Marketing

"What are the basic aspects of marketing?" Product: The item or service you sell. Price: The amount you charge for your product or service. Promote: The ways you inform your market as to who, what and where you are. Provide: The channels you use to take the product to the customer. "Why should I research my customers?" It is essential to define your customer base in terms of: Who are they? What do they want? What can they afford? What do they think?

Your business here? Do have expertise in this, or any other area of running a business? We are looking for expert individuals or companies to provide information for and/or sponsor certain business topics. If you are interested please contact Steve Davis at the Southampton Enterprise Hub.

"What should marketing research look like?"

1. Overall view of the market
2. Segmentation of the market
   - Determination of which segment you are targeting.
   
   - Indication of growth rate of the market segment.
3. Competition
   - Detailed evaluation of the competition for the segment you are targeting.
   - Detailed understanding of the start-up's capability of beating the competition in this segment.
4. Growth
   - Detailed understanding of how the start-up will grow in terms of new segments or new services or products of the targeted segment.
   - Numbers for each of these subjects make the case stronger, but often firms use analogies (ensure the analogy is good) to make their point.
   

"What if my product doesn't fit into any one product-category"
Sony faced this problem when they were launching the Playstation 2 games system. Should they position the Playstation 2 as a computer with game characteristics, or should they position it in a traditional way as a game console?

The key to the answer is understanding how customers will view the product and categorise it. If consumers categorise the Sony Playstation as a game console, it may be very difficult for it to be repositioned as a computer.

You must help your customers to categorise your product correctly because they will look at its features, compare it to similar products and categorise it themselves. Without your guidance they may categorise your product into an unsuitable category that you are not happy with and which may be hard for you to change.

"I have a new product, but I don't know how to price it. Where do I start?"

1. Alternatives:
" What alternatives do buyers have?
" Are they aware of these alternatives?
" Customers who are knowledgeable about competing products generally use the prices of these products as a comparison point.

2. Ease of Comparison:
" How easy/difficult is it for buyers to compare the products of other suppliers?
" Can the benefits of your product be easily observed, or must they be experienced first? You may want to consider offering a free trial.

3. Unique Benefits:
" Does the product have any unique benefits that differentiate it from any competing products?

Are these benefits very important to your customers?

4. Additional Costs:
" What additional costs does the customer have to pay for the continued use of your product?

" Are customers bound to these additional costs and are they bound to using your particular brand? For example, the vacuum cleaner owner must purchase bags on a regular basis to ensure continued use of the original product; these may or may not be your particular brand of bags.