MARKETING FINAL

Internet Marketing Concerns

idk

Risks of International Trade

idk

Value Innovation

idk

Value Selling

idk

Societal Marketing

means a company makes marketing decisions by considering consumers' wants and interests, the company's requirements, and society's long run interests

Steps in advertising media selection

o (1) defining reach, frequency, impact and engagement; o (2) choosing among major media types; o (3) selecting specific media vehicles; and o (4) choosing media timing

AIDA

o Having defined the desired audience response, the communicator turns to developing an effective message. o The message should get attention, hold interest, arouse desire, and obtain action (a framework known as the AIDA model). o In putting the message together, the marketing communicator must decide what to say (message content) and how to say it (message structure and format).

Selling Process

o Prospecting and qualifying o Preapproach o Approach o Presentation and demonstration o Handling objections o Closing o Follow-up

Ethical decision making tests

o The Publicity test o The moral mentor test o The admired observer test o The transparency test o The person in the mirror test o The golden rule test

Characteristics of advertising appeals

Advertising appeals should have three characteristics: o Appeals should be meaningful. o Appeals must be believable. o Appeals should be distinctive.

Comparative Advertising

Comparative advertising involves directly or indirectly comparing one brand with another.

Cradle to Cradle

Design for environment (DFE) and cradle-to-cradle practices involve thinking ahead to design products that are easier to recover, reuse, or recycle and developing programs to reclaim products at the end of their lives

Entry strategies

Exporting o is the simplest way to enter a foreign market. o Indirect exporting is working through independent inter¬national marketing intermediaries. Indirect exporting involves less investment and less risk. o Direct exporting is where the company handles their own exports. o The investment and risk are somewhat greater in this strategy, but so is the potential return Joint Venturing o joining with foreign companies to produce or market products or services. o There are four types of joint ventures: Licensing Contract manufacturing Management contracting Joint ownership Licensing o a simple way for a manufacturer to enter international marketing. o The company enters into an agreement with a licensee in the foreign market. o For a fee or royalty, the licensee buys the right to use the company's manufacturing process, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other item of value o Licensing has disadvantages: The firm has less control over the licensee than it would over its own operations. If the licensee is very successful, the firm has given up profits. When the contract ends, it may find it has created a competitor Contract Manufacturing o occurs when the company contracts with manufacturers in the foreign market to produce its product or provide its service o The drawbacks are: Decreased control over the manufacturing process Loss of potential profits on manufacturing o Benefits: The chance to start faster, with less risk The later opportunity either to form a partnership with or to buy out the local manufacturer Management Contracting o takes place when the domestic firm supplies management know-how to a foreign company that supplies the capital. o This is a low risk method of getting into a foreign market, and it yields income from the beginning. o The arrangement is not sensible if the company can put its management talent to better uses or if it can make greater profits by undertaking the whole venture Joint Ownership o ventures consist of one company joining forces with foreign investors to create a local business in which they share ownership and control. o A company may buy an interest in a local firm, or the two parties may form a new business venture. o Joint ownership may be needed for economic or political reasons o Drawbacks: The partners may disagree over policies. Whereas U.S. firms emphasize the role of marketing, local investors may rely on selling Direct Investment o the development of foreign based assembly or manufacturing facilities o Advantages: Lower costs in the form of cheaper labor or raw materials, foreign government investment incentives, and freight savings. The firm may improve its image in the host country. Development of a deeper relationship with govern¬ment, customers, local suppliers, and distributors. The firm keeps full control over the investment o Main Disadvantage is that the firm faces many risks including: Restricted or devalued currencies Falling markets Government changes

Decisions made to develop an advertising program

IDK

Perceived obsolescence

If products don't wear out fast enough, then companies are charged with perceived obsolescence, changing consumer concepts of acceptable styles to encourage more and earlier buying

