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IB: Business Management Notes on Marketing (Unit 4.

1)
6 Dec
Marketing is the identification, anticipation, and satisfaction and of customer needs and wants profitably.

Marketing is important to businesses as they will need to satisfy customer needs and wants to survive and also to prevent them from buying from any rival businesses. They will have to appeal to people by the use of price, product, promotion and place. The right price has to be chosen because it is crucial that the customer can afford the product and so they dont buy from other competitors The right product has to be selected as the product has to be appealing to the customer in terms of size, colour, functions. This is needed to satisfy customer needs and wants Promotion is crucial as they need to make consumers aware of the product and to be persuaded to buy it. Place is also important because it has to be fitted to suit customers convenience

The marketing mix is a key part in marketing as it involves the success the product will produce if it is marketed properly.

A business that sells mainly to customers and private individuals(like the general public) will be called consumer markets. While a business that sells to other businesses or organizations will be involved in commercial or industrial markets. A business usually wants to know three things; Market share that they hold Market size Number of competitors Potential for market growth

MARKET SIZE is usually defined by;

customer base, if there is a large customer base then that means that the market is quite diverse and has a lot of opportunity of expansion(like the fast food market) while if the market is quite niche then there will be a limited customer base and therefore small market size barriers to entry, if there are many natural or legal barriers of entry it restricts market size and it means that the market will have fewer suppliers as there are fewer competitors location, a business may operate in certain geographic area because the market there may be more successful due to the abundant potential customers there. However, now increasing globalization prevents a market from being hindered by geographical restraints. Volume of sales- if the value of sales in this market is very small then the market is not likely to be big as suppliers are not attracted into this market.

MARKET GROWTH- another thing that businesses will be interested in


this refers to the increase of size that a market faces over time during market growth it means that more suppliers enter the market and the volume of sales go up. This market growth usually attracts more suppliers in because of the potential of bigger profits.

MARKET SHARE

How much of the overall sales in the whole market a certain business owns. This is usually used to measure success of the business over time See how well the business is doing over competitors

Market concentration looks at the degree of competition within a market; This is done by calculating the market shares of the largest firms in the market (like apple and Microsoft in the computer industry) This is given by the concentration ratio, if there is a 98% concentration ratio is means that the two top competitors(apple and Microsoft) produce for 98% of the whole industry- so this will not be a very competitive industry because the small businesses only account for 2% of the whole industry Such big industry-dominating businesses are called oligopolists

PRODUCT ORIENTATION

v This is used to describe a business that focuses production on the product in itself instead of producing to satisfy customer needs and wants. v The product is produced in the belief that it will be sold, and it may be for popular products like the iPod v Sell products that they can make, rather than selling products with elevated costs due to marketing v Product orientation may be successful because of Says law (supply creates its own demand) v Producers are not always sure if they will sell, it is highly risky because suitable market research has not been undertaken, money for R&D may be wasted as a cause of hit and miss strategies v Many product orientated businesses may focus upon producing more luxury items where the production process may be scrutinized with more detail- so quality can be assured MARKET ORIENTATION

A business that focuses upon satisfying customer needs and wants, and produces what the customer wants rather than what they can actually make Usually involves market research to look into the present and future demand of the product- this is costly but it is worthwhile as it makes the product less risky and more likely to form good profits A market orientated business is also flexible to changes in the market, like different trends because they can be kept up to date A disadvantage for market orientation is the costs associated with it, there is not always a guarantee this method will be successful.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT MARKET OR PRODUCT ORIENTATION


What type of product it sells, if it is a product that is quite homogeneous then not a lot of market research will be required. Organization culture- if a firm believes that customers should be placed above all then it will usually be market orientated Nature of barriers to entry; firms with less competition will be more product orientated and vice versa. This is because if there are many barriers of entry there will be less suppliers in the market, so consumers dont have such a broad range of options

