Ransford Advanced Diploma course In Marketing Management

Marketing research is the systematic process of gathering, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting information related to a company's products or services, target market, customers, and the overall business environment. The primary purpose of marketing research is to provide businesses with valuable insights and data to make informed decisions, develop effective marketing strategies, and solve marketing-related problems. Here are the key components and objectives of marketing research: 1. **Identifying Information Needs:** Marketing research begins with identifying the specific information needs or research objectives. This involves understanding what questions need to be answered or what problems need to be addressed. 2. **Data Collection:** Once the objectives are clear, data is collected through various methods, such as surveys, interviews, observations, focus groups, and secondary data sources. This data can be quantitative (numerical) or qualitative (non-numerical). 3. **Data A...

Demand forecasting is a systematic process of estimating the future demand for a product or service based on historical data, current market conditions, and various other factors. The primary goal of demand forecasting is to make accurate predictions about customer demand, enabling businesses to plan their production, inventory, and supply chain management more effectively. Here are some key aspects of demand forecasting: 1. **Data Analysis:** Demand forecasting begins with the analysis of historical sales data, customer orders, and other relevant information. Businesses use this data to identify patterns, trends, and seasonality in demand. 2. **Market Research:** In addition to historical data, market research can provide valuable insights into consumer preferences, changing market dynamics, and competitor activities. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups may be used to gather this information. 3. **Statistical Models:** Various statistical and mathematical models are employed to proj...

Collecting marketing information is a crucial step in the marketing research process, helping businesses make informed decisions. Here are some key methods and steps for collecting marketing information: 1. **Define Objectives:** Clearly outline what you want to achieve through data collection. Whether it's understanding customer preferences, evaluating a new product idea, or analyzing market trends, having well-defined objectives is essential. 2. **Secondary Research:** Start by gathering existing data and information from secondary sources like industry reports, market studies, academic journals, government publications, and online databases. This can provide a valuable foundation for your research. 3. **Primary Research:** When secondary data is insufficient or doesn't address your specific needs, conduct primary research, which involves collecting data directly from original sources. There are two main methods:    a. **Surveys:** Create structured questionnaires or conduct...

Marketing information, often referred to as marketing intelligence or marketing data, is a collection of data and insights related to various aspects of marketing and the marketplace. It plays a crucial role in helping businesses make informed decisions, develop effective marketing strategies, and better understand their target audience. Marketing information encompasses a wide range of data, including: 1. **Market Research Data:** Information gathered through market research activities, such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups. This data includes consumer preferences, buying behavior, market trends, and competitor analysis. 2. **Consumer Data:** Details about current and potential customers, including demographics (age, gender, income, location), psychographics (lifestyle, values, interests), and purchasing habits. 3. **Competitor Information:** Data about rival companies, their products or services, pricing strategies, market share, strengths, weaknesses, and marketing tactics. ...

A Business capital, often referred to as capital in a business context, is the financial resources or assets that a company or a sole proprietorship uses to operate, invest, and grow. Traditionally, it can come from various sources, including: 1. Equity Capital: This is the money invested by the business owners or shareholders. It represents ownership in the company and can be in the form of common stock or retained earnings. 2. Debt Capital: Debt capital is borrowed money that the business must repay with interest. This can include loans from banks, bonds issued by the company, or other forms of debt financing. 3. Working Capital: Working capital is the money a business uses for its day-to-day operations, such as paying bills, salaries, and purchasing inventory. 4. Fixed Capital: Fixed capital refers to the funds invested in long-term assets like buildings, machinery, and equipment. 5. Venture Capital or Angel Investment: Startups and high-growth companies may secure capital from vent...

Internet globallization has intensify social and object relations across the world space. This intensification has created new opportunities and challenges. With this trend, which project can you build? A Better Payment system A better online learning platform A better food ordering website A better online legal advisory website A better online store etc. Look to see. They are numerous opportunities!

Marketers tell stories that matter. Great marketers always search for minds that believe a certain thing, that are seeking a problem to solve; that seeking something they desire; behave favourably towards something they  value or act in a certain way towards things that matter to them. Now Let's take a look at few examples: For busy executives who like to stay organized, Palm Pilot is an electronic organizer for backing up files on PC more easily. For consumers who desire to treat their pimples and acnes, Eva herbal soap is a bathing soap that helps in skin-healing, removal or pimples, acnes and spots....With Eva Help soap, you will have healthier skin . For consumers that seeking fairer skin, Coco-pulp is a range of lightning care enriched with coco oil. Coco-pulp clarifies and lightens skins by erasing spots and preventing apparition. With Coco-pulp, your complexion will be more clearer, lightened, harmonious and incredibly unified. The statements above are not chemistry solution...

