Satisfying – Every and each customer wants their necessities to be met. Matching customers’ needs and expectations demands detailed answers to questions. They want the right goods, at the right time, at the right price. Because my product will be based on a soft drink many consumers would want to try new drinks so I will have to set a reasonable price for it to be sold at to satisfy customers. For example the drink coca cola is aimed at every one and also is reasonably priced.
Identify: I would need to consider answering questions like how I will have to keep in touch with customer’s thoughts and feelings and perception about my goods and service? This would also involve identifying what features customers would prefer to have in my good/service.
Anticipating: This involves looking at the future aswell as the present. I would need to consider what the public would like to have today and tomorrow. Baring in mind that consumer requirements change all the time such as people become richer and they might buy expensive drinks and even alcohol because they have more money so they would spend on a expensive drink so they stand out from the crowd.
Communicating effectively with customers to satisfy their expectations: In order for me to produce any promotional activity I will need to communicate with my customers this would help me to find out there expectations and build an image with the world at large. Images would help others to form a judgment about what the organization stands for, and will influence their dealings with it. The way we communicate our product or service is part of the persuasion process, which would persuade customers to buy the product at whatever price. The ways that customers are persuaded comes under the promotional mix. In order to achieve the promotional objectives the marketing and promotional communication methods are used which come under the promotional mix. These can be broken down into two areas:
- Controllable and
- Non-controllable.
Non-controllable communication – This includes marketing messages such as a result of word of mouth, personal recommendation or what customers think of a product or service, depending on how long a family has been using the product/service. Designer labels and brands influence consumers spending power.
Controllable communication - These include messages that are carefully directed to achieve an organization’s promotional objectives. Such as:
Advertisements- messages sent to the media to inform or influence the people who receive them.
Direct mail-personally addressed advertising sent through the post.
Sales promotions-techniques designed to increase sales, such as money-off coupons, free samples and competitions.
Coca Cola should therefore study the communication process carefully. It should have a clear idea of what the message is whom it is sent to and what the outcome of sending it is. They should communicate effectively to always persuade consumers to go out to buy it and also have new advertising to persuade them after a while.
Profitability: Profit is the key for marketing. If I don’t make a profit there is no point of me trading I will not be able to satisfy customers requirements or identify there anticipation without the resources to put into out going marketing activities.
I need to develop Coca cola in order to achieve profits, which is what my objective for the marketing strategy is. I will need to consider a low price and a quality design. I would be able to see if the demand for Coca Cola has Increased or decreased after developing the product. I could improve it by changing the packaging, adding a different taste or flavour, design, price. I will need to consider the results of my questionnaires, which will be obtained from my primary and secondary research before I start making any changes to my product, as consumers will be asked if they would buy my developed product.
Understanding Customer Needs: In order for me to make my final product a success I will need to anticipate change. This includes the age structure of the population and consumers income. Market research is the antenna of an organisation from which you could obtain accurate results of what drinks consumers prefer or what they suggest they would like to have changing to the product. This is where marketing research starts. I would need to consider what consumers would like in order to satisfy customers needs and wants which will show if my product is going to become successful. Most marketing activities are therefore designed to meet the needs of groups of customers within a market. I would need to find a sample of my consumers in order to find out their wants and needs so that I could produce or develop a product that satisfies them. The product is the first element in the marketing mix and the rest of the elements would need to be considered later. These may include developing the pricing for the product or service provided, working out how to distribute (place) goods to the customers, as well as how to promote them. Coca cola would need to understand customer, needs to be able to sell their product. In order to produce a product that will make them profit at the end of the day and customer’s wants could be met according to their needs.
(E2)
Appropriately identify, collect and use primary and secondary data relevant to the marketing strategy
If you were to survey 100 people asking them do they drink Coca Cola this would be a difficult question to answer as Coca Cola can be found in several different brands. Some would prefer to choose a Coca Cola – Diet or light or classic, with cherry or with lemon, or with or without caffeine. About five years ago this would be a question that would be feasible to answer, as then Coca Cola existed in it’s original form. A survey that I conducted shows that many people preferred the original Coca Cola. However the results reveal that majority of them (i.e. 17 out of 20) are not satisfied with the packaging of the drink and would like it to be more colorful aswell as in various designs rather than just in one ‘rather boring’ design which has the been the same for quite so many years now. Another feature that customers (from the 20 people I interviewed) would like to see changes and improvements to is the size of the product. Further questioning revealed that the reason for improving the size i.e. up to 5 litres would be convenient when holding family parties. These findings were very useful to me as they made me realize what the publics demand is and what I need to do to make the product acceptable in the market, which in return would help me make a profit.
The twenty people I asked replied on the basis of looking at media, which is one of the things that influences the market. They thought that advertising was a good way to promote Coca Cola, as it is very common and popular.
The secondary data shows advertisements are sold in spots and the daytime spots cost less because there are little audiences. Many people watch television in the evening the most as they relax so most of the advertisements are on then, and also mainly in the mornings as a lot of people turn the television on in the mornings.
Out door advertising- poster sites in Britain are mainly in big cities alongside main roads close top the cities. They includes the sides and backs of buses, banners and boards at football and other sports events, both the inside and outside of London and other city taxis, bus shelters, and boards at bus and railway stations.
Advertising time on TV is sold in ‘spots’ ranging from one minute down to seven seconds. Daytime spots, when audiences are low cost less than those do in ‘Peak time’- the evening when millions of people may be watching Independent Television. Most evenings from 5.30 p.m. to about 10.30 p.m. is peak viewing time when TV audiences are largest. The ITV companies usually show the same programmes, though they may show different advertisements. In the UK, ITV (including GMTV), channel 4 and channel 5 (1997), show advertisements between programmes and in intervals within the programmes themselves.
