sales & marketing plan - how to plan and where to spend

[samie10]

Hi

I have an interview tomorrow and one of the questions they have forwarded me is:How would i plan the next sales & marketing plan? (they have made it clear that they know i dont know their budgets) What the key elements would be in the plan layout? How would i work out what to spend and where?
The product is a youth leisure brand 18-30 type market.
Apreciate any advice!

[samie10]

The interview date has now been changed so have a little more time for your advice!!!:)

[ethical PR]

A couple of places you can try

1. If you are not familiar with putting together sales and marketing plans have a look at best practice case studies - Chartered Institute of Marketing have quite a few.

2. Business Link - have some guides to marketing and PR which you can download.

3. Think of the audience you are targeting and your marketing/sales objectives and then think about ways to engage the audience you want to target. You know the product/service the company is offering and the type of youth market they are targeting.

There's lots of research out there on youth marketing that will give you ideas. You can also think about how companies that target the youth market engage their audiences ie mobile phones, drink, clothing and sports brands, music, gaming etc.

[virtuallysorted]

I think what they are really asking here is "how well do you know our brand and our target market?"

You should look up previous advertising they have done and note down themes. In general terms, most brands will stick to a common theme in all their advertising because it's what works.

E.g. Quality St is all about family sharing whereas Snickers is about boys throwing themselves into extreme sports.

Think about what the target market likes to do and what they would react to - e.g. you might suggest SMS texts on a Friday lunchtime with special weekend break deals if it was a holiday company.

[KidsBeeHappy]

Think about what the target market likes to do and what they would react to - e.g. you might suggest SMS texts on a Friday lunchtime with special weekend break deals if it was a holiday company.

Build a profile of their perfect customer, give him/her a name, some clothes, where do they live, what do they do during the day? where does they're money come from, what do they spend it on, what do they do at the weekends, what car, where do they go on holiday, what do they eat? etc etc etc.

When you have this in your head, you can then build a campaign that meets this person head on. Also you can then check out other sucessfull marketing campaigns for similar target marktets.

[Coppock]

is there a nice viral marketing ad you could release on a budget through youtube and social media?
it would really depend on what you're offering, but it would be worth having a brainstorm on - also if you could make a facebook or iphone app to do with it...

[GreatSEO]

Boxby got it right on the nose.

The very first thing that you need to do is understand their customer and research research research (no typo). Once you have done this you will be able to set about making up your plans and maybe putting an

A - £100 budget
B - £1000 budget
C - £10000 budget plan

Hope this helps and look forward to your updates

Dave

[samie10]

Thank you for all the replies. I agree that they want to know how much I know wbout the brand and market and how i would target them, how I would evaluate ehat to spend what on. As the range is quite wide 18-30 any advice on appealing to segements of that market?:)

[Be Known PR]

Social media is the 'in' market place for the 18-30 bracket, although you will need to show that you undertand how to break that bracket down as a 30 yr old will not be using the same outlets as and 18 yr old.

They will also need different messages. An 18yr old is care free and living at home, a 30yr old will more than likely have a 9-5 job and mortgage/rent.

As has been said, do your research and see where they market themselves already and how. I would also throw in an off the wall idea that is not their 'norm' because if you back it up with solid reasoning then even if it is not something they would normally do, it shows that you can challenge yourself and think outside the box.

[soundasiaLED]

[quote=Boxby;1034493]Build a profile of their perfect customer, give him/her a name, some clothes, where do they live, what do they do during the day? where does they're money come from, what do they spend it on, what do they do at the weekends, what car, where do they go on holiday, what do they eat? etc etc etc.

I agree with Boxby.

[samie10]

Thanks everyone! As my background is more sales orientated, one of the other questions they have sent is how would i approach the marketing to move the marketing manager in the right direction? any thoughts? As marketeers how would you react if your boss was not from a marketing background -what approach would you want to be taken?

[Call Tracker]

18-30 is quite broad so make sure you cover all potential activity for this market and separate it out into campaigns. Allocate measurement strategies for all campaigns so you can monitor the roi for each one:

PR
Events
Email marketing
Direct mail
Leaflet drops
Social Networking
sms
loyalty

Understand the target first and foremost and give them an overview for a quarter of activity. Show how you would reach this market and give them an idea of the expected return they could expect.

[samie10]

what are the norms of ROI for each?

what methods do the upper end of the bracket respond to best? If the largest % of the business is from the lower end of the age bracket its best to concentrate effort there?...thanks!

[Stuart L]

Ask what they are doing at the moment to attract new customers and what the return on investment is for each marketing method they currently use. More resources should then be directed to the marketing approaches which have the highest ROI

Next you would have a programme to systematically test, test, test improvements to the thigs they are already doing.

What process do they have in place to keep contacting existing customers and making offers to them?

I hope the interview goes well.

Have a GREAT Day!
Stuart

[J_A_M_E_S]

This article in last weeks Marketing Magazine by Mark Ritson has a few pointers on what makes a great marketer - the segmentation idea is pasted here:

"Too many marketers think segments are people who have similar demographic characteristics. Rubbish. Segments are groups of consumers who want the same things - the fact that they might share an age range, gender or postcode is relevant only after we first use our market research to show specific clusters of shared needs. Segments built from survey data, with good behavioural names and a tight portrait to capture their identity, is a hallmark of a good marketer. The usual '18-35 male' crap indicates the opposite."

The rest of the article can be found here:

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/947125/Mark-Ritson-Branding-six-core-skills-needed-great-marketer/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

A good article - and a good read each week in my opinion!

[Call Tracker]

Thanks everyone! As my background is more sales orientated, one of the other questions they have sent is how would i approach the marketing to move the marketing manager in the right direction? any thoughts? As marketeers how would you react if your boss was not from a marketing background -what approach would you want to be taken?

Sounds like they want a lead generation push so work with the marketing manager to understand existing roi from current marketing strategies. Moving forward implement some proper measurement to ensure every lead is captured and the marketing budget is being spent in the right place.

When it comes to marketing the old phrase 'i know half of my marketing is successful, trouble is i don't know which half' is often declared. Avoid this and decrease the risk when spending on large campaigns. Also, come up with targets for the marketing manager to reach in terms of the actual effect each marketing campaign has on sales.