An organizational customer centric approach to marketing planning can cultivate customers as loyal and satisfied as a Labrador puppy with a full belly. The bottom line is achieving high levels of customer satisfaction.

All marketing is focused on the customer’s, and no where is this more true than in services. Marketing planners should focus on bringing consistency to the backstage portion of a service (or exchange) that makes no difference to the target market, and provide an individualized service experience front stage based on the things that do matter to customers. Two caveats; first this requires balancing the effectiveness of the individualization against efficiency constraints. Many firms overcome this by focusing on market segments that are large enough to be economically feasible, but who also share desired attributes in a good or service.

The second caveat is that this approach requires have intimate, local knowledge of consumers needs, habits, and purchase patterns. Modern technologies allows us to measure shopping variations across shopping nations and neighborhoods, but only marketers are in a position to manage the marketing mix (4C’s) to make these micro and macro adjustments to meet customer’s needs.

Thus we end where we began. Marketing planning starts with understanding our wants and constraints, and in services this impacts what aspects of the service can be homogenized backstage, and what portions should feel economized on the front stage. Customer loyalty can increase market share, improve profit margins, and even lower cost by decreasing the amount of money invested in replacing lost customers (clients or students).

The central element of any marketing plan is understanding your customers. Why do they buy your good or service? How and when do they purchase the product? Who is the decision maker, who purchases the product, and is that the same person who uses the product? Actually all marketing efforts should be focused on the customer’s needs, and this is even more salient when marketing services. Marketing plans should focus on bringing consistency to the backstage portion of a service exchange that make no difference to the target market, and provide an individualized service experience front stage based on the things that do matter to customers.
Two caveats: First, this requires balancing the effectiveness of individualization against efficiency constraints. Many firms overcome this by focusing on market segments that are large enough to be economically feasible, but who also desire the same attributes in a good or service. The second caveat is that this approach requires marketers have an intimate and local knowledge of the target market’s needs, habits, and purchase patterns. Modern technologies allow us to measure variations in shopping preferences across nations and neighborhoods. Marketing planners adjust the marketing mix (4C’s) to adapt to these macro and micro variations that exist in the customer’s needs and wants. In services this impacts which aspects of the service exchange can be homogenized backstage, and what portions should feel customized on the front stage
An organization’s customer centric approach to marketing planning can cultivate customers as loyal and satisfied as a Labrador puppy with a full belly. The bottom line is customer loyalty can increase market share, improve profit margins and even lower costs by decreasing the money invested in replacing lost customers. To have loyal customers we need satisfied customers. To have satisfied customers we need to know our customer’s expectations and motivations. Marketers need to understand their customers.

Marketing Objectives

In general it is good to set clear objectives early in the planning process. Lacking clear objectives a plan has little chance at success. However, well thought out, measurable, and reasonable objectives bring clarity of purpose to the entire planning process. A heuristic that is useful in setting meaningful objectives is as follows; all objectives should include three things: Goals, Timeframes, and Benchmarks.

Goals provide us the desired outcome(s).
Timeframes provide us with a road map to when these goals will be achieved.
Benchmarks are the yardsticks or comparisons that we use to measure our progress.

A good statement of objectives is essential to the marketing planning process, and well written objectives include goals, timeframes, and benchmarks.

Marketing Mix

The marketing mix refers to the variables that are controllable by marketers. Since 1960 the marketing mix has been referred to as the 4Ps of marketing. However, in the past 47 years marketing and markets have changed. The 4Ps are not easily applied to Not-For-Profit or services marketing that have grown to be much more important than tangible products that dominated marketing thought when McCarthy first developed the concept of the 4Ps. In my opinion, the 4Ps tend to limit the ways we think about marketing planning, and make no accommodation for a customer orientation or the role marketing research plays in modern marketing planning. Dr. Gordon Bruner offered an updated conceptualization of the marketing mix known as the 4Cs. In this conceptualization the marketing mix is comprised of:
Concept - the goods and services, and ideas offered, viewed from the customer's perspective.
Costs - includes all the monetary and non monetary costs in the exchange decision.
Channel - all the flows that are part of the exchange.
Communication - includes both the information flows and the media used. This also includes market research and customer service feedback, since communication is a two way process.
I suggest that thinking of the marketing mix in these terms affords a broader view of the ways organizations can differentiate themselves, and best serve their target market(s).

Introduction

I have establihed this blog as an adjunct to our Marketing Management course. I will post my responses to questions concerning marketing, and random thoughts on the subject.