Marketing process.

The marketing process is a sequence of stages that are worked through to create a marketing programme, which provides the activities to be delivered. Each stage of the process produces an output that becomes the starting point and guide for the next one. As each stage is a response to the previous one, it ends with customer oriented and strategically led marketing.

I'm trained in the proven evidence-based effectiveness principles at each stage, and I have fifteen years of applied experience delivering them using best practices: I understand what they are, how to do them, and how to make them work together.

RESEARCH

Creating an objective picture of the market.

The research phase is a diagnosis, objectively working out where the customers and market are, and the dynamic between you and them. Done properly it will be a combination of quantitative and qualitative data gathered from internal and external sources, and it can be kept cost-effective with one good research instrument that provides multiple outputs.

Quantitative research gathers the measurable objective data, and quantitative gives you the softer subjective data: when combined, they give a well rounded view of the market, customers, and prospects. Ideally the qualitative research is done first as it can reveal important but unanticipated things to measure in the qualitative research.

Quantitative research

Qualitative research

Segmentation

Customer Profiles

Funnel building

RESEARCH

Creating an objective picture of the market

Research provides the customer's perspective: it tells you what they think of you, what they want from you, and how well you are aligned with their needs and priorities. With this information you can see advantages to reinforce, problem areas to improve, and areas to avoid altogether. When it is done well it also gives you the same information about your competitors, and most beneficially where you stand relative to them.

On the topic of competitors, it will tell you who they actually are. Quite often market research will reveal that there are competitors you didn't consider, and they are competition for reasons you hadn't anticipated.

It can also correct competitor myopia, rather revealing the "alternatives" that the customer can spend their money on, as their budgets may not have a specific allocation for your product or service, and you're actually competing with a much broader set of less obvious options.

Quantitative research

Qualitative research

Segmentation

Customer Profiles

Funnel building

RESEARCH

Creating an objective picture of the market

It provides something that is often talked about but rarely done: customer orientation. Customer orientation is seeing your business from their perspective; without it your marketing won't address the real people in the real world that it needs to, it will address the idealised fantasy customer that the business wishes they had. At the end of the research phase you will have three tools:

Segmentation: a good research instrument will give you meaningful segments with a commercial value attached to them.

Customer profiles: telling you the characteristics, preferences, and perceptions that are held by members of a segment.

Custom funnels: how many customers are at each stage of the purchase journey, and the ability to cross-reference that with data about decision drivers and perceptions at each stage for both you and your competitors.

Quantitative research

Qualitative research

Segmentation

Customer Profiles

Funnel building

STRATEGY

Deciding on priorities

In the words of the not late and still great Michal Porter, the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. In this phase, you decide what issues can be realistically addressed this year, and which can wait.

Marketing strategy answers three questions:

Targeting: who are we going after? This is informed by the segmentation, which will outline the options you have available.

Positioning: how do we want to be perceived? This is guided by the customer profiles, which will tell you what you need to align with.

Objectives: what landmarks do we need to reach? This is informed by the funnels, which will show you where there are issues getting people to purchases.

Targeting

Positioning

Operations

Objective setting

STRATEGY

Deciding on priorities

Strategy provides focus, setting the parameters that you work in.

Targeting is important because it makes sure you are going after the relevant people with the most potential value. It avoids wasted resource, making sure that time, effort, and money is spent on marketing to the most likely future buyers.

Positioning is important because it builds an advantage over competitors and alternatives. By being perceived as a better option because you are better at the things that matter to them, it's more likely people will spend their money on you.

The output of strategy is the objectives themselves. Done well, you will have a small set of focused, realistic targets that can be quantitatively measured.

Targeting

Positioning

Operations

Objective setting

STRATEGY

Deciding on priorities.

It's important to identify any practical limitations that affect what marketing can realistically do and how well it can do it. The available technology, processes, and workflows will dictate the extent and accuracy of performance measurement, the quality and quantity of data used, how well marketing works with other functions, and how well marketing works internally.

Operational questions are important to answer because they will prevent undeliverable promises being made and inappropriate or unrealistic actions being planned.

There are six areas of operations to review:

Attribution and reporting: how accurately performance can be measured and assessed
Automation: what manual tasks can be removed
Continuous improvement: what initiatives are in place to refine and improve performance
Data management: the acquisition, processing, and ongoing hygiene of data
Lead management: the qualification, processing, and distribution of leads
Sales-marketing alignment: how well the two functions support each other

Targeting

Positioning

Operations

Objective setting

TACTICS

The actions you take.

With the strategy setting the priorities and the operational limits in mind, we can chose the best combination of actions to take. Tactics are the things the prospects and customers see: the product itself, the price, the distribution, and the communications.

Every part should be approached with neutrality, not predetermined before any research or strategy work has been done: tactics before (or without) strategy are the business equivalent of firing blindly into the air and hoping to hit something.

Product: the thing you offer, how it's positioned to the customer, and how it can be developed to better align with their needs.

Price: setting the price through internal or customer-sourced methods, framing the price to the customer, and setting channel-specific pricing if needed.

Distribution: deciding the distribution methods, where the product is going to be available, and what you will do in those places.

Communication: which channels you will use to send the messages to the market, how you will use them, and when you use them.

Product

Price

Distribution

Communications

Campaign management

TACTICS

The actions you take.

Campaign management covers the planning, execution, and assessment of a campaign. Multichannel campaigns use a variety of channels to deliver communications to the market, getting the same message through different formats and places to as many people as possible.

The mix of channels, and how, when, and where they are used, depends on the objective of the campaign. Some channels are better at the top of funnel, some are better at the bottom; some are better for performance marketing, some are better for brand building.

There are a set of core channels which contain various methods, which are:

Advertising
Content
Direct
Events
Search
Social

Product

Price

Distribution

Communications

Campaign management

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