1.0 Marketing

Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies

customer requirements profitably

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

Marketing is the process whereby society, to supply its consumption needs,

evolves distributive systems composed of participants, who, interacting under

constraints - technical (economic) and ethical (social) - create the transactions or

flows which resolve market separations and result in exchange and consumption.

Bartles.

The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price

Adcock

Is a total system of business activities designed to plan, price,promote and

distribute want-satisfying products and services to present and potential customers

-William J Stanon, Fundamentals of Marketing, 7th Edition

The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and

distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy that

satisfy individuals and organizational goals.

-Marketing,6th Edition by Lamb,Hair,Mc Daniel

What was in existence before the Marketing concept was the Selling concept

where the companies use to produce products and services according to the

company specifications and tried to find customers for these goods.

With the Marketing concept, the whole practice changed the other way where

companies began to do research and understand the different needs and

requirements of the customers and then developed products and services in order

to satisfy them. So the starting point was not the production house but the

customer him self.

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The best classic example is industry of car manufacturing where Henry Ford

believed that customers would but cars as long as they are black and he produced

T model cars with the same design and all in black colour. He ignored the

customers wants in seeking variety in design and colour of a car.

Japanese car manufacturers understood the gap and they researched on the

customer requirements. They introduced cars in different colours and designs.

And soon the market leadership was with Japanese car companies in no time even

today.

In conclusion, companies who are ignorant of their customers and who only

concentrates on the business priorities can no longer survive in today’s context.

Customers no longer want to use a product similar to their neighbors. They are

offered a variety of options to satisfy their needs by both local and international

companies to day. Introducing superior products where ordinary customers can

not by or hard selling no longer works in the current market conditions. So the

only way to survive is to change the business focus in satisfying customer needs.

2.0 Market Orientation

Philosophy that assumes that a sale does not depend on an aggressive sales force

but rather on a customer’s decision to purchase a product.

Marketing,6th Edition by Lamb,Hair,Mc Daniel

Market orientation can be explained as the total set of activities that a firm does in

its strategies, operations, practices with keeping the market as the core. In other

words, all business activities will be focused on to the market and the customer

needs so that products and services of these firms will cater to these specific

needs.

This is the changing phase of the industries from product concept and selling

concept where the focus was not on the needs of the customer.

Market orientation believes that there is no reason why customers should buy one

organization’s offerings unless it is in some way better at serving the customers’

wants and needs than those offered by competing organizations.

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The best example would be the mobile phone industry in the whole world. Needs

of the target market have been well identified by the mobile phone manufacturers

and as a result, the mobile phones today do not simply used for oral

communication but caters are far greater set of wants such as entertainment,

verbal and visual communication, data storage, global connectivity, etc. People

were having such wants and were using different devises to satisfy each want.

Now all such requirements are catered by a single product. A mobile phone

manufacturer who do not cater to the needs of the market with such mobile phone

products will die in no time.

In conclusion, customers today are more knowledgeable with global information

available to them at their finger tips. As a result, they have become more

bargaining in their buying decisions. This leads companies to be more

knowledgeable about their customers and try to do effective segmentation and

thereby to understand the needs of the market segments better. It is the only way if

a company is to survive in this turbulent global market

3.0 Customer Orientation

Customer orientation is the comprehensive, continuous establishing and analysis

of customer expectations as well as their internal and external realization into both

entrepreneurial performance and interactions intended to establish stable and

economically profitable customer relations in the long-term

Bruhn 1995:393

Customer orientation can be taken as an extension of Market orientation. The

marketing concept was analyzing and anticipating customers needs through

segmentation. Customer concept further goes into concentrating specific needs

and wants of individual customers.

In the current context, a lot of companies have been able to do this with the use of

modern information communication technology. For example, a number of

supermarket chains in Sri Lanka, retail banks and hotels are practicing customer

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concept through online databases. As a result, at the point of closing a transaction

or checking in to a hotel, the management gets all the past transaction history and

purchase history of each client. This enables them to get closer to customers and

identify individual interests and thereby cater to the needs better.

