Marketing Final

Selling process

Prospect/qualify Pre-approach Approach Sales presentation Handle objections Close the sale Followup

Consumer promotions

Urge short-term customer buying or enhance customer brand involvement

PR (explained)

Very believable—news stories, features, sponsorships, and events seem more real and believable to readers than ads do. Public relations can reach many prospects that avoid salespeople and advertisements—the message gets to the buyers as "news" rather than as a sales-directed communication. Marketers tend to underuse public relations or to use it as an afterthought.

1. Identifying the target audience

What will be said? How it will be said? When it will be said? Where it will be said? Who will say it? Additional info: A marketing communicator starts with a clear target audience in mind. The audience may be current users or potential buyers, those who make the buying decision or those who influence it. The audience may be individuals, groups, special publics, or the general public. The target audience will heavily affect the communicator's decisions on the questions shown on the slide - what, how, when, where and who?

Rapid growth of sales promotions

-Product managers are under pressure to increase current sales. -Companies face more competition. -Competing brands offer less differentiation. -Advertising efficiency has declined due to rising costs, clutter, and legal constraints. -Consumers have become more deal-oriented. Additional info: Several factors shown on this slide have contributed to the rapid growth of sales promotion, particularly in consumer markets. In the current economy, consumers are demanding lower prices and better deals. Sales promotions can help attract today's more thrift-oriented consumers. The growing use of sales promotion has resulted in promotion clutter, which is similar to advertising clutter. According to one recent study, 37 percent of all groceries were sold with some sort of promotional support. A given promotion runs the risk of being lost in a sea of other promotions, weakening its ability to trigger an immediate purchase. Manufacturers are now searching for ways to rise above the clutter, such as offering larger coupon values, creating more dramatic point-of-purchase displays, or delivering promotions through new interactive media—such as the Internet or mobile phones.

Steps in developing effective communication

1. Identify target audience 2. Set communications objectives 3. Design the message 4. Choose the media Select message source

Coordinate marketing and sales

A company can take several actions to help bring its marketing and sales functions closer together. --The company can create joint assignments. --The company can create joint objectives and reward systems for sales and marketing. --They can appoint marketing/sales liaisons—people from marketing who "live with the sales force" and help to coordinate marketing and sales force programs and efforts. --The firm can appoint a chief revenue officer—a high-level marketing executive who oversees both marketing and sales.

Sales force structure: complex

A company often combines several types of sales force structures when it sells a wide variety of products to many types of customers over a broad geographic area.

3. Designing the message

AIDA Model Get attention Hold interest Arouse desire Obtain action Additional info: Having defined the desired audience response, the communicator then turns to developing an effective message. Ideally, the message should use the the AIDA model framework shown in the slide. In practice, few messages take the consumer all the way from awareness to purchase, but the AIDA framework suggests the desirable qualities of a good message. Rational appeal (relate to the audience's self-interest. They show that the product will produce the desired benefits.) Emotional appeal (attempt to stir up either negative or positive emotions that can motivate purchase. Communicators may use positive emotional appeals such as love, pride, joy, and humor. Communicators can also use negative emotional appeals, such as fear, guilt, and shame that get people to do things they should or to stop doing things they shouldn't) Moral appeal (appeals are directed to the audience's sense of what is "right" and "proper." They are often used to urge people to support social causes such as a cleaner environment, better race relations, equal rights for women, and aid to the disadvantaged.) Message structure and format: The communicator must also decide how to handle three message structure issues. --The first is whether to draw a conclusion or leave it to the audience. Recent research suggests that in many cases, rather than drawing a conclusion, the advertiser is better off asking questions and letting buyers come to their own conclusions. --The second message structure issue is whether to present the strongest arguments first or last. Presenting them first gets strong attention but may lead to an anticlimactic ending. --The third message structure issue is whether to present a one-sided argument (mentioning only the product's strengths) or a two-sided argument (touting the product's strengths while also admitting its shortcomings). The marketing communicator also needs a strong format for the message. In a print ad, the communicator has to decide on the headline, copy, illustration, and color. To attract attention, advertisers use novelty and contrast; eye-catching pictures and headlines; distinctive formats; message size and position; and color, shape, and movement. If the message is to be carried on television or in person, then all these elements plus body language have to be planned. Presenters plan their facial expressions, gestures, dress, posture, and hairstyles. If the message is carried on the product or its package, the communicator has to watch texture, scent, color, size, and shape.)

