ASSIGNMENT OF

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Q.1. Differentiate between selling concept and marketing

concept ?

Ans.: In the business glossary, you might have encountered the terms
marketing concept and selling concept end number of times. The marketing
concept concentrates on the buyer’s needs and then the means are identified
to meet out those needs. Therefore, the customer is regarded as the king of the
market.  On the other hand, selling concept
V.K.S.U. ARA stresses on the needs of the seller

and so, it is the seller who rules the market.

These two are the most misconstrued however there exists a fine line of
difference between marketing and selling concept, that lies in their meaning,
process, activities, management, outlook and similar other factors. With this
article, an attempt is made to shed light on all the substantial points that
differentiate the two, take a read.

Content: Marketing Concept Vs Selling Concept :

1.Comparison Chart

2.Definition

3.Key Differences

4.Conclusion
1. Comparison Chart :

Basis for Selling Marketing

Comparison Concept Concept
Selling concept is a
Marketing concept is a
business notion, which
business orientation
states that if
which talks about
consumers and
accomplishing
1. Meaning businesses remain
organizational goals by
unattended, then there
becoming better than
will not be ample sale
others in providing
of organization's
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customer satisfaction.
product.

Compelling consumer's Directing goods and

2. Associated
mind towards goods services towards
with
and services. consumer's mind.
3. Starting
Factory Target Market
point
4. Focuses on Product Customer needs
5. Perspective Inside-out Outside-in
Transfer of title and Satisfaction of
6. Essence
possession consumers
7. Business
Short term Long term
Planning
8. Orientation Volume oriented Profit oriented
Heavy selling and
9. Means Integrated marketing
promotion
10. Price Cost of Production Market determined
2. Definition :-
A.> Marketing concept :- The marketing concept is a business idea,
which states that the company’s success lies in becoming more effective than
the rivals, in producing, delivering and communicating greater customer value
to the target market.

It relies on four elements, i.e. target market, integrated marketing, customer

needs and profitability. The concept begins with the specific market, stresses
on customer needs, coordinates activities that influence customers and reaps
profit by satisfying customers.

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The notion holds that a firm can attain its objective of profit maximisation, in
the long run, by identifying and working on the needs of the current and
prospective buyers. The central idea of marketing concept is to fulfil the needs
of the customer, by means of the product. Hence, all the decision was taken by
the firm keeping in mind the satisfaction of consumers.

B.> Selling concept :- The selling concept holds that if businesses

and consumers are left isolated, then the consumers are not going to buy
ample products manufactured by the company. The concept can be applied
belligerently, in the case of goods are not sought, i.e. the goods which the
customer don’t think of purchasing and also when the firm is operating at more
than 100% capacity, the firm aims at selling what they produce, but not what
the market demand.

Hence, the consumer wants are induced to buy the products, through
aggressive selling and promotional techniques such as advertising, personal
selling and sales promotion.The essence of selling  concept is to sell what the
company produces, by convincing, coaxing, luring or persuading buyers, rather
than what is desired by the customer. The concept focuses at generating profit
by maximising sales.

 Key Differences Between Marketing and Selling Concept

The difference between marketing and selling concept are elaborated in the
points given below:

1. A business notion, which states that if consumers and businesses

remain unattended, then there will not be ample sale of organisation’s
product, is the selling concept. A business orientation which talks about
accomplishing organisational goals by becoming better than others in
providing customer satisfaction is the marketing concept.
2. The marketing concept is related to the directing goods and services
towards the mind of consumers.
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ARA the contrary, the selling concept is

concerned with compelling consumer’s mind towards goods and

services.
3. The initial point of marketing concept is the target market, i.e. first of
all the research of the entire market is conducted. As against this, the
factory is the starting point of the selling concept.
4. The main focus of marketing concept is on the customer needs, but
the selling concept puts greater thrust on the existing product.
5. The marketing concept has an outside-in perspective while selling
concept has an inside-out perspective.
6. Satisfaction of consumers is the essence of the marketing concept.
Conversely, the selling concept relies on the transfer of title and
possession of the product from one person to another.
7. There is a long-term business planning in the marketing concept; that
concentrates on brand loyalty and high switching cost. In contrast, the
selling concept has a short-term business planning, i.e. taking a good
position and share in the market but only for a short period.
8. The marketing concept is oriented towards profit maximisation,
whereas in selling the concept, sales maximisation, is the ultimate
objective.
 9. The efforts involved in selling concept includes promotion and
persuasion, but integrated marketing efforts are used by marketing
concept, which encompasses various strategies related to the marketing
mix i.e. product, price, place (physical distribution) and promotion.
10. In the marketing concept, the price is determined on the basis of
various forces present in the market, i.e. demand and supply of the
commodity. Unlike selling the concept, where the cost of production
forms the basis of determining the price of the product or service.

 Conclusion
It is true, that marketing concept is relatively wider term than selling concept.
This is because selling concept itself is a part of the marketing concept, that is
related to promotion and transfer of ownership and possession of the
commodity from one person to another. On the other hand, marketing concept
incorporates a number of activities like identifying the needs of customers,
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designing and developing the product as per their wants, fixing prices,
persuading the buyers to buy the same.

Q.2 What is marketing planning ? Explain its

important component .
Ans. : - A marketing plan may be part of an overall business plan. Solid
marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan. While a
marketing plan contains a list of actions, without a sound strategic foundation,
it is of little use to a business.

A marketing plan is a comprehensive document or blueprint that outlines the

advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. It describes business
activities involved in accomplishing specific marketing objectives within a set
time frame. A marketing plan also includes a description of the current
marketing position of a business, a discussion of the target market and a
description of the marketing mix that a business will use to achieve their
marketing goals. A marketing plan has a formal structure, but can be used as a
formal or informal document which makes it very flexible. It contains some
historical data, future predictions, and methods or strategies to achieve the
marketing objectives. Marketing plans start with the identification of customer
needs through a market research and how the business can satisfy these needs
while generating an acceptable return. This includes processes such as market
situation analysis, action programs, budgets, sales forecasts, strategies and
projected financial statements. A marketing plan can also be described as a
technique that helps a business to decide on the best use of its resources to
achieve corporate objectives. It can also contain a full analysis of the strengths
and weaknesses of a company, its organization and its products.

The marketing plan shows the step or actions that will be utilized in order to
achieve the plan goals. For example, a marketing plan may include a strategy
to increase the business's market share by fifteen percent. The marketing plan
would then outline the objectives that need to be achieved in order to reach
the fifteen percent increase in the business market share. The marketing plan
can be used to describe the methods of applying a company's marketing
resources to fulfill marketing objectives. Marketing planning segments the
markets, identifies the market position, forecast the market size, and plans a
viable market share within each market segment. Marketing planning can also
be used to prepare a detailed case V.K.S.U.
for introducing
ARA
a new product, revamping
current marketing strategies for an existing product or put together a company
marketing plan to be included in the company corporate or business plan. [

Purpose of marketing planning: -

A marketing plan is a comprehensive document or blueprint that outlines the
advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. It describes business
activities involved in accomplishing specific marketing objectives within a set
time frame. A marketing plan also includes a description of the current
marketing position of a business, a discussion of the target market and a
description of the marketing mix that a business will use to achieve their
marketing goals. A marketing plan has a formal structure, but can be used as a
formal or informal document which makes it very flexible. It contains some
historical data, future predictions, and methods or strategies to achieve the
marketing objectives. Marketing plans start with the identification of customer
needs through a market research and how the business can satisfy these needs
while generating an acceptable return. This includes processes such as market
situation analysis, action programs, budgets, sales forecasts, strategies and
projected financial statements. A marketing plan can also be described as a
technique that helps a business to decide on the best use of its resources to
achieve corporate objectives. It can also contain a full analysis of the strengths
and weaknesses of a company, its organization and its products.
The marketing plan shows the step or actions that will be utilized in order to
achieve the plan goals. For example, a marketing plan may include a strategy
to increase the business's market share by fifteen percent. The marketing plan
would then outline the objectives that need to be achieved in order to reach
the fifteen percent increase in the business market share.The marketing plan
can be used to describe the methods of applying a company's marketing
resources to fulfill marketing objectives. Marketing planning segments the
markets, identifies the market position, forecast the market size, and plans a
viable market share within each market segment. Marketing planning can also
be used to prepare a detailed case for introducing a new product, revamping
current marketing strategies for an existing product or put together a company
marketing plan to be included in the company corporate or business plan.

