Friday, September 4, 2009
GROUP 2 - Maxis
The internal factors may be viewed as strengths or weaknesses depending upon their impact on the organizations objectives. What may represent strengths with respect to one objective may be weaknesses for another objective. The factors may include all of the 4Ps; as well as personnel, finance, manufacturing capabilities, and so on. The external factors may include macroeconomic matters, technological change, legislation, and socio-cultural changes, as well as changes in the marketplace or competitive position. The results are often presented in the form of a matrix.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Group 2 - Maxis
Pemasaran 2
Kertas Kerja
Ahli
Wan Ahmad Razmi bin Wan Nor Azman (DP0309001)
Tan Xing Ying (DP0309026)
Fatin Syazwani binti (DP0309006)
Mohamad Amin bin Naina Mohamad (DP0309044)
Mohamad Nur Akmal (DP0309055)
Priya
Kaarthik A/L Appalanaidu
INTRODUCTION
Pembangunan dunia komunikasi di seluruh dunia semakin berkembang hampir di mana-mana. Ini termasuk juga di Malaysia yang telah maju dalam dunia teknologi komunikasi. Komunikasi boleh didefinisikan dalam pelbagai maksud, tetapi definisi utamnya ialah, alat/perkakas/organ yang digunakan menyampaikan pesanan kepada individu atau kepada pihak yang dikehendaki. Maxis, nama komunikasi yang telah julang namanya di persada dunia dengan perkhidmatan komunikasi yang terulung di Malaysia, telah memperkenalkan Hotlink sebagai produk mereka yang terdiri daripada pelbagai servis yang ditawarkan.
LATAR BELAKANG
Dibangunkan oleh seorang dari masyarakat India yang bijak berniaga bernama Tan Sri Anandha Krishnan pada tahun 1995. Pada permulaannya, beliau mempunyai banyak masalah iaitu dalam melaburkan modalnya untuk perniagaannya. Juga pada ketika itu, tidak ramai masyarakat yang menggunakan telefon bimbit pra-bayar dan lebih selesa menggunakan telefon rumah. Namun, perubahan teknologi sentiasa maju hadapan, dan beliau telah mengambil peluang untuk mempromosikan produk beliau iaitu Hotlink. Semakin hari, semakin ramai pengguna yang menggunakan telefon bimbit. Akhirnya, beliau telahpun mengecapi kejayaan dengan promosi yang banyak dan usaha yang tidak mengenal erti penat. Beliau dinobatkan antara 'Manusia Terkaya Di Malaysia' dengan hasil yang mengagumkan. Sekarang, beliau sedang memasarkan dan melebarkan rangkaian Maxis tersbut ke India dengan jumlah kos yang besar.
ANALISA 4P'S
PRODUK
Produk yang ditawarkan oleh Maxis ialah Hotlink. Hotlink ialah penghubung rangkaian antara satu telefon bimbit ke telefon bimbit yang lain. Produk ini menyerupai sebuah kad yang kecil yang dimuatkan ke dalam telefon bimbit, dipanggil Sim Card. Dengan kemasukkan kad kecil ini, rangkaian akan dimulakan antara pelanggan dan pihak syarikat Maxis. Setelah ia dimasukkan ke dalam slotnya, pelbagai fungsi boleh dimulakan, samada untuk membuat panggilan ataupun menghantar mesej pesanan ringkas, lebih mudah dipanggil 'SMS'. Juga Maxis telah menjalinkan hubungan dengan syarikat luar, seperti Apple, untuk mempromosikan produk iPod di Malaysia. Dengan kemajuan teknologi, Maxis sendiri telah mengeluarkan broadband tersendiri
PRICE
Harga yang ditawarkan oleh Hotlink boleh dikatakan berbaloi dan sesuai dengan perbelanjaan yang dikeluarkan. Harga biasa yang ditawarkan oleh Hotlink kepada pelanggan mereka ialah RM0.20 sen/seminit untuk panggilan dan RM0.05 sen/setiap helaian/hantaran mesej pesanan ringkas kepada individu yang dikehendaki. Ini tidak termasuk dengan bonus-bonus lain yang ditawarkan oleh Hotlink. Harga yang ditawarkan kepada pesaing atau rangkaian lain,contohnya Celcom dan Digi, berharga RM0.36 sen/seminit untuk panggilan dan RM0.10 sen untuk setiap helaian/mesej kepada individu yang dikehendaki.
