Essay on Managerial Marketing
(First 3 Pages)
Marketing is the creative management function, which promotes trade and
employment by assessing consumer needs and initiating research and development
to meet them. It co-ordinates the resources of production and distribution of
the goods and services; determines the nature of the total effort required to
sell profitably that is the maximum production to the ultimate user. In
marketing, the needs of the buyer are considered and a product to satisfy these
needs should be aimed at.
In an ideal world expected today, all individual buyers would be considered to
have a unique set of needs, which they want to be satisfied by firms which would
tailor their product offering to each of their customers. In the case of some
expensive items of capital equipment bought by firms, this indeed does because
the cost is quite high. In the case of products, which are relatively low in
value and high in sales volumes, it would be impossible for firms to cater to
each individual's needs, although there is evidence that new developments in
technology are allowing for a much greater degree of customization than has
previously been the case. Firms are moving towards the concept of satisfying
each customer to the maximum level.
“If firms are to survive and be successful, research and development of new
products cannot be limited solely to the influence of production: the activity
needs to take on the role of studying the market and the consumer”. (Floyd; pp
168)
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Market or consumer targeting should be regarded as the product of critical
thinking rather than some pre-determined set of procedures. There is no
underlying theory to the process of making the right section of the market the
target to be conquered. It follows that what is an appropriate basis for
segmenting one market may not be appropriate to other markets. Firms need to be
aware of the criteria by which the effectiveness of any consumer as a buyer can
be assessed. The producer will consider here certain important criteria, which
would help in analyzing the consumers and their particular choices. Customer and
market analysis uses a variety of methods to gather the "voice of the customer".
Depending upon the nature of the product and the markets, these methods include:
focus groups, customer meetings, surveys and market research, and product
support feedback systems. Marketing would help establish these systems and
processes. It would identify required data and areas of investigation and would
develop interview or discussion guides as required. Marketing would lead to
participation in and facilitate meetings and focus groups as required.
Essentially, segmentation is only worthwhile if it allows a company to
profitably penetrate a greater proportion of its market than would have been the
case without undertaking the exercise. Any basis for analysis should yield
segments, which are of a size that a company can profitably, exploits. Ideally,
companies should be able to know the precise size of all markets and the
consumers that it has identified. This is important in order that targeting can
be compared and their profit potentials assessed. Another major part of the
target analysis deals with demographics. This focuses on differences between
individuals based on their age, the stage in the family life cycle, gender,
ethnicity and household composition. The premise of the analysis is that where a
person lives is closely associated with a number of indicators of their
socio-economic status and lifestyle. This association has been derived from
detailed investigations of multiple sources of information about people living
in a particular neighborhood. In practice, companies would use a number of key
variables which are most relevant to its product / market. Consumer and market
targeting basically refers to hitting the product to particular segment after
analyzing the potentials. This has become particularly popular because of the
close correlation between where an individual lives and other indicators of
income, occupation and lifestyle create an impact on their buying behavior.
Product planning strategy must be established so that it provides a framework
for properly selecting markets and product ideas. Customers and potential
customers are to be then identified. Organizations would work with the executive
team to assess markets, competition, competitive strengths, and product lines.
They would map company position against competitors in various dimensions to
provide insights and help develop strategy. Product planning is extremely
crucial because without something substantial in hand a company cannot progress
ahead in the market. Portfolio management & product screening process evaluates
product concepts and marketplace needs against the product strategy objectives,
profitability, risk, etc. The firm would establish a product management process,
evaluation criteria, and a feasibility assessment process. For product ideas
that meet screening criteria, it would help organize and conduct preliminary
feasibility studies. Team and project organizations are needed to initiate a
project. We can help with this and provide team-building training as required.
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