Most managers & marketing writers now distinguish between selling & marketing. The “selling concept” assumes that resisting consumer have to be persuaded by vigorous hard-selling techniques to buy non-essential goods or services. Products are sold rather then bought. The “marketing concept”, on the contrary, assumes that the producer’s task is to find wants & fill them. In other words, you don’t sell what you make, you make what will be bought. As well as satisfying existing needs, marketers can also anticipate 7 create new ones. The markets fro Walkman, video games, personal computers, & genetic engineering, to choose some recent examples, were largely created rather than identified.

Marketers are consequently always looking for market opportunities – profitable possibilities of filling unsatisfied needs or creating new ones in areas in which the company is likely to enjoy a differential advantage, due to its distinctive competencies (the things it does particularly well). Market opportunities are generally isolated by market segmentations. Once a target market has been identified, a company has to decide what goods or services to offer. This means that much of the work of marketing has been done before the final product or service come into existence. It also means that the marketing concept has to be understood throughout the company, e. g. in the production department of a manufacturing company as much as in the marketing department itself. The company must also take account of the existence of competitors, who always have to be identified, monitored & defeated in the search for loyal customers.

Rather than risk launching a product or service solely on the basis of intuition or guesswork, most companies undertake market research. They collect & analyze information about the size of a potential market, about consumers’ reactions to particular product or service features, & so on. Sales representatives, who also talk to customers, are another important source of information.

Once the basic offer, e. g. a product concept, has been established, the company has to think about the marketing mix, i. e. all the various elements of the marketing programme, their integration, & the amount of effort that the company can expend on them in order to influence the target market. The best-known classification of these elements is the “4 Ps”: product, place, promotion, & price. Aspects to be concerned in marketing products include quality, features (standards & optional), style, brand name, size, packaging, services & guarantee. Place in a marketing mix includes such factors as distributions channels, locations of points of sale, transport, inventory size, etc. Promotion groups together advertising, publicity, sales promotion, & personal selling, while price includes the basic list price, discounts, the length of payment period, possible credit terms, & so on. It’s a job of a product manager or a brand manager to look for ways to increase sales by changing the marketing mix.

It must be remembered that quite apart from consumer markets (in which people buy products for direct consumption) there exists an enormous producer or industrial or business market, consisting of all the individuals & organizations that acquire goods & services that are used in the production of other goods, on in the supply of services to others. Few consumers realize that the producer market is actually larger than consumer market, since it contains all the raw materials, manufactured parts & components that go into consumer goods, plus capital equipment such as buildings & machines, supplies such as energy & pens & papers, & services ranging from cleaning to management consulting, all of which have to be marketed. There is consequently more industrial that consumer marketing, even though ordinary consumer are seldom exposed to it.

Marketing is a new science. What has been around previously is the art of salesmanship. Salesmanship is the art of manufacturing something & making another person to want it. Marketing is the art of finding out what the other person wants, then manufacturing it for him.

In a market of multiple choice, it is no longer sufficient to produce a product 7 show your customers that it satisfies one of their basic needs. You must show them it provides benefits other products fail to provide, that it can be supplied at a competitive price & above all, supplied reliability. But in this fast-changing world, competitors catch up more quickly then ever.

Preferences that consumer have for this or that product work for shorter & shorter periods. Choice makes marketing work.

Companies need to be constantly engaged in product development, if they wish to grow & make profits.

Research is the basic tool of marketing. A marketer must determine what customers needs are. Marketing experts have developed techniques for determining the needs of prospective customers. It’s done by way of market segmentation.

How can market segmentation be of help to a manager who wants to develop a new product? Every market can be divided into segments or, in other words, into separate groups of consumers. First there are demographic factors like age, income, educational background, occupation, size of family, type of home & neighborhood, etc. Then there are psychographic factors – the customers’ opinions & interests, hobbies, vacations spots, favorite sports etc.

Then a product is compared with the goods already established in the market by quality or quantity standards. To be a success you must be ahead of your competitors.

Competition never stops. That is why market segmentation must never stop as well. It should be on a permanent basis. Introduction of a pioneer product cam immediately change the composition & number of a consumer grouping.

For nearly 150 years – up until the 1930s – Americans experienced a tremendous era of production. Automobiles, appliances, & wide variety of consumer goods were manufactured without a thought to what the consumer might actually want. The population was increasing dramatically & demand was high for all types of quality products. Industrialists thus perceived no need for products that were oriented toward consumer preferences. In the 1930s everything changed. The economy was rocked by a severe depression, & suddenly people could no longer afford many of the products that were being produced. To regain these lost sales & to find potential new markets, companies like General Motors & General Electric pioneered the marketing concept & launched America into an era of marketing. The American Association defines marketing as the “performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods & services from the producer to the consumer or user.” While modern marketing approaches first made an appearance in the 1920s & 1930s, it was not until the 1950s that the more sophisticated aspects like the marketing concept had fully evolved. Today marketing is easily as important as production.