Components of marketing :-
Marketing without a marketing plan is like driving with your eyes closed. If you
want to grow your business, it’s essential
V.K.S.U. ARA that you invest in marketing. A
marketing plan will help you organize your efforts and put your resources to
the best use.   It is designed to help you most effectively carry out your
marketing strategy. If you’re unsure how to go about developing a marketing
plan, this is the guide for you. In this post we break down the components  of a
marketing plan to form the ideal marketing road map for your business.

Marketing budget :-
You must allocate a certain amount of money to your marketing budget. Even
if you’re a small business and your initial budget will be tight, even close to
nonexistent, you should plan what you will do with that budget. It’s possible to
market your business without a budget, but most businesses have something
to spend on marketing, even if its just $30 a month for a website.

Not sure how much to budget for marketing? There is no strict guideline, but
your marketing budget also depends on how powerfully and quickly you want
to grow. In this situation, the old adage holds true: you have to spend money to
make money. Generally, however, experts recommend that companies spend
approximately five percent of their total revenue on marketing. This is the
estimated amount record to maintain a company’s current position. Companies
looking to grow should budget for more—upwards of ten percent.

Marketing goals:-
Marketing goals are long-term milestones for your business. DIn developing
your marketing plan goals, try to envision where you’d like to see your business
in the next six months, next year, or even next five years? They can be
quantitative or qualitative.

Examples of marketing goals are:

 Sales dollars
 Units sold
 Market share
 ROI on advertising
 Brand awareness
 Public relations achievements
 Number of new accounts or client relationships
 Share of customer’s business

Remember that your marketing goals are very important. They serve as the
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“bigger picture,” reminding you of your path over the next few years. Read this
blog post for examples of marketing goals that might work for your business.

Marketing Objectives :-
Marketing objectives are the stepping stones by which you measure the
success of your goals. Marketing objectives should be somehow quantifiable.
They should follow SMART criteria—they should be specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic, and time-based. That is, your marketing objectives should
be set along a timeline, and they should be short-term goals.

You should have weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly objectives. You may
even have daily marketing objectives. Consider your marketing goals and what
steps and growth have to take place in order to achieve them. These small
steps will be your marketing objectives.

Examples of marketing objectives include:

 Achieve at least 10 Facebook likes per post by end of month

 Get 5 new patients each month

 Have 100 unique site visitors daily

  Increase number of inquiries from marketing activities by 20% end of the
year.

What to Include in a Marketing Plan :-

When developing a marketing plan, you must first study your target market.
You should be a master of your industry in terms of knowledge before setting
any goals for your company. Think of this as scouting out the landscape before
drawing a map.

Make sure you gather the following information:

 Marketing research. It is vital that you study your target market. Identify
your market size, buying trends within the industry, market growth or
decline, and any current themes.
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 Target market. You must know your target market. If you’re targeting,
who are they? Male, female? What age group? What socio-economic
status? Do they share a hobby or profession? A well-defined target
market description will show you your target market. For example, if you
are a bike company, you may contact both commuters and young
people.
 Positioning. You need to evaluate your company’s current position in the
market. What do people think about your brand? Does it have a
reputation, a voice? For example, if you are a sandwich shop, do people
come to you as a healthy option, or when they’re craving a hearty meal?
 Competitor analysis. It’s key that, in studying your market, you also take
time to study your competitors. How do your products or services differ?
Is customer service different or superior to yours? What is the price point
at which they are selling? What is their target market? These are
questions you may have to a bit of imagination and intuition to answer,
but having these answers are key to crafting your own marketing
budget.

Developing a  Marketing Plan :-

Drafting a marketing plan may seem like an overwhelming task, particularly for
new or smaller businesses with smaller budgets. In today’s day and age,
however, marketing takes many forms, and many sample marketing plans are
free. For businesses with even the tiniest purses, there are marketing
techniques and strategies that can bring great success.

A marketing plan is not just a budget; it is a roadmap to your business’ growth.

If you aren’t sure where to begin, gather your business advisors and marketing
people around you. Have everyone contribute to providing as much
information on your market and industry as possible. Have everyone pitch in
ideas on what goals and objectives are realistic and practical.

Lastly, be flexible. A marketing plan should never be static; it can and should be
subject to change. Don’t be afraid to swap up your marketing objectives, or
even totally change your marketing goals. As you learn more about which
marketing strategies are most successful for your business, you should
streamline your marketing efforts to reflect what works best. It’s a sometimes
tedious process that yields amazing results. When it comes to marketing, you
reap what you sow, so sow well!
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Q.3. Define marketing program with help of a diagram ?

Ans. :

1. Topics & Focal Distance

All of the topics in the universe are organized into a giant fractal. And like a
fractal, you can zoom in or pan out and discover a similar level of detail. There
are great content ideas at any “focal distance.”

You can use this to guide your marketing, making sure to publish at various
levels: the big picture highlights and in-depth posts. Be sure to link your posts
together into content hubs.

 High-Level List Post

Touch on the many aspects of a general problem or solution.

 Overview of Specific Concept

Cover the various aspects of one specific concept with complete, but
basic details.
  In-Depth Post
A detailed description of a specific problem with thorough answers to
questions and step-by-step instructions.

2. Content Quality & Longevity

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Some content makes a strong impact. Some content lasts a long time.
Unfortunately, they’re usually not the same content.

Here’s a chart showing the quality and longevity of various types of content:

 Content Quality
Face-to-face interaction is ideal, forming the strongest connections and
building the greatest trust. Text is sadly the weakest format at conveying
tone and nuance.

 Content Longevity
Some last just for that moment, passing in real-time. Social media posts
may be accessible for years, but they are only highly visible for minutes
or days. Search optimized post are often highly visible for months or even
years.

Combine formats for greatest impact. Add video to high-ranking posts. Turn
content from live events into posts that can be shared.
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3. Color & Visual Prominence

Things that are different stand out. They’re unlike the things around them so
they get noticed. On web pages, color is a great way to make something
obvious.

On an all-blue website, a spot of orange jumps out. It’s more visually

prominent than something green. This is because, on a blue page, orange is
more different than green. It’s farther away from blue on the color wheel.

 Warm vs. Cool

Some colors are warm (red, orange and yellow) and some colors are cool
(blue, green and purple) In a cool context, warm visuals are more
prominent and vice versa.

 Complementary Colors
Two colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel are called
“complements.” These combinations have the strongest contrast and,
therefore, can create the strongest visual prominence.
Use color to draw attention to important items, like offers, buttons or calls-to-
action.

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4. Promotion Channels & the Funnel

Basically, content marketers do three things: make stuff, promote it and then
measure. Simple right? But what happens when our content reaches our
audience isn’t so simple.

Different members of our target audience are at different stages. They may be
aware of us, but not really considering us. They may be considering us, but not
ready to act. Or they may be on the verge of taking action, either following us
on social media, subscribing to our newsletter, or becoming an actual lead.

This diagram is a top-view look at the funnel, showing how the three different
promotion tactics affect the

 Search = Awareness
Google is a discovery engine. High rankings for a relevant phrase can
have dramatic impacts on visits, branding and awareness.
  Social Media = Awareness and Consideration
Social media also increases awareness, since it makes you visible to
friends of friends. And that new person follows you, you’re content
appears in their streams. They’ll begin to consider becoming more
engaged.

 Email Marketing = Consideration

Email signup requires a higher level of trust. But when they do subscribe,
you begin reaching them consistently. You’ve move beyond simple
awareness and toward greater consideration and action.

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5. Content & Conversions

Let’s look at the side-view of the same funnel. Now you can see how different
types of content and support different stages in the funnel.

If there is a weakness in your funnel, strengthen it with specific content:

 Awareness: Use simple, search-friendly descriptions of your products

and services. Make sure these descriptions are in your navigation and
title tags. Also, consider writing list posts.

 Consideration: Add evidence of legitimacy to your pages, such as

testimonials and statistics. Make sure you answer all of your visitors
questions or they may look for answers elsewhere.
  Action: Tell your passion story. Explain why you’re in business and why
you care so much about what you do. Upgrade the format of your
content to video. Give visitors a reason to take action soon.

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6. Benefits of Search, Social & Email

Different actions have different outcomes.  The content promotion channels
(search, social and email) are distinct, but they have overlapping benefits.

There’s more than one way to reach a goal. Here are three goals/outcomes
and the corresponding marketing channel for each. For best results, look for
issues in your analytics then combine tactics to address the problem.
  Getting Discovered
If overall traffic and % new visitors are low… use search optimization and
social media. Both of these channels have the ability to make your brand
easier for new people to find.

