MARKETING LISTS

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MARKETING LISTS
Checklists are quick and useful. They enable you to conduct self audit before others audit you. Avoid missing out what is important. Assemble your presentations in a jiffy.Please do leave your valuable comments under each post. You can send me your own lists. Or wish lists. skpalekar@hotmail.com

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011 FOLLOWERS

Symptoms of lack of Marketing ...

A good way of conducting a marketing audit How well are the 5 vital marketing processes established ?
Check if these 5 vital processes of marketing are existing in your company & also how well are they established ? The symptoms of absence of these processes are given later.

1.

MARKET SENSING PROCESS : Process of observing the reality and learning from it so that a sound plan can be formulated depending on it. This process tracks, analyzes and interprets what the environment and competitive developments and thus provides a foundation of reality to all actions. STRATEGY FORMULATION PROCESS : This process helps the marketing company decide what value it plans to create, for whom, and how will it compete sustainably. CUSTOMER FULFILLMENT PROCESS : This is a process of coordinating with internal departments so that the strategy gets implemented, the product portfolio gets developed and supported in line with the market needs, the stock gets produced and distributed to the right locations and supply chain works properly end to end. GO TO MARKET PROCESS : This process consists of locating, prospecting, contacting, promoting, advising, closing, transacting - and thus acquiring customers - in order to generate revenues for the company. CUSTOMER FEEDBACK PROCESS : This process gives frequent customer feedback on existing operations / marketing mix . It consists of managing complaints, customer recovery, learning from mistakes. It also consists of what gives rise to customer satisfaction from existing ways of the business.

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BLOG ARCHIVE

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2011 (26) November (1) Symptoms of lack of Marketing ... September (7)

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August (4) June (1) May (13)

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ABOUT ME

S K "Bal" Palekar After 34 years of corporate life, I am in my 2nd career from 2009 - an

Symptoms (What happens) if these 5 processes are absent ?

1. WHAT HAPPENS IF MARKET SENSING PROCESS IS ABSENT ? The alignment

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between the markets and the company is never measured (except by the very obvious and post-facto measure of sales if we are selling well, we must be aligned to the market). If you do not sense the market at the time of market entry you will fail because you may not be able to give what the market wants and which is better than what the competition is offering. Even if you start with a good alignment and hence success in sales, the market and the company may drift in different directions without continuous market sending and thus the "fit with the market" may goes down progressively till the company finds itself hopelessly out of date. 2. WHAT HAPPENS IF STRATEGY FORMULATION PROCESS IS ABSENT ? the company will try and go after multiple types of customers - and for each it will try to create value and in multiple ways. Ultimately the company does not create a superior focus on any of these markets (customers) and does not become a leader (among top 3) in any of the markets it operates. In each market it becomes a "follower" and is subject to the pricing and other rules set by the leaders and hence operates with its margins under pressure. Being not a leader it also does not enjoy warm patronage of the users, buyers, trade and vendors. No one's life depends much on such a company but the company is at the mercy of a lot of people. 3. WHAT HAPPENS IF CUSTOMER FULFILLMENT PROCESS IS ABSENT ? the right products, with right product specifications, may not come to market at the right time. Or the right products may not get produced and distributed such that the right product is available at the right time. 4. WHAT HAPPENS IF GO TO MARKET PROCESS IS ABSENT ? The revenue generation and customer relationship creation suffers. Even if you make the right product, revenue will not get generated unless you reach out to them, talk to them, convince them, demonstrate to them, persuade them and make them buy. 5. WHAT HAPPENS IF CUSTOMER FEEDBACK PROCESS IS ABSENT ? you lose out on chances to learn by doing. Since the customers do not connect back to you, you never learn what they think and want, and you do not come to know where are the areas of opportunity. The customer relationship suffers because there is no connect. The customer loyalty suffers and you lose a part of the "total lifetime value" of the customer base - created by you - to your com

educator, a professor, a consultant, an independent director and a trustee of an NGO. I worked for MNC & Indian companies like P&G, Cadbury, Best Foods, MRF/Funskool, Balsara ( Now Dabur), Onida and Eureka Forbes doing marketing, selling, after sales service, branding, knowledge management, and running an SBU. Last job : Sr V.P. Marketing at Eureka Forbes - Rs 1000 Crore company. Teaching was my passion for 2 decades. I taught courses at various top B schools. I am now the Chairperson of Executive Education Center at S P Jain Institute : one of the top 10 in India. I consult in Market entry, Revitalizing stalled products, Service Marketing, Taking strategy from boardroom to market, Internal branding for customer focus, customer acquisition and organization development. I am trustee of an NGO "Yuva Parivartan" that trains over 10000 school dropouts for various vocations and makes them livelihood-ready.I am on a few company boards as an independent director. I am M Sc Physics Bombay Uni and MMS Marketing from Bajaj Institute. View my complete profile

Posted by S K "Bal" Palekar at 8:57 PM

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

4 Checks for your value proposition - will you succeed?

The books say that you need to define your value proposition in order to brief the ad agency and the creative people and salespersons so that they can communicate with your customers. I say that value proposition is a story you need to first tell yourself internally before you start rather than telling it when the time comes to communicate and sell the product. You need to answer the following questions before you start the business / product ...

