What is Marketing?

What is Marketing?
4 Ps of Marketing
Process of planning and executing

• Product
• Promotion
• Pricing
• Place (or distribution system)

of ideas, goods and services to satisfy customers

True for developing world as well

 Importance of Marketing
• Perhaps the single most important failure mode in the
product development process
– Sloppy research (confirm prejudices)
– In development, not really understanding the customer
• Poor communication
• The “Margaret Mead” effect
– Ephemeral nature
• Not in an equilibrium state
– (right wrong)
– Poorly coupled to design
• Treated as a separate activity
– Too well coupled into design
• Constant changes in specifications
 Some good attributes
• Strong Customer involvement
– Customer cares
– Customer has “pain”
• Can define market segment (to be
discussed)
• Market growing
• Competitive advantage
• Others
 Techniques
• Interviewing
• Polling
• Working together to a common purpose
• Filming
• Other?
 Consider in turn
• P1 Product
– Needs identification
– How product would actually be used
– Context discovery
– Brainstorming of concept
– “Chilero” or coolness
– Modification of existing product for new market
 Consider in turn
• P2 Pricing
– What the customer can afford
– What value does the product bring
– What financing arrangements are possible?
– What is the price of a competitive product?
– What price is necessary to return a profit?
• What is the reason for keeping the price as low
as possible?
• How does the cost effect the price (don’t
confuse!)?
• Is it “immoral’ to earn a “fat” profit?
P3 Promotion

–
•
•
Brochures pictures?
Demo at market
Consider in turn
How do you make the customer aware of the existence of the product?
Word of mouth

• Someone use it for free

• Product advertises itself
• Radio
• Evangelical stations
Use
– Saturday loudspeakers
• Door to Door
• Use local languages
How
• can you generate excitement about the product?
– Pizzazz
• Personal experiences- testimonials
• Promotion lower price
• Celebrity endorsements football players, community leaders, church leaders
What
• are the costs of Promotion
– Need to budget
•
 Consider in turn
• P4 Placement (Distribution)
– How do you get the product to the customer?
– Consider where it will be manufactured
– Consider who will sell it? (effect on price!)
– Consider how you get it to the person who will sell it
– Consider how it will be maintained
 Marketing Research
• Primary Research
– Original research - data collected from the target market

• Secondary Research
– Meta research- data collected from literature, internet

We have defined a third research classification

Proxy research
– Research through knowledgeable third parties
• People with first hand experience in the specific market
 Marketing Research
• Primary Research
– Original research- data collected from
the target market
• Landivar students lead here
– Use in-country contacts (NGOs, professors,
other students)
• Use teleconferencing
• Interview people from indigenous
villages in LA?
• Other?
 Marketing Research
• Meta research- data collected from
literature
• trade association data
• industry publications and databases
• “Economist” and other publications
• government databases (e.g., US Dept of Commerce,
State Dept, Guatemalan trade)
• UN, NGO databases
• Other?
Go quickly from general to particular
 Marketing Research

– Proxy research- data collected from people

with first or second hand information
• Mentors
• Returning Peace Corps volunteers
• Returning NGOs
• Landivar partners
• Others?
 Target Markets
• Who are the people who will use your product?
– Geographic
• Location, climate, population size and growth rate
– Demographic
• Age, sex, ethnicity, income, occupation, education
– Psychographic
• Life-style, activities, interests, opinions
– How will they use product (use patterns)?
– What benefits will they derive?

• Do for
– Primary market- the first market addressed
– Secondary market- the next market(s)
 Segmentation- continued
• Psychographic variables
– life-style
– Activities
– Interests
– Opinions
– product use patterns
– and product benefits
 Barriers
• What are some of the reasons why your
customer won’t adopt your product?
• What can you do to mitigate this risk?
 After approval of your Mission
Statement. . .
Research Market
– Begin Research
• Write script
 Generate Hypotheses & Identify Underlying Assumptions
EVALUATION For Which Does The Value How Many Requirements
QUESTIONS: Customers Do I vs. Competitive Customers & to Attract, Sell &
Solve Important Alternatives What Will They Support These
Problems? Justify Change? Pay? Customers?

State your Quantify the Quantify total Why will solving What will it take to
assumptions problem you cost of adoption/ this problem be generate word-of-
regarding what solve vs. switching vs. important to more mouth and
alternatives in current methods customers over “brand”
your product is, each target or alternatives for time? awareness?
what it does, segment each target What will What kind of
and the By Industry segment customers be distribution model
implications for Is it worth it to a willing to pay & does the business
By Application
related customer? what are the model require?
(Use the product
technologies to…) Consider the implications for What support will
your business
By other segment cultural issues customers need
that are barriers model? to evaluate and
variable to change! use the product?
 Recruit Interview Targets
• How do I get them to talk to me?
– Use your personal, student and other Guatemalan contacts!
– Remember 6 degrees of separation! Do you know someone who
knows someone?
– Email addresses and numbers often on the web
– Tap your network for contacts, kiss frogs
– With IPOs, you are a credible student group building products and
services for Guatemala. -- meeting is a chance to influence those
investments
– With American Universities use the Caltech name! Be shameless!
– From Guatemalan company names get HQ city, find phone number.
 For the real customer
• Develop relationships in the village
through multiple contacts
• Socialize
• Help them with what they are doing
• Use influencers (heads, other volunteers)
• Others
• (Landivar! Help!)
 Interview
• How do I approach them?
– Use your 30-second pitch for in-person calls
– E-mail, follow-up phone calls work well
– Send them a 2-pager on what you know to date
– Provide agenda and general topics in advance
-- gives the target a chance to think
 Open Ended Interview Questions
• Flow from general to increasingly specific, but always open ended
• Question “DOs”
– Why? How do you measure that? How do you define that term? What’s
working, what isn’t? Can you draw a diagram of that so I can see where it
fits in your overall problem? How did you determine the value of that? How
would you make tradeoffs among those things? How will you remove
barriers to your success? What would the ideal situation look like?
• Question “DON’Ts”
– Don’t you think if…? Would you like it if…? Black or white, yes or no…? We
think, what do you think? If we do this, will you do that? What do you want?
What will you pay for it? What should we do?
 Competition
• The competitive landscape
– Provide an overview of
Note: Size of circle
product competitors, their can represent market share
strengths and weaknesses
– Position each competitor’s A B

Price
product against new product
– No competition is also
competition i.e., “doing
D
nothing” is an alternative C

Performance
 “Competition”
• Why have previous attempts at
development products failed in your
marketplace
• How are you going to do better?
• Why should you succeed?
• Write as hypothesis and test in your
market study
 Stakeholders
• Who has to touch the product and the
process for it to be successful?
– Consider everyone involved
• Everyone who can help
• Everyone who can get in the way

Important part of understanding market

-people you ignore at your peril