Entrep Lesson 5 - Market and Customer

main timeline of customer map

awareness - research - purchase - oobe

The timeline is just the starting point; next we need to look at what's happening at each stage. A framework that I find consistently useful is to look at:

• Actions: What is the customer doing at each stage? What actions are they taking to move themselves on to the next stage? (Don't list what your company or partners such as retailers are doing here. That will come later when we look at touchpoints) • Motivations: Why is the customer motivated to keep going to the next stage? What emotions are they feeling? Why do they care? • Questions: What are the uncertainties, jargon, or other issues preventing the customer from moving to the next stage? As you can from the diagram above, home theater has a larger proportion of questions than almost anything else at each stage, which indicates this is an area that manufacturers and retailers should be attacking aggressively. • Barriers: What structural, process, cost, implementation, or other barriers stand in the way of moving on to the next stage?

the four Ps:

product, price, promotion and place

The following is a list of potential questions to be answered by this research.

• Do salespeople call on their most qualified prospects on a proper priority and time-allocation basis? • Does the sales force contact decision makers? • Are territories aligned according to sales potential and salespeople's abilities? • Are sales calls coordinated with other selling efforts, such as trade publication advertising, trade shows and direct mail? • Do salespeople ask the right questions on sales calls? Do sales reports contain appropriate information? Does the sales force understand potential customers' needs? • How does the growth or decline of a customer's or a prospect's business affect the company's own sales?

Drawbacks of Quantitative Persona

• It needs significant effort as statistical analysis takes time and is iterative. • There's a need for more specialized skill sets to apply various statistical data analysis techniques. • The results can lead to more complicated or uncomfortable ideas beyond the expectations of your business stakeholders.

Here are some critical steps to keep in mind.

• Listen. What people are saying about a company enables the organisation to determine its current social media presence, which in turn guides the setting of social media goals and strategies to achieve them. • Identify The target market (niche) should be identified so marketing strategies can be organised to efficiently reach those most receptive customers and eventually advocates. • Categorise. Social media platforms can be categorised by target market relevancy. In other words, a company should focus its efforts on the social media sites where its target audience resides in the greatest numbers, resulting in a higher return on investment (ROI). • Implement. Choosing the right tools is accomplished by finding the social media sites where the target audience resides and then focusing the company's social media efforts on those platforms. • Collaborate with platform members as a means of establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with the platform participants • Contribute content to build reputation and become a valued member, helping to improve the community • Convert strategy execution into desired outcomes such as brand building, increasing customer satisfaction, driving word-of-mouth recommendations, producing new product ideas, generating leads, handling crisis reputation management, integrating social media marketing with PR and advertising, and increasing search engine ranking and site traffic. • Monitor. Evaluate the organisation's social media marketing initiatives

As with all information systems designs, the key factors that affect the value of marketing information system are:

(1) data reliability, (2) data usefulness or intelligibility, (3) reporting system timeliness, (4) data relevance and (5) system cost.

Entrepreneurs should be aware of five major consumer classifications.

1 Convenience goods - whether staple goods (foods), impulse goods (checkout counter items) or emergency goods and services - are items that consumers will want, but will not be willing to spend time shopping for. 2 Shopping goods are products consumers will take time to examine carefully and compare for quality and price. 3 Specialty goods consist of products or services consumers make a special effort to find and purchase. 4 Unsought goods are items consumers do not currently need or seek - common examples are life insurance, encyclopedias and cemetery plots. These products require explanation or demonstration. 5 New products are items that are unknown due to lack of advertising or are new products that take time to be understood - when micro-computers were first introduced, for example, they fell into this category. Understanding these classifications is important both for selling to consumers and for choosing distribution channels.

There are three important aspects to consider with social media marketing:

1 Create something of value with an event, a video, a tweet or a blog entry that attracts attention and becomes viral in nature, as in viral marketing. This viral replication of a message through user to user contact is what makes social media marketing work. 2 Enable customers to promote a message themselves with multiple online social media venues. Fan pages in Twitter and Facebook are examples of this. 3 Encourage user participation and dialogue. A successful social media marketing program must fully engage and respect the customers with online conversations.

