ENT1/6 MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Marketing management is the performance of activities that are necessary to get the goods or services from the producer to the customers resulting into customer satisfaction and realization of profits on the part of the entrepreneur.

Marketing involves identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer’s needs effectively and profitably.

Objectives of marketing

–        To recover the cash earlier enough

–        To penetrate the market especially for a new product

–        For product line promotion

–        To satisfy customers and the entrepreneurs by realizing a better profit

–        For functional satisfaction

–        To achieve the four utilities ie possession, time, form, and place utilities

–        Offering a total consumption system

–        Increments of satisfaction

–        Facilitating exchange

Conditions of exchange

–        There are at least two parties

–        Each party has something of value to the other party

–        Each party is capable of communication and delivery

–        Each party is free to accept or reject the exchange offer

–        Each party believes it is appropriate or desirable to deal with the other party.

SELLING FUNCTION

Selling is a two – way communication between the buyer and seller. The purpose of this personal contact is to enable the entrepreneur (or his sales person) persuade the buyer to accept a product at a stated price.

In selling, a customer may be told how the product will help meet his/her needs, its price, how to use it, and why it would be good to but it.

Differences between selling and marketing

Marketing focuses on customer’s needs while selling focuses on seller’s needs

In marketing, a customer enjoys supreme importance while in selling product enjoys supreme importance.

In marketing, there is an integrated approach to achieve long term goals while in selling there is a fragmented approach to achieve immediate gains.

In marketing, an entrepreneur converts customer’s needs into a product while in selling he converts product into cash.

In marketing there is caveat venditor (let the seller be aware) while in selling there is caveat emptor (let the buyer be aware).

In marketing profits are realized through customer satisfaction while in selling profits are realized through sales volume.

Marketing aims at external market orientation while selling aims at internal business orientation.

Marketing is based on customer approach while selling is based on product approach.

Marketing is a series of activities an entrepreneur does to find out who his customers are and what they need or want while selling is a two- way communication between the buyer and seller aimed at persuading the buyer to buy the product.

TERMINOLOGIES ASSOCIATED WITH MARKETING

Market

A market is an arrangement that enables buyers and sellers to come in contact with each other with the main aim of exchanging goods or services.

Or

A market refers to all people / institutions in a specific geographical area that need products and are able and willing to pay for them.

Market share

It refers to the section or portion of the total market which is controlled or served by one firm or entrepreneur.

Marketing ethics, Are those standards, values, moral principle or guidelines which control or govern the behavior of the marketing product in the market

Market fit, is the extent or degree to which a new product of the firm is likely to attract or appeal to its existing customers

TARGET MARKET POPULATION

This refers to various groups of people or customers where an entrepreneur intends to sell his/her products.

It is where likely buyers of one’s products will be sourced. It includes women, men, students, rural and urban people, rich and poor, adolescents (youth) etc.

FACTORS THAT DETERMINE A TARGET MARKET POPULATION

Level of income. Customers with high  income levels form a bigger target market due to their high demand for a products on the other hand, low income customers tend to have low demand for the products hence forming a small target market.

A consumption habit, customers whose consumption habit involves spending huge amounts of money to buy a product forms a bigger target market for business. On the other hand, customers who usually spend less on a given products forms a small a small market.

Level of competition, Availability of many substitute products leads to a small target market population due to division of customer consumers for similar products. On the other hand less competition i.e. few substitute goods increase the target market population

Market share. Existence of many potential buyers in a given area increases the target market population. However, limited number of potential buyers in a given area forms a target market for a business

Age and sex composition. A target market for a product is high if a population is made of potential customers of a given age or sex. However the target market for a product is small if the number of customers for a given age or sex is small

Market trends/patterns. Positive market trends can bring a big target market area etc. however negative market patterns like increase in population in a given market area etc. however negative market patterns like a depression, unemployment etc. form a smaller target market for the business

Size of the population. A big population size increases the target market population unlike a small population size that lowers it

Government policy of taxation and subsidization. Increased subsidization especially for the consumers increases the level of their income and eventually the purchasing power hence increase in target market population. However, increase in government taxation lower the level of disposable income of the population which eventually lowers the TMP

The level/degree of advertisement. Persuasive and repetitive advertising of products increases the size of the target market population since the consumers are influenced to buy and continue buying the product. On the other hand reduced advertisement

THE MARKETING MIX

This refers to a set of controllable variables a company puts together to satisfy the target customers.

