4.2 Flashcards
what is marketing planning?
Marketing planningis a process where a company must decide which marketing strategies will be the proper ones to attain their corporate and strategic objectives. It requires an analysis and information about a particular market. To achieve this, we need to formulate a “marketing plan”.
what is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is the document that outlines the firm’s marketing objectives and the marketing strategies to be used to achieve these objectives.
what conpotnets make up a market plan?
Marketing objectives – they need to be SMART (i.e. increasing sales in 10% by the end of the year)
Strategic plans – steps to be taken to achieve the objectives
Detailed marketing actions – specific marketing activities to be carried out (i.e. pricing strategies)
The marketing budget - funds required for the marketing strategy
Some companies also include a marketing audit in their marketing plan which is basically an examination of the current climate in which the business operates. Market research plays a key role in this investigation.
what are the benifits of market planning?
Identifies needs and wants of consumers and determines the demand for product
Identifies new and/or potential customers
Improves coordination between departments in the firm
Improves motivation and staff confidence
what are the limmitations of makket planning?
It is time-consuming and costly
If the firm uses improperly analysed data, it leads to faulty marketing decisions
Creates unrealistic financial projections if information is interpreted incorrectly, this could lead to the wrong marketing decisions
Identifies weaknesses in the firm overall business plan which might create additional problems once the marketing decision have been made.
what is a market segment?and hence, what is market segmentation?
A market segment is a sub-group of consumers with similar characteristics in each market. Hence, a market segmentation is the process of dividing the market into smaller or distinct groups of consumers with the aim to meet their needs and wants.
Markets could be segmented Demographically, Geographically or Psychographic.
what is a demographic segment?
Demographic Segmentation – refers to marketsegmentation according to age, race, religion, gender, family size, ethnicity, income, and education.Demographicscan be segmentedinto several markets to help an organization target its consumers more accurately.
what is a geographic segment?
happens when a business divides its market on the basis ofgeography. You can geographically segmenta market by area, such as cities, counties, regions, countries, and international regions. You can also break a market down into rural, suburban and urban areas to identify consumers more accurately.
what are psychographic segmentation
Psychographic Segmentation – it involves dividing the market into segments based upon different personality characteristics, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles of consumers. The advantage of thissegmentationis that it allows the firm to engage in product design and marketing in a focused manner.
what are some advantages of makret segmentation?
The firm can spot and compare marketing opportunities examining the needs of each segment and determine to what extent the current offering satisfies these needs. Segments which have low level of satisfaction from current offerings represent excellent opportunities for the firm.
The firm can modify its product/service since marketing appeals to suit the target segment
Segmentation facilitates setting up of realistic selling targets and priorities
Management can identify new profitable segments which deserve special attention
Appropriate service packages can be developed for each market segment
what are the disadvantges of makret segmentation?
Larger inventory (stock) must be maintained by both the manufacturer and the distributors
Promotion and distribution expenditures increase when separate programmes are used for different market segments
Segmentation increases costs. When a firm attempts to serve several market segments they produce more and hence increase their cost of production
When characteristics of a market segment change, investment made already might become useless
what is a target market?
Atarget marketis themarketa firm wants to sell its products and/or services to. It includes atargetedset of customers for whom it directs itsmarketingefforts. Hence, targeting is the process of marketing to a specific market segment
why do we need to idenity a target market, and what startagies can be used?
Identifying thetarget marketis an essential step in the development of amarketing plan. A firm can use these strategies: mass marketing (undifferentiated marketing), segmented marketing (differentiated marketing) and niche marketing (concentrated marketing)
what is mass marketing?
Mass marketing (undifferentiated marketing) - when a firm decides to ignoremarket segment differences and appeals to the wholemarketwith one offer or one strategy, with the aim to reach the largest number of people possible, sell more products and hence have a larger profit.
what is segmented marketing?
Segmented marketing (Differentiated marketing) - is the process of dividing an entiremarketup into different customersegments. Targeting or targetmarketingthen decides which potential customersegmentsthe company will focus on. Segmented firms aim to get a stronger position in their segments
what is niche marketing?
Niche marketing (concentrated marketing) - Where a business targets a smaller segment of a larger market, where customers have specific needs and wants. Firm can market their products more efficiently and effectively by targeting the consumers they can serve best and hence get more profit
what is postitioning?
Positioning is defined as an effort to influence consumer perception of a brand or product relative to the perception of competing brands or products
what is positionings aim?
It aims to simplify the overwhelming information that costumers might face when making the decision to buy a product. Therefore, marketers might plan a position that will give their products a competitive advantage in the market.
what is the ost useful tool in positiing?
Position (or perception) map – this is a visual representation of how the customer perceives a product in relation to other similar competing ones.
It is important to remember that this is all about ‘perception’ and perception differs from person to person, so do the results of the positioning map.
what acutally happens on a position map?
Products or services are ‘mapped’ together on a positioning map. This allows them to be compared and contrasted in relation to each other.
This is the main strength of this tool. Marketers decide upon a competitive position which enables them to distinguish their own products from the offerings of their competition.
The marketer would draw out the map and decide upon a label for each axis. They could bepriceand quality or comfort and price or fashion and price. The individual products are then mapped out next to each other and any gaps could be regarded as possible areas for new products.
outline the diffrances between niche and mas marketing?
Niche market – focuses on a small group of people who have specific needs and wants (i.e. gluten free products - crisps).
Mass market - focusses on a large and broad part of the market where there are many similar products on offer. Consumers, in this case are less specific about their needs (i.e. just crips!).
if you ahve a niche product what will the marketing have to be and what are some examples?
Niche- Advertising in Health Magazines
Placing the products in “free from” in a supermarket
Make deals with doctors to “recommend” our brand
if you have a mass product wht will the marketing have to be and what are some examples?
Since this is not “specific” for customers we can use TV adds, Billboards, flyers etc.
what is a unique selling point?
Unique selling point (USP) – refers to any aspect of a business, product or brand that makes it stand out from the competition.
The concept of a USP is one of the basics of effective marketing that has stood the test of time. It could be a lower price, a smaller version of the product, offering extra functions, or even simply producing a standard product in a range of colours or designs.
A business needs to look at its USPs compared to competitors. If it doesn’t have any, the business will probably struggle to make the product seem attractive to customers
