Mba Marketing Assignment

there is a document titled reading. It contains all the readings for project 3. Also look at the document tittled star here. Follow this docuent “MBA 640 PROJECT 3 Milestones 1 & 2 Details” then “MBA 640 PROJECT 3 Milestones 3 & 4 Details” and “MBA 640 PROJECT 3 Milestones 5 & 6 Details”.

4 page paper. 4 page paper Conduct a Consumer Analysis 3 pages 4 page paper 1 page write up combine all the documents into 1 add executive 1 page total.

milestone 1and2/big data in market research why more data does not automatically mean better.pdf

Big Data

Everyone is Talking about Big Data /// “Big data” is a megatrend, although not everyone means the same thing when they talk about it. Generally speaking, it involves enormous amounts of data, which are generated almost automatically with the help of the latest technological devel- opments, and examines how this data can be converted into useful information. Big data has raised big expectations, but the profitable monetization of data usually turns out to be much more complex than anticipated. That new technological developments are no guarantee for a start-to-finish victory is nothing new, though. Over time, many conform to a typi- cal pattern which was first described by the consulting firm Gartner in 1995 and has since been referenced in numerous publications as the “hype cycle” (Figure 1).

At this time, big data has probably passed the “peak of inflated expectations” and is still yet to cross the “trough of disillusionment” before reaching the “plateau of productiv- ity”. But what are realistic expectations for big data? And what does big data mean for the market research industry?

Big Data Conquers Market Research /// Big data will change market research at its core in the long term. While other trends such as neuromarketing have not been able to gain a substantial foothold, big data business models will assume a central role in the value chain. The consumption of products and media can be logged electronically more and more, making it measurable on a large scale. In some areas of market research, big data is already established today, with social media analytics and the use of cookie data to measure internet coverage being two prominent examples. The use of panels for the passive measurement of media consumption through the internet, television, and radio also falls under

key words

Big Data, Market Research, Information, Representativeness,

Data Integration, Data Imputation

•

the author

Volker Bosch, Head of Marketing & Data Sciences,

Gf K SE, Nuremberg, Germany; volker.bosch@gf k.com

Big Data in Market Research: Why More Data Does Not Automatically

Mean Better Information Volker Bosch

GfK Research / Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016 / GfK MIR OPEN

— doi 10.1515 / gfkmir-2016-0017

big data. But what additional benefits does big data provide compared to traditional market research data?

Big Data = Passive Measurement /// The 4V definition describes the core characteristics of big data: volume, veloc- ity, variability (of the data structure) and (questionable) veracity. However, 4V doesn’t tell the whole story, because the origin of the data is especially decisive. New sensor technologies and processing architectures enable entirely new possibilities for gathering and processing information. We are dealing with a fundamental paradigm shift – in tradi- tional market research, data is collected actively, e.g. through human interaction or interviews. With big data, by contrast, the information no longer needs to be processed by slow, limited-capacity, mistake-prone and emotional human brains

figure 1:

Hype cycle according to Gartner

for a dataset to be created. As a result, passive measurement is the actual driver of the efficiency of big data in market research. It creates economies of scale that were formerly the stuff of dreams.

GfK MIR / Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016 / GfK Research

Passive measurement is the actual driver of

the efficiency of big data in market research.

It creates economies of scale that were

formerly the stuff of dreams.

TIME

VISIBILITY

TECHNOLOGY TRIGGER

TROUGH OF DISILLUSIONMENT

SLOPE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

PLATEAU OF PRODUCTIVITY

PEAK OF INFLATED EXPECTATIONS

In 1936, the leading news magazine in the 1930s, the Literary Digest, delivered a very clear prediction for the outcome of the presidential elections. It was based on an extensive mail and telephone survey using sources available at the time, the telephone book and a list of car own- ers. 2.4 million citizens participated and a clear victory for Alf Landon, the challenger to the incumbent F.D. Roosevelt, was predicted. For the standards of the day, that was certainly big data, even though there were no methods for passive measurement in 1936. But based on a much smaller sample of about 50,000 persons, George Gallup predicted the exact opposite. After analyzing the non-representative sub- samples of telephone and car owners, he pre- dicted that the Literary Digest forecast would be wrong. He was vindicated, and shortly after this glaringly wrong prediction, the Literary Digest had to cease publication.

MORE DATA ≠ BE T TER DATA: THE LITER ARY DIGEST FARCE

•

Defining big data based as passive measurement does not necessarily mean massive amounts of data. Equipping just a few measured units with sensors can already create data- sets that are hard to manage. Examples include the soft- ware-based measurement of internet behavior in a panel or equipping shopping carts with RFID technology to transmit the precise location and purchase history of a customer in a supermarket. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to speak of “new data” than “big data.”

Is Twice as Much Data Worth Twice as Much? /// The size of a typical big data dataset leads to the false assumption that it provides a correspondingly large amount of informa- tion. From an organizational perspective that is absolutely correct, but from a statistical perspective, it is wrong, because “information” in statistical analysis is defined as the reduc- tion of uncertainty. But twice the data does not mean twice the accuracy, only an improvement by a factor of 1.4, as measured by the confidence interval of a sample. Marginal utility declines significantly as data amounts increase. Ignor- ing declining marginal utility will almost certainly result in overestimating the value of big data for market research and overlooking its actual benefits.

In visual terms, a larger amount of data results in greater statistical resolution, enabling structures of finer granularity to be described with statistical validity. Examples are smaller target groups, websites in the “long tail” of the internet, or rare events. Big data can be used like a microscope to see structures that would appear blurred with conventional

GfK Research / Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016 / GfK MIR

Big data can be used like a microscope

to see structures that would appear blurred

with conventional market research or even

be entirely unrecognizable.

TIME

{ Box 1 }

market research or even be entirely unrecognizable. In other words, the declining marginal utility is mitigated by the fact that with big data, structures of the finest granularity can be defined in the midst of the statistical noise.

Big Data Must Be Scientifically Evaluated in Market Research /// In direct marketing, with CRM systems, or in intelligence agencies, it mainly comes down to describing indi- vidual characteristics. In market research, by contrast, the aim is to find valid, generalizable statements based on scientific standards. When analyzing the use of products and media by populations and their segments, it must also be possible to describe statistical errors. This has a decisive impact on the applied algorithms and processes. Statistical methods, data integration, weighting, variable transformations, and issues of data protection present much larger challenges than was previously the case with conventional datasets. In particular, the three following challenges must be overcome.

> Challenge 1: Big Data is (Almost Always) not Representa- tive /// Massive amounts of data do not necessarily result in good data and more does not automatically mean better. Big data can easily tempt us to fall into the same “more is better” trap that the Literary Digest fell into back in 1936 (see box 1). It is a truism of market research that sample bias cannot be reduced by more of the same and that the representativeness problem remains. Consequently, tra- ditional topics of sampling theory like stratification and weighting are highly topical in the age of big data, and must be reinterpreted. Rarely is it possible to measure all units of interest and avoid bias. For example, the scope of interpretation for social media analysis is restricted because the silent majority usually cannot be observed. This may explain why social media data often behaves unexpectedly in predictive models. By using smart algorithms, however, it is possible to achieve astounding precision with non-repre- sentative digital approaches, as for example in the elections in the United States in 2012 and in Great Britain in 2015.

> Challenge 2: Big Data is (Almost Always) Flawed /// The passive measurement of behavior along with its proxies and the high level of technology being used may lead to

GfK MIR / Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016 / GfK Research

the false assumption that practically no measurement error exists and that data can be further processed without hesi- tation. But that is very rarely the case. Such technologies are highly complex and often not designed for use in mar- ket research. Big data must be processed with very complex and therefore error-prone software and many measure- ment errors arise. In addition, the internet ecosystem is subject to constant updates (in the best case) or to changes in technology (in the worst case): Internet Explorer yields to Edge, HTML5 replaces the old HTML4, http pages turn into https, or Flash is no longer supported. In measuring internet behavior in the GfK Cross-Media-Link panel, we observed how browser updates, technological upgrades, changes in website behavior, and end-of-life systems can lead to a measurement failure. If updates occur unannounced and unexpectedly, emerging measurement gaps might even be noticed (too) late.

Things become even more difficult with systems that were originally constructed for another purpose, for example, if mobile internet use is measured by a mobile network operator and not by the market researcher directly. This is referred to as network-centric measurement, in contrast to user-centric measurement in a panel or site-centric mea- surement using cookies. Data processing capacities in such systems primarily serve to maintain telephone or internet service and for billing. Market research requirements were not even a factor in the original design at all. Therefore, so-called “probes” must be laboriously installed in order to retrieve the relevant information. Control over data qual- ity is limited. Undetected data blackouts frequently occur because the primary tasks of the system take priority and no error routines have been installed for other require- ments. GfK discovered this the hard way in its “Mobile Insights” project.

