Month: December 2021

The integration of marketing channels involves a process known as multi-channel retailing. Multi-channel retailing is the merging of retail operations in such a manner that enables the transacting of a customer via many connected channels.

Vertical Channels:

These are professionally managed and centrally programmed networks that are established to achieve operating economies and maximum market impact. Hence, they are bound to be capital intensive; they are designed to achieve technical, managerial and promotional economies through integration, coordination and synchronization of marketing flows from the point of production to the point of final consumption.

a) Administered Channel:

This is developed in such a manner that the co-ordination of marketing activities is achieved by using the programs of one or few firms. An example of this type of system could include a large retailer such as Wal-Mart dictating conditions to smaller product makers, such as producers of a generic type of laundry detergent.

b) Contractual Channel:

Here, independent channel components integrate on contractual lines to attain economies of scale and maximize the market impact.

c) Corporate Channel:

Here, channel components are owned and operated by the same organisation. Although it provides full control, this comes with a huge investment. An example of a corporate vertical marketing system would be a company such as Apple, which has its own retail stores as well as designing and creating the products to be sold in those retail stores.

Horizontal Channels:

Here, two or more companies join hands to exploit a marketing opportunity. This may be achieved by themselves or by creating an independent unit, for example, Sugar Syndicate of India, Associated Cement Company, etc. The factors motivating horizontal integration are rapidly changing markets, racing competition, swift pace of technology, excess capacity, seasonal and cyclical changes in consumer demand and the risks involved in accepting financial risks single-handedly.

Omni-channel retailing is concentrated on a seamless approach to the consumer experience through all available shopping channels like mobile internet devices, computers, bricks-and-mortar, television, catalogue, and so on. The omni-channel consumer wants to use all channels simultaneously and retailers using an omni-channel approach will track customers across all channels, not just one or two.

Multi-channel retailing is built on systems and processes, but customer heavily dictates the route they take to transact. Systems and processes within retail simply facilitate the customer journey to transact and be served. The pioneers of multi-channel retail built their businesses from a customer centric perspective and served the customer via many channels long before the term multi-channel was used.

A marketing channel consists of the people, organizations, and activities necessary to transfer the ownership of goods from the point of production to the point of consumption. It is the way products get to the end-user, the consumer; and is also known as a distribution channel. A marketing channel is a useful tool for management, and is crucial to creating an effective and well-planned marketing strategy.

Another less known form of the marketing channel is the Dual Distribution channel. This channel is a less traditional form that allows the manufacturer or wholesaler to reach the end-user by using more than one distribution channel. The producer can simultaneously reach the consumer through a direct market, such as a website, or sell to another company or retailer that will reach the consumer through another channel, i.e., a store. An example of this type of channel would be franchising.

Marketing channels are the ways that goods and services are made available for use by the consumers. All goods go through channels of distribution, and marketing depends on the way goods are distributed. The route that the product takes on its way from production to the consumer is important because a marketer must decide which route or channel is best for his particular product.

Stern & El-Ansary define marketing channels as; “Sets of independent organisations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption.”

Roles of marketing channel in marketing strategies

• Links producers to buyers.
• Influences the firm’s pricing strategy.
• Affecting product strategy through branding, policies, willingness to stock.
• Customizes profits, install, maintain, offer credit, etc.

Function:

• Promotion: Persuasive communication is disseminated through the channels to the customers. The channels also often help in the design of these communication messages.
• Information: The marketing channels perform the task of collecting and disseminating of marketing information about customers, competitors as well as potential customers and other market forces.
• Negotiation: The channel members are the ones who negotiate with other channel members and customers to facilitate the transfer of ownership.
• Risk taking: The channel members assume the risk for carrying out the channel work.
• Physical possession: The channel members also take the responsibility of storage of goods during the successive stages to the final consumers.
• Financing: The marketing channels work towards the acquisition and allocation of funds required to finance inventories at different levels of the marketing channels.
• Ordering: This function is with regards to the communication of channel members regarding the intention to purchase.
• Title: The channel members facilitate actual transfer of ownership from one organisation or person to the other.
• Payment: The channel members also assume responsibility for the buyers honouring their payments to the sellers through banks and other financial instruments.

Reasons:

• Many organisations lack the resources (financial as well as other resources), to carry out direct marketing and reach out to their many customers without the help of any intermediary. For this purpose, marketing channels are used to take the products from the manufacturing organisations to the final consumers.
• For many smaller products, direct marketing may not be feasible considering that exclusive retail outlets for small products may not work, and having to stock other products might end up in having just another grocery or food outlet which would not serve the purpose. Setting up exclusive retail stores for marketing of small products like chocolates would not be a feasible idea.
• Given the lower return on investments in the retail business, organisations would be better off investing their money in their main business rather than taking up retailing or other channel functions.

