Knowing The Market

A sound marketing plan is key to the success of someone’s business. It should include a market research, locations, customer groups who are targeted, competition, positioning, the product or service which is pricing, advertising and promotion.
Derek Hansen, founder of American capital Access says that someone is in business to serve customers’ needs. If he is not sensitive to customers, he doesn’t know who his customerss are, how to reach them and, most of all, what will convince them to buy his product nor service, he should get help.

Before developing a plan, a businessman must do homework. Effective marketing, planning and promotion begin with factual information about the market place. He should visit his local library, talk to customers, study the advertising of other business es in his community (including that of his competition) and consult with any related industry associations.
Once he has all the necessary information, it is time to put his plan down on paper. It should accomplish the following:
1. Defining business. A manager should define his business by determining the products (goods and service), the geographic marketing area neighbourhood, regional or national. He also needs to know his competition, how he differs from his competition , his prices, his methods of promotion distribution both of his business and his competitors.
2. Definition customers. A complete understanding of the customers is necessary. A businessman needs to know his customers based on age, sex and also income. He also needs to know how the customers learn about his products wheter by advertising, direct mail, word-of-mouth, or perhaps Yellow Pages. The other important thing about the customers is the customers’ value on products such as convenience, service, reliability, availability, affordability etc.

The final component in his marketing plan should be his overall promotional objectives. They include communicating his message, creating and awareness of his product or service, motivating customers to buy and increasing sales.
Objectives make it easy to design an effective campaign and help him keep that campaign on the right track. These objectives will also help to choose the method that will be most effective.

COMPREHENSION EXERCISES
1. How can a businessman make a sound marketing plan?
2. Does the third paragraph tell about doing a survey to evaluate the market?
3. When we want to set up our marketing plan, is it necessary to consider our competitors’?
4. What does “it” in the first line of paragraph 1 refer to?
5. To define the costumers, should we know their potential share?
6. According to the second paragraph, what are the important things should bussinessmen know to serve the customers’ need?
7. What does the writer suggest to get factual information about the market place?
8. Give some examples of “television advertising” about product?
9. What do we do to promote our business objective?
10. What is the final component of a marketing plan?