Marketing Keys PDF

4P’s: Product (product designs, categories, product features), Price (competitive pricing, discount offers; profit margins), Place (distribution channel selection and management, supplier management), Promotion (marketing communications activities (advertising, PR, retail marketing, events)). Marke...

4P’s: Product (product designs, categories, product features), Price (competitive pricing, discount offers; profit margins), Place (distribution channel selection and management, supplier management), Promotion (marketing communications activities (advertising, PR, retail marketing, events)). Marketing is a process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return. Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, distribution, and promotion of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy the perceived needs, wants, and objectives of individuals and organizations. Advertising is the structured and composed nonpersonal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods, services, and ideas) by identified sponsors through various media. Marketing communications is essentially a component of promotion; Its purpose is to inform, persuade, and remind customers about the products, services, or brand. Marketing communications channels: advertisements (TV commercials, outdoor/online/print ads, etc.), events (Coca-Cola campus events), public relations (PR) (media publicity, press conferences), retail marketing (retail display, promotion, product display), customer services, digital marketing (marketing websites, brand social media), marketing campaign, sales promotions, personal selling (help in promoting products, building brand awareness, and establishing customer relationships). Integrated marketing communications (IMC): carefully integrating and coordinating the company's communications channels to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling brand and company message. Marketing Plan: A written document that acts as a guidebook of marketing activities for the marketing manager. It decides which customers they want to target and the level, timing, and nature of their demand, and how can we serve these customers best (what’s our value proposition). It allows the organization to achieve marketing objectives and succeed. Is only as good as the information. Elements of a Marketing Plan: 1. Business Mission Statement (Broad and long-term goals and business philosophy), 2. Situation Analysis, 3. Marketing Directions (Objectives, Target Market), 4. Marketing Mix (4P’s), 5. Shedule Marketing environmental factors. The marketing environment consists of the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful and profitable relationships with target customers. Microenvironment: 1. Company (decision-makers: top management, finance, R&D, IT, operations, etc), 2. Supply (supply shortages or delays, natural disasters, ect can cost sales in the short run and damage customer satisfaction in the long run), 3. Marketing intermediaries (help the company promote, sell, and distribute its products; include resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing services agencies, and financial intermediaries), 4. A public (is any group that has an actual/potential interest in/impact on an organization’s ability to achieve its objectives: financial/media/government publics), 5. Customers (are the most important actors). Macroenvironment: 1. Demographics (human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, race, occupation, and other characteristics; involves people, and people make up markets), 2. Economic factors (consists of economic factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns), 3. Natural (involves the physical environment and the natural resources that are needed as inputs; natural disasters), 4. Technological (most dramatic force, new products, opportunities, safety concerns), 5. Political (consists of laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence or limit various organizations and individuals in a given society), 6. Cultural (consists of institutions and other forces that affect a society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviors). Segmentation Base/Criteria: 1. Geographic (region, market size, market density, climate, nations), 2. Demographic (divides the market based on statistical characteristics of the population: age, gender, social class, income, family life cycle), 3. Psychographic (people in the same dem group can have very different psych character: personality, motives, lifestyles, geodemographics, social class), 4. Behavioral (occasions: ways of using products, benefits sought = specific benefits they seek from a product, user status: regular/first-time etc, usage rate: how often they use light/medium/heavy, loyalty status: loyal or switcher). SWOT analysis: internal (strength, weaknesses: focus on organizational resources - production costs, marketing skills, brand image, etc), external (opportunities, threats: focus on environmental forces influencing company). A marketing objective is a statement of what is to be accomplished through marketing activities (for each manag level). To be useful, the stated objectives should be: realistic, measurable, time-specific. Marketing research is the systematic design and execution of initiatives to collect, analyze, and report data, information, and insights relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization. Managerial implications: improves the quality of decision making, helps managers trace problems/understand detailed and complicated relationships/serve customers accurately and efficiently, helps marketers make the right marketing decisions to achieve marketing goals (about 4P’s), and provides basic information to understand current market environments. Marketing research process: 1. defining the problem and research objectives, 2. developing the research plan, 3. implementing the research plan,4. interpreting and reporting the findings. Types of research/research objectives: exploratory research- to gather preliminary information that will help further define the research problems and suggest