As such, the use of intermediaries is mainly to make the goods available and accessible to target markets. Intermediaries, because of their specialisation, experience, and scale of operations, are able to achieve more than what the organisation can in terms of reaching to the target markets.

A value network is a set of connections between organizations and/or individuals interacting with each other to benefit the entire group. A value network allows members to buy and sell products as well as share information. These networks can be visualized with a simple mapping tool showing nodes (members) and connectors (relationships).

A network which creates partnership and value in purchase, production and selling of products is referred to as value network. Value network looks at the whole supply chain system players as partners rather than customers. The purpose of value network is to increase productivity, save cost and increase revenue. Companies are willing to take the procurement process on online for accuracy and speed. Companies exactly know each partner’s role in influencing or disrupting normal operations.

Companies have developed distribution channel and network through which it supplies final product to customers. This distribution channel and network are referred to as the marketing channel. Companies invest time and money in a well functioning marketing channel. The marketing channels are an integral part of marketing and promotional activity of the company.

Value configuration

Fjeldstad and Stabell declare a value network as one of three ways by which an organisation generates value. The others are the value shop and value chain.

Their value networks consist of these components:

• Customers
• A service that enables interaction among them
• An organization to provide the service.
• Contracts that enable access to the service

Tangible value

All exchanges of goods, services or revenue, including all transactions involving contracts, invoices, return receipt of orders, request for proposals, confirmations and payment are considered to be tangible value. Products or services that generate revenue or are expected as part of a service are also included in the tangible value flow of goods, services, and revenue. In government agencies these would be mandated activities. In civil society organizations these would be formal commitments to provide resources or services.

Intangible value

Two primary subcategories are included in intangible value: knowledge and benefits. Intangible knowledge exchanges include strategic information, planning knowledge, process knowledge, technical know-how, collaborative design and policy development; which support the product and service tangible value network. Intangible benefits are also considered favors that can be offered from one person to another. Examples include offering political or emotional support to someone. Another example of intangible value is when a research organization asks someone to volunteer their time and expertise to a project in exchange for the intangible benefit of prestige by affiliation.

All biological organisms, including humans, function in a self-organizing mode internally and externally. That is, the elements in our bodies down to individual cells and DNA molecules work together in order to sustain us. However, there is no central “boss” to control this dynamic activity. Our relationships with other individuals also progress through the same circular free flowing process as we search for outcomes that are best for our well-being. Under the right conditions these social exchanges can be extraordinarily altruistic. Conversely, they can also be quite self-centered and even violent. It all depends on the context of the immediate environment and the people involved.

Chatbot marketing is a way to promote products and services using a chatbot a computer application that carries conversations with users by a predetermined scenario or with the help of AI. Brands create this virtual assistant with a chatbot builder, and connect it with messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Telegram, etc., or add to their website.

Functions:

• Enabling making orders. If you run an eCommerce store, selling clothes, food, accessories, etc., a chatbot is a lifesaver since it allows taking orders directly in the chat. In case a user is yet not ready to make a purchase, a chatbot can at least tighten the search before the customer contacts a real person. For an organic food store, it would be helpful to find out which vegetables person needs and only then address them to the sales rep.
• Delivering customer support. A chatbot is a great assistant for answering FAQs. Besides, working 24/7, the chatbot helps solve the problem of different time zones. For a financial consultation agency, located in the US with the better part of its customer base in India, a chatbot would help to avoid hiring customer support on a double-shift basis.
• Scheduling meetings. A chatbot may be extremely helpful for one-person brands in any industry hair salons, fitness trainers, DJ services. You can connect it to Google Calendar, and your virtual assistant will take care of appointments while you give a haircut, move your body, or spin vinyl.
• Tracking orders. “It said my package would come in three days, but I never received it.” chatbots liberate you from that hassle that always appears with selling goods. A sophisticated chatbot allows tracking packages, while the simpler one can inform a person about the shipping and delivery automatically. Wouldn’t it be great to ask for a review a couple of weeks later and offer another product?
• Sharing news and updates. When people start communication with your brand, you can suggest that you will be providing them with the latest news: new collections of clothes, fashion shows, etc. A chatbot can help you stay in touch with your audience, keeping people engaged.

