A Highly Effective Marketing
Plan (HEMP) is a process that will dramatically improve your chances of profitably selling
more of your products and services. And HEMP will stop you wasting thousands, maybe
millions of pounds, dollars, euros or yen on marketing initiatives that should never see
the light of day.
HEMP is a straightforward,
simple, 17 step plan which you can use to address your problems and opportunities whatever
their size, whatever your business, whatever sector you operate in. And it's tried,
tested and proven.
Each step is detailed within
the book with explanations as to why each step is necessary. Also, the benefits of
completing the process sequentially are highlighted.
This is the book that will
help you to:
- create a highly effective
marketing plan that works - in just one hour!
- learn from the relevant
case studies and examples and apply these to your business;
- really understand your
business and what it is that makes people buy from you;
- identify the real
obstacles to your plan - and how to overcome them;
- gain tips for how to make
sure your plan is successfully implemented.
Peter Knight has run small,
medium and large companies and today is Founder & Chairman of Phoenix plc, a marketing
communications agency which works with clients including Motorola, First Choice, Laing,
Harry Ramsden's and many more. Phoenix employs 60 people at The Chapel of Ideas - a
converted church - all of whom are engaged in effective communications via all media.
Peter is a TEC International
speaker and won the speaker of the year award in 2002. He regularly is engaged by clients
to speak and facilitate at conferences, business retreats & strategy planning
workshops, and he also contributes to several trade publications.
Contents
Step One - Desired Result
As Stephen Covey put it,
"Begin with the end in mind." The principle of this step is: the greater the
clarity of the outcome the more likely it will be accomplished.
Step Two - What's it worth?
If you're going to do
something then value it. And identifying a monetary value helps create a universal
currency, as others might view differently the worth you attach to your project. For
example, "this initiative will create turnover of L5 million and produce L1 million
profit in 12 months" has a clarity which will appeal to any board or bank.
Step Three - What are the
consequences?
All new plans have
consequences. There are potential upsides and downsides - what are they? And what will be
the consequence of not implementing your plan? This chapter explores how important it is
to identify every possible outcome before the plan commences: often people will be more
motivated by fear of loss than by the pleasure of gain, e.g. "consider what will
happen if we don't pioneer this new initiative and our major competitor does
instead."
Step Four - Targets
Who are we after? Who will
be buying your product or service. And don't just go for standard classifications; really
go to town gathering information. Build a picture of these people. How old are they? How
much do they weigh on average? Would they prefer to fly British Airways or Virgin? When
did they last go to the cinema and what film did they see? The principle of this chapter
is that you can't know too much about your targets.
Step Five - What do they
currently think and do?
Now you know who you're
after, (step four), what do these people currently think about your product and service?
And as a consequence of what they think, what do they do? Do they know you for providing
one product and think that's all you do, (and as a result buy your other product from a
competitor)? Have they never heard of your service or anything like it, (and therefore
they currently do nothing)? Thinking precedes doing: know what your targets think.
Step Six - What do you want
them to think and do?
Following on from the last
chapter, we can now look at what we want people to think and having changed their mind
will cause them to buy your product or service. The principle underpinning steps five and
six is simple: change the thinking and you'll change the doing patterns of your targets,
(whereas so many companies try to get people to change their "doing" without
thinking first.)
Step Seven - What's the
story?
What are you actually
selling? This chapter prompts the exercise of succinctly writing down exactly what's on
offer. This exercise is amazing for many people who whilst believing they know what they
do actually discover that either they don't or they can't adequately describe it.
Step Eight - The one big
thing (10 second sell)
All too often peoples'
description of their service or product are boring and confusing filled with far too much
irrelevant detail. This chapter distills down to the ONE big thing on offer. This chapter
is what Pearson calls "The 10 second sell", and you know how effective that is.
Step Nine - What's the
benefit?
This step looks at the one
big thing and asks the question: so what? What do you do for the target customer? Does
this benefit them significantly? Is it compelling and how does it compare to the
competition?
Step Ten - Know yourself
Is your current personality
appropriate for the product or service you're offering? There's no point your being seen
as British Airways if your product is designed for Virgin customers. There's a built in
disadvantage, which is unnecessary, for a traditional old-fashioned company offering a
service which will primarily appeal to youth. This step asks the question: do you need to
review the personality of your company for this new product or service to work? There are
lots of examples of how companies have successfully changed to inspire readers; for
example Gieves & Hawkes, Burberry, FCUK in the fashion industry; Tesco in food
retailing and Swatch watches.
Step Eleven - How will you
talk to your targets?
We explore the different
communication methods and mediums which can be used singularly or more often than not are
combined for maximum impact. The real life examples of marketing excellence, which are
highlighted throughout the book, deliberately draw on a variety of mediums including:
poster, TV, radio, press, direct mail, PR, ambient, viral email, etc. Some honest insider
truths about the effectiveness or otherwise of certain media will be revealed.
Step Twelve - How much?
What's your budget? Compare
this with the numbers written down in step two: is it realistic? Compare this with the
ideas you've got from step eleven: is it realistic? If not then some rethinking is
required.
Step Thirteen - Other
resources
It's not just money. Your
plan will need other resources, people, equipment and time. Identify all of these at the
beginning, not on the hoof, and get commitment from others who are vital for helping
achieve the desired result. How much of your time will the plan take up? What will you
stop doing or give up to create the time for this plan?
Step Fourteen - Measure it
According to Tom Peters,
"if you can't measure it you can't manage it" - too right. Therefore identify at
the outset the measurements which will tell you that you're on the right track. Sometimes
these can be unusual ones which might be more revealing than numbers alone, for example 'Your
Mother Should Know' is a process some companies can use: every employee asks their mother
if they've heard of the xyz product, or seen the latest advertisement and measures the
response. The same apparently random yet amazingly revealing technique works when
consulting employees children and their friends about a service geared to that age group.
Step Fifteen - What next?
This is where we get readers
to make a written commitment to take the next actions. What are the ten most important
things that are needed to be done first? These can be large or small.
Step sixteen - What's your
name?
The best plans often have a
name. This ensures that everyone knows what the meeting is about when they see the 'ABC
Plan' on the agenda. Choose a name which really motivates.
At the end of the book I
will include tips for successful implementation of HEMP based on hundreds of real case
studies.
General notes on content
Throughout the book are real
case studies and examples including great photographs, pictures, graphs and evidence of
people making lots of money and having huge success thanks to HEMP.
168 pages