Unique Selling Proposition); with which technologies, products and services; what factors influence growth, what are the main costs; which i channels and main segments; what are the revenue areas, what is the customer life cycle, what is the frequency of purchase and how much does it affect the type of business, who are the partners, which they are the competitors. Internal audit is a very broad analysis, but most of the data is obtainable internally within the company itself. Market Analysis, on the other hand, is more complex because the data must be obtained externally and concerns understanding Profitability, Size and growth potentialof a market.

During the market analysis, theReal Market Share and Potential: products and/or services are grouped into categories, these are classified according to a Development Matrix which relates the current share of market with its development rate (BCG matrix) for each category (as an indicator of development rate, an index number built on the indicators of the 5 Resistances can be used by Porter; on the phases of the product life cycle and on the current size of the market). In Product Life Cycle 4 phases can be identified: Launch, Growth, Maturity, Decline. During the first phase, that of Introduction of a new one product (new for the company and for the market), not yet having the experience to achieve economies of scale, there are high production costs and few consumers know the product, the The most important levers of marketing are therefore that of the Product (optimization of production and value of the product) and Promotion. During the Growth phase a more mature and broader demand is addressed, profitability increases and, to achieve the most possible market share, the most important lever is represented by Promotion. The The Maturity phase represents the most profitable phase because on the one hand we have learned to optimize production costs, on the other hand you operate with a high market demand, but you have to be careful about increasing competitiveness, which is why Differentiation strategies product and Promotion level, at the Positioning and Image level of the Brands become the most important levers. At this stage the less you can differentiate, the more Price management becomes important. In the Decline phase there is a decline drastic demand and we must abandon that sector or try to reinvent the product in case in which the drop in demand occurred due to the introduction of similar products which satisfy the same needs of consumers. To broaden the market analysis it can be used also the SWOT Analysis scheme where the STRENGTH and WEAKNESS points are defined of the company in relation to the OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS of the reference market: a strong point it could be, for example, becoming exclusive distributors of some products, or having machinery cutting edge; a weakness can be unstructured customer service; le opportunities are highlighted above all with the study of MARKET TRENDS; le threats to the development of the company or individual products can come from new laws and certifications, or from competitors who make high investments. Market analysis should be as broad as possible and try to investigate all areas of the macro-environment in which the company operates, the PESTEL method scheme can be adopted for this purpose: analysis of political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors. One part An important aspect of market analysis is Benchmarking: they are compared products, services and business processes with those adopted by the companies identified as competitor. We also study industry leaders and the best practices that led them to assert yourself. All the data collected is recorded in the MIS in a specific metrics section of comparison.

Definition of Growth Objectives:

The main objective of a company must be continuous GROWTH. From Internal Audit and from the market study it may emerge that too many products or services are in the Maturity or Decline phase, or that the company's profitability is threatened by too strong competitors. At this stage the company may also gain awareness of have know-how and resources to operate in other markets. In all these cases, you can consider enter new businesses with the same products; launch product variants or new ones products within the segments already covered; or again, riskier choice, new products in new markets. It is possible to represent the possible directions of growth in an analytical way use the Ansoff matrix where the product variable is placed on the Cartesian axes on one side (with product/new products mode) and on the other the market variable (with mode market/new markets). To expand into current or new markets, the viable strategies are multiple: you can make alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions or expand your business within the entire value chain, for example a shoe manufacturer can decide to open retail stores (vertical growth). It is fundamental to understand that, at this point of the Marketing Plan, subsequent analyzes and operational marketing choices will depend on growth strategies that are adopted: if for example a PRODUCT EXTENSION is decided (new products in the same markets) or a BRAND EXTENSION (creation of sub-brands with new products) the Brand development, Positioning, Targeting and Marketing Mix tactics will be different from those to be adopted if, for example, Penetration of the is chosen Market(same products in the same markets). About this last strategy: if not you have too many products in the Maturity and Decline stage, or other threats from the market, the choice of less risky growth remains that of MARKET PENETRATION, and must be pursued even if other development strategies are adopted in the same or other businesses, since it is difficult to monopolize one.

