Marketing

4. Marketing Plan

Discussion forum:
Discuss it in the forum!

Link: http://smart-people.mixxt.com/networks/forum/index

No matter how good Smart People is, the venture cannot succeed without effective marketing. And marketing routinely begins with careful, systematic research.

Those who have been involved in the rise of KM over the past 20 years have a good sense of the market, but marketers need data.

Obtaining hard data may be difficult because the focus on knowledge work is new, its value intangible, its use and practice unaccounted for except anecdotally, presumptively. or through general analysis. Another factor is the worldwide scope of the Smart People market.

Still, there is information available and a market study should be done based on what is possible including secondary and – perhaps – primary research.

Secondary research will use published information such as industry profiles, trade journals, newspapers, magazines, data and demographic profiles. This type of information is available online, in public libraries, industry associations, chambers of commerce, from vendors and from government agencies.

The general sense that most followers of the knowledge movement possess is from this type of information accumulated mentally and physically over 20 years. Primary research would mean gathering our own data. Professional market research can be very costly, but there are ways small business owners and start-ups can do effective research themselves.

In as much as possible, the Smart People marketing plan must be as specific as practical, providing statistics, numbers and sources. The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the all-important sales projection.

Economics

Calculating opportunity and barriers:

Without statistics, we can say that the knowledge market today is far larger than the economic requirements of a Smart People Magazine start-up and nearly limitless in future prospects. Further, the knowledge process is spreading and embedding itself deep into the business process, rapidly opening new prospects among large professional constituencies.

Smart People will be the only publication, domestic or worldwide, focused on the broad scope of knowledge activity at the human level.

Knowledge management leaders have had difficulty translating the organizational view of knowledge work to the language and understanding of mid-level professionals and workers. As knowledge management migrates to business units and professional associations, the need to communicate on the personal level is growing rapidly.

Because of the relatively inexpensive technology of the Internet, Smart People can grow from a moderately small financial investment and very large intellectual capital investment into a very large, effective and successful enterprise.

Short term and long term advantages and barriers:

Low capital costs – sufficient hardware, software. Free Internet capabilities. Moderate website and business process costs.
- Low online and high print production and distribution costs.
- High marketing costs offset by Internet viral marketing and other low-cost techniques.
- Consumer acceptance and brand recognition is a challenge, but the Facebook test shows good potential.
- Training and skills are excellent using the pooled resources of the developers and volunteer helpers involved in the project.
- Shipping costs, domestically high and internationally extremely high.
Overcoming the barriers.
- Start small; think big
- Obtain sponsors, financial backers for the start-up – modest operational costs, marketing.
- Continue architecting Smart People in the social network setting.
- Use viral marketing to spread efficiently across interest groups.
- Continue to develop personal interest and buy-in by including potential customers, suppliers, advertisers and partners in the project.
- Continue to involve valued volunteers.
- Delay personal income.

Product

In the Products and Services section, we have described the products and services of Smart People as we see them. Now here is a description from the customers’ point of view.

Features and Benefits

Smart people have seized the advantages of the Web, the Internet and social networking with a vigor unexpected by industry analysts. People are using their own intelligence to research, learn, exchange knowledge, self-publish, participate in virtual activities, communicate, work and play. They have found in their lives a new dimension and they feel themselves growing personally, spiritually, professionally. They are using their smarts and feeling their knowledge grow exponentially.

The social, political, cultural and economic changes are enormous.

Through their eyes, what would smart people see when they find Smart People online? First, they would be curious. It’s hard to ignore the words “Smart People.” They would wonder and then conclude they are smart people after all. They would find SP reassures them that it is so. They would be further reinforced by learning about other smart people, learning from them and from practical features and tutorials on using their smarts and the tools they now have available. They would see the value in being part of an organization structured around smart people. Suddenly, they would become aware and purposeful as the vanguard of smart people in the ‘Knowledge Age.’

They would embrace Smart People as the only publication serving their new and broad interests in self-motivated learning, thinking and doing.

They would find ways to use their new-found smarts in both personal and professional life.
Many self-discovered knowledge workers are frustrated by employers who are not knowledge-savvy; these enlightened people are looking for ways to solve their problem. One way is to find a new employer. Smart People not only tells them how, but identifies smart companies and helps in the hunt through the Smart Jobs classified section where recruiters and smart people focus on knowledge work and leadership.

As an alternative, Smart People will discuss internal action like ‘Stealth Knowledge Initiatives,’ pilot projects and convincing the boss to introduce the value of knowledge work to fellow workers, colleagues and managers.

In short, Smart People will become the ‘bible’ for the knowledge savvy.

Customers

Every thinking person in all the world is a prospective subscriber to Smart People Magazine. They don’t just ‘think.’ They are aware of the value and importance of their thinking to themselves, their colleagues and the world. They are engaged in the subjects and issues they care about.

Smart people are located in every nook in every quarter of the world and are especially active in developed and developing countries. The latent are ready to spring forth in underdeveloped and undeveloped countries and are especially in need of inspiration, knowledge and education.

