Marketing strategy for managers - Essay Example

?Marketing Strategy for Managers A proper and efficient marketing strategy contributes towards the financial success of a company. I consider that a marketing manager should have the ability to establish relationships with customers that will prove beneficial to the company. He should learn to assess the demands of the customers and accordingly communicate and deliver goods and services to the customers. In the era of digital technology the consumers can easily access various sites to compare prices and quality of goods; therefore I feel a marketing strategy must include advertisements which provide messages that are true to the nature and quality of the product or service. Capturing marketing insights The primary element is to develop plans to learn the market trends and observe competition. To implement such plans is “both an art and a science” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.67) I think it is the responsibility of a firm to keep its marketing managers continuously informed to facilitate them while developing and implementing marketing decisions. Marketing managers can analyze problems by constant knowledge of current sales, costs and inventory levels. This will help them to create strategies accordingly. The distributors and other intermediaries can also be motivated to provide information on market trends. Connecting with customers An efficient marketing strategy begins by considering the customers as the only true “profit center” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.604). It is important to establish customer trust in this era of digital technology. Since customers are now exposed to buying facilities from various sites like ebay and can compare prices of products it is necessary for salesperson to convince the customer that lowest price does not always guarantee long term benefits. Another important element is to “deliver high customer value” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.289) by promising good product service for a longer period. Communicating value From a managerial perspective marketing is often defined as “the art of selling products” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.5). To promote the value of goods and services the major criteria is to concentrate on making good advertisements. I have observed that highly effective advertisements can be created by recognizing the market to be captured and motives of buyers. Based on these factors a manager can decide how much to spend on advertisements, what values to promote and what kind of media to select for display of advertisements. Direct marketing which means non-existence of intermediaries between the manufacturer and the customer is another effective way of communicating value with the customers. Analyzing consumer markets Only by a thorough understanding of consumers can enable companies to ensure that “right products are marketed to the right consumers in the right way” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.151). The cultural and social background of consumers affects their buying patterns. The marketing manager needs to study the four major psychological processes like “motivation, perception, learning and memory” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.160) as these affect the behaviour of the consumers towards the market. Building strong brands A strong brand can be created by “careful planning and a deep long term commitment” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.241). I feel a branded product or service creates a certain amount of trust among the consumers and in the modern day fast life brands enable consumers to easily identify a product thereby simplifying their decision making process. Brands can become successful only if consumers can get satisfaction from “past experiences with the product” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.242). This can happen only if a branded product can satisfy the needs of consumers and it maintains consistency with the messages provided through advertisements. I believe it is the job of the marketing manager to assess the likes and dislikes of the consumers regarding the brand and accordingly make improvements on the branded products or services. In order to create successful branding strategies it is important to make the consumers believe that the branded product or service is different from those belonging to other brands. Tapping into global markets A global firm spreads its activities to other countries and captures the international financial and marketing advantages. In order to make a place in the global arena the marketing manager has to face additional decisions and challenges (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.11). The manager needs to assess which countries to enter and the nature of trade to conduct in each country like export or manufacturing. I will suggest a proper study of the country’s market so that the product or service ranks high on the demands of the market and ranks low in terms of market risk. Shaping of the personal perspectives The ability of a firm in establishing a profitable customer base and relationship highly depends upon the marketing manager. The contribution of the marketing manager in the success of the business in due course of time enhances the personal perspectives as well. Development of the buyer-seller relationship enhances dynamically and this takes place through the generation of linkages and relationships with entities of the external marketplace especially between the channels and that of the end users. Strategy enhancement is another dimension that develops as a personal perspective. The lifetime value of a customer can be said to be a driver that helps in the determination of the quantity of resources that a firm generally invests in a particular relationship. The mangers with their developed strategies attract the potential customers and maximize their investment in valuable resources along with the minimization in the non valuable investments. The marketing strategy creates a business philosophy that aims at the achievement of the customer centricity and retention as well. Individual capabilities develop with time and the representation focuses towards a hardcore customer centric approach leading to the optimal fulfillment of their demands. The development of knowledge and that of the management of interaction is a kind of technology development and can be regarded as a key resource for the establishment of a long term and profitable customer relationship. A perfect blend of sales, marketing and that of service information system will act as a key variable in the development of robust partnership with the customers (Zablah, et al, 2004, p.477). Student’s self discovery The students will be learning the process of optimal decisions taken by the marketing managers in creating and maintaining of the customer based equity. The decisions in a summary can be said to be including that of the identification of the marketing opportunities, selection of the customer targets, effective positioning of the products and services as well as that of the implementation of the competitive marketing support programs. The students will be learning the methods of the developing decision models as well as their proper applications in the real world scenario. The aspects of the development and that of injection of new products in the market will be infused within the students along with their application in a dynamic as well as group environment. Conclusion A good marketing manager can play a huge in the success of a company. In my opinion a proper marketing strategy can build a strong and permanent customer base by providing them products and services that meet the maximum level of demands of the customers. Along with that development of personal perspectives also gets fine tuned to great levels. Coordination between the different departments like production, finance, purchase and sales can contribute towards successful marketing and the students and the new managers will be developing their inner mechanics for providing ultimate success to the business with the customer satisfaction as their apex target. Reference Kotler, P. & K.L. Keller. (2012) Marketing Management: 14th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education Zablah, et al, (2004), An evaluation of divergent perspectives on customer relationship management: Towards a common understanding of an emerging phenomenon, Industrial Marketing Management, 33, pp. 475 – 489, retrieved on September 11, 2012 from: http://www.wilfridlaurier.ca/documents/12147/7.__Zablah_et_al___An_evaluation_of_divergent_perspectives.pdf Read More