Framework for Marketing Management Learning Guide

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Rationale

Learning Outcomes

Teaching and Learning Resources

Defining Marketing in the Twenty-First Century
Adopting Marketing to the New Economy
Building Customer Satisfaction, Value, and Retention.
Winning Markets through Strategic Planning,
Implementation , and Control
Understanding Markets, Market Demand, and
the Marketing Environment
Market Analysis
Dealing with the Competition
Identifying Market Segments and Selecting Target Markets
Developing, Differentiating, and
Positioning Products through the Life Cycle
Managing Product Lines and Brands
Designing and Managing Services
Designing Pricing Strategies and Programs
Selecting and Managing Marketing Channels
Managing Retailing, Wholesaling, and Market Logistics
Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Communications
Managing the Sales Force

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A Framework for Marketing Management

Rationale

Marketing Management is a business discipline focused on the practical application of marketing techniques and the management of a firm's marketing resources and activities. Marketing managers are often responsible for influencing the level, timing, and composition of customer demand in a manner that will achieve the company's objectives.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge

After completing this module, students will be able to:

1. Explore detailed information of the advanced concepts of marketing management

2. Critically review the role of marketing in the performance of the organization and how to scan the marketing environment surrounding the organization

3. Develop global marketing strategies.

Skills

After completing this module, students will be able to:

1. Analyse markets and buyer behaviour

2. Criticize advertising and promotion activities used in different Egyptian organisations.

3. Administer pricing strategies

4. Evaluate marketing activities

5. Enhance the presentation skills

6. Work in teams and manage time efficiently

7. Enhance the research skills

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Teaching and Learning Resources

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Learning Contents

Defining Marketing in the Twenty-First Century. New Marketing for the New Economy

Tutorials

Readings

Marketing is defined by the AMA as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." ^[1]

It can also be defined as "the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships, in order to capture value from customers in return".

This replaces the previous definition, which still appears in the AMA's dictionary: "an organisational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders."^[2] It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments.^[3] It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.^[3]

Marketing is used to identify the customer, satisfy the customer, and keep the customer. With the customer as the focus of its activities, marketing management is one of the major components of business management. Marketing evolved to meet the stasis in developing new markets caused by mature markets and over capacities in the last 2-3 centuries. The adoption of marketing strategies requires businesses to shift their focus from production to the perceived needs and wants of their customers as the means of staying profitable.

The term marketing concept holds that achieving organisational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions.^[4] It proposes that in order to satisfy its organisational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of consumers and satisfy these more effectively than competitors.^[4]

The term developed from an original meaning which referred literally to going to a market to buy or sell goods or services. Seen from a systems point of view, sales process engineering marketing is "a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions,^[5] whose methods can be improved using a variety of relatively new approaches."

See also

External links

Marketing Process

New Economy was a term coined in late 1990s by pundits to describe what some thought was an evolution of the United States and other developed countries from an industrial/manufacturing-based wealth producing economy into a service sector wealth consuming asset based economy, with fewer job opportunities for the middle class arising partly from an over valuation of technology stocks and partly from globalisation and currency manipulation by governments and their central banks. At the time, some analysts claimed that this change in the economic structure of the United States had created a state of permanent steady growth, low unemployment, and immunity to boom-and-bust macroeconomic cycles. Furthermore, they believed that the change rendered obsolete many business practices. When the stock market bubble burst, analysts soon realized they had been wrong. While many of the more exuberant predictions proved to be wrong, some pundits continue to use the term New Economy to describe contemporary developments in business and the economy.

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In the financial markets, the term has been associated with the Dot-com boom. This included the emergence of the NASDAQ as a rival to the New York Stock Exchange, a high rate of IPOs, the rise of Dot-com stocks over established firms, and the prevalent use of such tools as stock options. In the wider economy the term has been associated with practices such as outsourcing, business process outsourcing and business process re-engineering.

The general idea is that a business should focus on those areas of its operation which are critical to its success and where it has a competitive advantage. Other areas of its operation should be outsourced, typically using technology as the facilitator. In a developed economy, the critical success factors to a leading business are likely to be intellectual things such as brands, products specifications and technical capabilities. Many routine business functions (such as manufacturing and customer service desks) may be outsourced.

