Under the current competitive marketing environment, how to manage a good marketing strategy for a certain product is quite crucial for an enterprise’s survival and development. Product is the most essential part in the marketing mix. Life cycle for a product is another most important factor which should be identified by an enterprise correctly. To understand product life cycle is very important for marketers when they are planning the marketing strategies for its product. Therefore, as far as the product life cycle is concerned, this article will first illustrate a comprehensive concept about the product life cycle. Following this, the article will analyze the specific marketing strategies which shall be referred by marketers in the marketing process. The Concept of Product Life Cycle Just like everything else, product has its own life cycle too. The theory of product life cycle (PLC) was firstly brought forward and shaped by Professor Raymond Continue reading
Marketing Techniques
Marketing Planning – Strategic Planning in Marketing
Businesses that succeed do so by creating and keeping customers. They do this by providing better value for the customer than the competition. Marketing management constantly have to assess which customers they are trying to reach and how they can design products and services that provide better value (“competitive advantage”). The main problem with this process is that the “environment” in which businesses operate is constantly changing. So a business must adapt to reflect changes in the environment and make decisions about how to change the marketing mix in order to succeed. This process of adapting and decision making is known as marketing planning. So, marketing planning is a plan involves designing activities relating to marketing objectives and attach with the capability of changing marketing environment. It contains with the issues of product lines, distribution channels, marketing communications and pricing. Marketing planning process is a fundamental part of Marketing Audit. Continue reading
Case Study: L’Oreal Marketing Strategies in India
Before the facial cosmetics, L’Oreal was known as a hair-color formula developed by French chemist Eugene Schueller in 1907. It was then known as”Aureole”. Schueller formulated and manufactured his own productswhich were sold to Parisian hairdressers. It was only in 1909 that Schueller registered his company as “Societe Francaise de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveus,”the future L’Oreal. Scheuller began exporting his products, which was then limited to hair-coloring products. There were 3 chemists employed in 1920. In 1950, the research teams increased to 100 and reached 1,000 by 1984. Today, research teams are numbered to 2,000 and are still expected to increase in the near future. Through agents and consignments, Scheuller further distributed his products in the United States of America, South America, Russia and the Far East. The L’Oreal Group is present worldwide through its subsidiaries and agents. L’Oreal started to expand its products from hair-color to other cleansing and Continue reading
Strategic Pricing
Pricing is a key factor in business innovation. Strategic pricing involves aligning the pricing strategy with corporate strategy. The price must be chosen carefully after considering various scenarios and possible implications. Is the price attractive enough to capture the mass of target buyers? Can the company make the offering at the target cost and still earn a healthy profit margin? Can the company profit at a price that is affordable to the target buyers? Strategic pricing is a key component of Blue Ocean Strategy pioneered by Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. To have strong revenue flowing, the strategic price must be set. This procedure will ensure that consumers will want to buy and will have the compelling ability to achieve it. It is fundamental, from the start, to know the price that will bring mass of target consumers. The strategic price defined must not only attract customers but also retain Continue reading
Marketing’s Impact on Individual Consumers and Society
Marketing is offering significant benefits to organizations and to society, while the fact that marketing is a business function operating in close contact with the public where extensive criticism is subjected to this functional area, some of this criticism is justified: much is not. The function and practice of marketing has been criticized because it is claimed that it creates partial truths about products and services by emphasizing the gap between a person’s reality and their expectations in such a way that people feel lacking in either self esteem so that they feel compelled to close the gap by unnecessary spending. The philosophy of Milton Freidman and the belief that the “ends justifies the means” endorses the marketing way or its aim. In other words businesses are accountable to shareholders and shareholders alone where marketing is the tool. Social critics claim that certain marketing practice hurts individual consumers and society 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