Customers Important?

Elaborate on why you think customers are important in Marketing Management. Give good examples

The Hidden Wealth of Customers:
Realizing the Untapped Value of Your Most Important Asset

• Marketing deals with customers. Marketing is managing profitable customer relationships. The twofold goal of marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value and to keep and growing current customers by delivering satisfaction (Compiled by Osman Safdar Sarwani from Armstrong & Kotler).

• Customer relationship management (CRM) is the process of communicating with customers throughout the various stages of the purchasing process, and this includes people who have already bought from you. It is significantly easier to hold on to an existing customer than it is to find new ones, but doing this requires all elements of the marketing mix to be run well (product, price, promotion, and placement). From the forum, CRM refers to care, response and management. For example, the response to the customer, customer wanted fast response. Normally, customer will be more satisfy with firm with fast response especially on complaint. In term of care, If a firm care what their customer want and need, they will provide or produce such item to their customer. There are always some unethical business that will produce something that may harm the customers or environment, just because of the profit and the demand in the market. However, it will lies within the firms code of conduct and also the existing local structure and government body to ensure the product available in the market are safe to use. Company has to analyze the feedback and eliminate those unethical one. A firm should welcome all feedback either good or bad, but the companies have to screen through and accept the good one only. For a legal company (Legal company - company that are registered or patent), there are certain certifications or standards that they need to comply to in order to build a certain products. For example, a medical manufacturer will need to comply to the Food and Drugs Association (FDA) certifications. Every firm has to responsible for all of their actions. This is evidence from the government regulations and legislations that are set up to protect the customers. One example is on the melamine milk powder case in China. The few boards of directors of the firm are being sentenced to death by the court of China.The approaches of CRM are:

1. Identify potential prospects and customers (Care),
2. Differentiate customers by needs and value to company (care and response),
3. Interact to improve knowledge and relationship (response),
4. Customize service for each customer (care and management).

The New Successful Large Account Management:
 Maintaining and Growing
Your Most Important Assets -- Your Customers

• Marketing is the process of making customers aware of the products and services of a company. There are two major characteristics of marketing - expanding the existing customer base and the retention of existing customers. Marketing managers need to have a good knowledge of the customer. This means building up an accurate picture using the resources that are available. It is important to take personal opinion out of as many decisions as possible. Information can be gathered from questionnaires, focus groups, the internet, interviews, buying habits and many more sources, but it's important that the information is examined in a scientific way using proper statistical methods. The validity of the survey will depends on how the survey being constructed, (how the questions being asked, direct or indirect) and who is the target of the surveys. Further, the validity of the survey will also depends on the tools and the analysis, i.e. whether a good analysis being done on the results and what kind of analysis tools being used to analyze the results.

• CRM mostly dependent upon technology, customers will also have more confidence with the company with high-technology facilities that will enhance their productivity. CRM also act as a good survey tools to understand own product strength & marketability from time to time and many companies are using CRM for such purpose, especially in FMCG companies, like F&N, Nestle. FMCG industry is more competitive compare to other industry where there is limited product differentiation among the brands, i.e. there is not much product differentiation for instant noodle among Maggie, Cintan, Seddap & Mamee. In this scenario, CRM can an effective tools to retain customer through understand their preference & taste. CRM with the assist of technology help respond to customer needs faster than ever, especially in FMCG who move in the fast pace. High technology products and facilities will be a selling point in promoting a company to the customers. thus, this will be part of CRM, in terms of maintaining or to get new customers.

• Building customers' loyalty is important in maintaining the business and customers. However, there are more than building up customers' loyalty in MM, customer satisfaction, fulfilling customers' requirement, helping customers solving their problem, innovation and creativity are important as well. We need to provide additional services to the customers before our competitive does. Additional service sometimes are not wanted, to determine which one to add and which ones to drop via marketing survey, questionnaires, focus groups, the internet, interviews, buying habits and many more sources. By hiring experts, conducting lots of focus groups, and executing to a detailed plan, the company became deluded that it knew what customers wanted.

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References:
Osmar Safdar Sarwani. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/5357785/Introduction-to-Marketing-Management
Shivashankar.V.Jirli. (Aug 20th, 2010). Customer Relationship Management: explain the modalities of marketing and customer relations if you are to succeed as a marketing manager firm?. Message posted to http://www.bukisa.com/articles/339608_customer-relationship-management.
Forum B, 21/09/2010