Social and Commercial Marketing

Discuss about the Professional Practice of Business.

This new era of marketing has totally changed and many new practices have been evolving in order to launch the product. These new practices usually have a long lasting impact on the mind of customers and they tend to come back again to buy the product. Many digital campaigns have been started by various companies to give wide options to customers to conduct their own research before buying any product. The study of behavior of consumers is very important because if it is not known what is required by them, they will not be satisfied with the product given by the company. The tastes and preferences of the consumers should be known to develop products. The advancement of technology is taking place at a very fast rate and it is therefore necessary to cope up with the changing technology in order to cut down the costs and increase profits. The concept of marketing has been drastically changed due to entrance of social networking sites and other forms of electronic media.

The concept of social marketing focuses on the behavior of consumers and on the other hand the concept of commercial marketing focuses on the needs of consumers (Withey, 2007). 

There are many aspects of commercial marketing which are being used by marketers at a very fast rate. For an instance, if we look at the concept of market research, this tool is not only used for commercial marketing but also for social marketing.  Before initiating any social marketing practice, it is very important to hold an extensive market research to get information about the customers. The following forms a part of such practice:

• Market research to analyze the needs and behavior of customers
• Segmentation based on geography, demographics, behavior etc.
• Analyze what are the problems which are usually faced by the consumers
• Choose a market where the product is to be targeted
• Set the long term goals and a clear vision and mission statement
• Improvisation of all the operations on a regular basis
• Positioning of the product and Covering all the 4 Ps that constitute a mix which are place, price, product and promotion (Burnett, 2008).

Ethical dilemmas that may arise when using marketing practices are:

1. Obligations to stakeholders: There are times when it gets difficult for the businessmen to oblige to the ends of various stakeholders and creating a balance between satisfying the needs of customers and satisfying needs of stakeholders is a difficult process.
2. Own values of decision maker: The decision maker sometimes falls into a dilemma where his own values are in conflict with the values of all the stakeholders while conducting marketing practices.
3. Competitors market: The decision maker analyzes the strategies of competitors due to which sometimes such practices are adopted by the decision maker which affect his or her ethics (Samudrage, Gunarathne, & Wijesinghe, 2008).

Social Marketing practices and human resources go hand in hand and should work simultaneously.  In order to understand the needs of the customers and their behaviors, it is significant to teach the human resource the importance of marketing strategies and how they can be of aid in analyzing the needs of the customers.  A company needs to attract profitable customers to achieve decent sales numbers and this can be done if the whole of the staff of the company work towards achieving the same (Blu Ivy Group, 2014). 

Challenges:

1. Embracing technology: The employees who are one of the stakeholders of the company face a major challenge that is important for any social marketing practice. It is important to induce advanced technology in the system to make the social marketing practices work more smoothly and it becomes imperative for the human resource of the company to adapt to changing technology in less time and work in consonance with the marketing practices.
2. Relating to marketing practices: Sometimes the major challenges which the employers face is to make the Customers understand the reason behind the social marketing practice and how benefits can be derived from such practices. The customers fail to understand the importance of social marketing programs and they fail to relate themselves to these practices due to which sometimes they have to suffer and they end up buying the wrong products(Reinhart, 2017).
3. Investment by investors: The social marketing practices involve a huge cost and the investors need to spend on these strategies because the overall approach is to make the product reach the customers and the best way of doing it is through marketing practices. But this is not a small affair and a lot of capital is required to launch the product, but the higher authorities spend a lot of time and effort to explain the importance of marketing to investors which is a huge task.

The first pricing model is Project pricing model. Project-based pricing model and we also call it Flat fee model which is profitable but various cautious steps are to be taken to execute it successfully. This method sometimes leads to underestimation of the amount of time and effort required to complete a project which lead to many unforeseen problems and changes.  This means a loss in overall gains or a situation to raise the amount of budget. Project-based pricing proves to be beneficial and with the help of this one can start moving towards value based pricing as well and achieve great success. The social marketing is a one-time project for one product and before setting price for such kinds of projects, it is important to conduct comprehensive market research and other work related to target audience (Weaver, 2016).

Human resource challenges affecting social marketing practices

The next that comes is value based pricing. The conclusion of this type of pricing is giving assurance that the amount paid is proportionate to the work done, neither more nor less than that. Before setting prices for any marketing practice, it is important to know whether it is going to give any return on investment or any revenues after investing such a huge amount. The pricing models are quite a lot in number, but this model is used by most of the strategists and it is proved to be the most beneficial.

Now comes the first distribution model. In order to market the product, the product can be sold to customers through various intermediaries. There are various benefits attached and also many disadvantages also come in between if the products are sold using a couple of intermediaries. If a product is sold through intermediaries, it leads to publicity of the product and it is a kind of social marketing as it covers huge number of people in form of intermediaries but on the other hand it leads to corruption of product (Nobilis, 2010).

