Comprehensive Marketing Strategy and Consumer Behavior Overview

Marketing

An organizational function and a set of processes for creating, capturing, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.

Marketing plan

A written document composed of an analysis of the current marketing situation, opportunities and threats for the firm, marketing objectives and strategy specified in terms of the four Ps, action programs, and projected or pro forma income (and other financial) statements.

Exchange

The trade of things of value between the buyer and seller so that each is better off as a result.

Marketing Mix

Product, price, place, and promotion.

Goods

Items that can be physically touched.

Services

Intangible offerings that involve deed, performance, or effort.

Ideas

Intellectual concepts, thoughts, opinions, and philosophies.

Supply Chain Management

Approaches and techniques to integrate suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, stores, and transportation into a value chain where merchandise is distributed into the right quantities.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Firms use these processes to identify and evaluate opportunities for increasing sales and profits.

Market Segment

A group of consumers who respond similarly to a firm's marketing efforts.

Market segmentation

Process of dividing the market into groups of customers with different needs, wants, or characteristics.

Target marketing or targeting

Process of evaluating the attractiveness of various segments and then deciding which to pursue as a market.

Market Positioning

Process of defining the marketing mix variables so that the target customers have a clear, distinctive, desirable understanding of what the product does or represents in comparison with competing products.

Market Share

Percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity.

Relative Market Share

A measure of the product's strength in a particular market, defined as the sales of the focal product divided by the sales achieved by the largest firm in the industry.

Market Growth Rate

Annual rate of growth in the specific market in which the product competes.

Boston Consulting Group Matrix

A framework for analyzing a company's product portfolio based on market growth and market share.

Stars

High growth markets with high market share products.

Cash Cows

Low growth with high market share.

Question marks

High growth markets, but low market shares, require significant resources to maintain.

Dogs

Low growth with low market share, should be phased out.

Market Penetration

Employs existing marketing mix and focuses on the firm's efforts on existing customers.

Market Development

Existing marketing offerings to reach new segments.

Product Development

New product or service to a firm's current target market.

Diversification

Introduces a new product to a segment it does not currently serve.

Related Diversification

Current market shares in common with new opportunity.

Unrelated Diversification

Lacks any common elements.

Marketing Research

A set of techniques and principles for systemically collecting, recording, analyzing, and interpreting data that can aid decision makers involved in marketing, goods, services or ideas.

Marketing Research Process

A systematic approach to collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data to inform marketing decisions.

Define the Objectives and Research Needs

Weight costs and benefits of conducting research.

Designing the Research

Type of data needed and research necessary to collect that information.

Collecting the Data

The process of gathering information for analysis.

Secondary data

Pieces of information collected prior from other sources and are readily available.

Pros of Secondary Data

Saves time, free or inexpensive.

Cons of Secondary Data

Not precisely relevant, not original, not appropriate methodologies, bias.

Pros of Primary Data

Specific to data and topic, behavior insights.

Cons of Primary Data

Costly, time consuming, more sophisticated training.

Sample

Group of customers who represent the customers of interest in a research study.

Qualitative Research

Informal research methods including observation, monitoring of social media sites, in-depth interviews, and focus groups.

Observation

Exploratory research method that entails examining purchase and consumption through personal or video camera scrutiny.

In-depth Interviews

Trained researchers ask questions, listen to, and record the answers, and then pose additional questions to clarify or expand on a particular issue.

Focus Group Interview

Small group of persons come together for an intensive discussion about a topic, guided by a trained moderator.

Quantitative Research

Structured responses that can be statistically tested to confirm insights and hypotheses generated via qualitative research or secondary data.

Survey

Systemic means of collecting information from people that generally uses a questionnaire.

Unstructured Question

Open-ended questions that allow respondents to answer in their own words.

Structured Question

Close-ended questions for a discrete set of response alternatives or specific answers for respondents to evaluate.

Experiments

Type of conclusive and quantitative research that manipulates one or more variables to see which variables have causal relationships.

Big Data

Data sets that are too large and complex to analyze with conventional data management and data mining.

Data Warehouse

Large computer file containing data using sales relationship management systems, websites, social media, blogs, locational devices, wearables, and so forth.