Social marketing

Usually for a cause instead of selling of products Like the government imposed adverts to prevent people from taking drugs and smoking, this is a form of social marketing an activity that affects social behavior This differs from commercial marketing because people are not persuaded to buy anything, but instead informed of causes and persuaded against a certain action A challenge to social marketing is the unwillingness of people who change their social behavior due to habits Clients of social marketing agencies are usually non-profit organizations and this is how it differs from profit making organizations

Brands - introduction to Brands


A brand is a product with unique character, for instance in design or image. It is consistent and well recognised. The advantages of having a strong brand are:

Inspires customer loyalty leading to repeat sales and word-of mouth recommendation The brand owner can usually charge higher prices, especially if the brand is the market leader Retailers or service sellers want to stock top selling brands. With limited shelf space it is more likely the top brands will be on the shelf than less well-known brands.

Some retailers use own-label brands, where they use their name of the product rather than the manufacturers like Tescos Finest range of meals and foodstuffs. These tend to be cheaper than the normal brands, but will give the retailer more profit than selling a normal brand. Some brands are so strong that they have become global brands. This means that the product is sold in many countries and the contents are very similar. Examples of global brands include: Microsoft, Coca Cola, Disney, Mercedes and Hewlett Packard.

The strength of a brand can be exploited by a business to develop new products. This is known as brand extension a product with some of the brands s characteristics. Examples include Dove soap and Dove Shampoo (both contain moisturiser); Mars Bar and Mars Ice Cream Brand stretching is where the brand is used for a diverse range of products, not necessarily connected. E.g. Virgin Airlines and Virgin Cola; Marks and Spencer clothes and food. The logo on a product is an important part of the product. A logo is a symbol or picture that represents the business. It is important because it is easy to recognise, establishes brand loyalty and can create a favourable image. Q.What factors are important in building brand value? Several factors are crucial in building successful brands, as illustrated in the diagram below:

Quality Quality is a vital ingredient of a good brand. Remember the core benefits the things consumers expect. These must be delivered well, consistently. The branded

washing machine that leaks, or the training shoe that often falls apart when wet will never develop brand equity. Research confirms that, statistically, higher quality brands achieve a higher market share and higher profitability that their inferior competitors. Positioning Positioning is about the position a brand occupies in a market in the minds of consumers. Strong brands have a clear, often unique position in the target market. Positioning can be achieved through several means, including brand name, image, service standards, product guarantees, packaging and the way in which it is delivered. In fact, successful positioning usually requires a combination of these things. Repositioning Repositioning occurs when a brand tries to change its market position to reflect a change in consumers tastes. This is often required when a brand has become tired, perhaps because its original market has matured or has gone into decline. The repositioning of the Lucozade brand from a sweet drink for children to a leading sports drink is one example. Another would be the changing styles of entertainers with above-average longevity such as Kylie Minogue and Cliff Richard. Communications Communications also play a key role in building a successful brand. We suggested that brand positioning is essentially about customer perceptions with the objective to build a clearly defined position in the minds of the target audience. All elements of the promotional mix need to be used to develop and sustain customer perceptions. Initially, the challenge is to build awareness, then to develop the brand personality and reinforce the perception. First-mover advantage Business strategists often talk about first-mover advantage. In terms of brand development, by first-mover they mean that it is possible for the first successful brand in a market to create a clear positioning in the minds of target customers before the competition enters the market. There is plenty of evidence to support this. Think of some leading consumer product brands like Gillette, Coca Cola and Sellotape that, in many ways, defined the markets they operate in and continue to lead. However, being first into a market does not necessarily guarantee long-term success. Competitors drawn to the high growth and profit potential demonstrated by the

market-mover will enter the market and copy the best elements of the leaders brand (a good example is the way that Body Shop developed the ethical personal care market but were soon facing stiff competition from the major high street cosmetics retailers. Long-term perspective This leads onto another important factor in brand-building: the need to invest in the brand over the long-term. Building customer awareness, communicating the brands message and creating customer loyalty takes time. This means that management must invest in a brand, perhaps at the expense of short-term profitability. Internal marketing Finally, management should ensure that the brand is marketed internally as well as externally. By this we mean that the whole business should understand the brand values and positioning. This is particularly important in service businesses where a critical part of the brand value is the type and quality of service that a customer receives. Think of the brands that you value in the restaurant, hotel and retail sectors. It is likely that your favourite brands invest heavily in staff training so that the face-toface contact that you have with the brand helps secure your loyalty.