 Consistent Visibility
If overall traffic is up and down… use search optimization and email
marketing. These two channels both can create steady streams of
visitors.

 Staying Connected
If traffic to your blog, and percent of % returning visitors are low… use
email marketing and social media. Email and social have the ability
continually to reach an audience that is already aware of your brand.

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7. Formats: The Periodic Table of Content

This post wouldn’t be complete without adding the Periodic Table of Content.
This is an updated version of the chart that lent its theme to our book, Content
Chemistry.
This is part of a guide for repurposing content from one format to another.

 Combine small elements into larger formats

 Atomize larger formats of content into smaller formats.

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Q.4. What is marketing Myopia ? How can it avoided ?

Ans. :- Marketing Myopia is the name given to companies that are short-
sighted and look no further than their own product. Myopia means ‘near-
sighted’. Marketing itself is the field in which research is conducted into how
the market can best be conquered and where customers also remain customers
through repeat purchases and related products.

In 1960, it was the American marketing professor Theodore Levitt who came up
with the term and published it for the first time in an article in the marketing
magazine Harvard Business Review. According to Levitt, Marketing Myopia is
something that many commercial organisations suffer from, namely that they
have a short-sighted and inward-looking approach to marketing. With this
short-sightedness, they are only focused on the needs of the company itself
and its organisations are unable to focus on the needs and wishes of the
customer. Organisations should adapt quickly to the changing market and
better tailor their products to what the customer actually wants.

Missed opportunities V.K.S.U. ARA

According to Levitt, many companies miss out on opportunities when they

suffer from Marketing Myopia. For example, photo camera producer Kodak
refused to produce digital cameras, while customers had an increasing desire
for them. The dramatic result is known; Kodak went under and is no longer the
leading player in the worldwide photography industry. Levitt described it in his
article as follows: ‘people do not buy a drill, but they want a hole’. According to
Levitt, companies focus too much on their own products, but it is really about
the primary needs of the customers and what they are looking for. That is why
it is essential that, when companies suffer from Marketing Myopia, they turn
from product orientation and change to customer orientation. Eventually,
companies will become successful by concentrating on the needs of their
customers.

Marketing strategy
In order to keep growing, companies would do well to determine the needs and
wishes of their customers. Only then can they act and produce and offer
products that match what their customers want. As a result, companies will
have to put less emphasis on the expected life of their products. The fact that
sales are stagnating does not always have to do with a saturated market. This
is more due to the changing tastes, wishes and needs of customers and
consumers. It is not about short-term thinking and the illusion that a company
is in a so-called growth market. This is a conviction that leads to self-
complacency in companies, while their customer should be the focus. By
looking carefully at this and being open to this, companies will be able to
change their marketing strategy dramatically.

Pitfalls
The reason that Marketing Myopia frequently occurs in companies has to do
with the fact that it is difficult to predict the future accurately. There are also a
number of falsehoods that companies stick to, which only stimulate short-
sightedness. For example, there is often the conviction that it is impossible to
produce substitutes, with which the original product can be replaced. Another
pitfall is the knowledge that too often it is thought that only a growing and
prosperous population can lead to business growth. Many companies also have
a misconception of relying on the benefits of mass production. This is indeed a
fast and inexpensive means of production, but when the consumer demand is
gone, companies are left with huge amounts
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thought that it takes a lot of time, research and development to tailor new
products that meet the wishes and needs of the consumer.

Customer insight
Even companies that keep their customers in mind may suffer from Marketing
Myopia. They are unable to see the broader social context of business decision-
making. This can then have disastrous consequences for their organisations.
One of the mistakes they make is having a too narrow idea of who their
customers are and what their needs are. Yesterday’s customer will be different
tomorrow, and every year the idea of the customer needs to be re-examined. It
is also possible that companies are so focused on their current customers that
they exclude other target groups and potential customers in advance.

Successful
Every company can operate more successfully by being more focused on the
actual needs of the customer. By walking in the customer’s shoes and getting
an idea of their needs and wishes, companies can operate in a more customer-
friendly way. This will lead to satisfied customers, who will share and promote
your company by word of mouth. Customers are people, and people are
creatures of habit. Nonetheless, companies must stay alert and know what is
going on with their customers. If not, there is a good chance that the
competitor will recognise this and will attract the customers. By making the
right decisions and taking the customer’s needs into account, companies are
able to survive and get rid of Marketing Myopia.

Tips to Avoid Marketing Myopia

Know Your Buyer Personas and Understand the Buyer's Journey

Your customers aren’t just the people who buy your products; they define your
market. Pay close attention to their shopping habits and the way they research
products. Do they extensively research a product online before making a
purchase; do they ask for recommendations on Facebook or consult their
friends and followers on other social media platforms? At what point are they
ready to start a conversation with a sales person? Most businesses are
surprised to learn that, in today's market, most people aren't ready to talk to a
sales person until they are more than halfway through the buyer's journey:
later in the consideration stage or even the decision stage.
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(If that's all Greek to you, read more about the Buyer's Journey here.)

Never Stop Evolving

Businesses should never cease to evolve and explore new options. Just because
a tactic has worked wonderfully in the past doesn't mean you should assume it
will work forever. The rate at which marketing is evolving is the rate at which
your company's marketing tactics should evolve, as well. Consider all these
influences on your marketing efforts:

 Google algorithm changes

 Changes in search trends, keyword popularity and competition
 Introduction of new social media platforms
 Changes to social media algorithms (particularly Facebook)
 The number of email subscribers you have the possibilities for
segmenting your lists
 Evolution in the way people consume content online
 Cost of paid reach on search engines and social media

The list truly goes on and on and ON.

Practice Self-Cannibalism (Metaphorically Speaking)
A company should never be afraid to compete with itself for more market
share. A great example of this is an automobile company moving horizontally
and producing electric vehicles. By doing so, they are stealing market share
from themselves in one area but are also gaining it in new markets.

Listen to the Experts

There are entire websites, blogs and industry communities (from online forums
to LinkedIn groups) devoted to tracking changes in the marketing world.
Although it’s important not to rely too heavily on forecasted data, it is
important to realize that professional marketers have taken time (time you
don’t necessarily have) to research new trends and changes in marketing
across many industries.

Q.5. Whats is consumer engagement

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Ans. :- Customer engagement is a goal that stretches across teams and
metrics. It can be defined, at a high level, as the experiences and touch points
that a customer has with your product, company, and brand. It is the
relationship between your company and your customers, and is closely related
to customer loyalty and retention.

Paul Greenberg (for HubSpot) explains:

Customer engagement is the ongoing interactions between company and

customer, offered by the company, chosen by the customer.

Customer engagement—and the strategies companies use to achieve it—is

evolving. In this article, we’ll go over the 10 most important customer
engagement strategies for 2019, and how you can use them to delight your
customers, improve UX, and reduce churn.

Customer Engagement vs. User Engagement

Customer engagement is sometimes referred to as user engagement, and their
definitions are largely the same.

Companies using the term “customer engagement” typically embrace a high-

touch relationship model. “User engagement,” on the other hand, is most often
used by organizations leveraging a low-touch relationship model. Teams
focused on customer engagement may invest more in in-person product
training, for example, whereas teams focused on user engagement may invest
more in their in-product user onboarding experience.

The difference between a high-touch and low-touch relationship model can be

defined by the one-to-one vs. one-to-many approach of customer interaction. 

Customer engagement
 Low-touch relationship model
 Greater contract value per account
 Product is more complex
 Pay up-front to use the product

User engagement
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 High-touch relationship model
 Less contract value per account
 Product is less complex
 Free-to-paid usage of product

Users vs. customers

A user is a person who uses your product, often at no charge—for example,
people using SaaS free trials, freemium services, and things like social media,
email, and search tools. A customer, on the other hand, is a person who pays to
use your tool. They're still a user, too, but they’ve become your customer
because you've onboarded them successfully—they saw and understood the
value of what your product can deliver. And now they want more.

During the onboarding process, user and customer needs can be quite
different. That’s why we say that you shouldn’t onboard your users like
customers.

But engagement extends beyond onboarding—it occurs throughout the

user/customer lifetime. While the the definition above are great guidelines for
understanding onboarding approaches, there is a lot of overlap between user
and customer engagement strategies. It can be hard—and even
counterproductive—to separate the two, especially when talking about SaaS
companies.
That’s because SaaS companies in particular are likely to take a more nuanced
approach to engagement, engaging some customers with a high-touch
relationship model, and others—most often those under a certain threshold of
contract value—with a low-touch one.

