Pricing Strategy

In Step 2 the ideas generated in Step 1 are critically evaluated by company personnel to isolate the most attractive options. They invite consumers to a real or lab store where they may buy items and researchers dispensaries in grand rapids michigan note how many people buy the new product and competing brands. The company shows advertisements and promotions for a variety of products including the new product being tested to a sample of consumers.

With experience, the salesperson will be able to anticipate most objections and develop an appropriate approach for dealing with the objections depending on the type of customer they are dealing with. Sales negotiation skills and other capabilities required in the selling process are important for forest product marketers. Given these roles, it should be apparent that salespeople are the eyes and ears of the company in the marketplace. Salespeople possess a vast array of market, customer, and competitor information that should be incorporated into company knowledge management systems. As mentioned in Chapter 5, companies have been changing their organizational structures in order to become more customer-focused. In larger firms, the role of the salesperson is changing toward dealing primarily with a few large customers.

Many companies form consumer panels, who are invited to discuss the merits and demerits of the products. From such discussion, useful suggestions or ideas may emerge, which the company can exploit later on. It should be remembered that there is always a risk of failure in the marketing of new products. It is common knowledge that a large number of products fail to make the grade and have to be withdrawn from the market. Even well- known established companies have to withdraw their products because they often fail to click with the consumers.

Once the product has succeeded, they enter the market with a similar product or a slightly modified version of the same product. Ideas about new product may also come from research work by researchers at university and commercial laboratories, companies own research and development teams comprising of scientists, engineers and researchers. The ideas must be collected, reviewed and evaluated systematically through an organised system to find a good idea.

When customer strategies are identified, they in turn define the receiver shown in the model. Customers, by their unique characteristics, in turn define the possible channels. The model of marketing communication planning should be used to guide decisions integrating various aspects of the communications portfolio (see section 6.2). Customer satisfactionis a strong indicator of customer retention and overall business performance. Successful customer satisfaction research should help you understand what your customers like, dislike, and feel needs improvement. You can use this type of market research to look at quality and design of products; speed and timeliness of delivery; staff and service reliability, knowledge, friendliness; market price; and value for money.