Elements of a marketing mix are explained in the video below

ELEMENTS OF MARKETING MIX

Product. This is a good/service offered by a business to satisfy customers’ needs. The product should be designed in an appropriate way to ensure that it meets desired needs of customers.

Place. This is concerned with how and where the seller can make product available to customers. It involves the entrepreneur selecting the best channel of distribution to ensure that goods are in the right place when required.

Price. This is the monetary value of the product. The price charged by an entrepreneur for his/her products should be affordable to attract customers but also high enough to earn profits.

Promotion. This refers to any activity used in informing and attracting customers to buy a product for the first time and to buy more of it.

Positioning. This involves the targeting of a particular segment of potential market to whom the entrepreneur aims to sell his/her product. It reflects the emphasis and entrepreneur puts on a product for a particular segment of customers purposely to attain them or maintain their loyalty.

Packaging. Wrapping of products in attractive packages to add value

Planning. Process of deciding what, when, how to produce

Physical evidence. Lay out, official company documents, staff uniforms etc.

Process. The way we offer services to our customers

People. The kind of people we employ, their competences, attitude and commitment

PRICING OF GOODS AND SERVICES

This refers to the activity that involves attaching of monetary values to goods and services at which the entrepreneur is to offer his products. Pricing is an important activity in an enterprise as it influences the profit of the entrepreneur and it also determines the consumer’s purchasing power ie his ability to acquire particular goods and services.

Methods used by the entrepreneurs when pricing their products

Penetration pricing. This is where by a low price is combined with persuasive advertising aimed at capturing a large percentage of the market.

Target pricing. This is where a firm pre-determines a target level of profits and then charges a price to generate the target profits.

Skimming method. This is the price policy suitable for the top quality versions. It is set to target a distinct class of customers.

Price discrimination. This involves charging different prices in different markets for the same good for different reasons associated rather than costs of production.

Auctioning. Here the highest bidders take the product. Prices are determined depending on who offers a highest price.

Demand oriented pricing. This is the method of setting price basing on the level of demand for the product. A high price may be charged where there is high demand and low price is charged where demand is low

Bargaining. This is where the prices are determined after a further discussion between the customer and the seller and there after they reach final agreement.

Government pricing policy. This is where the government dictates prices especially essential products; it fixes the price at which sellers should sell their products.

Cost oriented method. This is a form of pricing determined by the cost of production incurred by the entrepreneur. The higher the costs of production, the higher the price and vice versa.

The fashion oriented pricing. This is where prices are determined basing on the prevailing fashion or modal. If the fashion is attractive, a high price is set while low price will be set if the fashion is low.

Competition oriented pricing. This is a form of pricing which is determined mainly by the other business competitors for the same products.

Limit pricing. This is where the existing firms collectively chose to charge lower prices than the prevailing price on the market in order to discourage the new entrants.

Through forces of demand and supply. This is the method of pricing where the set price is based on customer’s demand and supply of the product in market.

The Objectives for pricing the products

• To target the return on investment
• To target the market share
• To discourage the new entrants
• To maximize the short run profits
• To determine the distribution of goods and services
• To stimulate the growth of the business
• To establish the market
• To maintain price leadership arrangement

Factors affecting price decisions of a product/factors considered when determining price of a product.

• The nature of customers. Customers with low incomes are always charged with a low price compared to high income earners.
• The government policy. The government at times influences price decisions by setting up minimum and maximum price levels.
• The cost of production. High costs of production for produced products encourages entrepreneurs to charge high prices  while low costs make them to  charge  low prices e.g cost for raw materials.
• The level of competition. High competition encourages entrepreneurs to charge fair prices to their customers and vice versa.
• The main objective of an enterprise. Enterprises whose main objective is profit maximization always charge high prices for their products and where the objective is sales maximization, the entrepreneur always charges fair and low prices to increase on the sales of the business
• The quality of the products. High quality products are always charged with a high price value compared to low quality products.
• The level of demand for the products. Products with high demand encourage entrepreneurs to charge customers a high price compared to products with low demand.
• The seasonal factor .Some products are always charged highly during some seasons .E.g scholastic materials like books, bags are always charged highly when students are going back to school.

