MarketingToals
A Solid Marketing Plan
Begins With SWOT
By Kathy Vass, Marketing Editor
T he hardest part of
developing a market-
ing plan is committing
to a careful analysis of
your business, including
examination of your prod-
uct and service, your mar-
kets and your position in
them, and your business's
strengths and weaknesses.
Many companies use a
SWOT (strengths, weak-
nesses, opportunitries and
threats) analysis to deter-
mine the best product
marketing strategies. Capi-
talizing on your strengths
while understanding your
weaknesses will help you
take full advantage of
opportunities and mini-
mize threats.
Know Yourself
A SWOT anal)'sis begins
by examining internal
strengths and weaknesses
in the areas of profitability,
Sedes and marketing, qual-
ity, customer service, pro-
ductivity, financial re-
sources, financial manage-
ment, operations and distri-
bution. Involve your em-
ployees in this process —
their frontline experience
will be invaluable.
Take a straightforward
look at your company, ask-
ing such questions as: Are
you losing or gaining cus-
tomers? Are you losing or
18 APRIL 200S TextileWorldxom
gaining market share or
maintaining the status
quo? Are you losing or
gaining sales volume? Are
you experiencing cash flow
problems? What is your
employee turnover? Are
you playing follow the
market leader, letting your
competitor set the pace?
Next, look at external
business environments.
These areas include current
customers, prospects, com-
petitors, technology, polit-
ical climate, government
and other regulatory orga-
nizations, and the legal
and economic environ-
ments. For example, con-
sider how desktop publish-
ing revolutionized the
typesetting and printing
industries, and how the
events of 9/11 and the
Internet have challenged
the trade show industry.
To begin your SWOT,
select five strengths and
opportunities, and five
weaknesses and threats.
Knowing these will help
you identify and develop
marketing strategies. For
example, do you have an
area of expertise worth
promoting? Are you under-
capitalized? Is your market
growing or shrinking?
The goal is to determine
which small market niches
to focus on and dominate.
and discover how to please
customers in a better way
than the competition.
Know Your
Competition
Those pesky competitors
are perhaps the biggest
impediment to achieving
your marketing goals —
yours is not the only busi-
ness looking to your target
markets for your next sale.
Start assessing the compet-
itive environment by identi-
fying your immediate com-
petitors. Who are they?
What do they do better
than you? What do you do
better than they? Are they
investing in research and
development, a new prod-
uct line or technology?
What are their target mar-
kets? What image are they
trying to project? Are they
heavily in debt?
You can quickly deter-
mine your position in the
marketplace by identifying
the unique selling proposi-
tion of your product or ser-
vice. What makes your
product or service stand
out from the competition?
Is it quality, price, conve-
nience, style, location or
professionalism? The goal
is to develop an image in
the marketplace that you
offer something special that
your competitors do not.
Remember to be thor-
ough in assessing the com-
petition. Start by gathering
these basic facts about your
five largest competitors:
• names and addresses of
competitive companies;
• names and roles of key
company players;
• number of employees;
• years in business;
• sales in both dollars
and units;
• market share;
• targeted markets;
• key customers;
• position of products and
services; and
• distribution patterns.
Supplier relationships
are a good source of com-
petitive intelligence. There
is nothing sneaky or
unethical about gathering
and using information. It's
part of being in business.
There are a number of
ways to obtain information
on the competition — from
scanning of financial and
trade publications or hiring
a clipping service, to using
an Interhet search engine
like www.infoseek.com.
Maintaining files on the
five most direct competi-
tors can yield big dividends
for a relatively small
amount of time and ener-
gy. Place every bit of infor-
mation you can glean in
the files. Clip advertise-

ments and articles about
their products or employee
promotions. Want ads can
help you estimate growth
and track key personnel
changes. Clip anything
that gives you a handle on
their positioning or pricing
strategies. Attend trade
shows or trade association
meetings, and gather bro-
chures and other collateral
material they are distribut-
ing. Visit their websites
often to stay abreast of
expanding lines or new
product introductions.