Budgeting

Affordable % of sales Competitive parity Objective task Additional info: Affordable Method: Some firms set the promotion budget at the level they think the company can afford. Small businesses often use this method, reasoning that the company cannot spend more on advertising than it has. Unfortunately, this method of setting budgets completely ignores the effects of promotion on sales. It tends to place advertising last among spending priorities, even in situations in which advertising is critical to the firm's success. Percentage-of-Sales Method: Other companies use the percentage-of-sales method, setting their promotion budget at a certain percentage of current or forecasted sales. The percentage-of-sales is simple to use but it wrongly views sales as the cause of promotion rather than as the result. Competitive-Parity Method: Other companies use the competitive-parity method, setting their promotion budgets to match competitors' outlays. They monitor competitors' advertising or get industry promotion spending estimates from publications or trade associations, and then set their budgets based on the industry average. Unfortunately, there are no grounds for believing that the competition has a better idea of what the company should be spending on promotion than does the company itself. Objective-and-Task Method: The most logical budget-setting method is the objective-and-task method, whereby the company sets its promotion budget based on what it wants to accomplish with promotion. The advantage of the objective-and-task method is that it forces management to spell out its assumptions about the relationship between dollars spent and promotion results. But it also is the most difficult method to use. Often, it is hard to figure out which specific tasks will achieve stated objectives.

Advertising (explained)

Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor Can reach masses of geographically dispersed buyers at a low cost per exposure, and it enables the seller to repeat the message many times. Beyond its reach, large-scale advertising says something positive about the seller's size, popularity, and success. Because of advertising's public nature, consumers tend to view advertised products as more legitimate. However, advertising is impersonal and cannot be as directly persuasive as can company salespeople. For the most part, advertising can carry on only a one-way communication with the audience, and the audience does not feel that it has to pay attention or respond. In addition, advertising can be very costly.

Salesperson

At one extreme, a salesperson might be an order taker, such as the department store salesperson standing behind the counter. At the other extreme are order getters, whose positions demand creative selling and relationship building for products and services ranging from appliances to industrial equipment. Personal selling is the interpersonal arm of the promotion mix. Some firms have no salespeople at all—for example, companies that sell only online or through catalogs, or companies that sell through manufacturer's reps, sales agents, or brokers. In most firms, however, the sales force plays a major role.

2. Communication objectives

Awareness Knowledge Liking Preference Conviction Purchase Additional info: Once the target audience has been defined, the marketing communicator must decide what response is sought. The marketing communicator needs to know where the target audience now stands and to what stage it needs to be moved. The target audience may be in any of six buyer-readiness stages, the stages consumers normally pass through on their way to making a purchase. The communicator must first build awareness and knowledge. Assuming target consumers know about the product, how do they feel about it? These stages include liking (feeling favorable about the product), preference (preferring it to other brands), and conviction (believing that the product is best for them). Some members of the target market might be convinced about the product, but not quite get around to making the purchase. The communicator must lead these consumers to take the final step. Actions might include offering special promotional prices, rebates, or premiums.

Create message

Break through clutter (consumers are exposed to as many as 3,000-5,000 messages a day) Gain attention Communicate well Such clutter in television and other ad media has created an increasingly hostile advertising environment. Just to gain and hold attention, today's advertising messages must be better planned, more imaginative, more entertaining, and more rewarding to consumers. Many marketers are now subscribing to a new merging of advertising and entertainment, dubbed "Madison & Vine." Native advertising: advertising or other brand produced online content that looks in form and function like the other natural content surround it on a web or social media platform

Public relations

Building good relations with the company's publics through favorable publicity, a good corporate image, and effective handling of unfavorable news Press releases, sponsorships, damage control

Business promotions

Business promotions are used to generate business leads, stimulate purchases, reward customers, and motivate salespeople. One type of this promotion includes conventions and trade shows: Firms selling to the industry show their products at the trade show. Trade show exhibitors gain a number of benefits such as: new sales leads, contact with customers, educate customers about products, and reach prospects not covered by sales force. Sales contests are another promotion designed to motivate salespeople or dealers.

Promotion mix strategies (pull vs push)

Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies usually "pull" more, putting more of their funds into advertising, followed by sales promotion, personal selling, and then public relations. In contrast, business-to-business (B2B) marketers tend to "push" more, putting more of their funds into personal selling, followed by sales promotion, advertising, and public relations.

Catalogs

Catalog used to be defined as a printed, bound piece of at least eight pages, selling multiple products, and offering a direct ordering mechanism. With Internet, more and more catalogs are going digital. A variety of Web-only catalogers have emerged, and most print catalogers have added Web-based catalogs. Advantages of Web-based catalogs: --Eliminate production, printing, and mailing costs --Allow real-time merchandising Advantages of printed catalogs: --One of the best ways to convince consumers to use the online versions --Create emotional connections with customers

Close the sale

Closing techniques can include: --Asking for the order. --Reviewing points of agreement. --Offering to help write up the order. --Asking if the buyer wants this model or another one. --Offering incentives to buy, including lower price or additional quantity.

