Thefield of marketing has seen a continuous revolution. Five eras ofmarketing have been witnessed – these are the holistic marketingera, the marketing era, the selling era, the product era, and theproduction era(Applbaum, 2004).In the production era, organizations only concentrated on producing aproduct to attain the widest distribution possible. The Product erasaw the dedication of efforts to improve the quality and performanceof products. In the selling era, organizations concentrated theirefforts in promoting their product. In the marketing era,organizations started to concentrate their efforts on the productsthat customers wanted. In the modern era, we have a holistic approachwhere every effort matters(Applbaum,2004).
Question1
Inthose eras, one thing was constant, change. Thus, I completely agreewith that the rules of marketing have changed because theyhave never been constant or have they? We live in an era wheretechnology controls everything we do, and more people can easilyaccess information compared to the past (Fishkin,& Høgenhaven, 2013).The knowledge of products and services in the market has just becomea click away, making it easy for the consumer to gain more insightand share it, giving rise to a conscious consumer. We have moved fromWeb 1.0 to 2.0 Web 1.0 was static and very autocratic, siteadministrators controlled information and it was mandatory for themto be equipped with skills of HTML coding(Fishkin, & Høgenhaven, 2013).But the emergence of Web 2.0 allowed the development of interactiveand participative platforms, which have shaped our marketing today(Fishkin,& Høgenhaven, 2013).We have seen the rise of social media platforms, which are now beingused by potential consumers of any product. These venues allowcompanies and consumers to interact one on one on a personal level,which seemed impossible 20 years ago. The people using theseplatforms have surpassed by far those who use TV, radios, and printmedia (Fishkin,& Høgenhaven, 2013).It has been made possible due to the emergence of smartphones,tablets, and laptops.
Isinbound marketing the solution? No doubt that a more sophisticatedmarketing strategy is needed that best suits, and is adaptive to thetechnological changes. Inbound marketing has been seen as the bridgethat brings together customers and producers of products and servicesthrough an interactive session which was impossible through outboundmarketing (Fishkin,& Høgenhaven, 2013).It allows the interested customers to seek businesses through venuessuch as Google and social media, thus increasing customer leadscompared to inbound marketing which was seen as interruptive(Fishkin, & Høgenhaven, 2013).This kind of marketing has proved to be productive for B2Borganization, as they do a lot of research before getting intobusiness deals(Fishkin,& Høgenhaven, 2013).Moreover, the process has proven to be cheap as it utilizes thebenefits of technology which is now easily accessible to everyone.Thus, inbound marketing has proven to be a solution, but I believe itcannot be used exclusively to generate returns.
Question4
` Thatstatement brings me to question 4, which is related to question 1. Ithought it will be appropriate if answered it first, beforeproceeding to question 2, 3 and 5. I believe that Shah and Halliganare stubborn by avoiding the use of any outbound marketing element.Marketing refers to the application of all necessary activities tocreate awareness. If we look at marketing today, you will realizethat, every achievement that was made in each era has beenassimilated in the marketing strategies of this century. Marketingteaches business people to diversify and assume a holistic approach.Inbound marketing is dependent on the internet, but assume you runcorporations like Pepsi or Coca-Cola or any other multinationalcorporation, you will realize you need more than inbound marketing inyour marketing strategies. Business people should be creativethinkers who can think beyond outcome and future possibilities.Outbound marketing has its disadvantages, but when used together withinbound marketing, an organization can reap more benefits than justusing a single marketing strategy.
Question2
has already generated some customers through inboundmarketing, which are the Owner Ollies and Marketer Marys. They havediscovered that they served many customers of Owner Ollies, thoughthey bail out quickly compared to Marketer Marys who take a whilebefore they cut links. The challenge that an organization usually haswhen they start a business is, identifying the right target marketwhich they can specialize their products on. It is clear from thearticle that even its members are not sure on whom to specialize,though they tend to advocate for Marketer Marys. For an organizationthat is not established, should not quickly specialize withoutevaluating the feasibility of that decision. The wrong decision cansend the organization out of the market. It is thus, important thatthe organization serves any customer that comes their way, while itevaluates them and investigates whether it needs to specialize inserving a particular group or diversifying. But these decisions alsodepend on the level of organization and resources available.
Question3
is receiving two types of customers, Owner Ollies, and MarketerMarys. It is clear that the demands of these two groups aredifferent, and there is a need to differentiate products andservices. It will enable the organization to be able to sell theright product and service to the right customer, increasingefficiency and customer satisfaction. The price has to be changed, asin the short run it will be expensive for the if Owner Ollieswill keep bailing out within a short lifespan. For the MarketerMarys, it is effective as they have a long lifespan. In a marketwhere competition is stiff, and the organization wants to have a leadmarket share, anything counts. is a new organization in themarket with already established competitors, it is thus importantthat they make a first impression to any client they will serve atthis time. That can also be used as market entrance strategy.
Question5
For to be where saleforce.com is, there is a need to offerquality services and keep close contacts with their client and showconcern for their progress. needs to do more marketingwhether inbound or outbound to reach vast markets their services arenot bound by distance. should target the lead customers whoare likely to be converted to real consumers and keep reinventing andrepositioning their strategies. Also, the organization can try tofocus on a particular market that is promising, thus utilizing itsresources efficiently(Kossowski,2007).Furthermore, it can use a differentiation strategy that gives theupper edge in the market, thus attracting a wide array of thecustomer(Kossowski, 2007).But, before any strategy is implemented, the organization should do aSWOT analysis. The reason why an organization would use Porter’sgeneric strategy, and especially differentiation and focus, isbecause it is cheap and easy to implement when you know your market(Kossowski, 2007).The problem I would have in trying to reach the level ofsaleforce.com is the ability to focus on a particular group andreplace the customer relation that is already established.
Conclusion
Thus,a successful marketing strategy depends on the ability to mix variousstrategies that give your organization an upper hand. There is nodoubt that a lot has changed and today inbound marketing would be thebest strategy, but purely using it without a little incorporation ofsome outbound marketing can result to underperforming. It is myopinion that marketing today should be a holistic approach.
References
Applbaum, K.(2004). Themarketing era: From professional practice to global provisioning.New York, NY: Routledge.
InFishkin, R., & In Høgenhaven, T. (2013). Inboundmarketing and SEO: Insights from the Moz Blog.Wiley.
Kossowski, A.(2007). Strategicmanagement: Porter`s model of generic competitive strategies – theoryand analysis.München, Germany: GRIN Verlag GmbH.
Trout, J.,& Rivkin, S. (2010). Repositioning:Marketing in an era of competition, change and crisis.New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.