> Challenge 3: Big Data (Almost Always) Lacks Important Variables /// The biggest market research challenge from a methodological point of view is the limited data depth of big data. Despite the sometimes overwhelming amount of data in terms of observed units, the number of measured variables is low or critical variables are missing. By contrast,

61GfK Research / Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016 / GfK MIR

In a traditional data matrix, the columns represent variables and the rows represent observation units like people or households. Variables observed in the cen- sus are available for all units, while other variables, for example sociodemographic characteristics, can only be collected in a subset, e.g. the panel. In image data, gray values represent the measured val- ues of a variable (Figure 2). In the example, 75% of the data or image points are missing. Only a few randomly selected rows (panel members=donors) and columns (census data=common variables) are fully observed. In order to ensure that an algorithm cannot use pure image information (the physical proximity of image points), rows and columns are randomly sorted. As a result, the image behaves like a market research data- set and the data can be processed accordingly. The missing values are filled in by imputation. Many algorithms exist and all work with different assump- tions regarding the statistical properties of data. As

a common feature they learn from donors how the common variables relate to the specific variables to be transferred and they fill the data gap for the recipients using this knowledge. In the big data context, imputa- tion is particularly difficult because large quantities of data must be processed and finding the optimal model is usually too costly. In addition, the data rarely follows a multivariate normal distribution or other well-defined distributions. This is why the Marketing & Data Sciences department at GfK developed the “linear imputation” process. It requires a minimum of theoretical assumptions and delivers good results, even for highly non-linear data structures (as in the image) by using local regression models. In the image example, the quality of the imputation can be judged immediately if the matrix is sorted back to its original order (Figure 3, middle picture).

DATA IMPUTATION

•

figure 2:

Data imputation using an image file with random sorting of rows and columns

MISSING

Common X Specific Y

D on

or s

Re ci

pi en

IMPUTED

{ Box 2 }

However, imputation is not a tool that lets information be gathered by magic. Statistics do not create information, only observation does. Statistics makes structures visible. There- fore, imputation is an instrument to “transport information” and the higher the observed data correlates with the data to be imputed, the better it works.

More Value through More Data: Also in Market Research /// Big data poses special challenges for market research. It is by no means sufficient to master the technologies for processing large amounts of data, or to engage in pure “data science”. It is also necessary to develop in-house market research algorithms, which can be applied to the new data and successfully address the three challenges of representa- tiveness, measurement errors, and statistical data integra-

GfK MIR / Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016 / GfK Research

figure 3:

The original sequence of rows and columns was restored following imputation

IMPUTED ORIGINAL75% DELETED

in traditional opinion research the relevant variables are optimized for a specific subject and can be very extensive. Internet coverage research based on cookies or network-cen- tric data illustrates this. Even if almost the whole population is reached, like in a census, critical information is missing, such as sociodemographic data. Therefore the value of the collected data is limited and important evaluations such as target group or segment-specific analyses cannot be con- ducted. The missing information can only be filled in using statistical data imputation. This requires an additional data source with the additional variables, for example a panel. The source must also contain the variables of the big data data- set. Imputation is a statistical procedure that is anything but trivial. Box 2 describes the underlying logic using an image dataset, which is handled like market research data.

milestone 1and2/emarket a modern approach of business at the door of consumer.pdf

VOLUME NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 09 (SEPTEMBER) ISSN 0976-2183

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN COMMERCE & MANAGEMENT A Monthly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed (Refereed/Juried) Open Access International e-Journal – Included in the International Serial Directories

http://ijrcm.org.in/

E-MARKETING: A MODERN APPROACH OF BUSINESS AT THE DOOR OF CONSUMER

DR. MANOJKUMAR JYOTIRAM GAIKWAD ASST. PROFESSOR

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS VASANTRAO NAIK COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCE

SHAHADA DIST NANDUBAR

PARIKSHITKUMAR HIRALAL KATE RESEARCH SCHOLAR

NORTH MAHARASHTRA UNIVERSITY JALGAON

ABSTRACT

Marketing is backbone of any business environment. With evolution of internet technology, E-marketing becomes necessary for making successful business impact. E-marketing means applications of marketing principles & technologies via electronic media. E-marketing is more advantageous in current business scenario and allows marketers to define their marketing strategies. E-marketing is combination of digital technologies which differentiate your products & services from com- petitors. E-marketing includes both direct response marketing & indirect marketing elements. E-marketing directs different marketing activities via World Wide Web with aim attracting new opportunities in business and retaining the existing one. Due to technological advancement and increased competition, e-marketing can be term as one of the major shuffle in business strategies. In this, paper author discussed about different e-marketing methodologies and their use in current business scenario. The author finds out that by using different e-marketing methodology, traditional approach of marketing has changed due to the door step service for consumer.

KEYWORDS direct marketing, e-marketing, indirect marketing

INTRODUCTION arketing has been around forever in one form or another. From the time of human evolution trading has been integral part of human living. With the effect of barter exchange system marketing has play is own role to makes other humans to trade. Rapidly evolving internet technologies has reduced the production & service cost and extends geographical boundaries by bringing buyers and seller together.

With the advancement in technology and global economic environment globalization has opened a new door of marketing. E-marketing is combination of both direct and indirect marketing elements and uses numbers technologies for connecting with their customers. E-marketing is most important business strategies in present business context. For any business marketing is a key mantra. E-marketing varied a lot in past decade. Starting from traditional marketing to e-marketing in today’s life style there are numerous techniques, methods which had played a vital role in the development of marketing strategies. E-marketing is not new but with the e-evolution in India marketers need to adapt to it and learn how to use it. Revenue in the United States grew to an estimated $7.1 billion in 2001 or about 3.1 percent of overall advertising spending. The dot.com bust weakened early online advertising industry and reduced the demand for online advertising and its related services. With introduction of Web 2.0 in 2004 the industry regained momentum. Numbers of new businesses are immerging such as advertising space on web pages, generation of web traffic by giving away the content and sell that traffic to advertisers. According to IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report (2007), in the first half of 2007 alone advertisers in the US spent more than $10 billion advertising on websites. That was about 14 percent of all advertising spending. As online retail sales continue to increase at a slower pace than expected, practi- tioners and academics alike are still searching for factors that influence the consumer’s online shopping behavior (Korgaonkar and Karson 2007).

REVIEW OF LITERATURE To achieve marketing objectives E-marketing plays an important role (Chaffey et al. 2006). To reach products & services to customers, to make customers aware about products & service it is essential to follow the latest technologies or concepts of E- marketing (Srinivasan and Jollyvinisheeba 2013). Online advertising began in 1994 when HotWired sold the first banner ads to several advertisers (Kaye and Medoff 2001). While previous research has examined Internet usage (Teo et al. 1999), online shopping (Teo and Yu 2004), commercial websites (Gonzalez and Palacios 2004), website design (Kim et al. 2003), and website effectiveness from the consumers’ perspective (Bell and Tang 1998), there is a general lack of research on specific online marketing tools and the effectiveness of these tools.

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY Indian retail environment is shifting from brick & mortar to online business model. In diversely competitive new environment traditional marketing channel will not be effective. So marketer need to adapt new marketing initiatives. As a result of technical enhancement different e-marketing techniques emerge. Paper throws light on effective use of e-marketing channels with practical implementations by different industry leaders.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Evolution of internet and its rapid acceptance in Indian society has opened a new door for markers to reach their customers by means of e-marketing. In the Indian context e-marketing is new and it is important that markers should know effective use of different e-marketing tools. Paper discussed different e-marketing methods and their effective use.

OBJECTIVES To know the effectiveness of following in successful e-marking: • Newsletters • Social Media • SEO • Mobile • Webinar • Video

http://ijrcm.org.in/

VOLUME NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 09 (SEPTEMBER) ISSN 0976-2183

http://ijrcm.org.in/

• Content • Paid advertising • Email

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research paper is original work based on the attentive observation of the researcher on current e-marketing strategies of e-retailers in India. The Paper also makes use of secondary research.

DISCUSSION MARKETING Marketing means communicating value of your products or services to your desired customer. E-MARKETING E-marketing is communicating value of your products or services to your desired customer using digital technologies mainly on the internet.

DIFFERENT E-MARKETING METHODS NEWSLETTERS Newsletters are electronic “one page” documents sent by email to a defined list of recipients who have signed up to receive. Newsletter emails are commonly sent from 3rd party service providers. Newsletters with pictures and videos will engage 50 to 70 % more clicks than text. Newsletter is the best way to reach consumers who cannot be reaching by social media. Below is the newsletter by Luxifier which attracting customers by giving offers on his products. Most of the times customers unmodified about offers & discounts so Newsletters is effective medium of e-marketing.

FIGURE 1: NEWSLETTER FROM – LUXIFIER: THE INDIA’S LEADING WATCHES / PERFUMES / GROOMING ACCESSORIES ONLINE STORE

Source: A Newsletter in Email box

SOCIAL MEDIA The best method of marketing is through ‘word of mouth’. When people share different information thru social media in their network it becomes recommenda- tions for the other people for using that product. According to a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), 66% of the 180 million Internet users in urban India regularly access social media platforms. Social media facilitates sharing products/ services information via social channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook etc. So Social Media is one of the best medium for reaching your customers. Figure 2 shows how flipkart has use twitter as a medium of marketing of his offerings.

FIGURE 2: USE OF TWITTER BY FLIPKART FOR MARKETING PURPOSE

Source: Screenshot from www.twitter.com

http://ijrcm.org.in/

VOLUME NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 09 (SEPTEMBER) ISSN 0976-2183

http://ijrcm.org.in/

SEO Search Engine Optimization is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results. Customers are more likely to click an organic link as compared to paid links. Organic search takes 94% of overall market Goodwin (2012). SEO is must for any online marketing as it connects to new customers who may not connected by other channels. Basic training is required for effective implementation of SEO for any business. Google Keyword tool is one of the best for SEO practice. Below we can see how Amazon has implemented SEO while searching products.

