Marketing
Understanding Markets and Customers
Understanding markets and customers involves gaining insights into the needs, preferences, and behaviors of target consumer segments. This understanding enables businesses to tailor their products, services, and marketing strategies to effectively meet customer demands and create value. By analyzing market trends, consumer data, and competitive landscapes, businesses can identify opportunities for growth and develop successful marketing initiatives.
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8 Key excerpts on "Understanding Markets and Customers"
eBook - PDF- O. C. Ferrell, Michael Hartline, (Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Customers, Segmentation, and Target Marketing INTRODUCTION In this chapter, we begin our discussion of marketing strategy by examining custo- mers, segments, and target markets. In Chapter 1, we referred to a market as a col- lection of buyers and sellers. Now, we focus our attention on the buyers who collectively make up the major portion of most markets. From this perspective, we concern ourselves with markets as individuals, institutions, or groups of individuals or institutions that have similar needs that can be met by a particular product offer- ing. As we shall see, firms can attempt to reach all buyers in a market, smaller groups or segments of the market, or even specific buyers on an individual level. Whether the firm aims for the entire market or smaller market segments, the goal of market- ing strategy is to identify specific customer needs, then design a marketing program that can satisfy those needs. To do this effectively, the firm must have a comprehen- sive understanding of its current and potential customers, including their motiva- tions, behaviors, needs, and wants. The ability to determine in-depth information about customers is a fairly recent phenomenon in marketing. Fifty years ago, for example, technology and marketing know-how were less sophisticated. Marketers of the day were unable to fully under- stand customers’ needs and wants, much less make fine distinctions among smaller segments of the total market. Marketers tended to offer products that came in only one variety, flavor, or style. Today, market segmentation is critical to the success of most firms. Segmentation allows marketers to more precisely define and understand customer needs, and gives them the ability to tailor products to better suit those needs. As discussed in Beyond the Pages 5.1, the level of detailed information avail- able about customers today has changed the way firms do business. However, the use of such information raises concerns about consumer privacy.
eBook - PDF- Harvard Business Review, Alvin J. Silk(Authors)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Harvard Business Review Press(Publisher)
2 52 Analyzing Marketing Opportunities The deeper this understanding, the greater the opportunity to an-ticipate and shape customer behavior and to gain competitive advan-tage. For instance, knowledge of cognitive processes that “unpack” information in an advertisement or the design of an automobile can improve the design of advertising and products. This requires marketing practitioners to understand the commonly perceived or socially shared symbolism of particular advertising cues and product features as well as the social processes and institutions whereby this symbolism acquires common meaning for a market segment. Thus, when approached in the most constructive way possible, the study of customers is also an exploration of fundamental human behav-ior. The use of mathematics and statistics is an important part of this exploration and is particularly useful for predicting behavior. Customer behavior consists of the acts, processes, and social re-lationships displayed by individuals or groups before, during, and subsequent to an exchange process. Four comingling phenomena characterize customer behavior: (1) people , including individuals and informal and formal groups of varying sizes, (2) engaging in activities , including actions and processes, (3) in the context of in-terpersonal relationships , (4) which create experiences , including those associated with obtaining, using, and dealing with the con-sequences of goods and services. For example, while enacting the role of a medical patient, an in-dividual may seek word-of-mouth information (a communication process) from other people (involving social relationships) about medical services. This may lead to a medical consultation, involving a new relationship with a physician or even a formal group such as an HMO. The consumer obtains advice that is presumably used and may require obtaining other products and services, with a subsequent improvement, or conceivably a deterioration, in health.
