Wymbs Marketing Blog » sanchurnakoses

Class 21: Customer Service and Support – 11/19 Chapter 9 – Roberts

sanchurnakoses — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:38:14 +0000

Anticipatory customer service: anticipatory service concept of being proactive, not simply waiting passively until customers request service. To do this, companies must anticipate potential problem areas before they become troublesome, develop situations, and provide service that exceeds customer expectations.

Three things in order to implement anticipatory customer service:

1. build customer scenarios, using data including call center reports, e-mail logs, chat transcripts, and Web site software that can report unusual volumes of activity and uncover patterns in a day-to day service queries. Use the scenarios to determine where intervention can prevent problems, such as common customer mistakes in placing orders.

2. make customer service pervasive by fulfilling common requests before the customer even asks and enduring that service is readily available throughout the value chain

3. design the service process for “seamless escalation”. Translated, this means firms must guide customers to the service they need without having to move through frustrating layers of information that does not fir the needs of the customer.

Brands

sanchurnakoses — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:30:45 +0000

Brand

• A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of the competition

Brand Equity

• A set of assets (and liabilities) linked to a brand’s names and symbol that add to (or subtract from) the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/ or that firm’s customers.

• Brand equity is a combination of intermediate consumer responses and both customer and firm benefits.

Consumer Responses that Make up Brand Equity

Strength of Association

• Refers to the intensity with which target consumers link a particular word, phrase, or meaning to a particular brand.

• Strong associations tend to those that are “top of mind” for the customer.

• Measures of strength include the number of times an association was mentioned, rank order of the association and speed of recall.

• Strength of association is often divided among two criteria: relevance and consistency.

• Relevance: degree to which the brand is perceived as meeting the needs of the target customer.

• Consistency:degree to which each element of the brand reinforces the brand intent.

Valence

• Refers to the degree to which the association is positive or negative.

Uniqueness

• Captures the degree to which the association is distinct relative to other brands.

• Uniqueness can be further subdivided into distinctiveness and memorability.

• Distinctiveness is the degree to which the brand is differentiated from competitors.

• Memorability is the brand’s ability to provide a lasting communication effect.

Ways to Measure Brand Equity

Depth Interviews

• Needed to dig deeply into respondents’ memories.

Portfolio of techniques

• No single technique is adequate.

• Complementary techniques interact with each other to stimulate respondents’ abilities to access and verbalize memories and overcome their unwillingness to share them with the researcher.

Validate research findings

• Can be achieved using multiple techniques including structured and unstructured projective methods, in-depth interviews and surveys.

• Finding the same associations with more than one method adds confidence to the results.

Techniques for measuring brand associations:

• Thought listing

• Visual techniques

• Projective technique

• Sentence completion

• Depth interviews

• Rating scales

Class 26: Web Metrics – 12/8 Chapter 11 – Roberts

sanchurnakoses — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:33:43 +0000

Server log: record kept at the server level that records each file requested from a website

Coded pages: the use of coded pages is a new method of collecting data, on the “browser (user’s) side” of the information transaction instead of on the “server side” The tag part of the page that is requested by the served to the user’s browser. The file then sends data back to the server. Working with cookies, the tag can send back detailed information about the visitor’s activity on the page. One the surface, the data are the same as those collected by a server log. Data collected by tags has several advantages over server log data: the data may be more accurate, data collected by web bugs has smaller storage requirements because it stores only relevant data, and when data are collected in this manner, it permits real-time processing and viewing of site metrics.

Panel Data: the process for using panel data to generate site effectiveness data is the same as using panels in the general marketing research process. The first step is to recruit a statistically representative panel of internet users who agree to participate in the data collection. Specialized software is downloaded onto the participant’s computer to record the click stream data. The software is polled at regular intervals to upload the data. First, the source of the data is unambiguous, which it often it not with server logs. Second, a person who uses the internet from both home and work is two separate people according to server logs, but carefully planned and maintained panel data can overcome this issue. Third, the measurement firm can collect demographic and behavioral data from panel households that can be useful in reporting and analytics.

