The Mission Record Thursday, October 11, 2012 B1
BusinessTRACK Mission Chamber of Commerce connect • influence • prosper
Marketing starts with your customers A
s the economy begins to move, this is a good time to focus on your business strategies with marketing playing a key role in how you plan to move forward. Your marketing plan details how you intend to meet your customers’ needs and communicate the benefits of your products or services to them. When deciding about market positioning, pricing, promotions, and sales, your customers should be top of mind.
3. Your Pricing Strategy Price is a very important factor in your marketing plan; however should not be the sole focus of your plan. Pricing strategies need to be relevant to your value not your competitors only. 4. Your Promotion Strategy Promotion is the activity of informing, persuading, and influencing your customers’ purchase decisions. The type and scope of promotional activities that you need to undertake will depend on what the promotion is intended to do, and what goals and objectives you want to achieve.
The Four Key Components of Your Plan Your marketing plan should describe how you will segment your target market, how you will position your products or services compared to your competition, what your pricing strategy will be, and how you will effectively reach and influence your customers. 1. Your Target Market Your target market is a group of customers that has a similar need for a product or service, money to purchase the product or service, and willingness and ability to buy it. To identify your target market and best serve your market, you need to: • Know your customers; • understand what your customers need; • why they buy. Because you have limited time, resources, and budget, you cannot be everything to everyone. To effectively reach customers, you need to segment your target market into
It's important for businesses to sit down and develop a marketing plan.
one primary market on which you focus most of your energy, and at most three secondary markets. You can segment your target market along four key characteristics: • Demographic: Who are your customers? • Geographic: Where do they live? • Psychographic: Why do they buy?
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you to know your present and potential competitors, both direct and indirect. Examine their strengths and weaknesses relative to yours. This will help you select a market position that provides a competitive advantage. Your overall position should emphasize those factors that your customers value most, and those which make you stand out from your competition.
2. Your Market Positioning Positioning is the image of your product or service that you create in the mind of your target market. Your goal is to create an image that’s unique, differentiated, and definable in the mind of your customers. It’s essential that all of your marketing materials support the position or image you are creating. It’s also critical for
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There are four general types of promotional activities: 1. Advertising. 2. Sales promotion. Sales promotions focus on short-term incentives to encourage sales of your products and/or services. 3. Publicity and public relations. 4. Personal selling. This type of promotion involves a direct, face-to-face relationship with your customer. It includes explaining or demonstrating the features and benefits of your products and/or services in an attempt to persuade the customer to buy. To learn more about marketing, join us for Lunch & Learns during October, Small Business Month. Industry experts will teach you the important aspects of positioning your brand in the market. Go to www.MissionChamber. bc.ca for more info.
B2 The Mission Record Thursday, October 11, 2012
2012 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BusinessTRACK
President's message Cal Crawford
PAST PRESIDENT
Sean Melia
Tony LaPointe
VICE PRESIDENT
TREASURER
Todd Bugge
Pam Alexis
DIRECTOR 2011
DIRECTOR 2012
Trevor Girard
Vicki Gould
DIRECTOR 2012
DIRECTOR 2012
Attila Davalovsky
Ann Harper
DIRECTOR 2011
Satti Grewal
DIRECTOR 2012
DIRECTOR 2011
Allan Main
LIAISON, C.F.N.F.
Mayor Ted Adlem DOM LIAISON
O
ctober is Small Business Month and certainly in Mission we have many small businesses to celebrate. Mission is an incubator of businesses, with most business licenses in the area being for organizations of less than five employees and more than 40 per cent being home-based businesses. As the Voice of Business, the Mission Chamber continues to support small business through our advocacy work. One recent success has been municipal council’s approval of Core Service Review recommendations that were supported by the Chamber. Key recommendations included the streamlining of front counter service and web portals for licensing and fee payment. In a broader approach, the Chamber’s collaboration with other Fraser Valley Chambers has led to the adoption of a mobile business license pilot. This will save up to $2,000 in licensing fees for small businesses that work from Surrey to Hope on both sides of the Fraser. To further assist all small businesses, the Chamber continues to provide great seminars to celebrate October. Listening to members’ interest, the team has brought together some fabulous Lunch & Learns on all aspects of marketing. Great partnerships with Prospera Credit Union, Fraser Valley Regional Library and Community Futures North Fraser are providing experts that can give valuable insight to this key business tool. We are also celebrating the best of business in Mission on Oct. 19 at the Business Excellence Awards. It was great to have over 80 nominees in the eight award categories. Congratulations to all those nominated and I hope you will join me at the Gala to celebrate this year’s winners and honor all nominees.
Elyssa Lockhart PRESIDENT
Powerful business tool now available at your local library A re you trying to hunt down new businessto-business clients, source new suppliers or scope out the competition? Fraser Valley Regional Library’s (FVRL) newest online resource, ReferenceCanada, will give your business the edge it needs. This powerful database contains information on 1.5 million Canadian businesses, and is available free online 24/7 to every FVRL member. “Businesses need to be resourceful to grow, and this database will knock your socks off –and it’ll knock the dust off your marketing plan too,” says Diana Marshall,
librarian at FVRL’s Mission Library. Marshall should know–she’s served countless entrepreneurs ravenous for good marketing data in Vancouver Public Library’s Business Division. “ReferenceCanada is the single, most useful tool that businesses, new and established, need to know about.” There are lots of directories available, so what makes this one so special? Malleability. ReferenceCanada can be searched by a wide variety of company characteristics, including the usual phonebook fare like company name and category, but also by more unique characteristics,
such as phone area code, postal code, the number of employees, or sales volume. In addition, the information available about a company can include executive names, web addresses – even an indicator of how long the company has been in business. Why does this matter? It means one company can pull out a list of potential clients in any particular industry and location, another can find a list of comparably sized competitors in their area, and a third company could use it to track down Canadian suppliers for their latest venture. “The possibilities are end-
less,” says Marshall, “we even have job hunters tapping into the hidden job market using ReferenceCanada. Finding reliable statistics and information like ReferenceCanada offers can cost companies a lot of money and time. FVRL is excited to help grow local businesses with free tools like ReferenceCanada, and our many other useful databases.” For more information about ReferenceCanada or to ask how the Mission Library can help answer your business questions, call the library’s Information Desk at 604-826-6610 or visit at 33247 Second Avenue, Mission.
