Personal selling is a face-to-face communication between seller and buyer to make a sale. Simply put, Personal selling is selling personally. A personal presentation or demo is given by the seller to the potential buyer.

In Direct marketing too, an individual or group of prospects are targeted but it doesn’t involves a face-to-face interaction, and the sales efforts are not as forceful or intense as compared to Personal selling. Direct marketing allows a business to engage in one-way communication with its customers. It helps organisations inform the prospective buyers about product announcements, special promotions, etc.Examples: direct mail, e-mail, apps, telephone calls (telemarketing), catalogues, fliers, promotional letters,` etc.

We will discuss Personal selling and Direct marketing in detail along with their advantages and disadvantages.

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Marketing is an art of getting products and services created, priced, communicated, and delivered to potential consumers by meeting the objectives of the organisation.

To address “the types of marketing” question, we will consider marketingas activity for promoting the brand and products of a business for achieving market growth. Itcan be put into two types – Traditional marketing and Digital marketing. The tool of reaching the customer may overlap in these two types. For example, Internet as a tool is also used for Direct marketing purposes like email.

Before the advent of the internet, marketing involved pretty basic activities of communicating with the masses or individuals through TV, radio, personal selling, public relations, sales promotions and (mail) posts, tele-calling, catalogue marketing, etc.

We will discuss major Traditional marketing and Digital marketing types below –

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The organisation should have a strong foundation before it can build on the strategies of making the product and brand successful. Unless it understands the needs and wants of the target market, it will fail to create a product that will sell on its own. Once the target market is finalised, then the marketers should carry out research of finding the unfulfilled needs and wants. For example, when Motorola launched its moto G series in India, they had found that the average person wants a mobile phone that lies in-between the high-end as well as low-end offerings available in the market. Also, the product should have a brand recognition and value for money. After its launch the company went out of stock within 20 minutes of its launch.

The key is to differentiate your company’s product from that of competitors and invest in promotion program which should be effective as well as efficient. Taking the same example of Motorola’s moto G launch, the company made an exclusive contract to sell its products on ecommerce giant, Flipkart, which is well known for its reach in small towns across India with extremely efficient delivery service. This was supported by big advertisements on front pages of leading newspapers across India. This tie-up with Flipkart helped Motorola immensely. In-fact it started a new trend of signing exclusive launch of products through ecommerce sites. Many brands started following this strategy.

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Business buyers tend to buy all the products and services from one seller or few sellers. This benefits the organisation in many ways.

For Example,
1. It helps in cost reduction,
2. No over storage needed for emergencies,
3. Long term relationship brings effectiveness,
4. Less price fluctuation as contract signed over long period.

The decision making differs from organisation to organisation. Depending on the size of the organisation, the decisions can be made by different people. Decisions can be related toProduct characteristics, price negotiation, selecting a supplier, contract/ paperwork.For a small firm which has limited resources and small production unit, a single person like a Senior Production Manager can take all the decisions with the help from its staff.
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Competition is the rivalry between companies for market share in a target market where the customers have similar needs and wants.

A marketer’s job doesn’t ends at serving the needs and wants of the target customers. There may other companies as well who may see the same needs and wants. They may enter the same market with similar kind of products. The competition can be from an existing firm or the competitor may enter after the organisations product launch.

Competitor analysis forms an integral part of the marketing strategy. The analysis is based on the threats and opportunities basis the strengths and weaknesses of the existing or emerging competitors.

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This was developed by Harvard Business School’s Michael E. Porter in 1979. It is a method which answers questions about the competition.

The five forces model looks at five factors –

a) Threat of Substitute –
It is another form of product that will serve the same purpose. For example, a scooter with high fuel efficiency will be a substitute for a motorbike. A landline phone connection and a mobile phone are substitutes to each other. The entry or presence of substitutes will force the organisation to make changes in the marketing program (4P’s) like reducing prices, etc.

Substitutes pose threat because of –
• Price of the substitute
• Performance (for example, cassette and a CD, train and an aeroplane)
• Cost to the organisation for modifying the product or switching to the substitute with better performance, etc.

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Customers with similar needs and wants respond in a similar manner to a marketing offer. These customers form the target market for an organisation. Therefore, any offering in a market that serves the similar need and want is a competition to the firm which is trying to serve these customers. For example, Internet is a competition to news magazines, book publishers, and retail stores.

A firm faces competition from the industry as well as market. The firm needs to identify all forms of competition which is trying to make the most of the opportunities in the market. This can be from the industry as well as markets about which the firm might not be aware of. For example, solar water heaters are threat to manufacturers of electric water heaters. So the firm not only has to study the manufacturers making electric water heaters but also the strategies of solar water heater manufacturers.

Industry concept of competition or Brand Competition –

Industry is the group of organisations that offers products or services that serve the same needs and wants of the target market. These offerings can be similar to the company’s offering, or can be each other’s substitutes.  This concept is also referred as Brand competition wherein various brands with same product types compete against each other in the same market.

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An organisation gets a clear picture on the opportunities and threats once it does an analysis on the –

– Competitors current strengths and weaknesses
– Competitors future strategies basis the emerging market threats and opportunities

The following factors should be considered for understanding a competitor-
1) Current strategy on 4P’s – Information on Product, Price Place, and Promotion helps an organisation make changes to these to counter competition. The firm can invest in differentiation, positioning of the products and the brand differently. Information on the competitor product’s life cycle gives an idea on the future strategy that the competitor will adopt. Similarly, price changes can be done and distributor’s margins can be increased to garner distributors support.

2) Size, Growth, and Profitability – The recent and past records on sales and market share indicates the competitor as strong or weak. A strong competitor will generally have access to resources and will counter any threats in market strongly.

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Industry is the group of organisations that offers products or services that serve the same needs and wants of the target market. These offerings can be similar to the company’s offering, or can be each other’s substitutes.  This concept is also referred as Brand competition wherein various brands with same product types compete against each other in the same market.

The factors to be considered are –

• Industry size and growth gives the marketer an idea of the demand. Information on the sales, profits, costs, number of firms and employees helps a marketer do the analysis on the growth of the industry in recent years. The life cycle of the industry, demand in the market, and industry size help in formulating strong marketing strategies. The organisation should have concrete data on –
• Why are successful businesses in the industry successful?
• Why are unsuccessful businesses in the industry unsuccessful?
• Industry structure is the nature and competition intensity among the firms basis their numbers, their size, and differentiation of the offerings.
• Entry, Mobility and Exit barriers refer to the barriers a firm faces at different stages in the industry.

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The organisations try to enter international markets because of many reasons. If the domestic market is profitable and the organisation has a good market share, it would not like to take its business abroad. It is a challenge to learn the culture, habits, environment and needs of wants of target market in a different country. The organisation has to reinvest in designing marketing strategies, developing new or modified products for these new customers. But there are major factors that drive organisations to go international –

Market – First reason is lack of growth opportunities in the domestic market. To sustain its growth, an organisation moves to lure customers in more attractive markets. Since the organisation has a vast experience in marketing in domestic market, they rely heavily on the experience and brand value to enter new markets.

Competition – It is because of entry of competitors which can be domestic as well as international that an organisation sees no new customer base in the domestic market. The organisation tries to invest in an international market to maintain its profitability and counter competition. Sometimes the organisation enters into the competitor country. This helps reduce the organisations dependence on one market.

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