What are the elements of a customer value driven marketing strategy and mix?
|
It is a simple axiom of doing business that a happy customer is very likely to be a returning customer. Thus, both sides of the business equation have good returns on their investment. The customer of the Information Age has become so empowered that the business environment has become customer-centered. Having this in view, companies must gear their marketing strategies toward the customers most likely to reap the benefits of a product or service. Contemporary digital technology enables the research and analytics needed just for that purpose. Ifbridge’s team of highly-motivated, young experts strongly urges companies to embrace innovative solutions in their marketing practices in order to make the connection between the right customer and the right product or service.
Show
 Delivering Customer ValueA product’s or service’s value can be perceived by the customer on two levels. The first level is based on the price vs utility (desired effects of employing a product or service). Customers have expectations of a product or service and they want them fulfilled according to the price they have acquired them at, plain and simple. The second level is the emotional payoff after having completed a task they have set out for themselves. From the customer’s point of view, price, quality, and desired effect are the elements of value. The challenge for companies offering a product or service is how to create value for the customers before the products or services “hit the shelves” or are, in other words, made available to the customer. This is where supply chains and value delivery networks come into play. In order to create a product or a service, companies must resort to partnering up with other companies in order to create value chains or what is known as a value delivery network. There are upstream value chains and downstream value chains. The upstream value chain represents the list of suppliers of raw materials, component parts, market information, financial firms providing the funding and finally the professionals employed in devising a product or service. The downstream value chain is comprised of various marketing or distribution channels that enable the flow of a product or service toward the targeted customer. All in all a value delivery network is comprised of a partnership between a company’s suppliers, distributors and customers. The interaction within this partnership evolves the overall operations of a business and increases value for all partners engaged in it. "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." -Ralph Nader Marketing channels are the intermediaries who offer companies to make sales of their service or product. These channels have the experience, specialist knowledge, and operations which enable transactions between originators of products or services (companies) and customers. Without them, companies would not be able to achieve value either for themselves or their customers and thus they must be included in the value delivery network. The elements of marketing channels turn a catalog of products or services offered by a company into a catalog available to the customers. Marketing channels contribute to value by shortening the time between offer and purchase as making available the locations (brick and mortar or online) of purchase. The number of marketing channel members varies from company to company depending on the type of business they are in. There are simple channels where companies can directly access their consumers. In the Digital Age, this practice has become very common as many businesses have direct-to-consumer websites. Other types of businesses require a retailer as an intermediary or a wholesaler before that. Sometimes a company needs to add a representative of sales as an additional link in the chain. The number of channel links is dictated by the flow of services or products, ownership, payment, information and promotion. Any human endeavor is faced by challenges and so is the marketing channel too. Conflicts can arise from misunderstandings about goals, individual link’s roles and finally profits. These challenges need to be overcome at the level of strategic planning so as to avail a smooth flow that is mutually beneficial to both upstream and downstream value chains ultimately leading to a satisfied customer who has been satisfied by a product’s or service’s value. Read More Advertising and PRIfbridge has already written about engaging customers through advertising in the text “Defining Marketing and Marketing and the Marketing Process” so please take a look to see what we have to say about sound advertising practices in the Digital Age. Here, Ifbridge offers insight into the differences between advertising and public relations (PR) as concepts related to the customer-driven marketing mix as they are conceived in the contemporary world. Whereas advertising requires a financial investment for any space (physical or digital) and its duration, public relations is something that is free and comes from entities outside of the company. This includes free media exposure from news outlets or individuals expressing their opinions on various social media platforms. In advertising practices, a company has utter control while in public relations there is none whatsoever. News media or social media may or may not even take notice of your product or service. This is why advertising has to be engaging in the first place. In the case of a positive outcome, where your ad campaign has taken a hold of people’s or institution’s attention there is limited control over how they will react. Again, a company can get an idea of what reactions its advertising campaign can get by carefully planning and staging it. (Please refer to Ifbridge texts related to effective customer-driven advertising.) A company’s PR department also has to engage with news media and social media effectively in order to present a better image of the company in order to introduce a better image of it. "Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. " -Les Brown As far as longevity is concerned, the lifetime of an ad campaign depends on the resources allotted to it. An ad campaign’s run is limited only by a company’s capacities and its success. On the other hand, news releases, news conferences or paid for trend stories have a much shorter life span. News is news only if it is new. Customers have become wise and are very much aware when someone is trying to sell them something. At the same time, news media or media specializing in a company’s product or service along with social media coverage give a sense of objectivity and therefore add significant value. Creativity is key for both advertising and PR departments. Every ad needs to be exciting and different in order to be eye-catching. Meanwhile, the PR department needs to understand how to make a company’s product or service newsworthy. Intriguing the public is one of the PR department’s top tasks. Read More Sales PromotionPromoting sales in a limited time frame is the end point of sales promotion. There are strategies which are directed towards customers, those which are geared at traders and hybrid variants involving both links in the downstream chain of customer value. Whatever the strategy of choice, the methods available are plentiful. Each method should be taken into careful consideration according to a company’s resources, product life cycle stages and relevant end goals. In the Digital Age the channels of communication and customer engagement are multiple and each company needs to have the knowledge on how to convey their sales promotions through which channels in order to make them as effective as possible. Sales promotions can be initiated by factors from within a company, like changes in production or without such as seasonal gift giving holidays or increased competition pressures. Read More Further InsightsThe circle of mistrust continues. The population’s trust in the government and the media continues to decline.The global market and opinion research institute Edelman has been publishing the Trust Report since 2001. For this purpose, a total of 36,000 people worldwide are surveyed in online interviews.… Read MoreÖAK 2/2021: Daily newspapers still in crisisThe crisis in newspapers continues, although interest in news has increased precisely because of “Corona,” but obviously only in electronic or social media. The printed press hardly benefited from the… Read MoreWhen are consumers most willing to spend money online?According to an international survey by payment provider Klarna, consumers are most likely to shop after 9 p.m. on Sundays. The payment provider surveyed 18,000 consumers in Europe, abroad and… What is customer driven marketing strategy and marketing mix?A customer driven marketing strategy refers to meeting customers' needs in a more personalized way and helps businesses to optimize marketing return on investment (RoI). By identifying and targeting customers with higher lifetime value, businesses can strengthen relationships by crafting solutions to fit their wants.
What are the 7 elements of marketing mix?The 7 elements of the marketing mix include the following:. Product (or Service) Your customer only cares about one thing: what your product or service can do for them. ... . Price. Many factors go into a pricing model. ... . Promotion. ... . Place. ... . People. ... . Packaging. ... . Process.. What are the elements of marketing mix?The marketing mix consists of the four key elements of a marketing strategy: product, price, place and promotion.
|