Traffic:

Hit counters: a hit counter is a small piece of software that can be added to a web site to provide a few basic metrics. It measures the number of visits to the site.

Server log files: server log files are created by the server that houses the web site. Each time a browser requests a file in order to build a web page, it generates an entry in the server request log.

Cookies: cookies are small data files that are stored on the user’s computer and transmitted back to the web server. Cookies can be set to retrieve personal information or not.

Variables used to measure web site traffic, audiences, and marketing campaigns

Traffic measures simply document site activity:

-hits: the number of files requested

-impressions: the number of times and ad banner is requested by a browser

-page views or deliveries: the number of times a web page is requested

-sessions: the amount of activity on a site during a specified period

-click-through: the number of times visitors come to the site by clicking on an ad

Audience measures provide data about the people who visit the site:

-visitors: the number of people who visit the site

-total (includes multiple visits) or unique (different people) during a specified time frame

-unidentified (anonymous) or identified (registered or customer)

-unduplicated audience: the vistors that are unique to a web site

-behavior on the site

-number of page views

-session time

-path through the site

-shopping cart abandonment

-entry page (many visitors do not enter through the home page)

Campaign measures provide data about the effectiveness of marketing efforts

-by communication channel: e-mail, mail, online banner, and so forth

-by offer: free shipping versus 25% off, for example

-search effectiveness by keyword

To be meaningful, all these measures must be taken during a specified period. That leads to an almost endless set of metrics that can be produced, depending on the needs of the marketer. Some common metrics follow:

-average number of visits per day

-number of page views per month

-average visitor session length last month

-number of hits for each hour of the day

-paid search results for the most recent 7-day period

Class 23: The Wireless Future 11/26 Chapter 14 – Roberts

sanchurnakoses — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:31:12 +0000

The Nature of Consumer Adoption Process

· The customer adoption process is generally accepted conceptualization of the stages a consumer goes through when confronted with a new product or service.

· According to the adoption process, the consumer must first become aware of the product, then develop an interest in it, perform some pre-purchase evaluation, and then try the product, either as a consequence of a purchase or of a marketer-sponsored promotion or incentive.

Diffusion of Innovations

· Diffusion process is a communications model and as such it consists of four elements: the innovation, communication channels, time, and social system within which the innovation is spreading

· The Consumer Adoption Process explains consumer behavior and how consumers adapt to a product, while the diffusion of innovations describes the life of a product over time.

Pervasive Computing

· Pervasive computing implies that a single person has access to myriad computing devices to assist in performing all sorts of daily tasks.

· Pervasive computing aims to enable people to accomplish an increasing number of personal and professional transactions using a new class of intelligent and portable devices. It gives people convenient access to relevant information stored on powerful networks, allowing them to easily take action anywhere, anytime.

· There, new intelligent appliances or “smart devices” are embedded with micro-processors that allow users to plug into intelligent networks and gain direct, simple and secure access to both relevant information and services. These devices are as simple to use as calculators, telephones or kitchen toasters.

Changes Likely to Bring about in the way marketer approach the Internet

· Marketers have to seize the opportunities presented by the changing technological environment and develop new products and services that successfully take advantage of it such as RFID.

Strategic Drivers of Wireless Adoption

· Context: providing necessary information when and where the customer needs or wants it

o Localization: location of the user can be identified and information specific to that location can be provided (GPS, Tracking Device)

o Personalization: the customer can select not only the type of information desired but also the frequency of information provision (consumer may select specific stocks and specific price levels at which he or she wishes to be notified.)

· Time sensitive: because screens are small and storage in limited, information must be provided at the time appropriate to the customer, not convenient for the marketer (As a customer passes a store in a shopping mall, he or she may be willing to receive a coupon for a purchase in that store, which can be saved or retained on the screen until the customer shows it when checking out the purchase.)