FIGURE 3: AMAZON USES SEO FOR ITS PRODUCT SEARCH ON ITS WEBSITE

Source: Creation from www.amazon.in

MOBILE The use of the mobile medium as a means of marketing communication provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that pro- motes products, services. According to Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the number of mobile internet users in India is expected to reach 371 million by June 2016. According to recent reports, 40% of user’s internet time is spent on mobile devices. eMarketers should consider this continual growth in the number of Smartphone’s internet users in making their e-marketing strategies. Various means of connecting to people are via Mobile App, Mobile ads, in-game mobile ads, location based marketing, sms. Figure 4 shows mobile ads pops up while playing game. Figure 5 shows device specific apps of Amazon so that they can increase their market reach among people having hand held devices.

FIGURE 4: MOBILE ADS IN GAMES

Source: Mobile Game

FIGURE 5: MOBILE APP – MEDIUM OF E-MARKETING

Source: Google images

WEBINAR Webinars are seminars held on the web and they used for promotions, product knowledge etc. They use for giving value to potential customers, demonstrate your company’s capabilities such as expertise, product. Its uses multimedia capabilities such as presentations, demo of products which is followed by QA session. Webinar can also be recorded and posted on different websites for reuse purpose so webinar has virtually global reach wherever your target may be. Figure 6 shows how Infibeam has use Webinar as e-marketing tool in their marketing strategy.

http://ijrcm.org.in/

VOLUME NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 09 (SEPTEMBER) ISSN 0976-2183

http://ijrcm.org.in/

FIGURE 6: WEBINAR INVITE BY INFIBEAM

Source: Google images

VIDEO As long as video are reasonably short, entertaining, and effective people will like them. With Mobile internet evolution videos can be very effective to get your company or product message across quickly and effectively, especially for busy people. Imperial Blue’s video campaign men will be men is one of the best video marketing campaign. CONTENT Different content that supports e-marketing initiatives are blogging, Press release (PR) distribution, news items and feeds. A blog is online presence in which the owner posts updates, stories, media etc. A blog can be a website. If blogs are updated regularly they will get better search ranking than website on google search results. Articles posted in the blog can also be reused in social media, newsletters, etc. A press release is an article written about your company for any product release or any other event. It is mostly done through 3rd party online services that provide feeds of news. It offers content in a format that allows other sites and services to add your PR to their websites easily thus boosting their content and value. Figure 7 shows blog of LG India for marketing their electronics products.

FIGURE 7: LG INDIA USES BLOG AS CONTENT MARKETING TOOL

Source: LG India website

PAID ADVERTISING Paid advertising is any kind of advertising that you have to pay for. It includes paying for search engine prioritization, pay-per-click through other websites, banner ads, and paid content distribution. One can pay to display his company content online or for your ad to be shown in search results. Whenever we search google or any other website or we are browsing any content then we can see related ads in the ads web space. These ads are nothing but the paid ads. Number of company provides paid ads services are Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn etc.

http://ijrcm.org.in/

VOLUME NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 09 (SEPTEMBER) ISSN 0976-2183

http://ijrcm.org.in/

FIGURE 8: PAID ADVERTISING OF askmebazaar.com

Source: Creation from www.priceprice.com

If a user search for MI mobiles then paid ads comes up of askmebazaar.com, here ad provider identified the content which user search then posted the relevant advertise in ads web space. EMAIL Email marketing is direct marketing technique use to target a group of people. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered as email marketing. Now days number of email marketing software’s are available in the market. This gives more insight about the email campaigns like number people open email, not open etc. All these efforts help marketers in positioning their market offerings.

FIGURE 9: EMAIL MARKETING BY SBI

Source: An Email in Email box

FINDINGS Various industries like Banking, Ecommerce, Electronics and Game are implementing different E-marketing techniques for marketing their products. Author has taken examples of Luxifier, Flipkart, Amazon India, Ingibeam, LG India, askmebazaar.com, SBI in the discussion section. And find out that every company is targeting different segments of their targeted audience by implementing suitable e-marketing technique.

CONCLUSIONS Main reason for growing effectiveness of internet marketing is the increasing awareness about internet among people. For sustaining in today’s competitive business environment marketer need to understand consumer behavior and depending up on their business should adapt suitable e-marketing methodology. Every methodology has its own way of success with respect to offerings & target audience. By understanding effective methodology and with efficient implemen- tation marketers will get more success rate.

REFERENCES PAPERS 1. Bell, H., & Tang, N. K. H. (1998). “The effectiveness of commercial Internet websites: a user’s perspective.” Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applica-

tions and Policy, 8(3), 219–228. 2. Gonzalez, F. J. M., & Palacios, T. M. B. (2004). “Quantitative evaluation of commercial websites: an empirical study of Spanish firms.” International Journal of

Information Management, 24(4), 313–328. 3. Goodwin, Danny (2012): Organic vs. Paid Search Results: Organic Wins 94% of Time, Viewed on 16 May 2016, https://searchen-

ginewatch.com/sew/news/2200730/organic-vs-paid-search-results-organic-wins-94-of-time 4. “IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report,” October 2007, Available: http://www.iab.net/media/file/IAB_PwC_2007Q2.pdf [Accessed on 16th May 2016] 5. Kim, S. E., Shaw, T., & Schneider, H. (2003). “Web site design benchmarking within industry groups.” Internet Research, 13(1), 17–26. 6. Korgaonkar, P. and Karson, E. (2007), “The Influence of Perceived Product Risk on Consumers’ E- Tailer Shopping Preferences.” Journal of Business and

Psychology, Vol. 22, No.1, pp. 55-64.

http://ijrcm.org.in/

https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2200730/organic-vs-paid-search-results-organic-wins-94-of-time

http://www.iab.net/media/file/IAB_PwC_2007Q2.pdf

VOLUME NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 09 (SEPTEMBER) ISSN 0976-2183

http://ijrcm.org.in/

7. Srinivasan R., Jollyvinisheeba J. (2013). “Essential and Strategies of E-marketing.” International Journal of Scientific Research & Management, 251-255, 2013 8. Teo, T. S. H., & Yu, Y. (2004). “Online buying behavior: a transaction cost economics perspective.” Omega, 33, 451-465. 9. Teo, T. S. H., Lim, V. K. G., & Lai, R. Y. C. (1999). “Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in Internet usage.” Omega, 27, 25–37. BOOKS 10. Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Johnston, K. and Mayer, R. 2006. Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. Pearson publication 11. Kaye, Barbara K. and Medoff, Norman J., (2001), Just A Click Away: Advertising on the Internet. Allyn and Bacon publishing, Massachusetts WEBSITE 12. http://ijrcm.org.in

http://ijrcm.org.in/

http://ijrcm.org.in/commerce/guidelines-for-submission.php

Copyright of CLEAR International Journal of Research in Commerce & Management is the property of Chinniah Lakshmiammal Educational Academy & Research (CLEAR) Foundation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

milestone 1and2/management strategy tools and practices in emarketing.pdf

Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

Management, Strategies, Tools, and Practices in

eMarketing

Sirous Tabrizi

University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada

Mohammad Kabirnejat

Islamic Azad University, Hashtrood Branch, Iran

Abstract

Globalization has resulted in significant changes in the way business is conducted

all over the world. For instance, outsourcing specialist jobs, alliances among large

multinational companies, and high degree of government involvement in markets

have all forced companies to adjust their structures, practices, and policies. For

marketers, two major changes have influenced their practices: increasingly global

demographic and deeper customer engagement. Since “push” advertising is

becoming increasingly irrelevant, companies need to do more outside the

traditional marketing approaches. emarketing is one of the new approaches

towards marketing that shows significant promise, especially given the

increasingly dominant role played by the Internet in society and popular culture.

This article discusses some of the changes necessary to take an e-marketing

approach in a business, and focus specifically on several important instruments

(the SOSTAC and SMART frameworks) that can help develop consistent

strategies. Some conjectured examples are presented to help understand the main

argument.

Keywords: Globalization, eMarketing, SOSTAC, SMART, branding, marketing

mix, emarketing management style

Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

Introduction

Globalization has resulted in significant changes in the way business is conducted

all over the world. For instance, numerous companies including such as IBM,

Microsoft, and Philips have started outsourcing specialists from various parts of

the world, enabling global movement of people for jobs and requiring structural

changes to the company (Engardio, Bernstein, & Kripalani, 2003). In addition ,

globalization has had a positive effect on the economic situation of many

developing countries, such as China, India and Bangladesh. However, companies

all over the world have to take the practical marketing strategies to give better

services to customers.

Philip Kotler, who is considered as the father of modern marketing, by many,

defines marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering

value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies

unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures, and quantifies the size of the

identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments the

company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate

products and services” (Kotler, 2005; p.10).

In the specific case of e-marketing , a more comprehensive and practical definition

is provided by specialists at CISCO: “Electronic Marketing (E-Marketing) is a

generic term utilized for a wide range of activities -advertising, customer

communications, branding, fidelity programs etc. – using the internet” (Otlacan,

2007). In other words, E-Marketing is the process of finding, attracting, winning,

and retaining customers through electronic means (Stokes, 2008). Primarily this

is accomplished through the Internet but also through e-mail, social networking,

and various forms of wireless media. Hence, it is not just producing a website but

through facilitating online dialog between consumers and the company (Stokes,

2008).