Advertising effects

Communication effects: indicate whether the ad and media are communicating the ad message well and should be tested before or after the ad runs. Sales and profit effects: compare past sales and profits with past expenditures or through experiments.

How salespeople spend their time

Companies are always looking for ways to save time—simplifying administrative duties, developing better sales-call and routing plans, supplying more and better customer information, and using phone, e-mail, or Internet conferencing instead of traveling.

The need for Integrated Marketing Communications

Consistent, clear, compelling messages (promotional mix affects IMC) Long explanation: In the consumer's mind, advertising messages from different media and different promotional approaches all become part of a single message about the company. Conflicting messages from these different sources can result in confused company images and brand positions. Companies fail to integrate their various communications channels because communications often come from different company sources. Today, more companies are adopting the concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC). IMC: the company carefully integrates and coordinates its many communications channels to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the organization and its brands. IMC builds brand identity and strong customer relationships by tying together all of the company's messages and images. Brand messages and positioning are coordinated across all communication activities and media.

Communications landscape

Consumers aer changing: they are better informed and more communications empowered Marketing strategies are changing: shifting away from mass marketing and focusing on marketing programs that build closer relationships with customers in more narrowly defined micro markets. Sweeping changes in communications technology are also causing remarkable changes in the ways in which companies and customers communicate with each other. Although television, magazines, and other mass media remain very important, their dominance is declining. Advertisers are now adding a broad selection of more-specialized and highly targeted media to reach smaller customer segments.

Patterns

Continuous Pulsing The advertiser has to choose the pattern of the ads. • Continuity means scheduling ads evenly within a given period. • Pulsing means scheduling ads unevenly over a given time period. Some marketers do only seasonal advertising: For instance, Hallmark advertises its greeting cards only before major holidays.

Benefits to buyers from direct marketing

Convenient Easy/private Wealth of products Information (about companies, products, competitors) Interactive immediate (greater measure of control)

Sales promotions aimed at consumers

Coupons: give buyers a saving when they purchase specified products. Most major consumer goods companies are issuing fewer coupons and targeting them more carefully. Cash refunds (or rebates): are like coupons except that the price reduction occurs after the purchase rather than at the retail outlet. Price packs (also called cents-off deals): offer consumers savings off the regular price of a product. Samples: are offers of a trial amount of a product. Sampling is the most effective—but most expensive—way to introduce a new product or to create new excitement for an existing one. Patronage rewards: include the programs on loyalty cards that provide benefits for frequent buying. Point-of-purchase (POP) promotions: include displays and demonstrations that take place at the point of sale. Contests, sweepstakes, and games: give consumers the chance to win something. Demonstrations: show product functionality at special events or shows. Premiums: are goods offered either free or at low cost as an incentive to buy a product. Advertising specialties, also called promotional products: are useful articles imprinted with an advertiser's name, logo, or message that are given as gifts to consumers.

Online presence

Create a website Set up online social networks Place ads and promote online Use email

Selecting media

Decide reach, frequency, and impact Choose major media type Select media vehicle Decide on media timing

Atmosphere

Designed environments that create or reinforce the buyer's learnings toward buying a product

Growth of D and DM

Direct and digital marketing have become the fastest-growing form of marketing. Direct marketing continues to become more Internet-based, and digital direct marketing is claiming a surging share of marketing spending and sales.

Customer database

Direct marketing often relies on a customer database: an organized collection of comprehensive data about individual customers or prospects, including geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data. In consumer marketing, the database might contain a customer's demographics (age, income, family members, birthdays), psychographics (activities, interests, and opinions), and buying behavior (buying preferences and the recency, frequency, and monetary value—RFM—of past purchases). In business-to-business marketing, it might contain the products and services the customer has bought; past volumes and prices; key contacts (and their ages, birthdays, hobbies, and favorite foods); competing suppliers; status of current contracts; estimated customer spending for the next few years; and assessments of competitive strengths and weaknesses in selling and servicing the account.

Direct mail

Direct-mail marketing involves an offer, announcement, reminder, or other item to a person at a particular address. Direct mail is personalized and generally provides better results than mass media, but at a higher cost.

Sales force structure: territorial

Each salesperson is assigned to an exclusive geographic area and sells the company's full line of products or services to all customers in that territory. This structure increases the salesperson's desire to build local customer relationships. And because each salesperson travels within a limited geographic area, travel expenses are relatively small.

