Question 1
- Geodemographic Segmentation data
One of the geodemographics involved the targeting of new customers. Often, segmentation is the main or primary justification for targeting. A geographical filter may have included electoral roll choices and door-to-door distributions, but they are mostly driven by communities’ collection considered worth targeting (Mothersbaugh, Hawkin & Kleiser, 2019). But as the focus of resources shifted from recruiting new customers to handling existing ones, community knowledge became only one of many different sources of information for the customer that can be known. As a result, there are exciting concerns about geodemographic data’s position or importance compared to other segmentation data sources. Marketing managers should understand that the successful application of consumer service techniques is critical and needs a broader discussion (Mothersbaugh et al., 2019). The statistic shows that approximate 2.5 quintillion bytes of information are generated daily by consumers worldwide. Google takes a larger portion of approximately more than exabytes of data.
Brands managers use geodemographic marketing information to permit clients with substantial potential in a particular exchanging zone. The leading clients can decide by covering the information produced for those living in these locales based on the rule that the home is mostly persuasive in obtaining conduct. For case, clients who have the potential to purchase extravagance vehicles live in neighborhoods with costly houses.
(ii)
Customer lifetime value modeling
The reason for customer lifetime modeling is to survey the financial value of each customer. Net Present Value (NPV) of anticipated future cash streams that a customer relationship will create over the term of relationship discounted at a reasonable, risk-adjusted discount rate can be determined using CLV. It takes that all customers are not the same. CLV-based segmentation model permits the company to foresee the significant beneficial group of customers, get those customers’ common characteristics, and focus more on them than on less profitable customers. Marketing professions can use CLV techniques to conduct marketing initiatives.
CLV acts as a proactive measure to future organizational sales revenues, thus enabling them to conduct successful marketing initiatives. Managers use this technique for marketing planning, such as intensive marketing, during the product life cycle’s declining stage.
(iii)
Conjoint analysis
Conjoint analysis is among the most widely-used quantitative methods in marketing research. It is used to measure customer inclinations for product features, to learn how changes to price and other 4Ps factors affect demand for products or services, and to forecast the likely acceptance of a product is brought to market.
Conjoint analysis works by breaking a product or service down into its components (alluded to as properties and levels). After that, testing diverse combinations of these components to distinguish buyer inclinations. The objective of conjoint analysis is to decide what combination of a constrained number of traits is most persuasive on respondent choice or decision making. Conjoint analysis is used to determine the direction of marketing strategy, such as when to develop an intensive promotional campaign.
When conducting a conjoint analysis, there are several vital steps to be taken. Firstly, businesses must decide the highlights they need to look at and figure out which clients will be overviewed and how, such as by mail, phone, or online. For example, companies annual budget marketing research at 3 – 5% of company sales. The company can undertake activities such as focusing on group and in-depth customer interviews.
(iv)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Marketing experts contend that companies must set up solid CRM frameworks to progress their relational intelligence. Concurring to this contention, a company must recognize that individuals have numerous distinctive sorts of relationships with diverse brands. CRM software helps managers improve marketing activities such as focused targeting, market segmentation, personalized marketing content, and recycling the blueprint. CRM provides managers with a database of connections to centralize their decisions. Still, it also makes it easier for them to cut and slice the information into concrete observations and then shape the right audience markets to lead to highly individualized communications (Mothersbaugh et al., 2019). Therefore, marketing professionals use CRM, refined marketing data to undertake successive marketing initiatives.
Question 2
(i)
Entering the global market necessitate several marketing activities to be undertaken by the company. Such activities include adjusting the marketing mix, conducting market research. Marketing research methods include product testing, advertising testing, market segmentation, and pricing research. Primary or secondary research can be used to source market data. Primary market research includes analyzing current sales, metrics, and clients, while secondary market research includes looks at data that has been published by others.
Primary Market research can be categorized into qualitative data and quantitative data. Quantitative data involves collecting numerical data leading to statistical analysis, and it can be conducted using surveys, questionnaires, and one-to-one interviews. Qualitative data consists of giving reasons for consumers’ actions opinions, and it can be performed using in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observations (McDaniel & Gates, 2018). Secondary market research involves the use of public sources, commercial sources, and educational institutions. Secondary research can offer assistance set up earlier to plunging into more costly primary research methods. There’s a part of data on the internet concerning essential measurements; the company may get to buy a particular data provider for a more in-depth look at its market (McDaniel & Gates, 2018).
(ii)
Katsikeas, Leonidou & Zeriti (2019) allude that companies should follow specific market segmentation techniques to sell their products globally. Segmenting the international market or diaspora involves categorizing global consumers as
- Assimilator customers; are those customers with host culture who prefer host country products to maintain host country identity and characteristics
- Marginal customers; are those customers with low affiliation to the host country’s culture consider Products County of origin and purchase product for functional performance alone
- Bicultural customers; are those customers that prefer buying the host country’s products
- Ethnic affirmers customers; are those customers that prefer the home country’s products to maintain their home country identity and characteristics
International marketing techniques should are distinct from domestic marketing because of global multicultural customers. For instance, the company can undertake activities such as hiring local consumer research firms, working with local ad agencies, tailoring marketing campaigns, “disruptive” marketing, and tailoring product too when marketing Volkswagen cars in India.
