Building the solid bases needed for adequate Marketing Planning is no easy business, first of all the correct objectives have to be constructed out of the company’s mission. By developing the objectives a Marketing Plan strives to achieve the first step in the complete planning process. First, the company has to look at which new areas of the existing market they would like to reach by means of their new product or service, the idea must be focused on a particular area but not limited as to not allow the developing of feature uses or improvements within the plan and the product. After performing all the necessary steps to create the objectives and mission, the product’s characteristics must come to light. Doing an extensive research of all the product’s or service’s characteristics, from color to price and even future distribution points, will help the achievement of actual advancements when the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis is taken into action.

When product analysis is completed, the next step is to proceed to the SWOT analysis and carry out the complete examination of the market in which the particular product will be immersed in. There are several aspects in which a company might need to investigate accurately to find their product’s real SWOT characteristics, for example the information of the marketing environment, activity, and system are fundamental parts of the marketing plan itself and will undoubtedly help with the definition of the SWOT elements.

Once the SWOT has been finished, investing time in planning goals and strategies to achieve them is a must. Knowing exactly what the product is, in what environment it will be inserted and the problems or challenges it may experience are now a complete level in the planning process, what should be a priority at this stage is which plans will help overcome the product’s or service’s faults and with what strategies they will become achievable. It is also important to understand that the Marketing Plan needs to be accurate and needs to have solid information since the start to become a successfully used tool.

Finally, the Marketing Plan must be written down and analyzed carefully so it does not present any flaws that could actually affect the objectives of the company and the product. It is also advisable to allow some degree of flexibility within the plans and strategies developed, this in order to be able to adjust them fast if any situations that call for extreme measures comes up, also keeping the final version of the Marketing Plan at hand is necessary, this in order to have it at hand and for the employees to know what standards and needs the product is meant to fulfill.

Idea generation involves coming up with ideas for new product development which can be gathered using basic research with a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. Market and consumer trends, the company’s research and development department, competitors, focus groups, employees, salespeople, corporate spies, trade shows, or ethnographic discovery methods can also be used to gain insight into new product lines or product features.

Next, there is idea screening, the object of which is to eliminate unrelated concepts before devoting resources to them. The screeners should ask several questions, such as, will the product benefit the customer in the target market? What is the size and growth estimates of the market segment? What is the current or potential competitive pressure for the product idea? What are the industry sales and market trends the product idea is based upon? Is it technically doable to manufacture the product? Will the product bring profit when manufactured and delivered to the customer at the target price?

Concept development and testing is the part of the product development process where marketing and engineering details are developed, in which the parties involved need to investigate intellectual property issues and search patent data bases and determine who the target market is and who the decision maker in the purchasing process is, the features that the product must incorporate, the benefits that the product will provide, how consumers will react to the product, how the product will be produced in the most cost effective way, prove feasibility through virtual computer aided rendering, and rapid prototyping, and how much it will cost to produce it. This leads to the part of product development known as business analysis.

What a business analysis does is calculate likely selling price based on competition and customer feedback, estimate sales volume based on market size and tools like the Fourt-Woodlock equation and assess profitability and breakeven point (the point at which gains equal losses). Market testing is done by producing a physical prototype to test the product and its packaging in common usage scenarios, conducting focus group customer surveys, making adjustments as necessary and producing an initial run of the product and sell it in a test market area to establish customer acceptance.

Technical implementation consists of new program initiation, finalizing quality management system, resource estimation, requirement publication, publishing technical communications such as data sheets, engineering operations planning, department scheduling, supplier collaboration, logistics plan, resource plan publication,
programming review and monitoring, and contingencies, also known as what-if planning.

Next comes commercialization, a step which is considered to be post-product development, and includes launching the product, producing and placing advertisements and other promotions, filling the distribution pipeline with the product. Finally, there is new product pricing with impact of the new product on the entire product portfolio, internal and external value analysis, competition and alternative competitive technologies, differing value segments, product costs and forecast of unit volumes, revenue, and profit.

Once the clear goal or goals have been established, the strategy must be planned. Factors such as developing products, promoting them, pricing and distributions strategies, and other elements in a determined time frame are all part of marketing strategies for market penetration. In terms of marketing strategies 101, we can follow this basic procedure: first, target your audience, second proposition and finally implementation. Besides these three aspects, strategies should also involve public relations, promotion, advertising, internet marketing and channel marketing. Establishing all these factors is a short term investment that will allow you to follow an already defined approach towards a goal.