Sales contests

Effective in motivating salespeople or dealers to increase performance over a given period Sales contests motivate and recognize good company performers, who may receive trips, cash prizes, or other gifts. Some companies award points for performance, which the receiver can turn in for any of a variety of prizes. Sales contests work best when they are tied to measurable and achievable sales objectives (such as finding new accounts, reviving old accounts, or increasing account profitability).

Conventions and trade shows

Effective to reach many customers not reached with the regular sales force Companies spend billions of dollars each year on promotion geared toward industrial customers. Business promotions are used to generate business leads, stimulate purchases, reward customers, and motivate salespeople. Business promotions include many of the same tools used for consumer or trade promotions. Here, we focus on two additional major business promotion tools: conventions and trade shows and sales contests. Vendors at these shows receive many benefits, such as opportunities to find new sales leads, contact customers, introduce new products, meet new customers, sell more to present customers, and educate customers with publications and audiovisual materials.

Digital environment opportunities

Especially in today's digital environment, direct marketing provides opportunities for real-time marketing that links brands to important moments and trending events in customers' lives (see Real Marketing 17.1). It is a powerful tool for moving customers through the buying process and for building customer engagement, community, and personalized relationships.

Handle objections

Every salesperson needs training in the skills of handling objections. In handling objections, the salesperson should: --Use a positive approach --Seek out hidden objections --Ask the buyer to clarify any objections --Take objections as opportunities.

Evaluation

Formal evaluation forces management to develop and communicate clear standards for judging performance and provides salespeople with constructive feedback and motivates them to perform well. As with other marketing activities, the company wants to measure its return on sales investment.

Place online promotions

Forms of Online Advertising --Banners are banner-shaped ads found at the top, bottom, left, right, or center of a Web page. --Interstitials are online display ads that appear between screen changes on a Web site, especially while a new screen is loading. --Pop-ups are online ads that appear suddenly in a new window in front of the window being viewed. --Pop-unders are online ads that appear in a new window that evades pop-up blockers by appearing behind the page you're viewing. --Rich media display ads are online ads that incorporate animation, video, sound, and interactivity. --Search-related ads (or Contextual advertising) are online advertising in which text-based ads and links appear alongside search engine results.

Direct marketing

Gain an immediate response and lasting relationships with targeted consumers Use of direct mail, telephone, direct response TV, email, and the internet to reach carefully targeted customers

Sales promotion (explained)

Includes a wide assortment of tools—coupons, contests, cents-off deals, premiums, and others—all of which have many unique qualities. They attract consumer attention, offer strong incentives to purchase, and can be used to dramatize product offers and to boost sagging sales. Sales promotions invite and reward quick response. Sales promotion effects are often short-lived.

Setting advertising objectives

Informative advertising: communicating customer value, building a brand, telling the market about a new product, explaining how a product works Persuasive advertising: building brand preference, encouraging to switch a brand, changing customer perception of product value Reminder advertising: maintaining customer relationships, reminding consumers that the product may be needed in the future Additional info: Advertising's goal is to help move consumers through the buying process. Some advertising is designed to move people to immediate action. For example, a direct-response television ad by Weight Watchers urges consumers to pick up the phone and sign up right away, and a Best Buy newspaper insert for a weekend sale encourages immediate store visits. However, many ads focus on building or strengthening long-term customer relationships. For example, a Nike television ad in which well-known athletes work through extreme challenges in their Nike gear never directly asks for a sale. Instead, the goal is to somehow change the way the customers think or feel about the brand.

Direct and digital marketing

Involve engaging directly with carefully targeted individual consumers and customer communities to both obtain an immediate response and build lasting customer relationships. Additional info: Companies use direct marketing to tailor their offers and content to the needs and interests of narrowly defined segments or individual buyers. In this way, they build customer engagement, brand community, and sales. For example, GEICO interacts directly with customers—by telephone, through its Web site or phone app, or on its Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages—to build individual brand relationships, give insurance quotes, sell policies, or service customer accounts.

Push strategy

Involves "pushing" the product through distribution channels to final consumers. The producer directs its marketing activities (primarily personal selling and trade promotions) toward channel members to induce them to carry the product and to promote it to final consumers.

Direct marketing (explained)

Less public The message is normally directed to a specific person. It is also immediate and customized. Messages can be prepared very quickly and can be tailored to appeal to specific consumers. Direct marketing is interactive: It allows a dialogue between the marketing team and the consumer, and messages can be altered depending on the consumer's response.

Benefits to sellers

Low cost Efficient Speedy for reaching markets Improved efficiences Flexibility Access to buyers

PR

Lower cost than advertising and stronger impact on public awareness Building good relations with the company's various publics by obtaining favorable publicity; building up good corporate image; and handling or handing off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events.

