Category:

MARKETING AND STRATEGY

( Best ) Active Customers

by Mr. DJ 27/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

Active Customers

What is Active Customers?

A customer of the firm if he does repeat purchase of that firm’s product and is expected to buy at least once in every 12 months duration. These are the people who maximizes the company’s revenues and thus the company’s works upon to retain the customers by enhancing their experience and providing discounts.

6 Types of Active Customers

Recent Purchases

Customers who have made a purchase recently. The definition of recently differs by industry. A common definition is at least one purchase within the past 12 months. Durable goods may define a longer period.

Loyal Customers

Customers who make frequent purchases. The definition of loyal customer differs by industry, organization and product category. For example, a fast moving consumer goods firm might define a loyal customer as 5 purchases in 6 months.

Support & Service

Customers who pay for a period of support, service and/or maintenance. For example, a mobile device with a 3 year support plan. A customer who has separately paid for support remains an active customer for the duration of the support.

Product Subscriptions

Products that are automatically purchased on a subscription basis such that they represent recurring revenue. For example, an ecommerce company that allows consumers and businesses to purchase basic goods on a monthly recurring subscription.

Service Subscriptions

Service subscribers who make automatic payments until they decide to cancel the service.

Contacts

Contractual purchases such as a consulting contract. This is the most stable form of active customer as they may face penalties for canceling the service. Contacts are most common amongst business-to-business services.

Steps for Active Customer Experience Management:

Step 1. Customer life cycle stage identification: From the first purchase which the customer makes to reach the products he becomes a lead, till he stops purchasing that product, the customer lifecycle has several stages. By helping to bring in more customers, he can becomes a strong follower of the products and services rather than leaving it. The customer life cycle stages are – To Reach, To Acquire, To Develop, To Retain, and To Inspire. At each stage it is useful to group customers & classify as their needs and expectations differ very rapidly. Deemed to me important business processes vary on which stage of the lifecycle they are in.

Step 2.Determine Business Processes that are Customer Facing: Customer gets definitely impacted, even if those processes that may or may not require to contact the customer directly. They differ for different companies and industries.Inorder to develop a systematic structure to maintenance, manage customer relationship initiation, and termination.

Step 3. Identify Customer Facing Processes Key Events: In order to find customer’s opinion about the organization by their experiences and by providing advice and assistance and using customer insights.

Step 4: Configure & Manage Alerts: In the customer life cycle with every particular event, appropriate action is associated in the form of alerts.

Step 5: Develop A Plan for Customer Action: In order to avoid the risk of under-serve’ to high valued customers and ‘over-serve’ to low potential customers

27/07/2021 0 comment

( Best ) Action Device

by Mr. DJ 27/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

What is Action Device?

Action Device also called as involvement device, as the name suggests elicits an action or response from the recipient. Action device is piece of direct-mail package that “involves” the reader in receiving the marketing message. Action devices were created to increase response rates of direct mail programs, scratch-cards, mobile messages etc.

It is an industry wide belief that increasing a reader’s involvement helps increase response rates. In today’s scenario with the advent of modern marketing techniques, action devices can be also incorporated in e-mails, phone messages that incite the respondent to either click a link or directs to a page where the respondent has to scratch a card or turn a wheel that later drives to promotional messages. Making a comparison between a conventional magazine ad stating discounts and another scratch card along with the magazine that shows discounts only after the reader scratches. Here in this case the clear distinction can be analysed on the level of involvement that the reader had.

Credit To :- mbaskool.com

Importance of Action Devices

As John Wanamaker (1838-1922) coined the phrase “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”, it is still a dilemma that every marketer faces. But the ability to pinpoint the promotions that lead to sales is engrossed in the mode of marketing communication that any company uses. With Action Devices, the business doesn’t just send scratch cards or order forms to all the prospects, but to the known amount of customers who have already made purchases from them and hold the ability to influence others too. The response rate, which is a key attribute of action devices is an indicator in itself for the success of the direct marketing promotion.

On the other hand, action devices present an inexpensive form of marketing promotion that can be used by new businesses and it can also help incorporate digital mediums for communication like e-mail and messages. The certainty that action devices bring to the table for marketers is commendable and the message is very direct and seeks a response which in majority of cases leads to sales. The use of action devices also is in tandem with privacy issues these days, as the customers who are interested are only receiving the message and the niche that the business has created is treated well.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Action Devices

Some of the advantages of action devices are:

1. Caters to the niche market of customers that the business has and targets.Fmarke

2. Inexpensive mode of direct marketing promotion

3. Targets only the customers who are willing to be contacted i.e. maintains privacy

4. Proven metrics such as response rate for future strategy formulation and implementation

5. Easy to execute provided database is properly maintained.

6. Applicable for both goods and services.

Certain disadvantages of action devices are:

1. Constant requirement to update the database

2. Technologically backward in terms of digital marketing

3. Doesn’t help in improving customer base

Examples of Action Devices

A few examples of action devices are:

1. Scratch Cards: This is one of the most widely used forms of action devices. Its simplistic design and the way it incites an action is commendable. It preys on the curiosity of the customer who received the same to take action and thus leading to sales.

2. Mobile Messages: This is a form of action device; it may seem similar to click to action but the instruction in itself derived from action devices for direct marketing campaigns.

27/07/2021 0 comment

MARKETING AND STRATEGY MBA Corner

( Best ) Acquisition Integration Approaches Definitions and Examples

by Mr. DJ 27/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

Acquisition Integration Approaches

What is Acquisition Integration Approaches ?

The Acquisition Integration Approaches model of Philippe Haspeslagh and David Jemison provides insight and guidance in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A on choosing the optimal integration approach. Each approach describes a process by which a company plans for and implements a successful integration of a newly acquired company.

