Some things in life seem so different; but when you break them down to the core, they end up being much more alike than you'd ever have imagined.  There seems to be a similar cycle in many of life's challenges and feats.

I got to thinking today about comparing a marketing plan to the Weight Watchers diet.  Sound strange?  Hear me out here and then let me know what you think.

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Goals

WW: You want to lose weight and eat healthier.  You decide what your goal weight is and now you need to define the best path to get you there.

MKTG:  You decide who your target market is.  You decide what you want your ultimate goal to be with your marketing and now need to decide how to do that.

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Getting started

WW: You weigh yourself in and find out how many points you are allowed:  You gather information on your gender, height, current weight, age and physical activity.

MKTG:  You line out your ad budget for the year and find out what the max is you can spend.  First you need to know who your consumer is, what they are buying, where they are buying and where they are getting their information.

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The necessities

WW:  You analyze the most important foods that you have to have in your diet; fibers, dairy, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and decide the best way to incorporate them all, making sure you are getting enough of each category - all the while staying within the allowed points.

MKTG:  You decide which marketing tactics are a necessity.  Classifieds, tv/radio media, online, billboards, lead generation tools, flyers, brochures; but you have to remember you have a budget to stick to.

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Take the extra and splurge

WW:  Besides the daily alloted points, you are also granted extra points to dispurse at your leisure throughout the week.  You don't have to spend them, but if you don't, you might get burned out on this diet faster than you'd hoped.  You pick what you want to spend them on and enjoy every minute of it.

MKTG:  You leave a little bit of marketing budget to try something new; something designed to fit with the changing of the overall market and your consumers.  You don't have to spend the extra money, but if you don't take the chance, you may be losing leads and customers you could have gotten by spending it.

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Focus

WW:  To stay on top of your results, you keep records of the foods your eating and on a weekly basis you measure your weight to see your results.  You make sure you are staying within your guidelines, but you continue to change things around for variety and see what combination works best.

MKTG:  No marketing program is going to work without putting at least a little bit of effort into it; but if you really want to make your dollars worth it, you make sure you are using all your tactics to their fullest potential and following up with every single lead.  On a periodical basis, you measure your marketing return and end up changing it around just a bit; if you have one tactic gaining better results than the other, you take a little money from the lesser tactic and inject it into the better one.

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Maintain your goal

WW:  Once you've reached your ultimate goal, you set new goals to maintain the weight you've reached.  You continue to monitor your diet and exercise.  You make sure to keep your diet exciting by adding new foods, trying new things and exercising through various activities.

MKTG:  Once you've established your best marketing tactics, you continue to push forth with them at full throttle, meanwhile continuing to analyze their results to see if the time you are spending is worthwhile.  If your showing a slow of results, it's time to pull off a bit on and put your money into something else.

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It's important to make the most out of your marketing budget.  Use your tactics to their maximum potential, then analyze them to see their value.  If it's working great for you, keep it up; but if you think there is something better out there, don't be afraid of change.  Taking a chance could be your best tactic yet!

Now every time you think of your marketing plan, are you going to think of Weight Watchers? :)

Happy Marketing

Erika