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Abstract
The modern marketing environment has experienced a lot of changes due new lifestyle patterns, an increase in consumer awareness and the growth of new technologies. As a result, these changes have compelled business firms to use multiple marketing channels to engage their consumers to make them have positive perceptions towards their products. One of the most significant changes that have occurred is the use of interactive channels on the internet by marketers to appeal more to consumers in different segments. This approach has allowed more marketers to understand current consumer attitudes and perceptions towards their products in the market.
Introduction
Marketing plays an important role in many organizations. Business firms use different marketing strategies to reach out to consumers to make them aware about their products. Modern market environments require business firms to communicate with customers through different channels to make a positive impression on them. Therefore, to increase their sales volumes in various markets, business firms need to utilize appropriate marketing techniques to appeal to their target customers.
In addition, for marketing efforts to succeed, they must be closely coordinated with other important functions in a firm. This ensures both internal and external processes in a firm conform to its long term business objectives. Many business firms have also adopted efficient marketing strategies to improve the quality of their operations in different markets. This paper will discuss the evolving role of consumer marketing in the 21st century and how it affects the operations of various business organizations.
Personalized Marketing
Personalized marketing is a form of marketing where a business firm decides to focus on how to satisfy the needs of an individual customer. Therefore, a business firm comes up with strategies of appealing to the interests of a particular customer by improving features and attributes of its products (Yadav & Pvlou, 2014, p. 24). This approach enables a business firm to sell a product that conforms to a customers needs, to increase his personal satisfaction.
It is important for a firm to find out the value it seeks to obtain from close engagements with a particular customer to enable it to develop an appropriate business strategy. Personalized marketing offers a lot of benefits to a company because it can easily charge its individual customers different prices for the same product. As a result, it allows a firm to understand the long term behavioral patterns of high value consumers to establish a loyal consumer base for its products.
A firm that undertakes a personalized marketing approach needs to find out the individual traits of customers it intends to target with its strategy. Afterwards, it is important for marketers in a firm to develop appropriate profiles for such customers with respect to the value their firms can obtain from having close relationships with them. In addition, a firm should find out appropriate communication channels that can be used to reach out to a customer in order to develop a positive relationship with him (Yadav & Pvlou, 2014, p. 29).
Lastly, a firm needs to find out ways of designing its product to ensure it conforms to the lifestyle of the customer being targeted. Dynamic pricing may not be appropriate in personalized marketing because it may hinder the firm from developing a uniform price structure for its products. In addition, an individual price discrimination strategy is not suitable for a firm that seeks to develop long term relationships with its customers in the market.
A business firm needs to use a third degree price discrimination strategy to develop long term relationships with its customers in the market. A third degree price discrimination strategy will allow a firm to assess prices to be charged on various products more accurately. The firm will be able to look at factors such as; the nature of customers targeted, consumer lifestyles and their willingness to pay high prices for such products (Yadav & Pvlou, 2014, p. 30).
More importantly, a third degree price discrimination strategy allows a firm to develop an appropriate price structure which takes into consideration various factors that impact on product quality. A dynamic pricing strategy may force a firm to make constant changes on its price structure and this may be detrimental its long term operations in the market.
Changes in the Use of Marketing Mix Variables
Marketing mix variables have a large influence on the marketing strategy adopted by a firm in the market. In recent times, alternative marketing channels have gained prominence because they enable business firms to reach out to new audiences easily. More people are opting to use online media platforms to interact and exchange ideas with their peers, friends and other people. Traditional advertising and marketing methods are less effective because they do not take into account changing consumer lifestyles and behaviors.
Before they make a choice in the market, customers look at peculiar attributes of products they intend to purchase to find out how they conform to their needs (Laroche, Kiani, Economakis & Richard, 2013, p. 432). Cross channel advertising enables marketers to identify other strategies they need to use to increase the value of their products in the market. Therefore, it is important for online marketing strategies to be aligned to offline business processes to improve the performance of a firm in the market.
Online retailers need to use interactive media to make their customers more responsive to their messages. This approach allows online retailers to offer additional benefits to customers to make them have positive perceptions towards their products. Therefore, other value added service features such as payments, delivery and responsiveness should be included in the marketing strategy to strengthen the value attached by customers to a particular product.
