Marketing Strategies and Customer Satisfaction

This assignment examines various marketing strategies companies can employ to attract customers and ensure their satisfaction. It emphasizes the need for comprehensive market analysis, considering competitive landscapes and adapting strategies to meet evolving customer demands. The document stresses that customer satisfaction is paramount while striving for profitability.

Marketing Principles
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Explain the various elements of the marketing process.....................................................3
1.2 Evaluate the benefits and costs of a marketing orientation for a selected organization....3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Show macro and micro environmental factors which influence marketing decisions......5
2.2 Propose segmentation criteria to be used for the products in different markets................5
2.3 Chose a targeting strategy for a selected product or service.................................................6
2.4 Demonstrate how buyer behaviour affects the marketing activities in different buying
situations..................................................................................................................................6
2.5 Propose new positioning for as selected product/services.................................................7
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Explaining how products are developed to sustain competitive advantage......................8
3.2 Explaining how distribution is arranged to provide customer convenience......................8
3.3 Explaining how prices are set to reflect an organization’s objectives and market
conditions.................................................................................................................................9
3.4 Illustrating how promotional activity is integrated to achieve marketing objectives........9
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................11
Presentation................................................................................................................................11
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4.1 Plan marketing mixes for two different segments in consumer markets for Vodafone
UK. Your plan should set out and communicate clearly what is to be done.........................11
4.2 Illustrate differences in marketing products and services to businesses rather than
consumers for Vodafone UK. Use examples to illustrate your points..................................13
4.3 Show how and why international marketing differs from domestic marketing in the case
of Vodafone UK....................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
This assignment related to marketing principles. The marketing principles are the elements of the
marketing which completes the marketing process for the company. In this assignment varied
components of the procedure that is related to the marketing. In the report, cost and advantages
of market orientation are also explained. This assignment studies the various elements of the
marketing process and explains the benefits and the cost of market orientation. It also shows the
micro and macro environmental factors which impact the decisions of marketing in a company.
This report on marketing principles provides the study of segmentation and the targeting
strategy. Positioning strategy of the company is discussed in the report. The importance of
sustained competitive advantage for the company, the distribution arrangement for customer
convenience are studied in this report and the pricing strategy according to market conditions and
the organization objectives are understood in this report. The marketing principles and the
marketing mix are discussed in this.
The aim of the report or to prepare this assignment is to make understand the marketing
principles and the different strategies a company should consider while performing the marketing
activities in the market.
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Task 1
1.1 Marketing process components
Marketing is the one of the main activity that is performed by the business firm to generate sales
in the business. For providing maximum customer satisfaction organization should consider
offering quality products and improved services. There are four main components of the
marketing process and same are explained beneath:
1. Environmental scanning- Most of the business firms do scanning of the environment in
order to identify the needs and wants of the customers (Baumgartner and Weijters, 2017).
This is done with the view of benefiting with the maximum customer satisfaction by
offering them the quality product and the services.
2. Segmentation- After environmental scanning the segmentation takes place in the
marketing process. Segmentation divides the group of people in the different segments
according to the by considering similar characteristics that individual have. There are
varied factors on the basis of which segmentation is done like demographic factors etc.
3. Targeting- After segmenting market the marketing process includes the targeting process
under which target customers are identified from the market and products are produced
according to the specific customers’ needs.
4. Positioning- Positioning refers to the strategy that is followed to create a specific image
of the firm among the customers (Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings, 2011). Under this on
the basis of USP or unique selling proposition product is advertised in the market.
1.2 Market orientation cost and positive factors for a selected organization.
Market orientation is the business technique of serving the customers according to the
customers’ demands instead of whatever the organization is planning to offer or produce. The
market orientation aims to provide customers maximum satisfaction by the offered products and
the services. Market orientation consists of the different activities such as production etc. In
order to serve customers in better way it is important to develop broad understanding about them
(Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings, 2011). In order to maintain quality of finished products
Volkswagen use best spare parts in its cars. For promoting the products of firm to the maximum
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people it is necessary for the firm to produce high quality of products at the workplace. The firm
also obtain advantages of market orientation when it introduce new product in the market. New
product is developed after doing market research. Hence, there is low risk in new product
development. The market orientation provides with the benefits or the advantage to the company
in providing the finished items as per customer’s desire in the market.
Task 2
2.1 Environmental impact on the firm marketing decisions
In the current report automobile sector is taken in to account and out of same Volkswagen is
selected for research. The micro and the macro environmental factors impact the company
Volkswagen. The micro environmental factors are legal factors, social factors, economic factors,
cultural factors, political factors and technological factors. Major macro environment
components which heavily affects the marketing decisions are legal and economic factors. It is
not possible to control these factors and negative change in them put a very bad impact on the
firm marketing decisions (Hair Jr. and Lukas, 2014). Vodafone is planning to attract vast number
of customers during Christmas and New Year. By doing so it intends to escalate its sales revenue
in the business.
