Global marketing management - Essay Example

? MARKETING ………………………….. College ……………………………… ……………….. Answer Marketers take in to account various strategies that they feel better and effective to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in today’s competitive markets. Maintaining stronger relationship with consumers is undoubtedly a very effective marketing tactic that can certainly help a firm stay stronger for quite a long term in the market. I would suggest my friend to think about relationship marketing and he therefore needs to treat his customers always welcomed to the business and to maintain friendly relationship. Consumers are to be treated as business partners both inside and outside the firm. Relationship marketing begins with identifying and understanding the needs and wants of customers and recognizing how to satisfy their requirements and preferences (Cravens, 2002, p. 205). In order to stay very relevant and to compete with new small strips and Wal-Mart stores in the area, it is critically important that he should build stronger partner-relation with consumers by taking in to account the following strategic steps. Make relationship marketing and customer-contact as an important part of corporate objective of the business. Train employees and all other service-providers about how effectively and friendly they need to treat customers. Keep constantly contacting customers for better services, before as well as after sales services, customers’ feedback and analyzing the words-of-mouth from the customers. Ensure that the goods and services meet their preferences by maintaining on-going quality improvement and quality management systems, and Evaluate how potential customers think about the company in relation to the competitors with a view to implement newer ideas or strategies to achieve competitive advantages. Answer- 2 For international marketing, firms are using different types of cooperative relationships such as strategic alliance, licensing, joint ventures, R&D partnering etc. Strategic alliance is a coalition between two or more firms with a view to achieve strategically significant goals that are beneficial to both or all the companies partnered in alliance (Kotabe and Helsen, 2008, p.305). Strategic alliance at international level is typically a collaborative arrangement between two or more firms working across borders. In simple words, cross border alliance is a strategic alliance arrangement between firms across borders (Johansson, 2009, p. 163). Cross border alliance is based on sharing of vital information, business ideas, assets, technology and managerial functioning between partner firms. Cross border alliance can be formed in different structures. It can either be based on a simple licensing agreement or it may consist of quite rigid ties between them. High tech companies often come in alliance with others based on technology swaps. Kotabe and Helsen (2008, p. 306) described the logic behind cross border alliance to explain why companies while going global enter in to alliance with other companies with their core businesses. With such alliance, companies want to create a defensive position so that the firm will be able to maintain the leadership position by learning newer skills, access to new markets and by developing new technologies. With cross border alliance, the marketer wants to catch up new marketing domains, or to remain simply in the business or to restructure the market with help of others’ marketing ideas and strategies. Answer- 3 Direct marketing has emerged to be a very successful marketing strategy as many world class companies like Dell and small scale businesses across the world have achieved greater success and unique marketing stance by going directly to the customers. Segmentation is a key marketing dimension that a marketer can set strategic framework to identify the right customers of a company to design and develop products or services to ensure that their specific as well as common preferences are met (Bygrave and Zacharakis, 2010, p. 170). List segmentation refers to choosing a specific group of customers out of the general mailing list to target them specifically by direct mail or otherwise direct contacts (Roberts and Berger, 1999, p. 88). It is a process of dividing marketing lists based on pre-determined factors to target them with specialized messages or create a distinctive marketing domain with specific targets. With list segmentation approach, the direct marketer will be able to track where his sales are likely to come from and thus to target them more accurately than how he may track while sending mails to all the customers in the entire list. It thus helps him target a specific group of customers by placing a tracking code or numbers on mails to be sent to customers. List segmentation is a strategically effective way to eliminate waste effort and risks associated with sending mails to thousands of people included in the mailing list. With list segmentation, the marketer can easily identify the customers and track their feedback or opinions both before and after the sales. Answer- 4 Decision making is an extremely challenging and critically difficult task for managers. Decision making is about deciding what specific marketing action to take from a set of two or more options available to solve market related issue. In decision making, the manager needs to identify the problem, clarify particular goals and examine various possibilities for achieving the desired goal by analyzing data or information to take a definitive choice of action. Marketing research is a systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data or information relevant to a specific marketing situation facing a firm. With unprocessed data or processed information, the marketing manager will be able to choose an appropriate action for resolving a marketing issue. Marketing research is the mechanism for generating information and that is the main reason why managers need research. Managers need research because they need information for various purposes such as identifying value proposition, forming strategies, evaluating customers’ opinions and level of satisfaction, customers’ specific requirements and their feedback about the good or services, the words-of-mouths about goods or services and so on. Decision making involves five stages. It comprises of identifying alternatives, evaluating different choices according to preferences and outcomes, assembling the information, choosing among the preferences and selecting the most appropriate choice (Ahmad, Hasnain and Venkatesan, 2012, p.21). Marketing research will provide data and information with which the marketing manager can evaluate preferences, assemble information, choose among the alternatives and select the appropriate one by comparing contrasting the outcomes and consequences of various options. Answer- 5 Segmenting the market, targeting the segmented market by developing the goods or services, fixing a price and deciding on distribution and promotion based on specific requirements of the customers in the segmented groups are at the very heart of effective marketing strategy. Marketing strategy is therefore a systematic process in which the manager primarily segments the whole market in to sub-groups based on certain attributes and factors related to geographic, demographic, social and cultural aspects. Marketing manager thence requires to research customers and their tastes and preferences from each and every segments. This is the second phase wherein the marketing manager targets them by strategically developing a marketing mix. Consumers are bosses in the market as they largely influence what and how certain products or services to be designed and developed. At the first stage of developing marketing mix, the marketer needs to think about certain values and attributes that customers expect in the goods or services. Features, size, weight, configuration, outlook, color, benefit, usefulness etc are some the very significant factors that influence the product mix. Secondly, the marketer needs to think about what price customers would be able to pay for it and whether it is worth the price. Thirdly, the marketer needs to think about how the goods or services are to be distributed to the customers and what specific channels to be used in distributing them. Finally, he needs to consider advertising and promotion strategies such as integrated marketing communication, event marketing, and public relation with a view to boost sales and increase reputation among the customers. References Ahmad, A., Hasnain, N., & Venkatesan, M. (2012), Decision Making in Relation to Personality Types and Cognitive Styles of Business Students, IUP, EBSCO database Bygrave, W. D., & Zacharakis, A, (2010), Entrepreneurship, Second edition, John Wiley and Sons Cravens, D.W., (2002), Selected Material from Strategic Management, Seventh edition, McGraw Hill, Custom Publishing Johansson, J.K., (2009), Global Marketing, Foreign Entry, Local marketing and Global management, Fifth edition, McGraw Hill Companies Kotabe, M., & Helsen, K, (2008), Global Marketing Management, Fourth edition, John Wiley and Sons Roberts, M. L., & Berger, P. D., (1999), Direct marketing management, Second edition, Prentice Hall Read More