What is your insight ?

what makes you enter the market in the first place? I hope its is not because you have the money - or because of everybody is doing it - or because loans are available for the planned activity ! Ideally your insight should be based on any or all of the following four things MARKET : unfulfilled needs or partially fulfilled needs of customers COSTS : ways for reducing costs without diluting the benefits for existing players BUILD ASSETS EFFICIENTLY : efficient ways to acquire assets (financial - structural relational - human) which will grow well with the passage of time. YOUR EXISTING COMPETENCIES : can be used in a better fashion than that by your competitors.

Market Knowledge
Without a clear visibility of the following, you will not know what "marketing mix" you must offer to them. This knowledge enables you to decide what value must be created, for whom and how it needs to be taken to them so that they can buy it. In order to take these decisions you need to acquire market knowledge about the following 7 things : 1. TA PROFILE : Target Customers - who are they? how many? where are they ? 2. INWARD ACCESS : can they access you ? 3. HOW DO THEY COME TO MARKET : current buying stages / behavior ? 4. CURRENT CHOICES MADE BY TA : what category, channels selling now? 5. TA SEARCH : to what extent are they searching for you? how ?

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6. TA READINESS : how far away from budget, organization, intent ? 7. YOUR ACCESS : how will your people recognize and access them?

What value will you offer and how is it better

WHAT VALUE WILL YOU OFFER : You cannot craft your value proposition without clearly understanding and deciding "what matters to the customer" and how much of it will you give vis-avis the current choices made by the TA. It will be good to remember that what matters to the customer is not the product alone but its availability, terms and condition, price, delivery, installation, training, repair etc. There are many different models for thinking this through. I suggest you use two models : 8Ps and PFSR 1. 8Ps :Product, Packaging, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Processes, Physical Evidence. 2. PFSR model : value is driven by Product, Facility, Service and Reputation HOW IS IT BETTER : It should be ideally better than the "current choices made by TA" and also be focused on the targeted needs of the customers. Example : your car is "better than SX4 in fuel efficiency" and "meets the need of boot space for a family of 5 going for a week long trip"

How feasible is it to create and sell such an offer

1. Can you adjust the price to handle the costs you have planned? 2. Can you adjust the costs to handle the pricing you have planned ? 3. Do you have the competence to create what you have planned ? 4. Do you have the resources for what you have planned?

Posted by S K "Bal" Palekar at 1:04 PM

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Vital Few Profit Improvement Techniques

Most CEOs unleash too many profit-improvement initiatives. I recommend a simple exercise to gain perspective and create a sharper focus. Look at your current P&L and classify costs into the following four costs. 1. Costs embedded in the materials - Material cost as % of sales ( Techniques : waste reduction, vendor development, negotiations, value engineering and segmentation ) ( Segmentation is probably the best technique as it enables you to incur only those costs that are valued by the target customer and hence possible to become compensated by better prices ). 2. Time costs - Fixed Costs of facilities (1) rents and running costs of offices /spaces (2) depreciation and running of the cost of the equipment for facilities ( Techniques : productivity improvement, scheduling, more throughput, peak-weak demand adjustment ) 3. Fixed Costs of people : salaries, perks and travel ( Techniques : Motivation, Aligning, Competency development, organization roles and structure planning, selection, recruitment and on-boarding, career path planning, compensation, incentives, PMS, continuous education etc) 4. Interest costs on your working capital (inventories and debtors)( Techniques : Supply chain management, range planning, channel management)

Posted by S K "Bal" Palekar at 3:12 PM

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

what adds value ?

