The buying behavior of customers will vary by segment, such as the elderly, the affluent, where people live, and so forth. If you want to understand how to compete, then you should understand the purchasing processes — who is buying what from whom? You can start your analysis with various customer segments and then test each hypothesis to see if this segment is buying the product or service. This type of analysis, referred to as customer segmentation analysis, helps the organization focus on those segments that provide the greatest growth. Customer segmentation analysis identifies and profiles promising target customers so that you can reach them with optimal marketing mixes. All consumer markets contain many subgroups of customers and prospects who behave differently, have different hopes, fears and aspirations, and have different purchasing behaviors. Segmentation enables a company to craft individual marketing plans that hit the “hot buttons” of each consumer Continue reading
Marketing Management
Marketing management combines the fields of marketing and management. Marketing consists of discovering consumer needs and wants, creating the goods and services that meet those needs and wants; and pricing, promoting, and delivering those goods and services. Doing so requires attention to six major areas – markets, products, prices, places, promotion, and people. Management is getting things done through other people. Managers engage in five key activities – planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Marketing management implies the integration of these concepts.
Campaign Management Process
The very concept of a campaign in marketing is focused on a time bound effort to design a strategy for various objectives as per the client requirements. The business objectives which can be the drivers for a campaign are considering an effective launch for a range of products, follow-up and may be increase market share sometimes. The process of campaign management involves an understanding of what are the expected benefits of the campaign, budgeting and costing of the campaign while ensuring that all needful resources are met and finally evaluating the effect of the campaign on the target market. There could be various kinds of campaigns and depending on the objectives of the campaign the basic principle can vary while some core processes remain the same. Some campaigns perform more than one of the functions which may include product launch in the first stage and then go on to brand Continue reading
Characteristics of Brand Positioning
The core thought behind brand positioning is the idea that each brand (if at all noticed) occupies a particular point or space in the individual consumer’s mind, a point that is determined by that consumer’s perception of the brand in question and in its relation to other brands. The spatial distance between the points in that consumer’s mind reflects the subject’s perception of similarity or dissimilarity between products and brands. Four Important Characteristics of Brand Positioning The four salient characteristics of brand positioning are:. 1. Look to the Core Identity The core identity by definition represents the central, timeless essence of the brand. Thus the most unique and valuable aspects of the brand are often represented in the core identity. Further, there should be a cluster of brand elements surrounding each core identity component that (in addition to giving it richness and texture) opens up multiple execution alternatives. Finally, the Continue reading
Brand Value Proposition
The bottom line is that unless the role of a brand is simply to support other brands by providing credibility, the brand identity needs to provide a value proposition to the customer. What is a brand value proposition? Brand value proposition is a statement of functional, emotional, and self-expressive benefits delivered by the brand that provide value to the customer. An effective brand value proposition should lead to a brand–customer relationship and drive purchase decisions. The central concepts of functional, emotional, and self-expressive benefits of brand value proposition are explained below. 1. Functional Benefits The most visible and common basis for a brand value proposition is a func tional benefit–that is, a benefit based on a product attribute that provides functional utility to the customer. Such a benefit will usually relate directly to the functions performed by the product or service for the customer. For laser printers, functional benefits might Continue reading
Factors Influencing the Product Line Decisions
The extent to which a company can add new products is not unlimited. Very often, the scope for having new products is in some way related to the existing conditions of the firm. The goods may be : 1. Cost Related Goods A company may decide to add a product which may be the result of a common production process. For example, a company which strikes oil may decide to produce petrol or mobil oil, kerosene, gas, wax, etc. A company producing sugar may decide to produce molasses. 2. Demand Related Goods A firm may decide to add a product which is jointly demanded. For example, manufacturers of Sulekha Ink have gone in for production of other related items of stationery like sealing wax. Food Specialties Ltd. added Maggi to their various food products. Weston Electronics, manufacturers of tape recorders, colour TV sets, Continue reading
Syndicated Data and Standardized Services in Marketing Research
Today, over $20 billion a year is spent on marketing/advertising/public opinion research services around the world. Spending on marketing research is $6.9 billion in the United States alone. During the past two decades, the research market has become highly concentrated, with about 54 percent of the market being held by the 50 largest worldwide organizations. The other half of the market is shared by a thousand or more small research firms. The concentration is even more pronounced in the United States, where the 10 largest firms account for 64 percent of total U.S. spending for marketing research. In the highly competitive retail market, understanding the customer is paramount. In order to fill in the gaps of consumer’s buying motive and actual buying, companies have to understand the customers, and of course, marketing research is the tool for gaining knowledge about the customers. Marketing research is a systematic gathering of information Continue reading