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The Four P's of Marketing - Marketing Mix
The Marketing Mix
The marketing mix is an important set of parameters that can be adjusted to create an ideal marketing strategy. Every product has a unique set of marketing needs which can be broadly placed into four categories: product, price, place, and promotion (Jolly 2007). Each of these categories is variable and marketers must make decisions to control their effect on the overall marketing strategy. Finding the optimal blend of each variable will contribute to a successful marketing campaign. A company with which I am familiar, Microsoft, provides many examples of how the marketing mix can be used to impact a marketing plan. The software giant has been able to use a wide range of advertising mediums to advance their products to public. As with any company, Microsoft has adjusted some aspects of the marketing mix more drastically than others. Every industry has unique needs will ultimately influence the decisions of the company in its marketing strategy.
Product
The product category refers to the marketer’s ability to make changes to the product’s style, name, packaging, quality, etc. Changes to the physical product can be used to make the product more attractive to the targeted customer base. Competitive markets have caused businesses to make decisions that affected the look and appearance of a product in order to draw the attention of customers. Most products require some degree of marketing input, regardless of quality or condition (Mind Tools2008). In the case of Microsoft, the appearance of their software products is important to the overall marketing strategy. The software market demands that the software interface is atheistically pleasing, regardless of the overall functionality (DeGroot 2005). Microsoft has recognized this need from its customer base and made an effort to improve the look of the graphical user interface. Decisions about the look and feel of a product are directly related to needs uncovered from marketing research. Throughout the years the company has developed features in response to the request of customers. In addition, many features have been added to improve the customer’s experience with the product. For example, on their latest release of Vista operating system software, Microsoft added features that improve the overall appearance of the program. Although this does not add greater functionality to the software, it grabs the customer’s attention and increases the desire to purchase the product. Overall, product is the first and in many cases the most important component of the marketing mix.
Price
Price is the second component of the marketing mix and plays an important role in the marketing strategy. When shopping for similar products, price is often the factor that determines the customer’s purchasing decision. Both consumers and businesses place a high level of importance on the price of a product. Marketers look at the prices of competitors and make pricing decisions based on the demand of the market. Many companies lay out a strategy to price their products below those of competitors, although this is not always the case (Mind Tools 2008). Microsoft has adapted a strategy that targets pricing to specific customers. For example, the Microsoft Office software suite has been targeted to students at a discounted price. The company has made their product available to students at a lower price to increase their sales volume and build brand loyalty. Pricing the product lower allows students access to otherwise expensive product that could be replaced by less expensive competitors. This pricing decision will ultimately lead to long term sales because young customers will develop a certain degree of loyalty and familiarity to the software. Pricing is a critical aspect of the marketing mix and can have substantial impact on a customer’s purchasing decision.
Place
Place refers to the availability of a product in a location or geographical region. Some products are available worldwide, whereas others can only be purchased in a very specific region. Many products are available only through an individual store front, while others can be purchased in thousands of different locations (Mind Tools 2008). The internet has greatly expanded the visibility of many products by allowing customers to place orders over the web. Many businesses have recognized the value that the internet has in marketing and have produced websites that help sell their products. A store can amplify their customer base with a relatively low investment by promoting their products over the internet. Microsoft has created a global strategy for product availability. Their software products can be purchased in a wide variety of locations that include both physical and virtual locations. Furthermore, the company has contracted with personal computer manufacturers to exclusively carry their operating system (DeGroot 2005). There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding this strategy and some say that it violates antitrust laws. Essentially, a customer that buys a personal computer cannot avoid the purchase of the Microsoft software that is included as part of the purchase. In general, greater access to a product will increase sales volume; however exclusivity can be beneficial and increase the perceived quality of a product.
Promotion
The final step in the marketing mix is promotion, which refers to the way a business publicizes its product offerings. There are many approaches to this step and it is often referred to as advertising. Some of the most common advertising mediums include television, radio, print, and the internet. Ultimately, the advertising medium will be dependent upon the needs of the business and the strategy outlined in the marketing plan. The primary goal of this step is to educate the target customers and give them a compelling reason to purchase the product. In addition, the promotion step also includes sales and public relations. Sales are an important part of nearly every business and can have a significant impact on the marketing plan of a company. A salesperson has direct contact with the customer and has the responsibility of displaying a positive image of the product and building a relationship with the customer. Most marketing strategies will contain a combination of both advertising and sales. The advertising efforts will initially draw the attention of the customer and the sales effort will close a deal. Sales can be conducted in person, over the phone, and even online. New internet technologies have been supplementing and in some cases replacing the duties that have been traditionally handled by sales reps. A balanced combination of sales and advertising will lead the healthy promotion of a product.
Microsoft utilizes both advertising and sales techniques to promote their products. Some of their most visible marketing campaigns have been conducted over the internet and television (DeGroot 2005). Advertisements over these mediums are primarily targeted at the end users of the software. The majority of computer users are already familiar with Microsoft products so much of the advertising is focused on upgrades and product enhancements. The majority of salesmanship is directed towards computer manufacturers. By developing relationships with computer manufacturers Microsoft has been able to sell their product to consumers as part of a package. This strategy has proved to be very successful and has established the company as the market leader in the software industry.
Conclusion
The basic marketing mix, which includes product, price, place, and promotion, is a concept for marketers to consider when developing a marketing plan. Finding the optimal blend between the four components is the primary objective of the marketing mix. Each component has a certain level of significance to a product; the level of which is unique for each individual product and the goals of the company. In my experience, promotion has been the most important part of the marketing mix and provides the most visible impact on sales volume. In addition, the promotion stage allows for a high degree of creativity through many available advertising mediums. Microsoft has utilized the marketing mix to become the market leader in personal computer software. They have established their leadership position by marketing their products to both businesses and consumers. Over the years their efforts have created a high level of brand loyalty, and in some cases dependency. In brief, the marketing mix serves as a robust guideline from which a business can develop a marketing plan.
See Also...
Agile Marketing Analytics Platform
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Become more agile and support data-driven decisions across your marketing organization with Accenture’s Agile Marketing Analytics Platform. View our quick demo to see how this software helps a marketing manager at a fictitious retail company optimize her marketing mix.
Make Plans Backed By Strong Analysis
The Agile Marketing Analytics Platform runs diagnostics of actual performance and investment patterns. This evaluation of historical effectiveness is a foundation for forward-looking marketing plans.
