Strategic partnerships
Currently, marketers who are smart are turning to a number of various marketing tools that enable them to expand and grow their brands and businesses forward. In the busy world of brand marketing, it is vital that companies utilize the various strategies that are available such as the utilization of the different strengths of marketing partnerships or marketing alliances so that they can get their products into some channels and venues thereby generating incremental sales. As large business chains, the concept of marketing always is an issue in regards to the budgets that have to be used. Through strategic partnerships, the marketing programs that have to be developed offers a way that the businesses that are involved acquire new customers and reach new market segments.
Strategic marketing partnerships bring together two or more business brands together. This means that the two businesses that have been brought together have its own individual distribution strength and brand equity.
When one is looking for a strategic partner in their marketing strategy, one has to ensure that they align with other businesses or brands that have the same business attributes and high quality while at the same time offering the incremental marketing exposure in the alternative channel of distribution. The strategic partner also has to offer or create a synergy and balance in the relationship between the two different brands. The proper selection of the strategy to be implemented, especially if the partnership is fully integrated, the overall value that the brand would have would increase significantly.
Strategy to manage high-end product
For any organization, one of the key ways that they can ensure that the company becomes profitable is to ensure that they target the high-end customers. High-end customers are those individuals or customers who are willing and able to purchase the services and products of an organization at higher prices. The strong purchasing power of the high-end customers and the frequency that they purchase the products makes them an ideal business niche to target.
One of the first steps to managing the high-end customers is to ensure that you build a profile of the ‘ideal customers.' The ideal customers of an organization should be those individuals who are interested in the services and the products that a particular organization offers and are willing and able to pay. The organization then builds a profile of the ideal customers based on the customer circumstances, demographics or psychographics. The customer circumstances may include the specific situations, opportunities or problems that would compel the targeted customers to purchase the products and services.
The second strategy to be implemented while managing the high-end customers is to ensure that the right message if determined. The messages should communicate the ideal end result or the end feelings that the targeted customers feel when using the products and services of an organization. This is because people have not only purchased products due to the features that the products have but they purchase the products based on the advantages and the benefits that they will get once they purchase that product.
The third strategy is to establish credibility and trust. This ensures that there is minimal resistance to the sales process that the company has to undergo. One of the highly effective and efficient way to establish credibility and trust is through the use of credible instructions, use of media and the use of endorsements from celebrities who are deemed as key influencers in the society. The other strategies may include the use of case studies, testimonials, and industry data that have been provided by a credible source.
The other strategy is to choose the right channels to be used. It is vital to conduct research on the buying circumstances, psychographics, and demographics of the targeted customers. The organization has to have a strong sense of the time that the high end targeted consumers spend their time while they are online or when they are offline. Some of the high-end target markets can be reached through the use of online marketing campaigns and some other forms of traditional media while others are primarily influenced through referrals in their networks and event marketing. It is vital for an organization to ensure that they test the different market channels that are available so that they determine the right mix to their audiences (Bly, 2015).
The final action that has to be undertaken while managing the high-end customers is to ensure that the organization develops the right business teams, systems, and processes. Based on the systems that the organization chooses, it is vital to use the system to track and to follow up the leads that have qualified. It is vital to note that a good customer marketing management service is critical to the success and the ability of a particular organization to upscale their business.
Pricing strategy for the higher ranged products and rationale
Pricing a product or service is one of the most nerve-wracking and exciting aspects of retail. Pricing of a product is both science and an art, and this requires an attitude that is both experimental, and that is coupled with an intuitive feel in regards to how an organization wants to be perceived. If an organization price sets' products too low, then they may be able to sell tons of their products by the level of profitability would be low. This is the same case as overpricing the products. The best pricing for high-end consumers is the premium pricing option. In this option, an organization decides to use a price their services and products higher. This is normally applicable only when the product that is being priced is a unique brand, or the target market has been specified. The rationale for choosing the premium pricing strategy that is sometimes known as above competitive pricing is to ensure that the organization prices their products, consciously above the prices that the competitors of similar brands have set. This means that the organization has to present itself as being more prestigious, exclusive or luxurious when contrasted with the other brands. If an organization chooses to implement this pricing strategy, then the strategy can work on its “Halo Effect” on the consumers of such products in that it gives the consumers the perception that the products that are produced at that organization are of a better quality and premium due to the price that they are paying for them. The only downside with this pricing strategy is that if the establishment has not conducted a proper market research about the demographics of the location that the business is situated in, the pricing strategy may be a flop in that the demographics may be too price sensitive and may in other instances shave other options or available substitutes of which they can purchase (Roetzer, 2014).
