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Business Start
source by: businesstown.com
Advertising and promotions
For example, if you are starting the only all-business radio station in town, you may simply turn your basic positioning statement into your main advertising message: “WBUS: the only all-business radio station in town!” If your consumer analysis reveals that your targeted listeners are often driving in their cars, the same simple message might work well on outdoor billboard advertising. If your consumer analysis indicated that your intended audience commutes to work by train, subway, or bus, a transit ad campaign might be an appropriate way to impart your message effectively.
Alternately, you may learn that business people really like the current stations they tune into to receive news. In this case you may need to emphasize more specific features inherent in your broadcasting. You might want to play up the frequency of stock reports, investment advice, or business interviews that are a part of your format. To relay detailed information, it may be more appropriate to place print ads in the business section of the local newspaper or regional editions of national business publications.
You might find that business people aren’t clear on what the benefits would be to them if they were to tune into your station. In this scenario, you might want to develop an ad campaign with a tag line such as “the station for the well-informed executive.” You might run your ads during televised broadcasts of business programs. The ad might feature a business person getting praise at the office because he or she was able to disseminate timely news—news first heard on your station!
In short, there are important issues and endless alternatives to consider, from choosing advertising and promotional mediums to developing message themes to writing copy. You may want to refer to Chapter 4 on Advertising or the Publicity and Cheap Marketing Tricks of this chapter for helpful information and tips on putting together effective advertising and promotional campaigns.
Competitive reaction
How can you avoid a competitive reaction that might backfire on you? Don’t compete on price. Instead, try targeting a small niche within your marketplace that is not directly targeted by your competition. And, if you can, stay away from mature, stable markets with clearly defined competitors.
Try to think like your competition before you implement any marketing strategies. How would you react if you were an existing firm and a competitor came out with a new, improved, or lower-priced product that had the potential of chipping away at your consumer base and, ultimately, profitability? Decide whether or not it would be beneficial to the success of your business to alter your product, your pricing, or your unique selling proposition. Determine if you should go full speed ahead with your plans. If you do so, be at the ready for the expected competitive reaction.
The future
* Will it help you to realize the long-term strategic goals of your
firm?
Pro forma
You will, of course, need to carefully project a sales forecast. This forecast should realistically reflect, in numbers, all of the other factors detailed in this plan, including market size, sales of competing products, competitive factors, product features and benefits, and your promotional and advertising plans.
Sometimes it is discovered during the development of a sales forecast that the product’s price is too low to clear a good profit. You will need to decide, at this point, whether the market would be receptive to a higher-priced product or a product with fewer features and benefits. Or, sometimes, the product makeup and price can remain the same and expense cuts can be made in the advertising or promotional budgets without affecting sales potential.
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Business Services
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Business Structures |
Small Business
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