While many household brands that we know and love today are famous for their successful launches and marketing campaigns planned throughout a given year, it often gives aspiring entrepreneurs a wrong impression of how marketing strategies operate. Sure, following trends on Twitter, matching with the latest celebrities on Instagram, and creating engaging video adverts on YouTube are excellent methods of grabbing people’s attention. Still, a real marketing management approach is more than just the number of heads you get to turn your way.
As a result, despite the growing number of bright young individuals dipping their toes in the waters of e-commerce, only a select few have a firm grasp on one of the fundamental aspects of business management — marketing. And to help bridge the gap and better inform the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, we’ll be going over some of the most prominent marketing management styles that may work well with your product or service.
#1 Production vs. Product Concepts
Although the production and product concepts operate on different principles, these marketing styles are two different sides of the same coin. In the former, the production concept argues that consumers will always favor products and services with increased availability and affordability. In contrast, the latter would propose that quality, performance, and innovative features will always win out. But, in reality, both approaches are relevant depending on the brand message you want to reach people.
-
Demand for Low-cost Alternatives:
For those in favor of the production concept, there’s no denying that demand for low-cost alternatives will always exist because the market for cost-effectiveness is thriving. It’s the reason why brands like Lenovo live off of price sensitiveness and just why people are constantly comparing the best and most affordable laptops available. Of course, mass distribution and production efficiency don’t always live with e-commerce because it can hurt customer relationships.
-
Constant Search for Novelty and Innovation:
People love innovation. If we reference some of the latest and greatest emerging technologies like the metaverse or breakthroughs in blockchain development, audiences will always demand novelty. And under this marketing approach, it’s all about product and service quality, pushing for continuous improvements. However, one argument against this strategy is that people don’t always want a better solution, and sometimes making unnecessary fixes receives the wrong backlash.
#2 Aggressive Selling Tactics
Another marketing strategy that many companies tend to follow is the selling concept. The practice of aggressive selling tactics is encouraged because these work best with goods, products, and services that are typically unsought after. Here, there are heavy emphases on promotion effort, and businesses track down their leads and prospects to create the demand themselves. The risk here is that most of the concept rides on assumptions, and one wrong move could stop a target audience from converting into paying customers.
-
High Risk, High Reward:
Since this approach focuses on creating sales transactions instead of striking at the core by building long-term, profitable customer relationships, there’s a chance that the persuasion or sales script falls flat with a large portion of your audience. And because most of the domino effect depends on hype and word-of-mouth marketing, it could prove disastrous when it doesn’t work but also highly successful when it does.
-
Strains Customer Relationships:
Branching off the same thought process on long-term, profitable customer relationships, the diversion of making what the company wants instead of what the market wants can weaken bonds with the customers. Sure, it might work the first few tries. Still, if the foundation is unsustainable, people will notice these signals sooner and later, where disappointment will impact much stronger than the potential for satisfaction.
#3 Marketing Contrasted Societal Marketing
Last but not least, one of the more timely approaches most brands in the e-commerce space can utilize is the marketing concept or the societal marketing concept, wherein the primary factor driving action is delivering on desired satisfactions. In the former, customer focus and value are always present in the planning and execution, taking an outside-in perspective that integrates all necessary marketing activities. In the latter, the societal marketing concept focuses more on the consumer’s long-run welfare, which benefits their well-being in the long term.
-
Sense-and-respond Philosophy:
When adopting the marketing concept as a strategy, it operates on the sense-and-respond philosophy, wherein companies capitalize on emerging demand and profit on a first-mover basis. For example, the price of vehicles has been fluctuating the past months, so the demand for more affordable Honda vehicles for sale and other fuel-efficient brands is present. However, simply responding also has its downfalls because the message gets lost in the noise.
-
Long-term Shared Value:
In brief, the social marketing concept is more concerned about long-term shared value, the sustainable kind that will continue to persist even in future generations. This approach cares not about the short-term economic gains but relies on rethinking the interaction between brand and customer. People often associate this with purpose-driven marketing, and while the name sticks, it’s hard to get off the ground.
Weigh the Pros and Cons of Each Approach
Overall, every marketing management style and approach have their merits, and you can’t objectively put one above the other because it’s all dependent on the industry and target audience. So, feel free to weigh the pros and cons of each before deciding on which method to use for your e-commerce brand.