Levis trousers is also practicing customer orientation and they have gone up to the

extent of doing tailor made Levis denims for customers.

In conclusion, customer orientation is used as a competitive advantage by a lot of

large-scale companies today. However, customer orientation is costly for any

company since managing collecting information about individual customers,

managing databases, and having the infrastructure for customer orientation needs

a lot of money and product customization also requires a lot of cost allocation. For

a company in a developing country like Sri Lanka, customer orientation can not be

practiced to its highest extent, but use it to an extent to do a product

customization. Best example is database marketing and relationship marketing

practiced by HSBC Sri Lanka with their database of premium customers.

4.0 Concept of Mass Marketing

Is the marketing approach that views the market as one big market with no

individual segments and thus requires a single marketing mix.

Marketing,6th Edition by Lamb,Hair,Mc Daniel

A company designs a single marketing mix and directs it at an entire market for a

particular product

Marketing, Basic Concepts and decisions by Pride/Ferrell

Mass marketing is where a company will concentrate on the whole broad market

with a particular product they sell. This mean that all the resources of the

company is invested in a single marketing mix. It is known as mass production,

mass communication, mass distribution, etc. The intension is to cost minimization.

The assumption is that the market has similar product needs and it can be catered

with a particular single marketing mix.

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This concept is not 100 practiced by any of the companies at today’s context.

However, the global powerful brand, Coke use to practice this strategy at a

broader scale with standardized product, bottle shape, advertising message, etc.

Further, the brand “Panadol” in Sri Lanka was also practicing this strategy with a

similar product to all levels of customers, similar prize, similar type of

advertising, etc. However , by now all these companies have understand the need

to customization in order to survive competition. As a result, even Coke and

Panadol have customized their marketing mix to a certain degree.

In conclusion, even though there are cost benefits as well as other benefits such as

better control over operations, there are negative factors as well. One of them is

that customers may not be fully satisfied with the mass offering and might shift to

a competitor product, which is more customized, and mass communications will

not appeal to all customers in the same level. Other factor is the risk involved in

concentrating all efforts on a single marketing mix. If a crisis happens that

particular marketing mix, it will lead to business closedown. So this concept is

evolving to mass customization now.

5.0 Concept of Customized Marketing

Tailoring a particular product to the specific needs of an individual customer.

wikipedia

This is the customization of the marketing strategies to fit a certain segment of the

customers. The ultimate form makes the segment with just one person

wikipedia

Customized marketing is generally practiced by companies whose products are

very expensive or unique, such as custom home builders or airplane

manufacturers, because these products can be designed to suit the special needs of

each customer. Since the company adapts its product and marketing program with

such a high degree of specificity, customized marketing is considered to be the

ultimate form of target marketing.

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An example can be Levis jeans where they have started practicing customized

marketing to a level where now they produce Levis jeans to fit the exact

measurement of the customer. This is done through taking measurements of the

customers who makes the order and then tailoring it. Earlier, Levis use to have

jeans with specific waist sizes.

However, this is a very costly practice and practicality of it depends on each

industry. Changing different aspects of the marketing mix to suit each and every

customer will use more resources and time. As a result, normally, customized

products are relatively highly expensive in nature.

In conclusion, customized marketing is the evolved output of differentiated

marketing. However, due to the fact that it is highly expensive to practice this

concept, mostly marketers of high end products follow it.

6.0 Core Concepts of Marketing

A particular definition cannot point out on the above topic since this is a set of

concepts that Dr. Philip Kotler has introduced. Further, these core concepts are

covered in this assignment individually.

These are a set of concepts, which would help to understand the concept of

marketing better. These concepts include customer needs, wants, demand and it

further goes to concepts like, segmentation, customer value, etc.

Needs are the basic human requirements. People need food, air, water, clothing, and shelter to survive. People also have strong needs for creation, education, and entertainment.

The above needs become Wants when they are directed to specific objects that might satisfy the need. person needs food but may want a hamburger, French fries, and a soft drink. A person in Mauritius needs food but may want a mango, rice, lentils, and beans. Wants are shaped by one's society.