PROMOTION
Hotlink sentiasa menganjurkan pelbagai acara untuk mempromosikan setiap kebaikkannya. Malah, Hotlink telahpun menjadi pelbagai penganjur untuk acara-acara tertentu seperti persembahan konsert. Hotlink telah memberi kemudahan kepada pengguna Maxis seperti contohnya, tiket yang murah untuk acara-acara yang dianjurkan sekaligus telah meningkatkan keuntungan secara tidak langsung. Terdapat banyak kemudahan yang disediakan dalam Hotlink. Sekarang, Hotlink sedang panas mempromosikan 'Hotlink Youth Club' di mana pelanggan yang masih di alam remaja boleh membuat panggilan yang lebih murah kepada pelanggan Maxis dan juga kepada rangkaian lain. Selain itu, terdapat Activ10 dimana pelanggan boleh membuat panggilan serendah RM0.10 sen/minit untuk panggilan dan RM0.01 sen untuk setiap SMS. Dengan pengguna Hotlink sebanyak lebih 1 juta orang, pelanggan tidak mempunyai masalah untuk berkomunikasi antara satu sama lain. Ini telah menguntungkan kedua-dua pihak, iaitu pelanggan dan pihak Maxis sendiri.
PLACE
Lokasi pejabat utama Maxis terletak di bandar-bandar besar sebagai memudahkan semua pihak untuk bertanyakan soalan ataupun sebarang pendaftaran. Ini bertujuan untuk memudahkan pihak Maxis untuk berkomunikasi dengan pelanggan yang berbilang kaum. Malah, pada zaman sekarang, terdapat banyak tempat yang menawarkan servis kepada pelanggan biarpun di kawasan desa ataupun pedalaman. Maxis telahpun mengiktiraf antara pelanggan yang mahu menjadi pengedar servis dan perkhidmatan yang terletak di kawasan kedai-kedai runcit. Ini telahpun memudahkan pelanggan tanpa perlu pergi ke tempat-tempat utamanya yang terletak di tengah-tengah kawasan perbandaran. Seperti syarikat lain, Maxis juga mempunyai pejabat urusan yang utama yang terletak bersebelahan dengan Menara Berkembar KLCC yang dinamakan Menara Maxis di Kuala Lumpur. Lokasi menara tersebut sangat strategik kerana menghubungkan dengan Suria KLCC, iaitu sebuah Pusat Membeli-Belah Utama di Bandar Kuala Lumpur.
ANALISA SWOT
STRENGTH
Kekuatan Maxis terletak di pelanggannya di mana pengguna Maxis sangat ramai dan merangkumi hampir keseluruhan di pelusuk Malaysia. Malah, kekuatan Maxis yang menfokuskan keuntungan disamping memuaskan hati pelanggan juga telah membawa Maxis ke persada dunia. Kekuatan Maxis juga terletak di dalam pengaruhnya yang sangat kuat. Malah, lokasi Maxis juga banyak dan memudahkan para pelanggannya untuk berurusan dalam apa jenis urusan.
WEAKNESS
Walaupun Maxis mempertaruhkan kepelbagaian dalam produk mereka, iaitu Hotlink, namun setiap syarikat sudah tentu ada kelemahan. Berbanding dengan pesaing mereka, iaitu Celcom dan Digi, Maxis mempunyai kadar bayaran ke panggilan ke Celcom dan Digi yang lebih mahal berbanding kedua-dua rangkaian tersebut.
OPPORTUNITY
Peluang Maxis untuk memasarkan Hotlink ialah faktor umur sekarang, di mana hampir lebih 40 peratus remaja Malaysia menggunakan Maxis sebagai telekomunikasi pengantaraan mereka. Ini telah memberi peluang kepada pihak Maxis untuk terus mempromosikan kelebihan kepada para penggunanya yang ramai. Dengan itu, secara tidak langsung, Maxis telah mengeratkan hubungan antara pelanggan dan syarikat.
