MM Term II-Answer
MM Term II-Answer
Segmentation: -
The first step of the STP marketing model is the segmentation stage. The main goal
here is to create various customer segments based on specific criteria and traits that
you choose. The four main types of audience segmentation include:
Ideal segment is one that is actively growing, has high profitability, and has a low
cost of acquisition:
a. Size: - Consider how large segment is as well as its future growth potential.
b. Profitability: - Consider which of segments are willing to spend the most
money on company product or service. Determine the lifetime value of
customers in each segment and compare.
c. Reachability: - Consider how easy or difficult it will be for company to reach
each segment with company marketing efforts. Consider customer
acquisition costs (CACs) for each segment. Higher CAC means lower
profitability.
All the different factors that you considered in the first two steps should have made
it easy for you to identify your niche. Three positioning factors can help company
gain a competitive edge:
The marketing mix is the set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that
a company uses to produce a desired response from its target market. It consists of
everything that a company can do to influence demand for its product.
The marketing mix can be divided in to four groups of variables commonly known
as the four “Ps”
Products: - The goods and/or services offered by a company to its customers.
Price: - The amount of money paid by customers to purchase the product.
Promotion: - The activities that communicate the product’s features and
benefits and persuade customers to purchase the product.
Place (Distribution): - The activities that make the product available to
consumers.
Marketing tools
Each of the four Ps has its own tools to contribute to the marketing mix:
Product: - The product in service marketing mix is intangible in nature. Like physical products
such as a soap or a detergent, service products cannot be measured. Tourism industry or the
education industry can be an excellent example. At the same time, service products are
heterogeneous, perishable and cannot be owned. The service product thus has to be designed with
care. Generally, service blue printing done to define the service product.
Place: - Place in case of services determine where the service product is going to be located. The
best place to open up a petrol pump is on the highway or in the city. A place where there is
minimum traffic is a wrong location to start a petrol pump. Similarly, a software company will be
better placed in a business hub with many companies nearby rather than being placed in a town or
rural area
Promotions: - Promotions have become a critical factor in the service marketing mix. Services
are easy to duplicate and hence it is generally the brand, which sets a service apart from its
counterpart.
Pricing: - Pricing in case of services is rather more difficult than in case of products. If you were
a restaurant owner, you can price people only for the food you are serving. Then who will pay for
the nice ambiance you have built up for your customers.
People: - People is one of the elements of service marketing mix. People define a service. If you
have an IT company, your software engineers define you. If you have a restaurant, your chef and
service staff defines you. If you are into banking, employees in your branch and their behavior
towards customers defines you. In case of service marketing, people can make or break an
organization.
Process: - On top of it, the demand of these services is such that they have to deliver optimally
without a loss in quality. Thus, the process of a service company in delivering its product is of
utmost importance. It is also a critical component in the service blueprint, wherein before
establishing the service, the company defines exactly what should be the process of the service
product reaching the end customer.
Physical Evidence: - The last element in the service marketing mix is a very important element.
As said before, services are intangible in nature. However, to create a better customer experience
tangible elements are also delivered with the service
Another key problem is that the four Ps focus on the seller’s view of the market. The buyer’s view should
be marketing’s main concern.
The four Ps of the marketing mix can be reinterpreted as the four Cs. They put the customer’s interests
(the buyer) ahead of the marketer’s interests (the seller).
What Is Branding? -
Branding is a marketing practice that helps individuals to differentiate our business
products or service from others. Branding often involves creating elements such as
a logo, mission statement, and design that is consistent throughout each marketing
communication type.
There are several types of branding that may add value to the company depending
on our target audience, industry, budget, and marketing campaigns. Here are seven
types of branding strategies that have the potential to build brand equity for our
business.
Personal Branding: - Personal branding describes branding that are used
for an individual person, instead of branding for a whole business. This type
of branding is often used to establish a person’s character, personality, or
work as a brand. Celebrities, politicians, thought leaders, and athletes often
use this form of branding to present the best version of themselves to the
public.
Product Branding: - This is one of the most popular branding types.
Product branding focuses on making a single product distinct and
recognizable. Symbols or designs are an essential part of product branding to
help your customers identify your product easily.
Corporate Branding: - Corporate branding is a core value of business and a
philosophy that a business develops to present itself to the world and its own
employees. Effective corporate brands often seek to display the company’s
mission, personality, and core values in each point of contact it has with
prospective customers, current customers, and past customers.
Service Branding: - Service branding advantages the needs of the customer.
