18 Jun,2014
Marketing Basics for Registered Training Organisations (RTO’s)
By LearnCorp Training Pty Ltd
The concept of marketing is a vital component of business establishment and growth. Not only is marketing a cornerstone of the product sales process, but it also has wide-reaching implications for the business and brand positioning, for market perception and for competitor responses.
Marketing is the act of “taking the product to market”. This entails the choice of the product, its pricing, how it is promoted and where it is sold. Under each of these categories are a number of sub-categories. These include:
The marketing function is also responsible for the communications messages and tone the company uses with its customers, stakeholders and competitors. In summary, marketing is the competitive position of the company compared to its rivals. It is the “polished” component of business operations.
The product line heads to customers through the competition and broadly, each segment has multiple sub-segments that affect it. An example of this is the product will have pricing, packaging and shipping. Competition will have market share, marketing message and market responses and so forth.
The marketing function is hence inter-related with other business functions
Product Offering
The product offering is the offer the company makes to the market, of its products and services, the associated pricing and the post-sales service it provides. This may include:
These elements combined create what is called the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The USP is the main message from the company to the buyer indicating the value created for the buyer from purchasing this product. Marketing emphasizes the USP in its communications.
One of the important elements of the USP is the value, costs and benefits argument.
Value, Costs and Benefits
When a consumer decides to buy something, they make a conscious decision to do so by comparing what they are paying with they are receiving in return. If the value of the cash they are using to make the purchase is perceived to be less than the value of the goods they purchasing, then they will generally make a positive decision to buy. This is cold the cost/benefit analysis. The cost/benefit analysis helps a buyer decide on the whether to buy the goods and, more importantly, a seller on whether their price is fair or too high.
Value= Benefits/Costs
Value= (Functional Benefits + Emotional Benefits)/ (Monetary Costs + Time Costs + Energy Costs + Emotional Costs)
The marketer can increase the value of the customer offering in several ways:
1) Raise benefits
2) Reduce costs
3) Raise benefits and reduce costs
4) Raise benefits by more than the raise in costs
5) Lower benefits by less than the reduction in costs
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