THREATS
Ancaman pesaing seringkali boleh merosakkan perniagaan. Jadi, pihak sesuatu syarikat harus menangani dengan bersaing dengan pihak lawan. Begitu juga untuk Maxis. Produk utamanya iaitu Hotnik dan Maxis Broadband sentiasa menghadapi masalah ancaman terutamanya syarikat telekomunikasi yang lain khususnya Celcom kerana kedua-dua syarikat ini mempunyai konsep yang sama. Jikalau ada kelainan antara kedua syarikat ini sekalipun, ia mungkin kelainan yang halus dan tidak nampak oleh pengguna.
ANALISA PEST
POLITICAL
Dunia politik penting untuk membangunkan negara. Maxis juga telah berkembang dan memasuki dunia politik memandangkan imej Maxis sungguh biasa didengari. Politik dan ekonomi saling berhubung-kait dalam industri perhubungan dan telekomunikasi. Maxis telah berkembang dengan pesat dan berjaya di Malaysia dan telah membuat diplomasi bersama negara lain dalam mengekalkan pelanggannya. Maxis juga telah membuat industri pembangunan industri telekomunikasi secara meluas di India buat masa kini. Ini bukti bahawa Maxis telahpun berjaya bukan sahaja dari segi kewangan, tetapi juga berjaya menyebarkan imej yang baik bagi pihak Maxis itu sendiri
ECONOMIC
Ekonomi sentiasa dititikberatkan supaya pihak Maxis mudah memberikan kerjasama untuk pengguna. Penaikan atau penurunan harga Maxis adalah bergantung kepada kegunaan pelangan dan juga situasi ekonomi negara yang akan berubah dari semasa ke semasa. Oleh kerana itu, syarikat Maxis mengambil berat dalam kebajikan pelanggannya. Mereka juga memasarkan produk mereka dikala ekonomi sedang meningkat dan akan mengurangkannya dalam masa tertentu. Penjenamaan juga perlu membezakan satu keluaran dari keluaran yang lain bagi memudahkan pengguna Maxis mengenali produk atau perkhidmatan yang ditawarkan.
SOCIAL
Pergaulan sosial antara syarikat dengan pelanggannya sangat berguna kerana hubungan syarikat dengan pelanggan mampu untuk menambah keuntungan dari segi moral kerana pelanggan mungkin berasa dihargai. Dengan menganjurkan pelbagai acara seperti konsert, promosi jualan barangan elektronik seperti telefon bimbit yang dilengkapi dengan Sim Kad Hotlink atau dengan pelbagai bonus, sudah semestinya akan mewujudkan kepuashatian terhadap pelanggan.
TECHNOLOGY
Dalam era globalisasi ini, keperluan dan penggunaan teknologi makin laris dipergunakan dari umur kanak-kanak sehinggalah dewasa. Maxis, telahpun membuat kajian teknologi dan berjaya mengembangkannya mengikut peredaran masa. Seperti contohnya, hanya kad yang berdaftar penggunaan 3G atau WAP sahaja boleh menggunakan teknologi 3G atau panggilan video.
Group 1 - McD
LOGO MCDONALS McDonals merupakan salah satu "fast food" yang terkenal di seluruh Malaysia dan di serata dunia.Mcdonalds menyediakan beberapa jenis makanan kepada pelanggan.Antara jenis makanan yang disediakan ialah chess burge,beef burge dan sebagainya.Selain dari itu Mcdonalds juga menydia beberapa jenis pencuci mulut seperti aiscream dan sebagainya.Mcdonals juga telah menyediakan beberapa jenis perkhidmatan untuk membeli makanan yang disediakan.Contohnya perkhidmatan Drive Thru.Mcdelivery servis dah sebagainya. Mcdonal juga telah membuka banyak cawangan di seluruh Malaysia. Bukan di Malaysia sahaja,Mcdonals juga telah membuka cawangannya di seluruh dunia.
Definition of Marketing
Marketing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:-
Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others.
Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. [1] The term developed from the original meaning which referred literally to going to market, as in shopping, or going to a market to buy or sell goods or services.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as "The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably."[2]
Marketing practice tended to be seen as a creative industry in the past, which included advertising, distribution and selling. However, because the academic study of marketing makes extensive use of social sciences, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics, anthropology and neuroscience, the profession is now widely recognized as a science, allowing numerous universities to offer Master-of-Science (MSc) programmes. The overall process starts with marketing research and goes through market segmentation, business planning and execution, ending with pre and post-sales promotional activities. It is also related to many of the creative arts. The marketing literature is also infamous for re-inventing itself and its vocabulary according to the times and the culture.
Seen from a systems point of view, sales process engineering views marketing as a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions[3], whose methods can be improved using a variety of relatively new approaches.
The marketing concept
The term marketing concept pertains to the fundamental premise of modern marketing. This can be laid out as recognising consumer needs/wants, then designing products and services that correlate with consumer desires.
[edit] Marketing orientations
An orientation, in the marketing context, relates to a perception or attitude a firm holds towards its product or service, essentially concerning consumers and end-users. There exist several common orientations:
[edit] Product orientation
A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly concerned with the quality of its own product. A firm would also assume that as long as its product was of a high standard, people would buy and consume the product.
This works most effectively when the firm has good insights about customers and their needs and desires, as for example in the case of Sony Walkman or Apple iPod, whether these derive from intuitions or research.
[edit] Sales orientation
A firm using a sales orientation focuses primarily on the selling/promotion of a particular product, and not determining new consumer desires as such. Consequently, this entails simply selling an already existing product, and using promotion techniques to attain the highest sales possible.
Such an orientation may suit scenarios in which a firm holds dead stock, or otherwise sells a good that is in high demand, with little likelihood of changes in consumer tastes diminishing demand.
[edit] Production orientation
A firm focusing on a production orientation specializes in producing as much as possible of a given good. Thus, this signifies a firm exploiting economies of scale, until the minimum efficient scale is reached.
A production orientation may be deployed when a high demand for a good exists, coupled with a good certainty that consumer tastes do not rapidly alter (similar to the sales orientation).
[edit] Marketing orientation
The marketing orientation is perhaps the most common orientation used in contemporary marketing. It involves a firm essentially basing its marketing plans around the marketing concept, and thus forging products to suit new consumer tastes.
As an example, a firm would employ market research to gauge consumer desires, use R&D to develop a good attuned to the revealed information, and then utilise promotion techniques to ensure persons know the good exists. The marketing orientation often has three prime facets, which are:
[edit] Customer orientation
A firm in the market economy survives by producing goods that persons are willing and able to buy. Consequently, ascertaining consumer demand is vital for a firm's future viability and even existence as a going concern.
[edit] Organizational orientation
All departments of a firm should be geared to satisfying consumer wants/needs. In this sense, a firm's marketing department is often seen as of prime importance within the functional level of an organisation.
Information from an organisation's marketing department would be used to guide the actions of other department's within the firm. As an example, a marketing department could ascertain (via marketing research) that consumers desired a new type of product, or a new usage for an existing product. With this in mind, the marketing department would inform the R&D department to create a prototype of a good/service based on consumers' new desires.
The production department would then start to manufacture the good, while the marketing department would focus on the promotion, distribution, pricing, etc. of the product. Additionally, a firm's finance department would be consulted, with respect to securing appropriate funding for the development, production and promotion of the product.
Inter-departmental conflicts are possible to occur, should a firm adhere to the marketing orientation. Production may oppose the installation, support and servicing of new capital stock, which may be needed to manufacture a new product. Finance may oppose the required capital expenditure, since it could undermine a healthy cash flow for the organisation.
[edit] Mutually beneficial exchange
In a transaction in the market economy, a firm gains revenue, which thus leads to more profits/market share/sales. A consumer on the other hand gains a need/want that is satisfied, utility, reliability and value for money from the purchase of a good. As no one has to buy goods from any one supplier in the market economy, firms must entice consumers to buy goods with contemporary marketing ideals.
[edit] The Four Ps
Main article: Marketing mix
In the early 1960s, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a number of company performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to purchase goods or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company represented a “Marketing Mix”. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy, at the Michigan State University in the early 1960s, suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4 elements: product, price, place and promotion.
Product: The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support.
Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary; it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy, or attention. Methods of setting prices optimally are in the domain of pricing science.