Optimize Your Plan
This solution helps you to optimize your current or future plans across your media and portfolio to identify the best mix of media across media channels, sales channels, product portfolios and geographies. By simulating scenarios across different marketing drivers, you can quickly tweak and tune the plans to predict how your sales, revenue or other KPIs will look over time.
Make Plans Backed By Strong Analysis
The Agile Marketing Analytics Platform runs diagnostics of actual performance and investment patterns. This evaluation of historical effectiveness is a foundation for forward-looking marketing plans.
Optimize Your Plan
This solution helps you to optimize your current or future plans across your media and portfolio to identify the best mix of media across media channels, sales channels, product portfolios and geographies. By simulating scenarios across different marketing drivers, you can quickly tweak and tune the plans to predict how your sales, revenue or other KPIs will look over time.
A Comparative Study on Marketing Mix Models for Digital Products
?
KanLiang Wang
1 Yuan Wang
1
JingTao Yao
2
1
School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, P.R. China
2
Department of Computer Science, University of Regina, Canada
klwang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn, wy0179wang@163.com, jtyao@cs.uregina.ca
Abstract. The rise of the Internet and electronic commerce provide a
huge marketspace and unique transaction process for digital products.
It is signi¯cant to discuss whether established marketing models can be
revised for digital products. First, the unique features of digital products
are systematically reviewed, and then three typical digital products, in-
cluding e-books, anti-virus, and online translation services, are analyzed
and compared utilizing three established marketing models, including
4P, 4C, and 4S. We ¯nd that these marketing mix models have di®erent
suitability for three typical digital products. The intention of this paper
is to provide a reference for enterprises in selecting marketing mix model
according to product's categories and to provide a marketing strategy
tool kit.
1 Introduction
The integration of technology will lead to an overall shift in the behavior and
competition strategy of market participants [1]. It is interesting to discuss whether
established marketing models can serve for digital products while great changes
happen in market environment and in product's characteristics. By nature, dig-
ital products can be transacted and delivered through the Internet [2]. Infor-
mation, payment, and delivery related with digital product's transaction are
integrated into the Internet channel. For the transactions of physical products,
it must be accompanied by o®-line or physical logistics [3].
With unique characteristics in economic and physical property, digital prod-
ucts have many di®erences from physical products in marketing strategy. For
example, all digital products can be transacted without the need for a medium
to carry them, since the cost of distribution and production is near zero. The
problem is that margin-cost pricing is not available. So the suitability of 4P
(product, price, place, promotion) marketing model in an E-environment has
been questioned [4]. Mahajan and Venkatesh [5] share the same opinion, oppor-
tunity and challenge are brought to E-Business with the rapid development of
the Internet, still existing models may have objective con°icts, long-term pro¯t
?
This research is supported by NSF of China under Grants 70372049 and ChunHui
Project from Ministry of Education of China.maximization is appropriate for E-Business ¯rms as well, yet, increasing cus-
tomer share and realizing pro¯ts and/or cash °ow may be important in the
short term, so existing models may not ¯t well in E-Business situations.
About the validity of 4P marketing mix model in digital space, a typical
argument is \. . . marketers should focus on playing an active role in the con-
struction of new organic paradigms for facilitating commerce in the emerging
electronic society underlying the web, rather than in¯ltrating the existing primi-
tive mechanical structures. . . [6]". Following this issue, many new models are put
forward to replace the 4P model in digital marketspace[2][7][8][9][10][11][12][13],
such as 4C, 4S, 5P, 7P, ICDT and three \°ow" models. Among these alterna-
tives, the 4C and 4S model have wildspread in°uence. According to Lauterbor,
the 4P model can not ¯t well in E-market, which should be replaced by the 4C
model (consumer wants and needs, cost to satisfy, convenience to buy, and com-
munication)[7]. The 4S web marketing model (scope, site, synergy and system)
is put forward by Constantinides [10], which is designed for depicting enterprise
strategy in E-Business.
Therefore, the 4P marketing mix model may not valid on the Internet age,
the 4C and the 4S model are some alternatives. The intention of this research is
to study the suitability of those three marketing mix models for digital products
in digital space. It is hoped to ¯nd which marketing mix model ¯t well for
di®erent types of digital products. Therefore, a tool kit of marketing strategies
is developed for professionals selling digital products.
2 Characteristics and Categories of Digital Products
Di®erent marketing strategies may be applied to di®erent types of digital prod-
ucts due to their unique characteristics [14]. It is very important to sum up the
characteristics of digital products for investigating the suitability of the estab-
lished marketing mix model. Most digital products share the following economic
characteristics.
Production The production of digital products is always associated with a
huge ¯xed cost and negligible margin cost [15].
Public goods Digital products have some consumption characteristics of pub-
lic goods, such as non-exclusiveness and non-rivalry [16].
Network externality Contrary to the basic principle of traditional economics,
digital products with positive feedback abide by the principle of \more abundant,
more precious" [17].
It is possible that non-digital products share some characteristics above. But
digital products also possess some unique physical characteristics at the same
time.
Attrition-free Once produced, they will exist forever with the same quality.
Furthermore, the competition must spread between new digital products and
second-hand digital products.Changeability The content of digital products can be changed or customized
easily [18]. The integrity can not be controlled by manufacturer after downloaded
by users.
Replication It is most meritorious that digital products can be shared, repli-
cated, stocked and transferred easily. After the ¯rst copy of a digital product is
created, it can be manufactured with a very low marginal cost. Digital products
are composed of text, graph, and voice etc. They are heterogeneous because all
the components can be reconstructed quickly and easily. Therefore, it is impor-
tant to classify various digital products.
In this paper, we adopt the framework put forward by Hui & Chau [19] which
classi¯ed digital products into three categories according to three dimensions
including trialability, granularity and downloadability (Fig. 1). Those are utilities
and tools, content-based digital products and online services.
High
High
Low
Low
Trialability
Granularity
Online
services
Utilities
and tools
Contentbased
products
Downloadable
Interactive
Fig. 1. classifying digital products [19]
These three categories of digital products exhibit di®erences in trialability,
granularity and downloadability(See Table 1). We argue that di®erent categories
of digital products require di®erent marketing mix models .