In this article, we’ll cover engagement strategies for both users and
customers.  Let’s dig in:

1. Measure product engagement with an analytics system

Affordable and out-of-the-box analytics systems—like Mixpanel, Amplitude,
and Heap—have made it easy to measure product engagement by customer.

With analytics systems like these, you can get visibility into customer
engagement through product usage. You can run reports and build dashboards
on all kinds of metrics, like which features are being used by which personas,
what cohorts are likely to churn and when, and how far a new user gets before
V.K.S.U. ARA
dropping off.

These metrics can give you valuable insight into where along the user and
customer journey your product is succeeding—and where it might be falling
short. This data can also help you identify where you need to experiment or run
a customer development process so users can get the most value out of your
app.  

And try taking it beyond quantitative analytics. Marry them with qualitative
analytics to create a flywheel of continuous product improvement. First, use
quantitative information like the reports above to focus attention on the
biggest problems (and opportunities). Then "zoom in" to the user’s level
through qualitative research by using tools like Fullstory to round out your
understanding—and solve the problem.

2. All hands support

Many SaaS companies are implementing a new approach to customer support:
They’re taking turns to make sure all employees—from developers to product
managers—have a hand in supporting customers.

All hands support drives growth in many SaaS companies by keeping their
entire team in touch with the personalities, pains, and wishes of their
customers and free trial users.
Zapier says:
Effective all hands support focuses on making life better for your customers.
But it can also cause a shift in how you and your team think about and build
your company.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean companies toss out their customer success
department. Some companies find it advantageous to have a full-time support
team that ‘owns’ the process and use the broader the team to contribute on a
regular schedule.

Here at Appcues, we’ve also baked a full week of support into our new
employee onboarding. We call it “support week” and regularly hear from new
V.K.S.U. ARA
Appcuties that the experience fast-tracked an understanding and empathy for
our customers that would have normally taken months to acquire.

3. Involve your power users

You have a base of highly engaged users that want to align themselves with
your company. These are some of the most mutually beneficial relationships a
company can have. Nurture them and you’ll both gain.

Involving power users is especially helpful during product launches. Give your
power users a sneak peek at your new product and ask them to help you
spread the word with tweets, quotes, or re-blogs when you go live.

4. Build a Slack channel for your community

Slack swept over the tech sector with it’s easy-to-use team communication
software. It’s now common to participate in several Slack teams, with hundreds
of people with shared interests.

Your customers have a lot in common. They may overlap in business

challenges, in organizational role, and in the tools that they use. Why not build
a community of friends, blog readers, and customers on Slack?
Mind the Product, for example, has a great community on Slack, and many
other companies are also taking advantage of this customer engagement
tactic.

Your own Slack community can be a great place to let customers cross-
pollinate ideas and allow you to communicate with customers on a more
human basis.

5. Empower PMs to create in-product customer experiences

You probably already know that in-app messaging is where it’s at when it
comes to engaging customers in your product. 

But as a quick refresher: In-app or in-product messaging (through UI patterns

like tooltips, modals, hotspots, and checklists) is a highly effective way to
onboard new users or to train them on a new feature. In-app messaging is so
effective because it’s contextual—it’s a way to communicate with your users
V.K.S.U. ARA
when and where it matters most.

Appcues’ no-coding-required user experience solution makes it easy (like, really

easy) for companies to create in-product customer experiences and improve
user engagement. Now, non-developers can build, iterate on, and modify in-
app experiences—without bugging their dev teams.

6. Provide an omnichannel experience

Embrace the challenges and potential of an omnichannel experience. What is
an omnichannel experience, exactly?

Hubspot explains:
[An] omni-channel experience is a multi-channel approach to marketing,
selling, and serving customers in a way that creates an integrated and cohesive
customer experience no matter how or where a customer reaches out.

That means thinking more holistically about how your users and customers
experience your product, whether that experience is happening in-app (on
desktop or mobile), in their inboxes, over the phone, at events—wherever. This
year, revisit your customer journey map with cohesion in mind.
Warby Parker does a great job of maintaining a cohesive experience across
web, mobile, and in-store interactions.

Note that omnichannel ≠ multi-channel: You can engage your customers in

every channel under the sun, but if these experiences aren’t cohesive and don’t
work together seamlessly, they don’t add up to an omnichannel experience.

7. Move your NPS outreach in-app

NPS can be a great temperature gauge for the happiness of your customers.
And moving it in-app means that you're hitting exactly the right person at the
right time.

V.K.S.U. ARA

Try asking for NPS right after a user achieves a certain workflow, or target it to
a specific persona that you're interested in. This way, you're not sending email
blasts asking the same people the same question repeatedly. And you can
stagger your survey to analyze each group separately.

8. Tell your story

Companies are made up of people. Not enough businesses use this fact to their
advantage. Giving your customers a behind-the-scenes view of your company
helps you come across as authentic and human—which in turn helps customers
connect with your message and invest emotionally in your company’s success.
9. Personalize your customer experience
There are two main types of personalization: dynamic content—think, adding
in first names—and event-driven automation—think, choose-your-own-
adventure self-segmentation.

We've called personalized onboarding "the best growth hack in the game."

But, we encourage you to go beyond just the first name tag. Duolingo removes
the friction of learning a new language by incorporating elements of
personalization into its onboarding UX sequence. The app directs new users
through personalized onboarding funnels that are tailored to different levels of
experience, ultimately making the app a great fit for a wider range of users.

And this doesn't just apply to onboarding. Try personalizing your offboarding
experience to reduce churn, too. V.K.S.U. ARA

10. Have a practiced customer development process

No matter what stage your company is in, you should have a well-practiced
process for customer development. Because no matter how large you get,
there are always feature requests that need to be scoped and customer pain
points that need to be addressed.

Steven Blank lays out the process in his book, The Four Steps to Epiphany. It can
be loosely summarized in this illustration:
Running a customer development process helps you hypothesize and test which
products will further engage your customers, so you can spend your time on
the ideas that are going to work.  

Final thoughts
User/customer engagement is, at its core, about creating as many stellar
channels and touchpoints as you can. The rewards for investing time and
energy in improving engagement are real:  Highly-engaged customers are
simply more likely to pay more, promote more, and be more loyal than less-
engaged customers.

Q.6. What is marketing mix ? Describe it with example?

Ans. :- The term marketing mix was developed by Neil Borden who first
started using the phrase in 1949. Marketing mix 7 Ps - process, people, physical
evidence, product, place, price, promotion.
V.K.S.U. ARAGiven by - Bernard Booms and Mary
Bitner , 1981 .

"4 Ps" redirects here. For other uses, see 4P.

The marketing mix (also known as the 4 Ps) is a foundation model . The
marketing mix has been defined as the "set of marketing tools that the firm
uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the target".Thus the marketing mix
refers to four broad levels of marketing decision, namely: product, price,
promotion, and place. Marketing practice has been occurring for millennia, but
marketing theory emerged in the early twentieth century. The contemporary
marketing mix, or the 4 Ps, which has become the dominant framework for
marketing management decisions, was first published in 1960. In services
marketing, an extended marketing mix is used, typically comprising 7 Ps, made
up of the original 4 Ps extended by process, people, and physical evidence.
Occasionally service marketers will refer to 8 Ps, comprising these 7 Ps plus
performance.

In the 1990s, the model of 4 Cs was introduced as a more customer-driven

replacement of the 4 Ps. There are two theories based on 4 Cs: Lauterborn's 4
Cs (consumer, cost, communication, convenience), and Shimizu's 4 Cs
(commodity, cost, communication, and channel).

Given the valuation of customers towards potential product attributes (in any
category, e.g. product, promotion, etc.) and the attributes of the products sold
by other companies, the problem of selecting the attributes of a product to
maximize the number of customers preferring it is a computationally
intractable problem.

The correct arrangement of marketing mix by enterprise marketing managers

plays an important role in the success of corporate marketing: (1) develop
strengths and avoid weaknesses (2) strengthen the competitiveness and
adaptability of enterprises (3) make the internal departments of the enterprise
work closely together .