hypotheses, descriptive research - to describe market and consumer characteristics, causal research - to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships. Research Structure: 1. Problem & needs assessment: analyze previous marketing activities, sales, and research results, find issues and needs, 2. Planning (Developing the plan for information collection): define research objectives/research schedule/types of research tools/budget and other resources, 3. Data collection, analysis, and reporting: primary/secondary research, analysis, follow-up research. Primary data collection approaches/Research Methoods: 1. Observational research: involves gathering primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations; types of observation: People watching people/activity, Machines watching people/activity; Ex: eye tracking, 2. Ethnographic research: involves sending observers to watch consumers—usually unobtrusively—in their “natural environments” as they go about their daily lives; observation of behavior and physical setting; EX: A researcher living in an isolated tribe, 3. Survey Research: the most popular technique for gathering primary data, in which a researcher interacts with people to obtain facts, opinions, and attitudes; Adv: flexibility, collecting data to run specific marketing approaches; disadv: phrasing questions difficultly for consumers to respond, respondent limitations and discomfort, intentionally framing questions for getting desirable responses; Forms: projective techniques, individual interviews (in-home/lab/online, one-on-one, semi-structured but open-ended conversations), mall intercept interviews, telephone interviews, mail & online surveys, executive interviews, focus groups (inviting a small, carefully chosen group of people to meet with a trained moderator to discuss and exchange views about a product, service, or organization. The moderator keeps the discussion "focused" on important issues; A major qualitative marketing research tool for gaining fresh insights into consumer thoughts and feelings; 6-10 people; challenges: expensive, difficult to generalize from small group, consumers not always open and honest), 4. Experiments: are used by researchers to gather primary data; variables: price, package design, shelf space, advertising theme/expenditures. Research tools: 1. Questionnaires: clear and concise, no ambiguous language, avoid leading questions/two questions in one; Types: open-ended/closed-ended/scaled-response question. 2. Mechanical Research Instruments: people meters, checkout scanners, neuro-marketing (studying consumers' emotional, cognitive, and sensory reactions to ads, etc). Issues in Research: 1. Quantitative research: validity and reliability, sampling methods (universe vs. sample; randomly selected or not), questionnaire design, data analysis, 2. Research in international markets: find the right research firms, work with local marketing/research experts or local offices in key regions, understand the market, be flexible. Primary Data: information collected for the first time, used for solving the particular problem under investigation; Adv: answers specific research questions, data are current, source of data is known, secrecy can be maintained; Disadv: very expensive, are usually offset by the advantages of primary data. Secondary data: consists of information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose; sources: internal corporate information, suppliers, government agencies, trade and industry Associations, business periodicals, news media, marketing firms/research organizations; should be relevant (fits the research project’s needs), accurate (reliably collected and reported), current (up-­to-date enough for current decisions), and impartial (objectively collected and reported); Adv: obtained quickly & lower cost, aids in determining direction for primary data collection, pinpoints the kinds of people to approach, serves as a basis of comparison for other data; Disadv: not give adequate detailed information, not answer specific research problems, can have bad quality and accuracy of data. How to Write Target Consumer Profile for “Target Group”: 1. Describe detailed criteria (demographic, psychographic, etc), lifestyles, brand attitudes, brand preferences, product/service usage patterns, or anything relevant characteristics, 2. Add relevant photos that represent the characteristics; Ex: Males between ages 35 and 50 who live in suburban areas, enjoy golfing, and want to look stylish. Buyer person: name, age, gender, roles, market, marketing solutions, internal drivers (wants, values, etc). Library resources: 1. Passport: consumer lifestyle and industry market research report for countries around the world; competes with Mintel, focusing only on consumer market research; Categories: specific product/consumer lifestyle, industry, economics, and companies in particular regions; Features: downloadable reports, search functionality in the "Analysis" section to find content not listed in categories, access to analysis, data infographics, and ready-made SWOT analyses (found under "Companies"). 2. Mintel: consumer market research and analyst insights, primarily focused on the US, with limited coverage for other countries; subscription doesn't allow uploading Mintel content or data to external websites that use AI; Features: downloadable economic, population, income, product, and lifestyle data; accessible from anywhere; restricted to classroom use only; Filter by category, region, demographics, trend drivers, and COVID-19 updates; Includes analytics and predictions; Reports have a structured format; Access to a comprehensive "databook" that includes all questions asked and collected data; Contains graphics and related research tools. 