Table 1. Characteristic comparison of di®erent categories of digital products [19]
Category Trialability Delivery mode Granularity Example
Content-based digi-
tal products
Low By download High e-book
Utilities and tools High By download Low Anti-virus software
Online services Medium Interactive Medium Online translation
3 Marketing Strategy Analysis of Di®erent Digital
Products
The classic 4P marketing model, the 4C marketing model and the 4S market-
ing model are summarized from di®erent business backgrounds. Constantinides
suggest that the background of 4P is industrialization which is characterizedby enterprise-centric[10]. With the shift of power from enterprise to consumer,
the 4C model is put forward, which is characterized by customer-centric. The
4S marketing model was created for E-Business environment [10]. For di®erent
business backgrounds of three marketing mix models, We argue that the 4P,
4C and 4S marketing mix models have di®erent suitability for three categories
digital products.
In this section, we will analyze the suitability of three models for three dif-
ferent categories of digital products.
3.1 4P Marketing Mix
The 4P model delimit four distinct, well-de¯ned and independent management
processes. Despite the consistent e®ort by many physical businesses to deal with
the 4P in an integrated manner, the drafting but mainly the implementation
of the P policies remains largely the task of various departments and persons
within the organization. Even more signi¯cant thought is the fact that the cus-
tomer is typically experiencing the individual e®ects of each of the 4Ps in diverse
occasions, times and places, even in case that companies take great pains to fully
integrate their marketing activities internally[10]. Enterprise can promote prod-
ucts through mixing four \P" strategies. A clear marketing strategy tool kit for
enterprises selling digital products is provided through analyzing di®erent cate-
gories of digital products with 4P as shown in Table 2. We ¯nd that promotional
tools of content-based digital products are more than others and combining tri-
alability is di®erent in three categories of digital products shown in Table 1. We
argue that the less trialability a digital product is, the more promotional tools
it needs.
3.2 4C Marketing Mix
With market competition shifting from product-oriented into customer-oriented,
some defects of 4P emerge. Under this condition, 4C marketing mix model is put
forward by Lauterbom who suggest the marketing strategies that involved prod-
uct, price, place and promotion are passe. Consumer wants and needs, cost to
satisfy, convenience to buy and communication are the catechism for our times[7].
This model considers a marketing problem from the consumer perspective[10].
The content includes four points. First, what the customer want should be sold
rather than what you can manufacture. Second, enterprise should take every
e®orts to decrease the cost of ful¯lling the customer's demand. Third, enterprise
should take every e®orts to give convenience to customer for purchasing. Finally,
communication with customer is more important than promotion. Analysis based
on the 4C model of three categories digital products is shown in Table 3.
Now that we have a marketing strategy tool kit which are from customer's
perspective for enterprises selling digital products. At the same time, we ¯nd
that the less trialability a digital product is, the more communication tools it
needs, which is the same ¯nding as the 4P model.Table 2. 4P marketing strategy of different digital products
Content-based digital products
(e-book)
Utilities and tools (anti-virus
software)
Online services (online
translation services)
Product
Products individual (the ssreader
divided e-book into single
chapter to sell)
Lock in (caj browser used by
China National Knowledge
Infrastructure)
Quickly update version (kv3000
anti-virus software put new
version each year)
Products individual (if you
purchase UFIDA U8 soft, you can
choose the module you need)
Binding (WPS Office)
Versioning (all version of WPS
Office)
Lock in (QQ client)
Products individual (stock
trade online of West
Stock)
Price
Nonlinear pricing (ssreader’s
reading card: RMB35/quarter，
RMB100/year，RMB180/two
years)
Individual price (products sold in
second hand market)
Value transfer (e-journal
provided in cfan web site, sell
quantity of journal is one of the
largest.)
Two-part price (fix monthly fee
of telephone and payment each
time)
Group price (user of kv3000 net
version/RMB10/month)
Name your price(priceline.com.tw)
Two-part price(after purchase U8
soft of UFIDA, you should pay
for using every year)
Value transfer(newhua.com is free ,
revenue come from advertisement
for huge visiting stream)
Individual price (lesson
online service of new
oriental in second hand
market)
Two-part price (there are
initial ISP service
payment then pay for
using each year)
Place
Web store (dangdang.com) Web site constructed by
manufacturer (jiangmin.com)
web store (newhua.com)
Web site constructed by
manufacturer
(russky.com)
Promotion
Recommendation(top 10 of
ssreader.com)
Personalization(When Mary
returns to the dangdang.com, it
responds “Hello Mary”)
Comparison shopping
(pconline.com)
Customization (Yahoo China)
User comment list (ssreader.com)
Individual recommendation (“we
know you buy some E-business
books last time, there are some
related books for you”)
Rules-based system(“the
exercises book is a good
complement to this book”)
Ordering tools(shopping baskets)
Advertisement is involved in
product(book of ssreader.com)
Requirement register
(ssreader.com)
Digital watermark (photosl.net)
Rules-based system (before
downloading update package,
please select version)
Ordering tools (shopping baskets)
Advertisement is involved in
product (flashget)
Trial (WPS Office provide limited
trial)
Authorization limitation (KV3000
net version can check virus, but
can not update)
FAQs (jiangmin.com)
Affiliates(russky.com)
FAQs (russky.com)
Instant Message (QQ)
BBS (bbs.russky.com) Table 3. Marketing strategy of different categories digital products based on 4C
Content-based digital products (e-book) Utilities and tools
(anti-virus)
Online services (online
translation services)
Consumer
wants and
needs
Products individual (the ssreader divided
e-book into single chapter to sell)
Binding(browser is bind into e-book)
E-coupons(sozhao.com/tools/yhq/dangda
ng.asp)
User comment list (ssreader.com)
Requirement register (ssreader.com)
Classified advertisement (8848.com)
Quickly update version
(kv3000 anti-virus software
put new version each year)
Products individual (if you
purchase UFIDA U8 soft,
you can choose the module
you need)
Binding (WPS Office)
Versioning (all version of
WPS Office)
Advertisement of different
category (newhua.com)
Products individual
(stock trade online of
West Stock)
Version (online
translation of
netat.net.cn can restrict
different subject)
Advertisement of
different
category(multi-languag
e translation of
netat.net.cn)
Cost of satisfy
Nonlinear pricing (ssreader’s reading
card: RMB35/quarter, RMB100/year,
RMB180/2 years)
Individual price (products sold in second
hand market)
Two-part price (fix monthly fee of
telephone and pay each time)
Value transfer (e-journal provided in cfan
web site, sell quantity of journal is one
of the largest.)