Demands are wants for specific products backed by an ability to pay. Many people want a Mercedes; only a few are willing and able to buy one.

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In conclusion these core concepts helps to further elaborate the marketing concept.

In going through these it is evident that all of them are focused on analyzing

customer. Customer needs is the starting point in Marketing concept.

7.0 Marketing Myopia

Defining a business in terms of goods and services rather than in terms of the

benefits that customers seek.

Marketing,6th Edition by Lamb,Hair,Mc Daniel

Marketing myopia is a concept introduced by Theodore Levitt where he describes

it as the actions carried out by organizations with short sightedness and not having

a vision or not thinking about impacts of the actions in long term. Or in other

words he said that companies should broaden their scope in strategic decision

making in order for those decisions to be effective.

The best example is how Coca cola defined its business. , Coca Cola is not in the

business of selling soft drinks. If that’s the case their competitors will be other soft

drink manufacturers. The target market and potential is limited as well. However

for Coke, they are in the business of satisfying thirst. With such a broaden

thought, even water becomes the biggest competitor and Coke will start working

to see each and every person drinking Coke instead of water for thirst.

In conclusion, in today’s context, a company can not take business decisions with

the understanding that the companies who produce a similar product is the

competitor. The focus should not be on the proposition we offer to the market but

on the need the company expects to satisfy in the market. If a company produces a

lunch packet to satisfy hunger, the competitors will not limit to other producers

who market lunch packets, but it broadens from short eat marketers, biscuit

manufacturers, milk/dairy products, etc. This is due to the fact that all these

products try to satisfy the customer need of hunger,

8.0 Product

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A product is both favorable an unfavorable, that one receives in an exchange. It is

a complexity of tangible and intangible attributes including functional, social, and

psychological utilities or benefits.

Marketing,Basic Concepts and decisions by Pride/Ferrell

A product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or

need

wikipedia

Product can be anything from a physical thing like a car to a service like

transportation or even an experience like cinema. Or it can even be information

such as what you buy as a newspaper etc. The core is that is satisfies customer

need or a want.

As an example, if we want to travel from Colombo to Anuradhapura, we can

purchase a car for private use and travel in it. Or we can use public transport like

a bus or normal train and pay for the ticket and use the transportation but not the

vehicle. Then it becomes using a service of a Bus or the Train. Further, we can

book a special seat in the Observation compartment in the intercity train to Kandy

and watch the scenery on the way as well. Then it becomes an experience. All

these mediums will take you to Kandy and will satisfy your need or want.

In conclusion, product is the most important aspect in the marketing mix since it is

what satisfies customer needs. Further, brand, logo, packaging are all part of the

product and the companies should decide on all these areas of product so that all

of them rightly matches the customer profile and the needs.

9.0 Segmentation

Is the process of dividing a total market into market groups consisting of people

who have relatively similar product needs

Marketing, Basic Concepts and decisions by Pride/Ferrell

Any company would like to satisfy each and everyone’s needs and wants with a

product. However, as discussed earlier, customer wants, preferences, behavoiurs

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and thought processes are different to each other and will result in demanding for

different products and services.. But marketers do not have sufficient resources to

have such a wide variety and it will be too costly to purchase as well.

AS a result, Marketers try to find a set of people would at least have some

similarities in satisfying particular needs and wants. This is done by dividing the

total population into groups who would fall into particular similarities in nature.

They can me on demographic qualities such as gender, age, income etc or can also

be on personality, buying habits, etc.

As an example Old Spice can not produce a perfume which can be sold to both

men and women since the aroma preferences by males and female are different.

As a result, they segmented the market into Males and female. All females have

similar preferences on aroma in a broader perspective. So they cater only to men.

There are a number of factors in effective segmentation. They are a segment

should be,

Measurable

Substantial

Accessible

Differentiable

Actionable

In conclusion, no company in today’s context has sufficient resources to cater to

the needs of the whole population. As a result, the companies should analyze the

market and find a group of customers with some what similar behavour and that

the company has sufficient resources to cater that group as well. Effective

segmentation is highly important in strategic planning since, all future activities

such as utilizing resources in product development, branding, communications,

distribution decisions will be developed to suit to selected segments.