“E-Marketing is also known as Internet Marketing, Web Marketing, Digital

Marketing, and Online Marketing” (Levinson & Neitlich, 2011, p. 89). It includes

both direct response marketing and indirect marketing elements, and is a continual

process rather than something which is executed only once. The messages and

Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

stories developed through traditional marketing can be improved through

technology and electronic means in a variety of ways.

eMarketing adds new dimensions and meaning to traditional marketing. Such as

reach, scope, interactivity, immediacy, demographic, supply chain, value chain,

and financial chain.

Reach:

Due to the nature of the Internet, E-Marketing can have a global reach and access

potential customers from all over the world. This can also be performed on a much

smaller budget than what was normally necessary for a comparable reach (Dann

& Dann, 2011).

Scope:

E-Marketing allows a variety of methods for reaching customers and enables a

wide range of products and services that can be offered. Therefore, the marketing

of a product is combined with other areas such as brand formation, public

relations, customer service, and information management in a way that was

traditionally not possible (Dann & Dann, 2011).

Interactivity:

Since E-Marketing is a dialog between customers and companies, there is a degree

of interaction between the two that does not exist in traditional marketing.

Companies can use the responses, complaints, and commendations of customers

to further develop their brands and better their own image (Krishnamurthy, 2006).

On the other hand, customers feel more engaged with the company and can

become empowered to promote the product through their own actions and

discussions. The marketing landscape thus becomes more dynamic, adaptive, and

capable of achieving faster and deeper growth.

Immediacy:

The Internet, being pervasive and always accessible, provides a constant and

continual means through which customers can be engaged and view and buy

products. E-Marketing effectively closes the gap between providing information,

advertising, and buy opportunities and eliciting a reaction from customers

(Krishnamurthy, 2006; Dann & Dann, 2011).

Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

Demographics:

Generally speaking, Internet users have a significant buying power, as they are

skewed towards the middle-classes, and are often capable of organizing

themselves into focused groupings and sub-populations (Krishnamurthy, 2006;

Dann & Dann, 2011). As such, savvy marketers can find access to desired niche

markets in addition to being able to easily and effective target such groups

(Parsons, & Maclaran, 2009).

Literature

From the very beginning, marketing in the 21st century has been different.

Marketers today have a greater number and variety of choices in support, media

opportunities, and methods of communications but they also face increasing

competition due to the Internet facilitating virtual competition (Andreasen, 2006).

E-marketing is the application of marketing techniques, principles, and practices

using electronic media, especially the Internet (Pride & Ferrell, 2011). It

encompasses all the activities which a company conducts through the Internet so

as to attract new business, retain current business, or develop its brand identity. In

an analysis of e-business components and accepted marketing concepts, Albert

and Sanders (2003) developed this definition:

“E-business marketing is a concept and process of adapting the relevant and

current technologies to the philosophy of marketing and its management. Focused

attention on the areas of e-commerce, business intelligence, customer relationship

management, supply chain management, and enterprise resource planning provide

a framework for effective adaptation. Although the electronic environment

experiences rapid changes, the reliance on proven marketing models, in these

areas, ensures continuity of the marketing process both online and off-line.” (P.

10)

Management for E-Marketing

Management plays an important role in E-Marketing, one which establishes the

system for decision making, improving customer knowledge, efficient targeting

of advertising, and so on (Chan, 2005). The style of management is an important

Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

consideration when attempting to implement any E-Marketing plan (Chan, 2005).

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of management styles – centralized and

decentralized – though there is a range of styles between those two values (Albert

& Sanders, 2003). Although the approach style depends on the size of the

company and the management context, for E-Marketing it is generally better to

use a decentralized approach.

In a decentralized approach, decision making authority is distributed throughout

a larger group such that lower level individuals have higher authority than they

would in other contexts (Daft & Marcic, 2005). For E-Marketing, this is valuable

for adapting to customer feedback, responding positively to emerging trends, and

providing opportunities for individual employees to engage with customers in a

more natural manner. Given that decision making is distributed across the group,

it also enables customers to be part of the decision-making process without

jeopardizing the authority of the company. Hence, companies can learn the desires

and interests of the customers, so as to better market products to them, while

customers can feel as though the company takes them seriously and are able to

form stronger attachment to company brands (Pride & Ferrell, 2011).

However, a decentralized management style can be problematic in terms of

cooperation. Since all individuals in the decision-making process have similar

authority, they may refuse to cooperate or may go in completely different

directions for solving some problem (Daft & Marcic, 2005). Hence, the role of a

manager becomes one who guides other employees with common vision, goals,

and objectives so that there is cooperation in terms of results. Each individual

should be able to use their own strengths to accomplish the goal. In order to

accomplish this , managers need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of

the employees and be able to create objectives that can be tailor to specific

strengths. Managers cannot do this unless they have the desire to know and

understand others: other employees and the customers (Daft & Marcic, 2005).

This desire to know others, for the purpose of cooperation, is part of what is

commonly called a social-justice leader. Hence, the role of management in E-

Marketing is to provide leadership in cooperation, in understanding the desires

and strengths of others, and being able to guide by objectives and by example.

Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

Management for emarketing needs different kind of skills set and leadership style

than in-person marketing. In marketing most leadership functions are exerted

through technology rather than face-to-face. There is an absolute need to have a

clear and well defined system of management control for feedback and

motivation. A manager must have online communication proficiency,

comfortable with tools and techniques and must follow etiquette of online

communication. Managers and the employees mush have real-time access to

reports, feedback, updates and guidelines.

Strategy

Once good objectives have been identified it is time to develop a strategy. For

example, consider a company with a 40% market share with their phone card. A

possible objective would be to increase that market share to 45% or to 60%, either

of which will have different hurdles to overcome. What strategy would be

developed? It could be through increasing sales, through building a better brand,

through reducing the price of the product, and so on. However, some strategies

may not be appropriate for the objective. For instance, improving the quality of

the product may not increase market share but instead would be better for an

objective of maintaining a hold on the existing 40%. As well, some strategies may

be more time intensive than others. For instance, consider a brand name of this

phone card as the CC Phone Card. Improving the brand of CC may be difficult in

an English context due to the similarity of the name with the English word “sissy”,

an already derogatory and insulting name. It may be easier to use a different name

of the card in an English context, and keep the name for a context where the sound

does not have the same connotation. For instance, in Spanish CC is similar to

saying “Yes Yes”, which may have a positive connotation. Hence, the calling card

could be marketed as CC in Spanish areas but something else in English areas.

Tactics

Once the overall strategy has been developed, it is necessary to make that strategy

achievable in a practical sense. Since a strategy is very general and may be meant

for years, it is difficult for individual employees to determine how they can be

involved in accomplishing it. Thus, a series of tactics will be useful. These are

Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

short-term or small-scope sets of actions that employees can perform so as to

accomplish the strategy. While still somewhat general, so that each employee can

apply their own strengths to it, these are far more focused in intention and may be

directed to specific groups of employees or even specific employees.

For instance, consider the strategy of improving the brand name. Some tactics

could involve advertising campaigns, engaging with customer groups, providing

information for blogs to get the name out there in the Internet, monitoring the

response of different groups, and so on. No employee would do all of these things;

they would only focus on one or two while others would engage in the remaining

tactics. Similarly, tactics are meant to change regularly as the strategy is put into

action.

Action

Once the tactics have been identified, employees engage in daily and weekly

actions for implementing them. Therefore, the actions are the realm of each

employee. However, monitoring these actions to identify problems and measure

progress is important. One effective means for doing so is through using Gantt

charts. These charts are meant for identifying how long certain actions may take,

and can be updated regularly by employees so that progress in accomplishing an

action is easily identifiable. Similarly, by allowing employees to monitor their

own progress, it reduces the likelihood of managerial interruption and the negative

aspects of managerial control.

Control

The SOSTAC framework is a continuous one, which involves a cycle of steps.

The final step of control is there to allow reflection, monitoring of results, and a

means of adapting to new circumstances. As progress in implementing an E-

Marketing plan occurs, it is important to identify markers of progress and

problems. In doing so, it becomes possible to take advantage of positive

circumstances for a company (such as a new fad being developed around the

product) and to quickly respond to problems (such as a viral video depicting the

product as bad). Hence, this step is meant to continually monitor the environment

Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

surrounding the product to ensure progress continues to be made in achieving the

objectives.

Finding

It is important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the company in different

areas. For instance, what is the product being developed? What strengths does this

company have in developing and marketing that product? What weaknesses are

there and how can the company change to eliminate those weaknesses? While

many possible areas could be examined, Table 2 below contains an example of

critical areas to consider first.

Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

Table 2: Marketing Strengths and Weaknesses for a Company

Now that company’s situation is well analyzed, it is time to examine competitors.

This involves researching who they are, how they compete against your company

Marketing Mix Strength Weakness Action Required

Product (Calling Card) High

quality

High quality. Low product

differentiation (not

unique).

Reduce cost of card

possibly through lower

quality.

Decent packaging.

Price ($5.00 CA) Cheaper than some

competitors.

Not leader in

lowest price.

