Understanding the core components of marketing

Now that you’ve developed your idea and defined your business model, it’s time to think about how you will market your products or services.

Marketing is the activity which connects your organisation’s ‘offering’ with the target audience(s). Marketing is therefore the key ‘enabler’ to growing your business and achieving success. The principles of marketing are commonly understood around the following core components of marketing:

• The offering: the products (e.g. ethically sourced clothing) or services (e.g. counseling) your organisation will offer.
• The value proposition: Articulating your offering to the target audience – ‘the solution to their needs’.
• The target audience: The stakeholders who will be ‘sold’ your value proposition (e.g. who they are, where they are, what are their needs and their typical characteristics).
• The marketing strategy: Your strategy for connecting with the target audience (e.g. deciding to target a specific geographical audience).
• The marketing plan: The objectives, budgets and tools that will be used to deliver the marketing strategy.

Case Studies

In this step, we ask you to reflect on the offering, the value proposition and the target audience of one or more of the following case study examples. The marketing strategy and marketing plans are discussed in the next step with an activity to help you develop these for your own social enterprise.

Sapa O’Chau

A indigenous-owned tourism social enterprise company based in Vietnam. Click here to view the video.

Smetumet

An environmental-related social enterprise company based in Slovenia. Click here to view the video.

La Ciudad Accesible

A social enterprise that promotes the rights of citizens avoiding discriminatory situations by building friendly environments in cities. Click here to view the video.

Edirisa UK

A social enterprise that aims to improve the living conditions of the Ugandan people by creating community projects selling crafts and clothes. Click here to view the video.

To find out more information about these cases, read the pdf documents below. In the comments, please discuss how the social enterprise you selected defined its offering, value proposition and target audience.