Blinkist Summary Book

2021-09-23 06:39:55 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 14/18

s become communication which is about ensuring that the relevant information reaches the right consumers. On one hand this means selecting channels of communication that are populated by your target market. On the other hand it means the content of your promotional efforts should focus on how your product will fulfill your customers’ needs.
The benefit of the Four C’s marketing framework is that it helps you choose marketing tactics by thinking about them from the customer’s point of view.
A marketing audit is an effective way to evaluate and improve your long-term marketing strategy.
Needless to say marketing campaigns aren’t always as successful as we would like them to be. And the fault could lie at any stage of the process. Maybe the target market wasn’t researched well enough and there’s less desire for your product than expected. Maybe the various marketing channels weren’t coordinated effectively and consumers received a mixed message.
Or maybe you did everything right b Open / Comment

2021-09-23 06:39:54 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 13/18

relationships. Products come and go but loyal customers stick around. That’s how companies like Apple can have people queuing outside for products that haven’t released yet. Customers are loyal to Apple because the company offers tremendous customer value in the form of proven quality great service and a range of other perks. 
The second P – price – is now cost . Why? Because from the point of view of the customer price is not the only cost. There’s also the cost of effort and time that’s involved in acquiring setting up using storing and disposing of a product. It’s possible for a higher-priced product to remain competitive if you can find other ways to reduce customer cost by say providing free installation training or disposal.
Next we have the third P – place – which should now be thought of as convenience . When you’re deciding on distribution methods you should aim at making your product as easy as possible for the customer to purchase and acquire.
The final P – promotion – ha Open / Comment

2021-09-23 06:39:54 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 12/18

e marketing tactics.
In the past marketers believed their most important function was to find new customers. But that meant firms often treated new customers better than their current ones – and many dissatisfied customers went elsewhere.
These days the consensus among marketers is the complete opposite: maintaining and growing current customers is now the primary objective. This makes sense because as we now know customer retention is far cheaper and far more profitable in the long run than attracting new customers. 
But given this change in outlook the old Four P’s model of focusing on product price place and promotion needs to be updated too. In today's economy where customer is king we should really be talking about the Four C’s: customer value cost convenience and communication. Let’s take a closer look.
The first P – product – now translates into customer value . This means you should recast your company from an organization that produces goods to one that produces customer Open / Comment

2021-09-23 06:39:53 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 11/18

oning. Successful marketing strategies generally weave together a tapestry of different positionings which makes it harder for competitors to imitate or undercut their offering.
The Aquafresh brand for instance adopts a triple-positioning by claiming that its toothpaste offers three distinct benefits: anti-cavity protection fresh breath and whiter teeth. To reinforce this positioning in the mind of the customer the toothpaste itself is striped with three colors each suggesting a different benefit.
Another way to position your offering is to add extra benefits and services that augment its value. Added benefits could include things like free set-up free training or an extraordinary guarantee. 
So don’t think of your offering as just a product – think of it as a full benefits package. Once you’ve decided which benefits this package will contain you have your final answer to the customer’s question: “Why should I buy from you?”
Use the Four C’s framework to help you choose effectiv Open / Comment

2021-09-23 06:39:53 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 10/18

in order to have a product that stands out. You can differentiate your product by choosing a unique positioning.
Positioning is about presenting your offering in a way that's relevant and appealing to your target market. That’s usually achieved by aligning the product with one or more specific benefits. For example the Head Open / Comment

2021-09-23 06:39:49 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 9/18

segmentation by demographic background needs and desires occupation and income.
Once you’ve created your customer spreadsheet all that’s left for you to do is select the market segments that are likely to be the most profitable. When making your selection there are really only two considerations you need to make. First ask yourself whether a group is able and willing to buy your product. And second do you believe your product can serve this group in a superior way?
When you’re able to answer “yes” to these two questions you have your target market. 
Make your product more appealing by positioning it uniquely.
Companies often complain that it’s getting more and more difficult to set products apart from the crowd in our oversaturated hypercompetitive global economy.
These days it’s certainly true that you’re unlikely to be able to offer a completely unique commodity. And even if you did competitors would be quick to imitate. Still you don’t need to offer something completely new Open / Comment

2021-09-23 06:39:49 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 8/18

et.
One of the benefits of targeting is that it allows you to cater a more specific offering to your chosen market. This means you’re likely to have fewer direct competitors – and a greater chance of becoming the supplier of choice for this market. 
On the other hand if the target market you choose is too narrow you risk not having enough customers to be able to service the market profitably. It’s the marketer’s responsibility to consider target markets carefully and select only those that are likely to be profitable.
The profitability of a target market depends on a number of factors – like how many people belong to that market what their average income is and how well their needs are currently being met. 
With that in mind the first step toward selecting your target market is to create a customer spreadsheet in which you divide all your potential customers into a myriad of smaller categories. There are countless possibilities for divvying up consumers but popular choices include Open / Comment

2021-09-23 06:39:49 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 7/18

erefore to be successful at this kind of marketing companies need to augment their market research with heavy investment in innovation and development.
Develop a more focused marketing campaign by selecting a target market.
Once you’ve decided on a product to bring to market the next step is to choose your target market.
Now some products have a broad appeal – so old-school mass-marketing methods like TV advertising could be an effective strategy. This pretty much describes Coca-Cola which says its aim is to put a coke within an arm's reach of everybody.
But most products don’t have such a general appeal. And given the high cost of mass-marketing campaigns it’s usually more efficient to practice target marketing – in other words directing your product and promotional efforts at a specific segment of the market. For example if you supply menstrual products then your marketing is obviously only going to be effective on part of the population; it’s this group that you want to targ Open / Comment

2021-09-23 06:39:48 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 6/18

er needs.
Now when it comes to the first two types of marketing – responsive and anticipative – market research is essential. If you intend on bringing a new product to market that claims to fulfill a consumer need then you actually need to know what that need is.
There are many options for carrying out market research; they range from simply soliciting customer feedback to undertaking large-scale consumer surveys. However one of the easiest and most fruitful methods is simply to observe how customers use products. This is the method that Toyota used when it deployed researchers to hang around supermarket parking lots and watch customers load groceries into their cars. Based on the observed difficulties people were having Toyota redesigned their cars’ trunks to have more space and allow for easier sliding of bags.
Of course when it comes to need-shaping marketing customer research isn’t going to be quite as useful – customers are unlikely to be aware of needs they don’t yet have. Th Open / Comment

2021-09-23 06:39:48 Kotler on Marketing
Part of 5/18

help with the laborious task of washing clothes by hand.
Anticipative marketing on the other hand is about recognizing trends in society and producing products that fulfill newly emerging needs. For example the company Perrier began mass-marketing bottled drinking water in the late ’70s after recognizing that there was a growing public awareness of the adverse health effects of soda drinks.
The boldest form of marketing is need-shaping marketing which involves creating needs that don’t yet exist. A great example of need-shaping marketing is the Sony Walkman. Before Sony revealed its first Walkman in 1979 no one had a need for – and could hardly even imagine – a portable music device. Now of course such devices have become indispensable.
What all of these forms of marketing have in common is that they depend on consumer needs. Wherever there’s a need there’s a market opportunity. Marketing therefore can be thought of as the art of identifying fulfilling and sometimes creating consum Open / Comment