Marketing Mix and Strategy A marketing strategy outlines the manner in which the marketing mix is used to attract and satisfy the target market(s) and accomplish an organization's objectives.Specifically, marketing strategy is develop by considering the following factors. Marketing Communications Plan for New Product The starting point for the advertising plan is the setting of objectives. The statement of objectives would follow the same format as the overall marketing objective. It would include what to communicate to whom and with what results. Should the advertising generate sales, produce leads, or enhance an image? To whom must the message be communicated to make that happen? What will be the result of this communication? $X revenue? Pricing Strategy A marketer should understand the relationship between price and consumer purchases and perceptions. This relationship is explained by two economic principles : the law of demand and price elasticity of demand and market segmentation. Product Development Stages The new-product planning process involves a series of steps from idea generation to commercialization. Idea generation is a continuous, systematic search for new product opportunities.It involves delineating sources of new ideas and methods for generating them. Three Levels of Marketing Performance The boldest level of marketing occurs when a company introduces a product or service that nobody asked for and often could not even conceive of. No one in the 1950s asked for a Sony Walkman, a Sony Betamax, or a Sony 31/2-inch disc. Yet Sony, under its brilliant founder and chairman, Akio Morita, introduced those and many other new products that since have become everyday staples. Adoption Process of New Products The growth rate and total sales level of new products rely heavily on two related consumer behavior concepts: the adoption process and the diffusion process. The adoption process is the mental and behavioral procedure an individual consumer goes through when learning about and purchasing a new product. Experiential Marketing The concept of experiential marketing comprises of five core elements : sense, feel, think, act, and relate. SENSE marketing appeals to the senses with the objective of creating sensory experiences through sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. SENSE marketing may be used to differentiate companies and products, to motivate customers, and to add value to products. Exploratory Marketing Research Exploratory research can be effectively used to develop insights and understanding about a marketing problem or issue. While exploratory research is applicable in numerous situations, it is extremely useful for understanding a problem, screening alternative solutions, and discovering new ideas. We will discuss these three applications in this section. Creating An Effective Advertising for Service Products Experts agree that while some aspects of advertising are the same for goods and services, the special characteristics of services require additional strategies to make advertising of services most effective. These include the following: 1) Present vivid information. Advertisers should use information that creates a strong or clear impression on the senses and produces a distinct mental picture. Using vivid information cues is particularly desirable when services are highly intangible and complex. Advertising Variables There are some variables or factors that need to be considered when creating an advertising. These factors are waste, reach, frequency, message permanence, persuasive impact and clutter. Waste is the portion of an audience that is not in a firm's target market. Because media appeal to mass audiences, waste is a significant factor in advertising. Types of Market Research Data Another type of primary data of interest to marketers is the subject's psychological and life-style characteristics in the form of personality traits, activities, interests, and values. Personality refers to the normal patterns of behavior exhibited by an individual. It represents the attributes, traits, and mannerisms that distinguish one individual from another. Key Factors in Developing New Products An empirical research by Robert Cooper found three key factors that distinguish winning projects from the losers. Factor 1: A High-Quality New Product Process. Does your business have a superb new product process or roadmap to guide and speed new products from idea through to launch? The top performers do. Merely having a process does not make the difference, however. It is the nature of that process, and whether it possesses key success ingredients, that makes all the difference. Principles of Managing New Product Development A key task of managing new product development is linking it to an organization's strategy. This linkage occurs through the typical situation analysis that provide the basis for developing strategic options (for example, assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and problems). Such analysis begin with recognizing major global forces with pervasive trends (such as economic systems, demographics, or technology) that lead to complexity and rapid change, a major source of uncertainty. Steps in Developing the Promotion Mix Because there are four distinct promotion mix components (advertising, personal selling, promotion, and publicity or public relations), each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses, developing an effective promotion mix is difficult. To facilitate this task, most companies follow a five-step decision process, which is discussed below. Creating Great Marketing Plan A marketing plan, like a business plan, is unique to the company it serves. There are few hard and fast rules that guide its creation and implementation. A marketing plan needs to be as flexible as its market allows and as firm as is required to accomplish its goals. Despite all that, there are a few key components critical to the successful development and application of such a plan. Developing Product for Service Sectors What are the keys to developing successful new services? The following descriptions identify the critical success factors in day-to-day new service development. These are the activities that occur within projects that differentiate winning new services from losing ones. Category System of Consumer Goods There are three-category system of consumer goods : convenience, shopping, and specialty goods.Convenience goods are those purchased with a minimum of effort, because the buyer has knowledge of product characteristics prior to shopping. Nine Winning Marketing Practices Besides winning business practices, is there a set of winning marketing practices? One frequently hears of one-liner formulas that promise marketing success. Here are nine of the more prominent one-liners. First, Win Through Higher Quality. Everyone agrees that poor quality is bad for business. Customers who have been burned with bad quality won't return and will bad-mouth the company. But what about winning through good quality? Types of Marketing Research Applications Marketing research is the gathering, recording, and analyzing of data that relates to a specific problem in marketing products or services. While this definition implies a systematic approach to marketing, marketing research is often performed as a reaction to a problem that occurs. Marketing research efforts, therefore, often are undertaken for specific projects that have set beginning and ending points.