The authorities have a tendency to give the product to may distributors who further sell products to the customers and sometimes sell to other intermediaries. This is the best way of marketing of product and this is frequently used as it is the most convenient way. The choice of distribution models differs from company to company and company chooses it on the basis of different situation and type of product. The selection of the distribution model should be based on present market settings and on considering financial aspects. The models can be combined differently in different regions.

The various strategies leading to financial sustainability are:

1. Best marketing strategies for marketing of the organization: The focus of marketing strategies is looking at every aspect that promotes the product. When the receptionist in the office takes up the call, the way she speaks has a lot of impact on the person calling and sometimes this is ignored by many companies(National Academy of Sciences, 2017). The financial stability is maintained by maintaining the image of the company and others aspects are also important which are given as follows:

• Image-building
• Fund-raising
• Development of relations
• Community relations
• Political aspects
• Stakeholders’ relationship
• Customer-oriented services

1. Mission and vision addressed towards financial stability: The setting of mission and vision statement should be in consonance with the working of the company towards financial sustainability. The strategies should be handy for any financial crisis and it is imperative to keep a reserve in cases of any financial contingencies. If one is working in a group, one might make a handout with those listed, so that they are right in front of all the employees and employers as they work.

The strategies leading to social sustainability are:

1. Maintaining goodwill: It is significant to maintain the goodwill of the company if survival in the market for long terms required. The needs of not only customers should be served but also needs of all the stakeholders should be addressed as well. The stakeholders of the company are very important and they help in maintaining good will. It is necessary to keep a check on the number of employees who leave the company because there is a major reason behind every employee leaving the company. Not only is recruiting an employee is important, but their retention is equally important. There should be a suggestion box in the company which should be not only for employees, but also for customers and the complaints and suggestions given by them should be given due consideration. Goodwill and reputation of any company are one of sole surviving factors and it should be always kept in mind that a company who doesn’t have a good image tend to lose the brand image in the market and even loses its most loyal customers(Institute for Community Peace, 2004).
2. Satisfaction of demands of customers: The product should be developed keeping in mind the needs and demands of the customers because there are high chances that a satisfied customer will come back to buy the product again and will also recommend the same to others. So, before making any product, it is important to do comprehensive market research to know about the cases of the customers because it will help in developing the desired products.

Conclusion

The interests of stakeholders are very important and it should be taken care of by the higher officials of the company. This project talks about the social and commercial marketing concepts, pricing and distribution models and financial and social sustainability. This has one thing in common which is the satisfaction of employees long with the profitability of the business. The product should not be developed at the cost of profits of the company. In fact, the product is to be developed after taking all necessary steps to curtail down the costs and shooting up the profits. This doesn’t end here, the work of the officials doesn’t end at earning profits, but the profit should be distributed among the stakeholders as bonus and dividends. Even after selling the product to customers, the follow up should be done properly to know what the consumers think of the product and to see if any improvements are needed. The standards should be set before working on any project and if by any chance such standard is not achieved, the company should analyze the root cause why it is not achieved and then work on improving it.

References

Blu Ivy Group. (2014). Why Marketing and HR need to work together on the employer branding strategy. Retrieved from https://bluivygroup.com/why-marketing-and-hr-need-to-work-together-on-the-employer-branding-strategy/

Burnett, J. (2008). Core Concepts of Marketing. Retrieved from https://is.bivs.cz/el/6110/zima2016/B104MAR/Core-Concepts-of-Marketing.pdf?lang=en

Institute for Community Peace. (2004). Strategies for Financial Sustainability. pp. 1-10. Retrieved from https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/stratfinansustain.pdf

National Academy of Sciences. (2017). Strategies for Financial Sustainability. Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/read/18806/chapter/7

Nobilis, L. (2010). Choosing the Right Distribution Model. Retrieved from https://www.biz-development.com/SupplyChain/6.19.Choosing-The-Right-Distribution-Model.htm

Reinhart, C. (2017). The Relationship Between Marketing & Human Resources. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/relationship-between-marketing-human-resources-10287.html

Samudrage, D., Gunarathne, A., & Wijesinghe, D. (2008). Fostering Economic Bottom Line through Social Sustainability (Industrial Safety): The case of a mining company. Retrieved from https://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/bitstream/123456789/4622/1/Fostering%20Economic%20Bottom%20Line%20through%20Social%20Sustainability%20%28Industrial%20Safety%29%20The%20Case%20of%20a%20Mining%20Company.pdf

Weaver, B. (2016, July). 7 pricing models – and which you should choose. Retrieved from https://www.creativebloq.com/advice/7-pricing-models-and-which-you-should-choose

Withey, J. (2007). Ethical dilemmas in marketing practices among small and medium sized enterprises. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 1-7. Retrieved from https://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/10453.pdf

Wood, M. (2014). Introduction to the Principles of Social Marketing. Retrieved from https://wsmconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ESMC-Intro-to-Social-Marketing-Sept-2014.pdf