Marketing & Social Media

It gets input from the marketing strategy and is the marketing controlling (makret KPIs) where customer-, performance- and innovation processes are splitted into different categories like product, pricing, communication and distribution.

• Market capacity is a theoretical maximum size; it indicates the theoretical capacity of a market without regard to prices and purchasing power. Market capacity is a quantity that can change depending on the size of the market base (number of users).
• Market potential is the equivalent of demand for a good or service at a specific price and with the best possible marketing-mix.
• Market volume comprises the sum of all the actually realized turnovers of all the suppliers on the market. In cases in which market supply is adequate, market potential and market volume correspond with each other.
• Market share is a KPI that puts a company’s own production or sales volume in proportion to the total market. As a key indicator, it is of major strategic importance because in many markets, the competitor with the biggest market share has advantages, for example regarding brand awareness, production costs and network effects.

• Business process an markets

Preparatory work, including Goods & services procured from third parties) plus the Gross added value, containing of Depreciation and Net added value equals the overall Turnover.

Company B adds more value to it and is so harder to copy. They have a stronger position in the market and offer more individualized products than company A who just adds a little on top of an existing base.

When creating a value chain analysis you need to keep the logic of the value chain in mind. The value chain needs to show all the key activities and assess value added. All activities for current and potential contribution to competitive advantage need to be examine. You should invest in activities where you possibly get the highest added value and get rid of activities which do not contribute to any value. And you need it identify activities that could be produced at lower cost or the performance increased.

1. In the introduction phase, pioneer customers buy the product that is still largely unknown. During this phase, the positioning of the product is shaped. If, for example, a new service is priced too low, it hardly ever reaches a quality image later. If it is positioned too high, the market penetration may not be successful enough. Due to the small quantity of sales, this phase requires high investments in production, opening new markets and positioning.
2. During the growth phase, sales rise rapidly due to new customers and higher consumption or because of early replacement demand. Here, it is vital to assure quality during rapid growth for sufficient cost optimization. During escalating sales, excessive costs may be not be taken into account, and that will have an effect, at the latest during the next phase.
3. In the maturity phase, when growth rates decrease and competition intensifies, maximum profits have already been achieved. It is now important to manage costs and ensure continued optimum growth.
4. In the saturation phase, sales decline. Competition has permanently shifted from a quality and positioning competition into a cutthroat and cost competition.
5. During the decline phase, only those who, thanks to optimum cost structures or reserves from earlier years, have enough leeway for a relaunch (meaning relaunching products with modifications like new design, new image etc.) will survive. After a severe decline, fundamental innovation is required.

An analysis of internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats. The goal is to match company's strengths to good opportunities in the environment while improving weaknesses and minimize threats

Corporation = internal

Strengths: employee knowledge, owned assets and funding

Weaknesses: Rigid organizational structure, missing experience

External = market segments, product markets, distribution, external influencer, competitors, environment dimensions

Opportunities: growth of a market segment, demand for a new product.

Threats: price erosion and new competitors

1. Gathering of relevant external influential factors and dimensions
2. Conduct opportunities and threats analysis
3. Gathering of relevant internal influential factors and dimension
4. Conduct strength and weaknesses analysis
5. Combine external OT and internal SW analyses
6. Point out and summarize the central and most immanent marketing problem statement to be solved according to the SWOT-Matrix

Which is the most important one?

A company’s marketing environment consists of the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers.

The macroenvironment consists of larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment (Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Ecological Factors > PESTE-Framework).

The microenvironment consists of the actors close to the company that affect its ability to service its customers (Five Forces Framework).

The value chain depicts the sequential process of a firm’s key value creating activities and supporting activities.

SWOT analysis is used to evaluate the company’s strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T). – Strengths include capabilities, resources, and positive situational factors. – Weaknesses include negative internal factors and negative situational factors. – Opportunities are favorable external factors. – Threats are unfavorable external factors.

Marketing research is the systematic and objective

• Identification
• Collection
• Analysis
• Dissemination
• And use of information

For the purpose of improving decision making related tot he identification and solution of problems and opportunities in marketing.

A good MIS balances the information users would like to have against

–What they really need

–What is feasible to offer

Obtaining, analyzing, storing, and delivering information is costly.

–Firms must decide whether the value of the insight is worth the cost.

