OBJECTIVES:

In this module you will learn how to:

• Understand the difference between marketing and sales
• Think about how to create a marketing brand for your product or service
• Plan the marketing strategy that best reaches your ideal customer/target market

OVERVIEW:

Market information isn’t enough. You also need market strategy, marketing planning, target marketing, and marketing implementation. It’s a new world. What comes first: product strategy or marketing strategy? Product, or market?

Consider the definitions: marketing vs. sales; marketing vs. branding:

• In the reading, why doesn’t Guy Kawasaki have a chapter on marketing?
• Mark Andreeson postulates the product-market match as the key to startup success, in this post … How does that relate to this topic?
• What is viral marketing?
• Why does Seth Godin bring the word “remarkable” to mind, especially in the context of marketing? What does remarkable have to do with marketing?

DEFINITIONS:

Marketing: The set of planned activities designed to positively influence the perceptions and purchase choices of individuals and organizations. (glossary definition, page 367, The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan)

Sales: Exchange of goods or services for an amount of money or its equivalent. (Webster’s Dictionary)

Marketing Strategy:

• Determines the choice of target market segment, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources (Wikipedia)
• Getting your customers to ‘Know, Like and Trust’ you (John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing)

Branding: The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products (Entrepreneur.com)

• 3 Weeks to Startup, Chapter 10, Branding
• 3 Weeks to Startup, Chapter 12, Spread the Word
• The Art of the Start, Chapter 8, the Art of Partnering
• The Art of the Start, Chapter 9, The Art of Branding

The readings for this class discuss marketing and branding. How are those concepts different from one another? What is the relationship?

(Optional Reading)

• The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, Chapter 3, pages 83-92

Online resources include blog posts and articles from a variety of business and marketing experts, including Tim Berry, business-planning expert and original author of Business Plan Pro. These additional resources are provided to enhance the Required Reading for this class. They are recommended but optional.

PR vs. Advertising vs. Social Media vs. Branding

Marketing, advertising, social media, branding … it’s hard to draw the lines. What’s what? This post on Conversation Agent draws some useful distinctions. Taxonomy, the science of naming and classifying things, isn’t that important. But it helps to use the right words and phrases, so that other people know what you mean.

Great Marketing Lists and Resources

What a resource: check out this list of 250 top blog posts on advertising, marketing, media, and PR.  I got the tip from Seth Godin’s blog post of last week, which started with that list, and then highlighted his top 20 favorites from his blog.

Add Duct Tape Marketing to that list, and you have the ultimate course in 21st century marketing.

Thinking about the world of textbooks, it has to be hard to sell a marketing textbook these days, when new material is coming up every day in the blogs. And it has to be hard, from the professors’ point of view, to select and recommend marketing texts costing the students $100 or more, when the real world is happening so much faster on the Web.

Marketing, advertising, social media, branding … it’s hard to draw the lines. What’s what? I like this post on Conversation Agent (although not its title) because it draws some useful distinctions. Taxonomy, the science of naming and classifying things, isn’t that important. But it helps to use the right words and phrases, so that other people know what you mean.

What a resource: check out this list of 250 top blog posts on advertising, marketing, media, and PR. I got the tip from Seth Godin’s blog post of last week, which started with that list, and then highlighted his top 20 favorites from his blog.

Add Duct Tape Marketing to that list, and you have the ultimate course in 21st century marketing.

I had lunch yesterday with one of my favorite people in the textbook publishing industry. Seeing this list today, again, and thinking about that lunch and the world of textbooks reminds me, it has to be hard to sell a marketing textbook these days, when the really good stuff is coming up every day in the blogs.

And it has to be hard, from the professors’ point of view, to select and recommend marketing texts costing the students $100 or more, when the real world is happening so much faster on the web.

Click here for the PowerPoint slides.

Click here for the sample Business Plan Pro file

1. Review issues from previous class.
   • Additional resources for the market analysis assignment
   • Grading discussion: your own plan vs. group plans.
   • Readings: are you keeping up with the readings. What did you think about marketing vs. branding, in the readings?
2. Discussion: John Jantsch defines marketing as getting people to know, like, and trust you.
3. Discussion: What’s branding? Personal branding? Why does it matter? How is it different from marketing?
4. Discussion: differentiate marketing vs. sales.
5. Discussion: using the class example from last time (the art theater). What kind of marketing would be appropriate? Advertisements, where? Flyers? Direct mail? Email?
6. Slides: Marketing Your Business
7. Discussion: how does segmentation fit into this
8. Discussion: how is marketing changing. New media: blog, twitter?
9. Discussion: marketing expense levels. What’s appropriate? How to tell.
10. Discussion: marketing strategy pyramid

Market information isn’t enough. You also need market strategy, marketing planning, target marketing, and marketing implementation. It’s a new world.

What comes first: product strategy or marketing strategy? Product, or market?

Consider the definitions: marketing vs. sales. Marketing vs. branding.  In the reading, why doesn’t Guy Kawasaki have a chapter on marketing?

Mark Andreeson postulates the product-market match as the key to startup success. That’s in this post … how does that relate to this topic?

I’ve recommended Seth Godin in the links, and we’ve talked about him before. What is viral marketing? Why does Seth Godin bring the word “remarkable” to mind, especially in the context of marketing? What does remarkable have to do with marketing?

The readings for this class discuss marketing and branding. How are those concepts different from one another? What is the relationship?

Required:

• 3 Weeks, Chapter 10, Branding
• 3 Weeks, Chapter 12, Spread the Word
• Kawasaki, Chapter 8, the Art of Partnering
• Kawasaki, Chapter 9, The Art of Branding

Optional:

• PAYG, Chapter 3, pages 83-92.