More Technology, Less Travel Cause
Shift In Trade Shows' Unique Selling Proposition
Technology is a power-
ful element to consider
when developing your
company's marketing
strategies for the future.
In the trade show indus-
try, advances in technology,
corporate consolidation
and travel restrictions have
chipped away at exhibitor
and visitor participation, but
few external elements have
affected that industry like
the Internet.
"You literally have the
world at your fingertips."
said Butler Mullins, director
of the 2004 American Tex-
tile Machinery Exhibition-
International (ATME-I) and
a 30-year trade shov^' veter-
an. "It's far more expedient
and much less expensive for
international show organiz-
ers to communicate with
prospective exhibitors and
visitors via websites and
Once a month, spend a
few minutes reviewing
your files to determine if
patterns are developing.
Track how often your com-
petitors advertise and in
which publications. Study
their advertising message
to determine their posi-
tioning strategies. Look at
the image they are convey-
ing to determine their tar-
get markets. Some ques-
tions to consider during
competitive intelligence
gathering include: Is your
competitor purchasing
e-mail. The downside is that
it is also much iess expen-
sive for buyers and sellers
to do business via the Inter-
net than w\\h a traditional
trade show."
Many companies are
funneling money slated
for prospecting and lead
generation to outlets other
than the trade show, using
e-mail campaigns, newslet-
ters, downloadable white
papers and a host of Web-
based applications to find
sales prospects.
Fortunately for associa-
tions and other managers of
trade exhibitions, there is
still a perceived value in
face-to-face marketing,
according to a study by the
Chicago-based Center for
Exhibition Industry Research
(CEIR). The study reports
that 35 percent of atten-
dees see exhibitions becom-
additional property? Build-
ing a new facility, or clos-
ing one? Developing a new
image? Changing its posi-
tioning or pricing strategy?
Redesigning products?
Conducting professional or
market research? Expand-
ing trading areas or aban-
doning certain markets?
Increasing or reducing
advertising frequency?
You can use a simple
form as a quick reference
on your position versus that
of your competitors. This
form has three columns:
ing more valuable over the
next fev^ years, while only 9
percent see them becoming
less valuable; and 76 per-
cent rate face-to-face con-
tact v^ith potential new ven-
dors as "very" or "extreme-
ly" important.
In a speech to interna-
tional exhibition managers
last December, Douglas L,
Ducate, president and
CEO, CEIR, said changes in
the marketplace have erod-
ed the trade show indus-
try's selling proposition,
New product launches
were the number-one rea-
son to exhibit, according
to Ducate, but in today's
economy, companies can't
wait for show cycles to get
their products on the mar-
ket. It used to be signifi-
cantly less expensive
to generate sales leads
through trade shows versus
MarketingTDDls
customers want; competitor
provides; and we provide.
Place the following items
(and add your own for your
particular market) under
the customers want catego-
ry — quality, low price,
high price, wide product
line, deep product line,
product information, relia-
bility, warranty, location,
just-in-time delivery, acces-
sories and spare parts, and
well-trained technicians —
then let your SWOT analy-
sis determine how you fill
in the next tvv'o columns.
cold calling, but as the costs
of exhibiting continue to
rise, the cost differential is
nearly negligible, he added.
The trade show industry
needs to develop a new
value proposition for
exhibitors — one that
incorporates both quantita-
tive and qualitative reasons
for exhibiting. To remain a
viable part of the marketing
mix, exhibition organizers
must show value and fit.
One way to do that is to
raise the quality and the
buying power of the audi-
ence, according to Mullins,
"One thing, we believe,
that kept ATME-I strong
over its 35-year run in
Creenville was the quality
of the attendee," he said.
"We were always able to
attract the decision-makers,
and in the long run, that is
what exhibitors want," EQ
Textile World APRIL 2005 19