Assignment Sample on C11MG Marketing
Question 1 – Critically discuss the value of marketing research within effective marketing
Marketing has become an indispensable facet of contemporary businesses that allow companies to stimulate demand in the market in order to sell their goods and services to the targeted customers. However, many organizations lacks in pursuing strong marketing research that does not lead to effective marketing activities or success. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the significance and value of marketing research with ineffective marketing. The following content of the paper is going to critically discuss the significance and value of marketing research in the contemporary times by looking into ways it makes the marketing process effective and positively influential.
Prior to developing a critical understanding on marketing research and its value it is ideal at this point to understand what effective marketing truly signifies. The idea of effective marketing is predominantly about analysing and carefully identifying with all facets and elements of a business and ensures that the selected marketing tactics and strategies are rightfully aligned to the business objectives and goals (Nosalska and Mazurek, 2019). In simple terms, it is about choosing the right marketing strategies that help in achieving business targets. The concept of marketing research is extremely crucial and needs to be carefully identified under effective marketing studies and practices.
According to Roque (2020) the concept of marketing research is not simply about identifying with a specific activity or method but to develop a thorough and adequate understanding on the right target market the most profitable section of the population, the potential success of the offered products and services in meeting customer demands and business profits. The value of market research or conducting the same can be observed as its benefits in understanding and obtaining business opportunities. Businesses in the contemporary times require developing robust relationships with stakeholders, developing business partnerships, creating highly profitable orders, alongside findings new locations in order to expand and excel (Santoro et al., 2020). The right market research is going to allow any organization to pursue the mentioned and can provide a vivid understanding to any company about the available business opportunities market resources that can be effectively utilized to succeed.
Conducting market research also allows businesses to lower overall business risks. Brian Hill (2021) stated that market research can be observed as a specific process of gathering and identifying specific information regarding market competitors, industry trends, customer groups, and overall business environment. While doing so, businesses do develop a sound understanding on the available threats and risks in the market that can be of potential challenges and hindrances in fulfilling daily business objectives. In addition, Hill (2021) stated that the value of market research can also be observed in its nature of developing strategic direction for any business alongside providing adequate feasibility to any business venture.
On the other hand, in a study conducted by Ayuba and Aina (2015), explores the interrelationship between the overall business performances and chosen market strategies and marketing research procedures. The study helps in understanding that the marketing research process in the contemporary times plays a crucial and significant role in determining the overall performance of business organisations. The study also developed a clear understanding that there is a strong relationship between business performance of organizations and the marketing research strategies and processes. Such claims can be strengthened by scholars who rightfully suggested that the goal of market research is to equip any specific business with the right set of information and data that are required in order to take effective business decisions, adapt business innovation, have steady growth in the changing market, and to be able to stay updated with the right facets of promotions to target the audience (antco.ca, 2021).
The value of market research has become increasingly higher in the current times of digitalization and intense market competition in almost all sectors across the world. According to Castro et al., (2018) the choices preferences tastes and demands of the customers are in a constant state of flux that allow businesses to constantly change their marketing tactics, range of products and services, in order to cater to people’s requirements effectively. Therefore, it is essential to know about people’s requirements and stay up to date with the market trends and latest preferences of people to run a business successfully. Most businesses try to develop customer centric approaches that demand a comprehensive and concrete market research in order to be fully aware of the needs of the customers and stay relevant in the business sector (Gupta and Ramachandran, 2021).
It must be noted that carrying out market research also improves overall brand image of an organization alongside making companies take informed decision based on the marketing research outcomes. Market research allows businesses to have a clear idea of market insights you know about business competitors, upcoming rivals, the right processes to target the customers, and use communication mediums. These facets amalgamate in developing effective marketing strategies and practices that eventually allows businesses to attain profits. Since effective communication plays a significant role in overall marketing the process of market research also allows businesses to gain an understanding on the right medium to communicate with the customers (Hänninen and Karjaluoto, 2017). This eventually helps in developing new product range gather customer feedback, carrying out different marketing campaigns, and generate long lasting relationships with customers.