Group price(user of kv3000
net version/RMB
10/month)
Name you price
(priceline.com.tw)
Two-part price (after
purchase U8 soft of
UFIDA, you should pay for
using every year)
Value transfer (newhua.com
is free , revenue come from
advertisement for huge
visiting stream)
Individual price (lesson
online service of new
oriental in second
hand market)
Two-part price (there
are initial ISP service
payment then pay for
using each year)
Convenience to
buy
Web store (dangdang.com)
Ordering tools (shopping baskets)
Security policy (see the privacy and
security notice on ssreader.com)
Comparison shopping (pconline.com)
Virtual reality (e360.cn)
Web site constructed by
manufacturer
(jiangmin.com)
Ordering tools (shopping
baskets)
Security policy (see the
privacy and security notice
on ssreader.com)
Trial (WPS Office provide
limited trial)
Web site constructed by
manufacturer
(russky.com)
Security policy (see the
privacy and security
notice on
ssreader.com)
Communication
Recommendation (the suggestion on
ssreader.com)
Personalization (When Mary returns to
the dangdang.com, it responds “Hello
Mary”)
Customization (Yahoo China)
Individual recommendation (“we know
you buy some E-business books last
time, there are some related books for
you”)
Rules-based system (“the exercises book
is a good complement to this book”)
Trial (free 17 pages in ssreader.com )
Online auction (ebay.com.cn)
FAQs (ssreader.com)
Digital community (Sun digital
community)
Rules-based system (before
downloading update
package, please select
version)
Advertisement is involved in
product (flashget)
Trial (WPS Office provide
limited trial)
Authorization limitation
(KV net version can check
virus, but can not update)
FAQs (jiangmin.com)
Auction (ebay.com.cn)
Affiliates (russky.com)
FAQs (russky.com)
Instant message(QQ)
BBS (bbs.russky.com)
Digital community (Sun
digital community) 3.3 4S Marketing Mix
The 4S model (web-marketing model, WMM) was put forward by Constanti-
nides [10]. It describes web marketing strategy with four elements begin with
\S" including scope, site, synergy and system. The goal of this model is to de-
sign and develop marketing mix for BtoC online projects through controlling
four \S" elements. In 4S model, the scope element is of primarily strategic char-
acter and outlines the decisions to be made on four areas: (a) the strategic and
operational objectives of the online venture; (b) the market de¯nition including
measuring the market potential and the identi¯cation/classi¯cation of the po-
tential competitors, visitors and customers of the site; (c) the degree of readiness
of the organization for E-Commerce; (d) the strategic role of E-Commerce for
the organization. The web site is therefore the functional platform of communi-
cation, interaction and transaction with the web customer. The prime mission
of the web Site is to attract tra±c, establish contact with the online target mar-
kets and brand the online organization. The synergy factor embraces a wide
range of issues divided into three categories: the front o±ce, the back o±ce and
the third parties. The front o±ce refers to conventional corporate communica-
tion and distribution strategies; The back o±ce synergy includes three issues:
(a) the integration of E-Commerce physical support into existing organizational
processes; (b) the legacy integration; (c) integration of the online operation into
the company's value system. The success in virtual marketplace often requires
co-operation with Internet partners outside the organization and its value sys-
tem. Finally, the system factor identi¯es the technological issues as well as the
site servicing issues to be addressed by the E-Commerce management.
The 4S model brings out how to prepare a web marketing strategy on two
issues. First, on strategic layout, the main strategic problem is planned which
is insurance of creating successful web marketing strategy. The 4S model em-
phasizes that web marketing strategy should consistent with enterprise strategy.
Web marketing strategies should integrate with other operation strategy and
take full advantage of competition advantage. Second, on operation layout, a
methodology for making web marketing strategy is provided.
4 Discussion
There is an interesting ¯nding in Table 2 and Table 3 that the lower trialability
of digital products is, the more promotional tools it needs. A probable explana-
tion is that digital products are a kind of experience products, consumers can
understand the product after purchasing it [3]. So the best promotion tool is
trial, through trial, consumer will persuade himself to purchase. Refering Table
1, utilities and tools is the best in trialability while content-based product is the
worst in trialability. So promotion of content-based product should be achieved
by multi-marketing tools except trial. The other two categories of products can
be promoted by trial. That is to say, three categories of products have notable
di®erence in promotion tools. We can sum up this point as:Trial is the best promotion tool for digital products. With high trialability, the
digital products needs less promotion tools. At the same time, with low trialability,
the digital products needs more promotion tools.
Table 4. Marketing strategy of different category digital products based on 4S
Content-based digital products
(e-book)
Utilities and tools(anti-virus) Online services(online
translation services)
Scope (strategy
and objective)
Market segmentation (demographic
variables, geographic variables,
psychographic variables and
behavioral variables)
Potential customers (profiles,
motivation, behavior and needs)
Internal analysis(internal resources,
value process, and the web
sustaining technology)
Strategic role of the web activities
(information platform, educational,
promotional and transactional)
Same as left Same as left
Web site (online
experience)
Link exchange (Coolgo e-book,
ssreader)
Advertisements
Factors of web site (domain,
content, design, layout,
atmosphere etc)
Optimize of speed of web site
Factors of web site (domain,
content, design, layout,
atmosphere etc)
Optimize of speed of web site
Factors of web site (domain,
content, design, layout,
atmosphere etc)
Synergy
(integration)
Web store (dangdang.com)
The back office (physical book
store)
Web site construct by
manufacturer (jiangmin.com)
The front office (updating
product installed in client)
Web site construct by
manufacturer (russky.net/trans/)
Third parties (outsource of
logistic)
System
(technology
requirement)
Technology requirement of web
site (stabilization, security,
software, hardware, protocol,
system service etc)
Preliminary payment system
(ssreader)
Technology requirement of
web site (stabilization,
security, software, hardware,
protocol, system service etc)
Instant payment system
(kv3000)
Post-payment system (net
version RMB10/month)
Technology requirement of web
site (stabilization, security,
software, hardware, protocol,
system service etc)
Instant payment system(in web
site (russky.net/trans/) payment
can be finished by SMS(short
message system) and network)
Delivery mode in Table 1 can partly explain di®erent place strategies in Ta-
ble 2. Value of content-based products can transfer through download mode, if
adopting a web store, the distributions cost is low. Value transfer of online ser-
vices need to interact with the customer, web site construction by manufacturer
is only a feasible way. For frequent updates (e.g., update of the package) of utili-
ties and tools, enterprises selling utilities and tools often constructed web site by
itself. Web stores is a feasible tool on condition that updates are not required.
