Learn about the concept of brand extension, including line and category extensions. Understand the advantages and disadvantages of brand extension, and the factors that contribute to successful brand extension. Brand Extensions What is Brand Extension? Brand Extension is a marketing strategy in which a successful brand name is used to launch new or modified products […]
Marketing & Sales
Customer Loyalty Ladder: Importance, Strategies for Building Loyalty
The customer loyalty ladder is a hierarchical model that enables businesses to classify customers based on their relationship and level of engagement with the business. It is a valuable tool to understand and nurture customer relationships that helps businesses increase customer satisfaction and create long-term loyalty. Satisfaction and Loyalty Satisfied customers provide positive word of […]
SERVQUAL Model of Service Quality Explained
SERVQUAL is a widely used framework for assessing and measuring service quality in various industries and settings. SERVQUAL is based on the premise that customers’ perceptions of service quality are shaped by their expectations and the actual service they receive. Companies measure customer satisfaction as an indicator of service quality. This enables them to improve […]
Customer Profitability Analysis: CLV and other metrics explained
Not all customers are alike; they differ in their real profitability. Marketing is the art of attracting and keeping profitable customers. It involves making use of the 80– 20 rule, and in extreme cases see the most profitable 20 percent of customers may even contribute as much as 150 to 300 percent of profitability. A […]
Customer Acquisition & Retention Strategies
Customer acquisition and Customer retention strategies focus on attracting new customers through targeted marketing and sales efforts, and then focus on fostering loyalty, providing excellent service, and implementing personalized initiatives to keep existing customers satisfied, ultimately encouraging repeat business and long-term relationships. Customer Acquisition Companies increase their profits by spending considerable time and resources searching […]
Data Management for CRM: CDI best practices and strategies
Data management for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) involves the organized collection, storage, and utilization of customer-related information. It ensures accurate and timely access to customer details, enabling businesses to make informed decisions, personalize interactions, and optimize customer experiences. Managing customer interactions Managing customers and their interactions with the business is an important aspect of CRM, […]
eCRM: Benefits, Features, Components
eCRM (electronic way of customer relationship management) uses social media, forums, and other channels to track customer engagement with the business. For decades organizations did all the talking but Social Media allows two way dialogue and allows organizations to communicate with stakeholders. Customers can now easily post their thoughts about products, services, and policies. As […]
What is Relationship Marketing? Definition, Benefits and Examples.
Relationship marketing is a connection between equal partners, characterized by trust, commitment, communication, and sharing, which results in the mutual achievement of goals. It is basically interaction in networks of relationships. Relationships require at least two parties who are in contact with each other. The basic two-party relationship of marketing is that between a SUPPLIER […]
Customer Value Chain
Francis Buttle’s Customer Value Chain outlines the stages involved in creating customer value and building profitable customer relationships within the context of customer relationship management (CRM). Customer Value Chain provides a systematic means of displaying and categorizing value activities and margin. At each stage in the value chain, there is an opportunity to contribute positively […]
Customer Value and Customer Perceived Value (CPV)
Customer value is the customer’s evaluation of the difference between all the benefits and all the costs of a market offering relative to those of competing offers (Kotler et al. 2008). Image adapted from Kotler and Keller (2016). In traditional organization, the business model adopted was “top management” at the top and customers at the […]
Success Factors for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a strategy, used in combination with software system, to manage a firm’s interactions with existing as well as potential customers. CRM systems consolidate customer data from various channels and analyses it to understand more about the customers needs, behavior, and preferences. Here’s more on why capturing customer experience is key […]
Kapferer Brand Identity Prism Explained
The Kapferer Brand Identity Prism is a branding tool commonly used by businesses to create a strong brand identity that resonates with its customers and sets itself apart from competitors. Kapferer Brand Identity Prism: Various Facets Jean-Noel Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism is a model that talks about the various facets that helps a business build […]
Understanding Marcom: Its objectives & tools used to achieve them
MarCom (short for Marketing Communication) is the use of various methods to promote products or services to the target audience. MarCom has various objective and marketers can make of use of various tools to help achieve those objectives. Marcom Objectives The most common objectives of MarCom include building a positive relationship between the brand and […]
Hierarchy of Effects Theory Explained
The Hierarchy of Effects Theory is a model in marketing and advertising that describes the sequence of stages a consumer goes through when making a purchase decision. These stages include awareness, knowledge, liking or interest, preference, conviction, and purchase. The theory proposes that advertising and marketing efforts can guide consumers through these stages, leading them […]
Brand Positioning: Concepts
Brand positioning is about creating a suitable image for a brand in the minds of the target audience. As part of this process, the unique features of the brand are indetified and is communicated effectively to create a distict image of that brand to the target market. While brand positioning and positioning are part of […]
What is Digital (Social Media) Marketing?
