More and more managers are looking for customer focus to help fight the pressures of rising costs, global competition and falling sales. But it's not simply a case of trying to get closer to your customers. There are more strategic decisions that if made can make your marketing more lean, more focused and more successful. Managing Customers and Markets explores what market orientation means and the key things you need to be able to do as a manager to make a difference. Understand market orientation and what it means for you Recognise ways you can contribute to customer value in your organisation. Explore how to improve customer satisfaction and customer relationships Evaluate your competitive advantage and changes that could be made to structure, products and services to enhance the offer Identify techniques for developing new markets and products. * Authoritative but accessible and lively material * New, exciting and flexible approach to management development
Author(s): Elearn
Edition: 1
Publisher: Pergamon Flexible Learning
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 136
Cover......Page 1
Managing markets and customers......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
List of activities......Page 8
List of figures......Page 9
List of tables......Page 10
Series preface......Page 12
Introduction: A customer facing culture......Page 14
What is market orientation?......Page 16
Marketing, sales and product orientation......Page 17
A new approach to the definition of marketing......Page 20
What is the marketing mix?......Page 25
A successsful mix......Page 27
Internal and external customers......Page 30
Resources and skills......Page 31
Customer characteristics......Page 34
What is segmentation?......Page 35
What is targeting?......Page 36
Match makers......Page 38
Action list......Page 40
Recap......Page 41
More @......Page 42
Happy employees......Page 43
The internal environment......Page 44
Happy employees = better customer service......Page 46
A quality focus......Page 47
Team values......Page 50
Sharing values with customers......Page 52
Communicating values......Page 53
Managing the relationship......Page 56
Customer segmentation......Page 57
Customer retention – supplier and customer relationships......Page 58
Growing and developing customers......Page 59
Customer relationship management......Page 60
Partnership models......Page 61
Suppliers as partners......Page 63
Recap......Page 66
More @......Page 67
Positioning......Page 68
Common positioning strategies......Page 69
Common positioning errors......Page 70
What is a brand?......Page 71
Product and brand positioning......Page 72
Pricing approaches......Page 75
Pricing objectives......Page 76
Factors that affect pricing......Page 77
Who are the decision-makers?......Page 79
Recap......Page 83
More @......Page 84
Products......Page 85
Three levels of product......Page 86
How can products be improved?......Page 87
The product-service continuum......Page 88
Service characteristics......Page 89
How can services be improved?......Page 91
Communicating the value proposition and improving customer satisfaction......Page 93
Copyright and IPR......Page 98
Equal opportunities......Page 99
Compliance is a good thing......Page 100
Good reasons for environmental awareness......Page 102
Measuring customer satisfaction......Page 104
Reinforcing the benefits of the relationship......Page 107
Action list......Page 109
Recap......Page 110
More @......Page 111
What is the macro environment?......Page 112
The opportunities......Page 114
The marketing information system......Page 115
Marketing information myths......Page 116
Analysing competitive advantage......Page 118
Technology – the opportunities and threats......Page 122
The opportunities......Page 123
The threats......Page 124
The dangers arising from the failure of technology......Page 125
The impact of the Internet......Page 126
Email marketing......Page 127
In summary......Page 128
Recap......Page 130
More @......Page 131
References......Page 132
