Explain the modalities of marketing and customer relations if you are to succeed as a marketing manager in a firm?

Answer 1

Elective – Customer Relationship Management. Explain the modalities of marketing and customer relations if you are to succeed as a marketing manager in a firm. --------------------------------------------------------- Marketing is the process of making customers aware of the products and services of a company. It helps keep existing customers interested in a product or services. Advertisements play a potent role in projecting not only the credentials of a company but also helps in catering a product to the end users. In other words, marketing is the process of planning and executing the pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, ideas, and services in the marketplace. There are two major characteristics of marketing - expanding the existing customer base and the retention of existing customers. The modalities of marketing depend on the audience the product or service is being targeted to. The budgets and use of marketing tools are made concurrent to the end users. Marketing depends on the theory of the Four Ps—product, price, promotion, and placement. Pricing is a process by which the price of a product is determined, while promotion refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company. Placement or distribution is a method that ensures that the product reaches the marketplace. Place refers to where a product or service is sold. Advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, and ideas by an identified sponsor. There are various methods by which a company can advertise their products; some of them include publicity, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion. Advertising is used to convey the availability of a ""product"" and to provide information regarding the product. There are three objectives of advertisements: communicate information about a particular product, persuade people to buy the product, and keep the organization in the public eye. The major objectives of advertising include increasing short or long-term sales, market share, awareness, product trial, mind share, brand name recall, product use information, positioning or repositioning, and organizational image improvement. Business Description Marketing is a full-service marketing communications firm, specializing in small-sized and mid-sized manufacturers. It is a home-based, sole proprietorship It relies heavily upon project management skills gained over a period of thirty years in business-to-business marketing communications, as many of the service tasks are performed by known and ed suppliers and vendors. What Are Its Services? n general, marketing planning, communications program planning and implementation. Implementation consists of the creation, production and distribution of marketing communications which consist of all or any combination of the following: • Advertising • Direct Marketing • Sales Literature • Catalogs • Public Relations • Web Site Design • Sales Promotion/Merchandising • Product/Service Names • Trade Show Exhibits • Engineering Presentations • Sales Presentations • Point-of-Purchase Displays We will do all planning and as much of the creative writing as possible. We will always do the planning. We may do less of the creative writing as the business expands and requires more planning and project-management time. What Makes Marketing Unique? We believe that a major factor which separates Marketing from other marketing communications endeavors is our depth and breadth of experience. Marketing is also developing a Resource Line which will allow our target manufacturing firms to more effectively use their customer and prospect lists. Marketing Strategy How Has Marketing Positioned Itself? Marketing has positioned itself to be primarily a niche-market service supplier. Most established marketing communications firms, because of their overhead, cannot afford to spend time on the lower end of our annual sales volume objective. The proprietor has an extremely varied background in terms of different kinds of clients served. This experience encompasses virtually all marketing venues and media. We have an excellent grasp of technical processes, both in terms of product manufacturing and product application. Marketing represents an excellent match for the small-sized to medium-sized manufacturing firm that doesn't have a large enough budget to attract an ad or PR agency with equal experience and expertise. What Is the Nature of the Target Client? Many of the target firms are entrepreneurial in nature. Their principal(s) wear many hats. They are intimately familiar with their business milieu. If they are successful, they figure they're doing just fine and don't want or need advertising. The old saw is, "we know who our customers and prospects are, we talk to them regularly." To a degree, they are right. They may be selling in a niche market. Their customers and prospects may be small in number. The nature of their product(s) may be self-localizing, i.e. shipping costs and time may help define their geographical marketing area, hence its size. Almost everyone has local competition, however. What Is the Precise Marketing Geography? The counties of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb constitute the primary marketing geography. Secondary geography is Washtenaw, Livingston and St. Clair counties. After these, out state areas along the I-94 corridor would be tested. Business opportunities from any source in neighboring areas would certainly be evaluated. Marketing Assumptions Information on which potential clients have ad and/or PR agencies is not readily available. This information must be obtained in order to reduce the number of prime prospects. Many potential customers do not recognize the need for regular marketing communications activity. This may suggest the availability of more per-project work. The target first contact, the Sales/Marketing Manager, is an extremely busy person and may be difficult to reach. If there is no Sales/Marketing person, the CEO will be contacted, although he may be even more difficult to reach. In the Detroit metro area, there are many North American headquarters for off-shore automotive suppliers. Most off-shore companies are not serious users of advertising and sales promotion. Sales Strategy Make cold contacts via letters of introduction followed by telephone calls. The approach will be made to the Marketing and/or Sales Manager where no Ad Manager can be identified. Marketing/Sales Managers are extremely busy people who are responsible for the generation of sales materials where no Ad Manager exists. Some may rely upon an ad or PR agency. If there is an Ad or Communications Manager, this person should be approached first. The existence of such a person usually means one of two situations: 1) The company already has an agency, or; 2) They have an in-house operation. Whatever situation is uncovered, contact should still be made. They may be dissatisfied with their present agency or in the process of disbanding their in-house operation. Even with an in-house operation, they may still go outside for some services including creative. In addition to this formal effort, all opportunities resulting from networking and referrals must be followed up on. Sales Tactics 1. Commence sales efforts with letters to 25 Fee-Based prospects per week, every other week. Use the two week period to follow up with telephone calls for appointments. 2. Commence sales efforts with letters to 10 Project-Based prospects per week, every other week. Use the second week in the cycle for telephone follow-up. 3. Commence development work on the Resource Line. Prepare a best-guess time line for completion of a saleable program. 4. Re-evaluate sales efforts near the end of June for adjustment, if necessary. The first-contact sales letter must introduce Cornelius Marketing as the assistance the busy person needs to help simplify his or her busy life. It must identify with the prospects milieu. It must back up CM's claim to be an experienced, versatile service partner. It must get across the fact that CM will work on either an annual-fee basis or on a per-project basis. The letter will close stating that a telephone call will follow within one week of receipt of the letter. It is important to follow up as stated as this will be the first indicator of performance, that we are dependable