In Mergers and Acquisitions, the motto often traditionally was: “Make them like us.” Alternately, relatively simple criteria were used to choose an approach (e.g., the size and quality of the acquired firm).

Haspeslagh and Jemison (1990) have stated that the approach a company should take towards integration should be understood by considering two (additional) criteria:

1. The need for strategic interdependence

2. The need for organizational autonomy

Strategic Interdependence

This refers to the combined value created after acquisition which should obviously be greater than the value of both the firms combined together. Value creation can be in many forms like increased resources, skills or combined benefits.

Obviously, the goal and central task in any acquisition is to create the value that is enabled when the two organizations are combined. There are four types of value creation:

I. Resource sharing (value is created by combining the companies at the operating level)

II. Functional skills transfer (value is created by moving people or sharing information, knowledge and know-how)

III. General management skill transfer (value is created through improved insight, coordination or control)

IV. Combination benefits (value is created by leveraging cash resources, borrowing capacity, added purchasing power or greater market power)

Organizational Autonomy

Haspeslagh and Jemison warn that managers must not lose sight of the fact that the strategic task of an acquisition is to create value (I-IV), and must not grant autonomy too quickly, although obviously people are important and should be treated fairly and with dignity. The need for organizational autonomy can be answered using three questions:

A. Is autonomy essential to preserve the strategic capability we bought?

B. If so, how much autonomy should be allowed?

C. In which areas specifically is autonomy important?

The Preferred M&A model

Depending on the score on these two factors (see graph), the preferred acquisition integration approaches are:

– Absorption (management needs courage to ensure that its vision for the acquisition is carried out)

– Preservation (management focus is to keep the source of the acquired benefits intact, “nurturing”)

– Symbiosis (management must ensure simultaneous boundary preservation and boundary permeability, gradual process)

– Holding (non intention of integrating and value is created only by financial transfers, risk-sharing or general management capability)

27/07/2021 0 comment

MARKETING AND STRATEGY MBA Corner

( Best ) Above the Line ( ATL )

by Mr. DJ 27/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

Above the Line ( ATL )

Above the Line marketing or ATL advertising consists of advertising activities that are largely non-targeted and have a wide reach. ATL communication is done to build the brand and inform the customers about the product. Conversions are given less importance in above the line advertising.

To make it simpler-

Above the line marketing includes mass marketing strategies which are largely untargeted and are focused on building the brand.

By ‘untargeted’ we mean that the communication isn’t directed towards a specific group. The mediums convey the message to everyone who has access to them.

Examples of Above the Line Promotion

Television

An average American watches 4.3 hours of TV in a day. It’s a similar case with the rest of the world. TV advertisements have a reach from local, to national, and international audience depending on the TV channel and the contract between the parties. TV advertisements have a better connection with the users as moving images with audio are preferred over still images or audio alone.

Radio

Psychologists tell us that consumers need to be exposed to an advertising message at least three times before it begins to penetrate. No other media other than radio provide such affordability when it comes to this frequency.

Radio is a perfect option for marketers to fulfil all the frequency and creative demands of an advertisement. Radio to have a local, national, and international reach just like TVs.

Print Advertisements (magazine & newspaper)

Local, regional and national print media has a wider reach than any of the other mediums. Newspapers have fixed ad-slots that are used by marketers to inform customers / prospective customers about the brand or offers.

Magazines exist in niches and make it easier for marketers to reach their niche directly through them.

Outdoor Advertising

Outdoor advertising is usually done in public places and is constantly on display, have a greater reach depending on the locations. They include Flags, Banners, Wraps, Billboards, etc.

colgate shotgun approach Marketing activities (basically advertisements) can be divided into - Above the Line (ATL), Below the Line (BTL), & Through the Line (TTL) Marketing

Advantages of Above the line marketing

Wider Reach: Above the line advertising mediums have a wide (national/international) reach.
Better Connect with the audience: The mediums like TV and radio use audio-visuals which have a better connect with the audience.
Brand Building: Media advertising is a crucial tool in defining and realizing brand identity. A brand is built by the customers. The role of marketers in brand building is to reach as many prospective customers as they can and communicate to them about the brand and its benefits creatively. Above the line marketing, hence, plays an integral role when it comes to brand building.

Above the line advertising benefits

Above the line advertising has many benefits as it is designed to reach a larger audience and boost brand awareness. However this form of marketing does carry a costly price tag and is generally reserved for the larger corporate organisations.

Here are a few main benefits of above the line advertising:

Brand awareness – ATL is best for boosting brand awareness on a very large scale and has an impressive impact on brand recognition by consumers. It’s virtually impossible to build a very well-known brand without this form of advertising campaign.
Attention grabbing – With a combination of audio and visual which is used in above the line advertising the attention-grabbing quality is boosted to levels not reached with other forms of advertising. This is because audio and visual demand attention from the consumer.
Reach – No other form of advertising is as effective in reaching a large audience than ATL advertising. Brands that use above the line advertising are almost always guaranteed great returns on investment.
AB Testing
5Cs of Marketing

27/07/2021 0 comment

MARKETING AND STRATEGY MBA Corner

( Best ) Abbrochment – definition and meaning

by Mr. DJ 26/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

Abbrochment – definition and meaning

What is Abbrochment?

Abbrochment is a legal term which means forestalling of a market or fair. An abbrochment happens when a person monopolizes a market by buying a product wholesale or bulk for the purpose of selling that product retail as the only vendor of the product. Buying up goods at wholesale to control the supply and then resell at much higher resale prices.