Decrease price to

remain competitive.

Accessible to r

customers.

Place (Distribution through Available in many

stores, and

different chains.

Sales dependent

on store hours.

brick–and–mortar stores) Available in several

countries.

No online

distribution.

Promotion (Word-of-mouth

advertising)

Very low cost. Not innovative

compared to online

options.

Promotional prizes of

discounts for frequent

users.

Service Reliable service. Cards with very

People (Customers and

Employees)

Usable by people

from many different

nationalities and

languages.

Low integration

in non-immigrant

North American

market.

Processes Cards are easily and

efficiently

produced.

Selling through

distributors

distances

company from

customers.

Physicals (the physical

calling card)

Cards do not easily

break. Card is good

size and shape.

Suggestions of

scratch pad on

back being

carcinogenic.

Numbers on back

are hard to read

for many people.

Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

in terms of products, what overlap exists between products, how market share is

divided between the companies, and what strategies your company has for dealing

with competition.

Table 3: Competition Analysis

Main Competitors Strengths Weaknesses Our Strategy to

Compete

Rechargeable cards.

Rechargeable online,

no need to constantly

buy new cards.

People who have

difficulty using

computers or

Take an analyzer

approach to

competing.

Account summaries of

calls, minutes, costs,

easily accessible.

People who lack a

credit card cannot

be customers.

Engage in horizontal

integration. For

example, combine

reviewing remaining

balance on a card

with other existing

services.

Online purchasing of

cards.

Limited offline

purchasing.

Take a reactive

approach to

competing.

Cost comparison of

different brands on

their website to find

cheapest card

available.

Only available in

major countries.

Ensure our card is

available in same

location as theirs.

Available in a variety

of countries.

expand availability to

other areas. Offline

competition remains

very strong.

Angry Calling Card

BB Calling Card

Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

Conclusion

E-Marketing allows companies to reach a much wider audience for products and

services that are traditionally possible, and engage in a productive dialog with

customers and the managers that takes the traditional method of marketing to a

newer level. However, developing and implementing an e-marketing plan is very

complex. Not only do we have to come up with appropriate ideas and strategies

but also it is the point where a company discovers whether an idea is actually

going to work in practice. Critical to the success of implementing a plan is the

original objectives setting process. Objectives that are unclear will result in

unfocused and potentially unproductive actions.

Despite the importance of e-marketing in businesses, the theory is difficult to

actualize in practice for companies operating within countries where the citizens

has limited or restricted Internet access. Other cultural or normative practices can

also lead to difficulties. For instance, in a multi-lingual country, such as Iran, the

communication between customers and a company will greatly benefit from

having a variety of languages available for customers to engage in business. If

someone in one part of the country wants to speak with a marketing representative

in Arabic, the company will greatly benefit by having a representative who is able

to communicate in Arabic. However, if management does not see the value in

having alternative languages available, they may lose the opportunity of engaging

with a potentially significant portion of the country’s population.

The complexity of the E-Marketing environment and the number of variables in

the marketing strategy mean that the company have plenty of choice when it

comes to determining a specific implementation approach. Therefore,

measurement and analysis at all stages is crucial to ensure the plan is on track, to

identify when it falls off track, and how to take action to get back on track and

continue.

Effective E-Marketing requires knowledgeable management and manpower, such

that traditional management models like “top-down management” is not

appropriate.. In addition, the needs of E-Marketing customers should be the top

Tabrizi and Kabirnejat: eMarketing

priority; engendering customer commitment and loyalty are extremely important.

Hence, management must be even more serious in its attempts to supply the needs

of customers.

References

Albert T. C., & Sanders W. B. (2003). E-business marketing. Upper Saddle River,

NJ: Prentice Hall.Andreasen, A. R. (Ed.). (2006). Social marketing in the

21st century. Sage.Aucoin, P., & Bakvis, H. (1988). The centralization-

decentralization conundrum: organization and management in the

Canadian government. IRPP.Bates, A. (2006). Online marketing and

eDetailing. NetworkPharma Ltd.

Chan, S. (2005). Strategic Management e-business. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

England. Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2005). Understanding management.

Cengage Learning.

Dann, S., & Dann, S. (2011). E-marketing: theory and application. Palgrave

Macmillan.

Engardio, P., Bernstein, A., & Kripalani, M. (2003) ‘The New Global Job Shift’,

Business Week Online Retrieved from

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_05/b3818001.htm.

Karb, I. S. (2004) E-Marketing. What went wrong & how to do it right. K & A

Press

Kotler, P. (2005). According to Kotler: The world’s foremost authority on

marketing answers your questions. AMACOM Div American Mgmt

Assn.

Krishnamurthy, S. (Ed.). (2006). Contemporary Research in E-marketing.

University of Washington, USA. (Vol. 2). IGI Global.

Hietala, T., & Salmi, T. (2012). The Implementation of E-Marketing

Communications in Micro-Companies: A Multiple-Case Study.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_05/b3818001.htm

Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 8, Number 2, 2015

Hill, C. W., & Jones, G. R. (2008). Strategic Management: An Integrated

Approach: An Integrated Approach. Cengage Learning.

Levinson, J. C., & Neitlich, A. (2011). Guerrilla Marketing for a Bulletproof

Career: How to Attract Ongoing Opportunities in Perpetually Gut

Wrenching Times, for Entrepreneurs, Employees, and Everyone in

Between. Morgan James Publishing.

Otlacan, O. (2007). What Is e-Marketing? – A New Discipline Is Evolving.

Retrieved from

http://www.finalsense.com/learning/e_marketing_articles/what_e_mark

eting.htm.

Parsons, E., & Maclaran, P. (2009). Contemporary issues in marketing and

consumer behaviour. Routledge.

Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2011). Marketing foundations. South-Western

Cengage Learning.

Reece, M. (2010). Real-time marketing for business growth: How to use social

media, measure marketing, and create a culture of execution. Pearson

Education.

Smith, P. R. (1990). Smith’s SOSTAC planing model. Retrieved from

http://www.businessballs.com/pr_smiths_sostac_planning_method.htm.

Smith, P., Smith, P. R., Berry, C., & Pulford, A. (1999). Strategic marketing

communications: new ways to build and integrate communications.

Kogan Page Publishers.

Stokes, R. (2008). eMarketing: the essential guide to online marketing. Quirk

eMarketing.

http://www.finalsense.com/learning/e_marketing_articles/what_e_marketing.htm

http://www.businessballs.com/pr_smiths_sostac_planning_method.htm

Copyright of Journal of Knowledge Globalization is the property of Knowledge Globalization Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

milestone 1and2/MBA 640 PROJECT 3 Milestones 1 & 2 Details.docx

PROJECT 3

MARKETING STRATEGY FOR

A NEW CONSUMER PRODUCT

MILESTONES 1 AND 2

TIMEFRAME

Week 4: Submit by the end of the week (Tuesday evening).

GENERAL OVERVIEW

Project 3 requires you to develop a marketing plan for a new cordless vacuum for the Dyson Corporation.

The project has several steps, many of which involve extensive reading about the topic and then conducting extensive research about the environment and market for the new product. Be sure to allow yourself plenty of time early in the week to complete the reading. You will be completing Steps 1 through 4 of the project this week.

Milestone 1 is a scan of the environment for the new product. You will be conducting three different analyses using three different methods for looking at the environment and the company and presenting your analyses in a four-page paper.

Milestone 2 is a description of how to best conduct a consumer analysis of the market.

COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING YOUR WORK

· First, go to the Start Here step which covers the background for the situation and will set the scene for the product and company with which you will be working (Dyson).

· Next, you will be reading quite a bit of class material about marketing under Step 1—Introduction to Marketing. Specifically, read Marketing (and Chapter 1. What is Marketing?), eMarketing, Evaluate the Attractiveness of the New Business, Strategic Alliances, Primary and Secondary Research, and Differences Between a Product and a Service.

· In Step 2—Understand the Components of a Marketing Plan, read Marketing Plan, Mission, and Vision.

· Now, research the vision and the mission of Dyson by locating them online to get a grasp on how the company sees itself and its role.

· Familiarize yourself with the Marketing Plan Template. You will be using this as a guide for what typically belongs in each section of the plan.

· Go to Step 3—Conducting an Environmental Scan and read the descriptions of a PESTEL Analysis, Porter’s Five Forces Analysis, and a SWOT Analysis.

· Spend some time researching the vacuum cleaner industry by using the UMUC library to help you conduct a PESTEL analysis, a Porter’s Five Forces analysis, and a SWOT analysis for Dyson. PESTEL examines the wide environment for the company by looking at broad political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal variables. So, what social trends might affect Dyson? Consumers having less time to clean might be an example. What economic trends might affect Dyson? Households having greater/lesser discretionary incomes might be an example. Next, the Porter Five Forces analysis looks more narrowly at the vacuum cleaner industry including the competition. Finally, SWOT focuses within the company itself so it is even a more narrowed analysis. What are Dyson’s internal strengths and weaknesses? Is Dyson an innovative company? What are its external threats and opportunities? Is the vacuum cleaner market highly competitive?

· Include your results of these three analyses in a four-page paper. Be sure to provide ample research sources to support your points and use both our class readings and outside research. Cite all research using proper APA format.

