Marketing Research

Marketing Basics

As an individual,student,professional you must have heard the term "Marketing" innumerable times. So lets understand what "Marketing" means. Does it mean 1.Selling Product or service to people 2.Shopping 3.Visiting Markets 4.Door to Door Sales or something else. Most people would understand "Marketing" as a selling mechanism.Many people would loathe "Marketing" as it involves selling,targets,hiring and firing etc etc. Infact it is beyond all this,a different plane altogether,which we will explore in subsequent sections Def: The term marketing has changed and evolved over a period of time, today marketing is based around providing continual benefits to the customer, these benefits will be provided and a transactional exchange will take place. The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as The management process responsible for identifying , anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably If we look at this definition in more detail Marketing is a management responsibility and should not be solely left to junior members of staff. Marketing requires co-ordination, planning, implementation of campaigns and a competent manager(s) with the appropriate skills to ensure success. Marketing objectives, goals and targets have to be monitored and met, competitor strategies analysed, anticipated and exceeded. Through effective use of market and marketing research an organisation should be able to identify the needs and wants of the customer and try to delivers benefits that will enhance or add to the customers

lifestyle, while at the same time ensuring that the satisfaction of these needs results in a healthy turnover for the organisation. Philip Kotler defines marketing as satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process Within this exchange transaction customers will only exchange what they value (money) if they feel that their needs are being fully satisfied, clearly the greater the benefit provided the higher transactional value an organisation can charge. P.Tailor suggests that 'Marketing is not about providing products or services, it is essentially about providing changing benefits to the changing needs and demands of the customer.

A main objective of marketing is to create customer value.

Marketing usually involves an exchange between buyers and sellers or between other parties. Marketing has an impact on the firm, its suppliers, its customers, and others affected by the firms choices. Marketing frequently involves enduring relationships between buyers, sellers, and other parties. Processes involved include creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings.

Key elements in marketing Understanding Customers needs and wants and creating products and services to ensure customer delight. Customer Delight means giving more than the expectation. If the customer needs a washing solution,you provide her with a drycleaning solution

Role of a Marketing/Product Manager

Brand management is the career track you hear about most often. It is the key function in the consumer products industry. Brand managers are often likened to small business owners because they assume responsibility for a brand or brand family. They are always focused on the big picture. It is their job to distill the brand's essence, map out their competitors in their brand's category, identify marketing opportunities, and be able to effectively communicate the unique benefits of that product or service. Brand managers are also responsible for guiding the market research team by setting the agenda and criteria and also selecting the stimuli, such as product-benefit statement, pictures, product samples, and video clips. Once the research is complete it is the brand manager's job to analyze the data that's been collected then develop a marketing strategy. This marketing strategy may call for a new ad campaign, development of new products, or drawing out a new vision for the brand. It is also then the brand manager's job to ensure that other functions such as promotions, market research, research and development, and manufacturing are orchestrated to implement the strategy that they have developed. Is the Brand Management Career Track for You? Careers in product and brand management tend to attract high potential, well motivated individuals who can accept broad responsibilities easily and with little supervision, communicate well with other people, are willing to do some traveling, and thrive on constant change. Starting salaries are good, with career and compensation advancement based on achievement.

Product manager job description Job Description The Product Manager is responsible for the product planning and execution throughout the product lifecycle, including: gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with engineering, sales, marketing and support to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met. The Product Manager's job also includes ensuring that the product supports the company's overall strategy and goals. The Product Manager is expected to: 1. Define the product strategy and roadmap 2. Deliver MRDs and PRDs with prioritized features and corresponding justification 3. Work with external third parties to assess partnerships and licensing opportunities 4. Run beta and pilot programs with early-stage products and samples 5. Be an expert with respect to the competition 6. Act as a leader within the company Required experience and knowledge