For example, if A is currently not on the market, and I purchase all of A to become the only retail provider of A in the marketplace.

The act of forestalling a market by buying up at wholesale the merchandise intended to be sold there, for the purpose of selling it at retail

Image Credit To :- https://marketbusinessnews.com/

In the image above, the vendor bought up all the supplies of a product in the market, making them the sole supplier. This is abbrochment as they bought up all the goods wanted to control their retail sales.

Put simply, abbrochment (to abbroach) occurs when one entity buys up all the goods – which in this case are the fictitious ‘blues’ – before they reach the market, at wholesale prices, and sells them at retail prices. The ‘abbroacher’ aims to gain total control. They want to be the sole vendor, i.e. to have a monopoly.

This is monopoly where there can be unmet demands and price will be above the normal price. This will also lead to arbitrage where the products from one market will be transferred to another market and sold. These will lead to inefficiencies in the market.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

Browse the definition and meaning of more similar terms. The Management Dictionary covers over 2000 business concepts from 5 categories.

Abbrochment Law and Legal Definition

Abbrochment is the act of forestalling a market. Abbrochment means purchase of merchandise in wholesale that is intended to be sold in a particular retail market for the purpose of controlling that market. This is for monopolizing goods.

Abbrochment = forestalling the market

Forestalling the market is the act of contracting for or buying up any provision or merchandise on its way to the market. The intention is to re-sell it at a higher price, dissuade people from bringing their provisions or merchandise to market, or persuading them to raise prices when there.

The term ‘engrossing’ differs from ‘forestalling’ in that the former involves buying up large quantities of merchandise after they have entered the market, with a view of having monopoly control. Forestalling involves doing so before the goods reach the market.


1	4 Ps of Marketing (Product Mix)
2	4 R’s of Marketing
3	40 40 20 Rule
4	5 C’s of Marketing

26/07/2021 0 comment

MARKETING AND STRATEGY MBA Corner

( Best ) AB Testing

by Mr. DJ 26/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

What is A/B testing? Ab Testing

A/B testing, also known as split testing, refers to a randomized experimentation process wherein two or more versions of a variable (web page, page element, etc.) are shown to different segments of website visitors at the same time to determine which version leaves the maximum impact and drive business metrics.

In the 1920s statistician and biologist Ronald Fisher discovered the most important principles behind A/B testing and randomized controlled experiments in general. “He wasn’t the first to run an experiment like this, but he was the first to figure out the basic principles and mathematics and make them a science,” Fung says.

Fisher ran agricultural experiments, asking questions such as, What happens if I put more fertilizer on this land? The principles persisted and in the early 1950s scientists started running clinical trials in medicine. In the 1960s and 1970s the concept was adapted by marketers to evaluate direct response campaigns (e.g., would a postcard or a letter to target customers result in more sales?).

A/B testing, in its current form, came into existence in the 1990s. Fung says that throughout the past century the math behind the tests hasn’t changed. “It’s the same core concepts, but now you’re doing it online, in a real-time environment, and on a different scale in terms of number of participants and number of experiments.”

Split Testing vs AB Testing: What Are the Types of Tests?

The terms “split testing” and “A/B testing” are often used interchangeably. They’re actually two different types of tests.

A/B testing involves comparing two versions of your marketing asset based on changing one element, such as the CTA text or image on a landing page.

Split testing involves comparing two distinct designs.

I prefer A/B testing because I want to know which elements actually contribute to the differences in data. For instance, if I compare two completely different versions of the same page, how do I know whether more people converted based on the color, the image, or the text?

A/B Testing Process

The following is an A/B testing framework you can use to start running tests:

Collect Data: Your analytics will often provide insight into where you can begin optimizing. It helps to begin with high traffic areas of your site or app, as that will allow you to gather data faster. Look for pages with low conversion rates or high drop-off rates that can be improved.

Identify Goals: Your conversion goals are the metrics that you are using to determine whether or not the variation is more successful than the original version. Goals can be anything from clicking a button or link to product purchases and e-mail signups.

Generate Hypothesis: Once you’ve identified a goal you can begin generating A/B testing ideas and hypotheses for why you think they will be better than the current version. Once you have a list of ideas, prioritize them in terms of expected impact and difficulty of implementation.

Create Variations: Using your A/B testing software (like Optimizely), make the desired changes to an element of your website or mobile app experience. This might be changing the color of a button, swapping the order of elements on the page, hiding navigation elements, or something entirely custom. Many leading A/B testing tools have a visual editor that will make these changes easy. Make sure to QA your experiment to make sure it works as expected.

Run Experiment: Kick off your experiment and wait for visitors to participate! At this point, visitors to your site or app will be randomly assigned to either the control or variation of your experience. Their interaction with each experience is measured, counted, and compared to determine how each performs.

Analyze Results: Once your experiment is complete, it’s time to analyze the results. Your A/B testing software will present the data from the experiment and show you the difference between how the two versions of your page performed, and whether there is a statistically significant difference.

If your variation is a winner, congratulations! See if you can apply learnings from the experiment on other pages of your site and continue iterating on the experiment to improve your results. If your experiment generates a negative result or no result, don’t fret. Use the experiment as a learning experience and generate new hypothesis that you can test.

A/B Testing Statistics: What Are Champions, Challengers and Variations?

The statistics or data you gather from A/B testing come from champions, challengers, and variations. Each version of a marketing asset provides you with information about your website visitors.

Your champion is a marketing asset — whether it’s a web page, email, Facebook Ad, or something else entirely — that you suspect will perform well or that has performed well in the past. You test it against a challenger, which is a variation on the champion with one element changed.