eBook - PDF- Barton A Weitz, Robin Wensley, Barton A Weitz, Robin Wensley(Authors)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
Current thinking about these questions has moved strongly in the direction of re-conceptualizing marketing as a set of organi-zational processes as distinct from a separate management function. M ARKETING AS O RGANIZATIONAL P ROCESSES Marketing as Value Delivery Understanding of the role of marketing and the firm has evolved to a point where the focus on customer orientation that was the hallmark of the marketing concept has broadened from a statement of organi-zational culture to its implementation in strategy and tactics. Customer value is the intellectual linking mechanism bringing together views of marketing as culture, strategy, and tactics (Webster, 1997, 52–4). Marketing is undergoing re-conceptualization as the link between commitment to, and under-standing of, customers’ needs and wants and various processes for defining, developing, and delivering solutions to customer problems. Market-ing inputs become the guiding force in matching customer needs, company capabilities, and financial results. The only way to increase the value of the firm for its owners is to deliver superior value to customers, and to have a business model that allows the firm to retain a fair share of the value created for the customer (Slywotsky, 1996; Slywotsky & Morrison, 1997). Customers define the business in the sense that they make demands on the firm, which the firm responds to by collecting, organizing, and deploy-ing resources to respond to customer demands. Understanding those demands and responding to them with a keen sense of the firm’s strengths and limitations defines the essential role of marketing within the firm. Marketing is fundamentally an INTRODUCTION 76 informational process. Marketing is not something the firm does to the customer, which can be said to be the old persuasion or selling view of marketing. Marketing is how the customer is able to influence the firm.
eBook - PDFService Management and Marketing
Managing the Service Profit Logic
- Christian Gronroos(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
THE ROLE AND SCOPE OF MARKETING The marketing process includes four main parts: 1. Understanding the market and individual customers by market research and segmentation analysis as well as by using database information on individual customers. 268 MANAGING MARKETING OR CUSTOMER-FOCUSED MANAGEMENT 2. So that market niches, segments and individual customers can be chosen. 3. For which marketing programmes and activities can be planned, implemented and followed up. 4. Also, to prepare the organization so that marketing programmes and activities are successfully imple- mented (internal marketing). This approach is based on the so-called marketing concept, which describes marketing as a philosophy. This concept holds that the firm should base all its activities on the needs and desires of customers in selected target markets. At the same time, of course, societal restrictions (laws, norms, industry agreements, etc.) have to be recognized. This is also known as a market-oriented view, in contrast to a production-oriented view, where the firm’s activities are geared to existing technology, products or production processes. The fourth part of the marketing function is traditionally not included. Normally, it is taken for granted that once marketing decisions are made they are executed as planned. However, this may be a dangerous assumption. Especially in service – both service firms and product manufacturers adopting a service logic – marketing programmes and activities have to be marketed internally to those who are expected to actively implement them externally. Traditionally, marketing as a business activity is thought of as a separate function that is taken care of by specialists organized in a marketing department or marketing and sales departments. By and large, the rest of the organization, with few exceptions, has no responsibility for the customers or for marketing.
eBook - PDF- (Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Harvard Business Review Press(Publisher)
When Your Company Markets to Consumers 19 return the product or decide to buy it again; you may use and dispose of the product in ways that are important for mar-keters to know. When marketing to consumers, it is also important to think about what your target customers value. Review your own experi-ences as a customer: How do you determine what’s most impor-tant to you? Did you get the results you expected? Were the results delivered the way you wanted them? Was the price what you were hoping for? Strategies for conducting consumer research A key element in marketing to consumers is conducting research into your target market’s needs and preferences. How do you do this? Here are a few ideas: • Review your company’s internal sales and order information —which reveal existing customers’ buying patterns and characteristics. • Gather marketing intelligence —which you collect through reading newspapers and trade publications; talking with customers, suppliers, and distributors; checking Internet sources; and meeting with company managers. • Perform market research —which is conducted by either an internal research department or an outside firm through devices such as market surveys, product-preference tests, focus groups, and so forth. (See “Steps for Market Research” for more information.) 20 Understanding Marketing Steps for Market Research 1. Define the marketing opportunity you will focus on. Create a specific question about a marketing opportunity that you want to explore. For example, suppose you work for an automobile maker and your supervisor wants to explore the potential bene-fits of providing global positioning system (GPS) navigation devices in its cars. You might ask this specific question: “Will offering such a device create enough incremental preference and profit for our company to justify its cost against other possible investments?” 2. Establish your research objectives in exploring the opportu-nity you identified.
