Webster’s Dictionary defines marketing as “An aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.” That definition encompasses a very broad set of operations. Marketing, and the process of growing your business, is multifaceted. Within this complex process, a
re you aware of your knowledge gaps?
One of the things we do, at the beginning of our discovery process, is to assess our client’s marketing knowledge. To understand their marketing intelligence quotient, we explore eight areas of their business. The short test below will help you assess your marketing aptitude.
Take the Marketing IQ Test by objectively rating your company, from zero to 10, on each of the eight questions (zero is low, 10 is high). After you’ve rated all eight questions, add up your score.
By no means does this test cover every aspect of marketing. However, it will help you understand, from a strategic business perspective, your marketing strengths and weaknesses. A perfect score would be 80.
1. Northstar: Have you developed and published a mission statement that guides your business and helps your team stay on course?
2. Business analysis: Do you review your business’ strengths and weaknesses (internally) and opportunities and threats (externally) at least once a year?
3. Customer research: Do you regularly survey customers to understand their preferences and perceptions regarding their experience with your organization?
4. Competitor comparison: Do you study your key competitors to understand their strengths, weakness and market position relative to yours?
5. Market niche: Have you developed a customer profile to better understand and target your most responsive and profitable market segment?
6. Market position: Have you developed a competitive distinction that your target market segment values as a means of differentiating your brand?
7. Promotional alignment: Do you have a marketing communications plan that aligns your promotional activities with your market position?
8. Optimal results: Do you have and maintain a tracking system to evaluate the results of your marketing activities so you can make informed adjustments?
If your total score exceeds 70, you should stop reading my monthly column and start teaching a class. If your total score is less than 40, take heart, you are among the majority of businesses. The good news is that you have plenty of opportunities to improve the results of your marketing investments.
More important than your total score are the individual ratings for each question. Reviewing your individual ratings will help identify your best opportunities to improve. We focus our clients on the areas where they score four or less. You’ve heard the adage: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. That same premise holds true for a business.
Work with your team to develop an action plan to strengthen your weak areas. It is important to work on these areas in sequence. Example: if you scored a four (or less) on Northstar and on market position, develop your mission statement before attempting to distinguish your brand from competitors.
You don’t have to be a marketing genius to grow your business; you just need to take stock of your current business situation and then take action to strengthen your weak links.
Andrew Ballard is the president of Marketing Solutions, a local agency specializing in growth strategies. For more information, call 425-337-1100 or go to www.mktg-solutions.com.
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