See also

External links

'Sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) not reach in its competitive landscape. Michael Porter posits that a competitive advantage, sustainable or not, exists when a company makes economic rents, that is, their earnings exceed their costs, especially including cost of capital. That means that normal competitive pressures are not able to drive down the firm's earnings to the point where they cover all costs and just provide minimum sufficient additional return to keep capital invested. Most forms of competitive advantage cannot be sustained for any length of time because the promise of economic rents drives competitiors to duplicate the competitive advantage held by any one firm.

A firm possesses a Sustainable Competitive Advantage when it has value-creating processes and positions that cannot be duplicated or imitated by other firms that lead to the production of above normal rents. An SCA is different from a competitive advantage (CA) in that it provides a long-term advantage that is not easily replicated. But these above-normal rents can attract new entrants who drive down economic rents. A CA is a position a firm attains that lead to above-normal rents or a superior financial performance. The processes and positions that engender such a position is not necessarily non-duplicable or inimitable. It is possible for some companies to make profits for a time above the cost of capital without sustainable competitive advantage.

A key difference between CA and SCA is that the processes and positions a firm may hold are non-duplicable and inimitable when a firm possesses a SCA. Hence a sustainable competitive advantage is one that can be maintained for a significant amount of time even in the presence of competition. This brings us to the question what is a "significant amount of time". A CA becomes SCA when all duplication and imitation efforts have ceased and the rival firms have not been able to create the same value that the said firm is creating.

Planning for SCA in the IT industry

Analysis of the factors of profitability is the subject of numerous theories of strategy including the five forces model pioneered by Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School.

See also

Activities

British Airways: Asset-led or Market-led?

Building Customer Satisfaction, Value, and Retention. Winning Markets through Strategic Planning, Implementation, and Control

Tutorials

Readings

Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four of a Balanced Scorecard.

In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiation and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.^[1]

However, the importance of customer satisfaction diminishes when a firm has increased bargaining power. For example, cell phone plan providers, such as AT&T and Verizon, participate in an industry that is an oligopoly, where only a few suppliers of a certain product or service exist. As such, many cell phone plan contracts have a lot of fine print with provisions that they would never get away if there were, say, a hundred cell phone plan providers, because customer satisfaction would be way too low, and customers would easily have the option of leaving for a better contract offer.

There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of customer satisfaction for firms.

See also

References

External links

A Value Proposition in business and marketing, is a statement summarizing the customer segment, competitor targets and the core differentiation of one's product from the offerings of competitors. In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore writes, "Positioning is the single largest influence on the buying decision". Value propositions are often used in a business model and business plan to describe value added.

Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues through which it can pursue a particular course of action. Generally, strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions^[1]:

"What do we do?"
"For whom do we do it?"
"How do we excel?"

In many organizations, this is viewed as a process for determining where an organization is going over the next year or—more typically—3 to 5 years (long term), although some extend their vision to 20 years.

See also

Military Strategy and The Art of War for the origins
Business Strategy Mapping
Decision making software
Enterprise planning systems
Hoshin Kanri
Integrated Business Planning
Strategic planning software

Activity

Marketing Tactics

Understanding Markets and Market Demand. The Market System

Tutorials

Readings

A Market is a social arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to discover information and carry out a voluntary exchange of goods or services. It is one of the two key institutions that organize trade, along with the right to own property. Allowing markets to arrive at a pareto efficient outcome is one of the key components of capitalism.

In everyday usage, the word "market" may refer to the location where goods are traded, sometimes known as a marketplace, or to a street market.

See also

References

External links

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A market system is any systematic process enabling many market players to bid and ask: helping bidders and sellers interact and make deals. It is not just the price mechanism but the entire system of regulation, qualification, credentials, reputations and clearing that surrounds that mechanism and makes it operate in a social context.^[1]

Because a market system relies on the assumption that players are constantly involved and unequally enabled, a market system is distinguished specifically from a voting system where candidates seek the support of voters on a less regular basis. However, the interactions between market and voting systems are an important aspect of political economy, and some argue they are hard to differentiate, e.g. systems like cumulative voting and runoff voting involve a degree of market-like bargaining and trade-off, rather than simple statements of choice.

