What marketing strategies should businesses implement in order to fit

their customers demographic, and why is adept marketing necessary

for success?

Corbin Reinhardt

Senior Project Advisor: Roxy McKnight

Abstract
Currently our society does not allow much room for progression without marketing
in some form and most people do not recognize it as marketing. From the eyes of an up and
coming business, it becomes very difficult to survive in the ever changing market without
refined marketing skills. As an attempt to relay the importance of marketing this paper
evaluates, what marketing strategies should businesses implement in order to fit their
customers demographic, and why is adept marketing necessary for success? Drawing from
various sources, my research has compiled evaluations from marketing strategies and
handbooks to created generalized marketing themes. These evaluations have lead be to be
able to categorize and compile my research into 3 sections: Understanding the market,
evaluating competitors needs, and execution and adaption. My research has lead me to the
broad conclusion that using the strategic imperatives listed, will significantly increase
chances of success.

12th grade Humanities

Animas High School
11 March 2019
 Part I: Introduction

In the contemporary marketplace, currently an abundance of people are trying to

start a new business. Unfortunately, 20% of small business fail within their first year, 50%

within their first 5 years, and an astonishing 70% fail within 10 years of opening. According

to these statistics, it can very quickly become difficult to stay in business for long. These

low success rates are constantly forcing thousands of new business owners back into the

employed workforce and away from their entrepreneurial dreams. Could marketing have

the potential to make or break a new business? The definition of marketing is, “​the action

or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and

advertising”(marketing). Designing a marketing plan, which is a strategic process, involves

outlining how a business will promote themselves given the knowledge of the current

market they’re trying to develop and flourish in. Marketing is a concept ingrained in society

that we start to develop at a very young age by marketing ourselves in various situations.

Such as reasoning with parents to get some candy, to making friends and applying for a job

and colleges. People are constantly unconsciously marketing their best qualities in order to

be perceived in the best light in every realm of their life. Little do people know how much

these micro-marketing techniques can affect the way society deems individuals. If personal

marketing flaws can make or break a new job opportunity, then why would these same

flaws not affect the way customers or prospects view a business? This is why
understanding good marketing strategies is vital for both an individual and a company to

be successful in the demanding world of persuasion. It is clear that ​marketing strategies are

crucial to success of a business due to the vast amount of products and services in the

modern market overstimulating consumers with competition. However, in order to

successfully compete in today’s market a new business owner must deeply understand the

market, evaluate customer needs and execute plans with capacity for adaption.

Part II: Historical Context and Background

Marketing has been around for an extensive period of time which has allowed for

the adaptation and evolution that has generated the most effective and widely used

strategies in practice today. Marketing has almost always been found in societal structures,

in the form of people portraying their best qualities to help in various scenarios. During

the 1450’s was the initial kickstart of marketing as we see it today. People started to notice

print advertisements such as brochures that were distributed to potential customers as

motive to buy or talk about products. Over a few hundred years these print advertisements

started evolving and making their way into various magazines. With magazines being sold

globally and mass printed, this allowed for businesses to rapidly start bringing in new

customers that had picked up a magazine with a company add in it. Later in the 1800’s it

started becoming more common to see billboards posted in cities displaying large

advertisements, again increasing the range of people a business is exposed too. As radios
started to become popular in the 1900’s, people quickly jumped on selling advertisements

to radio shows. Similar to radio advertising, when televisions became widely popular in the

late 20th century, businesses would promote their company or products on commercial

breaks. With the expanding nature of the world, the range advertisements could reach

grew further and more efficient while expanding the number of people businesses are able

to inform. In the 1950’s, telemarketing agencies starting popping up. These agencies would

cold call people to inform and attempt to sell the products or services relevant to the

situation. As the internet came rearing its head around the corner, the idea of marketing

exploded. Consumers started to see PPC (pay-per-click) everywhere on websites and

search engines. Social media sprung up soon after this and again completely changed the

game. The ease of promoting a business is now incomparable to older methods. Social

media allows businesses to gain huge followings and expand from the potential amount of

customers that may scroll through an add. The expansion of marketing was inevitable, but

i​t has made competition as this rate of technological advancement a tricky endeavor​.

Different forms of these techniques are still used in today's market to promote

businesses, and they can be split into two broad categories: internet marketing and direct

marketing. As suggested by the name, internet marketing happens on an online advertising

platform. Promotions made through social media, emails, and search engine

advertisements are widely used in this approach. On the the other hand, direct marketing is

when a company or business engages more personally with a consumer. Examples of direct

marketing techniques would be cold calling, sending newsletters, purchasing space on a

billboard, or things of that nature. Together the current marketing strategies, compiled

from ​centuries of marketing evolution and technological influencers have formed our

current marketing strategies, which are the guiding forces in the success of a brand.

