Marketing 4.0 Summary

[Guilleuma Deeken]

Plandirect, or coordinate marketing policies and programs, such as determining the demand for products and services offered by a firm and its competitors, and identify potential customers. Develop pricing strategies with the goal of maximizing the firm's profits or share of the market while ensuring the firm's customers are satisfied. Oversee product development or monitor trends that indicate the need for new products and services.

Sample of reported job titles:Account Supervisor, Brand Manager, Business Development Director, Business Development Manager, Commercial Lines Manager, Market Development Executive, Marketing Coordinator, Marketing Director, Marketing Manager, Product Manager

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Marketing refers to business activities associated with communicating, advertising, delivering, or selling products or services to customers. A company undertakes the activities to promote the sale of a product or service to the target audience.

A well-thought-out and focused marketing plan will help the company keep its marketing efforts centered on the target market and consistently bring in more sales. It should cover the entire process from product creation, distribution methods, sales, and advertising methods.

With the introduction of TV and the internet, companies became more creative in how they communicated product information to consumers. They conducted marketing campaigns across multiple platforms as advertisers competed to outdo other competing products in the market and get customers interested in their products. The marketing information should not only be promotional but also educational to convert more potential customers into successful leads.

Traditional marketing refers to any marketing channels that existed before the advent of the internet. Examples of traditional marketing channels include print, telephone books, direct mail, phone, radio, and TV.

The channels above charge a fee that corresponds to the size of the ad, and it helps reach the targeted audience. Traditional marketing is considered one of the oldest marketing methods, and it is important when an advertiser wants to reach the local audience.

Digital marketing is the opposite of traditional marketing, and it leverages the internet to reach the target audience. The main forms of digital marketing include search engine marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, PPC advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), etc.

Digital marketing enjoys an advantage over traditional marketing because businesses can control what and how their target audiences see their ads, and they can measure the results of their advertisements in real-time.

The relationship marketing strategy focuses on enhancing existing customer relationships to build customer loyalty and long-term engagement. The purpose of relationship building is to create stronger emotional connections between the customer and the brand as a way of maintaining formidable customer relationships. Without building relationships with existing customers, existing customers may look for alternative brands that offer better customer service.

Focusing on relationship marketing helps a business retain customers in the long-term and focus its efforts on creating new products or features that meet the arising needs of the consumer. Companies can leverage technology to offer specialized ads, deals, and better service to existing customers as an appreciation of their loyalty.

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Marketing management is the art and science of choosing target markets and building profitable relationships with them. The aim is to find, attract, keep and grow the targeted customers by creating and delivering superior customer value. The target audience can be selected by dividing the market into customer segments (market segmentation) and selecting which segments to go after (target marketing). A company must also decide how to serve the targeted audience, by offering a value proposition. A value proposition is the set of benefits or values a company promises to deliver.

A marketing strategy outlines which customers it will serve and how it will create value. The marketer develops an integrated marketing plan that will deliver value to customers. It contains the marketing mix: the tools used to implement the strategy, which are the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion.

When building relationships, it is important to build the right relationships with the right customers. Customers can be high- or low-profitable and short-term or long-term oriented. When putting these on two axes, a matrix of four terms appears.

Web 1.0 connects people with information, Web 2.0 connected people with people and the upcoming Web 3.0 puts information and people connections together into a more usable Internet experience. Because of globalisation, companies are now globally connected with their customers. Current times also involve more sustainable marketing practices, involving corporate ethics and social responsibility.

Based on this, the management must plan the business portfolio: the collection of businesses and products that make up the company. Portfolio analysis is the process by which management evaluates the products and businesses that make up the company. The first step is identifying the strategic business units (SBU) that are vital to the company. The well-known model of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) sorts the SBUs into a growth-share matrix, leading to four types of SBUs:

Designing the business portfolio also means looking at future businesses. The product/market expansion grid is a portfolio-planning tool for identifying company growth opportunities through:

Marketing strategy is the marketing logic by which the company hopes to create customer value and achieve profitable customer relationships. The company must choose which customers to serve and how to serve them. This process involves four steps:

Market segmentation: dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who have different, needs, characteristics or behaviour and who might require separate products or marketing programmes. A market segment is a group of consumers who respond in a similar way to a given set of marketing efforts.

The marketing mix is the set of tactical marketing tools: product, price, place and promotion, that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market. Product refers to the combination of goods and service the firm offers. Price is the amount the customer pays to obtain the product. Place refers to the availability of the product. Promotion relates to the activities that communicate the benefits of the product.

Nowadays, marketers need to back up their spending by measurable results. The return on marketing investment (marketing ROI) is the net return from a marketing investment divided by the costs of the marketing investment. The marketing ROI measures the profits generated by investments in marketing activities and can be a helpful tool, but is also difficult to measure.

The microenvironment consists of the actors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers, such as: the company itself and its subdivisions and suppliers that provide the resources the firm needs to produce its products.

But also of marketing intermediaries, which are firms that help the company to promote, sell and distribute its goods to final buyers. Resellers are distribution channel firms. Physical distribution firms help the company stock goods, while marketing service agencies are marketing research firms. Financial intermediaries include banks and credit companies.

Finally, customers are the most important actors. Consumers markets consist of individuals that buy goods for personal consumption. Business markets buy goods for usage in production processes, while reseller markets buy to resell at a profit. Government markets consist of buyers who use the product for public service, and international markets consist of all these types of markets across the border.

Changes can also be found in the family structure. The traditional western household (husband, wife and children) is no longer typical. People marry later and divorce more. There is an increased number of working women and youngsters tend to stay at home longer. The workforce is also aging, because people need to work beyond the previous retirement age. There are also geographic shifts, such as migration. These movements in population lead to opportunities for marketing niche products and services. There are also migration movements within countries, namely from the rural to urban areas, also called urbanisation.

The economic environment consists of economic factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns. Countries vary in characteristics, some can be considered industrial economies, while others can be subsistence economies, consuming most of their own output. In between are developing economies that offer marketing opportunities. The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries are a leading group of fast expanding nations.

The natural environment involves natural resources that are needed as inputs by marketers or that are affected by marketing activities. Changes in this environment involve an increase in shortage of raw materials, increased pollution and increased governmental intervention. Environmental sustainability involves developing strategies and practices that create a world economy that the planet can support indefinitely.

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