10.0 Personality

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Is an internal structure of in which both experience and behavior are related in an

orderly way.

Marketing,Basic Concepts and decisions by Pride/Ferrell

The way of organizing and grouping the consistencies of an individual’s

reactions to situations.

Marketing,6th Edition by Lamb,Hair,Mc Daniel

The way a person would respond to a stimuli that they grasp through the 5

sensory organs are different. This is because their personality is different. It can

be due to many reasons such as education, learning, family influences, culture,

experiences, etc. These form the personality of a person.

These personalities can be extrovert where such pole will be out going

adventurous, etc. and Even be introverts where such people will be calm, slow

in work, silent, etc.

Marketers can use personality as a segmentation mechanism. Companies like

Nike have used it and communicate to the extroverts with their products who

like adventure. The tag line on Nike “ Just Do It” says it all.

In conclusion, the personality is a very important factor in understanding

consumer behaviour since the products, brands, communicational mediums, the

messages and buying decisions of people has a lot to do with the particular

person’s personality. So the brand personality should match with the persons

personality for the product to me easily marketed.

11.0 Technological Obsolescence

Technical obsolescence is when a product is no longer technically superior to

other, similar products

wikipedia

The risk that a process, product or technology used or produced by a company

for profit will become obsolete, and is no longer competitive in the marketplace.

Obsolesces risk, www.answers.com

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With environmental changes such as changes in customer taste, advancements in

technology etc, the demand for such products will be different. This result in

limited life time for such products well.

As an example, 5-6 years back, the most common and easiest method of data

transportation from a computer to another was the 3.5 inch diskette. However, in

such a short time, this has been overtaken by USB flash pen drives which are

virtually portable mini hard disks. This was a result of the invention of data

storage ability in computer chips rather than in magnetic metal disks. In modern

computer models, the diskette drive is not seen and its being replaced with a set

of USB drives. Diskettes life time ended because of the technology

obsolescence.

To conclude, the life time of most of the products marketed at present is short.

This is totally due to the technological advancements taking place so rapidly.

Computers, software, mobile phone designs, electronic appliances are some of

them with the highest risk of technological obsolescence. So companies need to

keep on doing innovations in order to at least sustain in the market even though

it is a costly affair. This is why companies like 3M has been able to sustain

technological obsolescence.

12.0 Product Life Cycle

The concept which provides a way to trace the stages of a product’s acceptance,

from its introduction( birth) to its decline( death)

Marketing,6th Edition by Lamb,Hair,Mc Daniel

Traditional marketing understanding of the progress of a brand or product over

time, moving through four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline

www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199274895/01student/glossary/glossary.htm

A marketing theory in which products or brands follow a sequence of stages

including : introduction, growth, maturity, and sales decline

Laura Lake, www.About.com

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Product Life Cycle is known as a very useful tool that is being used in different

occasions such as analysis and strategy decision stages. It describes different

characteristics that the product would have when it passes through each. Seeking

whether these characteristics mach with the nature of the product will help

marketers to identify which stage their product is in.

Further, there are different strategies marketing mix variations laid out in each

stage. So after understanding the stage of your product in the life cycle, the

company can follow strategy and Mix changes prescribed in the particular stage.

Example, Horlicks was reaching the end of its life cycle with demand for

alternative milk powders and milk products were in operation. One of the

strategies in the declining stage is to reposition the band. Horlicks did it in Sri

Lanka positioning it as an energy drink for children. The marketing mix was

changed accordingly. The bottle shape, cover got different, communication

mediums, message got different accordingly. With the relaunch, Horlicks was

able to re-grow the market as well

In conclusion, the product life cycle is both an analysis tool as well as a strategy

directional tool. This is because, with the PLC tool, companies can try to

understand the stage of the life cycle that its products are passing currently and

at the same time they can try out the strategies laid out in each stage.

13.0 Positioning

The consumer perception of a product or service as compared to it’s competition

Laura Lake, www.About.com

A process that influences potential customers’ overall perception of a brand,

product line, or organization in general.