Organizations in the current times have also developed both qualitative and quantitative research methods in relation to carrying out market research and collect the right set of data and information. For example the qualitative research is more inclined towards an exploratory approach by the businesses to study specific groups of customers their lifestyle and buying habits. On the contrary, the quantitative research is more inclined towards analyzing numerical data that are obtained from surveys, questionnaires, polls and other social media insights. A mix of both help in conducting effective market research that eventually leads to stronger marketing strategies by minimizing risks, mistakes, and inappropriate business decisions. A specific study from Al-Shatanawi et al., (2014) also suggested that in order to develop effective marketing programmes, understanding the value and importance of carrying out market research is of prime importance. It not only helps in taking the right business decisions but also can be used to set long term goals and objectives for businesses. It can be stated that marketing in itself is a highly dynamic, constantly changing and a restless business activity. In order to carry out effective marketing a strong understanding of the market people’s choices, demands, and trends has to be pursued. The marketing research helps in doing so and is of great value with ineffective marketing that promises greater benefits for all kinds of businesses in the current times (Morgan et al., 2019).
As observed from the discussion above, it can be stated that the value of marketing research within objective marketing cannot be overlooked or simply denied as it holds much significance an important to run any business successfully. As observed from the discussion, carrying out effective marketing research not only helps businesses to achieve immediate targets but also to pave ways to using wider business opportunities, resources, in achieving long term targets and goals. Research can be done in both qualitative and quantitative methods to develop a proper understanding on customer lifestyle and factors leading to buying decisions that will be helpful in developing the right tactics to communicate with the customers. The value of marketing research, as understood above, is certainly high and needs to be carried carefully to pursue and achieve effective marketing.
Question 2- Critically discuss how segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) enable more effective marketing practice
Segmentation, targeting and positioning is observed as a simple three step marketing model or framework that helps in rightfully segregating the market, targeting the most profitable set of customers, and positioning the services and products offered by businesses. The segmentation targeting and positioning is frequently and popularly used by businesses in the contemporary times in achieving higher benefits of effective marketing and related strategies. If segmentation, targeting and positioning is ethically and rightfully pursued it can certainly enable more effective marketing practices. The following sections of the content aims to develop a clear understanding on the STP and ways it helps in achieving and enjoying effective marketing practices by looking into a range of secondary sources of information.
In the current times where market competition is always intense in most sectors, managing marketing practises can be extremely challenging for businesses (Hair, Harrison and Risher, 2018). In addition, organizations do experience challenges in understanding the right section of the available population that can be of the most benefit in providing profits to the business and becoming loyalists for businesses to achieve long term customer goals. Therefore, the implementation of segmentation, targeting and positioning as a strategic marketing framework has become widely popular allowing organizations to carry out better marketing practices. It is with the help of the three activities- segregating the market, targeting the audience, and positioning the services effectively, that marketers find it beneficial to allocate business resources while prioritizing the marketing activities (Huang and Rust, 2021). It is imperative to note the components of the STP model carefully in understanding the reasons they help in achieving more effective marketing practices.
Source- (Kyberd, 2018)
Segmentation is the first step of the component of the STP model that helps marketers to identify with similar groups of people by rightfully dividing or segregating the market into specific distinct groups.. Each group is observed as specific segments that have been divided based on behavioral variables, factors like demographic factors, psychographic, or geographic factors in relation to the market, as observed from the studies of George (2021). It is by dividing the market based on people’s behavior, psychographic and demographic factors that marketers are able to develop a clear understanding on who wants what and whether people will be able to afford our avail the offer products and services by the organization.
The second step is the targeting that helps in determining which groups of the population selected can be rightfully targeted or aimed in order to keep them in the focus of the marketing programme. This is an interesting yet important component of the STP model in order to develop any comprehensive marketing programmes. Lastly the component of positioning allows marketers and businesses to rightfully create a concept to appeal to the chosen section of the market and eventually occupy the right spot in the business and in the minds of the chosen section of the customers. The positioning as the last step of the STP model helps in developing a proper understanding on which products and services can be easily differentiated from each other and provide the right reasons to the customers to buy the same (avada.io, 2021). It also creates a comprehensive understanding on the physical attributes, capability and functionality of products and services that an organization is offering and also enhances overall market competitiveness of the business. This helps in making marketing more successful and effective in nature by achieving business objectives rightfully.