More importantly, since online advertising platforms enable customers to provide instant feedback, business firms need to do more to appeal to their customers (Laroche, Kiani, Economakis & Richard, 2013, p. 434). Online retailers need to adopt appropriate consumer response strategies to ensure the feedback they obtain from customers is used to improve the quality of products they sell in the market. Moreover, they need to cultivate trust in their consumers by enhancing the security of their payment systems.
Offline retailers need to have clear goals and objectives to guide their marketing functions.They should analyze the overall behavioral patterns of various consumer segments they target to find out appropriate methods they can use to build beneficial relationships with them. They also need to implement effective online and offline consumer relationship management strategies to improve the quality of their operations (Lipsman, Mudd, Rich & Bruich, 2012, p. 42).
Furthermore, they need to adopt efficient communication strategies that enable employees who are online to interact easily with other employees who are offline. The changing landscape of advertising requires both retailers to come up with business strategies that focus more on lifestyles and cultural attitudes of their consumers. They need to use marketing campaigns and channels that enhance interactivity to boost the value of their products in various markets they are targeting.
Marketing Changes and Adaptations
The marketing environment is rapidly changing and this has compelled many firms to change their operational strategies. As a result, business firms have adopted more efficient marketing approaches to increase the appeal of their products across different market segments. Globalization has made many business firms to adapt their review their external operations to ensure they conform to existing market trends.
As a result, they are increasingly relying on technological solutions to attract new consumers and to overcome other competitive factors they are exposed to in their operations (Lipsman, Mudd, Rich & Bruich, 2012, p. 47). Such firms are looking at improving their supply chain and product distribution systems to serve the needs of various consumers in their target markets. Therefore, this approach allows them to focus on consumer perceptions in various market segments to develop products that satisfy their expectations.
Globalization has exposed consumers to a lot of information and this influences their choices and consumption patterns. Consumer spending patterns have become more complex because many consumers are more interested in buying products which conform to their lifestyles and personal interests. In addition, they are exposed to a lot of products in the market which offer different types of value (Wind, Sharp & Nelson-Field, 2013, p. 176). As a result, consumers have developed refined tastes which encourage them to opt for products that have exceptional features and attributes. In addition, convenient payment systems and other value added services strengthen consumers attitudes towards particular products. As a result, consumer behavior is constantly changing and this requires business firms to develop proactive solutions to adapt to these changes.
Consumers on the Internet
Interpersonal communications between and among consumers on the internet allow them to share their own feelings and experiences regarding various products in the market. These interactions influence consumers attitudes towards various brands in the market. Thus, they may either strengthen or weaken the value of a particular brand thereby leading to low sales. Through these interactions, consumers are able to network with other users who share similar consumption interests.
As a result, they constantly share ideas and information on various topics that are important to them through online forums. Online social media platforms are open and this allows marketers to track consumer opinions and attitudes regarding their products. Marketers are also able to find out specific improvements that need to be made on their products to improve their performance in the market (Hsiao, Yeh &Tsai, 2013, p. 81). This information helps them to understand how they can benefit from high quality online interactions with different consumers.
Mass advertising is no longer influential as it used to be in the past because revolutionary business firms prefer personalized marketing approaches. Effective marketing is no longer defined by demographics and as a result, it has become necessary for business firms to segment customers using narrow lifestyle profiles (Hsiao, Yeh &Tsai, 2013, p. 86).
Personalized marketing has encouraged business firms to focus more on personal values to find out how they influence a consumers purchasing behavior. It also allows a firm to conduct continuous market analysis processes which assess individual consumer tastes and preferences properly. Moreover, business firms have to filter messages they want to deliver to different customers to make them have a positive impression towards their products (Hsiao, Tsai & Yang, 2012, p. 133).Therefore, companies can use information obtained from the internet to engage with their customers more effectively.
The modern consumer has complex interests which influence his attitudes and purchasing choices. Therefore, business firms need to understand how to deal with such customers because they are only receptive to messages that appeal to them. Since there are many marketing messages on the internet targeting different consumers, business firms need to use marketing strategies that focus on individual consumer lifestyles.
