marketing plan GUIDE: Marketing Yourself
Semester Project
As a professional in any field, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of what a marketing plan is and why it is there. A marketing plan is an action-oriented document or playbook that guides the analysis, implementation, and control of all marketing activities. Throughout this book, you will develop a professional marketing plan. The twist is that your marketing plan will focus on how to market yourself to achieve your career goals.
Chapter 1
Many businesses fail to execute on their marketing plans because they did not spend adequate time clearly identifying what they wanted or expected to do. As a first step in developing your personal marketing plan, you will need to identify the specific objectives that you want to achieve. In developing these objectives, you should ask yourself several questions, such as:
· Do I want to attend graduate school? If so, where and what program?
· Where do I want to work?
· Where do I want to live?
· What kind of life do I want to have?
· How much will I need to earn to have that life?
Such questions will help you focus on what specific things you need to do to achieve your goals. The more clearly you define your objectives, the more likely you are to realize them.
Student Task: First, clearly define who you are and summarize a few major things that make you – you. Next, respond to the questions by outlining your future objectives. Think about both your personal and professional goals. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 1’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 2
In this chapter we discussed the elements and importance of the situation analysis. The next step in developing a full marketing plan for yourself is to conduct a SWOT analysis on yourself. It should tie back to the objectives you developed at the end of Chapter 1. Be sure to think through each element and honestly assess where you are today. This will help you focus on what you need to accomplish over the rest of your college career.
· Strengths. Most people have some notion of their strengths—maybe you’re an effective public speaker, pay a great deal of attention to detail, or work well with others, for example. It’s likely that you’ve had those strengths reinforced by those around you over the course of your life.
o To effectively complete the strengths part of your personal SWOT analysis, list three to five strengths that you possess that will most affect your ability to achieve the objectives you identified in Chapter 1.
· Weaknesses. Most people are very honest about their strengths but are typically far less likely to be aware of, or to acknowledge, their weaknesses. Corporate recruiters often tell humorous stories about the responses they receive when asking new college graduates about their biggest weaknesses. Answers range from “I care too much,” or “I am too smart for my group members,” to “I am too attractive to have many friends.” (Any of these responses might produce a negative impression in a job interview, by the way.)
o Give serious consideration to your personal weaknesses, and then list three to five weaknesses that will affect your ability to achieve your objectives. By properly identifying your weaknesses, you can begin to plan strategically how to overcome them or, at the very least, minimize their influence on your career objectives.
· Opportunities. As the global economy changes, you will enter a job market very different from the one faced by previous generations. It is important to honestly assess your opportunities. Ask yourself questions like, What jobs in my major are most in demand? What internship openings are there, and how might those put me in a better position to find my dream job? If your goal is to attend graduate school, what kinds of scholarships, assistantships, or enrollment opportunities are out there for you?
o For this part of the SWOT analysis, identify three to five external opportunities that could potentially benefit you in your professional development.
· Threats. Assessing threats is an essential part of developing a strategic plan for your professional future. If the economy goes into a recession at the same time you graduate, for example, your earnings growth could be reduced for years to come. By examining what potential threats could affect your professional development and creating contingency plans, you will be in a better position to succeed in your pursuit of a job.
o Describe three to five threats that could affect your ability to achieve your objectives.
Your Task: You’ve now listed three to five strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that could affect your professional development. For each weakness and threat you identify, include a brief one- to two-sentence description of how you might overcome the challenge associated with it. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 2’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 3
In the next section of the marketing plan exercise, you will analyze the environment you will be entering upon graduation. Your assignment is to prepare a market summary for the job or graduate school program you discussed as your objective in Chapter 1.
If your objective is a specific job or career, you need to answer questions like:
· What is the average salary?
· What are the companies that are best positioned to offer the kind of job you want?
· Are there jobs in this field located where you want to live?
· What is the total size and growth rate of the industry you are planning to enter?
· What is the current unemployment rate in that field and what percentage of jobs are filled by new college graduates?
If your objective is graduate school, you need to answer questions like:
· What schools offer this program?
· What are those schools’ admission statistics (percentage accepted, tuition and fees, financial aid available, etc.)?
· What are the average Grade Point Average (GPA) and entrance exam (LSAT, GMAT, MCAT, etc.) scores?
· What is the average starting salary for graduates of these programs?