Companies that use service branding seek to provide their customers with
excellent service. They aim to use excellent customer service as a way to
provide value to their customers.
Co-Branding - It is a form of branding that connects companies together.
Essentially, co-branding is a marketing partnership between two or more
businesses. This helps brands influence each other positively, and it may
result in one growing its business, spreading brand awareness, and breaking
into new markets.
Online Branding: - It is, also known as internet branding, helps businesses
to position themselves as a part of the online marketplace. This type of
branding includes a company’s website, social media platforms, blogs, and
other online content.
No-Brand Branding: - This type of branding is also known as minimalist
branding. These brands are often generic brands that seek to let their
products speak for themselves without all the extras many others provide
their consumers.
The channels your potential customers use to find you will naturally point
toward the channels to target in your distribution strategy. Company need a
gauge for demand, so analyze how social media, search engines, direct
marketing, partner sales, industry recommendations and other channels
perform in generating customers. Customers of a millennial beauty products
company will have a much different purchasing path than a B2B buyer of
network infrastructure. Identifying your main channels is a bit like looking
at the channels with your highest level of brand awareness, and then fitting
your strategy to maximize performance in those channels.
b. What Is Our Scale and Size?
One reason why long channels exist is that not every business has the
relationships or expertise to handle logistics. An energy drink company
might develop a new formula that tests great with consumers but lacks the
means to ship the product to nutrition stores nationally. That is where
relationships with distributors, wholesalers and retailers become a
competitive advantage, and sometimes a necessity. Distributors can fulfill
orders for whole pallets of energy drinks, while wholesalers can find retail
buyers to get the product in stores. Established businesses that benefit from
enterprise-scale are often able to condense channels, acquire, or integrate
horizontal business units to take care of logistics and other distribution needs
c. What Future Business Goals Do We Have?
Always be prepared for new channels. If company aim is to expand into a
new market or territory, determining company channel strategy is an integral
part of defining your over go-to-market strategy. If company have no
relationships with a regional retailer, company product launch may suffer
when trying to grow in that locality. Channel partners, however, can be
leveraged to efficiently scale up and expand.
Distribution Channel Types: -
Retail: - Need a way to reach more consumers? Placement in a retail store is
your best bet for broadening your customer base. However, company can’t
just walk up to the nearest supermarket or Target and ask for them to feature
your product on their shelves. Retailers buy from distributors and
wholesalers, meaning company will need to pursue longer channels.
However, regional or local chains may be more willing to negotiate on a
personal basis — i.e., buying inventory straight from company or
manufacturer. Retail is clearly best for companies that sell physical goods,
but just be aware that competition will be high. If company go with a big-
box chain, you might be going up against the biggest brand names in the
industry. Retailers will not work repeatedly with businesses that do not
perform.
Direct Marketing: - Want to cut out the intermediaries and reach out to
consumers directly? A direct marketing campaign can help connect you with
potential customers, as well as provide them the means to make a purchase
directly. Such channel strategies often manifest as product catalogs,
marketing calls, emails or face-to-face sales. While direct channels mean
greater engagement and profit, they also require more resources and effort
from the brand to manage direct marketing.
Dealer Network: - In case, company does not have an especially large or
skilled sales force? Company can essentially outsource those functions to a
network of dealers, brokers and agents who do the selling for company. This
arrangement is particularly advantageous if company have a specialized
product or lack deep industry connections.
Website Store: - The advent of the internet age has opened up a completely
new channel for B2C and B2B brands alike, as well as large and small
companies. Startups without channel relationships can sell directly to
consumers through inbound marketing, cultivating brand loyalty and
lowering their go-to-market cost. Meanwhile, established companies can
open up new revenue streams with a website store that long-time brand
evangelists can use. Highlighting your website store through messaging,
content and social media can help supercharge your marketing
E-Commerce Site: - Online markets like Flipkart & Amazon have become
go-to channels for sellers of physical goods. Merchants can leverage the
established base of online customers as well as marketplace tools, allowing
them to reach end users with high intent. E-commerce sites operate in a
different way than direct online stores, so company will ensure that company
ads and product pages are branded in a way that fosters a consistent
customer experience.
Wholesale Distribution: - Long channels of distribution are not innately
bad. In fact, they can deliver tangible competitive advantages when working
with the right wholesale or distribution partners. The distributors are
wholesalers that offer a greater scope of services. Wholesalers will purchase
and resell your goods in bulk, fulfilling orders to retailers — distributors do
all that and more as an effective sales agent of the company.