Lesson 1: Research the
Competition
Competitor research does
not have to be thought of as "guerrilla warfare". In
many industries, competitors work together by
partnering, cross promoting, sending business to each
other, or even manufacturing each other's products.
Lesson 2: Know Your
Customers' Values
Charlie and Phil understood
that price is not the only important factor for their
target market. Based on their own experience and
customer research (talking to other parents), they
recognized that other concerns besides price played a
part when parents choose a daycare provider.
While price is almost
certainly a consideration for your customers, don't get
caught in the mentality that customers will buy from you
only if you have the lowest cost. If you think of your
own service/product as a bundle of attributes having a
unique value for your customers, you will be more
successful.
Lesson 3: Identify
Opportunities
Charlie and Phil uncovered
an unmet need in the market by combining their
competitor research and knowledge of customer values.
You can do the same when looking to develop new
products/services or improve existing ones.
Lesson 4: Develop a
Positioning Based On Opportunity
Using knowledge from the
first three lessons, they positioned themselves as the
quality alternative and focused on providing different
benefits than their nearest competitor. In the movie,
Daddy Daycare stole all the competitor's customers and
drove her out of business.
In real life, customers
choose a product/service that best fits their needs.
Consequently, competitors can co-exist when each are
valuable in different ways to industry customers.
Lesson 5: Create a Catchy
Tag Line
The tag line "Who's your
Daddy?" helped advertise the new business. Often, a
concise, catchy tag line can go a long way in building
brand equity, communicating benefits and features,
and/or conveying a feeling/mentality your target
customers can relate to.
Some examples:
Lesson 6: Spread the Word
Phil and Charlie put their
tag line on t-shirts along with their business name.
They also printed and distributed flyers that explained
their new company's positioning.
A few more ideas you can
use to spread the word about your business:
·
Word of mouth - give
customers an incentive to tell people about your
business.
·
Advertising - use both
online and offline methods. Online options include
pay-per-click search engines and ezine advertisements.
Offline methods include radio spots and newspaper
advertisements.
·
Philanthropy - donate
money, services, and/or time to non-profit organizations
or conduct your own event.
Lesson 7: Be Ethical and
Above-board
The new business owners
cooperated fully with the daycare inspector. They
treated him as a source of information rather than "Big
Brother". This resulted in not only a better business,
but also a valuable ally. In the long run, your own
company will be more likely to thrive if you concentrate
on improving the business rather than dodging
regulations.
Lesson 7A: Subterfuge is a
Poor Long-term Strategy
Besides being unethical,
subterfuge soils your reputation. In the movie, the
competing daycare crashed and ruined a fundraiser
event…spilling bugs, freeing animals, and drenching
visitors. Short-term, it worked. Phil and Charlie were
broke, seemingly with no way to continue with their
venture.
In the long run, Ms.
Subterfuge had such a poor reputation (from this and
other business tactics), her business failed.
Lesson 8: Implement Until
You're Blue in the Face
In the beginning, the new
Daddy Daycare was a complete disaster. Charlie and Phil
did their "homework" and knew they had a good idea. When
reality hit theory, however, a few not-so-minor details
got in the way. Like all successful marketers, they
worked out the kinks (okay…disasters) and kept trying
(and trying, and trying) until they got it right.
Keep the Daddy Daycare
lessons in mind when developing and implementing your
own marketing plan. Don't give up, strive to continually
improve, and you're business is sure to be a success.
About The Author
Bobette Kyle draws upon 12+
years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA,
and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is
proprietor of the
Web Site Marketing Plan
Network:
http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com
and author of the marketing
plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the
Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget
Business,"
http://www.HowMuchForSpider.com/TOC.htm
Target Market
A target market is an
identifiable group of people that could benefit from
purchasing your product, visiting your site, and/or
responding to some other call to action. You can define
your target market(s) according to some combination of
behavior, demographics, psychology, and/or social
influences. You are likely to have several potential
target markets; focus on those you can most profitably
help.
Marketing to a target
market involves understanding how you can help them,
developing effective messages, then reaching them via
appropriate tactics that use all of the four p's. By
using this approach you can focus your marketing mix
resources on tactics that are most likely to increase
sales for your business. Hence, earning the greatest
return from your marketing activities.
Positioning
Positioning defines your
product, business, and/or site for those in your target
market. It sets the stage for your image - how your
target market perceives your business - and shows your
market the benefits you provide.
The positioning process
involves first understanding the needs and wants of your
target market. You should also know the positioning
strategies of your competitors and have a thorough
knowledge of your own product’s features. Armed with
that information, you can better develop tactics that
will most closely fit your positioning.
Another factor to keep in
mind is your online positioning will be tightly
interwoven with your off-line positioning. Because your
business and products are a reality in both the physical
and virtual worlds, your positioning should be
consistent across both. Accordingly, your marketing
tactics should be consistent as well.
The Four P's
Price, Product, Place, and Promotion
Too often, we tend to focus
on "promotion" to the detriment of the other marketing
mix elements. When choosing tactics for your Website
marketing plan, consider *each* of the four P's (4 P's)
in your marketing mix - price, product, place
(distribution), and promotion. You are likely to find
the results much better than if you include promotions
alone.
The opportunities for
incorporating all four P's (4 P's) into your plan are
numerous. You may find, after studying the competition,
that increasing or decreasing your price is likely to
result in better profits for your business. Perhaps
there is a distribution channel (electronic delivery or
mailorder, for example) you haven't fully integrated
into your business. With respect to products, developing
a new product or giving an existing product a facelift
may be an effective business-building tactic.
By considering the Four P's
(4 P's), your target market(s), and positioning, you can
be better prepared to choose effective tactics for your
Website marketing plan. Once your tactics are chosen,
you are ready to begin implementing and evaluating
results.
About The Author
Bobette Kyle draws upon 12+
years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA,
and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is
proprietor of the
Web Site Marketing Plan
Network:
http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com
and author of the marketing
plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the
Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget
Business,"
http://www.HowMuchForSpider.com/TOC.htm