It is important to conduct an honest environmental assessment. Students sometimes have unrealistic expectations of what their first job out of school or a graduate program may be like. The better you understand the environment you are entering, the better you will be able to market yourself and your skills to succeed in it.
Student Task: Write at least a two-paragraph marketing summary describing the environment you will face after graduation. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 3’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 4
In this chapter we discussed the differences between consumer and business markets. In this section of the marketing plan exercise, you will evaluate the characteristics of each and decide which may be better for you as a career choice.
Your assignment for this chapter is to decide whether you would prefer to have a career in a B2B or a B2C organization. Think through each type of organization carefully, and assess which better fits your personality. Finding a good fit will affect your ability to excel at and enjoy your career after college. Also, this knowledge will help you focus your job search, whether you want to work in marketing, finance, human resources, or any other area of the organization.
Many professionals end up working in both B2B and B2C organizations over the course of their careers. You too will likely have many opportunities to move from one to the other in the future. However, the additional focus will help you build a career that can put you ahead of your fellow graduates.
Student Task: Write a one-paragraph summary explaining whether you would prefer to work in a B2C or B2B organization. Discuss what organizational characteristics affected your decision. Conclude your paragraph with the names of three potential employers in the area where you would most want to live that focus on your chosen market. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 4’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 5
In this chapter we focused on the importance of marketing research. The next step in developing your personal marketing plan is to conduct some research of your own, to better understand the competition you will face for your dream job or graduate school program.
Your assignment is to research online the job or graduate school program you discussed as your objective in Chapter 1. Try to figure out how competitive the applicant pool is. Check with someone at the firm’s human resource department or contact the graduate school’s admissions office to find out the average number of applicants for each open slot. Often, you can find summary statistics on the average work experience or GPA that is common among newcomers. That information will give you an idea of where you stand relative to your competition.
For those of you targeting graduate school, you should conduct research on the GPA and entrance exam (GMAT, LSAT, GRE) requirements for the programs you are targeting. The Internet and publications such as U.S. News and World Report provide a wealth of data on all types of graduate school programs. You should see how your GPA and entrance exam scores compare to the averages at targeted schools. In the same way that firms want to know what their competition is doing to better understand their potential for success, so should you.
Student Task: Prepare one- to two-paragraphs that summarize your findings and describes the actions you will take based on your research. Your summary should include the following information:
1. If focusing on a specific job, list the average number of applicants, the starting pay, and where these types of job openings are most commonly found.
2. If your focus is on graduate school, list what the average GPA and entrance exam score is for the program as well as the acceptance rate for that program.
3. Make an honest assessment of the likelihood that you will get your desired job or be accepted to the graduate program. Based on this assessment, what is the one area that you need to improve upon to increase your chances of achieving your goal?
Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 5’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 6
Think through the SWOT analysis you completed in Chapter 2 and think about your personal product offering. Focus on the specific value you would bring to the firm or graduate school. Think of the description as your elevator pitch, a 30- to 60-second description of the value you would bring to an organization. Formalizing this in your personal marketing plan will also help you identify specific jobs that match the skill sets that you offer. Your pitch might include answers to the following questions:
· What makes you different from other potential employees?
· Why is the company or graduate program better with you than without you?
· How do your skills and background fit into what the organization wants to do?
Student Task: Write a two-paragraph product description of yourself that you can read or present in less than 60 seconds. The description should highlight your value to a potential organization or graduate school. You only have a limited amount of time, so choose your words carefully to ensure they create the maximum impact. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 6’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 7
In this chapter, you read about the importance of targeting specific segments and developing a positioning strategy that appeals to those segments. Your assignment for this chapter is to apply these critical concepts to your marketing plan.
First, refer back to the career objectives (what company you want to work for or what graduate school you want to attend) that you have already developed. Next, think about and clearly articulate how you will position yourself for your target market. There are a limited number of openings for good jobs and quality graduate schools. To maximize your chances of success, you must plan ahead and use the marketing strategies you have learned to position yourself properly in a very competitive environment. You should ask yourself questions such as:
- How can I best position myself for a job with one of these organizations?
- What classes have I taken or what experiences have I had that position me for the graduate school I want to attend?
Student Task: Write a one-paragraph personal positioning statement that includes succinct answers to these questions above. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 7’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 8
The marketing plan exercise for this chapter focuses on developing your own promotional strategy. You can think about this using the same four promotion-mix elements discussed in this chapter: advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations.