3 Types of Personas in Marketing

1. Buyer Personas 2. Website Personas 3. User Personas

How to Create Qualitative Personas

1. Conduct Qualitative Research 2. Segment Users 3. Create a Persona for Each Segment

How to Create Quantitative Personas

1. Conduct Qualitative Research - This approach helps to reveal insights into user objectives, behaviors, and attitudes. 2. Establish Hypotheses About Segmentation Options Use qualitative research to come up with several possible ways for user segmentation. You want a variety of candidates to analyze. 3. Collect Data on Segmentation Options via Quantitative Research Ask particular questions for each potential segmentation option. For instance, during a site survey analysis, you may ask how long and how often the candidates use the website. The purpose is to gather more data for the next step. 4. Segment Users Based on Statistical Cluster Analysis Use statistical algorithms to guide you to a segmentation model instead of just testing your present assumptions. 5. Create a Persona for Each Segment Gather the data from cluster analysis and make it realistic by adding names, photos, and stories.

It's important to calculate and understand market size for several reasons.

1. First, entrepreneurs and organizations can use market sizing to estimate how much profit they could potentially earn from a new business, product or service. This helps decision-makers to decide whether they should invest in it. 2. If you choose to move forward, this analysis will also help you to develop a marketing strategy that addresses the unique needs and potential of your core market. 3. Market sizing can also help you to estimate the number of people that you may need to hire before you launch a new product or service, rather than "feeling your way" as you test your new market. If you know this from the start, you can optimize your approach to recruitment, so that you have the right people in place when you need them.

BENEFIT OF CUSTOMER VALUE PROPOSITION/ VALUE ELEMENTS

1. Knowledge of how their market offerings specifically deliver value to customers enables enterpreneur to craft persuasive value propositions. 2. Sustaining Customer Relationships. 3. Delivering Superior Value and Getting an Equitable Return

5 types of customers

1. New customers 2. Impulse customers 3. Angry customers 4. Insistent customers 5. Loyal customers

How to develop a customer model?

1. The first step is putting together the right kind of value research team 2. Selecting the right market segment to target is the next step. 3. Generate a comprehensive list of value elements. 4. Gather data. 5. Validate the model and understand variance in the estimates. 6. Create value-based sales tools.

Step 5: Determine a pricing structure

A company's pricing structure dictates which customers will be attracted, as well as the type or quality of products/services that will be provided. Many business owners believe the market dictates a competitive pricing structure. But this is not always the case - many companies with a high price structure are very successful. Regardless of the strategies, customers must believe that the product's price is appropriate. The price of a product or service, therefore, should not be set until marketing strategies have been developed.

What is a Customer Persona?

A customer persona is a semi-fictional depiction of your ideal buyer based on market research and actual data about your present consumers. It encompasses consumer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and objectives. With customer personas, you can understand different sets or groups of consumers. You get to know where a particular group lives, their age bracket, and maybe some of their usual purchasing behavior. All this information can help you develop a better understanding of these homogenous groups, so you can better serve their interests.

Market profile

A market profile helps a company identify its current market and service needs. How profitable are existing company services? Which of these services offer the most potential? Which (if any) are inappropriate? Which will customers cease to need in the future?

MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM

A marketing information system compiles and organises data relating to cost, revenue and profit from the customer base. This information can be useful for monitoring the strategies, decisions and programs concerned with marketing.

DEVELOPING A SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLAN

A social media marketing plan details an organisation's social media goals and the actions necessary to achieve them. Key among these actions is the creation of solid marketing strategies without which there is little chance of successfully executing the plan.

5. Validate the model and understand variance in the estimates.

After building the initial value model, the supplier should validate it by conducting additional assessments with other customers or potential customers in the market segment. Conducting further assessments enables the supplier to refine its value estimates and to understand better how the value of its market offering varies across customers' applications, capabilities, and usage.

CURRENT SALES ANALYSIS

An entrepreneur needs to continually review the methods employed for sales and distribution in relation to the market research that has been conducted. Matching the correct customer profile with sales priorities is a major goal in sales research.

3. Create a Persona for Each Segment

As you include more details about the objectives, behaviors, and attitudes, every user type evolves into a persona that comes close to reality when you associate it with a name, a photo, demographic info, and more.