Comparing 4S model with the 4P and 4C models, we ¯nd strategic elements
involved in 4S model that distinguish from others. It is combined of strategy mar-
keting with tactics marketing. For products needing manufactures construction
web site by itself as a distribution channel, it is necessary to select a target mar-
ket from the market segmentation according to position. Those are important
to design web site. The web site of online service is often constructed by man-
ufacturers and there are some strategic elements, including position and target
market selection, a®ect web site's business status except promotion instrumentincluding advertisement etc. That is to say, the 4S model is a feasible marketing
strategic tool kit for enterprises selling online service. There are parts of enter-
prises of selling utilities and tools constructing a web site by themselves, the
4S model is suitable for them. Enterprises selling content-based products seldom
construct web site by itself, the suitability of 4S model is low. The 4C model con-
siders a marketing problem from the consumer perspective. Customer's demand
can be easy ful¯ll while the di®erence ability of products is high. Therefore,
4C model is suitable for products with high di®erence ability. Content-based
products have the highest di®erence ability, which can reconstruct with di®erent
segments to distinguish from others and with no additional cost. Online services
have a medium di®erence ability which decided by its high trialability, but some
cost accompany trialing. Utilities and tools have low di®erence ability which can
not be reconstructed randomly. In summary, the 4C model has high suitabil-
ity of content-based products and medium suitability of online service and low
suitability of utilities and tools. The 4P model has more controllable ability of
four elements than others, so the 4P model is suitable for utilities and tools well.
The 4S model is suitable for utilities and tools on condition that manufacturer
constructing web site himself. Under this condition, it is best to combine the 4P
model and the 4S model. The other two products have medium suitability for
the 4P model. Analyzing of the above can summarized into three ¯ndings:
For content-based products, the 4P model is much more suitable than the 4C
model, while the 4C model is more suitable than the 4S model.
For utilities and tools, the 4P and the 4S models are more suitable than the
4C model.
For online service, the 4S model is more suitable than the 4P and 4C models.
5 Conclusion
There are three contributions of this study. First,with unique characteristics in
economic and physical property, the classic marketing models including 4P, 4C
and 4S have di®erent conditions in applying to the selling of digital product.
Second, for each catagroities of digital products, the priority of suitability of
established marketing mix models is provided. Third, there is an interesting
¯nding that the less trialability a digital product is, the more promotional tools
it needs.
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Source: http://www2.cs.uregina.ca/~jtyao/Papers/wine273a.pdf
Marketing mix for product software
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The marketing mix for product software parallels the notion of marketing mix for general products and is likewise composed of the four controllable factors of marketing managers: price, promotion, product, and place (Kern, 2003). There are some characteristics that differ for software products than other mass produced goods such as clothing.
- Price – Price of software can be a fixed rate paid to a store or vendor. Additionally, it can be a subscription for usage of software with an application service provider like Salesforce.com (In 2010, this has become known as software as a service, or SaaS). Price can be determined by number of licenses and/or users. Mainframe and other large processing software is still sold by the type and number of processors the software runs on. Virtualization is changing pricing models for software across the industry.
- Promotion – Promotion of software can use traditional methods such as advertising. Furthermore, the testing of software products is usually possible before purchasing with either limited trial application for a specific period of time or free-ware containing limited functionality. An example is the month long trial of statistical software from SPSS. The software industry is known for its use oftrade shows as a promotional tool.
- Product – The actual product differs from normal mass produced goods since the vendor company actually stays the owner of the original code and auxiliary materials, while product is used by consumers under a license, either signed or shrink-wrapped. (Open source software was created to combat this; it allows users to download full code and use it for non-commercial purposes. However, it is still offered under a license, often the GPL, that has restrictions on usage and re-distribution.)
- Place – Place refers to the distribution channel of product software. Typically this consists of either Direct or Indirect distribution. Direct Distribution refers to a customer having a direct relationship with the producer of the software, with no intermediaries. Direct product is most often delivered in an intangible digital form that can be downloaded off the internet such as Adobe Acrobat 7.0 from adobe.com. Indirect Distribution comes in several forms: specialized software resellers, shrink-wrapped product located in a store orvalue added resellers (VARs) who combine software with another service. The end user customer may have the license or the intermediary may be the licensee in this structure. Typically, producers offer intermediaries a substantial discount for volume purchases, which makes the transaction more cost effective for an individual consumer.
[edit]References
Kern, R. A., Berkowitz, E. N., Hartley, S.W. and W. Rudelius, Marketing . McGraw-Hill Irwin, 7th Edition, 2003. ,
Holistic Marketing of Software Products: The New Paradigm
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Holistic Marketing of Software Products: The New Paradigm
Dr. Ashutosh Nigam
Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies,
Vaish College of Engineering, Rohtak (India)
drashutoshnigam@gmail.com
A clever person once said, "Visions demand a strategy, strategy requires a plan." This is what is often overlooked or
sidestepped by too many people involved in the software marketing process today.
Abstract
The software product firms needs to be competent in offering
services with ever changing demands of the dynamic marketing
environment. To overcome these barriers, the firms should deploy
holistic marketing strategies based on the established niche markets
for specialized software products. Holistic marketing embraces all
aspects of software firm’s products and customized solutions. The
concept stresses on the interrelationship with the stakeholders to
achieve distinction with core focus towards the customer
requirements.
Keywords: Relationship Marketing, Integrated Marketing, Product
Development, Holistic Marketing Framework.
Introduction
There is need to cop with the changing marketing plans and
flexibility of software products holistic marketing can be
deployed by firms to compete in global market place. To
remain competitive, companies not only need to maintain the
skills that work in the old economy, they also have to acquire
new mindsets and competencies. Marketing of software
products is different from the traditional product due to
uniqueness inherent in the product. The marketing mix of the
software product is very flexible, as it is neither a pure
service nor a pure product. The marketing of the software
product had to be dealt sensitively otherwise the firms would
loose its brand equity in the market. One typical advantage
that is enjoyed by the software product firms is having high
bonding long term relationship with the clients by the way of
sale contracts, training, maintenance and product updates
which is does not exist in the tangible product. In the light of
the problem holistic marketing can provide solution that is
inherent in software products.
Holistic marketing concept is based on the development of
design and implementation of the integrated marketing
programs and processes for software products in
synchronized manner so that the software products can be
marketed efficiently. Holistic marketing simply means whole
marketing process ie everything from initial product
development to post sales support of software products.
