Promotion

What constitues an effective marketing strategy?
What are some of the key strategies for success?

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What constitutes an effective marketing strategy?

With the proper planning and implementation of a mix of the strategies discussed below there is no reason an entrepreneur should not be able to achieve her goal of selling a certain amount of a given product per month.

Keys to success for all strategies:

• Proper planning: a plan needs to be set out for each entrepreneur, ideally at the beginning at each month, which specifies:
  • The strategies to be used and why
  • The number of campaigns, etc. to be undertaken
  • The number of advertising avenues to be used
  • The dates and days of advertising and campaign visits
  • The financial and human resource support needs per campaign
  • Further meetings and talks to support and/or encourage and congratulate
• Expectation management on all parts with contingency planning. The following must be addressed:
  • Expected success of advertising efforts
  • Expected sales – consistent good sales are preferred over inconsistent great sales
  • Failure at one or several parts of strategy and how to overcome it
  • The importance of process
  • If someone commits to a role, they need to be held to that barring extraordinary circumstances

What are some of the key strategies for success?

Village Visit Strategy

This is the tried and true methodology that has been used with success in Guatemala. The key, as with all strategies, is advertising. The actual campaign day activities have a limited role in the success of the campaign. Key elements include:

• Proper village/town selection: as a rule, the location should be neither too big nor too small to serve, and neither too close nor too far to engage with
• Selection of avenues of advertising: there should be at least three avenues of advertising (more is better). Failure to complete at least three avenues yields a high probability of failure
  • Local mayor
  • Radio
  • Church with ticket system
  • Flyers
  • Door to door
  • Local groups and clubs
  • Campaign day advertising
• Selection of day for campaign
• Selection of location for campaign – ideally a centralized location and outside for foot traffic
• Selection of days and times for advertising/meeting
• Selection of offer or raffle if applicable

“Looking for Nicholas” Strategy

The key to this strategy is to find a trusted and motivated person in a village or area who will promote and set up campaigns in their house or other venue on an ongoing basis (compensated by commission). Key elements to finding a “Nicholas(a)” are:

• Conducting a search during Village Visit
• Family, friend or once or twice removed
• Local pastor or mayor, etc.
• Local group or club
• One who is motivated, a believer, and goal oriented
• Someone who is friendly, outgoing, and collaborative

Cascade Marketing Strategy

Phase 1:
During the first phase, the entrepreneur sets up a talk with a group in a town to offer information about health, water, hygiene etc. with handouts or a raffle. This approach must be non-threatening as it serves as a forum to establish trust. At the end of the initial talk, the entrepreneur gives a briefing about the issue the product addresses, as well as a demonstration of its usage and a giveaway of the new product. Depending on the group, others may buy the product as well. After this talk, the entrepreneur should hand out discounted tickets for a campaign to take place within the following week. In essence, the participants are the marketers. Other advertising (as in the Village Visit strategy) should be used as well.

Phase 2:
During Phase 2, normal advertising strategies are implemented along with the actual campaign.

The Doctor Will Be In Strategy

The concept of this strategy is to find a store or stores consistently frequented by the target market and set up a “tester” to display the consigned product. As with other MCM initiatives, the entrepreneur gives the employees of the local store basic training and tells them to point clients towards the display. She instructs the store employees to tell the potential customers when she will be coming by to explain and sell the product. Some key things to keep in mind:

• Appropriate stores may vary from thread stores to bread stores
• Advertise times when the entrepreneur will be in the store and available
• The entrepreneur should have a table or area if at all possible and a poster to hang to advertise these visits
• Advertise on the radio with the name of the store
• Commission for store should be determined based on the selling price of the product
  

 

 

 

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