 The marketing environment consists of the task environment and the broad environment. The task environment includes the actors engaged in producing, distributing, and promoting the offering. These are the company, suppliers, distributors, dealers, and target customers.  In the supplier group are material suppliers and service suppliers, such as marketing research agencies, advertising agencies, banking and insurance companies, transportation companies, and telecommunications companies.  Distributors and dealers include agents, brokers, manufacturer representatives, and others who facilitate finding and selling to customers. The broad environment consists of six components: demographic environment, economic environment, social- cultural environment, natural environment, technological environment, and political-legal environment. These environments contain forces that can have a major impact on the actors in the task environment, which is why smart marketers track envir...

Competition is a critical factor in marketing management. Competition includes all the actual and potential rival offerings and substitutes a buyer might consider.  Anautomobile manufacturer can buy steel from U.S. Steel in the United States, from a foreign firm in Japan or Korea, or from a mini-mill such as Nucor at a cost savings, or it can buy aluminum parts from Alcoa to reduce the car’s weight or engineered plastics from Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) instead of steel. Clearly, U.S. Steel is more likely to be hurt by substitute products than by other integrated steel companies and would be defining its competition too narrowly if it didn’t recognize this. Suppose an automobile company is planning to buy steel for its cars. The car manufacturer can buy from U.S. Steel or other U.S. or foreign integrated steel mills; can go to a minimill such as Nucor to buy steel at a cost savings; can buy aluminum for certain parts of the car to lighten the car’s weight; or can buy...

Marketers now think of three “screens” or means to reach consumers: TV, Internet, and mobile.  Surprisingly, the rise of digital options did not initially depress the amount of TV viewing, in part because, as one Nielsen study found, three of five consumers use two screens at once Impressions, which occur when consumers view a communication, are a useful metric for tracking the scope or breadth of a communication’s reach that can also be compared across all communication types. The downside is that impressions don’t provide any insight into the results of viewing the communication. Engagement is the extent of a customer’s attention and active involvement with a communication. It reflects a much more active response than a mere impression and is more likely to create value for the firm.  Some online measures of engagements are Facebook “likes,” Twitter tweets, comments on a blog or Web site, and sharing of video or other content. Engagement can extend to personal experiences th...

Whereas marketing channels connect the marketer to the target buyers, the supply chain describes a longer channel stretching from raw materials to components to final products that are carried to final buyers.  For example, the supply chain for women’s purses starts with hides, tanning operations, cutting operations, manufacturing, and the marketing channels that bring products to customers. This supply chain represents a value delivery system.   The supply chain is a channel stretching from raw materials to components to finished products carried to final buyers. The supply chain for coffee may start with Ethiopian farmers who plant, tend, and pick the coffee beans and sell their harvest.  If sold through a Fair Trade cooperative, the coffee is washed, dried, and packaged for shipment by an Alternative Trading Organization (ATO) that pays a minimum of $1.26 a pound. The ATO transports the coffee to the developed world where it can sell it directly or via retail channels....

 The rise of digital media gives marketers a host of new ways to interact with consumers and customers. We can group communication options into three categories. Paid media include TV, magazine and display ads, paid search, and sponsorships, all of which allow marketers to show their ad or brand for a fee. Owned media are communication channels marketers actually own, like a company or brand brochure, Web site, blog, Facebook page, or Twitter account.  Earned media are streams in which consumers, the press, or other outsiders voluntarily communicate something about the brand via word of mouth, buzz, or viral marketing methods. The emergence of earned media has allowed some companies, such as Chipotle, to reduce paid media expenditures. One of the fastest-growing restaurant chains over the last decade, Chipotle is committed to fresh food. The company supports family farms and sources sustainable ingredients from local growers who behave responsibly toward animals and the enviro...

 To reach a target market, the marketer uses three kinds of marketing channels. Communication channels deliver and receive messages from target buyers and include newspapers, magazines, radio, television, mail, telephone, smart phone, billboards, posters, fliers, CDs, audiotapes, and the Internet.  Beyond these, firms communicate through the look of their retail stores and Web sites and other media, adding dialogue channels such as e-mail, blogs, text messages, and URLs to familiar monologue channels such as ads. Distribution channels help display, sell, or deliver the physical product or service(s) to the buyer or user. These channels may be direct via the Internet, mail, or mobile phone or telephone or indirect with distributors, wholesalers, retailers, and agents as intermediaries. The marketer uses distribution channels to display or deliver the physical product or service(s) to the buyer or user. There are physical distribution channels and service distribution channels...