· Submit your four-page document by the Tuesday evening deadline. I will provide you with my feedback so you know whether or not you should revise this part of the project. Remember, you will not receive a grade on any of the milestones—only on the completed final project.

· Now that the environmental scan is complete, you will move to a focus on consumers for the potential new vacuum cleaner product for Dyson. Read Consumer Buying Behavior in Step 4—Conduct a Consumer Analysis.

· Research the consumers of and the products offered by Dyson, concentrating on the new product. Describe the needs to be met, benefits desired, and the consumer purchase process focusing on the questions posed in the project description here.

· Describe the consumer analysis process for the new product in a three-page paper. Again, be sure to provide ample research sources to support your points and use both our class readings and outside research. Cite all research using proper APA format.

· Submit your three-page document by the Tuesday evening deadline. I will provide you with my feedback so you know whether or not you should revise this part of the project. Remember, you will not receive a grade on any of the milestones—only on the completed final project.

milestone 1and2/MBA640_-_Marketing_Plan_Template_edited.docx

What Is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is a written document that presents the marketers’ findings about the marketplace, and shows how the company intends to achieve its marketing objectives. The plan illustrates the tactical guidelines and the marketing strategy, and the financial allocations for planning period (Kotler & Keller, 2015). It also outlines the control measures and contingency plans.

Marketing plans usually apply to a period of one year. The marketing plan is an important output of the marketing process, and provides focus and direction for the company, a product, a service, or a brand. The plan informs the company’s internal and external stakeholders about the company’s marketing goals and explains how the company intends to achieve those goals (Kotler & Keller, 2015).

While the marketing department is the primary author of the marketing plan, the best marketing plans are developed by cross-functional teams. Working with cross-functional teams helps to ensure no critical factors will get overlooked.

A good marketing plan is simple, clear, and realistic, and has a long-term focus. A good marketing plan must contain sufficient competitive analysis and must include support for its recommendations.

References

Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L. (2015). Marketing management (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Marketing Plan Template

1.0 Executive Summary

2.0 Situation Analysis

2.1 Mission

2.2 Product or service description

2.3 Value proposition

2.4 Internal environment scan (SWOT analysis)

2.5 Critical issues

3.0 Market Analysis

3.1 Marketing research

3.2 External environment scan (PESTEL & Porter’s five forces analyses)

3.3 Market size and growth

3.4 Market trends

3.5 Target market

3.6 Market segments

3.7 Customer analysis (including needs analysis)

4.0 Strategy

4.1 Marketing objectives (including financial objectives)

4.2 Positioning strategy

4.3 Product and branding strategy

4.4 Pricing strategy

4.5 Distribution and supply chain strategy

4.6 Integrated marketing communications strategy

5.0 Financial Projections

5.1 Break-even analysis

5.2 Sales forecast

5.3 Expense forecast

6.0 Implementation and Controls

6.1 Implementation

6.2 Controls

6.3 Contingency plans

Page 1 of 3

milestone 1and2/not yor fathers marketing plan.pdf

M arketing can be a tricky thing. Remember when Oldsmobile marketed its cars with the slogan, “not your father’s Oldsmobile”?

The campaign would have to be judged a flop because the only Oldsmobiles you see on the road today last rolled off the assem- bly line in 2004. In contrast, the expression “not your father’s [insert term here] … ” has become a pop-culture catch phrase that has outlasted the product it was coined to promote.

Likewise, in making marketing decisions, remodelers face some tough choices in an uncertain market. What works? Tried-and- true methods or new strategies? Taking a lesson from Oldsmobile, catch slogans would seem a less winning strategy than a truly appealing product.

Judging from the response to a recent Qualified Remodeler reader survey, 60 per- cent of respondents favor the tried and true: repeat and referral business. Other market- ing strategies show very small percentages by comparison.

One can argue remodelers rely on repeat business and referrals for a very good reason: It worked in the past and it works now. Or, one may contend they’re missing significant marketing opportunities and putting their businesses at risk by not expanding their marketing horizons. As is often the case, the truth likely lies somewhere between the two extremes.

“I would love to be able to ask my friends in the industry if [repeat business and referrals] are important to them, but, unfortunately, that’s exactly what they relied on, and they’re no longer here,” says Todd Jackson, CAPS, chief executive officer of Jackson Design and Remodeling, San Diego. Business shrank by 50 to 70 percent

for those who relied heavily on repeat and referral business, he adds.

“To get a referral, you have to have a new client,” adds CoCo Harper, Jackson Design and Remodeling’s marketing director.

Part of the problem some remodelers encounter is not committing to a marketing plan, Jackson says. “I have friends who say they’re committed to spending a certain amount of dollars on marketing, and at the end of the year, they’ve only spent half of it.”

Marketing is more than setting aside a budget; it’s looking at your tactics in advance and having a plan. “By September or October [of the preceding year] , we know pretty much month to month what our plan is,” Jackson

explains. “We list every tactic; we could prob- ably have 30 headline tactics and under each of those there may be eight strategies. We plan that out month by month, how much are we going to spend and what week are we going to do it in.”

Planning ahead can have its advantages, Jackson says, relating how he negotiated a 50 percent discount on 2012 TV advertising by paying for it (and writing it off) in 2011. “We knew we were going to spend it anyway in the next six months,” he explains.

Marketing 101 Marketing starts with the basics, Harper explains. “You have to have a good product

Not Your Father’s Marketing Plan By Kenneth W. Betz

Relying Uncritically on What Used to Work Can Lead to Misfortune—but Don’t Reject It Unthinkingly

What marketing media did you use in the past 12 months (check all that apply)?

7.2% Newspapers/Magazines

6.0% Home Shows

7.2% Direct Mail

14.8% Repeat Business

2.9% Radio Advertising

11.4% Internet Marketing

9.5% Social Media

0.7% Billboards

14.8% Referrals

1.6% TV Advertising

5.4% Yellow Pages

3.3% Canvassing

13.2% Company Signage

1.9% Other

26 May 2012 QR ForResidentialPros.com

REMODELER SURVEY SERIES

QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 26QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 26 4/27/12 2:07 PM4/27/12 2:07 PM

to market. You have to have a business that has integrity and does good work. That is mar- keting 101.”

Beyond that, she asks, “What makes you different? What will break you away from your competitors? Who really is your client? Are they men, 50 years old? In what part of town? What are the geographics, demographics and psychographics of your clients? What is your budget for the year? Plan that. It should be a percentage of your sales. What are your goals? How many leads do you want? Set some solid goals and opportunities for your- self and then work on a plan that is detailed and involved.

“Have a consistent message, and then move forward,” Harper says. “Marketing for a remodeling company is a moving and fast-paced job.

“Our goal has always been to be the leader in what we do; that’s where I like to be, so I’m very motivated. When I first came on, everyone [in the industry] was doing the same thing, and you [as an individual remod- eler] become vanilla when you were not vanilla. Clearly, you have a lot more to offer.”

“Why did our business increase 50 per- cent last year, and why are we on target to hit $10 million this year?” Jackson asks. “It’s because our brand has finally arrived.” Harper agrees, noting that developing a brand can take at least three years.

Marketing isn’t just about buying shiny ads, Jackson notes. People forget about opportunities, such as public relations. “There are many opportunities to be written about if you communicate with the people who are looking for stories,” he says. “If you find those outlets—newspaper, magazine or whatever—and present those people with a

very tight concise story with photos and ver- biage, you make that publication’s job easier; they’re going to call you, but you have to be

proactive.” Another way Jackson

stretches his marketing budget is co-op advertis- ing agreements with appliance dealers, cabi- net suppliers and other vendors with whom the company does business. “Twenty percent of our marketing budget was paid by co-op dollars in 2011, and this year it will

probably be more,” he says. “It’s a formalized partnership,” he adds,

“It’s not just a handshake deal. We follow it up with a two-page signed agreement that says what we’re going to do, what the goal is, when we get paid and how we track it. It takes the mystery out of it, and then we commit to it.

“During good times, no one wanted to give you any kind of co-op deal,” Jackson says. “Now they’re saying, ‘What do we have to do to earn your business?’ We’re supple- menting our dollars. I think if vendors see you’re spending money on marketing, and it’s going to give them more business, they’re willing to invest in your business.”

Do you expect social media to have a significant impact on how you market in the future?

Yes

63.2%

36.8%

Has your marketing message changed?

Yes

43.2% No

56.8%

“For most businesses, it still makes sense to have a business card to hand to existing customers and new prospects,” says Jay Fayloga, director of product management for Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Egency, a Web-to-print service pro- viding customizable mar- keting solutions, including business cards.

“So little attention is paid to business card marketing that, when done right, it can help you suc- ceed over your competi- tors. In a tough economy, the little things help you stand out—sometimes as little as 2 by 3 1/2 inches,” Fayloga adds.

The company took issue with a recent Los Angeles Times article suggesting in today’s digital economy the business card is dead. “We have found strategic use of business cards, from the quality of the design to the type of paper you use, is just as important as how you present the card in business situations,” he states. “Not everyone lives and works in an online world.”

