Marketing assignment on: New product development

Introduction

Establishing a new product in a market, which is already overflowing with many good products, is not a cakewalk; this is where good marketing comes into picture. Noted scholar Philip Kotler defines marketing as “Marketing is managing customer relationships. The twofold goal of marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value and to keep and grow current customers by delivering satisfaction”.(Kotler, 2008) The definition is very befitting since the whole idea behind successful marketing is to attract new customers. It can also be said that marketing is a language which marketers use to communicate with existing and potential customers. Integrated marketing communication is a step ahead; in layman’s language it can be defined as integrating all forms of communications so that it creates a greater impact on the customers. The name of the game is to create synergy by using all the promotional tools in unison rather than in isolation. However, the marketer should ensure that all the promotional activity deliver the same message.

The aim of this report is to understand integrated marketing communication and how it is successfully implemented.  An attempt has been made to establish a product by using IMC; the product is an anti aging cream for women, named Kin. The cream is a premium product and the target market is financially well off middle aged women. The report includes study of the target market as well as strategic implementation of IMC.

Marketing Communication

Communication is the base of all human relationships; it is how ideas and feelings are shared and expressed. Marketing communication can be defined as a collective term used for all the promotional activities done by the company to bring in more customers. The purpose of marketing communication is to present the potential customer with a certain set of information and elicit the desired response. It goes without saying that the desired response is the customer’s decision to buy the product.

To understand marketing communication in entirety, it is important to first understand the process of communication. Although, the communication process may seem banal, but a lot of research has been put into understanding the same. People are loaded with a lot of information on a daily basis; hence, it is important for marketers to understand how the information is interpreted by the customers.

The Communication Process

Source: (Yeshin, 1998)

When the sender decides to send across a message, it is often encoded, which is to say that the sender will use a specific tone and body language. While the message is being sent, there are various disturbances like interpersonal communication, television and radio etc. after the message passes through all these disturbances, the receivers decodes it and sends his response across to the sender.  For a marketer, it is important to understand how people encode and decode messages and how noise (interruptions) can completely change the meaning of the message.  Traditionally, companies used various marketing tools such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing etc; now internet and social media marketing have also been added to the list. However, using only one form of marketing communication is not enough to bring the product in limelight. The comparative chart given below shows how every form has its own advantages and disadvantages. This is the reason why using integrated marketing communication becomes necessary.

Comparative Chart

RelationsPersonal

SellingDirect MarketingPersonal TouchLowLowLowHighHighReaching  large audienceHighMediumMediumLowMediumInteractionLowLowLowHighHighCredibility given by audienceLowMediumHighMediumMedium

Source: (Kitchen, 2004)

Understanding the Target Market

Kotler devised a five step formula to successfully dominate any market. (Kotler, 1999)

R         STP     MM    I           C

R = Market Research

STP = Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

MM = Marketing Mix (4 Ps of marketing)

I = Implementation

C = Control (evaluating results with feedback)

Segmentation

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning together form a process which helps in understanding and analysing the target market.   Segmentation is the process of dividing the entire market into smaller parts of consumers who share similar demand and taste; it is the first step towards deciding on the target market. There are numerous basis of segmentation, like the market can be segmented on the basis of gender, age, income, marital status and occupation etc. (Stone & Desmond, 2007) Other popular basis of segmentation are psychographic where in customers are categorised on the basis of their attitude, lifestyle and interest etc; the second basis is geographic where in location is the deciding factor.

Targeting

Targeting is the process of selecting from the various subsets; this decision is again based on a number of factors such as can the company fulfil the needs of the target market, how large in the subset and are there any chances for it to grow etc. (Cant, Strydom, Jooste, & Plessis, 2006) As stated before the target market for Kin is women with the following characteristics.

1)      Women who are over 35 years old.

2)       Who have an active life and yearn to look good always.

3)      Who have the purchasing power

4)      Who look for handy solutions like daily cream instead of going for other options like Botox and surgical treatments etc

Positioning

Positioning can be defined as the act of putting the product in the minds of the consumers. It involves creating a perception of differentiation; the customers must know that this product is better than others in the following ways. (Ries & Trout, 2007) The whole idea is to make the product unique.

There are a number of ways to position a product

è Uniqueness of the product

This strategy completely focuses on the characteristics of the product, such marketing campaigns revolves around the fact that the product is much different than all the other products present in the market. For instance the marketing campaign of the toothpaste Sensodyne is solely based on its ability to curb the problem of sensitive teeth. It is not necessary that the company focuses on only one characteristic; for selling toothpaste many attributes can be clubbed together like freshness, cavity fighter, and whitening etc.

For our anti ageing cream, we will be using the uniqueness of the product as a positioning strategy. Since the cream is capable of solutions to many signs of aging such as dark spots, wrinkles, dull skin, and dry patches etc.

è Pricing

Pricing is one of the most important positioning strategies, since consumers have many perceptions for the same. For instance, if the product is priced lower than its competitors than customers are bound to think that the company has compromised with the quality of the product even if it hasn’t. This is the reason why management has to be very careful while deciding on the price of the product.

The anti ageing cream will be priced much higher than its competitors because the aim is to give the product a class-apart image; when customers use this product they should feel that they are using something which not everybody can afford.

è Use and application

This positioning strategy is used when the product is already established in the market and the management wants to expand the market share. For instance, breakfast cereals like Quaker oats were positioned in the market as a healthy alternative to oily and spicy food.

 After exhausting this avenue, the marketing team came up with the new campaign of linking oats with weight loss. The company wanted to convey the message that oats is not only a healthier option but it will also help you in losing weight.

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