Implementation of holistic marketing would ascertain higher
customer satisfaction, increasing profits, expanding revenue
base, lowering of product cost and increasing the reliability
of software products Vrat, Sardana and Sahay (1998).
Holistic marketing stresses on stakeholder relationship in the
delivery of long-term economic, social, and environmental
value to customer, employee, supplier, community, and
shareholder of a business in order to enhance sustainable
financial performance. The thrust of "Holistic Marketing
Moves" is that customers' needs must be satisfied in the most
convenient way so that they don't have to waste time or
energy searching, looking for or ordering the new software
product. For this reason, businesses need to shift their
strategy from focusing on product portfolios to focusing on
customer portfolios. Holistic marketing approach takes how
different mediums will interact as well as build upon each
other. Instead of multiple planners and groups (i.e. Media,
Out-of-Home, Print, etc.) working independently for the
same campaign, a single group will evaluate all mediums in
order to determine the highest return on investment. Holistic
marketing requires strong software support in business
processes to serve the clients in the efficient way. The
software product firms should incorporate following while
deriving tactics for the holistic marketing
The Target Customers’ activities, lifestyle,
and social space.
The company’s marketing channels.
The company’s communications.
The company’s stakeholders’ interests.
Holistic marketing focuses on high degree of correlation and
interrelationship with firms marketing plan, customer service
and Internet advertising with core customer orientation
shown in figure1.
Holistic Marketing has evolved from the basic marketing
principles of business each action by a company should
contribute to the business goals. In holistic marketing
activities involved for development, distribution and
marketing to the end user is considered not as an isolated
entity but as a synergic member of the firms in totality.
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Figure 1
Source:
http://www.houstonbusinessimageconsultants.com/trad_mark
eting.htm.
Last viewed on May17, 2007
It considers not only the single campaign or medium but
considers multiple media in totality. It helps to attract the
target audience or prospective niche customers for software
products. Amazon is one example of adopting holistic
marketing strategies, as an internet-based store Amazon not
only have the luxury of foot-traffic of a traditional brick-andmortar store but also focuses on being creative and
resourceful to develop customer loyalty and exposure to their
target audience. By melding the traditional concept of direct
mail with personalization by providing e-newsletters and
personal recommendations notices send via email. This is
taken a step further by mailing personalized promotions and
referencing the email notice. Amazon is also using traditional
direct mail catalogs and referencing them on their site in
order to get retuning as well as new customers. This strategy
plans marketing campaigns that use multiple mediums (i.e.
Internet, TV, direct mail, etc.) with similar messages. The
idea is for the target audience to see a consistent message
through a multiple of vehicles. Direct mail promotions and
catalogs are not new concepts, but integrating messaging and
referencing each medium enables Amazon to maximize their
returns and develop one to one personal relationship with
their customers.
Holistic Marketing: Software Products
Prospective:
The touch-points for the development and implementation
for any holistic marketing campaign of software products
include the following
Figure 2
Touch Points of Holistic Marketing Campaign
Source http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article.aspx?c=11&l=196&ai=4037.
Last viewed on May12, 2007
(a) Marketing
The process of holistic marketing campaign for software
should start from the marketing department rather than from
software product development division. Software product
should sense the live, breathe, eat, and smell the company's
brand. The firms should able to able know the target
customers on the degree of customization in the target clients
on one to one relationship basis and able to change as per
changing client needs directly, through focus groups, desktop
research, e-mail campaigns etc. The firms should able to
position its products with the clients. Doing this would set
right road for getting message heard above the plethora of
communication that takes place in busy marketplace.
(b) Agencies
Agencies are the companies that bring holistic marketing
strategies. It includes advertising, public relations, online
agencies etc. The creative approach should be followed by
the agencies so that effective interaction with target
customers can be made and software product can be
developed effectively. The creative interpretation of a
marketing strategy and a campaign should be included in the
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firms should do good market research on the effectiveness of
the median campaigning of the software products. Once the
marketing strategy is done based on research, it becomes
easier for firms to track out deviations or activities
implemented that were detrimental to the success of the
marketing project.
(c) Sales
The sales human capital makes close interaction with the
client for the selling of software products. The sales force
can see the real nuances and feel in changing client’s
sentiment. These changes need felt by the sales team should
be updated by way of knowledge sharing by different
departments of the company on regular basis. Call center can
be used for effective interaction and feedback recorded can
be considered in development of the software products. This
will quickly become a measurement to see if a specific
campaign is working or not. The sales front should be
suitable trained for designing marketing strategy in totality.
(d) Finance
Finances are the key and life blood of any organization. It
has to be dealt sensitively otherwise synchronization of
different marketing activities and relationships among
different business processes would be severely hampered.
(e) Operations
Once the sale is made, the software product must be
installed, delivered, etc. to the clients If this is not done
timely, effectively and efficiently, it would start as a good
experience for the client will be open to interact with new
product and existing updates of the software products.
(f) Product Development
This needs to be a thorough process, developed for a defined
audience with a defined need and then test. A marketer can
have the most brilliant strategy and the hottest campaign, but
if that product or service doesn't deliver, it will mean zero
(g) Customer Services
Marketing department makes sure that new clients become
valued, long-term clients. That clients' stay with the company
by maintaining services levels and delivering on expectations
is key for getting the business.
In short, no one area can be isolated or seen as being more
important than another. Marketing needs to be owned, by the
whole company and agencies. The details of the overall
holistic marketing strategies can be generated by
brainstorming sessions to generative new innovative ideas.
How to Create Holistic Marketing Framework
for Software Products:
1. First the business profile of client’s firm should be
considered which includes things such as firm’s current
image with in industry, what position do firm hold in
customers' minds, what is the business style of the firm
, and so on.
2. It is to considered need to understand the customers
why clients are interested in the software products, with
whom firm been successful and why.
3. Next there is need a clear picture of internal business
processes of the client’s firm and how its impact both
customers and prospects of software firm. It would help
in getting feedback why customers you don't want to do
business with the firm.
4. Once a clear picture of business and customers, then a
plan is needed that will guide toward the vision
imagined by the software product firm to accomplish
both short- and long-term goals.
5. And, given all that, there is need for the right messages
aimed at the right people to implement the marketing
plan.
Components of Holistic marketing
Implementation of holistic marketing in software products
processes considers four components Kotler and Keller
(2006), which the traditional marketing has not given the due
importance.
