PREPARATORY MATERIAL

MBA(MARKETING)
 Table of Contents
What is Marketing?.................................................. 3
Marketing vs Selling ................................................ 3
Marketing Mix ....................................................... 4
Marketing Tools ..................................................... 5
STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) .................... 7
AIDA Model in Marketing: .......................................... 9
Ansoff Matrix: ...................................................... 11
BCG Matrix: ......................................................... 13
Porter’s Five Forces: ................................................... 15
4C Model: ........................................................... 15
Product Mix ......................................................... 17
Kotler’s five product levels ...................................... 19
Product Life Cycle: ..................................................... 22
Promotion Mix: ..................................................... 24
Sales Promotion .................................................... 26
Net Promoter Score: .............................................. 28
Service Characteristics ........................................... 30
Buyers Decision Process: ......................................... 32
Customer Life Cycle: .............................................. 34
Types of Marketing: ............................................... 35
Traditional Advertising vs Unconventional Advertising:...... 41
Market Place Model ................................................ 47
Brand Architecture Models ....................................... 51
Go-to Marketing Strategy ......................................... 56

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What is Marketing?
Marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs. It is set of
activities, processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging
offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large.

Needs:
Needs are the basic requirements such as air, food, water, clothing and shelter.
Humans also feel strong about recreation, education and entertainment.
Wants:
Wants are the specific objects that satisfy the need. E.g. You need a bottle of
water to quench your thirst.
Demand:
Demands are wants for specific products or services provided the person has the
ability to pay for the good or service. Many people want a Mercedes but few can
buy one.

Marketing vs Selling:
Marketing focusses on the needs of the buyer and is an outside-In approach.
Marketing relies on efforts of creating brand awareness, creating the buzz,

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advertising directed towards attaining maximum customer satisfaction.
Consumer needs become the guiding force behind all these activities
Selling on the other hand emphasizes on the product and focusses on the needs
of the seller. Selling is about generating revenue by maximising sales and is an
inside out approach. The main focus of the selling concept deals with the product,
its pricing, distribution and purchase by customers with the aim of improving
upon overall sales figure.

Marketing Mix:

Product:
It refers to the item actually being sold. The product must deliver a minimum
level of performance; otherwise even the best work on the other elements of the
marketing mix won't do any good.

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Price:
It refers to the value that is put for a product. It depends on costs of production,
segment targeted, ability of the market to pay, supply - demand and a host of
other direct and indirect factors.
Place:
It refers to the point of sale. In every industry, catching the eye of the consumer
and making it easy for her to buy it is the main aim of a good distribution or 'place'
strategy.
Promotion:
It refers to all the activities undertaken to make the product or service known to
the user and trade. This can include advertising, word of mouth, press reports,
incentives, commissions and awards to the trade. It can also include consumer
schemes, direct marketing, contests and prizes
People:
All companies are reliant on the people who run them from front line Sales staff
to the Managing Director. Having the right people is essential because they are
as much a part of your business offering as the products/services you are offering.
Processes:
The delivery of your service is usually done with the customer present so how the
service is delivered is once again part of what the consumer is paying for.
Physical Evidence:
Almost all services include some physical elements even if the bulk of what the
consumer is paying for is intangible. e.g. a hair salon would provide their client
with a completed hairdo and an insurance company would give their customers
some form of printed material. A sporting event is packed full of physical
evidence.
Marketing Tools:
Marketing tools are tools that companies use to develop and promote their
products and services. In this context, the word tools refer
to techniques, strategies, and materials.

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Above the Line(ATL):
Above the Line consists of advertising activities that are largely non-targeted and
have a wide reach. ATL communication is done to build the brand and inform the
customers about the product. Conversions are given less importance in above
the line advertising
Below the Line(BTL):
Below-the-line advertising consists of very specific, memorable and direct
advertising activities focused on targeted groups of consumers. Often known as
direct marketing strategies, below the line strategies focus more on conversions
than on building the brand

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STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning):

Segmentation:
Market segmentation is the practice of dividing your target market into
approachable groups. Market segmentation creates subsets of a market based
on demographics, needs, priorities, common interests, and other psychographic
or behavioural criteria used to better understand the target audience.

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Targeting:
Targeting in marketing is a strategy that breaks a large market into smaller
segments to concentrate on a specific group of customers within that audience.
It defines a segment of customers based on their unique characteristics and
focuses solely on serving them.
Instead of trying to reach an entire market, a brand uses target marketing to put
their energy into connecting with a specific, defined group within that market.
Positioning:
Market position refers to the consumer's perception of a brand or product in
relation to competing brands or products. Market positioning refers to the
process of establishing the image or identity of a brand or product so that
consumers perceive it in a certain way.
For example, a car maker may position itself as a luxury status symbol. Whereas
a battery maker may position its batteries as the most reliable and long-lasting.
And a fast-food restaurant chain may position itself as a provider of cheap and
quick standardized meals.

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AIDA Model in Marketing:

The AIDA Model, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action model,
is an advertising effect model that identifies the stages that an individual goes
during the process of purchasing a product or service. The AIDA model is
commonly used in digital marketing, sales strategies, and public relations
campaigns.

Attention:
The first step in marketing or advertising is to consider how to attract the
attention of consumers. In this stage, a brand is trying to establish its existence
in the minds of the consumers. e.g. Most retail industries place their
advertisement on a billboard/hoarding/banners or flyers which looks as a massive
image.

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The image should be designed in such a way, that it creates a lasting effect on the
consumer’s minds.
Interest:
The most crucial and one of the toughest stages of AIDA marketing model is the
INTEREST stage. Once the existence of product/service is established in the minds
of the consumers, it’s time to get them interested in it and this is the hardest
part. The businesses/brands must work on increasing the interest level of the
consumers towards their product/service. The goal of the INTEREST stage is to
move the customer’s mind-set from “I know about it” to “I like it”.
Desire:
Almost always, the INTEREST and DESIRE stages of the AIDA marketing model go
hand in hand and sometimes, both happen simultaneously. The goal of the
DESIRE stage is to move the customer’s mind-set from “I like it” to “I want it”. In
this stage, ads should communicate to the consumer as to why they must buy the
product/service and why they need it in their life. It must provide interesting
information on the product/service, along with the benefits of buying it. The
benefits highlighted should be such that, the product/service offering becomes
irresistible.
Action:
The last stage of the AIDA marketing model is the ACTION stage which
encourages consumers to initiate action and purchase the product/service. The
goal of the ACTION stage is to move the customer’s mind set from “I want it” to
“I am buying it”. It is an aspect of marketing and advertisement which leads the
consumer to take action by purchasing the product/service.

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Ansoff Matrix:
This model is essential for strategic marketing planning where it can be applied
to look at opportunities to grow revenue for a business through developing new
products and services or "tapping into" new markets. So, it's sometimes known
as the ‘Product-Market Matrix’ instead of the ‘Ansoff Matrix’. This focus on
growth means that it's one of the most widely used marketing models. It is used
to evaluate opportunities for companies to increase their sales through showing
alternative combinations for new markets (i.e. customer segments and
geographical locations) against products and services offering four strategies as
shown.

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Ansoff's matrix provides four different growth strategies:

Market Penetration: How to sell more existing products or services to existing

customer base?

Market Development: How to enter new markets?

Product and Development: How to develop existing products or services.

Diversification: How to move into new markets with new products or services,
increase sales with existing customer base as well as acquisition.

To evaluate the suitability of these strategies, issues to consider for each of

these:

Market Penetration:

Change opening hours of store, reduce order processing times, showcase

entire product portfolio etc.