Question 3
For effective marketing, organizations should apply inbound marketing strategies. Inbound marketing has attractive features, engaging strategies, and delighting strategies. The strategies are discussed below with the relevancy of the retirement-planning calculator.
Attractive strategies
Inbound marketing strategies that attract institution target audience and buyer personas are tied to content creation and development. For the retirement-planning calculator to reach its audience, it should start by creating and publishing content that provides value. An SEO strategy will require it to target specific keywords and phrases related to its products or services.
Engaging strategies
Engaging strategies include how you handle and manage your inbound sales calls. Use inbound strategies to engage your audience in a way that makes them want to build long-term relationships with you. Specific engagement strategies may include how the retirement-planning calculator handles and manage its inbound sales calls.
Delighting strategies
Delighting inbound strategies ensure customers are happy, satisfied, and supported long after they make a purchase. These strategies involve retirement-planning calculator team members becoming advisors and experts who assist customers. Bots and surveys should be shared at specific points in time throughout the customer’s journey.
Improvements
The inbound marketing of retirement-planning calculator should be improved by;
Deploy Off-Site SEO Tactics
Off-site tactics enable people to search for the retirement planning calculator, but they are spending time online. Statistics show that 90% of people get the information they need to purchase online research. The retirement -planning calculator content has to be available and easy to access.
Optimize High-Traffic Landing Pages
The critical metric on leads is the conversion rate. The best place to start is by targeting high-traffic landing pages. It can double, or in some cases triple, the conversion through a series of optimization exercises.
Use Content Offers Strategically
The website needs to have different pages for different phases of organization prospects’ buyer journeys, and it needs pages for awareness, pages for consideration, and pages for decision-making.
Question 4
Knowing who institution existing and potential OMBA students are helping institutions to build more tailored marketing strategies to target customers, a tactic that is essential to the methodology of account-based marketing (ABM). ABM incorporates a concentrated, customized communications campaign with messaging targeted to the consumers’ unique desires and characteristics as gleaned from data collection (Kotler, Cao, Wang, Qiao & Zhang,2020).
A digital marketing consultant will assist the institution in developing its business through strategy and planning. One of the techniques to market OMBA is to create brand awareness. Brand awareness is seen as a precondition for the commercial feasibility of the OMBA program to boost the perception of the university’s educational programs and facilities. According to Moisescu (2009), product awareness cultivates individuals’ ability to identify the brand to the point that they want to “make a purchase”. Kotler et al. (2020) assert that brand identification requires knowledge of the actual and intangible brand’s constituents.
Designing a successful campaign plan to recognize the target demographic of USC Marshall (OMBA prospective students) so that the marketing organization gets the best deals. And that occurs as the institutional awareness strategy hits the persons who are most likely to enroll in Marshall’s OMBA program.
A market survey in data collection is the essential method when collecting market data institutions should understand customer’s niche, understand the existing OMBA students, and institution analytics. The institution can understand its target market based on psychographics knowledge that depicts what beliefs, values, perceptions, desires, or lifestyle variables may impact an individual’s purchasing behavior. Base on demographic knowledge, the institution can understand target market attributes such as age, sex, race, faith, place, income, schooling, and many others.
(ii)
The institution can apply inbound marketing because it is more of approach tactics than finding those prospects. It uses organic search traffic, email forms for opt-in, and publishing of material to attract clients. The institution can also use traditional marketing techniques such as email lists, cold-calling, billboard ads, and direct mail. Modern inbound marketing is more efficient, and the institution should opt to attract prospective OMBA students. Institutions can conduct market research to determine the impact of their marketing. The method that can be used includes conducting the survey, using focus groups, observation, and interviews.
References
Katsikeas, C., Leonidou, L., & Zeriti, A. (2019). Revisiting international marketing strategy in a digital era. International Marketing Review.
Kotler, M., Cao, T., Wang, S., Qiao, C., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Upgrading Digital Marketing Strategy: Strategic Platform for Digital Marketing. World Scientific Book Chapters, 49-124.
McDaniel Jr, C., & Gates, R. (2018). Marketing research. John Wiley & Sons.
Moisescu, O. I. (2009). THE IMPORTANCE OF BRAND AWARENESS IN CONSUMERS’BUYING DECISION AND PERCEIVED RISK ASSESSMENT. Management & Marketing-Craiova, (1), 103-110.
Mothersbaugh, D. L., Hawkin, D. I., & Kleiser, S. B. (2019). Consumer behavior: Building marketing strategy. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.