تخطيط التسويق والمزيج التسويقي

Marketing Planning

• Marketing planning is a systematic process which involves creating marketing targets and coming up with marketing strategies relevant for achieving those targets.
• It involves collecting and examining market details, such as market research information on potential and current consumers.
• A typical marketing process includes marketing research, a marketing audit, and marketing objectives.

The Marketing Mix (SIVA)

• The marketing planning process starts with market research that is relevant for determining product (solution), price (value), promotion (information), and place (access).
• The marketing mix consists of seven interrelated decisions or the 7 P's.
• The four key marketing mix considerations are product, promotion, price, and place.
• Place is where and how the product is available for sale to consumers.
• The other three elements (people, process, and physical evidence) of the 7Ps relate to marketing services.
• Consumers require the right product, whether it's existing, a new product, or an adaptation of an existing one.
• Setting the right price is also important; setting it too low may make consumers lose quality confidence, while setting it too high may make the product out of reach for most consumers.
• Effective promotion must inform consumers about the product and convince them to choose 'your brand'; packaging usually helps reinforce this image.
• Place means how a product is distributed to the consumer; even the best product will not be bought in the expected amounts if it's not available at the right time and place.
• Selling services successfully needs people who can interact well with customers and create a good impression to encourage return visits.
• The processes that a business has in place to reliably and consistently satisfy customer wants form an important part of marketing services.
• Physical evidence involves allowing customers to see the quality of service being offered, reducing the risk in buying a service compared to a tangible product.

The Marketing Plan

• A marketing plan is a written document that outlines how a business unit plans to achieve its marketing objectives which are derived from corporate objectives.
• Effective market planning almost always requires knowledge of market trends, competitor actions, and consumer needs, making market research vital.
• The plan includes programs, budgets, sales forecasts, and strategies which are based on changes to the firm's marketing mix.
• The marketing mix involves the key decisions that must be taken for effective marketing of a product.
• Not all 7Ps have the same importance in every situation; it's important for these elements to fit together into a coherent plan.
• An appropriate marketing mix will ensure that the marketing decisions are interrelated and carefully coordinated to ensure that the customers are not confused by conflicting messages about the service for good being sold.
• Coordinated marketing mix refers to when key marketing decisions complement each other and work together to give customers a consistent message about the product.
• If one part of the marketing is inconsistent, it may lead to the failure of even the best marketing.
• The best marketing mix decisions should be:
  • Based on marketing objectives that are affordable within the marketing budget.
  • Coordinated and consistent with each other.
  • Targeted at the appropriate consumers.

Marketing Objectives and Strategy

• Marketing objectives refer to goals set for the marketing department to help the business achieve its overall objectives.
• A marketing strategy is a long-term plan established for achieving marketing objectives.

Consumer Profiling and Market Segmentation

• A market segment is a sub-group of a whole market in which consumers have similar characteristics.
• Market segmentation involves identifying different segments within a market and targeting different products or services to them.
• A consumer profile is a quantified picture of a firm's product consumers, showing proportions of age groups, income levels, location, gender, and social class.
• Segmentation can also be called differentiated marketing; different products are targeted at different segments instead of selling one product to the whole market, making it a form of niche marketing.
• Firms must research and analyze the total market carefully to identify the specific consumer groups or segments that exist.
• Sometimes firms only market their goods or services to one segment and deliberately do not aim to satisfy other segments.
• Before targeting a niche market, businesses often analyze consumers’ perceptions of existing brands through positioning the product by using a technique such as market mapping.
• Corporate image refers to the consumer perception of the company behind a brand.
• Many businesses work to create and communicate a positive image to their customers and other stakeholders, building a good reputation, positively impacting sales, and making the launch of new products easier.

Market Segmentation Methods

• Market segmentation is the process of separating a market into different buyer groups to better meet their needs.
• The main segmentation methods are based on demographic, geographic, and psychographic factors.
• Successful segmentation requires a very clear understanding of consumers in the target market, which is called the consumer profile.
• The main characteristics of consumers in a consumer profile are income levels, age, gender, social class, and region.
• Marketing mix decisions need to be appropriate for the consumer profile of the target market.
• A well-targeted product requires less support with advertising and promotion compared to one that does not really meet the consumer needs it's aimed at.
• Target market is the market segment that a particular product is aimed at.
• Markets can be segmented in different ways with the three commonly used bases for segmentation: geographic differences, demographic differences, and psychographic factors.

Unique Selling Point (USP)

• Unique selling point/proposition (USP) is a differentiating factor that makes a company’s product unique designed to motivate customers to buy.
• Sales efforts will not be targeted effectively unless a business can pinpoint what makes its product unique.
• Customers are often attracted to goods or services that offer a distinctive image, service, feature, or performance.
• Establishing a USP involves differentiating a company from its competitors; USPs can be based on any aspect of the marketing mix.

Niche Marketing

• Niche marketing targets specific and well-defined market segments, concentrating marketing efforts on a small but specific segment of the population.
• Niches are created by identifying needs, wants, and requirements that are being addressed poorly or not at all by other firms, and developing and delivering goods or services to satisfy them.
• As a strategy, niche marketing is aimed at being a big fish in a small pond instead of being a small fish in a big pond.

Mass Marketing

• Mass marketing is an attempt to appeal to an entire market with one basic marketing strategy using mass distribution and mass media.
• Also called undifferentiated marketing because it ignores targeting individual market segments.
• Different market segments are targeted with the same technique in order to maximize sales volume.
• Most businesses have various targeting strategies, usually combining mass and niche marketing strategies.

Differentiation

• Differentiation is the process of distinguishing a product or business from competitors in the market or industry.
• Product differentiation is the marketing process that showcases the differences between products, making a product more attractive by contrasting its qualities with other competing products.
• Successful product differentiation creates a competitive advantage for the seller because customers view these products as unique or superior.