1. Minimum of N years experience as a Product Manager 2. Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products 3. N+ years of experience in a job in the XXX market 4. Excellent written and verbal communication skills 5. Bachelor's degree (MBA preferred) 6. Technical background, with experience in XXX 7. Excellent teamwork skills 8. Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority 9. Must be able to travel XX% of the time 10. Examples and at least one sample of an effective document delivered in the past Product Manager Job Description Sample #2 (inbound and outbound) Job Description The Product Manager is responsible for both product planning and product marketing. This includes managing the product throughout the product lifecycle, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with engineering, tod deliver winning products. It also includes working with sales, marketing and support to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met. The Product Manager's job also includes ensuring that the product and marketing efforts support the company's overall strategy and goals. The Product Manager is expected to: 1. Define the product strategy and roadmap 2. Deliver MRDs and PRDs with prioritized features and corresponding justification 3. Work with external third parties to assess partnerships and licensing opportunities 4. Be an expert with respect to the competition 5. Develop the core positioning and messaging for the product 6. Perform product demos to customers 7. Set pricing to meet revenue and profitability goals 8. Deliver a monthly revenue forecast 9. Develop sales tools and collateral 10. Propose an overall budget to ensure success 11. Brief and train the sales force at quarterly sales meetings 12. Brief press and analysts and go on press tours 13. Act as a leader within the company Required experience and knowledge 1. Minimum of N years experience as a Product Manager or Product Marketing Manager 2. Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products 3. N+ years of experience in a job in the XXX market 4. Excellent written and verbal communication skills

5. Bachelor's degree (MBA preferred) 6. Technical background, with experience in XXX 7. Excellent teamwork skills 8. Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority 9. Must be able to travel XX% of the time 10. Examples and at least one sample of an effective document delivered in the past

Marketing Mix-4P The marketing goal is to bring the right product to the right place at the right price with the right promotion. This brings us to the concept of 4P's of Marketing and is also called Marketing Mix.A Marketing Manager/Product Managers job is to manage and optimize the 4P's of Marketing for profitability. the fundamentals of marketing typically identifies the four Ps of the marketing mix as referring to:

Product - An object or a service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. A typical example of a mass produced service is the hotel industry. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer operating system. Typical examples of a mass produced objects are the motor car and the disposable razor. Price The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product. Place Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet. Promotion Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements - advertising, public relations, word of mouth and point of sale. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principle elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from television and cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. One of the most notable means of promotion today is the Promotional Product, as in useful items distributed to targeted audiences with no obligation attached. This category has grown each year for the past decade while most other forms have suffered. It is the only form of advertising that targets all five senses and has the recipient thanking the giver. Public relations are where

the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations.

Marketing environment

Elements of the environment: The marketing environment involves factors that, for the most part, are beyond the control of the company. Thus, the company must adapt to these factors. It is important to observe how the environment changes so that a firm can adapt its strategies appropriately. Consider these environmental forces: Competition: Competitors often creep in and threaten to take away markets from firms. For example, with a boom in the retail market,large organized players like Big Bazaar(Future Group) or Reliance Retail opened their huge stores offering customers some great bargain and ensuring a world class shopping experience.Because of them many small retailers business has been badly hit Economics. Two economic forces strongly affect firms and their customers: Economic Cycles. Some firms in particular are extremely vulnerable to changes in the economy. Consumers tend to put off buying a new car, going out to eat, or building new homes in bad times. In contrast, in good times, firms serving those needs may have difficulty keeping up with demand. One important point to realize is that

