Marketing Strategy

Table of Contents

Introduction..............................................................................................2

Defining Marketing Research.........................................................................3

The Definition of Customer Relations...............................................................3

Role of Marketing Research in Managing Customer Relations..................................4

Methods of Marketing Research in Managing Customer Relations..............................4

Defining Market Planning..............................................................................6

Building a Market Plan for a Market Oriented Business..........................................6

Defining a Market Oriented Business................................................................8

The Role of Marketing Planning for a Marketing Oriented Business............................9

Conclusion...............................................................................................12

Appendix.................................................................................................13

Introduction

Marketing Research plays a significant role in managing customer relations within a firm. In order to signify the correlation of marketing research and customer relations one must entirely define these two terms. The main aspect of marketing research is to understand the effect and comparative success of marketing campaigns. By understanding the marketing research for a firm they can further develop a customer analysis of the company. The customer analysis of the firm in turn builds a greater understanding of managing a firms customer relations to build relationships and maximize profits for the firm.

The role of marketing planning for a marketing oriented business is to accomplish long-term goals for the organization. A market oriented business is a business that goes beyond customer focus to include a strong competitor orientation and portrays a strong team approach in building customer solutions. This team uses marketing planning to market a new product, service, brand or even a product line. In the following pages is a further explanation of the role that marketing research plays in managing customer relations and how marketing planning plays a significant role in a marketing oriented business.

The Role of Marketing Research in Managing Customer Relations

 Defining Marketing Research

Marketing research is defined as a form of applied sociology that concentrates on understanding the behaviors, whims and preferences, of consumers in a market-based economy. Marketing research aims to understand the effect and comparative success of marketing campaigns and is the understanding and the examination of the business environment. (Bradley) With the gathering of information through market research, a company can enhance one's knowledge in a specific area of a business.

Marketing research can be divided into two categories: business-to-business and consumer market research. Consumer marketing research studies the buying habits of individual people while business-to business marketing research investigates the markets for products sold by one business to another. (Bradley)

 The Definition of Customer Relations

Customer relations is the ability of an organization to develop and manage one-on-one relationships with target customers. Attaining customer relations with a consumer may prevent consumer from turning to a business's competitors. Customer relationship management is the major strategy of acquiring customer relations.

Customer relationship management is a customer-centric business strategy with the goal of maximizing profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction. (Bligh) The strategy of customer relationship management is to maintain a long-term relationship with the consumer. Customer relationship marketing should work to provide consumers with a product/service that exceeds their expectations. (McDonald)

 Role of Marketing Research in Managing Customer Relations

Marketing research can adequately help a market oriented business in understanding the complexity of their consumers in a market-based economy. In a market oriented business, it is crucial to understand the behaviors and preferences of the customers to increase customer retention year after year. Studies have shown that it costs ten times more to generate a new customer than to maintain an existing one. Even if a company has a large amount of customers, a small increase in the retention rate could dramatically increase profits. (Reicheld)

Marketing research can help further develop a company's customer relations to its consumers. Large corporations thrive on their customer service. They understand what people want, need and believe. Creating customer value can not only increase profits through a business, but also increase the ability for a company to understand their consumer.

By using marketing research, a company can create channel systems to build customer value. The first way of building customer value is to deliver product benefits. Marketing research can target consumers to gain an understanding on what their expectations are of the product and its product quality. Marketing research can help build brand image. With marketing research a company can understand the perceived image of what a brand stands for in the mind of a consumer.

 Methods of Marketing Research to Manage Customer Relations

Customer Satisfaction Studies

The importance of customer satisfaction studies should never be underestimated. Customer satisfaction surveys measure and evaluate the attitudes, opinions and satisfaction levels of your customers and clients. (www.infoserv.com) These surveys can also improve costumer retention and maintain interest in new products and services that company may want to offer. Customer satisfaction surveys also can determine if an area of your company or product that