Yes, you can devise
an in-house marketing plan!

This seven-step process can realize benefits for both management and user groups.

The Glenview Park District's in-house marketing plan helped pool attendance more than double last year. (Photo courtesy of the Glenview Park District.)

By Judith L. Zopp Are you fed up with yet more "how to" information about marketing? Yes? Then why are you still leary of taking all these wonderful seminars or articles and really doing something concrete by developing your own inhouse marketing plans? Perhaps the answer is as simple as, "I'm not sure where to begin." or "I am not trained professionally to develop marketing plans; it's way beyond my scope." Well, I disagree. Glenview's efforts As staff members of the Glenview Park District, we have developed marketing plans for our golf course restaurant and pools for the last three years. The income generated in our golf restaurant has increased more than 140 percent, and attendance at the pools more than doubled during 1986.

Were all of these increases generated only as a result of the marketing plan? No, not totally, since there were physical changes made to each of the facilities. However, since the initial

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facility changes, our staff has continued to develop a revised marketing plan and witness ever-increasing revenues and attendance figures.

Defining the concept

What does marketing mean to you? If you advertise or use personal selling, is that marketing? Perhaps a formal definition might enable you to give the term some meaning. Dennis Howard and John Crompton, in Financing, Managing and Marketing Recreation and Park Resources (WMC Brown Company), explain it as follows:

Marketing is the analysis, planning, implementation and control of carefully formulated programs, designed to bring about voluntary exchanges with target markets for the purpose of achieving agency objectives. It relies heavily upon designing offerings consistent with client wants and on using effective pricing communication, and distribution to inform, motivate and service markets.

Now that clarifies everything! Perhaps, though, a shorter definition might help a bit. Think of marketing as developing services — based on client wants — and then pricing, promoting and distributing those services effectively.

This definition does help as it goes right to the heart of the marketing concept. Specifically, managers and administrators should first find out what the client wants and, from that point, develop services to meet those wants.

Understanding the steps

Once you understand the steps in a marketing plan, you'll recognize that your past efforts may strongly relate to parts of a market planning process already. Therefore, the purpose in writing this is not to try to teach "all there is to know about marketing in-depth." It is only a framework that you can use to develop an interest in the in-house planning process.

Finally, this material overviews the steps in developing a marketing plan to encourage further investigation and to reduce the "fear of doing." If you are sensitive to people and their needs, you can develop a marketing plan and target your ideas without a degree in marketing.

Devising your plan

You can go to a library anywhere and take out dozens of books about marketing. Generally, though, after all of the reading and investigation is finished and all of the terms defined, the steps in developing a marketing plan are reasonably consistent. A capsulated version of a seven-step process in the box below should be all you need to get started. Why wait?

Step I: Develop organizational goals/philosophies

This is a critical starting point. Whether you want to market several recreation programs, a restaurant, your pool or a racquetball complex, board members, administrators and managers must first come to a consensus regarding the goals to accomplish. By including all members of the organization who will ultimately be responsible for carrying out the plan in this process, there will be a total commitment. This goal setting procedure sets the stage for the development of the overall marketing plan.

Step 2: Segment the market

Realistically, an agency cannot service every person's individual interests or wants. Therefore, it becomes necessary to identify a group of people who are most likely going to want similar services (the target market). John Crompton, in Selecting Target Markets — A Key to Effective Marketing (Journal, Jan. 1983), makes this observation:

Historically, the importance of target marketing has not been widely recognized in the recreation field. Services have been directed at everybody or the average user, rather than at target groups of specific somebodies.

Grouping clients together based on similar wants/needs means finding out what those wants are. Remember the

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capsulated definition? For example, if you were developing a class for prenatal exercise, would you promote it in a restaurant or a doctor's (OB) office? In which place are you more likely to find your target market?

What research techniques can you use to effectively determine what your client groups may want? You can do presentations and solicit input from various organizations or advisory committees. Use focus groups or a workshop; prepare written or oral surveys or questionnaires. All of these tools are within the ability of your own staff.

