ETD: 905 Marketing Plan; New technology; Unity Marketing to
Launch Study of the Business Gift Market
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Jul 21 13:54:47 GMT 2005
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0905 July 21, 2005
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Marketing Plan
[3] New technology
[4] Unity Marketing to Launch Study of the Business Gift Market
----------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Greetings.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Hi All:
We have taken on a pro-bono project to develop a marketing plan for a
not-for-profit organization, and I thought I would share some ideas with
you. It seems many people are confused with a business plan, marketing
plan, and advertising plan. Has anybody developed either of these plans?
As I said in the last issue, we are in process of analyze vendors in
response to a Request For Proposal (RFP) we issued, and it still blows me
away when we see the demonstrations. Hopefully this will be a good lesson
for when you decide to change your IT solution.
Pam Danziger is launching a new study of the business gift market, which I
know some members sell to. This may be interesting to you.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
[2] Marketing Plan
----------------------------------------------------------------
We're working on a marketing plan for a not-for-profit, and it amazes me
what people believe is a marketing plan. So I thought I would share my
knowledge.
There are three major plans involved in running a business - a business
plan, a marketing plan, and, as a subset of marketing, an advertising or
promotion plan. Too often people think advertising when they first need a
marketing plan.
A business plan identifies the overall operations of the business and takes
into account operations, administration, HR, production, marketing,
etc. The business plan identifies the goals of the organization, and how
it expected to accomplish the goals.
A marketing plan usually covers:
1. Your organization - mission statement, who you are, what you do, your
competition and your keys to success.
2. Market analysis identifies the market including target markets, market
demographics, market needs, market trends, market forecast, etc.
3. SWOT analysis - analyze your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats
4. Strategies - Marketing Objectives, Financial Objectives, Target
Markets, Positioning
5. Funding forecast
6. Budget Analysis
7. Implementation and Controls
One you have developed a marketing plan, you get a sign off on it, and work
on the implementation and tactics used to accomplish the goals, i.e.,
advertising and promotion.
How many have developed a marketing plan?
George
----------------------------------------------------------------
[3] New technology
----------------------------------------------------------------
We are progressing with our selection of a new technology solution for a
client. It is interesting to note what happens when you present suppliers
with a RFP. Before that, they show you all the great things their package
can do, and you really believe they have a solution. Then comes reality,
or as a former boss used to say - "let's see what happens when you put
rubber to the road."
We considered 24 vendors, all of whom supposedly had an exact match. It
ended up that only eight bid on the project when they learned what we
really needed. We narrowed it down to six, and have been seeing their
demos, which had to be geared around a script that we gave them.
Before the cut, we thought we had some excellent choices, based on the
hype. After the demo, we were either pleasantly surprised or terribly
disappointed. One solution was on the Oracle database, and we were shocked
how poorly it was presented. They touted that they were "the only real
time solution" then they showed how they updated a part in batch
mode. When they were called to task on that, they said it was because of
client demands. Obviously they were comparing it to legacy systems, where
they may have been "real time" in comparison.
We saw two SQL-based solutions and were impressed. You are able to "paint
the screen" and add or move anything to wherever you wanted it to go. I
was surprised that the Oracle solution did not allow that. Perhaps our
tech gurus can clue me in. Was this just poorly written, or is Oracle
limited in it's capabilities?
We narrowed the selection down to three and will now visit users before
making a selection.
I'll keep you posted.
George
----------------------------------------------------------------
[4] Unity Marketing to Launch Study of the Business Gift Market
----------------------------------------------------------------
How big is the market for corporate gifts? Is it a $5 billion market or
$50 billion market or something in between? Nobody knows for sure,
because the research to quantify and qualify the business gift market has
never been done.
Unity Marketing proposes to conduct a new market research study on the
corporate gift market. It will provide companies that design and market
gifts for businesses fresh insights into the dynamics of the corporate gift
market.
This new study will provide the facts strategic planners and marketing
executives in companies that market corporate gifts need to strategize new
business opportunities and grow their corporate gift business. The answers
to these key business questions will be included in this new research study:
o What is the size and growth rate of the corporate gift market?
o How is the corporate gift market segmented into promotion/incentive
gifts, presentation gifts for formal occasions, personalized gifts,
premiums, employee and associates gifts and more?
o How much does the typical business spend on gifts used for ad
specialties, corporate gifts and awards, sales and dealer incentives,
direct premiums?
o What kinds of companies buy and give corporate gifts and what is their
total corporate gifts budget?
o Who are the recipient of corporate gifts?
o Who within the company decides what gifts to give and how much money to
spend?
o What kinds of gifts appeal to corporate gift buyers?
o What is the role of branding in selecting and giving business
gifts? Are certain brands more preferred for gifts than others?
o How do corporate gift buyers shop for and buy corporate gifts?
The results of this study will help companies that market gifts to
corporations understand their customers better. They will have fresh
insights that will help them to close more deals and grow their corporate
gifts businesses more aggressively. They will have the facts they need for
business planning. They will gain new insights about what products are
desired and what price points are best so that they can design new product
lines of corporate gifts that meet the real needs of the corporate gift buyer.
In order to make sure that this new consumer research focuses on the issues
of most importance to companies that design and market corporate gifts,
Unity Marketing offers sponsorships to companies who want to be more
involved in the research. As a research sponsor, your company will be
involved in designing the research strategy and creating the survey
questionnaire.
The research study will include an in-depth telephone survey of 250-300
corporate gift buyers who represent both small, mid-sized and major
corporations. The research will be 'semi-custom' as company sponsors will
contribute directly to the research.
If you are interested in participating in the new corporate gift research
project, complete the request form on this page
http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/reports2/gifting/insights_study.html ,
or call me at 717-336-1600, or respond by email to
pam at unitymarketingonline.com right away. Please respond by September 30,
2005 if you are interested in participating.
Pam Danziger,
President
Unity Marketing
----------------------------------------------------------------
Links to follow
----------------------------------------------------------------
GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.gapent.com/
E-Tailer's Digest http://www.etailersdigest.com
Interim Help http://interimhelp.com
Sophisticated Me http://sophisticatedme.com/
Marketing Your Web http://www.gapent.com/myweb/
Automated Press Releases http://www.automatedpr.com
More information about the ETD
mailing list