Presentation to AP Heads

1. Introduction to Marketing
Lilla Somogyi
Marketing Manager
13th June 2012

2. .
Agenda
 Crash course in Marketing
 What is marketing?
 Branding
 Marketing Plan and strategy
 Competitors
 Promotion
 Social media

3. .
Lesson 1. What is marketing?
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as:
"the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying
customer requirements profitably."
http://www.cim.co.uk

4. .
The Marketing Mix
Businesses need to make sure they are marketing:
The right product to
The right person at
The right price in
The right place and at
The right time

5. .
If you manufacture pens and want to target school children…
More appropriate Less appropriate
Product Coloured ballpoint
pens
Gold fountain pens
Price Low price High price,
including insurance
Place Selling them
through
newsagents and
stationers
Selling them
through specialist
outlets and
jewellery stores
Promotion Point of sale
material
In glossy magazine
or Sunday
supplements

6. .
What to do…
Think about your target groups
Think about where to target them
Think about their behaviour

7. .
Lesson 2. Branding
The best brands create a special relationship with customers, based on
intangible qualities that evoke strong emotional responses.
These might consist of a logo, a general look and feel, a tone of voice and
the way a company interacts with its customers – but the whole should be
much greater than the sum of the parts.

8. .
Can we guess the top 4 of the Top 100 Brands 2011?
1.
2.
3.
4.

9. .
Top 4 of the Top 100 Brands 2011

10. .
Benefits of branding
 Memorability
 Loyalty
 Familiarity
 Premium image, premium price
 Extensions
 Greater organisational equity
 Lower marketing expense
 For customers, less risk

11. .
What to do…
 Think about your brand
 Is it consistent?
 If not, ensure you are using the same colours, fonts and logos
 Have you considered creating some brand guidelines?
 Minimum create powerpoint and word templates

12. .
Lesson 3. Marketing plans and strategy
A good marketing plan will help to keep you ahead of the competition and transform
your objectives into a strategy that will benefit your school and customers.
Considers issues such as segmentation – vital if you’re seeking to increase your market
share and competitor research, which is often undervalued and under-resourced.
Both are invaluable preparation for an effective marketing plan and strategy.

13. .
How to do a marketing plan
The main contents of a marketing plan are:
1.Executive Summary
2.Situational Analysis
3.Opportunities / Issue Analysis - SWOT Analysis
4.Objectives
5.Strategy
6.Action Program (the operational marketing plan itself for the period under review)
7.Financial Forecast
8.Controls

14. .
Limited time? Do a SWOT analysis!
Summary of Situation Analysis
 STRENGTHS: Internal strengths
 WEAKNESSES Internal weaknesses
 OPPORTUNITIES: External opportunities
 THREATS: External threats
… essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for achievement of the
selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs.

15. .
Lesson 4. Competitors
Key questions to look at:
1. Who are your competitors?
2. What do they offer?
3. What is their pricing policy?
4. Who are their customers?
5. How do they promote themselves?
6. Who are their suppliers?
7. How financially secure are they?
8. What kind of organisation are they?
9. What are their strengths and weaknesses?
10.What is their business strategy?

16. .
Lesson 5. Promotion = Marketing?
The promotional mix is made up of 5 elements:
 Advertising
 Sales promotion
 Public relations
 Direct marketing
 Personal selling
No, it forms part of it.

17. .
Advantages and Disadvantages of Each Element of the Promotional Mix
Mix Element Advantages Disadvantages
Advertising Good for building awareness
Effective at reaching a wide audience
Repetition of main brand and product positioning helps
build customer trust
Impersonal - cannot answer all a customer's questions
Not good at getting customers to make a final purchasing
decision
Personal Selling Highly interactive - lots of communication between the
buyer and seller
Excellent for communicating complex / detailed product
information and features
Relationships can be built up - important if closing the
sale make take a long time
Costly - employing a sales force has many hidden costs in
addition to wages
Not suitable if there are thousands of important buyers
Sales Promotion Can stimulate quick increases in sales by targeting
promotional incentives on particular products
Good short term tactical tool
If used over the long-term, customers may get used to the
effect
Too much promotion may damage the brand image
Public Relations Often seen as more "credible" - since the message
seems to be coming from a third party (e.g. magazine,
newspaper)
Cheap way of reaching many customers - if the publicity
is achieved through the right media
Risk of losing control - cannot always control what other
people write or say about your product

