Continuing in this series of posts, once you’ve determined marketing’s value, you need to identify your target markets (Step 2):
- Who are the key targets within your organization that you need to reach?
- Who do you need support from?
- Who’s most critical to the marketing function?
You can also segment your targets by executive level, division/department, function, etc.
Now you’re ready for Step 3
Here’s where you determine your positioning — how do you want to be perceived by your target markets:
- a strategic player?
- contributor to the bottom line?
- a necessary function?
- professional?
- responsive?
- not a waste of resources? etc.
Your desired positioning should tie back to your product value (see Step 1) and be relevant to your target audience. For example, you may want to be perceived as a “creative resource” within your organization, but that may not resonate with the folks in Finance (especially if they’re eye-balling the advertising budget for potential cost-savings). However, the accounting-types might be more receptive to marketing as “not a waste of resources” or “advocate for customer loyalty & retention” (i.e., more bottom-line oriented).
My next post will continue with Step 4 — assessing your communications opportunities.