Egency offers the follow-

ing business-card tips: Go for Quality and Functionality

The biggest mistake you can make is to ignore qual- ity and functionality. Find a high-quality design that will stand out from the boring white cards everyone else gives away. Get a thick, firm card stock so the recipient can immediately feel you are important. And make your business card functional. For example, the back of a business card should be able to be used as a place to write down an appointment reminder for the recipient. Promote Your Brand

Not a day goes by where news outlets do not have an article about how a company is promoting its brand. Business cards give you that same power. When you hand a business card to someone, he or she is experiencing your brand and now has a tangible rep- resentation of your brand to remember you by. Write on the Card

Successful businesses can grow by developing relationships with their cus- tomers. When handing out

a business card, give the recipient an extra reason to refer back to the card—a personal touch. Consider writing down a personal email address or handwriting your product or service as a reminder. Free Business Marketing

It has never been more important to get qual- ity business cards because you never know who will eventually end up with the card. Give out an extra one to business partners. Also, don’t be shy about approaching others and giv- ing them a copy. Accept Business Cards

Being a good business- card recipient also is critical for your business. When you receive a business card, take a moment to read it. Write on the card in front of the person who handed it to you. It could be anything, such as where you met them. Showing how you appreciate this opportunity to do busi- ness can give the person who handed you the card the feel- ing that you can be trusted.

For more information, visit Egency.com.

ARE BUSINESS CARDS PASSÉ?

ForResidentialPros.com QR May 2012 27

QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 27QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 27 4/27/12 2:07 PM4/27/12 2:07 PM

Asked if remodelers should keep their marketing operations in-house or hire an outside firm, Jackson replies: “I’m probably more of a control nut, but I’ve done it both ways. I had an outside person who, at the time, I thought was my marketing person, but all he did was buy media. Today, I have a project manager on staff to run my jobs, I have designers on staff to design, and I have a marketing director to market. The latter position is as important a position in my com- pany as my accountant or my controller.”

Casting a Wider Net For another California remodeler, marketing is a mix of old and new tactics. “Speaking for our company, we certainly still do a lot of busi- ness from referrals and repeat customers, but I think part of the reason we’re seeing increas- es in our business is we’ve made the commit- ment to cast a wider net via the Internet,” says Jim Tibbs, vice president and creative director of HDR Remodeling, Berkeley, Calif.

“More and more clients are finding us every month through Internet searches or because they happen upon an article or a blog where we’re mentioned. The number of those is increasing, and I’m confident that’s contributing to our double-digit growth at a time when the industry is not growing at the same pace,” he says.

Nevertheless, Tibbs is not about to aban- don what has worked in the past. “We still invest a pretty significant amount of time and

resources in keeping in contact with our cur- rent client base. We send out an email news- letter on average every six weeks. We’re stay- ing in contact with our top customers and keeping our name in front of the people who have been very loyal. We certainly don’t want to let them slip out of the mix,” he explains.

Tibbs does not discount social media, but cautions remodelers about expecting more than it may currently deliver. “I think the age group we’re appealing to [as poten- tial clients] is between 40 and 70, which isn’t necessarily the core social media group. The social media outreach we’ve used is a great supplement in terms of giving clients or potential clients access to more informa- tion in very user-friendly ways. I don’t neces- sarily think it’s effective in terms of making the initial contact or attracting customers

who are maybe only just hearing about your company,” he adds.

“Young people who are getting into their first homes [and who are more likely involved with social media] probably aren’t going to be using our company to do work on that first home. They’re going to look for more cost-efficient ways of doing it or doing part of it themselves,” Tibbs says, acknowl- edging that 20 years from now, the Facebook demographic will have changed

Of the marketing means you used, what was your No. 1 source of leads in the past 12 months (pick one)?

1.7% Newspapers/Magazines

6.7% Home Shows

2.8% Direct Mail

23.9% Repeat Business

2.2% Radio Advertising

10.6% Internet Marketing

1.1% Social Media

0.6% Billboards

36.7% Referrals

0.6% TV Advertising

1.1% Yellow Pages

1.7% Canvassing

2.8% Company Signage

7.8% Other Is your marketing conducted in-house or by an outside marketer?

73.6% In-house

23.6% A combination

of the two

Outside marketer

2.9%

What social media venues do you participate in?

28.9% Facebook

26.4% LinkedIn

9.9% Twitter

6.4% Google Plus

8.6% YouTube

8.1% Blogs

8.6% None

3.1% Other

28 May 2012 QR ForResidentialPros.com

REMODELER SURVEY SERIES

QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 28QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 28 4/27/12 2:07 PM4/27/12 2:07 PM

or have been replaced by something else. For now, Facebook is “another avenue to

get current information out, whether it’s pho- tos from a job in progress or a little blurb about something that may be happening in the company. Website updates can be cost- ly and time-consuming if you do them right. We used Facebook because it’s user-friend- ly—anybody in the office can do it. Of course Facebook is going to evolve, and our strat- egy will evolve with it.”

Don’t Overlook the Costs One perception Tibbs advises remodelers to guard against is the notion that Internet and social media don’t have a substantial market- ing cost. “I think we all have tended to overlook the amount of time it takes. For a while, I wasn’t charging the hours I was spending blogging and doing newsletters to the marketing account. It was kind of living in overhead, and we really didn’t have a handle on what our marketing costs were. If you go to the effort of capturing those hours and charging them

2012 Catalog Available Now!

Patented Mud Locks Drywall

Compound

1-800-874-2333 www.trim-tex.com

Engineered hole pattern allows the bead to self level

No cracks or call backs guaranteed

3.5 times more bonding surface

Never dents, rusts or molds

No paper to scuff or blister

100% rigid vinyl

World’s Strongest Beads

2012 Catalog Available Now! Request Yours Today.

Detail

2 A

For more information circle 44

By Jim Tibbs The first thing to do when creating a

distinctive brand is to understand a brand proposition is defined by how your custom- ers or clients see you, not necessarily by how people within the company perceive the brand. It’s critical you have a clear under- standing of who your target consumer is and their values, priorities and needs because it’s that value system by which your brand is going to be judged.

When developing a branding component, such as a brand name, logo and a tagline, it’s always a great idea to keep things simple, understandable and easy to read because you only have a few seconds in which to convey your message. The message must be memorable, so finding some unique spin also is key.

One mistake companies make is focus- ing only on the rational benefits they are selling—the services and products—and not also selling the emotional benefits. For

example, how are clients going to experience the space you remodel for them, and how will they experience working with your company? It’s really that emotional connection people remember and the aspect of branding that is truly unique and distinctive about your company.

Finally, make sure you’re consistent. Create a pleasant and consistent brand experience for your customers starting with the first phone call. Any means by which the customer comes in contact with your brand should be a consistent experience.

Jim Tibbs is vice president and creative director of HDR Remodeling, a Honey-Do Repair com- pany in Berkeley, Calif. He also is a member of Remodelers Advantage Roundtables Peer Groups, a community of remodeling company owners who work together to maximize com- pany results. To listen to a podcast with Jim Tibbs from which these guidelines are excerpt- ed, visit ForResidentialPros.com/10654621.

CREATING A DISTINCTIVE BRAND PROPOSITION

QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 29QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 29 4/27/12 2:07 PM4/27/12 2:07 PM

in the right place on the profit and loss state- ment, it does really add up.”

Tibbs likes to keep a balance between evolving digital marketing strategies and what has always worked.

“I see again and again the thing that cements a relationship and will really nail a sale is the face-to-face interaction between two people with a business card exchanged. It does go back to the basics at some point,”

he says. (For more information about effec- tive business cards, see page 27.)

“The way you attract people and get your name out to them is certainly evolving and changing,” Tibbs concedes, “but when it comes to those first couple of meetings after the dialogue has started, quite honestly, it does go back to the basics and to some degree the tried and true.

“I would add, this is a time when success- ful companies should be taking some calcu- lated risks, trying new things and learning from their failures. I know budgets are tight, but if you become paralyzed about trying something new, you’re really going to miss a lot of opportunities.”

Do You Have Deals That Don’t Fit Your Lenders’

Guidelines? Don’t lose that money!

At HomePlus Finance we look for reasons to approve tough deals, not reject them. In fact, if you get 500 turndowns this year, you could see as many as 190 additional approvals from us. You count the money.

Unsecured loans up to $15,000; terms up to 120 mos.

Approvals NOT credit score driven. Shaky credit OK.

No equity required.

Fast approvals and fundings.

We are flexible, easy to work with, and will do all we can to get your deals approved.

Contact Jack Maschmeier at (866) 234-5010 x5560 or via email at [email protected].

A limited number of dealer openings remain.

Have you increased or decreased your marketing activity in 2012?

-26.7%

+73.3%

Do you plan to increase or decrease your marketing activity in 2013?

-17.4%

+82.6%

-22.5%

+50.6%

Has the percentage of gross revenue you spent (or intend to spend) on marketing increased or decreased in 2012 (over 2011)?

26.9% Same

30 May 2012 QR ForResidentialPros.com

REMODELER SURVEY SERIES

QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 30QUR_26-31_Surveyseries0512ck.indd 30 4/27/12 2:07 PM4/27/12 2:07 PM

or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission.

However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

milestone 1and2/readings.docx

Readings

Marketing

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (AMA, 2013, para. 1).

Kotler and Keller (2015) define marketing management as the science and art of selecting target markets, and the practice of acquiring, maintaining, and growing customers through the creation, delivery, and communication of superior customer value—all while maintaining profitability. Remember: Marketing is not selling; selling is just a component of marketing!