· High value: The coupon will have to have a reasonable value in order to make it welcome in the wireless context

· Voice activation: there are many situations in which it is not safe to use the keyboard (voice activation)

· One-click payment mechanisms: a system is which payment is easily and securely authorized and billed to a single account because consumers are not going to be willing to enter credit card information on mobile keyboards and may be uncomfortable with the idea of their credit card data being transmitted wirelessly

· Security: users must be assured that data transmissions are secure, and authentication services must be provided in a way that is suitable for the devices (smart cards that can be inserted or taken out)

· Privacy: providers of content and services will have to be sensitive to download times, lack of storage, and the fact that users are paying for airtime- They must not abuse technological capabilities like geographic locational services.

· Expanded permission marketing: marketers will have to extend the concept of permission marketing beyond simple opt-in scenarios. They must find out what kind of information consumers are willing to receive, how often they are willing to receive transmissions, and where they are willing to receive it

Class 22: Marketing Automation 11/24 Chapter 13 – Roberts

sanchurnakoses — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:30:26 +0000

Knowledge Management and Marketing Applications

Marketers are interested in a narrower set of activates that focus on integrating front-and back-office services and delivering information to customer service personnel and decision makers when and where they need it.

They are connected about customer experience and realize they must deliver it seamlessly through multiple channels at times and places demanded by the customer. This requires marshalling all the resources of the enterprise to create usable knowledge from the multiple types of customer data and the expertise of best workers.

Knowledge management in marketing enable human agents to do their work better, faster, and in a way that provided maximum customer satisfaction, al creates automated systems that perform at least as well as the most skilled human agent

Class 19: ties all of the marketing levers into the Marketspace Matrix, how to design a marketing plan.

sanchurnakoses — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:56:14 +0000

What is a buyer-seller relationship? How can it vary?

A relationship is defined as a bond or connection between the firm and its customers. This bond may be strong, weak, or nonexistent, and it can be based on either logic or emotion. An example of logical bond is a realization that the customer simply cannot get a better product elsewhere. However, strong relationships typically have an emotional dimension as well- think of your relationships with family and friends. Buyer-seller relationships can be strong, but generally they are not as powerful as the connection we have with people who are close to us. Buyer-seller relationships are based on exchange, where each party expects, or perhaps even demands, value for what is given.

Why is intregrated lever selection important in a marketing plan?

IMC ensures that levers complement one another and thus drive customers through the relationship stages more effectively.

How did eBay’s application of the Marketspace Maxtrix change over time?

eBay first focused on advancing users into the awareness and exploration/expansion stages. The next phase of its matrix involved building community and sustaining commitment. Once the community was established along with a large user base, eBay again returned to bringing new users into the community through the awareness and exploration/expansion phases.

What are the four categories of principles for lever selection?

Which levers are customers most responsive to?

Which levers are least likely to generate a competitive response?

Which levers work best together?

Which levers are consistent with strategy?

What are the key principles for lever selection within the Marketspace Matrix?

1- Base the levers on consumer behavior.

2- Choose levers to effect change.

3- Measure the impact of each lever.

4- Overcome barriers to advancement.

5- Anticipate your competitors’ likely responses.

6- Build on your firm’s skills and resources.

7- Look for interaction effects

8- Integrate across levers.

9- Levers create the position

10-Focus on superior customer value

Class 18: Distribution – 11/10 Session Overview: how the 2is and the Internet have influenced distribution. how various distribution levers fit into the Marketspace Matrix.

sanchurnakoses — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:53:37 +0000

Is the Internet a distribution channel?

• A distribution channel is the system of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for consumption or use.

• Marketing channels therefore facilitate the exchange of goods and services between buyers and sellers

What are the functions of channel intermediaries?

Objectives of Channel Intermediaries

Efficiency: Distribution costs are reduced only if the retailers can perform the required functions more efficiently than the manufacturers could in the direct channel.

Effectiveness: the ability of the channel to perform functions that create value for customers.