For the purposes of this list, "value" is equated with WTP (Willingness to pay) 1. Product-embedded features 2. Location-embedded features ( Outlet, Site, Service Centers, Call Centers) 3. Membership-embedded features ( society membership that comes with the product ) 4. Facility ( space, equipment, cash ) helps in PCS ( Product Consumption Cycle)

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5. Image ( as a signal of pride, status, quality ) 6. Platform ( you can extract value from yourself ) a swimming pool 7. Social Platform (Facebook type) you get value out of other members

Posted by S K "Bal" Palekar at 1:39 PM

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Basic Questions To Ask in Strategic Market Audit

Type of customer going after and how Category non-users to think of the category (development communications) Users thinking of coming to category to try the category (category recruitment) Influencing new comers to the category to come to the company ( promotion) Influencing a particular competitors' heavy / reg/ light / lapsed users to come Trying to get customers to put our company into the consideration set Trying to get from consideration set to trial ( conversion) Trying to get from customers to loyal and heavy customers Trying to accomplish this By emphasis on GTM - influencing the external world to buy more By emphasis on VP - influencing internally to transform itself By push or pull How are the customers coming to market Not coming to market - Need unfelt - not open to product ideas Need felt - but not begun looking for products Need felt - begun searching - unclear idea of what / where the solutions are Need felt - found solutions - but still a niche market Need felt - found solutions - experience built up - + and - are known Segments appear in solutions Readiness to consider : how many people in the population - are at what stage of coming to market How many have you in their consideration set How many hot prospects - urgent need + budget + plans + authority What are we selling : capability ? Products ? Service ? Solution ? X axis = Extent of customization. Y Axis = Extent of order size Z Axis = Number of customers FMCG : Low customization, low order size, many customers Niche FMCG : Low customization, low order size, few customers B2B "Supplier" : Big order size, low customization, response-credit-delivery B2B "Vendor" : Big order size, high customization

Posted by S K "Bal" Palekar at 1:28 PM

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Ways of being competitive over the long term

HABIT FORMING AND EXPENSIVE ACTIONS FOR INCREASING SHARE / SALES Reducing price Giving discounts Giving premiums and gifts Promotion campaigns These are internecine ways and can neutralize each other and reduce industry profitability without benefiting anyone except of course the customers.

Lasting Marketing Strategies

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Being first / follower / top-3 in a market segment.

You were there first. You identified the segment as a long term bet displaced the competitors You created a segment which others did not know existed You caught the market in its early growth phase (when many others were not looking) You jumped on the right platform ahead of others You jumped in when many collaborators were looking for potential collaborators IMPACT helps in price comparison helps in being in the consideration set helps in getting a better price helps in cost efficient material acquisition helps in cost efficient customer acquisition helps in being helped by collaborators.

Being in a suitable / sunrise market (now or later)

large fast-growing profitable less competitive suited to develop your competencies

Inimitable and unique VP / GTM strategy

Locating an un-served or under-served need / market - for new launches Locating over-served need / market - for cost reduction Locating a weak competitor who can be overpowered Based on an unknown insight Based on a unique offering Based on customization not possible earlier Developing an access and contact which was not possible earlier Developing an engagement mechanism not possible earlier Developing a transaction mechanism not possible earlier Developing a batch size for purchasing, production, distribution, marketing not possible earlier Developing a delivery mechanism not possible earlier Developing a satisfaction mechanism not possible earlier Developing a market sensing mechanism not possible earlier Developing a customer acquisition mechanism not possible earlier Developing a fulfillment mechanism not possible earlier

Lasting Business Strategies

Experience Curve of you & your partners
Repeating batch / work improves operational efficiency and productivity Procurement costs come down as volumes increase Vendors identify you as a key account - improved service / development Relationship with vendors becomes deeper and improves costs Defectives / Rejections reduce with experience You can perform value engineering with volume improvement

Knowledge of market dynamics helps in

better supply chain / inventory planning planning to service the market targeting customers planning messaging planning promotions

Better Leveraging current resources / assets

Current relationships : with customers and influencers and channel

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Current brands Current locations and associated taxes, interest rates, labor, real estate costs Current patents, contracts, quotes, memberships, approvals, MOUs, tie-ups Current people and experience and costs

Current position in the industry

Bargaining power with customers Bargaining power with suppliers Clout with the channel, with the vendors, with the unions, with the banks Importance in the industry bodies and clout with the government

Posted by S K "Bal" Palekar at 12:58 PM

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Symptoms of poor go-to-market effort

Many of your target customers are 1. not aware of the existence of your company / your offer / your availability 2. not aware of where and how can they access you for enquiry / request / complaint 3. not engaged by your effort compared to your competitors 4. not paying attention to your outbound communication / efforts 5. not getting a complete solution / service from - you (includes your network) 6. not finding from you / your network what they expect when they "come to market" Your outbound marketing effort to attract attention and interest in your offer 1. covers only a small portion of your total target audience

Posted by S K "Bal" Palekar at 5:05 PM

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