Marketing for Dummies (ISBN - 047050210X)

387 Pages·2021·7.12 MB·English

Alexander Hiam
Author of Marketing Kit For Dummies

Learn to:
• Communicate more powerfully and clearly

• Utilize social media effectively

• Launch a winning Web marketing
program

• Gain new customers and retain your
current customers

Marketing

3rd Edition

Making Everything Easier!™

Open the book and find:

• Ten common marketing mistakes
to avoid

• Ways to save money in marketing

• Tips for boosting Web sales

• Advice on how to survive a
downturn

• Guidance on designing a
positioning strategy

• Advice on how to harness your
marketing imagination

• How to research, plan, and budget
accordingly

Alexander Hiam is the author of more than 20 popular books on
business. Formerly a professor at the business school at the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst, he has had many Fortune 500 firms and
large U.S. government agencies as his clients.

$21.99 US / $25.99 CN / £16.99 UK

ISBN 978-0-470-50210-5

Business & Economics/Marketing/General

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Boost your marketing skills
to drive business results!

Whether you’re introducing a new product or jumpstarting
your existing marketing plans, it’s more important than
ever to know how to attract customers, convince them
to buy, and make sure they come back for more! Packed
with updated material, this practical, savvy guide gives
you everything you need to boost your marketing skills
to the next level — from the Internet and search engine
marketing to the latest trends in guerilla marketing, viral
marketing, branding, and more.

• Designing a great marketing program — learn how to boost your
marketing program and write an effective marketing plan

• Leveraging your marketing skills — find out how to research
your customers, competitors, and industry and improve your
marketing communications

• Advertising for fun and profit — get helpful tips on how to make
the most of print, outdoor, and radio advertising

• Finding powerful alternatives to advertising — discover how to
advance your Web marketing, build a buzz for your brand, and
go direct with marketing

• Selling great products to anyone, anytime, and anywhere —
know how to take stock of your sales skills, reach your
customers, and effectively make the sale

Marketing

Hiam

3rd Edition

est spine=.76”

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est spine=.76”

by Alexander Hiam
Author of Marketing Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Marketing

FOR
DUMmIES

‰

3RD EDITION

Marketing For Dummies®, 3rd Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009934563

ISBN: 978-0-470-50210-5

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Alexander Hiam is a consultant, corporate trainer, and public speaker with
20 years of experience in marketing, sales, and corporate communications.
He’s the director of Insights for Marketing, which offers a range of market-
ing services including design, branding, and strategy consultations for both
nonprofi t and for-profi t marketers. He’s also active in developing the next gen-
eration of leaders in the workplace through his educational publishing fi rm,
Trainer’s Spectrum.

Alexander has an MBA in marketing and strategic planning from the Haas
School at U.C. Berkeley and a BA from Harvard. He has worked as a marketing
manager for both smaller high-tech fi rms and a Fortune 100 company, led cre-
ative retreats for top consumer and industrial fi rms, and served as an instruc-
tor at the business school at U. Mass Amherst, where he taught marketing
and advertising.

He is the coauthor of the bestseller The Portable MBA in Marketing (Wiley),
as well as numerous other books and training programs. Additionally, he has
consulted to a wide range of companies, nonprofi ts, and government agencies.

Alexander is also the author of a companion volume to this book, Marketing
Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition (Wiley), which includes more detailed coverage
of many of the hands-on topics involved in creating great advertising, direct-
mail letters, Web sites, publicity campaigns, and marketing plans. On the CD
that comes with Marketing Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition, you’ll fi nd forms,
checklists, and templates that may be of use to you. Also, he maintains an
extensive Web site of resources (www.insightsformarketing.com) that
he organized to support each of the chapters in this book.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registra-
tion form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our
Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax
317-572-4002.

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Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media
Development

Project Editor: Chad R. Sievers
(Previous Edition: Tere Drenth)

Acquisitions Editor: Stacy Kennedy

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(Previous Edition: Laura K. Miller)

Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney

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Technical Editor: Alberto F. Hidalgo Jr.

Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker

Editorial Assistant: Jennette ElNaggar

Cover Photos: © Brand X Pictures

Cartoons: Rich Tennant
(www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

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Proofreader: Toni Settle

Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC

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Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

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Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents at a Glance

Introduction ................................................................ 1

Part I: Designing a Great Marketing Program ................ 7

Chapter 1: Optimizing Your Marketing Program ...........................................................9
Chapter 2: Strengthening Your Marketing Strategy ....................................................25
Chapter 3: Writing a Marketing Plan .............................................................................43

Part II: Leveraging Your Marketing Skills .................... 67

Chapter 4: Researching Your Customers, Competitors, and Industry .....................69
Chapter 5: Engaging Your Marketing Imagination .......................................................87
Chapter 6: Pumping Up Your Marketing Communications ......................................107

