Key Results of the Marketing Challenges Survey
Key Results of the Marketing Challenges Survey
But before I get into that I must announce the winner of the survey prize draw - Mr Simon Young of Simon Young Ltd in New Zealand www.simonyoung.co.nz. Simon, his wife Marie (marketing chief) and I have made a start with their prize of free consultations, and already we have made some important progress.
Key survey headlines:
76% of respondents are selling services.
74% have the primary objective of attracting new customers.
34% have no marketing plan at all.
54% stated they are following a rough plan for their marketing.
"Low awareness" topped the rankings as the major marketing problem, with 88% of respondents nominating this as a problem.
"Not doing enough marketing" due to time and/or finance constraints was the second most important problem.
[See graphs of results]
What does this mean?
I'll be writing more about these results in a future issue of NousNEWS, but at this time it is important to note that most medium and smaller businesses are extremely concerned about getting their name into the market. They believe if only they could promote to more potential customers they would be able to increase sales.
When this problem is combined with the daily demands of running the business it is often the case that marketing "misses the boat" and is left off the priority list. This may be a contributing factor to the second most important problem, the fact that business owners are not doing enough marketing.
However, with the majority of businesses selling services rather than products, it can be even more difficult to do more marketing. Firstly this is because promoting a service-based business is not simply a matter of placing more advertising or distributing more business cards. Then there is the issue of "not knowing which marketing activities work", which was the third most important problem mentioned in the survey.
With 63% of respondents claiming they are following a marketing plan (either a rough or detailed) it is surprising that low awareness in the market is such a highly rated problem. Maybe this is because many businesses do not have a clear understanding of which marketing activities are best suited to their situation, or are not measuring the results of their marketing efforts.
It may also be that businesses do not have a clear focus on who their customers are. In some cases this will lead to promotional activities targeting too wide an audience, requiring a larger budget and more time, which then creates the feeling that not enough marketing is being done.
I believe in most cases our goal should be to be well recognised amongst our target audience, not necessarily to be known by "everyone". Because whilst being known to everyone may impress your family and friends, it can be very costly and often means that somewhere you are neglecting communication with real prospects.
Low price is the least important problem.
Interestingly, "low price, low margins" was the least most important problem. Once again this may be influenced by the predominance of service businesses, where price is not the main issue for customers. In most cases customers are more concerned about the trustworthiness and integrity of a service provider rather than the price.
In summary, these results tell me that business owners see themselves as having a great need for ways to communicate more effectively with their potential customers, and they don't believe their current marketing activities are doing an adequate job. If you have any comments or opinions on the survey results please let me know.
Finally I must stress that this survey is strictly qualitative, not quantitative. That means the survey has identified important issues and provided some relative measure from which we can judge the importance of certain marketing issues, but it does not claim to be statistically accurate.
Key Results of the Marketing Challenges Survey - To learn more about this author, visit Stuart Ayling's Website.
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My thanks go out to the business people around Australia and New Zealand who responded to my survey during October and November 2002. In some ways the results are quite surprising.
But before I get into that I must announce the winner of the survey prize draw - Mr Simon Young of Simon Young Ltd in New Zealand www.simonyoung.co.nz. Simon, his wife Marie (marketing chief) and I have made a start with their prize of free consultations, and already we have made some important progress.
Key survey headlines:
76% of respondents are selling services.
74% have the primary objective of attracting new customers.
34% have no marketing plan at all.
54% stated they are following a rough plan for their marketing.
"Low awareness" topped the rankings as the major marketing problem, with 88% of respondents nominating this as a problem.
"Not doing enough marketing" due to time and/or finance constraints was the second most important problem.
[See graphs of results]
What does this mean?
I'll be writing more about these results in a future issue of NousNEWS, but at this time it is important to note that most medium and smaller businesses are extremely concerned about getting their name into the market. They believe if only they could promote to more potential customers they would be able to increase sales.
When this problem is combined with the daily demands of running the business it is often the case that marketing "misses the boat" and is left off the priority list. This may be a contributing factor to the second most important problem, the fact that business owners are not doing enough marketing.
However, with the majority of businesses selling services rather than products, it can be even more difficult to do more marketing. Firstly this is because promoting a service-based business is not simply a matter of placing more advertising or distributing more business cards. Then there is the issue of "not knowing which marketing activities work", which was the third most important problem mentioned in the survey.
With 63% of respondents claiming they are following a marketing plan (either a rough or detailed) it is surprising that low awareness in the market is such a highly rated problem. Maybe this is because many businesses do not have a clear understanding of which marketing activities are best suited to their situation, or are not measuring the results of their marketing efforts.
It may also be that businesses do not have a clear focus on who their customers are. In some cases this will lead to promotional activities targeting too wide an audience, requiring a larger budget and more time, which then creates the feeling that not enough marketing is being done.
I believe in most cases our goal should be to be well recognised amongst our target audience, not necessarily to be known by "everyone". Because whilst being known to everyone may impress your family and friends, it can be very costly and often means that somewhere you are neglecting communication with real prospects.
Low price is the least important problem.
Interestingly, "low price, low margins" was the least most important problem. Once again this may be influenced by the predominance of service businesses, where price is not the main issue for customers. In most cases customers are more concerned about the trustworthiness and integrity of a service provider rather than the price.
In summary, these results tell me that business owners see themselves as having a great need for ways to communicate more effectively with their potential customers, and they don't believe their current marketing activities are doing an adequate job. If you have any comments or opinions on the survey results please let me know.
Finally I must stress that this survey is strictly qualitative, not quantitative. That means the survey has identified important issues and provided some relative measure from which we can judge the importance of certain marketing issues, but it does not claim to be statistically accurate.
Key Results of the Marketing Challenges Survey - To learn more about this author, visit Stuart Ayling's Website.
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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