Marketing functions and tools. Everyone talks about them, but few people understand what is hidden under these words. Let's try to figure it out in more detail and finally find out what these guys are made of.

Marketing function - organize and implement the exchange process between the manufacturer and the consumer. In other words, it is a set of main directions, rules of the enterprise, depicting the content of the marketing approach to business organization.

Analytical - research and analysis of the external and internal market environment. The analytical function of marketing is a study of the market itself, a study of buyers, a study of the company's structure, a study of products, an assessment of the internal environment of the company.

Production - organization of the release of new products, organization of provision, control over production quality. The essence of this function lies in the development of new products that would best meet the needs of customers. Marketing activity directly affects production, trying to present this process as flexible enough, capable of producing competitive products in accordance with technical and economic requirements and at relatively lower costs.

Sales - organization of the process of commodity circulation, service, organization of the order of formation of demand and active influence on sales, the formation of commodity and price policy. This function has concentrated in itself everything that can happen to the product during the period of time after its release and before the start of its consumption. The order of commodity circulation provides the manufacturer (and the buyer) such conditions under which the products are located exactly in the place where they are needed, and in the volume in which they are in demand, and of the quality that the buyer expects.

Control and monitoring function is an organization of planning and control purpose, informational management and communication. This function assumes the adoption of the most possible planning and proportionality in the functioning of the company, mainly in the process of long-term strategic goals.

What can be done in terms of marketing functions

All of these marketing functions may well be displayed in a cyclical process. These are in order performed activities for marketing analysis, production process, sales and evaluation of results.

As you know, the purpose of marketing is to study and meet the needs of customers and society as a whole with the profit of a particular company. In most cases, people begin to think about marketing only when an elementary advertising campaign is required to increase sales of a certain product. Let's make a reservation right away - this is a wrong tactic. In fact, in the case of correct and timely use and application of various marketing tools to promote a company to the market, it becomes possible to achieve the desired result.

With the proper organization of marketing functions, they should penetrate the entire management structure of the company. All marketers are guided in their work by the most common and simple 4P marketing mix scheme and affect product, pricing, sales and promotion policies.

Commodity policy... It is based on the principle that it is necessary to produce only those goods that are in great demand on the modern market, and not to promote what has already been produced. This category includes the following marketing tools:

• products;
• product range;
• trademark;
• packaging;
• support services or convenience in the sale;
• warranty and service.

Price policy... The pricing process depends on several factors. The cost of goods should include not only production costs, but also costs associated with the sale of goods. Here, marketers use the following tools:

• pricing;
• system of discounts, promotional cost, bonuses;
• pricing strategy.

Sales policy... Nowadays in marketing, “distribution” is considered in a somewhat wider sense, namely, as “distribution”, which implies the delivery of products to the point of sale, while organizing various activities to support sales and various service activities.

Communication policy... She is able to solve problems related to the choice of the method and method of promoting products on the market and through whom to carry out its promotion. Promotion is a collection of various actions that a firm uses to inform buyers, entice them to make a purchase and remind them of its products.

Marketing tool totals

As you can see, any company can use any marketing tools, and there are a great many of them in modern marketing. This figure has already reached 5 thousand. As a result, the selection of a particularly appropriate combination of existing tools in order to implement the company's marketing plan is the most important task for marketers.

Well, as a final touch, we invite you to watch a really very useful video. I hope you can master it and say thank you 🙂

Marketing tools

Marketing has a fairly extensive set of tools that form the marketing system of an enterprise. Nevertheless, they highlight the main set of tools that form a strong connection between the company and consumers. The main marketing tools help define the product, sales, pricing and communication policies of the organization. Basic marketing tools are matched through procedures such as marketing mix and marketing mix. Product, price, location, promotion are the main marketing tools that make up a classic marketing mix. Better known as a concept called "4P". But, it should be noted that this concept has its drawbacks. It reflects mainly the interests of sellers rather than buyers. Obviously, in the current market situation, it is also necessary to focus on the consumer, which is why, in parallel with the classic marketing mix, there are many concepts where the main marketing tools are supplemented by other, no less important, components - packaging, sales through sales representatives, personnel, etc. ...

According to the official data of a survey of marketers, which was conducted in 2014, the most effective marketing tools were recognized as: consumer segmentation, media advertising, competitive intelligence, consumer surveys, discount programs, etc. They are little used, therefore they do not give efficiency: benchmarking, outsourcing, communication through blogs.

Thus, the main marketing tools have their own product policy, when using which, new products are introduced to the market, work with the assortment is carried out, and products whose life cycle has been completed are removed from production. This also includes after-sales service, product quality guarantees, and service rules. Pricing policy deals with marketing tools such as pricing, installments, discounts, loans. Sales policy is armed with such marketing tools as marketing research, development of new sales markets, sales. Communication policy is provided through advertising and PR.

It can be concluded that the main task of marketers is to select the most effective complex, which will include the basic marketing tools that can ensure the implementation of the company's marketing plan at the lowest cost.

The role of the marketing department in the company's activities

marketing price management

Effective production management in an unstable market environment involves the organization of a specialized marketing service at enterprises.

A visual diagram characterizing the role and place of marketing services in the enterprise is shown in Fig. one

This diagram is not an organizational structure of enterprise management, because it does not represent structural components, but only indicates the main, from the point of view of marketing, management functions. The head of the marketing department performs mediating functions between the departments and employees of the enterprise involved in product development, production, sales promotion, distribution, sales, after-sales service and product consumers. At the same time, the marketing manager and his staff monitor the state of the external marketing environment, paying primarily attention to the activities of competitors.

The main task of specialized marketing services is to keep a course for the consumer, constantly monitor what he needs, as well as closely monitor the activities of competitors, identify their strengths and weaknesses, based on the results, determine the direction for improving their activities, bring this information to all other divisions of the enterprise. Thus, developers receive information from marketing services about product development, about the direction in which they need to improve their products, and which ones to develop in the future.

Picture 1

Manufacturers will find out what the range of products should be, what are the terms of its renewal. Departments related to pricing policy, based on information received from the marketing service, must be able to correctly determine prices. The personnel service accordingly decides the issues of dismissal and hiring, retraining, etc. At the same time, the marketing service must have an accurate idea of \u200b\u200bthe capabilities of the enterprise, so that, while engaged in its development, it does not break away from the real life of the enterprise. The considered scheme is very important as a base, the basis of marketing activities. You can make job descriptionsbased on this framework. But this does not mean that the production and functional units of the enterprise cannot independently communicate with consumers, do not study the situation with competitors, etc.

However, this activity of the enterprise is directed and coordinated by the head of marketing services, whose employees also conduct specific marketing research.

Based on the above, we can conclude that marketing is the leading function that determines the technical, production policy of the organization, the style and nature of management of all business activities. Marketing specialists are located at the initial stage, not just at the end of the production cycle. Marketers must establish and communicate to each employee that the consumer wants to see which product, what price he is willing to pay for this product, and where and when this product will be needed.

Specialized marketing services influence the implementation of all the most important functions of the enterprise.

Studies have shown the following: in the management structure of the marketing service of enterprises, functional units such as the marketing group and the sales service are appropriate

1. Marketing group (market research group). Created on the basis of the economic planning department of farms.

2. Sales service. Performs the following functional tasks: sales organization; collecting information about potential buyers, studying their tastes and needs; collection of information about external and internal competitors; primary analysis and systematization of the collected information; organization of advertising; study of quality standards and regulatory documents.

Functional tasks of the marketing group:

setting goals and objectives of the enterprise, taking into account development trends for the short and short term, long term;

analysis and assessment of the company's own capabilities, primarily production, economic, material resources, personnel;

development of a strategy and tactics of marketing activities in relation to the specifics and conditions of your enterprise;

creation of a databank for systematization and analysis of all commercial and economic information, on the conjuncture of potential sales markets;

production orientation towards customer satisfaction,

growth of business efficiency, profits and income, increasing the competitiveness of the enterprise;

if necessary, the development of measures to reform the enterprise;

training of the company's personnel in the methods and principles of marketing work.

The size of the enterprise, the types and volumes of products produced, the methods of sales and maintenance, the specifics of sales markets and groups of buyers, the conditions of competition - the organization of the marketing group depends on these and many other factors.

When drawing up a production program, the marketing group should take into account the following important provisions:

the share of government supplies in the structure of marketable products;

the fact that the rest of the products through wholesale should be independently sold by the manufacturer.

If a group of companies decided to join forces in sales activities to resist competitors in the market. It makes sense to select a brokerage office as part of the sales service. Its basic functional purpose is the sale of wholesale lots of industrial products, the implementation of intermediary activities, the conduct of exchange speculations, and, as the transition to wholesale trade, the implementation of operations to protect price risks.

The sales service structure includes:

specialists in the analysis and forecast of market conditions for organizing advertising, collecting information about competitors, calculating positional competitiveness indices of commodity producers, processing information received from sales and production units in order to prepare operational analyzes and forecasts for the management of farms;

specialists in the organization of sales of manufactured products through small wholesale and retail trade, collection of information on the market, sales of products purchased from the population, resale of non-food products.

