Fundamentals of Business – Class 5 Overview

Fundamentals of Business Class Five-Six Overview

Here is some related information to Classes Five-Six. The focus of these classes was on Practical marketing or the Core of Marketing. If you want to bookmark this page and related links, it will be updated from time to time.

The Actual Assignment – Due End of Week 6:
Assignment Marketing – Advertising and Promotion Monthly Plan Chart

Chapter In the Book:
Chapter 3 : Marketing

The key aspects of the In-Class Five-Six Instruction are:

1. A Marketing Plan needs to follow the objectives of the the overall all Business Plan.
2. Marketing in a Nutshell is the relationship with the customer and the company. Marketing is the bridge between those who want to purchase your product and service with the entire business organization.
3. The Marketing relationship at some point should result in a transfer of money for the goods or services. All businesses require some form of income (at some point) to survive.
4. As a Marketer you are the aspect of a business that discovers needs and wants of consumers and direct the business to profitably fulfill those needs and wants.
5. Don’t forget the importance of “the offer” or sales pitch to get your prospect to act. It is a key weapon as a marketer…it is timeless, never will go out of style.

Hopefully the information presented spurns you on to search out more information with time.

Marketing Is Most Effective When It Aligns With the Goals of The Overall Business

A Business Plan encompasses all aspects of a business. A Marketing Plan should align with the Business Plan to ensure short-term and long-term objectives are met. In additional, the Marketing Plan and Business Plan need to work in tandem to ensure maximum effectiveness.

McGraw-Hill, Marketing, 10/e:

“Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. This definition relates to two primary goals of marketing: (a) discovering the needs of prospective customers and (b) satisfying them. Achieving these two goals also involves the four marketing mix factors largely controlled by the organization and the five environmental forces that are generally outside its control.”

Marketing Encompasses the Relationship Between The Customer and The Overall Business

The Marketer manages the Customer Relationship. The Customer Relationship encompasses managing the needs and wants of the customer, but also the interface between the customer and the processes of the entire business.

A large part of the Management of the Relationship encompasses the Brand (the entire business) and Product Positioning.

“Branding creates positive user expectations of reward from your products or services. Positioning establishes a preference for your brand relative to competitive offerings based on the perception of a unique and important difference. Branding, therefore, makes the promise of good user experiences. Positioning describes the brand’s unique competitive difference that makes the promise compelling.”

The Marketing Relationship At Some Point Involves A Transfer of Payment From the Customer to The Company

Some literature suggests that Marketing places a greater emphasis on the Customer Relationship than sales. However, both Sales and Marketing have to at some point directly or indirectly move the Customer towards a monetary transaction. No business can survive without some type of income (even non-profit or government). In your Marketing planning always ensure you have the end goal of Business Profit in mind.

To ensure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, you have to consider customer LTV (Lifetime Value). The way to measure LTV is through some type of coding of customers tied to the promotion that started their relationship with your business.

So beyond the customer needs and wants is a concern about the Market Size for your product and your ability to service that Market base profitably.

1. Discovering the needs/wants of prospective customers (the product or service)
2. Determine the size of the Market for the product and the Portability of Selling to it
3. “Profitably” Satisfying the needs of target consumers (match the product or service to a target market)

A Marketer is Always Trying to Discover New Wants and Needs of Current and Potential New Customers

The cornerstone of the Marketer is constantly trying to profitably fulfill the needs and wants of existing customers and seeking to determine unsatisfied needs and wants of potential new customers.

McGraw-Hill, Marketing, 10/e:

“The first objective in marketing is discovering the needs and wants of consumers who are prospective buyers and customers. This is not easy because consumers may not always know or be able to describe what they need and want. A need occurs when a person feels deprived of basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. A want is a need that is shaped by a person’s knowledge, culture, and personality. Effective marketing can clearly shape a person’s wants and tries to influence what we buy. The second objective in marketing is satisfying the needs of targeted consumers. Because an organization obviously can’t satisfy all consumer needs, it must concentrate its efforts on certain needs of a specific group of potential consumers or target market—one or more specific groups of potential consumers toward which an organization directs its marketing program. Having selected its target market consumers, the organization then takes action to satisfy their needs by developing a unique marketing program to reach them.”

Your strategy is largely controlled by your product entry point into market (which is driven by uniqueness and competitiveness of the product/service) and size of the business:

Pioneer/Leader (ie Coke, Walmart, Red Bull)

Challenger (ie. Pepsi, Target, Monster)

Early and Late Follower (ie 7-Up, Dollarama, Red Rain)

Nicher (ie pretty much any small business or brand)

Of interest: Marketing Warfare Strategies

In order to to communicate and fulfill the wants and needs of customers, a Marketer needs to determine where the product or service fits relative to the Marketplace. Mainly identifying the Target Market and its Segments.

Target market is a broader group of potential customers. Target segment is a customer group you have identified to market to who is most likely to buy your product.

Segments can in Part be defined by:

• Behavioral
• Psychographic
• Demographic
• Geographic

“Market segmentation allows a business to tweak its advertisement and promotion to different segments of its target market. For example, a product that generally is marketed to adult males might be presented differently on the country music channel than it would be on a sports channel; the background music could match that of the channel, or actors could reflect a certain type of personality.”

A Marketer is always watching the Competition.

“Once you’ve picked your target segment, the next step is to prioritize their requirements and wants and cross-check this with your product. What do they want most? What don’t they care about? If possible, try to quantify and prioritize these requirements so that you can determine which are most important.

Compare your product with those of your competitors – how does it stack up? If it has unique strengths or significant advantages, then emphasize these. If you’re lacking in a dimension that’s of low importance, then don’t pay it too much heed. If your product is significantly misaligned with your target market’s requirements, have a think about whether you can adapt or change your product, or if you need to refine your target.”

Marketing is Part Science and Part Art – Use All Your Tools To Gain The End Sale

One of the most important tools a Marketer controls is “The Offer”. As a Marketer, your goal is to move the customer to action.

The “tools” the Marketer uses is often called the “Marketing Mix”. The Marketing Mix is a bundle of tools that you control as a marketer. Each one has to be “just” right to succeed.

Product – Sustainable differential advantage
Price – Sweet Spot – Unique Value Proposition
Promotion – Offer
Place – Channel/Medium/Tactics

McGraw-Hill, Marketing, 10/e:

“Four elements in a marketing program designed to satisfy customer needs are product, price, promotion, and place. These elements are called the marketing mix, the four Ps, or the controllable variables because they are under the general control of the marketing department. Environmental forces, also called uncontrollable variables, are largely beyond the organization’s control. These include social, economic, technological, competitive, and regulatory forces.”

“The essence of successful marketing is to provide sufficient value to gain loyal, long-term customers. Customer value is the unique combination of benefits received by targeted buyers that usually includes quality, price, convenience, on-time delivery, and both before-sale and after-sale service. Marketers do this by using one of three value strategies: best price, best product, or best service.”

That is Marketing in a Nutshell, any questions, please Ask!