The Significance of Marketing Schemes

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Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. It is the business process of creating relationships with and satisfying customers. Because marketing is used to attract customers, it is one of the primary components of business management and commerce. 

4 P’s of Marketing:

Product

A product is defined as a bundle of attributes (features, functions, benefits, and uses) capable of exchange or use; usually a mix of tangible and intangible forms. Thus a product may be an idea, a physical entity (a good), or a service, or any combination of the three. It exists for the purpose of exchange in the satisfaction of individual and organizational objectives. While the term “products and services” is occasionally used, product is a term that encompasses both goods and services

Price

Price is the formal ratio that indicates the quantity of money, goods, or services needed to acquire a given quantity of goods or services. It is the amount a customer must pay to acquire a product. 

Place

Distribution refers to the act of marketing and carrying products to consumers. It is also used to describe the extent of market coverage for a given product. In the 4Ps, distribution is represented by place or placement.

Promotion

According to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), promotion marketing includes tactics that encourage short-term purchase, influence trail and quantity of purchase, and are very measurable in volume, share and profit. Examples include coupons, sweepstakes, rebates, premiums, special packaging, cause-related marketing and licensing. 

Technology has not just brought us ease of life, but also ample of knowledge that has led us to be more critical of what we experience. Consumers are much more difficult to convince now.

They will not just buy a product just because their favorite celebrities are pretending to use them. This sort of gimmick would work long back when Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz would promote Phillip Morris cigarettes. Usually, a celebrity endorsement is expected to see a rise in the company’s revenue and profits, but that is not the case now. 

The customers need better material to be convinced of the product being advertised. Often, they might need firsthand experience to really be persuaded, but it cannot be possible in a lot of cases. 

This is why many companies are now coming up with more elaborate ideas to show the customers that they are the real deal. The good part about this is not just creative advertising. It is also the fact that the companies are now giving closer attention to the way their products are made. 

The emergence of social media has made it easy for companies to share their products to a greater mass, but it has also put them in an increased danger of being bashed by customers, who have used their products, for not working the way they promised they would. This would mean a poor reputation for the business and a loss of revenue.

pCloud came up with a challenge in September 2015, where they announced a $100,000 reward to anyone who hacks into their pCloud service. Their brilliant marketing scheme reinforced what the company was claiming. It was also made for creative advertising. IT experts were asked from all over the world to hack into the encrypted Crypto Folder and then send back the data that was present there in a decrypted state. 

This challenge remained active for 6 months, during which no hacking incident was recorded.  Around 2860 people, who took part in the challenge, a lot of whom represented Boston MIT, Berkeley, and 613 organizations were unable to hack into the pCloud encrypted folder. This not only made for great traction towards the ad but also convinced the customer of pCloud’s declaration of being a highly safe and secure cloud storage service.

The reason why this sort of market advertisement works so well is that it is absolutely clear in its intention. It was not too complicated a content to understand and the viewer’s knew full well what pCloud was trying to get with this advertisement. It is also that the company was successful in displaying firsthand that what they state about their features and services is completely true.