It is well known in marketing that it is much more expensive to attract a new customer than to keep your existing customer.  Examine everything that your business does and ensure that it focuses on the customers and their needs. Really understand what they want and follow this up. Make sure that the product is delivered on time, it is what they wanted, it lives up to expectation. Focus on building the relationship, customers will tell others and that is so much more powerful that your promotions.

The marketing lesson is to really get under the skin of your customers and build that relationship. So how to do it?

Understand their needs, make the most of any customer interaction, use customer service teams to find out as much as possible about the need and how well your business is meeting that need.

Ask your customer to compare you and your competitors.

Build a benchmark of good performance.  Such as delivery in 5 days or call back in 24 hours. Opportunity to up grade, learn more, build your own are all examples of how businesses have adapted and changed.

If we look at examples of really good customer service and then examine the performance of the business. You would not be surprised to learn that companies that score well on customer service are keeping customers, up selling to them and performing better.

Recent winners of awards are First Direct that scored highest in the banking sector in a survey conducted bySatmetrix. First Direct scored 42% satisfaction compared with an industry norm of -4%.

Virgin and Sky scored well in the ISP business. Still in mobiles O2 did the business. Apple iPhone was miles ahead of the industry with a score of 67% compared to the industry average of  18%. This is a really good example of marketing practice

Customer service is so much more than dealing with complaints. It offers business the chance to really understand their customers, analyse their needs, build new products or services. It will also reduce costs and focus on making the business more effective.

So deliver and build the level of customer service. Do what you promise and make sure you know what to promise

I am offering a free short marketing course. The course will cover the basics of marketing and help you to understand the key marketing ideas in a really simple way.

If you are studying for a marketing exam it will help you to revise and check your understanding of the marketing environment and how the economic factors can affect a business. It will show you how to plan for the future and understand the key parts of a marketing plan. It is in easy to follow and will help you to understand the marketing template more easily.

If you are working in marketing and trying to find that little extra insight to help your organisation to compete and deal with the challenges facing business today. It will show you the key models and the way in which your business can develop and focus on building value for the customer. The better the customer needs are met the greater the chance that the business will be successful.

The course will be delivered to you by email over a a few weeks.

The market dynamics are  also  ever changing. Using  Starbucks, as an example. They orginally occupied the top end of the market. Then moved into the mass market with lattes on every street corner. That market looked attractive and along come the likes of MacDonald who repositioned to compete by offering lattes and healthier options.

So how does Starbucks respond? They are now testing the top end of the market and offering more value adds. Interesting to see how that is received and how the competitors respond. Best marketing practice suggests that clarity and being able to differentiate is key to success.

Consider how your marketing practice in your business can use this idea. Think about the way in which the current assets are used. You might want to offer a streamlined version e.g express, or essentials.  Marks and Spencer, Waitrose are examples of businesses that have offered a simpler version of their main business as an example of good marketing practice.

Another example is Only Men Aloud, the popular Welsh Choir who won a television competition and have gone onto enjoy successful concerts and record sales. They are now offering a slimmed down version for special parties and events. Not everyone has the space for a full choir so Only 4 Aloud. Clever use of the brand and being able to tailor the assets of the business, in this case the choir to the needs of the customer. A really good example of marketing practice at its best

If you are sitting a marketing exam this is a really good example of competitive strategy, positioning and branding. It shows how marketing practice builds the profitability of the business 

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6330NJ20100404

I won’t repeat the usual points about time management but will try to show how you can focus and gain higher grades.

If you think about what the examiner wants as the starting point. He/she is your customer. They need to know firstly, do you know your subject. E.g what is segmentation?  Here you outline the key principles, size of segment,  growth, profitability, number of competitors, needs of customers.  Focus then on the options to target and finally position. 

That is the start not the end of the question. Too many students learn and repeat the stages from the texts and leave it at that. Stronger students do more and gain higher marks.

To achieve higher marks in your marketing exam you need to show that you understand the concept. In this example segmentation. So take a business you like. It might be an interest or just a company that is in the news. You could start with an industry and then look at the various companies in that industry.

Take the jeans industry. Look at the overall size and growth of it. Number of competitors and then how attractive it is. You could then compare two types of jeans in that market. Look at the lower end of the market and then the higher end. Price is a key way of illustrating position. Show then how each of those businesses build their position in the market. So are you buying your jeans with a cool designer label or an own brand from a high street store or even a supermarket such as Tesco.