After your A/B test, you either have a new champion or discover that the first variation performed best. You then create new variations to test against your champion.

How Do You Interpret the Results of an A/B Test?

Chances are that your company will use software that handles the calculations, and it may even employ a statistician who can interpret those results for you. But it’s helpful to have a basic understanding of how to make sense of the output and decide whether to move forward with the test variation (the new button in the example above).

Fung says that most software programs report two conversion rates for A/B testing: one for users who saw the control version, and the other for users who saw the test version. “The conversion rate may measure clicks, or other actions taken by users,” he says. The report might look like this: “Control: 15% (+/- 2.1%) Variation 18% (+/- 2.3%).” This means that 18% of your users clicked through on the new variation (perhaps your larger blue button) with a margin of error of 2.3%. You might be tempted to interpret this as the actual conversion rate falling between 15.7% and 20.3%, but that wouldn’t be technically correct. “The real interpretation is that if you ran your A/B test multiple times, 95% of the ranges will capture the true conversion rate — in other words, the conversion rate falls outside the margin of error 5% of the time (or whatever level of statistical significance you’ve set),” Fung explains.

If this is hard to wrap your head around, join the club. What’s important to know is that the 18% conversion rate isn’t a guarantee. This is where your judgment comes in. An 18% conversation rate is certainly better than a 15% one, even allowing for the margin of error (12.9%–17.1% versus 15.7%–20.3%). You might hear people talk about this as a “3% lift” (lift is simply the percentage difference in conversion rate between your control version and a successful test treatment). In this case, it’s most likely a good decision to switch to your new version, but that will depend on the costs of implementing the new version. If they’re low, you might try out the switch and see what happens in actuality (as opposed to in tests). One of the big advantages to testing in the online world is that you can usually revert back to your original pretty easily.

How Do Companies Use A/B Testing?

Fung says that the popularity of the methodology has risen as companies have realized that the online environment is well suited to help managers, especially marketers, answer questions like, “What is most likely to make people click? Or buy our product? Or register with our site?” A/B testing is now used to evaluate everything from website design to online offers to headlines to product descriptions. (In fact, last week I looked at the results of A/B testing on the language we use to market a new product here at HBR.)

Most of these experiments run without the subjects even knowing. “As a user, we’re part of these tests all the time and don’t know it,” Fung says.

And it’s not just websites. You can test marketing emails or ads as well. For example, you might send two versions of an email to your customer list (randomizing the list first, of course) and figure out which one generates more sales. Then you can just send out the winning version next time. Or you might test two versions of ad copy and see which one converts visitors more often. Then you know to spend more getting the most successful one out there.

26/07/2021 0 comment

MARKETING AND STRATEGY MBA Corner

( Best ) 7Ps Booms Bitner

by Mr. DJ 26/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

7Ps Booms Bitner

This article explains the theory and concept of Service Marketing Mix, also known as the 7P’s in a practical way. After reading you will understand the basics of this powerful marketing tool.
Background of the Service Marketing Mix (7 P’s)
More and more organizations are competing one another strategically to distinguish themselves in the area of service and quality within a market. Successful organizations strongly focus on the service paradigm with investment in people, technology, personnel policy and remuneration systems for their employees. This is very important as the behaviour of the employees can have a direct influence on the quality of the service. Employees represent the face and the voice of their organization to the customers. They translate the services provision into services for the customer across all sectors.

Image Credit To :- smart insights

What is the marketing mix?

The marketing mix refers to the tactics (or marketing activities) that we have to satisfy customer needs and position our offering clearly in the mind of the customer. It involves the 7Ps Booms Bitner ; Product, Price, Place and Promotion (McCarthy, 1960) and an additional three elements that help us meet the challenges of marketing services, People, Process and Physical Evidence (Booms & Bitner, 1982).

What is 7Ps Booms Bitner?

Product ( 01 of 7Ps Booms Bitner )

This refers to what the company produces (whether it is product or service, or a combination of both) and is developed to meet the core need of the customer – for example, the need for transport is met with a car. The challenge is to create the right ‘bundle of benefits’ that meet this need. So what happens as customer needs change, competitors race ahead or new opportunities arise? We have to add to the ‘bundle of benefits’ to improve the offering, create new versions of existing products, or launch brand new products. When improving the product offering think beyond the actual product itself – value can be added and differentiation achieved with guarantees, warranties, after-sales or online support, a user-friendly app or digital content like a video that helps the user to make the most out of the product.

Price ( 02 of 7Ps Booms Bitner )

This is the only revenue-generating element of the mix – all other marketing activities represent a cost. So it’s important to get the price right to not only cover costs but generate profit! Before setting prices, we need to research information on what customers are willing to pay and gain an understanding of the demand for that product/service in the market. As price is also a strong indication of the positioning in the market against competitors (low prices=value brand), prices need to be set with competitors in mind too.

Place ( 03 of 7Ps Booms Bitner )

This is the ‘place’ where customers make a purchase. This might be in a physical store, through an app or via a website. Some organisations have the physical space, or online presence to take their product/service straight to the customer, whereas others have to work with intermediaries or ‘middlemen’ with the locations, storage and/or sales expertise to help with this distribution. The decisions to be made in this element of the marketing mix concern which intermediaries (if any) will be involved in the distribution chain and also the logistics behind getting the product/service to the end customer, including storage and transportation.

Promotion ( 04 of 7Ps Booms Bitner )

So we have a fantastic product, at an appealing price, available in all the right places, but how do customers know this? Promotion in our marketing mix is about communicating messages to customers, whichever stage they are in the buyer journey, to generate awareness, interest, desire or action.

