Deck 11: Manage Marketing Channels and Points of Customer Interface

Question 1

You are the vice president of sales for a $30million manufacturer of home building materials. The company employs 50 salespeople around the country to market the company's products to hardware stores and major building contractors. The CEO believes the company needs to cut costs and wants to reduce the sales force by 50 percent. You have been asked to come in and explain why that is a bad long term strategy for company. Discuss why sales people are critical to the success of the company.

Answer 1

Integrated Marketing Communication:
Integrated marketing communication refers to the strategy which ensures that the consumer receives similar brand experience across all the different offline and online channel and all the different consumer touchpoints.
Personal Selling:
Personal selling is a form of selling in which there is direct face-to-face communication between buyer and seller. It is still one of the most used forms of selling even after the increase in online channels and modes due to many reasons.
It is not a good decision to cut salesforce by 50% as we see in the example of the company whose CEO wants to do the same. Salesforce performs many important functions for the company which is much more then closing the sale and letting these people will go will have a negative long-term impact on the company even if it could gain short term cash flow.
Following are some of the important functions performed by the sales force.
1) Building relationship:
The main reason why salesforce or personal selling still exists today is the fact that people prefer to buy from those whom they trust. Salesforce acts as a touchpoint between the consumer and the company and helps facilitate building trust between both these parties.
2) Closing Sales:
One of the most important roles of salesforce is to close sales and bring in revenue for the company which helps attain the overall goal of the brand.
3) Value-Addition:
Consumers at different stages of the purchase decision have different queries and need different kinds of information before they could make a final decision. Salesforce ensures that they are adding value to the consumer during his purchase journey by providing with different and relevant information.
4) After-Sales Service:
Salesforce also performs and provides after-sales service in the form of follow-ups etc. They help sort any problems or consumer queries. All of this enhances the relationship between consumer and the brand which in turns help in generating repeat sales.

Question 2

What role will traditional car salespeople play in the car buying experience of the future

Answer 2

Modern ways of selling and marketing are varied in nature as compared to the traditional selling ways, which was narrowed down to showrooms and advertisement in local national media. Present Day car manufacturers have different ways of promoting their product based on the geography, liking and dislikes based on the location, promotions are also based on the economic power of the consumers.
Today's technology has made traditional selling ways as less challenging or sometimes obsolete. Selling is no longer about mere selling the product, today's selling is more of customers centric, by carefully listening to customer needs and their goals.
Yet, traditional strategies which are used are still applicable below are some such ways:-
Direct Mail marketing: There are many companies, mainly in the luxury goods segment, who send mails to its members about their products, this kind marketing includes visual and catchy display about the product and detail description about the product extensively.
Billboards Signage : Display of the product in prominent places, crowd pulling areas like malls, highways, main roads, in these catchy billboards, mainly brand logo, one or two pictures and slogans will be displayed. Larger signs like billboards will never be overlooked and gives wide reach and attracts customer's eyes. These use more images and fewer words to convey the message.
Flyers Brochures: These are handouts that are given at the common places, where many people visit or directly dropped at the physical mail box outside the house. This type of marketing directly connects with the customer, this is one to one basis marketing with more interactive and great connectively.
Event Marketing: This is marketing with a difference coupled with the traditional marketing, this kind is all about creating a buzz in the minds of the customers, might not generate immediate revenue but event is potential to create future revenues. This kind of marketing works tremendously when networking is built and worked upon the same.
Traditionally salespersons were the major source of sales and generating revenue, in modern times, even with the advent of digital marketing, some of the yester years sales methods are still used and yielding results.

Question 3

Advertisers: Should advertisers hire bloggers to post positive product experiences Should they require bloggers to indicate whether or not they have been paid to post their review

Answer 3

Blog is normally maintained by a person and is a platform to have a discussion, to provide information or to express opinion on a variety of subject. Blog is published in web, which contains text, pictures, videos and animated GIFs. Hiring a blogger is a new form of promotional activity to enhance and uplift the product review.
With the enormous success of the e-commerce, decision to buy a product is done digitally, based on the reviews product descriptions given in the website. With this parlance, advertisers of late are hiring bloggers as a part of their promotional activity to write reviews for their products.
These positive reviews in the websites will generate revenue to the company by way of product sales. These reviews by the bloggers will also contain all or at times main/new feature of the product.
The factors that will have biggest impact is the large audience and number of readers, mainly, if the blog has the wide reach, advertisers can hire bloggers to promote their products. As building the audience is the main aim, which every blogger would aspire for, naturally hiring them will be beneficial to the company. Regularly providing the updated information to the readers through blog will convert them into customers from just readers.
Bloggers need not mention the fact they have been paid to post the review, as potential customers do not entirely base their buying decision on the blogging sites, it is just a informed judgment and when potential customers look for the digital reviews, most of the customers are aware, as how the blog and bloggers work. May be like extended marketing or promotional activity.
Advertisers and bloggers, treat blogging sites as potential revenue earning streams. Customers also use multiple reviews from different websites before making the final decisions. So, Advertisers can hire bloggers as additional promotional method.
Bloggers are not required to disclose the fact that they have been paid or not. There is no requirement to do so.

Question 4

Identify three important personal characteristics that a Key Account sales person for a global manufacturer of networking hardware would need to be successful. The company sells multimillion-dollar product solutions to telecommunications companies and Fortune 100 global organizations.

Question 5

Salespeople offer a personal one-on-one experience for the customer; how should car dealers maintain that experience for the customer without increasing costs

Question 6

Consumers: Should bloggers post whether or not they are paid by an advertiser Does it make any difference whether bloggers are being paid to post reviews to "neutral" product Web sites and blogs

Question 7

You are marketing manager for Sharp electronics and have been asked to create a sales brochure for a new Sharp Aquos 42" LCD TV. Pick one model and identify the features, advantages and benefits for the product.

Question 8

How would you add value to a customer's purchase experience A friend is interested in becoming a salesperson at a BMW dealership and asks your opinion, what would you tell your friend

Question 9

You are vice president of Sales for a medium-sized technology firm and have been asked to design a new compensation package for the company's national sales force of 50 people. Currently, they are paid solely on commission with average compensation of $75,000 - $100,000. The CEO is concerned about customer service and wants the salespeople to focus more on servicing existing customers. What compensation plan would you suggest

Question 10

You are the Marketing Director for the local Red Cross chapter. Create a direct marketing campaign to generate money that is needed for a new building. What should be included in the direct marketing campaign