Initial Positioning and Brand Management

By initial positioning we mean the current set of PERCEPTIONS that i reference audiences have of the company offer: it is the perceptive space that the company offer occupies in the minds of consumers, distinguishing itself from that of the competition: when a consumer deals with a company's products builds an experience made of Tangible Benefits such as price, functions (ability to solve problems practical), the occasions for using a specific product and Benefits Intangibleslinked to symbolic attributes (ASSOCIATIONS) of the product such as being ecological or representing a Status Symbol or being an instrument of social acceptance (I buy something because all my friends have it). All these elements (tangible and intangibles) are projected by customers onto the company: a Attitude (set of feelings, judgments and behaviors) that guides decisions futures with respect to that company's products. The latter, consistently re-proposing e constantly some material characteristics, and all immaterial ones, in all its products, builds its POSITIONING in the market. To make your own known and recognised Positioning builds its BRAND: set of ELEMENTS SYMBOLIC (name, logo, slogan, packaging, people, url...), VALUES (for example family), TANGIBLE ATTRIBUTES (for example convenience), ASSOCIATIONS (stimulating perceptions: for example of reliability). The management of Brand therefore concerns positioning management and vice versa. The main objective of the Corporate Positioning is to preside over a specific mental space in the imagination of consumers through the definition of elements of EQUALITY compared to others BRANDS linked to the performance (tangible attributes) of the product or service (POP: for example a nowadays the bank cannot fail to have the home banking service) and elements of DIFFERENTIATION(POD: for example, not all banks have physical branches, important feature for some demographic segments), but also related intangible POPs and PODs to the brand's IMAGE (e.g. quality, convenience, or inspiring attributes aspirational associations such as the desire for economic tranquility or social affirmation).

Segmentazione

Market segmentation is the division of current and potential customers into groups: Homogeneous Segments for some characteristics. Segmentation can be DESCRIPTIVE: Psychographic (lifestyles, values, opinions, attitudes); Socio-Demographic (Income, Age, Sex, Marital Status, Educational Qualification); Geographic (Local, Regional, National, International), or BEHAVIORAL: divide the market based on how consumers behave towards the brand/product (frequency of usage, brand loyalty, benefits sought). It is not possible to use all methods and all the variables, but they will have to be chosen according to the market. We must first proceed to the segmentation by SALES CHANNELS of current customers (important because the people who buy in the physical store are different from those who buy online and from those who buy from a retailer located in a specific location) divided in turn by CATEGORIES of PRODUCT/SERVICE. Subsequently, the data from the Market Analysis (phase 2) is taken again and some conclusions are made HYPOTHESIS on potential segments. Important segments may not emerge from the market analysis covered by the company offer, in this case the segments are not targeted, but they carry out tests (see start-ups and new product launches below) to validate the hedging hypothesis of the segment.

Percorso d'acquisto

At this point the PURCHASE PATH must be studied from the company's point of view: for each sales channel (where they purchased) and for each product category (what they have purchased) the way in which customers learned about the products is identified (e.g. Google, Social, Pass the Word, Partner Company, Press, Friend, Colleague etc.). If the company has already implemented FUNNEL MARKETING strategies, the intermediate steps and all the steps are also analysed “touchpoints” that took customers from knowing to purchasing the product.

Targeting, Profilazione Buyer Personas e Leader d'Opinione

The previous phases are basically gathering numbers and information about the company and the market. These data serve to guide the marketing mix strategies from here on. First to enter operational marketing must be chosen, within the identified segments, i TARGET SEGMENTS with the main criteria of PROFITABILITY, LOYALTY to the brand and the SEGMENT EXPANSION POTENTIAL. Let's take an example: we have already divided the sales of each product category (or company asset) by channel and we have identified by each category/channel the segments. It turned out for example that in the physical store, for one certain product category, 15% of the turnover comes from female people between 40 and 50 years old graduates (a niche of Generation X). We also find out that this class of age has a CUSTOMER RETENTION RATE (in many sectors/business models it is a very important indicator for choosing the target) calculated as [(Number of customers at the end of the period - New customers acquired) / Number of customers at the beginning of the period] * 100, higher of the other segments. We estimate that we have covered only 10% of this market segment so far, we therefore come to the conclusion that this is definitely one of our target segments. The TARGETING does not end with the choice of a segment, but this is followed by the analysis of Benefits (needs that customers seek to satisfy by using the product/service and degree of satisfaction in using it) that the people of this target-segment they search in the product (in this case information is collected separately of sales assistants and feedback from buyers such as reviews, comments on social media or information deriving from post-purchase interviews). In this way the characters are delineated psychological and behavioral aspects more widespread in people of this group (the study of theProfiles Socialhelps a lot in this analysis) and 1 to 5 people are chosen to represent it, real people who seek the same benefits in the product and have personality traits recurring in the target, the famous BAYER PERSONAS. The study of social profiles, which it helps to define the characteristics of the target, it is also very useful for identifying OPINION LEADERS and the groups to which the target people belong, groups that they can in turn become target segments. The Opinion Leaders (people capable of influence the choices of other people in the group because they are considered more competent or have greater emotional influence than others for reasons of Status) will be the first objective of communication and corporate promotion because they can multiply its effects.

