Marketing Concepts and Branding Strategies

Marketing

• Strategy is a plan to achieve long-term goals and objectives.
• Understand the environment for informed decisions and advantage.
• Utilize resources for competitive advantage; 4Ps (product, place, price, promotion) are key.
• Sustainable competitive advantage is crucial and not easily copied.

Customer Value

• Value = Benefit - Cost
• Four main strategies are:
  • Customer excellence: retaining loyal customers & providing good customer service.
  • Value-based strategies: establishing emotional connections & loyalty programs.
  • Operational excellence: efficiency in operations & supply chain management.
  • Product excellence: high perceived value & effective branding & positioning.
  • Locational excellence: having strong physical locations.

Marketing Plan Strategic Framework

• Business Mission and Objective: define the business type and objectives.
• Situation Analysis (SWOT): assess the marketplace and external forces (CDSTEP).
• Opportunities & Implementation: Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning, create a clear understanding of the product.
• Implementation is Marketing Mix (4Ps) through an integrated approach to product, price, promotion.
• Performance Evaluation involves measures; explain why these things happen (metrics).

BCG Product and Portfolio Analysis

• Portfolio Analysis allocates resources according to which products are profitable.
• Performed at strategic business units (SBU) or product line level.
• Products are categorized based on relative market share and market growth rate (stars, cash cows, question marks, and dogs).

Market/Product and Service Strategies

• Market Penetration: Existing products, existing market. Employ existing marketing mix & focus efforts on existing customers.
• Market Development: Existing products, new market. Use existing marketing offering to reach new segments.
• Product Development: New products, existing market. Offer new product or service to existing market.
• Diversification: New products, new markets. Introduce a new product to a segment currently not served.
• Downsizing: exiting or reducing products.

Macro Environmental Factors

• Company Capabilities: firm's strengths & weaknesses; target market, products.
• Competition: Direct & Indirect competitor analysis; competitive strategy.
• Corporate Partners: alliances with suppliers, manufacturers, unions, and other partners.

Micro Environmental Factors

• Culture: shared meanings, beliefs, morals, values, and customs (transmitted).
• Country Culture: influences behavior, visible nuances.
• Demographics: Age, race, gender, income, ethnicity.
• Generational Cohorts: similar purchase behavior due to shared experiences.
• Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z have different characteristics.

Consumer Behavior

• Need Recognition: when consumers recognize an unsatisfied need.
• Information Search: internal (memory) and external (outside resources) search.
• Alternative Evaluation: evaluating available alternatives.
• Purchase Decision: converting intent into a purchase.
• Post-Purchase: customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Chapter 3 Analyzing the Marketing Environment

• Macro Environment: political, legal, cultural, demographic, economic, and technological forces.
• Technology: new products, new forms of communication, new retail channels.

Business-to-Business (B2B) Buying Process (6 steps)

• Needs Recognition: buying organization recognizes unmet needs.
• Product Specification: a list of potential vendors is created.
• RFP Process: buying organizations invite alternative suppliers to bid on supplying needs.
• Proposal Analysis & Supplier Selection (Purchase): selection of the preferred supplier.
• Order Specification (order): supplier confirmation of the order receipt
• Vendor Performance Assessment (using metrics): evaluating supplier performance.

Buying Center

• Initiator: starts the buying process.
• Influencer: influences the process.
• Decider: makes the final decision.
• Buyer: handles the transaction.
• Gatekeeper: controls information access.
• Organizational culture: values, traditions, and customs of an organization.

Global Marketing

• Globalization: increased flow of goods, services, capital, information, and ideas.
• Political: tariffs (taxes), quotas (limits), boycotts (refusal to deal), and exchange controls.
• Economic: GDP, PPP, market size, and population growth rates.
• Socio-Cultural: power distance (tolerance for inequality), uncertainty avoidance (need for structure), individualism (individual needs), masculinity (importance of achievement), time orientation (short or long term focus), and indulgence (willingness to enjoy life).

Product Life Cycle

• Introduction stage: low sales, negative or low profits, innovators, few competitors.
• Growth stage: rising sales, rapidly increasing profits, early adopters and early majority.
• Maturity stage: peak sales, peak/declining profits, late majority, high competitors.
• Decline stage: declining sales and profits, laggards, low competitors.

Product, Branding, Packaging

• Product Mix: complete set of products offered by a firm
• Product Line: groups of associated items, linked by consumers.
• Product category: assortments of items viewed as alternatives.
• Product mix breadth: number of product lines offered.
• Product line depth: number of products in each line. Brand Equity: value of the brand.

Brand Strategies

• Brand extension: using the same brand name for new products.
• Brand licensing: a firm using another firm’s brand name.
• Co-branding: two or more brands together in marketing.

Packaging and Labelling

• Labeling: providing consumer information needed for decisions.
• Packaging: offering tangible benefits for consumer attraction.

Service

• Core Differences Between Services and Goods
• Inseparable Production and Consumption: the impact of the service provider on the customer's perception of the service outcome, consistency issues.
• Intangible: services cannot be stored
• Variable: services are more variable in performance, inconsistent outcomes.
• Perishable: services cannot be inventoried; time crucial.
• Knowledge Gap
• Standard/Delivery Gap
• Communication Gap
• Overall Service Gap

Pricing Strategies

• Company objectives (sales, profit, status quo, competitive).
• Customer/Cost/Competition/Channel
• Dynamic Pricing.
• Pricing methods (cost-based, competitor-based, value-based).
• Pricing strategies (everyday low pricing, high/low pricing).

Integrated Marketing Communications

• Sender & Transmitter (converting sender's idea to message).
• Encoding (converting sender's idea to message).
• Communication Channel (medium).
• The Receiver (receiving and processing).
• Decoding (interpreting the message).
• Noise (Disturbances).
• Important steps in creating an IMC campaign.

Market Research

• Define Research Problem and Objectives: establish what needs to be solved.
• Design Research Plan: identify the type of data needed and determine the required research.
• Collect Data: secondary (prior) and primary (current) data collection methods.
• Analyze Data and Develop Insights: convert raw data into usable information.
• Determine Action Plan- present the conclusions/insights to decision-makers and take relevant actions.
• Types of data (Internal and external secondary and primary data collection).

Legal and ethical in advertising

• Puffery: legal exaggeration of praise, stopping just short of deception.
• Deceptive advertising: misleading or false representation, omission, or practice in advertising.
• Sales Promotions using marketing metrics (realized margin, costs).