marketing plane
Most of you probably have aspirations of going out and getting a job (or a better job) after you finish your degree. When you decide it’s time to “market” yourself, you can make up a marketing plan, with yourself as a company, and your talents (competitive advantages) as your “product”. Then go thru the marketing plan elements for your product. You need to go thru the 4 elements below. I have given you an example of my company and product, and examples of what I would do for each element.
My company is BSTL Industries. My product is teaching.
1. Give me your mission statement. Remember what a good mission statement entails.
Mine is “To make a lasting impact on people’s lives by helping them learn important skills”
2. Do your Situation, or SWOT analysis. Write 2-3 things for each letter. This one may take more thought.
Briefly, mine would be
S—lots of life experience and job experience and competitive experience, empathetic, ….
W—low patience levels, limited time to invest
O—There are always opportunities to teach
T—People can be difficult to work with
After doing your SWOT analysis, give me one or two of your competitive advantages. Mine would be experience (product differentiation) and I only need to work part time (cost). I could also be considered niche (teaching at a university)
3. Objectives—Again, remember what it takes to state a good objective. My objective is “In 2016 I want to develop a sports marketing class that will be added to the NAU curriculum by 2018”.
4. Marketing Mix—Give me a couple of details about each element of your marketing mix
For me,
Product—business and swim teaching, swim coaching
Distribution—Online, in person at NAU, or in Flagstaff and surrounding area
Promotion—I rely on word of mouth to keep me coaching and teaching, if I wanted to get a new job I may promote myself at Jobs.com or LinkedIn, or simply by sending my resume (advertisement) to a potential employer
Price—I will work for the market price (you could say you require $XXX,XXX to take a job), I do not need a full time job with benefits, which may or may not help in the job search.
Remember, once you complete your marketing plan, you should follow up and evaluate its success. For most of you, you will implement your plan once you start your job search, and you will evaluate its success based on how long it takes to get a job, and whether the job you get meets your criteria.