First, how are you advertising yourself? For example, what does your resume look like? What does it say about you? If your resume is the same basic template that looks just like everyone else’s, how will you stand out from others competing for the same job? Please read the Career Tips at the end of this chapter for suggestions.
Also consider what your social media profile says about you. If a prospective employer were to look at your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter profile, would they like what they saw? Would it reflect the image of a thoughtful, driven professional?
Next, consider using a sales-promotion tool such as sampling. Unpaid internships give firms an opportunity to sample your work, increasing the likelihood that you could be hired there on a permanent and paid basis. Do the companies you want to work for offer unpaid internships? If so, how do you go about applying for them? How can you adjust your personal financial situation to take an unpaid internship if it helps to advance your career?
Next, consider your ability to personally sell yourself. What will you say in an interview that will convince a prospective employer that he or she is better off with you than without you? The same strategies salespeople use to make a good first impression, such as appearance, grooming, professional dress, and a firm handshake, are all things you want to fine-tune as you get ready for the job market.
Finally, public relations are essential as you start to develop your career. What do your colleagues think about you? Would your professors or classmates recommend you? Think about what you can do to improve or enhance others’ perceptions of you.
Student Task: Create an outline of the specific advertising, sales promotion, personal-selling, and public relations strategies you plan to use as you begin your career. For each type of promotion, answer the questions posed in the Exercise and summarize how each can help you market yourself. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 8’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 9
In this chapter we discussed the importance of selling and also of asking good questions. Discovering the right information from decision makers and prospective future employees is a very important skill on your personal journey. In the next section of the marketing plan exercise, your assignment is to create specific questions to obtain the information you will need to decide whether a job in an organization or graduate school will be a good fit for your career goals.
New graduates consistently struggle at the part of interviewing or networking where prospective employers or graduate school admissions officers ask, “Do you have any questions for us?” The SPIN™ selling technique in this chapter provides a good framework as you work to develop the most relevant and efficient questions at this stage:
· Situation questions are designed to obtain background facts about the buyer’s current circumstances. (In this example, the “buyer” is the potential employer or the committee making the decision to admit you to a graduate school program.)
· Problem questions ask about buyer’s problems, difficulties, or dissatisfactions with an existing situation. Knowing this helps you to understand how your skills might help improve the organization or add value to a university’s graduate school program.
· Implication questions help transform problems into explicit needs in the mind of the buyer and expand the perceived value of finding a solution. This type of question can help the decision makers think more closely about how hiring you or accepting you into their program will make their organization better.
· Need-payoff questions are designed to get the buyer thinking about your value, importance, or usefulness in finding a solution to the problem.
The SPIN framework questions will help you sell yourself to potential employers or schools. They also will help you better understand how the organizations you are interested in fit into your personal marketing plan.
Student Task: Write one question for each component of the SPIN selling framework. Your answer should include a situation question, problem question, implication question, and need-payoff question focused on either your targeted job or graduate school program. Please also include a sentence or two for each on what you hope to find out from each specific question and how that information might benefit you. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 9’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 10
In this chapter, we discussed the importance of distribution. Getting your name, skills, and profile in front of decision makers is critical for you to achieve career success. In this next section of the marketing plan exercise, your assignment is to create a specific plan for how you will distribute your information and qualifications to reach your career objectives.
Job seekers upload and share millions of resumes every day on the Internet, even though the success rate of finding a job online is less than 20 percent in the U.S. What do you plan to do to increase your success rate using this distribution channel? A growing number of professionals use online services like LinkedIn. If you are thinking about LinkedIn or other social media distribution methods, which sites are best for your specific career path? What strategies should you employ on each site to maximize your efforts? Are there specific keywords you should use? Are there resume formats that work better on specific job sites?
If your career goals focus on graduate school, this process is equally important. Many graduate-school entrance exams allow you to send your scores to a limited number of schools. Which schools will you choose?
If you plan to seek a job or graduate-school opportunity using e-mail, what is the best strategy for designing that e-mail? Hiring managers and admissions personnel will pay attention to the e-mail text, the subject line, and even the time of day that you sent the e-mail. (What would a manager think if your resume arrives at 2:30 a.m.?)