Marketing dominance strategies are a varied as business are; however, we can categorize them in four basic types, the leader strategy, the challenger strategy, the follower strategy and the Nicher strategy. Other strategies are called innovation strategies that apply to cutting edge technology to develop new products and can be divided in Pioneers, Close followers and Late followers. In terms of growth strategies, we can mention intensification, diversification, horizontal integration and vertical integration.

Other marketing strategy important concepts include skimming strategies that are basically to introduce a product and to charge a lot for it for a short period of time, then moving on when competitions enters the picture. In a short term business that can generate a lot of profit in a short period of time. Also, companies should be able to develop a unique set of abilities in order to succeed over their competition’s.

Marketing research is a very important strategy as well that is used basically to analyze the company’s performance as well as to understand the market itself and its tendencies. These studies include distribution studies, semantic scaling, consumer studies and projections. Marketing strategies use some tools that are known as the marketing mix, it involves setting goals, defining market targets and positioning your business.

Keep these strategies in mind if your are thinking about starting your own business, as a means to organize your operations and maximize your chances of being successful. There is no magic recipe to have a successful company, but hard work and organization are a good way to get started.

The first P stands for product that in its most basic definition is a concrete object such as car or a sweater and it can also include services that are mass produced. Other terms associated to this is the PLC (product life cycle) which is the biological life of the product and the CLC (customer life cycle) which is the focus on the products and services the customer will use in his life time.

The second P refers to price, this so essential topic when it comes to marketing. This is simply the amount of money a customer pays for a given product. Usually the more the product is on more stores, the lower the price tends to be, being the opposite when a product can be purchased only at certain selected stores. There are several considerations to establish the right price for a product, that include penetration pricing which is like an introductory price to attract customers, followed by an increase in price one the market for the product has been made. Economy pricing refers to economic versions of a product to address a certain market sector. Price skimming, psychological pricing and product line pricing are all pricing strategies.

P number three accounts for Place, and refers to the place in which a product can be purchased also know as the distribution channel, including virtual stores. In here we can mention the 6 channel decisions to be made. Deciding between direct or indirect channels, single or multiple, cumulative length of the channels, types of intermediaries, number of intermediaries at different levels, and intermediaries to avoid intrachannel conflicts.
Finally, P number four stand for Promotion. Promotion refers to communications used by the marketer, they include sales promotion, advertising, personal selling and public relations.

These four P’s are seen usually as ingredients in a recipe, you can use the same ingredients in different amounts and get completely different results, some more successful than others. Marketing emphasizes these four elements and their interaction in order to market successful products. In some situations the interactions and emphasis given to these four P’s can be the difference between a highly sough after product and one that is destined to disappear without much impact in the market place.

The question to be asked now is if you are ready to come up with your own recipe for succeeding in the harsh marketing environment. Go ahead and give it a try.

There are four basic ways to enhance market share. You can improve your product, lower the price or offer special discounts and sales. Furthermore, you can find new means of distribution so your product can reach more places and people, as well as advertise and promote your product. Reasons to increase share may include economies of scale (a higher volume can help develop a cost advantage), sales growth in a stationary industry (when the industry is in a stalemate, sales can be given a boost by increasing share), reputation and influence However, increased share might be a counterproductive endeavor if it is associated with expensive advertising or a big price decrease that would render it unprofitable. Also, an increased share may bring about a demand for huge investments in new equipment and employees that a company may not be able to meet. It is even possible to benefit from a decreased share if lower costs enhance profitability. Managing market share is a delicate subject with many factors and concepts to be considered.

The company with the biggest market share is the market leader, and usually has the highest marketing expenditures, distribution, price changes, and new product innovations. Market challengers are the companies working to increase their share. The leader must constantly survey the market because the challengers are consistently trying to capture share. The market leader has three options to preserve its market position: expand the total market, protect share, or expand share. Developing more usage, new uses, or users increases markets. Leaders can protect share by observing their position and quickly alleviating any weaknesses. Constant innovation is the best way to protect share. When leaders become complacent with their products or services, the challengers find it easier to make progress.

The market challenger must try to take share away from the leader. The challenger must have some viable competitive edge to attack the leader’s share. The challenger can attack other competitors through a direct attack by altering price, promotion, or distribution, or indirectly by diversifying or catering to untapped segments. Market share is readily comprehended by the majority of managers, employees, and shareholders; hence, it is frequently used to measure success. It is essential to understand market share, how it is used to identify market players, and how the different participants use it to determine their market strategy.

