Transcript Marketing 2.07 - Duplin County Schools / Overview

Employ product-mix strategies to meet customer expectations:
Using Customer Input to Design Winning Products
Created by Alison Garrett, Debbie Pardue, Cara Midyette & Terry Deese
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The assortment of goods and services that a
business offers in order to meet its market’s
needs and its company’s goals.
◦ Includes product lines & individual products
Marketing Concepts
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Market: The group of
potential customers
who have similar
needs/wants,
sufficient buying
power, and the
willingness to give up
a portion of that
buying power in order
to buy your
product/service.
Marketing Concepts
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Target Marketing:
Identifying market
segments with the
greatest potential for
sales and focusing
marketing decisions
on satisfying the
individuals that make
up these segments.
Marketing Concepts
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Target Market: The group
or groups of potential
customers identified as most
likely to patronize the business
and buy its products.
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Sometimes, a business can take an existing good or service
and change it so it will fulfill the needs of another target
market.
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Example: some products can be altered to accommodate people with
certain disabilities
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Customers have different motivations
when they buy.
◦ Some consider price as the main deciding
factor, often looking for the lowest available
price.
◦ Others try to find ways to reduce cost and at
the same time enhance revenue and improve
quality.
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Customers buy your products because
of the value that it can give them.
◦ They are not buying your product per se,
but what your product can give them.
◦ They are buying the satisfaction of a want.
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Customers will not buy a product if they don’t
foresee receiving a positive benefit from it.
◦ A User Experience is the feeling that a customer
gets when using a product.
◦ The User Experience is important because it often
colours the user’s perception of the product far
more than the technical features of the product do.
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Businesses must find out what features they
need to add to a product to produce the
benefit a customer is looking for.
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The iPhone is not the most
technologically advanced phone on
the market (remember those
reception issues?), but it provides
the type of “cool” user experience
that its target user values.
That “cool” factor, which has
generated tremendous success for
the iPhone, didn’t happen by
accident – it was designed into the
product.
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To compete in the marketplace, a business
must develop or find products that will fulfill
its customers’ changing needs and wants.
Obtaining customer feedback is a good way
to evaluate how a business is meeting its
customers’ needs and what it needs to do to
increase customer satisfaction.
It is important that you know what customers
consider most valuable about your products
or services.
snagajob.com
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Have a marketing person call on customers with
survey questions.
◦ Could have a person conducting market study groups or
hire an outside agency to capture company data.
 These options can be costly
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Document customer feedback.
◦ When a customer calls or emails your
company with positive or negative feedback,
this information should be documented and
stored in a database.
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Use of face-to-face interviews.
◦ Arrange for a series of informal conversations with
typical individual members of your target user
community.
◦ Don’t interview a group – you won’t get the same
quality of input.
◦ Choose a comfortable setting to allow them to
relax and share their thoughts without the
distractions of their day-to-day responsibilities.
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Once you have a list, ask them again if you are
indeed delivering what they want.
Use two questions –
◦ what does the customer value with regards to
your products and services
◦ how well do you provide that value
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A feature is a physical characteristic or quality of a
product.
What products have.
◦ For example, say you sell an accounting software. You can
say, “This accounting software has a reporting feature.”
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It is something the customer can touch, feel, smell,
see, or measure
It helps describe
the product.
A feature answers
the question, “What
is it?”
◦ Ex: color, style, size
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Benefits — what features
mean.
The personal satisfaction
or advantage that a
customer wants from a
product.
It is how the feature helps
a particular buyer
For customers, it answers
the questions:
◦ How will I benefit?
◦ What’s in it for me?
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Prove to customers your product has features
that benefit them
Customers buy benefits-not features
Compare to competition
Determine what each customer is looking for in
a good or service
Nike plus
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Salespeople should be able to explain
these three types of benefits to
customers:
◦ Obvious or apparent benefits
◦ Unique or exclusive benefits
◦ Hidden benefits
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Advantages that need little
explanation by the
salesperson.
The customer already knows
the benefit
◦ Ex: Water repellant rain coat
◦ What is the obvious benefit?
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Even if benefits are obvious,
salespeople should still point
them out and use them to
prove the value of the
product to customers
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Advantages that are available only from
your good, service or business.
Is a selling advantage over your
competitors
Ex: a car that “parks” itself is a novelty
◦ Offers a huge benefit to customers that have
trouble parallel parking
Ford Focus
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Advantages that cannot be seen or
understood without the assistance of a
salesperson
Ex: buying a pair of shoes
◦ You can see the color and style
◦ You can not see how comfortable they are until
persuaded to try them on
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Ex: purchasing a computer
◦ Warranties/24-hour helpline
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Step One: Find your product’s
features
◦ Construction and materials:
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What is the material?
Who makes it?
How is it made?
What’s the difference between these two
items?
◦ Appearance and style
 Appearance is a dominant factor in many
buying decisions
 Customers consider color, line, and design
in everything they buy – cars, clothes,
accessories, appliances, furniture, etc.
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Step one cont’
◦ Unique or novel features
 Having desirable features that your competitor does
not have
◦ Durability
 How long a product will last and give dependable
service
◦ Product uses
 What the product will do and how it can be used
◦ Service and warranty
 Especially important when selling products such as
appliances, electronics, and cars
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Step two: Know where to get facts about
product features
◦ The product itself
 Use the product and information provided
◦ Customers
 Testimonials
◦ Manufacturer’s brochures and publications
◦ Other sales personnel
◦ Promotional materials
 Product bulletins
 Catalogs/manuals
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Step Three: create a feature-benefit chart
◦ After you know what type of information you need
and where to obtain the facts about your products,
prepare a feature-benefit chart
 List all the product’s features, beginning with the ones
that a customer or client will see first
 List the less-obvious or hidden features
 For each feature that you identified, ask, “what does
this mean for the customer?”
 Write each benefit beside its feature
 A feature can provide more than one benefit
Product
Features
(What are they?)
Benefits (What do they mean?)
Computer
Variety of models
You will be able to select different
components to build a system that
meets your specific needs
Monitor size
Large monitors that come with
these computers enable you to
see the entire page. Gives a clear
understanding of how the
document looks
Memory
These models can be loaded with
sufficient memory so your
computer can handle any program
Print capability
Handle all your printing needs in
your home or office