Emergence and growth

The origins of the 4 Ps can be traced to the late 1940s. The first known mention
V.K.S.U. ARA
of a mix has been attributed to a Professor of Marketing at Harvard University,
Prof. James Culliton. In 1948, Culliton published an article entitled, The
Management of Marketing Costs in which Culliton describes marketers as
'mixers of ingredients'. Some years later, Culliton's colleague, Professor Neil
Borden, published a retrospective article detailing the early history of the
marketing mix in which he claims that he was inspired by Culliton's idea of
'mixers', and credits himself with popularising the concept of the 'marketing
mix'. According to Borden's account, he used the term, 'marketing mix'
consistently from the late 1940s. For instance, he is known to have used the
term 'marketing mix' in his presidential address given to the American
Marketing Association in 1953.

Although the idea of marketers as 'mixers of ingredients' caught on, marketers

could not reach any real consensus about what elements should be included in
the mix until the 1960s. The 4 Ps, in its modern form, was first proposed in
1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy; who presented them within a managerial
approach that covered analysis, consumer behavior, market research, market
segmentation, and planning. Phillip Kotler, popularised this approach and
helped spread the 4 Ps model. McCarthy's 4 Ps have been widely adopted by
both marketing academics and practitioners.

The prospect of extending the marketing mix first took hold at the inaugural
AMA Conference dedicated to Services Marketing in the early 1980s, and built
on earlier theoretical works pointing to many important limitations of the 4 Ps
model.[19] Taken collectively, the papers presented at that conference indicate
that service marketers were thinking about a revision to the general marketing
mix based on an understanding that services were fundamentally different to
products, and therefore required different tools and strategies. In 1981, Booms
and Bitner proposed a model of 7 Ps, comprising the original 4 Ps extended by
process, people and physical evidence, as being more applicable for services
marketing.

Since then there have been a number of different proposals for a service
marketing mix (with various numbers of Ps), most notably the 8 Ps, comprising
the 7 Ps above extended by 'performance'

McCarthy's 4 Ps
The original marketing mix, or 4 Ps, as originally proposed by marketer and
academic E. Jerome McCarthy, provides a framework for marketing decision-
making.McCarthy's marketing mix has since become one of the most enduring
V.K.S.U. ARA
and widely accepted frameworks in marketing.[21]

Table 1: Brief Outline of 4 Ps

Category Definition/ Explanation Typical Marketing Decisions

 Product design – features,
quality
 Product assortment – product
range, product mix, product
A product refers to an item
lines
that satisfies the consumer's
 Branding
needs or wants.
 Packaging and labeling
Products may be tangible  Services
Product (complementary
(goods) or intangible service, after-sales service,
(services, ideas or service level)
experiences).  Guarantees and warranties
 Returns
 Managing products through
the life-cycle

Price Price refers to the amount a  Price strategy

customer pays for a product.  Price tactics
 Price-setting
Price may also refer to the
 sacrifice consumers are
prepared to make to acquire
a product.
(e.g. time or effort)
Price is the only variable that
has implications for revenue.
 Allowances – e.g. rebates for
distributors
 Discounts – for customers
 Payment terms – credit,
payment methods

Price also includes

considerations of customer
perceived value.
 Strategies such as intensive
distribution, selective
distribution, exclusive
distribution
V.K.S.U. ARA
 Franchising
Refers to providing customer
 Market coverage
access
Place  Channel member selection and
Considers providing channel member relationships
convenience for consumer.  Assortment
 Location decisions
 Inventory
 Transport, warehousing and
logistics

 Promotional mix - appropriate

balance of advertising, PR,
Promotion refers to direct marketing and sales
marketing communications promotion
 Message strategy - what is to
Promotion May comprise elements such be communicated
as: advertising, PR, direct  Channel/ media strategy - how
marketing and sales to reach the target audience
promotion.  Message Frequency - how
often to communicate
The 4Ps have been the cornerstone of the managerial approach to marketing
since the 1960s

Product refers to what the business offers for sale and may include products
or services. Product decisions include the "quality, features, benefits, style,
design, branding, packaging, services, warranties, guarantees, life cycles,
investments and returns".

Price refers to decisions surrounding "list pricing, discount pricing, special

offer pricing, credit payment or credit terms". Price refers to the total cost to
customer to acquire the product,V.K.S.U.
andARA may involve both monetary and
psychological costs such as the time and effort spended in acquisition.

Place is defined as the "direct or indirect channels to market, geographical

distribution, territorial coverage, retail outlet, market location, catalogues,
inventory, logistics and order fulfilment". Place refers either to the physical
location where a business carries out business or the distribution channels used
to reach markets. Place may refer to a retail outlet, but increasingly refers to
virtual stores such as "a mail order catalogue, a telephone call centre or a
website".

Promotion refers to "the marketing communication used to make the offer

known to potential customers and persuade them to investigate it
further".Promotion elements include "advertising, public relations, direct
selling and sales promotions.

Modified and expanded marketing mix: 7 Ps

By the 1980s, a number of theorists were calling for an expanded and modified
framework that would be more useful to service marketers. The prospect of
expanding or modifying the marketing mix for services was a core discussion
topic at the inaugural AMA Conference dedicated to Services Marketing in the
early 1980s, and built on earlier theoretical works pointing to many important
problems and limitations of the 4 Ps model. Taken collectively, the papers
presented at that conference indicate that service marketers were thinking
about a revision to the general marketing mix based on an understanding that
services were fundamentally different to products, and therefore required
different tools and strategies. In 1981, Booms and Bitner proposed a model of 7
Ps, comprising the original 4 Ps plus process, people and physical evidence, as
being more applicable for services marketing.

Table 2: Outline of the Modified and Expanded Marketing Mix

Category Definition/ Explanation Typical Marketing Decisions

 Facilities (e.g. furniture,
equipment, access)
 Spatial layout (e.g.
The environment in which functionality, efficiency)
service occurs.  Signage (e.g. directional
signage, symbols, other
The space where customers
signage)
and service personnel interact.
V.K.S.U. ARA

Physical  Interior design (e.g.

evidence Tangible commodities (e.g.
equipment, furniture) that
facilitate service performance.
Artifacts that remind customers
of a service performance.
furniture, color schemes)
 Ambient conditions (e.g.
noise, air, temperature)
 Design of livery (e.g.
stationery, brochures,
menus, etc.)
 Artifacts: (e.g. souvenirs,
mementos, etc.)

Human actors who participate  Staff recruitment and

in service delivery. training
 Uniforms
Service personnel who
 Scripting
represent the company's values
 Queuing systems, managing
to customers.
People waits
Interactions between  Handling complaints,
customers. service failures
 Managing social
Interactions between interactions
employees and customers.
Process The procedures, mechanisms  Process design
and flow of activities by which  Blueprinting (i.e.
 flowcharting) service
[29]
processes
 Standardization vs
customization decisions
 Diagnosing fail-points,
critical incidents and system
failures
 Monitoring and tracking
service performance
service is delivered.  Analysis of resource
requirements and allocation
 Creation and measurement
of key performance
indicators (KPIs)
 Alignment with Best
Practices
V.K.S.U. ARA  Preparation of operations
manuals

People are essential in the marketing of any product or service. Personnel

stand for the service. In the professional, financial or hospitality service
industry, people are not producers, but rather the products themselves. When
people are the product, they impact public perception of an organization as
much as any tangible consumer goods. From a marketing management
perspective, it is important to ensure that employees represent the company in
alignment with broader messaging strategies. This is easier to ensure when
people feel as though they have been treated fairly and earn wages sufficient
to support their daily lives.

Process refers to a "set of activities that results in delivery of the product

benefits". A process could be a sequential order of tasks that an employee
undertakes as a part of their job. It can represent sequential steps taken by a
number of various employees while attempting to complete a task. Some
people are responsible for managing multiple processes at once. For example,
a restaurant manager should monitor the performance of employees, ensuring
that processes are followed. They are also expected to supervise while
customers are promptly greeted, seated, fed, and led out so that the next
customer can begin this process.
Physical evidence refers to the non-human elements of the service
encounter, including equipment, furniture and facilities. It may also refer to the
more abstract components of the environment in which the service encounter
occurs including interior design, colour schemes and layout. Some aspects of
physical evidence provide lasting proof that the service has occurred, such as
souvenirs, mementos, invoices and other livery of artifacts. According to Booms
and Bitner's framework, the physical evidence is "the service delivered and any
tangible goods that facilitate the performance and communication of the
service".Physical evidence is important to customers because the tangible
goods are evidence that the seller has (or has not) provided what the customer
was expecting.

