Commercial activity is profitable if it meets the needs of customers. It is possible to predict the development of the market, to offer a product that is interesting to customers and to ensure its sales by constantly monitoring demand and developing tactics in the organization's activities. Operational marketing of a company is a tool that allows you to successfully solve short-term tasks of assortment development, promotion and sale of goods in an already developed market, while ensuring the implementation of the strategic plan, profit and success of the enterprise in a competitive environment.
How to make a product in demand?
A person or company who decides to offer consumers a product or service should first identify and analyze a number of factors that influence the level of demand. For this, there is marketing — an activity whose goal is to satisfy the needs of customers and, as a result, to make an organization profit. It allows you to choose promising areas on the market and make the product attractive to the public, while contributing to the improvement of the competitiveness of the enterprise.
Developing tactics — the path to success
Any leader should have a clear idea of what he wants to see his company in a few years. To do this, carefully plan its activities. That is why they apply strategic and operational marketing. The first view is a concept of the business as a whole and its development path (strategy), it answers the questions:
- in what direction the organization will improve;
- which client will be guided by;
- what market segments are planning to cover.
The second is nothing more than the immediate phased implementation of this long-term plan. Operational marketing is designed to study the sphere of implementation and influence it. It covers the development of a product, its release, informing the public about the products offered, increasing their value in comparison with analogues presented by other manufacturers. To increase profits, the company plans and conducts a number of promotional events aimed at increasing sales.
Both types of marketing are interconnected, in the aggregate they make it possible to successfully sell goods to consumers, while ensuring increased competitiveness of the enterprise.
Features of implementation planning
The operational marketing strategy is the organization in the already developed segments of the market of the sales process, informing customers about the benefits of the product. This planning is carried out for a short period of time (mainly for a year) and is quite detailed. It allows you to determine the profitability of a business in a certain period of time. This is a tool that allows you to act in the conditions of “today” and move in the direction of “tomorrow”, taking into account the vector of development of the company.
Operational Marketing Tasks
A short-term action program is beneficial because it ensures the implementation of a number of important functions in the field of sales, namely:
- improvement of the sales process, i.e., the search for new consumers and distributors of the product;
- preparation of the main assortment and the formation of pricing policy (the price should be competitive in the market);
- merchandising - in the process of operational marketing, the competent layout of the goods forms the interest of buyers in the product and thus increases the company's income;
- the organization and conduct of a number of promotions (racks with a demonstration of probes, promotions).
Performing these tasks together will provide an increase in enterprise income.
Features of the sales process
Activities aimed at making a profit, as a rule, are carried out in a certain sequence. For the effective functioning of the enterprise, it is necessary to know the stages of operational marketing and work in accordance with them. Step-by-step short-term planning is as follows:
1. Market research, ie, the study of customer requests for goods and services. This stage is the key, because it is on its results that the whole process will be built.
2. Development of tactics aimed at implementing a marketing program. If there are several business development options, then less costly is chosen.
3. Drawing up an operational plan. In this document, it is necessary to clearly state the list of goods, places of their sale and activities aimed at promoting products.
4. The calculation of the budget. This step involves the analysis of the covered market segments and the distribution of financial resources between them.
5. Implementation of the plan and monitoring the progress of actions.
It should be noted that the more thoroughly all stages of marketing are thought out, the more correct will be the financial assessment of the enterprise, the lower the costs and the more significant benefit from the conducted commercial activities.
Operational Marketing Tools
Work on making a profit from a business is based on those components that you have to work directly with. It:
- products - goods that may be of interest to consumers and will be in demand;
- cost - the funds that will be earned during the marketing process, as well as the pricing policy taking into account all kinds of bonuses, promotions and discounts;
- points of sale - organization of deliveries to already mastered spheres and sales of products;
- promotion - a set of methods and techniques for familiarizing customers with the product and the formation of their concept of its value in comparison with other similar products.
These components influence the planning of the sales process, they allow you to determine customer requirements for the products they need and make them in demand.
The role of the implementation of the short-term plan
The value of operational marketing is quite large. Many individuals and legal entities use his tools unconsciously, fragmentarily, but if a specialist is engaged in them, he is able to significantly increase the level of income, form a steady consumer interest in the goods of this particular organization and ensure the development of the company in the right direction.
Operational marketing is a factor on which the profitability of an enterprise over a certain period of time directly depends. Skillfully developed tactics allow the company to confidently take its position in the market. But we must remember that it will bring positive results only in combination with long-term planning. Skillfully thought-out operational and strategic marketing will ensure the success of the company, its competitiveness and constant increase in profits.