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Casino Night
• Professional Dealers • Buffet • Comedy Shows • Great Prizes!
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Changing Lives
33179 2nd Avenue Mission, BC V2V 1J9 604.826.3634 info@missioncommunityservices.com
Building Community
The Mission Record Thursday, October 11, 2012 B3
BusinessTRACK Marketing Lunch and Learns Topics vary Place: Mission Library, meeting room Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Oct. 19 Business Excellence Awards Place: Ballroom, Mission Best Western Time: 5:30 to 11 p.m.
Nov. 15 Chamber Luncheon Place: Chapel Room, Rockwell's Bar and Grill, 32281 Lougheed Hwy. Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Nov. 28 Mission City Business Center’s Ann Harper welcomes you with a smile.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Mission City Business Center helping local business grow Hands-on or virtual, Mission City Business Center helps business grow Mission City Business Center, the brainchild of Ann Harper, sits near the foot of James Street at First Avenue and boasts a bright boardroom complete with panoramic view that is ready to serve both her on-site and virtual clients. “I saw a need for growing home-based businesses in the Fraser Valley to have an affordable, professional and complete work base and supports outside the home,” explained Harper, a chartered
accountant who was homebased in Mission for the last three years. “A place like this can help ease the expense, uncertainty and fear that often accompany the growth of a home-based business.” Harper has renovated her space to provide others with private, secure offices, shared reception and business areas and a well-equipped boardroom. “In addition,” said Harper, “you can have us answer phones, collect or send faxes, advise you when mail arrives and provide confidential
shredding, word processing or accounting services.” “You can build a flat-rate package that suits you, with or without physical office space, or take just one service at a time. Your choice,” she continued. Non-profit organizations can use Harper’s boardroom at no charge because she wants to “help these organizations grow, too.” Not yet open for six months, Harper rented out her five on-site office spaces within her first two months of business. She has added a Purola-
tor depot to her service mix and is already set to expand her Mission City Business Center to include three more offices by Christmas this year. “My work with the Mission Chamber has helped me grow my own business because people have had a chance to get to know and trust me,” said Harper. “And people like to do business with people they know and trust.” For more information visit www.MissionCityBusinessCenter.com or call Harper at 604-826-7311.
Seminar: Insightful Selling Place: TBA Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Dec. 9 Candlelight Parade Register your float!
Scan this QR code with your smart phone to see details on our website
Randy HAWES, MLA Abbotsford - Mission Marc DALTON, MLA Maple Ridge - Mission
Our constituency office is here to assist you with: •GOVERNMENT RELATED ISSUES •INFORMATION ON GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS •CERTIFYING YOUR COPIES •ARRANGING CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES PHONE:
Randy Hawes MLA
Abbotsford - Mission
Marc Dalton MLA
Maple Ridge - Mission
EMAIL:
33058 First Avenue Mission, B.C. V2V 1G3 604-820-6203 TOLL FREE:1-866-370-6203 FAX: 604-820-6211
randy.hawes.mla@leg.bc.ca
EMAIL:
www.randyhawesmla.bc.ca
marc.dalton.mla@leg.bc.ca www.marcdaltonmla.bc.ca
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CHAMBER COMING EVENTS
Oct. 4, 11, 16, 23, 15
Chamber Snapshots: A close-up look at members that keep Mission humming
B4 The Mission Record Thursday, October 11, 2012
Fraser Valley chambers hosting showcase and mixer in Langley, Nov. 6
tourism_services@missionchamber .bc ca
manager@missionchamber .bc ca
2012 CHAMBER TEAM
BusinessTRACK
Michelle Favero
Allison Jack
Manager
Tourism Co-ordinator
Clare Seeley Visitor Services
The third annual Fall Fraser Valley Chambers of Commerce Business Showcase & Mixer will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012 at a new event location, Cascades Ballroom at Cascades Casino, Coast Hotel and Convention Centre in Langley, and at a new time, from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Event organizers expect more than 500 people to attend the tradeshow. All 107 exhibitor booths are now sold out. The show is a joint event put on by chambers in the Fraser Valley. It is a great opportunity to network with business leaders and professionals working throughout the Fraser Valley. “This is a great opportunity for business owners, operators and decision makers from across the
Athena Green Member Services
"Membership has its benefits!" Also, your centre for Mission & BC Tourist Information
For more information on the Mission Regional Chamber of Commerce, go to www.missionchamber.bc.ca.
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Fraser Valley to come together and see what each other has to offer,” explains Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce President, Angie Quaale. “Exhibitors will get to promote their businesses and services and guests will get a chance to network and see what is available to them in other communities. It is a win-win for all involved.” Participating chambers include Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Langley, Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows, Mission and Surrey. This event is sponsored by Cascades Casino, Coast Hotel and Convention Centre, Duolynx Design & Print, Sudden Impact, Silverpoint Systems Ltd. and Mediast Web Solutions. This event is free for all guests to attend but an RSVP is appreciated for catering purposes.
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