Page 78 - Foundations of Marketing

Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Marketing Strategies | Chapter 2 45

Entrepreneurship in Marketing

Samuel Adams: Helping Others Brew the American Dream

Jim Koch is helping small businesses brew their Just as valuable as the funding is the opportunity to turn
American dreams. His Boston Beer Company, maker of to Koch and his team for guidance when facing tough
Samuel Adams Beer, is an entrepreneurial success story, decisions. The owner of Delectable Desires, for example,
with annual revenue of nearly $ 600 million. In the early borrowed $ 4,000 (which she repaid) and benefited
days, Koch faced many daunting marketing challenges, from hours of consultation with a Boston Beer finance
such as how to connect with suitable distributors. expert, who helped her assess pricing options for her
Even today, he and his managers maintain a small- cheesecakes.
business mindset because they recognize that Boston Brewing the American Dream also works with local
Beer’s share of the U.S. beer market is tiny compared sponsors to host speed coaching sessions around the
with the much larger shares held by deep-pocketed country. For 20 minutes at a time, entrepreneurs can sit
multinational rivals. down with a marketing expert or some other functional
To help other small businesses plan for the future, specialist to discuss their firms’ weaknesses, opportuni-
Koch has partnered with the microlender Accion to create ties, and competitive situation. After changing tables to
Brewing the American Dream. The program offers mar- consult with coaches in multiple functions, they walk
keting advice, management mentoring, and small loans away with new ideas for solving today’s problems and
d
to entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industries. building toward the profits of tomorrow.

© iStockphoto.com/CRTd

strategy will be deemed effective. It is important that a firm seek to gain an understanding of
why the strategy was effective because this information may allow marketers to adjust the
strategy tactically to be even more effective.
When actual performance fails to meet performance standards, marketers should seek to
understand why the marketing strategy was less effective than expected. For example, perhaps
a marketing mix variable such as price was not ideally suited to the target market, which could
result in lower performance. Environmental changes or aggressive competitive behavior can
both cause a marketing strategy to underperform.
When a marketer finds that a strategy is underperforming expectations, a question some-
times arises as to whether the marketing objective, against which performance is measured, is
realistic. After studying the problem, the firm may find that the marketing objective is indeed
unrealistic. In this case, marketers must alter the marketing objective to bring it in line with
more sensible expectations. It is also possible that the marketing strategy is underfunded,
which can result in lower performance.

CREATING THE MARKETING PLAN LO 4 . Understand the develop-
ment of a marketing plan.
The strategic planning process ultimately yields a marketing strategy that is the framework
for a marketing plan , a written document that specifies the marketing activities to be per-
formed to implement and evaluate the organization’s marketing strategies. Developing a
clear, well-written marketing plan, though time consuming, is important. It provides a uni-
form marketing vision for the firm and is the basis for internal communications. It delineates
marketing plan A written docu-
marketing responsibilities and tasks and outlines schedules for implementation. The plan
ment that specifies the activities
presents objectives and specifies how resources are to be allocated to achieve them. Finally, to be performed to implement
the marketing plan helps managers monitor and evaluate the performance of a marketing and control the organization’s
strategy. marketing activities

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