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by Rajen Kumar

No Escaping Social Media

Running a magazine concentrating on issues of small and medium enterprises and managing with limited resources is a like living life on the edge. In this rush of meeting deadlines,...

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Apr 2012

EMRC, Brussels Associates with SME WORLD as its New Media Partner

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Marketing

Let us Start Nurturing Consumer Needs than Selling Products

Latika
Sep 2011

Marketing is envisaged as a function that understands value as perceived by the target group, creates value, communicates value and delivers value. The value of a product is the mental estimation a consumer makes of it. Formally, it may be conceptualized as the relationship between the consumer's perceived benefits in relation to the perceived costs of receiving these benefits.

To comprehend the value, in our individual context, it is imperative to understand 'the need' that is to be gratified. A need for which a consumer seeks solution and a cost is incurred. And it is the need that is at the core of any business for which a product or a service is produced. Any changes in the need will redefine the business. Therefore, it is recommended to base the core business on understanding and nurturing a consumer need and not selling of a standard product/ service. This approach will support the business a great deal.

Understanding and addressing a need will give a wider perspective for our offering among our consumers by making it more relevant. When a consumer perceives that someone is taking care of their needs, as a natural corollary, affinity towards that brand and that organization increases. It results in more business from same clients and more references from existing clients.

To gratify a need, consumers seek information via various sources about available options. These sources serve as media to connect with consumer and communicate to them about the offer.

A crisp statement addressing a need is the most relevant communication and will yield great results. The communication should be built around how our product/ service will nurture their need.

Keeping abreast with ever evolving consumer needs, will provide us with timely inputs to fine tune our offering (product or service) and it will keep us ahead of competition. It will enable us to respond to the changes even before the consumer realizes it. Eventually, we will be able to pleasantly surprise our consumers and further build affinity.

Business Opportunities

The approach also presents before us newer and more lucrative business opportunities. As the consumer's needs evolve, the product/ service in which we are dealing may become redundant or obsolete. In turn the evolving needs may present newer more lucrative business opportunities. For e.g. Airtel once was dealing in production of landline phones by the brand name of 'Beetel' however, because they kept close watch on changing consumer needs and external environment they were one of the first to get license of a mobile service provider and we all know where Airtel is today.

If we miss out to keep a tab on evolving consumer needs we will not be able to save ourselves from a rude shock that will hit us someday that we are NOW dealing in an obsolete product/ service category. It may leave us with little or no time to take corrective action, hence lets' be proactive and do not let shocks decide our course of action.

A need, often, is gratified by various product/ service. For example our thirst can be gratified by soft drinks, juices or simple water. By definition all three options form part of different industries or categories; however they satisfy the same need. Likewise it is imperative to thoroughly understand all the other options that suffice the same need, which may not form part of our industry or category by definition. Cola companies don't compete with only cola products but they work on a larger canvas of 'quenching thirst' and hence they compete with water, juices etc. and this is what defines their business approach and, their communication strategy. Hence, cola companies closely monitor how Bisleri is doing.

Monitoring Competitors

We must also thoroughly understand all options that satisfy the same need as our product or service does. Therefore, we must monitor the following about other players,

Closely monitor their offers (product/ service).
Their marketing and communication strategy to gauge how are they addressing the need and how are they luring the consumers to try their products/services.
We must keep a very close watch on their sales promotion strategy, if they are providing any special offers in terms of special rates, other benefits. This has most impact on our business as these are our direct competition.
Consumers on continuous basis seek information from various sources so we must keep a tab on these sources. These sources serve as a media to connect with consumers.
We may stumble upon newer media of communications and should keep learning and experimenting with newer media to communicate with consumers.
As a proactive measure we should budget some monies for such research and learning and must design these research on ROI basis
In the attempt of research and learning keep a close and controlled monitoring of the on-going marketing projects.

Consumer need has to be at the core of any marketing plan and business plan. While designing a communication plan it is significant to understand the thumb rule of selling, that the benefits sell and not the product features, a feature is perceived as a benefit or value only if it gratifies a need.

We may be proud of a unique super feature we have installed in our product however if the consumer is unable to comprehend how that feature will benefit him the feature may become irrelevant for the consumer.

Good understating of consumer needs will ensure relevant communication and it's recommended to design communication around benefits, based on consumer need. Choose a media which, allows consumer sufficient time to absorb the details. A media that engages consumer on an on-going regular basis, for e.g. placing a communication in a newsletter which is printed once a year may not yield desired results.

The communication designed should align with the medium through which it's presented. For example, communication designed around cricket season, are built with the same flavor.

We may choose to employ any method or tool, however to understand consumer behavior and keep a tab on evolving consumer behavior is most critical to the business.

Therefore, when we are doing marketing or a business plan, w have to ensure it is based on a core consumer need. This approach will ensure we make a product/ service which have high perceived value and are most relevant to the consumer. Periodic review of consumer behavior will provide timely inputs to us to fine tune our business and will make us a preferred partner among our consumers. Given that, we will be able to deliver value even before our consumer realizes it and expects it. It will also keep us ahead of competition. Therefore either through readily available tools or by developing in-house indigenous tool, through a systematic and scientific way, we should keep a close watch on evolving consumer behavior. This approach will provide the business a sustained growth.

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