THE FOUR UTILITIES OF MARKETING


The marketing process must also add "utility" to the products consumers want.  Utility is the use or satisfaction a person gets from a product.  If you purchase a chain saw you anticipate that you will receive a certain amount of utility from it.  You will be able to use the saw to cut fire wood, prune trees, and take care of  a variety of jobs around your home.

There are four types of utility.

Form Utility - a product must be processed into a form that the customer wants or needs.  For example, wheat is processed into bread, trees are processed into lumber, and potatoes are processed into

THE NINE FUNCTIONS OF MARKETING







In order for the marketing bridge to work correctly  -- providing consumers with opportunities to purchase the products and services they need -- the marketing process must accomplish nine important functions.




The functions are:

• Buying - people have the the opportunity to buy products that they  want.
• Selling - producers function within a free market to sell products to consumers.

Marketing segmentation is one of the most important strategic concepts in the marketing discipline as well as for the Business . The overall objective of using a Market segmentation strategy is to improve the company’s competitive position and better serve the needs of customers.

The marketing concept calls for understanding customers and satisfying their needs better than the competitors, but different customers have different needs, and it is rarely possible to satisfy all customers by treating them alike.

Market segmentation is the division of a market into different groups of customers with distinctly similar needs and product/service requirements. Or to put it another way, market segmentation is the division of a mass market into identifiable and distinct groups or segments, each of which have common characteristics and needs and display similar responses to marketing actions.

The concept of market segment is based on the fact that the market of commodities are not homogeneous but they are heterogeneous. Market represent a group of

Planning good strategies is only a start toward successful marketing. A brilliant marketing strategy counts for little if the company fails to implement it properly. Marketing implementation is the process that turns marketing plans into marketing actions in order to accomplish strategic marketing objectives. Implementation involves day-to-day, month-to-month activities that effectively put the marketing plan to work. Whereas marketing planning addresses the what and why of marketing activities, implementation addresses the who, where, when, and how.

Many managers think that

Customer service is important to the success for every business, because without customers there would not be a business. The relationship between a company and its customers has always been important, but it seems like delivering top-notch customer experience is getting more critical in today’s market. Interactions between brands and their consumers are becoming increasingly more customer-driven thanks to the power of social media, and companies are no longer the only ones influencing their brand perception. What your customers say about you and your products is just as important (arguably even more important) than what you say about yourself. Technology has enabled today’s customers to have tremendous clout. Through the power and virility of Facebook, Twitter and online review sites, customers can influence a company’s brand value in a positive or a negative direction. And what your customers have to say about your brand is directly related to the experience they have when interacting with your company. Much of that interaction will stem from your company’s contact center.

Excellent customer service results in:

Customer service is when a company works everyday to keep our business so that they never face the threat of losing any customer.  It is the difference between a company that acts proactively and a company that simply reacts.
Recently saw this quote on a Simon Sinek newsletter and it got me to thinking about how we approach customer service.  How many of us only react to our customers and don’t proactively work to make sure that their visit is their best ever before they arrive?

Here are some ideas on how you can start making sure that you are working everyday to keep your customers.

Before your Customer/guest arrives:

1.)    Make sure that the person answering the phone has a smile in their voice.  I can’t tell you how many times I have called to make a reservation only to hear a monotone that sounds like a computer recording.  Train your customer service  people to smile before they pick up the phone.  Sounds silly since no one can see the smile but it actually works to send that smile across the airwaves.  Have friends call the office on occasion just to find out how the customer service person sounds.  Do they sound happy that the person has called?  Do they offer information ethically and satisfied the customer?

2.)    Be sure to send out confirmations on any reservations. This helps make sure that nothing has been entered

Reactive customer service is the action of Handling Customer Challenges. Reactive customer service is action taken by companies after customers experience problems or make complaints. This is in contrast to proactive customer service, which is aimed at minimizing problems or complaints. Many companies spend most of their day dealing with things like the following:

• The order did not ship on time.
• The warranty paperwork was never issued.
• The wrong name was put on the contracts.

In today’s information-soaked business climate, the time dedicated to reactive issues has skyrocketed. The more complicated our businesses have become, the more potential for problems.

Look at your job (and your life) — has it gotten simpler in the last decade or

Because many surprises occur during the implementation of marketing plans, the marketing department must practice constant marketing control. Marketing control involves evaluating the results of marketing strategies and plans and taking corrective action to ensure that objectives are attained. The figure shows that implementation involves four steps. Management first sets specific marketing goals. It then measures its performance in the marketplace and evaluates the causes of any differences between expected and actual performance. Finally, management takes corrective action to close the gaps between its goals and its performance. This may require changing the action programs or even changing the goals.