The sales service must bring profit to enterprises from the sale of products produced in other farms, as well as from independently carried out intermediary operations.

Protection from entrepreneurial risk is one of the main tasks of the marketing management system in the enterprise.

In the wholesale trade, it makes sense to implement this protection by concluding special contracts-transactions that provide for compensation for lost profits due to inflationary processes when delivering products "forward" with their subsequent payment, as well as special provisions providing for compensation for lost profits at the expense of the guilty party in in case of violation of the concluded agreements.

In small wholesale and retail trade, the following protective measures will be effective:

providing sales agents and sellers with weekly price quotations with a forecast of trends in their change for the next 10 days, and during the period of mass ripening of the crop - after 2-5 days;

using mobile communication channels with management in case of unforeseen situations;

conclusion of long-term contracts only with the most experienced, proven employees;

introduction of a threshold selling price.

The threshold selling price is the minimum selling price, below which it is impossible and impossible to sell, since the manufacturer will incur losses.

At present, the following directions of marketing management structures have become widespread in domestic and foreign practice.

Functional orientation is the most suitable option for relatively small businesses that form their marketing service; however, the variety of products produced and sold by the enterprise, as well as the number of markets, is small. The functional marketing organization is the simplest, but however, its effectiveness decreases as the range of products manufactured and the number of sales markets expands, since there is no person (except for the head of the marketing department himself) who is responsible for marketing individual products in general or for marketing activities in certain markets.

The diagram of the functional organizational structure of marketing management is shown in Fig. 2.

Product orientation of management, which means that each product or group of similar products is assigned a separate marketer; with this marketing orientation, employees specialize and have the opportunity to coordinate their efforts to solve the general problems of the organization; this concept is effective when advertising, sales and service requirements are significantly different for each product.

Figure 2

The advantages of this type of organizational management structure are as follows:

a manager dealing with a specific product has the ability to coordinate various work across the entire marketing mix for this product;

the manager can quickly respond to market demands;

in the field of vision of the manager, all product models are constantly in demand, both in high demand and less popular with buyers;

it is easier to identify talented employees as they are involved in all areas of operational marketing.

However, this type of organizational structure, especially when there are functional marketing services in parallel at the enterprise, has certain disadvantages:

the manager responsible for a certain product is not endowed with powers that would fully correspond to his activities;

a grocery organization is often more expensive than expected. Managers are initially assigned to core products. However, soon managers, responsible for a less important product, with their own staff of assistants, appear in the structure of the enterprise;

product employees may have dual reporting lines: their line managers and those of functional marketing services.

Regional orientation of the management structure - the main feature of this structure is that specialization is taken here not by goods, but by markets. It is used when there are a large number of markets, but the product range is not too extensive or sufficiently homogeneous and makes it possible to more deeply study the needs of buyers specific to each region, to organize advertising and sales promotion more effectively, while taking into account local characteristics.

The main advantage can be attributed to the concentration of marketing activities around the needs of specific market segments, and not around individual products, which takes place in a product marketing organization. The disadvantages are the same as the disadvantages of a product marketing organization.

In an effort to minimize the disadvantages and disadvantages, and to take advantage of product and regional orientation, enterprises will strive for segment orientation of the marketing service.

Every marketer is responsible for targeting a specific segment of potential buyers - this is the essence of segment targeting.

Selection of promising market segments - One of the most important tasks that the marketing management system of enterprises should be aimed at is the selection of promising market segments. All this is due to the fact that the state has reduced purchases of products.

Thus, marketing management in enterprises involves the creation of a specialized marketing service that will deal with the most important issues of production and marketing of products.

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In this article, you will learn:

• Why is it important to understand marketing tools
• What are the main marketing mix tools
• Who are the territory marketing tools for?
• What are the unusual marketing tools
• What effective tools to take into service
• What books to read about marketing tools

Why marketing tools are so important

To convey to buyers information about a product, its unique properties, competitive advantages, promotions and discounts, companies use a whole arsenal of marketing tools. With their help, they form interest in products, stimulate customers to make a purchase.

To effectively promote goods and services and retain the target audience, companies need to develop a separate marketing policy that provides for different tactics to achieve their goals.

The key to the success of such a policy is an understanding of what marketing methods and tools will be needed to achieve the planned targets.

What is the importance of marketing tools for the company?

Everything is very simple and obvious: they make it possible to make its products more recognizable and popular with consumers and thus increase sales.

Choosing the right marketing tool is not as easy as it sounds. There are many factors to consider: marketing goals, company strategy, market situation, advertising budget, etc.

Let's first consider what types of marketing tools exist.

Basic marketing mix tools

Most marketers in their work use the classic marketing mix scheme - 4P (product, price, place, promotion), which includes:

• commodity policy,
• price,
• sales,
• promotion (communication) policy.

All major marketing mix tools are grouped into these four areas. Let's take a closer look at each group.

Commodity policy

Its main motto: "You need to produce what is in demand among consumers, and not try to sell them what you have produced." With the help of a product policy, you can answer key questions: what products to produce, for whom they will be intended, how they should look and what quality should be.

Marketing policy is directly related to the strategy of production and sales of the company's products. Therefore, any marketing decisions of a strategic nature (market segmentation, target audience determination, product or service positioning) must be made before investing in production.

The "product policy" group includes the following traditional marketing tools:

• product;
• assortment (launching new goods on the market, removing from production assortment units that are not in demand among consumers);
• trade mark, brand;
• packaging;
• additional services offered upon sale;
• warranty;
• service maintenance.

Price policy

The pricing process depends on many factors. The price of a product or service should cover not only production costs but also shipping, advertising and other sales costs. The retail price can range between the minimum that covers all the costs of the seller and the maximum that the buyer is willing to pay.

The question logically arises: what effect do marketing tools have on pricing? How will the use of discounts, free delivery and various additional services affect the volume of sales?

It all depends on the goals of the pricing policy that the organization sets for itself. This could be:

• keeping the company afloat in the breakeven zone or, conversely, maximizing profits;
• winning a certain market share;
• application of the skimming policy;
• short-term growth in sales.

Another nuance of the pricing policy is that promoting cheap products requires less effort and time than more expensive goods and services.

Here are the main marketing tools that are used in practice:

• pricing;
• discounts, promotions, bonus programs;
• pricing strategy.

Sales policy

Modern marketers prefer instead of the narrow term "sales" to use the broader concept of "distribution", which means not only the physical delivery of goods to the point of sale, but also a set of measures to promote goods and partly service.

Thus, distribution is a set of tools for promoting products from the manufacturer to the end consumer, which includes the distribution of goods in a market segment or in a specific region, maintaining stable sales performance, providing pre-sales and after-sales services.

The main goal of distribution is to make it so that the consumer can buy the product.

Distribution, or sales in a broad sense, consists of four main elements, each of which has its own set of marketing tools:

• sales channels, product distribution (wholesale, retail, direct sales, online store);
• sales process, distribution or trade marketing;
• material handling, logistics (warehousing, transportation, inventory management, cargo handling);
• marketing logistics (order management, contract terms: terms of payment, delivery, minimum batch size).

There is a concept similar to distribution "trade marketing". It also means moving products from manufacturer to customer. The difference is that the emphasis is on finding the most effective course of action for all actors in the promotion chain.

Thus, trade marketing is aimed at satisfying not only the needs of customers, but also those of the members of the trade link.

Trade marketing can be viewed from different points of view. From the standpoint of a marketing approach, it is a set of marketing tools designed to achieve the goal of ensuring the presence of the company's goods in retail outlets at a certain price in the most advantageous places.

In terms of sales, trade marketing is a set of activities aimed at stimulating product sales.

Trade marketing tools are used in the following areas:

• sales promotion;
• special events;
• merchandising.

Promotion policy (communication)

The company's communication policy answers the question of how to promote goods or services to consumers. By promotion we mean any actions of a company aimed at informing potential customers, encouraging them to make a purchase decision, working with objections, etc.

The choice of certain tools for promotion depends on the characteristics of a particular product or service. If the company is engaged in the manufacture of products for industrial and technical purposes or the sale of expensive goods, then in this case, personal sales are suitable. When it comes to products from the mass market category, they usually use advertising.

Also, depending on the stage of the product's life cycle, marketers can use different methods of promotion. When a product is just being introduced to the market, it is better to use advertising and exhibitions as marketing tools. During a sales downturn, it is worth paying attention to sales promotion and focusing on personal sales.

Advertising as a marketing tool

Advertising is the most effective element of the marketing mix, providing product promotion and sales growth. But do not pay too much attention to it, forgetting about other marketing tools. Otherwise, the company may get the opposite effect from such advertising: instead of attracting, it will cause negative reactions and a drop in sales.

In practice, there are various approaches to determining advertising costs:

To optimize the process of selection and use of advertising media, a company needs to develop a plan for an advertising campaign.

