Without Strategic Marketing You Are Almost Sure to Fail....Strategic marketing effectively means you really need to know your market One of the most common mistakes many business owners can make is to be so carried away with enthusiasm for their product or service that they end up trying to find a market. Any business will only survive in the long term if there is an established market which has an ongoing need for a particular product or service. This means that your planning must embrace strategic marketing. Many years ago I went in to turn round a long established business which was losing a lot of money. As part of establishing what future potential existed I was introduced to a metal forming machine which carried out a highly innovative process producing a technically superior product. Every one assured me this machine was going to be the saviour for this particular firm. 'There was no doubt as the machine produced a technically superior product for certain specific applications'. To effectively market this machine it was necessary to know what demand for the finished products of the machine would exist. In this way it would have been possible to develop a strategic marketing plan to target potential producers who would become users of the machines. Yes they had mastered the technicalities of the process and created a range of machines for the different sizes of finished products they believed their wonderous invention would produce. So they had given some consideration to the ultimate end user. They had even sold one machine, but imagine the development costs for this kind of exercise. As we set about the task of turning the business round we had to look strategically in detail at everything the business could do. It had sound products, a worldwide reputation and the wonder machine. Sadly for this business we discovered there was no significant market for the new machine and the barriers to entry were considerable. We tried selling and tried again but it was 'missionary selling' - trying to convince potential users that this was a better alternative to their existing methods of production and that they should change their whole set up to take our new process. Even though there were technical advantages and, in some instances economic benefits if the new process was adopted you can guess what the reaction to the need to change was. The production of a strategic marketing plan earlier in the process would have identified these factors and established if they were insurmountable or if it would be possible to overcome them. This was a classic real life case of a solution trying to find a market. Without a strategic marketing plan which identified all of the relevant barriers to market entry the project was almost certain to fail. Yet the benefits of getting your strategy right are massive. Small businesses can make big profits when they plan strategically. Make sure there is ready market for your product or service and then market strongly to that market. Re-visit your plans and at all times be outward focussed, understand and in touch with your market. It's great to believe in yourself with enthusiasm and conviction, it's great to have belief in your products or services but a little dose of reality at the strategy planning stage may save an awful lot of time, effort and money. Check from time to time that you are on the right track so that you don't become a missionary. Make a real effort to get all of the relevant facts built in to your strategic marketing plan...
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