MARKETING SURVEY / RESEARCH

Market research is systematic process of collecting and analyzing information relating to markets and opinions of the public about the products of a firm to enable present and future decision making.

It is the process of collecting and analyzing information relating to demand of a good or service in order to identify market opportunities and problems.

AIMS / OBJECTIVES OF CARRYING OUT MARKET RESEARCH OF A PRODUCT

• To find out the type and nature of product preference by consumers at a given period of time.
• To find out the quality of products consumers desire to buy.
• To determine the quantity / volume of products to be on market ie how much is likely to be bought now and in future.
• To find out consumers reactions on the prevailing prices.
• To increase sales/ turnover of the firm.
• To determine the best channel of distribution of goods and services for possible area where the distribution channel is most appropriate.
• To find out the effectiveness of advertising and sales promotion on the sales of a particular product.
• To assess the level of competition with vital forms e.g crown bottlers may carry out market research to determine its market share and how its products are competing with those of century bottling company.
• To know where to locate your business.
• To find out where and when the customers want the good or service.
• To guide entrepreneur in making decisions whether to expand or improve on the current product.

METHODS / TOOLS OF MARKET RESEARCH

• Observation method. This is where the entrepreneur watches the behaviour and attitudes of the public towards his product and products of competitors. It involves making an informal survey by observing business activities in the community. It reveals the need for the particular business.
• Experimental method. This is where an entrepreneur sells his products within a small selected area before selling on large scale. If the product is liked within a small selected area, then the entrepreneur can distribute nationwide.
• Interviewing method. Under this method, the entrepreneur asks oral questions either face to face or by telephone to obtain response of people towards his products. It is a formal discussion which can identify the short comings of the business.
• Telephone surveys. Under this method, an entrepreneur calls different groups of customers to obtain information about aspects of the product to establish the market stand.
• Questionnaire method. Under this method, an entrepreneur carefully design questions which are printed on paper then sent to possible respondents to give answers. It is a formal survey which obtains market information.
• Personal contacts. This involves making an informal survey by talking to family members and friends. These provide information about the best business to set up and the best products to be purchases in the locality.
• Brain storming.  This is a technique used to solve a problem by generating as many ideas as possible. It begins with a question from a leader and another person in a group gives the answer and then any one adds to it or changes it.
• Surfing / use of the internet. This is where information is gathered through surfing from different websites from the internet.

SWOT analysis

This method involves collecting data by a business through gathering information about its strength, weaknesses, as well as information about opportunities and threats from the outside environment.

Steps taken in carrying out market research / survey

• Defining the research problem ie setting objectives to be achieved.
• Designing / planning the research ie the strategy to be employed when collecting data.
• Collecting information. This involves gathering relevant information needed to make rational marketing decisions using the selected technique.
• Presenting the research report. This involves writing a final report about the research findings and making recommendations after analyzing data.

Sources of data for conducting market research

• Competitors / competition. This is where data is collected by monitoring the activities of competitors in the same line of business. This may provide important information about customers demand that were over looked and they may be capturing part of the market by offering something unique.
• Customers. The entrepreneur should talk to customers to get their feelings and ask them where improvement can be made. Encouraging and collecting customers’ comments is an effective form of research which involves asking customers to explain how the product could be improved to satisfy their needs.
• Employees (workers). This is one of the best sources of information about customers’ feelings, likes and dislikes, usually employees work more directly with the customers and hear their complaints that may not reach the owner. They are in most cases aware of the items customers request for that the business does not offer.
• Company records and files. Examining company records and files can be very informative e.g looking at the sales records, complaints, receipts or any other records can show an entrepreneur where his customers live and work, what their preference is, amount purchased etc.

Importance of carrying out market research

• Market research helps an entrepreneur to assess / check the effectiveness of his advertising and promotional activities.
• It helps an entrepreneur to find out the responses of customers to new product developments that he has introduced in the market.
• It helps an entrepreneur to identify problems in the current product or service so as to fulfill the customers’ demands.
• It helps an entrepreneur to find out his market share ie the number of customers he is serving in the market.
• It helps an entrepreneur to find out who his customers are, where they live, what the customers want and when they want, their buying patterns etc.
• It helps an entrepreneur to collect information which can be used as a basis for decision making.
• It helps an entrepreneur to identify his / her competitors, their activities and strategies and device various ways of out competing them.