Key Economic Factors

Industrial Factors o The country's industrial structure shapes its product and service needs, income levels, and employment levels o The four types of industrial structures are as follows Subsistence economies: The vast majority of people engage in simple agriculture. They consume most of their output and barter the rest for simple goods and services. They offer few market opportunities Emerging economies: In an emerging economy, fast growth in industrialization results in rapid overall economic growth. Industrialization creates a new rich class and a growing middle class, both demanding new types of goods and services Industrial economies: Major importers and exporters of manufactured goods and services. Their varied manufacturing activities and large middle classes make them rich markets for all sorts of goods Income Distribution o Industrialized nations may have low-, medium-, and high-income households. o Countries with subsistence economies may consist mostly of households with very low family incomes o Still other countries may have households with only either very low or very high incomes. o Even poor or developing economies may be attractive markets for all kinds of goods

Social Criticisms of Marketing

Marketing's Impact on Individual Consumers • Consumer advocates, government agencies, and other critics have accused marketing of harming consumers through high prices, deceptive practices, high pressure selling, shoddy or unsafe products, planned obsolescence, and poor service to disadvantaged consumers High Prices Many critics charge that the American marketing system causes prices to be higher than they would be under more "sensible" systems. They point to three factors—distribution, advertising and promotion, and markup High Costs of Distribution. A long-standing charge is that greedy channel intermediaries mark up prices beyond the value of their services. • How do resellers answer these charges? They argue that intermediaries do work that would otherwise have to be done by manufacturers or consumers. High Advertising and Promotion Costs. Modern market¬ing is accused of pushing up prices to finance heavy advertising and sales promotion. Excessive Markups. Critics charge that some companies markup goods excessively. Marketers respond that most businesses try to deal fairly with consumers because they want to build customer relationships and repeat business Deceptive Practices • Pricing • Promotion • Packaging High Pressure Selling • In most cases, marketers have little to gain from high-pressure selling. • Such tactics may work in one-time selling situations for short-term gain. However, most selling involves building long-term relationships with valued customers Shoddy, Harmful, or Unsafe Products • Typical Product Complaints o Products are not made well and services are not performed well. o Product safety may occur due to company indifference, increased product complexity, and poor quality control. o Many products deliver little benefit, or they might even be harmful Planned Obsolescence • Critics also have charged that some companies practice planned obsolescence, causing their products to become obsolete before they actually should need replacement. • If products don't wear out fast enough, then companies are charged with perceived obsolescence, changing consumer concepts of acceptable styles to encourage more and earlier buying. • Marketers respond that consumers like style changes; they get tired of the old goods and want a new look in fashion. Or, they want the latest high-tech innovations, even if older models still work Poor Service to Disadvantaged Consumers • The American marketing system has been accused of serving disadvantaged consumers poorly. • Critics accuse major chain retailers of "redlining," drawing a red line around disadvantaged neighborhoods and avoiding placing stores there. • For example, the nation's poor areas have 30 percent fewer supermarkets than do affluent areas. As a result, some 23.5 million Americans—including 6.5 million children—live in low-income areas that lack stores selling affordable and nutritious foods

Execution Styles

Message Execution o The advertiser has to turn the big idea into an actual ad execution that will capture the target market's attention and interest Execution Styles o Slice of life: This style shows one or more "typical" people using the product in a normal setting o Lifestyle: This style shows how a product fits in with a particular lifestyle o Fantasy: This style creates a fantasy around the product or its use. For instance, many ads are built around dream themes o Mood or image: This style builds a mood or image around the product or service, such as beauty, love, or serenity. o Musical: This style shows people or cartoon characters singing about the product. o Personality symbol: This style creates a character that represents the product o Technical expertise: This style shows the company's expertise in making the product. o Scientific evidence: This style presents survey or scientific evidence that the brand is better, or better liked than one or more other brands. o Testimonial evidence or endorsement: This style features a highly believable or likable source endorsing the product. The advertiser must choose the tone, words, and format for the ad

New (alternative) media

More and more, advertisers are turning to alternative media in an effort to get their message through.