The marketing concept implies that the decision-making process in production should begin with the customer. Modern businesses believe that profits can be maximized by creating products for which there is known demand. Thus, companies today are constantly looking for creative ideas that will meet specific consumer needs & wants.

Of course, nonprofit businesses such as charities, hospitals, universities, & museums can also use the marketing concept to advantage.

The marketing concept directly influences the functions of marketing. All marketing planning, or establishment of objectives & the steps necessary to achieve them, must consider how the marketing concept will affect these major specialized activities. There are seven functions of marketing:

1. Buying. Purchasing raw materials, products, &/or services for business, government, or consumer uses.
2. Selling. Finding prospective buyers, promoting goods &services through personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, & publicity, & providing post-purchase service.
3. Marketing research. Systematically gathering, recording, & analyzing data about problems related to the marketing of goods & services.
4. Transportation & storage. Providing vehicles such as rail or truck to get goods from the producer to the consumer, & storing these goods until the final sale if necessary.
5. Risk-taking. Using market research to avoid possible product or business failures, & shifting risk to insurance in cases such as fire, theft, & flood.
6. Finance & credit. Borrowing or obtaining necessary credit to fund operations.
7. Standardization & grading. Providing specifications so that the quantity & quality of goods can be controlled & compared.

Source by Michael Newman

If you work in a medium size or large organization then chances are that you would have heard the phrase ‘marketing communications’. It is the department that deals in handling all communications for the company. Depending on the kind of company and the industry they are in, this department is sometimes called the corporate communications or the product marketing division at times.

Marketing communications is nothing but the science and art of communicating information that the company wants to divulge to the public. The information could be related to the marketing of a product, talk about a new product launch or community initiatives taken by the company. The whole exercise is called a science and an art because though there are set rules and patterns to the manner in which communication should be drafted, the ability to communicate effectively is an art that only some can master. Even as just communicating may seem an easy task since that is what we do every day in our normal lives, there is a science behind what to communicate to whom and in what tone and manner. The process becomes more complex when the market to which one is communicating is an evolved market.

To give you an example of the underlying concepts of marketing communications let us consider the example of the promotional emails that we receive almost everyday. Any person who has some technology background will tell you that the communication is filled with embedded action scripts, flash, cookies and a lot of technological techniques to decipher your movement through the Internet. These are the best practices that are being used in marketing communications today.

These technological wonders enable the marketing professionals to track the navigation of the user through the sites. It registers whether you open the email or not and the activities that you undertake once you have reached the landing page. It measures the amount of time that you spend one each page, the links that you click on and therefore the products and options that you are interested in.

This information is then delivered to the marketing department where it is analyzed and a specific customized communication is created for the user. This tracking and monitoring has enabled marketing programs to become more result oriented and measurable. And it is now becoming a significant tool to justify marketing spends and link the increase in sales to marketing efforts directly.

Source by Ken Snow

Wondering How Many Seminar Registrations You Can Reasonably Expect for Your Promotional Efforts? Here’s What to Expect … and How to Increase Conversion

By Jenny Hamby, the Seminar Marketing Pro™

Certified Guerrilla Marketer and Direct-Response Copywriter

Have you fallen for the myth that your seminar-marketing campaign is a total failure if your response rate is less than 2 percent?

Well, guess what … it’s not uncommon to have a response rate of less than 1% when promoting a seminar. The higher your registration fee and the longer your event lasts, the lower response rate you’ll probably get.

The easiest and most economical way to boost your conversion rate is to focus on highly qualified prospects. Here’s an example.

For an introductory inventory management seminar, I sent a preliminary brochure to all segments of the client’s internal database that we suspected would have an interest in attending the event. The response rate was 1.32%, which soundly beat the client’s control.

When marketing the successive classes (there were 7 in all), we sent direct-mail solicitations only to people who had attended one or more of the previous classes or who had requested information about the events. (The class was promoted to other audiences via an organizational catalog, newsletters and press releases.) This was a safe and sound approach, because it made the most sense for prospects to take the courses sequentially; each course built upon the knowledge of the previous seminars.

The response rates on the successive classes were over 80% … because we focused our efforts on the most qualified prospects. Best of all, the client’s mailing costs plummeted to less than $100 per seminar.

To increase your own response rates, start by targeting qualified segments of your internal database, such as people who have attended related seminars in the past. Also consider establishing joint ventures with companies that already have a relationship with your audience, as well as renting mailing lists of people who have attended similar types of events.

Source by Jenny Hamby

Mobile marketing is marketing, which is in vogue across the world. This marketing form is mainly incorporated by means of the mobile phones in order to offer info, promote or advertise certain products or services. It spells a great worth to the product because of its ability to reach the right person at a right place and at a right time. Thus mobile marketing acts as an apt mode of promotion and permits the customers to get the right selection whenever they have the requirement. Thus businesses reap great benefit from it by getting the access to the hordes of targeted customers. The mobile phones have turned out to be one of the most essential accessories of your lives. Now, one can’t just think of leaving home without carrying one’s mobile. It is the communication gadget that assists you to stay connected throughout with family, friends and acquaintances. You can have correspondence with your near and dear ones by means of e-mails, text messages and hence wherever you are, the world is always with you. Therefore, it is just impossible to do without the small device called cell phone as otherwise you will be shattered as an entity in a far away islet.