There are few micro environment components have impact on the decisions. Some of these
factors are consumers and suppliers etc. Less innovation in the product and the maximum
comfort and the competing products of the competitors already positioned in the market have its
effect on the Volkswagen. Customer is the entity which have a very huge impact on the firm
business profit and marketing campaign because it is very important to present product with
features before them that they want to see in same (Padon, Maloney and Cappella, 2017). To
provide better customer satisfaction and the meeting the needs of customers the company should
provide the products and the services according to the needs and wants of the customers and the
research done by the company.
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2.2 Criteria that must be used to segment a market
The segmentation of the market can be done by considering people age and buying capacity of
the customers and the organization should made available offering to the customer according to
the segmentation. Organization aim from segmenting the market is to deliver the items to the
relevant entity and enhance the profit of organization.
For growth of the company and getting the maximum customer satisfaction as well as generating
maximum benefit from the products and services the Volkswagen should use the different
segmenting criteria (Hollensen, 2015). The company should segment the sectors of the market in
a way to determine the prices of the products and the customers who are willing to purchase the
product on that price or can afford them. As well as the company should research on the needs
and the wants of the customers and design the cars according to them to attract them and provide
them maximum satisfaction. Entire market must be segment in varied parts very carefully by the
business firm after considering number of factors.
2.3 Target market for Volkswagen
It is the procedure under which potential customers are identified and the groups are find out
who desired to purchase such project which a company desires to offer. The company
Volkswagen should target the customers by considering product price and the demands of the
customers. Those group of people are identified as target customers that may be interested in the
firm product. If firm product best suit to needs of specific sort of people then same can be
assumed as target customer. The Volkswagen is the expensive brand producing the expensive
cars which directly affects the company’s pricing policy and the strategy of targeting the market.
The cars produced by the Volkswagen can be afforded by the customer group of having higher
income. Therefore, the company should maintain the strategy of targeting the customers whose
salary package is too big and prefer to buy higher priced cars (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). The
company should consider to design the cars and the products of the company in a manner to
attract more and more customers and attract more and more sales and should give the tough
competition to the competitors.
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2.4 Impact of buying behaviour in marketing activcities
Different situations of market affect purchase decisions of customers and as well as the
companies. The customer’s buying decision is affected by the different factors such as personal
factors like age and income etc. The customer buying decisions and the behaviour changes with
the environmental and social factors also. While making a purchase related decision one consider
number of factors like income level and current savings. Low income customer does not go for
purchasing the luxury product and will not have the intention to buy it. The buying decision of
the product also depends on the age of the customer. The changes in the cultural and social
values also affect the purchase decision of the customers (Bhattacharya, 2016). Buying
behaviour of the customer is heavily affected by the fashion and personality etc.
2.5 Positioning of products and services
Positioning is the process by using which image of the company as well as the products.
Volkswagen is going to release new model or version of its car in the market and here there is
need to devise strong product positioning strategy so that number of customers can be increased
to the market so the positioning strategy should be based on the market demands and the desires
(Sheth and Sisodia, 2015). Company should consider targeted market and must position the
product according to the target market. The company should produce the cars according to the
family needs such as the spacious cars for the families and should keep them in the market where
the families can afford the cars. Youths are one of the target customers of the Volkswagen and
due to this reason sports car must be targeted towards youngsters. Product must be positioned by
the Volkswagen on the basis of advanced feature that car of the mentioned company wants to
sale to the customers.
Positioning strategy of firm is to be taken into consideration demand and needs of the customers
and the company should position the products in the market where there are potential buyers for
maintaining higher satisfaction among the customers and the maximum profit of the company.
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Task 3
3.1 Ways in which product is developed to gain competitive advantage.
The competitive advantage is the state in which firm delivers and offers products and the
services better than the competitors’ products and at the lower prices to gain the benefit or the
advantage to the company and attracting the customers to buy the products. Sustainable
competitive advantage is the process of maintaining the commanding position of firm in the
industry (Strauss, 2016). The mentioned thing helps the firm to manage its current position and
to compete with competitor in the market and creates the value for the company and its products.
Product development is done by sustain competitive advantage by providing the products better
than the competitors’ products. Companies now make the strategy to gain the best and the first
position in the market and this can be done by competing with the competitors and providing the
best quality products and services than the competitors. Product development is done when the
customers demand for the company’s products and to maintain the customers the company
develops the product innovatively to gain to sustain competitive advantage. For e.g. the dominos
and the pizza hut are the competitors and provide the pizza as the basic ingredient in food (Shaw,
2016). They both focus on sustaining competitive advantage.
3.2 Way in which product is distributed for customer convenience
The distribution of the company products is very important and has the great impact on the
customers and the buying willingness of the company. The company should maintain and have
the strong distribution channel systems to provide the products and the services to the customers
easily. The products should be made accessible to the customers for improving the sales of the
company (De Mooij, 2013). The customer convenience is one of the important factor for the
firms to maintain the brand image and the better performance of the company in the market.
