Marketing

Customer Requirement

Customer Requirement Jonathan Poland

A customer requirement refers to a specification or need that is expressed by a customer, rather than being generated internally by a business or organization. These requirements can relate to the functional or non-functional aspects of a product, service, or customer experience, and may be documented by the customer directly or collected and refined by a business analyst or market research team.

Customer requirements are important for businesses to understand, as they can provide insight into what customers expect and value, and help guide product and service development efforts. By gathering and analyzing customer requirements, businesses can better meet the needs and expectations of their target audience and improve their overall performance. The following are common types of customer requirement.

Voice of the Customer

Identifying customers that represent your target market and collecting needs, expectations and ideas with methods such as a focus group or ladder interview.

Lead User

Engaging lead users who represent your customers with cutting edge needs. For example, a snowboard manufacturer may engage professional snowboarders to capture ideas for a design.

Intermediaries

Collecting requirements from customers other than end-customers such as wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers or value-added resellers. For example, an OEM zipper manufacturer may collect requirements from a sportswear manufacturer for a new type of zipper.

Large Accounts

Products and services that are sold on a business-to-business basis may directly collect requirements from large accounts. For example, a software company that gets 40% of its revenue from five customers might allow those customers to directly submit requests for features.

Marketing Experimentation

Marketing Experimentation Jonathan Poland

Marketing experimentation involves making changes to various aspects of a company’s marketing efforts, such as its products, prices, promotional strategies, or customer experiences, and observing the impact of these changes on customers. This practice can help businesses to better understand their customers and gather insights into what works and what doesn’t in terms of marketing and sales. Marketing experimentation can yield both quantitative and qualitative data, depending on the specific goals and methods used. By regularly testing and evaluating different marketing approaches, businesses can optimize their marketing efforts and improve their overall performance.

Quantitative marketing experiments involve comparing two or more variations of a product, price, user interface, promotion, or customer experience, and measuring the results to see which performs better. One common method for conducting quantitative marketing experiments is an A/B test, in which two versions of a marketing element are compared. For example, a retailer might compare the sales of two different shoes at two different price points in similar stores to see which price point results in higher sales. By measuring the results of these experiments, businesses can gather data and insights that can help them optimize their marketing efforts and make more informed decisions.

Qualitative marketing experiments involve gathering subjective data from customers based on their perceptions or opinions. This type of experiment may yield numerical data, but the results are based on the customer’s subjective judgment. For example, a restaurant might ask customers to rate the taste of a new coffee blend to gather data on how the customers perceive the product. By gathering this type of data, businesses can get a deeper understanding of customers’ attitudes and preferences, and use this information to improve their marketing efforts.

Test Marketing

Test Marketing Jonathan Poland

Test marketing involves testing different marketing strategies or variations on customers in order to gather data and evaluate their effectiveness. It is a way for businesses to experiment and try out new ideas in a real-world setting, and can be a useful tool for innovation and risk management. By testing marketing strategies on a smaller scale, businesses can get a sense of how they might perform when they are rolled out more widely, and make adjustments or changes as needed before committing significant resources. The following are common examples of test marketing.

Products & Services
Selling products and services on a limited basis before a full product launch. For example, a donut shop that tries 50 new donuts in two locations each to decide which to launch on a nationwide basis.

Customer Service
Customer service changes that are introduced as a pilot. For example, a restaurant that introduces a no tipping policy together with an incentive program for employees to earn bonuses when customers are satisfied.

Customer Experience
Customer experience testing such as a hotel that experiments with a floor for parents with small children and babies. The rooms on the floor have features such as cribs, toys and complimentary diapers.

Distribution
Distribution experiments such as entering a new region or country on a trial basis.

Pricing
Experimenting with pricing structures and strategies such as a telecom company that introduces flat pricing in one city to measure the impact on demand.

Promotion
Promotional experiments such as testing variations of an advertisement on a limited basis before a major campaign.