The notable benefits of using the STP model primarily related to enhancing competitive advantage of a business through the right marketing strategy (Claessens, 2019). It also allows marketers to have a steady focus on all the chosen marketing activities by segregating yet allocating the resources rightfully to the targeted audiences. In addition, it plays a significant role in identifying the growth opportunities available in the market by looking into the wider range of customers’ tastes, preferences, market demands and products available. According to Cherry (2017), the need and the wants of the customers need to be carefully analyzed prior to developing marketing strategies. The STP model is of great importance in understanding the need and wants of the customers and as a framework provides a concrete foundation to businesses in catering to customer requirements in the most beneficial and effective manner. This truly aims to add more value to the marketing strategy as a whole, and makes it effective in nature.
According to the views of Leonard Walletzký (2018) the concept of segmentation, as the first stage of the STP model, helps in breaking up any “homogenous market” into multiple “heterogeneous segments”. This particular stage is crucial for marketers in having a clear picture in mind on both the needs of the market as well as the organization’s capacity to serve those needs without facing any business threat or risks. On a long run this is a great strategy in marketing to keep any organization highly informed about customer requirements by looking into specific segments. In the realm of marketing, the framework helps in defining the right set of customers and increase the number of sales considerably. Positioning the products and services in the most cost effective manner also helps in avoiding irrelevant marketing expenditure or unnecessary activities related to advertising and promotions. On a long run this saves time money and labor and makes the overall marketing highly time and cost effective (Camilleri, 2018). In addition it also helps in attracting the right prospect. This also saves time and avoids hindrances and challenges in figuring out what product should be sold to home in any given time and how it should be marketed. Overall, it also helps in maximizing the resource usage in any organisation and meeting customer requirements by keeping overall costs down yet number of sales going high by improving overall customer service (Walletzký, 2021).
Walters and Bekker (2017) also stated that in targeting businesses are benefited by the idea of product tailoring and flexibility of manufacturing as per the requirements of the market demands. It must be noted that in targeting the right section of the customers the overall sales will take place in the most appropriate manner and pricing strategies will not be questioned as a proper understanding on customers decision-making has already been pursued in the segmentation process. In addition, overall marketing can be tailored as per the changes in the business with the STP model and multiple promotional techniques can be used in order to entice the target market that will be extremely cost effective and avoid ineffective marketing. This certainly adds more to the concept of effective marketing and related business practices.
As observed from the discussion above, it can be concluded that segmentation targeting and positioning are of prime importance in the contemporary marketing procedures that can lead to effective marketing practises if pursued properly. The discussion has explored that segmentation targeting and positioning (STP) framework makes marketing practices highly impactful and positively influencing and beneficial for both marketers and customers. It has been observed from the discussion that the STP framework not only allows companies to enjoy higher brand image but also provide adequate opportunities to cater to the requirements of the customers by enjoying flexibility of tailoring products and services as per the changing requirements of the targeted customers. Therefore, it can be concluded that STP framework needs to be carefully and widely pursued by contemporary businesses in achieving effective marketing practice and related activities as part of their overall marketing strategy and objective.
Question 3- Critically evaluate Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) as a basis for effective promotion
Integrated marketing communications is observed as a popular process of marketing that unifies multiple communication elements relating to digital media platforms, public relations, development principles, customer analytics, advertising and others that share similar nature of consistency across multiple media channels. As the term suggests, integrated marketing communications are different mediums of communications used in marketing, rightfully integrated to one another, in order to sell products and services or achieve marketing objectives of a business. Integrated marketing communications is popularly used by organizations across the world and a clear understanding of the same in relation to effective promotion in the contemporary times need to be carefully evaluated and analyzed to develop more knowledge on the same This is going to enhance overall business growth and profitability and the following section aims to do so by looking into scholarly suggestions, ideas, as major secondary sources of information to ‘critically evaluate integrated marketing communication as the basis for effective promotion’.
According to Kumar and Patra (2017), promotion is observed as a specific strategy infused with marketing communication in order to sell products and services to the chosen or targeted customers. As a part of promotional strategy, the concept of integrated marketing communication has become widely popular in the contemporary digitalized world (Blakeman, 2018). It must also be noted that integrated marketing communication is also studied and is practiced alongside marketing mix theory that tend to work seamlessly with each other and provide higher benefits to organizations. A careful understanding of the concept of integrated marketing communication will help in noting that it does not only revolve around advertising, sale, digital marketing, and public relations but also encompasses the area of packaging, pricing, product designing, and related activities (Camilleri, 2018).
