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