Here’s a simple exercise for you: Google for ‘Market Plan’. All 10 results are likely to be definitions of a marketing plan, information on creating a marketing plan or examples of marketing plans. Like everybody else, Google too is unable to distinguish between a Market Plan and a Marketing Plan!
A Market Plan is a critical document in the product planning process, that encapsulates a team’s understanding of a particular market (size, opportunity, characteristics), of different customer segments within that market (geographical, demographic, behavioural), of key entities in the ecosystem (customers, competitors regulators) and of relevant problems in the market (product, technology or customer problems). It also looks at the company or business unit’s competencies for addressing specific customer segments and problems, in a SWOT analysis, and identifies goals in that market for the company to tackle.
In summary, the market plan helps the team move from a vague idea of a “promising market” to a more specific assessment of exactly how promising it is, and what makes it promising (and challenging).
What it is not: a map for capturing the promise of that market. That is where the Marketing Plan comes in. The marketing plan begins where the market plan ends – with business goals relevant to a particular market. It is meant to be a highly actionable plan with key strategies to address the goals, the budget needed to implement those strategies, the programs to be carried out as part of those strategies as well as how the product is to be presented to potential customers (positioning plan and key marketing messages).
Confusing one for the other is not an academic problem. It means that in practice, you’re likely putting the horse before the cart – carrying out marketing programs without a clear enough understanding of the market. Some teams can’t wait to get on with the “real work” of capturing the market – short term profitability pressures and company structures often reward the doing rather than the thinking. But, rushing to address the market without knowing what it needs, is a recipe for disaster, as companies have found often.
In early 2010, we at Confianzys undertook an assignment for one of our clients to construct a market plan and marketing plan for their Enterprise Software Product. The initiative was triggered by the failure of the product to consistently meet market-needs and generate revenues in the existing markets during the last six years of its existence (the focus markets were East/West Asian). The peaks and troughs were hurting the entity and expansion to new markets was a major challenge. The knowledge of market problems, opportunity, competition, buying drivers and other key criteria were sub-optimal and mostly relied on Sales feedback.
The next big Sales goal for the company was to expand to the APAC market, but this time around, only after thoroughly understanding the challenges / requirements of the market they planned to serve. A mix of 15-20 prospects (across all segments: Enterprise, Mid Market and SME) were interviewed before building the Market Plan and this led to identifying the right Value proposition and addressing the problems faced by the Customers in that market. The same was well communicated through a sustained marketing campaign.
Confianzys is a well known business consulting, product management, customer Management Company India, providing training in effective marketing research, customer management and product marketing.
A Market Plan is a critical document in the product planning process, that encapsulates a team’s understanding of a particular market (size, opportunity, characteristics), of different customer segments within that market (geographical, demographic, behavioural), of key entities in the ecosystem (customers, competitors regulators) and of relevant problems in the market (product, technology or customer problems). It also looks at the company or business unit’s competencies for addressing specific customer segments and problems, in a SWOT analysis, and identifies goals in that market for the company to tackle.
In summary, the market plan helps the team move from a vague idea of a “promising market” to a more specific assessment of exactly how promising it is, and what makes it promising (and challenging).
What it is not: a map for capturing the promise of that market. That is where the Marketing Plan comes in. The marketing plan begins where the market plan ends – with business goals relevant to a particular market. It is meant to be a highly actionable plan with key strategies to address the goals, the budget needed to implement those strategies, the programs to be carried out as part of those strategies as well as how the product is to be presented to potential customers (positioning plan and key marketing messages).
Confusing one for the other is not an academic problem. It means that in practice, you’re likely putting the horse before the cart – carrying out marketing programs without a clear enough understanding of the market. Some teams can’t wait to get on with the “real work” of capturing the market – short term profitability pressures and company structures often reward the doing rather than the thinking. But, rushing to address the market without knowing what it needs, is a recipe for disaster, as companies have found often.
In early 2010, we at Confianzys undertook an assignment for one of our clients to construct a market plan and marketing plan for their Enterprise Software Product. The initiative was triggered by the failure of the product to consistently meet market-needs and generate revenues in the existing markets during the last six years of its existence (the focus markets were East/West Asian). The peaks and troughs were hurting the entity and expansion to new markets was a major challenge. The knowledge of market problems, opportunity, competition, buying drivers and other key criteria were sub-optimal and mostly relied on Sales feedback.
The next big Sales goal for the company was to expand to the APAC market, but this time around, only after thoroughly understanding the challenges / requirements of the market they planned to serve. A mix of 15-20 prospects (across all segments: Enterprise, Mid Market and SME) were interviewed before building the Market Plan and this led to identifying the right Value proposition and addressing the problems faced by the Customers in that market. The same was well communicated through a sustained marketing campaign.
Confianzys is a well known business consulting, product management, customer Management Company India, providing training in effective marketing research, customer management and product marketing.
No comments:
Post a Comment