Marketing

Marketing Templates: Introduction by Example

Marketing Goals and Strategy Overview

The primary goals of marketing include:

1. Identifying Target Consumer Segments: Recognize consumer groups with needs or desires that your product or service addresses.

2. Understanding the Consumer Journey: Gain insights into the stages consumers go through to reach a buying decision. Identify the specific messages and affirmations they need at each stage.

3. Delivering Targeted Messages: Ensure messages (advertisements) reach each consumer with the right content at the right stage of their journey, resonating with their perspectives and worldview. If the message isn’t a good fit for their stage, it’s a wasted effort.

4. Repetition for Retention: Messages must often be seen multiple times (up to 12) to become embedded in the consumer's decision-making process.

5. Balancing Profitability: Determine how many messages you can afford to send and how many are necessary to convert a lead to a sale.

Aiming to reach a broad market from the outset can quickly exhaust resources, as a customer journey may require 3 to 8 steps, each needing multiple messages. The solution is to narrow down to a focused, well-defined target segment you can afford to reach with repeated, resonant messaging. The initial attempt at finding a product-customer-message fit may not be successful, so it’s wise to budget for three attempts, using only a third of your budget for the first. This makes selecting a smaller, highly targeted market segment essential.

The templates provided are designed to guide this process. They aren’t a complete solution—you’ll need additional tools like a customer journey map or a business model canvas. However, these templates help bridge gaps between such tools.

Fictitious Example: Bringing a New Breakfast Cereal to Market

Starting with the Product Document: Begin by filling out the Product Document, focusing on the Description section. At this stage, you don’t need perfection or completeness—just a solid description and an outline of key "audiences."

Defining "Audiences": Here, “audiences” refers to customer segments, which include more than just end consumers. For example, if mothers are the primary buyers of the cereal, they are our primary audience. Secondary audiences could be children, who influence their parents’ purchasing decisions. Other tertiary audiences could include grocers, regulatory agencies, health organizations, and wellness groups. For simplicity, we’ll focus on mothers and kids as our primary and secondary audiences.

Creating Audience Documents for Target Groups: Next, create two Audience Documents—one for mothers and one for kids. When describing mothers, aim to understand how they see themselves. This is key to creating messaging that resonates and elicits a “Hey, they’re talking about me!” reaction.

Audience Segmentation: Consider dividing mothers into segments, like stay-at-home vs. working mothers, or by household income, which may affect price sensitivity. You can also explore geographic or demographic factors, such as where they live or gather (schools, churches, workplaces). This information will help determine where to focus your messaging for maximum relevance and impact.

Refining the Product Document: With audience insights, return to the Product Document and revise the product description to resonate across all identified audiences. Begin filling out the rest of the document, without worrying about perfection.

Research and Iteration: Refine both the Product and Audience Documents through multiple rounds, including peer reviews and focus group feedback. Once the documents feel stable, select an initial customer segment to target.

Example Target Segments:

1. • • Mothers: Working mothers in middle-class families living in Algés.

     • Kids: Boys ages 6-10.

Media and Advertising Strategy: Consider the cost of reaching a broad audience. Mass media like TV or radio reaches beyond your target, meaning you pay to advertise to many who aren’t potential customers. Start small with high-impact areas, like local schools or churches, where your audience density is high. Sponsoring a local boys’ sports team could also yield a high concentration of your target audience.

Developing the Funnel Document: Now, shift to the Funnel Document, which fine-tunes messaging for a single audience segment. Map out messages for the stages of their journey, with an emphasis on Awareness, Evaluation, and Purchase.

Example Flyer Messaging:

1. • • For Moms:

       • “Smart working moms make sure their boys grow up strong.”

       • “XYZ cereal provides the nutrition and supplements missing in other cereals.”

       • “Get a free sample today!”

     • For Kids:

       • “No yucky vitamins!”

       • “XYZ cereal is the tasty way to grow up big and strong.”

       • “Grab a pack and show your mom!”

This flyer covers all three stages in one message, ending with a call to action (try a free sample). Packaging should carry additional messaging, supporting the Evaluation phase by directing customers to the website for more information on purchasing options.