A marketing plan is an overview of all your marketing initiatives. This will include all the campaigns you intend to run over a set period of time, your goals and ambitions for the projects as a whole, and any research you’ve compiled to support these aims.
Your marketing strategy helps you stay in sync with your customer base, develop the right products for them, and determine how you communicate information about those products. Without a defined strategy you won’t know who your customers are, you won’t develop the right products, and you’ll waste money promoting them. It helps you understand your customers’ needs and better communicate your offerings. When people are fully aware of your product, it will help in increasing sales. Thus, it means success for the business. Also, another benefit of marketing strategy is by building a good image for the company.
Marketing helps to boost sales, Marketing creates revenue options, Marketing can help a business set its goals, helps build a reputation for your brand, improves decision-making, it helps you speak directly to your target audience.
You need a marketing plan because it gives you something consistent to work from and holds you accountable. What you need to do might be in your head, but writing and defining your strategy commits you to delivering it. It gives you something to show the people involved in your marketing activity to help them understand your business and its audience.
The consequences of not having a marketing strategy.
-losing out to competitors
-losing market share to existing and start-up competitors
-gaining and retaining fewer customers
-missing out on opportunities for better targeting and optimisation
-Lack of planning often leads to suboptimal execution.
-This means that competitors will pose more of a threat, filling in the gaps of the lacklustre service you offer.
If you don’t have a marketing plan in place, you won’t have a formal system for assessing where your leads and customers come from. This means you won’t know which of your marketing approaches works. You could be wasting money on marketing and advertising venues that don’t work for your business while underutilising effective marketing vehicles at the same.
If you randomly place ads, run commercials, and print promotional materials with no real goal in mind, you can overpay and see poor results. A marketing plan that explores and defines the best marketing approaches allows you to time your ad campaigns, buy advertising in bulk, and saturate your market for the best possible returns.
consumers are not aware of your business, they will not patronise your company. This can lead to a slowdown in business, employee lay-offs, the inability to pay creditors, and the eventual closure of your operation.
Like a marketing plan, your marketing strategy should cover the five “Ps” of marketing:
- Product – What you’re trying to sell
- Price – Profit margins, marketing budget, etc.
- Place – What channels or platforms will you use? (For example, will you be advertising on social media, utilising email marketing, or going offline?) Consider where your customers already spend their time for the optimal marketing locations.
- Promotion – What are you trying to achieve? (Are you hoping to build your social media presence, increase brand perception, promote a new product, or something else?)
- People – Who is your target audience? What drives them?
I will be using the 5 p’s to market my idea which is the virtual sports reality. The product will be the t-shirts with the virtual reality theme and logo on it and it will also be the tickets that the customer will buy to gain the experience of the VR.
The price will be very affordable for example, the tickets that you buy will be either £7 or £10. The £7 ticket will be the premium ticket. With that ticket, you get 30 minutes max in the VR room and also a chance to do the virtual sports reality which will be either cricket or football. The £10 is the exclusive ticket.
Marketing strategies at first glance appear very similar to the overarching marketing plan. However, the strategies will take a closer look at just a few select parts of the marketing plan.
Influencer marketing
Collaborations with influencers increase your visibility and raise your brand trust and reputation, as followers already trust the recommendations of personalities they follow and interact with.
Email marketing
This technique lets you target your messaging on a more granular level to appeal to various decision-making points. You can track success via open rates, click-through data, and unsubscribe rates, and use split testing to further hone in on effective messaging and subjects.
it allows for constant touches in a customer’s inbox, it is an inoffensive yet persistent way to nurture and warm leads and promotions.
Social media marketing
Social media is the big one and is only going to keep increasing as more brands in 2020 learn to live online. Building an online following on appropriate social channels will cultivate an engaged community and loyal clients, opening up a large arena.
Trend Aware
these groups of people are engaged as consumers of culture. They like to discover new and spectacular experiences, often encouraging their friends to join in. Attracted to big ideas that will have an impact on them and their lives today.
In the visitor profile 2022/2023 the percentage of trend-aware people who visited the museum that year was only 15% out of 187,000 people. The trend-aware group is mainly teenagers. 32% of people aged 5 – 15 visited the museum and 19% of people aged 16 – 34 visited the museum. So the museum has to attract more of the youth I believe having the virtual reality theme would increase that percentage.
Trend awards were the second largest segment (21,00 visits, 15% of general admission visits). They have always been the second largest segment since this segmentation model was introduced in the 2018/2019 games lounge and switched on appealed more to this segment than to most of the other segments.
Trend awards tended to have a higher science capital than most other segments. For example, 45% had high science capital compared with an average of 40%, and only 1% had low science capital compared with 5% overall.
The proportion of visits made by visitors from an asian or asian british background was the highest across the science museum group ( 13% compared with a range of 1% to 9% across the other museums) pushing sales, promotions, and new releases.
The Science Media museum uses various methods to attract the trend-aware audience. They set up various events in the museum for example the Bradford science festival and the other being the Lord of the Rings event, loads of teenagers came to this event with schools, etc.
They have the IMAX cinemas in the museum with this they screen different movies every other week including old movies and the new modern-day movies that have just come out newly released in the cinema. Loads of the youth come and watch the new movies that come out in the IMAX.
They have their social media platforms to engage with the audience. They have got a website that is running and currently active, this website has all information on what is going on in the museum and what they are doing , which events are upcoming.