The number and availability of resources to perform this fact-gathering will ultimately depend upon the individual district, but the need to perform this task at some point must be recognized as critical. The identification of client wants is your starting point.

Once the client wants are identified, the grouping of clients with similar wants/needs becomes the process of segmentation. Each group should be measurable (large enough to identify as an individual group), accessible (you have the ability to reach these clients as a group) and large enough to divide out.

Step 3: Situation analysis (diagnosis)

Basesd on staff input and evaluation, this step should be one which answers such questions as: Where are we now? What are we doing (for each segment as identified in step two)? When are we doing it? What marketing mix is currently being used?

Marketing mix is generally referred to as the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion. Further, these are the controllable variables that can be manipulated, changed and set so their individual combination appeals to the target market (that segment that you want to reach). This concept will become clearer as you proceed through step four and into step five.

Step 4: Prognosis — Where do we want to be?

This is where the fun begins. With staff or user groups (or any other members you feel could be helpful), you organize a brainstorming session. The object is to come up with as many ideas as possible for providing services to meet needs.

At this point you will more than likely notice a gap between where you are now (step three) and where you want to be (step four). For example, a survey determined that teens (ages 11-13) found the pools dull. You set a goal to increase teen use by 30 percent. How do you accomplish this task? (See step five.)

Step 5: Strategy planning

At this point the "how to" (strategy) steps are developed to provide the guidelines to reach the desired target market. Strategies usually involve the manipulation of the four Ps: What product, price, place and promotion combination can be put together to get you from where you are now to where you want to be? (The accompanying example for the first five steps in a marketing plan might help you to grasp the concepts explained so far.)

SAMPLE MARKETING PLAN (Steps 1-5) Through organizational analysis and evaluation of attendance figures, it was determined that pool use has declined 30 percent during the past five years. 1. Organizational goal Create program/facility changes to increase pool use. 2. Segmentation Performed by the staff and based on types of user groups. Those attending the pools are grouped together (segmented) by age: moms and tots, primary youth (ages 7-10), teens (ages 11-13), and adults (the fitness conscious and the sunbathers). 3. Situation analysis Through interviews and questionnaires aimed at these target groups, it is learned that the parents and tots are dissatisfied with the baby pool and concrete deck (not much to hold a baby's interest). The other user groups were analyzed separately. Current product — baby pool/deck . . . current place — west side of the community . . . current price — tokens and a daily fee at market value; no charge for children under age six ... current promotion — brochure to all residents and newspaper articles. 4. Prognosis Provide a fun place for parents and tots to experience water play, and one that will also hold the tots' interest. 5. Strategy Price — Develop an early purchase discount to encourage parents to purchase tokens and, therefore, use the pool more frequently. Place — The baby pool is built and cannot be moved out of the west part of the community. Product — (1) Add a tot sand play area with a tot shower to allow diversified play within the pool area; (2) allow rubber flotation devices, and (3) set off a shallow area of the main pool for parents, tots and flotation fun. Promotion — Use pictures, brochures, the media and school mailings to notify parents about the new baby pool concept.

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Marketing plans

Step 6: Tactics Now that the strategy is set, the determination of who does what by when must be decided. This will help ensure that all aspects as outlined in the strategy are attended to and plans don't "fall through the cracks." Step 7: Control and evaluations How will you know if your goals and strategies are being met? What records are necessary to give the analytical information along the way? The record-keeping needs and procedures should be identified in the initial planning stages so when the evaluation of the strategies begins, a lot of backtrack ing is not necessary. Effective marketing benefits both management and user groups.

A cyclical process

This thought should be the final building block in your marketing concepts: marketing planning is cyclical in nature. To be effective it has to be a continuous process.

Two real benefits will be realized. First, management will focus on long-term objectives; second, management will be forced to realign its resources so client priorities are being met rather than being solely perceived by staff. Ultimately, the various user groups, your clients, are the benefactors.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Judith L. Zopp is the assistant general superintendent of the Glenview Park District. She has an undergraduate degree in public administration and an MBA in marketing.

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