Problems faced when conducting market research of a given product

Language difference. Given that Uganda lacks a national language, researchers sometimes miss the information they desire to get due to inability to communicate in the languages understood by the different respondents / consumers.

Inadequate financial resources. It is very expensive to carry out market assessment. Small firms with limited capital may not be able to undertake it and this greatly affects their planning.

Inadequate skills to handle data collection due to limited man power to effectively and efficiently handle market assessment. This leads to inaccurate interpretation of information from the public.

Inadequate communication facilities. Accessibility of some areas of the country is difficult due to poor road network. Therefore, information from such areas cannot easily be got by researchers.

Change in demographic factor like population, sex, age etc which affects the findings.

Inadequate co-operation from the customers or public. Some people refuse to answer the questions; others give wrong answers while some chase away the researchers. All these distort research findings and conclusion.

Insecurity / hostility in some areas which hinder effective data collection.

Competitors, who subrogate effective data collection.

There is also a possibility of getting information from a biased sample / source.

MARKETING TECHNIQUES USED IN BUSINESS

These refer to the tools that may be employed by an entrepreneur so as to carry out his marketing effectively. These include the following:

Marketing decision making. This involves making right decisions on how to market and distribute the product. This gives an entrepreneur an opportunity to take action on a given situation.

Effective communication. This enables the entrepreneur to satisfactorily pass a message to the target buyers about products available for sale. It can be conveyed through media like radio, sign posts, newspapers etc either orally or in written.

Negotiations. This is the bargaining situation of a better deal. It enables an entrepreneur to reach an amicable understanding with the customer on a deal.

Display. This is when items are made known to potential buyers by strategically putting them in certain positions so that everybody can be able to see them e.g through attractive windows display.

Offering discounts / price reductions. This is the lowering of the price of a given product aimed at encouraging customers to buy them.

Offering credit. This is where an entrepreneur allows buyers to take goods and make payment for them at a later date. This can attract buyers who do not have immediate cash to customers to buy them.

Quality improvement. It helps an entrepreneur to meet the needs of the market and therefore accord bigger market share.

Distribution. This is the method where an entrepreneur makes the product available at places where customers can easily buy them. E.g by using distribution trucks, opening up distribution centres in different towns.

Personal selling. Is a situation where a team of sales persons are employed to sell directly to customers so to increase the sales of a business.

MARKETING STRATEGY

Includes identifying customer groups (target customers) which a small business can serve better than its large competitors. The business can tailor its product offers, prices, distribution, promotional efforts and services towards a particular market segment.

Tools for effective marketing strategy

Most business owners rely on two or three marketing strategies to attract new business. However, there are several ways to attract new business to your door.

Networking. Networking is perhaps the most commonly used approach by small business owners. This involves cultivating relationships with other people in the business.

Referrals. This is also effective in generating business ideas. It ensures that a pro-active approach is taken rather than a passive one. Ask your satisfied clients to refer other potential customers to you

Cold calling. This involves stating with a conversation with a good opening to capture other person’s attention

Newsletters. This involves keeping your name in front of your customers and prospects. Provide valuable information to customers to act as advertising information / smart marketing.

Giving free information to interested prospectus. Offer information that will help your target market with their problems.

Offering guarantee. Assume it is for better and offer guarantee especially when charging suppliers after being dissatisfied with the current suppliers.

Advertising. Focus on customers’ problems than product features then make the advertisement great by concentrating on the problem you can solve.

Marketing techniques used in business

These refer to tools that may be employed by an entrepreneur so as to carry out his or her marketing effectively. They include

Decision making. This involves making the risky decision to produce the right product for the customers.

Effective communication. This involves sending messages to potential customers successfully

Promotion and advertising, offering discounts or price reduction. This is the liberate lowering of prices to attract customers.

Display. This involves making items strategically arranged to attract the attention of the customers.

Negotiation. This involves bargaining with the customers to reach an agreement.

Quality improvement, this aimed at meeting customers’ needs

Personal selling. This involves employing a team of sales persons to sale the product directly to customers.

Favorable pricing policies and strategies.

POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

Potential customers are a group of people sharing common needs and characteristics that a business decides to serve

Characteristics of potential customers

Age. This is important where the product is aimed at a specific age group. For example, toys for children, as general rule people at different ages have different requirements for different reasons.

