I have always wondered when I type “Marketing Tool”, “Marketing Strategy” and even “Marketing Professionals” in google I do not get what usually will be hoped for. So I have taken matter in my own hands.
This is a compilation of the top 10 Marketing Tools (based on empirical evidences). These are not “THE RULES” just a way to get you started on your own thinking. Also I will NOT be using any Jargon because a) this is no point of playing with literature when the essence is “lost in translation” b) “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”. Albert Einstein .
Tool #1: Answer the Question: What business are we in?
This is very basic question which every business person should think about and answer. This question is
more relevant to you in taking decisions about Communication[what to say] or Positioning[what picture to draw in the user(consumers) mind] . For example when coke says The strategic intention is to put a Coke within ‘arms reach’ of every consumer in the world. This is a very strong Action Item for the whole company as everyone(from CEO to Retailer) has to work towards the same goal with no ambiguity.
Also Please do not confuse between Vision ‘vs’ Mission. To put it simply if you see a beautiful girl in a pub and you instantly decide to marry her(for whatever reason). Then your vision statement will be in the likes of “Live Happily Ever after With Her” and Mission statement can be “Get a date and make her interested”.
Tool #2: Mind Map
Nothing beats the good ol’ Paper-Pencil-Eraser, On a piece of paper put down your ideas and correlated
them in various relationship.Then group them to see the relations and interests. However if you do prefer working on your machine. there are many software which help you in this task.
- For MAC (Paid): OmniGraffle
- For PC (Paid): Concept Draw MINDMAP
- Freeware
: Freemind
Eg. You are thinking to make a punchline for your brand of a new Podcast for Gamers.
Here on a piece of paper write all what come to your mind like Podcast, Games, action, Music, Dynamics, Hardware, Software, Wii, Xbox, Hero, Frags, Guns, Killing Spree, etc etc…… then group then in a bigger buckets. And then now you are clear to go on the major points of association. Go ahead make a good one “next best thing happened to you after of course your girlfriend” 
. i know this one sucks but you can do better then me.
Tool#3: Five Forces Model / Six Forces Model
Ok this is bit more serious and lets have fun with it. First of all if you will. Imagine there is Ball on the floor. Now we know the ball on floor and you standing by it will have following cases most of the times there can be more but since Mr Michael Porter (He is one of the Greatest Thinkers in field of Management ) said that there are 5 we’ll stick with five to conform with rest of the word,
but take my word please improvise.
- Gravitational Force ( The force from the set bigger then itself) -
- Frictional Force (the force which hinders its movement)
- You (If you kick it move or it cannot)
- New/better ball (If you get a new ball you’ll stop playing with old one)
- Abandon (You might want to shoot aliens so you leave the ball)
Then come a few people who were not happy with Mr Porters Analysis and said we also want our name in history lets add one more bullet.
6. You get a new pair of Nike (Now this complements the Ball on the floor, as you’ll at least play to showoff the shoes). Mapping the prior to scenario to Porters 6 force model.I am sure you’ve got it but now but for my clarification i am going to spell it out.
- Competitive Rivalry within industry [ Gravitational Force ( The force from the set bigger then itself)]: keep track of the industry its self and you will not miss new trend or will make a mistake which has been repeated. Hell you might even change the direction of the industry.
- Bargain power of the supplier [Frictional Force (the force which hinders its movement)]: These are the people who give you raw materials, shipping, manufacturing etc. This is a where you can actually create competitive advantage over the competition by selecting correct vendor and creating value mutually ideally.
- Bargain power of the Customer [You (If you kick it move or it cannot)]: Customer is King will you fight with him if feels he’s being over charged or not being heard ? You are nothing if the customer decide that so , “Listen” to what they are saying and what they “need/want”. Be careful though we (Customer) always don’t know what’s good for us eg. did any one of us told apple to make ipod???
- Threat of new entrants [New/better ball (If you get a new ball you'll stop playing with old one)]: This one is very clear look at facebook, friendster, orkut, MySpace, etc. This is free market don’t fight until essential for survival , try and collaborate and give more choice to the users.
- Threat of Substitute Products [Abandon (You might want to shoot aliens so you leave the ball)]: There are only 24 hrs in a day and you aim is to capture sometime from the busy consumers life so don’t force yourself over threat of substitute let consumer make choice give him/her enough compelling reasons to be with you then the next best thing.
- Complementary Products [You get a new pair of Nike (Now this complements the Ball on the floor, as you'll atleast play to showoff the shoes)]: Keep track of this and use them to your advantage. They can be very nicely used to create ( associations in consumer’s mind) eg: Beer and Fish Fingers.
Tool#4: Marketing Mix
Lets take example of “Nothing” as our product.
Product -Our product is “nothing”. Now this nothing has to be broadly something people can either keep in their backpacks or People with backpack can be kept in them. It can also be some thing people feel/experience. Here is our time to look at two words “Product VS Services”. Product is something you can hit someone with eg: You can hit some one with the Vista OS CD Pack(best use ). Service is something which is in the mind of beholder.Eg The Saving people from “fear of installing vista” is service.
