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Defining the Business Situation

Define the business situation

The first step in preparing a marketing plan is to do a situation analysys. A situation analysis basically looks at where the company has been given the environmental factors as discussed above. It is at this step that the entrepreneur should review the past performance of the products and the company. The analysis provides information on the market size, growth rate, suppliers, competitors and the general economic conditions.

• Your geographic marketing area - neighborhood, regional or national;
• Your competition;
• How you differ from the competition - what makes you special;
• Your price;
• The competition's promotion methods;
• Your promotion methods;
• Your distribution methods or business location.

Defining target market/opportunities and treats Your current customer base: age, sex, income, neighborhood

• How your customers learn about your product or service - advertising- radio, tv, newspappers, direct mail, word of mouth, Yellow Pages, flyers, billboards.
• Patterns or habits of your potential customers - where they shop, what they read, watch, listen to
• Qualities your customers will value most about your product or service - selection, convenience, service, reliability, availability, affordability
• Qualities your customers like will least about your product or service - can they be adjusted to serve your customers better?

Defining your plan and budget

• Marketing methods you will use to communicate to your customers
• Methods that have been most effective to your competitors
• Possible future marketing methods to attract new customers
• Percentage of profits you can allocate to your marketing campaign
• Marketing tools you can implement within your budget - newspaper, magazine or Yellow Pages advertising; radio or television advertising; direct mail; tele-marketing; public relations activities such as community involvement, sponsorship or press releases
• Methods of testing your marketing ideas
• Methods for measuring results of your marketing campaign
• The marketing tool you can implement immediately