When evaluating your business case, company decision makers are interested in how your proposed project intends to reach customers and create sales.
MARKETING COMPONENTS OF A BUSINESS CASE
hen evaluating your business case, company decision makers are interested in how your proposed project intends to reach customers and create sales.
You present this information within the marketing components section of your business case.
The business case should include five marketing components:
THE RESEARCH PLAN
The research plan details how your team intends to gather and analyze information about existing customer needs.
PROJECT FEATURES AND BENEFITS
The project features and benefits component outlines the features and benefits that the project will bring to the organization, such as increased inventory turnover, access to new customers, and reduced staffing levels.
THE CREATIVE PLAN
The creative plan outlines how your team is going to inform customers about your product. This plan should be simple, memorable, and focused on the benefits of the proposal.
THE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN
The marketing communications plan details how time and money will be allocated to distributing product information to customers.
THE SALES PLAN
The sales plan communicates strategies for acquiring new business, growing existing business, and making or exceeding sales.
The marketing components of a business case are often interlinked and interdependent.
For example, advertising is a crucial component of any marketing communications plan. The ideas used in advertising are usually drawn up in your creative plan, which is itself dependent upon the customer needs described in your research plan.
Sergio is an online-sales manager for a large leisure travel company. Nearly 80% of the company's package sales are online, and the company's image is very Internet based.
Sergio needs to present a business case for updating the online ordering system. The company executives are keen to know how this project will benefit the company.
In the marketing components section of his business case, Sergio proposes a survey of all customers to assess their online ordering habits and requirements.
In the project features and benefits section, Sergio suggests that the proposed update will increase inventory turnover by up to 6% a year, and will help reach new customers.
Sergio's creative plan outlines strategies for advertising the new system, including special deals and a loyalty scheme for regular customers.
His marketing communications plan suggests targeted advertising of products to repeat customers. And his sales plan aims to use different incentives to entice new business and retain existing customers.
SERGIO'S MARKETING OUTLINE
Research plan
In order to gather and analyze the relevant customer data for the project, the team will conduct a survey of all customers to assess their online ordering habits and requirements. This survey will take the form of a web-based questionnaire, which will be linked to from the customer web page and will automatically appear when customers use their login to access the site.
Project features and benefits
The preliminary research completed by the project team suggests that the proposed update to the online-sales system will increase inventory turnover by up to 6% per year, and will enable the company to reach new customers.
Creative plan
To advertise the new system to customers, the project proposes offering special deals and a loyalty scheme for regular customers. The user-friendliness of the new system will be accentuated in the promotional material.
Marketing communications plan
Our web presence will form a key component of the marketing communications strategy. The new ordering system will be leveraged to distribute product information to customers, using customers' purchasing history.
Sales plan
The new ordering system will facilitate repeat business by providing an easily accessed purchase history for each customer, along with a list of recommended products. The system will also offer credit incentives to customers if they recommend our online service to new customers.
With the help of good research and a well-defined set of product features and benefits, you can construct an effective creative plan, marketing communications plan, and sales plan.
These components are crucial to a good business case, as they demonstrate to the decision makers that your team has considered the bottom line - that is, reaching customers and creating sales.
QUESTION
Nancy is a marketing manager with an educational software company. She's constructing a business case for an "introduce a friend" promotional initiative that she believes will increase sales and reach new customers.
Identify the marketing components that should be included in Nancy's business case.
- The technical specifications of the project
- Plans for a customer-wide survey to find out which promotional initiative will be most successful
- Details of how customer referrals can be used to expand the company's customer base
- A plan for a customer-wide e-mail advertising campaign
- The development timetable for the project
- Details of the resources required to initiate the e-mail advertising campaign
- Projections for how the referrals of existing customers will increase sales to new customers
The technical specification is not a marketing-related component of the business case.
The research plan details how Nancy's team intends to gather and analyze information about existing customer needs.
The project features and benefits component outlines the features and benefits that the project will bring to the organization.
The creative plan outlines how Nancy's team is going to inform customers about the initiative.
The development timetable is not a marketing-related component of the business case.
The marketing communications plan details how time and money will be allocated to distributing product information to customers.
The sales plan communicates strategies for acquiring new business, growing existing business, and making or exceeding sales.
The marketing components section of your business case includes information on how to reach customers and create sales.
The five marketing components that should be included in a business case are the research plan, the product features and benefits, the creative plan, the marketing communications plan, and the sales plan.
The marketing components of a business case are often interlinked and interdependent.
I have been teaching and training agents, team leaders, supervisors, managers and admins of call centers and other businesses in BPO related fields. This series, comes as a result of that experience. I have more than 4,000 modules that I plan on sharing here. This is # 007-05