| Guideline: Go To Market And Marketing Plan |
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| Related Elements |
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What and Why: Go to market (GTM) strategy is an action plan specifying the details on how a product /IP solution will reach the identified target customers. It shall define the methods and channels used to reach target markets or customers with effective competitive advantage. It is required to bring together all the commercial functions like sales, marketing, branding, pricing, and consumer insight to develop an integrated go-to-market. For this purpose the key questions to be asked are: What are we selling?, Who are we selling to? How will we reach our target market? And where will we promote our product/IP solution? In general, an effective go-to-market is the key link between a product strategy — its decisions about where to compete and how to win—and the customer experiences that are the critical to success. Through this a company to identifies most relevant target customer segments and design specific value propositions to those customers’ needs, which are aligned to the IP solution strengths. A marketing plan is a document that outlines the overall marketing efforts with both strategic and tactical activities around the product or IP solution to realize the defined objectives. Who, How and Best Practices: The product marketing manager shall prepare the go-to-market strategy for the product/IP solution based on the overall product strategy. The GTM strategy shall be developed in combination of the standard marketing mix of product, price, place and promotion. Based on the overall product strategy and business goals, identify all the possible channels and methods to reach the selected target market/customers. For example, for existing customers, the best approach would be through current relationships within the company. For new customer targets, it can:
Identify and establish if we need any GTM channel partners based on geography or target industries/markets. In addition to Capgemini’s own channels to target customers, we can leverage the industry players in the ecosystem for the GTM. For example,
GTM adopted for a particular product / IP solution, depends on the stage of its life cycle. In early stages the GTM is targeted towards low hanging deals/opportunities. As the market matures, the GTM will become more sophisticated with different methods for different category of target customers. However it is necessary to optimize the efforts and costs considering the business potential. Upfront planning about the right go-to-market helps optimize efforts and reach the target market or customers. There can be many channels available for an IP solution and selecting the right go-to-market enables faster and more effective results for the company. Generally we use a combination of these channels. Go-to-Market is an iterative process; it will need to be refined based on discussions with customers and market information. Targeted marketing is more essential than generic marketing. GTM activities cannot be pursued for all customer segments. Since IPs and solutions address very specific market needs, it is more effective to have focused or targeted marketing. The target customers and segments identified during the market analysis and product strategy must be used in the GTM process. In addition, having a good understanding of standard buying process of the target customers and adopting the GTM suitably improves its effectiveness. Marketing plan is prepared by the Product Marketing Manager as per the template provided with eight key sections. The marketing plan must include detailed action plans with timelines around the elements of the marketing mix. Notes:
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