Part III: Research and Analysis

Marketing can be broken up into three main categories that depend on various

conditions and subcategories. A more obvious starting place is understanding the market,

which involves ]planning personal interest vision and end goals, positioning, evaluating

competition, and applying the 4 Ps of the marketing mix.

A new business attempting to understand the market must analyze three vital

requirements to the company down the road: vision, position and competition. One of the

perks of having a solid marketing plan is being able to define a business and choose the

best light for people to view it from. This is why the first step in understanding the market

is to create a clear vision to present to target audiences. ​The Marketing Plan Handbook​ by

Robert W. Bly defines the ideal business as, “one that delivers the income and lifestyle you

desire, while enabling you to attain it doing work you enjoy and find both meaningful and

satisfying, with and for the people you care about” (3). Bly argues that a new business
owner or potential business owner should evaluate their own life goals first in order to

sculpt their business goals around fitting their lifestyle and the needs that come with it.

Personalizing a business gives a better chance at success because the owner is dealing with

what they know and doing it how they please which also makes for a more enjoyable work

environment. This step pays off when the vision created is clear enough to welcome

agreeing customers to buy in while also guiding others that don’t get the right needs fit

needs from the company, to not go any further and be disappointed. It’s so crucial to look at

your vision with your end goal in mind. Bly goes on to describe the vision as “your mental

‘big picture’ of what your business can become” (5). Of course the vision can evolve as

business progresses, but it is essential to always keep an end goal in mind to work towards.

If an end goal isn't easily foreseeable, that means the vision needs to be more vivid to allow

a clearland successful end results.By doing this, the company is put in a good position to

start working towards thoughtful goals.

With a clear vision comes the understanding of one's position in the market, which

will later determine a target audience. The position a business takes in the market and the

target audience for the product will determine the competitors that company will face

within the market. Appropriate placement within the market allows companies to create

healthy competition within an industry of similar interests. At this point, defining and

evaluating competition is crucial in understanding the market. Companies must learn to

build off others’ strengths and use weaknesses as opportunities to fill unmet needs in the
market. When competitors do not fulfill a specific customer need, that can open up a

position for another business to fill, and it can gain the lost customer base of its competitor.

This is why it is highly important for a business to understand what their competitors are

doing in the market. A good place to start in this endeavor “ is a summary of the findings of

a market audit in respect of major competitors” (McDonald, Meldrum 157). The authors

aiming at a market audit which is how a company can understand it’s position in the

market, and evaluate every aspect of its competitors. Throughout the process of

understanding one's place in a market, finding out who major competitors are can be

important. With competitor analysis and the evaluation of company flaws, not only can

customer bases expand, but also a more favorable environments for the business can be

created too.

Attracting customers with the use of competitors’ flaws is a good strategy, but there

are also other ways of attracting customers. Think about “What will make a potential

customer want to enter an exchange with our organization compared to another?”

(McDonald, Meldrum 4). There are many answers to this question controlled by various

factors. A few aspects of a business are under control by the organization or company, but a

lot of them are external factors such as taxes, or current trends, which a company has no

control over. These are called controlled factors which are also the main

demand-influencing variables the marketing mix, commonly defined as the 4’Ps in the

marketing world. The 4’Ps consist of Products, which focuses on different aspects of your
products that customers might be attracted too, such as functionality, and quality: Price,

deciding a fitting price for your products based on different variables, that maximises profit

and competes with other companies in your market; Promotion, think about how to

promote and advertise business to reach the most amount of potential customers for your

specific product; Place: how are products going to be made available to consumers? A

store? Website? Distributing to retailers? Each of these different elements of the marketing

mix will allow control over influential factors in order to maximize the reach and depth of a

company's customer base.

Evaluating consumer needs can be a strenuous task due to its complexities, but in

the long run positioning to the right audience in the right place can make the difference for

a new or struggling business. The customer evaluation process relies heavily on marketing

segmentation, BDF (​(belief, desire, feel)),​ building out a product line, and qualifying

prospects. Once this is accomplished there should be a clear understanding of customer

needs and service/ products aimed to fill them.

In a standard market, a customer base has multiple layers that must be taken into

account. No company is able to satisfy the needs of every single potential customer out

there, and when they try, no one ends up satisfied. The key is to focus on a specific
customer base, and gear products specifically towards their needs. By doing this, a business

can dominate that section of the market and gain a strong foothold. Being more attentive to

a smaller group will allow for a strong competitive advantage because it's a lot easier to

create a loyal customer based on focused needs than to worry about everyone's problems

all at once. It is better to have one strong foothold than multiple weak ones. This process

should be referred to as marketing segmentation, “Marketing segmentation, then, is a

process that identifies different requirements in the people who buy, and as such is the key

to successful marketing”(p.123 McDonald, Meldrum). In other words, it is more valuable to

control all aspects of one segment than only parts of many segments.