1. Relationship Marketing
Developing long lasting relationships is key for the
success of the software business as continuously the
interaction of software product developer and customer is
involved.. Relationship marketing brings right mix of
customer service, software product quality and marketing.
This directly influences the stakeholders of the software
firms. Relationship marketing helps to develop right kind
of relationship with software vendor with the clients. The
software firms should focus on the customers but should
try to establish partnership relationship with the
stakeholders. It helps to develop marketing network of the
firms, which in long run help to optimize the cost of
advertising and promotion of new software products and
services and maximize the profit of the software firms.
The effectiveness of the marketing of software products
can be enhanced by deployment of effective IT Systems
with high degree of customization of software products
and services as per individual client’s requirement. The
product specifications can be mentioned online to reduce
the time delay in the negotiations. The information should
be put on the portals of the software firms and
comparability with the competitors should be available.
The software product firms should stress on shortening
their sales cycle. Once the buyer finalizes the buying
decision, the rest time is spent on meetings, information
gathering and negotiations. Shortening the sales cycle
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productivity. The following points should be considered
for reduction of sales cycles
a) Use the Web to Pre-qualify Prospects
The software product firms should put enough real
information of demos, application stories, price lists on their
web site so that prospects can self-qualify rather than
answering basic customer questions. The web sites should be
designed to offer an interactive requirements analysis form
that helps buyers in analyzing payback for client’s
investment.
b) Stress on Lowering the Buyer's Perceived Risk
The software firms should try to lower the perceived risk
against implementation failures of software products. The
software firms should sell software packages on license
months for the first year of deployment and on building trust
the firms can realize license fees based on actual full
installation. This would also enable the firms to build mutual
trust in software firms.
c) Multiple Product Configurations
The buyers often delay decisions because they feel
constrained by a lack of choices. So vendors should be
offered several price points or freed buyers to assemble
modules to their specifications, this would provide buyers
with more psychological maneuvering room.
d) Put the Paperwork on a Parallel Track
The software firms should put parallel track for paperwork
so that sales cycle can be shortened. If the client reasonably
close to a deal, the vendors with buyers should be made to
check out standard license terms in advance or else get a
copy of their contract and review the contract with different
departments involved in software marketing.
e) Faster Maintenance and Help Desk Services
The software product vendors should provide quick
maintenance and help desk facilities to the client by
providing online round the clock services so as to ensure
high end post sale services of software services and product
2 Integrated Marketing
The software campaigns devised by the firms should fully
integrate the marketing activities to deliver value of
customers marketing mix should be taken in totality. Product
variety should be provided to the customers to different
customers and choice option should be available to
customers on the web portal. To develop domain sector
specific knowledge, the software firms should consult in
specific areas by combining its existing skills to move up the
value-chain. Catering the needs of the niche markets would
impact on market value able to differentiate the software
products from other firms. Typically firms should begin to
operate in a certain niche areas and from working in these
areas the firms gain enough knowledge about those markets
and then able to move into high-end sector specific
consulting or high end products. It is by working in niche
markets that companies gets in-depth ideas for product
development. Software product vendors should follow
quality standards like ISO 90001, SEI-CMM, PCMM etc to
mark software adherence to global standards. Past referrals
of the clients can be used to convince the customers .The
software product firms has to establish brands to focus
intensely enough on the target segment. It helps to
commoditization of the software services and build customer
loyalty. The software firms should invest in brand promotion
exercise and try to establish their presence in target markets.
This would enable software product firms to promote their
software in overseas markets. The firms should emphasize on
enhancing brand equity in the global marketplace and
making customers see them as global companies.
Pricing
Competitive pricing is to be followed so the comparative
analysis of the firm’s software product with the competitor
should be possible. The entire comparative analysis and
differentiation of features with the price list should be
available on the website of the firm. The price options should
be available with the clients. The following points should be
considered in pricing of software products
• How fast it is installed and working.
• No extra charge for scheduled installation during
business hours
• Premium pricing for 24-hour turnaround time.
• How much training and support is wanted/ needed.
• Premium prices for on-site training including a
"train the trainer" course
• Standard prices for attending scheduled public
training courses.
• How senior and skilled are the people involved.
• Different rates for senior technical consultants
• Premium rates for 24-hour, seven-day service
provided by engineers.
• Discounted rates for certified service technicians.
• The payment terms and timing.
• Financing available
• Discount for prompt payment
Promotion
To promote the software product and services in the target
markets, the maximum marketing expenditure is generally
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one basis. The firms should substitute its promotion from
expensive direct sales with telemarketing, voice mail videoconferencing and telesales. The firms should stress on hiring
sales representatives instead of salaried sales people and
orient sales compensation programs to increase rewards
when higher sales and profit levels are achieved. Extensive
use of the Internet and web should be made in software
product marketing, as it is cost effective method for reaching
larger number of clients. Free demo version of software on
trial basis should be send to potential customers along with
detailed information manual for persuading middlemen and
potential customers. The firms operating in software product
space should offer frequent buyer program with customers
where they receive a certain amount of free product and
additional revenues from product updates and additional
services with their next order. Software firms should
frequently inform their existing customers with its latest new
software products and services with updates available to
existing software products. The catalogues, brochures,
manuals and other written material should be in the local
language, to portray there is local image. The software firm
should invest in dedicated especially trained sales staff that
will be involved in traveling, presentations, demonstrations
and persuading clients getting orders. The sales staff should
focus on providing transparent information on the product
and services, as well as what the firm is doing to mitigate the
risks involved in doing business.
Software firms should have efficient global distribution
network to respond effectively to clients’ needs, standards
and setting-up of after sale service shops to provide support,
maintenance and upgrades for the product line. The software
firms should try to ensure the efficient delivery method of
product and services, as it is one of the important parameter
considered by clients in selection of right software vendors.
The software through Internet can be considered as
economical viable channel option for firms as software
products and services delivered as soon as their purchase is
complete. The software product and services information
should reside on server so that it can be instantly downloaded
via a link. The software products and services can be
marketed through portals to provide instant access as soon as
your customer's payment has been processed. Not only does
instant product delivery benefit customer, but it will also
benefit the firms adopting the practice. The software firms
should go for automation of software product's ordering and
delivery process, as it would enable the firm to realize more
sales. The channel followed by the software firms is one of
the determining factors of the prices quoted by the software
units. Volume discounts cause distributors to get the same
product at different prices. Some of the stronger dealers may
reach across their borders for achieving more sales. The
problem of channel conflicts is particularly difficult when
there are transshipments of shrink-wrapped products that
don't require a lot of technical back-up support. Therefore,
due consideration should be made by software firms to use
volume discount schedules that eliminate significant cost
differences for similarly sized distributors and try to
minimize the channel conflicts. So implementation of holistic
marketing activities should consider the technological tools
and able to incorporate database marketing so that decisions
about and holistic strategy can take place in totality. The
performance of the strategies should be designed in the light
of suitable marketing metrics to quantify and compare and
interpret the marketing performance.
