The Manager's View

The chart below demonstrates the approach for developing a successful marketing strategy. The graphic suggests that a vision and mission should drive the price, place product and promotion marketing components and that once these 4 Ps are identified a strategy can be developed. It is interesting to ask which of the 4 P’s is most important.   To determine value of each of the four Ps requires a vision and mission statement that clearly defines the nature of a business, the market segment to be served and an idea of what success looks like. For my classes at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business I have used the example of an individual with a pressure washer and limited funds wishing to enter into the maintenance business and grow to be a major player in home and commercial maintenance. This individual might create a mission statement that as follows:   1) To make available quality exterior maintenance service to home and busin...

I have been involved in developing marketing strategies that required the developing a competitive advantage in markets filled with strong competitors. I have consistently found that developing solid information on the market and the competitors was critical in building a foundation for the strategy. Information Sources Gathering information on the market and the competition is readily available if you know where to look. Information on the market is available through census data, industry data and consumer research. Most of this is readily available on the Internet. Gathering data on the competition is also readily available.   Some of the information can be taken from financial reports if the competitor is a publicly traded company. These reports usually give key statistics, profiles of key managers and basic financial data. Information on competitors can also be gathered from customers, vendors and public records. Developing financial profiles of...

Set an Objective The marketing effort begins with an objective. This objective can be to create a new business to serve a specific market, launch a new product for an existing business, develop a new market with existing products and so on. After establishing the objective it is important to take a hard look at the business you are in or are hoping to start. This exercise will help to better understand your current position in the industry and possible avenues for growth. For example, if owning a cup cake specialty shop, you should determine if you are in the cup cake business, confectionary business, restaurant business, or bakery business and so on.   The choice will affect the strategy that might be employed to achieve the objective.                                     Identify a Customer Base ...

An MBA student asked me not long ago, if I knew of companies that developed or updated strategies on a regular basis. He went on to say that he was in charge of providing IT support for his organization and when asking for the strategic direction of the company he was told “to increase profit by X% in the next operating period.” This was clearly not a strategy but an operational goal. Operational goals are almost always addressed with tactical solutions. The longer an organization has been in existence, the less likely a regular strategic planning process will exist. Leadership will recognize changes in the environment, new financial goals, changes in operation procedures, new challenges and competition. Almost always tactical plans are developed to address the market changes and financial goals.   Tactical plans will include pricing structure changes, development of new products, new human resource programs and new operational procedures. These pl...

  I teach both undergraduates and MBA students at the University of Houston. Both groups have been assigned a Harvard Business case studying the Paywall at the New York Times. This is an interesting case and shows the challenges faced by newspapers that are trying to survive in a digital media world. Interestingly, the case focuses on the rate charged for the print form of the newspaper vs. the digital edition. The digital edition is less expensive and the print plus the digital edition is less than the print only newspaper. The case also focuses on the penetrability of the Paywall. Some social networking sites have access to NYT content free. Finally, the case looks at the challenges to transition from print to digital and perhaps most importantly the value created by the newspaper. As I have watched newspapers address these challenges, it seems that almost universally there has been little attention paid to the value created by newspapers and newspaper j...

Here are some more thoughts on why newspapers may still be a wise investment and how they may find ways to develop a stable of print and digital products that complement each other. Virtually all newspapers have websites that look good and have great functionality. So why aren't they all producing acceptable amounts of profit? The question probably should be asked differently, "What do consumers and advertisers expect from newspapers?" Then ask, "What do they expect from the Internet?"  The answers are different but there is overlap. The area of overlap is the area of opportunity for creating a business that is needed by consumers and advertisers and capable of creating value that translates into profits. To determine the real value of the website it is useful to measure the total advertiser dollars spent on a website only ad buy versus those being bundled with a newspaper or distribution ad buy. These stand-alone purchases might give so...

Interesting news that the Boston Globe sold for $70 million and the Washington Post sold for $250 million. These newspapers would have commanded at least 5 times that selling price a decade ago. This is further evidence that print media is in trouble. The question is if the trouble is truly from the presence of digital products or from management’s inability to change the business model of newspapers. By selling to owners in other fields of business, perhaps newspapers will find a way to succeed. Selling the Washington Post to the founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos may provide some new innovative solutions. Selling the Chicago Tribune to a private investment firm did not provide a favorable outcome. I would say that the Amazon.com approach to building customer relationships has a better chance of success than most. I would also say that the owner of the Boston Red Sox, John Henry, has a better idea of how to engage an audience than most. I have spent a lot of t...