Presentation to the Auction Assoc. of North Carolina

1. Auctioneers Association of North Carolina
April 5, 2012

2. Tom George
• Director, Small Business
Center at Stanly
Community College
• Adjunct Faculty at The Art
Institute

3.  Market Research
 The Marketing Plan
Industry
Products
Features & Benefits
Customers
Competition
Niche
 Marketing Strategy
Advertising & Promotion
Promotional Budget
Pricing
Location
Distribution Channels
https://www.ncsbc.net/

4.  Why utilize market research?

5.  Why …
- Identify potential customers
- Understanding your existing customers
- Set realistic targets
- Develop effective strategies
- Examine and solve business problems
- Prepare for business expansion
- Identify business opportunities

6.  How to do marketing research

7.  How to do marketing research
 Primary – DIYS
▪ Survey
▪ Focus Groups
▪ Talk to your customers!

8.  How to do marketing research
 Primary – DIYS
▪ Survey
▪ Focus Groups
▪ Talk to your customers!
 Secondary - published information such as
industry profiles, trade journals, newspapers,
magazines, census data, and demographic
profiles.

9.  How to do marketing research
 Primary – DIYS
▪ Survey
▪ Focus Groups
▪ Talk to your customers!
 Secondary - published information such as
industry profiles, trade journals, newspapers,
magazines, census data, and demographic
profiles.
 Knowing your customer helps you plan.

10.  What is a marketing plan?

11.  What is a marketing plan?
 It’s a systematic process of examining how your
company/product or service stand in the
marketplace.

12.  What is a marketing plan?
 It’s a systematic process of examining how your
company/product or service stand in the
marketplace.
 Why do your need a plan?

13.  What is a marketing plan?
 It’s a systematic process of examining how your
company/product or service stand in the
marketplace.
 Why do your need a plan?
 It’s helps you determine where to place scare
resources to maximum benefit.

14.  The Marketing Plan
Industry
Products
Features & Benefits
Customers
Competition
Niche
 Marketing Strategy
Advertising & Promotion
Promotional Budget
Pricing
Location
Distribution Channels
https://www.ncsbc.net/

15. Facts about your industry
 Total size of your market
 Percentage share of the market you have. (This
is important only if you are a major factor in
the market.)
 Current demand in target market
 Growth history

16.  Trends in target market — growth trends, trends in consumer
preferences, and trends in product development
 Growth potential and opportunity for a business of your size
 What barriers to entry keep potential new competitors from
flooding into your market?
 High capital costs
 High production costs
 High marketing costs

17. How could the following affect your business?
o Change in technology
o Government regulations
o Changing economy
o Change in your industry

18.  Describe Products
and Services from
your customers’
point of view.

19.  List all your major products or services.
 For each product or service, describe the
most important features. That is, what does
the product do? What is special about it?
 Now, for each product or service, describe its
benefits. That is, what does the product do
for the customer?

20.  Identify your customers, their characteristics,
and their geographic locations; that is,
demographics.
 The description will be completely different
depending on whether you sell to other
businesses or directly to consumers. If you sell a
consumer product, but sell it through a channel
of distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, you
must carefully analyze both the end user and the
intermediary businesses to which you sell.

21.  You may have more than one customer group. Identify the most
important groups. Then, for each consumer group, construct a
demographic profile:
 Age
 Gender
 Location
 Income level
 Social class/occupation
 Education
 Other

22.  What products and companies compete with
you? List your major competitors, including
their names and addresses.
 Do they compete with you across the board,
just for certain products, certain customers,
or in certain locations?

23.  Now that you have systematically analyzed
your industry, your product, your customers,
and the competition, you should have a clear
picture of where your company fits into your
market.
 What is your Unique Value Proposition?

24.  A Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is a
statement by which a company defines what
sets its business apart from the competition.
Without a UVP, a company may risk
becoming lost in a sea of similar business
models.

25.  Promotion: How do you get the word out to customers?
 Advertising: What media do you use, why, and how often?
Has your advertising been effective? How can you tell?
 Do you use other methods, such as trade shows, catalogs,
dealer incentives, word of mouth, and network of friends
or professionals?
 If you have identifiable repeat customers, do you have a
systematic contact plan? Why this mix and not some
other?

26. Outbound marketing
Inbound marketing

27.  Traditional Marketing
 Newspaper
 Radio
 Tradeshows
 Cold Calls
 Email Blasts

28. Who Moved My Customers?
People shop and learn in a whole new way
compared to just a few years ago, so marketers
need to adapt or risk extinction. People now use
the Internet to shop and gather information, but
where on the Internet do they go—and how do
they use the Internet for these activities? We can
break the Internet down into three main areas.
Search Engines, Blogs, Social Media
(Halligan, Brian. Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs. John Wiley &
Sons (P&T) pp. 6 - 7

29.  Google, Bing, Yah00
 SEM/SEO (Search Engine Marketing/
Optimization)
 Google’s algorithm
 Relevance
 Authority

31.  A blog will establish your company as a thought
leader in your market.
 Due to its dynamic nature and the fact you're
creating new content on a regular basis, a blog
will change your web site from an online
brochure to a living, breathing hub for your
marketplace.
 A blog gives your potential customers a way to
engage with you versus being hit with a
premature sales pitch.
(Halligan, Brian. Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs. John Wiley &
Sons (P&T) p. 35).

33.  Facebook – a social networking site allowing you to
connect with your friends and their friends.
 Twitter – “what are you doing how”. Only allows 140
characters.
 LinkedIn – professional networking site allowing you
to connect with potential prospects and partners.
Great for business to business.
 Pinterest - A content sharing service that allows
members to "pin" images, videos and other objects to
their pinboard.

37.  AuctionZip
 Proxibid.com
 Ebay.com
 Other sites…

39.  How much will you spend on the items listed
above?
 Should you consider spending less on some
promotional activities and more on others?

40.  What is your pricing strategy? For most small businesses,
having the lowest prices is not a good strategy. Usually
you will do better to have average prices and compete on
quality and service. Does your pricing strategy fit with
what was revealed in your competitive analysis?
 Compare your prices with those of your competition. Are
they higher, lower, the same? Why?
 How important is price as a competitive factor?
 What are your payment and customer credit policies?

41.  Analyze your location as it affects your customers.
 If customers come to your place of business:
 Is it convenient? Parking? Interior spaces? Not out of the
way?
 Is it consistent with your image?
 Is it what customers want and expect?
 Where is the competition located? Is it better for you
to be near them (like car dealers or fast-food
restaurants) or distant (like convenience food stores)?

42. How do you sell your products or services?
 Retail
 Direct (mail order, World Wide Web, catalog)
 Wholesale
 Your own sales force
 Agents
 Independent reps

43. “In preparing for battle
I have always found
that plans are useless
but planning is
indispensable”
Dwight D. Eisenhower

44.  Small Business Center Network -
https://www.ncsbc.net/
 Small Business Technology Development
Center – www.sbtdc.org
 SCORE – www.score.org

45.  QUESTIONS?