2. Sustaining Customer Relationships.

At the core of all successful working relationships are two essential characteristics: trust and commitment. To demonstrate their trustworthiness and commitment to customers, progressive suppliers periodically provide evidence to customers of their accomplishments.

Factors Affecting Customer Persona

Background Goals Values Challenges

Potential customers

By identifying potential customers, either geographically or with an industry-wide analysis of its marketing area, a company increases its ability to target this group, thus turning potential customers into current customers.

1. Knowledge of how their market offerings specifically deliver value to customers enables enterpreneur to craft persuasive value propositions.

Consider the case of Greif Brothers Corporation, which produces fiber drums, plastic drums, and intermediate bulk containers for food products and chemicals manufacturers. Rather than competing on a price-per-container basis, Greif markets complete packaging systems. Greif stays involved with its customers throughout the life cycle of the containers—monitoring how the customer uses the container, following the container's path to the end user and retrieving it when it is empty, and disposing of it or reconditioning it. Greif's value proposition—total-cost-based packaging—promises that its systems can significantly reduce a customer's total packaging costs.

What every type of customer needs

Customer needs often depend on the customer's type of injury or problem, their attitude, and relationship they have with the company. But there are a few things all customers expect in a good customer service experience, according to our Customer Experience Trends Report: •Fast answers to issues • The ability to get help as soon as they need it • Friendly support agents • Help over the channels of their choice • A personalized experience, where they don't have to repeat themselves

HIERARCHY MODEL OF CUSTOMER VALUE

Customer value refers to the customer's perception of preference and evaluation of product attributes and product efficacy.

What angry customers need from customer service professionals:

Empathy An agent who is willing to listen and can speak clearly while putting their own emotions aside

WHAT IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP MARKETING

Entrepreneurial marketing is driven by an innovative, risk-oriented and proactive orientation. A commonly cited definition of entrepreneurial marketing is 'the proactive identification and exploitation of opportunities for acquiring and retaining profitable customers through innovative approaches to risk management, resource leveraging and value creation'. A basic premise of entrepreneurial marketing is its role in achieving durable competitive advantage through value-creating innovation.

Understanding your market potential

Even if you do not seek external financing, understanding your market potential is essential for a range of different strategic decisions, in areas such as: • Product development • Partnering and distribution • Organizational design and critical employee skills The starting point for estimating market size is to understand the problem you solve for customers and the potential value your product generates for them. This is an aspect that many startup founders in the innovation community tend to overlook, since they get excited about the product they've developed without thinking about how it benefits their audience. Depending on your technology, you may have to choose which customer problem to solve first.

What loyal customers need from customer service professionals:

Exceptional support Proactive service A personalized experience

The Internet can assist a new venture's overall marketing strategy.

First, the Internet allows the business to increase its presence and brand equity in the marketplace. Second, the Internet allows the company to cultivate new customers around the world. the Internet is pull-oriented (the consumer chooses what, when and how to look in greater detail). This technique requires website designers to think differently about what should or should not appear in the website offering. Third, the Internet can improve customer service by allowing customers to serve themselves when and where they choose. The fourth benefit to marketers relates to information transfer.

When Should You Use Qualitative Approach?

Go for a qualitative approach when: • You are short on time and funds to build personas. • Your stakeholders don't need quantitative data to believe and use your personas. • You are experimenting with using personas on a smaller venture to see how they work before applying them to the larger business.

What new customers need from customer service professionals:

Guidance for more simple issues Help onboarding A good first impression

What impulse customers need from customer service professionals:

Help with product use cases, warranty, or return policies Empathy over making a sale

4. Insistent customers

Here we have a case of the highly informed customer types. These shoppers usually do quite a bit of research before finalizing any sales and so have probably tried a number of solutions before they contacted customer service. When dealing with an insistent customer, it is important to provide proof that you have a more effective way of solving their issue. Easy access to a knowledge base or other informational content can greatly improve this process. One strategy that could provide a boost for marketing is to ask these customers to share their experience on your company's FAQ page. This is a customer-focused way to let them feel heard while adding user-generated content to your knowledge base.

