The Intensiveness of Marketing is a Choice: Let’s Take A Look at Tukaluk

Image by Nicholette Freele

As readers of my blog know, Joanne and I published our book earlier this year. 

(BTW, you can order a copy using this link: Intentional Marketing.) 

We are happy with the book and the principles that we have developed. Joanne and I still have weekly discussions - Thursday mornings at 8:00 am. We talk about sales of the book, marketing for the book, and various clients that we have that are using the concepts of measuring performance and alignment. 

The Intentions of Business Owners

Recently, we have been talking about additional concepts that fit under the umbrella of Intentional Marketing. One of the relevant topics is the intentions of business owners. In other words, what does the business owner want from the business? 

Some of the questions that we have thought of (from the owner’s point of view) are:

• Why am I a business owner?

• What is the purpose of the business?

• What do I want to achieve?

• Do I want a large company with lots of revenue and many employees?

• Do I want to serve a local, regional, national, or global market?

• Or do I want a smaller business that pays the bills and provides a comfortable income level?

These are interesting questions that I have not been asking my clients (sadly). My assumption was that owners would have thought through these questions and established their point of view already. But I should ask to clarify. Shame on me but I‘m learning. 

[As an aside, my discussions with Joanne are always challenging and disruptive. Inevitably, she will ask questions to which I don’t have answers. I’m getting used to ignoring my annoyance (a fault of mine), being patient, and listening to her ideas. The result is that I learn something new and of value. For me this is humbling but I am grateful.]

For the last month or so our discussions have focused on developing a 2X2 that captures the business owner’s intentions and a strategy for moving forward. This is what we developed. 

Intentional Marketing Matrix

Developed by Jeff Nelson and Joanne O’Connell

In our model, the x-axis is a continuum of how intensive the owner wants to be. They can choose to be laid back or they can be aggressive. The y-axis relates to the portion of the market that the owner wants. They can aim to capture 100% of the market or a lesser portion. These are the variables that the owner must decide on. 

This model, what we are calling the Intentional Marketing Matrix, results in four alternatives:

1. Low Intensiveness and a Low % of the reachable market. We have labelled this as “Focused Marketing”.

• The objective is to capture less than 100% of the market and not invest too much in advertising. This will work well in a niche market and niche products that are “essential to the customer. 

• For business owners who want to focus on a local or regional market

• The investment in marketing is low

• The commitment to marketing and the effort involved is low

2. Low Intensiveness and a High % of the reachable market. We have labelled this as “Multiple Channel Marketing”.

• The objective is to capture a higher percentage of the market without investing too much in advertising. More effort will be required. 

• This is for business owners who want to focus on a regional market

• The focus for marketing is to use multiple channels to generate awareness

• The commitment to marketing and the effort involved is medium

• The investment in advertising is moderate

3. High Intensiveness and a Low % of the reachable market. We have labelled this as “Targeted Advertising”.

• For business owners who want to focus on a regional market but intensively

• The investment in advertising is high

• The commitment to marketing and the effort involved is high

4. High Intensiveness and a High % of the reachable market. We have labelled this as “Mass Marketing”.

   • This strategy is for business owners who want to capture 100% of the market

   • As a result, they are willing to invest a considerable amount in marketing and advertising

   • Their commitment and intensity is very high

Application to Tukaluk Campground and Cabins

As readers know, David Cooper is the owner of Tukaluk Campground and Cabins. This series is about using the concepts of Intentional Marketing with his business. I’m pretty sure I know what David’s answers will be but, honestly, I don’t think I have explicitly asked him. I should have but I haven’t. I will answer what I think his answers would be, and then ask him to clarify later. I’m aware that isn’t logical but I’m pretty sure I’ll be close because David and I have talked about this business many times.

Here is what I’m guessing would be his answers:

1. Why am I a business owner?

• “I inherited the business from my father after he died.”

2. What is the purpose of the business?

• “To generate an income for family members who are also helping out.”

3. What do I want to achieve?

• “A reasonable income, pay the bills, and a small profit.”

4. Do I want a large company with lots of revenue and many employees?

• “No.”

5. Do I want to serve a local, regional, national, or global market?

• “Local and regional.”

6. Or do I want a smaller business that pays the bills and provides a comfortable income level?

• “Yes. A small business is good. A small profit is good (less taxes to pay).”

Now that we have established David’s intentions for the business, let’s go back to the discussion with Joanne and figure out which quadrant David wants for Tukaluk Campground. 

Summary

Here is where I think David would put the campground. On the x-axis, the level of intensiveness would be moderate. On the y-axis, the percentage of reach would be moderate as well. This put David and Tukaluk in the lower left quadrant: Focused Marketing using 1-2 channels. These channels will include a website, moderate SEO, referrals from backlinks, and posting on Facebook and Instagram. The amount that David is willing to invest in marketing is limited. 

David, am I close?

Past Articles

In our first article, Step 1: Asking Important Questions, we laid the groundwork for understanding key questions before starting this project. This article followed our previous series, "10 Things I Learned from Joanne," which began with Each Level of the Model Must be Measurable.

In the second article, Step 2: Design the Model, we took a look (pun intended) at designing the customer acquisition model. This step is critical for defining the levels of the model and the marketing channels. The financial aspects of the model are implied, but not listed explicitly. We will get to this later. 

In the third article, Step 3: Collect the Measures - Visits, we looked at how to find and collect the measures to add to the model.

In the fourth article, Step 4: Calculate the Metrics, we looked at the task of using 2 measures to calculate a ratio. In general terms, as defined in our book, all calculations using measures are called metrics. 

In the fifth article, Chipping Away at Revenues, we calculated the absolute maximum revenue ($796,795) that was possible and then identified various external forces that whittle away at this optimistic number. Eventually, we arrived at the realistic maximum ($234,623) which is significantly less. The rest of the article focused on options for achieving this level of revenue. For this year, we decided that social media marketing was the best tactic.