Marketing: Creating Customer Value and Engagement
Defining Marketing and the Marketing Process
Marketing is the process of engaging customers and managing profitable relationships to create value for customers and capture value in return. The primary goals are to attract new customers by promising superior value and to keep current ones by delivering satisfaction. Unlike traditional marketing, which focuses on making sales through television and direct-mail ads, contemporary marketing emphasizes satisfying customer needs through interactive digital channels, social media, and mobile apps. The marketing process follows a -step model: understanding the marketplace, designing a customer value-driven strategy, constructing an integrated marketing program, engaging customers to build profitable relationships, and capturing value from customers to create profits and customer equity.
Marketplace Concepts and Customer Needs
Marketers must master core marketplace concepts to succeed. Needs represent states of felt deprivation like food or safety, wants are the form needs take as shaped by culture, and demands are human wants backed by buying power. Organizations provide market offerings—products, services, or experiences—to satisfy these needs. A common pitfall is marketing myopia, where a brand focuses more on specific products than the benefits produced. Effective marketing involves creating value and satisfaction to foster strong exchange relationships within a market of actual and potential buyers. For example, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and co-founder Joe Gebbia stay at host locations to shape solutions based on real user experiences.
Customer Value-Driven Marketing Strategy
Designing a winning strategy requires a company to select which customers it will serve through market segmentation and target marketing. The company must also decide on its value proposition to differentiate and position its brand. There are several marketing management orientations: the production, product, and selling concepts take an inside-out view, whereas the marketing concept is an outside-in view focused on customer needs. The societal marketing concept, practiced by companies like Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, aims to balance company profits, consumer want satisfaction, and long-term human welfare.
Building Relationships and Capturing Value
Customer relationship management focuses on delivering superior customer-perceived value and satisfaction. Marketers aim for customer delight, where a product performance matches or exceeds buyer expectations. Tools like the HHonors smartphone app personalize the customer experience, while loyalty programs build long-term bonds. This engagement allows brands to grow their share of customer and build customer equity, which is the total combined customer lifetime values of all the company's customers. For instance, Cadillac and GM are managing customer equity by repositioning the brand for younger buyers through an all-electric future.
Integrated Marketing and the Digital Age
An integrated marketing plan uses the Ps—Product, Price, Place, and Promotion—to deliver superior value. In the modern landscape, digital and social media marketing allow brands to reach customers directly and personally. Using big data and artificial intelligence (AI), brands can gain deep customer insights and personalize offers. Other significant trends include the growth of not-for-profit marketing, rapid globalization, and the necessity of sustainable marketing and corporate ethics. Companies like Amazon demonstrate this by focusing everything on creating genuine value for customers, as advocated by founder Jeff Bezos.
Questions & Discussion
How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact markets and marketing? In the aftermath of the pandemic, are things returning to the way they were before? Why or why not?
Pemasaran adalah proses melibatkan pelanggan dan mengurus hubungan menguntungkan untuk mencipta nilai bagi pelanggan dan menangkap nilai sebagai imbalan. Tujuan utamanya adalah menarik pelanggan baru dengan menjanjikan nilai yang unggul dan mempertahankan pelanggan sedia ada dengan memberikan kepuasan. Pemasaran kontemporari menekankan kepuasan keperluan pelanggan melalui saluran digital interaktif, media sosial, dan aplikasi mudah alih. Proses pemasaran mengikuti model lima langkah: memahami pasaran, merancang strategi nilai pelanggan, membina program pemasaran bersepadu, melibatkan pelanggan untuk membina hubungan menguntungkan, dan menangkap nilai dari pelanggan untuk mencipta keuntungan.
Marketer perlu menguasai lima konsep teras pasaran untuk berjaya. Keperluan mewakili ketiadaan rasa yang dirasai seperti makanan atau keselamatan, manakala permintaan adalah keinginan yang disokong oleh kuasa pembelian. Penawaran pasaran boleh berupa produk, perkhidmatan, atau pengalaman untuk memenuhi keperluan ini. Strategi pemasaran yang berjaya melibatkan penciptaan nilai dan kepuasan untuk mewujudkan hubungan pertukaran yang kuat.
Pengurusan hubungan pelanggan menumpukan untuk memberikan nilai dan kepuasan yang lebih baik. Untuk itu, marketers mengutamakan pengalaman pelanggan melalui aplikasi dan program kesetiaan. Pelan pemasaran bersepadu menggunakan 4 P—Produk, Harga, Tempat, dan Promosi—untuk menyampaikan nilai yang unggul. Dalam era digital, pemasaran media sosial membolehkan jenama berhubung langsung dengan pelanggan.