Marketing Your Product: A Planning Guide for Small Business

Mike Schultz was a business teacher with the Peel Board of Education.

This book is designed as a practical step-by-step guide for the small business person. The text provides general theory and advice and the Appendix provides worksheets for developing a personalized marketing plan. While not written for the corporate marketer, there are guidelines and tips that will assist almost anyone involved with bringing new products to market.

The cover of this 98-page paperback shows a target, hinting right away at the significance of focusing your new product on a specific market audience.

Authors Grey and Cyr bring business and law backgrounds to their project. The book is composed of 14 chapters. Each one covers the topic in no more than four or five pages of large typeface in very easily understood business language. The book is best read by people who have their own business but do not have the “marketing” background they need to understand how to move their product.

I was pleased to see chapter 13, “Marketing Your Product Internationally.” Recognizing the international marketplace more openly may provide Canadian business with future successes. The authors point out a number of important factors to consider if you plan to compete in the international marketplace; for example, care in packaging colour (in Hong Kong, white is associated with funerals; in Mexico, a yellow flower is a sign of death); advertising (radio commercials are non-existent in France and Scandinavia, TV commercials are non-existent in Sweden).

The second emphasis on this book is on the importance of developing and implementing a good marketing plan. The authors suggest that practitioners assume the role of MD or “Marketing Diagnostician.” In doing this, marketers, owners, whoever is running the business will feel in change... all part of managing. The helpful appendix which is in workbook format offers the reader a number of questions to consider in order to implement a successful, profitable marketing strategy. The author also illustrates the importance of the marketing functions and describes how they differ from selling (many people believe the two activities are the same). Other chapters of particular note include Research, Pricing, Advertising, Distribution, Public Relations, Selling, and Legal Considerations. The book includes a comprehensive glossary.