The basis is information about the promoted product (its consumer characteristics and compliance with the needs of customers), about the state of the market as a whole and individual segments, about the level of demand and forecasts of its changes, about the actions of competitors.

Promotion tools in marketing

Promotion tools are marketing methods and techniques that a company uses to stimulate the sale of its products or services on the market.

In practice, most organizations use the following five main promotion tools:

• Advertising.

This marketing tool was discussed above. We add that it is distributed in various ways: outdoor advertising (billboards, advertising on transport and inside it, inscriptions on the asphalt, promoters, etc.), indoor advertising (in cinemas, shopping and business centers, airports and train stations), the Internet -advertising (contextual, targeted, etc.), etc.

• Public Relations (PR).

This is promotion through the popularization of products and stimulating demand through seminars, speeches in front of the target audience, the publication of articles in periodicals and the Internet, mailing of company catalogs, etc.

• Sales promotion.

This is the promotion of goods due to the growth of sales in the short term. Achieved by providing customers with discounts, holding contests, sweepstakes and lotteries, distributing samples, etc.

The main disadvantage of this approach is that the growth in demand is short-term, the company incurs hidden costs associated with the marketing campaign.

• Personal (personal) sale.

This is the promotion of products through direct communication between the seller and the buyer through trade presentations, business meetings, the organization of industrial exhibitions and fairs.

• Sponsorship.

It is about providing money to a sponsored company for holding an event, subject to advertising information about the sponsor's goods and his brand.

In addition to the listed tools, direct marketing is also used to promote products in practice.

Direct Marketing Tools

Direct marketing is direct communication with a prospect, which involves getting immediate feedback. The following direct marketing tools are distinguished:

1. Direct mail marketing (direct mail) - when a relationship with a consumer is established through the distribution of emails, flyers and brochures, test samples, etc.

To prevent the client from sending a letter with an advertising message to the "Spam" folder, you need to write it correctly: the reader should understand from the first line why he needs your product or service. A detailed description of the characteristics of the product is best left for the second letter.

1. Directory Marketing Is the promotion of the company's products through advertising in catalogs that are distributed to potential buyers in shopping centers or by email.
2. Telemarketing - telephone sales, which are carried out by placing orders by phone from customers who have seen advertisements of goods in the media or in the catalog. To stimulate demand, it is better to use toll-free phone lines so that customers do not hesitate to call the hotline.

According to statistics, telemarketing is able to increase ad conversion rates by 0.7-5 percent. And first of all, it concerns mass-market goods. When selling industrial goods (equipment, raw materials and supplies, etc.), the use of telephone sales can increase turnover by 15 percent.

1. Television Marketing - is the promotion of products through advertising on television. Immediate feedback from viewers is achieved by providing preferential purchase terms to a limited number of people who call first.

In addition, TV marketing is also popular on pay TV channels, which collect bids for items at better prices than the market average.

• Ambient media.

• Product sitting.

In order to bring a new product to the market or increase sales of positions from the existing range, the company invites people whose words consumers listen to to test the product and express their opinion. Such test drives are often carried out by bloggers on their pages in social networks.

• Crazy PR.

Come up with some crazy idea and bring it to life (observing the boundaries of reason and the norms of decency, of course). Just do not forget that such advertising must fit into the strategy of positioning the product or brand.

• Storytelling.

Even before the development of commerce and the advent of advertising, the phrase “Let me tell you a story” was the most effective in terms of product promotion. Storytelling is a powerful marketing tool that inspires, motivates, and of course sells.

• Triverizing.

The name of this tool comes from English tryvertising, where the first part of the word "try" means "to try".

Today's consumers want to test a product before making a purchase decision. They are not ready to pay for a pig in a poke. Therefore, invite potential customers to get to know the product better - apply cream on the skin, taste a new type of chocolate, take the car for a test drive, lie down on an orthopedic mattress.

We think there is no need to talk about the effectiveness of such marketing tools.

• Sensitive Marketing.

If you want to increase sales, work on all the senses of your customers. Examples of this approach can be found everywhere.

For example, the scent of fresh buns on the street next to the bakery beckons passers-by to go inside. Dynamic music in mass-market stores encourages customers to make purchases quickly, without unnecessary hesitation. The pleasant slamming sound of a door in a BMW car creates a sense of status.

• Identity marketing.

It's not uncommon for companies with the same target audience to structure their marketing strategies and tools in such a way that they become like twins. In such a situation, identity marketing will help, which allows you to determine the distinctive features of a company or trade mark, form its uniqueness and convey this information to consumers.

• Dead marketing.

This tool is very unusual for Russian companies. It is used for promotion by foreign organizations. They take on the responsibility of maintaining and maintaining order at the graves in the cemetery.

On the one hand, companies in this way demonstrate their social responsibility towards society, on the other hand, they advertise themselves in front of the cemetery visitors.

• Shockvertising

The name of this marketing tool also has English roots. It consists of two words - shock (shock) and advertising (advertising). Shocking ads - anything that shocks, causes outrage and even disgust.

Only bold and ambitious companies use such a tool. After all, before conducting such an advertisement, you need to carefully weigh all the pros and cons and be prepared for the fact that some of the customers will leave you.

Social marketing tools you don't need to write off

Social marketing is a way to promote a product or brand by influencing consumer preferences, popularizing a certain lifestyle, advertising fashion trends.

This is one of the newest marketing tools. It appeared relatively recently, about 10 years ago due to the deteriorating environmental situation in the world, a large number of low-quality food products on store shelves and the depletion of natural resources.

Social marketing is most actively used in medical and environmental projects, as well as in charity. Social marketing programs in education and commerce have been gaining momentum in recent years.

The main goal of social marketing, regardless of the specifics of the scope of its application, is to form loyalty of the target audience through association with ongoing social programs.

From this goal, the following tasks of social marketing follow:

• analysis of the target audience;
• development of measures to increase the loyalty of potential customers;
• strengthening the position of the company or brand in the market niche;
• improving the quality of the goods or services sold;
• improving the quality of life of the target audience or society as a whole through the implementation of a marketing campaign.

In the context of global computerization and the development of information technologies, companies began to actively use social marketing tools in social networks, which allow not only to compose a portrait of the target audience and analyze its preferences and needs, but also to increase demand and increase consumer loyalty in a short time.

There are many colorful examples of the use of social marketing tools in the activities of well-known companies. So, McDonald's has been actively involved in solving social problems of society from the very beginning. One of these areas is charity in the field of orphanhood.

The company encourages its clients to provide all possible assistance to children left without parents, and itself regularly transfers significant amounts to those in need.

The world famous Coca-Cola brand also uses social marketing tools in their work.

After it became known that the ingredients of soda water contain components harmful to human life and health, the company banned their use in the country of production, changing the recipe and losing millions of dollars. Coca-Cola wrote off the losses to charity.

The examples considered confirm the importance of social marketing tools for the successful development and effective promotion of large companies in the market. Organizations interested in going global and growing their customer base must work with social responsiveness to build customer loyalty.

Who will benefit from territory marketing tools?

Territory marketing (territorial marketing) is the promotion of a certain region, taking into account the interests of internal and external actors in order to attract the attention and investments of the latter.

The following elements of territorial marketing are distinguished:

1. Promotion territory - promotion of the region as a whole. Marketing activities can be carried out both on-site and off-site. Their main goal is to promote the brand, build loyalty, and increase the popularity of the region.
2. Territorial Trade Marketing - promotion of products and services that are produced and consumed in the region.
3. Extraterritorial Trade Marketing - promotion of products and services that are produced in a given region, but are consumed outside of it.

Key subjects of territorial marketing:

• manufacturers of goods, works, services;
• consumers;
• financial intermediaries;
• information intermediaries;
• government bodies of the municipal and federal levels;
• public structures.

The main customers or initiators of marketing activities of territorial significance are usually local entrepreneurs engaged in the production of goods in the region.

Territorial marketing has the following goals:

• an increase in the number of programs of international, federal and regional significance in which the territory takes part;
• increased inflow of investment capital;
• expanding the client base of local producers of goods and services;
• forming a positive image of the region, strengthening its business reputation, increasing competitiveness.

There are four main territorial marketing tools aimed at developing industrial sectors, stimulating the export of locally produced goods and attracting investment:

• territory image marketing;
• attraction marketing (for example, in the field of investments);
• infrastructure marketing;
• personnel marketing.

But, as you can imagine, it is very large-scale, which means it is expensive. Then you can go the other way - to the Internet, where information is available in any country and its price is not so expensive.

Consider the practical Internet marketing tools that modern companies use to promote products on the market.

• SEO.

SEO - site optimization, a marketing tool for raising an Internet resource in the search engine results. In order for the user to go to the company's website, he must see it in the search engine on the first page - the closer to the beginning of the search, the better. The vast majority of webmasters use SEO to increase inbound traffic.

• SMM.

SMM - the use of social networks to promote a brand or company. Users visit the company's page, get acquainted with the range of products, ask clarifying questions, read product reviews and make a purchase decision.

• Targeted advertising.

Targeted advertising is an advertisement that is shown on social networks to a specific group of users. You can choose in the settings which people should see the advertising message (for example, women under 35 living in Moscow).

A user who is interested in targeting clicks on the link and is redirected to the company's website, where he can learn more about the product and place an order.

• E-mail marketing.

It is a marketing tool that a company uses to communicate with customers via email. For a company, e-mail newsletters are a great way to remind regular customers about themselves, make a profitable offer or find out if a customer is satisfied with a purchase. And new users can be told about the company through letters and offered to place an order.

In recent years, email marketing has been losing its effectiveness, as many people get such mailings immediately into their Spam folder.

• Mobile applications.

Companies can use mobile apps to increase inbound traffic to their site and boost sales. More than half of users are looking for information on the Internet through their phone or tablet, so they will appreciate the convenient service.

For example, Uber and Yandex.Taxi, thanks to the release of mobile applications, practically replaced the classic taxi, where you need to call the operator to order a car.

• Banner and teaser advertising.

Banner and teaser ads are marketing tools that use banners with images and text (teasers) to promote a product. A user who sees an advertisement on the site clicks on it and goes to the company's website.

• Viral advertising.

Viral advertising is an advertising message that users independently distribute on the Internet (videos, pictures or texts). Using this marketing tool requires a certain amount of professionalism. Many companies try to do this kind of advertising, but few succeed.

• Content Marketing.

An example of SlovoDelo typography blog

Content marketing is the creation and publication of interesting and useful information on the company's website, on a page on a social network or on other Internet resources. Users who are interested in the content can become regular customers in the future.

Nowadays many people blog: small and large businesses, celebrities and ordinary people.

• Native advertising.

Many companies use this marketing tool to promote their products or services. This is best done by large corporations and well-known brands.

• Messengers.

Another growing marketing tool is instant messengers - mobile services designed to communicate with users. Companies use them to keep in touch with customers, because it is much easier to do this through a mobile phone, which is always at hand, than through a computer.

Online B2B Marketing Tools and More

Website

Example of the site of the company "Mir Pilok"

Unlike B2C in the B2B segment, the site should be more specific, concise, but informative at the same time. It is not enough to post useful articles about the product and the company; it is better to use more effective tools - videos, infographics, presentations.

High-quality and interesting content is the key to the success of your site. Interested users will themselves share links to useful information with colleagues and partners. Do not forget to place the company logo with a link to the site on each material.

When deciding to cooperate, your future partner will take into account various factors, including your business reputation. It's very easy to do this over the Internet. The search engine will give all the information about the ups and downs of the company, its successes and failures.

Therefore, when developing a marketing strategy for a B2B website, you need to pay attention to working with reviews from Internet users. For preliminary testing of your Internet resource for taking into account the opinion of the target audience, answer the following questions:

Work in this direction will improve the efficiency of the Internet marketing tools used and increase customer loyalty.

Event Marketing

This is one of the most effective, more than once proven in practice, marketing tools, but the effect of its use is more tangible in the B2C segment than B2B. Nevertheless, the results from communication with customers after using event marketing are quite high.

Let's take a look at how this marketing tool works with the Mobile World Congress, a popular industry event that takes place annually in Barcelona.

This event allows a large number of vendors from the telecommunications industry to present their latest developments and innovations to the target audience. At the same time, the percentage of contracts concluded after the event is very low.

Regardless, Mobile World Congress gives attendees the chance to present themselves to consumers in the best possible light. That is why companies do not skimp on the design of stands, the creation of presentations and videos, pay great attention to design and hospitality.

Similar events are also held in Russia as part of event marketing, where participants exchange experience with their colleagues from other companies.

Also in our country, private event-events are popular, to which the organizers invite only their clients. This allows you to expand your customer base, communicate directly with important customers, establishing a more trusting relationship with them.

The Most Effective Marketing Tools Today

contextual advertising

Contextual advertising includes both placement of ads in search engines, and advertising on Internet resources, which operates through partner and teaser networks of other companies, such as Google Display Network and Yandex Advertising Network.

This is one of the few marketing tools, the costs of which do not decrease during the crisis, but, on the contrary, grow. With a professional approach, the effectiveness of contextual advertising can be very high.

A huge number of companies attract visitors to their sites by placing advertising messages on thematic Internet resources. The more precisely the contextual advertising is configured, the more return it will bring. So, it is better to promote products on sites that match their subject matter.

For example, it is better to advertise baby clothes and diapers on forums for new mothers or on women's blogs.

Mobile Marketing

This marketing tool is used to analyze the target audience by the model of the mobile phone used, the region of location, gender and age characteristics, etc. Conducting advertising campaigns targeting a narrow group of mobile users gives high results.

Mobile marketing is gaining momentum, as the number of people accessing the Internet using a telephone is growing every year and, according to various estimates, today it makes up 20 to 50 percent of all Runet users. This explains the need to adapt online advertising for mobile devices.

Despite the large number of users, mobile marketing in our country is not yet fully applied. The level of competition in this segment is still quite low. Therefore, a company that is able to properly set up an advertising campaign will be able to quickly get the desired effect in the form of user flow and sales growth.

Lead generation

Lead generation is one of the most popular modern marketing tools. To promote the product and attract users within the framework of this approach, various elements are used: application forms, landing pages, forms of special audience segmentation, thematic mailings and promotions to receive a direct response from the client.

Lead generation allows you to use your advertising budget as efficiently as possible. Unlike traditional marketing tools based on working with "cold" and "warm" consumers, lead generation directly interacts with a trained target audience, which significantly saves the company time and money.

At the dawn of the development of Internet marketing, the website promotion strategy was based on increasing incoming traffic, increasing the number of views, and increasing the rating of an Internet resource in search engines. At the present stage, the management of marketing tools is aimed at more subtle work with the target audience.

A large number of impressions now do little for a company or a brand. For sales to grow, it is necessary not to maintain a positive image with consumers, constantly flashing before their eyes, but to stimulate user activity, which will be reflected in the number of applications, orders, reviews, etc.

Lead generation will be effective provided that the target audience is properly segmented, weeded out “cold” customers and focused on the most active (those who are interested in a product or company, call the call center, ask questions to an online consultant on the website, place orders, etc.) ...

Unlike branding, lead generation is not aimed at reaching large users, but at increasing the effectiveness of a single ad campaign.

Blog

An example of the blog of the "Autumn of Life" nursing home

Blogging is another popular internet marketing tool. The widespread use of blogs to promote products and companies is associated with many factors.

The first is the cost-effectiveness of using electronic journals. Companies that post useful content on their own Internet resource do not just spend money, but invest in their promotion.

This is due to the fact that all the funds that go to the development of the blog will contribute to the development of the company in the long term, as opposed to advertising costs, which have a short-term effect.

Secondly, it helps the company to keep in touch with consumers, influence their preferences, stimulate desired behavior (checkout).

Third, blogs generate organic traffic through the use of a broad semantic core.

Fourthly, the blog makes it possible to maintain communication with users online, which creates a positive image of the company and increases customer loyalty.

While there are many benefits of a blog for promoting products and companies, its effectiveness will depend on how you use it. When used correctly, a blog can be a great platform for advertising a brand or product.

TOP 5 books about modern marketing tools not mentioned in the article

This book is a true, hands-on guide to creating high-impact branding. Marty Newmeyer formulated the key principles of effective marketing and outlined an action plan for its implementation.

After reading this book, you will learn how to make customers overwhelmed with information about new products and services an offer they cannot refuse.

The author will reveal to you the main secret successful marketing: how to meet the needs of customers in such a way that in the long term the number of customers and the average size of the check will only increase.

There are several options for translating the title of the book. One of them is “Differentiate or Die”. Despite the fact that the book was published relatively long ago, the ideas that Jack Trout shares with his readers are still relevant today.

1. Andy Cernovitz “Word of Mouth Marketing. How smart companies make people talk about themselves.

People often share their impressions of the products and services they use with friends and family: cars, mobile phones, medicines, travel agencies, services of doctors and nail artists. They can give both positive and negative reviews, recommend their favorite brand to all their friends or users on the Internet.

Isn't every company dreaming of such advertising? And to achieve high results is very simple: you don't need to be a marketing guru or spend a lot of money on promotion, you just need to learn how to turn word of mouth on and off on your own and how to make people talk about your brand or company.

You will find the answers to these questions in the book by Andy Cernovitz. The author will share with you the secrets on how to create an informational reason for talking about a brand, and how to use it to promote it.

The author of the book is one of the most popular marketing specialists. Seth Godin criticizes classic marketing tools - TV ads, cold calls and the like - that cause negative reactions from consumers.

In his book Trust Marketing, Seth talks about how to set up an inbound traffic system so new customers search and find you.

There are many books on the market about sales and marketing tools, but only Igor Mann has collected all the famous marketing tools that a sales manager should own.

