One of the big issues any marketing plan faces is how closely it strews to reality.
Far too many marketing plans are built on false assumptions or a misrepresentation of the facts of life in the current market.
That’s why the basics of any marketing program have to begin with understand where you are.
By this I mean we have to face reality in looking at the situation our business operates in.
How do you understand where your business really is?
You have to start by understanding what assumptions you are making:
- Has the market changed?
- Has the customer changed?
- Does your value still resonate with your market?
- What are the decisions people are making about you and your product or service?
- Does your price still reflect reality?
- Are you still focusing on the right customers?
- Is the advertising, marketing, and branding you do still reflective of the market?
When you focus on these assumptions, you will start to get a better understanding of what you need to do going forward.
Then you can answer the important strategic questions:
- What value do we want to create for our clients?
- Who can understand this value, use it, and pay for it?
- How do we reach them?