1. Marketing

Ryan has a strong background in marketing due to the knowledge he acquired through his marketing's bachelor degree. Ryan likes to deploy marketing mix such as the 4P (Price, Product, Promotion, and Place) when providing solution and strategies for his analytic insights. Nevertheless, Ryan acknowledged that 4P has evolved into 6P, which include People and Process.

Ryan has a strong knowledge of product life cycle (Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline) marketing strategies. He also likes to deploy SWOT and PESTEL analysis when analyzing the background of the organization. The former is to evaluate the organization's competitive position by identifying the strength, weakness, opportunity, and threats while the latter refers to external elements of a company such as Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental.

1. 4P / 6P of Marketing Mix

• The marketing mix allows marketers to understand how and what the product or service can offer and attract the customer.
• Price
  • Core principles: Product Centric
  • Objectives: Sell Products
  • Interaction: One to many
  • Methods: Discounts, Allowances, and Payment period
• Product
  • Core principles: Product Centric
  • Objectives: Sell Products
  • Interaction: One to many
  • Methods: Product Variety, Qauality, Design, Features, Brand name, Packaging, and Services
• Promotion
  • Core principles: Product Centric
  • Objectives: Sell Products
  • Interaction: One to many
  • Methods: Sales promotion, Advertising, Public Relations, and Direct Marketing
• Place (Location)
  • Core principles: Product Centric
  • Objectives: Sell Products
  • Interaction: One to many
  • Methods: Channels and Locations
• Participations
  • Core principles: Customer Centric
  • Objectives: Satisfy and retain customers
  • Interaction: One to one
  • Methods: Expand beyond mere engagement to building sustainable relationships
• Principles
  • Core principles: Value Driven
  • Objectives: Grow customer loyalty and advocacy
  • Interaction: Many to many
  • Methods: Values-driven marketing, principles includes the infusion of individual and organizational core values and how they translate into actions
    • Benefits organization, health and well-being of employees, partners, and greater community as a whole

2. Product Life Cycle

• A company’s positioning and differentiation strategy must change as the product, market, and competitors change over the product life-cycle
  • Products have a limited life
  • Product sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different challenges, opportunities, and problems to the seller
  • Profits rise and fall at different stages of the product life cycle
  • Products require different marketing, financial, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource strategies in each life-cycle stage

Product Life Cycle consists of the following four stages:

1. Introduction Stage
   • Characterised by a period of slow sales growth as the product is introduced in the market.
   • Profits are non-existent because of heavy expenses of product introduction.
   • Promotional expenditures are at their highest ratio to sales because of the need to:
     1. Inform potential consumers
     2. Induce product trial
     3. Secure distribution in retail outlets
   • Methods to engage and attract the audiences:
     • Advertising
     • Publicity
     • Events & Experience
     • Personal selling
     • Sales promotion
     • Direct marketing
2. Growth Stage
   • Characterised by a period of rapid market acceptance and substantial profit improvement.
   • Early adopters like the product, and additional consumers start buying it.
   • New competitors are attracted by the opportunities and enter the market.
   • During this stage, the firm uses several strategies to sustain rapid market growth:
     1. Improve product quality and add new product features and improved styling
     2. Add new models
     3. Enter new market segments
     4. Increase its distribution coverage and enter new distribution channels
     5. Shift from product-awareness advertising to product-preference advertising
     6. Lower prices to attract the next layer of price-sensitive buyers
   • Methods to engage and attract the audiences:
     • Word of mouth
     • Interactive marketing
3. Maturity Stage
   • Characterised by a slowdown in sales growth because the product has achieved acceptance by most potential buyers.
   • Profits stabilise or decline because of increased competition.
   • Maturity stage normally lasts longer than the previous stages and poses big challenges to marketing management. Some companies at this stage abandon weaker products and concentrate on products that are more profitable and on new products.
   • Strategies to be deployed during maturity stage:
     1. Market Modification: To increase sales by working on the two factors that make up sales volume: 1) number of brand users; 2) usage rate per user. Specifically, companies can try to: 1) convert non-users, 2) enter new market segments, 3) win competitors’ customers, and 4) convince current users to increase their brand usage.
     2. Product Modification: To stimulate sales by modifying the product’s characteristics through quality improvement, feature improvement, or style improvement
     3. Marketing Programme Modification: To stimulate sales by modifying other marketing programme elements: the 4Ps and services
   • Methods to engage and attract the audiences:
     • Advertising
     • Events & Experience
     • Personal Selling
4. Decline Stage
   • Characterised by downward drift in sales and profit erosion.
   • Sales decline for a number of reasons, including technological advances, shifts in consumer tastes, and increased domestic and foreign competition. All lead to overcapacity, increased price-cutting, and profit erosion.
   • As sales and profits decline, some firms withdraw from the market. Those remaining may reduce the number of products they offer.
   • Methods to engage and attract the audiences:
     • Sales Promotions