• tools needed to be used before meeting with clients;
• tools used in meeting with clients;
• tools to use after meeting with clients;
• additional tools that will be useful to employees of the sales department.

This book will also be of interest to marketers: the author has compiled a special checklist of what they can do in the shortest possible time for a key internal client - the sales department.

Sales managers and their leaders will find in this book a list of what to ask marketers to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of working with a customer base (or what you need to do yourself if there is no marketing department in the organizational structure of the company).

To grow, take off and restart your business, My 119 Favorite Marketing Tools. At last! To say what was useful is to say nothing. I can't tell everything (you can't fit 8 hours into one article), so I chose one of the interesting topics - non-standard marketing tools.

You have never even heard of many of them. But the more interesting it will be to read and apply. As Igor Mann himself says: “Few people know about new and revolutionary marketing tools. Few people decide to try them first. But in vain. " Knowing and doing is what matters most.

Mann's periodic system of marketing elements

What immediately surprises is Igor Mann's own system of elements, which he has been developing for 15 years. Almost like Mendeleev 🙂 Only about marketing. The table contains blocks (for example, osnoids, competitiveoids, attratoids) and the actual elements with funny names - celium, brandy, don’t know, plusium, emphasis, behind which is useful and serious content and years of work.

Non-standard marketing tools are just element number 46 of the Big.

10 custom marketing tools

Let's move on to the most curious one - unusual marketing tools. Check yourself at the same time. Let this be a mini-test: note which of the names you've heard at least once.

1. Ambient media

2. Product sitting

3. Crazy PR

4. Storytelling

5. Trivertising

6. Sensitive Marketing

7. Identity marketing

8. Dead marketing

9. Inbound Marketing

10. Shockvertising

Well, how much did it turn out? Even if not much, don't be discouraged. Now you will find out what is hidden behind each name.

1. Ambient media

Non-standard advertising that penetrates the environment of the target audience. Simply put, it is embedded in our daily life. And it surprises. Of course, the brand message also broadcasts. Such advertisements are placed on the walls and roofs of houses, on sidewalks and transport, in shopping centers and cinemas, on park benches and staircases. In general, anywhere.

Guess why the escalator works? Elementary, Watson: it's about Duracell batteries.

Ambient media in Malaysia, -

And here are some more cool examples of Ambient media (scroll through the photos with arrows).

2. Product sitting

Before launching a product on the market, the manufacturer sends samples to consumers (but always to opinion leaders) to get their opinion and then distribute it through other channels. Only the end consumer will give fair feedback and point out all the shortcomings.

3. Crazy PR

The name speaks for itself. A light (and sometimes oh-oh-very hard) crazy thing is only good. Take any extravagant idea - and go ahead, bring it to life. The main thing is not to cross the boundaries of reason (and decency too) and make sure that Crazy PR fits organically into the positioning of the product, service or the brand itself.

A striking example is 3M, a manufacturer of heavy-duty glass. On the streets of Vancouver, constructions were installed that aroused the keen interest of passers-by: 1 million dollars lay quietly behind the glass. Anyone could break the glass (haha) and take the money.

Only repeat this if you are 100% confident in your product -.

But not a single attempt was successful. Surely 3M got a lot of new clients 🙂

4. Storytelling

Long before the first business was born, the six most powerful words in all languages \u200b\u200bwere: "Let me tell you a story." Storytelling, or storytelling, is a tool that inspires, motivates, and naturally sells.

If you can turn an ordinary story into a big one, make your audience laugh, wonder and be inspired, you will be second to none.

5. Trivertising

You yourself can easily guess what kind of tool it is when you see the word in the original - tryvertising. Divide it in two and voila, the meaning will surface. One of the meanings of the verb try is to try. This is the whole point.

Before buying something, a potential client can get to know the product better - flip through a book, take a car for a test drive, put a drop of perfume on his skin and feel the scent release. People don't want to buy a pig in a poke anymore. In addition, such a marketing tool will significantly increase loyalty.

Trivertising is not just an offline tool. Do you recognize the book? 😉 -.

Plus, it's fair. If a person does not need a product, he will not buy it and will not waste money. And the trust in the company will remain.

6. Sensitive Marketing

Affect all five senses and get the result you want. We meet with this tool everywhere. Unobtrusive music in coffee shops (fast or slow depending on how the owners want to manage customer behavior), the smell of fresh baked goods in the supermarket that increases sales by almost ⅓, the elegant sound of BMW doors slamming - these are all examples of sensitive marketing.

Color matters. BMW M series can be recognized from afar, -.

Igor Mann said: “Once at one of the conferences I got into a conversation with the author of a book on sensitive marketing, Martin Lindstrom. I confessed to him that two years before him I had written that marketing should affect 6 senses. He wondered: “What is the sixth?” “It's a sense of humor,” I replied. “When a person laughs, it is easier for him to part with money.”

7. Identity marketing

It happens that brands with a similar target audience structure their marketing in such a way that they themselves become similar to each other. This is where identity marketing comes to the rescue - marketing based on brand distinctive features. You need to show your clients who you really are. You can recall the already boring word "uniqueness", which is already boring to gnashing teeth, but here it is appropriate.

Each company has its own face. Think about how you are different from others. And convey this message to clients.

8. Dead marketing

This is a completely atypical instrument for our country. The company takes care of the graves at its own expense - there is both social responsibility and marketing in its purest form: many people go to the cemetery, and they all see which company is taking care of the departed.

9. Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing (or inbound) is the promotion of a company's website or product in search engines using a blog and email newsletters through interesting and useful content for the target audience. A user is looking for a solution to his problem with the help of search engines - and, having become interested in materials on this topic, published in your blog, goes to you.

This is where the name inbound comes from - inbound marketing (sometimes called inbound marketing).

Want an example? Read our blog and subscribe to the self-development MYTH mailing list 🙂 -

Inbound Marketing Works Well:

• for companies with a long sales cycle (6+ months) - when customers need a significant time to understand the essence and benefits of the product;
• for companies that launch a new product on the market, want to generate demand for it, establish themselves as experts;
• for companies in highly competitive markets where the cost of PPC ads is very high. In this case, inbound marketing makes it possible to get targeted traffic from search engines at a lower cost.

Creation of quality content according to all the rules of inbound marketing is a long, laborious and painstaking process. But the result is worth it.

10. Shockvertising

Those who are friends with English are again easier than others. The term is formed from two words - shock (I think no translation is required) and advertising (advertising). All the most atypical, indecent, shocking, terrifying, causing negative (although not always) and indignation - this is a shocking advertisement.

Social advertising, warning that emoticons are not necessarily a sign of friendliness, and people with far from the best intentions can communicate with children on the Internet -

A tool for the brave. You need to use it very carefully, calculate the possible reaction of the audience and be prepared for the fact that some people will refuse your products or services.

Ambiguous associations, cubed surprise, attraction of attention - all this is shockvertising.

Where can I get something new?

If you want to experiment and are looking for new marketing tools, Igor Mann advises you to choose one of three options: find, “steal” (like an artist, of course) or invent.

To find

The most accessible channel for finding new tools is the Internet. Search for information on the phrases “ new instrument marketing ”,“ new communication channel ”and similar words.

If you know English, then the chances of catching a new tool on the Internet before competitors increase significantly.

A good channel is books. You can't read everything yourself, so you can start the "Book Club", whose members will read one new book a week

and present to the rest of its summary and "chips" gleaned from there. Another excellent channel is events: conferences, forums, trainings, seminars and master classes. You can find a lot of interesting things on them.

Reading is the first line of defense against a vacuum in the head -

Steal

Monitoring market leaders (not only national ones) - or benchmarking - is a great opportunity to see in time what the companies that set the pace in the market are doing. If they started doing something, perhaps you should take a closer look at this.

Austin Cleon's memo to those who want to steal wisely -.

Come up with

Sometimes a new marketing tool is born in the depths of the company. True, leaders are often too conservative and cautious - not everyone dares to take the risk.

Albert Einstein once said: "It is foolish to expect a different result, continuing to do the same thing as before." And indeed. Pump up your marketing. Surprise your customers. Surprise your competitors. Surprise the industry. Be amazed at the results yourself!

P.S. For the main photo we would like to thank the organizers of Igor Mann's master class in Oryol.

Modern business has such a wide arsenal of analytical tools that its representatives, as a rule, are at a loss before making a choice, so they often stop at just one of the methods. However, marketing analysis tools provide the most profitable business only in combination.

You will learn:

• What classic marketing research tools exist.
• Which of them are currently being used successfully.
• How they work.
• What errors occur most often when applying them.
• How to effectively use modern marketing analysis tools.

How marketing analysis tools work and what goals it pursues

1. Market research and substantiation of market growth / fall trends.

According to the definition of marketing science, the concept of "market" does not mean the place of sale of goods, but the community of relationships between the seller and the buyer, each of which has its own goals and objectives, needs and requirements, material values, etc. Therefore, the purpose of market research has a complex character and aimed at competitors and consumers.