Placement (or distribution): refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point-of-sale placement or retailing. This third P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can affect sales.
Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, including promotional education, publicity, and personal selling. Branding refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.
These four elements are often referred to as the marketing mix,[4] which a marketer can use to craft a marketing plan.
The four Ps model is most useful when marketing low value consumer products. Industrial products, services, high value consumer products require adjustments to this model. Services marketing must account for the unique nature of services.
Industrial or B2B marketing must account for the long term contractual agreements that are typical in supply chain transactions. Relationship marketing attempts to do this by looking at marketing from a long term relationship perspective rather than individual transactions.
As a counter to this, Morgan, in Riding the Waves of Change (Jossey-Bass, 1988), suggests that one of the greatest limitations of the 4 Ps approach "is that it unconsciously emphasizes the inside–out view (looking from the company outwards), whereas the essence of marketing should be the outside–in approach".
[edit] The marketing environment
The term "marketing environment" relates to all of the factors (whether internal, external, direct or indirect) that affects a firm's marketing decision-making/planning. A firm's marketing environment consists of three main areas, which are:
The macro-environment, over which a firm holds little control
The micro-environment, over which a firm holds a greater amount (though not necessarily total) control
The internal environment
[edit] The macro-environment
A firm's marketing macro-environment consists of a variety of external factors that manifest on a large (or macro) scale. These are typically economic, social, political or technological phenomena. A common method of assessing a firm's macro-environment is via a PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Ecological) analysis. Within a PESTLE analysis, a firm would analyse national political issues, culture and climate, key macroeconomic conditions, health and indicators (such as economic growth, inflation, unemployment, etc.), social trends/attitudes, and the nature of technology's impact on its society and the business processes within the society.
[edit] The micro-environment
A firm's micro-environment comprises factors pertinent to the firm itself, or stakeholders closely connected with the firm.
[edit] Marketing research
Marketing research involves conducting research to support marketing activities, and the statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, gauge the nature of a firm's marketing environment, attain information from suppliers, etc.
A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research. Market research pertains to research in a given market. As an example, a firm may conduct research in a target market, after selecting a suitable market segment. In contrast, marketing research relates to all research conducted within marketing. Thus, market research is a subset of marketing research.
Marketing researchers use statistical methods (such as quantitative research, qualitative research, hypothesis tests, Chi-squared tests, linear regression, correlation co-efficients, frequency distributions, Poisson and Binomial distributions, etc.) to interpret their findings and convert data into information.
[edit] Product
Main article: New Product Development
[edit] Branding
Main article: Brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes products and services from competitive offerings. A brand represents the consumers' experience with an organization, product, or service. A brand is more than a name, design or symbol. Brand reflects personality of the company which is organizational culture.
A brand has also been defined as an identifiable entity that makes a specific value based on promises made and kept either actively or passively.
Branding means creating reference of certain products in mind.
Co-branding involves marketing activity involving two or more products.
[edit] Marketing communications
Marketing communications breaks down the strategies involved with marketing messages into categories based on the goals of each message. There are distinct stages in converting strangers to customers that govern the communication medium that should be used.
[edit] Personal sales
Oral presentation given by a salesperson who approaches individuals or a group of potential customers:
Live, interactive relationship
Personal interest
Attention and response
Interesting presentation
Clear and thorough.
[edit] Sales promotion
Short-term incentives to encourage buying of products:
Instant appeal
Anxiety to sell
An example is coupons or a sale. People are given an incentive to buy, but this does not build customer loyalty or encourage future repeat buys. A major drawback of sales promotion is that it is easily copied by competition. It cannot be used as a sustainable source of differentiation.
[edit] Customer focus
Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally there are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the sense of identifying market changes and the product innovation approach.
In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no point spending R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs.[5]
A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA[6] (Solution, Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to provide a customer focus.