Smart people are chafing at the bit and eager to spring forth into a world that welcomes those who think differently and who are intent on sharing, collaborating and learning in an open, innovative environment. They are anxious to understand and fit into this new environment.

Age: Smart people are ageless, but the greatest interest is among the younger, tech-savvy, open-minded, free-thinking generations.
Gender: Smart people are not gender-specific, but women are particularly inspired by the power of knowledge as a self-improvement tool.
Location: Interest and use of the knowledge advantage is particularly advanced in Europe, North and Latin America, Australia and Asia, but the phenomenon is reaching into the most remote corners of the world.
Income level: Use of the knowledge strategy as a key to the future is surfacing among people on the economic scale from the extremely disadvantaged to the most economically advantaged.
Social class and occupation: Smart people transcend social classes and occupations. Being smart does not require a formal education, degree or professional designation. Graduates of the School of Hard Knocks may apply. Success is in the savvy and the doing.
Education: Formal education, degrees and professional designations still get smart people through the door, but the proof is in the doing.

US President Barack Obama is a ‘smart people.’

Competitors

There are no existing publications quite like Smart People. There are several electronic and print publications focused on knowledge management, but none is explicitly aimed at people on the source end of the knowledge chain.

All knowledge-oriented publications are aimed primarily at academics, thought leaders, consultants, managers and executives in knowledge-driven organizations. They are all about knowledge management. They are all focused on capturing, exploiting and storing knowledge for commercial or humanitarian use.
Smart People will focus on the target of knowledge management – the human source. The purpose will be to enlighten and encourage individuals to understand the value of their intellectual capital and how to make the most of it, both personally and professionally.

However, that does not mean Smart People will not have competition. The bulk of recognized knowledge workers and personal knowledge practitioners are plugged into some type of media for specialist professionals such as engineers, scientists, human resource, learning and communications practitioners, project managers, etc. Most have their own professional associations and societies and most of those groups produce their own special interest magazines.

In some cases, these special areas are served by commercial magazines such as CIO and Workforce.
The general subscribers to Smart People will be interested in connecting its content with their primary activities within their own professions or personal activities, not in knowledge work per se, but knowledge work as an innovative approach to their core field. The importance of knowledge work to them will lie in how it will help them be a better scientist, engineer, receptionist, online researcher or communicator, etc. Therefore, the subject of knowledge and the magazine called Smart People will be of secondary, though of high-level, interest.

Knowledge management professionals, on the other hand, will represent a constituency with primary interest as Smart People will represent a learning opportunity or a tool for bridging the gap between their knowledge management goals and objectives and the people they seek to engage.
On the social side of knowledge work, there are other magazines aiming at an audience of social networkers, bloggers, website owners, webmasters, and users. In addition to the professional and trade publications, there are thousands of blogs and hundreds of newsletters aimed at the same market Smart People will be targeting.

Many of these publications are free. Some of them are nominally priced and a few of them are priced so high that only senior executives, companies or libraries can afford them. This includes Inside Knowledge Magazine and KM Review.

While these publications rarely contain the subject matter planned for Smart People, they are in competition for the same attention and the same financial or cultural support. Regardless of price, the question rises: How many magazines can one person read? And how do you help the reader make the choice?
(See Appendix A for a list of competing publications.)

Competitive Analysis

Knowledge management is migrating to other professional and trade sectors but the leaders in these sectors are rarely open, prepared or savvy enough about the knowledge movement to provide leadership. At the same time, organizations are expecting Web 2.0 technology to drive knowledge management, reducing or closing down enterprise-wide KM programs. In many cases, it is a step back to the devastating beginning when knowledge management was mistakenly believed to be driven by technology, not people.

KM initiatives were only partly successful in reaching and activating some of the frontline holders of knowledge and now mid-level managers are generally unprepared to provide key knowledge, information and learning about the knowledge phenomenon, let alone put into place the cultures and processes needed at various levels of the business structure.

Professional and trade publications provide little deep understanding and information about the significance of the knowledge process to the sector they serve or how to meet that challenge. And, the pioneering KM community has spent more time communicating to each other than with those who are now recognized as the center of knowledge work.

In the world outside of work, people are discovering the personal joy, advantage and growth of exploring the world of Web 2.0. But they are learning by experimentation and they are either unaware or vaguely sensing the impact these tools are having and will have on themselves and the world they live in.

But the difference between the dynamics of corporate knowledge and personal knowledge is striking. In business, people resist. At home, they are voracious users of network technology. Go figure. We, the people of Smart People Magazine, know how to create a medium where these two diverse movements collide and knowledge management finally lives up to its promise.

To serve this massive and diverse audience, Smart People will either have to supplant, supplement or support a broad range of indirect competitors. SP magazine could use all three strategies – just as corporations use partnership, merger or acquisition. But it is very unlikely SP can become the only publication on anyone’s subscription list. SP will not likely supplant any competitor. Rather, it will either supplement, support or merge with other publications /organizations.

