Lessons in Small Business Marketing Decision Making

  Step 4: A quick check as to which groups get what investment.

Total Population	W 25-39	As a %	% of Population	% of our Target	TGT Index	Gelatin Index
Total Population	316,128,839	31,828,214	10%	100%	100%
White	197,392,411	18,239,655	9%	62%	57%	91.8	80
Hispanic	53,986,412	6,269,285	12%	17%	20%	115.3	158
Black/AA	38,807,755	4,399,217	11%	12%	14%	112.6	115
Asian	15,841,339	2,375,016	15%	5%	7%	148.9	95
All Other	3,183,308	545,041	17%	1%	2%	170.1	30

Ready For Market Planning and Decision Making Based on this process you have a few strategic decisions:

• Gelatin consumption is driven by two factors: price/income and novelty

o   Hispanics and Black/AA make less than White non-hispanics, so they will be better gelatin consumers o   We will need to develop novelties for all 4 quarters to keep the product growing into a cash cow

• 12% of all Hispanics are in our target (women 25-39), they are a large group (17% of the population and 20% of the women in our target), so they get an investment budget.
• 11% of all Black/AA are also in our target, they are a large group (12% of the population) but are not as large as Hispanics (at 14% of our target), so they will get a budget, but it will not be an “investment” budget, but probably a maintenance-level budget.
• Finally, white non-Hispanics, while indexing low on all counts, still will represent 46% of our consumption, so they get a “large/maintenance” budget.

Marketing Decisions Based on What the Data Suggests

Expected Sales	$   260,000,000	Creative	Media
% to Advertising	$     26,000,000	10%	20%	80%
$     5,200,000	$       20,800,000
% of Consumption	Index	Budget
White Non-Hispanic	46%	80	35%	$     1,820,000	$         7,280,000
Hispanics	31%	158	47%	$     2,444,000	$         9,776,000
Black/AA	16%	115	18%	$         936,000	$         3,744,000
Asian	7%	95	–	$               –	$                 –
All Others	1%	30	–	$               –	$                 –
100%	100%	$ 5,200,000	$ 20,800,000

I have purposely avoided the issue of “acculturated” vs “non-acculturated” Hispanics to avoid more complexity, but it is easy enough to factor those, too, in the equation. As a result of this “Total Market” approach, I would be dedicating 35% of the budget to White Non-Hispanics, 47% to Hispanics and 18% to African Americans. I would probably decide against any specific advertising against Asians (small grow, medium index) and all others (no influence on sales whatsoever). Once you have identified and segmented your Total Market you have to develop your Total market strategy. Stay tuned for lesson 2, Developing a Total Marketing Strategy That Targets your Market Segments Related articles: Limited Budget Marketing Essentials Theory of Everything How to Sell More Customers POE Really Is a Manageable Marketing Strategy