2. Analysis of the main factors affecting the demand for goods / services.

The reasons that determine the popularity of this or that product (service) are endless. Demand is influenced by seasonality, opening hours, the wrong target audience, wrong pricing policies, pointless promotions, and the like. The main task is to detect problems, analyze them and eliminate them.

3. Analysis of the pricing of the enterprise.

When studying the marketing activities of a company, this task is paramount and main. Using special methods, the nature of the growth (reduction) of prices is determined, a comparative analysis of the competitors' pricing policy is carried out, and the calculation method is used to select the prices that are most beneficial to the seller and the consumer in a particular period of time.

4. Study and identification of real and potential competitors of the enterprise.

It often happens that without a full study of the competitive environment and the viability of their products, entrepreneurs are deeply mistaken in building a business promotion strategy. Identification of existing and potential competitors will allow you to properly disperse forces, create a unique commercial proposal that can distinguish your company from many others.

5. Assessment of the competitiveness of the enterprise as a whole, identifying ways to improve competitiveness.

6. Conducting a full SWOT analysis.

SWOT analysisinvolves examining the advantages and disadvantages of enterprises, as well as their potential and risks. SWOT analysis provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of the organization (inside and outside), which will help to discern its strengths and weaknesses:

• strengths - strengths;
• weakness - weaknesses;
• opportunities - opportunities;
• threats - threats.

7. Selection of the most effective methods and forms of product sales, development of the marketing strategy of the enterprise

So, we examined the key marketing analysis tools, using which you can reveal the entire panorama of the company's activities from the internal and external sides.

Classic marketing research tools

With the advent of new advances in science and the development of social thought, the methodological foundations of marketing are also undergoing changes. Despite the fact that very diverse techniques and methods are used to solve emerging problems, there are still two basic directions in this area - analytical and prognostic and general scientific.

Additionally, marketing research tools are classified as follows:

• Comprehensive analysis. At this stage of marketing research, a separate market situation acts as a special system with a complex structural dependence. The study of this issue allows you to build a strategy and tactics to improve the current circumstances.
• System analysis. Any position in the market is analyzed as an object with its own cause-and-effect relationships. So, the formation of computer technology directly depends on the human need for information.
• Target planninghelps to define the policy of the company and its course of action in the market. Systems analysis is the basis for planning every organization.

Methods and tools of marketing research and complex and systemic analysis are often used in parallel. Sometimes they are inseparable from each other. This is due to the fact that an objective judgment is formed only when all market relations and their aspects are established.

Precisely chosen methods of collecting information become marketing analysis techniques that allow assessing the necessary information about a product (service) or the state of the market with the least errors. A surefire method will bring the client closer to the desired goal of increasing profits.

Several traditional marketing tools are known.

• Questionnaire - the main and most accessible way to conduct research . Many organizations conduct systematic surveys of their target audience.
• Interviewnecessarily requires the presence of the interviewer . Only this person can professionally conduct a conversation, asking the right questions to clarify the nuances.
• Group Discussion Management- a tool, the most popular type of which is considered to be a focus group. Here, marketers and experimenters are constantly searching to minimize the obvious disadvantages of this group.
• Field studies- observations that help to assess the immediate state of the subject of research in its natural conditions of existence.

Direct communication can be carried out in person, by phone, online (e-mails, a survey form on the company's resource) and in other ways. The choice of marketing assessment methodology is determined by the tasks that the company sets out for itself.

In the current market conditions, completely unique marketing research tools are emerging, which are subsequently actively used in business.

Expert opinion

We analyze consumer preferences in order to build our production

Vladimir Kupriyanov,

general Director of OJSC "Vyazemsky Machine-Building Plant", Vyazma (Smolensk region)

There are never many advantages - this must be borne in mind, although marketing in our industry is already well developed.

As a rule, we focus our production on satisfying the needs of consumers, while studying the data on their preferences based on surveys and monitoring of market potential. This tactic allowed our enterprise to survive and strengthen, while the planning system collapsed.

We started marketing research of the market: first, we determined what manufacturers offer in this area, which products are in the greatest demand. On the basis of the collected monitoring data, launch vehicles were released, analyzed and promoted. Using the information received, we formed our own marketing policy. Currently, we are intensively studying the capabilities of competitors, including Western manufacturers.

We try not to dwell on the available results. If, using marketing analysis tools, we find something useful for ourselves, then we will definitely bring it to life. I believe analytics is the foundation for marketers to work. It is she who should be given special attention at different stages of the development of the organization.

Modern marketing analysis tools

• In the modern world, the main trend in marketing testing is undoubtedly internetization and digitalization... In other words, marketers are increasingly immersed in the internet.

This important trend has given rise to a kind of "big data", or big data. They represent colossal arrays collected by marketing agencies, for example, in the course of a panel survey. This includes customer databases owned by Internet providers, mobile operators, etc. The pressing question is: how to process such big data to find out information about consumers and their actions?

The solution to this problem has influenced the structure of marketing agencies: now there is an increasing need for digital specialists. Big Internet companies are embarking on a marketing challenge.

Huge streams of information require new ways of processing and evaluating. From one point of view, integration, synthesis, fusion of separate data are required, that is, data fusion. In contrast to this, various streams of information from one resource, that is, single source, cause serious attention.

Now clients of companies that conduct research pay less and less attention to the indicativeness of surveys. At the same time, the accessibility of target groups is becoming more complicated: the mobility of informants who value their time increases; in addition, interviews become more complicated and longer, causing fatigue of the interlocutors. These difficulties are being successfully overcome through digital technologies. In addition, conducting surveys moves as much as possible to places of real action (cafes, points of sale, parking lots).

• Another popular area of \u200b\u200bmarketing research is becoming glocalization (a process of economic, social, cultural development, characterized by the coexistence of multidirectional trends) and the expansion of new markets. This trend is contradictory, as evidenced by even its definition. First, there is an increasing number of decisions to conduct research using marketing analysis tools made at the global level. Their digitalisation reinforces this desire. For example, online surveys are carried out without the involvement of a local research company. Secondly, consulting is carried out only locally and nothing else.

In this regard, despite the global expansion of digital technologies, niches for unshakable classical research remain relevant (for example, telephone polls, face-to-face conversations, in-depth interviews, focus group).

The latter trend has been expressed in the hypertrophied concern about the protection of personal data, which has caused the digitalization of life, therefore the general market will strongly depend on this course.

According to the main orientation, the key marketing analysis tools are now focused on digital technologies. First of all, these are Internet polls, which, by the way, have long since passed from innovative events to everyday ones. Today, according to ESOMAR, the share of such surveys is twice or more than the percentage of personal interviews. In our country, the latter are still a priority, but the trend is similar. Despite everything, the era of personal interviews is drawing to a close.

Now every major company has its own online dashboard, which contains respondents willing to participate in online surveys.

In general, network research is just perfect for interviewing target audiences when testing ads, product tests, commercial tracking, customer loyalty and price research.

The main disadvantage of online surveys is considered to be their limited representativeness. Currently, the creation of demonstrative online panels with offline recruits according to the structure of population strata is coming to the fore. If the respondent included in the sample does not have computer equipment, then he is provided with it. Similar panels are already available in Holland and the USA.

• Discussion of digital technologies cannot be ignored CAPI- an effective methodology for collecting data. Nowadays, tablets are most often used for this. With their help, they not only carry out surveys, unthinkable without a computer, but also accumulate information while the informant performs specific actions that are relevant for research, for example, when purchasing, talking with staff, choosing a product, etc.
• A relatively new direction in the field of digital technologies is becoming quality online research in blogs and forums.

A large series of modern research methods are based on the analysis of the actions of visitors on the Internet from their mobile and stationary devices. For quite a long time, the computer equipment of the survey participants has been supplied with special programs, the so-called. cookie to track all advertising communications.

More serious programs (for example, Leo trace) help to record all the respondent's actions on the network. Such marketing analysis tools give a detailed picture of why the visitor had a desire and subsequently made a decision to purchase a certain brand.

• Data fusion, or data fusion.With this approach, information from several panels is processed simultaneously, for example, a trade panel, a panel of doctors and consumers.
• Single source, or data from one source.For example, this is information about viewing and listening to television and radio advertisements, online behavior and purchases of a particular respondent. The single source approach is a big breakthrough, dramatically increasing the power of analytics.
• Big data, or big data. First of all, this is the union of the two previous panels. The second is the analysis of public media, which contains a large amount of useful marketing data. This assessment complements the classic brand survey.
• And, finally, another marketing analysis tool - return path data(return data of cable operators), where there are colossal databases of TV views.
• There is an interesting innovation in the use of digital technologies - User eXperience (user experience study) . Consumers nowadays use a variety of electronics, from smartphones and computers to washing machines. The main requirements of consumers are functionality and ease of use of devices. And it's worth exploring. User eXperience is an effective type of survey in which the respondent uses a gadget, and marketers technically track and record his actions, and then offer surveys.

It should be noted that all current research is based on consumer experience. Before that, the product was at the center of learning, but now the consumer has taken its place.

