UNDERSTANDING THE NEW CONSUMER:DEVELOPING A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC MARKETING PLAN

By

ADEDOYIN ADEBAYO

Course Overview
Marketing is an integral part of a business plan which covers from the idea generation to the point where it is designed to address or meet needs in the manner it can be accepted by the target market.

Course Overview Contd.

The aim of this course is to furnish the Participants with the needed understanding and the skills on How to grow their business exponentially Develop winning negotiation skills Understand the new consumer Develop a customer-centric marketing plan.

Course Objectives
1. Introduce the basic concept of the marketing concept - a vital key for running a successful business. 2. Introduce marketing strategy through information on consumer, trade and competition. 3.Provide an instructional hands on application of the learning points from the course. 4.Provide the needed skills to articulate marketing and its components to business plan.

Course Outline
Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy The new Consumer Customer Centric Marketing

Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy

Definition of Marketing We can think of marketing as the process via which a firm CREATES VALUE for its chosen CUSTOMERS. The steps involved include: a.Define your market b.Define your product/service c.Business goals and objectives

Marketing Plan and Marketing...Contd.

Marketing Strategy This is a process that allows businesses to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. It is fundamental underpinning plans designed to fill marketing objectives.

Marketing Plan and Marketing...Contd.

Marketing strategy involves careful scanning of the internal and external environments. Once a thorough environmental scan is complete, a strategic plan can be constructed to identify business alternatives, establish challenging goals, determine the optimal marketing mix to attain these goals, and detail implementation.

Marketing Plan and Marketing...Contd.

Marketing Plan and Marketing...Contd.

A final step in developing a marketing strategy is to create a plan to monitor progress and a set of contingencies if problems arise in the implementation of the plan.

Marketing Plan and Marketing...Contd.

Marketing Plan and Marketing...Contd.

Marketing Plan and Marketing...Contd.

Marketing Plan and Marketing...Contd.

Marketing Mix These are the vehicles for creating value and delivering value and capturing value. a.People b.Place c.Promotion d.Process e.Price

Marketing Plan and Marketing...Contd.

Building Customer Value,Satisfaction and Loyalty

Loyalty is defined as intention of a customer to continue doing business with a company, increase their spending, or say good things about it (or refrain from saying bad things). Creating loyal customer is at the heart of every business.

Factors Influecing Customer Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction

Bad Service Ripple Effect

25% of customers are likely to say something positive about their customer service experience 65% are likely to speak negatively 23% of customers who had a positive service interaction told 10 or more people about it 48% of customers who had negative experiences told 10 or more others Source- HBR

The New Consumer

Growing more sophisticated and price sensitive Short of time and want more convenience They see growing product parity among suppliers High sense of service expectations

Introduction
Customer centric marketing is
focused on satisfying the needs of individual customers (Hanif, Hafeez, & Riaz, 2010) It does not emphasize on the needs and resources of a whole target market segment or the person doing the selling (Fornell, Johnson, Anderson, & Cha, 2002) It is the ideal approach for marketing especially for small businesses (Johnson, Gustafsson, & Roos, 2005)

Process of customer centric marketing

First step is to develop an understanding of the customers. This involves:
Being aware of who the customer are How to identify and group them Knowing what they want Conducting customer research and intelligence

Customer centric marketing

Through the customer centric marketing approach a firms will be able to:
Sell its goods or services directly to an individual customer Build customer satisfaction Promote lifetime customers Develop a long term economic viability

Customer centric enterprises

Two examples of customer driven companies include:
Amazon IBM GTB**

These companies center their marketing and sales on the customers (Thompson, 2000) Eventually, the effort results into product driven strategy

Customer centric enterprises: what they do

1. Give promises to the customers and not just missions for the companies (Thompson, 2000) 2. The services are bundled in with the products 3. Create an online community that is inviting 4. Customers have no problem contacting the companies (Thompson, 2000) 5. Customer friendly and cost effective communication system

Customer relationship
Customer relationship involves two sources of customer satisfaction
1. The actual customer experience: represents what and how customer receive goods and services to satisfy their needs 2. The marketing dialogue: represents information exchange to influence the attitude behaviors, and expectation of customers (Evans, 2002)

Effect of customer centric approach to the organization

Customer centric marketing approach brings changes in the designs of various business process
Technological support Culture in marketing Organizational culture

Customer centric approach

Creates organizational culture since every part of the organization is affected and caused to focus on individual customer satisfaction Marketing and sales personnel are charged with the highest responsibility The marketing and sales department have direct and frequent contact with the customers (Cronin, Brandy, & Hult, 2000)

Process of customer centric marketing

Second step is knowing what the customers want. It involves:
Segmenting the customer according to their needs Making accurate forecast about the segments Adjusting product development according to the needs of the customers

Process of customer centric marketing

The next step is ensure that the customers are satisfied The fourth step is to develop a culture that involves every organizational organ in being customer oriented (Anderson, Fornell, & Mazvancheryl, 2004) Finally, systems have to be put in place to encourage customer orientation.

Customer centric marketing and customer satisfaction

Positive fulfillment involves delivery on their words Poor fulfillment has a negative effect to the organization (Athanassopoulos, 2000) Customer centric approach helps the organization:
Capture information on customer fulfillment Respond effectively

Developing a customer-centric Marketing Plan

Protect business against disintermediation: unable to
understand or deliver against current and future consumer needs and preferences face the prospect of losing the connection with or being pushed further away from the end customer. Redefine customer relationships: You need to better understand the true needs of your customers in order to redefine the products and services you want to offer and the ways in which they interact and serve them. They need to know your customers better than ever and use the information and knowledge as a source of competitive advantage.

Developing a customer-centric Marketing Plan