See also

Market Analysis

Tutorials

Readings

A market analysis studies the attractiveness and the dynamics of a special market within a special industry. It is part of the industry analysis and this in turn of the global environmental analysis. Through all these analyses the chances, strengths, weaknesses and risks of a company can be identified.

Finally, with the help of a SWOT analysis, adequate business strategies of a company will be defined. The market analysis is also known as a documented investigation of a market that is used to inform a firm's planning activities, particularly around decisions of inventory, purchase, work force expansion/contraction, facility expansion, purchases of capital equipment, promotional activities, and many other aspects of a company.

See also

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Activity

Market Analysis
- Business Profile

Factors Affecting the Travel and Tourism Industry 1 - Activity

Web Cases

Consumer Markets: History, Patterns and Outlook

Competition, Legislation and Regulation

Tutorials

Readings

Competition is the act of striving against another force for the purpose of achieving dominance or attaining a reward or goal, or out of a biological imperative such as survival. Competition is a term widely used in several fields, including biochemistry, business, ecology, economics, music, politics, and sports. Competition may be between two or more forces, life forms, agents, systems, individuals, or groups, depending on the context in which the term is used.

Competition may yield various results to the participants, including both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Some, such as survival advantages, including favourable territory, are intrinsic biological factors that occur as a result of ecological competition between organisms. Others, such as competition in business and politics, involve competition between humans. In addition, extrinsic symbols, such as trophies, plaques, ribbons, prizes, or laudations, may be given to the winner(s). Such symbolic rewards are commonly used wherever the rewards inherent in the competition are primarily intrinsic, such as at human sporting and academic competitions.

The Latin root for the verb "to compete" is "competere" which means "to seek together" or "to strive together" from dictionary.com

See also

External links

Further reading

A Monopolist's Demand and Cost Conditions

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Competition law, known in the United States as antitrust law, is law that promotes or maintains market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies.^[1]

The history of competition law reaches back to the Roman Empire. The business practices of market traders, guilds and governments have always been subject to scrutiny, and sometimes severe sanctions. Since the 20th century, competition law has become global. The two largest and most influential systems of competition regulation are United States antitrust law and European Union competition law. National and regional competition authorities across the world have formed international support and enforcement networks.

Modern competition law has historically evolved on a country level to promote and maintain competition in markets principally within the territorial boundaries of nation-states. National competition law usually does not cover activity beyond territorial borders unless it has significant effects at nation-state level.^[1] Countries may allow for extraterritorial jurisdiction in competition cases based on so-called effects doctrine.^[1]^[2] The protection of international competition is governed by international competition agreements. In 1945, during the negotiations preceding the adoption of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947, limited international competition obligations were proposed within the Charter for an International Trade Organisation. These obligations were not included in GATT, but in 1994, with the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of GATT Multilateral Negotiations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created. The Agreement Establishing the WTO included a range of limited provisions on various cross-border competition issues on a sector specific basis.^[3]

See also

External links

International

Domestic

Australian Competition Law

Criticism

Activity

Market Power, Competition and Regulation: Anti-Competitive Behaviour

Identifying Market Segments and Selecting Target Markets

Tutorials

Identifying Market Segments and Selecting Target Markets

Readings

Market Segmentation is the process in marketing of dividing a market into distinct subsets (segments) that behave in the same way or have similar needs. Because each segment is fairly homogeneous in their needs and attitudes, they are likely to respond similarly to a given marketing strategy. That is, they are likely to have similar feeling and ideas about a marketing mix comprised of a given product or service, sold at a given price, distributed in a certain way, and promoted in a certain way.

Broadly, markets can be divided according to a number of general criteria, such as by industry or public versus private sector. Small segments are often termed niche markets or speciality markets. However, all segments fall into either consumer or industrial markets. Although it has similar objectives and it overlaps with consumer markets in many ways, the process of Industrial market segmentation is quite different.

The process of segmentation is distinct from targeting (choosing which segments to address) and positioning (designing an appropriate marketing mix for each segment). The overall intent is to identify groups of similar customers and potential customers; to prioritise the groups to address; to understand their behaviour; and to respond with appropriate marketing strategies that satisfy the different preferences of each chosen segment.