References

AMA (2013). Marketing definition. Retrieved from www.ama.org

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2015). Marketing management (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson

Marketing Principles is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license without attribution as requested by the site’s original creator or licensee.

Chapter 1. What Is Marketing?

What makes a business idea work? Does it only take money? Why are some products a huge success and similar products a dismal failure? How was Apple, a computer company, able to create and launch the wildly successful iPod, yet Microsoft’s first foray into MP3 players was a total disaster? If the size of the company and the money behind a product’s launch were the difference, Microsoft would have won. But for Microsoft to have won, it would have needed something it has not had in a while—good marketing, so it can produce and sell products that consumers want.

So how does good marketing get done?

1. Defining Marketing

Learning objective: Define marketing and outline its components.

Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (American Marketing Association, n.d.). If you read the definition closely, you see that there are four activities, or components, of marketing:

1. Creating—The process of collaborating with suppliers and customers to create offerings that have value

2. Communicating—Broadly, describing those offerings, as well as learning from customers

3. Delivering—Getting those offerings to the consumer in a way that optimizes value

4. Exchanging—Trading value for those offerings

The traditional way of viewing the components of marketing is via the four Ps:

1. Product—Goods and services (creating offerings)

2. Promotion—Communication

3. Place—Getting the product to a point at which the customer can purchase it (delivering)

4. Price—The monetary amount charged for the product (exchanging)

Introduced in the early 1950s, the four Ps were called the marketing mix, meaning that a marketing plan is a mix of these four components.

If the four Ps are the same as creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging, you might be wondering why there was a change. The answer is that they are not exactly the same. Product, price, place, and promotion are nouns. As such, these words fail to capture all the activities of marketing. For example, exchanging requires mechanisms for a transaction, which consist of more than simply a price or place. Exchanging requires, among other things, the transfer of ownership. For example, when you buy a car, you sign documents that transfer the car’s title from the seller to you. That’s part of the exchange process.

Even the term product, which seems pretty obvious, is limited. Does the product include services that come with your new car purchase (such as free maintenance for a certain period of time on some models)? Or does the product mean only the car itself?

Finally, none of the four Ps describes particularly well what marketing people do. However, one of the goals of this book is to focus on exactly what marketing professionals do.

Value

Value is at the center of everything marketers do. What does value mean?

When we use the term value, we mean the benefits buyers receive that meet their needs. In other words, value is what the customer gets by purchasing and consuming a company’s offering. Although the offering is created by the company, the value is determined by the customer.

Furthermore, our goal as marketers is to create a profitable exchange for consumers. By profitable, we mean that the consumer’s personal value equation is positive. The personal value equation is

value = benefits received – [price + hassle].

Hassle is the time and effort the consumer puts into the shopping process. The equation reflects personal impressions, because each consumer will judge the benefits of a product differently, as with the time and effort he or she puts into shopping. Value, then, varies for each consumer.

One way to think of value is to imagine a meal in a restaurant. If you and three friends go to a restaurant and order the same dish, each of you will like it more or less depending on your own personal tastes. Yet the dish was exactly the same, priced the same, and served exactly the same way. Because your tastes varied, the benefits you received varied. Therefore, the value varied for each of you. That’s why we call it a personal value equation.

Value varies from customer to customer based on each customer’s needs. The marketing concept, a philosophy underlying all that marketers do, requires that marketers seek to satisfy customer wants and needs. Firms operating with that philosophy are said to be market oriented. At the same time, market-oriented firms recognize that the exchange must be profitable for the company to be successful. A marketing orientation is not an excuse to fail to make profit.

Firms don’t always embrace the marketing concept and a market orientation. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s, companies were production oriented. They believed that the best way to compete was by reducing production costs. In other words, companies thought that good products would sell themselves. Perhaps the best example of such a product was Henry Ford’s Model A automobile, the first product of his production line innovation. Ford’s production line made the automobile cheap and affordable for many more people. The production era lasted until the 1920s, when production-capacity growth began to outpace demand growth, and new strategies were called for. There are, however, companies that still focus on production as the way to compete.

From the 1920s until after World War II, companies tended to be selling oriented, meaning they believed it was necessary to push their products by heavily emphasizing advertising and selling. Consumers during the Great Depression and World War II did not have as much money, so the competition for their available dollars was stiff. The result was this push approach during the selling era. Companies like the Fuller Brush Company and Hoover Vacuum began selling door-to-door, and the vacuum-cleaner salesperson was created. Just as with production, some companies still operate with a push focus.

In the post–World War II environment, demand for goods increased as the economy soared. Some products, limited in supply during World War II, were now plentiful to the point of surplus. Companies believed that to compete, they had to sell different products than the competition, so many focused on product innovation. This focus on product innovation is called the product orientation. Companies like Procter & Gamble created many products that served the same basic function as one another, but with a slight twist or difference in order to appeal to a different consumer, and as a result products proliferated. But as consumers had many choices available to them, companies had to find new ways to compete. Which products were best to create? Why create them? The answer was to create what customers wanted, leading to the development of the marketing concept, and from about 1950 to 1990, businesses operated in the marketing era.

So what era would you say we’re in now? Some call it the value era, a time when companies emphasize creating value for customers. Is that really different from the marketing era, in which the emphasis was on fulfilling the marketing concept? Maybe not. Others call today’s business environment the one-to-one era, meaning that the way to compete is to build relationships with customers one at a time and to serve each customer’s needs individually. For example, the longer you are a customer of Amazon, the more details they gain about your purchasing habits and the better they can target you with offers of new products. With the advent of social media and the empowerment of consumers through ubiquitous information from consumer reviews, there is clearly greater emphasis on meeting customer needs. But is that substantially different from the marketing concept?

Still others argue that this is the time of service-dominant logic, and that we are in the service-dominant logic era. Service-dominant logic is an approach to business that recognizes that consumers want value no matter how it is delivered, whether it’s via a product, a service, or a combination of the two. Although there is merit in this belief, there is also merit to the value approach and the one-to-one approach. As you will see throughout this book, all three are intertwined. Perhaps, then, the name for this era has yet to be decided.

Whatever era we’re in now, most historians would agree that defining and labeling it is difficult. Value and one-to-one approaches are both natural extensions of the marketing concept, so we may still be in the marketing era. To make matters more confusing, not all companies adopt the philosophy of the era. For example, in the 1800s, Singer and National Cash Register adopted strategies rooted in sales, so they operated in the selling era forty years before it existed. Some companies are still in the selling era. Recently, many believed automobile manufacturers had fallen into trouble because they had been working too hard to sell or push product and not hard enough on delivering value.

Creating Offerings That Have Value

Marketing creates goods and services that the company offers at a price to its customers or clients. The entire bundle consisting of the tangible good, the intangible service, and the price is the company’s offering. When you compare one car to another, for example, you can evaluate each of these dimensions—the tangible, the intangible, and the price—separately. However, you can’t buy one manufacturer’s car, another manufacturer’s service, and a third manufacturer’s price when you actually make a choice. Together, the three make up a single firm’s offer.

Marketing people do not create the offering alone. For example, when the iPad was created, Apple’s engineers were also involved in its design. Apple’s financial personnel had to review the costs of producing the offering and provide input on how it should be priced. Apple’s operations group needed to evaluate the manufacturing requirements the iPad would need. The company’s logistics managers had to evaluate the cost and timing of getting the offering to retailers and consumers. Apple’s dealers also likely provided input regarding the iPad’s service policies and warranty structure. Marketing, however, has the biggest responsibility because it is their responsibility to ensure that the new product delivers value.

Communicating Offerings

Communicating is a broad term in marketing that means describing the offering and its value to your potential and current customers, as well as learning from customers what they want and like. Sometimes communicating means educating potential customers about the value of an offering, and sometimes it means simply making customers aware of where they can find a product. Communicating also means that customers get a chance to tell the company what they think. Today, companies are finding that to be successful, they need a more interactive dialogue with their customers. For example, Comcast customer service representatives monitor Twitter. When they observe consumers tweeting problems with Comcast, the customer service reps will post resolutions to their problems. Similarly, JCPenney has created consumer groups that talk among themselves on JCPenney-monitored websites. The company might post questions, send samples, or engage in other activities designed to solicit feedback from customers.

milestone 1and2/big data in market research why more data does not automatically mean better.pdf

milestone 1and2/emarket a modern approach of business at the door of consumer.pdf

milestone 1and2/management strategy tools and practices in emarketing.pdf

milestone 1and2/MBA 640 PROJECT 3 Milestones 1 & 2 Details.docx

milestone 1and2/MBA640_-_Marketing_Plan_Template_edited.docx

milestone 1and2/not yor fathers marketing plan.pdf

milestone 1and2/readings.docx

"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"

Our Company

Writing Services

Contact Us

milestone 1and2/big data in market research why more data does not automatically mean better.pdf

milestone 1and2/emarket a modern approach of business at the door of consumer.pdf

milestone 1and2/management strategy tools and practices in emarketing.pdf

milestone 1and2/MBA 640 PROJECT 3 Milestones 1 & 2 Details.docx

milestone 1and2/MBA640_-_Marketing_Plan_Template_edited.docx

milestone 1and2/not yor fathers marketing plan.pdf

milestone 1and2/readings.docx

"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"

Our Company

Writing Services

Our mission

Contact Us