Published March 2001

For your business’ success, make marketing a priority

By Andrew Ballard
Guest Columnist

You’d be hard-pressed to find a corporate exec or entrepreneur who doesn’t value marketing as a “mission critical” business function. I also suggest that marketing activities, especially strategic initiatives, often fall to the bottom of the to-do list. This happens because urgent matters supersede important ones. Unfortunately, that course of action makes for short-term relief and a long-term headache.

You can either establish a strategic marketing program or buy more aspirin. If you opt for the marketing program, keep reading.

In today’s dynamic and volatile market environment, there is no such thing as a static solution or quick fix. Marketing is a continuous cycle of many integrated activities. These activities should be evolved and adjusted to changing market conditions.

Before developing a strategic marketing program, it will help to take stock of your assets and liabilities.

Evaluate each of the eight checkpoints below and rate your performance on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being nonexistent and 10 being masterful. No fuzzy math allowed.

— Market research: Do you have reliable data on your target market, customer satisfaction, competitors and industry trends? How often do you refresh the data?

— Strategic planning: Do you have a current strategic marketing plan documented with measurable objectives and an action plan? Does it reside in a drawer or on your desk?

— Brand development: Have you developed and positioned your brand to fill a niche and differentiated it from the competition — in terms of pricing, distribution and identity?

— Promotion: Does your communication strategy effectively promote your brand with well-targeted media and a memorable theme?

— Sales: Do you have a proactive sales plan in place that effectively identifies, qualifies, motivates and converts prospects into high-margin customers?

— Service: Do you have customer-service procedures that secure the sale, acknowledge purchases, mine for referrals and retain each customer’s business for the long term?

— Infrastructure: Have you judiciously developed and allocated your facility, financial, human resource and technology assets to wholly support your marketing program?

— Tracking: Have you established the necessary performance metrics to consistently evaluate your marketing activities and investments for efficiency?

How did you do? Even marketing experts don’t achieve a perfect score because there’s always room for improvement. If you scored below 40, count yourself among the majority. The good news is that you have a tremendous opportunity to develop and leverage a competitive advantage.

Concentrate on your lower scores first; the goal is to achieve an even balance. Ideally, you would conduct this type of assessment annually.

By developing and executing a strategic marketing program, you’ll leave the headaches to your competitors — then you can afford to buy stock in an aspirin company!

Andrew Ballard is the President of Marketing Solutions Inc. (www.mktg-solutions.net) based in Lynnwood.

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