The requirements for successful segmentation are:

See also

References

External links

Service buyers: Selecting the offshore location

A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise towards.^[1] A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy. The target market and the marketing mix variables of product, place(distribution), promotion and price are the four elements of a marketing mix strategy that determine the success of a product in the marketplace.

Once these distinct customers have been defined, a marketing mix strategy of product, distribution, promotion and price can be built by the business to satisfy the target market.

Activities

Market Research, Market Segments, Target Markets and the Tobacco Industry

Developing, Differentiating, and Positioning Products through the Life Cycle

Tutorials

Developing, Differentiating, and Positioning Products through the Life Cycle

Readings

In marketing, Product Differentiation is the modification of a product to make it more attractive to the target market. This involves differentiating it from competitors' products as well as one's own product offerings. In economics, successful product differentiation leads to monopolistic competition and is inconsistent with the conditions for perfect competition, which include the requirement that the products of competing firms should be perfect substitutes.

The changes are usually minor; they can be merely a change in packaging or also include a change in advertising theme. The physical product need not change, but it could. The major sources of product differentiation are as follows:

1. Differences in quality or design among output (product)

2. Ignorance of buyers regarding the essential characteristics and qualities of goods they are purchasing

3. Pervasive sales promotion activities of sellers and, in particular, advertising

4. Possibility of developing significant product differentiation through advertising is greatly enhanced for so called “gift goods” or “prestige goods”

5. Differentiation in the locations of sellers of the same good where the product fills no technical function but rather can satisfy many different sort of personal needs or uses (psychological or physical).

The objective of this strategy is to develop a position that potential customers will see as unique. If your target market sees your product as different from the competitors', you will have more flexibility in developing your marketing mix. A successful product differentiation strategy will move your product from competing based primarily on price to competing on non-price factors (such as product characteristics, distribution strategy or promotional variables).

Differentiation has been shown to impact firm performance positively both theoretically and empirically. Differentiation primarily impacts performance through two mechanisms:

1. Reduced price sensitivity: Consumers may become willing to pay a premium price for the differentiating factor/s.

2. Reducing directness of competition: As the product becomes more different, categorization becomes more difficult and hence draws fewer comparisons with its competition.

Most people would say that the implication of differentiation is the possibility of charging a price premium; however, this is a gross simplification. If customers value the firm's offer, they will be less sensitive to aspects of competing offers; price may not be one of these aspects. Differentiation makes customers in a given segment have a lower sensitivity to other features (non-price) of the product.

The disadvantage of this repositioning is that it usually requires large advertising and production expenditures.

See also

Managing Product Lines and Brands

Tutorials

Readings

Product management is an organisational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle.

The role consists of Product development and product marketing, which are different (yet complementary) efforts, with the objective of maximizing sales revenues, market share, and profit margins. The product manager is often responsible for analysing market conditions and defining features or functions of a product. The role of product management spans many activities from strategic to tactical and varies based on the organisational structure of the company. Product management can be a function separate on its own, or a member of marketing or engineering.

While involved with the entire product lifecycle, product management's main focus is on driving new product development. According to the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), superior and differentiated new products — ones that deliver unique benefits and superior value to the customer — is the number one driver of success and product profitability.^[1]

Depending on the company size and history, product management has a variety of functions and roles. Sometimes there is a product manager, and sometimes the role of product manager is shared by other roles. Frequently there is Profit and Loss (P&L) responsibility as a key metric for evaluating product manager performance. In some companies, the product management function is the hub of many other activities around the product. In others, it is one of many things that need to happen to bring a product to market and actively monitor and manage it in-market.

Product management often serves an inter-disciplinary role, bridging gaps within the company between teams of different expertise, most notably between engineering-oriented teams and commercially-oriented teams. For example, product managers often translate business objectives set for a product by Marketing or Sales into engineering requirements. Conversely they may work to explain the capabilities and limitations of the finished product back to Marketing and Sales. Product Managers may also have one or more direct reports who manage operational tasks and/or a Change Manager who can oversee new initiatives.

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See also

A Brand is a collection of images and ideas representing an economic producer; more specifically, it refers to the concrete symbols such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary. A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service. A brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer. A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, colour schemes, symbols, sound which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.