[edit] Product focus
In a product innovation approach, the company pursues product innovation, then tries to develop a market for the product. Product innovation drives the process and marketing research is conducted primarily to ensure that profitable market segment(s) exist for the innovation. The rationale is that customers may not know what options will be available to them in the future so we should not expect them to tell us what they will buy in the future. However, marketers can aggressively over-pursue product innovation and try to overcapitalize on a niche. When pursuing a product innovation approach, marketers must ensure that they have a varied and multi-tiered approach to product innovation. It is claimed that if Thomas Edison depended on marketing research he would have produced larger candles rather than inventing light bulbs. Many firms, such as research and development focused companies, successfully focus on product innovation. Many purists doubt whether this is really a form of marketing orientation at all, because of the ex post status of consumer research. Some even question whether it is marketing.
An emerging area of study and practice concerns internal marketing, or how employees are trained and managed to deliver the brand in a way that positively impacts the acquisition and retention of customers (employer branding).
Diffusion of innovations research explores how and why people adopt new products, services and ideas.
A relatively new form of marketing uses the Internet and is called Internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, affiliate marketing, desktop advertising or online marketing. It tries to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing.
With consumers' eroding attention span and willingness to give time to advertising messages, marketers are turning to forms of permission marketing such as branded content, custom media and reality marketing.
The use of herd behavior in marketing.
The Economist reported a recent conference in Rome on the subject of the simulation of adaptive human behavior.[7] It shared mechanisms to increase impulse buying and get people "to buy more by playing on the herd instinct." The basic idea is that people will buy more of products that are seen to be popular, and several feedback mechanisms to get product popularity information to consumers are mentioned, including smart-cart technology and the use of Radio Frequency Identification Tag technology. A "swarm-moves" model was introduced by a Florida Institute of Technology researcher, which is appealing to supermarkets because it can "increase sales without the need to give people discounts."
Marketing is also used to promote business' products and is a great way to promote the business.
Other recent studies on the "power of social influence" include an "artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs" (Columbia University, New York); a Japanese chain of convenience stores which orders its products based on "sales data from department stores and research companies;" a Massachusetts company exploiting knowledge of social networking to improve sales; and online retailers who are increasingly informing consumers about "which products are popular with like-minded consumers" (e.g., Amazon, eBay).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:-
Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others.
Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. [1] The term developed from the original meaning which referred literally to going to market, as in shopping, or going to a market to buy or sell goods or services.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as "The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably."[2]
Marketing practice tended to be seen as a creative industry in the past, which included advertising, distribution and selling. However, because the academic study of marketing makes extensive use of social sciences, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics, anthropology and neuroscience, the profession is now widely recognized as a science, allowing numerous universities to offer Master-of-Science (MSc) programmes. The overall process starts with marketing research and goes through market segmentation, business planning and execution, ending with pre and post-sales promotional activities. It is also related to many of the creative arts. The marketing literature is also infamous for re-inventing itself and its vocabulary according to the times and the culture.
Seen from a systems point of view, sales process engineering views marketing as a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions[3], whose methods can be improved using a variety of relatively new approaches.
The marketing concept
The term marketing concept pertains to the fundamental premise of modern marketing. This can be laid out as recognising consumer needs/wants, then designing products and services that correlate with consumer desires.
[edit] Marketing orientations
An orientation, in the marketing context, relates to a perception or attitude a firm holds towards its product or service, essentially concerning consumers and end-users. There exist several common orientations:
[edit] Product orientation
A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly concerned with the quality of its own product. A firm would also assume that as long as its product was of a high standard, people would buy and consume the product.
This works most effectively when the firm has good insights about customers and their needs and desires, as for example in the case of Sony Walkman or Apple iPod, whether these derive from intuitions or research.
[edit] Sales orientation
A firm using a sales orientation focuses primarily on the selling/promotion of a particular product, and not determining new consumer desires as such. Consequently, this entails simply selling an already existing product, and using promotion techniques to attain the highest sales possible.
Such an orientation may suit scenarios in which a firm holds dead stock, or otherwise sells a good that is in high demand, with little likelihood of changes in consumer tastes diminishing demand.
[edit] Production orientation
A firm focusing on a production orientation specializes in producing as much as possible of a given good. Thus, this signifies a firm exploiting economies of scale, until the minimum efficient scale is reached.
A production orientation may be deployed when a high demand for a good exists, coupled with a good certainty that consumer tastes do not rapidly alter (similar to the sales orientation).