• For brand research, more and more attention is paid to me brand - defining the respondent's own brand . For example, for this purpose, associative methods of analyzing consumer loyalty to a brand are used, the so-called. brand relationship metaphor.
• The consideration of customer relationships also changes over time. For example, there is a passive viewing dimension, where measurement data is correlated with the buyer's media plan. This allows you to determine opportunity to see (chance of viewing ads) .
• In addition to the usual research of communication means and their influence, today more and more actively studied touch points (points of contact of the buyer with the products and their parameters). The relationship with a brand is always multidimensional and complex. It is expressed not only in advertising and promotions, but also in queues, lighting, musical accompaniment, cleanliness, etc. Each survey has its own set of points of interaction with the product (service).
• Along with the analysis of consumer experience, the latest technologies include co-creation with the consumer: observers not only collect data from respondents, but use it to develop new theories.

Today, another important place is occupied by innovation, which requires management, and this requires information. Now innovations are becoming a separate object of study together with the complex use of several marketing analysis tools. As an example, we can cite the study of the promotion of a new product, when, simultaneously with tracking attitudes in the mind of the consumer, many external reasons are taken into account: the dynamics of the product niche, economic factors, communications.

• Currently, the methods of studying the direct response of the respondent to events, including Body responses.The development of these reactions is now entrusted to neuromarketing.

Expert opinion

SWOT analysis as one of the marketing tools

Mikhail Kapatsinsky,

general Director of LLC "Information and postal service" M-City ", Moscow

SWOT analysis refers to the formal way of creating marketing policies. First of all, it is necessary to carry out a marketing audit, to describe the strong (for example, well-coordinated work of the team) and weak (breaking of business ties) places of the company. In the next stage, the market is studied to analyze the prospects (for example, market development) and risks (for example, government intervention) for the organization, influencing outside. The third stage is tabulation and analysis of data. Considering the potential opportunities and risks, pros and cons of the company, they are considering further options for leveraging the strengths of the business and eliminating its shortcomings.

By comparing the identified third-party threats with the local features of the company, it is possible to outline a strategy for the further development of the company. At this stage, we have already clarified for ourselves the question: "What does the company do?", Now we should answer the following: "Where are we going?" and "How do we get from the current position to where we want to be?"

Six common mistakes when using various marketing analysis tools

Error 1. Incomparable data. During the Soviet era, excellent statistical techniques were developed that made it possible to collect accurate data, only it was almost impossible to work with them. For example, one group of data was expressed in physical terms, the other - as a percentage of gross income, the third - in terms of growth rates against the previous period, and the fourth - in terms of per capita. Such manipulations are now being performed by many companies that provide the transfer of objective information. However, at the same time, some want to look better, while others, on the contrary, want to be gray, so as not to attract attention to themselves.

Mistake 2. Confusing terminology. Imagine that we need to find data about a certain industry. One publication indicates the proportions between enterprises A, B, C in the form of 13%, 14%, 25%, another publishes figures of 16%, 9%, 18%. We find an overview on the Internet, where these figures are presented as 12%, 16%, 18%. Which source is reliable? Imagine everything! Since each of them indicates market shares. Nevertheless, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that these shares are different: in the newspaper they are published as physical indicators (in pieces), on the Internet they are shown in financial terms (as turnover). But when studying charts without reading the text, you can see seemingly identical parameters of market shares on each of them.

Error 3. Source of the received data. Finding information in open sources, sometimes you can notice obvious discrepancies in numbers associated with the deliberate use of an unreliable source. Analysts can always figure out when and why the numbers were changed. This allows you to define your own confidence factors for each information source. Very often you can see the note in rating reviews: company data. Knowing the market situation and knowing the policies of all surveyed companies, one can guess that it is more profitable for some of them to overestimate, while the rest understate their data. Undoubtedly, confidence indices are not an accurate estimate, they are just an expert opinion. But if the specialist is fully qualified and well informed about the market, his ratio will almost correspond to reality.

Error 4. Unqualified data processing. Let's look at an example. Nowadays, there is often information about the sale of household appliances, which come from some trading network. At the same time, journalists act elementary: having data on the total number of sales of household appliances throughout Russia, they determine the percentage of brands sold in a particular chain, which gives them sales figures for each brand on a national scale! Of course, this data cannot be trusted.

Mistake 5. Erroneous questioning. Most often, the research results are distorted even in the process of preparing for the survey: incorrect wording of the questionnaire items, mistakes in choosing respondents, bias of interviewers and other shortcomings. In order to avoid failures, it is better to involve professionals in the work, or at least invite an expert to study (evaluate) an already finished questionnaire.

Mistake 6. Subjectivity of opinions... When conducting surveys of citizens (consumers, suppliers, other segments of the population), it should be borne in mind that they do not always tell the truth. The question is not a deliberate deception, just people think of themselves (want to seem) better than they really are. For example, one large bookstore conducted a survey of its visitors: everyone leaving was asked to fill out a simple questionnaire.

The overwhelming majority of respondents told about their adherence to the works of Pushkin and Dostoevsky, abandoning even the thought of detective stories. People reported that they come to the bookstore only for textbooks, and in the art genre they prefer only the classics. Naturally, comparing sales figures with the results of a survey will make even a stubborn optimist lose faith in any surveys forever.

These (and others!) Troubles can be prevented, knowing for sure why, who and with what level of specification is conducting the survey; to whom and how much accurate information is needed; what marketing analysis tools should be chosen in each situation.

Practitioner tells

Today, many marketers are interested in how the brain works when buying.

Tatiana Komissarova,

dean of the Higher School of Marketing and Business Development, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow

These days, marketers are trying to understand how the consumer's brain functions during a deal. With this knowledge, it's easy to understand the consumer journey from concept to purchase. All this allows us to provide effective advertising, memorable product and logo design.

Example. The Sam’s Club line of stores started selling green products and prepared three logos. To select the best one, the firm hooked up a neurolaboratory. Its employees attracted people who were ready to buy environmentally friendly goods and put EEG devices of the brain on their heads. In this way, it was planned to establish the activity of the brain when contemplating logos. Pictures were shown on a computer in random order (one by one and in pairs). During the analysis, behavioral and neurological data were taken into account. As a result, the logo was chosen that caused the maximum response from the brain.

Three tips to help you use marketing and marketing analysis tools effectively

Tip 1. Find the best analytical approaches.

For the correct development of a set of marketing activities, companies should take into account the pros and cons of each marketing analysis tool in order to choose the optimal ones that allow effective corporate policy implementation. When talking about analytics methods, their most preferred options should be emphasized.

1) Modern analytical methods such as modeling a complex of marketing activities (Marketing-Mix Modeling - MMM).The principle is based on processing huge amounts of information to understand the cost effectiveness of each channel. This approach implies a statistical interdependence of financial investments in marketing and other factors that determine sales.

At the same time, external conditions (seasonality, advertising campaigns, competitors' actions) are also taken into account. This method allows you to control not only the dynamics (the transience of changes in customer loyalty and customer segmentation over time), but also the kinetics of interaction tools (the difference in the use of physical and online channels, and in the most advanced models - social media resources).

The MMM method can be used for the implementation of both long-term strategies, for the future, and for short-term tactical planning. However, it has several disadvantages: it needs accurate information about the costs of marketing and sales for a specific number of years; does not allow studying activities that practically do not change over time (for example, outdoor advertising); does not allow analyzing the long-term effect of investing in a separate point of relationship with the client (touch point), for example, for an innovative mobile application or a new platform in social networks.

In addition, for the successful use of the MMM methodology, one should have a fairly extensive knowledge of econometrics in order to understand the specifics of the models and the scripting tool, and given the latter, to correctly plan the consequences of financial decisions on the budget.

2) Heuristic approaches such as methodology "coverage-cost-quality" (Reach, Cost, Quality - RCQ). Such a methodology provides for a survey of each point of relationship from the point of view of its components (the number of target audience covered by the services; costs per one unique visitor; quality of service), using factual data together with an organized analysis.

This approach is usually used when the previous MMM method is impractical or impossible, for example: the set of data is insufficient; annual expenses are more or less stable (which is often the case with sponsorship); there is a constant stable interaction that does not allow to isolate additional investment results. The RCQ principle provides uniform assessment criteria for all touchpoints, facilitating further comparison. It is quite easy to use and, as a rule, does not require special tools, except for the model generated in Excel.

In practice, however, the differences between channels make it difficult to pinpoint the economic value of each touchpoint. In addition, the RCQ method does not take into account the influence of auxiliary factors and relationships, and its productivity is largely determined by the reliability of the initial assumptions.

3) Advanced methods such as attributive modeling.In connection with the increase in the percentage of Internet promotion in a single structure of advertising budgets, the role of attribution in online commerce is increasing. Attribute modeling is based on a selected set of rules and marketing analysis tools that determine the order of assessing traffic conversions in sales in relation to each type of communication with a client (e-mail, online advertising, a specific resource or social networks).

