Marketing

Marketing

Identifying the Marketplace need for a Product or Service

Students will be able to:

• Differentiate between a product and a service

• Define marketplace need

• Understand the three components of branding

• Explain social media uses for business

• Define target market

• Understand the importance of tracking sales

Key Terms

• Product: a tangible item you sell

• Service: something you do for someone else

• Brand: the look, tone, and feel of a business

• Marketing: everything a business does to get customers to buy their product or service

• Promotion: activities that increase awareness and sales of a product of service

• Target Market: the primary group of customers that a business directs its marketing efforts toward

Products and Services

Video: Introduction to Marketing

Deciding what to Offer

• What Problem Can I Solve?

• Offer a Product or Service?

• Am I passionate about (do I like) this product or service?

Products and Services

Creation of a Product

• You are either buying items for resale or you are creating something new out of purchased supplies

Some Questions to Consider:

• What kind of products do you like, use, and benefit from already?

• Is this product something you would buy and use yourself?

• Is this product something you would sell to a family member or your best friend?

• What need does this product solve for the customer?

• How is your product different from others in the market?

Other things to Consider:

• How and where your product will be made.

• How and where you will store inventory and supplies.

• How shipping will be handled

• 
  

• 
  

Marketplace Need

• Refers to determining if there is an actual need for the product or service you are bringing to the market.

• A market share is the percentage of total sales of product that is sold by a company in the marketplace

• You need to get the word out to people who need what you have to offer

• Identify a need and then promote your solution to the people who have that need

Marketplace Need

• When you focus your marketing efforts toward a target audience, it helps you concentrate on gaining new customers.

• There are lots of opportunities once you take a moment to look around.

Branding

Video: The Three Parts of Branding

What is Branding?

• Branding is all around you.

• The things you choose to buy are generally influenced by a company’s branding efforts. 

• Most people identify a brand they think of a logo that is seen on athletic clothing, on the back of a cell phone, or a sign at a store.

What is Branding?

• A brand not only reflects the look, tone, and feel of your business (as associated with a logo or name) but a brand can also reflect what your business is about.

• Goals of branding your business is to create a visual picture for your customers

• Remind them of a positive experience with your business.

What is Branding?

• To develop your brand, consider what you want your business to be known for.

• The best place to start is to create a list of adjectives that describe your business.

Naming your Business

• Every business needs a name.

• Coming up with a business name could be one of the things you spend a lot of time on.

• Spend some time developing the name for your business.

• The right name can become a powerful tool for marketing and reaching customers with your brand.

Tips to A Great Business Name

• Keep it short (not too long or too confusing)

• Avoid names that are hard to spell

• Don’t use puns or inside jokes in the name

• Use online name generators for some ideas

• Search the internet to see if your business name is trademarked or being used elsewhere

• Pick a name that clearly conveys something

• Use a name that sounds good when you say it out loud

Name A Business Game

Your Business: Name Your Company - Add to Doc

Look, Tone and Feel

• A brand is more than just a catchy name or a cool logo for your business.

• brand can communicate so much about your business

• You need to be intentional about what you share with others

• Dig into the look, tone, and feel of the brand for a business

Look:

The look is how you represent your brand visually. This includes the colors and fonts you choose along with any images. Even the overall design of your business cards, social media sites, and website are a part of the look of your business. When you decide on the pieces that make up the look of your business, you want to be consistent in using those same colors, fonts, and images on everything.

Tone:

The tone of your brand is all about your word choice. Go back to the adjectives you listed to describe your business. You don’t want to use a bunch of formal language if your brand is casual, and you don’t want to use a bunch of casual words if you are trying to develop a formal brand. Your marketing will reach the right people—your potential customers—when you use the right words that match your brand.

Feel:

The feel of your brand reflects what you want customers to feel when they think about your business. When your branding is done right, you can create an identity that will attract the type of customers who would be interested in what you have to offer. Your brand’s personality should shine through so that your target customers feel a connection with you. You can create this type of experience for your customers without spending a lot of money. Your efforts will go a long way to creating a positive brand experience for your customers.