Branding
Brand related tests such as releasing a new logo variation to see if it impacts brand recognition and sales.

Attribution Marketing

Attribution Marketing Jonathan Poland

Attribution marketing is the practice of identifying and analyzing the key events or actions that contribute to customer purchases or brand loyalty. This process involves mapping out the customer journey and identifying the touch points or interactions that are most likely to influence a customer’s decision to make a purchase or become a loyal brand advocate. By understanding these key events, marketers can then develop marketing strategies and campaigns that focus on these goals in order to drive conversions and foster brand loyalty. For example, if a brand determines that signing up for a loyalty program is a key event on the path to becoming a loyal customer, they may focus their marketing efforts on promoting the loyalty program and encouraging customers to sign up. Attribution marketing helps marketers to understand and optimize the customer journey in order to achieve their marketing objectives.

Here are a few examples of how attribution marketing can be used:

  1. Identifying the most effective channels for customer acquisition: Attribution marketing can help a brand understand which channels are most effective at driving conversions and customer acquisition. For example, a brand may find that paid search ads are more effective at driving sales than social media marketing, and can then allocate their marketing budget accordingly.
  2. Determining the impact of individual marketing efforts: Attribution marketing can be used to determine the specific impact of individual marketing efforts on customer conversions. For example, a brand may find that a particular email marketing campaign had a higher conversion rate than other campaigns, and can then focus on refining and improving that campaign.
  3. Identifying key events on the customer journey: Attribution marketing can help a brand understand the key events or actions that contribute to customer loyalty and advocacy. For example, a brand may find that customers who engage with their social media content are more likely to become loyal customers, and can then focus on building and nurturing those relationships.
  4. Measuring the ROI of marketing efforts: Attribution marketing can be used to measure the return on investment (ROI) of different marketing efforts, allowing a brand to determine which efforts are most effective at driving conversions and improving brand loyalty.

Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral Targeting Jonathan Poland

Behavioral targeting is a form of online advertising that uses information about a user’s online activities to create targeted advertisements. This information is gathered through the use of cookies, which are small pieces of data stored on a user’s device by their web browser. Behavioral targeting allows advertisers to tailor their advertisements to the specific interests and behaviors of individual users.

There are several ways in which behavioral targeting can be used. One common approach is to use cookies to track a user’s online activities and then serve them targeted advertisements based on their browsing history. For example, if a user frequently visits websites related to travel, they may be served ads for travel deals or vacation packages.

Behavioral targeting can also be used to deliver targeted advertising through email marketing. By tracking the email addresses of users who have signed up for newsletters or other communications, advertisers can send targeted emails based on the interests and behaviors of those users.

Behavioral targeting has the potential to be an effective way for advertisers to reach their target audience, but it has also raised concerns about privacy. Some users may not be comfortable with the idea of their online activities being tracked and used for advertising purposes, and there have been calls for greater transparency and control over how this data is collected and used.

Bottom line, behavioral targeting is a powerful tool for advertisers, but it is important for companies to be transparent about their data collection practices and to give users the option to opt out of behavioral tracking.

Marketing Communications

Marketing Communications Jonathan Poland

Marketing communications refers to the various forms of communication that are utilized in order to achieve marketing goals. These channels can include television and radio advertisements, digital content and apps, social media platforms, messaging tools, games, events, publications, direct mail, graphics, public speaking, and meetings. All of these channels are used to reach and engage potential customers in order to promote a product or service and achieve specific marketing objectives. The following are illustrative examples of marketing communications.

Public Relations
Managing communication with stakeholders and the media. For example, releasing news to the media that generates publicity.

Product Launch
Generating media and customer interest in a product launch. For example, orchestrating a product release event in conjunction with an industry conference.

Promotion
Generating demand for products and services. For example, regularly producing and releasing promotional content to a video channel.

Brand
Building brand reputation and brand awareness. For example, actively engaging customers in social media.

Advertising
Reaching a target audience with advertising partners to support goals such as demand generation and brand awareness.