3. ProQuest: an all-in-one database covering nearly all academic areas; primary for news: access to magazines, related publications; Use "Movie classic" instead of movie classics; Features: some reports are available, can email content by copying the title and downloading the PDF, advanced research options allow specifying the publisher,etc. 4. Claritas: access to demographic, lifestyle, and consumer segment profiles (B2C only); mainly demographics and behavioral insights; Information Available: State, DMA (Designated Market Area), country-specific data, brand-specific, generic, light media consumption statistics; All statistics are available in Excel sheets; Features: PRIZM Segmentation for behavioral insights; Questions It Can Help Answer: Is your market demographically suitable for your product or service? Does your market engage in the target behaviors to support your product or service? Product life cycle (PLC) - the course that a product’s sales and profits take over its lifetime, can describe a product class (gasoline-powered automobiles), a product form (SUVs), or a brand (the Ford Escape). Conclusion: companies must continually innovate; otherwise, they risk extinction. Stages: 1. Introduction: starts when a new product is first launched (high failure rates, little competition, frequent product modification, high marketing and production costs, negative profits with slow sales increases, promotion focuses on awareness and info, communication challenge is to stimulate primary demand, customers: innovators (2,5%, try new ideas at some risk) and early adopters (13,5%, opinion leaders, adopt new ideas early but carefully). 2. Growth: a period of rapid market acceptance and increasing profits (increasing rate of sales, entrance of competitors, market consolidation, initial healthy profits because of low promotion and manufacturing costs, aggressive advertising of the differences between brands, wider distribution, a trade-off between high market share and high current profit, customers: early mainstream/majority (34%, rarely are leaders but adopt new ideas before the average person). 3. Maturity (diffusion curve): sales growth will slow down, saturated markets, annual models appear, lengthened product lines, service and repair assume important roles, heavy promotions to consumers and dealers, marginal competitors drop out, niche marketers emerge, greater competition, drop in profit because of dowing prices to be competitive; the company might try modifying the product or marketing mix; clients: late mainstream/majority (34%, adopt an innovation only after a majority). 4. Decline: long-run drop in sales, large inventories of unsold items, elimination of all nonessential marketing expenses, “Organized abandonment”, clients: lagging adopters/laggards (16%, suspicious of changes, adopt when it becomes traditional). Product development: The company finds and develops a new product idea. During product development, sales are zero, and the company’s investment costs mount. What Kind of Products Are You Going to Launch? - Five W’s: Who, Why, When, Where, What. Product & Brand Development: 1. Existing product/brand name: line extension - a company extends existing brand names to new forms, colors, sizes, ingredients, or flavors of an existing product category (product line length: number of items in the product line, product line filling: adding more items within the present range of the line, product line stretching: a company lengthens its product line beyond its current range), low-cost, low-risk way to introduce new products, might add little value to the line, 2. Existing product/new brand name: many different brands in a given product category, establish different features that appeal to different customer segments, drawback: each brand obtain only a small market share and being non-profitable, 3. New product/existing brand name: brand extension extends a current brand name to new or modified products in a new category, may confuse the main brand image, oftenly successful, 4. New product/brand name: is needed because the power of its existing brand name is waning, too many brands = company spreading its resources too thin. The Ansoff Opportunity Matrix: 1. Existing product/markets: market penetration: making more sales to current customers without changing its original products, EX: adding new stores in current market areas to make it easier for customers to visit, 2.Existing products/new markets: market development: identifying and developing new markets for its current products to attract new customers; EX: review new demographic markets, 3. New products/existing markets: product development: offering modified or new products to current markets; EX: Starbucks developed Via instant coffee, and it sells it in K-Cup packs that fit Keurig at-home brewers, 4. New products/markets: diversification: starting/buying businesses beyond its current products and markets; EX: new ultra-premium Starbucks Reserve brand. Product quality: the characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to consistently and reliably satisfy stated or implied customer needs. Two dimensions: 1. Quality Level: performance quality-the product’s ability to perform its functions, 2. Quality Consistency: conformance quality—freedom from defects and consistency in delivering a targeted level of performance. Industrial products are products purchased for further processing/for use in conducting a business. The main difference: purpose for which the product is purchased. Groups: 1. Materials and parts include: raw materials, manufactured materials and parts, 2. Capital items: products that aid in the buyer’s production/operations/installations/machines on the factory floor/accessory equipment, 3. Supplies and services: operating supplies and repair and maintenance items. Consumer products are products and services bought by final consumers for personal consumption. Groups: 1. Convenience products: customers usually buy frequently, immediately, and with minimal comparison and buying effort. ex: laundry detergent, 2. Shopping products: less frequently purchased that customers compare carefully on suitability, quality, price, and style, ex: furniture, 3. Specialty products: have unique characteristics/brand identifications for which a significant group of buyers is willing to make a special purchase effort. Ex: specific brands of cars, 4. Unsought products: a consumer either doesn't know about/knows but doesnt normally consider buying. Ex: new innovations, life insurance