You need to know your products and services better than the competition knows theirs.
Sales Analysis
Some of your products
may actually be losing money.
This is simply an analysis of
your individual products or services over the last four or five years
showing:
- Turnover
- Gross profit before expenses
- Net profit (or loss)
This allows you to classify your
products into one of four classifications:
Cash cows (which
provide a lot of profit for little investment)
Dogs (which lose
money)
Rising stars – (which are tomorrows cash cows)
Tortoises - (Products
and services that contribute little and are going nowhere fast - often
driven by owners egos and are usually tomorrows dogs)
The important
point – know which products and services contribute or take
away from your business.
Competitive Analysis
How can you improve your competitive position?
Competitive analysis is an important
part of your marketing plan. You can learn from your competitors and
strengthen your business
You need to know:
Who are your four or five leading competitors?
What do your competitors do better than you?
What do you do better than you competitors?
What is your competitive position?
What do you want to do to improve your competitive position?
It can be useful to identify your most successful competitor as a role model upon which to compare your approach to marketing with theirs to help you assess improvement opportunities.
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis allows
you to play to your strengths and address your weaknesses
SWOT is an acronym for Strengths
Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats. It is a method of analyzing the
business to decide what to stress, what to minimize, and how. It
enables you to review both internal and external forces.
Your internal organization is the place to start to identify strengths
and weaknesses. The components vary from industry to industry but
typically include:
- Profitability
- Sales & marketing
- Product quality
- Productivity
- Financial resources
- Financial management
- Operations
- Production &
distribution
- Personnel
- Reputation
- Customer base
Now look to the external environments where your business operates. This is the basis of an analysis of opportunities and threats. Consider:
- Current customers
- Prospects
- Competition
- Technology
- Economic climate
- Taxes & regulations
- Legal issues
You need to be able to
capitalize on your strengths opportunities while defending or improving
weaknesses and threats.
Every problem presents a
potential opportunity.
From these you can define:
- Key leverage points
- Business implications
- Sustainable competitive
advantages (Planning sheet 7)
Having identified your most
important strategic decisions and set your priorities you can set your
long-term goals and short-term objectives, which together form the
foundation of your marketing plan.
Goals have to measurable have a deadline and someone's
responsibility. They must be believable and achievable. Goals direct and control actions. They give you something to aim at and
to measure progress. In order to achieve the goals, break them down
into short-term objectives.