Sales
Generating sales leads, customer needs analysis, proposals, negotiation and closing are all processes of communication. For example, attending industry conferences to generate leads.

Customer Service
Handling customer inquiries and providing customers with service.

Customer Relationships
Developing customer relationships to support goals such as increasing customer lifetime value. For example, a salesperson who calls major accounts once a quarter to touch base.

Customer Advocacy
Using customer feedback to drive improvement in products, services and processes. If a customer identifies a safety problem with a product, a customer advocate might meet with the executives who can get it fixed.

Market Research
Using communications channels to conduct market research such as a survey that’s used to identify customer needs for product development.

Customer Experience
Communication is an important element of a brand’s end-to-end customer experience. For example, promotional videos that build upon the reputation, legacy, culture and image of a brand.

Mass Marketing

Mass Marketing Jonathan Poland

Mass marketing, also known as mass media marketing, refers to a marketing strategy that involves using a single marketing message to reach a large and diverse audience. This approach is often used when a business wants to reach a broad market and promote a general product or service that has wide appeal.

Mass marketing typically involves the use of mass media channels such as television, radio, and print to deliver the marketing message. These channels allow businesses to reach a large audience quickly and efficiently, making mass marketing an effective approach for reaching a broad market.

One of the main advantages of mass marketing is its reach. By using mass media channels, businesses can reach a large and diverse audience, making it a suitable strategy for promoting products or services that have broad appeal. Additionally, mass marketing can be cost-effective, as it allows businesses to reach a large audience with a single marketing message, rather than having to create customized marketing efforts for different segments of the market.

However, mass marketing also has some limitations. It can be less effective for targeting specific segments of the market, as it is difficult to tailor a single marketing message to the needs and preferences of different groups. Additionally, mass marketing can be less personal and less effective at building relationships with customers.

Overall, mass marketing is a suitable approach for businesses that want to reach a large and diverse audience quickly and efficiently. While it has its limitations, it can be an effective strategy for promoting products or services that have broad appeal. The following are common elements of mass marketing.

Product Development

Mass marketing is associated with general purpose products that appeal to a broad customer base. Alternatively, a firm may have a broad range of specialized products such as a sporting goods company that produces equipment for dozens of sports.

Design

Designs that are intended to be highly accessible. For example, user interfaces that are stripped down to extremely basic controls with advanced features absent or deeply buried.

Pricing

Pricing with affordable options for a broad customer base. Potential for price discrimination such as an airline that sells both economy and first class seats.

Promotion

Broadcasting mediums such as television and radio are traditionally associated with mass marketing as they may reach a wide audience. Mass marketing may also used digital advertising with a focus on reach as opposed to targeting.

Branding

Mass marketing is associated with strong brands that advertise to build and sustain brand awareness and identity. For example, advertising may do nothing more than associate a positive emotion or idea with the brand.

Marketing Message

Marketing Message Jonathan Poland

A marketing message refers to any media or communication that is intended to persuade or influence customers. Marketing messages can be used for a variety of purposes, including generating demand for a product or service, building brand awareness, and driving sales. These messages can be delivered through a variety of channels, such as advertising, social media, email marketing, and in-store marketing.

Effective marketing messages are tailored to the specific needs and interests of the target audience and are designed to capture their attention and motivate them to take action. They may include compelling headlines, persuasive language, and attractive visuals to help convey the value and benefits of the product or service.

To be successful, marketing messages should be carefully planned and executed as part of a larger marketing strategy. It is important to consider the various preferences and behaviors of the target audience, as well as the most appropriate channels for delivering the message. By creating and delivering compelling marketing messages, businesses can increase demand, build brand awareness, and drive sales. The following are the basic types of marketing message.

Ethos
An appeal based on authority, credentials or credibility. For example, selling a product developed in space with a famous astronaut as a spokesperson.

Pathos
An appeal to emotion. For example, a message that does nothing more than associate a brand with positive emotions to build brand awareness.