The integrated marketing communications, according to scholars has a deep and positive impact upon any business by providing strong strategic value for companies and brands (Taylor, 2021). It must be noted that the integrated marketing communication is highly diverse in its nature by using multiple avenues to communicate with the customers and making it highly beneficial flexible and useful for businesses in capturing the attention of the targeted audience through different mediums available in the contemporary times (Valos et al., 2017). This makes the overall promotion highly effective by making the marketing appealing to different kinds of people. The most notable communication tools of the integrated marketing communication elements relate to Internet marketing, direct marketing, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations. These amalgamate and form effective promotion of services and products from any business organization.
A research study pursued in 2009 by Virgil, Dragan and Stoica, interestingly helps in understanding the relationship integrated marketing communication has with an organization’s brand value and maintaining capital across different channels. This research, regardless of its age, certainly ensures a specific synergy between communication techniques and growth of brand and helps in understanding that different mediums to communicate with customers helps in selling products faster by also focusing on cultural values of the target audience. It also hints to the factor that IMC enhances the quality of promotions and marketing to a large extent (Virgil, Dragan and Stoica, 2009). Davenport (2021), PhD student from the Purdue University, writes that the facet of communication is perceived differently by different people and choosing the right communication tool and medium can be highly challenging for any business in the contemporary times. The use of integrated marketing communication that was initially introduced in the 1980s has literally changed the way marketers communicate with customers in the current times and uses the facet of public relations, media relationships, corporate communication tools, publicity, public affairs, and other features as part of their communications. These are used widely in today’s promotions and related strategies.
Researchers from the University of Southern California discuss integrated marketing communication by looking into the concept of promotion. Scholars say that the most notable component of promotion observed in the current times is advertising tools and elements like trade promotion, personal selling, and public relations, are equally important (USC, 2021). It must be noted that in order to develop a steady and strong promotion strategy, businesses need to identify with the target audience followed by critically evaluating advertising objectives, setting up an overall budget, and eventually designing the specific advertisements. Public relations, as specific medium to communicate with customers, play an independent role in valuing the overall advertising process (Czinkota et al., 2021). An integration of these facets helping developing marketing communication that eventually helps in building effective promotion and marketing activities.
The concept of integrated marketing communication can be observed as a basis for effective promotion as it comprises of multiple tools that eventually leads to effective promotion practises. For instance, social media marketing, developing public relationships, mobile marketing, direct marketing, sales promotion, advertising and others other notable communication tools and play a significant role in achieving effective promotional strategy.
Source- (Taylor, 2021)
Milano (2021) writes that the concept of effective promotion predominantly relates to methods and means of communications and related activities that help in enhancing the sales of the business by enhancing the quality of overall marketing. Based on this view it can be rightfully argued that integrated marketing communications certainly enhance the quality of promotions and marketing by using different tools and elements of business communications in targeting the customers and fulfilling their requirements. For example, social media is the most cost and time effective advertising tool used widely in the contemporary times and has great benefits to promote anything in the most flexible and time effective manner. On the other hand, as a paid form of communication, advertising is also one of the most effective ways to reach out to mass-audience and increases brand awareness amongst customers. Personal selling on the other hand helps in convincing buyers to purchase any product or service as an effective tool of integrated marketing communication and helps in developing long term relationships with customers and other businesses. Direct marketing, another integrated marketing communication tool, and is the oldest form of communications where organizations directly communicate with the customers and sell their products. It must be noted that the integration of these tools as a part of marketing strategy can help in targeting the right section of the audience, create effective campaigns, communication sessions, and robust relationships with customers that can help in enhancing the overall quality of marketing and make the promotion highly effective and influential in nature.
As observed from the discussion above, integrated marketing communications can be observed as a basis for effective promotion in the contemporary times. It can be stated that the rise of digital communication actually performs availability of different channels of communications that businesses are able to cater to the requirements of the people by implementing integrated marketing communications as a specific pathway of marketing or a specific related strategy. The discussion has explored that integrated marketing communication certainly has a relationship with the quality of brand image marketing and promotional strategy. The better the use of integrated marketing communication tools to reach out to people and sell their products, the higher the quality of promotions becomes making the marketing effective in nature. It can be concluded that as a basis all for effective promotions the integrated marketing communications can be extensively used by business organizations as it is cost effective, improves the efficiency of the business, promotes and fosters diversity with the different ranges of communication, reduces communication confusions, develop specific focus on the target audience and eventually increases company morale.
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