MARKETING PRINCIPLES AND STRATEGY

Marketing Principles and Strategy

Marketing Principles and Strategy

Introduction

The world has never been so competitive. Each new day we see a dozen new products on the shelves of our super stores. They all intend to satisfy the consumers and based on their needs and wants. Marketing is relatively a new trend in the twenty first century that has taken the world by storm. Each promotional effort by the marketers, be it a mere word of mouth campaign or putting up billboards; are concerned with delivering the best to the customer in exchange of their money and time.

The world has never been so advertised. It all seems to take its toll even on a bigger scale as the means of technology increases and the world further shrinks. Marketing is defined as a system of planning, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services. It is used to meet the needs, requirements, and desires of individuals and organizations. To achieve the marketing objectives, the marketing strategies are being used. For example, to attract more customers, boost sales, to highlight new products, better coverage and display of products, etc. The promotional marketing helps in pulling the customer to buy goods and services of the company. The companies do the promotional marketing to attract the potential customers.

Word of Mouth

The firm can use two types of promotional strategies. In the push strategy, the marketers give different discounts, monetary and non monetary benefits. In the pull strategy, the main focus is on the product advertising. The main purpose of implementing the pull strategy is to capture the potential market for the company. There are different types of marketing promotion methods; Advertising, personal selling, contests, pamphlets/coupons, free samples and word of mouth etc. the expensive promotional method is advertising, for example, T.V, radio, newspapers, hoardings etc. Advertising is a paid media to inform, persuade, and remind consumers about a product or organization. It is the powerful promotional tool. There are five steps for taking a decision about advertising; Setting goals, budget allocation, implementation, decision making, and evaluation. Advertisers must have clear objectives about what is supposed to advertise, inform, persuade or remind. The budget may be determined by what can be spent, a percentage of sales, as competition spends, or the objectives and tasks. The advertiser must define the objectives of scope, frequency, and impact. Assess the impact on communication and sales before, during and after the campaign. Sales promotion covers a wide variety of short-term incentives; Coupons, prizes, contests, discounts etc. The sales promotion needs to set targets, select tools, develop and test programs before implementing it, and evaluate their results.

There are some kinds of sales promotion i.e. in consumer promotion; the promotional sales are done to stimulate consumer purchases. Consumer promotional tools can be used; sample gives to consumers, Coupons, Repayment of part of the purchase price of a product. Discounts are given to the customers products are offered at low cost, Cash Rewards can be given to customers. Exhibitions and demonstrations are given at the point of sale or purchase. Contests, raffles, games, and promotional events that give consumers chance to win something worthy. Force sales promotion designed to increase the sales force and ensure that the group's sales efforts are more ...