Brands - Positioning and Market mapping


Once an entrepreneur has identified an appropriate segment of the market to target, the challenge is to positionthe product so that it meets the needs and wants of the target customers. One way to do this is to use a market map (you might also see this called by its proper name the perceptual map). The market map illustrates the range of positions that a product can take in a market based on two dimensions that are important to customers. Examples of those dimensions might be:

High price v low price Basic quality v High quality Low volume v high volume Necessity v luxury Light v heavy Simple v complex

Lo-tech v high-tech Young v Old

Lets look at an illustrated example of a market map. The map below shows one possible way in which the chocolate bar market could be mapped against two dimensions quality and price:

How might a market map be used? One way is to identify where there are gaps in the market where there are customer needs that are not being met. For example, in the chocolate bar market, Divine Chocolate (a social enterprise) successfully spotted that some consumers were prepared to pay a premium price for very high quality chocolate made from Fairtrade cocoa. Green & Blacks exploited the opportunity to sell premium chocolate made from organic ingredients. Both these brands successfully moved into the high quality / high price quadrant (see above) before too many competitors beat them to it. The trick with a market map is to ensure that market research confirms whether or not there is actually any demand for a possible gap in the market. There may be very good reasons why consumers do not want to buy a product that might, potentially, fill a gap.

Brands - Brand names


Introduction

How should brand names be chosen? Is the name important? Marketing theory suggests that there are three main types of brand name: (1) Family brand names: A family brand name is used for all products. By building customer trust and loyalty to the family brand name, all products that use the brand can benefit. Good examples include brands in the food industry, including Kelloggs, Heinz and Del Monte. Of course, the use of a family brand can also create problems if one of the products gets bad publicity or is a failure in a market. This can damage the reputation of a whole range of brands. (2) Individual brand names: An individual brand name does not identify a brand with a particular company. For example, take the case of Heinz. Heinz is a leading global food manufacturer with a very strong family brand. However, it also operates many well-known individual brand names. Examples include Farleys (baby food), Linda MacCartney Foods (vegetarian meals) and Weight Watchers Foods (diet/slimming meals and supplements). Why does Heinz use individual brand names when it has such a strong family brand name? There are several reasons why a brand needs a separate identity unrelated to the family brand name: The product may be competing in a new market segment where failure could harm the main family brand name The family brand name may be positioned inappropriately for the target market segment. For example the family brand name might be positioned as an upmarket brand for affluent consumers. The brand may have been acquired; in other words it has already established itself as a leading brand in the market segment. The fact that it has been acquired by a company with a strong family brand name does not mean that the acquired brand has to be changed. (3) Combination brand names: A combination brand name brings together a family brand name and an individual brand name. The idea here is to provide some association for the product with a strong family brand name but maintaining some distinctiveness so that customers know what they are getting.

Examples of combination brand names include Microsoft XP and Microsoft Office in personal computing software and Heinz Tomato Ketchup and Heinz Pet Foods. What are the features of a good brand name? Brand names should be chosen carefully since the name conveys a lot of information to a customer. The following list contains considerations that should be made before making a final choice of brand name: A good brand name should: Evoke positive associations Be easy to pronounce and remember Suggest product benefits Be distinctive Use numerals when emphasising technological features Not infringe existing registered brand names

Brands - Brand extension and brand stretching

Marketers have long recognised that strong brand names that deliver higher sales and profits (i.e. those that have brand equity) have the potential to work their magic on other products. The two options for doing this are usually called brand extension and brand stretching. Brand extension Brand extension refers to the use of a successful brand name to launch a new or modified product in a same broad market. A successful brand helps a company enter new product categories more easily. For example, Fairy (owned by Unilever) was extended from a washing up liquid brand to become a washing powder brand too. The Lucozade brand has undergone a very successful brand extension from childrens health drink to an energy drink and sports drink. Brand stretching Brand stretching refers to the use of an established brand name for products in unrelated markets.