Lauterborn's 4 Cs (1990)

Robert F. Lauterborn proposed a 4 Cs classification in 1990. His classification is

a more consumer-orientated version of the 4 Ps that attempts to better fit the
movement from mass marketing to niche marketing:
V.K.S.U. ARA

4 Ps 4 Cs Definition
A company will only sell what the consumer
Consumer specifically wants to buy. So, marketers should
Product wants and study consumer wants and needs in order to
needs attract them one by one with something he/she
wants to purchase.
Price is only a part of the total cost to satisfy a
want or a need. The total cost will consider for
example the cost of time in acquiring a good or a
service, a cost of conscience by consuming that or
even a cost of guilt "for not treating the kids".It
Price Cost
reflects the total cost of ownership. Many factors
affect cost, including but not limited to the
customer's cost to change or implement the new
product or service and the customer's cost for not
selecting a competitor's product or service.
Promotion Communication While promotion is "manipulative" and from the
seller, communication is "cooperative" and from
the buyer with the aim to create a dialogue with
the potential customers based on their needs and
lifestyles. It represents a broader focus.
Communications can include advertising, public
 relations, personal selling, viral advertising, and
any form of communication between the
organization and the consumer[citation needed].
In the era of Internet, catalogues, credit cards and
phones, consumers neither need to go anywhere to
satisfy a want or a need nor are they limited to a
few places to satisfy them. Marketers should know
how the target market prefers to buy, how to be
there and be ubiquitous, in order to guarantee
Place Convenience
convenience to buy. With the rise of Internet and
hybrid models of purchasing, Place is becoming less
relevant. Convenience takes into account the ease
of buying the product, finding the product, finding
information about the product, and several other
factors.

Shimizu's 4 Cs: in the 7Cs Compass

V.K.S.U. ARA Model
After Koichi Shimizu proposed a 4 Cs classification in 1973, it was expanded to
the 7Cs Compass Model to provide a more complete picture of the nature of
marketing in 1979. The 7Cs Compass Model is a framework of co-marketing
(commensal marketing or Symbiotic marketing). Also the Co-creative
marketing of a company and consumers are contained in the co-marketing. Co-
marketing (collaborate marketing) is a marketing practice where two
companies cooperate with separate distribution channels, sometimes including
profit sharing. It is frequently confused with co-promotion. Also commensal
(symbiotic) marketing is a marketing on which both corporation and a
corporation, a corporation and a consumer, country and a country, human and
nature can live.

 The 7Cs Compass Model comprises:

(C1) Corporation – The core of 4 Cs is corporation (company and non

profit organization). C-O-S (competitor, organization, stakeholder) within the
corporation. The company has to think of compliance and accountability as
important. The competition in the areas in which the company competes with
other firms in its industry.

The 4 elements in the 7Cs Compass Model are:

A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing mix is known as 4 Cs
(commodity, cost, communication, channel) in the 7 Cs Compass Model. The 4
Cs model provides a demand/customer centric version alternative to the well-
known 4 Ps supply side model (product, price, promotion, place) of marketing
management.

 Product → Commodity
 Price → Cost
 Promotion → Communication
 Place → Channel

"P"
category "C" category (broad) "C" definition
(narrow)
(Latin derivation: commodus=convenience,
Product (C2) Commodity happiness)  : Co-creation. The goods and services
forV.K.S.U.
consumers
ARA
or citizens.
(Latin derivation: constare= It makes sacrifices)  :
Price (C3) Cost There is not only producing cost and selling cost
but purchasing cost and social cost.
(Latin derivation: communis=sharing of
meaning) : marketing communication  : Not only
promotion but communication is important.
Promotion (C4) Communication Communications can include advertising, sales
promotion, public relations, publicity, personal
selling, corporate identity, internal
communication, SNS, MIS.
(Latin derivation: canal)  : marketing channels.
Place (C5) Channel
Flow of goods.

The compass of consumers and circumstances

(environment) are:

 (C6) Consumer – (Needle of compass to consumer)

The factors related to consumers can be explained by the first character
of four directions marked on the compass model. These can be
remembered by the cardinal directions, hence the name compass model:

 N = Needs
  S = Security
 E = Education: (consumer education)
 W = Wants

 (C7) Circumstances – (Needle of compass to circumstances )

In addition to the consumer, there are various uncontrollable external
environmental factors encircling the companies. Here it can also be
explained by the first character of the four directions marked on the
compass model:

 N = National and International (Political, legal and ethical)

environment
 S = Social and cultural
 E = Economic
 W = Weather
V.K.S.U. ARA

EXHIBIT: Shimizu's 7Cs Compass Model (Courtesy: © Koichi

Shimizu, Japan)
These can also be remembered by the cardinal directions marked on a
compass. The 7 Cs Compass Model is a framework in co-marketing (symbiotic
marketing). It has been criticized for being little more than the 4 Ps with
different points of emphasis. In particular, the 7 Cs inclusion of consumers in
the marketing mix is criticized, since they are a target of marketing, while the
other elements of the marketing mix are tactics. The 7 Cs also include
numerous strategies for product development, distribution, and pricing, while
assuming that consumers want two-way communications with companies.

An alternative approach has been suggested in a book called 'Service 7' by

Australian Author, Peter Bowman. Bowman suggests a values based approach
to service marketing activities. Bowman suggests implementing seven service
marketing principles which include value, business development, reputation,
customer service and service design. Service 7 has been widely distributed
within Australia.

Digital Marketing Mix

Digital marketing mix is fundamentally the same as Marketing Mix, which is
an adaptation of Product, Price, Place and Promotion into digital marketing
aspect. Digital marketing can be commonly explained as 'Achieving marketing
objectives through applying digital technologies'.

Product
Thanks to the interaction and connection of the Internet, Product has been
redefined as 'virtual product' in the digital marketing aspect, which is regarded
as the combination of tangibility and intangibility. Through the form of digital,
a product can be directly sent from manufacturers to customers. For example,
customers could buy music in the form of an MP3 rather than buy it in the form
of a physical CD. As a result, when a company is making strategy for Internet
marketing, it is necessary to understand how to vary their products in the
online environment. Here are some indications of adapt the product element
on the Internet.
V.K.S.U. ARA
 Modifying the core product: In this case, it particularly refers to the
products that can be remodeled into digital forms including movies,
music, books and other publishing etc. Take Netflix as an example. The
wide use of Internet has changed its form of products from selling and
renting DVDs through retail stores into selling and renting video online.
 Providing digital products: In order to gain market shares in the Internet,
companies need to widen its product range. For example, a
psychological counseling could offer online consultation via video calls.
 Building the whole product: Apart from selling products online,
Amazon.com also provides a paid subscription service called Amazon
Prime, with which customers could enjoy free delivery and videos on
Amazon.
 Conducting online research: The Internet offers a low-cost and
convenient way of making marketing researches, which is helpful for
companies to find out what products or services do customers prefer.

Price
Price concerns about the pricing policies or pricing models from a company.
Due to the widely use of the Internet, many applications could be found in both
consumer's and producer's perspective. From consumers' side, the Internet
enables people to make a comparison to a real-time prices before they make a
consumption decision, which is time-saving and effort-saving for the
consumers. As for the suppliers, they can adjust prices in the real-time and
provide higher degree of price transparency with customers. Besides, the
Internet is more likely to ease the pressure on price because online-producers
do not have to put budget on renting a physical store. Hence, making new or
adjusting pricing strategies is essential for the company that wants to enter the
Internet market.

Place
With the application of the Internet, place is playing an increasingly important
role in promoting consumption since the Internet and the physical channels
become virtual. The major contribution from the Internet to the business is not
only making it possible to selling products online, but also enabling companies
to build relationships with customers. Furthermore, since the convenience of
navigating from one site to another, place from the digital marketing
perspective is always linked with promotion, which means retailers often uses
third-party websites such as GoogleV.K.S.U.
searchARA engine to guide customers to visit
their websites.

Promotion
Promotion refers to select the target markets, locate and integrate various
communications tools in the marketing mix. Unlike the traditional marketing
communication tools, tools in digital marketing aim at engaging audiences by
putting advertisements and contents on the social media, including display ads,
pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimisation (SEO) etc. In order to help in
making online marketing campaign, Chaffey and Smith suggested that they
can be separated into six groups.