Part III: Advertising for Fun and Profit ...................... 125

Chapter 7: Perfecting Your Printed Materials ............................................................127
Chapter 8: Signing On to Outdoor Advertising ..........................................................147
Chapter 9: Broadcasting Your Message ......................................................................167

Part IV: Finding Powerful Alternatives to Advertising ...183

Chapter 10: Maximizing Your Web Marketing............................................................185
Chapter 11: Making a Positive Impression in Low-Cost Ways .................................209
Chapter 12: Leveraging Face-to-Face Marketing Opportunities ...............................223
Chapter 13: Going Direct with Your Marketing ..........................................................237

Part V: Selling Great Products to Anyone,
Anytime, Anywhere ................................................. 257

Chapter 14: Making Your Brand Stand Out ................................................................259
Chapter 15: Finding the Right Pricing Approach .......................................................279
Chapter 16: Distributing Your Product Where Your Customers Are ......................299
Chapter 17: Succeeding in Sales and Service .............................................................313

Part VI: The Part of Tens .......................................... 333

Chapter 18: Ten Common Marketing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) ...........335
Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Launch Guerilla Marketing Attacks .................................339
Chapter 20: Ten (Or So) Ways to Survive Sales Downturns .....................................343
Chapter 21: Ten (Plus One) Tips for Boosting Web Sales ........................................347

Index ...................................................................... 353

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................. 1

About This Book ..............................................................................................1
Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2
Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................3
How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................3
Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................6
Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................6

Part I: Designing a Great Marketing Program ................. 7

Chapter 1: Optimizing Your Marketing Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Knowing Your Customer ................................................................................9
Asking the right questions ..................................................................10
Filling the awareness gap ....................................................................11
Focusing on your target customer ....................................................12
Identifying and playing up your strengths .......................................13
Discovering the best way to fi nd customers ....................................13
Defi ning Your Marketing Program ...............................................................15
Finding your infl uence points ............................................................17
Analyzing your Five Ps ........................................................................17
Refi ning your list of possibilities .......................................................18
Avoiding the pricing trap ....................................................................19
Controlling Your Marketing Program .........................................................19
Refi ning Your Marketing Expectations .......................................................22
Projecting improvements above base sales .....................................22
Preparing for (ultimately successful) failures ..................................22
Revealing More Ways to Maximize Your Marketing Impact ....................23

Chapter 2: Strengthening Your Marketing Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Finding and Riding a Growth Wave .............................................................25
Measuring the growth rate of your market ......................................26
Responding to a fl at or shrinking market .........................................27
Growing with a Market Expansion Strategy ...............................................28
Offering more products.......................................................................28
Riding a bestseller to the top .............................................................29
Specializing with a Market Segmentation Strategy ...................................30
Gauging whether specializing is a good move .................................31
Adding a segment to expand your market........................................31

Marketing For Dummies, 3rd Edition
viii

Developing a Market Share Strategy ...........................................................31
Choosing a unit ....................................................................................32
Estimating market share .....................................................................32
Understanding where your product fi ts in the market ...................33
Knowing your competitors .................................................................35
Studying market trends and revising if need be ..............................35
Designing a Positioning Strategy .................................................................36
Envisioning your position: An exercise in observation
and creativity ....................................................................................36
Writing a positioning strategy: The how-to ......................................37
Considering Other Core Strategies ..............................................................38
Simplicity marketing ............................................................................38
Quality strategies .................................................................................39
Reminder strategies.............................................................................39
Innovative distribution strategies .....................................................40
Selling Innovative Products ..........................................................................40
Writing Down and Regularly Reviewing Your Strategy ............................41

Chapter 3: Writing a Marketing Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Reviewing the Contents of a Good Plan ......................................................44
Starting with baby steps .....................................................................45
Maximizing effi ciencies .......................................................................46
Understanding the Do’s and Don’ts of Planning ........................................46
Don’t ignore the details .......................................................................46
Don’t imitate the competitors ............................................................47
Do fi nd your own formulas for success ............................................47
Don’t feel confi ned by last period’s budget and plan .....................47
Don’t engage in unnecessary spending .............................................47
Do break down your plan into simple subplans ..............................48
Writing a Powerful Executive Summary .....................................................49
Preparing a Situation Analysis .....................................................................50
Knowing what to include in your analysis ........................................51
Being prepared for economic cycles .................................................52
Taking stock with a competitor analysis table ................................53
Explaining your marketing strategy ..................................................54
Clarifying and Quantifying Your Objectives ...............................................55
Think about the limitations in your resources ................................56
Don’t expect to make huge changes in customer behavior ...........56
Summarizing Your Marketing Program ......................................................58
Exploring Your Program’s Details ...............................................................60
Managing Your Marketing Program ............................................................61
Projecting Expenses and Revenues .............................................................62
Buildup forecasts .................................................................................63
Indicator forecasts ...............................................................................63
Multiple scenario forecasts ................................................................63
Time-period forecasts .........................................................................64
Creating Your Controls .................................................................................65