How should a company make itself successful in the target market?
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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.
It is also noted that, customers, most of them, try the products that cost less and deliver high value. Though this is not always true. There may be many reasons that the product sales doesn’t occur as expected-
- Some customers feel that a low cost product has poor quality.
- Brand loyal customers or super consumers don’t switch brands
- Customers not aware about a product they need in available (poor promotion)
- Product not available in the market (poor distribution network)
Positioning of the product needs to be done smartly in the target market by identifying the needs and wants. Once a product is created, the target market should be made aware of the availability of the product. There are many permutation and combinations for individual target market. How the target customers spend, what is the average age of the customers, are they early adopters, innovators, early majority customers, etc.
Positioning and Differentiation has been discussed under chapter “Product, New Product Development and Product strategies”, kindly check-
Explain Product Positioning and Product differentiation.
The organisation should check which promotion tool will have maximum impact in the target market to create awareness about the product- advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, or direct marketing. Each marketing tool has its advantages and disadvantage. Marketers should carefully select the promotion too.
Elements of Promotion mix –
The marketing promotion mix has five major tools/ elements – Advertising, sales promotion, publicity, personal selling, and direct marketing.
Advertising – It is communicating with paid media and non-personal means.
Advertising is paying for disseminating a message from an identified brand to the market audience.
There is no face-to-face communication between seller and buyer. It can be audio based, video based, print based, etc. It is a means of mass selling and the audience clearly perceive the source of the message to a particular organisation. The typical mode that organisations utilise are Television advertisements, newspaper, magazines, hoardings, internet, email, radio, leaflets, etc. Advertising is a very effective tool for a large customer base. Each advertising medium has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, an advertising on Television may not be viewed by majority of customers if it is done on a TV channel that is not viewed by all. Examples- Television, magazine, websites, newspaper, magazines, hoardings, internet, email, radio, leaflets, etc.
Publicity – It is a non-personal promotion tool which is utilised to create favourable image about a company, its products, or its policies. The objective is to create goodwill in the market. This way a demand for the product is created by placing commercially favourable news in publication or news, radio, television, etc. for which the sponsor has not explicitly paid. It is an activity of gaining media attention and visibility in the audience.
Example- a campaign to collect funds for donating to poor, blood donation drives by an organisation, eco-friendly infrastructure of the manufacturing unit reported in magazine, etc.
Personal Selling – 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. This mode helps the seller to come in direct contact with the buyer. It is carried out by the sales people or agents of the seller and can have one or more prospect buyers. It is a personal conversation and may not result in sales but the organisation is greatly benefitted by getting first had information from the customers (interested or not, feedback, expectations, etc.)
Example, sales representatives from an organisation personally meeting potential buyers by visiting their offices, homes.
Sales promotion – Sales promotion forms all the promotion activities other than personal selling, advertising, direct selling, and public relations. It covers non-personal and non-media activities like free samples, coupons, rebates, discounts, etc. Sales promotions are used to stimulate purchasing and sales by way of giving incentives or offers. Here, the objectives are to increase sales by informing potential customers about new products. The potential buyers know the source of the message as the organisation arranging the activity.
Examples: discounts, rebates, contests, coupons, product samples, point-of-purchase displays, price promotion signs, coupons, exhibitions, setting kiosks in malls, displays, free samples, gifts, etc.
Direct Marketing – Here individual or group of prospects are targeted instead of targeting the masses. The goal is to generate sales or leads for sales representatives to pursue. If the customer is interested, he/ she can directly contact the concerned department or person through the contact information given with the message. 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
Each of these have been discussed in detail with media options available under each of these promotion elements in chapters-
Discuss the advertising media, its types and advantages.
What are the different Sales Promotion tools?
Explain Marketing Public Relations. What are common Public Relation tools?
What are major Direct Marketing tools or channels?
Sales Force Management (Personal Selling)
This has to be supported by good aftersales service and product availability. The organisations invest heavily in making a product of customer’s choice. If the organisation doesn’t make arrangements to deliver or make it available to prospective buyers at the right time and the right place, it is sure to fail in the market.
Studies have proved that a business fails if it doesn’t maintain good relations with their existing customers. An organisation cannot survive in the competitive environment by doing a good job. It has to strive continuously to do an excellent job and provide value to customers better than the competitors. The firm cannot survive by making a sale to a customer. It has to forge a relationship with the customer to ensure that there are repeated sales from him/ her. The long-lasting relationship is beneficial for both the organisation as well as the customer.
Customer Relationship Management has been discussed in detail under-