A half- minute spot in mid-evening on a weekday could cost £1,250 on Grampian Television whereas a similar spot time cost on Carlton Television might be £23,000. One company, Grampian Television, serves only about 2,023,000 homes, but the London Region, whose programmes are provided by Charlton Television during the week and by London Weekend Televisions at weekends, has about 5,491,000 homes- 2 and a half times as many. TV advertising time in Britain is sold on the ‘spot’ system. A ‘spot’ can last for a few seconds as with many of the ‘still’ advertisements for local stops or for a minute or even occasionally more. ‘Spots’ are bunched into breaks which may contain just one advertisement, though this is rare, or several. Each of the programme companies charge different rates, or prices, for its spot time. It is not hard to see why.
In 1998, £14,307 million was spent on advertising in Britain. Over 80 per cent of this was spent on display advertising of goods and services in the press, on television, radio, posters, direct mail and in the cinema. The remaining 20 per cent or so bought classified advertising (small ads),
Financial and legal notices, company announcements, and recruitment advertising (job ads) and advertising in the business and professional press.
Companies also spend substantial sums on other forms of communication but statistics are not always available. However, it is estimated that in 1995 £750 million was spent on exhibitions in Britain and substantial sums are also spent on sponsorship, sales promotion, mail order and other forms of activity.
This is where the money was spent:
There are now over 240 commercial stations, licensed and regulated by the Radio Authority, that pay for themselves by taking money from advertising. There are now national, regional and local commercial stations broadcasting. On a weekday evening when a very popular programme is being shown on the whole ITV network, as many as 20 million people may be watching. On Sunday morning the audience may only be a few thousand. Round about teatime during the week, a high proportion of the audience will be teenagers and children. Earlier in the afternoon in term-time, most viewers will be housewives, elderly people or shift workers. This information allows the advertiser to select his audience. It allows them to advertise to the correct audience.
Commercial radio stations are sold on ‘spot’ basis. Peak audience times are different, however, with radio at breakfast period and evening rush hour has its largest audiences.
Commercial radio stations, unlike TV stations, are no longer restricted to a limit on how much advertising they can take per hour- however they normally stick to 9 minutes as viewers tune elsewhere.
Posters are often used to remind people of brand names, or tie in with TV advertising to remind people of the TV message.
Point of sale (POS) advertising includes posters for the shop window, complete window displays for the advertiser's products, 'Open' and 'closed' notices for the door with a product name on them, and the various other small advertising items that you see in shops. Point of sale advertising are sometimes part of a short-term advertising campaign, but more often they are used to keep an advertiser's name in the minds of shoppers.
Below is a table that shows how much was spent on advertising by different companies in 1998.
The rate of advertising
The media fix their advertising rates according to the size of their audience and its age and social profiles. The rates are highly negotiable depending on numerous factors including possible large discounts. Here are some examples of 1998 rates:
Another means of identification used in advertising is 'social grade'. This is a classification based on the occupation of the head of the household, and it indicates the household's spending power. The table below shows the special grades, the occupation to which they refer, and the approximate proportions of each grade in the total UK population:
A Higher managerial, administrative and professional 2.8%
B Intermediate managerial, administrative and professional 18.6%
C Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative and professional 27.5%
D Skilled manual 22.1%
E Semi-skilled and unskilled manual 17.6%
F State pensioners or widows (no other earnings), casual or lowest-grade workers 11.4%
It would be wise to advertise in a newspaper or magazine with a high readership of fairly rich 24 - 35 year-olds - in other words, an AB readership aged 24-35 as you would know that it would have an influence or effect. Age and social grade classifications do not work precisely but they help the advertiser to get reasonably close to the audience. In my case people who have a big family and are quite wealthy would purchase a 5litre gallon of coca cola etc.
I can see from my research and statistics what advertising method is best and ahs the most effect on the public and also when I should advertise. Television, national newspapers and regional newspapers are the common methods of advertising and in the past most money has been spent on these methods to advertise by companies. This is some useful information, which I can use for my marketing strategy when I will decide what kind of promotion I will use.
I would have to choose which newspaper I would use to advertise coca cola in which case the tabloid newspapers are the most popular e.g. the sun. I could also use this information to decide what channel to advertise my product on and at what time during the day.
This is data, which is already been collected by other people; it refers to information that has previously been gathered by someone other than the researcher and/or for some other purpose than the research project at hand. Secondary analysis involves the use of existing data, collected for the purposes of a previous study, in order to follow a research interest, which is different from that of the original work; this may be a new research question or an alternative view on the original question. Secondary data comes in many forms such as:
Internet
Books
Government statistics (CSO)
Data collection businesses
Internet
Information on the Internet is not classed as secondary information; there are various websites on the Internet that can be accesses by any people. Search engines could be used to search for specific information. The Internet is a valuable and reliable source that could be used to obtain information as it is updated regularly. The disadvantage could also be the fact that some information or statistics could be made up to attract peoples attention to the site. There is a lot of information on the internet that would need to be looked into to meet your specified search.
Books
Finding information from books is a secondary source of information as the information is already available for you however they are easy to access and find information from. You are definitely to find information in a book around a subject you are researching, which is why using books is a valuable source. Although you may find relevant information to your subject the information could be out of date or inaccurate or not validated.
Government statistics
Government prepares statistics and the Central Statistical Office (CSO) publishes both a monthly and annual analysis. These statistics are produced accurately and are a reliable source of information.
Above are just some places where I can get secondary information.
