Create marketing plans and campaigns for modern marketing
Developing plans and strategies for marketing today is the most challenging it has ever been. There is an incredible and increasing choice of interactive devices, platforms and channels that potential customers use from smartphones and tablets to social networks and search engines. Investment in traditional channels such as TV, Print and Radio is declining, but they remain an essential part of integrated campaigns for many businesses.
Yet the fundamentals of marketing planning remain the same. Regardless of the channels available we need to research customer needs, develop winning brand propositions for different target segments and communicate them effectively.
The Essential ingredients of Modern Marketing
How can we plan to best deploy modern marketing technique and what do we need to cover? To answer these questions we need to go back to basics to explore the fundamental purpose of marketing. A useful definition of marketing developed by the Chartered Institute of Marketing is:
Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably
This definition of marketing rightly emphasises the focus of marketing on the customer, while at the same time implying a need to link to other business operations to achieve profitability. We like this definition since it highlights four questions which need to be included within marketing plans:
- Identifying – how can we define groups of customers as market segments and personas?
- Anticipating – How can we use market research to identify changing and future customers’ needs and wants?
- Satisfying – how can we assess the drivers of customer satisfaction which encourage customer loyalty and recommendations?
- Profitably – how do we select the right mix of services and marketing communications using different channels to maximise our return-on-investment?
Another key part of modern marketing not covered in this definition is integration of channels and communications to create seamless customer journeys – there are many channels. Evaluation and measurement underpins all of these, using analytics and attribution to understand how different communications touchpoint influence prospects to support their purchase.