Public Relations 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: Working with donors or members of nonprofit organizations to gain financial or volunteer support

Push/Pull Strategies

Promotion Mix Strategies o Marketers can choose from two basic promotion mix strategies. Figure 14.4 contrasts the two strategies 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. Pull Strategy • the producer directs its marketing activities (primarily advertising and consumer promotion) toward final consumers to induce them to buy the product. o 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. o Most large companies use some combination of both. o Companies consider many factors when designing their promotion mix strategies, including type of product and market. For example, the importance of different promotion tools varies between consumer and business markets. o Business-to-consumer (B-to-C) companies usually "pull" more, putting more of their funds into advertising, followed by sales promotion, personal selling, and then public relations. o In contrast, business-to-business (B-to-B) marketers tend to "push" more, putting more of their funds into personal selling, followed by sales promotion, advertising, and public relations.

Elements of the global marketing environment

The International Trade System o Tariffs are taxes on certain imported products designed to raise revenue or to protect domestic firms. o Quotas are limits on the amount of foreign imports that a country will accept in certain product categories. o The purpose of a quota is to conserve on foreign exchange and to protect local industry and employment. o Exchange controls are limits on the amount of foreign exchange and the exchange rate against other currencies. o Nontariff trade barriers include biases against foreign company bids, restrictive product standards, or excessive host-country regulations. o Certain forces help trade between nations World Trade Organization o The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a 70-year-old treaty designed to promote world trade by reducing tariffs and other international trade barriers. o Since the treaty's beginning in 1947, member nations (currently numbering 162) have met in eight rounds of negotiations to reassess trade barriers and set new rules for international trade. o The first seven rounds of negotiations reduced the average worldwide tariffs on manufactured goods from 45 percent to just 5 percent. o The Uruguay Round (1994) reduced the world's remaining merchandise tariffs by 30 percent and set up the World Trade Organization (WTO) to enforce GATT rules. o The WTO acts as an umbrella organization, overseeing GATT, mediating global disputes, and imposing trade sanctions Regional Free Trade Zones o Free trade zones or economic communities are groups of nations organized to work toward common goals in the regulation of international trade. o One such community is the European Union (EU). o The European Union represents one of the world's single largest markets. Currently, it has 28 member countries containing more than half a billion consumers and accounts for almost 16 percent of the world's exports. o As a result of increased unification, European companies have grown bigger and more competitive. o Widespread adoption of the euro has decreased much of the currency risk associated with doing business in Europe, making member countries with previously weak currencies more attractive markets. o However, even with the adoption of the euro, it is unlikely that the EU will ever go against 2,000 years of tradition and become the "United States of Europe." But with a combined annual GDP nearing $20 trillion, the EU has become a potent economic force. o The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) established a free trade zone among the United States, Mexico, and Canada. o The agreement created a single market of 478 million people who produce and consume over $20.75 trillion worth of goods and services annually. o NAFTA has eliminated trade barriers and investment restrictions among the three countries. o Total trade among the three countries has nearly tripled from $288 billion in 1993 to more than $1.1 trillion a year. o The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) established a free trade zone between the United States and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. o Other free trade areas have formed in Latin America and South America. For example, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), modeled after the EU, was formed in 2004 and formalized in 2008. o With 12 countries, UNASUR makes up the largest trading bloc after NAFTA and the EU, with a population of 418 million and a combined economy of more than $4.1 trillion

Creative Concept

The advertiser must next develop a compelling creative concept—or "big idea"—that will bring the message strategy to life in a distinctive and memorable way.

Second Mover Advantage

The challenger observes what has made the leader successful and then improves upon it. This is known as the "second-mover advantage."

Media vehicle selection criteria

The media planner now must choose the best media vehicles—specific media within each general media type Media planners must compute the cost per 1,000 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 o Audience quality o Audience engagement o Editorial quality

Brand Community Websites

do not try to sell anything. Instead, their primary purpose is to present brand content that engages consumers and creates customer-brand community. Such websites waste no time trying to turn the inquiry into a sale, and then into a long-term relationship

Customer Value Analysis

• A useful tool for assessing competitor strengths and weaknesses • The aim of customer value analysis is to determine the benefits that target customers' value and how customers rate the relative value of various competitors' offers • The key to gaining competitive advantage is to take each customer segment and examine how the company's offer compares to that of its major competitor. The company is searching for that "strategic sweet spot." If your offer delivers greater value, you can (1) charge more and make more profit, or (2)charge the same and increase market share

