Question

Topic: Strategy

Boss Gave Me A Marketing Assignment

Posted by kennyholmes on 7/7/2014 at 1:22 PM ET 250 Points
My manager has emailed me this problem, product marketing is not my strong suit though, so I'm coming here for some advice. Here is what he wants me to bring back to him.

Objective: By the end of September 2014, we will increase our sales of x (choose a product from our online catalog, which you can download from: https://www.stampinup.com/home/catalogs ) from new customer by 15%.

1. Explain to us the steps you would take to meet this objective.
2. Your ideas on how you would meet the objective.
3. How you would implement your ideas.

Any help, tips, ideas are greatly appreciated.
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/7/2014 at 2:06 PM Accepted
    Why do you think your manager has given you this problem? What skills are they hoping to build in you? What about this assignment is of interest to you professionally? What do you know about existing product marketing about "x" - and what opportunities do you see? At what cost? At what benefit? What techniques that work for other products could be applied to this case as well?
  • Posted by kennyholmes on 7/7/2014 at 2:12 PM Author
    Someone in marketing was let go recently, I believe the manager wants to build his knowledge so he may or may not start doing some of the marketing on his own. I would also like to learn as I think building knowledge is vital for long term career success, I am in graphic design right now. I am looking to learn, I have little to know product marketing experience as that is not in my job description, for right now at least. So like i asked any tips or ideas are appreciated. What I have kind of thought of would be

    1. Identify target demographic, identify who is currently purchasing said product as of right now, then find the "new" market that is not being hit or is not purchasing as of now.

    2. Then I would buid a marketing plan around the new demo that I am marketing around

    3. Come up with budgets based on cost, roi, etc ..

    I know that is very vague, and that is why I am looking to learn what I should be thinking from some with more knowledge than I.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 7/7/2014 at 4:51 PM Accepted
    Fifteen percent based on what? Previous quarter sales? Previous half yearly or previous year same quarter? Fifteen percent on gross sales? On net sales?

    Why 15 percent anyway? Why not scale things out at 3 percent? Or 5 percent? Or 7 or 10 percent?

    Your boss also needs to understand that marketing is not sales. Sales is about selling. Marketing is about relationships and creating congruent akin
    alignment.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 7/7/2014 at 6:10 PM Accepted
    The first step is clearly to identify your primary target audience. Once you know who they are, where they live, etc., you can focus your efforts on finding more people just like them. (Maybe even use PRIZM from Claritas since you have an existing customer list.)

    I'd also observe that your boss's goals seem somewhat arbitrary. Obviously, he's not an experienced marketer if he thinks +15% in the next 3 months is a reasonable goal without time for legitimate testing.

    The one way you might be able to get there from here is with an Adwords campaign. You probably wouldn't be able to implement that yourself in the timeframe he's set for you, but with some outside help it may actually be possible. (Let me know if you want some referrals who know Adwords.)
  • Posted by cookmarketing@gmail. on 7/7/2014 at 7:10 PM Accepted
    After reviewing your site, you may want to focus on increasing your present your core audience 15%
  • Posted by msjenniferwoodard on 7/7/2014 at 7:35 PM Accepted
    Am I to understand that you can choose whatever product that you like and try to increase sales by 15%?

    If so, I would begin by taking a look at what the best selling products are and who those users are, which products do customers repeatedly purchase, what product do they give as gifts choose the product that I think I can increase sales by 15%.

    So now you know what product you are going to promote. I would choose visual platforms to promote my products. I would create a contest...let's say one where every time someone buys this product by 9/30/14 there name will be entered into a drawing for chance for the friend of their choice to receive the item for free, gift wrapped with a card and a note saying from the winner to the gifted and include a catalog with the gift. I would maybe offer 5 people the chance to win the gift, since the person entered has already purchased the gift, I would send them a different gift and their friends the gift that you are trying to get people to purchase. Then I would promote the contest on facebook, pinterest, instagram. email and your blog. I would also run a rafflecopter contest with the goal of getting people to share the contest, the person with the most shares would win a free surprise gift or maybe their choice between from limited selection. I would run a congruent contest for people to submit pictures of them using the product or finished photo of the product used, have people to vote on the submitted photos and the person with the most votes would win a prize.

    Good luck,
    Jenn
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 7/7/2014 at 8:13 PM Member
    I've looked at your site and at your social media streams. It seems to me that an effective way to generate sales would be to drive traffic from Facebook to specific landing pages on which you drive home one offer.

    At the point of transaction and BEFORE the card is process, you offer an upwell or a cross sell that relates to the primary offer. You make your upwell a one time offer (if the buyer refuses the upwell they don't see it again).

    You could present a 30 day period of savings, all of which have an associated upwell. Work out the upwell values and the number of upsets you'd need to close and you can calculate the value of the sales to take a stab at getting close to or beyond your 15 percent target.
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Strategy)