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For an identified customer segment,
When one makes the decision,
Of Product, Price, Place, Promotion,
That is marketing introduction.
UDYAM SHASTRA- Chapter 09, Verse 02
Key Objectives: This module and its associated exercises should enable the students to:
Contrast selling and marketing.
Develop a marketing orientation.
Apply the four elements of a marketing plan.
Make a marketing plan for your business.
Understand brand recognition.
Conduct a market research.
Use market research to understand your customer needs.
Enterprise Concepts:
Marketing.: Marketing is the overall strategic plan for bringing a product to market
Advertising.: Informing and persuading buyers to purchase a product or service.
Competition.: When there is more than one seller or buyer in the marketplace, it gives rise to competition. Competition influences the price at which resources and goods and services can be sold.Competition in free market leads to lower prices and better quality goods and services for consumers.
Free market.: The economic system in which ordinary citizens can privately own productive resources, manufacture product or offer services ,and buy and sell this at prices which they can themselves decide is called as "Free Market"
Retailer.: Retailer buys from a wholesaler and sells directly to the consumer.
Whole seller.: A business that purchases goods in bulk from the manufacturer and sells smaller quantities to retailers is called wholesaler.
Brand.: A Brand is a name, symbol or trademark that represents and defines your business. It is very important that you pick a name which is easy to remember and which helps to gain mind share with a customer. Mind share is a degree to which your business comes to mind when a customer thinks of the need that your product or service could fulfill.
Brand recognition.: One of the important aspects of business is developing a reputation.It is important that people have a positive association, when they think of your name, or brand, or hear it mentioned. Here are six things you can do to build and maintain your name and reputation.
1)Provide a high quality product or service.
2) Maintain the highest ethical standards.
3) Define your product or service clearly.
4) Treat your employees well.
5) Create positive and informative advertisement, whether a simple poster, or more complex radio or T.V. spots.
6) Associate your company with charity.
Market research.: Market research is the process and technique of finding out who your potential customers are and what they want. Through market research, business owners ask consumers questions and listen to their answers.
The difference between selling and marketing:
Marketing is the process of profitably satisfying a customer need.
Selling is bringing the product to the customer.
The process of marketing very often makes the customer to seek out a product.
The 4 p's.: The four essential elements of a marketing plan are "The Four P'S"
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
Your marketing goal is to bring the right product to the right place at the right price with the right promotion.
Product :- The product should meet or create a consumer need.
Price :- The product has to be priced low enough so the public will buy it and high enough for the business to make a profit.
Place :- The entrepreneur has to place the product where there will be a demand for it.
Promotion :- Advertising and publicity. Advertising is purchased but Publicity is often free.
For instance ,if your business is providing a needed or unusual service to the community, you might be able to get publicity from local newspaper or radio stations willing to write or talk about your product or service.
Another valuable promotion is the business card. A business card bears the name, address and phone number of your business as well as your own name and title. Carry some cards with you wherever you go, to give it to potential clients and other contacts.
Enterprise Skills: The student 'Activities' in each lesson are designed to clarify the ENTERPRISE CONCEPTS of the lesson and develop some ENTERPRISE SKILLS (E.SKILLS). The E.SKILLS included in a lesson may not be exhaustive, but are indicative.
E.SKILLS stated in a lesson elsewhere may also get addressed through the activities of a particular lesson.
Some useful E.SKILLS are dealt with below:
Formulating plans.: An entrepreneur needs to check on the wisdom and practicability of a proposal, spelling out its various details.
This would include projecting the goals in measurable terms, developing the methodology for achieving those goals, estimating the allocation of resources, proposing an organization to handle the resources, devising a tentative placement of human resources, estimating the cost and projecting sales and profit etc., either separately or together in order to arrive at a decision about the practicability of a proposal.
This would be referred to as "Formulating a Plan".
Critical thinking.: The ability of an entrepreneur to:
discriminate, distinguish, and differentiate various aspects of a situation, and select important, useful and decisive factors of the information available about the situation, is referred to as critical thinking.
Formulating questions / enquiry.: An entrepreneur should have the skill to unambiguously state questions so that he can solicit clean answers. This is important when doing market research.
Negotiation.: An entrepreneur should have the negotiation skill to engage a customer in a fruitful discussion or transaction about the products or services he is selling, and through a process of discussion, bargaining and convincing he should be able to strike a deal which is considered satisfactory to both the entrepreneur and the customer.
Conceptualizing / designing questionnaire.: Once the entrepreneur has formulated questions for a market research, he must put the questions into sequential order, which is referred to as a questionnaire.
Following are some of the points to remember when conceptualising and designing a questionnaire.
1. Questions should be in a language which is easy to understand.
2. Questions should be in sequence i.e. logical
3. Questions should lead to precise answers.
4. Questions should preferably be unbiased.
5. The length of the questionnaire should be such that the person who is being surveyed does not become impatient. Impatience may lead to casual and incorrect answers.
Collecting / compiling Data.: Once the questionnaire is well conceptualised and designed then data collection would need to be done by subjecting a well-defined target population to the questionnaire.
Analyzing data.: Data collected as above, then needs to be analyzed so as to make it usable. This analysis could be done question wise as per certain parameters of the target audience.
For example, how many males answered yes to the particular question as against how many females answered yes to the same question. Similarly, analysis could be made for the different segments based on age, education, income level etc.
It may be noted that statistical methods may prove useful in data analysis. For this, help of statistical experts may be taken.
Competitiveness. : A willingness to compete with others and test oneself against them.