1. New customers

How do we describe new customers: Newcomers are always going to have a few questions about how things work but might not always know how to ask. New customer needs most likely involve looking for guidance through an issue that agents might find simplistic. However, just because these tickets aren't always the most challenging, it is still important to serve them to the best of your ability If their first customer experience with support is a good one, there is a great opportunity to create brand loyalty and hopefully turn them into repeat customers.

Current and best customers

Identifying the company's current clients allows management to determine where to allocate resources. Defining the best customers enables management to more directly segment this market niche.

Background

It can include demographics like age and gender.

Goals

It covers both the short and long-term goals of your buyer group.

Challenges

It includes all the problems your customers face in their daily lives. Use this knowledge to match up your product/service and voice to the particular wants and issues of your buyers.

MOBILE MARKETING

Many companies are now using mobile social media applications as their standard communication strategy to connect with consumers. It can be defined as a group of mobile marketing applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Mobile computing provides a plethora of marketing opportunities, such as text messaging, mobile applications and mobile advertising.

MARKET SEGMENTATION

Market segmentation is the process of identifying a specific set of characteristics (subgroups) that differentiate one group of consumers from the rest. The total market is often made up of submarket called segments).

KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Marketing plans are part of a venture's overall strategic effort. To be effective, these plans must be based on the venture's specific goals.

Legal changes

Marketing research performs the important task of keeping management abreast of significant changes in governmental rates, standards and tax laws.

INTERNET SEGMENTATION & CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR

On the Internet, people can construct their own occasions and return to a given website repeatedly, constructing different interactions each time. This allows the clever Internet-based entrepreneur to customise visitor experiences by performing usage-based market segmentation. This works for social entrepreneurs as well as business entrepreneurs. One way to segment customers this way is to categorise them as browsers, buyers and shoppers.

What insistent customers need from customer service professionals:

Proof that you have a more effective way of solving their issue Informational content Someone who is willing to listen

Here is an example of a five-step program designed to help entrepreneurs follow a structured approach to developing a market plan.

Step 1: Appraise strengths and weaknesses Step 2: Develop marketing objectives Step 3: Develop product/service strategies Step 4: Develop marketing strategies Step 5: Determine a pricing structure

SALES FORECASTING

Sales forecasting is the process of projecting future sales through historical sales figures and the application of statistical techniques. The process is limited in value due to its reliance on historical data, which many times fail to reflect current market conditions. As a segment of the comprehensive marketing planning process, however, sales forecasting can be very valuable.

How to estimate market size: Business and marketing planning for startups

Sizing the market is a necessary task for business and marketing planning, and budgeting for all startups, especially those that seek third-party financing such as venture capital (VC). Even though their investment philosophies may differ, most VCs and angel investors would like to know that they are investing in a market with a large potential size (typically, at least $1 billion).

Estimating market size

Step 1. Define your target customer Step 2. Estimate the number of target customers Step 3. Determine your penetration rate Step 4. Calculate the potential market size: Volume and value Market volume = Number of target customers × Penetration rate Market value = Market volume x Average sale 5. Apply the market-size data

Step 1: Appraise strengths and weaknesses

Step 1: Appraise strengths and weaknesses, emphasising factors that will contribute to the company's competitive edge. Consider product design, reliability, durability, price/quality ratios, production capacities and limitations, resources and need for specialised expertise.

Step 2: Develop marketing objectives

Step 2: Develop marketing objectives along with the short- and intermediate-range sales goals necessary to meet those objectives. Next, develop specific sales plans for the current fiscal period. These goals should be clearly stated, measurable and within the company's capabilities. To be realistic, these goals should require only reasonable efforts and affordable expenditures.

Step 4: Develop marketing strategies.

Strategies are needed to achieve the company's intermediateand long-range sales goals and long-term marketing objectives. These strategies should include advertising, sales promotion campaigns, trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing. Strategies also may be necessary for increasing the size of the sales force or marketing new products. Contingency plans will be needed in the event of technological changes, geographic market shifts or inflation.

6. value-based sales tools.