For example the move by Yamaha (originally a Japanese manufacturer of motorbikes) into branded hi-fi equipment, pianos and sports equipment. When done successfully, brand extension can have several advantages: Distributors may perceive there is less risk with a new product if it carries a familiar brand name. If a new food product carries the Heinz brand, it is likely that customers will buy it Customers will associate the quality of the established brand name with the new product. They will be more likely to trust the new product. The new product will attract quicker customer awareness and willingness to trial or sample the product Promotional launch costs (particularly advertising) are likely to be substantially lower.

Brands - Types of Brand


Types of brand There are two main types of brand manufacturer brands and own-label brands. Manufacturer brands Manufacturer brands are created by producers and bear their chosen brand name. The producer is responsible for marketing the brand. The brand is owned by the producer. By building their brand names, manufacturers can gain widespread distribution (for example by retailers who want to sell the brand) and build customer loyalty (think about the manufacturer brands that you feel loyal to). Own label brands Own-label brands are created and owned by businesses that operate in the distribution channel often referred to as distributors. Often these distributors are retailers, but not exclusively. Sometimes the retailers entire product range will be own-label. However, more often, the distributor will mix own-label and manufacturers brands. The major supermarkets (e.g. Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys) are excellent examples of this. Own-label branding if well carried out can often offer the consumer excellent value for money and provide the distributor with additional bargaining power when it comes to negotiating prices and terms with manufacturer brands.

Why should businesses try to build their brands? There are many advantages to businesses that build successful brands. These include: Customer loyalty Higher Higher Better profit prices margins distribution

Businesses that operate successful brands are also much more likely to enjoy higher profits. A brand is created by augmenting a core product with distinctive values that distinguish it from the competition. This is the process of creating brand value. All products have a series of core benefits benefits that are delivered to all consumers. For example: Watches CD-players Toothpaste helps Garages dispense petrol. tell play prevent tooth the time CDs decay

Consumers are rarely prepared to pay a premium for products or services that simply deliver core benefits they are the expected elements of that justify a core price. Successful brands are those that deliver added value in addition to the core benefits. These added values enable the brand to differentiate itself from the competition. When done well, the customer recognises the added value in an augmented product and chooses that brand in preference. For example, a consumer may be looking for reassurance or a guarantee of quality in a situation where he or she is unsure about what to buy. A brand like Mercedes, Sony or Microsoft can offer this reassurance or guarantee. Alternatively, the consumer may be looking for the brand to add meaning to his or her life in terms of lifestyle or personal image. Brands such as Nike, Porsche or Timberland do this. A brand can usefully be represented in the classic fried-egg format shown below, where the brand is shown to have core features that are surrounded (or augmented) by less tangible features.

buyer behaviour - introduction


Introduction An important part of the marketing process is to understand why a customer or buyer makes a purchase. Without such an understanding, businesses find it hard to respond to the customers needs and wants. Marketing theory traditionally splits analysis of buyer or customer behaviour into two broad groups for analysis Consumer Buyers and Industrial Buyers Consumer buyers are those who purchase items for their personal consumption

Industrial buyers are those who purchase items on behalf of their business or organisation Businesses now spend considerable sums trying to learn about what makes customers tick. The questions they try to understand are: Who buys? How do they buy? When do they buy? Where do they buy? Why do they buy? For a marketing manager, the challenge is to understand how customers might respond to the different elements of the marketing mix that are presented to them. If management can understand these customer responses better than competition, then it is a potentially significant source of competitive advantage. the