Brand Recognition Activity

Social Media

Using Social Media to Market Your Business

Social Media Practices

• A great way to market your business

• Potential customers see something on their phones everyday

• Many people are on social media - Low cost way to promote.

• Have your business specific accounts

Best Practices for Using Social Media

• Brand Your Social Media Sites

• Be Creative, But Be Clear

• Be Polite, Not Pushy

• Be Consistent with Your Brand

• Deliver Quality Content

• Be Humerous when it Helps

Key Terms

• Marketing: everything a business does to get customers to buy their product or service.

• Promotion: activities that increase awareness and sales of a product of service.

• This includes special offers, discounts, sales, coupons, or free offers

Marketing and Promotion

Know four key things to market the right way to the right people:

1. Know who you are. What makes your business unique?

2. Know who your customer is. Who is your ideal customer?

3. Know where your customers are. What social media platforms or websites do they use? How can you best reach them?

4. Know how to talk to your customers. What can your product or service do for them?

Word of Mouth Marketing

• One of the most effective marketing tools are your current customers.

• Word-of-mouth marketing is when your customers tell their friends, neighbors, and social media followers about your business. 

• Word-of-mouth marketing is the most trusted form of endorsement for your business. 

• One of the most powerful forms of word-of-mouth marketing today is the sharing of social media posts.

Discussion Question

Discussion Question: Social Media

Social Media Promotion Activity

Evaluate the Pros and Cons of Different Social Media Platforms

Selling

How to Sell

• The key to selling is to change your mindset about the process.

• Instead of focusing on getting money, shift your focus to what you are giving.

• Focus on the fact that you are giving value, a solution to a problem, great service, and something your customer wants.

How to Sell

• Instead of feeling like you are taking money from someone, focus on the fact that your business is making money.

• Some people feel guilt for taking money for something that was relatively effortless to make or do. 

• You put a lot of hard work and effort into the sale and you earned any money you are making.

How to Sell

• Rather than pushing people to buy something from you, focus on offering something that customers will want to buy.

• The best approach is to be excited about your product or service as you describe what you are offering to help meet a need.

• People will want to hear what you have to say because you aren’t pushing them.

Video: Asking for the Sale

How to Sell Activity

Target Market

A target market is the primary group of customers that you direct your marketing efforts toward.

Target Market

• Your target market is made up of all the potential customers who would want what you have to offer and are willing to pay the price you charge for your product or service. 

• You need a good understanding of who your potential customers could be.

• You don’t want to spend a lot of money or time marketing to everyone when only a smaller portion might be actual customers.

Target Market

• Spend some time identifying who your ideal customer would be and how you could solve a problem for them. 

• Find creative ways to get information about your business to those potential customers. 

• Identifying your target market and focusing your marketing efforts toward it will help increase your sales.

Target Market Activity

Tracking Sales

• Tracking your sales means keeping a detailed record of all the aspects of your sales process. 

• This is the best way to know how your business is doing financially, how much inventory you have, and what things you need. 

• You should know how much you sell and when, how much it costs for you to make a product or offer a service, how much you make on every sale of a product or service, and how much profit comes from every sale.

Making it Work for You

Consider the product or service you are selling

• Who would be your ideal customer?

• What social media platform(s) would be the best for reaching your target market?

• Try posting something creative and compelling about your business and track how well it performs with shares, reposts, and potential customer leads.

• This will help you begin to create social media guidelines that you want to follow in your business.

A Marketing Plan

• Spend some time writing descriptions for your business, keeping these four key things in mind:

• Who you are

• Who your customer is

• Where your customers are

• How you will talk to your customers

• Consider one marketing effort you could make to promote your business.

• Set a goal for how many new potential customers you would like to discover as a result.

Communicate Your Brand

• A coordinated brand (look, tone, and feel) for your business, make that a priority

• Update your social media and web presence with your new brand components.

• Tease your followers by letting them know that changes are coming in the near future at a given date.

•  After you post your changes, poll followers for feedback on your new branding.

Video: Teen Entrepreneur - Jazmyn

Assignment: Case Study

Review for Test

Test