Communication at hand for marketing to define business players: The playground

Communication comes in hand for Marketing planning in every step of your daily work. Once you have clear business objectives and the right product or service that can engage your ideal target, finding and deciding how to move with your key business players will become a piece of cake.

Player #3: The Playground

Have you sat and thought of your market's enviroment as a children's playground?

When you think of it that way, you don't find barriers, what you get in your mind are slides, walls to climb and great swings to try and sway in.

This changes your  mindset completely, instead of thinking of barriers, you find amazing places to play and discover.

Some great questions that can help you go deeper in this analysis are:

*How is your current playground and what does it tell you? (Where are you offering your product or service and what are customers saying about it?)
*Who do you play with and what are they saying? (Who are your competitors and how to they communicate?)
*Has it been fun? (How has your performance been? Are you enjoying what you are doing?)
*What other playgrounds are connected and what do they tell you? (What other unexplored markets are connected to yours and how are they communicating?)
*What other kids can you play with and how can you approach them? (What other players in your market are available to cross business and what is their current language?)

Now that you have thought about some pretty fun stuff, you may have found some real opportunities to get to work at. Consider that the best way to play with them is with tests, that is, before changing your whole business to that direction, think of a beta testing phase, to make sure you have tried and learned in that new chance before risking your whole treasure.

Go on now....have fun!

For Marketing to define your Business Players -> Your Brand, Product or Service

Communication comes in hand for Marketing Planning in every step of your daily work. Once you have clear business objectives, finding and deciding how to move with your key business players will become a piece of cake.


Player #2: Your Brand, Product or Service


If you take a look back at your business objectives, you will get a clear idea if the key player in this step is your brand, product or service.


Once you have that clear, let's take a deep dive to where you want to take it to:


Where is it today? 
Depending on where it is standing today, your plan can move in a specific direction. 
Let's say that your product has existed in the market for over 3 years, or that your website which provides a magnificent client service has had steady maintenance in the last year.   A product/ brand or service optimization plan can be helpful.  
If your last action was a launch, then maintenance should be your next step.

What is your brand/product/service's personality today?
When we talked about defining your target, you realized that maybe your target needs to stay the way it is currently or that it has changed. Whatever happens to your target, your product/brand/service needs to be a step ahead at least. Whatever your target is saying, your brand might being having to say it too.


If your target changed to a younger segment (which in many cases I have heard is happening) then your product, brand or service need to be worked ahead thinking as a young brand, product or service. A younger language needs to be considered too.


It needs to mirror your target, not always directly, but certainly in many of characteristics that will help it stay engaging and continue to engage tomorrow through its messages & experiences.


The longer you get to last with your target, hand in hand, the greater short, mid and long term results you will see.


Where would you like to have it standing tomorrow?


Planning where you want to take your brand, product or service stands on three main pillars:
->Your short, mid and long term Business objectives
-> Your target's evolution
-> Communication comming in handy by seeing what your brand/product/service has for social presence.


If your business intends to gain market share in the next 5 years keeping the same target, then your brand or product might just need more exposure or a little tweak to get it shiny again.


Or maybe you want to increase sales with market share growth by touching new targets. If that's the case, then how will your product talk to them and engage them?


The combinations are countless, the more you innovate through your planning process, getting your product/brand or service in your target's shoes can surely help.


Innovation


Some companies have the constant practice of innovating, let's say Apple. They not always find a way to improve the current product, but also always find a way of creating new markets through new products. 
Having this business model as your main business dream can work out great and be quite profitable, but the truth is many brands/products or services aren't that ready....yet.


Whatever your current stage is, don't forget that innovation doesn't always mean "new", sometimes it just means "start with better", "find alternate solutions" or "imagine the unimaginable forgetting tabus around your brand/product or service".


For a deeper conversation be sure to follow me on Twitter as @ammore or in Google+ as Ingrid Noceda.

For Marketing: Business Players -> Your Target

Communication comes in hand for Marketing Planning in every step of your daily work. Once you have clear business objectives, finding and deciding how to move with your key business players will become a piece of cake.

Player #1:  Your Target
When you think of your target, are demographic stats the first thing that cross your mind? That's not bad, actually it's quite good to be honest.
Your target needs to be defined based on demographic details ONLY to help you see what reach your product and campaign really have. Once that is set, move on to psicographic details to help you narrow down to people who can really be engaged to you product or service, along with the messages your campaign may use.

Having said that,  sit back for a moment and think if the target you just defined is your actual target, results to be a new easily and reachable prospect or a completely new and different user that may live on the other side of the world.

Rechecking who we are talking and selling to is a very healthy practice, try to do it at least every six months.

Remember:  defining new targets must go ahead only if your business objectives can be reached with the new prospect. Your target is the #1 player in your playground.

If you do decide to have new target, be sure to plan to not change it again next year because your business objectives were not met as planned.  Targets and brands need time, just like a relationship, to evolve together and fall in love and find new ways of coexisting in the near future. A good lapse of time can be from 1.5 to 3 years so new targets can have time to try your product or service, purchase it, fall in love with it, recommend it and feel the confidence to recommend you some improvements....it's all about the relationship.

Key questions you must ask regarding your target are:

Who are they?
How are they?
Where and how do they live?
In what lifestage are they at this moment?
What is the next step in their life?
What are relevant messages to them at this point?
What are relevant products and services to them at this point?
What type of media do they use?

Sketching day in the life maps can help you narrow down some of these questions.