Suppliers can not only use value models to inform and guide their own decision making but also to create persuasive sales tools. One common sales tool is a value case history. Value case histories are written accounts that document the cost savings or added value that a customer receives from its use of a supplier's market offering.

Example of Value elements

Technical element - How well a pigment disperses in a coating in a textile industry Economic element - providing a consolidated monthly invoice rather than a separate invoice for each purchase would be an economic element; Service Element - design assistance Social Element -and ease of doing business.

What Is Market Sizing?

The "market size" is made up of the total number of potential buyers of a product or service within a given market, and the total revenue that these sales may generate.

EVALUATION

The final critical factor in the marketing planning process is evaluation. Because a number of variables can affect the outcome of marketing planning, it is important to evaluate performance. Most importantly, reports should be generated from an analysis of customer retention or loss as well as established customer preferences and reactions. This analysis can be measured against performance in sales volume, gross sales dollars or market share. It is only through this type of evaluation that flexibility and adjustment can be incorporated into marketing planning.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research: What's Best to Create Customer Personas?

The first step to understanding your customers is to research them either qualitatively or quantitatively. Qualitative research allows you to discover new insights using a small sample size. Common examples include user interviews and usability testing. While it is easier to perform, qualitative research is not much beneficial because it involves a limited number of people. Quantitative Research allows you to test or prove a hypothesis that you uncover with qualitative research. However, it uses a large sample size, such as surveys and site traffic analysis. You can observe statistically significant trends and have more assurance that your findings precisely reflect reality for all users.

1. Conduct Qualitative Research

The most common type of qualitative research is a user interview. It allows you to talk one-on-one to more than ten users easily. Alternatively, you can conduct field studies to observe users in their native environment (such as their workplace or house). Another less commonly used approach for generating personas is usability testing to observe user behavior.

2. Segment Users

The next step is to segment users based on their goals, attitudes, or behaviors. For instance, for a real estate website, you may interview customers and segment them based on overall objectives like buying or selling a house, finding an apartment, refinancing a mortgage, etc.

Step 3: Develop product/service strategies

The product strategy begins with identifying the endusers, wholesalers and retailers, as well as their needs and specifications. The product's design, features, performance, cost and price then should be matched to these needs.

CURRENT MARKETING RESEARCH

The purpose of marketing research is to identify customers - target markets - and to fulfil their desires.

1. The first step is putting together the right kind of value research team

The team should include people with product, field engineering, and marketing experience, and two or three forward-thinking salespeople. Having salespeople involved at the start is particularly important. They know the customer and how the offering is used; they also know which customers might be willing to cooperate in value research. Sales-people who are part of a value assessment initiative from the outset are also more likely to understand and appreciate it. They will, therefore, support the approach and can then persuasively relate their experiences to others in the sales force.

The company's major strengths and weaknesses

These factors offer insights into profitable opportunities and potential problems and provide the basis for effective decision making.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Today our world is dominated by social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis, and other online collaborative media. Social media marketing describes the use of these tools for marketing purposes. The most common social media marketing tools include Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube

Outside factors

This analysis focuses on changing trends in demographics, economics, technology, cultural attitudes and governmental policy. These factors may have substantial impact on customer needs and, consequently, expected services.

2. Impulse customers

This customer is quick to buy when something catches their eye, but aren't always the best at reading the fine print. So in situations where these types of customers get a product that isn't exactly what they thought it was, they might be impulsive in calling customer support as well. The impulse customer does sometimes have a legitimate support concern and so initially they should be approached as you would any other ticket. Yet if it becomes clear that they called your department a bit prematurely, then it's time to get them redirected as soon as possible. Impulse customers tend to contact support centers with questions about product use cases, warranty, or return policy, so it can be helpful to have a short on-brand script prepared for these situations. If the customer is frustrated about being rerouted, sympathize with their position but be sure not to promise anything that is out of your purview as a support agent. Of course, retention should be the goal of most customer interactions but if someone truly bought something they didn't know what was then helping a customer out of a bad situation should be your first priority.