Market Development:

Does research on market share in existing sectors back up potential demand

for you to? Can your company support this with existing resources?

Product and Development:

Cheaper manufacturers, improve quality, review packaging, ask customers and

influencers for feedback etc.

Diversification:

Assess expertise, technical know-how. Can you move into a new market with
a new product offer using the skills in your business? Do you have a strong
management team to support it

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BCG Matrix:
It is also called Product Portfolio Matrix. Used for an overview of products, not
for detailed analysis.

The BCG matrix considers two parameters:

 Growth rate of the market:

The growth rate of the market dimension is used as a proxy measure of the
attractiveness of the market, with high-growth markets being seen as more
attractive and offering more potential and opportunity.

 Relative market share:

Relative market share is used as a surrogate of competitive strength. The larger

the firm’s market share, relative to its largest competitor, the stronger the firm is
in the marketplace.
Therefore, the BCG matrix combines a measure of market attractiveness against
overall competitive strengths in order to identify the quadrant of the model with
the firm or business

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Stars:

The business units or products that have the best market share and generate the
most cash are considered stars. Monopolies and first-to-market products are
frequently termed stars. However, because of their high growth rate, stars
consume large amounts of cash. This generally results in the same amount of
money coming in that is going out. Stars can eventually become cash cows if they
sustain their success until a time when the market growth rate
declines. Companies are advised to invest in stars.

Cash Cows:

Cash cows are the leaders in the marketplace and generate more cash than they
consume. These are business units or products that have a high market share but
low growth prospects. According to NetMBA, cash cows provide the cash
required to turn question marks into market leaders, cover the administrative
costs of the company, fund research and development, service the corporate
debt, and pay dividends to shareholders. Companies are advised to invest in cash
cows to maintain the current level of productivity, or to "milk" the gains passively.

Dogs:

Dogs, or pets as they are sometimes referred to, are units or products that have
both a low market share and a low growth rate. They frequently break even,
neither earning nor consuming a great deal of cash. Dogs are generally
considered cash traps because businesses have money tied up in them, even
though they are bringing back basically nothing in return. These business units
are prime candidates for divestiture.

Question Marks:

These parts of a business have high growth prospects but a low market share.
They consume a lot of cash but bring little in return. Since these business units
are growing rapidly, they have the potential to turn into stars. Companies are
advised to invest in question marks if the product has the potential for growth,
or to sell if it does not.

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Porter’s Five Forces:

Porter's Five Forces Framework is a tool for analyzing competition of a business.

It helps in understanding the status quo of the company in the present market
and the helps in its strategy to run the business effectively.

Five primary forces:

1) The threat of new entrants
2) The bargaining power of buyers/customers
3) The bargaining power of suppliers
4) The threat of substitute products
5) Rivalry among existing competitors

4C Model:
The traditional Marketing mix is a 7P’s model and is business oriented. The 4C’s
model of marketing on the other hand is more consumers oriented. The 4C’s
model is mainly used for Niche Marketing. However, just like the traditional
marketing mix, it can also be used for mass markets.

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Customer:
The principle of 4C’s of marketing states that your customer should be your prime
focus.
Thus the companies which follow this model believe in making products which
satisfy their customers. They are generally ready to offer customizable products
and because they have a general set of target customers, this principle is
generally applicable for smaller market segments.
Questions that need to be asked are:
 Who is your customer - or prospective customer?
 What are their needs?
 Where do they live; where do they work; and what do they do for fun?
 From where do they get information?

Cost:
Cost is equivalent to Pricing in the traditional marketing mix. Cost is a very
important consideration during consumer decision making and hence the
companies should decide the cost of the product in customer’s perspective.
The socio-economic classification (SEC) is a measure used to classify and target
consumers based on certain parameters. The Urban SEC Grid, which uses
Education levels and Occupational criteria of the Chief Wage Earner (CWE) of a
household as measures to determine socio-economic classification, and
segments urban India into 7 groups (A1 to E2).
Cost of the product should be decided on the basis of the category in which the
majority of customers fall.
Communication:
Communication is similar to promotion strategy in traditional marketing mix. It
deals with the strategy that the companies should adopt in order to communicate
effectively with its target audience. Brand awareness plays a key role in attracting
potential consumers and communication through proper channels is a must to
achieve it.

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These questions have to addressed to strategize a proper communication plan;
 How will you communicate your offering to customers?
 What effective modes of communication are available to you (or your
client)?
 What will be the strategic mix of communications?
Convenience:
Convenience is equivalent to placement in the 4P’s model. When you have a
niche customer base, the convenience of the customer in acquiring your product
plays a critical role. Convenience deals with how easily a company is delivering
the product to its customer. It includes the place of purchase, product availability
at critical and required times, timely delivery of the product, means of delivery,
installation and maintenance (if required) etc.
All in all, the traditional marketing mix model helps a company define its strategy
more efficiently. However, the 4 C’s model, although not much different, really
helps if you are a customer-oriented firm.
Product line:

A product line is a group of closely related products with similar functions,

customer groups, outlets and same price ranges. The example of Nike product
line includes, Footwear, Apparel, sports -wear and every product line have similar
products

Product Mix:
Product mix, also known as product assortment, is the total number of product
lines that a company offers to its customers. The product lines may range from
one to many and the company may have many products under the same product
line as well. All of these product lines when grouped together form the product
mix of the company.

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 Product mix consists of the following 3 dimensions:

 Width: Width of a product mix refers to no of product lines a company offers

to its customers. For e.g., If a company produce only soft drinks and juices,
this means its mix is two products wide. Coca-Cola deals in juices, soft drinks,
and mineral water and hence the product mix of Coca-Cola is three products
wide
 Length: Length of the product mix refers to the total number of products in
the mix. That is if a company has 5 product lines and 10 products each under
those product lines, the length of the mix will be 50 [5 x 10].
 Depth: Depth of product mix means the total number of products a company
offers within a certain product line. There may be different variations in the
product e.g. size, flavor, taste and many other characteristics. For example,
Colgate toothpaste sells four sizes and two flavors. It means that it has a depth
of eight
 Consistency: The consistency of a product mix is the close relationship
between different product lines. The more product variation means less
product consistency. For example, a dairy company has two product lines milk

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 and yogurt. Both the lines have same users and distribution channels. Due to
low product variation, it has high product mix consistency.
Kotler’s five product levels:
A product meets the needs of a consumer. In addition to a tangible value, it also
has an abstract value. In order to shape this abstract value, there are five product
levels that can be identified and developed. These five product levels indicate the
value that consumers attach to a product. The customer will only be satisfied
when the specified value is identical or higher than the expected value.

The five product levels are:

1. Core benefit:
The fundamental need or want that consumers satisfy by consuming the
product or service. For example, the need to process digital images.
2. Generic product:
A version of the product containing only those attributes or
characteristics absolutely necessary for it to function. For example, the
need to process digital images could be satisfied by a generic, low-end,

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 personal computer using free image processing software or a processing
laboratory.
3. Expected product:
The set of attributes or characteristics that buyers normally expect and
agree to when they purchase a product. For example, the computer is
specified to deliver fast image processing and has a high-resolution,
accurate color screen.
4. Augmented product:
The inclusion of additional features, benefits, attributes or related
services that serve to differentiate the product from its competitors. For
example, the computer comes pre-loaded with a high-end image
processing software for no extra cost or at a deeply discounted,
incremental cost.
5. Potential product:
This includes all the augmentations and transformations a product might
undergo in the future. To ensure future customer loyalty, a business must
aim to surprise and delight customers in the future by continuing to
augment products. For example, the customer receives ongoing image
processing software upgrades with new and useful features such as
virtual imaging, hologram.
Types of consumer products:
A consumer product is a product bought by end customers for personal
consumption. But not every consumer product is the same. There are four
different types of consumer products. Marketers usually classify consumer
products into these 4 types:
Convenience products
Shopping products
Specialty products
Unsought products
Convenience products:
A convenience product is a consumer product or service that customers normally
buy frequently, immediately and without great comparison or buying effort.
Examples include articles such as laundry detergents, fast food, sugar etc. They
are conveniently available to the consumers and are generally low priced.