3. SWOT Analysis

• To make a strategic business and marketing decision, an organisation has to understand its own Strengths and Weakness, as well as the immediate and future Opportunities and Threats
• Attributes of SWOT Analysis:
  1. Strengths (Internal Forces)
     • Attributes of the organisation that are helpful to achieving the objective
  2. Weaknesses (Internal Forces)
     • Attributes of the organisation that are harmful to achieving the objective
  3. Opportunities (External Forces)
     • External conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective
  4. Threats (External Forces)
     • External conditions which could do damage to the organisation performance

4. PESTEL Analysis

• A type of macroenvironment analysis to analyse and monitor the macro-environmental
• Attributes of PESTEL Analysis:
  1. Political
     • The political arena has a huge influence upon the regulation of businesses, spending power of consumers and other business
  2. Economic
     • Markets require purchasing power (PP) as well as people. PP in an economy depends on income, prices, savings, credit available
  3. Social
     • The social and cultural influences on business vary from country to country. Factors include:
       • Attitude on products / services
       • Religion / society shapes beliefs, values, and norms that largely
  4. Technological
     • Vital for competitive edge
  5. Environmental
     • Natural resources that are needed as inputs by marketers or that are affected by marketing activities. E.g. increased pollution
  6. Legal
     • Well conceived regulation can encourage competition and ensure fair markets for goods and services

5. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Human have many needs, some are physiological (hunger, thirst, or discomfort) and others are psychogenic (need for recognition, esteem, or belonging). A “need” becomes a “motive” when it is sufficiently aroused to drive us to act.
• Human needs are arranged in a hierarchy from most to least pressing
• Need to appeal to the respective motivational drivers of the consumers in order to attract them.
• Attributes of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
  1. Physiological Needs (Food and water, shelter)
  2. Safety Needs (Security, protection)
  3. Social Needs (Sense of belonging, love)
  4. Esteem Needs (Self-esteem, recognition, status)
  5. Self-actualization Needs (Self-development and realisation)

6. CRM Strategies

1. Personalizing Marketing
   • Customize products, services, messages and relationships to make them more targeted and relevant to customers
   • Use the right technology (emails, websites, call centres, databases, applications, and software) to foster continuous contact
   • Adopt permission marketing and one-on-one marketing
     • Permission marketing is the practice of marketing to consumers only after gaining their expressed permission.
     • One-to-one marketing involves the customisation of products, services, and messages to each customer.
2. Customer Empowerment
   • Engage customers and encourage them to take initiatives and actions for a marketing campaign
   • Help loyal customers/opinion leaders to become evangelists for brands by providing resources and opportunities
3. Manage Customer Reviews & Recommendations
   • Online customer ratings and reviews play important roles in consumer decision making
   • Bloggers who write product reviews can also be important
   • Word of mouth is critical
   • Consumer find negative reviews particularly helpful. Companies can utilize negative reviews to direct sales to the right target, reducing product returns and dissatisfied customers
   • Use customised recommendations

7. Marketing Communications Mix

• The marketing communications mix consists of eight major modes of communication:

1. Advertising
   • Paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor
2. Sales Promotion
   • Short-term incentives to encourage trial or purchase of a product or service, including consumer promotions, and business and sales force promotions
3. Events & Experiences
   • Company-sponsored activities & programmes designed to create daily or special brand related interactions with consumers
4. Public Relations & Publicity
   • Programmes directed at own employees, consumers, other firms, government, and media to promote or protect the company’s image or product
5. Direct Marketing
   • Use of mail, telephone, fax, e-mail, or the Internet to communicate with, solicit response or dialogue from specific customers
6. Interactive Marketing
   • Online activities and programmes designed to engage customers or prospects
7. Word of Mouth Selling
   • People-to-people oral, written or electronic communications that relate to the merits and experiences of purchasing or using products or services
8. Personal Selling
   • Face-to-face interaction with one or more prospects for the purpose of making presentations, answering questions, and procuring orders