Sales promotions aimed at trade

Manufacturers use several trade promotion tools: --Offer a straight discount (also called a price-off, off-invoice, or off-list). --Offer an allowance (usually so much off per case). --Offer free goods. --Offer free specialty advertising items.

Social networks

Marketers can engage in online communities in two ways: Joining existing networks seems easiest. Thus, many major brands—from Dunkin' Donuts and Harley-Davidson to Volkswagen and Victoria's Secret—have set up YouTube channels. GM and other companies have posted visual content on Flickr. Coca-Cola's Facebook page has 5.4 million fans. Some of the major social networks are huge. Facebook is adding new members at a rate of five million every week. The massive online network aims to reach one billion members by 2012. Launching their own targeted Web communities. For example, scrapbooking and crafting tools and supplies maker Fiskars created Fiskateers, an exclusive online network of crafters. More than creating sales, the Fiskateers community creates a relationship between the brand and important customers. Similarly, on Nike's Nike Plus Web site, more than 500,000 runners upload, track, and compare their performances. More than half visit the site at least four times a week, and Nike plans eventually to have 15 percent or more of the world's 100 million runners actively participating in the Nike Plus online community.

Nonpersonal channels

Media that carry messages without personal contact or feedback.

Create advertising message

Message strategy Creative concept Message execution

5. Select source

Messages delivered by highly credible sources are more persuasive. Marketers often hire celebrity endorsers to deliver their message. But companies must be careful when selecting celebrities to represent their brands. In some cases an imaginary source may be most effective such as the Geico lizard.

Effective websites

Online marketers should pay close attention to the seven Cs of effective Web site design: Context is the site's layout. Content is the site's pictures, sound, and video. Community is the site's means to enable user-to-user communication. Customization is the site's ability to tailor itself to different users or to allow users to personalize the site. Communication is the way the site enables user-to-user, user-to-site, or two-way communication. Connection is the degree that the site is lined to other sites. Commerce is the site's capabilities to enable commercial transactions. Change—To keep customers coming back, the site needs to constantly change.

Forms of DM

Online marketing Digital tech Kiosks Direct response TV Direct mail Catalogs Telemarketing Face to face selling

Other advertising considerations

Organizing for Advertising: Different companies organize in different ways to handle advertising. In small companies, advertising might be handled by someone in the sales department or large companies may have advertising departments whose job it is to set the advertising budget, work with the ad agency, and handle other advertising not done by the agency. However, most large companies use outside advertising agencies because they offer several advantages. An advertising agency is a marketing services firm that assists companies in planning, preparing, implementing, and evaluating all or portions of their advertising programs. Today's agencies employ specialists who can often perform advertising tasks better than the company's own staff can.. International Advertising Decisions: International advertisers face many complexities not encountered by domestic advertisers. The most basic issue concerns the degree to which global advertising should be adapted to the unique characteristics of various country markets. Some advertisers have attempted to support their global brands with highly standardized worldwide advertising, with campaigns that work as well in Bangkok as they do in Baltimore. Standardization has drawbacks because it ignores the fact that country markets differ greatly in their cultures, demographics, and economic conditions. Thus, most international advertisers "think globally but act locally." They develop global advertising strategies that make their worldwide efforts more efficient and consistent. Then they adapt their advertising programs to make them more responsive to consumer needs and expectations within local markets.

Sales force structure (outside vs inside)

Outside salespeople travel to call on customers in the field. Inside salespeople conduct business from their offices via telephone, the Internet, or visits from buyers. Inside sales may include: Technical sales support people, sales assistants, telemarketers and Web sellers. Most companies now use team selling to service large, complex accounts. Sales teams can unearth problems, solutions, and sales opportunities that no individual salesperson could.

PR tools

PR professionals find or create favorable news about the company and its products or people. Speeches can also create product and company publicity. Another common PR tool is special events, ranging from news conferences, press tours, grand openings, and fireworks displays to laser shows, hot air balloon releases, multimedia presentations, star-studded spectaculars, or educational programs designed to reach and interest target publics. Public relations people also prepare written materials to reach and influence their target markets. These materials include annual reports, brochures, articles, and company newsletters and magazines. Audiovisual materials, such as films, slide-and-sound programs, and video and audio CDs, are being used increasingly as communication tools. Corporate identity materials can also help create a corporate identity that the public immediately recognizes. Companies can improve public goodwill by contributing money and time to public service activities. As previously discussed, many marketers are now designing buzz marketing campaigns that create excitement and generate favorable word-of-mouth communication for their brands. A company's Web site can be a good public relations vehicle. Web sites can also be ideal for handling crisis situations.