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Shopping products:
Shopping products are a consumer product that the customer usually compares
on attributes such as quality, price and style in the process of selecting and
purchasing. The shopping product is usually less frequently purchased and more
carefully compared to its competitors. Examples: Smart phones, Electronic
appliances, Laptops etc.

Speciality products:
Speciality products are consumer products and services with unique
characteristics or brand identification for which a significant group of consumers
is willing to make a special purchase effort. Examples include specific cars,
professional and high-prices photographic equipment, designer clothes etc.
speciality products are usually less compared against each other. Customers do
not will to accept substitute products for them.
Unsought products:

Unsought products are those consumer products that a consumer either does
not know about or knows about but does not consider buying under normal
conditions. Thus, these types of consumer products consumers do not think
about normally, at least not until they need them. Examples: Life insurance,
funeral services etc.

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Product Life Cycle:

Product lifecycle marketing aligns marketing efforts with a product’s lifecycle

stage. Product lifecycle management includes all activities related to the product
lifecycle, not just marketing. There are four stages:

1. Introduction

2. Growth

3. Maturity

4. Decline

Introduction

The Introduction stage is when the product first comes to market. It may include
or—for those who want a more granular division of lifecycle stages—be preceded
by a Development stage

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 Growth

Popularity for the product grown, meaning it is being bought in greater numbers
and, with volume, the price declines. Distribution increases and promotion
focuses on product benefits.

Maturity

The product competes with alternatives and its pricing drops. Distribution
becomes intense (it’s available everywhere) and promotion focuses on the
differences to competitors’ products.

Decline

Reaching the end of its life, the product faces fewer competitors. The price may
rise and distribution has become selective as some distributors have dropped the
product. Promotion aims to remind customers of its existence.

Significance of PLC:

PLC analysis, if done properly, can alert a company as to the health of the product
in relation to the market it serves. PLC also forces a continuous scan of the market
and allows the company to take corrective action faster. But the process is rarely
easy.

PLC Strategies
For companies in an introduction stage with their product, there are various price
models available to begin generating sales - either price skimming, which sets the
price of the product initially high and lowers it to "skim" groups as the market
expands, or price penetration, which sets the initial price low to penetrate the
market more quickly and eventually increases it once demand grows.

Conducting a PLC analysis can help companies learn when they need to reinvent
or pivot their product in a new direction. For example, online streaming service
Netflix pivoted their product by going from a DVD-delivering service to primarily
an online streaming service - which was met with great success.

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Promotion Mix:
The Promotion Mix refers to the blend of several promotional tools used by the
business to create, maintain and increase the demand for goods and services.
The focus is on creating the awareness and persuading the customers to initiate
the purchase. The several tools that facilitate the promotion objective of a firm
are collectively known as the Promotion Mix. It is an integration of Advertising,
Personal Selling, Sales Promotion, Public Relations and Direct Marketing.

Elements of promotion mix:

1.Advertising:
The advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of
goods and services, advertising, the marketer tries to build a pull strategy;
wherein the customer is instigated to try the product at least once. The complete
information along with the attractive graphics of the product or service can be
shown to the customers that grab their attention and influences the purchase
decision.

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2. Personal Selling:

This is one of the traditional forms of promotional tool wherein It is a part of

the promotional mix which involves a one to one communication between buyers
and customers (either potential or already customers). As it is a one-to-one
communication, it is considered to be one of the most expensive forms of
promotion, it is also considered to be the most successful as a seller-buyer
relationship can be created and developed.

3. Direct marketing

While advertising targets a mass-audience, direct marketing targets prospects

and customers. Social media marketing, Email marketing, Internet marketing are
all types of direct marketing used by companies. They have become important in
the promotional mix lately because people are using internet far more than they
used to a decade back. Company’s employ direct marketing in order to engage in
one-way communication with its customers, about product announcements,
special promotions, order confirmations as well as customer inquiries.

4) Sales promotions

Sales promotions are one of the most common types of promotion used by
companies. Their main purpose is to stimulate purchasing and sales. While it has
the potential of increasing sales, it is also beneficial for informing prospects about
new products on the market or just to recapture old or lost customers. Such
examples include: coupons, product samples, etc.

5) Public relations:

Lastly, public relations enable an organization to influence a target audience and

through this, create a favourable and positive image for the company. The
company tries to connect with the audience by sharing information with them
about the company and about the product. If anything goes wrong on the
information front, the public relations department has to step forward and
rebuild the public image.

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Sales Promotion:

Sales promotion is the process of persuading a potential customer to buy the

product. Sales promotion is designed to be used as a short-term tactic to boost
sales – it is rarely suitable as a method of building long-term customer loyalty.
When a brand wants to increase the sales of its products, it uses Sales promotion.
The brand can increase the sales by attracting new customers to their products
or by retaining the old customers by various means. The company can also
motivate the dealers and distributors of their channel to perform better for their
brand, and to get their stock moving.

Some sales promotions are aimed at consumers(B2C). These are called Consumer
sales promotions. E.g: if an E-commerce website gives 10% discount on its
products, then it wants the consumers to make the best of this deal.

Others are targeted at intermediaries and at the firm's sales force(B2B). These
are called Trade sales promotions. E.g: Offers given by the company to dealers or
distributors to retain and increase their stock.

Sales promotion techniques:

Below are some of the most common type of sales promotion techniques used
across all industries. Some industries, like FMCG, see a lot of these techniques
being implemented simultaneously mainly because of the sheer volume of
business as well as because of the competition in FMCG. Other businesses, like
Consumer durable, furniture etc also use a combination of these sales promotion
techniques

Money off Coupons

The customers receive coupons, or cut coupons out of newspapers or a products
packaging that enables them to buy the product next time at a reduced price
Competitions
Buying the product will allow the customer to take part in a chance to win a prize

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 Discount Vouchers
A special discount on selected items would encourage the customer to buy more
Free gifts
Offering gifts to customers through lucky draws on the eve of festivals and offers
where such Buy one get one free would boost a customer for more purchase
Point of sale materials
Ways of presenting the product in its best way or show the customer that the
product is there through posters, or arranging stalls at gatherings etc
Loyalty cards
Offering cards such as platinum card, gold card where customers earn points
for buying certain goods or shopping at certain retailers – that can later be
exchanged for money, goods or other offers
Sampling
Sampling is a process in which a product is given for sample use to persuade a
customer. For examples some of the deodorants allow customers to smell the
fragrance so that his decision to buy or not can be influenced after sample usage.
Refunds and rebates
Refunds are a marketing tactic when you get a partial amount refunded to you
based on an action you have taken. For example – if you bring the parking ticket
to the showroom, your parking amount will be refunded by the store. Such
refunds make the customer excited to visit a store.
Free trial
Some companies like Netflix offer free trial of its products so that the
customer can know more about the product and buy only if he gets satisfied
with the product.
Exhibitions and trade shows
These are more common in food, clothing and jewellery where sellers
want to showcase the products they have to their buyers. These buyers
might be consumers or they may be industrial buyers. An exhibition

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 generally consists of one player who is exhibiting his goods. However, it
can also be a combination of players who are all there to showcase their
wares.