Persuasiveness. : The knack for convincing other people to see one's point of view and to get them interested in one's ideas.
Activities:
Activity 1 - MARKET RESEARCH
Instruction To Students
You should carry out a survey in your neighborhood of different kinds of people about items like electric appliances, Two wheelers, Refrigerators, Watches, Readymade Garments, Others (specify). Collect the data and analyse in the classroom. A sample questionnaire is given below for electric appliances. You may use this or prepare a suitable one for your item of survey.
After completing the activity, each group should present and share its main discussion points with the rest of the class.
Activity 2 - ABHIJEET'S MARKETING PLAN.
Instruction To Students
Read the case-study below and then draw up a marketing plan in the work- sheet.
After completing the activity, each group should present and share its main discussion points with the rest of the class.
Case Study
Abhijeet was a brilliant child. In school or at home he always liked to tinker with appliances like radio, iron, fan etc.
Every one said that Abhijeet could take apart any appliance and reassemble it perfectly. Abhijeet’s teacher once said he could earn a lot of money by repairing and selling domestic appliances. Abhijeet found this very encouraging and determined that one day he would start his own business.
A specialised vocational course in repairing and servicing domestic appliances increased Abhijeet’s confidence. Abhijeet’s father suggested that he could make a beginning by using the empty storeroom under the staircase of their house. A hardware supplier agreed to sell Abhijeet high quality tools required to do servicing of domestic appliances. He even agreed to differ payment for the cost of the tools. Abhijeet now needed some furniture to put in his repair shop. He quickly calculated that he would need Rs.5000 for this. When Abhijeet approached the local bank for a loan, the banker was reluctant since Abhijeet was new in business. But Abhijeet did not allow this to frustrate him. Instead he became more determined to start his business.
Abhijeet got together his savings he had kept aside from his birthday gifts,as a child, and few odd rupees he used to earn by working at a local store during his vacation. He then borrowed some money from his friend and purchased the necessary furniture and fittings for his repair shop.
Abhijeet will need to spend more time and money on advertising his services and products he plans to sell. Can you help Abhijeet to design a Marketing Plan ?
Work Sheet
1. Product: What is the product/service Abhijeet has to promote or sell ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
2. Price : What factors should Abhijeet consider when pricing his product/service ?
______________________________________________________________________________________
3. Place : How should Abhijeet ensure that the customers come to his place of business ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
4. Promotion :
4.1. Who should be the target audience for his advertisements? Why?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
4.2. Where should he give his ads? Radio, T.V. , Newspapers, Hoardings? Why?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
4.3. Maka a jingle (Title song) that will help people remember Abhijeet’s shop. Jingles are catchy phrases that stick in the mind. Examples: “Electrifying Work”.,“Yeh Dil Mange more”, “Taste the thunder” ect. Advertisers believe that these jingles, repeated often enough, do bring in more customers.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
4.4. What impact should Abhijeet’s ads have on his customers? Should Abhijeet emphasise quality and individuality? Should the ads be straight forward or hummorous ? Describe in your own words what Abhijeet should emphasise.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Activity 3 - MARKETING LOCATIONS (WHERE TO SELL) RECHARGEABLE TORCHES
Instruction To Students
Study the ‘Locations and selling methods Matrix’ for a business selling rechargeable torches. Add other locations and methods to the matrix.
After completing the activity, each group should present and share its main discussion points with the rest of the class.
Go to activity 4 subsequently.
Activity 4 - MARKETING LOCATIONS (WHERE TO SELL) FOR YOUR ENTERPRISE.
Instruction To Students
Think of a business you could start.
Fill in your own ‘Locations and selling methods Matrix’ below, based on your business and its market for your potential customers.
After completing the activity, each group should present and share its main discussion points with the rest of the class.
Business :- _____________________________________________________________________
Who are the potential customers (Age, Gender etc.) _______________________________________
Activity 5 - PRICE COMPETITION.
Instruction To Students
Follow the instructions given by the trainer. Some students could volunteer to become producers and some consumers.
Fill up the worksheet and table given below.
After completing the activity, each group should present and share its main discussion points with the rest of the class.
Work Sheet
1.Did the producers start with a high price or a low price at the beginning of the activity?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
2. How did the prices change as negotiations proceeded?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
3. How did producers attract the attention of consumers ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
4. How did producers convince the consumers ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
5. Which producer sold most chocolates/goods ? Why ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
6. Which producer made most profit ? Why ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
7. What negotiation strategy did consumers follow ?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
8. What role did quality play in price negotiation ? Etc
___________________________________________________
Activity 6 - THE GUEST SPEAKER FOR CRM.
Instruction To Students
Students should prepare for receiving a guest speaker on the subject of ‘Customer Relationship Management’
After the guest has spoken, students should interact with the guest through questions and answers.
Students should then fill up the WORKSHEET.
After completing the activity, each group should present and share its main discussion points with the rest of the class.
Work Sheet
1: How many customers do you have?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
2: How many of their names can you recall?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
3: Do you know where they reside?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
4: How many of them (not agent) do you meet regularly?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
5: Do you meet your customers under other social conditions (e.g. Marriages, birthday celebrations etc.)
______________________________________________________________________________________
6: Who receives customer complaints?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
7: Who answers these complaints?
______________________________________________________________________________________
8: How many customers’ suggestions have you implemented?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
9: What changes have been done in the organizational activities to satisfy the customers?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
10: List all the methods you can think of to maintain a set of satisfied customers?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
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