SMstudy and the Post-Advertising World

We recently read that “We are living in a post-advertising world.” The claim was made by John Horsley, director of Digital Doughnut, a global digital marketing community. Horsley should know, so we took notice.
Horsley explained his claim in a LinkedIn group forum: “Conversations have replaced campaigns, engagement trumps reach, and brands are no longer built by above-the-line agencies, but at every touchpoint the business has with its customers. And the thread that links all these elements is social media.” This resonates with us at SMstudy. We have included a lot about touchpoints, engagement and social media marketing in A Guide to the Sales and Marketing Body of Knowledge, also referred to as theSMstudy® Guide.
Horsley was using his claim to incite and invite members of the group to take part in a survey being conducted to explore the current status of companies and social media and contribute to his work “New Report: Social Media’s Impact on Customer Experience.” He says “businesses have been slow to respond, often hampered by outdated structures, siloed thinking and a lack of strategic understanding.” Now, that really resonates with us because we wrote an entire book on Marketing Strategy as one of the six aspects covered in the SMstudy® Guide and we offer certifications in marketing strategy.
His claim did not resonate so well with others, however. One group member commented, “Social media channels are simply another way to touch someone, as is and remains advertising. Effective communications usually consist of multichannel or cross channel strategies.” We had to agree with several points here. Our Digital Marketing book says, “Given the nature of the online world, which is constantly evolving and expanding—new channels are developing with greater frequency, and audiences are continuously exploring new sources of online content—digital marketers must regularly assess and reassess digital marketing channels for their effectiveness and applicability in helping achieve the company’s overall organizational goals and objectives.”
Social media provide many opportunities for delivering messages that advertise. Within Marketing Strategy whole sections have been dedicated to planning and developing social media as well as other digital channels.
The term “posting” (as it is used in advertising) comes not from posting mail but from a time when fences, street lamp poles, telephone posts and any available urban wall space were festooned with advertisements for products, shows, soon-to-arrive circuses and political candidates. When the rampant postings got out-of-hand, a new posting appeared saying, “Post No Bills.” Now, many marketing and advertising messages are being posted online and in social media. Perhaps we should say we’re living in a post-post-advertising world? Well … maybe not.
Another commenter added, “effective marketing communication is always a delicious idea (whatever it might be) served on many different (multichannel) dishes.” And that’s an idea we can relish.
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Acknowledgement: http://www.smstudy.com/Blog URL: http://www.smstudy.com/Article/SMstudy-and-the-Post-Advertising-World
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Sampling in Market Research

In statistical language, sampling is choosing the portion or subset of a population. A population is the entire group of objects having characteristics of interest under study. The subset of a population that is chosen for the study is known as a sample. In the context of market research, sampling means collecting opinions from a chosen segment of a large mass, to know the characteristics about the whole group.
The chosen sample must represent all or most of the features of the population from which it is chosen. To ensure that the chosen sample appropriately represents the population, a strategy is required. This strategy is known as a “sampling strategy.” The sampling strategy is a plan or strategy created to make sure that the sample of the population on which data will be collected is accurately representative of the group identified for study.
The task of sampling is undertaken when information regarding a process or product is not readily available, and analysis of the entire population on which the critical information is required is not feasible or possible (i.e., such an undertaking would be too time-consuming and too costly). Because sampling reduces costs and employs fewer human resources (among other benefits), it is commonly employed in most industries that require critical information regarding a process or product.
Sampling is also used when the data collection is a destructive process. For example, CDF Inc. is a mineral water manufacturer that produces bottled mineral water. The quality assurance team tests the quality standard of the mineral water by randomly selecting a sample of bottles taken from each production batch. In the testing process, they open the bottles and introduce chemicals into the contents, thus destroying the sample. These bottles will no longer be hygienic enough for sale and the water will be contaminated; testing the entire population of bottles would result in no revenue for the company, and therefore a sample is tested.
Researchers can choose from a number of different types of sampling strategies. The type of strategy chosen should appropriately suit the research objectives.
Sampling strategies are classified as either probability sampling or non-probability sampling.
Probability Sampling Strategies—Probability sampling strategies are the most reliable sampling strategies because the margin of error is minimal due to the statistical procedures used. In these strategies, every component in the population has an equal and independent opportunity to be chosen.
The four main methods of probability sampling are simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling, and cluster sampling.
Non-probability Sampling Strategies—Non-probability sampling strategies are not as reliable as probability sampling strategies. The selection procedures in these strategies involve non-random methods. As a result, the subjects in the population do not have an equal chance of being selected as part of a sample. These types of sampling strategies are less likely to produce representative samples than probability sampling strategies. Regardless of this factor, many researchers have successfully used and continue to use these strategies. The three main strategies of non-probability sampling are Convenience, Quota, and Purposive.

