The article affirms that, Ducati an Italian based firm focusing on motorcycle manufacturing announced the elimination of its marketing department. In its place, it came up with a community driven system. Hence, the company makes decisions on important issues concerning their products basing on the reactions from the community.
In addition, it has developed ducati.com, a website that connects its customers by offering them an assortment of products. These include game downloads, brochures, bike sounds and many more. The general manager of ducati.com is said to have consulted a lot with his colleagues before coming up with this product.
The outcome of this strategy revealed that this company did not kill its marketing approach but enhanced it more. It thus meant that marketers no longer have to place media adverts so as to push customers to buy their products. Thus, they only have to develop a network that links their customers.
The article reveals that most marketers implementing this strategy have experienced a major cut in their budgetary funds in the past years. Basing on other research conducted it is obvious that most consumers purchase online. As a result, online selling and marketing are indispensable tools.
This information has made other prominent companies adapt this marketing strategy. Hence, word of mouth (WOM) is the focal marketing instrument for most companies. This strategy has also given opportunities to consumers as they have been constituted to the company’s payroll through their direct contribution in the company proceedings.
These included event organization and redesigning of products through presenting their opinions via the company websites to the relevant governmental departments. As evident, this mode of marketing strengthens the bond connecting consumers and the company.
Walking a day in subscribers’ shoes
The article reveals that the contemporary generation seems to be living in a digital age; thus, they communicate more using dissimilar channels. In 2008 exact target invented the concept of subscribers’ rule, which meant that the marketers should offer services according to the consumer requirements.
An investigation was conducted to help comprehend the diverse characteristics of consumers. In the results, one of the personas identified was wired consumers who are males aged 18 and 34 with yearly proceeds of about $ 35000. They prefer the Internet, as a result, use emails, phones, instant messengers (IM), SMS and social networks for personal communication. In marketing, they prefer the use of SMS.
The other persons are home makers aged between 18 and 34 years and have annual proceeds of $35000. They spend more time online and occasionally read newspapers and magazines. As a matter of fact, they prefer direct mail and email for marketing purposes.
Additionally, the retired group spends a lot of time reading newspapers and books; besides, they use texts for communication. The article highlights that this group prefer the conventional mode of marketing which are telemarketing and direct mail.
College students and teens spend significant proportions of time on the Internet and books. As expected, they are profound consumers of social networks particularly Facebook, although email and IM are occasionally used. College students are online buyers, unlike teens.
The established persons who are 35years earn an average yearly pay of $ 75000. They listen more to radio and use telephone and email for individual communication; furthermore, they shop online.
This information is essential to the marketers as they have to identify the means preferred by the different personas for their marketing needs. Thus, they are entitled to meet the marketing desires of diverse personas by considering the best avenues reach them. Indeed, the marketers’ feedback is expected to be aligned with these findings.
Marketing Measurements
It is a fact that, marketers have always failed to account for the impact of marketing, and this has caused unrest in this department. It is imperative to assert that several means have been devised to counter the problem, and market mix model has been branded as a way to rationalize this issue.
Though, this technique has shown how various parameters affect sales, it has fallen short of unearthing the Gordian knot, which is a promotional dimension. The study undertaken by Forrester, together, with other advertisers reveals that traders waste large sums doing sales and trademark construction, but they can not account for the results.
Several reasons have been cited to be creating complexities in measurement of the outcomes of promotion. Marketers usually find it inflexible to employ modifications depending on ROI examination. Another problem arises because marketers measure many parameters since they have varied objectives to meet.
It is noted that measurement complexities diverge from one business to the other. Estimating sales impact, as well as, determining it across the media is the chief obstacle. Therefore, modeling has been identified as the prospect of marketing estimation.
The article asserts that evolution of marketing behavior is marred with challenges, and it is advisable to counter such huddles. Some of the identified challenges include the fight with the value of sales figures.
It is crucial to know that modelers are only making matters simple, other than not solving the measurement troubles. Another problem is the over reliance on the reaction investigation by branders. The article proposes the marketplace mix models, which is gaining momentum. A lot should be done to explicate the modeling scheme, methods, and execution.