In mass marketing, the market is seen as a homogeneous group and the same marketing mix is offered to all customers. Mass marketing allows economies of scale to achieve their full potential by means of mass production, mass distribution, and mass communication. The disadvantage of mass marketing is that customers have different needs and wants, so a single offer is not likely to please each and every single customer. When the customer’s different needs are not recognized by established companies, a new one is likely to offer a product ti supply a specific market segment, in a classic example of market penetration.

By contrast, target marketing acknowledges the customers’s diversity and accordingly offers a supply varied enough to appeal to as many market segments as possible. Therefore, he first step in target marketing is to determine distinct segments and their particular needs. In order for market segmentation to produce meaningful results, some conditions are required. For example, the factors that differentiate each segment should be measurable, the segments must be accessible through communication and distribution channels and be large enough to justify an investment. Also, a particular segment should have unique needs that justify a separate offer. Finally, the segments should be stable so as to reduce the risk of costs that frequent changes might elicit. A smart segmentation will lead to segments that are very similar internally while at the same time being as different from other segments as possible.

Markets can be broken down into different segments geographically (by region, size of population, density of population, and climate), demographically (by age, gender, family size, family lifecycle, generation, income, occupation, education, ethnicity, nationality, religion, social class, etc), psychographically (by activities, interests, opinions, attitudes and values) and bevavioralistically (by benefits sought, usage rate, brand loyalty, user status, readiness to buy, and occasions such as holidays and events that stimulate purchases).

As opposed to consumers, industrial customers such as manufacturers, service providers, resellers, institutions and the government, are usually fewer in number and buy larger quantities. However, some of the market segmentation mentioned before can be applied to them as well. Industrial markets may be segmented based on traits such as location (in some industries companies tend to bundle together and share similar needs), company type (company size, industry, purchase criteria) and behavioral characteristics (usage rate, buying status, purchase procedure).

A product market research survey questionnaire can be performed in a variety of ways, ranging from personally to e-mail and over the phone, but regardless of the setting, there should be a standard set of questions. Customers should be asked what they like or dislike about a particular product or service, and whether they would buy that product or service. They should also be inquired about their buying habits in general. Simple multiple choice/yes-no questions are the most recommended format. These types of questions may be followed-up by a “why” question, so that the person can elaborate on their answers.

A focus group differs from a survey in that it is not an individual activity. As the name implies, a group of people is asked about a product or service, and are encouraged to put forth their opinions, ideas and feelings on the subject. In addition to expounding their thoughts, members of the focus group are allowed to interact with one another. Focus groups help companies gain feedback on product market research, from naming and testing it to deciding the ideal target demographic for market penetration.

Choice modelling, unlike both surveys and focus groups, accurately predicts the way that an individual will react in a given situation by modelling their decision process in a specific context. These predictions can be made over a great number of possible scenarios. Choice modelling states that behind a person’s choices there is a rational decision process that uses a specific functional form. After the functional form of the decision process has been determined, a specific model can be calculated from available information.

As was mentioned above, not only potential customers but also the competition should be researched. Competitor analysis involves evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of current and possible competitors. It is advisable to put together a competitor array, defining your industry (scope and nature), determining who your competitors are,
determining who your customers are and the benefits they expect, determining what the key success factors are in your industry, ranking the key success factors and rating each competitor on each of the key success factors.

The first step for a company to increase its market size is usually to discover the segments of the market that are currently being supplied. This scrutiny would not be complete without an evaluation of both the type of customers the company has and what said customers are purchasing. This data is used to create a cost efficient and encompassing market development strategy.

One facet of marketing development that is critical for market penetration is convincing current customers to buy new products and services that they are not already purchasing. This is a great place to start because these clients already know and use the company so a relationship that can be expanded has been established earlier. From there, the company can move on to identifying rival companies’ customers and offering ideas to allure them, like discounts and promotions.

People who are not buying a product or service from either your company or your competition are an untapped market segment. Marketing development can concentrate on drawing them to a company or product and sparking their interest in order to hopefully turn them into regular customers. Finally, a company that is only selling in one region or country, focusing on a specific demographic, can resort to market penetration to increase its market in new geographical areas and with new demographic targets in order to boost sales.

A small market share translates into low sales, lack of capital and reduced operation, all of which can spell the end for a company. There are many market development strategies that can be implemented by a team from within the actual company, or there is also the possibility to hire an outside consultant to guide and lead the process. In either case, it is important to allot a reasonable amount of capital on this effort, since it would be counterproductive to spend more money on research than what is expected to be make from market expansion. A strong market development strategy can significantly help a company to grow, and therefore it goes hand in hand with market penetration.