- R. David Whitby(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
4 Understanding Markets Market ResearchDOI: 10.1201/9781003318392-44.1 Introduction
Although many aspects of marketing do not change much over time, other aspects do. Markets themselves change, sometimes very quickly, with new customers, new suppliers and new or improved products.Understanding what is happening in a company's target market(s) is critically important to devising and implementing achievable business strategies and plans. Market research involves the collection, analysis and understanding of information about current and possible future markets. Markets are usually categorised into three types.Retail markets involve the sale of goods (products) or services to individual consumers (people) through multiple channels of distribution. The term “retailer” is generally used for a provider of products or services who fills the small orders of many individuals, who are end-users.Wholesale markets are where products (but not services) are sold in bulk quantities to retailers. A wholesaler sells goods to businesses, which then sell them on to numerous retailers. It is worth noting here that the lubricants business does not generally involve wholesalers. This will be discussed further later in this chapter.Industrial markets comprise organisations that acquire goods and services, not for their own sake, but to facilitate the supply of other goods and services which ultimately may be bought by retail consumers.Unlike marketing and selling, which focus on the needs of buyers, market research has a wide-ranging brief. Market researchers need to be interested in why a buyer buys and why a seller sells. They are fact finders who seek the most accurate information possible, within imposed constraints of time and money. Their aim should be to reduce a company's risk by eliminating, or hopefully minimising, the guesswork out of business decisions.
eBook - PDF- O. C. Ferrell, Michael Hartline, O. C. Ferrell, Michael Hartline, Bryan Hochstein(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 128 Part 3: Developing Marketing Strategy 5.4 MARKET SEGMENTATION Understanding the processes that consumers and businesses use to make purchase decisions is critical to the development of long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with customers. It is also a necessary first step in uncovering similarities among groups of potential buyers that can be used in market segmentation and target marketing decisions. From a strategic perspective, we de- fine market segmentation as the process of dividing the total market for a particular product or product category into relatively homogeneous segments or groups. To be effective, segmentation should create groups where the members within the group have similar likes, tastes, needs, wants, or preferences, but where the groups themselves are dissimilar from each other. As noted in Be- yond the Pages 5.2, the increasing diversity of the U.S. population creates a number of challenges when it comes to segmenting markets. In reality, the most fundamental segmentation decision is really whether to segment at all. When a firm makes the decision to pursue the entire market, it must do so on the basis of uni- versal needs that all customers possess. However, most firms opt to target one or more segments of the total market because they find that they can be more successful when they tailor products to fit unique needs or requirements. In today’s economy, segmentation is often mandated by cus- tomers due to their search for unique products and their changing uses of communication media. The end result is that customer segments have become even more fragmented and more difficult to reach.
eBook - PDFDeveloping Strategies for International Business
The WRAP Process
- J. Gillon, L. Pearson(Authors)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
4 Understanding International Customers The concept of market-led strategy naturally presupposes a require- ment for some degree of knowledge of the markets targeted for devel- opment. Every market is made up of variable components and can be influenced by a swathe of external factors. Sitting at the core of all this dynamism is that elusive being, the customer, the one who is funda- mental to the existence of the market in the first place. The use of the term ‘elusive’ is entirely deliberate in this context. In fact, there are few questions so challenging and difficult to resolve as these: What is my real customer base? And what makes them my customers, rather than someone else’s? When there is something to sell, ideally there exists someone on the other end to buy whatever it is on offer, but the path from one to the other may vary quite considerably depending on how it is actually mapped out. The idea of customer awareness takes on a particular importance in international markets. Apart from governments and large public bodies, and globally concentrated industries such as energy, there are few conveniently managed monolithic international sectors in which similar types of people follow a standardized logic to arrive at easily comprehensible decisions. Customer behavior and expectations are highly frangible concepts that may vary significantly not only between territories, but also within them, and for reasons that may not be immediately obvious. Despite all the hype about ‘globalization’, with its populist implica- tions of market and product standardization on a Western model, there is no future in waiting hopefully for the homogenization of a global customer base. It may well be that, in some cases, customers around the world are buying similar products or services. However, the train of choices and requirements that leads to that ultimate 44 J.A. Gillon et al., Developing Strategies for International Business © J. Angus Gillon and Lynne Pearson 2004
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