Buyer behaviour - Types of Cultural / Social influences


Cultural factors have a significant impact on customer behaviour. Culture is the most basic cause of a persons wants and behaviour. Growing up, children learn basic values, perception and wants from the family and other important groups. Marketing are always trying to spot cultural shifts which might point to new products that might be wanted by customers or to increased demand. For example, the cultural shift towards greater concern about health and fitness has created opportunities (and now industries) servicing customers who wish to buy: Low calorie foods Health club memberships Exercise equipment Activity or health-related holidays etc. Similarly the increased desire for leisure time has resulted in increased demand for convenience products and services such as microwave ovens, ready meals and direct marketing service businesses such as telephone banking and insurance. Each culture contains sub-cultures groups of people with share values. Subcultures can include nationalities, religions, racial groups, or groups of people sharing the same geographical location. Sometimes a sub-culture will create a substantial and distinctive market segment of its own.

For example, the youth culture or club culture has quite distinct values and buying characteristics from the much older gray generation Similarly, differences in social class can create customer groups. In fact, the official six social classes in the UK are widely used to profile and predict different customer behaviour. In the UKs socioeconomic classification scheme, social class is not just determined by income. It is measured as a combination of occupation, income, education, wealth and other variables: Class name A B C1 C2 D E Social Status Upper middle Occupational Head of Household % of UK Population 3 14 27 25 19 12

Higher managerial, administrative or professional Intermediate managerial, Middle administrative or professional Superiors or clerical, junior Lower middle managerial, administrative or professional Skilled working Skilled manual workers Semi-skilled and un-skilled manual Working workers Those at lowest level State pensioners or widows, casual or of subsistence lower-grade workers

buyer behaviour - social factors


Introduction A customers buying behaviour is also influenced by social factors, such as the groups to which the customer belongs and social status. In a group, several individuals may interact to influence the purchase decision. The typical roles in such a group decision can be summarised as follows: Initiator The person who first suggests or thinks of the idea of buying a particular product or service Influencer

A person whose view or advice influences the buying decision Decider The individual with the power and/or financial authority to make the ultimate choice regarding which product to buy Buyer The person who concludes the transaction User The person (or persons) who actually uses the product or service

The family unit is usually considered to be the most important buying organisation in society. It has been researched extensively. Marketers are particularly interested in the roles and relative influence of the husband, wife and children on the purchase of a large variety of products and services. There is evidence that the traditional husband-wife buying roles are changing. Almost everywhere in the world, the wife is traditionally the main buyer for the family, especially in the areas of food, household products and clothing. However, with increasing numbers of women in full-time work and many men becoming home workers (or telecommuting) the traditional roles are reversing. The challenge for a marketer is to understand how this might affect demand for products and services and how the promotional mix needs to be changed to attract male rather than female buyers.

Buyer behaviour - The decision-making process


How do customers buy? Research suggests that customers go through a five-stage decision-making process in any purchase. This is summarised in the diagram below:

This model is important for anyone making marketing decisions. It forces the marketer to consider the whole buying process rather than just the purchase decision (when it may be too late for a business to influence the choice!) The model implies that customers pass through all stages in every purchase. However, in more routine purchases, customers often skip or reverse some of the stages. For example, a student buying a favourite hamburger would recognise the need (hunger) and go right to the purchase decision, skipping information search and evaluation. However, the model is very useful when it comes to understanding any purchase that requires some thought and deliberation. The buying process starts with need recognition. At this stage, the buyer recognises a problem or need (e.g. I am hungry, we need a new sofa, I have a headache) or responds to a marketing stimulus (e.g. you pass Starbucks and are attracted by the aroma of coffee and chocolate muffins). An aroused customer then needs to decide how much information (if any) is required. If the need is strong and there is a product or service that meets the need close to hand, then a purchase decision is likely to be made there and then. If not, then the process of information search begins.