[edit] Marketing orientation
The marketing orientation is perhaps the most common orientation used in contemporary marketing. It involves a firm essentially basing its marketing plans around the marketing concept, and thus forging products to suit new consumer tastes.
As an example, a firm would employ market research to gauge consumer desires, use R&D to develop a good attuned to the revealed information, and then utilise promotion techniques to ensure persons know the good exists. The marketing orientation often has three prime facets, which are:
[edit] Customer orientation
A firm in the market economy survives by producing goods that persons are willing and able to buy. Consequently, ascertaining consumer demand is vital for a firm's future viability and even existence as a going concern.
[edit] Organizational orientation
All departments of a firm should be geared to satisfying consumer wants/needs. In this sense, a firm's marketing department is often seen as of prime importance within the functional level of an organisation.
Information from an organisation's marketing department would be used to guide the actions of other department's within the firm. As an example, a marketing department could ascertain (via marketing research) that consumers desired a new type of product, or a new usage for an existing product. With this in mind, the marketing department would inform the R&D department to create a prototype of a good/service based on consumers' new desires.
The production department would then start to manufacture the good, while the marketing department would focus on the promotion, distribution, pricing, etc. of the product. Additionally, a firm's finance department would be consulted, with respect to securing appropriate funding for the development, production and promotion of the product.
Inter-departmental conflicts are possible to occur, should a firm adhere to the marketing orientation. Production may oppose the installation, support and servicing of new capital stock, which may be needed to manufacture a new product. Finance may oppose the required capital expenditure, since it could undermine a healthy cash flow for the organisation.
[edit] Mutually beneficial exchange
In a transaction in the market economy, a firm gains revenue, which thus leads to more profits/market share/sales. A consumer on the other hand gains a need/want that is satisfied, utility, reliability and value for money from the purchase of a good. As no one has to buy goods from any one supplier in the market economy, firms must entice consumers to buy goods with contemporary marketing ideals.
[edit] The Four Ps
Main article: Marketing mix
In the early 1960s, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a number of company performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to purchase goods or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company represented a “Marketing Mix”. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy, at the Michigan State University in the early 1960s, suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4 elements: product, price, place and promotion.
Product: The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support.
Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary; it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy, or attention. Methods of setting prices optimally are in the domain of pricing science.
Placement (or distribution): refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point-of-sale placement or retailing. This third P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can affect sales.
Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, including promotional education, publicity, and personal selling. Branding refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.
These four elements are often referred to as the marketing mix,[4] which a marketer can use to craft a marketing plan.
The four Ps model is most useful when marketing low value consumer products. Industrial products, services, high value consumer products require adjustments to this model. Services marketing must account for the unique nature of services.
Industrial or B2B marketing must account for the long term contractual agreements that are typical in supply chain transactions. Relationship marketing attempts to do this by looking at marketing from a long term relationship perspective rather than individual transactions.
As a counter to this, Morgan, in Riding the Waves of Change (Jossey-Bass, 1988), suggests that one of the greatest limitations of the 4 Ps approach "is that it unconsciously emphasizes the inside–out view (looking from the company outwards), whereas the essence of marketing should be the outside–in approach".
[edit] The marketing environment
The term "marketing environment" relates to all of the factors (whether internal, external, direct or indirect) that affects a firm's marketing decision-making/planning. A firm's marketing environment consists of three main areas, which are:
The macro-environment, over which a firm holds little control
The micro-environment, over which a firm holds a greater amount (though not necessarily total) control
The internal environment
[edit] The macro-environment
A firm's marketing macro-environment consists of a variety of external factors that manifest on a large (or macro) scale. These are typically economic, social, political or technological phenomena. A common method of assessing a firm's macro-environment is via a PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Ecological) analysis. Within a PESTLE analysis, a firm would analyse national political issues, culture and climate, key macroeconomic conditions, health and indicators (such as economic growth, inflation, unemployment, etc.), social trends/attitudes, and the nature of technology's impact on its society and the business processes within the society.
[edit] The micro-environment
A firm's micro-environment comprises factors pertinent to the firm itself, or stakeholders closely connected with the firm.