What is disintermediation and what are its implications for channel intermediaries and customers?

Disintermediation

A strategy that involves the elimination of a channel intermediary.

Internet has become a driving force for disintermediation

Overall result is positive because channel works more closely to create value for customers.

Elimination of channel intermediary

E.g. one hallmark of the new economy is a move from traditional manufacturer-retailer-consumer channels to direct online channels that eliminate the retailer.

Internet – driving force for disintermediation

The Internet enables firms to interact at a much lower cost and higher speed than ever before.

Frequency and complexity of communication between buyers and sellers, but tighter links between channel members which facilitates lower inventory and shipping costs.

What are the distribution levers and how do they affect relationships between intermediaries and buyers and sellers?

Awareness

Number of Intermediaries

• Intensive distribution strategy should lead to greater awareness because the firm is accessible via more outlets.

• Nearly all distribution in the online world is intensive because of the Internet’s massive reach.

• However, participation in affiliate programs is one tactic that increases distribution intensity.

Number of Channels/ Intermediary Type

• Given that different customers are likely to shop at different channel types, a greater variety of distribution channels increase market coverage and therefore awareness.

Exploration/ Expansion

Degree of Channel Integration

• As integration increases, the willingness to explore the potential for a relationship should increase.

• Very simply, integration increases the level of customer service, which increases the attractiveness of the firm as the relationship partner.

• Also important is the effect of channel integration on the reliability of customer service.

• Relationship quality comes not only from the level of the customer service, but also from whether the customer can count on the service from interaction to interaction.

Number of Channels/ Intermediary Type

• Likelihood of exploration increases as the number of channels increase.

• •Firms increase exploration and expansion of the relationship by ensuring they target their customers correctly.By understanding the needs of each target segment, the product or service can be delivered through the most appropriate distribution channel.

• As the perceived value of the product is enhanced, the willingness to explore increases.

Commitment

Degree of Channel Integration

• The channel environment must be integrated for customers to commit.

• Customers expect to be treated in a holistic sense, rather than on a per-transaction basis.

Intermediary Type

•Making a commitment to the firm requires trust and so the selection of the channel should be affected by the degree of trust that is associated with the alternatives.Another issue is the ability to form buyer-seller relationship in an indirect channel. Manufacturers that go direct have greater control over the brand’s marketing strategy and are more likely to generate commitment.

Number of Channels

•While a major advantage of employing multiple channels is the ability to appropriately serve multiple market segments, this strategy can also increase customer commitment within a segment.Customers often have different buying requirements based on the purchase situation, and their requirements can evolve over time as they grow older or their life situation changes.

Intermediary Functions and Responsibilities

•The firm can enhance customer value and strengthen commitment by using market research to understand customer perceptions of service quality.Other channel functions and responsibilities that can lead to greater commitment include customer representative training, sales incentives that focus on customer satisfaction and increased margins.

Dissolution

Elimination of Channel Types

• Some customers, particularly those who find value in the functions carried out by the channel type that has been eliminated will complain or leave.

Reduction in the Number of Intermediaries

• Customers will find it more difficult to purchase the firm’s products and will complain or exit.

Reduction in Channel Integration

• By customers being treated based only on part of their transactions, they are less likely to feel connected to the firm or brand, and dissolution is likely to follow.

Class 17: Community 11/5 Session Overview: how firms can encourage and profit from community, how various community levers fit into the Marketspace Matrix.

sanchurnakoses — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:43:44 +0000

What is the definition of community?

It’s a relationship that has been build on share interests and needs that get satisfied.

What are the criteria that define successful community?

The membership is the choice of the individual. Members feel trust – safety is felt among members and their transactions, that their information will be safe. Members gets benefits from the community. The roles among members are not imposed and they are not hierarchical. Efficiency in interaction is maximized this is done through mailing lists, live chat rooms, and bulletin boards. It is easy to navigate through the community, so visitors can explore without trouble.