Data Mining

Statistical tools used to uncover previously unknown patterns or relationships among variables stored in big data databases.

Information

Organized, analyzed, interpreted data that offer value to marketers.

Syndicate Data

Data available for a fee from commercial research firms such as Information Resources INC, NPD Group, and Nielsen.

Panel Data

Information from a group of consumers, organized into panels over time.

Negative Word of Mouth

Consumers spread negative information about a product, service, or store to others.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Classifying people's motives; when lower level, more basic needs are fulfilled, people turn to satisfying their higher level human needs.

Attitude

A person's enduring evaluation of his or her feelings about and behavioral tendencies toward an object or idea.

Perception

Process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world.

Learning

Thought process or behavior form experience that takes place throughout the consumer decision process.

Culture

Shared meanings, beliefs, morals, values, and customs of a group of people.

Situational Factors

Factors affecting the consumer decision process; those that are specific to the situation that may override or at least influence psychological and social issues.

Geographic Segmentation

Grouping of consumers on the basis of where they live.

Demographic Segmentation

Grouping of consumers according to easily measured, objective characteristics such as age, gender, income, and education.

Psychographic Segmentation

Method of segmenting customers based on how they spend their time and money, what activities they pursue, and their attitudes and opinions about the world in which they live.

Psychographics

Used in segmentation; delves into how consumers describe themselves using characteristics that help them choose how they occupy their time and what underlying psychological reasons determine those choices.

Self Values

Goals for life, not just the goals one wants to accomplish in a day; component of psychographics that refers to overriding desires that drive how a person lives their life.

Self Concept

The image a person has of themselves, a component of psychographics.

Lifestyles

Way that a person lives their life to achieve goals.

Benefit Segmentation

Grouping of consumers on the basis of the benefits they derive from products or services.

Behavioral Segmentation

Divides customers into groups based on how they use the product or service; occasion and loyalty.

Occasion Segmentation

Type of behavioral segmentation based on when a product or service is purchased or consumed.

Loyalty Segmentation

Strategy of investing in loyalty initiatives to retain the firm's most profitable customers.

Market Basket Analysis

Mathematical modeling techniques that utilize millions of customer purchases to determine the association between a group of items that customers purchase at the same time.

Geodemographic Segmentation

Grouping of consumers on the basis of a combination of geographic, demographic, and lifestyle characteristics.

Identifiable

Must be able to identify who is within their market to design product or services.

Substantial

Measure sizes of market segments.

Reachable

The segment must be reachable through marketing efforts.

Responsiveness

The segment must respond similarly to marketing efforts.

Profitable

The segment must be profitable.

Undifferentiated Targeting Strategy

If product or service is perceived to provide the same benefit to everyone without need to develop separate strategies for different groups.

Differentiated Targeting Strategy

Target different market segments with different offerings for each.

Concentrated Marketing Strategy

Single, primary target market and focusing all energies on providing a product to fit that market's needs.

Micromarketing

Extreme form of segmentation that tailors product or service to suit an individual's customer's wants or needs.

Value Proposition

Unique value that a product or service provides its customers and how it is better than and different from those of competitors.

Positioning Method: Value

Relationship of benefits to costs, or what the consumer gets for what they give.

Positioning Method: Salient Attributes

Attributes that are most important to target market.

Positioning Method: Symbols

Well known symbol can be used as a positioning tool.

Positioning Method: Competition

Firms can choose to position their products or services against a specific competitor or an entire product service classification.

Perceptual Mapping

Displays in two or more dimensions, the position of products or brands in the consumers mind.

Ideal Point

The position at which a particular market segment's ideal product would lie on a perceptual map.

Perceptual Map

Determine consumer's perceptions and evaluations of the product or service in relation to competitor's product or service.

Value of Marketing: Short-term

Marketing increases sales and profits.

Value of Marketing: Long-term

Value via increased brand equity.

Brand Equity

Series of experiences between your product and your brand.

Structure for Building a Marketing Plan: Step 1

Define the business mission and objectives.

Mission Statement

Explains a company's Reason for being + motivates employees and investors about the company's future + internally generated (not about profit!).

Market Definition

Choosing the right scope for your market.