A customer can obtain information from several sources: Personal sources: family, friends, neighbours etc Commercial sources: advertising; salespeople; retailers; dealers; packaging; pointof-sale displays Public sources: newspapers, radio, television, consumer organisations; specialist magazines Experiential sources: handling, examining, using the product The usefulness and influence of these sources of information will vary by product and by customer. Research suggests that customers value and respect personal sources more than commercial sources (the influence of word of mouth). The challenge for the marketing team is to identify which information sources are most influential in their target markets. In the evaluation stage, the customer must choose between the alternative brands, products and services. How does the customer use the information obtained? An important determinant of the extent of evaluation is whether the customer feels involved in the product. By involvement, we mean the degree of perceived relevance and personal importance that accompanies the choice. Where a purchase is highly involving, the customer is likely to carry out extensive evaluation. High-involvement purchases include those involving high expenditure or personal risk for example buying a house, a car or making investments. Low involvement purchases (e.g. buying a soft drink, choosing some breakfast cereals in the supermarket) have very simple evaluation processes. Why should a marketer need to understand the customer evaluation process? The answer lies in the kind of information that the marketing team needs to provide customers in different buying situations. In high-involvement decisions, the marketer needs to provide a good deal of information about the positive consequences of buying. The sales force may need to stress the important attributes of the product, the advantages compared with the competition; and maybe even encourage trial or sampling of the product in the hope of securing the sale. Post-purchase evaluation - Cognitive Dissonance

The final stage is the post-purchase evaluation of the decision. It is common for customers to experience concerns after making a purchase decision. This arises from a concept that is known as cognitive dissonance. The customer, having bought a product, may feel that an alternative would have been preferable. In these circumstances that customer will not repurchase immediately, but is likely to switch brands next time. To manage the post-purchase stage, it is the job of the marketing team to persuade the potential customer that the product will satisfy his or her needs. Then after having made a purchase, the customer should be encouraged that he or she has made the right decision.

buyer behaviour - new products


Customer buying process for new products How do customers approach the process of buying a new product? How does this differ from the process for buying a product which the customer has bought before? What is meant by a new product? A new product can be defined as: "A good, service or idea that is perceived by some potential customers as new. It may have been available for some time, but many potential customers have not yet adopted the product nor decided to become a regular user of the product" Research suggests that customers go through five stages in the process of adopting a new product or service: these are summarised below: (1) Awareness - the customer becomes aware of the new product, but lacks information about it (2) Interest - the customer seeks information about the new product (3) Evaluation - the customer considers whether trying the new product makes sense (4) Trial - the customer tries the new product on a limited or small scale to assess the value of the product (5) Adoption - the customer decides to make full and/or regular use of the new product What is the role of marketing in the process of new-product adoption?

A marketing team looking to successfully introduce a new product or service should think about how to help customers move through the five stages. For example, what kind of advertising or other promotional campaign can be employed to build customer awareness? If customers show a desire to trial or sample a product, how can this be arranged effectively? Research also suggests that customers can be divided into groups according to the speed with which they adopt new products. Rogers, in his influential work on the diffusion of innovations, suggested the following classification:

The innovators (those who adopt new products first) are usually relatively young, lively, intelligent, socially and geographically mobile. They are often of a high socioeconomic group (ABs). Conversely, the laggards (those who adopt last, if at all) tend to be older, less intelligent, less well-off and lower on the socioeconomic scale. It follows from the above model that when a business launches a new product or service, the customers who buy first are likely to be significantly different from those who buy the product much later. This needs to be borne in mind when developing the marketing mix.

buyer behaviour - stimulus-response model


Introduction A well-developed and tested model of buyer behaviour is known as the stimulusresponse model, which is summarised in the diagram below:

In the above model, marketing and other stimuli enter the customers black box and produce certain responses. Marketing management must try to work out what goes on the in the mind of the customer the black box. The Buyers characteristics influence how he or she perceives the stimuli; the decision-making process determines what buying behaviour is undertaken. Characteristics that affect customer behaviour The first stage of understanding buyer behaviour is to focus on the factors that determine he buyer characteristics in the black box. These can be summarised as follows:

Each of these factors is discussed in more detail in our other revision notes on buyer behaviour.

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