Ideas for sales promotion
With the development of different social media platforms, there have been several ideas that organizations can implement to boost their sales through social media marketing. Social media marketing strategies have developed immensely due to the ability of the social media platforms to reach very many people. Furthermore, it is even cheaper to run the different sales promotion ideas on social media platforms than running the same promotions while offline. The reactions that the organization can use while promoting their products online are sometimes almost instantaneous, and this can enable the organization to change or tweak their strategies so as to increase the response from their followers I the promotional platforms.
One of the strategic ideas that can be used while marketing through social media is to use the same hashtags. Organizations should not be afraid to use the same hashtags since most of the businesses are doing it anyway. What an organization should strive to achieve is that they should pop up at any instance that their potential customers search their hashtags. There are various generic hashtags that the organization can use such as #Holiday sale. Once the organization has established the hashtag that is mostly used by their potential customers, then they should be able to maintain that hashtag in several other platforms.
The other idea that can be implemented is one whereby the organization maximizes its exposure in the market. To achieve this, most of the organizations have like buttons that are normally situated on the upper sides of their websites that have links to their different social media platforms. The links should be included in the BlogSpot’s and other newsletters that the organization normally utilize. From this rationale, one can note that the higher the number of individuals who follow a particular organization, the higher the chance that the organization can hear about the potential social media sales that the organization has planned.
Digital strategy and rationale
Regardless of whether a particular organization has a digital marketing strategy or not, the best digital strategy that an organization can implement is one whereby they set up their systems to benchmark. The purpose of benchmarking is to ensure that the organization is aware of the position that they hold in the market and the position that they expect to hold in the future.
Initially, a separate digital marketing plan has to be set up. This stage is vital for any organization in that the plan shows the opportunities and the problems that the organization may face. Furthermore, the plan also maps out the path that the organization has to follow through setting the goals and the specific strategies that the organization has to follow, digitally by integrating the activities of the organization to other activities that are conducted in the market. The second step is to integrate the digital strategy into the organization’s marketing strategy as a core activity. This step is a core activity. However it does not warrant extensive planning.
Organizations thus have to conduct an initial marketplace analysis for their product. After the market analysis, the organization has to articulate clear business goals for their digital marketing programs. The third step is to deconstruct these goals and formulate the objectives down to the digital goals of the organization. Once the organization has established their digital goals, then the organization can proceed to define what they consider as their key performance indicators. The moment that the objectives, digital goals, targets and key performance indicators have been set, then the organization can flesh out their strategy. This means that the target audience is divided based on their personas. After establishing the different personas, the organization can then research based on the information that they have the digital behaviors and the location needs of their target consumers.
The rationale for choosing this business strategy is to ensure that the organization is not directionless in its marketing strategies. A good instance is that the organization may underestimate the number of sales that they expect if they have not conducted any online research. The other aspect of this rationale is that the startup competitors and the existing competitors may gain market share if the organization does not devote enough resources to digital marketing. During this stage, the correct digital channels should be identified so as to be able to target them. A great detail should be emphasized on the target market that has been chosen in that the organization has to decide the channel in terms of the customer reach, customer retention, and customer acquisition.
Plan to measure marketing performance
When planning to institute a program to measure the marketing performance of the digital strategy that has been selected, it is imperative to make a decision based on the frequency that the data to be used is collected. A good schedule to collect such data is to ensure that the collection of the data should be done on a monthly basis. The organization then has to create a spreadsheet whereby they may track the following aspects (Raab, 2009).
The marketing goals. If the organization has set out several marketing goals, then there is a need for the organization to put the goals in order of the priority that they have set. The second phase is to ensure that the key performance indicators have to be established. Some of the best tips for conducting a measurement of digital marketing is to ensure that the data that has been collected can be worked upon. This means that one has to collect actionable metrics. It is also vital for organizations to track their conversions since most of the metrics are vanity metrics. There are some individuals with a high number of twitter followers, but these numbers are rarely insightful or independent of other data.
While making the plan to measure the marketing performance, the organization should be ready to adapt. This may be due to the changes that are likely to occur. Therefore, one has to evaluate the list of their trackers on the annual, quarterly or bi-annual basis. This should be done so as to guarantee that the market performance that is being made in the organization best address the questions that the organizations have. Some of the members of the marketing department may ensure that the process is automated especially the data collection part. There have been software’s that have been developed to deal with this problem, and they may include Google Analytics and Salesforce.
References
Roetzer, P. (2014). The marketing performance blueprint: Strategies and technologies to build and measure business success.
Raab, D. M. (2009). The marketing performance measurement toolkit. Chicago: Rācom Communications.
Bly, R. (2015). Marketing plan handbook: Develop big-picture marketing plans for pennies on the dollar. Place of publication not identified: Mcgraw-Hill.