Advertising

Paid non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor Broadcast, print, online, mobile, outdoor

Selling and internet

Perhaps the fastest-growing technology tool is the Internet. Sales organizations around the world are now using the Internet to support their personal selling efforts - not just for selling, but also for everything from training salespeople to conducting sales meetings and servicing accounts. Social selling: using online, mobile, and social media to engage customers, build stronger customer relationships, and augment sales performance.

Personal channels

Personal communication involves 2 or more people communicating with each other Face to face, phone, mail or email, texting or internet chat Additional info: Personal communication channels are effective because they allow for personal addressing and feedback. Some personal communication channels are controlled directly by the company. For example, company salespeople contact business buyers. But other personal communications about the product may reach buyers through channels not directly controlled by the company. These channels might include independent experts—consumer advocates, bloggers, and others—making statements to buyers. Or they might be neighbors, friends, family members, associates, or other consumers talking to target buyers, in person or via social media or other interactive media. This last channel, word-of-mouth influence, has considerable effect in many product areas. Companies can create opinion leaders—people whose opinions are sought by others—by supplying influencers with the product on attractive terms or by educating them so that they can inform others. Buzz marketing involves cultivating opinion leaders and getting them to spread information about a product or service to others in their communities.

Personal selling

Personal presentation by the sales force used to enhance sales and customer relationships Flexible but high cost per contact

4. Choose media

Personal vs non-personal

Trade promotions

Persuade resellers to carry a brand, give it shelf space, promote it in advertising, and push it to consumers. Manufacturers direct more sales promotion dollars toward retailers and wholesalers than to final consumers.

PR functions

Press relations or press agency: Creating and placing newsworthy information in the news media to attract attention to a person, product, or service Product publicity: Publicizing specific products Public affairs: Building and maintaining national or local community relations Lobbying: Building and maintaining relations with legislators and government officials to influence legislation and regulation Investor relations: Maintaining relationships with shareholders and others in the financial community Development: Public relations with donors or members of nonprofit organizations to gain financial or volunteer support

Major media

Print media, broadcast media, display media, and online media

Prospect/qualify

Prospecting is identifying qualified potential customers. The best source of prospects is referrals from: --Current customers. --Suppliers, dealers, noncompeting sales-people, and bankers. --Directories or on the Web. --Dropping in unannounced on various offices (a practice known as "cold calling"). Qualifying a lead is knowing how to identify the good ones and screen out the poor ones. Prospects can be qualified by: --Their financial ability. --Volume of business. --Special needs. --Location. --Possibilities for growth.

Role/impact of PR

Public relations can have a strong impact on public awareness at a much lower cost than advertising can. When using public relations, the company does not pay for the space or time in the media. Rather, it pays for a staff to develop and circulate information and manage events. If the company develops an interesting story or event, it could be picked up by several different media and have the same effect as advertising that would cost millions of dollars. What's more, public relations has the power to engage consumers and make them a part of the brand story and its telling.

Creating a website

Requires designing an attractive site and developing ways to get consumers to visit the site, remain on the site, and return to the site. Corporate (or Brand) Web sites are designed to build customer goodwill, collect customer feedback, and supplement other sales channels, rather than products directly. Marketing Web sites are designed to engage consumers in interaction that will move them closer to a direct purchase or other marketing outcome.

Sales force size

Sales force size may range in size from only a few salespeople to tens of thousands. Using the workload approach, a company first groups accounts into different classes according to size, account status, or other factors related to the amount of effort required to maintain them. It then determines the number of salespeople needed to call on each class of accounts the desired number of times.

Follow up

Salesperson follows up after the sale to ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business.

Preapproach

Salesperson learns as much as possible about the organization (what it needs, who is involved in the buying) and its buyers (their characteristics and buying styles).

Approach

Salesperson should know how to meet and greet the buyer and get the relationship off to a good start. The approach is affected by the salesperson's appearance, opening lines, and follow-up remarks

Presentation

Salesperson tells the product story to the buyer, presenting customer benefits and showing how the product solves the customer's problems. The emphasis is on need-satisfaction approach. Buyers want solutions and salespeople should listen and respond with the right products and services to solve customer problems.

Recruiting

Selecting Salespeople: In a typical sales force, the top 30 percent of the salespeople might bring in 60 percent of the sales. The best salespeople possess four key talents: 1. Intrinsic motivation 2. Disciplined work style 3. The ability to close a sale 4. The ability to build relationships with customers. When recruiting, companies should analyze the sales job itself and the characteristics of its most successful salespeople to identify the traits needed by a successful salesperson in their industry. Companies find new salespeople through current salespeople, other companies, employment agencies, classified ads, searching the Web, and college placement services.