We have different tools for communication with varying benefits. Advertising is good for raising awareness and reaching new audiences, whereas personal selling using a sales team is great for building relationships with customers and closing a sale. The challenge? To choose the best tool for the job, and select the most effective media to reach our audiences based on what we know about them. If your customer is a regular on Instagram then that’s where you need to be talking to them!

This doesn’t just apply to customers. Communicate to other stakeholders too like shareholders and the wider public to build company reputation. The same principles apply; choose the right tools and media that fit with what you are trying to achieve.

People ( 05 of 7Ps Booms Bitner )

A company’s people are at the forefront when interacting with customers, taking and processing their enquiries, orders and complaints in person, through online chat, on social media, or via the call centre. They interact with customers throughout their journey and become the ‘face’ of the organisation for the customer. Their knowledge of the company’s products and services and how to use them, their ability to access relevant information and their everyday approach and attitude needs to be optimised. People can be inconsistent but with the right training, empowerment and motivation by a company, they can also represent an opportunity to differentiate an offering in a crowded market and to build valuable relationships with customers.

Process ( 06 of 7Ps Booms Bitner )

All companies want to create a smooth, efficient and customer-friendly journey – and this can’t be achieved without the right processes behind the scenes to make that happen. Understanding the steps of the customer journey – from making an enquiry online to requesting information and making a purchase – helps us to consider what processes need to be in place to ensure the customer has a positive experience. When a customer makes an enquiry, how long will they have to wait before receiving a response? How long do they wait between booking a meeting with the sales team to the meeting taking place? What happens once they make an order? How do we make sure reviews are generated after a purchase? How can we use technology to make our processes more efficient? All of these considerations help build a positive customer experience.

Physical Evidence ( 07 of 7Ps Booms Bitner )

Physical evidence provides tangible cues of the quality of experience that a company is offering. It can be particularly useful when a customer has not bought from the organisation before and needs some reassurance, or is expected to pay for a service before it is delivered. For a restaurant, physical evidence could be in the form of the surroundings, staff uniform, menus and online reviews to indicate the experience that could be expected. For an agency, the website itself holds valuable physical evidence – from testimonials to case studies, as well as the contracts that companies are given to represent the services they can expect to be delivered.


1	4 Ps of Marketing (Product Mix)
2	4 R’s of Marketing
3	40 40 20 Rule
4	5 C’s of Marketing

26/07/2021 0 comment

MARKETING AND STRATEGY MBA Corner

( Best ) 5 Cs of Marketing | How to conduct a 5c analysis | What are the five C’s of marketing? Definition and examples

by Mr. DJ 25/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

5 Cs of Marketing | How to conduct a 5c analysis | What are the five C’s of marketing? Definition and examples

The Five C’s of Marketing are the five most important areas of marketing. When marketing executives make marketing decisions, they should consider the five C’s of marketing. The five C’s stand for Company, Customers, Collaborators, Competitors, and Climate. The five C’s act as a guideline when we are creating a marketing plan or devising a marketing strategy.

A marketing strategy exists when a company combines all its goals and objectives into one plan.

The Five C’s of Marketing is an extension of the Three C’s, which just covered competitors, customers, and company.

A 5C analysis, alongside other widely used business tools like the SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), serves as a method for helping professionals make decisions and construct actionable marketing strategies. Often, a defined marketing plan will include instructions for undertaking a review of the 5 C’s at regular intervals, such as every six months or on an annual basis.

The 5 Cs of Marketing

Company
Collaborators
Customers
Competitors
Climate

By evaluating these aspects of your business, you’ll have a good high-level view of your business. Whenever it comes time to make decisions about your marketing, you’ll have a cheat sheet that will help you better decisions.

Image Credit to :- Marketing91

How to conduct a 5c analysis – Questions to ask

Company ( 01 of 5 Cs of Marketing )

Why did we start with “company”? Because we think it’s always important to check in with yourself. Go ahead, take a deep breath, and get ready to look inward.

Some 5C adherents rank “capabilities” among the elements of their analysis. For our purposes, we’ll view that term as being largely synonymous with the “company” category.

Begin by asking yourself questions related to your own business:

What does my company sell? List your major product lines or types.
Do our products vary from competitors’ products? If so, in what ways?
What competitive advantage does my company have?
What makes my brand unique or memorable?
What does my business do better than others?
What does my business do worse than others?
How do customers view my business?
If I suddenly gained $10,000 to invest in my business, where would I invest it?
If I suddenly had to cut my budget by 10%, where would I make those cuts?
What are my 1, 3, and 5-year goals for this company?

If you find some of these questions difficult to answer, consider starting with a simpler SWOT analysis. While not as useful overall as a 5c model, it can be a good starting point to help you get better insights into your company.

It’s also very important to be upfront and honest during this process, especially about your weaknesses and where your competitors are outperforming you. Once you’ve answered these questions, spend a moment and ask yourself how the answers to these questions make you feel. Are there any where you wish you’d been able to answer differently? If so, make a note of what your ideal answer would be – this is a great way to create both short- and long-term goals for your company.

What are 4P’s of Marketing

What Are 4R’s of Marketing

What is 40 40 20 Rule of Marketing

Collaborators ( 02 of 5 Cs of Marketing )

Take a broad look at the collaborators you currently work with as well as investigating the potential for untapped partnerships.

Businesses that are aligned with you in the marketplace, but aren’t direct competitors, may prove to be valuable partners for creating content. Looking forward and backward in your supply chain can be helpful, too. You’ll likely find a lot of opportunities to work with other companies that have shared interests.

Construct a well-defined plan for pursuing partnerships based on your marketing decisions.