Digital marketing is marketing using digital channels, such as the internet, social media, email, mobile apps, and more. It enables businesses to reach out to potential customers through various electronic devices, including desktop computers and mobile phones. The Rise of Social Media Studies reveal that people spend almost one quarter of their online time on […]
Global Branding and Glocal Branding Strategies
Branding is about creative a strong perception of a company and its product/services in the minds of the consumers. A truly global brand: meets the wants and needs of a global market is offered in all world regions has the same brand name, and in some instances, a similar image and positioning throughout the world. […]
Marketing Environment: Understanding the internal and external environment
Marketing operates in a complex and changing environment. The marketing environment is the environment that a business operates in (Whalley 2010, p. 50). It involves the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers (Kotler et al. 2013). The marketing environment involves an internal […]
Product Adaptation and Standardization
Every business needs product/services that it can sell to potential customers. While firms would prefer to have standardized products that they can sell over the world, there are various factors that compel firms to adapt their products. In general, products that offer high core product benefits and require less support services are better suited to […]
Product (P of Marketing Mix) & Product Mix: Definition, Features, Examples
Product is the first element of the marketing mix, and developing a product strategy requires coordinated decisions on product mixes, product lines, brands and packaging and labelling. In planning its market offering, marketers need to think through various levels of the product: the core benefit, the basic product, the expected product, the augmented product and […]
Introduction to Marketing: Useful Concepts
Introduction to marketing: Various definitions, marketing mix, sales vs. marketing, marketing plans, and more. What is Marketing? Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organisation and its stakeholders. Marketing management is the art and […]
Keller’s Brand equity Model (CBBE Model)
One of the main objectives of the branding team of a company is to increase the brand equity of the organization. There are several ways in which this can be done, and one of the ways is to follow the Keller’s Brand equity model (also known as the CBBE model of Keller). Introduction Kevin Keller […]
Deviant Consumer behaviour
Consumers can often be their own “worst enemies”. Consumers’ desires, choices, and actions often result in NEGATIVE consequences to themselves and / or to society. Social pressures, a culture’s value of money, exposure to unattainable ideals of success, social status, and / or beauty – all contribute to negative consumer behavior. Consumers are NOT always […]
Schiffman and Kanuk’s model of Consumer Behaviour
Schiffman and Kanuk uses a marketing segmentation approach to explain Consumer Behaviour. The authors have explained the model in their book named ‘Consumer Behaviour’. Consumer buying behaviour is the study of the buying behaviour of consumers; it tries to understand the decision making process of the consumer, their shopping habits and purchasing behavior. Schiffman and […]
7 O’s framework of consumer research
The 7 O’s framework of consumer research helps marketing managers understand more about the consumers in the target market. The 7 Os stand for Occupants, Objects, Objectives, Organizations, Operations, Occasions, Outlets. Here’s what they mean. Occupants: Who buys, Who constitutes the market? Objects: What does the market buy? Objectives: Why does the market buy? Occasions: […]
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory
Organizational anthropologist Geert Hofstede is well known for his research studies on social values that suggest that cultures of different nations can be compared in terms of five dimensions. Developed by Geert Hofstede (1984), the cultural dimensions theory ((Hofstede’s Cross Cultural research work)) is a highly recognised framework for cross-cultural communication describing the effects of […]
Marketing Ethics: Various Concepts
Ethics in marketing promotes transparency, honesty, fairness in marketing. Marketing ethics is what guide companies to do “the right thing” – be it implementing acceptable practices, dealing fairly with customers, complying with law, or be it caring for the community and environment. Companies are free to either develop their own ethical standards or they have […]
Understanding Consumer Culture: Theory and Definition
Consumer culture is a theory in marketing that suggests that the modern human society is subjected to strong forces of consumerism where buying consumer goods has now become a cultural practice that fosters social behaviors. Transformation to a Consumerist Society “You don’t need it but you want to buy” Ours is now a consumerist society. […]
Place in Marketing Mix
Place in Marketing Mix refers to the distribution channels that are needed to take the products to the end-users. Location Layout Distribution channels Retail / wholesale Internet Telephone Face-to-face selling batheoriesBATheories.com is managed by a group of educators from Mumbai. We also manage the website StudyMumbai.com. Our panel includes experienced professionals and lecturers with a […]
Sales Promotion: Tool of the Communication Mix
Sales Promotion: Tool of the Communication Mix. Sales promotions work by offering customers an incentive to buy now rather than in the future; they ‘accelerate’ sales. They provide additional value, in order to induce an immediate sale. Sales promotions are used extensively in consumer markets. Need to be used integrated with other tools, such as […]
Advertising: Tool of the Communication Mix
Advertising is a critical tool in the marketing communication mix that enables businesses to reach their target audiences and promote their products or services. It involves creating and delivering persuasive messages through various media channels to influence consumer behavior. In today’s competitive market, advertising plays a crucial role in building brand awareness, creating interest, promoting […]
Marketing Communications (MarCom) and Integrated marketing communication (IMC)
Marketing communication (MarCom), which comprises the promotion P of the marketing mix, refers to all forms of communication used by organizations to inform, remind, explain, persuade, and influence the attitudes, and buying behaviours of customers and others. Modern marketing calls for more than developing a good product, pricing it attractively and making it accessible to […]
Distribution Channels (Place in the Marketing Mix)
Marketing distribution channel (also known as the distribution channel) refers to the functions performed by the producer (marketer) or intermediaries to make a firm’s goods or services available to the end-user (customer). Most producers do not sell their goods directly to the end users. Between the producers and final users exist one or more marketing […]
