Defining different marketing goals

By Abhinash on February 14, 2010

Product awareness can be used when a new product is entering the market and consumers need to be aware of the existence of a product (Kotler 1999, p. 493). Especially in the case of trends when the time to market is very short, quick awareness of the product by consumers is desirable.

Brand exposure in marketing

Brand exposure needs to be generated in industries where products look very alike. “Brands have value to consumers as a way of identifying a given and consistent level of quality that simplifies choice” (Baker 1995, p.511). Brand exposure is needed to let the consumer recognize the brand faster and have all associations with the brand that it is connected with. The brand becomes a real part of the marketing mix, in order to make it easier for consumers to recognize and decide on brand names.

Customer education

Customers need to be educated about:

  1. How to use a product?
  2. Where to buy a product?
  3. How to complain etc.

Education of customers is often advantageous to both the company and the customer. Buzz marketing can be used to let customers educate each other. A case of Delta Airlines shows unexpected results of creating buzz. In each major city, where Delta introduced self service check-ins in its airport lobby it got media bits for customer testimonials, through articles in local newspapers and interviews on television news shows. The testimonials eventually spread organically to the lobbies themselves as frequent travelers helped less experienced ones use self check-ins. Delta personnel initially played this role but customers adopted it, when they realized that doing so speed up check-in for everyone. During 2003 the buzz Delta created, helped raising the number of self-service check-ins by several millions, made the airline more productive and cut its costs by tens of millions of dollars (Mckinsey 2004).

Positioning

Positioning is the way a brand positions itself in the market next to other competing brands in order to differentiate itself. Also a brand uses market positioning as a marketing activity that is intended to place a product into a desired position in a market and to have it perceived in that way by consumers (Baker 1995, p. 421).

Boost sales and enlarge market share

The ultimate marketing goal is usually to reach a higher sales number in order to get more profitable. The enlargement of market share is a marketing goal that is often a direct attack on the market share of a competitor. Buzz marketing can also be used for this specific marketing goal. In a research conducted by buzzmarketing.com it showed that buzz marketing could enlarge market share and bring higher sales figures. While market share was gained, the market leader did not loose market share due to this buzz marketing action (Hughes 2004).

Brand loyalty

Brand loyalty can be described as a measure of the degree to which a buyer recognizes, prefers and insists upon a particular brand; it results from continued satisfaction with a product considered important and gives rise to repeat purchases of products with little thought but with high involvement.

Companies that have built and reinforced brand loyalty can use it as a way to reduce the threat of competition because loyal customers may resist offers from competitors (Baker 1995, p. 218).

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