 Searching marketing, including search engine optimisation(SEO), pay-

per-click(PPC).
 Online PR, enlarging good comments on one's products or services while
reducing negative comments.
 adverse comments.
 Online partnerships, building relationships between third-party webs to
promote products or services.
 Interactive advertising
 Opt-in e-mail advertising
 Social media marketing, starting and participating in customer to
customer, customer to company interaction through social media.
Difficulty of computational methods
Automatically selecting the attributes of a product (in any category, i.e.
product, promotion, etc.) to maximize the number of customers preferring the
resulting product is a computationally intractable problem. Given some
customer profiles (i.e., customers sharing some features such as e.g. gender,
age, income, etc.), the valuations they give to each potential product attribute
(e.g. females aged 35–45 give a 3 out of 5 valuation to "it is green"; males
aged 25–35 give 4/5 to "it can be paid in installments"; etc.), the attributes of
the products sold by the other producers, and the attributes each producer can
give to its products, the problem of deciding the attributes of our product to
maximize the number of customers who will prefer it is Poly-APX-complete.
This implies that, under the standard computational assumptions, no efficient
algorithm can guarantee that the ratio between the number of customers
preferring the product returned by the algorithm and the number of customers
that would prefer the actual optimal product will always reach some constant,
for any constant. Moreover, the problem
V.K.S.U. ARAof finding a strategy such that, for

any strategy of the other producers, our product will always reach some
minimum average number of customers over some period of time is an
EXPTIME-complete problem, meaning that it cannot be efficiently solved.
However, heuristic (sub-optimal) solutions to these problems can be found by
means of genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization methods, or
minimax algorithms

Q.7. What is promotion ? Explain its significations ?

Ans. :- In marketing, promotion refers to any type of marketing
communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative
merits of a product, service, brand or issue. The aim of promotion is to increase
awareness, create interest, generate sales or create brand loyalty. It is one of
the basic elements of the market mix, which includes the four P's ,i.e., Product,
Price, Place, Promotio..

Promotion is also one of the elements in the promotional mix or promotional

plan. These are personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing
publicity and may also include event marketing, exhibitions and trade shows.[2]
A promotional plan specifies how much attention to pay to each of the
elements in the promotional mix, and what proportion of the budget should be
allocated to each element.

Promotion covers the methods of communication that a marketer uses to

provide information about its product. Information can be both verbal and
visual.

Etymology and usage

The term, "promotion' derives from the Old French, promocion meaning to
"move forward", "push onward" or to "advance in rank or position" which in
turn, comes from the Latin, promotionem meaning "a moving forward". The
word entered the English language in the 14th century.

The use of the term promotion to refer to "advertising or publicity" is very

modern and is first recorded in 1925.V.K.S.U.
It may ARA
be a contraction of a related term,
sales promotion, which is one element in the larger set of tools used in
marketing communications. The terms, promotion and marketing
communications can be used synonymously, but in practice, the latter is more
widely used .

Purpose: - There are three objectives of promotion. These are:

1. To present information to consumers and others.

2. To increase demand.
3. To differentiate a product.

The purpose of a promotion and thus its promotional plan can have a wide
range, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand
equity, positioning, competitive retaliations, or creation of a corporate image.

The term 'promotion' tends to be used internally by the marketing function. To

the public or the market, phrases like "special offer" are more common.
Examples of a fully integrated, long-term, and large-scale promotion are My
Coke Rewards in the USA or Coke Zone in the UK and Pepsi Stuff.

Types
There have been different ways to promote a product in person or with
different media. Both person and media can be either physically real or
virtual/electronic.

In a physical environment
Promotions can be held in physical environments at special events such as
concerts, festivals, trade shows, and in the field, such as in grocery or
department stores. Interactions in the field allow immediate purchases. The
purchase of a product can be incentive with discounts (i.e., coupons), free
items, or a contest. This method is used to increase the sales of a given
product. Interactions between the brand and the customer are performed by a
brand ambassador or promotional model who represents the product in
physical environments. Brand ambassadors or promotional models are hired by
a marketing company, which in turn is booked by the brand to represent the
product or service. Person-to-person interaction, as opposed to media-to-
person involvement, establishes connections
V.K.S.U. ARA that add another dimension to
promotion. Building a community through promoting goods and services can
lead to brand loyalty.

Traditional media
Examples of traditional media include print media such as newspapers and
magazines, electronic media such as radio and television, and outdoor media
such as banner or billboard advertisements. Each of these platforms provide
ways for brands to reach consumers with advertisements.

Digital media
Digital media, which includes Internet, social networking and social media
sites, is a modern way for brands to interact with consumers as it releases
news, information and advertising from the technological limits of print and
broadcast infrastructures. Digital media is currently the most effective way for
brands to reach their consumers on a daily basis. Over 2.7 billion people are
online globally, which is about 40% of the world's population. 67% of all
Internet users globally use social media.

Mass communication has led to modern marketing strategies to continue

focusing on brand awareness, large distributions and heavy promotions. The
fast-paced environment of digital media presents new methods for promotion
to utilize new tools now available through technology. With the rise of
technological advances, promotions can be done outside of local contexts and
across geographic borders to reach a greater number of potential consumers.
The goal of a promotion is then to reach the most people possible in a time
efficient and a cost efficient manner.

Social media, as a modern marketing tool, offers opportunities to reach larger

audiences in an interactive way. These interactions allow for conversation
rather than simply educating the customer. Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram,
Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Tumblr, as well as alternate audio and media
sites like SoundCloud and Mixcloud allow users to interact and promote music
online with little to no cost. You can purchase and buy ad space as well as
potential customer interactions stores as Likes, Followers, and clicks to your
page with the use of third parties. As a participatory media culture, social
media platforms or social networking sites are forms of mass communication
that, through media technologies, allow large amounts of product and
distribution of content to reach the largest
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audience possible. [2] However, there
are downsides to virtual promotions as servers, systems, and websites may
crash, fail, or become overloaded with information. You also can stand risk of
losing uploaded information and storage and at a use can also be effected by a
number of outside variables.

Brands can explore different strategies to keep consumers engaged. One

popular tool is branded entertainment, or creating some sort of social game for
the user. The benefits of such a platform include submersing the user in the
brand's content. Users will be more likely to absorb and not grow tired of
advertisements if they are, for example, embedded in the game as opposed to
a bothersome pop-up ad.

Personalizing advertisements is another strategy that can work well for brands,
as it can increase the likelihood that the brand will be anthropomorphized by
the consumer. Personalization increases click-through intentions when data
has been collected about the consumer.

Brands must navigate the line between effectively promoting their content to
consumers on social media and becoming too invasive in consumers' lives. Vivid
Internet ads that include devices such as animation might increase a user's
initial attention to the ad. However, this may be seen as a distraction to the
user if they are trying to absorb a different part of the site such as reading text.
Additionally, when brands make the effort of overtly collecting data about their
consumers and then personalizing their ads to them, the consumer's
relationship with the advertisements, following this data collection, is
frequently positive. However, when data is covertly collected, consumers can
quickly feel like the company betrayed their trust. It is important for brands to
utilize personalization in their ads, without making the consumer feel
vulnerable or that their privacy has been betrayed.

Promotion Important for a Business

Small and medium-sized businesses really need to understand the importance
of promotional and marketing strategies. Business promoting is an active
process which needs to be very closely scrutinized for obtaining the best
results. You can utilize the manpower that you have to the fullest and come up
with strategies to promote your business and let it flourish.

Promotional strategies and marketing go hand in hand. Marketing your brand

or product will include different aspects of manufacturing, promoting and
selling products to the customers. Promotion
V.K.S.U. ARA is a key element in putting across
the benefits of your product or service to the customers. Well-designed
marketing and promotional strategies ensure long-term success, bring in more
customers and ensure profitability for businesses.

Role of Promotions
Promotion is the voice of your company which send out your brand’s message
loud and clear to the audience. Various media platforms can be used to
promote your company and brand. They include television, radio, shopping
outlets, billboards, magazines, and social media.

  Various promotional strategies can be used to promote and market your

business depending on the goals, objectives and priorities of your company.

Without marketing promotions, your brand or service would not be able to

garner the attention of the pre-occupied customers.

Benefits
Promoting your brand will help you in many different ways:

 Increase brand awareness

 Provide appropriate information
  Increase Customer Traffic
 Build sales and profits

Not only these but promotions will also help your company to introduce
products easily in the ever-so-competitive market.

1) Increasing brand awareness –

Promotions help in creating brand awareness. With the help of various media
like the television, billboards, radio or local newspaper news, you can spread
across information about your brand and company, which helps people to find
out more about you and look into your products and make purchases.