OOBE, or out-of-box-experience

This has become an increasing important step (in customer journey map). Do a search on YouTube for "unboxing", for example, or looking at unboxing.com for many examples of people going through what is now a ritualistic act of opening up the latest gadget. But beyond the emotional factors, it makes good business sense. A great out-of-box experience is like a little piece of theater. Scripting it well helps guide the customer through the first steps of using their new purchase and minimizes expensive calls into help lines.

5. Loyal customers

This should be one of your favorite types of customers, but they may also be expecting an even higher standard of service. Having been a part of your customer base for years, the loyal customer is the joy of the sales department. Yet there is added pressure for the support team to be aware of and able to handle any specific needs this customer might have. Since they already have a preference for your company, loyal customers can be a way to foster organic marketing if you can get them to share their story on social media. Yet this requires that their support experience is a positive one. Your organization could benefit from having a way to identify loyal customers with relevant context such as their previous issues, purchase history, and contact information for personalized interactions.

3. Delivering Superior Value and Getting an Equitable Return

Understanding value in business markets and doing business based on value delivered gives suppliers the means to get an equitable return for their efforts. The essence of customer value management is to deliver superior value and get an equitable return for it, both of which depend on value assessment.

Values

Understanding what is significant for your consumers in terms of values is vital to talk to them in a way they want to hear.

3. User Personas

User personas represent the people who will be using your product or service, irrespective of whether they have any impact over the buying decision. You might use these personas to guide product design, as well as communications about product advantages.

3. Generate a comprehensive list of value elements.

Value elements are anything that affect the costs and benefits of the offering in the customer's business. These elements may be technical, economic, service, or social in nature and will vary in their tangibility. As it is generating the list, the team should consider the entire life cycle of the offering in question, from how the customer acquires and uses the product to how the customer disposes of it when it is no longer needed. The list should capture all the potential effects that doing business with an entrepreneur supplier/seller might have on the customer's business. It's important to be as inclusive as possible. Leaving out elements, particularly those that might make the entrepreneur's market offering look unfavorable next to the incumbent or next-best-alternative offering, will undermine the project's credibility. By identifying as many elements as possible, the team will be able to gauge more accurately the differences in functionality and performance its offering provides relative to the next best alternative.

3. Angry customers

Whether they are just having a bad day or have encountered the same issue one too many times, you will have to deal with some customers that aren't being very friendly. Speak clearly and calmly while explaining to the customer exactly what needs to be done for them to get out of their predicament. Be sure to try and collect customer feedback from angry customers, as there was likely a part of their customer experience that could be improved for the next person.

4. Gather data.

With a comprehensive list of value elements in hand, the next step is obtaining initial estimates for each element and finding out what each one is worth in monetary terms. Sometimes, it useful to gather data by placing a team member in a key functional area of the customer's organization for a week or two in order to gain a better understanding of what is actually being done and where things can go wrong during the day. A supplier might have a team member work in the customer's receiving department. To rule-out any concerns on the part of the employee, customer management should tell them that the person is there to help out and to learn. Frequently, the customer doesn't know that it has the data or information the supplier is looking for. Sometimes, the only way to find the data is for team members to ask around until they come across the individual who knows where the information is. Focus groups made up of representatives from each functional area in a company can also be an effective mechanism for uncovering data.

2. Website Personas

Your website persona depicts all the people who your website is intended to serve. They help guide your website design and include critical audiences that buyer personas don't cover (such as present consumers, consumers' clients, investors, prospective workers, the media, etc.).

Retained customers

are easier to convert than first-time buyers because they already have a foundation of trust with a company they've bought from before. That's why patiently guiding new customers through their problems will set your company up for success by showing customers from the start that your business is one that cares about the people they serve. Rotating who deals with new customer tickets can also give your agents a break from more complicated work and help remind them that it's not always about getting bogged down in the details.

Psychographics

are statistical analysis of psychological characteristics of individuals which influence their buying behaviour.

Primary target markets

are those market segments to which marketing efforts are primarily directed and where more of the business's resources are allocated, while secondary markets are often smaller segments or less vital to a product's success.

the customer expectation value elements

are used to express the attribute model of the value model.

satisfaction based on goals

as result of your satisfaction - did it achieve your physical, emotional & mental goals

Customer value models are based on

assessments of the costs and benefits of a given market offering in a particular customer application. Depending on circumstances, such as availability of data and a customer's cooperation, An entrepreneur might build a value model for an individual customer or for a market segment, drawing on data gathered from several customers in that segment.

