MARKETING

Marketing can be described as the process of discovering customer’s needs up to the point when the actual sales can be made. It involves the presentation of your products or services; promotion of the products or services to potential customers, distributing the product and looking after customers before, during and after sale has taken place.

Marketing seeks to increase profit by identifying the needs of the customer and exploiting all available opportunities with the available resources. It involves a number of factors including:

• The co-ordination of activities of a dealership operations i.e. selling, delivering, pricing and presentations.

• The assessment of sales potential and customer needs.

• Motivating customers so that they want to purchase the dealership services and goods.

• Ensuring the customer can obtain goods and services in the way that best suits them. 

(“How To Promote A Workshop”, 2007)

Market Research

To begin marketing, it is important to study the market. In order to do this; we need to find out about two sets of people:

a) The customers

We need to know who our customers are, where they are, and what they need. In order to direct our marketing efforts to the right people in the right places and offer them exactly what they want, it is necessary that we find out everything about our potential customer.

b) The competitors

We need to find out who our competitors are, where they are, the kind of services that they offer, how they operate, their strengths and their weaknesses. 

The Marketing Mix

One common way of looking at the market is to consider the Marketing Mix (the four “P`s” of Marketing). These are:

I. The Product

 The customer must be provided with the right product or services. Planning the product therefore involves the discovery of what the customers‟ wants are and how these wants can be profitably met.

II. Pricing

The customer is offered a quality product at a price acceptable to him.

III. Place

The physical location of a dealership will have a critical effect on its success. The product should be provided in the right place or in a convenient manner for the customer.

IV. Promotion

This is the process of increasing customer awareness and desire. It involves providing the product in a manner attractive to the customer.

(“How To Promote A Workshop”, 2007)

Honda’s Marketing Approach

The following are some marketing strategies which Honda uses to promote their products and services:

-Honda has a current website which can be accessed both nationally and worldwide. 

-Set up are free listings for Honda in the internet search engine local directories. 

-The company has established business profiles or pages up on social networks such as Bebo, Facebook, and Twitter. Here the business profile includes a good description, keywords and a link to the Honda website. 

-The company has business cards and business stationery stamped with their name on it. Included on these items are the company’s details such as the company and employee name, physical address, contact details, and website address.

-The company is constantly seen in newspaper and magazine articles, where their expertise in the field is flaunted. 

-The company networks with others who are doing the same type of work and on occasions takes on their work overloads i.e sharing customer with Toyota when overwhelmed with work.  

-There are streaming videos of the company products and services on YouTube and other video sharing and slide sharing sites.

-The company vehicles have the company name and contact information professionally sign written on the side of the vehicles. In this way, the vehicles are utilized for transportation and advertising the business. 

-The company offers a free, no obligation consultation to people you think could use your services. During such consultations offer some practical suggestions or ideas--and before you leave ask for an "order" to implement the ideas.

-Honda place ads on the local directory, i.e the whitepages and yellow pages; both in the hardcopy (book) and softcopy (website) versions.

(Source: www.verdurehealth.com)

Reference:

“How To Promote A Workshop”. (2007). Retrieved from: http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/marketing/c/2007/12/04/467/how-to-promote-a-workshop.html