In this section, list out any person or service that your company works with in order to operate. Think of it as a directory or phone book for your company – for example, when a supplier is late with an order, you can refer to the collaborators list to quickly figure out who you need to call to get it fixed. For each collaborator, make a note of the primary contact person, their email address, phone number, and other relevant info.

Here are some questions to ask and examples of the collaborators that businesses work with most commonly:

Who runs the daily operations of the company?
Do I have a partner that helps run the company?
Do I have investors or stakeholders?
Who creates or supplies the products I sell?
Who is my shipping provider?
Who processes my credit card payments?
Who provides my ecommerce platform?
Who handles my inventory or warehouse operations?
Who did I register my domain with?
Do I have anyone helping me create my website?
Do I have anyone writing product descriptions, articles, or other copy for me?
Do I have anyone helping me with marketing or advertising?
Do I work with a photographer on an ongoing basis?
Do I have anyone distributing or selling my products for me?
Do I have someone running my social media accounts?
Do I work with any freelancers or contractors?
Is there anyone else that I work with on a regular basis?

After filling out the collaborators section, you’ll likely realize that it takes more people (or services) to run your business than you initially realized. Listing all of your collaborators here will help you keep track of who is responsible for what. It also gives you a place to start when you’re looking to make your business more productive or efficient – you may realize that you’ve had a contractor on the payroll that hasn’t emailed you in months.

Customers ( 03 of 5 Cs of Marketing )

One of the most important parts of any business is the customers that purchase your products. By getting a strong sense of who your customers are, what they want, and how well your product meets their needs, you’ll be much more effective in delivering products that your customers want to buy (and keep buying). You’ll also be better prepared when it comes to your marketing efforts – not only will you be promoting your products to the right audience, you’ll also know what language and imagery resonates with your potential customers. Finally, customer analysis is one of the best ways to learn about your products and business – by figuring out what customers like and dislike about your products and business, you’ll be gaining firsthand insight into what matters most. Begin your customer analysis by asking the following questions. If you’re targeting multiple market segments, you may want to answer these questions for each segment:

What does the ideal customer(s) look like for my products?
Who is my target audience?
Who is currently purchasing my products?
What sorts of products are sold most/least frequently?
Which of my products have very good reviews? Poor reviews? No reviews?
How do my customers behave on my website? Which pages do they visit most often?
How are my customers finding my site or products?
Is my overall audience growing or shrinking?
How many repeat purchases do my customers make? How important are repeat purchases to my business model?
What promotions or campaigns have been most effective in driving sales in the past?
Is there seasonality or trends in customer purchases?
Do customers do careful research before purchasing, or do they impulse buy?
What motivates my customers to purchase? (Price, quality, convenience, unique product benefit, etc.)
Where does my customer go to get more information about my products?
What are my channels of communication with my customers?
What sources of customer feedback do I have available?
What is the most common customer complaint or issue?
What is the most common praise or positive feedback?
What sorts of things do my customers find most interesting? Least interesting?
If I could only tell my customers one thing about my business, what would it be?

The goal of these questions is to understand your customers, their behaviors, and their underlying motivations. If you’re having difficulty with this section, you’re not alone – the most difficult and important part of marketing is truly understanding the customer. If you crack that puzzle, you’ve obtained a competitor advantage that will be hard for competitors to beat. Use every source of customer feedback at your disposal to help you form your answers to these questions, and make sure to revise your customer analysis frequently as you learn more about them or as your target audience changes.

Competitors( 04 of 5 Cs of Marketing )

Competitors come next because, next to inner peace and a customer-focused mindset, knowing who you’re up against is the real secret to implementing a solid marketing plan and strategy.

Chances are, no matter how strong your differentiators are, your product lines aren’t totally unique in the market. You may already have a strong sense of who your primary competitors are, but keep an open mind and expand your list if necessary.

Then, make sure you know which digital marketing channels your competitors are using and get to know their social media presence.

Understanding your competitors is as important as understanding your own business. Check out our guide to competitor analysis for ecommerce, and then answer the following questions about your competitors:

Who are your direct competitors?
Which are my established competitors? Which are new or emerging competitors?
What do my competitors offer that I don’t?
What are each of my competitors’ biggest strengths?
What are each of my competitors’ biggest weaknesses? (Hint – check their product and company reviews)
What strategies are my competitors using to gain customers?
Is there anything that my competitors are doing that I cannot?
Is there anything that my business can do that my competitors cannot?
What audiences are my competitors targeting?
What sort of content is each competitor producing?
What sort of social media presence does each competitor have?

Knowing your competitor’s overall market position, strengths, and weaknesses will give you a huge advantage – after all, you can’t compete effectively if you don’t know who your real opponents are. You’ll probably want to focus on companies similar in size to your own, but it’s OK if your competitors are larger or better-established than you – while it might not seem that way at first, smaller companies have a number of advantages over larger companies. Since they aren’t run by committee or beholden to stakeholders, small companies can be much more agile and inventive in their marketing, which can more than make up for a giant advertising budget. As Sun Tzu says, “If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Rather than trying to go toe-to-toe with larger competitors on the things they’re best at, look for weaknesses, gaps, and other opportunities. The key to beating a larger competitor is to focus on small, attainable wins, and let those accumulate over time.

Climate ( 05 of 5 Cs of Marketing )

Whether you use the term “climate,” “context” or “conditions,” chances are you’re talking about similar concepts here.

The idea is to really look beyond yourself to get a better understanding of the whole ecosystem in which your company participates. To develop an effective strategy that attracts new potential customers while retaining loyal clients, you have to assess the overall climate.

There are two related situation analyses that can help you get there:

SWOT: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
PEST: Political, economic, social and technological.