Social Costs

• A way must be found to restore a balance between private and public goods. Options include o Making producers bear the full social costs of their operations, or o Making consumers pay the social costs

+/- of social media

• Advantages o include that social media are targeted and personal. They are also interactive, making it easy to start and participate in customer conversations and listen to customer feedback. They lend themselves to real-time marketing, as they are immediate and timely, as well as cost effective. The strongest advantage is the engagement and sharing capabilities. Some social networks are huge! o Many companies are still learning how to use social media effectively, and results are hard to measure. A significant challenge is the lack of control that a company experiences. Once a conversation has begun, the company cannot control the direction it takes, though it can impact it. o Integrated Social Media Marketing is not as simple as posting some messages and promotions on a brand's Facebook page. Those companies that use social media successfully are integrating a broad range of diverse media to create brand-related social sharing, engagement, and customer community

Market niche strategies

• Almost every industry includes firms that specialize in serving market niches. Instead of pursuing the whole market, or even large segments, these firms target subsegments • Nichers are often smaller firms with limited resources. But smaller divisions of larger firms also may pursue niching strategies. Firms with low shares of the total market can be highly successful and profitable through smart niching • Why is niching profitable? The main reason is that the market nicher ends up knowing the target customer group so well that it meets their needs better than other firms that casually sell to this niche • As a result, the nicher can charge a substantial markup over costs because of the added value. • Whereas the mass marketer achieves high volume, the nicher achieves high margins. Nichers try to find one or more market niches that are safe and profitable • An ideal market niche is big enough to be profitable and has growth potential. Perhaps most important, the niche is of little interest to major competitors • The key idea in niching is specialization. A market nicher can specialize along any of several market, customer, product, or marketing mix lines. • Niching carries some major risks. For example, the market niche may dry up, or it might grow to the point that it attracts larger competitors • That is why many companies practice multiple niching. By developing two or more niches, a company increases its chances for survival.

Approaches to marketing strategy

• Approaches to marketing strategy and practice often pass through three stages o Entrepreneurial marketing: Most companies are started by individuals who live by their wits. They visualize an opportunity, construct flexible strategies on the backs of envelopes, and knock on every door to gain attention o Formulated marketing: As small companies achieve success, they inevitably move toward more-formulated marketing. They develop formal marketing strategies and adhere to them closely o Intrapreneurial marketing: Many large and mature companies get stuck in formulated marketing. These companies sometimes lose the marketing creativity and passion that they had at the start. They need to reestablish within their companies the entrepreneurial spirit and actions that made them successful in the first place

Salesperson responsibilities

• 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.

Competitor Views

• Building profitable customer relationships and gaining competitive advantage requires delivering more value and satisfaction to target consumers than competitors do • Customers will see competitive advantages as customer advantages • The first step is competitor analysis—the process of identifying, assessing, and selecting key competitors • The second step is developing competitive marketing strategies that strongly position the company against competitors and give it the greatest possible competitive advantage.

Value Discipline Strategies

• Companies can pursue any of three strategies—called value disciplines—for delivering superior customer value o Operational excellence: The company provides superior value by leading its industry in price and convenience. o Customer intimacy: The company provides superior value by precisely segmenting its markets and tailoring its products or services to match exactly the needs of targeted customers. o Product leadership: The company provides superior value by offering a continuous stream of leading-edge products or services • Some companies successfully pursue more than one value discipline at the same time. However, such companies are rare—few firms can be the best at more than one of these disciplines

Integrated marketing communications (IMC)

• Customers don't distinguish between message sources the way marketers do. • 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 • Too often, companies fail to integrate their various communications channels. Mass-media advertisements say one thing, while a price promotion sends a different signal and a product label creates still another message. Company sales literature says something altogether different and the company's Web site seems out of sync with everything else • The problem is that these communications often come from different company sources. • Today, more companies are adopting the concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC). o Under this concept, as illustrated in Figure 14.1, the company carefully integrates and coordinates its many communications channels to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the organization and its brands o IMC calls for recognizing all contact points where the customer may encounter the company, its products, and its brands. Each brand contact will deliver a message, whether good, bad, or indifferent. The company must strive to deliver a consistent and positive message with each contact o 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