Communications process

Sender: is the party sending the message to another party. Encoding: is the process of putting thought into symbolic form. Message: is the set of symbols the sender transmits. Receiver: is the party receiving the message sent by another party. Media: is the communications channels through which the message moves from sender to receiver. Decoding: is the process by which the receiver assigns meaning to the symbols. Feedback: is the part of the receiver's response communicated back to the sender. Noise: the unplanned static or distortion during the communication process, which results in the receiver's getting a different message than the one the sender sent.

Major advertising decisions

Setting advertising objectives Setting the advertising budget Developing an advertising strategy (message decisions and media decisions) Evaluating advertising campaigns

Sales promotion tools

Short term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product/service Sales promotion tools are targeted toward final buyers (consumer promotions), retailers and wholesalers (trade promotions), business customers (business promotions), and members of the sales force (sales force promotions). Today, in the average consumer packaged-goods company, sales promotion accounts for 3/4 of all marketing spending. Several factors have contributed to the rapid growth of sales promotion: --Product managers face greater pressures to increase their current sales. --The company faces more competition and competing brands are less differentiated. --Advertising efficiency has declined. --Consumers have become more deal oriented. The growing use of sales promotion has resulted in promotion clutter. Consumers are increasingly tuning out promotions, weakening their ability to trigger immediate purchase.

Sales promotion

Short term incentives used to encourage the purchase of a product or service Programs such as contests, coupons, or other incentives used to build interest or encourage purchase of a product Discounts, coupons, displays, demonstrations

Sales promotion factors to keep in mind

Size of the incentive Conditions for participation Promotion and distribution of the program Length of the program Evaluation of the program

Execution styles

Slice of life: shows one or more "typical" people using the product in a normal setting Lifestyle: shows how a product fits in with a particular lifestyle Fantasy: creates a fantasy around the product or its use; for instance, many ads are built around dream themes Mood or image: builds a mood or image around the product or service, such as beauty, love, or serenity Musical: shows people or cartoon characters singing about the product Personality symbol: creates a character that represents the product Technical expertise: shows the company's expertise in making the product Scientific evidence: presents survey or scientific evidence that the brand is better or better liked than one or more other brands Testimonial evidence or endorsement: features a highly believable or likable source endorsing the product

Events

Staged occurences that communicate messages to target audiences

Compensation

Straight salary Straight commission Salary and bonus Salary and commission Compensation is made up of several elements - a fixed amount, a variable amount, expenses, and fringe benefits. Management must decide what mix of compensation elements makes the most sense for each sales job. Different combinations of fixed and variable compensation give rise to four basic types of compensation plans: 1. Straight salary 2. Straight commission 3. Salary plus bonus 4. Salary plus commission. The average salesperson's pay consists of about 2/3 salary and 1/3 incentive pay. To attract good salespeople, a company must have an appealing compensation plan. Salary gives the salesperson some stable income. The variable amount, which might be commissions or bonuses based on sales performance, rewards the salesperson for greater effort and success.

Media timing

The advertiser must decide how to schedule the advertising over the course of a year.

Sales force management

The analysis, planning, implementation, and control of sales force activities. Stages: Design sales force strategy and structure Recruiting Training Compensation plan Supervising Evaluating

Advertising budgeting

The dollars and other resources allocated to a product or a company advertising program The PLC and a company's market share effects their budgeting process Building or taking market share requires larger budgets. Markets with heavy competition or high advertising clutter require larger budgets and undifferentiated brands also require larger budgets.

Promotional mix and PLC

The effects of different promotion tools also vary with stages of the product life cycle. Introduction: advertising and public relations are good for producing high awareness, and sales promotion is useful in promoting early trial. Personal selling must be used to get the trade to carry the product. Growth: advertising and public relations continue to be powerful influences, whereas sales promotion can be reduced because fewer incentives are needed. Maturity: sales promotion again becomes important relative to advertising. Buyers know the brands, and advertising is needed only to remind them of the product. Decline: advertising is kept at a reminder level, public relations is dropped, and salespeople give the product only a little attention. Sales promotion, however, might continue strong.

Message strategy

The first step in creating effective advertising messages is to plan a message strategy—to decide what general message will be communicated to consumers. Developing an effective message strategy begins with identifying customer benefits that can be used as advertising appeals.