Strategic Positioning

Having done this for all segments, some chosen and some discarded, the company will be able to define the guidelines to improve your offer and your positioning Strategic:guidelines on how to satisfy key targets with an offering equipped with unique characteristics that are different from those of competitors in terms of product functionality and service (to satisfy functional, practical needs) and in terms of brand image (for get closer to values, behaviors, symbols). To analytically define your own strategic positioning (but also to analyze the starting one, phase 4) you can use the POSITIONING MAP, or more positioning maps, placing the company and the main competitors, for a product or a category of products, within a system Cartesian for some pairs of variables (e.g. price/quality; safety/performance; style/functionality; traditional/innovative...). Another representation tool is the VALUE CURVE where, again on the Cartesian system, you place on the axis of the value factors (or competition factors) on the abscissa and the level on the ordinates of the offer, e.g. for a type of ice cream the value factors can be the price, the amount of chocolate, size, weight, sweetness level etc., creating a curve for the company and one for each competitor. If our main target, continuing the example of ice creams, are the children of a specific geographical area, we could go, after appropriate tests, to move the sweetness level upwards, if however, always in the same geographical area i children no longer like that type of ice cream, but adults really like it, the level of sweetness will come probably moved downwards and the brand communication will search for example associations with post-work relaxation.

Marketing Operativo

The classic 4p's of the Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Promotion, Place) Product, Price, Promotion, Distributionare about the tactical application of strategies defined through the analysis of the company and the market carried out previously. First of all you have to define objectives and budget for each operating lever. Goals must be achievable and above all measurable: the metrics that will define the ROI (Return) must be established in advance on Investments) and an estimate of the same must be made before any operational marketing action. For example, if the strategy is that of REPOSITIONING the product, in the case of a company producer, it will be necessary to estimate all costs of changing production processes and any costs for new distribution strategies and promotion costs, then the new margin on the sale of a single product and the market share that is assumed to be gained with repositioning. A budget must be allocated that allows the success of the operation to be redistributed based on the areas of intervention in a manner proportional to the importance of each individual lever (Product, Price, Promotion, Distribution) assumes with respect to the objective. There are Marketing Objectives that do not concern all levers, for example a product in the growth phase it will mainly have promotional costs, and the investment is usually more low compared to the previous case (Product Repositioning), but it always depends on the case in point: if a potential large expansion of the market were identified, it could be successful risk a high investment in Brand Awareness.

Product

If in SEO "Content is King" in marketing we can say that "Product is King": from the point of From the consumer's point of view, value lies, in hierarchical order, in the Product, Price and services Sales and Assistance, the promotion has value only from a company point of view. Many large ones companies mainly focus on product innovation and use analytics marketing seen in the previous phases mainly to invest in Points of Differentiationof one's products (or services) compared to the products of other companies. The DIFFERENTIATION is at the basis of the very concept of marketing: having a product different (different and/or innovative and/or new to the market) allows for a better one marketing at a price level, allowing one to escape the leveling logic of market; at the sales channel level, allowing existing channels to be strengthened and new ones opened of new ones, at a promotional level, allowing original and recognizable communication between many offers.