Net Promoter Score:

Making a good impression on your customers is essential if you want to survive

and thrive well. If you can generate good will with your customers will really add
value to your business. They may increase their purchase or suggest to their
friends depending on individual experience score. At the same time an
unsatisfied customer can really hamper your brand image. Maybe they are
unhappy with their purchase, they are not satisfied with the salesman approach.
These negative feelings will be passed to others that could drastically affect your
sales.
Example the smile card you get after service of your car or bike to tick on the
respective emoji that shows your satisfaction.
How likely is it that you would recommend our product to a friend?
When you see this question, it is usually in the scale of one to ten. Respondents
are simply asked to select a number on the scale, and they are finished.
By this organisation can get an idea of its product and service image
How much the product will is liked and will be referred to a friend (viral
marketing)

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Scoring the result:
After you get the values in the range of 1 to 10. You can judge your brand image
in front of your customers and these can be classified into 3 categories.

 Promoter- 9 to 10
 Passives-7 to 8
 Detractors- 0 to 6

Example you have done a survey online. Within 2 weeks you received 1000
entries.

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Following data were found
Promoter -600 60 %
Derractor-200 20%
By subtracting 60 and 20 you will get Net promoter score of 40.
Summary
Net promoter score has gained popularity because of its easiness and low-cost
method to understand the brand image. A good NPS score is an indication that
the company is performing well and is on the right track. While low NPS score
gives an indication to the organisation that there is a need for improvement.

Service Characteristics:

A service is the act of doing something for someone or on something. A product

is tangible since you can touch it and own it. A service is an experience that is
often consumed at the point where it is purchased and cannot be owned since is
quickly perishes.

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For example, TCS conducts the CAT exam i.e. IT software but IIMs are also
concerned about the quality and speed of service. Characteristics of services
apply universally. The most important characteristics of services are:
Lack of ownership: You cannot own and store a service like a product.
Services are used or hired for a time. For example, when you buy a bus
ticket to Bangalore the service lasts maybe for 22 hours each way, but
consumers want and expect excellent service for that time of the journey.
Intangibility: Service is intangible and does not have a real, physical
presence as in case. For example, medical insurance may have a
certificate, but the financial service itself cannot be touched i.e. it is
intangible.
Inseparability: Services cannot be separated from the service providers. A
product when produced can be taken away from the producer. However,
a service is produced at or near the point of purchase. While you order
food online, the waiting and delivery of the meal is inseparable of the
process as well as the quality of food provided.
Perishability: Perishability is used in marketing to describe the way in which
service capacity cannot be stored for sale in the future. For example, an
airline can only sell seats prior to departure. An empty seat on a plane
never can be utilized and charged after departure. Once the plane has left
that service cannot be offered for that flight.
Heterogeneity: No two services will be completely identical. The features
of service by a provider cannot be uniform or standardized. A mechanic
can charge differently for his services depending on the price of the car.

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Buyers Decision Process:

The primary goal of marketing is to reach consumers at the moments that most
influence their decision. Example Amazon.com began offering targeted product
recommendations to consumers already logged in and ready to buy customers.
Marketing has always sought moments when consumers are open to influence.
For years, touch points have been understood by the term “funnel”—consumers
start with several potential brands in mind, marketing is then directed at them as
they methodically reduce that number and move through the funnel, and at the
end they emerge with the one brand they chose to purchase. But today, the
funnel concept fails to capture all the touch points and key buying factors
resulting from the explosion of product choices and digital channels, coupled with
the emergence of an increasingly discerning, well-informed consumer. A more
sophisticated approach is required to help marketers navigate this environment,
which is less linear and more complicated than the funnel suggests. We call this
approach the consumer decision journey.

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Marketing Funnel: Customer Lifecycle journey

The decision-making process is now a circular journey with four phases:

Initial-consideration set: Customer considers a set of potential brands. They
have already heard about it from various sources and can cite names.
Active evaluation: They now evaluate all the pros & cons of each brands. They
reduce the list from the number of brands to very small list of brands that fully
satisfy their needs.
Moment of Purchase: They decide to go for one specific brand and actually
execute their purchase. They’re now your customers.
Post-purchase experience: They are using your product. They experience various
emotions & feelings about your brand & product. In brief, customers will
compare products with their previous expectations and will be either satisfied
or dissatisfied. Therefore, these stages are critical in retaining customers. This
can greatly affect the decision process for similar purchases from the same
company in the future. If your customer is satisfied, this will result in brand
loyalty. Information search and Evaluation of alternative stages will often be
fast-tracked or skipped altogether. On the basis of being either satisfied or
dissatisfied, it is common for customers to distribute
their positive or negative feedback about the product. This may be through
reviews on website, social media networks or word of mouth.

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Customer Life Cycle:

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) describes the amount of profit the business will
generate from a customer over the customer’s entire lifetime. The purpose of
the customer lifetime value metric is to assess the financial value of each
customer. It helps in determining the limit on spending to acquire new
customers. For this reason, it is an important element in calculating payback of
advertising spend in marketing mix modelling. Many retailers optimize their
customer acquisition strategies by trying to minimize how much they spend to
acquire each customer (cost per acquisition of customer or CAC). When you
understand the lifetime value of different customers, you can optimize more
effectively for the long run.

Ideally, lifetime value should be greater than the cost of acquiring a customer.
The two forms of lifetime value analysis:
Historical lifetime value simply sums up profit per customer till date.
Predictive lifetime value projects what new customers will spend over their
entire lifetime.

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Advantages
 CLV makes us look at customer retention expenses as an asset rather than a
liability
 It brings out a balance between cost of attracting new customers and profits
in retaining old customers
 CLV can be a basis for costs to be associated in promotions and
communications to
attract new customers and retain old customers
 CLV can be used to calculate customer equity

Types of Marketing:

Account-based marketing — is a strategic approach to business marketing based

on account awareness in which an organization considers and communicates
with individual prospect or customer accounts as markets of one.
Affiliate marketing — paying affiliates to send traffic/customers to your
website/business
Agile marketing — is an organizational effectiveness strategy that drives growth
through focusing team efforts on those that deliver value to the end-customer.
Algorithmic marketing — using software algorithms to execute (semi)automated
marketing
Ambush marketing — strategy in which an advertiser "ambushes" an event to
compete for exposure against competing advertisers. A marketing technique in
which advertisers work to connect their product with a particular event in the
minds of potential customers, without having to pay sponsorship expenses for
the event.
Analytical marketing — quantitative methods and models of marketing
Article marketing — writing articles (online and offline) to promote one’s
business.
B2B (business) marketing — marketing to other businesses
B2C (consumer) marketing — marketing to consumers
B2P (person) marketing — marketing to persons, in business and life
Behavioural marketing — targeting advertising/offers based on user behavior