[edit] Marketing research
Marketing research involves conducting research to support marketing activities, and the statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, gauge the nature of a firm's marketing environment, attain information from suppliers, etc.
A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research. Market research pertains to research in a given market. As an example, a firm may conduct research in a target market, after selecting a suitable market segment. In contrast, marketing research relates to all research conducted within marketing. Thus, market research is a subset of marketing research.
Marketing researchers use statistical methods (such as quantitative research, qualitative research, hypothesis tests, Chi-squared tests, linear regression, correlation co-efficients, frequency distributions, Poisson and Binomial distributions, etc.) to interpret their findings and convert data into information.
[edit] Product
Main article: New Product Development
[edit] Branding
Main article: Brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes products and services from competitive offerings. A brand represents the consumers' experience with an organization, product, or service. A brand is more than a name, design or symbol. Brand reflects personality of the company which is organizational culture.
A brand has also been defined as an identifiable entity that makes a specific value based on promises made and kept either actively or passively.
Branding means creating reference of certain products in mind.
Co-branding involves marketing activity involving two or more products.
[edit] Marketing communications
Marketing communications breaks down the strategies involved with marketing messages into categories based on the goals of each message. There are distinct stages in converting strangers to customers that govern the communication medium that should be used.
[edit] Personal sales
Oral presentation given by a salesperson who approaches individuals or a group of potential customers:
Live, interactive relationship
Personal interest
Attention and response
Interesting presentation
Clear and thorough.
[edit] Sales promotion
Short-term incentives to encourage buying of products:
Instant appeal
Anxiety to sell
An example is coupons or a sale. People are given an incentive to buy, but this does not build customer loyalty or encourage future repeat buys. A major drawback of sales promotion is that it is easily copied by competition. It cannot be used as a sustainable source of differentiation.
[edit] Customer focus
Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally there are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the sense of identifying market changes and the product innovation approach.
In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no point spending R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs.[5]
A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA[6] (Solution, Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to provide a customer focus.
[edit] Product focus
In a product innovation approach, the company pursues product innovation, then tries to develop a market for the product. Product innovation drives the process and marketing research is conducted primarily to ensure that profitable market segment(s) exist for the innovation. The rationale is that customers may not know what options will be available to them in the future so we should not expect them to tell us what they will buy in the future. However, marketers can aggressively over-pursue product innovation and try to overcapitalize on a niche. When pursuing a product innovation approach, marketers must ensure that they have a varied and multi-tiered approach to product innovation. It is claimed that if Thomas Edison depended on marketing research he would have produced larger candles rather than inventing light bulbs. Many firms, such as research and development focused companies, successfully focus on product innovation. Many purists doubt whether this is really a form of marketing orientation at all, because of the ex post status of consumer research. Some even question whether it is marketing.
An emerging area of study and practice concerns internal marketing, or how employees are trained and managed to deliver the brand in a way that positively impacts the acquisition and retention of customers (employer branding).
Diffusion of innovations research explores how and why people adopt new products, services and ideas.
A relatively new form of marketing uses the Internet and is called Internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, affiliate marketing, desktop advertising or online marketing. It tries to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing.
With consumers' eroding attention span and willingness to give time to advertising messages, marketers are turning to forms of permission marketing such as branded content, custom media and reality marketing.
The use of herd behavior in marketing.
The Economist reported a recent conference in Rome on the subject of the simulation of adaptive human behavior.[7] It shared mechanisms to increase impulse buying and get people "to buy more by playing on the herd instinct." The basic idea is that people will buy more of products that are seen to be popular, and several feedback mechanisms to get product popularity information to consumers are mentioned, including smart-cart technology and the use of Radio Frequency Identification Tag technology. A "swarm-moves" model was introduced by a Florida Institute of Technology researcher, which is appealing to supermarkets because it can "increase sales without the need to give people discounts."
Marketing is also used to promote business' products and is a great way to promote the business.
Other recent studies on the "power of social influence" include an "artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs" (Columbia University, New York); a Japanese chain of convenience stores which orders its products based on "sales data from department stores and research companies;" a Massachusetts company exploiting knowledge of social networking to improve sales; and online retailers who are increasingly informing consumers about "which products are popular with like-minded consumers" (e.g., Amazon, eBay).
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