Show that the needs of customers are many and varied. Business must focus and build the marketing tools around the choice of segment and the needs of the customers in that market.

The marketing exam answer will ideally show that you know the topic. That is only part of the answer. Show that you understand but giving examples. Use topics you know or like, try to be different as the same text book examples will not make you stand out from the crowd.  If you like sport, take that as a theme, or maybe cars, or music. Build up a range of examples and think about giving the examiner some variety. This marketing test will show the examiner if you really understand how marketing works and can help businesses.

Finally the students that really stand out in any marketing exam are those who are able to show what the concept means for the business you have chosen. If you were the manager of that business would you be any the wiser. Ask the question, so what does that tell me? Can I use that information to improve my business. That is the secret to success in your marketing exam.

Over the years my students have found my teaching really uesful. I seem to be able to make things as simple as possible. Some marketing students have increased their marks in the marketing exam by as much as 20%. I was looking for a way to offer help with marketing exam to a wider audience. I trawled the internet and found lots of poor material. Then I came across Yaro Starak and followed his approach.  The free report makes so much sense

It shows you  how to profit by creating and selling your own information product.

His report is called the Membership Site Masterplan and as you would guess, it is a step-by-step guide for launching a profitable online membership site.

You can download the report from here: http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/go.php?offer=arael&pid=3

For information, more go here http://www.marketingtutorblog.com/courses/

Start early and look for case studies now that are  in the press. At the moment Toyata is dominating the headlines and as such it is a good source of information for marketing communications and crisis management. Look to the past for examples of businesses that suffered poor PR and how they were able to recover. This will offer ideas to help Toyota and show your understanding of the way in which marketing practice can be used to help the business recover

A few simple steps will help you to perform really well. The secret is in the preparation. Try to take each topic eg marketing tools, marketing communications etc. Then focus on each of the concepts such as the product life cycle, pricing and so on.

Usually revision shows that you can recall seeing the product life cycle the last time you looked at your notes. You know the stages and what happens in each. For many students revision stops there, that is the mistake.

Look for some really good examples of how that works in business. So if you work part time you can use that business. E.g if you work in a supermarket, follow that business. They have a huge range of products so you can chose. You might take say chocolate or white goods or books or insurance. If you have a particular interest such as music or snow boarding use that as your example. Once you apply the concept such as the life cycle to a real business it shows understanding. Also means that you are not trying to remember lots of stuff as that is hard to do. By applying it is so much easier.

Then you can examine how well that business is managing its new products or how well it builds the brand.

Hope that helps

Ford are launching the new Fiesta in the US. They have taken social media to a new level. Instead of building a marketing campaign and incorporating social media into it. The launch is built on social media. This is taking the use of marketing practice to a whole new level.

They hunted for UTubers who wanted to build a community of their own, These people needed to be able to make videos and write the narratives. They needed to show orginality and take the launch of the car into a whole new world. The campaign is called Fiesta Movement. These story tellers are given a Fiesta which they taken into a range of different situations.

These situations were Fiestas having fun, going out, having an adventure, helping others. The story tellers used all the social media to build up the communities. They gained from the experience as did Ford, so a win win.

The result was 6.5 million uTube hits. Not bad considering there were only 100 story tellers, who were each given a car to use. This is an example of innovative marketing practice.

If you are sitting a marketing exam, use this an example of best marketing practice. Then, show that this generated 50,000 requests for information. The key to the marketing exam is to examine the conversion  from uTube views to actual sales.

Let us hope that the adventures were safer than the video below. Note that there is sound and that there is some bad language.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvp-MMsSleQ

The posts will cover the usual b2b organisation but also revisit some of the best consumer marketing campaigns. Marketing to the consumer is a really tough business. Often the product is low cost and easy to switch. Frequently an impulse purchase. These businesses are trying to understand why we buy a product and often we don’t know ourselves.

I will also look at newer marketing practice and focus on services and charities to show how marketing is being applied in these organisations., Marketing charities or not for profit (NFP) is a big growth area in marketing practice.

Then there are other marketing genres. The ability to brand people and places are currently hot news. The development of travel marketing and also event marketing, such as the Olympics or Football World Cup is a huge marketing opportunity. This year will see golf as a topic with the Ryder Cup being held in Wales in October 2010.

This will help you with both your job and ensure that you are able to apply the best marketing practice. It will also help you with your marketing exam.

If you spot a topic you would like to see, just let me know