Marketing,6th Edition by Lamb,Hair,Mc Daniel

Positioning is the way how an organization/ product category/brand to be

established in the minds of their customers. To do this marketers should study

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and analyze what the available gaps in the customers mind are since positioning

will only be successful if the company can fill a gap.

For example, when a customers wants to buy a washing powder, a number of

washing powder brands will come to her mind. However, her need is more on to

buy a washing powder which will make the clothes more whiter and brighter,

there can be a gap, that’s is why Rin is trying to position is self as a washing

powder which give a better whiteness. If Rin carries out a successful

communication campaign, next time the customer wants a washing powder

which gives a better whiteness to clothes, Sunlight, Wonderlight or Surf Exel

will not come to her mind but Rin.

14.0 Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to

behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the

quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local

community and society at large

Lord Holme and Richard Watts, Making Good Business Sense

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is about how businesses align their values

and behaviour with the expectations and needs of stakeholders - not just

customers and investors, but also employees, suppliers, communities, regulators,

special interest groups and society as a whole. CSR describes a company's

commitment to be accountable to its stakeholders

www.csrnetwork.com/csr.asp

Business’s concern for social welfare

Marketing,6th Edition by Lamb,Hair,Mc Daniel

When a company operates in an environment, it sues different resources both

from that as well as out of that environment. Further, the parties who belong to

that environment would face impacts from the operations of the companies as

well. These impacts can be both positive and negative.

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With people becoming more and more educated and aware of their rights, they

become a force who would work against such companies who would have

negative impacts on their environments/ societies.

Understanding this trend, Companies started giving something back to the

environment/society for what they earn so they can minimize the negative

impacts. Corporate social Responsibility emerged due to this and it looks at

these efforts that are focused strategically and benefits the environment on a

longer term.

For an example, DFCC understood this requirement and launched a project to

carryout a programme which will enable schools form out stations to practice

Japanese Management practices in their school environment as well as well as at

home. It has a long-term vision of supporting to make an exemplarily society

and it can be achieved through giving best practices to the future generations of

Sri Lanka.

15.0 Generalization

In classical conditioning, the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke

similar responses after the response has been conditioned.

www.psychology.about.com

Transfer of a response learned to one stimulus to a similar stimulus.

www.thefreedictionary.com

Stimulus generalization is the tendency of a subject to respond to a stimulus

or a group of stimuli similar but not identical to the original CS.

www.cliffsnotes.com

It is related to psychology, It is a conditioning as a mechanism for attitude or

behavioral change in extent to which a response conditioned to one stimulus

transfers to similar stimuli. Stimulus generalization relates to both brand

extension and private-label imitations of national brands.

The study collectively provide evidence that attitudes/behavior which are

conditioned to a particular brand can be transferred to a product with a similar

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name in the same category, as well as a product with the same name in a

different category. To evince it with example, Wal Mart started as a organized

retail stores for multibrands. Once the brand was registered in the mind they

came up with private label for both parallel and un-parallel products and they

got similar response from the consumer as they got it for wal-mart stores. Or if

to take an example, Anchor in Sri Lanka has been an established well in the

industry of milk powder. Over the years it has become a well-known household

name and even used by consumers as a generic name for milk powder. With that

registration, Anchor went into the mild foods industry and launched Anchor

Yogurt, ready to drink milk with the same Anchor brand name. Consumers

would welcome the new products in different categories due to generalization of

the brand.

Further, ‘Me Too” products are also applying this concept where a new product

is launched in the same category with the close/ more similar brand name or

logo so customers would generalize and try the new product. In Sri Lanaka,

Local manufacturer of carbonated drinks launched My Cola brand in the Sri

Lankan market where the logo letter design, colour, etc were similar to Coca

Cola.

In conclusion, generalization is widely practiced in marketing as a way of easy

entry to markets when products are launched. However, the other side of this is

the impact of brand crisis. If an established brand faces a crisis and if it creates a

negative perception amongst the customers, the newly launched brand

extensions or even closely branded products will face the same negative

perception. Further, it can happen the other way round where if a newly

launched product with close branding fails in the market, it might have a

negative impact on the established brand as well.