For instance, if you learn that your customers are already becoming overburdened by email in their professional lives, how do you respond to that threat?

(As an added bonus, conducting a PEST analysis, followed by a SWOT analysis, is how to start building out your marketing plan.)

When looking at the climate, focus on factors external to your own business that may affect how your operate. This will include industry trends, societal trends, legal trends, and new or developing technologies. Ask yourself the following questions:

Are there any new or proposed laws or regulations that may affect my business? If so, how do I plan to address them?
Are there any social trends that may affect the things that people buy or the way people buy them?
Are there any economic trends that might affect customer shopping behaviors?
Are there any new or emerging technolgies that may change the way my customers act or the way my business operates?
What sorts of things or opinions are becoming popular or unpopular?

With these questions, you’re not trying to predict the future, but you are trying to get a general sense of where the market is headed. For example, when looking into societal trends, consider how people think or feel, and what sorts of things are important to them. For example, if your target audience is becoming increasingly concerned with eco-friendliness, fair trade practices, or country of manufacture, you’ll need to be aware of these feelings. Not only will this help you guide your company towards success, it will also help you avoid potential disasters. A great example of a company failing to predict technological trends is Blockbuster, who famously declined to purchase Netflix in 2000 for $50 million dollars – Blockbuster is now defunct (except for a single remaining store with what might be the world’s best Twitter account), and Netflix is worth almost 4 billion dollars. Had Blockbuster been better-informed about industry trends, they could have achieved an 8,000% profit increase (and still be in business!).

25/07/2021 0 comment

MARKETING AND STRATEGY MBA Corner

( Best ) 40 40 20 Rule of Marketing for the Digital Age

by Mr. DJ 24/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

( Best ) 40 40 20 Rule of Marketing for the Digital Age

David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy Mather and considered by many the “father of advertising,” once said, “I expect the direct response people to become an integral part of all agencies.” It turns out his prediction was accurate. Today, the vast majority of ad agencies and in-house marketing organizations both big and small support demand-gen programs.

However, while Ogilvy’s words still hold true, many of the direct marketing rules from his day have gone the way of the two-martini lunch. One example: the classic direct marketing 40/40/20 rule.

Developed in the 1960s by marketing guru Ed Mayer, the 40/40/20 rule is designed to help marketers understand where to focus their efforts. The rule consists of three core elements that were critical in direct marketing campaigns before the Internet:

40% Audience

Marketers primarily used direct mail lists to generate demand for their products and services. Like any media, you could segment mailing lists by a range of criteria. Target the wrong audience, and your campaign was doomed.

40% Offer

An offer is the value exchange you are providing and drives the recipient to the action you want them to take. A discount on a product, a rebate, or free delivery–the offer is what you merchandised as the call to action.

20% Creative

Creative encompasses everything—the message, visual elements such as typography and layout, and, of course, the copy. While it may only account for 20% of the “rule,” creative components could make or break your campaign.

Direct marketing in a post-Internet world 40 40 20 Rule

Does the 40/40/20 rule have a place in today’s digital demand-gen era? In many ways, I think it does.

However, the ascendance of digital media, the variety of content platforms, the evolution of the buyer’s journey, and the proliferation of marketing technology (martech) and measurement tools require a rethink of the variables that comprise the 40/40/20 rule. The fact is, many programs have not changed and many marketers still follow the old formula. But that formula is no longer valid in the digital world. If demand gen marketers stick to the old rule, they risk poor performance.

Here are the new variables companies should consider when developing a demand gen campaign:

20%: Audience: Know your target–it’s the most critical variable. But move beyond simple demographics. Create detailed personas that include the emotional and rational triggers that compel your audiences to act.
20%: Content: Content remains a vital component in driving engagement and response, especially in the martech era. To succeed, you need to provide the right content aligned to the right personas across the entire buyer’s journey.
10%: Data: Data drives when, how, and to whom you communicate. It influences your decision on channel and cadence, and it’s key to understanding your campaign ROI. Data has always been important, but with advances in data capture capabilities, it has become integral to demand gen success.
10%: Distribution: With so many marketing distribution channels (paid, owned, and earned), it’s important that you understand and optimize your efforts based on where your audience is consuming information.
10%: Offer: Offers are still an important component in communications, especially for nurture programs and sales enablement. The better your offer is, the better your response will be.
10%: Messaging: Messaging was once considered part of “creative,” but it’s too important to be lumped into that bucket. Messaging offers a framework for how you position your offers and content. It establishes the voice and tone for your campaign and determines how audiences perceive your brand.
10%: Alignment: In today’s multi-channel multi-platform world you need to provide audiences a consistent experience across all your brand touch points. This requires alignment across marketing and sales so that both organizations are in sync. Sales needs to knows what marketing is putting into market.
10%: Visuals: Graphics, illustrations, data visualization, iconography, or photos—no matter the format, they’re a big element in today’s demand generation efforts. Research shows that visuals can increase information retention in a campaign from 10% to 65%.

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4P’s of marketing

4R’s of Marketing

24/07/2021 0 comment

MARKETING AND STRATEGY MBA Corner

( Best ) 4 Rs of Marketing

by Mr. DJ 24/07/2021

written by Mr. DJ

4 Rs of Marketing | The 4Rs Marketing Strategy

1. Reception ( 01 of 4 Rs of Marketing )

For many companies, the obsession in marketing is lead generation and nurturing. Whether that means running ads, creating lead magnets, or fine tuning an automated email funnel… this first absolutely essential step tends to get the marketer’s prime focus. HOWEVER, the problem then lies: If marketing “gets them to the door,” then… “who gets them in?”

