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Learn the 4 P’s of Marketing Product: Market research, Quality, Design, Warranties, Slogans, Name, Logos, Packaging, Features, Sizes, Options, Services, Style, Returns. Price: Based on Cost and Positioning (List price, Discounts, Allowances, Payment period, Credit terms). Place: (distribution) how you will bring your product together with your customers. Promotion: There are many promotional activities you can undertake including: Advertising, Publicity, Sponsorship, Sales promotion, Personal selling, Direct Marketing, Internet Marketing. Introduction to marketing One of the greatest needs of managers of business is to understand and develop marketing programs for their products and services. Business success is based on the ability to build a growing body of satisfied customers. Modern marketing programs are built around the "marketing concept," which directs managers to focus their efforts on identifying and satisfying customer needs - at a profit. Introduction to marketing Marketing continues to be a mystery . . . to those who create it and to those who sponsor it. Often, the ad that generates record-breaking volume for a retail store one month is repeated the following month and bombs. A campaign designed by the best ad agency may elicit a mediocre response. The same item sells like hotcakes after a 30-word classified ad, with abominable grammar, appears on page 35 of an all-advertising shopper tossed on the front stoops of homes during a rainstorm! The mystery eludes solution but demands attention. Your marketing results can be improved through a better understanding of your customers. This approach usually is referred to as the marketing concept. Putting “the customer first” is probably the most popular phrase used by firms ranging from giant conglomerates to the corner barbershop, but the sloganeering is often just lip service. The business continues to operate under the classic approach - "Come buy this great product we have created or this fantastic service we are offering." The giveaway, of course, is the word we. In other words, most business activities, including advertising, are dedicated to solving the firm's problems. Success, however, is more likely if you dedicate your activities exclusively to solving your customer's problems. Any marketing program has a better chance of being productive if it is timed, designed and written to solve a problem for potential customers and is carried out in a way that customers understand and trust. The slides that follow will show a marketing concept for putting the customer first. Marketing is very complex; it deals with all the steps between determining customer needs and supplying them at a profit. The Marketing Concept The marketing concept rests on the importance of customers to a firm and states that: 1 All company policies and activities should be aimed at satisfying customer needs… & 2 Profitable sales volume is a better company goal than maximum sales volume… The Marketing Concept To use the marketing concept, businesses should: Determine the needs of their customers (Market Research); Analyze their competitive advantages (Market Strategy); Select specific markets to serve (Target Marketing), and; Determine how to satisfy those needs (Market Mix). Market Research In order to manage the marketing function successfully, good information about the market is necessary. Frequently, a small market research program, based on a questionnaire given to present customers and/or prospective customers, can disclose problems and areas of dissatisfaction that can be easily remedied, or new products or services that could be offered successfully. Marketing Strategy Marketing strategy encompasses identifying customer groups (Target Markets), which a small business can serve better than its larger competitors, and tailoring its product offerings, prices, distribution, promotional efforts and services towards that particular market segment (Managing the Market Mix). A good strategy implies that a business cannot be all things to all people and must analyze its markets and its own capabilities so as to focus on a target market it can serve best. Target Marketing Owners of small businesses have limited resources to spend on marketing activities. Concentrating their marketing efforts on one or a few key market segments is the basis of target marketing. Target Marketing The major ways to segment a market are: Geographical segmentation - developing a loyal group of consumers in the home geographical territory before expanding into new territories. Product segmentation - extensively promoting existing best-selling products and services before introducing a lot of new products. Customer segmentation - identifying and promoting to those groups of people most likely to buy the product. In other words, selling to heavy users before trying to develop new users. Managing the Market Mix There are four key marketing decision areas in a marketing program. They are: Products and Services, Promotion, Place (Distribution), Pricing. The marketing mix is used to describe how owner-managers combine these four areas into an overall marketing program. In order to conduct a successful marketing program you must be able to answer the following questions: 1. 2. 3. What type of business are you in (manufacturing, merchandising or service)? What is the nature of your product(s) or service(s)? What market segments do you intend to serve? (Describe the age, sex, income level, and life-style characteristics of each market segment.) 4. What strategies will you use to attract and keep customers? 5. Product 6. Price 7. Place 8. Promotion 9. Persuasion (personal selling) 10. What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? 11. Who is your competition, and what will you do to control your share of the market? 12. How are you going to build and support your product? Over the next few days you will learn to develop your own business marketing concept for your very own company. You have created a new product based upon older products. Your product is more up-to-date. It is a widget. Determine the needs of your customers (Market Research) Analyze your competitive advantages (Market Strategy) Select specific markets to serve (Target Marketing) Determine how to satisfy those needs (Market Mix) Complete the 4P’s worksheet Either on a piece of paper or a computer with your word processor, place your name and today’s date at the top. Write or type each of the following and find the definitions either from this lesson or the Internet or a dictionary. Customer Segmentation Geographical segmentation Market Mix Market Research Market Strategy Marketing Marketing Concept Place Price Product Product Segmentation Promotion Target Marketing Definitions must be in complete sentences. Double-space between words. Things to think about… The 4 P’s of Marketing Product: Market research, Quality, Design, Warranties, Slogans, Name, Logos, Packaging, Features, Sizes, Options, Services, Style, Returns. Price: Based on Cost and Positioning (List price, Discounts, Allowances, Payment period, Credit terms). Place: (distribution) how you will bring your product together with your customers. Promotion: There are many promotional activities you can undertake including: Advertising, Publicity, Sponsorship, Sales promotion, Personal selling, Direct Marketing, Internet Marketing. Close all open programs before logging out.