Great Value Thrift Store
The external customers of Great Value Thrift Store are the consumers. The efforts that the organization puts forth through social media to improve the customer service relationship include the usage of online medium and social networking for building customer relationships (McKee, 2012). In case of using the online medium it is important that the target market segment be tech savvy. The target market is a mix of corporate firms and individuals. It is essential that the targeting of the markets is based on their needs and identifying the most suitable technologies for these market segments (Samiee & Roth, 1992). Technology has a great role to play with the advent of computers. E commerce is an essential and integral part of present day businesses. Information technology has been growing in importance and acceptance.
This would help the firm head in the direction where in sales can be maximized and it is possible to develop the products and customize them to the needs of the customers. Hence it is important that the focus remains on the creation of an effectively customized plan that is suitable for the various target segments and for B2B and B2C marketing. In this way customization is extremely important for the firm to succeed in marketing in various target markets. It is then possible to reach out to the customers and this also creates effective establishment of the products in several markets. In this way customization is a better option in comparison to other options or alternatives and this is possible using the online medium (Osman, 2012). It offers the option of developing multiple promotion ads and catering to the needs of various segments. It also creates an effective business model.
If the organization does not make an effort in this regard, they should be enhancing the customer experience through the usage of effective CRM techniques. Customer Relationship marketing (CRM) is a very popular tem used in marketing. In simple terminologies it refers to all those efforts of an organization aiming at maintaining a long lasting business relationship with its current customers (Buttle & Maklan, 2008). It may include information technology being used for helping the salespersons or simple marketing efforts directed at repetitive sales. CRM is used in both Business to Business (B2B) as well as Business to Customer (B2C) marketing (Kotler & Keller, 2006).
The market research as well as marketing strategies are to be implemented in the organization through the utilization of a professional market research and consulting firm in each of the market segments is extremely important. The research method in case of marketing is extremely useful as it helps in the creation of findings that are useful for the purpose of finding theories, conducting experiments and validating beliefs as well as practices which benefits to a great extent. This should be the basis of deciding the marketing program for international markets of the firm as software is a product which is suitable for multiple markets. Moreover it is also crucial to create effective levels of development of a marketing program which is based on culture and specific customer focus. It is very important to use research and statistics in case of marketing research and its development. It helps in the process of understanding the theories of marketing and the processes in greater depth and detail. This should be implemented in case of Great Value Thrift Store.
References
Buttle, F. & Maklan, S. (2008). Customer Relationship Management, 2nd ed.. Taylor & Francis.
Kotler, P. & Keller, K.L. (2006). Marketing Management, 12th edition, Pearson Prentice Hall.
McKee , S. (2012). How Social Media Is Changing CRM. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-08/how-social-media- is-changing-crm
Osman, M. (2012). Social CRM: how to manage relationships online. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network- blog/2012/jul/10/social-media-customer-relations-tips
Samiee, S. & Roth, K. (1992). The Influence of Global Marketing Standardization on Performance, The Journal of Marketing, 56 (2), pp. 1-17