Acknowledgement: http://www.smstudy.com/Blog URL: http://www.smstudy.com/Article/Sampling-in-Market-Research
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Sales and Marketing: Then & Now; There & Here

Just because we’re in the twenty-first century doesn’t mean that all the earlier avenues of Sales and Marketing are obsolete. Some consumer goods companies still spend a good chunk of their marketing budget on conventional mass media marketing. Sometimes a seller’s marketplace is still your best bet for items with a limited number of producers, or where the production is highly regulated by the government or controlled by monopolies or duopolies. And traditional marketplaces continue to flourish today in some regions of the world.

The point is that sales and marketing isn’t anything new—it’s not even replacing earlier marketing practices. You can think of sales and marketing approaches as a continuum along which recent innovations co-exist with earlier practices. And any given company’s sales and marketing teams are the ones to make the strategic decisions that will work best to achieve the company’s wishes and needs. To do this, they need to keep in mind what works best with their potential consumers.

Sales and marketing students can find it tough to wade through various authors’ and teachers’ perspectives, which can come across as unpractical or outdated. The truth is that any authority on sales and marketing will vary according to individual or industry preferences and experiences on both the timeline and the map.

The SMstudy® Guide aims to simplify these biases by not limiting the concepts to the perspective of any particular author or industry. The SMstudy® Guide was developed by VMEdu, Inc., a professional education provider that has educated over 400,000 students worldwide in more than 3,500 companies. The fifty plus authors, advisers and reviewers of this book have worked in multiple marketing environments and geographic regions across an eclectic variety of industries. Thus, the insights provided in this book provide a comprehensive detail of the principles and concepts related to sales and marketing. It also articulates an action-oriented process approach that can be used by sales and marketing practitioners to gain a better understanding of the subject, and then construct a comprehensive and effective Sales and Marketing Strategy for their companies, including all relevant Aspects of Sales and Marketing.

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Growth Strategy: Up, Up and Away

There are so many different ways in which to deliver growth, and all should be considered for viability. B2b companies believe that the biggest opportunities for growth are through launching new products and improving customer loyalty. 

Finding areas for growth:

Through the 1980s and 1990s Sir Clive Thomson built Rentokil from a tiny royal rat-catcher into a sprawling services giant with 130,000 employees and a value of nearly £14 billion ($23 billion). It earned him the sobriquet “Mr 20 Percent”. As always happens, the good times came to an end. It is not possible to continuously grow by that amount, year on year, forever.

And yet, businesses have an insatiable appetite for growth. When the good times begin to tighten, a company that was comfortable selling its products to everyone and anyone may begin to review its strategic options. Igor Ansoff had advice for such companies based on a simple premise – you can make money out of selling your existing products to your existing markets or you can push them into new markets. Equally, you can find products which your existing customers may wish to buy from you. Finally, and in fact the most difficult strategy of all, you can move beyond your current markets into new ones and find new products to sell. The Ansoff paradigm presents us with a guideline of how we should manage our business in times of plenty and times of famine.

          Ansoff's Matrix of Opportunities    

When the going gets tough it is especially difficult to move into new markets where it is necessary to start from scratch and where fresh competitors will vie for market share. The strategy of pushing into new markets is something that we should focus on only when we have the money and resources to do so – not when our back is against the wall. It is more prudent to take risks in the new and the unknown in times of plenty and when economies are expanding rapidly.

Hard times are inevitable in business. There is never a decade which goes by without some slowdown in the economy. Product life cycles may mean that the market you serve moves into decline. The swings may just be for a short period and you can ride them out, or they may be systemic and you need to think about survival in the longer term. When times are hard it is much more difficult to make money from selling more or charging more. The most obvious route to profits in these difficult times may be from saving money – cutting costs - but there are limits as to how far one can go with this strategy.

All of Ansoff's quadrants present opportunities. However, the one that presents an opportunity for growth at all times is often the one that is often ignored - it just doesn’t seem so sexy to focus on existing products and existing markets. Companies that have already crossed the threshold and become customers present easier and bigger opportunities than those that have yet to be converted. Extra sales and marketing effort aimed at these customers will pay more dividends than if those efforts are diverted towards new markets.