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Blackhat marketing — primarily in SEO, unethically fooling the search engines to
game rank
Brand marketing — developing your brand, often contrasted to direct marketing
Buzz marketing — getting people to talk about your stuff, similar to viral
Call center marketing — outbound telemarketing and handling of inbound
prospect/customer calls
Campus marketing — marketing to (and often by) college students, campus
ambassadors
Catalog marketing — marketing through printed catalogs delivered in the mail
Cause marketing — businesses marketing cooperatively with nonprofit(s) to
mutual benefit
Celebrity marketing — use of celebrities as spokespeople, for endorsements or
testimonials
Channel marketing — marketing promotions through wholesalers, distributers,
resellers
Closed loop marketing — measuring ROI from lifecycle of marketing to sales
Cloud marketing — using software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications for marketing
Cooperative marketing — companies co-marketing a jointly developed product,
service or brand
Communal marketing — engaging the public in the development of a marketing
campaign
Community marketing — marketing by building an online community
Computational marketing — the marketing equivalent of computational finance
content marketing — producing useful or entertaining content for your
audience
Contextual marketing — delivering relevant, optimal messages/offers, esp.
online
Controversial marketing — generating attention through controversy or conflict
Conversational marketing — actively engaging with consumers in two-way
conversations
Conversion (rate) marketing — optimizing conversion rate in online marketing
and sales
Corporate marketing — company-wide marketing and standards, esp. in multi-
product firms
Cross-marketing — co-marketing, product bundling, co-promotion, licensing,

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etc.
Culture marketing — branded content, the intersection of culture and
marketing
Data (web) marketing — using data as a marketing channel, esp. with the
semantic web
Database marketing — using databases, such as CRM systems, to drive
marketing programs
Data-driven marketing — use data, especially analytics, to direct marketing
decisions
Digital marketing — marketing through digital channels, primarily the Internet
Direct marketing — marketing directly to audience, often without TV, radio, or
print ads
Direct response marketing — direct marketing expressly designed to solicit a
response
Disruptive marketing — applying disruptive innovation in marketing to create
new markets
Diversity marketing — marketing to different culture groups in audience, i.e. in-
culture marketing
Door-to-door marketing — salespeople walking to houses, knocking on doors
Drip marketing — sending pre-planned messages to prospects/customers on a
schedule
Email marketing — emailing prospects/customers, either by list rental or
express permission
Entrepreneurial marketing — marketing in start-ups and new ventures
Ethical marketing — marketing ethics for being socially/morally responsible
Event marketing — running events such as trade shows, conferences, seminars,
festivals
Expeditionary marketing — forging new markets before competitors
Experiential marketing — enabling sensory interactions with brands
Facebook marketing — marketing on and through Facebook
Field marketing — people selling and promoting in person, “in the field”
Geo marketing — geo-targeting for marketing tactics such as price, promotion
Global marketing — marketing of products/firms worldwide, global strategy and
structure
Green marketing — explicit promotion of products that are environmentally

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friendly
Guerilla marketing — low-budget, high-impact marketing, typically
entrepreneurial
Horizontal marketing — similar message across different groups/industries, in
contrast to vertical marketing
Inbound marketing — pulling in customers via content, instead of pushing ads or
cold-calls
Industrial marketing — B2B marketing but specifically for large firms, esp.
manufacturer
Influence(r) marketing — focus on convincing a few influential people in a
market
Informational marketing — providing useful/educational material to nurture
audience, like content marketing
In-game marketing — in-game advertising, also known as advergaming, and in-
game promotions
In-store marketing — promotions based at a retailer’s location
Integrated marketing — coordination and integration of multiple marketing
tools, channels,vehicles
Interactive marketing — interactions between marketers and prospects, mostly
online
Internet marketing — synonymous with online marketing and web marketing
Internal marketing — marketing to one’s own employees to synchronize
customer experiences
International marketing — marketing overseas/across national borders, same as
global marketing
Keyword marketing — researching and optimizing keywords in search marketing
Left-brain marketing — roughly synonymous with analytical marketing
Local marketing — ad targeting and promotions to support brick-and-mortar
stores
Long Tail marketing — marketing to many niche segments that aggregate to a
huge audience
Loyalty marketing — focus on growing and retaining existing customers, e.g.,
rewards programs
Mobile marketing — marketing delivered via mobile devices such as
(smart)phones

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Multichannel marketing — using multiple channels to reach customers
Multicultural marketing — pursuing ethnic audiences with products, advertising,
experiences
Multi-level marketing — marketing by recruiting others, who recruit more; e.g.,
pyramid scheme
Neuro marketing — the intersection of brain/cognitive science and marketing
New media marketing — essentially synonymous with online marketing, fading
term
Newsletter marketing — delivering regular newsletters to target audience via
email or print
Niche marketing — targeting very specific audience segments
Non-traditional marketing — methods outside the norm, e.g., publicity stunts,
guerrilla marketing
Offline marketing — all marketing that doesn’t happen online, traditional
marketing
One-to-one marketing — marketing to individual consumers: identify,
differentiate, interact, customize
Online marketing — marketing online, same as Internet or web marketing
Outbound marketing — contact prospects via ads, cold calls, list rental; opposite
of inbound
Outdoor marketing — examples: door hangers, car advertising, billboards,
balloons
Out-of-home marketing — marketing to people in public places, e.g., outdoor
marketing
Performance marketing — marketing driven by performance metrics and ROI
Permission marketing — inspiring your audience to want to hear from you
Personalized marketing — like one-to-one marketing, including product
customization
Persuasion marketing — derived from “persuasion architecture” for effective
web marketing
Point-of-sale marketing — advertising to customers at point of a purchase in a
store
Post-click marketing — user experience after an ad/email click, e.g., landing
pages
PPC marketing — pay-per-click marketing on search engines, ad networks, social

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sites
Product marketing — marketing around a particular product, versus corporate
marketing
Promotional marketing — broadly speaking, almost any kind of marketing to
attract customers
Proximity marketing — localized wireless distribution of advertising associated
with a place
Pull marketing — pushing messages to prospects, synonymous with inbound
marketing
Push marketing — prospects pull messages from you, synonymous with
outbound marketing
Real-time marketing — accelerating marketing in the age of speed
Referral marketing — encouraging/incentivizing existing customers to refer new
customers
Relationship marketing — emphasis on building long-term relationships with
customers
Remarketing — modern meaning: behaviourally-targeted advertising
Reply marketing — replying to end-users with personalized messages, e.g., Old
Spice campaign
Scientific marketing — application of analytical testing/statistical methods in
marketing
Search (engine) marketing — organic and paid promotion via Google, Bing, etc.
Self-marketing — marketing yourself, also known as personal branding
Services marketing — approaches for selling services instead of products
Shadow marketing — unexpected marketing outside the control of the
marketing department
Shopper marketing — understanding how consumer shop across channels and
formats
Social marketing — changing people’s behaviour’s for the better, not social
media marketing
Social media marketing — interacting with prospects in social media channels
Sports marketing — use of sporting events, teams, and athletes to promote
products
Stealth marketing — ways of marketing surreptitiously to people, undercover
marketing

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Street marketing — unconventional marketing in public places meant to engage
prospects
Surrogate Marketing - Surrogate marketing is a form of marketing to promote
illegal or banned product in legal way, in disguise of other product
Technical marketing — marketing with technical depth to a technical audience
Telemarketing — calling people on the phone with a pitch, usually uninvited
Test-driven marketing — systematically and iteratively testing marketing ideas
Time marketing — research on when to release and promote products in the
market
Trade show marketing — subset of event marketing, exhibiting and promoting
at trade shows
Traditional marketing — pre-Internet marketing methods and channels
Undercover marketing — when consumers don’t know they’re being stealthily
marketed to
User-generated marketing — marketing created by consumers, communal
marketing
Vertical marketing — packaging a solution differently for different industries
Video marketing — incorporating videos in online marketing
Viral marketing — tapping into existing social networks to spread a marketing
idea
Web marketing — marketing on the web, synonymous with online marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing — when happy customers spread your marketing
message
Youth marketing — targeting young audiences, often using emerging channels
Traditional Advertising vs Unconventional Advertising:
Traditional advertising includes methods such as ads in magazines and
newspapers, radio and TV spots and direct mail. Unconventional advertising,
often referred to as guerrilla marketing, often consists of creative, low-cost
marketing methods used by small businesses to temporarily promote a product
or service.

