A market-focused, or customer-focused, organization first determines what its potential Zune 4gb Cheap customers Zune 4gb Cheap desire, and then builds the product or service. Marketing theory and practice is justified in the belief that customers use a Zune 4gb Cheap product or service because they have a need, or because it provides a perceived benefit.
Two major factors of marketing are the recruitment of new customers (acquisition) and the Zune 4gb Cheap retention and expansion Zune 4gb Cheap of Zune 4gb Cheap relationships with existing customers (base management). Once Zune 4gb Cheap a marketer has converted the prospective buyer, base management marketing takes over. The Zune 4gb Cheap process for base management Zune 4gb Cheap shifts the marketer Zune 4gb Cheap to Zune 4gb Cheap building a relationship, nurturing Zune 4gb Cheap the links, enhancing the benefits that sold the buyer in the first place, and improving the product/service continuously to protect the business from competitive encroachments.
For a marketing plan to Zune 4gb Cheap be successful, the Zune 4gb Cheap mix of the four "Ps" must reflect the wants and desires of the consumers Zune 4gb Cheap or Shoppers in the target Zune 4gb Cheap market. Trying to convince a market segment to buy Zune 4gb Cheap something they don't want is extremely expensive and seldom successful. Marketers depend on insights from marketing Zune 4gb Cheap research, both formal and informal, to determine what consumers want and what they Zune 4gb Cheap are willing to pay for. Marketers hope that this process will give them a Zune 4gb Cheap sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing management is the practical application of this process. The offer is Zune 4gb Cheap also an important addition to the 4P's theory.
Within most organizations, the activities encompassed by Zune 4gb Cheap the marketing function are led by a Vice President or Zune 4gb Cheap Director of Marketing. A growing number of Zune 4gb Cheap organizations, especially large US companies, have a Chief Marketing Zune 4gb Cheap Officer position, reporting to the Chief Executive Officer.
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The American Marketing Association (AMA) states, �Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value Zune 4gb Cheap for customers, Zune 4gb Cheap clients, partners, Zune 4gb Cheap and society at large.".
Marketing methods are informed by many of the social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology, and economics. Anthropology is Zune 4gb Cheap also a small, but growing Zune 4gb Cheap influence. Market research underpins these activities. Through advertising, it is also related Zune 4gb Cheap to many of the creative arts. Marketing is a wide and heavily interconnected subject with extensive publications. It is also an area of Zune 4gb Cheap activity infamous for re-inventing itself and its vocabulary according to the times and the culture.
Many companies today have a customer focus (or Zune 4gb Cheap customer orientation). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally there are three ways of doing Zune 4gb Cheap this: Zune 4gb Cheap the customer-driven approach, the sense of identifying market changes and the product Zune 4gb Cheap innovation Zune 4gb Cheap approach.
In the consumer-driven Zune 4gb Cheap approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes Zune 4gb Cheap the test of consumer research. Zune 4gb Cheap Every aspect of Zune 4gb Cheap a market offering, including the Zune 4gb Cheap nature of the product itself, is Zune 4gb Cheap driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the Zune 4gb Cheap consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no Zune 4gb Cheap point spending R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that Zune 4gb Cheap were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs.
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A formal Zune 4gb Cheap approach to this customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA[3] (Solution, Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to provide a customer focus.
The SIVA Model provides Zune 4gb Cheap a demand/customer centric version alternative Zune 4gb Cheap to the well-known 4Ps supply side model Zune 4gb Cheap (product, Zune 4gb Cheap price, place, promotion) of marketing management.
In a product innovation approach, the company pursues product innovation, then tries to develop a market for the product. Product innovation drives the process and marketing research is conducted primarily to ensure that a profitable market segment(s) exists for the innovation. Zune 4gb Cheap The rationale is that customers may not know what options will be available to them in the future so we Zune 4gb Cheap should not expect them to tell us what they will buy in the future. However, marketers can aggressively over-pursue product innovation and try to overcapitalize on a niche. When pursuing a product innovation approach, marketers must ensure that they have a varied and multi-tiered approach to product innovation. It is claimed that if Zune 4gb Cheap Thomas Edison depended on marketing research he would have produced larger Zune 4gb Cheap candles rather than inventing light bulbs. Many firms, such as research and Zune 4gb Cheap development focused companies, successfully focus on product innovation (Such as Nintendo who constantly change the way Video games are played). Many purists doubt whether Zune 4gb Cheap this is really a form of marketing orientation at all, because of the ex post Zune 4gb Cheap status of consumer research. Some even question whether Zune 4gb Cheap it is marketing. |