The size of a market can be assessed based on current and potential sales and on potential sales, the latter in the case that product use was expanded. Some market analysis sources that can help determining market size are government data, trade associations, financial data from major players and customer surveys.

Market growth rate can be estimated by extrapolating historical information into the future. This method does not, while simple, does not predict important turning points. Studying growth drivers such as demographic information and sales growth in complementary products might prove to be more efficient market analysis. These drivers more accurate leading indicators than simply extrapolating historical data would. Important inflection points in the market growth rate can often be forecast by designing a product diffusion curve. The shape of the curve can be calculated by studying the traits of the adoption rate of a similar product in the past. Eventually, the maturity and decline stages of the product life cycle will be arrived at. Price pressure caused by competition, a reduction in brand loyalty, the emergence of substitute products, market saturation, and the lack of growth drivers are some of the leading indicators of the decline phase.

While the levels of profitability in a market will vary from company to company, using the average profit potential as a guideline will help the market analysis determine how difficult it is to make money. An useful framework for measuring the appeal of a market is known as Porter’s five forces, which pinpoints five main factors that influence market profitability, to wit: buyer power, supplier power, entry barriers, threat of substitute products and rivalry among firms in the industry.

Cost structure is vital for identifying key success factors in a market analysis, as well as developing strategies to come up with a competitive advantage. For instances, in some climates the experience curve effect can be used to build a cost advantage over the competition.

Existing distribution channels  (can be described by how direct they are to the customer), emerging trends and channels (new channels can offer the opportunity to develop a competitive advantage) and channel power structure are useful aspects when it comes to performing a market analysis.

Shifts in market are valuable because they are frequently the source of new opportunities and threats. Some general examples of market changes include changes in price sensitivity, demand for variety, and level of emphasis on service and support.

Finally, the key success factors are those elements that are needed in order for the company to accomplish its mark penetration goals. A few instances of such factors include access to essential unique resources, ability to achieve economies of scale, access to distribution channels and technological progress. Key success factors may vary over time, in particular as the product evolves through its life cycle.

A well known market penetration strategy is increasing sales. This marketing plan can be achieved by enhancing the sales force, strengthening product distribution and promotion, and spending more in marketing and advertising. However, before a company goes ahead with this marketing plan, it should be determined whether the current market is not saturated, the competitors’ market share is decreasing while the growth rate of the industry is increasing, current buyers have the means of purchasing the same products and services in larger quantities, and if economies of scale are providing a competitive edge. If some or all of those conditions are not present, this strategy is not guaranteed to succeed.

Overseas Penetration

Another feasibility is penetrating an international market, in which case there are three subjects to be faced, namely marketing (which countries and segments to enter and how to enter them, directly or with intermediaries), sourcing (obtain, manufacture or buy products) and investment and control (joint venture, global partner or acquisition). In order to make the right decisions an extensive research of the market that is intended to be entered must be carried out.

Once this study is done, there are three main marketing strategies for overseas market penetration, which are either by direct or indirect export, or by production in a foreign country. Exporting offers the advantages of being less risky, since manufacturing is home based, it provides the chance of getting acquainted with overseas markets, and reduces the risks of overseas operations. Foreign production, on the other hand, can be broken down into licensing, joint ventures, ownership, and others.

In licensing, a company from one country allows another company in another country to use its name as well as provide it with other assorted knowledge and skills. A joint venture is an enterprise in which tow or more investors share ownership.  And there is also the possibility of full ownership, that is, creating or buying a whole company in another country. All of these marketing strategies entail many pros and cons that need to be analyzed on paper before any penetrating action is taken.

Market Pricing

Going back to local market penetration, another quick strategy is market pricing, which consists of lowering prices in hopes to gain a high sales volume, which in turn would lower costs. This marketing plan is mostly used in price sensitive markets by companies attempting to increase their market share. An existing company facing a new competitor that is using market pricing should reassess their capabilities and establish whether they can lower costs, increase volume and ask themselves if they want to sell their product at a low price.

This is a general overview on market penetration, feel free to browse through or website and find out more about penetrating the market, marketing strategies and other related subjects and concepts.

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If you are ready to penetrate the market of your choosing, go ahead and use this tool that will give you the first hand, most updated data in terms of marketing, marketing strategies and more.