Marketing and Strategy

1- Opportunities and Segmentation in Corporate Marketing Strategy Development

Opportunities in the global market are analysed in several ways and the main ones can be optained through Porter’s 5 Forces and PEST analysis. To conclude, it is also important to carry out an in-depth SWOT analysis of the company , so that external opportunities and threats are also considered. Customer types are varied, with totally different needs and uses. A careful analysis of the consumer must be done to understand the needs and wants in order to be able to satisfy them.

Consumers can be divided in different ways, considering the following variables:

• Geographical: nations, states, regions, cities, districts;
• Demographics: age, gender, household size, income, occupation, religion, nationality, education level;
• Psychographic: social class, lifestyle, personality;
• Behavioural: product knowledge and use, purchase occasion, benefits sought, type of user, intensity of use, level of loyalty.

This choice of a well-defined target market very often serves the company to go into detail about the target market. 2 – The target market in Marketing Strategy Development Hereafter, there are 3 steps to keep in mind:

• Size and growth rate of the segment
• Structural attractiveness of the segment (5 Porter forces targeted at the segment if not previously done)
• Company objectives and resources

Having made the assessment, the company decides which and how many segments to hit most effectively (target marketing). Very often , we believe that reaching more customers will help our strategy, but actually this direction becomes the wrongest by spreading the budget over too wide an area and not going deep into the target audience.

You have to select the customers you are best able to satisfy, thereby gaining a profit and an advantage over the competition. Many companies prefer to target a small number of consumers, but let us see what strategies exist to define this number. How the market is defined in Marketing Strategy Development. Undifferentiated marketing strategy: mass marketing, ignore the differences of the various segments, same offer Differentiated marketing: segmented marketing, specific offers for certain segments Concentrated marketing: niche marketing, conquer one or more segments (sectors) that materialise our offer Micromarketing: satisfying individual or local group preferences The best strategy to adopt depends on the resources of the company, the stage of the product life cycle, the market and the marketing strategies of competitors. 3 – Value proposition for Corporate Marketing Strategy Development The time has come for the decision of how the company wants to position itself in the market. The position to be achieved in the market must be one of uniqueness, differentiating the company as much as possible from the competition , in order to attract the target user base. How do you achieve this related to the competition?

• lowering the price or
• offering more benefits at a higher price.

Here in a few words the definition of value proposition towards a target customer to be defined:

Provide high benefits at high prices Provide high benefits at medium prices Provide medium benefits at low prices Give low benefits at very low prices (The most successful but difficult) Offer high benefits at low prices 4. Marketing Mix in Marketing Strategy Development In the marketing mix the main strategy is through McCarthy, based on the so-called 4Ps of marketing which are:

• Product: it includes not only the product itself with all its features, but also the ancillary services offered to the customer (customer service, training, etc.).
• Price: in addition to the price or, in some cases, tariffs or price lists, it also includes discount policies, gift vouchers or prizes, payment terms and conditions, granting of credit and so on.
• Place (Point of Sale, in the sense of distribution): it concerns in a nutshell the structure of distribution channels and stocking policy.
• Promotion: this fourth P includes all strategies aimed at promoting sales, i.e. advertising, promotion, participation in trade fairs, organisation of events, web marketing and so on.

Once all 4 out of 5 points for Marketing Strategy Development have been fulfilled, all that remains is to define point 5 with concreteness through a final check and review of the offer.