1. Get transparent information about markets (market research as basis for decisions)
   • Collection, analysis and interpretation of information needed from an about the target market
   • Knowledge about interdependences of markets and market mechanisms
   • Information about motivation and needs of participants of the markets
   • Basis for segmentation
   • Basis for positioning of products and services
2. Recognize trends and changes (market research as a early warning system)
   • Act, do not only react: identify early enough changes or minimize dangers
   • Determine changing values or attitudes and trends in (ecological, economic, social or technical) environments.
   • Definition of market figures (capacity, volumes, market share, saturation)
   • Minimize risks in general
3. Measurement of progress and success of marketing tasks (Market research as a controlling instrument
   • Effect of individual measures
   • Consistency (reliability, acceptance) of the marketing-mix
   • Measurement of image
   • Efficiency of the marketing tasks
   • Optimization of the marketing tasks

Problem-Identification Research

Research undertaken to help identify problems which are not necessarily apparent on the surface and yet exist or are likely to arise in the future. Examples: market potential, market share, image, market characteristics, sales analysis, forecasting, and trends research.

Steps:

• Market potential research
• Market share research
• Market characteristics research
• Sales analysis research
• Forecasting research
• Business trends research

Problem-Solving Research  undertaken to help solve specific marketing problems. Examples: segmentation, product, pricing, promotion, and distribution research.

Steps:

• Segmentation research
• Product research
• Pricing research
• Promotion research
• Distribution research

Step 1: Defining the problem

Step 2: Developing an approach to the problem

Step 3: Formulating a Research Design

Step 4: Doing Field Work/Collecting Data

Step 5: Preparing & Analysing Data

Step 6: Preparing & Presenting the Report

Management Decision Problem                           | Marketing research problem

Ask what the decision maker needs to do                | Asks what information is needed and how it should be obtained

Action oriented: focuses on symptoms|                    Information oriented: focus on the underlying causes

Should a new product be introduced?        | To determine consumer preferences and purchase intentions for the proposed new product

Should the advertising campaign be changed? | To determine the effectiveness of the current advertising campaign

Should the price of the brand be increased? | To determine the price elasticity of demand and the impact on sales and profits of various levels of price changes

Research questions (RQs) are refined statements of the specific components of the problem

A hypothesis (H) is an unproven statement or proposition about a factor or phenomenon that is of interest to the researcher. Often, a hypothesis is a possible answer to the research question.

A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the information needed to structure or solve marketing research problems.

• Define the information needed
• Design the exploratory, descriptive, and/or causal phases of the research
• Specify the measurement and scaling procedures
• Construct and pretest a questionnaire (interviewing form) or an appropriate form for data collection
• Specify the sampling process and sample size
• Develop a plan of data analysis

Research Design

• Exploratory research design
• Conclusive research design
  • Descriptive research
  • Causal research

Use

• Formulate a problem or define a problem more precisely
• Identify alternative courses of action
• Develop hypotheses
• Isolate key variables and relationships for further examination
• Gain insights for developing an approach to the problem
• Establish priorities for further research

Methods

• Survey of experts
• Pilot surveys
• Secondary data analyzed in a qualitative way
• Qualitative research

Use:

• To describe the characteristics of relevant groups, such as consumers, salespeople, organizations, or market areas.
• To estimate the percentage of units in a specified population exhibiting a certain behavior.
• To determine the perceptions of product characteristics.
• To determine the degree to which marketing variables are associated.
• To make specific predictions.

Methods

• Secondary data analyzed in a quantitative as opposed to a qualitative manner
• Surveys
• Panels
• Observational and other data

Use:

• To understand which variables are the cause (independent variables) and which variables are the effect (dependent variables) of a phenomenon
• To determine the nature of the relationship between the causal variables and the effect to be predicted

Method: Experiments

Data sources primary or secondary data, or both. Existing studies in the MIS

Research Approaches observational research, focus-group research, survey research, behavioural data, experimental research

Research instruments  questionnaires, qualitative measures, mechanical devices

Sampling plan sampling unit: who is to be surveyed?, sample size: how many people should be surveyed?, sampling procedure: How should the respondents be chosen?

Contact Methods Mail questionnaire, telephone interview, personal interview, online interview.

• Primary data are originated by a researcher for the specific purpose of addressing the problem at hand. The collection of primary data involves all six steps of the marketing research process
• Secondary data are data that have already been collected for purposes other than the problem at hand. These data can be located quickly and inexpensively. Secondary data are of primary importance in marketing research.

• Identify the problem 
• Better define the problem
• Develop an approach to the problem
• Formulate an appropriate research design (for example, by identifying the key variables)
• Answer certain research questions and test some hypotheses
• Interpret primary data more insightfully