The brand, and "branding" and brand equity have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as "cultural accessories and personal philosophies". ^[1]

See also

External links

BusinessWeek 2006 Global Brands Scorecard
Brandmarker
Who's wearing the trousers? - The Economist's defence of brands
Leading Consumer Brands from the Muslim World
Financial Times 2006 Global Brand Ranking by Millward Brown Optimor (reg. req'd to see full tables)
Stealing Share - Branding from a different perspective
brandchannel - Online exchange about branding produced by Interbrand
The Big Page of Branding & Corporate Identity
Brand Indexes Updated Daily
Product management
Product Management - Overview
Managing the Product
Developing New Products

Activities

Product Portfolio Analysis

Designing and Managing Services

Tutorials

Designing and Managing Services

Readings

In economics and marketing, a Service is the non-material equivalent of a good. Service provision has been defined as an economic activity that does not result in ownership, and this is what differentiates it from providing physical goods. It is claimed to be a process that creates benefits by facilitating either a change in customers, a change in their physical possessions, or a change in their intangible assets.

By supplying some level of skill, ingenuity, and experience, providers of a service participate in an economy without the restrictions of carrying stock (inventory) or the need to concern themselves with bulky raw materials. On the other hand, their investment in expertise does require marketing and upgrading in the face of competition which has equally few physical restrictions.

Providers of services make up the Tertiary sector of industry.

See also

Finding related topics

External links

Workshop

Managing Services: Using Technology to Create Value

PART ONE: THE CONTEMPORARY SERVICE ENVIRONMENT

PART TWO: STRATEGY AND SYSTEM DESIGN

PART THREE: MANAGING SERVICES

Managing Services: Using Technology to Create Value
Mark M. Davis, Bentley College
Janelle Heineke, Boston University

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Case Study

Designing Pricing Strategies and Programmes. Selecting and Managing Marketing Channels

Tutorials

Readings

Pricing is one of the four p's of the marketing mix. The other three aspects are product management, promotion, and place. It is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation theory.

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Pricing is the manual or automatic process of applying prices to purchase and sales orders based on factors such as: a fixed amount, quantity break, promotion or sales campaign, specific vendor quote, price prevailing on entry, shipment or invoice date, combination of multiple orders or lines, and many others. Automated systems require more setup and maintenance but may prevent pricing errors.

See also

External links

Pricing Issues

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Distribution is one of the four aspects of marketing. A distributor is the middleman between the manufacturer and retailer. After a product is manufactured by a supplier/factory, it is typically stored in the distributor's warehouse. The product is then sold to retailers or customers. The other three parts of the marketing mix are product management, pricing, and promotion.

See also

External links

Channels and Wholesaling

Activities

Pricing Strategies

Profit, Loss and Value Added: The Mobile Phone Industry

Workshop

Managing Services: Using Technology to Create Value

Marketing Channels - A Management View

7th Edition
Bert Rosenbloom - Drexel University
0324186932

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Managing Retailing, Wholesaling, and Market Logistics

Tutorials

Managing Retailing, Wholesaling, and Market Logistics

Readings

Retailing consists of the sale of goods/merchandise for personal or household consumption either from a fixed location such as a department store or kiosk, or from a fixed location and related subordinated services.^[1] In commerce, a retailer buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells individual items or small quantities to the general public or end user customers, usually in a shop, also called a store. Retailers are at the end of the supply chain. Marketers see retailing as part of their overall distribution strategy.

Shops may be on residential streets, or in shopping streets with little or no houses, or in a shopping centre. Shopping streets may or may not be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping street has a partial or full roof to protect customers from precipitation. On-line retailing (e-commerce) is the latest form of non-shop retailing (cf. mail order).

Shopping generally refers to the act of buying products. Sometimes this is done to obtain necessities such as food and clothing, sometimes it is done as a recreational activity. Recreational shopping often involves window shopping (just looking, not buying) and browsing and does not always result in a purchase.

See also

Variety store
Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania [1]

References

External links

Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Communications. Managing the Sales Force

Tutorials

Readings

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is a cross-functional approach to marketing communications concerned with developing relationships with customers and other stakeholders. In addition to strategic segmentation and market segmentation, IMC involves the use of demographic and psychographic profiles of stakeholders. Pioneered by Don E. Schultz of Northwestern University's renowned Medill School of Journalism, integrated marketing communications has been implemented in Fortune 500 companies and other businesses worldwide.

