Marketing Forum in 2 Weeks? Possible with 10 Step Marketing Plan!
By: Rose Mendoza (Group 4)
The August 13 Marketing Management session started with Groups 6 & 7 presenting their assigned topics for Building Brands. Group 7 reported on the topic, “Competing with Value-based Companies” while Group 6 handled “Writing a Positioning Statement”.
Group 7 noted that for companies to be able to compete well against those which offer “more for less”, additional twists may be adopted for the existing differentiation and execution imperatives.
In this regard, Coach drew a diagram on the board with two (2) relevant variables: quality and price to be referred in comparing the position of a company or its competitors in the market. He noted that there are companies who are pricing their products or services more than the quality they offer. He labeled these companies as “Ripping Off Consumers Companies” while those companies who price their products or services less than the actual quality, are labeled as “Value-based Companies”. He further emphasized that there are actually segments in the market who would be satisfied by “less”. Sometimes, “more” doesn’t mean better, and “less” is what customers actually need and are looking for in product and service offerings. He gave examples such as the evolution of the Sony walkman from bulky components with huge speakers to portable music device. He stressed that Sony recognized the real needs of its walkman customers who just love to listen to music. It did let go of other nonessentials and focused on how to meet customer demands. As we all know, it turned out to be a huge success on their part. Another related example is that of RyanAir which prides itself of very low cost flights from one point to another. It does however, earn from charging other services which is likewise quite striking!
The next topic, “Writing a Positioning Statement” was presented by Group 6. To be able to write a great positioning statement the following elements must be present: target market, brand/concept, and point of difference.
Coach clarified to the class that a tagline is just an execution of a positioning statement. And just like an elevator statement, a positioning statement is how you would want to be understood by your target market in a way that you could communicate to them the point of difference that will make your product or service stand-out from competition.
He reiterated that more than any other brand, the most important brand to us is ourselves. He gave the students’ LinkedIn elevator speeches as examples. He asked us to rewrite our elevator speeches within five minutes and compare those with what we have already posted. Here are the V52’s Revised Elevator Speeches:
Mel – Area Manager who runs the day-to-day operations of a chain of bakeshops and finds ways to make the operations more productive;
Marose – Provides financial solutions and data requirements to the sales force;
Nicole – Coordinates with government agencies and various organizations for conflict resolution trainings to learn mediation as an alternative dispute resolution method;
Andrei – Motivating and training individuals, corporate people and entrepreneurs thru the Andrei John Cantilleps Solutions in holistic approach;
Lea – Accountant who offers personalized service with honesty and integrity;
Rose – A partner in molding and enriching young Bulakenos to become highly competitive and ethical business professionals through value-adding finance concepts and applications;
Ryan – Expert researcher on CSR and governance at AIM; Quality is guaranteed;
Cecil – Providing value-based information to top shareholders of companies listed abroad at Thomson Reuters;
Israel – Sales and marketing specialist for manufacturing and advertising companies;
Tanya – Provides excellent employment opportunities to Finance and Accounting individuals interested to be part of a global investment bank;
Berly – An employee in Sykes Asia Company and a student in AGSB;
Martin – One of the few good men you can see in government service;
Macky – 6 years of HR experience in IBM. Ensures that employee needs are met with high expectations;
Macy – A student studying in Ateneo, taking an MBA course; As a Chinese Customer Support Associate and telemarketer for 3 years, I am good at providing satisfying service to our customers;
Grace – Provides decision-makers with analytical support to achieve optimal balance between risk management and business strategy;
Allan – Provides quality analysis for companies through Six Sigma and business systems;
Tons – Helps food companies to create first-class food safety procedures that can provide quality product to every consumer;
Leeyhan Frank – ensures relationship management between BPI existing and new clients by emphasizing on customer satisfaction;
Noel – Provides global and innovative business and financial solutions to diverse clients;
Mark – Wait for it…True Story;
Maritess – Provides general accounting services to BPO companies through account analysis and task execution;
Lesley – An architect that has worked on both sides of the coin: as a designer, dealing with space planning and “creating dreams” and as a contractor, in-charge of implementation and of “making dreams a reality.” With 6 years of working experience in both design and construction. I am the youngest and the first female project manager of Datem Inc., a major construction company in the Philippines.
Nikki – Passionate practitioner of HR services to client’s contributing teamwork, collaboration and process improvements to client’s services;
The discussion was directed to Coach’s presentation of the 10 Step Marketing Plan. You may follow this link for viewing of the presentation: http://www.hypermarketing2.com/p/free-file-downloads.html
Moving on the expected Marketing Forum of the V52 Class, Coach led us to a process in which we could actually make use of the 10 step marketing plan in our very own class project. We have identified that the forum’s target are students of AGSB specifically those who are enrolled in a marketing class and those who are enrolled on a Friday class. Other market would be those who are interested on the topic and those who would be required for attendance. As for the need that must be addressed by the forum, these are basically the need for information from very good speakers, marketing experiences, break from class, networks, free food, certificates, and raffles. Competitors of the forum were likewise identified which include the regular classes, Powerplant, gimmick night, and rest/home. The Marketing forum would then have to offer some things better than competition which would enable us to be chosen amidst the number of options. These would be our points of difference which could revolve around the value-adding speaker and information that may be gained from the activity.
Next is the discussion on the determination of specific tasks that must be accomplished, streamlining of speakers who may be invited, finalization of the forum theme and schedule which is August 27, assignment of buddy tasks, and reminders on task updates through the FB Discussion Board.
The night ended with high hopes on the Marketing Forum. Indeed, it is a Marketing Plan in action!
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