Customer Value Elements

attributes of the expected system task - beautiful place, affordable, enjoyable etc.

1. Buyer Personas

buyer persona represents your target customer, who is involved in buying your product or service. Your target customer has the most obvious relation to your revenue. So, they play a highly significant role in navigating your marketing strategies and communications.

The current version of the four Cs therefore has evolved to

co-creation, communities, customisation and choice.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

defined by the many types and patterns of consumer characteristics and psychological characteristics.

two major variables that can be useful for identifying specific market segments

demographic variables and benefit variables

Entrepreneurs must focus on

developing the positioning of the product or service and segment the market to target particular groups of customers and to do this they may need to market to a range of stakeholders. The distribution of the product or service to the customer was a key question in determining a venture's feasibility. If convenience and choice for the customer could not be built into the distribution channel of the product/service then the feasibility of the venture diminished.

The value model attribute layer

expresses the attributes required by the customer's desired system tasks

benefit variables

help to identify unsatisfied needs that exist within this market. Examples may include convenience, cost, style, trends and the like, depending on the nature of the particular new venture.

Competition:

identifying the competition a company can determine which businesses are most willing to pursue the same basic market niche. By examining the competitor's products an entrepreneur can establish how different the product offering will be and pre-empt the level of competitor response.

Demographic variables

include age, marital status, sex, occupation, income, location and the like. These characteristics are used to determine a geographic and demographic profile of the consumers and customers and their purchasing potential.

Traditionally some marketing experts have tied these characteristics to the five types of consumers:

innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards The differences in social class, income, occupation, education, housing, family influence and time orientation are all possible personal characteristics, while the psychological characteristics are needs, perceptions, self-concept, aspiration groups and reference groups.

target market

is a group of customers within a business's serviceable available market at which a business aims its marketing efforts and resources. A target market is a subset of the total market for a product or service. typically consists of consumers who exhibit similar characteristics (such as age, location, income or lifestyle) and are considered most likely to buy a business's market offerings or are likely to be the most profitable segments for the business to service.

Customer Journey Map

is a very simple idea: a diagram that illustrates the steps your customer(s) go through in engaging with your company, whether it be a product, an online experience, retail experience, or a service, or any combination. The more touchpoints you have, the more complicated — but necessary — such a map becomes. Sometimes customer journey maps are "cradle to grave," looking at the entire arc of engagement. Here, for example, is a customer journey timeline that includes first engaging with a customer (perhaps with advertising or in a store), buying the product or service, using it, sharing about the experience with others (in person or online), and then finishing the journey by upgrading, replacing, or choosing a competitor (re-starting the journey with another company):

PERSONAL BRANDING

is the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, and have a larger impact. The process of personal branding involves finding your uniqueness, building a reputation on the things you want to be known for, and then allowing yourself to be known for them. Ultimately, the goal is to create something that conveys a message and that can be monetized

value realization

is the ultimate purpose of customers to use products or services

the result obtained by the customer when purchasing the product

is the way for the customer to realize the most fundamental intention of purchasing the product

2. Selecting the right market segment to target is the next step.

it's a good idea to start with a segment in which the supplier has particularly close, collaborative relationships with customers, extraordinary knowledge of how customers use the offering in question, or relatively simple offerings to conduct value assessments with at least two or a dozen customers to build an initial value model.

Benefits of Qualitative Personas

key benefits of using qualitative personas: • You need comparatively less effort and costs, as long as you can find users to interview. • As you create personas based on interviews, chances are your personas will be defined by just one or two attributes. This makes them comparatively easier to understand. • You need fewer specialized skill sets to find patterns and create personas out of interview findings. There's no need for statistical analysis skills.

DEVELOPING A MARKETING PLAN

provides a blueprint for how a firm will implement its marketing strategy.

satisfaction based on attributes,

qualities in physical and other forms like how does it affect your emotion, how does it feel, how does it affect your intellect, what comes to mind when you see or hear the brand name product e.g. product - solid soap - physical -smell, color, easy to handle e.g. product - flower shop - emotion - excitement, love, happiness e.g. product - home theather - netflex - youtube etc.

