Service Marketing, Objectives, Strategies and Planning - Case Study Example

Service Marketing Marketing objectives and strategies are the highly significant factors that influence the purchasing performance of consumers. The past few decades have witnessed tremendous changes in the buying nature of people. Today people are forced to purchase beyond their limits and requirements. Marketing objectives is no more a trivial subject for business entrepreneurs and advertising companies. Before launching a new product every company would design new promotional strategies to persuade their targeted consumers to buy their product. Major portion of their budget is being spent for the same purpose. However, People today are more selective, alert, enlightened and powerful. Traditional concept of shopping has been changed, and now conventional shops and outlets are at the verge of extinction. This makes marketers to put their effort to categorize consumers according to their response toward the unfamiliar products/services. Marketing has been often misunderstood by many managers as investing huge amounts in advertising and sales. Innovations and technological advancements have made service/product marketing highly complex and competitive. This paper will discuss some essential marketing objectives, effective method of market research, and proper implementation strategies etc. with relevant examples and reasons. Service Marketing Introduction A consumer in his daily life confronts with hundreds of new products and service offers. The age of cutthroat competition is compelling marketers to innovate techniques to promote their products and services. Consumer behavior is a highly important factor in marketing operations. Each purchaser is unique and his needs also might vary from others. The new concept ‘consumer is the king’ has great importance in today’s marketing scenario. Customer acquisition and retention has become too difficult for organizations. It happens because of two reasons; competition is at its peak; and customers are highly informed. Hence market research and further planning has great significance in today’s business field. Theoretical aspects of advertisements have long term effect on certain segments of people. However, investing huge amounts in advertising and sales can not be justified as marketing. Objectives of marketing 1. The initial objective of marketing is to increase product awareness among the customers. Company should have a clear and measurable strategy to assess the results of its functions. As mentioned earlier, customers have become selective more than ever before. Hence, product awareness and incessant persuasion are essential part of effective marketing. According Schiffman and Kanuk (2004), a person who is highly dogmatic, approaches the unfamiliar products with great discomfort and uncertainty. Meanwhile non dogmatic person is more likely to accept innovative products. Yet considerable number of research has proven that dogmatic consumers positively respond to the commercial advertisements for its appropriateness. For example highly dogmatic consumers are sometimes more receptive to ads for new products that contain an appeal from an authoritative figure or celebrities (Consumer Buying Behaviour). Therefore the best promotional method of targeting the highly dogmatic consumers is getting the authoritative assistance of celebrities. Moreover testimonials from a reliable personality also would attract and persuade consumers. 2. Customer retention is another purpose of marketing strategies. Marketers have to locate the potential customers and convince them to buy the product/service in order to maintain the business stability. It is hard to retain customers in this era of cutthroat competition because they are always inclined to better services and innovative items. Since the buying characters of consumers vary, marketers have to design promotional techniques designed according to the targeted groups. A marketing company can not implement the same marketing standard to promote its all consumers. Market segmentation is necessary for the effective sales promotion. 3. Company should forecast specific percentage of growth every year and amplify the service area through effective marketing strategies. Similarly, the proportional increase in turnover also can be achieved only by promoting new customers and by broadening its service areas. Reputation or brand name of certain products and companies would promote new consumers. However, people’s social status is another important factor that has an impact on their buying manner. For example the life style of someone who earns a huge amount will certainly be different from someone who earns a small amount. Hence, while targeting a new segment of customers marketers should have the minimum idea about the socio economic status of that group. 4. Ensuring customer’s satisfaction is also one of the main objectives of marketing. Company’s service and product must be easily accessible to people. McCorkell (1997) states that information technology drives down cost of transactions, and helps maintaining competitiveness; inevitably this leads to greater centralization and customer frustration in finding a point of contact to solve problems or resolve complaints. Therefore customers’ feedback and complains have to be carefully analyzed to design further business tactics. Marketing Planning Marketing planning involves more than just blending the marketing mix. Other than attempting various types of marketing techniques, it involves an array of systematic preparations and exercises. Initial steps involve identifying what the company operators hope to accomplish; what the business to be in terms of its size, service or product provided and the market to be served (Pinson, Jinnett, 184). Once these factors are clearly determined, you need to identify the possible impediments that weaken your business growth in market. In order to identify the actual marketing problems market research will be highly beneficial. ‘If the objectives are too broad the problem may not be researchable. If they are two narrow the value of the research results may be seriously lessened’ (Kerin, 167). Therefore, more than the just average calculations or assumption the research should aim at specific outcomes. Only then the research results can assist further strategies. The term ‘marketing strategy’ is also often misunderstood by many business operators. According to Varey R J. (2002), marketing strategy is the plan that marketers use to guide their efforts to provide particular products to specified market segments through exchanges. As mentioned earlier, market research is the initial step of designing market planning. However, the method of research is a determining factor in the effectiveness of market planning. Types of information required Information regarding the primary and secondary customers is most important for the market research. It would provide initial idea regarding what the customers are highly concerned about. For example, what kind of products and services are currently required; what kind of approach or strategic change would meet the customers’ requirements etc. Besides, researchers should study how have the customers changed for the past three years and how are they likely to change in the coming few years. Besides customers’ opinion, information about the public attitude toward the company and its various services also can highly benefit the research. Stability of the company is determined by the public attitude, and their awareness of the products/services. The required information should include the details of various influencing factors and opinion leaders (Smith, 2004) that determine the consumer behavior. For example, the factors such as media, financial press, business advisors and advertisers usually influence public opinion on every issue. Finally, make a list of competitors and analyze their business strategies and marketing procedure, and identify if any of that can be adopted. Besides, identifying the opponents would help to design appropriate marketing techniques to stabilize the business. Subjects in the research 1. Direct and indirect customers. Obviously the primary and secondary subjects in the research should be the direct and indirect customers respectively. They are the individuals who directly get influenced by companies’ business activities; moreover the ultimate impact of all changes in policies also directly influences these groups. Therefore, the research should cover the socio-economic interests of the direct and indirect customers. 