The games lounge that they have in the museum is very good and important as well because it attracts a trend-aware audience.
With my idea, the Virtual Reality sports will specifically target this audience. Cricket is very popular among youngsters so is football. Especially in Bradford, you see a lot of the youth in sports.
The VR gaming itself has its own effects as well.
Seems like the majority of kids and teens have heard about virtual reality (79%), but they hardly know more about it. Those who have had an opportunity to try it out, find it very interesting and are excited about the things they might use it for (80%).
51% of kids are attracted to playing life games with virtual reality while sports and fighting games are somewhere between 40% and 41%.
these statistics and numbers show us that VR gaming is very popular among the youth. Virtual sports gaming is very high in percentage as you can see above. If the science media go forward with my idea they will get good feedback from customers and would attract the trend aware. The number of the trend-aware audience would increase in percentage.
Marketing audience segment group / Science Media Museum
Six in ten visitors [61%] recalled seeing some form of marketing or communication in advance of their visit. This was the highest proportion across the science museum group. The museum with the lowest was locomotion[47%].
The proportion of visits made by visitors from an Asian or Asian British background was the highest across the science museum group [13% compared with a range of 1% to 9% across the other museums].
The split between those from a white British background and those from a white minority background was reasonably consistent within the last year. In 2022/23, it was 75% of all visits from a white British background and 4% from a white minority background.
Four out of 10 visits[ 39%] were made by children aged 0-15. This was higher than the pre covid average by [33%]. The proportion was on a par with that seen at the Science Museum and at the Science and Industry Museum. This was probably because of the games lounge or the IMAX.
There were 110, 000 family visits made in 2022/23. This compares with a pre-COVID average of 240,000 visits. There were 31,000 visits made by independent adults in 2022/23. In the report, it says that the independent adult audience does not match that of the family audience. Three in ten independent adult visitors [30%] were aged 60+.
There were more females visiting the museum that year. [47%] being male and [51%] being female. This has been for the last five years.
13% were from an Asian or Asian British background. This 13% includes 8% from a Pakistani background, 3% from an Indian background, and 1% from a Chinese background. The museum had the highest proportion of visitors from an Asian or Asian British background of the museums across the Science Media Museum group.
4% of visitors came from a mixed or multiple ethnic group background.3% came from a Black African, Caribbean, or Black British background.
How will I engage the trend-aware audiences with the national media museum?
I will be engaging the trend-aware audience with my promotions and marketing. I will be using posters and social media to advertise VR gaming and reality sports. Experience reality will be the slogan. I will be using FaceBook, Instagram Snapchat, and TikTok to post new things and the latest updates about The VR experience and what other people think of it. Using social media will make a positive impact on attracting a trend-aware audience. For example, I could post a TikTok and use certain hashtags that can reach a wider audience, using hashtags can widen your audience and spread more awareness on a certain thing you trying to promote. All youngsters are active on social media the most nowadays. I can develop content that resonates with young people. Use eye-catching visuals, videos, and user-generated content. Create content that is relatable, authentic, and speaks to their interests and values. I can use Visual content like photos, videos, and infographics tend to perform well on social media. Share compelling stories and experiences that captivate the audience’s attention. I can partner with influencers who have a significant following among young people.
I can actively respond to comments and messages, and encourage discussions on social media. I can consider running targeted advertising campaigns on social media platforms to reach the trend-aware audience. I can set up challenges and giveaways to attract a trend-aware audience.
I can even do posters and leaflets promoting virtual reality sports. I can stick these posters around Bradford in different areas such as town and city parks. I can stick the poster on the big billboard at the Science Media Museum. This will be eye-catching and very effective. I will use vibrant colours, bold typography, and visually striking imagery. I will avoid clutter and excessive text. Young people ( Trend Aware) often appreciate clean, minimalist design. I will place these posters near colleges, universities, and community centres.
I will even hold events in the museum to promote virtual reality gaming. One event could be called the ‘Virtual Reality Game’. In this event, people could come down and try the VR for themselves and experience virtual reality sports. Stalls could be set up for different businesses promoting VR gaming. There could be a talk from an influencer in the gaming industry on virtual reality sports. This event could open many opportunities for the trend aware audience and the Science Media Museum. These events could be held every year annually. Then people would wait and be prepared for the next year , bigger and better each year. The VR hubs would be free for the customers to use and enjoy their sessions on the event day.
Overall in conclusion to everything I believe my idea is very strong and the number of visitors will increase especially the trend aware audience group. The VR gaming and virtual reality sports would be unique and special for the Science media Museum.
References:
The importance of a marketing strategy for businesses today – digital marketing (2022) Digital Marketing Blog. Available at: https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/importance-of-a-marketing-strategy/ (Accessed: 11 October 2023).
Thomas, S. (2016a) The essential elements of a marketing plan, Small Business – Chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/essential-elements-marketing-plan-60625.html (Accessed: 11 October 2023).
Staff, T.A. (2023) Small business, The Motley Fool. Available at: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/small-business/ (Accessed: 11 October 2023).
What is marketing strategy? (no date) Optimizely. Available at: https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/marketing-strategy/ (Accessed: 11 October 2023).
Prpic, H.S. (no date) Virtual reality and its potential with youth, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/virtual-reality-its-potential-youth-hrvoje-prpic (Accessed: 11 October 2023).