The Marketplace: Customer Needs And Wants

As it shows diagram 1, Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants is to survey the market trend and information, understand what the customer needs and wants. Then decide the goods, services, and experiences they will offer to the customer. Consider how much value the customer can get from the product.

Design a marketing strategy is to segmentation the market and decides the targeted customer, which group of customer they want to serve. Then have a plan how to market the product to fulfill the customer and make customers buy the product rather than the competitor’s.

Construct an integrated marketing mix that delivers superior value. The goal is to make decisions that center the four Ps on the customers in the target market in order to create perceived value and generate a positive response( www.netmba.com/ marketing/mix).

Build profitable relationships and create customer delight means always make the relationship with customers more profitable. Offer more customer value and satisfaction to attract new customers and make repeat customers loyal to the product and build a lasting customer relationship(Kotler et al. 2008, P.16)

Capture value from customers to create profits and customer equity is that the company should develop in an innovative way, using the advanced technology and the online marketing to create the customers equity and maximize the profit by the perception value by customer. The current management knows that satisfied customers are retained and provide value back to the company because of their loyalty to and personal relationships with their local service station managers(A.Sibillin 2008, P.206).

Value is important in marketing because it used that evaluate the marketing position of the product or company. After deciding the product’s value, the company can select the target customer. Without the “value”, the customer cannot justify the needs and wants with the demand with price. If the customer does not need or want the product, the product’s value will not exist. During a process of exchange, customers and the company should get the equality value to what they offer. If any of them get less value, they will think it’s unfair and the exchange will not occur. If there is no goods exchange, there will be no market.

Customer value is the difference between the benefits the customer gains from having access to or owning and using an offering and the costs of obtaining it.( Kotler et al. 2008, P.7) For example, the customer value of Starbucks is selling coffee. They provided the premium coffee to the customer with the proportion of provided the highest quality of coffee with the excellent environment. Starbucks’ employees have been trained to provide customer relationship by communicate with the customer. Alternatively, Starbucks provided the great environment and free internet surfing services to make the customer feel comfortable and longer duration. That’s make Starbucks outstanding compare to the other café competitors.

Value exchange is the act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering something in return(Kotler et al. 2008, P.9).For example, Malaysia DIGI mobile company announced few variety post paid mobile plans, which can applied in the value exchange scenario. Customers might base on their needs to choose the subscription plan for mobile usage. If a customer subscripted a RM30 monthly plan, they will be charged 20sen/min call rate and RM150 plan is 10sen/min call rate instead. Customers will depend on their monthly consumption on mobile to choose the suitable plan. Customer can choose the right plan that it is valuable to their needs.

Market is the set of all actual and potential buyers of a product(Kotler et al. 2008, P.10). For example, mobile industry is a competitive industry, consumer is based on their own needs or preference in choose the brand. Mobile company like Nokia will produce different product lines to extract and capture varies customer in design, consumer class, functionality, or personality. Of course, the company also concerned the potential customers like competitor brand users or prospective user for getting to change the current mobile on hand.

Value proposition is the set of benefits or values it promises to deliver to customers to satisfy their needs through the offerings it makes.(Kotler et al. 2008, P.13)For example, Wal-mart purchased all the goods from the suppliers with the huge volume and competitive price. They provided the well customer oriented training to the staffs to provide the best services. Wal-mart committed the cheapest price but best quality of goods and services, it make the customer return to make purchase in wal-mart rather than other hypermarket.

The four Ps of marketing are product, price, promotion and place. For example, the fast food KFC’s product include all the food, the environment and the service. The price of KFC is the money customers give to the cashier, it depend on the food they order. It’s promotion mainly about the advertisements on TV, newspaper or subway. The fast food KFC has many outlets to sell food and if the customer asks they will deliver the food to where they want. That’s reflecting the place.

Product in marketing can create value to customers. For example, Apple iPhone include the physical product and the service. With the famous brand and delicacy style, the brand of iPhone is the representation of fashion and attracts many customers. It is functional and has a good repair and support. Apple Company also provide a website, customers can download the program or get a solution if they have problem. Customers believe that iPhone is more valuable.

The Diet Coca-Cola is a product that Coca-Cola with less sugar. Now more and more people pay attention to their health. The Coca-Cola company know what the customer want, customers can taste the good product and product their health at the same time. Customers get more values form the product.

Prices can also creating value to customers in marketing. For example, when a Real Estate company sells a house. Different floor the house price will be different. If the customer wants to pay all the money once, the company will give a discount to the customer. And the company will change the house price depend on the Real Estate Market. There are many choices for the customers, on the other hand, the company have create the value to the customer.

The Personal access system, known as PAS for short, is very popular in China years before. Customers buy it for its low machine price and the low call cost. At that time, most customers are not focus on the function, the phone which can give a call and send a message is enough. The lower the price is the more value they will get. With the basic function and the low price, PAS create values to customers.

Promotion can create communication value. For example, almost everyone knows the fast food of KFC. The promotion acts an important role. KFC have a big investment on the advertisement to introduce the new food or the promotion. To attract kids, KFC provide cute toys if customers buy the food. KFC often offer coupons to the customer. In this way, KFC communicate information to customers, let they know KFC and then attract them to eat here.

The cosmetic Lancome pay much attention to communicating with customers. Lancome use applied promotion included advertising and sales to attract customers be their membership. The benefits of membership can have a discount in purchase, and if company has new products, they will communicate with their members and give them samples to have a try. The promotion creates a communication value to the customer.

Place is about distributing the products to the customers. Like the China auction website Taobao.com, where people can open their own shop selling online. Taobao.com has generated huge targeting visitors to make a purchase there. Taobao.com create values to the sellers, it is the place that seller is preferred for selling because of the high target traffic in online shopping.

VICHY is a kind of famous skin care product; it claimed that the product can be used for sensitive skin. Customers can buy VICHY only in the drug-store. That’s make the customer at ease about the product. Vichy create values to the customers, they get more customer satisfaction about the product they want to buy(Richard L.Oliver, 1997).

To be the winner of the market, the company must attract more customers and be different from the competitors. Depend on the marketing process, it’s important to improve the customer value and clear the value proposition. Another decision factor is how the company uses the four ps. Because of the ability of the company, it’s difficult to do every four ps the best. When making the strategy, the company should consider the four ps together, the company can concentrate on one of the four ps, and others support that, to find the way which most fit the company.