3 Internal Marketing
Knowledge driven work force is key for the success of any
software product firms. Appropriate marketing principles
should be implemented in the organization. It involves the
task of hiring, training and motivating able employees who
want to serve the customers. It consider two levels firstly the
marketing function like sales force, advertising, customer
service, product management, market research should work
together. After that the marketing should be pervasive at all
the levels of management. Post sale support and positive
communication should be considered. The primary cause for
concern of software units is outflow of skilled programmers
and software developers. This causes a huge demand for
experienced high-end software professionals in the country.
In addition to investing on training the technical expertise the
firms should groove to develop managerial, people and
specialized selling skills for software by inducing specialized
marketing training programmes of the personnel on regular
basis to tap the potential of world software market. The
software firms depend on their in-house source for market
research for identifying the markets, changing trends and
competitors strategies. So the software firms should have
separate specialized marketing research department, which in
liaison with professional market research consultants, foreign
consulates, trade mission and local agencies should try to
analyze and predict about the target markets, technological
trends and marketing strategies so software product can be
developed and marketed accordingly. The breaking of the
language barrier would give new impetus to software firms
for overcoming unexplored markets. Language friendliness
and accommodating to work customs in the target market
would able to influence the clients that may interfere with in
software development process according to the requirement
of the user. In order to be successful, a software package
must be converted to the language of the nation where it will
be used, and tailored to the local dialect. The localization of
software should involve multiple language versions of
software product and services according to foreign language
edition that is prevalent in target customers. While localizing
the software the software firms should make due
consideration to review target market i.e. to identify local
linguistic and environmental requirements, extracting text
and due consideration should be made for linguistic or
culturally sensitive material, translating and modifying
elements as per the user requirements, re-engineering the
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they meet performance standards of domestic product. The
software firms should try to reduce the cultural gap so a
degree of the user customization can be increased as per the
requirement of the clients.
4 Social Responsible Marketing
It considers ethical, environmental, legal and social context.
Social welfare responsibility require the marketer to carefully
consider them they play in terms of the social welfare
societal marketing concept holds that the organization task is
to determine the needs and interest of the target market. The
software firms should donate a part of there earnings
liberally for social causes. For example big IT major like
Microsoft , Wipro, Infosys are donating liberally for social
causes like AIDS awareness campaign, Schooling of children
below the poverty line, blood donation camps, development
of infrastructure like roads and Hi-tech facilities in the cities
near to there campuses because it would create win-win
situation for software product firms as well as society.
Benefits of Holistic Marketing
• Helping achieve focus & direction for software
firms
• Keeping customers happy & satisfied
• Reducing the marketing costs in long run
• Differentiating from competitors
• Improved customer experience
• Help to derive Innovative business model
• Improved product quality
• Help to establish brands, customers, service quality,
stakeholder relationships, corporate reputation
How Make Holistic Marketing Effective in
Software Product Prospective
• Niching ( Help to identify the Niche Segment for
Marketers)
• Research a new product on the Internet (panel
research, chat rooms).
• Create a site to explain how an existing or new
software product works.
• Create a site that consults on a category (Problem
encountered by software product users).
• Create a site that consults on the client’s profile.
• Sponsor a chat room around your software product
category.
• Answer email questions instantly.
• Send free samples of new software
products/Updates on regular basis.
• Customize software product as per client’s
requirement.
• Offer valuable information to people who will
register on the site.
• Offer a wide software product line so the customer
can choose something closer to the customer’s
desires
• Stand ready to customize the software product
according to the customer’s wishes
• Identifying new value opportunities for
renewing their markets,
• Efficiently creating the most promising new value
offerings
Earmarks of the Holistic Marketing
1. Recognize growing customer empowerment.
2. Develop a focused offering to the target market
3. Design the marketing from the customer-back.
4. Focus on delivering outcomes, not products.
5. Draw in the customer to co-create value.
6. Use newer ways to reach the customer with a
message.
7. Develop metrics and ROI measurement.
8. Develop high-tech marketing tools .
9. Focus on building long run assets.
10. View marketing holistically to regain influence in
the company.
Conclusion
Holistic marketing deployment in software product
marketing would enable firms to produce more profits which,
in turn are achieved by maintaining loyal patronage,
generating positive word of mouth recommendation and
increasing the time of involvement with the customers. It
would also influence the stakeholders to positively influence
in perception of customers and perceived experiential value
can be enhanced for the society.
References
[1] Kotler Philip and Keller Lane Kelvin (2006), “Marketing
Management”, Prentice Hall of India, 12th edition.
[2] Murphy,Brian; Maguiness, Paul; Pescott, Chris; Wislang,
Soren; MaJingwu; Wang,Rongmei European Journal of
Marketing, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Volume
39, Numbers 9-10, 2005, pp. 1049-1059(11)
[3] Prem Vrat, Sardana G.D and SahayB.S.(1998)
Productivity Mangement: A system approach, Narosa
Publication House, New Delhi.
[4] Svensson GoÈran (2001) , “Re-evaluating the marketing
Concept” European Business Review, Volume 13.
Number 2. 2001. pp. 95±100, # MCB University
Press. ISSN 0955-534X. IJCSMS International Journal of Computer Science & Management Studies, Vol. 11, Issue 01, May 2011
ISSN (Online): 2231 –5268
www.ijcsms.com
IJCSMS
www.ijcsms.com
7
Websites
• http://fiveringsmarketing.com/fiveringssolutions.html
• http://www.360mediacorp.com/articles/holistic_marketin
g.htm
• http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:WHvKHp6DKpsJ:w
ww.turransky.com/tenways.pdf+holistic+marketing&hl=e
n&ct=clnk&cd=350&gl=in
• www.houstonbusinessimageconsultants.com/trad_marketi
ng.htm
• http://www.softwarepricing.com/readingroom/Articles/Sh
orter-sales-cycles-SoftLetter.cfm
Source: http://ijcsms.com/journals/Paper1.pdf
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