Sex. Some products by nature are designed for a particular sex whoever do not advise because some customers may buy for others. For example a man may buy a dress for his girlfriend or daughter.

Location. Customers can be defined by where they live, work and where they go. A small restaurant may cater for workers in nearby offices.

Occupation / employment. Analyse the social class or occupational group the product is targeting. Peoples’ occupations determine their tastes / attitudes.

Income. Not many businesses appeal to ranges of income. If your business is going to focus on high price quality products, your customers will be in high income bracket.

Leisure activities. The leisure industry is an ever growing one. Define customers according to their leisure activities.

Usage. Identify segments based on the way the product is used by the customers, on a simple level, heavy use / medium use, low use, skilled use / unskilled use.

MARKET SEGMENTATION

Is the dividing the market into groups of individual markets with similar wants and needs.

Objectives of market segmentation

• To accurately and profitably meet the needs of selected customers.
• To boast sales and cut advertising costs by targeting customers with a high like hood of product purchases.
• To enable positioning of each branch within the portfolio against a distinct set of customer needs.
• To match customers’ needs in a better way. Creating separate offers for each segment makes sense and provides customers with better solutions.
• To enhance profits for the business. Customers have different disposable income and are therefore different in how sensitive they are to price. Segmenting markets enables business to raise average prices and finally enhance profits.
• To increase opportunities for growth. Market segmentation boasts sales for example if introduced to lower priced products.
• To retain more customers. Customers circumstances change for example they grow older, have families, change jobs through promotions and change buying patterns. Marketing goods which appeal to different customers at different stages enables the business to retain customers than changing to competing products.
• To target marketing communications. Businesses need to deliver their marketing message to a relevant customer’s audience.
• To gain share of the market segment. It enables businesses to achieve competitive production and reduce marketing costs. Small firms are able to compete with bigger firms.

Basis for market segmentation

There is a large collection of possible segmentation bases. Some of these are briefly described below

1. Demographics.  Consumers can be grouped on the basis of characteristics such as age or household composition (family size).

Age/ Gender

This is one of the most important variables of demographic segmentation. Segmentation helps group together people born around the same period. People of a particular age group are likely to be interested in different products from people of another age group. The way you speak to the young generation will differ from the way you speak to the older generation. Therefore, you understand their needs based on their age.
Men and women will have different tastes and interests in the products they purchase. You need to know how gender influences buying decisions. Therefore, companies design gender-specific products.

Religion/ Race/ Nationality

Alongside the geographic areas where your customers come from, you can translate your messages on the products to help your customers understand. More important, not just language but ethnicity can also help determine the test profile of your customers. It is only by doing this that can help you understand the needs of your customers.

Household Characteristics

Families might have different compositions in terms of the number of children or the age of children. Such families will also end up having very different needs. A family will grow up children will have different needs of families with young children (infants). The household characteristics, in this case, would cover the life stages of family members. Besides, it grows families, where couples do not have children or children up and are living alone, might be in different life stages. The best case study is where your customers comprise just newlywed couples or older couples. Understanding the needs of such couples would help craft marketing messages to gain 100% traction.

2. Socio-economic characteristics. Similarly, characteristics such as income, occupation and education can be used to derive segments that are easy to reach. Such segments are indicators of behaviour like lifestyle, price sensitivity and brand preference.

Income / Education

Do you produce products or design services for the low, middle, or high-income category of customers? The way you design your messages across these categories of consumers will definitely be different. Besides, the kinds of customers that purchase your products might be educated but those earning a relatively lower income.

Similarly, segmenting your customers according to income might help you understand how to price your products. Before you put a price tag on a product, it is important to know whether your target market will afford based on their monthly or daily spending. This knowledge prevents you from overpricing or under-pricing your products.

3. Product usage. Potential to use the firm’s product is behaviour based segmentation. Potential could be determined by asking questions about disposition to use (such as awareness, used in the past, would consider using) in a survey and respondents grouped accordingly.

4. Psychographic. Personality, attitudes, opinions and life styles are often used as segmentation bases. These characteristics have some relationship to behaviour and provide insight into how to communicate with chosen segments.

Psychographic segmentation determines where a person buys a home, the career path he/she chooses, and a person’s buying decisions.