Now that a specific market segment has been chosen, a company can start to filter

through the narrowed down group of people to find those most likely to make a purchase

or be satisfied enough to continue to make purchases and spread awareness around the

company. In the marketing world there are a few terms that should be used when

distinguishing customers: Customers, Prospects, and Suspects. Customers are the

purchasers of the product once or consistently. “Prospects are people who have identified

themselves as potential customers through some action (e.g.. Subscribing to your

newsletter or requesting your catalog), but have not actually made a purchase” (Bly 25).

Suspects can be defined as everyone else in your market that may have viewed your

products but have no intent to make a purchase or further engage with your company. A

company should try and work everyone up the chain by converting suspects to prospects,
prospects to customers, and customers to returning customers who are happy to share

their satisfaction with the company to their acquaintances. However it can be very difficult

to tell the difference between a qualified prospect evaluating a company before making a

purchase, and a suspect who may just enjoy picking up catalogs. As an effort to help with

​ obert W. Bly describes how to use his

this struggle, in his book, ​The Marketing Handbook, R

“MAD FU” formula in order to differentiate a prospect from a suspect. The M in his formula

stands for money. This step includes evaluating if the customer can afford the product, for

example, determining whether the customer is a child or an adult. The A stands for

authority. In a situation where a person interacts with a company, it's important for a

company to ensure communication with those in a decision making role of purchasing

products or services. Communication with ordering organizers, owners, parents and any

other caregiver or essentially the person most capable of the purchase comes into play. The

D stands for desire, an evaluation of how much the potential prospect would want the

product and how bad they need it. The F stands for fit, does the company or products seem

like a good fit for the prospect in order to fit their needs? The final letter, U, stands for

urgency, which means to think about how urgent a prospect needs the product or service.

The more urgent it is, the easier it will be to convince them to purchase from the company.

These steps should make it clear to see where efforts should be focused in order to

progress a customer base through the chain.

Once a customer or prospect has been identified, a business needs to understand

them in order to accommodate their needs and keep them hooked. A simple way to start

this process is to ask these questions: What do the prospects or customers believe? What

do they desire? What do they feel? Building good perspectives and perceptions of a

company are essential for a company to succeed in the modern market. A company wants

to do its best to ensure customers are more than satisfied with their products because one

of the most reliable ways for prospects to trust a product is from what they have heard

other people say about that product or company. Another tactic is to deeply think about

what a prospect might want from the commodity or company and the best way they can get

it. Finally, how do prospects feel about the company? What emotions do they have

associated? This is a good time to think hard about the “why” as part of the vision of a

company and if people will relate to it. When an organization supports an idea, customers

that have a connection to that idea are commonly drawn it or pushed away based on their

emotions associated with it.

A business must understand and analyze the stages of self and customer knowledge

fully before moving onto to any sort of execution of the plan. There are hundreds of

thousands of business in today's market heavily influenced by hundreds of both external

and internal factors, which are difficult to keep organized. The market is a flowing river,

and position is everything when stepping foot on the boat. It is a known fact in the

marketing world that that having, “some kind of formalized procedure for planning the

organization's marketing helps to sharpen this rationality so as to reduce the complexity of

business operations” (​McDonald, Meldrum 277).​ This can be referred to as marketing

planning. Even after the current has swept the boat away, there are still barriers, tactics,

measuring success implementing, revising and many more factors that must be cycled

through as the business peruses. When planning for marketing, there are two types of

principal marketing plans to consider before starting. The first, a strategic marketing plan

anticipates its execution to be over a longer amount of time, generally three to five years. A

written plan should outline how a company wants to be perceived relative to its

competitors, what goals the company hopes to reach and how they will achieve them, what

they will need , and what realistic end results they hope to see. In order to optimize a

company's organization when writing a strategic marketing plan there are several

fundamentals that need to be addressed to be in order to have an inclusive strategic

marketing plan. First and foremost it's essential to have a well thought out mission

statement covering its the business definition and role in the market, what sets it apart, and

its future goals; A financial summary that covers all anticipated finances over the duration;

and a market overview which briefly paints a picture of the market, going over trends, and

the market structure. A business should also implement a SWOT analisis that breaks down

the strengths and weaknesses of key success factors in a business compared to its

competitors. The SWOT analyses also provides issues that need to be addressed and should

also be summarized in a way easy to be understood. Important assumptions about the

market should also be addressed incase things change throughout the course of the plan.

