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How Not To Waste Your Marketing Budget

Written by: Barry Murphy

Article Overview: Taking the Marketing Process one step at a time avoids wastage and makes your targeted marketing budget go further and reap greater reward.

How Not To Waste Your Marketing Budget

Mike lives in a remote corner of a little known island, inhabited by quite a few men and very few women. In fact, apart from his sister and mother, there are only three other females in the whole community.

Now Mike is on the lookout for a partner.

Unfortunately, he knows very little about the three women on the island. Undaunted, he marches into the local store to spend some of his hard earned cash. He buys some pleasantly fragrant perfume and mails it to the first woman. He selects a box of tasty chocolates and sends it to the second. He despatches a bunch of lovely roses to the third.

Delighted with his spend and his gung-ho ideas, Mike skips along home and waits for the women to come knocking on his door. Empty-pocketed, he waits a long while and, bit by bit, becomes quite disillusioned. Despite his ‘marketing’ spend, nobody comes knocking on his door. The phone does not ring.

Mike turns to his mother (as, perhaps, he should have at the beginning) and recounts her his sorry story.

“For goodness sake, son, you should have consulted me first. The first woman, Mary, is happily married and has just given birth to her very first child. She’s in the full throes of love with her husband, her newborn and her little close knit family. She wouldn’t be interested in your advances.”

“The second woman, Beatrice, is at least 80 years old. Goodness help her, but she probably wasn’t even able to eat the chocolates you sent her. She’s far too old for you.”

“Mind you, son, you do have a chance with the third. Ann is a beautiful young woman, just the right age and single. I know her well. She’d be perfect. I wish you the very best of luck.”

Just at that moment, Mike’s sister, a nurse, comes crashing into the house, declaring “You’ll never believe who we’ve had admitted to the hospital this morning. That girl from the other side of the island, Ann is her name. She’s suffering from chronic pollen allergy.”

Mike had just wasted his limited marketing budget. He had ignored the Marketing Process, preferring to move straight to the last step – the promotional, or communications, mix.

In these times of tight budget and economic woes, it is vital to follow the crucial steps to success of the Marketing Process.

First, carry out a Situation Analysis, looking at what your business has to offer the market, what the market trends are, what resources you have and what a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis would reveal.

Second, carry out some Marketing Research. Find out what the competition is offering or not, where the opportunities really lie, what the different markets want.

Third, undertake Target Marketing. Lay out the different market segments, identify the one you want to pursue and position your offer to meet the requirements of that segment.

Finally, and only after having done the groundwork, design your product, price it up, distribute it and promote to the correct audience.

Mike didn’t need to waste any money on Mary and Beatrice. Nor should he have blown his chances with Ann.

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Article Tags: beatrice, best of luck, bit by bit, females, first woman, fragrant perfume, goodness sake, local store, lookout, love, marketing budget, nurse, pollen allergy, roses, sorry story, suffering from, tasty chocolates, three women, throes, young woman



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