Price – “Nothing” cost 10 moola to make(Salary, Utilities, etc ) and you sell(Advertisements, Margins, Profits etc) it for 200 Moolas. Yes Sir, you can decide the price based on number of factor like , need, perceprion, Simillar products. This is very ambgus choice. This is simple to see alround Airlines, Phones, Real Estate .
Place – Where we keep or Nothing : Online/Offilne(Filthy Rich Place/ Middle Class Mall/ Kwiky Store)
Promotion – The act “ANY WAY POSSIBLE” to let you know we have “Nothing” and YOU WANT IT. Like TV ADS, Posters, Utube, Blogs, Websites, Sir Richard Branson Times Square dressed in a nude suit, a cell phone covering his privates, to introduce Virgin Mobile to the U.S., Madonna publishes a dirty book, Giving employees stuff, “No.2, We Try Harder”, Anything craetive which can hold you attention and lets you know “Nothing” exists.
Tool#5: BCG Matrix
Use of the BCG Matrix for each product or service, and point out the value of its sales. The BCG Matrix thus offers a very useful ‘map’ 
of the mapping products (or service) strengths and weaknesses, also the likely cash-flows.
This idea is, to point out where is moola is going and where is it coming from(Cash Flow).
- Cash cows: High market share in a slow-growing industry. Eg. MS Office 03
- Dogs: Low market share in a mature, slow-growing industry. Eg. MS Live
- Question marks (also known as problem child) Eg. Vista
- Stars are units with a high market share in a fast-growing industry. MS Office 07
Above is a just a hunch so you get an idea.
Tool#6: SOWT
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is a just a table analysis provides a quick
picture of the current situtation.
Use SWOT to:
- Gain insight into your organization’s assets and liabilities.
- Decide using it:
- Should we open a new office in Amstardam
- Should we Jump from eifel tower to promote out tooth paste
- can we retire now
- Can I leave this job now
- Should i marry her
This will work iff many people give inputs and they not under life threat for doing so,or are getting paid to do so.
Tool#7: Gap Analysis
This one is simple, whatever they tell you, just remember. You have a Situation, Products, Opportunity, Paths, Jobs, Houses anything one or more that is what you will compare with. The one in mental picture or another reference point which you think is right. Just compare it, though its not a NO BRAINIER . You need to provide a contrast between two pictures and say what we need to do to reach the “Perfect state”.
eg: You have a Project Score is 2 of 20 and to pass the university you need score of 50. This implies that you need to score of 48 of 80 just to clear the exam. You Dad says I will give you a bike if you get 75 %.. Now all you need to do a gap analysis between Passing and getting a Bike.
Tool#8: Pareto analysis
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule and the law of the vital fewstates that in many
things, 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes.
- Twenty percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your success.
- Business: Twenty percent of customers will account for 80 percent of profit.
- Twenty percent of the people you know provide you with 80 percent of nurturing support and satisfaction.
- You get 80% of your media awareness from 20% of your buy.
- As Woody Allen would say, 80% of success is just showing up.
- Any Task Project 80% takes only 20% of you time. Rest of the 20% takes rest 80% of your time.
Make a note when microsoft’s Steve Ballmer accuses google of doing something for so long of a time. What microsoft misses the point that Most organizations (and most people) settle for 20%, effort and energy and hit the bottom and move on to the next thing. A few people insist on devoting an unreasonable amount of effort into something. They are the ones who cross the expectations and get rewarded handsomely for it.
Tool#9: PEST
“Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis” and describes a rule of factors(Not in your control most of the time) used in environmental scanning. It is a part of the external analysis when doing market research and gives a overview.It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations.
Tool is a macrotool(Very Birds eye view of the economics) used iff an organization or person is wanting to change the enviorment in terms PEST.
Tool#10: Game theory
I will get somewhat serious now as this is a very important tool and will require understand in details. Game
Theory is the formal study of conflict and cooperation. Game theoretic concepts apply whenever the actions of several entities are interdependent. These entities may be individuals, groups, firms, or any combination of these. The concepts of game theory provide a language to formulate, structure, analyze, and understand strategic scenarios. Its apllication is found in Negotiation, Casino’s, Movies, Quality, Supply chain Management, Communications, Finance, Biotechnology , Politics, Product Definition, Wireless Towers, NO of Start bucks in one place,War etc. I will not be able justify in few pars, so I will dedicate an entire separate post to this tool. Anyone who wants to co-author this let’s do it together.
In the end I would like thanks you for taking time and with this thought: These are idea are not “THE LAW” request you to use them just as someones point of view and not litrally. Use these to understand someone came with this thought once, can you come up with you own?
Few Tools and Resources for You This is a live list* I will update this as and when new resources com to my mind. I will request you help also to add to this list.
Marketing Myopia
Purple Cow
Games People Play
BCG Matrix
The World Is Flat
