Business Reading chapter 2 1 11 15 Marketing Concept focuses on importance of providing costumers value all company polocies and activities should satisfy costumer needs Makret Research to determine the needs of its costumers Merket Mix to determine how to satisfy those needs through addressing product price place promtotion and service Market strategy to analyze its competitive advantages plans and actions Target Marketing to select specific markets to serve Managing the Market Mix1 Products and Services effective product strategies for a small business may include concentrating on a narrow product line developing a highly specialized product or service or providing a product service package containing an unusual amount of service 2 Price price and polocies are a major factor affecting total revenue This includes determining the credit policy Will you allow your costumer to pay for the product after they receive it or do they need to pay for it when they receive it In the most general sense higher prices mean lower volume and lower prices mean higher volume However small businesses can often command higher prices because of the personalized service they offer In addition there have been situations where higher prices are associated with higher quality and increasing the price to a certain point results in increased volume Hair care products are one category where this has occurred 3 Promotion Includes leveraging Internet various forms of advertising salesmanship and other promotional activities Offering special financing or extended terms in another form of promotion effective promotional strategies are a must for business because of the cost of extensive advertising campaigns and the limitations such cost imposes 4 Place or Distribution Channel manufacturer and wholesaler decide how to distribute their products working through established distributors or manufacturers agents for small manufactures Small retailers should consider cost and traffic flow as two major factors in location site selection especially since advertising and rent can be reciprocal Low cost low traffic location means you must spend more on advertising to build traffic Investing efforts to increase accessibility are key factors in product distribution 5 Service Product price place and promotion costumer service is another way that an organization can provide value and differentiate itself from others that offer similar or identical products Market Research systematic gathering recording and analyzing of data about problems relating to marketing goods and services Reasons for market research Reduce business risk Identify problems and potential problems in your current market that you can solve in a unique matter Discover and profit from sales opportunities Acquire facts about your market to develop a marketing strategy and implement action plans Assist you in making better decisions and make corrections as needed Conducting market research follows eight steps 1 Defining the problem or opportunity 2 Assessing available information 3 Gathering additional information 4 Reviewing internal records and files interviewing employees 5 Collecting outside data 6 Organizing and interpreting data 7 Making a decision and taking action 8 Assessing the results of the action Assessing the Results of the Action analyze your progress measures if you are disappointed in the results determine why the plan went awry Marketing strategy encompasses identifying costumer groups or target markets that a small business can serve better than its competitors and tailoring its product offerings prices distribution promotional efforts and services toward that particular market segment should address unmet consumer needs that represent adequate potential size and profitability marketing strategy is most successful when its marketing orientation 9and approach that requires an organization to gather information about their costumers needs through research share that information throughout the firm and use that information to help build long term relationships between the organization and their costumers Target Marketing concentrating their market efforts on one or a few key market segments Geographic segmentation focusing on understanding the needs of costumers in a particular geographical area Demographic segmentation Focusing on the attributes of the market based on gender age income education or other measurable factors Psychographic segmentation Identifying and promoting to groups of people based on lifestyle and behaviors that are most likely to buy the product my be based on interests fears behaviors or actions The sales forecast create sales forecast process often begins by assessing how the total market will perform Market Performance after market program decisions are made owners and managers need to evaluate the result of their decisions spending more is not always better The law of diminishing return states that investing additional resources may initially increase productivity but after a certain point spending more will result in a lower return per dollar invested Diminishing state rate of dimisninshing return states that additional I nvestment beyond a certain threshold will not add proportional returns