1 Marketing Handbook Plan Elements

The Marketing Handbook focuses on 10 templates that are integral to creating a marketing plan. Some are external facing in that they look at what is going on in the marketplace and others are internal facing, in that they are analyzing your product’s capabilities. One does not have to use all of these templates to accomplish your goal of creating a marketing plan, but in using them all, you will have created a comprehensive analysis of the need for your product, its positioning in the marketplace, potential pricing, and costs. Is the title A Marketing Handbook or The Marketing Handbook?  Italicize? Also, why isn’t the subtitle used here? The chapter title should be A Marketing Handbook Elements

Here is a summary of what will be discussed in detail, either in written or presentation form, in the following chapters:

1. PEST Analysis (external facing analysis)
   1. political environment, which includes regulations, laws, blue state versus red state attitudes from a political point of view
   2. economic: is your product expensive or cheap or provide value for the money, how good is the economy, what is the per per capita income of your target audience, etc.
   3. social, covering attitudes of prospects and customers, their demographics, buying and consuming behavior, psychographics, gender, age, openness to new ideas, outside influences or influencers
   4. technological, which considers new and emerging technologies that could have an impact on your current product or service. It could include nascent technologies that seem not to have direct application to the pain point you are solving today but could in the future
2. Porter’s Five Forces (external facing analysis)
   1. The power of suppliers that provide the raw materials to create your product or service. Do they overly control your supply chain or pricing?
   2. The power of the buyers of your product. Do buyers have many choices or just one choice? Must they have your product or is it just nice to have?
   3. The threats of substitution. Can the marketing problem be solved by using a product that is very dissimilar to yours but solves the problem the customer is facing? This has nothing to do with direct competitors.
   4. Competitive rivalry. Are there many companies offering very similar products to your own? Note this is different from a threat of substitution.
   5. The threat of new entries. Can companies with similar capabilities offer a competitive product to your own? Generally these are companies that compete in the exact same marketplace but with slightly different offerings.
3. SWOT, an external facing analysis that outlines:
   1. 1. The strength of your offering. What product characteristics make this a strong product for your customers?
      2. Weakness of your product. Your product can not solve all problems, and there are always some weak characteristics.
      3. Opportunities that your product or service could take advantage of that it is not currently doing. This might be a new positioning or message for a new target market, or it might be slightly adjusting your product’s characteristics to take advantage of a new opportunity.
      4. Technology. This is three fold: what is the current technology that is embedded in your product currently that makes it superior, and what technologies are available that could make your product even better? Finally what emerging technologies are a threat to your product or service?
4. TAM/SAM/SOM (external facing analysis)  
   1. TAM or Total Available Market is the total market demand for a product or service. This is generally the total dollar size of the market you think might be available. It can be defined based on geography, total of all prospect and customer potential need, or total share of mind.
   2. SAM or Serviceable Available Market is the segment of the TAM targeted by your products and services that is within your geographical reach. Generally, this is based on your budget, the ability to create X number of widgets based on budget or supply chain or people you hire and train to interact with prospects and customers.
   3. SOM or Serviceable Obtainable Market is the portion of SAM that you can capture. Your product or service will be competing with other company offerings within a defined area, geographic or otherwise. What is the percent of the market that you are competing in that you can reasonably expect to capture?
5. Perceptual Maps (external facing analysis)
   1. A perceptual map is a visual representation along with rationale of where your product or service stands against other competitors based on an X/Y axis representation. Each access represents a product characteristic that is embedded in your product and your competitor’s product.
6. The 4 Ps (internal facing analysis)
   1. Product: What is the product you are offering? Describe it in detail.
   2. Price:  What is the price of the product, and if there are variations, what is the price for each?
   3. Promotion: Specifically, how will you promote the product, what are special offers or sales incentives you would consider, what is your rationale?
   4. Place: Where are you selling the product—online, in stores, at a doctor’s office, via sales people, at a bank, special events, or on social media?
7. 5 Cs (internal and external facing)
   1. Company: Who is your company, what does it do well, what do you want it to do?
   2. Collaborators:  Who do you need to help you create your product and market it?
   3. Customers:  Describe your customers in detail based on demographics, psychographics, buyer behavior.
   4. Competitors:  Discuss the competition and their offerings vs. your own. Consider strengths and weaknesses.
   5. Context and Climate:
      1. Analyze laws, regulations and social issues, and attitudes.
      2. Economics issues and trends that could impact sales.
      3. Emerging technologies.
      4. Demographic or social attitude changes that could impact the future.
8. Positioning Statement (internal facing)
   1. Based on the analyses, discuss how to position the product to customers, which drives messaging and focuses on key product characteristics.
9. Vision and Mission Statements (internal facing)
   1. What is the vision for your product, what will it do, and how will it solve your customers’ problem in the future?
   2. The mission statement focuses on what you product solves today.
10.  Lean Canvas (internal facing) – The Comprehensive Marketing Plan defining:
    1. Outlining the Problem that needs to be solved
    2. Describing the customer segment(s)
    3. Providing the solution to the customer problem
    4. Using metrics to evaluate the success of your program
    5. Defining the Unique Value Proposition of your solution
    6. Identifying the competition
    7. Discussing your product or service’s Unfair Advantage
    8. Delivering your message via which media channels/Selling your product in which channels of trade
    9. Summarize the cost structure needed to deliver your product or service
    10. Detail revenue streams as in how your your company will generate revenue
    11. Specify various personas needs, wants and desires
    12. Define in detail the value proposition of the product or service

As you become more familiar with each of these elements, you may decide to focus on just two or three to guide your development of the Lean Canvas. If you do, consider these as critical:

1. The mission and vision statements. These will help you define the customer pain point and the problem you need to solve.
2. The 5 Cs. The 5 Cs forces you to look at many aspects of the customer and the marketplace and evaluate the positioning of the brand.
3. Brand positioning statement to help you focus your message.

Once finished, you would then fill out the the Lean Canvas, which becomes the basis of your marketing plan.