Topic 4 - Developing Financial Products and Designing Service Experiences

Topic 4:

Products are need-satisfying offerings of an organisation. Anything that can be offer for attention, acquisition used for consumption that might satisfy a want or a need is considered a product. It includes physical objects (goods), services, persons, places, organisations and ideas.

Services deliver a bundle of benefits to the consumer through the experience that is created for that consumer it is any activity that one part can offer another party that is intangible ad does not result in the ownership of anything.

Services are rendered

Goods are possessed

Unique Service Feature:

Intangibility

Resulting Matching Problems:

1. Service cannot be stored.

2. Cannot protect services through patents.

3. Cannot readily display or communicate services.

4. Prices are difficult to set.

Strategies to Solve:

1. Stress tangible cues

2. Use personal source

3. Stimulate word-of-mouth communication

4. Create strong organisational image

5. Use cost account to set prices

6. Engage in post purchase communication.

Unique Service Feature: Inseparability

Resulting Marketing Problems:

1. Consumer involved in production

2. Other consumers involved too

3. Centralised mass of services is difficult.

Strategies to Solve:

1. Emphasise selection and training of public contact personelle

2. Manage expectations

3. Use multi-site locations

Topic 3 - Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning Financial Services

Segmenting is the process of dividing a potential market into distinct subsets of consumers with common needs or characteristics and selecting one or more segments to target with a distinct marketing mix.

Process in segmenting;

1. Identify - Groups of key customers

2. Target - Those who offer value

3. Position - Their minds through the use of the 7 P's (these were detailed in an earlier post)

A marketing segment is a relatively homogenous group of customers with similar characteristics, wants or needs that is likely to respond similarly to a given marketing mix. Segmenting allows a group to understand customers better and aids in more efficient resource allocations which leads to a more effective strategic focus. They need to be homogenous within and heterogeneous between. they need to be measurable, substantial and actionable numbers

Segmenting can be done by:

- Geographic

- Demographic and socio-cultural

- Psychological or psychographic

- Behavioural or attitudinal

There are also several options for targeting:

- Concentration on a single segment (niche)

- Selectively specialising

- Specialising by product

- Specialising by market

Interesting Twitter Marketing

Just as a break from marketing theory, I have posted an interesting article about companies embracing new media and social network sites in an attempt to boost sales. This article reviews 5 of the most inspired and effective ad campaigns that have been released via the social media outlet Twitter.com. There are several genius and very innovative ideas presented and is a good example of how marketing theory is put in practise. These adds incorporate all the theory listed previously and is very effective in positioning the user/viewer:

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/05/15/successful-twitter-campaigns/

Topic 2 - Continued

Influences on Consumer Choice:

There are 7 influences that affect a consumers buying decision process:

As demonstrated in the digram, there are many factors to consider. This diagram is not compete though and fails to recognise Personal influences such as age and life cycle stage and current occupation and level of education. It also does not recognise economic situation and fiscal situations. A diagram which incorporated these would be more holistic and thorough.

Topic 2 - Consumer and business buying behaviour, service culture and customer experiences

Consumer buying behaviour is quite systematic and follows a streamlined process.

This topic covers a lot of process digrams and flow diagrams which show the thought/action process and influence process of a buyer and business.

Buyer Decision Process:

As demonstrated a buyer follows these 5 steps when interacting with the idea and process of buying a product

Roles in Consumer Buying Process:

As presented there are 5 Roles in the consumer buying process. These roles are all important when a consumer decides to buy a product and most be considered when a market strategy is developed and presented. If the actions of this roles are not taken into consideration then the market strategy will not be successful and be rather inefficient.

Topic 1 - Continued

Marketing Strategy and Planning Sequences

Strategic Company Planning:

1. Define organisational mission 3. Set up organisational objectives

2. Conduct Situational Analysis 4. Select Appropriate Strategies

LEADS TO

Strategic Marketing Planning:

1. Conduction Situation Analysis 4. Select market target and determine demand

2. Develop Marketing Objectives 5. Design Strategic Marketing Mix

3. Determine positioning/differential advantage

LEADS TO

Annual Marketing Planning:

Prepare annual marketing plan for each major project and company division

Marketing objectives must follow specific rules/guidelines: SMART

Specific

Measurable

Actionable/Achievable

Relevant (to your mission, vision and direction)

Time Bound

Implementation and Control are important aspects of marketing strategy. They need to be conducted slowly and carefully:

"A mediocre plan well implemented will always achieve more than a brilliant plan poorly implemented"

There should be a close relationship between planning, implementation and evaluation in the strategic management process:

Planning - Deciding now what the firm intends to do later, including how and when it is going to do it

Implementation - Putting into action the activities outlined in the plan to support the strategy and tactics

Evaluation - Checking the degree to which the organisation has reached the goals outlined in its plan.

Course Revision from Topic 1 - Marketing Strategy

Below is a summary of Topic 1 - Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy is based on 4 key questions:

- Where are we now? (Analysis of current/future strategic position)

- Where are we going? (develop viable future goals and objectives)

- How will we get there? (develop strategies and action programs to get there)

- How will we know we are on track? (implement measuring and monitoring systems)

These questions all need to have a developed system of checks to ensure they are appropriate:

The 5 C's:

- Context

- Company

- Customers

- Competitors

- Collaborators

7 P's:

- Products - People

- Prices - Processes

- Place/distributions - Physical Evidence

- Promotion/communication

There are some very important elements/components in a marketing strategy plan:

- Executive Summary - Marketing Strategies List

- Situation Analysis - Action Plans

- Performance Review - Profit/Loss Statement

- SWOT + Key Issue Analysis - Controls

- Critical Assumptions - Contingency Plans

- Objectives

A SWOT Analysis is sometimes appropriate when trying to analysis a plan and interpret any short comings.

Positive (+) Negative (-)

Internal Strengths Weaknesses

External Opportunities Threats