The companies operating in the other countries need to grab the position in the markets of the
different countries of the world should improve the distribution channel of the company to reach
the customers within time and in effective manner. The companies need to have the middle man
to improve the distribution system of the company and to reach the customers effectively. The
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middlemen of the company ensure the accessibility of the customers on company’s products. For
e.g. the Mercedes Company needs to achieve the markets of the different countries and the
customers need to have the outlets in different parts of the world to showcase the company
products, by these outlets customers can easily purchase the company’s products (Sulieman,
2013).
3.3 Setting of price and organization’s objectives
The organizational objectives are to decided tasks and the aim which the organization has to
achieve. Any organization major objective is the customer satisfaction and the profit increment
in an organization. The company’s motive to achieve the organizational objective can be attained
with setting the prices of the organization (McGoldrick and Liu, 2017). The company can
provide the customer satisfaction by providing the better quality products to the customers at
lower prices whereas the profit maximization objective of the organization can be achieved by
providing the products and services to the customers at higher profit margin.
The company while setting the prices for the product should consider the market conditions as
the market includes the competitors who can gain the competitive advantage by providing the
same product at the lower prices. The prices of the company are set according to the market
conditions and the company’s objectives. For e.g. the Mercedes company has the higher prices of
the cars produced by them as they motive to provide the luxury cars to the people and also focus
on the strategy of the increased profit margin. The company changes the prices for the products
according to the change in objectives of the company and the market conditions of the country
(Fortenberry and McGoldrick, 2016). The company has the competitors according to the
company’s brand. The competitors of the company are the organization who produces the same
luxury cars.
3.4 Integration of marketing with objectives
Promotion activity is the very crucial and beneficial activity to sell a product. Promotion is the
process of communicating product features and characteristics which a consumer gets ready to
pay for (Flint and Schumann, 2017). The promotional activity for any company is the tool to
increase the demand for the product and gaining profit. The promotion activity includes various
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elements such as advertising, publicity, sales promotion and the personal selling. These activities
can be performed for increasing the promotion of the firm services and increase demand for
company.
Promotion may be done in any form like by the use of mass media such as newspapers,
magazines, television, radio, internet, hoardings. Public relation and the mouth publicity are also
the effective methods to promote the brand or the company’s products. For e.g. the Samsung
phones when launched have the extra promotional activities through different media and in
different manner to communicate the mobile features to the public.
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Task 4
Presentation
4.1 Marketing mix for Volkswagen
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4.2 Difference in marketing for consumers and business firms
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4.3 Reasons for difference in domestic and international marketing.
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Conclusion
By the above study and research we can conclude that the company should consider all the
strategies and the marketing principles to get benefit of the company and to provide the
maximum customer satisfaction to the customers. The companies should adopt the different
marketing strategies to gain the customer attraction and the companies should consider the
competition and the market conditions to serve the customers better and the according to their
demand. The customer satisfaction is the important and the major motive for the companies and
the profit maximization is the important aim of the company. To meet these objectives the
company should follow the marketing principles and the strategies to attract the customers.
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REFERENCES
Books & journals
Babin, B.J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015. Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning.
Baumgartner, H. and Weijters, B., 2017. Measurement Models for Marketing Constructs.
In Springer Handbook of Marketing Decision Models.
Bhattacharya, C.B., 2016. Responsible Marketing: Doing Well by Doing Good. GfK Marketing
Intelligence Review. 8(1). pp.8-17.
De Mooij, M., 2013. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Sage
Publications.
Flint, D. and Schumann, D.W., 2017. Plugging Social Responsibility into Shopper Marketing.
In The Customer is NOT Always Right? Marketing Orientationsin a Dynamic Business
World . Springer, Cham.
Fortenberry Jr, J.L. and McGoldrick, P.J., 2016. Internal marketing: A pathway for healthcare
facilities to improve the patient experience.International Journal of Healthcare
Management. 9(1). pp.28-33.
Gordon, R., Carrigan, M. and Hastings, G., 2011. A framework for sustainable marketing.
Marketing Theory. 11(2). pp.143-163.
Hair Jr, J.F. and Lukas, B., 2014. Marketing research. McGraw-Hill Education Australia.
Hollensen, S., 2015. Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.
McGoldrick, P.J. and Liu, C., 2017. Application of Mixed Methods by Consumer Marketing
Practitioners: Lessons for the Academy? Abstract. InCreating Marketing Magic and
Innovative Future Marketing Trends . Springer, Cham.
Padon, A.A., Maloney, E.K. and Cappella, J.N., 2017. Youth-Targeted E-cigarette Marketing in
the US. Tobacco Regulatory Science. 3(1). pp.95-101.
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Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.
Sheth, J.N. and Sisodia, R.S., 2015. Does marketing need reform?: Fresh perspectives on the
future. Routledge.
Strauss, J., 2016. E-marketing. Routledge.
Online
Marketing, 2017. [Online]. Available through :<
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marketing>. [Accessed on 13th February 2017].
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