wt are the Marketing Challenges into the Next Century ? .......?

Marketing Challenges into the Next Century

• The major marketing challenges can be summed up in a single theme: connectedness.

• Now more than ever, we are connected to one another.

Technologies for Connecting

• The major force behind the new connectedness is technology.

• The boom in computer, telecommunications, and information technology, as well as the merging of these technologies, has had a major impact on the way businesses bring value to their customers.

• Using today’s powerful computers, marketers create detailed databases and use them to target individual customers with offers designed to meet their specific needs and buying patterns.

• Cell phones, fax machines, and CD-ROM to interactive TV are just a few of the tools being used to make connections.

• Electronic commerce allows consumers to shop and buy without ever leaving home.

• The Information Superhighway (and its backbone—the Internet) will link customers to companies in ways that were unimagined only a few years ago.

Connections with Customers

• Today, most marketers are realizing that they don’t want to connect with just any customers. Instead, most are targeting fewer, potentially more profitable customers.

• Marketers have responded by moving to more segmented marketing where they target carefully chosen individual buyers.

• One-to-one marketing has become the order of the day.

Connect for a customer’s lifetime.

Rather than always looking for new customers, the focus has now shifted to keeping current customers and building lasting relationships based on superior satisfaction and value.

Direct marketing is redefining the buyer’s role in connecting with sellers.

• Some companies allow buyers to design their own products online.

Connections with Marketing’s Partners

Strategic alliances - companies need strategic partners.

• Companies need to give careful thought to finding partners who might complement their strengths and offset their weaknesses.

Connections with the World around Us

• Global connections—geographical and cultural differences and distances shrunk dramatically in the last decade.

• Today, almost every company, large or small, is touched in some way by global competition.

• American firms are challenged by international competitors in their once safe domestic market.

• Companies are not only exporting, but buying more components and supplies from abroad.

• The secret for business success in the next century will be to build good global networks.

• Connections with our values and social responsibilities—as the worldwide consumerism and environmentalism movements mature, today’s marketers are being called upon to take greater responsibility for the social and environmental impact of their actions.

• The social responsibility and environmental movements will place even stricter demands on companies in the future. Those that resist will forced into compliance by legislation or consumer networks.

• Even government agencies have shown an increased interest in marketing all over the world.

Strategic Planning:

Many companies operate without formal plans. However, formal planning can provide many benefits:

a. It encourages management to think ahead systematically.

b. It forces managers to clarify objectives and policies.

c. It leads to better coordination of company efforts.

d. It provides clearer performance standards for control.

e. It is useful for a fast-changing environment since sound planning helps the companies anticipate and respond quickly to environmental changes and sudden developments.