Building Block: Marketing Strategy
This Bridge should take you 4-5 blocks to complete
Goal of task: To develop and put into practice an understanding of how products are marketed and distributed to the consumer. To develop a marketing plan for your business.
Section 1: Explore marketing principles and techniques: (1 block)
GQ: How can we use the known techniques of marketing and persuasion to achieve desirable effects in our own business endeavors?
1A. Explore the following three resources and take notes to help you analyze the ads in step ‘B’ below. Your notes will also serve to guide your own marketing decisions later in this section. Be sure to include the relevant ideas from each resource as you compile your notes.
- Tips for Powerful Messages
- Ethos, Logos, Pathos
GQ: How can we use the known techniques of marketing and persuasion to achieve desirable effects in our own business endeavors?
1A. Explore the following three resources and take notes to help you analyze the ads in step ‘B’ below. Your notes will also serve to guide your own marketing decisions later in this section. Be sure to include the relevant ideas from each resource as you compile your notes.
- Tips for Powerful Messages
- Ethos, Logos, Pathos
- The power of words from PBS: The Persuaders: (video below)
- More Ethos, Logos, and Pathos: (video below)
1B. View the four media ads below. Select the one that your groups gravitates to. Using your notes from above (or even the resources themselves), analyze your preference for that one ad. This should begin as a conversation with an appointed notetaker. As the notes develop and the ideas solidify, begin building a case for your preference. Use the comments below the ad to get an ‘outsiders’ view of how the ad works to persuade. Use the terminology and principles from the above resources to explain your preference in a formal analysis of the ad. This should be one to two paragraphs.
- Sign off by one IT Teacher
1C. Now review your notes from step ‘A’ and rewrite them in a clear and useful format. This may be a chart, a series of bullets, or something else, but it should serve as an answer to the above GQ.These principles and techniques are the beginning of your Marketing Strategy. Apply them to your Message to the World. Should any changes be made? Are there ways you can make your message more powerful and persuasive?
- Sign off by one IT Teacher
Section 2: Define Your Target Audience: (1-2 blocks)
GQs: Who are the members of our target audience? What are their needs and desires? What limits them? What motivates them?
GQs: Who are the members of our target audience? What are their needs and desires? What limits them? What motivates them?
2A. The following sources will help you understand the reasons behind creating a customer profile. Take notes!
Resource #1
Resource #2
Resource #3
2B. What characteristics do your customers embody? (You may have to conduct some research to find the following information)
1) Demographics:
a) What is their age range? b) What gender do they tend to be? c) Where do they live and why? d) What is their income level? e) What is their level of education? 2) Psychographics: a) What is their personality type? b) What problems or needs do they share? c) What do they value? d) Are they religious or political? e) What issues are they passionate about? 3) Behavioral: a) What are your customers’ likes and dislikes? b) What do they enjoy doing? What are their hobbies? c) What do they read? Online/offline? Where do they find information? d) Where do they shop? e) What and where do they eat? |
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The above questions were arrived at by reviewing the following two sources. You may use them if you like:
- Five Simple Steps to Creating an Ideal Customer Profile
- Knowing Your Target Market: The Power of Creating Customer Profiles
- Five Simple Steps to Creating an Ideal Customer Profile
- Knowing Your Target Market: The Power of Creating Customer Profiles
- Section 2A and 2B (together) require a sign off from two IT teachers
2C. Synthesize your finding into an organized and polished Customer Profile (this will be included in your formal Business Plan, so aim for a professional tone in your writing). Name and describe your audience; discuss the relevant information you have determined about them (geographics, socioeconomics, buying trends, ideological beliefs, habits, other details relevant to your message, etc.). Your Customer Profile should be in paragraph format, with an informative lead sentence and a final line that provides your reader with a sense of ‘ending’.
- Sign off by two IT teachers
Section 3: How will we get our message out? (1 block)
GQs: What strategies will we use to reach our target audience?
GQs: What strategies will we use to reach our target audience?
3A. Review your notes from sections 1 and 2. Create a team-brainstorm to get some working answers to the GQ: What strategies will we use to reach our target audience?
- Brainstorm Guidelines:
- Start with each team member creating his/her own brainstormed list (solo activity);
-> then join forces and compare notes
- Go for quantity; the more ideas the better
- Don’t judge the ideas, just generate as many as possible
- Build on the ideas of others
- Brainstorm Guidelines:
- Start with each team member creating his/her own brainstormed list (solo activity);
-> then join forces and compare notes
- Go for quantity; the more ideas the better
- Don’t judge the ideas, just generate as many as possible
- Build on the ideas of others
3B. Explore current marketing trends, methods, and strategies in the sources provided below.
Take notes to help answer the Section 3 GQ (What strategies will we use to reach our target audience?). Your notes should record your key take-aways from each source, and any good ideas the sources help you arrive at. Feel free to locate and use other credible resources to explore and complete this portion of your marketing plan.
- 21st Century Marketing
- A Marketing Strategy for Every Business
- Developing a Marketing Plan
- The Top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2014
- How marketers use Pinterest and Instagram to win customers
Take notes to help answer the Section 3 GQ (What strategies will we use to reach our target audience?). Your notes should record your key take-aways from each source, and any good ideas the sources help you arrive at. Feel free to locate and use other credible resources to explore and complete this portion of your marketing plan.
- 21st Century Marketing
- A Marketing Strategy for Every Business
- Developing a Marketing Plan
- The Top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2014
- How marketers use Pinterest and Instagram to win customers
3C. Synthesize your information to develop a strong marketing strategy. Review the content of your brainstorm (from 3A) and highlight your best ideas. Review your notes from 3B and highlight the parts that seem most applicable to your particular business model. Pull your highlighted items together into a list or an outline (this is essentially a skeleton on your marketing strategy). Finally, draft a plan for how you will market your message and your shirts; this should sufficiently answer the Section 3 GQ: What strategies will we use to reach our target audience? Use a professional tone (remember, your main reader is the bank!)
- Once this portion of your document is signed off you will add it to your formal Business Plan document. -
- Once this portion of your document is signed off you will add it to your formal Business Plan document. -
-Sign off by three IT teachers