Benefits of Direct Marketing

• 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 • 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 • The New Direct Marketing Model o Most companies still use direct marketing as a supplemen¬tary channel or medium o For a growing number of companies, direct marketing constitutes a complete model for doing business o Firms employing this new direct model use it as the only approach • Benefits to Buyers o For buyers, direct marketing is convenient, easy, and private. o Buyers can interact with sellers by phone or on the seller's website or mobile app to create exactly the configuration of information, products, or services they want and then order them on the spot. Finally, for consumers who want it, digital marketing through online, mobile, and social media provides a sense of brand engagement and community—a place to share brand information and experiences with other brand fans • Benefits to Sellers o Can target small groups or individual consumers o Low-cost, efficient, speedy alternative for reaching their markets o Results in lower costs, improved efficiencies o Provides opportunities for building close customer relationships o Offers greater flexibility to adjust prices and programs and engage in real-time marketing o Gives sellers access to buyers that they could not reach through other channels

Viral Marketing

• Good online videos can draw audiences in the millions. Marketers hope that some of their videos will go viral. Viral marketing is the digital version of word-of-mouth marketing • Viral marketing involves creating videos, ads, or other marketing content that is so infectious that customers will want to pass it along to their friends

Budget Methods

• How does the company decide on the total promotion budget and its division among the major promotional tools to create the promotion mix? • Setting the Total Promotion Budget oOne of the hardest marketing decisions facing a company is how much to spend on promotion. We look at four common methods used to set the total budget for advertising • Affordable Method o Some companies use the affordable method—they set the promotion budget at the level they think the company can afford. o Small businesses often use this method, reasoning that the company cannot spend more on advertising than it has o 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 o It leads to an uncertain annual promotion budget that makes long-range market planning difficult. Although the affordable method can result in overspending on advertising, it more often results in underspending

Communications process

• IMC involves identifying the target audience and shaping a well-coordinated promotional program to obtain the desired audience response. • Today, marketers are moving toward viewing communications as managing the customer relationship over time • Because customers differ, communications programs need to be developed for specific segments, niches, and even individuals • The communications process should start with an audit of all the potential contacts target customers may have with the company and its brands. • To communicate effectively, marketers need to understand how communi¬cation works. Communication involves the nine elements shown in Figure 14.2 o Sender: The party sending the message to another party. o Encoding: The process of putting thought into symbolic form. o Message: The set of symbols that the sender transmits. o Media: The communication channels through which the message moves from sender to receiver. o Decoding: The process by which the receiver assigns meaning to the symbols encoded by the sender. o Receiver: The party receiving the message sent by another party. o Response: The reactions of the receiver after being exposed to the message. o Feedback: The part of the receiver's response communicated back to the sender o Noise: The unplanned static or distortion during the communi¬cation process that results in receivers getting a different message than the one the sender sent.

Word of Mouth

• In personal communication channels, two or more people communicate directly with each other. • Some personal communication channels are controlled directly by the company. For example, company salespeople contact buyers in the target market. But other personal communications about the product may reach buyers through channels not directly controlled by the company. Word-of-mouth influence has considerable effect in many areas

How to measure communications effects

• Measuring advertising effectiveness and the return on advertising effectiveness has become a hot issue for most companies. • Measuring the communication effects of an ad or ad campaign tells whether the ads and media are communicating the ad message well. • Sales and profit effects of advertising and other content are often harder to measure. Sales and profits are affected by many factors besides advertising—such as product features, price, and availability. • One way to measure the sales and profit effects of advertising is to compare past sales and profits with past advertising expenditures.

Team Selling

• 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 • Such teams might include experts from any area or level of the selling firm—sales, marketing, technical and support services, R&D, engineering, operations, finance, and others. Shortcomings of team selling o Salespeople who are used to having customers all to themselves may have trouble learning to work with and trust others on a team o Selling teams can confuse or overwhelm customers who are used to working with only one salesperson o Difficulties in evaluating individual contributions to the team selling effort can create some sticky compensation issues.