different industries are affected to different degrees by changes in the economy. Although families can cut down on the quality of the food they buygoing with lower priced brands, for examplethere are limits to the savings that can be made without greatly affecting the living standard of the family. On the other hand, it is often much easier to put off the purchase of a new car for a year or hold off on remodeling the family home. If need be, firms can keep the current computerseven though they are getting a bit slowwhen sales are down. The economy goes through cycles. In the late 1990s, the U.S. economy was quite strong, and many luxury goods were sold. Currently, the economy fluctuates between increasing strength, stagnation, or slight decline. Many firms face consequences of economic downturns. Car makers, for example, have seen declining profit margins (and even losses) as they have had to cut prices and offer low interest rates on financing. Generally, in good economic times, there is a great deal of demand, but this introduces a fear of possible inflation. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve will then try to prevent the economy from overheating. This is usually done by raising interest rates. This makes businesses less willing to invest, and as a result, people tend to make less money. During a recession, unemployment tends to rise, causing consumers to spend less. This may result in a bad circle, with more people losing their jobs due to lowered demands. Some businesses, however, may take this opportunity to invest in growth now that things can be bought more cheaply. Inflation. Over time, most economies experience some level of inflation. Therefore, it is useful to explicitly state whether a reference to money over time involves the actual dollar/rupee (or other currency) amount exchanged at any point (e.g., one dollar spent in 1960 and one dollar in 2007) or an inflation adjusted figure that anchors a given amount of money to the value of that money at so me point in time. Suppose, for example, that cumulative inflation between 1960 and 2007 has been 1,000%--that is, on the average, it costs ten times as much to buy the same thing in 2007 as it did 47 years earlier. If the cumulative inflation between 1960 and 1984 had been 500%, we could talk about one 1984 dollar being worth fifty 1960 cents or two 2007 dollars. It is important to note that inflation is uneven. Some goods and servicessuch as health care and college tuitionare currently increasing in cost much higher than the average rate of inflation. Prices of computers, actually decline both in absolute numbers (e.g., an average computer cost $1,000 one year and then goes for $800 two years later) and in terms of the value for money paid once an adjustment has been made for the improvement in quality. That is, two years later, the computer has not only declined in price by 20%, but it may also be 30% better (based on an index of speed and other performance factors). In that case, then, there has actually been, over the period, a net deflation of 38.5% for the category. Political. Businesses are very vulnerable to changes in the political situation.A change in government or Political system can severely influence any business Legal. Firms are very vulnerable to changing laws and changing interpretations by the courts. Firms across the world are very vulnerable to lawsuits. McDonalds, for example, is currently being sued by people who claim that eating the chains hamburgers caused

them to get fat. Firms are significantly limited in what they can do by various laws some laws, for example, require that disclosures be made to consumers on the effective interest rates they pay on products bought on installment. A particularly interesting group of laws relate to antitrust. These laws basically exist to promote fair competition among firms. We will consider such laws when we cover pricing later in the term. Technological. Changes in technology may significantly influence the demand for a product. For example, the advent of the fax machine was bad news for Federal Express. The Internet is a major threat to travel agents.People can easily book rail tickets and air tickets sitting at home. Many record stores have been wiped out of business by the trend toward downloading songs (or illegally ripping songs from friends CDs) Social: Changes in customs or demographics greatly influence firms. Fewer babies today are being born, resulting in a decreased demand for baby foods. More women work outside the home today, so there is a greater demand for prepared foods. There are more unmarried singles today. This provides opportunities for some firms (e.g., fast food restaurants) but creates problems for others (e.g., manufacturers of high quality furniture that many people put off buying until marriage). Today, there are more blended families that result as parents remarry after divorce. These families are often strapped for money but may require duplicate items for children at each parents residence. BCG matrix The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix provides a firm an opportunity to assess how well its business units work together. Each business unit is evaluated in terms of two factors: market share and the growth prospects in the market. Generally, the larger a firms share, the stronger its position, and the greater the growth in a market, the better future possibilities. Four combinations emerge: A star represents a business unit that has a high share in a growing market. For example, Motorola has a large share in the rapidly growing market for cellular phones. A question mark results when a unit has a small share in a rapidly growing market. The firms position, then, is not as strong as it would have been had its market share been greater, but there is an opportunity to grow. For example, Hewlett-Packard has a small share of the digital camera market, but this is a very rapidly growing market. A cash cow results when a firm has a large share in a market that is not growing, and may even be shrinking. This is the period when the firm is encashing to the maximum its investments over time. Brother has a large share of the typewriter market.

A dog results when a business unit has a small share in a market that is not growing. This is generally a somewhat unattractive situation, although dogs can still be profitable in the short run. For example, Smith Corona how has a small share of the typewriter market.