When a device, as useful as mobile gets associated with the contemporary marketing techniques, then the consequences ought to be fantastic. Then it becomes a versatile gizmo-keeping people very much in touch and at the same time fulfilling all their requirements at the right time and the right place. Hence, mobile marketing enhances the rate of both convenience and affordability. Mobile marketing always performs the right thing at the right place. It has a limitless approach in rendering the right set of action to promote a business. The mobile marketing through the mobile devices will be reliable and also be a dependable method to introduce your product or service to your target audience. It makes the person inform about the details of the product and also reaches countless hands. This makes it perfect for the mobile marketing companies to promote their new product or services.

By mobile SMS marketing one will be able to send more messages about the new product or service that would help the customer to make a decision. Sending mass alerts to such targeted audience will help the customers to understand more about their products and go forward to buy the product. This method of campaign keeps the customers informed about the happening within a short period of time. The mobile marketing is also effective tool to be used as a reminder for the customer who wishes to buy a product or use a service. The mobile marketing does boost your business and makes you reach more customers in short period of time within your budget.

Source by Harjeet

Nowadays, people choose medical practitioners based on their perceptions rather than relying on endorsements from local authorities and so on.  It has become increasingly important for doctors to market their medical practices in order to build their brand, reach out to new patients, and increase business from current patients.

No matter how great of a doctor you are, your skills will mean little if no one knows you are out there.  Some doctors are reluctant to embrace marketing strategy because they think that being a great doctor is all you need to do in order to find new patients and keep your current ones.  However, the truth is that visibility is incredibly important in this competitive marketplace.  The only way to achieve visibility is through launching a medical marketing campaign.  Here are the 5 Ps of medical marketing.

1. Product

The product of a medical practice is the service you are offering your patients.  For example, if you are a cosmetic surgeon, your product is the cosmetic operations and treatments you offer.  The atmosphere of your practice is also important.  It is crucial to make a very good first impression so when patients come to your practice, you must ensure that the atmosphere of your practice is relaxing, comforting, and friendly.  Make sure that your practice is clean, well-maintained, and well-lit.  The colors of your décor and the lighting can make a massive difference in the way patients perceive your practice.  Although the most important aspect of your product is providing excellent cosmetic operations and treatments, you have to give the overall impression that your practice is ideal for your target market.

1. Price

The price of your products is not only what you charge for your services – it is also defined by the perceived value of your services.  The expectations of your customers will depend on the price you charge.  For example, if you go to a five-star restaurant, you expect to receive top level service and food.  If you service you receive at the five-star restaurant is comparable to the service you would receive at a fast food restaurant, and the food is mediocre at best, you will be disappointed and feel that you did not receive the perceived value of the product.  This will probably lead you to tell everyone you know to avoid the restaurant.  Likewise, people will spread the word that your practice should be avoided if you do not live up to the perceived value of your product.  On the other hand, when your service matches its price, you will get a lot of word-of-mouth referrals.  This provides you with free viral marketing benefits for your practice.

1. Place

The place of your medical practice is where it is located.  The location of your practice is essential to your success.  Factors such as its visibility and whether or not there is public transport that takes patients there will make a big difference in how many new patients you can attract on a consistent basis.  If there are any logistical challenges that get in the way of patients arriving at your practice, try to eliminate them if possible.  If your practice is far away and hard to get to for the majority of your target market, you may want to consider relocating, unless you offer such highly specialized services that people would be willing to travel far to receive them.

1. Position

Your position in your market is defined by the competitive advantages you offer.  What makes your practice unique and stand out from the rest?  You must define your unique position in your market in order to develop an effective marketing plan.  Your perception of your practice may be very different from how your patients perceive it.  Determine how your patients perceive your medical practice in comparison to competing medical practices by doing surveys and providing them with feedback cards.

1. Promotion

Although many people mistakenly believe that medical marketing is solely about promotion, the truth is that promotion should be the very last step in your marketing campaign.  In order to promote your practice successfully, you have to plan extensively.  The first 4 Ps are very important and must come first because they help you determine your competitive advantage and which areas of your practice you need to change or improve.  Promotion of your medical practice involves a combination of PR, advertising, and direct marketing.  Promotion requires a lot of resources so it is very important to plan carefully in order to ensure that you get a high ROI on your medical marketing campaign.

Once you define what the 5 Ps of your medical practice are, you need to find a professional medical marketing firm that can help you put your plan into action and build a highly successful medical marketing campaign.  There are several medical marketing firms to choose from so your best bet is to narrow down your choices and compare them based on the results of their previous campaigns.  Results must be measurable so you can be sure that the firm will be able to live up to their promises.

Source by johnwhites