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Traditional Advertising

Advertising using methods chosen by most other businesses includes

placing display ads in print publications, running broadcast spots, buying
billboard ads and sending direct-mail pieces
Internet, pay-per-click advertising lets you display your message on
websites, paying only when a potential customer clicks on your ads, taking
her to your website

Unconventional Advertising

Those you create yourself or use only once, falls under the classification of
unconventional advertising. Examples include having people wear clothing
with your logo at events, giving out free samples at events and unusual
public displays, such as sidewalk paintings and skywriting
Coordinated social media campaigns using free or low-cost online tools
such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Groupon, Constant Contact and
LinkedIn also have become integral parts of small-business advertising
effort.

Traditional Unconventional
Traditional advertising has a track No track record
record
More cost Less cost
Commonly seen ideas High creativity
For a larger audience For a targeted audience more
personal

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Intermediaries:

Intermediaries are specialists for a specific function along the value chain. This
could include distribution, marketing, sales, retail, e-commerce, web
development, branding, packaging, storing, and a variety of other functions.
Collaborating with one or more partners can enable an organization to focus on
what it is that they do best (core competency) and, in turn, outsource other
aspects of the value chain to organizations who are best at that particular
function.

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Porter Value Chain

Porter's Value Chain focuses on systems, and how inputs are changed into the
outputs purchased by consumers. He divided them into primary and support
activities.
Primary Activities
Primary activities relate directly to the physical creation, sale, maintenance and
support of a product or service
 Inbound logistics – These are all the processes related to receiving, storing,
and distributing inputs internally.
 Operations – These are the transformation activities that change inputs into
outputs that are sold to customers.
 Outbound logistics – These activities deliver your product or service to your
customer. These are things like collection, storage, and distribution systems
 Marketing and sales – These are the processes you use to persuade clients to
purchase from you instead of your competitors.
 Service – These are the activities related to maintaining the value of your
product or service to your customers, once it's been purchased.

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Support Activities:
These activities support the primary functions above.
Procurement (purchasing) – This is what the organization does to get the
resources it needs to operate. This includes finding vendors and negotiating
best prices.
Human resource management – This is how well a company recruits, hires,
trains, motivates, rewards, and retains its workers. People are a significant
source of value, so businesses can create a clear advantage with good HR
practices.
Technological development – These activities relate to managing and processing
information, as well as protecting a company's knowledge base. Minimizing
information technology costs, staying current with technological advances, and
maintaining technical excellence are sources of value creation.
Infrastructure – These are a company's support systems, and the functions that
allow it to maintain daily operations. Accounting, legal, administrative, and
general management are examples of necessary infrastructure that businesses
can use to their advantage. Companies use these primary and support activities
as "building blocks" to create a valuable product or service.

Common Intermediaries:

The agent is an independent entity that acts as the manufacturer’s

representative for the buyer. Agents have possession of the products without
actually owning them. They work on commission basis.

Wholesalers purchase product in bulk and resell it. They own the products that
they sell. They usually sell these products to retailers at a profit.

Distributors are different from wholesalers in that the wholesalers carry many
product lines, say Tide and Surf Excel, but distributors carry only one of
complementary lines, either tide or Surf Excel products. Distributors will carry
these products to points of sale and they maintain very close working
relationships with suppliers and buyers.

A retailer can be independent, like small kirana stores, or they can be

supermarket chains, like Big Bazaar or Reliance Fresh. They own the products

45
that they stock. The retailer is usually the last link of the supply chain, reaching
products to the end consumer for a profit.

Ad Agencies:

Ad agencies specialize in building communities and brands, utilizing a wide

variety of paid and organic channels (social networks such as Facebook,
LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, as well as paid ad production on popular
TV channels or affiliate advertising)
Ad agencies utilize the entire marketing mix to craft customized brand
building initiatives cantered on the unique target market and product of
their strategic partners
Amazon is a great example of an e-commerce website designed to enable
smaller businesses. Amazon actually handles quite a bit of intermediary
responsibilities (i.e. shipping, storing, and e-commerce for starters). The
value Amazon adds is not only limited to the skills of building strong
websites, however. Amazon has a huge and loyal following of consumers,
which makes them an attractive potential strategic alliance for many

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Market Place Model

Market
Seller Buyer
Place

Marketplace model provides an information technology platform by an e-

commerce entity on a digital and electronic network to act as a medium
between the buyer and seller. A few notable examples are Flipkart, Amazon and
even Facebook. The product is not owned by the e-commerce website, instead
it is owned by the seller.
Inventory Model
In the inventory model, the e-commerce website is the owner of the goods and
services and it is sold to the customers. The firm manages inventory, logistics
and customer relations completely. The best example for this type of inventory
model is Alibaba.
Drop Shipping Model
Drop shipping is a supply chain management method in which the retailer does
not keep goods in stock but instead transfers the customer orders and shipment
details to either the manufacturer, another retailer, or a wholesaler, who then
ships the goods directly to the customer. Wish is a famous e-commerce site that
operates using this technique

Distribution Channel
Distribution channel is defined as the path through which the goods and services
are transacted between the manufacturer and the end customer.
Business-to-business (B2B)
The B2B distribution channel connects one manufacturer with another
manufacturer or distributer who is in need of these goods and services. The
latter deals with the customer or another entity based on his business model.
Examples include Indiamart and Amazon Business.
Business-to-consumer (B2C)
In the B2C channel, the manufacturer is directly related to the consumer. Most
of the FMCG products fall under this category. Examples: Flipkart, Amazon.

47
Direct vs. Indirect
In marketing, goods can be distributed using two main types of channels: direct
distribution channels and indirect distribution channels.
Direct Distribution
A distribution is called direct when the product of service is transferred from the
producer to the customer without the influence of a mid-tier entity. This kind of
distribution is most common in sales of services. Example: Cycle repair shop,
Beauty Salon.

Manufacturer Consumer

Indirect Distribution
The indirect distribution consists of a number of mid-tier entities or
intermediaries within the distribution channel. The number of entities involved
in the process is directly proportional to the cost of the product for the end
customer. Indirect distribution does not have a defined structure for the number
of mid-tier influencers.

Manufacturer Wholesaler Retailer Consumer

Manufacturer Retailer Consumer

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FMCG Network
Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies deliver products to customers
at a high rate of turnover and with a high level of innovation. The market is
exceptionally competitive and each company seeks to motivate, excite and
encourage people into buying and using their products. Owing to the huge
population and consumption in the Indian market, the country has become a
source of multiple opportunities.