Personality

When considering the personality of your customers in a segment, you need to visualize at customers. Let me try to break this down. Do you use fried chicken to target school-going children, mothers, or young boys who love playing soccer? The primary personality of your customers helps frame the products that you would want to sell to your customers.

Lifestyle

Consumers have different lifestyle patterns that reflect many things, including their stage in life. The needs and wants of a consumer depend on their lifestyle patterns. If you segment your customers by lifestyle, you will consider their stage in life and the products that are most attractive to them at that stage.

Opinions/ Attitudes

This categorization considers the opinions, likes, interests, hobbies, religious views, political views, and cultural issues of consumers, among others. The opinions of consumers and their viewpoints have a huge impact on the products they buy.

Interests/ Hobbies

Another way that you can look at the psychology of your target customers is to speak to people that express almost similar hobbies and interests. They might be customers that love sporting activities. Therefore, to target them, you might think of products that give more calories, proteins, or clothes. Therefore, the way you tailor your message that attracts specific groups of customers to your products.

Social status

This segmentation crosses with other segmentations, including lifestyle and demographic. Consumers possess a strong psychological component in need of maintaining the social class standard. The products a consumer buys are greatly influenced by the social class/status of the consumer.

5. Generation. Generation refers to people born in the same period of time. Such people share much in common. Not only of a similar age, nut they experienced similar economic, cultural and political influences in their formative years.

6. Benefit sought. Some people are price sensitive, others seek quality or service. Some people are brand loyal, while others frequently switch brands. It is possible to group consumers on the basis of these factors.

Consumers may place a higher value on certain benefits of a product over others. The primary benefits that your products offer to consumers are the driving factors for the consumer’s decision to buy your product. Two consumers may be identical in terms of demographic makeup. However, the consumers may have very different viewpoints regarding the benefits and features they look for in a product before making a purchase.

7.Geography. There are two reasons why people who live in the same area may share similar characteristics. First, some areas have more expensive properties than others and so people with similar socio-economic characteristics may cluster together, second they have similar transport and shopping options, it is easy to reach particular areas by using local newspaper, cinema, outdoor and selective direct mail but mass media is less effective.

8. Geo-demographic. This combines demographic and geography. This identifies groups of small geographic areas which have similar demographic profile

Therefore, when you think about marketing your products beyond your region into other regions, it is important that you understand your customers well.

Geographical segmentation is important if you deal with products subject to differences in regional culture, population, and climate. Geography is among the oldest basis of segmentation. Regional differences in consumer tastes for products are common. For instance, one region may have a high affinity for a barbecue, yet another area may be inclined to a healthier diet.

9. Discussion. The segmentation basis depends on the decision to be done. For pricing decisions the segmentation should be price sensitive, advertising decision include benefit sought, media use or psychographic or a combination of these

Criteria for selecting segmentation basis

Internal homogeneity / eternal heterogeneity. This means that potential customers within a segment should have similar responses to the marketing mix variable of interest but a different response to members of other segments

Parsimony. This is the degree to which the segmentation makes every potential customer a unique target. That is, the segmentation should identify a small set of grouping of substantial size

Accessibility. This is the degree to which marketers can reach segments separately using observable characteristics of the segments

Data sources to understand your customer profile

Above all, understanding your customers cannot be successful without knowing where to source for quality data. We have various tools that are available to collect either primary or secondary data. The most commonly used research tools comprise:

Surveys

Conducting surveys can help you understand the geographic preferences of your customers and potential customers. You can adopt several research survey approaches, including random sampling and conjoint analysis methods. You may survey your employees in different regions to know what customers expect.

Internal Sources

Internal sources can help you gather a substantial count of data around your customers. We can collect sales data from scanners. Booking data can also be available from loyalty programs or online purchase history.

Website Data

You can rely on web traffic tracking by region to identify regions where your web traffic is coming from. You can detect differences in purchase preferences by conducting an analysis of products that ship to different regions.

Social Media Profiles

Social media profiles can help you come up with geographical segments. From social media, for example, you can get insights into the location preferences of your clients. Social media platforms can help you conduct target messaging by zip code or area.

Secondary Data Sources

You can build and execute your geographic segmentation strategy with the help of third party technologies and agencies. With the help of search engines, for instance, you can target the right customers in the right regions.