 All marketing strategy is built on segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP). A company discovers different needs and groups of consumers in the marketplace, targets those it can satisfy in a superior way, and then positions its offerings so the target market recognizes its distinctive offerings and images.  By building customer advantages, companies can deliver high customer value and satisfaction, which lead to high repeat purchases and ultimately to high company profitability.  Positioning is the act of designing a company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target market. The goal is to locate the brand in the minds of consumers to maximize the potential benefit to the firm.  Example of Positioning: Volvo = Safety Automobile A good brand positioning helps guide marketing strategy by clarifying the brand’s essence, identifying the goals it helps the consumer achieve, and showing how it does so in a unique way. Everyone in ...

 A brand is an offering from a known source. A brand name such as Apple carries many different kinds of associations in people’s minds that make up its image: creative, innovative, easy-to-use, fun, cool, iPod, iPhone, and iPad to name just a few. A brand is, therefore, more than a product, because it can have dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same need. These differences may be rational and tangible—related to product performance of the brand—or more symbolic, emotional, and intangible—related to what the brand represents. Extending our previous example, a branded product may be a physical good like Kellogg’s Corn Flakes cereal, Prince tennis racquets, or Ford Mustang automobiles; a service such as Delta Airlines, Bank of America, or Allstate insurance; a digital good or service such as Match.com, Spotify, or iTunes.  It could be an online or offline store like Amazon, Bloomingdale’s department store, Body Shop specialty ...

Companies address customer needs by putting forth a value proposition, a set of benefits that satisfy those needs. The intangible value proposition is made physical by an offering, which can be a combination of products, services, information, and experiences. Product is anything capable of satisfying human wants. A product is anything we can offer to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want. Thus, a product may be a physical good like a cereal, tennis racquet, or automobile; or a service such as an airline, bank, or insurance company.  A product could also be a retail outlet like a department store, specialty store, or supermarket; a person such as a political figure, social media celebrity, entertainer, or professional athlete; an organization like a nonprofit, trade organization, or arts group; or a place including a city, state, or country; or even an idea like a political or social cause. We can define five levels of meaning fo...

 Not everyone likes the same cereal, restaurant, university, or movie. Marketers therefore identify distinct segments of buyers by identifying demographic, psychographic, and behavioral differences between them. They then decide which segment(s) present the greatest opportunities.  For each of these target markets, the firm develops a market offering that it positions in target buyers’ minds as delivering some key benefit(s).  Volvo develops its cars for the buyer to whom safety is a major concern, positioning them as the safest a customer can buy. Porsche targets buyers who seek pleasure and excitement in driving and want to make a statement about their wheels.

Transaction marketing is part of a larger idea called relationship marketing. Relationship marketing aims to build long-term mutually satisfying relations with key parties—customers, suppliers, distributors—in order to earn and retain their long-term preference and business.  Effective marketers accomplish this by promising and delivering high-quality products and services at fair prices to the other parties over time. Relationship marketing builds strong economic, technical, and social ties among the parties. It cuts down on transaction costs and time. In the most successful cases, transactions move from being negotiated each time to being a matter of routine. The ultimate outcome of relationship marketing is the building of a unique company asset called a marketing network. A marketing network consists of the company and its supporting stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, distributors, university scientists, and others) with whom it has built mutually profitable busines...

Exchange, the core of marketing, involves obtaining a desired product from someone by offering something in return. For exchange potential to exist, five conditions must be satisfied: 1. There are at least two parties.  2. Each party has something that might be of value to the other party. 3. Each party is capable of communication and delivery. 4. Each party is free to accept or reject the exchange offer. 5. Each party believes it is appropriate or desirable to deal with the other party.   Whether exchange actually takes place depends upon whether the two parties can agree on terms that will leave them both better off (or at least not worse off) than before. Exchange is a value-creating process because it normally leaves both parties better off.  Note that exchange is a process rather than an event. Two parties are engaged in exchange if they are negotiating—trying to arrive at mutually agreeable terms. When an agreement is reached, we say that a transaction takes place....

In terms of marketing, the product or offering will be successful if it delivers value and satisfaction to the target buyer. The buyer chooses between different offerings on the basis of which is perceived to deliver the most value.  We define value as a ratio between what the customer gets and what he gives. The customer gets benefits and assumes costs, as shown in this equation:   Based on this equation, the marketer can increase the value of the customer offering by (1) raising benefits, (2) reducing costs, (3) raising benefits and reducing costs, (4) raising benefits by more than the raise in costs, or (5) lowering benefits by less than the reduction in costs. A customer choosing between two value offerings, V1 and V2, will examine the ratio V1/V2. She will favor V1 if the ratio is larger than one; she will favor V2 if the ratio is smaller than one; and she will be indifferent if the ratio equals one.