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Brand
Brand is defined as the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design
that identifies and differentiates a product from other products. The brand is a
company’s most valuable asset. The monetary value of a brand can be measured
in terms of its value in the stock market. Any alterations in the positioning of a
brand may directly result towards increase or decrease in the stock price of a
brand and hence it is very important to uphold the brand. The financial
significance that a brand carries is referred to as the brand value.
Brand Value
Brand equity is the customer’s perception of a brand. It influences how much a
customer is willing to pay for a particular brand’s product compared to the
competitor’s product that has similar features.
Some attributes that are related to brand equity are
Brand Awareness - The brand is widely known and recognized, and
consumers know what it provides in relationship to the competition.
Brand Experience - Consumers have used and experienced the product
enough to build expectation.
Brand Preference - The brand is preferred by consumers, and as a result,
they become returning customers.
Brand Loyalty - The brand and the consumer have an emotional
attachment, and the consumer will go to any length to purchase it.
Types of Branding
Corporate Branding: In this type of branding, all the products take after the name
of the company. This improves brand recognition and loyalty. It is also commonly
referred to as family branding or umbrella branding.
Personal branding: The individuals are themselves considered as a brand in
personal branding. It involves personas like actors, stand-up comedians and
even politicians.

50
Ingredient Branding: In this type of branding, we target a particular component
of a product and portray its superiority to win the market.
Community Branding: The companies here take care of an entire community.
They express their intentions by helping the needy, supporting the elderly and
contributing towards the education of under-privileged.
Rebranding: It is the process in which companies change their symbols, logos or
even their missions in order to start afresh. All the new products of the company
will come up with the new branding.
Co-Branding: This type of branding involves two or more brands, promoting
themselves together at one-time to offer one-stop shopping for the consumers.
Cultural Branding: It involves promoting a company through its cultural values
like empowerment, employee satisfaction.

Brand Architecture Models

Brand Architecture is a system that organizes brands, products and services to

help an audience access and relate to a brand. A successful Brand Architecture
enables consumers to form opinions and preferences for an entire family of
brands by interacting or learning about only one brand in that family.
Branded House
This Brand Architecture type has the parent brand, which is always closely
associated with the child brand. The names of the sub-brands are attached to its
parent brand. We can also see the relationship in the logo, packaging, and brand
communication — all are aligned to the parent brand.
Virgin is an example of Branded House Architecture. Virgin airlines, Virgin café,
Virgin digital etc.

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House of Brands
House of Brands is a Brand Architecture Strategy where a parent brand owns
and manages various sub-brands, each of those is a unique brand. Those sub-
brands don’t closely relate themselves to its parent brand. Their distinctive
personalities are seen through Brand names, logos and communication style.
Chevrolet, Hummer, Chrysler, Cadillac, Jeep, Mazda, Opel, Buick etc. You’d be
surprised to know that the age-old General Motors is their parent brand.

Hybrid Architecture
This type of Brand Architecture Strategy uses merits of both — Branded House
and House of Brands. This is a combination model where all kinds of parent-child
relationships can co-exist. Some of the sub-brands are associated closely with
the parent brand while some other sub-brands dissociate or have a distant
relationship with its parent.
The classic example of this architecture is that of Volkswagen. VW owns brands
like Bugatti, Seat, Audi and Skoda. But it also carries a brand on its own name.

52
Brand Extension
The strategy through which a well-established brand enters into a totally
different category or segment using the brand image is called brand extension.
The new product will be a completely different product from the already
established one. The best example for brand extension would be ITC.

Line Extension
It is the use of an established product brand name for a new item in the same
product category. Line extensions occur when a company introduces additional
items in the same product category under the same brand name such as new
flavours, forms, colours, added ingredients, package sizes.

53
Brand Extension Line Extension
The new product is introduced in a The new product is introduced in the
totally new domain same domain but might be slightly
different from the already existing
product by qualitative or quantitative
means
The risk involved is comparatively Although low risk, the number of
higher niche audience will be low

Brand Resonance
The Brand Resonance refers to the relationship that a consumer has with the
product and how well he can relate with it.
The brand resonance is dependent on the following
Brand Identification: The first and foremost step, is to ensure the brand
identification with the customers, i.e. creates awareness about the
product and establish an association in the minds of customers with
respect to its usage and the segment for which it exists.
Brand Establishment: To create a full meaning of the product in the minds
of customers, so that they start remembering it.

54
 Eliciting Response: Once the association is built with the customers, the
next step is to elicit the responses, i.e. what customers feel about the
brand?
Relationship: The next and final step is to convert the responses into
building the customer’s strong relationship with the brand.
In order to accomplish these four pre-requisites for creating the brand equity,
the six brand building blocks need to be followed that are arranged in a pyramid-
like structure called as Brand Resonance Pyramid.
The six blocks of the marketing pyramid are
Brand Salience: The brand salience means, how well the customer is informed
about the product and how often it is evoked under the purchase situations?
The marketer should not only focus on just creating the awareness about the
product but also includes the ease with which the customers can remember the
brand and the ability to recall it under the different purchase situations.
Brand Performance: The Brand performance means, how well the functional
needs of customers are met?
At this level of the pyramid, the marketers check the way in which product is
performing and how efficiently it is fulfilling the needs of the customers.
Brand Imagery: The Brand Imagery means, what product image the customer
creates in their minds?
This aspect deals with the customer’s psychology or the feelings that how they
relate to the product in terms of their social needs.
Brand Judgements: The Brand Judgement means, what customer decides with
respect to the product?
The customers make the judgment about the product by consolidating his
several performances and the imagery associations with the brand. On the basis
of these, the final judgment is made about the product in terms of its Perceived
Quality, Credibility, Consideration, and Superiority.
Brand Feelings: The Brand feelings means, what customers feel, for the product
or how the customer is emotionally attached to the product?

55
The consumer can develop emotions towards the brand in terms of fun, security,
self-respect, social approval, etc.
Brand Resonance: The Brand Resonance means, what psychological bond, the
customer has created with the brand?

This is the ultimate level of the pyramid, where every company tries to reach.
Here the focus is on building the strong relationship with the customer thereby
ensuring the repeated purchases and creating the brand loyalty.
The resonance is the intensity of customer’s psychological connection with the
brand and the randomness to recall the brand in different consumption
situations.
The brand resonance pyramid can also be explained using an example

Go-to Marketing Strategy

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the way in which a company brings a product

to market. It generally includes a business plan outlining the target audience,
marketing plan, and sales strategy. Each product and market are different,

56
 therefore each GTM strategy should be thoroughly thought out; mapping a
market problem and solution a product offers.
Steps for Developing a GTM Strategy
1. Identifying Buying Centres and Personas
As cliché as it might seem, the first thing to do when preparing your product for
market is to consider your customer.

The roughly seven roles are as follows -- though it’s important to note some job
titles might occupy more than one role.

 Initiator: Starts the buying process or shows initial interest

 User: Uses your product regularly

 Influencer: Convinces others the product is needed

 Decision maker: gives final approval for the purchase

 Buyer: Owns the budget

 Approver: Final approver who pushes the initiative on a larger scale

 Gatekeeper: Blocker in getting a product implemented or approved

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These roles vary based on the product, industry, and vertical you’re selling to. Get
your team together and brainstorm the various job titles that could be impacted by
your solution.
2. Craft a value matrix and messaging
After mapping your buying centre personas, it’s time to map out your value
matrix.

A value matrix is a breakdown of each buying centre persona, their business

problems, how your product is valuable in solving those problems, and a
relevant marketing message tying the problem and solution together.

Create a chart with each persona in one column. Below each persona, list the
pain points they face on a daily basis. If your product can solve or ease any of
these problems, include them in a row below.

Lastly, the message needs to capture the pain point and value in a meaningful
way. The best way to achieve this is to agitate the pain point. People will take a
painkiller to cure a headache but are much less likely to take a daily vitamin to
prevent the pain in the first place. The value your product brings should solve
the pain, not act as a vitamin.