Benefits:

• Help to segment traffic. Chatbots diversify your audience by leading the conversation in different directions. For example, a person showing interest in pricing is likely to be a warm lead, so the chatbot may suggest making an order right in the chat. In case people need more information, the chatbot should give all the necessary details about your product or service.
• Save time and money. A chatbot allows your business to serve more clients with fewer resources and efforts. Unlike human beings, the chatbot needs no salary and works 24/7, meaning that creating a chatbot is a one-time investment.
• Provide a quick response. An instant replay enables users to solve their problems fast and results in a positive user experience for your clients. If performed correctly, the chatbot will improve your brand image and grow the feeling of trust associated with your company.
• Fits any business. You can design a chatbot to cover various processes, regardless of whether you own a small family business or a vast enterprise. It is a universal marketing channel, and SendPulse enables creating chatbots for Facebook Messenger and Telegram.
• Speeds up the paying process. You can utilize a chatbot for completing orders without making users move to a website. Making orders and paying right in the chat takes less time and effort from your customers to buy from you. For that, you need to connect PayPal or other money transfer services to your chatbot. How beneficial for eCommerce stores.
• Boosts engagement. The conversation is held in messaging apps like Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc., with an enormous audience around 5 billion users, according to MessengerPeople. This means that you will have a chance to communicate with a highly targeted audience on a global scale.
• Gives data for analysis. All data collected with the help of your chatbot gives you insights on your audience’s needs and preferences. With this data, you can adapt your chatbot marketing strategy as well as overall marketing to achieve better financial and communication results.
• Help in lead nurturing. With chatbot marketing, you can smoothly and rapidly move prospects down the sales funnel. If you sell shoes, you can show different models, colors, characteristics anything to warm leads and help them decide that your services worth their money.

Live streaming for marketers is no longer a novelty live video is changing the way brands interact with their audiences. A live video strategy engages viewers in immediate and authentic ways that other social media formats cannot.

Scope:

Rise of Smartphones: Secondly, we all know more people with a smartphone than people without, right? With smartphones so common these days, people can watch live streams whether they’re commuting to work, on their lunch break, waiting for an appointment, or even just on the sofa at home.

Huge Audience: Firstly, with all the different live streaming ideas, brands have an opportunity to reach out to people that haven’t yet come across their name. Rather than hitting a set list of people with email marketing, live streaming can attract people you didn’t even know could be interested.

New Opportunities: Thirdly, as we’re going to see later, there are great ways to interact with an audience regardless of your niche. Don’t assume that live streaming isn’t an option for your industry or audience; you might be surprised.

Advantage:

Instant Playback

In the early days of the Internet, if a webmaster wanted to add videos to his website, he had to post it as a link. Web site visitors then had to download the file completely before playing it back. This all changed with streaming video. Content is served in a way that allows files to play almost immediately after the file begins to download. Special streaming media servers also allow viewers to jump forward and backward through a video file.

Piracy Protection

Allowing your Web site visitors to download video files especially copyrighted material makes it much easier for your content to be pirated. Your downloaded video files could be shared with others through file-sharing networks and other methods. Streaming video technology is harder to copy and prevents users from saving a copy to their computer if you don’t want them to. While it’s not perfect, it may give you better peace of mind about distributing your content online.

Disadvantages:

Bandwidth Use

Streaming videos require sufficient bandwidth to play, especially at higher quality. For example, Netflix’s streaming service requires a Internet speed of at least 5 Mbps for HD quality, 7 Mbps for “Super HD” quality, and 12 Mbps for 3D streaming. While these speeds are generally available with most cable/DSL connections, those with slower connections may experience issues with playback and/or poor quality, since some services will reduce video quality in order to ensure uninterrupted playback.

Online Only

While the advantage of giving your users instant playback and yourself protection from content pirates might be attractive, these can also work against you as streaming video works only when there is an available Internet connection. If the viewer’s Internet connection is cut during playback or they need to watch your content offline, they will be out of luck. In these cases consider offering the user an option to both stream and download the video file, and using copy protection to prevent piracy.

Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services where the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling the company’s products or services, while the earnings of the participants are derived from a pyramid-shaped or binary compensation commission system. An MLM strategy may be an illegal pyramid scheme.

Network marketing is a business model that depends on person-to-person sales by independent representatives, often working from home. A network marketing business may require you to build a network of business partners or salespeople to assist with lead generation and closing sales.

There are many reputable network marketing operations, but some have been denounced as pyramid schemes. The latter may focus less on sales to consumers than on recruitment of salespeople who may be required to pay upfront for expensive starter kits.

In multi-level marketing, the compensation plan usually pays out to participants from two potential revenue streams. The first is based on a sales commission from directly selling the product or service; the second is paid out from commissions based upon the wholesale purchases made by other sellers whom the participant has recruited to also sell product. In the organizational hierarchy of MLM companies, recruited participants (as well as those whom the recruit recruits) are referred to as one’s downline distributors.