Look for opportunities to be more efficient with the existing customer base. Rationalizing product lines is always worth considering as they do have a tendency to grow over time without being noticed. Becoming more ruthless with managing inventories could save money because it is widely accepted that 50% of the items in a company’s inventory generate only 5% of its revenue. (Remember the Pareto rule that says that 80% of sales come from just 20% of the inventory).

And never give up on marketing – whatever the economic climate. An analysis of the Profit Impact of Marketing Strategies (PIMS) database compared the results of companies that increased, maintained and reduced marketing spend during a recession, and it showed that while companies that cut marketing spend enjoyed superior return on capital employed (ROCA) during the recession, they achieved worse results after the recession ended. Those who had invested in marketing achieved a significantly higher ROCA during the recovery, and gained an additional 1.3% points of market share when growth returned. Have confidence that marketing really works and that it is your responsibility to make your precious marketing budget work hard for the future. It is why it is so important to develop a marketing strategy and watch over it every day of the year.

Find more on this  : http://www.smstudy.com/SMBOKGuide/Buy-SMstudy-Guide

 

 

Marketing Research

When existing marketing research reports are insufficient for understanding a company’s internal environment, the company may choose to conduct new marketing research to fill any gaps in market intelligence. Such marketing research projects generally fall into two categories: primary research and secondary research.

Primary and secondary research can be further categorized as either quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative research involves data collected from a sample set of the target population using questionnaires or surveys with scales or rating systems, then analyzing that data using statistical techniques to identify trends, conditions and opinions. Qualitative research involves data collected from a small group of participants and not analyzed with statistical techniques but used to define a problem, generate or validate hypotheses, explore an issue and reveal insights or motives.

• Primary Marketing Research about a company’s strengths and weaknesses involves developing a broader understanding of the perceptions and attitudes toward the company’s products by using tools such as interviews, focus groups, and survey questionnaires. These research projects are not limited to learning about customer perceptions and behavior; they may also involve understanding the perceptions of suppliers toward the company’s policies and products, conducting an employee survey to better understand existing capabilities and potential training needs, and evaluating technology that is being used in the marketplace. The means to gather data on a variety of areas where a company needs to know more is available, but the focus should be on discovering areas of improvement and consolidating areas of strength.
• Secondary Marketing Research involves the use of content and information that is currently available within the company or in the market through primary research that has already been conducted and is readily obtainable through company reports, trade journals, industry publications, and the Internet. Secondary research involves gathering this existing information to better understand the company’s strengths and weaknesses.

Here is an example of Marketing Research:

A medical supply company is looking to extend its product line in the area of Diabetes testing devices. The company has made an assumption that the average age of onset of Type 2 Diabetes is decreasing from the past average of 55 years. The company plans to conduct primary market research and gather existing secondary market research to validate or disprove this assumption.

• Primary market research may include holding a conference and inviting a cross section of family doctors in the area. Information provided by the doctors can help them understand the current trends.
• The company can also consider existing secondary market research by reviewing current medical journals to see if there are recorded trends and statistical analyses supporting the theory of a younger population developing Type 2 Diabetes.

If the research collected suggests that the population is indeed demonstrating an increase in onset of Type 2 Diabetes at a younger age, the new product line could include products that will be marketed to a younger age group through the use of technology more suited to a younger demographic. Cell phone apps, cloud storage databases, and the like may be useful and desired by this emerging group.

Understanding a company’s strengths and weaknesses with respect to its ability to meet its customers’ demands and face competition helps the marketing strategy team determine the competitive positioning of the company’s products. A detailed list of strengths and weaknesses should be documented so it can be used as an input to other processes within marketing strategy and other functional strategies. The document may also contain a plan on how to address any weaknesses and capitalize on strengths.

Here is an example of Strengths and Weaknesses:

• A general overview of strengths and weaknesses of an established local print shop might be as follows:

Strengths: Brand recognition, good knowledge of local market, technology, qualified staff in place, experienced management, and good operational procedures

Weaknesses: Limited ability to support customer requirements for same-day print-on-demand and small-run printing, and lack of infrastructure for online sales and marketing

• The strengths and weaknesses of a retail clothing store might be as follows:

Strengths: Loyal customer base, exceptional customer service, and differentiated products

Weaknesses: Weak brand image (as compared to competitors’ branding), high costs associated with supply chain, and lack of e-commerce capability

Acknowledgement: The content is borrowed from www.smstudy.com (original blog url: http://www.smstudy.com/Article/Marketing-Research)