What are the different types of internet that form the foundations of community?

Activity-driven- individuals share their interests. Information-driven- this is when individuals share their interests in information and they seek to exchange this information. Commonality-driven- these individuals share their interest through their professions, lifestyle stages, and ethnicity.

What are the different ways in which communities function?

Asynchronous formats- this is when there is a delayed in communications from the time the message is sent to when its being answer, through mail. Real-time system – this is when there is no delay when the message is sent – read – and answered to, such as through texting, aiming.

What are the three primary ways in which value is created within a community?

User to Administrator- the user (customer) makes money for the firm through the purchase of products, usage fees, content fees, advertising sales and also through commissions. Administrator to user – the firm creates the content like reports, exclusive research, events. User to user – the user makes content like articles written by them, and opinions.

What are the benefits that community can generate for a parent firm?

Benefits are: Revenue- deepen customers relationships, increase customer segmentation, and an increase in branding. Cost – reduces cost from a decrease of product flaws and marketing mistakes, reduces customer service.

Class 15: Product 10/29 Session Overview: product as a marketing lever. how the Internet has affected product development by leveraging the 2is (individuality and interactivity).

sanchurnakoses — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:40:26 +0000

How is product defined?

A product can be tangible or intangible (services), purpose is for transaction. There are two types of products physical and services.

How do interactivity and individualization affect product?

They affect product development, it also allows the firm to learn about their consumers. It also allows the personalization of the product for the preference of consumers. It also will decrease costs for sellers.

What are the key marketing levers for product?

Key marketing levers are: loyalty programs and privileges – rewarding customers increasing relationships . Packaging – this makes the product stand out from the rest of the products that surrounds it (subconsciously and consciously too). Availability of complementary products- it improves the value or potential value of the basic product. Upgrades – this offers a greater potential value for the customer, it also helps in their long term relationship. Attributes and Features- this is use to differentiate companies from each other, by customizing specific things for the customer (taste or preferences). Customer Service programs – support for customers before/after sales, customer care and it also helps relationship management.

What does the overall product development process look like?

It starts with brainstorming Idea Generation. Having a clear set of objectives for new products with connections with the development process Screening Ideas. Product Design. Prototype development this helps the companies determine wheatear something really works and if its safe to use for customers, its an outline of the product, this also helps them save time and money since it is not fully functional. Looks at the equity of the company/brand- the image of the brand Business Analysis. Tests where new products should be open and looks if it is supported by the target Testing Marketing . Requires an implementation plan, resources – supplies – marketing – distribution have to been done in the right way in order for the process to work Commercialization.

How can companies mange their product portfolio?

They can support their current products/services, with their existing products, and can develop new products all together.

How can products help enable a customer relationship?

Can enhance value at relevant stages in the relationship.

How can a customer-centric approach to product development create strategic advantages?

It is able to gain insight into customer’s needs that can start at the registration stage when it’s a online product. Increase success base on customers’ acceptance.

Class 13: Pricing 10/22 Session Overview: online and offline pricing levers, how pricing fits into the Matrix.

sanchurnakoses — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:32:18 +0000

What is the relationship between price and demand? Why is it important for a firm to price at the point at which marginal revenue is equal to marginal cost?

Inverse relationship.

What should a firm consider fairness when pricing its goods?

Fairness is important because price determines at point if the product will be purchase, price is looked at as quality. There are a few things that are taken into consideration when it comes to pricing: the past price, close-substitute price, and context – what is the environment in which the purchase is being made.

How has the Internet enhanced opportunities for dynamic pricing strategies?

Some opportunities are decreased menu cost: cost is associated with the changing prices of a product; in the internet its easy to change the price of products with less cost to the company unlike offline stores. Interactivity: it is easier for sellers and buyers to interact — it cost them less.

Why would a firm want to implement a price-discrimination strategy?

What is the difference between static and dynamic markets? Why must a firm consider its pricing strategies within the context of a dynamic market?