MLM salespeople are, therefore, expected to sell products directly to end-user retail consumers by means of relationship referrals and word of mouth marketing, but more importantly they are incentivized to recruit others to join the company’s distribution chain as fellow salespeople so that these can become downline distributors. According to a report that studied the business models of 350 MLM companies in the United States, published on the Federal Trade Commission’s website, at least 99% of people who join MLM companies lose money. Nonetheless, MLM companies function because downline participants are encouraged to hold onto the belief that they can achieve large returns, while the statistical improbability of this is de-emphasized. MLM companies have been made illegal or otherwise strictly regulated in some jurisdictions as merely variations of the traditional pyramid scheme.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Network Marketing

There is some stigma attached to the networking marketing business, especially those with multiple tiers, which can be characterized as pyramid schemes that is, the salespeople in the top tier can make impressive amounts of money on commissions from the tiers below them. The people on the lower tiers will earn much less. The company makes money by selling expensive starter kits to new recruits.

The appeal of network marketing is that an individual with a lot of energy and good sales skills can create a profitable business with a modest investment.

Advantages of Network Marketing

• Due to a reliable and robust distribution network that engages customers directly, companies do not need to rely on advertising to market their goods.
• There are absolutely no limits on the size of the network marketing structure. This happens because companies can tie-up with innumerable people to become distributors. Further, distributors can further c0-ordinate with other sub-distributors to expand the company’s sales.
• The structure of distributors also reduces the profit margins of retailers that companies consider as an expense. These margins get passed on to distributors and the companies do not have to bear their burden.
• Finally, this structure allows distributors to earn an unlimited income from their dealings with the company. They can earn an income from their own profits as well as commissions.
• Another advantage is that companies do not need to spend a lot of money on storage and distribution. This is because distributors end up bearing these expenses themselves.

Disadvantages of Network Marketing

• In this form of business, it is basically the distributors who facilitate delivery of goods to final customers. Manufacturers have a limited role in this regard. As a result, they may find it difficult to control distribution and sales.
• Since manufacturers depend on distributors to determine consumer demand, it can be difficult to predict production targets. They may end up under or over-stocking their products.

Marketing analytics is the practice of managing and studying metrics data in order to determine the ROI of marketing efforts like calls-to-action (CTAs), blog posts, channel performance, and thought leadership pieces, and to identify opportunities for improvement. By tracking and reporting on business performance data, diagnostic metrics, and leading indicator metrics, marketers will be able to provide answers to the analytics questions that are most vital to their stakeholders.

Regardless of business size, marketing analytics can provide invaluable data that can help drive growth. Enterprise marketers at first may find the process too complicated, while small and mid-sized business (SMB) marketers assume a company of their size won’t benefit from implementing metrics, but neither perception is true. As long as marketing analytics is carefully curated and properly implemented, the data collected can help a business of any size grow.

With proper marketing metrics and analytics in place, marketers can better understand big-picture marketing trends, determine which programs worked and why, monitor trends over time, thoroughly understand the ROI of each program, and forecast future results. With 78% of B2B marketing executives currently measuring the impact of their marketing programs on revenue, it’s clear that more businesses are getting on board with marketing analytics, even if they were a bit hesitant before.

Importance of Marketing Analytics

Marketing analytics, Internet (or Web) marketing analytics in particular, allow you to monitor campaigns and their respective outcomes, enabling you to spend each dollar as effectively as possible.

The importance of marketing analyics is obvious: if something costs more than it returns, it’s not a good long-term business strategy. In a 2008 study, the Lenskold Group found that “companies making improvements in their measurement and ROI capabilities were more likely to report outgrowing competitors and a higher level of effectiveness and efficiency in their marketing.” Simply put: Knowledge is power.

In search marketing in particular, one of the most powerful marketing performance metrics comes in the form of keywords. Keywords tell you exactly what is on the mind of your current and potential customers. In fact, the most valuable long-term benefit of engaging in paid and natural search marketing isn’t incremental traffic to your website, it’s the keyword data contained within each click which can be utliized to inform and optimize other business processes.

• Customer Surveys: By examining keyword frequency data you can infer the relative priorities of competing interests.
• Product Design: Keywords can reveal exactly what features or solutions your customers are looking for.
• Customer Support: Understand where customers are struggling the most and how support resources should be deployed.
• Industry Trends: By monitoring the relative change in keyword frequencies you can identify and predict trends in customer behavior.

Online Marketing Tips:

Set up some Paid Search Marketing Campaigns: Group keywords in relevant groups and write appropriate ad text to help improve your Quality Score, which will lower your bid and improve ad position.

Start with Keyword Research: A stagnant keyword list is dangerous as it neglects trends and information on new products or developments.

Analyze the Results: Displaying your keywords in ad text prove to the searcher and to Google that your ad is relevant to their search.

Repeat Ad Nauseum: Negative keywords are great because they prevent unnecessary clicks and spend, ensuring your advertisement displays only for applicable searches.

Implement Natural Search: Google estimates that 80% of searchers click on an organic result over a paid advertisement. Incorporate your best performing keywords into your website and continue to generate relevant content.