Marketing Success Strategies
Marketing Articles
Strategic Marketing
What is Advertising, Promotion and Public Relations?
Product Packaging
New Product Development
Marketing Success Strategies
Competitive Strategy
Ethnic Marketing
Product Positioning
Professionalism and Competence
Internet Marketing
Do it Yourself or Hire a Marketing Company?
Strategic Marketing
What is Advertising, Promotion and Public Relations?
Product Packaging
New Product Development
Marketing Success Strategies
Competitive Strategy
Ethnic Marketing
Product Positioning
Professionalism and Competence
Internet Marketing
Do it Yourself or Hire a Marketing Company?
Half
a century ago businessmen had no real problems with marketing because
it did not exist in the form we have it nowadays. There were no
problems with having customers - firms would just advertise what they
were selling and buyers would simply come in and buy. No tricks, no
complicated marketing strategies and no major competition.
As
the time goes by, entrepreneurs open new companies to resell or develop
new products or services and face more competitors and that is not an
easy task to do especially for young organizations.
Today the quality of marketing strategies determines whether the number of customers grows or goes down.
Marketing can be divided into its' three major elements and some smaller components which if combined in a smart plan could bring about affluence:
(1) Attracting potential customers
(2) Satisfying customers
(3) Retaining customers
Every single customer or client is supposed to be steered through the above three but they have to be good enough to keep one's business alive and going.
(1) The basis of prospect attraction lies in the prospect.
Salesmen with some selling experience know that before they sell something it is helpful to find out what the person likes or dislikes, his or her opinion or attitude toward the thing being sold. The seller would then have the information to talk to the buyer "in his own language" and the close becomes more simple than the efforts of trying to guess how to please a prospect and turn him into the customer.
Marketing to groups of people is similar. It is based upon the individual needs and wants of those who pertain to the same target market. Either marketing to one person or to the entire market depends upon thorough research on the product and finding the average majority of what people think that product should be or should not.
Afterwards, the data are used in marketing planning and serve as a foundation of all further campaigns, promotional actions, public relations, positioning, etc.
Money are wasted on marketing based on what the marketers like or think people should like, often with little or no comprehension of the true needs and desires of their target markets.
This is why it is so important to realize and follow the marketing principle of offering people what they do need, want and demand.
(2) Satisfying customers
(3) Retaining customers
Every single customer or client is supposed to be steered through the above three but they have to be good enough to keep one's business alive and going.
(1) The basis of prospect attraction lies in the prospect.
Salesmen with some selling experience know that before they sell something it is helpful to find out what the person likes or dislikes, his or her opinion or attitude toward the thing being sold. The seller would then have the information to talk to the buyer "in his own language" and the close becomes more simple than the efforts of trying to guess how to please a prospect and turn him into the customer.
Marketing to groups of people is similar. It is based upon the individual needs and wants of those who pertain to the same target market. Either marketing to one person or to the entire market depends upon thorough research on the product and finding the average majority of what people think that product should be or should not.
Afterwards, the data are used in marketing planning and serve as a foundation of all further campaigns, promotional actions, public relations, positioning, etc.
Money are wasted on marketing based on what the marketers like or think people should like, often with little or no comprehension of the true needs and desires of their target markets.
This is why it is so important to realize and follow the marketing principle of offering people what they do need, want and demand.
(2) As to customer satisfaction, however as in any aspect of marketing, bright ideas are more than welcome.
Product quality, the actual moment of sale and further support should be well attended and even regularly drilled for smooth repeated running.
One of the biggest mistakes that could be made while marketing is to fail to satisfy people's needs and demands by keeping promises and giving people what has been promised. This is well known but so little evaded!
(3) Good customer retention strategy will get you permanent customers.
Once a potential buyer is attracted by the ad, poster, pr caper, word of mouth or any other kind of promotion and is ready to make a purchase, it is time to go all out and make him or her more than happy to be your customer. Some time later we develop good retention strategy and use that same person for the market research when marketing to existing customers, and again we deal with customer attraction that immediately translates to customer satisfaction and is followed by customer retention. And it goes on and on.
There is more to be accomplished in between these three points but they outline the process of how and what to do for your every step to be effective and without waste.
Businessmen perceive these rules but do not apply it. The evidence of this is business going out of business with all the implied consequences.
The solution to solve all existing problems as well as predict and avoid all future problems of this kind is to research and use the data found to attract, satisfy and retain new and existing customers.
This is interesting in light of today's crisis, fundamentally the economy of a country is totally dependent on its business' prosperity - if business thrives, people work and have money which they are willing to spend on things they need and want and thus help businesses exist and grow. This is an important circulation of products, markets and their well being which, if stopped or impeded, would bring about lots of trouble in peoples' lives. In all of the companies that are the center of our current crisis, you will find violations of basic marketing principles.
Marketing is a tool that helps create the demand and raise it far above the supply - know it and use it.