Integrated marketing communication is defined as a holistic approach to promote buying and selling in the digital economy. This concept includes many online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relation, billboard, radio, and television.

A successful integrated marketing communication plan will customize what is needed for the client based on time, budget and resources to reach target or goals. Small business can start an integrated marketing communication plan on a small budget using a website, email and SEO. Large corporation can start an integrated marketing communication plan on a large budget using print, mail order, radio, TV plus many other online ad campaigns.

Some other creative marketing communication methods include: social marketing and green marketing may enhance or facilitate the marketing process of building relationship among stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, partners, communities, shareholders).

External links

Integrated Marketing Communications (Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism)
Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications (Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism)
Don E. Schultz (Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism)
Promotion Process, Sales Promotion and Publicity
Advertising

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Sales, or the activity of selling, forms an integral part of commercial activity. It could be argued that it is the cornerstone of business as it is the meeting of buyers and sellers and all other areas of business has the goal of making that meeting successful. Mastering sales is considered by many as some sort of persuading "art". On the contrary, the methodological approach of selling refers to it as a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which a salesperson relates his offering enabling the buyer to visualize how to achieve his goal in an economic way.

`Selling' is the heart beat of any business. No business can function without professional sales people. Dubious selling practices may occasionally result in a sale if the customer is particularly gullible. But it is arguable that, even then, only good marketing, great quality of product along with sales follow up (which encompasses a far wider range of skills, with an almost diametrically opposed motivation) 'will lead the customer to buy again from the same company '. Organizations seldom profit from single purchases made by first-time customers. Normally they rely on repeat business to generate the profit that they need.[1]. However, there are some industries which have a business model based on one time only sales relationship. These tend to be the sale of very expensive, unusual household products such as houses and new and used cars.

The economic reason for this behaviour is that these items are usually unique. A customer is buying a product because of that product's features and benefits along with their emotional attachment or feeling about the product. These can be slightly influenced by the salesperson, however, the sales person knows that the same item cannot be resold to the same customer again at a later date. They also know that the customer is unlikely to buy a similar product for a long time, and so has no incentive to offer any extra quality of service to encourage a long-term relationship. This behaviour is generally true only of business-to-consumer sales. Business-to-business sales are much more relationship based owing to the lack of emotional attachment to the products in question.

Selling is a practical implementation of marketing; it often forms a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing separate specialist operatives known as salesmen (singular: salesman or salesperson).

The successful questioning to understand a customer's goal, the further creation of a valuable solution by communicating the necessary information that encourages a buyer to achieve his goal at an economic cost is the responsibility of the sales person or the sales engine (e.g. internet, vending machine etc).

The primary function of professional sales is to generate and close leads, educate prospects, fill needs and satisfy wants of consumers appropriately, and therefore turn prospective customers into actual ones.

From a marketing point of view, selling is one of the methods of promotion used by marketers. Other promotional techniques include advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and public relations.

Various sales strategies exist, such as tit-for-tat which is best if ongoing dealings and interactions are expected. This insight is behind so-called consultative sales process which are used by Saturn to sell cars, as well as for some direct Business-to-Business sales.

Several types of sales exist including direct, consultative, and complex sales. Complex sales varies from other types in that the customer plays a more pro-active role, often requiring proposal response to their Request for Proposal (RFP).

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See also

Compare

External links

Personal Selling and Sales Management

Case Studies

Activity

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0273681575 (Paperback) Nov 2005, 504 pages

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Marketing Channels: A Relationship Management Approach

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Game Theory at Work
By Miller, James D.

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Chartered Management Institute

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Case Studies

Tesco plc is a United Kingdom-based international grocery and general merchandising retail chain. It is the largest British retailer by both global sales and domestic market share, is the world's third-largest grocery retailer,^[1] and is the fourth-largest retailer behind Wal-Mart of the United States, Carrefour of France, and The Home Depot of the United States.^[2]

Originally specialising in food, it has diversified into areas such as clothes, consumer electronics, consumer financial services, selling and renting DVDs,^[3] compact discs and music downloads, internet service consumer telecoms and most recently budget software.