Marketing, Competition and the Customer (Copy)
- The Marketing Department
- Different sections
- Sales team focused on selling the product
- Market Research Team which focuses on determining customer needs and how the actions of the firm impact them
- Promotion section that focuses on advertising for products.
- It includes the arrangement for advertisements
- Distribution team that focuses on transporting the product to the market
- Role of Marketing
- Identify customer needs
- Satisfy these needs in a profitable manner
- Maintain the loyalty of customers so they keep buying from the business
- Customer relationships have to be maintained as well
- Information about customers
- Long-term relationships and detailing how customers work
- Anticipate changes in customer needs
- How customer needs change and how these changes can be satisfied profitably.
- Different sections
- Market department can
- Increase market share
- Increase product awareness
- Increase revennue
- Increase profit level
- Enter new market segments
- Develop new products
- Enter new markets
- Why customer spending patterns change?
- Consumer taste and fashions change with time.
- Changes in technology can rule out products
- Income changes can change demands for different products
- Ageing population or increase in average age of the population changes the requirements for different products
- Why some markets become more competitive?
- Globalization of markets
- Improvements in transportation of raw material and final products
- E-commerce can increase global competition
- How can changing patterns be responded by businesses?
- Maintain good customer relations to identify the changes and the way they can be met
- Improve and introduce new features in existing products
- Launch new products that are related to customer requirements
- Low costs and pricing battle
- Market
- Total number of current and potential customers and sellers for a product
- Mass Market
- Many people can buy the same products
- Products are designed for the entire market
- They are not very customze
- Sales are high
- Economies of scale can reduce costs
- Risks can spread and variations of the products can be launched
- Business can grow due to large potential sales
- Problems
- High competition
- Advertising and promotion costs are high
- Standardized, not customized, products.
- Niche Marketing
- It focuses on a small, specialized segment of the larger market.
- Specialized products
- Small businesses more suited to this model
- Close interaction with customers
- Â Therefore, the business can produce great products
- Disadvantages
- Niche markets usually relatively small so sales potential is low
- If the product demand falls, the business can face survival issues.
- It focuses on a small, specialized segment of the larger market.
- Market Segments
- A segment is the market broken down into sub-groups which share similar characteristics
- Segmentation can help in
- Effective marketing expenditure costs which meets the needs of the customer by offering in the single segment
- Higher sales and profits for businesses as marketing is cost effective
- Market segment that has satisfied demand can be well targeted
- How can market be segmented
- Socio-economic group
- Income groups or employment status etc.
- Age
- Different segments based on teenagers/ adolescents etc.
- Region/ Location
- Gender
- Use of Product
- Personal use
- Capital use
- One time use or regular use etc.
- Lifestyle
- Single person household, multiple people household etc.
- Socio-economic group
- Segmentation benefits
- More products sold
- Unmet segments
- Which segments to focus on as well.
- Which method used?
- Based on detailed market analysis
- Size of the potential segments
- Company and brand image must be considered
- Cost of entering each segment