Spending time now planning a personal distribution strategy will help as you prepare for your job or graduate-school search.
Student Task: Write a one- to two-paragraph explanation of how you will distribute your information and qualifications. Your answer should include the websites or companies to which you plan to distribute your resume or the five schools to which you will send your graduate entrance exam scores. Also include any social media platforms you plan to use as part of your distribution strategy and how you plan to utilize them. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 10’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 11
In this chapter you learned about setting prices based on costs and market conditions. For the next part of your marketing plan exercise, you will conduct a pricing analysis of your own future career plans.
First, you should consider the costs you expect to have in the next decade, including things like repaying your student loans, paying your rent, saving for a house, or starting a family. Take time to consider the potential costs of these things on a monthly and annual basis. Then compare these costs with the career information you put together in an earlier chapter. How do they match up?
Next, consider your market value within your company or industry, either now or after graduate school. The price elasticity you inspire in future employers will be an important consideration as you develop in your career. For example, if you possess a unique combination of experience, education, personality, and work ethic, demand for your services might well be inelastic. In this scenario, you might be able to negotiate a higher salary because the demand for your services is high.
Conversely, if demand for your brand is elastic, you should understand your lessened bargaining power and work to develop unique skills or take on difficult assignments within your company to increase the value others place on your brand.
Knowing whether demand for your personal brand is inelastic or elastic is essential. Too many employees undervalue their brand and work for less than what market prices would dictate, leaving money on the table over a significant period of their career.
Student Task: Develop a detailed list of the costs necessary to have the career you desire 10 years from now (e.g., student loans, training seminars, graduate school costs, or any fixed or variable costs). Next, compare these costs with the prices that organizations are paying for people with your skill set. Finally, determine your own personal break-even point for your salary level. Also, identify when you expect to reach the salary that you desire. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 11’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 12
In this chapter we discussed the rapidly changing retail environment. Emerging issues that range from technology to operational efficiency to organizations competing on the basis of customer experience will likely be a major part of your career, regardless of industry. In the next section of the marketing plan exercise, your assignment is to consider how the changing retail landscape in your targeted profession will potentially be affected by emerging strategic issues.
For example:
- If you are targeting a B2C company for employment after graduation, how will retailing changes affect that organization? You need to consider things like the shift to online buying, increased usage of factory outlets, and automated vending changing your organization.
- If you are planning to be an attorney or an accountant, how is your targeted firm positioned to compete on customer experience or in a virtual world where customers can get legal or financial advice online, often for a very small investment?
Student Task: Write one paragraph on how the changing retail landscape might potentially affect your career plans. Your answer should include at least two specific retail changes that could alter the way your targeted employer or industry functions in the future. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 12’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 13
Your personal social media profiles provide a way to look back on your life and see the different events that have led you to this point. However, what plans are you making for the months and years ahead? One of the final sections in most marketing plans involves outlining the controls that will be put in place for monitoring and adjusting implementation of the plan. The implementation section outlines how the specifics of the marketing plan will be carried out and who will carry them out.
You have put in writing a lot of ideas analyzing your strengths and weaknesses and where you want to go in your career. It is now time to implement those strategies and see if they work. There is no organizational structure to this marketing plan or question about who is accountable for which items. This marketing plan is about your career. In creating it, you have developed strategies intended to drive positive results in your life.
Your assignment for this chapter is to put in place measures to determine whether you are hitting your goals over the next three to five years and beyond. Some parts of your personal marketing plan likely will not work. Conventional wisdom holds that over 70 percent of new business initiatives fail, and over 90 percent of people never carry through on their planned New Year’s resolutions.
You have outlined your contingency plans in a previous part of your personal marketing plan. Now, think about what measures will trigger the contingency plan. If your contingency plans involve attending graduate school sometime in the future, what will make you begin to look for a program? If you are not being compensated in a way that matches your market value, what will you do? How long are you willing to be underpaid?
Finally, consider contingency plans for further out in your career. Is it likely that you will move to another city in the next five years? Could family changes, such as getting married or needing to take care of an aging parent, affect the career path you should take? The more scenarios you can put in writing, think about, and plan for, the greater the chance that you will successfully navigate the most important product launch of your career: you as a college graduate.
Never forget that you are managing your personal brand every minute of every day. Never forget that you will make mistakes marketing yourself. Mistakes are all right as long as you learn from them. And never forget that whether you are marketing cars, a nonprofit organization, or yourself, planning increases the likelihood of success.