Branding Guide: Strategies to Craft a Strong Brand Identity
A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design or some combination of these elements, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. The different components of a brand – brand name, logo, symbol, package design and so on, these […]
Public Relations: Tool of the Communication Mix
Public Relations: Tool of the Communication Mix. Public relations is a management activity that attempts to shape the attitudes and opinions held by an organisation’s stakeholders. It attempts to identify its own policies with the interests of its stakeholders and formulates and executes a programme of action to develop mutual goodwill and understanding. Through this […]
Pricing Concepts (Marketing Mix)
Despite the increasing significance of non-price factors in modern marketing, pricing remains an important element of the marketing mix and the only element that generates revenue; the others elements produce costs for the firm. Understand price and its relationship with costs, quality, and value. Understand the various approaches to pricing, how consumers and customers perceive […]
Industry or Product Life Cycle
Every new product goes through a product life cycle and the various stages in the life cycle impacts the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, and management decisions within the firm. Before Porter’s famous Five Forces Model came into existence (in 1979), much of industry analysis was conducted on the basis of the product or […]
Marketing Planning (& Marketing Plan)
Marketing Planning is the process of analysing marketing situations, deciding marketing objectives, and implementing various marketing strategies to achieve those objectives. Here’s more on marketing planning and its process. What is Marketing Planning? The Marketing Planning process is a methodical approach to achieve specific marketing goals. It involves several steps such as conducting a situation […]
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Concepts
Consumer behaviour refers to the physiological process related to the emotions of the consumer. For Marketers, it is important to understand Consumer behaviour as it provides them with a better understanding of the buying pattern of consumers. Consumer behaviour is a key aspect of marketing and there is a considerable body of literature on the […]
Perceptual Maps (Positioning maps/P-maps)
A perceptual map (P-map) is a tool used to illustrate the consumer’s perceptions of a product/ brand. A perceptual map is a tool for determining the position of a brand in the marketplace, based on consumer perceptions of the brand and its competitors, using attributes that are important to consumers. The various attributes can be: […]
Marketing Mix (4P’s and 7P’s Explained)
Marketing mix includes the “set of marketing tools that a firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the target segment”. Marketing mix refers to activities that a firm carries out to effectively promote its products/services. This is done by adjusting the four Ps of the marketing mix: Product or service, Price, Placement, and Promotion. […]
AIDA model explained
One of the best known classic marketing models, AIDA traces journey of a customer through Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2012). Stages of the AIDA model: Awareness: Focus on grabbing attention of consumers by using advertising materials. Interest: Once the company has the attention of the prospective customer, the prospects need […]
Marketing: Books, Journals and Resources
Best Marketing and Marketing Planning Books, Journals and Resources Best Marketing Books Here are the best books on marketing. Baines, P., Fill, C. and Rosengren, S., 2017. Marketing. Oxford University Press. Baran, Roger J., and Robert J. Galka. (2013) CRM : The Foundation of Contemporary Marketing Strategy, Taylor & Francis Group, 2013. Brassington F. Essentials […]
Personal Selling: Tool of the Communication Mix
Personal Selling: Tool of the Communication Mix Personal selling concerns interpersonal communication and the role is largely one of representation. Personal selling is a highly potent form of communication simply because messages can be adapted to meet the requirements of both parties, who meet face-to-face, as the communication develops. Objections can be overcome, information provided […]
Direct Marketing
The key role of direct marketing is to reach target audiences with personalized and customized messages that aim to provoke a change in the audience’s behaviour. A secondary role of direct marketing is to collect customer information, in order to feed future strategies and campaigns. In order to reach audiences with call-to-action messages, direct marketing […]
Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP)
STP (acronym for Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) is a three-step framework in marketing that enables firms to develop specific, actionable, and effective marketing strategies . Using the STP approach, marketers first identify distinct customer segments based on similar needs and benefits. Once the various segments are identified, specific segment/s are selected based on their attractiveness based […]
What is segmentation in marketing?
Market segmentation refers to the division of a market into different groups of customers with distinctly similar needs and product/service requirements. The variables used for segmentation include geographic, demographic, behavioural and psychographics. Let’s understand more about Market segmentation using definitions, explanations, and examples. Related: STP process in Marketing What is Market Segmentation? Market segmentation is […]
Market Targeting Process in Marketing
Target marketing involves selecting the appropriate target market/s from the entire market and effectively marketing to them. It is a common practice in marketing to divide the market into various smaller homogeneous segments and then target the more lucrative ones which are likely to be receptive to the products in order to generate more sales. […]
What is Positioning in Marketing?
In Marketing, Positioning is a concept that outlines how a business should market its products/services to customers. In positioning, the marketing team creates an image for the product, for its intended audience. The positioning process Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image so that they occupy a meaningful and distinct competitive […]
Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) Markets & doing Business in these Markets
In economics, the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) refers to the poorest group of people in the world, which is also the largest as it comprises of about two-thirds of the global population. These people are often not targeted by the mainstream businesses, which means they don’t get access to products and services that others […]