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Once your value matrix is in place, it’s time to test your messaging. Start
advertising on marketing platforms using the messages you’ve just created for
various audience members.

You’ll have three variables to test: the channel you advertise on, the audience
you target, and the message you share.

When deciding where to test, first consider where you audience is. Possible
paid digital ad channels might be LinkedIn, Google Ads, Facebook, and Twitter.
Test the various channels and continue advertising on those showing high
conversions. And stop investing in channels where you see low conversions.

Next, optimize your audience. Some ad platforms have highly targeted audience
settings for advertisers. For example, LinkedIn offers options for job title, job
function, company size, and geographic location. Test different options to see
who is more likely to click or convert.

3. Understanding your buyer’s journey

With your personas and value matrix built, dive deeper to understand the
journey a potential customer will take, both from the buyer’s perspective and
from the perspective of your company.

From your customer’s perspective, the buying process is linear. More or less, it
will go like this:

1. The buyer realizes they have a business problem and research the topic
2. The buyer shortlists potential solutions
3. That list is narrowed down by talking to sales teams from the solution
provider and by testing product use cases until a decision is made

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The top of the funnel is the awareness stage. Content at this stage grabs a
potential customer’s attention. This can be in the form of a blog, whitepaper, or
video. A lead gets here by clicking on an ad, social media post, or a search
engine result, however these behaviors do not indicate that this lead is ready to
make a purchase yet.

The middle of the funnel is the consideration stage. This is when a prospect has
demonstrated they have a problem your product can solve. They show this
through digital behaviour like downloading an eBook or joining a webinar.

The bottom of the funnel is the decision stage. At this time the prospect has
likely asked for a quote or a trial period and are nearing a decision on whether
or not to purchase.

While each company divides the lead generation and qualification process
differently, marketing is typically in charge of ToFu and MoFu as they need to
generate interest and awareness and educate the relevant audience on a
product’s value through messaging and content.

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Stages of sales cycle are as follows:

Once a lead falls into the decision stage, the sales team takes over and the lead
enter the sales funnel. This is where a lead considers purchasing your product

Contact: Communication between the lead and sales rep begins.

 Qualification: The sales rep learns more about the company and their
lead’s problems and asks questions to see if they meet the basic
requirements to purchase the product (BANT is a popular sales
qualification method but there are several others sales
methodologies that are used to qualify).

Business case: The prospect tests the product through a free trial or POC
to see if it can solve their needs.
Evaluation: The decision makers in the organization weigh the cost of the
product to the results they achieved during the business case.
Negotiation: Both sales rep and decision makers discuss pricing details
and feature needs.
Close: A deal is agreed upon and your prospect turns into a customer.
Renewal: Your customer renews their contract or subscription.

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4. Choose a sales strategy

You’ve done all the required foundational work, now it’s time to pick a strategy
that will push your product into the market. No one method will work for every
product or market, so it’s important to consider the complexity, scalability, and
cost of yours.

There are generally four go-to-market sales strategies -- each one catering to a
different product and business model.

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The Self-Service Model

The self-service model is when a customer makes a purchase on their own. We

typically see this model with B2C purchases in which a customer can find and
buy a product via a website, like Netflix or Amazon.

This works best for simple products with a low-cost point and high volume of
sales. It’s difficult to build, but, when successful, it sees a short sales cycle, zero
cost to hire salespeople, and is highly profitable.

The Inside Sales Business Model

The inside sales business model is when a prospect needs to be nurtured by a
sales rep to convert into a deal. This type of model works best with a product of
medium complexity and price.

The sales cycle ranges between a few weeks and a few months. Here, you’ll
invest in a sales team -- but inside sales reps are less expensive than field reps.

With a high volume of sales, this model can be profitable and is fairly easy to
build and scale as you hire more team members. The sales team in this model is
typically comprised of a sales manager that supervises a handful of reps.

The Field Sale Business Model

The sales team in this model is often very costly as the field reps are
experienced, high-salary employees. This model is easy to build, but harder to
scale, because it takes time and money to hire and train a full sales
organization.

The Chanel Model

Lastly, in the channel model, an outside agency or partner sells your product for
you. This is hard to build, as the people can be difficult to recruit and educate
on the benefits of your product. They are also often less motivated to sell than
your own sales team would be.

However, this is a cheap model, because you don’t need to pay a sales team of
your own

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5. Generate interest
Now you need to fill your pipeline by snagging the attention of your target
audience. This occurs through demand generation, which can happen
with inbound and/or outbound strategies.

With inbound, prospects discover your brand through marketing efforts and
reach out to you or show signs of interest organically. Some examples of organic
inbound traffic channels could be social media, content, or paid ads leading to a
landing page.

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Outbound demand generation is when a salesperson contacts a lead through
cold outreach tactics. They might to this by reaching out to a contact
list, sending warm emails, phoning leads, or gathering leads at industry
conferences.

Once interest has been generated through these methods, sales conversations
begin, and the leads are led to more educational content and then into the sales
funnel.

6. Create content

Inbound leads are generally easier to convert and cheaper to acquire than
outbound leads. This is because inbound leads are already partially educated on
the business problem you solve, are aware of your product, and are usually
more interested in buying your product.

Content marketing is the key to generating that inbound interest, as content

will drive traffic to your site.
Your content marketing team will drive this inbound traffic by finding and
targeting keywords that your potential customers would search for and then
creating and posting related content on your website

7. Optimize, optimize, optimize

Growth requires more than simply picking a sales strategy and building a
demand generation process. You must optimize.

Sales is a numbers game, and you can only be successful if you measure
progress. The key performance indicators (KPIs) for managing a sales team are
volume, conversion rate, and time.

You’ll also want to track how many opportunities come into the sales funnel:
your pipeline volume

Then track how many closed/won deals come out of the bottom of the funnel.
Comparing the volume of the pipeline opportunities to the number of won
deals will get you your overall conversion rate.

It’s even more important to optimize the conversion rate between stages. As
opportunities move through the pipeline, they’ll go through various
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qualification processes (i.e. basic qualifications, current solutions in use,
technical evaluation, and closing), and you’ll want to track at which stage the
opportunities fall out and why.

The Importance of A Marketing Strategy For Business

Many business owners haven’t discovered the importance of a marketing

strategy. In fact, having a marketing strategy is so useful that you can think of it
as having a road map (or a cheat sheet). It will guide you in just about every
business decision that you make.

But what exactly does a marketing strategy entail?

In short, your marketing strategy will highlight the path you’re taking to achieve
your specific objectives and goals.

This may sound simple, and it is. But it’s not always easy to ask the hard
questions that come with creating a marketing strategy.

And this is the main reason why many businesses don’t recognize the
importance of a marketing strategy.

Consequences of Not Having A Marketing Strategy

Why do most small businesses fail? Why do 50% of companies fail after 5 years?

Remember that common saying? Failing to plan is planning to fail.

If you fail to recognize the importance of a marketing strategy and don’t fully
integrate digital marketing into your marketing plan, then these will be the
consequences:

losing out to competitors

losing market share to existing and start up competitors

gaining and retaining fewer customers

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 missing out on opportunities for better targeting and optimization

Lack of planning often leads to suboptimal execution. This means that

competitors will pose more of a threat, filling in the gaps of the lackluster
service you offer.

And finally, given the effectiveness of digital marketing, many businesses don’t
allocate enough resources towards it. This presents an opportunity for the wise
business owner.

Knowledge is power, and after you finish reading this post, your business will
have a leg up over the competition. You’ll also be ready to overcome the initial
hurdles that are common when trying to come up with a marketing strategy.

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