16.0 Forces in Macro Environment

The uncontrollable variables that affect target market whether it consists of

consumers or business purchasers.

The best example can taken from the vehicles industry where with the fuel price

hike in all over the world, there is an emerging demand for vehicles which run

with fuel substitutes. If major car manufacturers like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc

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do not understand this need, they all will run out of business soon since fuel will

not be affordable by general public in time to come with these price increase

trends.

Another good example is the crisis faced by the export garments manufacturing

industry in Sri Lanka. The large customers such as Europe and US are taking

initiative to uplift the quotas given to Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka will have to

compete with low cost producers like China for these markets in the future.

Already companies like MAS has announced they are bringing down the

number of employees.

As shown in the above examples, the macro environmental factors include

variables that marketers or businesses can not control. They are,

Political and legal factors - Rules regulations, international relationships,

agreements, etc

Economical factors – Factors such as inflation, per capita, GDP, interest rates,

etc.

Social and Cultural factors – Such as population, population aging, mortality

rate,

literacy, values, traditions, cultural festivals, etc.

Technological factors – Such as technological infrastructure, etc.

Environmental factors – Such as strength of environmental groups/ institutions/

bodies,

weather, natural disasters, etc.

In conclusion no one organization is powerful enough to create major change in

the external environment. Thus businesses are technically adapters rather than

creators. Unless the companies scan and understand the above macro

environmental factors properly, they are not in a position to plan for the future.

This simply because it the external environmental factors that create

opportunities and threats for businesses.

17.0 Consumer Perceptual Space

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Consumers perceptual space is the hypothetical geometric space in the

consumers mind where brands and products occupy in different places in that

space.

This means that how a consumer perceives a particular brand or a products and

conditions its benefit against competitors in his or her own mind. This has

nothing to do with the actual features of the product against its competitors, but

totally about how consumers perceive and record them in their minds.

For example, at present, if someone asks from a local person what are the

options that can satisfy the hunger in between meals( “ podi badaginna) almost

anyone would say its Munchi Super Cream Cracker as the first option. This is

how they have perceived the brand in their minds.

Another example can be the carbon pens. If a research is done amongst students,

and if they were asked a brand of the carbon pen that writes till the last ink drop,

most of them will say its “ Atlas Chooty”. This is how the brand has established

in the minds of the consumer.

In the above examples, Munchi Super cream cracker may not be a good solution

for satisfying hunger during the in between meals. And there may be better

options as well. But, that space in the consumer’s mind is already filled by the

Super Cream Cracker brand. This is why is is mentioned that it has nothing to

do with actual product offerings.

In introducing a product and in doing positioning, the marketers should find a

gap in the perceptual space since filling that gap is the only way that the

particular brand can be established in the minds of those consumers. Further, it

is very hard or mostly impossible to replace a brand and establish a new brand.

This is why Latte ready to drink flavored tea by Unilever got failed in Sri Lanka.

Sri lankans by nature are used to have tea in the morning. But this tea taste is not

flavoured, but a plain tea with milk. Latte introduced new flavours such as Mint,

Caramel, Mango, etc. Sri Lankans are not used to have mango drink when it is

served hot. Fruit drinks always consumed after chilled. So they were trying to

replace the cool soft drinks perception with hot fruit drinks. It did not work since

customers rejected the drink.

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In conclusion, Consumer Perceptual Space is a concept which arises in the area

of brand positioning. It discusses how a general consumer would perceive each

and every brand that he or she recalls against competitors. Analyzing perceptual

space of the target consumers is really important to any business since it enable

the companies to identify perceptual space gaps in the consumers mind and

there by can fill the brands with their brands.

18.0 What is Sri Lankas challenge in marketing today

The biggest challenge that Sri Lanka face today in terms of a marketing is that

the country brand is being ill positioned in term of the space the brand has

occupied in the minds of the people of other countries.