Business firms need to develop more efficient data collection and analysis systems to make a larger impact in various markets they target (Berisha- Namani, 2013, p. 105). More importantly, they also need to measure the effectiveness of their messages in the market. This will help them understand methods they can use to make consumers more interested in different products they are selling. In the long run, this approach will enable business firms to develop appropriate online communication strategies.
Business and Product Development Process
Communications between consumers on the internet enable a firm to find out new trends that influence consumer behavior in the market. As a result, a business firm is able to find out opportunities which exist in the market and how they can be exploited to increase its long term revenues. This allows a business firm to obtain important information that can be used to improve internal processes to enable it to produce high quality products in the market (Berisha- Namani, 2013, p. 107).
In addition, a firm may also improve its retailing functions by coming up with new services which enhance efficiency and customer convenience. This approach allows a firm to find out specific marketing channels it can use to reach out to potential consumers to make them more interested in its products. It may also adopt an effective pricing strategy that satisfies the expectations of users of a particular product.
Business firms need to analyze the data and information they obtain from consumers to find out specific improvements they need to make on their products. The product development process takes into account various external factors which are likely to improve consumers perceptions about a particular product.
Therefore, business firms can use information obtained through the internet to understand the brand equity their products have in the market (Chapter 16, 2012, p. 536). This allows a firm to develop viable product concepts which satisfy peculiar needs in the market. In the long run, this allows a firm to develop high quality innovative processes that enable them to sell valuable products which are able to compete effectively with other brands in the market.
Integration of Direct and Interactive Marketing
The integration of direct and interactive marketing allows business firms to respond to their customers promptly and this improves the perceptions they have towards a firms products. This approach allows companies to coordinate their communications and marketing functions effectively to increase the efficiency of their internal as well as external processes. In the long run, a firm adapts easily to changing market environments by taking into account technological changes and how they influence consumer behavior.
Consequently, a firm is able to use new ideas that are obtained from its integrated marketing functions to improve the quality of its products in the industry (Chapter 19, 2012, p. 449). User generated innovation is beneficial to a companys long term performance. It encourages a firm to develop beneficial relationships with its customers in the industry and this improves the quality of its internal processes.
A firm can rely on user innovation by test marketing its products in the market to find out consumers emotional reactions to the product. The feedback obtained from test marketing can enable a business firm to review various features of a new product to find out if they offer any value to its long term objectives in a market. Business firms need to use their loyal customers to vet the quality of product concepts they intend to introduce in the market to find out if they will be viable in the long run. They can use the information obtained from their customers to improve their product development processes so that they increase the value of their products in the market (Chapter 20, 2012, p. 573). In effect, this approach allows a firm to develop valuable products which satisfy consumers needs.
Managing 5 Ps
Business firms can manage their 5Ps by planning their online and offline functions to achieve positive outcomes from their operations. This will allow them to come up with different marketing ploys that make it difficult for their competitors to understand their true intentions in the industry. Afterwards, they need to streamline all their internal and external functions to ensure they attain good results out of their operations (Chapter 21, 2012, p. 599). This will allow them to come up with effective positioning strategies that increase the value of their brands in the market. In the end, this enables a firm to come up with an accurate perspective that makes all stakeholders understand its purpose in the industry. Thus, by managing their 5ps properly, business firms can easily strengthening the value of their brands in the market.
References
Berisha- Namani, M. (2013). Information technology, internet, and marketing. International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies, 4 (1), 103-110.
Chapter 16 (2012). Managing retailing, wholesaling and logistics. In P. Kotler & K. Keller (Eds.), Marketing management (pp. 535-568).Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson/ Prentice Hall.
Chapter 19 (2012). Managing personal communications: Direct and interactive marketing, word of mouth and personal selling. In P. Kotler & K. Keller (Eds.), Marketing management (pp. 535-568). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson/ Prentice Hall.
Chapter 20 (2012).Introducing new market offerings. In P. Kotler & K. Keller (Eds.), Marketing management (pp. 569-593). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson/ Prentice Hall.
Chapter 21 (2012). Tapping into global markets. In P. Kotler & K. Keller (Eds.), Marketing management (pp. 595-619). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson/ Prentice Hall.
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