A market plan usually has the following components below
1. Value Proposition
2. Market Size
3. Environmental Analysis
4. Differentiation matrix
5. Growth Path
6. Product Positioning
7. SWOT Analysis
8. Expansion Plan
9. Revenue Model
10. Phased Development
Marketing presentations are meant to impress. Here I am going to show you how to translate boring text describing the above into colorful eye catching graphics using new inbuilt features of PowerPoint 2007 has. They are called smart art and they are every easy to use. You can also find the smart art feature in Word 2007 which means you can use the skill you learn today over there too. To insert a smart art, Click on insert, then smart art (It looks like a green arrow)
1. Value Proposition- The Benefits of your product
Where to find this Smart Art(After clicking
on Insert Smart Art): Cycle->Radial Cycle
The Product at the center and the benefits
of your product are the surrounding circles. The audience gets an instant feel
of what benefits your product brings. You can also replace the words with
pictures if you have professional created art. Do note that transparent gifs
are better if you intend to insert pictures. Pictures with white background ruins
the smart art color.
2. Market Size & Segment
Where to find this: This is NOT a smart
art. Instead it is a 3D pie chart. Click on Insert->Chart->Pie
Chart.
You can choose either the 2nd or
5th pie chart for this effect. Clicking on chart will open MS Excel.
You have to edit the data of the chart from Excel. Also remember to change the
headings so that word also gets your new headings.
Pie charts are simple to understand and
usually used to show market segments in part of a larger market.
3. Environmental Analysis-
The Trends
Environmental Analysis shows the background
of why the time and place is right for your product.
Where to find this Smart Art(After clicking
on Insert Smart Art): Hierarchy->Table Hierarchy
The tops shows the heading “Environment”.
The second level shows the areas that make up the environment. The third layer
shows what trends are happening in that environment. If you like animations
during your presentation, you can use the show 1 level at 1 time option. This
slowly shows 1 box at a time giving your audience time to read and digest your
information.
4. Differentiation matrix
Differentiation matrix is used to set your
product away from competing products based on feature set.
Where to find this Table(After
clicking on Insert, click Table)
This is just a simple Table. But PPT 2007
has made it easy to make the rows and columns banded. To do this,
a. your table
b. Click on Design under Table tools
There will be a list of checkboxes (Header
Row, First Column Etc). Check those that apply to your current table. Meaning
if your first row is different from the rest(i.e. it is a row where Titles are
in) check that box. Every time you check a box, PPT will make that row/column
look different.
Also change the color of the column that
your product is in. This will visually enhance and set apart your product from
that of your competitors. I like to increase the font of my column too.
5. Growth Path
There are 2 components in this slide.
The first is the heading “12.7% market
share…”
a. To do this, click on Insert, WordArt.
b. Choose a nice looking font you like
c. Type the words you want.
The second is the Growth Curve
a. Where to find this Smart Art(After
clicking on Insert Smart Art): Process->Upward Arrow
b. For each phase, type in the text title.
The upward arrow should inspire confidence
in the growth of your market while the eye catching word art will highlight the
size of your market.
6. Product Positioning
Product Positioning usually is used to show
that your product is occupying a position that is superior to your competitors.
Where to find this Smart Art (After
clicking on Insert Smart Art): Matrix->Grid Matrix
Enter the Text you want. Usually your
product should be on the top right hand corner. Right-Click on the rectangle
that is there and select “Change Shape”. Choose a star as it is eye catching
and delivers an impression.
7. SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis should show the Strengths,
Weakness, Opportunities and Threats of your organization.
Where to find this Smart Art(After clicking
on Insert Smart Art): Matrix->Basic Matrix
Enter the text you want. This Slide should
be pretty texty as it is basically a descriptive slide. I haven’t really
thought of a way to make it easy to understand without reading.
You might want to manually change the
colour layout(i.e: Threats = Red, Strength= Green)
8. Expansion Plan
Where to find this Smart Art(After clicking
on Insert Smart Art): Process->Gear
Basically, you can enter text or you can
paste a picture of the country flag you are entering into.
I chose gears as it is symbolic of a
movement to greater things and having more effects. The upward arrow chosen in
Growth Path will do too, but I will try to avoid using the same Smart Art in
one Document.
9. Revenue Model-Revenue Model shows how money is coming into and going out of our organization.
Where to find this Smart Art(After clicking
on Insert Smart Art): Relationship->Converging Radial
Simple, Just add in text. You can adjust
the size of the arrow to match the proportion of the money flow. I had some
trouble with this smart art though. The arrows do not behave well. You need to
flip the arrow around manually as it is meant to all point in ward.
10. Phased Development
Where to find this Smart Art (After
clicking on Insert Smart Art): Process->Chervon List
This slide shows what steps you are taking
in each phase. In my case, it is the promotion methods we are using in each
phase. It is like a very pretty Gantt chart.
This one is pretty complicated, but here
goes.
a.
Once you have inserted the Smart Art, enter a space in all Level 2 Text
b.Level
1 Text corresponds to the first column text.
c.Level
1’s 2nd level text is the top row text.
d.
Fill in the top row (Phase1, Phase2, etc) and the first column(magazine, TV
etc) with the appropriate titles.
e.
Create as many rows as you want. For every row that you create, also create an
equal number of columns.
f.
Now click on the column you would like to be on. Click on Smart Art
Tools->Format. (Smart Art Tools is at Top Row of PPT)
g.
Change the look of the chevron by choosing a colored template.
h.
You can select multiple chevrons by holding down shift and clicking on all the
chevrons you want. After selecting all the chevrons you want, you can then
choose a color and all of the selected chevrons will share the same new color.
Ending
note
After you finish your PowerPoint slide, choose a theme that
you like. Use Themes to make everything consistent. Most of the smart art will
change color. If you do not like these colors, you can click on the color tab
under design. The colors are color coded for you so you do not end up with
conflicting colors that are horrible to look at.
You will also notice that your smart art do not look as nice
as they are not 3D and have no gloss over them. It is actually every simple to
enhance them. Select your Smart art (your diagram), click on Design(it should
be on the right hand side of the highest bar of PowerPoint). Now you should see
an array of 3D perspectives and gloss you can choose from. Click on one and
your diagram will instantly get a facelift.
