Marketing Plan

One of the most important things about starting a business is marketing.  If there is one thing I am good at, it isn't marketing.  In college, I did alright and was able to pass my classes (mostly, I actually showed up and participated), but the creative and practical side of it has always eluded me.  I bet I could come up with a great commercial, but seeing as my marketing budget will likely be nothing (or close to that) I won't be needing one of those immediately.

To help, I started reading through the book Guerrilla Marketing for Free by Jay Levinson.  I'll admit that most of the ideas are the type that come to mind when you think of free marketing, but there are a few jems in there.  Overall, though, the real advantage that I am finding from the book is the walk through on creating your own marketing plan.  I'll avoid a lawsuit by not going through the entire thing here.  I will say that it makes you ask and confront some very important parts of the business.

One of the most important ones is the one that I struggle with the most: target market.  Basically, the concept is that instead of just throwing your efforts at everyone who will listen, you find out who you want to actually buy your product.  Kind of like using a sniper rifle instead of a shot gun.

Honestly, I want everyone to buy my product(s).  I'd be rich!  Reality is, that not everyone wants or can afford my product(s).  So, I need to find out who exactly I want to target.  So, that is going to take some searching in my mind.  A couple of things that I've thought of to help figure out this for me are the following question:

• What are the basic requirements to use one of my products?
• Where am I planning on selling my products?
• What price point do my products fit into?

The first question is probably the most important.  For instance, one product I plan on making would be cutting boards.  Obviously, if you aren't a cook or at least a fan of cheese, then you probably won't need or want a cutting board.  So, those individuals are obviously not part of my target market.

The second question is a bit of putting the cart before the horse in most situations.  However, for me this makes sense.  I have a limited outlet for my wares and I need to understand who it is that will be there (and possibly not just market but build to these people).

The last takes a bit of thinking.  There will likely be a lot of variations in the prices of products.  Further there will be other considerations of price (which is another discussion all together).  The main consideration I need to make here is will the people I want to market to be able to actually afford my products.


For now, it is late on Christmas Day.  Happy Christmas.  I'll write more later.

~Danny Boy