Environmental sustainability

• Pollution prevention involves eliminating or minimizing waste before it is created. • Product stewardship involves minimizing not just pollution from production and product design but all environmental impacts throughout the full product life cycle, and all the while reducing costs. • Design for environment (DFE) and cradle-to-cradle practices involve thinking ahead to design products that are easier to recover, reuse, or recycle and developing programs to reclaim products at the end of their lives. • New clean technology. Many organizations that have made good sustainability headway are still limited by existing technologies. To create fully sustainable strategies, they will need to develop innovative new technologies. • A sustainability vision serves as a guide to the future. It shows how the company's products and services, processes, and policies must evolve and what new technologies must be developed to get there. • The "beyond greening" activities identified in Figure 20.2 look to the future

Societal classification of products

• Products can be classified according to their degree of immediate consumer satisfaction and long run consumer benefit o Deficient products have neither immediate appeal nor long run benefits. o Pleasing products give high immediate satisfaction but may hurt consumers in the long run. o Salutary products have low appeal but may benefit consumers in the long run. o Desirable products give both high immediate satisfaction and high long run benefits

Cultural Environment

• Sellers must understand the ways that consumers in different countries think about and use certain products before planning a marketing program. • Business norms and behavior vary from country to country. Understanding the differences can help companies not only avoid embarrassing mistakes but also take advantage of cross-cultural opportunities • Social critics contend that large American multinationals such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Nike, Google, Disney, and Facebook are "Americanizing" the world's cultures. • Critics worry that, under such "McDomination," countries around the globe are losing their individual cultural identities. • Such concerns have sometimes led to a backlash against American globalization. • In the most recent Millward Brown BrandZ brand value survey, 19 of the top 25 brands were American-owned. • However, the cultural exchange goes both ways: America gets as well as gives cultural influence. Look at House of Cards, Dancing with the Stars, Harry Potter, and the growth of soccer in the U.S

Types of Appeals

• The communicator has to figure out an appeal or theme that will produce the desired response. There are three types of appeals o Rational appeals relate to the audience's self-interest. They show that the product will produce the desired benefits o Emotional appeals attempt to stir up either negative or positive emotions that can motivate a 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 o Moral 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

Social Selling

• The fastest-growing sales trend is the explosion in social selling—the use of online, mobile, and social media to engage customers, build stronger customer relationships, and augment sales performance. New digital sales force technologies are creating exciting new avenues for connecting with and engaging customers in the digital and social media age. These tools won't make salespeople obsolete; they will make them more productive and effective

Strategic Group

• The more that one firm's strategy resembles another firm's strategy, the more the two firms compete. A strategic group is a group of firms in an industry following the same or a similar strategy in a given target market • Some important insights emerge from identifying strategic groups. For example, if a company enters one of the groups, the members of that group become its key competitors • Although competition is intense within a strategic group, there is also rivalry among groups o Some of the strategic groups may appeal to overlapping customer segments. o The customers may not see much difference in the offers of different groups. o Members of one strategic group might expand into new strategy segments • The company needs to look at all of the dimensions that identify strategic groups within the industry

Market challenger strategies

• These runner-up firms can adopt one of two competitive strategies oThey can challenge the leader and other competitors in an aggressive bid for more market share (market challengers). oThey can play along with competitors and not rock the boat (market followers).

Madison & Vine

• To break through the clutter, many marketers are now subscribing to a new merging of advertising and entertainment, dubbed "Madison & Vine." • The aim of advertainment is to make ads themselves so entertaining, or so useful, that people want to watch them • Branded entertainment (or brand integrations) involves making the brand an inseparable part of some other form of entertainment. Product placement is the most common form of brand integration. • Another form is called native advertising, which is advertising or other brand-produced online content that looks in form and function like the other natural content surrounding it on a web or social media platform.

