Investigation the Consumer Needs and Quality Marketing - Essay Example

 Marketing Marketing is the basic need for current market condition. Marketing is an appropriate solution to all business problems. Marketing creates awareness regarding products or services through marketing techniques like public relations, trade and consumer promotions, point-of-sale, editorial, publicity etc. Marketing is either important to acquire new customers or to retain and expand relationship with existing customers. For a successful business, marketers must make sure that their products or services exactly match the needs and wants of their target market segments. In order to meet consumer requirements and behavior, marketing research is conducted. Marketing Research helps to identify an appropriate marketing mix. Marketing Mix is actually the right combination of product, price, place, and promotion . Such research may either be formal or informal. Behavior that influences a consumer to prefer one brand over another is known as Consumer Behavior. It is all about the choices and preferences of a final consumer. McGraw-Hill/Irwin defined Consumer Behavior as The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. Marketers use this knowledge to product design and price determination. Before making a purchase, consumers go through five stages of decision-making process such as; need recognition and problem awareness, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. First of all, consumer recognizes his need. For example, need of water in thirst. Then a consumer finds out the options available to meet his deprivation. He evaluates the alternatives. He considers various alternatives such as Pepsi or Nestle. Then he goes for the best option and purchases it. Marketers should understand consumer behavior in order to survive in the market. Marketers are fully aware of consumer trends and choices. Post-purchase evaluation – Cognitive Dissonance is the final and important stage of consumer decision making. This stage involves customer feeling after purchasing a product or service that an alternative would have been preferable. Marketing people then have to persuade and encourage the customers that they have made a right decision. It has been observed that earlier marketers used to only consider the purchase decision but nowadays, smart marketers value the complete model as it might become late then to influence the choice of customers. It is not easy to change the choice of consumers because in routine purchases, customer often skip some of the stages of decision-making process and then it really becomes hard for marketers to change the routine selection of their customers. Routine buyers hardly bother to try a new taste. Awareness plays a vital role in purchase decision. Customer obtains information from advertising, salespeople, retailers, point-of-sale displays, news papers, television, magazines, radio, family, friends and neighbors. Most of the time, customers rely on personal sources such as family, friends etc more than advertisements etc. Consumer decision-making is highly influenced by cultural factors. For instance, a company made a record sales of skirts in London but could not meet its sales target in Pakistan. Research disclosed that Pakistani ladies don’t like to wear skirts as per their traditional values. Vice versa, ladies of London will hardly prefer the dressing style of Pakistani ladies. Chinese food might not be a priority for an Indian to order. He might like to order some other spicy dishes as per his taste. People of cold countries mostly like hot drinks like tea, coffee etc while people of hot countries mostly buy cold drinks comparatively. People with similar values, tend to live in groups and develop communities and colonies. One prefers to reside among those who have similar values and beliefs. This way, people feel secure and satisfied. More or less, their living styles meet basic common characteristics. Their needs and wants reflect their common basic values. Business marketing or business-to-business marketing takes place when a company or institution provides goods or services for another company or institution. Technology and business strategy are correlated in business marketing. As electronic commerce and Internet technology has lead to a number of new opportunities, Internet Marketing has become a modern way of business-to-business marketing nowadays. It has been considered as the most effective and efficient option. Consumer market can be segmented on the basis of geographic factor, demographic factor, psycho-graphic factor and behavioral factor. Geographic segmentation is done on the basis of location by the mean of cities, countries etc. Demographic segmentation refer to age, gender, family, income and education factors etc. Demographic segmentation is the most common and popular segmentation nowadays. Psycho-graphic segmentations classifies buyers into groups based on lifestyle, social class and personality characteristics. Behavioral segmentation divides buyers into groups based on responses to a product, their knowledge, attitudes etc. The most common types of market are Consumer market and Industrial market. Consumer market is a market where products and services are bought by final consumers who buy for their own use. For example, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) like dairy products, Consumer durables like microwave or DVD players, soft goods like clothes and services like childcare or dentist. While Industrial market is a market where the sale of goods is between businesses. For example, selling finished goods like furniture to businesses, selling raw materials or components to businesses, selling services like legal services to businesses. Industrial marketing focuses on a relatively small number of potential buyers. To ensure the satisfactory return for sales expenditures, marketers focus on particular segment that are “most likely” to purchase their offering. Marketer focus on various characteristics of market such as market size, number of competitors, projected market growth rate, intensity of competitions, capital requirements, production requirements, seasonal factors, Industry profitability and returns, social factors, environmental factors etc. As we know that market segment is a group of people with one or more characteristics that cause them to have similar or same product needs. While the process of classifying a market into relatively similar or identifiable groups or segments is known as market segmentation. Marketing segmentation is done by selecting a market or a category first, then choosing a basis or bases for segmenting the market, then selecting segmentation descriptors, analyzing segments and selecting target market. Then finally, designing, implementing appropriate marketing mixes. Market segmentation is important for marketers to design marketing mix for their target segment that consist of people with similar or same product needs because people with similar or same product needs have similar buying behavior. To produce more effective and profitable communication campaign, Marketers prefer One-to-One Marketing that refers to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy. It emphasizes on personalized interactions with customers. In simple words, It satisfies the individual needs of customers. One-to-One Marketing brings better return on marketing investment.   Works Cited McGraw-Hill / Irwin. Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy. 2004. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 22 Jan. 2008 Read More