Appropriate scores allow marketers to establish the contingent performance of all kinds of online investment activities through the prism of sales promotion. The most popular scoring methods are based on simple aspects like fixing a conversion at the last click (if the 100% conversion index corresponds to the last point of communication with the client, which caused a conversion after itself).

Recently, there is an increasing popularity of advanced techniques that enhance the fruitfulness of analysis through statistical modeling, regression processes and important algorithms associated with online trading in real time. Such approaches are deeper in comparison with classical methods. However, for the original data, they often continue to use familiar cookies, limiting the deployment of the dataset, therefore, making it difficult to correctly assess the importance of each point of interaction with a virtual client on the network.

Tip 2. Use different tools in combination.

Despite the fact that some businesses choose a single marketing analysis tool for work, the most effective results come when ways marketing return on investment (MROI) are used in combination. This approach, which involves collecting and examining direct marketing data, minimizes the errors and bias inherent in any MROI assessment method. It allows executives to conveniently adjust budgets by prioritizing areas that are most profitable in terms of investment.

How should all of these methods be used together? Let's say 70 percent of an enterprise's marketing budget is directed to popular media channels (television, radio, print media, and digital platforms). Since for these methods the data on consumers can be observed in dynamics, it is rational to use the MMM technique. The further costs of marketing through digital channels can be explored in more detail using attributive modeling. It will help you specifically select in general categories (search for the necessary information or display the necessary data) the segments that can give the maximum conversion with a high degree of probability.

The company can then perform heuristic analysis (for example, through RCQ) to study the effectiveness of the remaining 30 percent on marketing, which can be directed to sponsorship and external advertising to reach the part of the target audience that does not watch TV at all.

The creation of a system of common data obtained using several marketing analysis tools provides marketers with the opportunity to compare the effectiveness of different methods according to the same criteria. In the future, the company can systematically generalize the results achieved, and the administration will use them to monitor the effectiveness of marketing in real time and adjust the processes if necessary.

For example, an international energy company used the RCQ method to analyze and optimize the share of outdoor advertising and sponsorship as part of its marketing procedures. This increased the reach of the target audience of consumers and raised the marketing efficiency up to 15 percent. They then conducted an MMM to in-depth assessment of the MROI for advertising spend on electronic and print media. It was found that every million euros spent on internet marketing generated 1.3 thousand new customers for the company. The same amount of investments in TV and radio advertising, as well as publications in the print media, helped to retain 4,300 existing customers, 40 percent of whom were ready to remain loyal to the brand for a long time. Such conclusions led to an understanding of how to optimally allocate costs and conduct communication to attract new and retain regular customers.

When optimizing the system of marketing measures, there may be a desire to use the maximum amount of financial resources for the implementation of short-term projects with large ROI indices. Such an error is often caused by the fact that an impressive array of data comes from consumers who perform any immediate or short-term actions. For example, subscribing to a newsletter and brand advertisement for a smartphone, or purchasing a specific product at a sale. Such short-term events usually provide up to 20 percent of total sales, while the brand itself, as a long-term asset, ultimately guarantees the rest of the volume. So, companies are obliged to monitor their analytical models so that they can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing in any time frame.

One of the food manufacturers almost fell into the same short-term trap, launching an advertising campaign on the Facebook social network using promotion, various competitions, stimulating the publication of photos and popularizing applications for joint purchases. At a more economical cost, this approach has produced results for the company that are almost similar to those of traditional marketing, which requires large-scale advertising in print media and on television. It is understandable why the company has refocused its marketing costs from print and broadcast media to social media. But when the long-term effect was taken into account in the calculations, the importance of digital channels dropped by 50 percent. If the manufacturer continued to greatly reduce the costs of TV advertising (as required by the conclusions of the classic marketing analysis tool MMM), then the net profitability (present value) of the brand would also decrease.

Tip 3. Make the analytical approach the foundation of your marketing and sales work.

It often happens that design teams outsource analytics or delegate analytics to their own analytics departments. But when analysts voice their findings, the same project teams sometimes do not want to use them because they misunderstand the bottom line or do not completely trust the numbers.

To solve this problem, marketers should work closely with information accumulation and processing specialists, market research experts and digital analytics professionals, discuss in detail the initial premises, state hypotheses, and flesh out quantity indicators. In addition, companies need to train their employees to be so-called "translators" who understand the language of analytics and speak in a business style. For example, a financial company has identified consultants from the marketing department to combine the analytical and creative sides of the department. Consultants helped analysts solve business problems, and explained to creative workers how analytics creates informative support for marketing programs. Thanks to this interaction, the development time for measures to increase MROI has been cut in half.

Efficiency and flexibility play an important role in this. When defining the content of the media channels, the target structure of the set of marketing activities and the insights from the purchase process should be taken into account. As actual results become available, they need to be matched against target numbers in order to properly adjust the marketing structure and budget.

For example, attributive modeling can be very useful when adjusting advertising campaigns on the fly, as the cost of digital channels changes almost instantly. According to our research, market leaders can redirect up to 80 percent of their spend to digital marketing in a single campaign.

Claims against the heads of commercial departments regarding the return on investment in marketing are growing every year. They have not only the data to make the most effective decisions, but also the necessary marketing analysis tools. We believe that a holistic approach to research is the main criterion for finding information about the market and organizing sales growth ahead of it.

• How to write a marketing plan: recommendations for the manager

Five helpful books on marketing and marketing analysis tools

1. "Competitive intelligence. Lessons from the Trenches ”(John E. Prescott, Stephen H. Miller).

Like serving in the military, companies and corporations involved in battles must have a clear understanding of who they will be competing with in pursuit of success. Therefore, competitive intelligence is increasingly being established in the structure of current companies. However, it does not belong to industrial espionage; it is a completely official way of collecting data on competitors.

Most authors, formerly in intelligence and Western intelligence agencies, and now in high-profile positions in successful corporations, teach how to organize the activities of corporate competitive intelligence groups; attracting sales workers and other "front-line" structural units there; establishment of collection, research and promotion of information; assessing the efficiency of competitive intelligence in monetary terms; issuing them to the management.

The publication is recognized as a treasure trove of practical advice for the work of marketing services, security departments of financial institutions and companies, for everyone who is interested in this sensitive area.

1. Marketing research of the consumer market (Anurin V., Muromkina I., Evtushenko E.).

This tutorial compares favorably with similar publications. The theory is based on examples of practical marketing campaigns on the Russian consumer products market. The authors have demonstrated schemes for using various search methods and marketing analysis tools - cluster research, multidimensional scaling, the principle of "ideal point" and many others. The marketing research plan presented by the creators is designed for enterprises operating in various niches of the consumer market. This work is based on the courses "Consumer Behavior", "Marketing Research", "Applied Sociology". It is recommended for teachers of commercial and economic sciences, students, employees of marketing structures.

1. "Marketing research: information, analysis, forecast" (I. Belyaevsky).

The book talks about the main complexities of the theory and practice of marketing research.

It sets out the principles of collecting and processing the necessary data, presents methods for analyzing and modeling market conditions, shows examples of studying the dynamics and stability of the market, describes how to test the market reaction to a change in the economic situation.

1. "Marketing research. How they do it in Russia "(I. Berezin)

• Why are marketers studying the market?
• How to organize research on your own?
• Where to order such services?
• What is their cost?

This is a short set of questions that are asked by top executives of companies, heads of marketing services or advertising departments - in general, those who have to decide questions about conducting marketing trials. Based on the experience of domestic business reality, the author talks about marketing technologies, examining in detail the advantages and disadvantages of quantitative (polls, questionnaires) and qualitative (focusing, in-depth interviews) techniques.

1. "SPSS version 10" (Byul A., Zefel P.).

The presented work contains an optimal amount of information related to the theory of statistical analysis. But the main attention of the creators is directed to the peculiarities of the application and the potential of individual marketing analysis tools, as well as to the interpretation of the results. Additionally, the book shows the presentation capabilities of SPSS 10, which are much superior to the functionality of standard business programs.

In the process of translating this book, it was taken into account that the majority of users have an English version of the program, therefore all dialogues and schemes for issuing the results of the application of statistical methods are duplicated in two languages, Russian and English, to simplify work with the non-local version. This also applies to graphics produced by the program. The examples given in the publication have been tested for performance and reliability of the results.

Information about experts

Mikhail Kapatsinsky- Founder and General Director of the M-City information and postal service, one of the largest direct marketing agencies in Russia. Has been working in the DM business since 1994. Author of over a dozen articles, publisher of MarketingPRO magazine, organizer of a number of DM-seminars and conferences. Since 2005 - President of the Russian Direct Marketing Association.

Information and postal service "M-City" founded 9 years ago, is a member of the Russian Direct Marketing Association. The company provides a full range of services for the development and implementation of direct marketing campaigns, including direct mail, telemarketing, courier delivery, leasing legal databases, processing responses, printing and packaging personalized correspondence, supporting loyalty programs and catalog trade ...

Interpreter