Prepare an Integrated Marketing Plan and Program?

The marketing profram builds customer relationships by transforming the marketing strategy into action.It consists of the firm,s marketing mix,the set of marketing tools the firm uses to implement its marketing strategy.

The major marketing mix tools are classified into four broad groups,called the four ps of marketing:product,price,place & promotion.

Building Customer Relationships

The first three steps in the marketing process -Understanding the marketplace & customer needs,designing a customer-driven marketing strategy, & constructing marketing programs--all lead up to the fourth and most important step: Building profitable customer relationships....

Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Managemtn is perhaps the most important concept of modern marketing .Some marketers define customer relationship management narrowly as a customer data management activity ..By this definition it involves managing detailed information about individual customers & carefully managing customers ,touchpoints,.

Most marketers however,give the concept of customer relationship management a broader meaning.In this broader sense ,Customer Relationship Management is the overall process of building & maintaining profitable customer relationships by delivering superior customer value & satisfaction.It deals with all aspects of acquiring,keeping and growing customers.

Relationship Building Blocks:Customer Value & Satisfaction 

The key to building lasting customer relationships is to create superior value and satisfaction.satisfied customers are more likely to be loyal & to give the company a larger share of their business.

Customer Value

Attracting & retaining customers can be a difficult taks.customers often face a bewildering  array of products & services from which to choose a customer buys from the firms that offers the highest customer-perceived value...

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction depend on the product,s perceived performance related to a buyers expectations,if the product,s performance falls short of expectation the customer is dissatisfied .if performance matches expectation the customer is satisfied...

Understanding the Marketplace & Customer Needs?

As a first step,marketers need to understand customer needs & wants & the market place within which they operate .We now examine five core customer & marketplace concepts;

1-needs, wants & demands 

2-market offerings 

3-value & satisfaction

Customer Needs,Wants & Demands

The most basic concept underlying marketing is that of human needs.Human needs are state of felt deprivation.They include basic physical needs for food, clothing warmth & safety & social needs for affection & individual needs for college & self- expression.These needs were not created by marketer they are a basic part of a human makeup.Wants are the form of human needs take as they shaped by culture & individual  personality.An indian in kolkatta needs food but wants a bowl of rice & fish & a person in Peshawar in Pakistan needs food but wants chapli kebab etc.Wants are shaped by one,s society and are described in terms of object that will satisfay needs when backed by buying power,wants become demands.Given their wants and resoucres ,people demand product with benefits that add up to the most calue & satisfaction.

Outstanding marketing companies go to great lengths to learn about and learn about their customer needs, wants and demans.They conduct consumer research and analyze mountains of customer data..Their people at all levels, including top management ,stay close to customers.. for example Southwest Airlines all senior executives handle bags ,check in passenger and serve as flight attendants once every quater.

Market Offerings-Product Service & experience

Consumer needs and wants are fulfilled through market offerings..some combination of product servies ,information or experience offered to a market to satisfy a need or want.Market offerings are not limited to physical products .they also include service,activities or benefits offer for sale that are essentially intangible and do not result in the ownership of anything but experience.Examples include banking,air travle hotel stays etc.

More broadly,Market offering also include other entities such as persons,places or organizational information and ideas.

Many sellers make a mistake of paying more ateention to the specific products they offer them then to the benefit and experience produced by  these products.these sellers suffer from Marketing myopia ..They are so taken with their products and they focus on only existing wants and loose sight of underlying customer needs .They forget taht a product is only a tool to solve a consumer problem.

What is Marketing?

marketing, more than any other business function,deal with customers.Although we will soon explore more detailed definitions of marketing,perhaps the simplest defintion is this one:

Marketing is managing profitable customer relationship.

The twofoaled goal of marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value and t o keep and to grow current customers by delivering satisfaction.

Wal-Mart has become the world,s largest retailer -- and the world,s largest company ---by delivering on it,s promise , Save money Live better.Apple fulfills its motto to Think Different with dazzling customer-driven innovation that captures customer imaginations and loyalty.

Sound marketing is critical to the success of every organization.Large for-profit firms such as Hindustan Unilever Limited,Proctor and Gamble,Big bazaar and Apple use marketing.

You already konw alot about marketing.It,s all around you.Marketing comes to you in the good old traditional forms.You see it in abundance of products at your nearby shopping mall & in the advertisements that fill your tv screen,spice up your magazines etc.But in the recent years marketers ahve assembled a host of new marketing approaches,everything from imaginative.Websites,Internet,Chat rooms & social networks to interactive tv & your cell phone .These new approaches aim to do more than just blast out messages to the masses.They aim to reach you directly & personally.Tday marketer,s want to become a part of your life & to enrich your experiences with their brands--to help you live their brands.

At home, at school, at where you work and where  play you see marketing in almost everything you do.Yet,there is much more to marketing than meets the customer,s casual eye.Behind it all is a massive network of people & activities competing for your attention & purchases.

Marketing Defined

What i smarketing ?Many people think of marketing only as selling & advertising . And no wonder-- every day we are bombarded with TV commercials,direct mail officer,sales calls, & email pitches.However ,selling & advertising are only the tip of the marketing icebrg.

Today,marketing must be understood not in the old sense of making a sale --telling & selling --but in the new sense of satisfying customer needs.If the marketer understands consumer needs;develops products that provide superior customer value; & prices,distributes,& promotes them effectively,these products will sell easily.in fact according to management Guru Peter Drucker , The aim of marketing is to make selling unnecessary.Selling & advertising are only part of a larger marketing mix---a set of marketing tools that work together to satisfy customer needs & build customer relationships.

Broadly defined, marketing is a social & managerial process by which individuals & organizations obtain what they need & want through creating & exchanging value with others.In a narrower business context ,marketing involves making profitable ,value-laden exchange relationships with customers.Hence,we define marketing as the process by which companies create value for customers & build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.