The hierarchy model here shows that there are three areas in which customers would judge whether they would choose or continue to choose a products or services. These are

satisfaction based on attributes satisfaction based on results satisfaction based on goals

Other technical element example

the cost of an hour of downtime in a customer's plant -A bottle breaking in a filling line causes downtime -generated costs in scrap, discards, disposal, maintenance labor, cleaning and sanitizing chemicals

On the other hand, looking from left to right of the value hierarchy model

the customer would determine the importance of the results of the product or service in the usage scenario according to his purpose, and the importance of the result would guide the customer to judge the importance of the product or service attribute.

However, in the late 1980s to early 1990s the marketing mix evolved into a more customer-centric view

the four Cs: customer solution, customer convenience, customer communication and customer cost. In the current era, this has evolved further to capture a paradigm shift away from a time when the customer was the object of marketing to now where the customer is involved in shaping the marketing mix.Through active participation, the customer plays a part in co-creating the product or service and the experience they want. Customers now form communities and are integral to promotional networks. Price is determined by customer customisation and instead of having one place of purchase, the customer now has an expanded range of choices in how they will receive and pay for the product/service.

The underlying principles of marketing are grounded on what is commonly referred to as

the marketing mix, sometimes referred to as the four Ps

Before approaching a customer

the team should think through what it will need from the customer and what the customer will gain, and be prepared to offer an incentive.

satisfaction based on results

this is based on experience, the impact on your experience in using the product

Customer Expected System task

to allow you to see pictures of the place - hotels, amenities, activities to enjoy, cost,

Entrepreneurs in business markets must be

to draw knowledge of what customers value, and would value, to gain marketplace advantages

Customer information model and value model

used to analyze the system usage result that the customer expects.. The task is an essential concept in a customer-centric design approach, especially in the field of software design that you encounter in a seller's app). A task can define how a customer achieves the usage goals in a specific application context. Based on the customer's necessary information, the designer determines the customer's desired usage results through customer surveys and expert decisions. Customers are more inclined to express the phases of tasks they expect the system to complete than to use the results. Therefore, the system task that the customer expects is adopted instead of the result layer that the customer expects to use the result to express the value model.

What We can see from the customer value hierarchical model.

we can analyze it from looking from right to left. Firstly, when a customer buys and uses a product or service, he would first consider the specific attributes of the product or service. Then he would form expectations and preferences for the ability of these attributes to achieve the expected results. Finally, Under the expected effect, customers form the ability to achieve their goals.

customer value models

which are data-driven representations of the worth, in monetary terms, of what the entrepreneur is doing or could do for its customers.

Customer goals

you will find questions suggesting to satisfy your tour trip goals - where, when, how much

For marketing research to be effective for the growing venture, the following areas warrant consideration:

• The company's major strengths and weaknesses • Market profile • Current and best customers • Potential customers • Competition • Outside factors • Legal changes

Drawbacks of Qualitative Personas

• There's a risk of being wrong as your findings are based on small sample size. • When interviewing users, you inevitably bring your existing assumptions to the research. So, instead of discovering something new, you may simply end up validating your existing opinion.

Benefits of Quantitative Persona

• There's less human bias involved, which may dispel any doubts. Shareholders might have about personas as a valid decision-making tool. • It helps you identify one segmentation model that you can best use to create personas. • You can examine more variables using statistical cluster analysis that isn't visible to the human eye.

When Should You Use Quantitative Approach?

• You have time and money to invest. • Your stakeholders want quantitative data to believe and use your personas. • You wish to analyze several segmentation models to find the right one. • Numerous variables drive your personas, but you do not know which ones are most critical.

The following elements are critical for developing a marketing plan:

•current marketing research - determining who the customers are, what they want and how they buy • sales research and analysis - promoting and distributing products according to marketing research findings • marketing information system - collecting, screening, analysing, storing, retrieving and disseminating marketing information on which to base plans, decisions and actions • sales forecasting - coordinating personal judgement with reliable market information • evaluation - identifying and assessing deviations from marketing plans.