The Key To Marketing Is To Understand The Needs

There is a little story that everyone is very familiar with: a shoe company wanted to explore the African market, so it sent two business personnel to Africa to investigate the market. The two salesmen saw the same phenomenon when they arrived in Africa, that is, Africans do not have the habit of wearing shoes; When two salesmen returned, one of them said that there was no market for selling shoes in Africa because no one wore shoes in Africa. The other sees a huge potential market. The same phenomenon has got quite different views. The same case is Selling Combs to Monks.

　　 Philip Kotler At the 2005 New Thinking Global Tour Forum, he said: "Marketing is to find needs and meet them". In the classic 4P theory of marketing, the first P is also about the needs of consumers. From this, we can draw the conclusion that it is important to discover the needs of consumers in marketing.

The launch of any product must be based on understanding the needs of consumers (or have potential needs). During the SARS period, Robust found people's demand for health. During this period, people talked about the great change of SARS, and everyone's attention to their own health reached a new height. Therefore, Robust fully grasped this market demand and quickly launched the "pulse" functional drink, which can improve the immunity of the human body, It has met people's demand for health. Once the products are pushed to the market, there is a nationwide hot sale phenomenon. Later, Kangshifu, Nongfu Shanquan, Wahaha and other companies also launched functional drinks, further intensifying the segmentation of the beverage market. The reason why "Internet food became popular" has also been found that Internet users like the habit of eating snacks while surfing the Internet, but many snacks are easy to fall off and pollute the keyboard, followed by consumers, especially teenagers, who face the computer/TV screen for a long time will lead to fatigue, resulting in poor eyesight and other needs; In response to these needs, "Red Internet Rice" appeals to the product as "energy patch". The product contains rich vitamin A, carotene and active calcium, which can alleviate fatigue. {page_break}

There are many similar examples, which will not be listed here.

Let's take a look at such a case: Brand A toothpaste had a promotional activity in a hypermarket for a while. The form of promotion was to tie a cup for brushing teeth on each box of toothpaste. The product was sold for one free, and the product was displayed on the ground in the main channel; In the past few days, the same promotional activities were held in this store, and the form of the activities was also a sell one get one free activity, which was displayed on the floor of the main channel, but at this time the gift was replaced by a piece of soap; At the end of the activity, we pulled out the relevant sales data, and found that the sales volume of the soap giving activity was far higher than that of the tooth brushing cup giving activity. Why is this? Imagine that a consumer's family will lack a cup for brushing teeth. Many enterprises will choose a cup as a promotional gift. Consumers take that gift, most of which are used for brushing teeth. There are already many at home, and such gifts can not arouse consumers' desire to buy; It is different to give soap. Even if you have soap at home, soap is a commodity you have to buy when you run out of it. It is a daily necessity. Therefore, the needs of consumers should also be taken into account when promoting sales.

Another case: Brand B wine is positioned as a medium and high-end wine. When it entered a KTV, it was originally intended to do a free gift or special price activity to boost sales. However, after several days of in-depth market research, it was found that many of the people who came to the KTV to consume were lovers. They had a sudden idea and planned a promotional activity, Both consumers who consume brand B wine can get a bouquet of roses as a gift to the beauty. This promotion has achieved good results, that is, effectively avoiding price war and receiving good economic benefits.

There are many cases like this, do sale People often complain that the scheme planned by the marketing department of the company does not correspond to the actual market situation. How can such promotion work! Yes, the same cost is used for promotion, and different promotional gifts have different effects. Therefore, before doing every promotion plan, we must study consumer demand, not only at the level of price war, but also fall into the quagmire of price war. As long as we open our eyes and dare to innovate according to consumer demand, You can also plan activities with low cost and high income.

The competition in the modern retail industry is becoming increasingly fierce, and each store is similar in decoration and store layout. It can be said that even the products sold in the store are very similar. If you want to compete with your competitors in the store decoration, how much you invest today, your competitors can also invest more money than you tomorrow. Today, your products will be 10% off, and tomorrow, your competitors will be 20% off, In this way, there is no difference at all. It is always the merchants who are injured in the price war and cost struggle. With people's income increasing and their pockets bulging, what they need is not only the product itself, but also the added value of the product, such as the need for respect and quality service. If you play the high-quality service card at this time, you will meet the market demand.

As we all know, the competition in the household appliance industry has become intense. After the price war, every manufacturer has played a service card, which also caters to consumers' demand for quality services; Just imagine that today, when the product homogenization is serious, the product quality is not much different. If the product popularity is also equal, of course, we should choose the product with good service for consumption.

　　 Marketing The key is to go deep into the market, understand the needs of consumers, and develop corresponding products or services according to consumer demand, so as to occupy a place in the fierce competition.

Zhang Wenping: ten years of first-line marketing and management practical experience, good at: team building, practical sales training, market planning; At present, we are committed to researching brand planning, and welcome to discuss and exchange experience. Tel: 13251010509E-mail: hzzwp001@yahoo.cn