The business also needs to create a list of marketing objectives such as profit and value.

Marketing strategies should be compiled in order to achieve objectives. FInally, there

should be a list of required resources and a maximum budget a business is willing to spend.

The second type of marketing plan would be a tactical marketing plan. A tactical plan is a

“detailed scheduling and costing of the specific actions necessary for the achievement of

the first year of a strategic marketing plan” ( ​McDonald, Meldrum 278). This type of plan is

more specific on focusing on the finance side of things, and making the easiest sales. The

general outline for a tactical plan looks very similar to a strategic one except it leaves out a

mission statement, market overview, SWOT analysis, and adds a lot more detail on finances

and achievement within the first year. The most effective way of marketing planning would

be to wright out your full strategic plan as well as a tactical plan that goes more in depth on

the first year with still keeping the bug picture in mind. Research has shown that

businesses that execute a tactical strategy without a strategic one first or at all has shown a

higher failure rate than creating both plans, or only a strategic one.

With a goal in mind a business should start evaluating different tactical options

available to them, along with how prospects and customers will react to the implemented

tactics. It's easy to become overwhelmed so only picking a few tactic ideas that seem most

appealing to a specific customer base will be the most lucrative. There are so many

different tactics that surely if one doesn't work, another will. A business should then ask

“what message(s), if properly conveyed and believed by my audience, will simulate this

behavior?” ​(Bly 104​). This is referring to the message that your tactics are portraying to the

customers in order to get them to do whatever the tactics was implemented for. Some

examples of different tactics would be, adding new features to attract new customers,
introductory pricing to encourage a first purchase, Interactive displays, and refund

guarantees to help the customers feel secure about a purchase.

Part IV: Conclusion

In order to market successfully to a customer demographic, it is necessary for a

business to understand and implement adept marketing strategies. Adept marketing

strategies show a comprehension of the market, evaluation of customer needs and an

adaptable strategic/tactical execution plan. Marketing put into play is crucial for a

company's ability to target specific customer groups, tailor to competition and customer

bases as well as adapt through the ongoing changing marketplace. It is obvious that

well organized marketing strategies can have an extreme impact on how well a

business maintains customers and profits. Take Coca Cola for example, “On a hot day,

consumers glady play a 700 % price premium for the convenience of buying a cold can

of soda from vending machine”(Dawar 3). By implementing a marketing strategy that

increases convenience for customers, Coca Cola is able to drive up their price. When

shopping in stores customers tend to focus on the value of items, which coke then uses

to their advantage selling in bulk for 23 cents a can. On a hot day, or any other situation

where the focus of consumers is more centered around factors such as convince, coke

is able to sell the exact same product for 700% more, without customers second

guessing their purchase. Techniques that use customer focus like coke does, allows a

business to create a favorable environment for themselves in various situations.

The success adept marketing brings when strategies are designed and executed
properly seems limitless. Unfortunately this is not the case. A company operates in what

is known in marketing terms as a business environment. The environment includes

every factor involved both externally and internally that may influence the ability to

create customer relations or profit. When considering the business environment, a

company only has control over the internal factors that includes business marketing

strategies (communication, organization etc.). Businesses have little to no control over

external factors such as the micro and macro environments. An external micro

environment is the smaller forces outside of the business that might affect its ability to

satisfy customers. When there are larger societal forces that might affect a businesses

survival in a market, should be referred to as an external macro environment. This is

why marketing is so crucial to the success of a business because in a market full of

inconsistent variables, it allows a business to take control where possible.

Due to external factors marketing may not determine whether a business fails or

not but that does not devalue its importance. Where it counts adept marketing strategy

imperatives will influence a wide variety of internal factors such as customer base,

advertisement range etc. that create a more favorable environment for the business. As

marketing continues to evolve, imperatives may shift and change depending on the

market but as long as an adept strategy is in places adapting to the surroundings

becomes easier. In the current economic system, a business is able to use key

marketing techniques for better chances in the harsh marketing world.

 Work Cited

Bly, Robert W. ​The Marketing Plan Handbook: Develop Big-Picture Marketing Plans for
Pennies on the Dollar​. Entrepreneur Press, 2015.

Dawar, Niraj. “When Marketing Is Strategy.” ​Harvard Business Review,​ 20 May 2015,
hbr.org/2013/12/when-marketing-is-strategy.

“Marketing | Definition of Marketing in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries

English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/marketing.

McDonald, Malcolm, and Mike Meldrum. ​The Complete Marketer: 60 Essential Concepts for
Marketing Excellence.​ Kogan Page Limited, 2013.