This the second in our series of marketing articles, if you missed the first one you can find it here: Marketing Series: An Introduction to Marketing
Part 2. Customer Orientated marketing:
So if creating quality products is not a guarantee of a sale and people are less likely to be sucked in by advertising techniques, then where next for marketing? Relationship marketing became a buzz word from the 1980’s where the emphasis changed to focus on what the customer actually needs. To quote ‘A marketing orientated firm produces goods and services that consumers want to buy rather than what the firm wants to make.’ This approach goes beyond the marketing department and has to infuse the whole organisation.
E-Commerce Sites – Early Days
When ecommerce sites began, the developers would concentrate on the navigation, look and usability of the site rather than the physical delivery of the end product. Certain sites lost their initial advantage as customers would not be able to choose the time of delivery, orders were delayed and some received damaged goods (In the UK for December 2012, 225,000 items did not arrive on time, which is 60% of all on-line purchases). By just focusing on the front end of getting sales and not on the back end logistics, they suffered from a bad reputation and falling revenue. This is partly due to the fact they did not implement an integrated delivery system and the warehouse personnel did not see their role as being part of the sales process. Their attitude was on moving goods rather than providing a reliable and efficient service that met client expectations.
Customer Satisfaction is key
For any organisation to be successful it needs to change its culture so that everyone is focused on customer satisfaction.
To do this each department should be made aware of their role in the enterprise and how that can affect the customer experience. A disgruntled customer will not only shop elsewhere but dissuade others from coming to you. The main economic benefit for a business is customer retention. It costs 5 times as much to gain a new client than to keep an existing one. The more a customer is happy with the goods and service they receive the more like it is that they will return and become ambassadors of the business through word of mouth recommendation (the cheapest and still the most influential form of advertising). Part of the reason department stores and supermarkets use “Loyalty Cards” is to encourage repeat buying and target their customers with special offers.
Relationship building
The whole process builds relationships between the marketer and customer. There are four elements should be promoted at every stage of contact:
- Trust
- Commitment
- Communication
- Conflict handling
To help a business focus on the task at hand there is a simple marketing tool which is a good checklist to help appreciate the market place known as the 7 O’s or marketing mix.
These are:
- Occupants. Who constitutes the market? Private individuals or direct business’s
- Objects. What do they buy? Products or time based services
- Occasions When does the market buy? Seasonal for Christmas presents or all year round such as groceries.
- Organization Who participates in the buying? Do they have a procurement officer or is it the MD who has final say.
- Objectives Why does the market buy? Is it a necessity or discretionary spending
- Operations How does the market buy? Buy regularly or purchase in bulk
- Outlets Where does the market buy? From a High Street shop or on-line.
Once these questions are addressed the organisation can put in place the most appropriate strategies to meet market expectations. In maintaining your customer base this helps to ensure the long term viability of the business.
See our related articles at: https://it-ebs.co.uk/news/marketing-series-determining-customers-want/ and https://it-ebs.co.uk/news/marketing-part-5-understanding-sales-process-psychology-behind-customer-behaviour/