Logos
An appeal to logic such as an insurance commercial that states a region has a 70% chance of a major flood in the next 20 years but only 10% of homeowners have flood insurance.

Humor
Your audience is far less likely to ignore your message if it is genuinely funny.

Call to Action
A direct and unambiguous command such as “buy now” or “check it out.”

Nudge
A nudge is a gentle suggestion that understates a message to allow the audience to develop a conclusion for themselves.

Price
Mentioning a price or a sale. This can get the customer thinking about whether its a good value or whether they can afford it.

Offers
Offers such as a free trial.

Functions
Illustrating things that the customer can accomplish with your product or service. For example, a digital piano that includes in-built lessons for beginners.

Features
Features are how functions are implemented. It is a common marketing rule that it is better to communicate functions over features. However, if features are remarkable they might be communicated. For example, a digital piano that lights up the keys you are supposed to press for a piece of music.

Quality
Pitching the quality of your product. For example, “handcrafted from fine Italian leather.”

Storytelling
The art of making information interesting, humorous and relatable by wrapping it in a story.

Fear of Missing Out
Create a sense of popularity and urgency around your product to trigger a fear of missing out.

Anticipating Objections
Identifying some of the common reasons your audience rejects your message to handle objections. For example, an ad for a chocolate bar that ends with “only 110 calories.”

Choice Architecture
Offering choices that are structured to achieve your goals. For example, a price menu that has options that are obviously superior. This may trigger a desire to purchase when customers notice that one option is a much better deal.

Signaling
Demonstrations of social status such as a brand that shows a celebrity wearing their products.

Counter-signaling
Displaying confidence and authenticity by downplaying your social status. For example, a story that talks about your early failures in developing your product. Counter-signaling might be described as bragging by being humble.

In-Store Marketing

In-Store Marketing Jonathan Poland

In-store marketing refers to the use of physical retail locations, such as stores and showrooms, as a platform for marketing activities that go beyond distribution and sales. This can include a range of tactics such as product demonstrations, in-store events, experiential marketing, and point-of-sale displays. In-store marketing can be an effective way for businesses to engage with customers in a physical space and create a memorable brand experience. It can help to drive foot traffic, increase sales, and build brand loyalty.

To be effective, in-store marketing efforts should be carefully planned and executed, taking into account the specific needs and preferences of the target audience. It is important to consider the layout and design of the store, as well as the types of marketing activities that are most likely to engage and convert customers. Overall, in-store marketing is a powerful tool for driving sales and building brand awareness. By leveraging the physical locations of retail stores and showrooms, businesses can create immersive and engaging brand experiences that drive customer loyalty and support long-term growth. The following are common types of in-store marketing.

Public Relations
Using showrooms and flagship retail locations to develop relationships with the media and stakeholders such as investors, partners, employees and regulators.

Bricks & Clicks
Using a physical location to drive sales. For example, an app that allows customers to seamlessly integrate the in-store and online experience by adding things to an cart in the store.

Customer Service
Using stores as a customer service point that some customers may find more convenient than a phone number or self-service tool. For example, using stores to process returns.

Customer Advocates
Using knowledge acquired from customer interactions to drive change to your brand, products and services.

Market Research
Using stores to understand customer needs, preferences, expectations and behavior. For example, taste tests that are designed to improve new products.

Customer Experience
In-store experiences are a fundamental part of the customer journey that are an opportunity to establish a rich brand identity and culture. For example, a coffee shop with interesting and professional baristas as opposed to a mysterious process whereby coffee pops out.

Customer Relationships
Developing customer relationships such as staff who know customers by name or in-store promotion of a loyalty program.

Price Promotion
In-store coupons, sales and related communications such as signs.

Promotion
Using in-store events, displays, samples, demonstrations, workshops, activities, display windows and interactive environments to communicate marketing messages and achieve objectives such as brand awareness and sales targets.

Product Launch
Using in-store promotions to generate demand and brand awareness for new products.

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