Who is going to close the deal? Typically, this is done by someone in sales. The thing of it is, contemporary sales teams aren’t what they used to be, primarily because contemporary consumers don’t convert in isolated interactions… it’s all fluid, seamless… a true continuum of customer experience.

So, the question remains: Who is your first point of contact? Who receives your leads? How does that first contact feel to the customers/end-user?

This string of questions requires an absolutely precise answer; systematized, scalable, and reproducible across the brand. To test this, just inquire via all your major direct channels (phone, text, email, direct messaging) to various team members and collate the response. Each location and each team member should be conducting the process of reception in more similar ways than divergent. One would actually be surprised if not terrified to know what type of leads are dropped at this first, absolutely crucial step.

4 p’s Of Marketing mix

2. Retention ( 02 of 4 Rs of Marketing )

Let me ask you this. What is your average Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)? In the case of outpatient physical therapy practice, we can say for sake of easy numbers that a single course or episode of care would be considered our CLV; and, that such a care bring in revenue that is a few shades above $1,000. So, let’s just say $1k = CLV.

A highly, under-addressed element in most industries, and certainly in the practice of Physical Therapy is: CHURN. Churn, and many other terms like it, all describe the percentage of retention a customer holds to across their CLV. For the ease of talking numbers, say an episode of care is 10 visits. So, each visit is worth $100. Well, if a customer to a physical therapist — their patient — only comes in for 8/10 visits, you’ve lost 20% of your CLV due to a 80% retention rate.

THIS. IS. HUGE.

Again, for ease of numbers: Say a clinician sees 10 customers a day, 5 days a week, for 50 weeks of the year. That’s 2,500 patient encounters a year or $250,000 of gross revenue. That’s great…. if that represented 100% retention of CLV. The problem is, that only represents an 80% retention rate, which means: Your company has left $62,500 of revenue unrealized due that 80% retention rate.

What is worse is that is that for every 5 FTE of clinicians, you’re losing 1 FTE of gross revenue production.

AND, if by chance your company has 5 clinics, each with 5 providers… you’re actually leaving an entire clinic’s equivalent of business completely un-captured… all because of poor customer retention.

The lesson here is this: Getting someone to buy, once… that’s not that hard. Getting someone to keep buying… that’s a little harder. Getting them to buy, again??? THAT, is the hard part — and, happens to be the 3rd R: Reactivation.

4 p’s Of Marketing mix

3. Reactivation ( 03 of 4 Rs of Marketing )

The universe is funny with that 80/20 Rule. It’s been quoted in so many different contexts; from contribution of value to, persistence of problems, and especially, to companies growing based on return customers.

Yes, Return Customers. For so very many businesses, their financial success thrives off of 80% of their business coming from the veritable 20% of their customers. Now, while this may not be a hard-and-true figure to go by, it is the concept that matters. Companies such as Apple, Disney, and Amazon — these brands are industry leaders because they not only retain your full CLV per purchasing episode, they get you for every subsequent order. THAT, is the key to their success.

Now, sure… I’ll be the first to say that the physical therapy business and the technology business, isn’t the same… and, it’s quite different from entertainment… and, certainly, it’s a bit of a different beast than is online sales and managing a worldwide supply chain.

HOWEVER, there are far more similarities in business strategy to appreciate than differences.

In every industry, a business will be successful if leads are warmly nurtured into purchasing behaviors. They will grow in success as they maximize their CLV retention rates. AND, each time a customer needs a job to be done via products or services, branding effects giving consumers a propensity to purchase from previously patronized companies will help those businesses continue to win. Think about how many times you’ve gone back to the same grocery store, or ordered a product from a website, or went to the same gasoline station (Ha! This last sentence is likely to date this blog post in the coming days)… more likely than not, you’ve developed a consistent habit of all of the above, within a certain respect. The same goes for the customers of physical therapy practices. How often do you get repeat customers? How much of you current caseload is comprised of past customers? These numbers matter. These numbers describe a combination of brand equity as well as your reactivation ratio that describes your brand’s ability to incite repeat customers.

There are reasons to their being loyal, repeat buyers to your brand. More importantly, there are captivating stories behind their purchasing behaviors. AND, EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, it is your brand’s ability to share the stories of such purchase experiences that closes the loop and brings us to the 4th R: Reviews.

Oh, if you’re interested in learning more in depth about reactivation based sales psychology, check out our webinar for Physical Therapists: How To Sell Anything.

4 p’s Of Marketing mix

4. Reviews ( 04 of 4 Rs of Marketing )

“Tell your friends!”

For so long and too long, the physical therapy profession has relied upon “word of mouth” and “referral sources.” These are but two lead sources in an infinite variety of market mixes. It gets really scary when people stop talking about you, AND, you only have a handful of referral sources. It’s not just scary, it’s irresponsible and fatal to the health of your business.

But, returning back to the ability to share stories… how DO people share stories these days? Well… not-ironically, they do so through actual technological features on social media platforms… called STORIES! They exist on Instagram, on Snapchat, on Facebook….. and, quite honestly, these ephemeral content postings on digital platforms are likely here to stay. Beyond this, there are more permanent storytellings through podcasts, video, video blogs, written blogs, YouTube channels… and, a lot more.

So, the question is truly: How is your company’s VALUE being shared through THEIR stories?

Are they sharing your digital footprint? Are they leaving formal reviews? Do they engage with your content, either subtly or with overt comments? This is the new way people are “telling their friends.” And, while many practices have overwhelmingly satisfied customers… few actually go the extra step to politely ask customers to share their experience and write a review; making it that much more difficult for prospective buyers to find you and make purchasing decisions.

4 p’s Of Marketing mix

24/07/2021 0 comment

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