Social, Societal, and Socially Responsible Marketing

Nowadays companies are required to take care of long term and overall interests of customers. As a number of social issues like the global environmental issues, the exhaustion of natural resources, and the infinitely increasing numbers of population have appeared companies’ effort for long-term interests of customer increases demands for social benefits. A number of health and social issues are concerned with behavior causes that are the result of voluntary behavior. The production and operation should take the long-term benefits of society into account as a whole as well as the interest of consumers which is the common ground of the social marketing concept. The corporations have to find out what target groups want and need and derive maximum satisfaction from customers while they enhance and maintain welfares in the community. The main concept of social marketing is providing a way of dealing with such problems by changing the behavior Continue reading

What Is Price Perception?

Price perception is one of the leading variables when it comes to consumers buying process. Economists, market researchers have already undergone researches and predict that in buying decision price are the driving forces. Several studies explain and determine and explain the same fact thereby concluding the fact with decision making. The determinants of price perception can be both rational and psychological factors. The other factors may become psychological factors and prestige. The key variable to explore and explain consumers’ price perception is the degree of understanding the psychological process of consumers’ price perception. When a firm has seasonal demand, the discrepancies are observed between the supply and demand. Generally the firm has excess supply at the time of low demand and scarcity when there is high demand. If the firm commercializes goods and faces seasonal demands, it can minimize the effect through good management of production and storage. The problem Continue reading

What is the Difference Between Marketing and Sales?

When thinking of marketing and sales and what the difference is, we tend to scratch our heads. Both activities that go into this topic have the same result, generating an income base for the company. What is the definition of marketing?  Marketing refers to the events that take place in a company connected with buying and selling a product or service. Depending on the size of the company, typically depends on the approach in reaching its audience.  A baker in a small town just starting out may use the newspaper. Whereas a restaurant owner of a major food chain may utilize television, and the internet to reach its clientele.  Before we break down marketing in more detail let us look at the definition of sales.  Sales can be described as a deal between two parties where the buyer receives goods, services, and/or assets in exchange for money. It can also Continue reading

Customer Journey Mapping

Every time a customer contacts the organization or its representatives, there is an opportunity for a customer “moment of truth”. These “moments of truth” are opportunities for the organization to make a good or bad impression on the customer and are key moments in the customer journey. This concept of ‘moment of truth’ was first introduced by Jan Carlzon, the former president of Scandinavian Airlines, in his 1986 book titled Moments of Truth. Carlzon defines the moment of truth in business as: “Anytime a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, how ever remote, is an opportunity to form an impression.” Customer journey mapping builds on this concept by providing a strategic tool to start the process of ensuring that every interaction with your organization is a positive one. Customer journey mapping is a tool organizations use to help them see what their customers truly want — Continue reading

Ambush Marketing – Meaning, Working and Methods

Ambush marketing is a fairly new concept in marketing, where research into the subject has become an area of considerable interest over the past twenty years, as increasing amounts of companies opt to take up this revolutionary marketing activity. Although much has been written about “ambush” marketing, considerable ambiguity surrounds this term and its status. From the earliest definitions of ambush marketing as a derogatory term involving ‘unauthorized’ practices, has emerged not only an acknowledgement of the considerable vagueness that surrounds the concept but also a conceptual framework of ambush marketing that more accurately reflects the balancing of sponsors contractual rights against the rights of non-sponsors to maintain a market presence during an event through legal and competitive business activities, although it has been cast as an “amorphous concept” along with being branded as a somewhat devious, unethical tactic, and an unfair marketing practice. Despite this ambush marketing has recognized Continue reading

Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies

In 1985, in his book  Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance,  Michael Porter, outlined a set of generic strategies that could be applied to all products or services.  In coping with the Porters model of   five competitive forces, there are three potentially successful generic strategic approaches (also known as Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies)  to outperforming other firms in an industry: Overall cost leadership. Differentiation. Focus. Sometimes the firm can successfully pursue more than one approach as its primary target, though this is rarely possible as will be discussed further. Effectively implementing any of these generic strategies usually requires total commitment and supporting organizational arrangements that are diluted if there is more than one primary target. The generic strategies are approaches to outperforming competitors in the industry; in some industries structure will mean that all firms can earn high returns, whereas in others, success with one of the generic Continue reading