Experimental Studies

Experimental data can come from laboratory or field experiments. You might want to test how your customers are responding to an advertisement. You can then use the results from the advertisement to segment your customers. Other sources could be from co-joint analysis when customers are asked to pick among product attributes.

CUSTOMER CARE

Refers to the practice that enable an organisation to deliver services or products in a way that allows the customer to access them in a most efficient, fair cost effective and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible

THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GOOD CUSTOMER CARE

• By being honest to customers ie being trustworthy while handling business transactions with customer and suppliers, financiers and competitors.
• By handling customers objections and complaints well for instance underweight, over priced products, wrong size, contaminated products etc.
• Offering prompt and excellent services to customers ie serving them whenever they show interest or demand for goods or services.
• By being available to meet customers’ demands and assist them all the time.
• By listening to customers suggestions and opinions
• By giving basic knowledge to customers about how the product can be used.
• By being pleasant to customers when serving them.
• Offering technical and after sales services like packaging, transport, free gifts etc.
• Improving on the quality of the products regularly depending on the market demands.
• Offering occasional price reductions or discount to customers.
• By giving credit facilities to customers when they don’t have ready cash.
• Being clear when communicating to customers.

Indicators of good customer care in the business

–        Increase in the sales thus increase in profits

–        Decrease in advertising costs/ rates

–        Increase in number of customers

–        Repeat purchase by customers

–        After sales service available

–        Suggestion boxes

–        Discounts allowed

–        Honesty to the customers

BENEFITS OF GOOD CUSTOMER CARE IN ENTERPRISE

• It improves on the business’ image before the public.
• It promotes good relationship between the business and its customers.
• It promotes high sale since more customers are attracted.
• It acts as a marketing technique to expand the market.
• It creates a plat form to handle customers’ complaints.
• It helps business to out compete its business competitors.
• It helps customers from being exploited like buying poor quality goods.
• It helps to retain business customers and attract the new ones.
• It promotes repeated purchases from the business customers.

PROMOTION OF GOOD CUSTOMER RELATIONS IN A BUSINESS

Customer relations are the ways a business deals with customers

The following are the ways through which good Human Relations can be promoted in a business.

• Proper handling of customer’s complaints and quarries. Customers complaints should be handled with care so as to promote good relations between employees and employers
• The entrepreneur and employees should always show genuine respect to individual customers. This can be done by communicating to employees or customers in a friendly manner
• The entrepreneur and staff should be honest when handling the business transactions. There is need for an entrepreneur and staff to be trust worthy and avoid over charging customers and providing them with substandard goods / services
• Through provision of services promptly to customers. Time management is very important when serving customers so as to encourage them keep on purchasing from  the same business
• Politeness and good business language of the entrepreneur. An entrepreneur needs to handle his customers very well and encourage them to keep on buying goods or services from his business
• Customer care. A customer is a king to the business and therefore there is need for an entrepreneur to care for them with required respect
• Quality improvement of products. An entrepreneur should be able to supply better quality products that can fully satisfy customers’ needs
• Provision of credit facilities to trustworthy customers. There is need for an entrepreneur to extend credit facilities to trust worthy customers in order to attract them and to promote sales of the business
• Offering gifts and samples in the business. Giving gifts and free samples to customers will attract them and maintain good relations between the entrepreneur and the customer
• Offering discounts and after sales services to customers. Customers who buy goods in large quantities should be given discount and after sales  services to promote relations between the entrepreneur and the customer.

Customer satisfaction survey

This is a study conducted to find out whether customers are satisfied with product or not.

Ways of establishing whether the customers are satisfied

–        Face to face interaction ie asking how, what, they think about the product

–        Calling them on phone

–        Mailing them on phone

–        Emailing them a customer satisfaction guide

–        Emailing them an invitation to take a customer satisfaction survey

Measures / ways of ensuring customer satisfaction

–        Offering or selling good quality products

–        Timely response to customers’ concerns or being responsible

–        Good packaging of the products

–        Charging fair prices or giving discounts

–        Ensuring constant supply of the products

–        Being honesty or fair or transparent to customers

–        Providing sufficient information about the use of business products or services

–        Being courteous or sincere

–        Being kind cheerful and able to control ones temper

–        Offering a variety of products or services.

–        Ensuring constant supply of the products