2. Prospects. The future of every organization is also determined by the prospects or the new clients. Hence an effective study on the prospects can definitely make the research more reasonable. Targeting new prospects and giving follow-ups is an important activity of all business operations. 3. Other organizations. Functions and strategies of other successful companies or service operators also can be covered in the research. It would give idea about the required strategic changes and advanced method of practice. 4. Other customers. People, other than the regular customers also can be included in the research because their satisfaction and response on the service are significant in developing public opinion. The information or data needed for the research can be acquired through various methods. Interviews and surveys can be conducted for collecting customers’ opinion about the product/ services. Sampling method surveys can be conducted among the public to collect the information about the expectations of common people. Another possible method to draw information from the public is to issue brief and concise questionnaire. Besides the opinion of the regular customers, feed back can be collected from all other beneficiaries. The data collected from various sources have to be classified first in order to apply them in appropriate sections (Classification). The sources of information and collected data have to be categorized according to their reliability and accuracy (source rating). After the classification the similar types of data have to be codified to make the work more coherent (codification). Implementation of strategies The next step is the application of proposed activities in a well designed and unified way by the support of the collected evidences and information. Certain activities such as community relationship program, recruitment campaign and media relationship program can be conducted in this regard. Finally, in order to assess the research applications, feedback of the total program has to be collected. ‘Marketing managers have the major responsibility of recognizing the relationships among the elements of the system. They must comprehend their potential combinations and coordinate and integrate business factors so that goals are achieved effectively’ (Wiley & Sons, 5). Effectiveness of current practices also has to be analyzed at the time of further planning. Factors like marketing strategy, budget, and action program determine the success of marketing objectives. Business operators should ensure that the product or service attain a certain percentage return of the spending on marketing. If it is not proportional, company needs to reset the price to ensure the sales revenue balance with the marketing cost. However pricing objectives, sales promotion objectives, advertising objectives and the like should not be confused with marketing objectives (McDonald, 280). Moreover, history of organization’s previous accomplishments, failures, policies, mistakes, and mission have to be considered while designing new strategies (Peter, James H., Donnelly, 7). To preserve the market stability, company has to strictly adhere to the customers’ requirements paying extra care and attention. Timely dispatch/accessibility to products/services and their incompatible quality are highly essential to resist the backlash against the organization. For instance, the intermittent network service would easily dissatisfy customers of any mobile phone, internet service providers. In order to combat unfair competition, company should launch new advertisements, and internal as well as external campaigns. It would be highly effective if the company deployed some celebrities from the targeted segments as its brand ambassadors. Advertisements and persuasions can easily communicate the intended message to customers. Certain difficult ideas can be conveyed to the ordinary consumers only through ads, demonstrations, and campaigns. Certain service areas like banking and insurance seems ambiguous to people and therefore cognition is an essential part of their marketing. In the same way, there are certain products and services that people would hardly approach you for. Insurance can be a best example because it is stated that “insurance is not bought; it is sold.” In that case verbalizing cognition might be the better method. Inter personal relationship between consumer and a company representative has its own significance. Thus verbalizing cognition sometimes becomes more effective (Schiffman, Kanuk 125-127). Visualizing cognitive style also is a useful promotional method for the consumers. To illustrate, promotion of the tourism industry would be more successful by using visualizing style of cognition rather than verbalizing style. Consumers with high optimum stimulation level are also high demanding customers (Haugtvedt C P., Petty, 1989). Most of the leading companies and marketing agencies today maintain both cognition techniques simultaneously. In order to implement the strategies a special team of individuals have to be appointed. The team will monitor the entire program and collect feedback from every section of the company as well as from the market through surveys, interviews and reports. The diagram below shows some of the possible marketing strategies; Conclusion Consumer acquisition is the initial step of every company’s marketing functions. In order to retain customers marketers have to pay their sincere concern in providing them with incompatible timely service. People often focus more on the accessibility and quality of products and services. Hence, up to date service and updated products ought to be the priority of a company while planning its service marketing. Understanding the consumers according to their traits, approaching them through the proper channel, introducing appropriate cognition strategies and using advanced technology are some of the unavoidable practices of effective marketing. Works Cited “Consumer Buying Behaviour”. Learn Marketing.net. 6 August 2009 http://www.learnmarketing.net/consumer.htm Haugtvedt C P., Petty. “Need for Cognition and Attitude Persistence”. Advances in Consumer Research vol. 16. 1989. 33-36 Kerin, Hartley, Rudelius. Marketing: The Core. McGraw Hill Professional, 2003. McDonald. Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them. Illustrated edn.6. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007. McCorkell. Direct and Database Marketing. Illustrated. Kogan Page Publishers, 1997. 65 Pinson, Jinnet. Steps to Small Business Start-up. Illustrated edn.6. Kaplan Publishing, 2006. Peter, James H., Donnelly. Marketing Management: Knowledge and Skills. Edn 7.McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.2004. Schiffman, Kanuk. Consumer behavior. Pearson Education Asia Limited and Tsinghua University Press, 2004 .127. Smith. Strategic Planning for Public Relations. Illustrated 2, Routledge, 2004. 51-52 Varey R J. Marketing Communication: Principles & Practice. Edn.2. Routledge, 2002. 287-288 Wiley & Sons. Marketing Management: A System Perspective. John Wiley & Sons, 1971. Read More