Price

The Price, as well as being in relation to the market (the price is determined by the market, not decided by the company...), must satisfy the company's growth objectives not only related to margins (e.g. you can also sell with negative margins if the objective is that of the Brand Awareness). The most important consideration in Price Management is this: within a market, the lower the differentiation (very similar offers) the greater the leverage price becomes important. In these cases, in fact, the price becomes very sensitive: at minimum levels Price changes correspond to high changes in demand. In all markets however, competitive or otherwise, the strength of a Brand allows it to command a higher price, up to and including so-called PREMIUM PRICE: customers are willing to pay a lot more for a product above the market price because they recognize a value (symbolic, reliability and quality) to the Brand, regardless of the intrinsic value of the product or service.
The strategies of main prices are:

Distribution

Distribution is a very important lever because it is linked to the choice, purchase and service post-purchase assistance for products or services, here it is essential to create value for the customer considering every element of the distribution chain as such. TheLever of Distributionis the lever closest to the customer, which is why oligopolies formed on the side distribution (see OTA in tourism) allow you to dominate entire markets by acting on them alone intermediation of services or services ancillary to the products (many tourists are not loyal customers of hotels or physical agencies, but they are Booking.com and Expedia). TheManagement of Distributionconcerns the choice of channels and sales policies and is a consequence of the market analysis, the purchasing path, the targeting process and above all the type of product and the strength of the brand, strategies can be defined based on these variables basic:

One of the most important considerations for manufacturing companies is that even if you don't chair the point of sale (there are no shops), it is important to have decision-making and control power over management of products and your brand in the point of sale so that it is communicated in a manner consistent and have shelf prominence. A Brand is essentially a set of Associations that they are formed in the mind of the consumer who expects to find and again in the purchasing experience renew these Associations. For this purpose it is advisable to create contracts with the retailer who regulate the use of the brand and/or partially finance itsVisual Merchandisingof the entire store. As regards ancillary services to purchase, today even small producers who decide to sell theirs directly products, or small retailers, are forced to have Points of Parity with the services offered by the large distribution players, as consumers have increasingly higher demands regarding to selection guide, delivery and post-purchase assistance services. This is the difficulty largest one encountered in online commerce.

Promozione

Promotion, which many mistakenly believe is “marketing,” is about advertising of the company offer. Depending on the target audience, MEANS must be defined (e.g. paper printed, internet, PR, Ambient...) and CHANNELS (e.g. trade magazine, newspaper, blog, website shop window, e-commerce, Google ADS, Social Sponsorships, Road Signs, Promotions in point of sale...); the Total Budget must be defined as part of the budget of the entire Marketing Mix e redistributed for each channel. For each channel the investment must be defined and the profit estimated derived (ROI hypothesis). For online campaigns, especially if you already have historical series registered within the MIS of campaigns carried out in the short term, the estimate of ROI (in the promotion it is called ROAS: Return on Advertising Spend) is enough simple, for the other channels however, despite there being many tools and metrics available, it is something far more difficult. As seen in the previous phases, the choice of metrics with which first estimate then analyze the return on an investment, depends on the objective of the investment, which is not necessarily economical (e.g. during the launch of a new product the goal of a campaign is to get as much feedback as possible and not to sell). First to identify the most suitable means and channels for the business and the target, one must be implemented basic communication strategy which must be consistent across all channels, the so-called Copy Strategy. Let's take the example of a face cream where we are going to define the Copy points:

✓ Target:the target has been defined in previous analyses, but attention! Each channel has its specific market niches, in any case in the Copy Strategy yes defines a basic strategy adaptable to each channel (e.g. women between 16 and 26 years old, residents in northern Italy who mainly look for creams with hydrating ingredients and which they purchase especially low-cost consumer creams online).
✓ Promise (Consumer's benefit): it is the advantage that the product promises to the consumer (e.g. "Keeps your face fresh and hydrated for 18 hours").
✓ Main Argument (Reason why): It is the rational argument that the advertising provides to make the benefits promised by the product credible; there may be more reason why, if the promises are multiple. Represents the main (or main) characteristic which differentiates the product from others on the market (e.g. "It has a very high concentration of lipids epidermal, physiologically present in the skin").
✓ Emphatic Reinforcing (Supporting evidence): it is both rhetorical support which endorses the credibility of the promise, a sort of supplementary promise to the main one (e.g. "Made with innovative methods, it keeps the skin soft and luminous"), both concrete evidence and objective evidence that demonstrates the validity of a statement (e.g. "Studies from La Sapienza University demonstrate that epidermal lipids have a hydration capacity greater than 30% of any other active ingredient".
✓ Social proof: it is based on testimonials (reviews, opinions) and on the numbers of sales and customers currently served. It represents the instrument of stronger persuasion.
✓ Tone of voice: it is the expressive way of presenting the advantages and of the related topics. It indicates the style and personality that the product wants to take on, the atmosphere that communication wants to create (e.g. emotional and friendly style with associations to commitments newspapers).
✓ Packaging (Treatment): not referring to packaging but to the scenographic setting and all the visual elements which, together with the tone of the voice, they define the atmosphere and the main symbols of the promotion. In this case, each channel will have the its packaging (e.g. video of a girl getting ready at home to go to university).

