Reverse Marketing

15/05/2021 0 By indiafreenotes

Reverse marketing is the concept of marketing in which the customer seeks the firm rather than marketers seeking the customer. Usually, this is done through traditional means of advertising, such as television advertisements, print magazine advertisements and online media. While traditional marketing mainly deals with the seller finding the right set of customers and targeting them, reverse marketing focuses on the customer approaching potential sellers who may be able to offer product.

Rather than actively promoting a specific brand, product or service, reverse marketing aims to encourage people to seek out a business, product or service of their own accord.

In other words, reverse marketing doesn’t exist to convince someone to buy something. Instead, it causes intrigue and attracts interest.

Leenders and Blenkhorn define Reverse Marketing as “an aggressive and imaginative approach to achieving supply objectives. The purchaser makes the initiative in making the proposal.

Aside from traditional methods of reverse marketing, this technique is also used in B2B markets. In this instance the buyer (business) will take the initiative to approach the supplier (manufacturer) with its needs. This tactic is often used by large companies in order to decrease redundancies in their supply chain and decrease costs. The concept of reverse marketing also corresponds with Supply Chain Management. The strategy of reversing roles in some cases, has been very successful. In 2001 Richard Plank and Deborah Francis published an article studying the impact reverse marketing has on the buyer-seller relationship.

Uses

Improve brand image

Companies that feature advertising on their companies’ principles, social responsibility and ethical profile create customer loyalty because customers believe they are not supporting a mass-producing socially reprobated conglomerate.

Build relationships with customers

Once the customer recognizes your brand or company as an authority, they do all the searching and find your product through all the help and advice you have offered them. This way through the relationship that was constructed over time, they develop confidence in your firm to offer them benefits and useful products or service.

Cuts out “hard sales” and abrasive tactics

Sales tactics push for the purchase of products designed to fix specific problems, but the attraction-marketing model enforces the building of relationships and ensures rapport so the customers’ needs are met.

Some of the points to keep in mind while crafting a Reverse Marketing campaign are:

  • Do a genuine evaluation of your business’s current image and your target consumer groups. Once you have understood this, try to understand what is important for your target consumer and what they value.
  • Once you have understood the above, tell them about your product or service.
  • Close the sale but not before you give your consumer something of value.