Supervise motivate

The goal of supervision is to help salespeople do the right things in the right ways. Companies vary in how closely they supervise their salespeople. The annual call plan: shows which customers and prospects to call on and which activities to carry out. The time and duty analysis: shows the time the salesperson spends selling, traveling, waiting, taking breaks, and doing administrative chores. The goal of motivation is to encourage salespeople to work hard and energetically toward sales force goals. Salespeople often need special encouragement to do their best. Sales quotas are used for motivation. The quota is the amount that should be sold and how sales should be divided among the company's products. Compensation is often related to how well salespeople meet their quotas. Companies use other positive incentives to increase sales force effort. Sales meetings provide social occasions, breaks from routine, chances to meet with "company brass," and opportunities to air feelings and to identify with a larger group. Companies also sponsor sales contests to spur the sales force to make a selling effort above what would normally be expected. Other incentives include honors, merchandise and cash awards, trips, and profit sharing plans.

Creative concept

The idea that will bring the message strategy to life and guide specific appeals to be used in an advertising campaign. Characteristics of good appeals: Meaningful Believable Distinctive

Choose media type

The media planner has to know the reach, frequency, and impact of each of the major media types (newspapers, television, direct mail, radio, magazines, outdoor, and the Internet). Each medium has advantages and limitations. More and more, advertisers are turning to alternative media in an effort to get their message through.

Media vehicle

The media planner now must choose the best media vehicles—specific options within each general media type. Media planners must compute the cost per thousand persons reached by a vehicle. The media planner must also consider the costs of producing ads for different media. The media planner must balance media costs against several media effectiveness factors: • Audience quality. • Audience engagement. • Editorial quality.

Personal selling (explained)

The most effective tool at certain stages of the buying process, particularly in building up buyers' preferences, convictions, and actions. The effective salesperson keeps the customer's interests at heart in order to build a long-term relationship. However, a sales force requires a longer-term commitment than does advertising—advertising can be turned on and off, but sales force size is harder to change. Personal selling is also the company's most expensive promotion tool. U.S. firms spend up to three times as much on personal selling as they do on advertising.

Pull strategy

The producer directs its marketing activities (primarily advertising and consumer promotion) toward final consumers to induce them to buy the product. If the pull strategy is effective, consumers will then demand the product from channel members, who will in turn demand it from producers. Thus, under a pull strategy, consumer demand "pulls" the product through the channels. Most large companies use some combination of both.

Sales force structure: customer

The sales force is organized along customer or industry lines. For example, separate sales groups may be set up for different industries, for serving current customers versus finding new ones, and for major accounts versus regular accounts.

Sales force structure: product

The sales force sells along product lines. This structure can lead to problems if a single large customer buys many different company products.

Promotion Mix

The specific mix of advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, personal selling tools that the company uses to persuasively communicate customer value and build customer relationships

Advertising strategy

The strategy by which the company accomplishes its advertising objectives and consists of: Creating advertising messages Selecting advertising media.

Determining reach/frequency/impact

To select media, the advertiser must determine the reach and frequency needed to achieve the advertising objectives. Reach is what percentage of the target market the advertiser wants exposed to the advertisement during a specific time. Frequency is how many times the advertiser might want an average person exposed to the message three. Media impact seeks to determine, for example, whether the same message in one magazine may be more believable than in another . Advertisers wants to choose media that will engage consumers rather than simply reach them. In any medium, the relevance of ad content for its audience is often much more important than how many people it reaches

Message execution

Tone Attention getting words Format Additional info: Novel formats can help an advertisement stand out. In this Volkswagen ad, the illustration does most of the work in illustrating the car maker's parking assist feature. The advertiser must choose a tone for the ad. For example, P&G always uses a positive tone: Its ads say something very positive about its products. Other advertisers now use edgy humor to break through the commercial clutter. Bud Light commercials are famous for this. The advertiser must use memorable and attention-getting words in the ad. For example, rather than claiming simply that its laundry detergent is "superconcentrated," Method asks customers, "Are you jug addicted?" The solution: "Our patent-pending formula that's so fricken' concentrated, 50 loads fits in a teeny bottle. . . . With our help, you can get off the jugs and get clean." Finally, format elements make a difference in an ad's impact as well as in its cost. A small change in an ad's design can make a big difference in its effect. In a print ad, the illustration is the first thing the reader notices—it must be strong enough to draw attention. Next, the headline must effectively entice the right people to read the copy. Finally, the copy—the main block of text in the ad—must be simple but strong and convincing. Moreover, these three elements must effectively work together to persuasively present customer value.

Training

Training programs have several goals: --to teach about different types of customers and their needs, buying motives, and buying habits. --to teach how to sell effectively and the basics of the selling process. --to teach about the company's objectives, organization, and chief products and markets, and about the strategies of major competitors. Many companies are adding e-learning to their sales training programs.