Once you have acquired a basic communication strategy, you need to work on the channels. In the process of Growth of product and development of Brand Awareness, it is advisable to carry out more campaigns possible channels, but with different times since the ROI is easier to calculate when there is a single active campaign, on a single channel. For example in Digital Marketing (this is how online advertising is often defined), which represents an effective way of promotion for many types of business, it is best to implement the various campaigns at different times (SEA, Social Sponsorships, Direct Marketing). Considering that SEO also represents a promotion online of brands and products, the order in which to run the campaigns should be: SEO, because the landing page exploited by other channels must be optimized; Social Sponsorships, after SEO because it affects views of page and before SEA because it is more sustainable; SEA, after SEO because obviously you need an optimized landing page to do it, and after the sponsorships because it is necessary more resources perhaps resulting from the return on previous campaigns; Direct Marketing or Email Marketing, as a final supplement to the other campaigns to reactivate the message persuasive.

Data analysis

We must first divide the data into Quantitative (everything that can be measured) and Qualitative (everything that can be counted).

Quantitative Data

A simple indicator, which can be used for all marketing actions, is ROI (Return on Investment): if I invest 200.00 euros and earn 300.00 euros the ROI (Profit Derivative/Investment) will be (300-200)/200=0.5 i.e. for every euross invested I get 50 cents. For Campaigns, ROAS is used, same formula as ROI but costs and revenues they are related to the specific campaign and not for example to the entire repositioning operation. IL ROI can also be used to study the profitability of each channel and each product or product category and has, within the MIS, a relative importance: it is used to understand if a campaign is more profitable than another, or if a product category, or a market segment, has a higher margin than others. To have comparable data you need to create a homogeneous Cost Structure applicable to each product (or channel, or asset). Let's take the example of a very small company to demonstrate that marketing tools can also be applied to small businesses: a locksmith who produces gates, doors, railings, iron grates in a small company with few workers, which decides to grow the own business using marketing tools. The first thing to do is understand the profitability of each product category: for each gate produced, they are recorded in a manner systematizes the hours of work and the specific expenses to carry it out; after having defined exactly the average cost of one hour of work of its workers, the number of gates sold in is recorded a certain period and the relative selling price. After some time you will have a good foundation data and all the elements to calculate the profit of the gate category on an Excel sheet (in the form of ROI, or Gross Profit, it does not matter which indicator is used because it has a mainly relative function that serves to guide marketing actions). Repeating this operation for each product category, and by sorting the data, you will obtain a ranking of profitability. It will be allocated to the first category, unless otherwise indicated from market analysis, both greater promotional budget and prominence to keywords in SEO optimization and in general as a topic in online and offline advertising.

Qualitative Data

Following the same example, we could put, for only the gates actually sold, the initial contact (LEAD) as an indicator of the sales channel, and create a table in the MIS with "Leads Converted by Channel" lines (qualitative variable which can have as a mode for example: partner company, relatives, friends, word of mouth) and "number of gates sold" columns whose value will be the Sales Frequency, which represents an indicator of the profitability of each channel for the gates category. It is also important to know what the sales frequency of a channel is all the products, we then go, after giving a value to all the product categories, to construct an Index Number given by the sum of the values of each channel. If you are good and systematic in recording everything, on Excel on a CRM or on other software, can also be obtained many other important indicators, for example, recording all contacts (quotes, proposals minutes, phone calls...) you can know the Conversion Rate for each channel.

Each marketing strategy has its own indicators that must measure performance with respect to the objectives, for example during the launch phase of a product, where the leverage of Promotion is very important, the sales volume has less importance than the rate conversion to purchases or other business scalability KPIs (see for example the indicators to test Product Market Fit in the Marketing Plan for Startups).