18. .
Direct Marketing
Establishing an individual relationship between the school offering a service and the final
customer.
The process of direct marketing covers a wide range of promotional activities you may be
familiar with.
These include:
• Direct-response adverts on television and radio
• Mail order catalogues
• E-commerce
• Magazine inserts
• Direct mail (sometimes also referred to as “junk mail”)
• Telemarketing

19. .
SOCIAL MEDIA

20. .
WHY BOTHER WITH SOCIAL MEDIA?
 Competition is using it
 Target audience is using it
 Google counts social sharing when ranking
 Provides great brand exposure
 It’s the next generation of Word of Mouth marketing
 Social Media Networking sites have high Page Rank
 Provides transparency
 Opens up conversation
 Aids customer service
 Brand exposure
BEST PART IT’S FREE!

21. .
TACTICS
Twitter
FACEBOOK
LINKEDINYOUTUBE
Blogs

22. .
TWITTER
Twitter allows schools to promote services on an individual level.
The use of a service can be explained in short messages that followers are more likely to read.
These messages appear on followers’ home pages.
Messages can link to the schools website, Facebook profile, photos, videos, etc.
This link provides followers the opportunity to spend more time interacting with the school online.
This interaction can create a loyal connection between schools and individuals and can also
lead to larger advertising opportunities.
Twitter promotes a product/service in real-time and brings customers in.

23. .
TWITTER

24. .
FACEBOOK
Facebook profiles are more detailed than Twitter.
They allow a product/service to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions.
It can include testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for
others to see. Facebook can link back to the product’s Twitter page as well as send out
event reminders. Facebook promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.
As marketers see more value in social media marketing, advertisers continue to increase
sequential ad spend in social by 25%. The study attributes 84% of "engagement" or clicks
to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising.

25. .
FACEBOOK

26. .
BLOGS
Blogs allow a school to provide longer descriptions of services.
The longer description can include reasoning and uses.
It can include testimonials and can link to and from Facebook, Twitter and many social
network and blog pages.
Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers.
Other promotional uses are acquiring followers and subscribers and direct them to your
social network pages.
Why not get your students involved in writing blogs? E.g. DLD Social Media Group
Ambassadors!

27. .
LINKEDIN
LinkedIn, being a professional business-related networking site, allows companies to
create professional profiles for themselves as well as their business to network and meet
others.
LinkedIn provides its members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business
partners. Members can use “Company Pages” similar to Facebook pages to create an area
that will allow business owners to promote their products or services and be able to
interact with their customers.

28. .
LINKEDIN
If appropriate ages, can
be used to maintain
contact with Alumni!

29. .
YOUTUBE
YouTube is another popular channel; advertisements are done in a way to suit the
target audience.
The ads on this platform are usually in sync with the content of the video
requested, this is another advantage YouTube brings for advertisers.
Promotional opportunities such as sponsoring a video is also possible on YouTube,
e.g. a user who searches for a YouTube video on dog training may be presented
with a sponsored video from a dog toy company in results along with other videos.
If you have a school video, is it on YouTube? Can sponsor an ad for a popular local video?

30. .
YOUTUBE

31. ANY QUESTIONS?

32. CONTACT DETAILS
Lilla Somogyi
Marketing Manager
Tel: +44(0)20 7487 6000
Mobile: +44 (0) 7785 615 459
Skype: lilla_somogyi
Email: lilla.somogyi@alphaplusgroup.co.uk
Website: http://www.abbeycolleges.co.uk