“ A Skilled Attack is the one against which opponents do not know how defend ;
A Skilled defense is the one which Opponents do not know how to Attack ;
A Military Genius is the one Who wins the War without entering the Battleground ”
--- Sun Tzu
The Art of War
Business, particularly, Market, is a place , where everyday companies fight for their dominance and survival. By the time, you fix your sales and marketing problems, issues and bottlenecks, your rivals move ahead of the game with special offerings and product features. You may be the king yesterday and you were no one today. Just think of Nokia, A Pioneer in mobile business and could not develop the Operating system like Android and could not keep up the pace with companies like Apple and samsung with New Launches and Features.
An established Player can be distrupted with Innovative Technology , totally out of the Box concept and make the current players of the game obsolete. Just think of Kodak and Konica with film cameras were distrupted with filmless cameras by Sony and subsequently with Others.
Similarway, how Walkmans of Sony and others are obsoleted with Apple's Ipod, then with Multi Media Players and subsequently with Multi featured Mobile Phones.
Market is a Battleground, One has to be Agile and Agrresive, otherwise, one will become a thing of a past.
Marketing Strategies should be devised to gain , regain and retain the Customers after analysing, how customers have been lost.
1) How Customers are Lost
1% - Die 3% - Move away.
5 % - Customer was influenced by a friend to go elsewhere
9% - Leave because of competitive reasons.
14 % - Dissatisfied with the product . 68% - Quit because of an attitude of indifference towards the customer by the staff.
3) Customer Service Facts :
91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with you again.
70% of complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve
the complaint in their favour.
95% of complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint instantly.
Source: Lee Resource Inc
Reducing customer defections can boost profits by 25-85%.
In 73% of cases, the organization made no attempt to persuade dissatisfied customers to stay; even though 35% said that a simple apology would have prevented them from moving to the competition.
Source: NOP
These are generic Marketing Strategies have been developed to address problems faced by customers and also to gain and regain the customers.
Marketing Strategies
Multi - Pronged Strategies
1) Innovation
Creating a New Segment through Innovation , Thereby creating an uncontested Market , thereby creating a Monopoly.
Developing totally new Niche Segment for Different Sectors .
Enhancement of Properties in the existing Products .
Developing New Segments – Pharmaceutical, Cosmetics etc., totally not thought by anyone.
2) Value Proposition
Particular Product or Service will add more value or better solve a problem than other similar offerings.
Value for Money Products.
Customer will Pay for the Perceived Value.
3) Customer Delight.
Customers are expecting more than what they have paid for.
Companies should accomodate Customer's vews and inputs while designing and developing the products.
Agenda should be how retain the customers.
Listen to International Guru, Philip Kotler on Marketing Strategies.
4) Distribution
Ensuring Prompt Deliveries with Appropriate No. of Distribution Points. Revisit the same on Periodic Basis.
Serving the Segment Clusters with Special Distribution Points – Satellite Units and Additional Depots to cover Industries.
Entering new Geographic Markets.
4 ) Promotion
Aggressive Promotional Budgets, treating them as Investment.
Participation in Nationaland , International Exhibitions and Seminars across all the Segments of Market.,
Aggressive Ad Campigns and Sales Promotional activities are key , based nature and specificity of the Industries. etc.
5 ) Communication
@ One can deploy the sophisticated Communication Tools like Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) with appropriate dashboards indicating the Affinity levels with Customers.
@ Continuously engage the customers through all possible communication channels.
@ Occupation of the Customer's mind is crtical to success.
@ Feedback evaluation from the customers and devising the marketing and sales strategies accordingly are very important.
6 ) Market Intelliegence
Market intelligence is the information relevant to a company's market-trends,competitor and customer (existing, lost and targeted) monitoring, gathered and analyzed specifically for the purpose of accurate and confident decision-makingin determining strategy in areas such as market opportunity,market penetration strategy, and market development.
Continuous gathering of Market Intelligence is crucial to align the company as per the Market Trends and changes in the market place.
Thus, by deploying some of these, or all of these Marketing Strategies will help the companies to regain the Lost ground or enter into to gain new Territories in the Battle Field called Market.
MM Rao
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Sources :
Book of Marketing Management by Philip Kotler,
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