Understanding the Canvas Model and Marketing Plan

Canvas Model

Customer Segments

A company supplies products and services to one or several customer segments. Who are the customers? (Proveedores)

Value Propositions

Why should our customers buy our products (or services)? Which outstanding benefits do customers get? Do we fulfill their real needs?

Channels

Value propositions (not just products) are delivered to customers through several channels: communication, distribution, sales, etc.

Customer Relationships

What kind of long-term relationships does the company establish with the customer segment? How?

Revenue Streams (Income)

Revenue flows (i.e., money) represent the money customers would pay for the business's products or services.

Key Resources

Key resources encompass everything the company needs to create, offer, and deliver the rest of the blocks in the canvas.

Key Activities

Key activities are all the important tasks the company performs to deliver value to its consumers. These activities can't be delegated or outsourced.

Key Partnerships

If some activities need to be outsourced and are relevant, or some resources are relevant, they belong in this block.

Cost Structure

All other blocks in the canvas represent a cost, and all these costs must be considered in this block.

Unit 2: The Marketing Plan

1. The Marketing Plan

Strategic planning encompasses the whole organization, not just the marketing department. A marketing plan is a tool to coordinate and manage marketing activities from strategic and tactical viewpoints.

Sections of a Marketing Plan:

• Executive Summary
• Current Marketing Situation
• Threats and Opportunities
• Objectives and Issues
• Action Programs
• Budget - Resources Needed
• Controls - Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Executing the Marketing Plan

Execution involves the actions and operational steps taken by the organization to put the plan into practice. Successful execution depends on how well the company combines its people, organizational structure, decision and reward systems, and company culture into a consistent action plan that supports its strategies.

Execution Includes Three Responsibilities:

• Organizing the marketing department
• Staffing the organization
• Managing the execution of marketing plans

2. Classification According to Market Structure

Entry, Mobility, and Exit Barriers

Barriers include high capital requirements, economies of scale, patents and licensing requirements, scarce locations, raw materials or distributors, and reputation requirements. Exit barriers include legal/moral obligations to customers, creditors, and employees; government restrictions; low asset salvage value; lack of alternative opportunities; high vertical integration; and emotional barriers. Example: Telecommunication operators.

Cost Structure

Each company has a cost structure that affects its strategic behavior.

Degree of Vertical Integration

Vertically integrated firms operate all aspects of the business.

Degree of Globalization

Local versus global.

Macroenvironment

1. Socio-Demographic Environment

The socio-demographic environment is crucial because markets are made of people. It influences trends such as:

• Trends in human population evolution: size, density, location, age, gender, race, occupation, family structure, geographic population shifts, educational characteristics, population diversity, lifestyle, life stage (life cycle)

Shifts in Population

Trends include:

• Migratory movements between and within countries
• Moving from rural to metropolitan areas
• Changes in workplaces (e.g., home office)
• Increasing diversity and ethnicity

VALs (Values, Attitudes, Beliefs)

Core beliefs and values have a high degree of persistence, are passed on from parents to children, and are reinforced by societal institutions like schools, businesses, and the government.

Generations

Social generations are groups of people born in the same date range and share similar cultural experiences. Currently, several generations are living together: Silent, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials (Generation Y), and Generation Z.

2. Technological Environment

Trends:

• Fast change
• Internet
• Social media
• Mobile technology
• Big data
• Drones
• Robots
• Miniaturization
• Materials: Nano, Graphene, Composites

New products will inevitably be replaced by more technologically advanced products (from any company). This is known as infant (product) mortality.

3. Economic Environment

The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns.

Trends:

• Economic crises
• Low-income jobs
• Job instability
• Currency value fluctuations
• Inflationary pressure
• Volume of exports and imports
• Consumer spending power
• Narrowing of the middle class

4. Ecology and Natural Environment

Trends:

• Corporate social responsibility
• Environmentally sustainable strategies
• Shortages of raw materials
• Increased pollution
• Increased government intervention
• Green marketing
• Water scarcity due to urbanization

5. Political Environment

The political environment consists of government regulations, laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence or limit organizations and individuals in a given society.

It Includes:

• Patents
• Trade laws
• International trade laws (e.g., TIPP)
• Consumer protection laws
• Advertising legislation
• Brand legislation
• Technical standards
• Frontier controls
• Safety standards
• Currency fluctuations
• Advertising regulations

Unit 3: Internal Data

1. Company-Specific Information

Examples:

• Billing invoices (amounts, prices, frequencies, customer data, product data) - can be used to obtain ratios, distribution graphs, etc.
• Manufacturing orders
• Supplier bills (amounts, frequencies, etc.)
• Stock and inventory control data

These are internal "databases" within the company, including those from accounting, marketing, customer service, and sales departments.

2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Internal Data

Advantages:

• Can be accessed quickly
• Free of charge (if truly internal)

Disadvantages:

• Originally not intended for marketing purposes
• Incomplete information
• Wrong format for decision-making
• Large amounts of information to be processed

3. Sources of Internal Data

• General databases (SQL, NoSQL, etc.)
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software: Manages customer interactions, contact information, sales tracking, customer support, communication activities, etc. CRMs integrate customer information from all sources to provide optimal service and build stronger relationships (loyalty, engagement, etc.).

Sources of information can be any "touchpoint" - every interaction between the customer and the company.

• Sales force contacts
• Customer purchases
• Customer care calls
• Website visits

• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software: Manages daily operations such as inventory and stock, manufacturing orders, purchase orders, accounting, shipments, product pricing, and costs - essentially, all data within a company.

Students may be familiar with concepts like data mining, data analysis, and data science. Big data is another relevant concept, referring to the challenge of processing and analyzing massive amounts of data (e.g., Google, Facebook) at high speed from various sources and formats.

3 Vs of Big Data: Volume, Velocity, Variety

While big data can be categorized as a secondary source (data originally created for another purpose), its processing is crucial. One popular implementation for processing big data is the Hadoop set of algorithms, based on the map-reduce philosophy.

Sampling Plan

When interviewing target customers/users, it's not feasible to interview everyone. The key question is determining the sample size needed for relevant and representative answers.

• How many people should be surveyed?
• What sample size yields significant results?
• Is the sample relevant?

A well-defined population is crucial in market research. A poorly defined target customer population can lead to misleading results. This raises the question: "Who should be surveyed?"

A sample, a subset of users or customers, represents the entire population. This segment is selected for market research to represent the whole market, also known as the "universe" or population.

Finally, when choosing a group of people, the sampling method is essential. How should these individuals be selected?