Ransford Advanced Diploma course In Marketing Management

 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 environmental trend

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 som

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 that augmen

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. Each company

 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 environment. It

 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, which

 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 the organization sh