2) Segment Identification –
If your promotional and marketing strategy is loosely structured, it might not
be successful in targeting the “right” audiences. Having a full-proof and well-
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thought-out promotional strategy and marketing plan can help you identify
different segments of consumers in the market and offer suitable solutions for
your clients.

3) Increasing customer traffic –

Also, promotion helps in helps in increasing customer traffic. The more you
promote your brand, the more will the customers know about you and your
company and the more will they be interested in your products. Promotion can
be done even by giving out free samples which works wonders for customers!
They try your product and ultimately, come to you and make purchases.

While promotional strategies are very much important, marketers and

businesses must take into account a few aspects in their marketing mix plan.  It
is essential that businesses make use of the right media tool to target their
customers. These days, when social media is the most effective tool on the
online platform, promotional strategies need to extend beyond radio, television
and print.

Q.8. What are the stochastic model ?

Ans.: This page is concerned with the stochastic modelling as applied to the
insurance industry. For other stochastic modelling applications, please see
Monte Carlo method and Stochastic asset models. For mathematical definition,
please see Stochastic process.

"Stochastic" means being or having a random variable. A stochastic model is a

tool for estimating probability distributions of potential outcomes by allowing
for random variation in one or more inputs over time. The random variation is
usually based on fluctuations observed in historical data for a selected period
using standard time-series techniques. Distributions of potential outcomes are
derived from a large number of simulations (stochastic projections) which
reflect the random variation in the input(s).

Its application initially started in physics. It is now being applied in engineering,

life sciences, social sciences, and finance. See also Economic capital.

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Valuation
Like any other company, an insurer has to show that its assets exceeds its
liabilities to be solvent. In the insurance industry, however, assets and liabilities
are not known entities. They depend on how many policies result in claims,
inflation from now until the claim, investment returns during that period, and
so on.

So the valuation of an insurer involves a set of projections, looking at what is

expected to happen, and thus coming up with the best estimate for assets and
liabilities, and therefore for the company's level of solvency.

Deterministic approach
The simplest way of doing this, and indeed the primary method used, is to look
at best estimates.

The projections in financial analysis usually use the most likely rate of claim,
the most likely investment return, the most likely rate of inflation, and so on.
The projections in engineering analysis usually use both the most likely rate
and the most critical rate. The result provides a point estimate - the best single
estimate of what the company's current solvency position is, or multiple points
of estimate - depends on the problem definition. Selection and identification of
parameter values are frequently a challenge to less experienced analysts.
The downside of this approach is it does not fully cover the fact that there is a
whole range of possible outcomes and some are more probable and some are
less.

Stochastic modelling
A stochastic model would be to set up a projection model which looks at a
single policy, an entire portfolio or an entire company. But rather than setting
investment returns according to their most likely estimate, for example, the
model uses random variations to look at what investment conditions might be
like.

Based on a set of random variables, the experience of the

policy/portfolio/company is projected, and the outcome is noted. Then this is
done again with a new set of random variables. In fact, this process is repeated
thousands of times.
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At the end, a distribution of outcomes is available which shows not only the
most likely estimate but what ranges are reasonable too. The most likely
estimate is given by the distribution curve's (formally known as the Probability
density function) center of mass which is typically also the peak(mode) of the
curve, but may be different e.g. for asymmetric distributions.

This is useful when a policy or fund provides a guarantee, e.g. a minimum

investment return of 5% per annum. A deterministic simulation, with varying
scenarios for future investment return, does not provide a good way of
estimating the cost of providing this guarantee. This is because it does not
allow for the volatility of investment returns in each future time period or the
chance that an extreme event in a particular time period leads to an
investment return less than the guarantee. Stochastic modelling builds
volatility and variability (randomness) into the simulation and therefore
provides a better representation of real life from more angles.

Numerical evaluations of quantities

Stochastic models help to assess the interactions between variables, and are
useful tools to numerically evaluate quantities, as they are usually
implemented using Monte Carlo simulation techniques (see Monte Carlo
method). While there is an advantage here, in estimating quantities that would
otherwise be difficult to obtain using analytical methods, a disadvantage is
that such methods are limited by computing resources as well as simulation
error. Below are some examples:

Means
Using statistical notation, it is a well-known result that the mean of a function,
f, of a random variable X is not necessarily the function of the mean of X.

For example, in application, applying the best estimate (defined as the mean)
of investment returns to discount a set of cash flows will not necessarily give
the same result as assessing the best estimate to the discounted cash flows.

A stochastic model would be able to assess this latter quantity with

simulations.

Percentiles
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This idea is seen again when one considers percentiles (see percentile). When
assessing risks at specific percentiles, the factors that contribute to these levels
are rarely at these percentiles themselves. Stochastic models can be simulated
to assess the percentiles of the aggregated distributions.

Truncations and censors

Truncating and censoring of data can also be estimated using stochastic
models. For instance, applying a non-proportional reinsurance layer to the best
estimate losses will not necessarily give us the best estimate of the losses after
the reinsurance layer. In a simulated stochastic model, the simulated losses can
be made to "pass through" the layer and the resulting losses assessed
appropriately.

The asset model

Although the text above referred to "random variations", the stochastic model
does not just use any arbitrary set of values. The asset model is based on
detailed studies of how markets behave, looking at averages, variations,
correlations, and more.

The models and underlying parameters are chosen so that they fit historical
economic data, and are expected to produce meaningful future projections.
There are many such models, including the Wilkie Model, the Thompson Model
and the Falcon Model.

The claims model

The claims arising from policies or portfolios that the company has written can
also be modelled using stochastic methods. This is especially important in the
general insurance sector, where the claim severities can have high
uncertainties.

Frequency-Severity models
Depending on the portfolios under investigation, a model can simulate all or
some of the following factors stochastically:

 Number of claims V.K.S.U. ARA

 Claim severities
 Timing of claims

Claims inflations can be applied, based on the inflation simulations that are
consistent with the outputs of the asset model, as are dependencies between
the losses of different portfolios.

The relative uniqueness of the policy portfolios written by a company in the

general insurance sector means that claims models are typically tailor-made.

Stochastic reserving models

Estimating future claims liabilities might also involve estimating the
uncertainty around the estimates of claim reserves.

Q.9. What are difference between marketing research and

marketing intelligence ?
Ans.:- Market Intelligence and Market Research have been in trend for a
while now but to understand the two separately has been a bit confusing all
this time. This is because market intelligence and research have a very thin line
of difference between them. Where the former is related to analyzing the
existing industry trends, the latter is more company specific. But both of these
terminologies more or less share the same target-providing better customer
experience, analyzing business status and adopting relevant marketing
strategies accordingly.

Marketing intelligence is practiced by the professionals to use the already

existing data to study their competition, market, customer behavior, political
impacts and a lot more. While doing market research there is no dependency
on the available data, companies conduct surveys, phone calls, collect reviews,
do social media audits to gather the company-specific data and use it to
transform into useful information.

Let us understand the terms with their impact on various aspect.

Customers
A large number of business decisions are impacted by the market intelligence
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strategies, one being the impact on the customers. Internal data or information
is also considered as a type of market intelligence and it is of great use for
small and mid-sized businesses. Let us take an example of a small restaurant
where the owner has an existing data (market intelligence) of the time when
the maximum people come in and what do they order, while on the other hand,
the restaurant will need to call and enquire (market research) if they want to
know the specific reason of the customers' arrival at that particular time and
why do they order any specific thing. This clarifies how both these processes
affect the customers.

Market
Market is, of course, the main aspect that is impacted by these two strategies.
Marketing intelligence is used by the marketing managers to understand and
determine their market share and the total amount the customers spend in
their industry. Market research is done to find out what are the preferences of
the customers based on various markets your business caters to.

Competitors
Market intelligence also provides an insight into your competitor’s business.
Generally, small businesses try to identify the existing trends of their
competitors on competitive websites, brochures and papers. Looking at the
data helps in comparing the current position of your company with others to
prepare pricing strategies and improve services. However, to find out how
competitors rank on quality, there is a need of market research and it can be
performed through surveys and phone calls. The terms market research and
market intelligence are often used interchangeably, so, to understand their
definition and difference really matters. This can help you increase your sales
potential.

Both of these practices are relevant for any industry to grow, have a proactive
approach and learn what the existing market desires. Where market research
helps in preparing your business according to the upcoming trends, market
intelligence helps you in focusing on the current business strategies. And both
of these processes are necessary to excel in this competitive world.

V.K.S.U. ARA