The messages conveyed by different parties, different activities and at the same

time how all theses messages are interpreted by the international community sets

the image of the countries. The ethnic crisis which takes place communicates a

lot of negative messages to the country and it is backed by side effects of war

such as violation of human rights issues, economic crisis, political instability,

corruption, safety as well. These will result in the international bodies as well as

individual foreigners to perceive Sri Lanka as a country which should not be

involved with in either international relations or visiting for leisure.

Being a country so much dependant on other countries both in growing GDP

through tourism and international trade as well as expecting grants and financial

support to maintain social welfare, this is Sri Lanka’s marketing challenge to

reposition itself in the minds of the rest of the world.

There are number of initiatives taken by the responsible authorities on this, some

of them are the relationship building through the Sri Lankan ambassadors who

operate in all over the world. Further, hosting events like SAARC, international

cricket matches would take the message to the world in order to change negative

perceptions about the country.

19.0 Concept of Repetition

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Repetition means the effect that repeated sensations grasped through a sensory

organs of a person, would have on the perceptions that he is going to have on

those particular objects.

In simpler terms, it means if a person getting the same sensation from an object

over a number of times, he or she would have a stronger recall as well as an

established perception on that particular object. This is highly used by marketers

in planning communications/advertising. Sensations of a customer would be

sight, smell, toughed feeling, noises heard and the taste. If a similar sensation is

focused at the customer over a number of times, the message establishment in

the mind will be stronger. One of the key elements that a logo attributes is this.

For example, the Coca Cola logo colours, lettering are similar and when ever a

person sees a soft drink bottle with a red background and the white lettering, he

perceives it as coca cola. This helps the particular brand to standout better in the

consumers mind.

Another example is in doing advertising campaigns, marketers try to do it in an

integrated approach where a single message is communicated from all the

mediums used. The music themes used in ads will be similar. So getting exposed

to the same message repeatedly will make that brand perception to be

established stronger in the consumers mind. Another example would be the TV

advertisements done for the soap brand Sunlight. The thematic music has been

the same in all Sunlight advertisement for all this time and when ever a person

hears the thematic music, the Sunlight becomes the top of the mind recall.

Further, in advertising, repetition concept is of vital importance since the

frequency of the advertisements should run ( the number of times) is dependant

on this repetition theory and it is assumed that the target audience should see a

TV advertisement at least 3 times a week for it to have a proper recall.

In conclusion, the concept of Repetition is of utmost vital in planning

communications strategy and specially at a time where media is o much

cluttered with so many messages being communicated to the audience with the

objective of establishing each brand in their mind.

20.0 Concept of Subjective Reality vs. Objective Reality

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Subjective reality is the reality seen through our inner mental filters that are

shaped by our past conditioning. Objective reality is how things really are.

www.ahalmaas.com/glossary/o/objective_reality.htm

These two concepts also fall within the broader concept of perception. The

definitions are self explanatory. Although it is possible to perceive objectively,

we cannot take in the totality of reality and say anything about it; we can only

point to some of its characteristics. So whenever we explore reality in any

specific manner, we have to leave out something. For example, when you

describe an orange, you cannot say anything about its totality. You have to talk

about its color or its taste or its shape. If you want your description to

encompass the whole thing -- its color, shape, and taste all together -- you can

only say, "orange."

In marketing communications, this is what the marketers trying to practice in

order to position their brands in the minds of the customer. When a customer

comes across the messages communicated through media, when they are

exposed to products, packaging, branding, etc, the customers will have a certain

perception about the product. It can be negative or positive. But marketers want

it to be positive. This is subjective reality since the customer has not tried it yet.

But the real product may be different to what the customers perceive it to be.

The best example would be the classic case of Coke. Major competitor of Coke

was Pepsi in Us, and through research, Coke found that Pepsi in bought by

consumers is because it is sweeter. Through blind tests, consumers preferred

Pepsi over Coke. So Coke changed its flavour and introduced a sweeter flavour

with slight changes to marketing mix. The new sweeter Coke was rejected by

consumers and they rampaged asking for the original Coke. The insight is that

even though that consumers were happy with a less carbonated drink ( even they

prefer to have sweeter drinks) as long as it was Coke.

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