Micro Marketing
Blog No 11 Marketing No 3 In business Management 10 December 2024
Micro Marketing
On my journey so far….in developing the six core subjects ‘in business management. The following sticks out to me as striking.
· Business can be separated from management. Management as the software, if business was ever about evil capitalism…… modern management has ended that and made business the great provider.
· Management is not only confined to business but other organisations …...government departments to sports clubs and unions.
· Can a corrupt organisation be well managed? No, corrupt businesses are not sustainable. Integrity and honest contributions to society are needed. You also cannot market immoral and unethical practices or products. A formula for corruption : Power + freedom of action - accountability = corruption.
· Marketing has at least two areas macro and micro marketing. Macro marketing reveals the continuous growth of opportunities, written about in blog 10.
· The individual is an example of where micro marketing starts. I mentioned in a previous blog a person in managing themselves can be an ideal example of where business management starts. Micro marketing is part of individuals managing themselves. If you cannot manage and market yourself ……forget about managing others or marketing a product or service.
Let me explain. How does an individual become an achiever in his career?
You must find the opportunities in a macro market, get yourself properly
qualified then market yourself to an employer……or go into a business of
your own.
· Macro marketing provides a plethora of career opportunities. Society must provide education and training to fulfill the needs in this gigantic market. Education and skills training authorities must work with macro marketing to supply the market with the skills it needs. Skills training is now an opportunity for businesses……. what the government cannot do……business will enter this gap and see it as an opportunity.
Micro Marketing is concerned with the specific strategies and tactics employed by individual businesses to reach and engage their target markets. It delves into the details of marketing, planning, implementation, and evaluation…..this is an AI definition of micro marketing.
I would add……... “you don’t have a business without marketing”…..SOEs otherwise known as state monopolies are not successful businesses because there is no competition.
A reminder that you are competing when you enter the business world, this is illustrated by Porter’s Five competitive forces.
Porter’s “Five Competitive Forces” is given in the model above. The essence of the model is to heighten awareness to change – new competition, the power of suppliers, the power of buyers, the threat of substitutes, and internal rivalry.
Competition and Change
Businesses are not unlike sport….. they compete;– staying on top or near the top is not easy. It requires constant assessment of one’s strengths and weaknesses, internally and externally – awareness of the opportunities and threats. In essence, any business must sustain its competitive advantage to survive and thrive.
The Value Chain discussed in earlier blog runs in Parallel to the Five Competitive Forces. The value chain is about all those activities that make a business unique – there might be a need for more innovation, or re-engineering, or looking at the distribution channel, procurement policies, a more effective marketing strategy, etc
The four Ps of marketing are: This is somewhat historic still applies and a good place to start a blog on Micro marketing.
1. Product: This refers to the actual product or service being offered. It includes factors like quality, features, branding, and packaging.
2. Price: This is the amount a customer pays for the product or service. It's influenced by factors like production costs, competition, and perceived value.
3. Place: This refers to the distribution channels used to reach the target market. It includes factors like physical stores, online platforms, and sales representatives.
4. Promotion: This is the communication strategy used to promote the product or service. It includes factors like advertising, public relations, sales promotions, and social media marketing.
5. People : I would like to add people and make it 5 p’s. peoples’ needs and what is good for them is a major focus of marketing…...and the complexity and the exciting challenge of engaging with people.
The Internet and the computer
Information Technology (IT) associated with the above would have revolutionised the promotion of products and services with websites, the use of online marketing and buying. This brings much of marketing to everyone’s laptop or cell phone.
Seven cold hard facts about winning and keeping customers:
1) It costs six times as much to gain a new customer as it does to
keep an old one.
2) On average, one dissatisfied customer will tell 11 others who
will tell five others. That’s 55 bits of negative advertising
3) 96% of customers don’t complain when they have a problem –
they just don’t come back.
4) Because less than 4% of unhappy customers complain, management is
often lulled into thinking all is well.
5) Customers who tell companies they are “fairly satisfied” won’t be repeat
buyers.
6) 68% of customers who stop dealing with a particular
organisation do so because of company indifference.
7) Organisations providing quality service grow twice as fast and pick up
market share three times quicker than their competitors.
It can be a rude awakening for a firm to find out they are not held in the esteemed position they had believed. It needs market intelligence, feedback, surveys.
Most of all, the bosses must not be surrounded by sycophants….a boss needs to hear the problems and turn them into opportunities. Top CEOs want to hear the bad news for things to be fixed, the good news can wait.
Marketing and Salespeople
In my first blog on marketing in Business Management, I was taken to task by one of my readers and a good friend for not emphasising enough the value of top effective salespeople in a business. Here is a quote from my friend.
“While Marketing creates awareness, generates interest and positions the product, Salespeople are more robust and transactional. Sales involves breaking down doors, building relationships, negotiating and finalising the deal to the benefit of both parties”.
Where a firm mostly sells to other businesses my friend is right …...Business to business, but business to consumer the days of the hard sell might be over…...after all you are supplying what they need.
The salespeople are part of micro marketing and often the firm they work for will be judged by the conduct of the salesperson.
I like the difference between selling and marketing described as…… selling focuses on the needs of the seller…… whereas marketing focuses on the needs of the buyer (customer). Selling is concerned with the seller’s need to convert product to cash, while marketing is associated with satisfying the needs of the customer by paying attention to a whole cluster of needs.
Generally, one deals with salespeople one likes and respects. Their professionalism, their knowledge of their product, their sincere interest in their buyer’s requirements, their honesty, especially in saying if they don’t know. Their conduct, returning calls and communicating timeously.
Finally let these good salespeople not forget the analogy of the twin the towers I made in Blog 9 headed Marketing. I gave on signalling criteria and user criteria in marketing.
Summary and Conclusion
In marketing both macro and micro are at the heart of business management. The principles of marketing have influence on other organisation providing a service to society
When business uses empathy in marketing……how much more important is the focusing of political parties on empathy for the needs of the voters .
“People who are successful in making a difference in the
market, especially in providing leadership, tend to nurture
optimism within themselves and try to detoxify cynicism and
pessimism. That is one of the reasons they are effective.”
John Kotter
Neil Wright