Customer/competitor orientations

• Whether a company is a market leader, challenger, follower, or nicher, it must watch its competitors closely and find the competitive marketing strategy that positions it most effectively. And, it must continually adapt its strategies to the fast-changing competitive environment. The possible orientations are a competitor-centered company, a customer-centered company, and a market-centered company • A competitor-centered company spends most of its time tracking competitors' moves and market shares and trying to find strategies to counter them o This approach has pluses and minuses On the positive side, the company develops a fighter orientation. On the negative side, the company becomes too reactive • A customer-centered company focuses more on customer developments in designing its strategies o Clearly, the customer-centered company is in a better position to identify new opportunities and set long-run strategies that make sense

Sustainable marketing

• calls for socially and environ¬mentally responsible actions that meet the present needs of consumers and businesses while also preserving or enhancing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Sales force automation systems

• computerized, digitized sales force operations that let salespeople work more effectively anytime, anywhere

Mobile Marketing

• features marketing messages and promotions delivered to on-the-go consumers through their mobile devices. • Marketers use mobile marketing to reach and interact with customers anywhere, anytime during the buying and relationship-building processes • The widespread adoption of mobile devices and the surge in mobile web traffic have made mobile marketing a must for most brands. Today's rich-media mobile ads can create substantial engagement and impact. But companies must use mobile marketing responsibly or risk angering ad-weary consumers. • In all, digital direct marketing continues to offer both great promise and many challenges for the future. • Online marketing has become a successful business model for some companies. However, for most companies, online marketing will remain as one important approach to the marketplace that works alongside other approaches in a fully integrated marketing mix

Content Marketing

• involves creating, inspiring, and sharing brand messages and conversations with and among consumers across a fluid mix of paid, owned, earned, and shared channels. • Consumers are changing. They are better informed and more communications empowered. • Marketing strategies are changing. As mass markets have fragmented, marketers are shifting away from mass marketing. More and more, they are developing focused marketing programs designed to build closer relationships with customers in more narrowly defined micromarkets. • Sweeping changes in digital technology are 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 • The new media range from specialty magazines, cable television channels, and made-for-the-Web videos to Internet catalogs, e-mail, blogs, blogs, mobile phone content, and online social networks. Information tools include smartphones, tablets, satellite, and cable television systems • It seems likely that the new marketing communications model will consist of a shifting mix of both traditional mass media and a wide array of exciting new, more-targeted, more-personalized, more-engaging media. Marketers more often now are identified as content marketing managers.

Buzz Marketing

• involves cultivating opinion leaders and getting them to spread information about a product or service to others in their communities • 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

Communication adaptation

• is fully adapting advertising messages to local markets. • Media also needs to be adapted internationally because media availability and regulations vary from country to country

Types of Trade Promotions

• persuade resellers to carry a brand, give it shelf space, promote it in advertising, and push it to consumers. • Manufacturers use several trade promotion tools o A straight discount (also called a price-off, off-invoice, or off-list) o An allowance (usually so much off per case) o Free goods o Push money o Free specialty advertising items

Types of consumer promotions

•Consumer promotions urge short-term customer buying or to enhance customer brand involvement •Samples are offers of a trial amount of a product o Sampling is the most effective—but most expensive—way to introduce a new product or to create new excitement for an existing one •Coupons are certificates that give buyers a savings when they purchase specified products o Most major consumer goods companies are issuing fewer coupons and targeting them more carefully •Rebates (or cash refunds) 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 •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 •Point-of-purchase (POP) promotions include displays and demonstrations that take place at the point of sale •Contests, sweepstakes, and games give con¬sumers the chance to win something o A contest calls for consumers to submit an entry to be judged o A sweepstakes calls for consumers to submit their names for a drawing o A game presents consumers with something every time they buy

Good/Bad Competitors

•The existence of competitors results in several strategic benefits: o They may share the costs of market and product development and help to legitimize new technologies o They may serve less-attractive segments or lead to more product differentiation o Competitors may help increase total demand o However, a company may not view all of its competitors as beneficial. An industry often contains "good" competitors and "bad" competitors Good competitors play by the rules of the industry. Bad competitors break the rules. They try to buy share rather than earn it, take large risks, and in general, shake up the industry