Bizstartup.ie - Start Up Kit

“Some early stage businesses think that marketing is something that can be tagged on once you have your product or service developed,” says Trainor. “But marketing has to be at the centre of the business right from the start.”
 
Trainor believes there can be a lack of understanding as to what marketing actually is. “It’s a common mistake to see marketing as ‘marcomms’ – simply about adverts, websites and brochures,” he says. “In actual fact your marketing strategy is the core of your business. It cannot be treated as an afterthought.

“The business plan should start and end with marketing, and then the details should be filled in around that,” he continues."If you think about it, when you say: 'this is what our business is, this is what we offer’, that's actually a marketing statement. The marketing process starts there.”

Common mistake

Trainor says it is a common mistake among, for example, small technology start-ups to concentrate only on the product. “If you have a created a new technology or service, don’t just concentrate on the technological development. You need to be looking at development in terms of what the consumer, what the market wants and needs.”

Answer key questions

When it comes to putting your marketing plan in place, think in terms of answering key questions, rather than a particular structure, says Trainor. “And make sure that they are the hard, challenging questions. If the questions are easy to answer, you're doing it wrong.”

Questions to answer in your marketing plan

• What are you going to sell?
• What is your differentiator, your USP (Unique Selling Point)?
• Who are you going to sell it to, and why are they going to buy it from you?
• When and how are you going to sell it?
• At what price point will you sell it?
• What is your brand identity? Branding is not just for big business. It's especially important in a start-up.
• What are the figures? What will you spend and what you will gain?