Student Task: List at least three specific professional objectives for yourself at each of the following key points in your career: at the one-, three-, and five-year marks after you graduate from college. Include your targeted industry, graduate school program (if applicable), level of employment (manager, director, etc.), and expected salary and benefits at each year. Then make specific contingency plans for each time period if you have not reached the objectives listed. Finally, write a one-paragraph description of how potential developments in your personal life over the next five years will affect the objectives you’ve listed. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 13’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 14
In this chapter we discussed the importance of building a strong personal brand. The next step in developing your personal marketing plan is to establish a strategy for building your personal brand that will help you achieve the objectives you identified in Chapter 1. First, think about what your personal brand is now: What do people think of when they hear your name? Are you happy with the answer to that question? Remember that not having a brand at all can negatively influence your success, too. It prevents you from standing out from your classmates and others who will be applying for the same job or graduate-school opening.
Next, develop specific brand-building action items for the next year that will help build, strengthen, or revitalize your personal brand. You might include things like running for office in a club or organization on campus or targeting a specific type of internship. You could also include things like going to your professors during their office hours to make yourself more than a face in the crowd, which can be very beneficial when it is time to list references or ask for letters of recommendation.
Give this exercise careful thought. Being aware of your current brand and planning specific actions to develop that brand will be one of the most important career steps you can take over the next year.
Student Task: Develop three to five specific brand-building action items for the next year. For each, clearly define the action you plan to take and set a deadline for taking that action. Finally, provide a description of what the expected outcomes will be for each brand-building action.
· What actions can you take now and over the next year to build your brand?
· List your actions in a SMART way: be specific, and make sure your goals are measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based.
· What smaller actions are needed to take bigger actions?
Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 14’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 15
This chapter focused on customer service and developing customer relationships. As you develop your personal marketing plan, ask yourself how good you are at developing relationships. We live in an age in which we text or tweet more than we write notes or have conversations. Some might think they are great at developing relationships because they have 2,000 friends on Facebook. But are those really relationships? Consider your Facebook friends: What would those people say about you and your brand if you asked them? How well do they even know you?
For the marketing plan exercise in this chapter, your assignment is to plan a strategy to improve the most important relationships in your life. Even if they are good, there are always things you can do better. Think about how you can improve your relationship with your current boss, professors, classmates, and group members. These people are likely to be important as you seek a job or apply to graduate school. (Relationship development with professors is especially important when it comes time to request letters of recommendation for graduate school.)
Next, consider how you can improve your personal customer service. Are you an ideal group member, or do you look for excuses to miss team meetings? Do you thank people who help you? Do you try to help others solve problems in a positive way? Providing great service to the people in your life, both personally and professionally, will help you to build the type of relationships that will provide a rich future in every way possible.
Student Task: Select three to five professional relationships in your life, such as a manager, professor, classmate, or group member, and then identify one or two specific actions you can take in the next three months to strengthen each of those relationships.
Next, explain in one paragraph how you have delivered excellent customer service sometime in your life, whether it was on the job, in school, or in your personal life. This will help you articulate your customer service skills in an interview. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 15’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.
Chapter 16
In this chapter, we have explored the impact corporate social responsibility has on organizations and marketing decisions. As part of developing your personal marketing plan, you will consider and develop a vision of your own social responsibilities.
First you must understand whom you’re responsible to. Who are the stakeholders in your career success? Your list might include those who are affected by your career path, including a current or future spouse, children, parents, or even the U.S. government that wants you to make enough money to pay back your student loans. Also think about places of worship, charitable causes, communities, and other entities your choices affect.
Next, consider whether a firm or school’s corporate social responsibility policies matter to you when choosing where to work or study. If they do, you should think about how you can best market yourself as the type of socially responsible professional who would be of interest to a company or school committed to corporate social responsibility. Being able to connect your socially responsible activities to those of a potential employer or graduate school program can be a subtle way to differentiate yourself from those competing against you for a position.
Student Task: List the stakeholders in your career success. Next, list three to five social responsibilities that you consider part of your professional career. Explain each, and discuss the specific actions you would like to take relative to each over the next 5–10 years. Insert your responses to the above in Chapter 16’s section of the Personal Marketing Plan.