Real World Marketing with a Focus on Promotion Essay

Broader issues of the lighthouse identity

Lighthouse identity is recognized as a vital credo in Morgan’s four stages, in the journey of a challenger. There are several broader issues to consider when considering the Lighthouse Identity. A challenger brand is not successful in a mature classification, because it is more trustworthy or convenient.

On the contrary, it is successful because it delivers an emotional brand or relationship, to the extent that the Establishment brand never matches. This implies that the consumer’s emotions are realigned.

It is imperative that the challenger brand has an emotionally- based and stronger link with the consumer, as opposed to the Brand leader (Duncan & Moriarty, 1998: 12). It is worth mentioning that a Lighthouse Identity not only defines the brand, but also the business that the brand belongs to. In mature brands, a brand’s planning role is adding, as well as extracting value.

Being a Challenger, success is achieved through having a clear sense of what and who you are as a business/ brand, and why. Consequently, the identity should be projected saliently, consistently, and intensely, just like a lighthouse (Chen & Xie, 2008: 486).

This is aimed at ensuring that the consumer notices them, although they may not have been looking out for them. Irrespective of the fact that goods have always been considered as a way of communicating, the present brands are more than goods. They are more than a communication form, and are navigation.

Brand leaders should treat communication publicity and ideas as assets, which are high- leveraged (Duncan & Moriarty, 1998: 9). Moreover, they should maintain this notion within the company. Over- commitment means considering barriers and focusing on avoiding them prior to their occurrence.

To achieve over- commitment, it is crucial to identify irrefutable causes of failure in core marketing tasks. Consequently, there should be brainstorming on the most effective ways to reverse or neutralize the failures.

B2C and B2B marketing communications

B2B (Business- to- Business) and B2C (Business- to- Consumer) are commercial transaction forms. B2C involves the consumers buying products directly. On the other hand, in B2B, services and products are sold to other businesses.

Purchasing Process: in B2B buying, there is an extremely complex purchasing process. This is because business purchasers buy services and products for use within the company (Ray, 1973: 160). On the other hand, consumers purchase services and products meant for individual use. In B2B, professionals from various departments are involved in decision making.

Payment: in B2C, all the customers pay similar prices for products bought. In B2B, prices are different and depend on the customer. Customers who negotiate or place enormous orders are treated differently from other customers. There are also varying payment mechanisms.

Transactions: in B2C transactions, customers choose products, which they pay for at the POS (Point of Sale) through various payment mechanisms. B2B transactions need an extremely complicated business system. Consumers use agreed logistic channels to carry out their transactions. Customers get an invoice which is settled within the agreed payment terms, as opposed to the delivery time (Morgan, 2009).

B2B is associated with several advantages, especially in the advent of the internet. These advantages include increased awareness of businesses, as well as their services or products. Second, there is better interaction where marketers interact directly with customers through the website or email marketing. Particularly, the internet offers information and awareness, which results to better service.

In B2B, there is a benefit of refined messaging, since through the internet, marketers can acquire information about their consumers (Chen & Xie, 2008: 486). Marcoms reaps these benefits by using B2B marketing communication. Considering the financial hard times, Morgan’s challenger theory is relevant to the pragmatic and tough B2B world.

The Customer is the King

All marketers agree that the customer is the king. However, Morgan advises that there is a need to progress to the consequent stage after the business becomes a big fish. This implies that the customer is no longer accorded keen interest. This is a key strategy, as opposed to a mistake (Ray, 1973: 150). It is worth mentioning that brand leaders are not just big, nor do they enjoy proportionately bigger benefits.

Consumer awareness: consumers never purchase a brand they are unfamiliar with. The marketer’s assumption is that there is a connection between ‘spontaneous’ and ‘top of mind’ awareness, when there is quasi- exponential relationship. In cases where the brand rings in the mind first (‘top of mind’ awareness), the result is a multiple ‘spontaneous’ rise.

There is also the aspect of shopping, loyalty, and purchase. The voice’s share in comparison to the footfall share appears the same to everybody apart from the brand leader, who experiences a much greater footfall. This is even in cases where he is supported by comparatively low voice.

Double jeopardy of brands is modelled and observed for more than thirty five years across various cultures and markets. In such cases, the brand leader experiences greater penetration together with consumers, who purchase the brand more often. The key impact is profitability; the brand leaders make more profit than anyone else.

Real World Marketing with a Focus on Promotion

Marcoms drivel can best be prevented through utilising real marketing executives who are practical, solid, and down- to- earth. Moreover, the marketing executives should possess an eye for promotion. It is imperative that promotional messages tell a story, and that the ideas stick in consumers’ minds. There is immense power in promotional advertising.

Presently, promotional products are positioned as components of the promotional purchaser’s communication mix, and not as pure products. It is imperative that marketing executives focus on promotion because as a result of the unique nature, these products are used and kept, resulting to voluntary repeated retention, recognition, and exposure of the advertisers’ message and name.

In this regard, marketing executives should target the audience specifically, so as to ensure effective promotional products (Morgan, 2009). Moreover, they should select items keenly to ensure they are appealing to customers, have a positive response, and that waste distribution is eliminated.

Exceptional marketing executives possess excellent communication skills. These include excellent oral and written communication skills. Communication is an extremely vital connection between customer service, sales, production, and management.

Marketing executives should possess the necessary skills to ensure that they identify their clients’ needs, and meet them in a timely manner (Chen & Xie, 2008: 486). Effective promotion and marketing using the promotional and marketing mixes ensures a greater market share for the company, and satisfaction of the client’s needs.

The marketing executive should be aggressive enough and engage in marketing plans, market conditions, and assess customer research. They should collaborate with other professionals in determining services and products demand. Marketing executives are principally involved in marketing the company, and they should be exceptionally aggressive.

References

Chen, Y. & Xie, J. 2008, “Online consumer review: Word-of-mouth as a new element of marketing communication mix”, Management Science, vol. 54 no. 3, pp. 477-491.

Duncan, T. & Moriarty, S. E. 1998, “A communication-based marketing model for managing relationships”, The Journal of marketing, pp. 1-13.

Morgan, A. 2009, Eating the Big Fish: how challenger brands can compete against brand leaders, New Jersey, Wiley.

Ray, M. L. 1973, “Marketing communication and the hierarchy of effects”, New models for communication research, pp. 146-175.