Customer focus and the marketing mix

Customer focus

• Identifying needs
• Anticipating needs
• Meeting customer needs

The marketing mix

• Price
• Product
• Promotion
• Place

For a business to be successful they need to understand their customer needs and need to make sure these are met. A way in which you can find out what your customers needs are is by doing some Market Research and by researching what customer typically want in a service or in a product. Meeting your customer’s needs can give the buyer or customer of a product or business satisfaction and trust towards your business, this will mean they are more likely to repeat purchase and recommend your business or product to other people.

 This will mean more money coming in for your business and a larger amount of buyers or customers. Doing market research can help you anticipate the needs of customers. This customer research can help you develop a more detailed picture of these people and can help you understand what they like. It can also help you anticipate where they will be and what they like.

Another important thing to understand if you want a successful business is The Marketing Mix. This is made up of four main stages Product, Price, Place and Promotion (The 4 P’s) and this is all aimed towards the businesses Target Market. Here are a few examples of each of the 4 P’s:

Product- This refers to the products or services the business offers. Some examples of decisions that should be made when deciding on what product or service to sell are the Brand Name, Functionality, Styling, Quality, Safety, Packaging, Repairs and Support, Warranty and Accessories and services.

Price- This refers to how the business should price their product and their suggested retail price. It also refers to the volume discounts and whole sale pricing, Cash and early payment discounts also apply for the price category. Other things that you should take into account when pricing your product/ service is seasonal pricing, Bundling, Price flexibility and Price discrimination. When pricing your product you should take into account how much profit you will be making and what expenses you have.

Promotion- This refers to how you should promote your business. When promoting your business you should have a strategy to how you are going to promote your business and how you are going to have success when advertising your business. You should also think about your target market and what sort of advert you are going to do and should consider using a marketing communications budget.

Place- This applies to were you place your business as getting this correct is very important to have a sustainable amount of customers in businesses such as cafes and restaurants. Another thing that could apply for this category is distribution, for example things like transportation and warehousing are very important if you are running a freighting business.

Questions

1: What of the 4 P's is focused on advertising your business?

Product          Place       Promotion        Price


2: Which of these things can you do to find out a customers needs?

Census       Market research         Market Map        Doing nothing