Operating control involves checking ongoing performance against the annual plan and taking corrective action when necessary. Its purpose is to ensure that the company

One hears more talk today about the marketing audit as being the answer to evaluating marketing practice just as the public accounting audit is the tool for evaluating company accounting practice. Marketing activities can be expensive, so it is necessary to check that the money is being well spent and there is at least a good chance of its producing the required results. Such checks are called marketing audit. Its a strategic tool used to review the effectiveness of a marketing program.

Kotler gives the following definition of a marketing audit:

Marketing is very important for every business to their success. People always face difficulty in understanding that what does the term "Marketing" means ??? ... Many think, Marketing only as selling, promoting and advertising. It is no wonder everyday we are bombarded with television commercials, newspaper ads, direct-mail campaigns, internet pitches, and sales calls. However, selling and advertisement are only the steps of the marketing function. Although they are important function of marketing, but they are often not the most important ones.
      Today, marketing must be understood not in the old sense of making a sale "telling & selling" but in the new sense of "satisfying customer needs". Selling occurs only after

In both B2B and consumer situations, not all of the customers are directly involved in the purchasing transaction - and indeed, may not be easy to identify. Further, the requirements and motivation of each of the participants in the purchase decision may not be the same. Successful companies understand that a decision to purchase is not always taken alone by the person who "seals the deal" and that all members of the Decision Making Unit (DMU) should be considered as customers with need that should be identified and satisfied.
So, now when we conclude that a customer is anyone who receives customer service from customer deliverer,then the question is just what is customer service?

Peter Drucker in his book Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices stated that the main purpose of business is "... to

INTERNET MARKETING & ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY

Internet marketing and online marketing strategy are an essential part of any business wishing to maximise it's full potential whether it is a large global organisation or a small cottage industry business. Every type of business can benefit from internet marketing, by using carefully implemented online marketing techniques you are sure to make a dramatic improvement to your profit margins and efficiency.


WHAT IS INTERNET MARKETING?

A marketing strategy is the marketing logic whereby the company hopes to achieve its marketing objectives. Once the best opportunity to satisfy unfulfilled customer needs is identified, a strategic plan for pursuing the opportunity can be developed. Through strategic planning, the company decides what it wants to do with each business unit. Marketing planning involves deciding on marketing strategies that will help the company attain its overall strategic objectives. A detailed marketing plan is needed for each business, product, or brand. As a marketer, you will need a good marketing plan to provide direction and focus for your brand, product, or company. With a detailed plan, any business will be better prepared to launch a new  product or build sales for existing products. Even government agencies put together marketing plans for initiatives such as building public awareness of proper nutrition and stimulating area tourism.

Marketing strategies serve as

The purpose of market segmentation is to leverage scarce resources; in other words, to ensure that the elements of the marketing mix, price, distribution, products and promotion, are designed to meet particular needs of different customer groups. Since companies have finite resources it is not possible to produce all possible products for all the people, all of the time. The best that can be aimed for is to provide selected offerings for selected groups of people, most of the time. This process allows organizations to focus on specific customers’ needs, in the most efficient and effective way.


Why do we need Market Segmentation? Well, I (as a male) would of course not like to receive promotional advertisements of Lipsticks, Skirts etc repetitively. That’s where the Market segmentation comes in.

There are number ways in which market can be segmented. The main bases are:

In its fullest form and concept, a marketing audit has four basic characteristics. The first and most important is that it is broad rather than narrow in focus. The term “marketing audit” should be reserved for a horizontal (or comprehensive) audit covering the company’s marketing environment, objectives, strategies, organization, and systems. In contrast a vertical (or in-depth) audit occurs when management decides to take a deep look into some key marketing function, such as sales force management. A vertical audit should properly be called by the function that is being audited, such as a sales force audit, an advertising audit, or a pricing audit.

A second characteristic feature of a marketing audit is that it is conducted by someone who

Most people's definition of a customer is an individual who buys a product or service from an organization. If we look for a dictionary definition. then this is pretty much what we are given. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary, for example, gives the following simple definition:
"1> one that purchases a commodity or service.
2> an individual usually having some specified distinctive trait <a real tough customer>".
Ignoring the second definition as not really applying to our purpose here, in simple situations like, say, buying a sandwich for your lunch, the first definition is, to a large extent, correct. But not all transactions are so straightforward and, according to the UK's Institute of Customer Service, a customer is: