How can ICT support customer relationship?
ICT plays a significant part in enabling an effective customer relationship management, especially in large organisations like Tesco.
There are many systems available in the market which can help Tesco improve their customer service relationship and it is important to have a clear idea of the requirements during the selection process as there are different types of systems available for different needs which for most organisations will also involve the selection of ICT service.
Siebel and Sage which now provide the well-known customer relationship management solutions, and Front Range product is Goldmine and is significant and proven customer relationship management software products for organisations like Tesco. (IMAGE: )
Employee’s knowledge about the business
The most common information that employees who work at the bottom of the hierarchy at Tesco will have information like who are Tesco's suppliers like how and who Tesco buys their products from, who are local traders around the business location, who are they staff members and what positions they hold in the business, what different types of customers Tesco, age segmentation in brands products, what is the stores weekly or even daily target and many more.
A staff member’s knowledge about the business that they work for and the eagerness of the individual to gain information about the business will show how much that employee cares about the business and what is the level of their consciousness, in most cases Tesco’s management team will share the information which can he shared without any thread to the business and as well as that when employees are told about certain areas of the business this usually makes them more attentive and increases their level of motivation as the individual feels more involved and fells a part of the team.
Knowing about the business that a individual works for is important if they want to move up the hierarchy and into a more managerial position, questioning employees and finding out how much they know about Tesco will create the segment needed to separate the enthusiastic employees from the uninterested and ‘I just work here’ types of people.
Role of marketing in non-traditional context
Non-traditional market in simple words means modern marketing.
It doesn’t matter what a business is marketing but how they are marketing it, in simple words ‘yesterdays marketing tactics most probably will not work like they use to at that time’. Non-traditional marketing is becoming increasingly important and valuable to businesses which are struggling to regain market share which they might have had few years back.
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Stakeholders in organisations
Stakeholders in a voluntary, and public sector organisations vary from the stakeholders in a different sectors like private, stakeholders in a voluntary and public organisation are similar due to the fact that they are both non-profit sectors, below I have created a division between internal and external stakeholder that are in a non-profit organisation and these include:
Internal
Employees
Managers
Owners or board of directors
Donors
Volunteers
External
Customers
Community
Government
Shareholders
Suppliers
Trade Unions
Why do stakeholders have interest in these types of organisations?
Employees might have interest in non-profit organisations because they might want to make a difference in the world by helping people or even working for a company which have high status symbol.
Donors are the most important aspect of a non-profit organisation because mostly or all non-profit organisations struggle to get the right amount of donation when needed and donors sometimes donate money, resources or even time to create a positive effect on the community and the world as well as gaining self satisfaction. Volunteers are very much the same as donors except for the fact that volunteers mostly donate time in order to gain professional experience, gain knowledge or even to exercise this as their hobby.
The community will always pay good amount of interest in the non-profit organisations, this is because most of the time as soon as there is big charity work involved the media wants to know all about it and who is and isn’t involved in this work, so this is why some communities, businesses and other groups might contribute time and money to create a good image upon themselves.
Marketing non-profit organisations
There are many different types of organisation, some of which are profit motivated and others which operate without making a profit in mind. Marketing non-profit organisations is one of the greatest marketing difficulties this is because the general concept of marketing is to increase business or organisation profit but in non-profit organisation.
Comparison of marketing methods
Public and Voluntary
In the public sector much of the marketing related activity is concerned with the satisfaction of customers despite the fact that frequently there is no direct or even indirect form of competition. In non-profit organisations because there is no profit involved there are a smaller number or people and groups interested in investing their time and money. Considering this in mind the non-profit organisations have to use very eye catching and sometimes aggressive advertisements in order to gain the interest of the general public but sometimes this marketing technique can sometimes go against the organisation for example in April 2009, a Anti-smoking campaign advertisement was criticised for scaring and upsetting children by showing the dangers of smoking.
() Anti-smoking ad 'scares children'
Private
Marketing private organisations is much easier than marketing non-profit organisations, private organisations are profit based and they can attract investors much easier by showing a good return on investment and most importantly private organisations and businesses decide themselves on what they want to sell to the public and what the public wants or needs but
Issues with online marketing
Positive issues
- Convenient for customers as they can shop 24 hours a day from anywhere without going to the store physically
- Interactive and Immediate, consumers can interact with the seller's site to find the information, products or services they desire, then order or download them on the spot.
- Reduce Costs and Increase Efficiency avoids the expense of maintaining a physical store, costs of rent, insurance, and utilities. Digital catalogues cost less to produce than printing and mailing paper catalogues.
Negative issues
- There is a lot of competition for products already out there by the time visitor finds the new business, they have already been clicking many links. Unless they can find what they are looking for quickly, they are gone.
- Hardware failure can be caused by a malfunction within the electronic circuits or electromechanical components (disks, tapes) of a computer system. Recovery from a hardware failure requires repair or replacement of the offending part.
- Piggybacking is gaining access to a restricted communications channel by using the session another user already established. Piggybacking can be defeated by logging off before leaving a workstation or terminal or by initiating a protected mode, such as via a screensaver that requires re-authentication before access can be resumed.
- Phishing and identity theft is when an attempt is made on stealing the identity of others by using their credit card, driver’s license, social security or other personal identification numbers. With "true name" identity theft, the thief uses the information to open new accounts. With "account takeover" identity theft, the thief uses the information to access existing accounts. Not only can the thieves run up bills for the victims, but they can commit crimes pretending to be the victim, who may have enormous difficulty proving otherwise.
Extended Marketing
Marketing mix and importance
Product
A Product is simply the touchable and physical entity that someone may be buying or selling, but in this case any business like Tesco sells a very wide rage and variety of products to its customer.
Price
There are six important different types of pricing strategy that are important for any business like Tesco and these are:
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Penetration pricing: Penetration pricing is when any business like Tesco starts selling their service and wants to get to people interested to buy what they are selling so sometimes they start from a low price. Once the product has become established then they price will increase gradually but no rapidly.
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Skimming: Skimming is the opposite of penetration pricing it starts with high price when the ticket prices became established then the price will decrease after time. This is to help them make themselves distinctive and target people with a high income and then come to a lower level. But for business like Tesco this is rarely the case as their prices are hardly targeted at the upper-class.
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Destroyed pricing: Destroyed pricing also known as self-indulging pricing. The way it works is when Tesco sells at very low products prices until they have driven competitors out of the market and then they will raise prices steadily.
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Price discrimination: This is different prices to different consumers for the same product; this can vary from area to area because of the level of high level earners in prosperous areas for Tesco this does exist because they are well established and their expenditures vary in different cities and countries, ultimately variable product prices.
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Competition pricing: Competition pricing occurs when a large business like Tesco charges prices similar to other competitors. It happens when there is lots of choice and not much product differentiation.
Place
Place is where customers can buy Tesco’s products and services from. Tesco is spread out and located all over the country and out. Tesco sells their products in a long list of cities where there is high availability of consumers. Tesco always chooses the place carefully where to open a new branch because in some places where they are lots of competitor and lots of choices at a higher cost.
Promotion
Promotion includes all of the tools that Tesco will need to be able to get more attention from the target market.
People
People are the most important aspect of any business like Tesco as products that Tesco sell have to be consumed in a certain amount of time which is within the expiry. An aspect of the people is customer experience these sometimes have to be altered to meet the individual needs of the person buying the products and using the service.
All employees facing customers need to be trained appropriately and developed to maintain a high quality of customer service. Training at Tesco begins as soon as the individual starts working for the company which is normally after the introduction, all issues and experiences are supported by customer services teams at Tesco, the temperament and attitude of people in that department is vitally important to a company because the way in which a complaint is handled can mean the difference between retaining or losing customers.
Process
Booking a delivery on the Internet is a important process to Tesco as now a very larger number of their sales are made via the internet. Process begins with an individual visits Tesco’s website and then selects the right products and conforms a delivery slot. In the final step would be to get the product on time, and arrive fresh at your home. This is all part of the marketing process.
Physical evidence
Physical evidence is the material part of a service. Strictly speaking there are no physical attributes to a service, so a consumer tends to rely on material cues. There are many examples of physical evidence, including some of the following:
- Packaging
- Internet/web pages
- Paperwork (such as invoices, recipts and despatch notes)
- Brochures
- Furnishings
- Uniforms
- Business cards
- The building itself (such as prestigious offices or scenic headquarters)
- Mailboxes
Service product marketing
People – because of the simultaneity of production and consumption in services the staff occupy the key position in influencing customer’s perceptions of product quality. In fact the service quality is inseparable from the quality of service provider. An important marketing task is to set standards to improve quality of services provided by employees and monitor their performance. Without training and control employees tend to be variable in their performance leading to variable service quality. Training is crucial so that employees understand the appropriate forms of behaviour and trainees adopt the best practises.
Physical evidence – this is the environment in which the service is delivered and any tangible goods that facilitate the performance and communication of the service. Customers look for clues to the likely quality of a service also by inspecting the tangible evidence. For example, prospective customers may look to the design of learning materials, the appearance of facilities, staff, etc.
Process – this means procedures, mechanism and flow of activities by which a service is acquired. Process decisions radically affect how a service is delivered to customers. The service includes several processes e.g. first contact with customers, administrative procedure regarding course delivery, preparation, delivery and evaluation of the courses. The following guideline can be useful for successful customer service management:
- ensure that marketing happens at all levels from the marketing department to where the service is provided
- consider introducing flexibility in providing the service; when feasible customize the service to the needs of customers
- recruit high quality staff treat them well and communicate clearly to them: their attitudes and behavior are the key to service quality and differentiations
- attempt to market to existing customers to increase their use of the service, or to take up new service products
- sep up a quick response facility to customer problems and complaints
- employ new technology to provide better services at lower costs
- use branding to clearly differentiate service offering from the competition in the minds of target customers
Difficulties in service sector marketing
There is no physical evidence of a service, services are intangible and insubstantial: they cannot be touched, gripped, handled, seen, smelled, tasted or heard, the quality of the service cannot be measured as similar to a product but for research of their effectiveness products and service are measured similarly. Firstly I will calculate the effective methods of researching for services and then products. Wireless internet is something that Tesco offers and this is something that is very common today and it is also the most preferred method of connection as it gives the individual freedom to move around.
Appropriate service marketing requires imaginative visualisation to effectively remind a concrete image in the service consumer's mind. From the service consumer's point of view, these characteristics make it difficult, or even impossible, to evaluate or compare services prior to experiencing the service delivery.
To find some of the best methods to find effective way to promote and market Tesco's wireless internet connection Tesco should investigate if competitors are providing this service and how much they are providing this service for their customers and this can be done using secondary research by analysing already done questionnaires, given tips and suggestions, articles, books, newspapers and also looking at recent polls done by competitors or research agencies.
ICT in Marketing
There are many uses of ICT in marketing, databases are one of the most common uses of ICT in business and marketing and this can provide businesses with up to date mailing lists that can be used for direct marketing campaigns.
Another use of ICT in marketing is personalised letters which can be sent out in groups to people with similar characteristics. Tesco compile mailing lists from their clubcard applications and records of what individuals purchase can then be compiled on a database using the Electronic Point Of Sale which is also known as EPOS and these systems and marketing campaign can then be specifically targeted at groups with certain spending patterns
For example, if Tesco were to hold a wine tasting evening they would only mail those who have a record of purchasing wine on the database, thereby reducing the cost of sending out letters to those who do not buy wine.
Another use of ICT for marketing is loyalty cards, these cards and programs are structured for marketing efforts that reward Tesco's customers and therefore encourage them to keep coming back, loyal buying behaviour is potentially beneficial to the most businesses like Tesco.
Marketing Management
Ethical issues in marketing
Marketing ethics deals with the principles behind the operation and regulations of marketing.
Value orientated framework are ethical problems based on the values of marketing which are usually honesty, independence, privacy and transparency. All these account for a part of the ethical issues in business marketing and a vital part of Tesco's business operation.
Stakeholder orientated framework analyse ethical problems on the basis of whom are affect for example Tesco's consumers, customers, competitors, society etc. Stakeholders are also important part of ethical marketing as they are the soul and heart of Tesco as a business.
Process orientated framework analyses ethical problems in terms of the categories of marketing and the specialist’s topics like research, price, promotion and placement
Pricing ethics are something that Tesco must and has to consider in business marketing and below I have created a list of unethical and ethical depending in the situation pricing practices and these include price fixing, price skimming, price discrimination, price wars, bid rigging and dumping prices.
Pressure groups and its influences
A pressure group is an organised group that seeks to influence the government and the public policies and protects or advances a particular cause or interest. Pressure groups may promote a specific issue and raise it up the political agenda or they may have more general political and ideological purpose in mind when they campaign.
Different Parties seek different objectives, representation and power where groups in the main seek political influence. Parties often focus on the national interest whereas groups may be concerned with local issues and single issues that effect their city or neighbourhood.
There are some unavoidable overlaps in functions and roles of groups and parties, importance of political participation at all levels, many smaller parties fight elections but have no realistic hope of achieving political power like the BNP, Some organisational and funding links between some groups and political parties
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