[quote="Alice MacGillivray"]
Does Smart People emulate elements of any of these?
* OL Daily http://www.downes.ca/news/about_old.htm
* Utne Reader: http://www.utne.com/daily.aspx
* The Walrus: http://www.walrusmagazine.com/
* The Whole Earth Review: http://www.wholeearth.com/history-whole-earth-review.php
Can we learn from the growing success of young news people?
who have shows that don't much resemble those of older anchors and interviewers...
* http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/
[/quote]

Discuss it @ http://smart-people.mixxt.com/networks/forum/thread.5830

Niche

In short, Smart People will deliver a focus on the realization, acquisition and capitalization of personal knowledge at home, work and play to people who have a practical need to know and who are not getting in-depth assistance from other publications.

Promotion

Because Smart People was envisioned as a collaborative, knowledge-driven enterprise, promotion was embedded in the development process from the beginning.

The developer joined Facebook and immediately began to invite the friends of his key KM and social networking friends to become his friends; then join a Smart People Magazine Facebook Group to provide comment and discussion on the SP Discussion Board and on ‘the Wall.’

From the SP Group, a small but eager group of friends volunteered to collaboratively draft the SP Magazine business plan using an SP Wiki set up by one of the most active volunteers.

In this way, Smart People is growing up as a grassroots enterprise. In the early stage, when financial capital is limited, this social and knowledge capital is critical, not only for its energy but for its grassroots buy-in. Friends and members are inviting their friends to join. Browsers are noticing Smart People on FB pages and adding it. Such ‘promotion on the cheap’ builds a constituency at no cost compared to online Facebook ads which would be costing $.50 per click.

Still it is a slow and laborious process generated by one person and Smart People will soon need to consider other methods – volunteer promotional teams, PR efforts, the development of a wider profile through use of other no-cost or low-cost methods, professional viral marketing. Advertising and other paid mediums will eventually be needed if SP is to reach a mass market.

A blog, a website, the technology to subscribe online, are yet to be added. A logo, a magazine design, a launch date and strong editorial content for the first issue are yet to be developed. All of these things must happen before promotion can reach full steam.

Promotional Budget

The developer and his partner/wife have a wealth of intellectual capital to invest, but limited time and financial capital. A minimum of $5,000 has been pledged; more is problematic. That amount will likely only fund the development of the infrastructure. The purchase of paid advertising and promotion will require an immediate infusion of money – subscriptions, grants, sponsorships, advertising, investments, partnerships to be considered.

Pricing

For most small businesses, according to SCORE, having the lowest price is not a good policy. It robs the business of needed profit margin; customers may not care as much about price as you think; and large competitors can underprice you anyway. Usually you will do better to have average prices and compete on quality and service.
On the other hand, many advise that people will not pay for information they can otherwise get for free on line. Question is, can they? Smart People is unique. We need to survey the prices of competitors and determine through research whether price is a competitive factor.
Meanwhile, the tentative price is set at $16 annually. The strategy of price is to keep it as low on our end as other KM magazines are high on the other. The philosophy is to take the knowledge message to the masses, not limit it to the upper income level. However, producing a magazine – even online – is not cheap. And if we are to reach the point of offering a print version, one printed copy will cost $9 just to print (in limited pressruns). Advertising will be the critical factor.
On the other hand, another critical factor is building circulation. Advertisers will not accept a substantial rate card unless they get substantial exposure. Thus, setting the price is a balance between early income and fast circulation figures.

Location

Smart People will be headquartered in Sun City Center, Florida, US, with one volunteer fulltime and one ‘conscripted’ part time staff.

Business will be conducted online or by mail and thus the physical location of the HQ is unimportant.
The remainder of staff will be volunteer, virtual and located worldwide. No one will become paid staff until revenue supports it. The virtual and worldwide organizational structure will continue indefinitely.

Distribution Channels

In the Beta Year, Smart People will be available in two forms:

Magazine format (PDF)
Searchable text archives
Paper version available for additional fee from on-demand print service - such as http://www.lulu.com/

At the end of the Beta Year, when revenue makes it possible, a print version will be offered in addition to the other three forms. Pricing will be higher to cover printing and distribution of the print version.
General sales will be individual through direct order online.

Group sales (through organizations) can be distributed individually online or in bulk and redistributed by the group at a reduced or wholesale price. Rates will vary depending on quantity or other factors.
SP marketing volunteers may consider enlisting agents and independent representatives.

Sales Forecast

Now that we have described our product, services, customers, markets and marketing plans, we need to use a sales forecast sheet to prepare a month-by-month projection. The forecast should be based on our marketing strategies, our market research and industry data.

We may want to do two forecasts: 1) a “best guess,” which is what we really expect, and 2) a “worst case” low estimate that we are confident we can reach no matter what happens.

Notes on the research and assumptions as we build this sales forecast and all subsequent spreadsheets in the plan will be critical if we are going to present the forecast or the business plan to funding sources.

The beginning sales forecast and resulting financial plan should be just that – the plan for the beginning Beta Year. It is too early to forecast the subsequent year or years or to develop a business plan based on projected income. That should occur midway in the Beta Year