personalization

Examples of personalization in the following topics:

• Information Search

  • An example of a marketer dominated personal sources is in-store advice.
  • External research is conducted when a person has no prior knowledge about a product, which then leads them to seek information from personal sources (e.g. word of mouth from friends/family ) and/or public sources (e.g. online forums, consumer reports) or marketer dominated sources (e.g. sales persons, advertising) especially when a person's previous experience is limited or deemed inefficient.
  • Examples of personal sources that are marketer dominated, include sales person advice in a retail store.
  • Personal sources that are not marketer dominated include advice from friends and family.
  • An example of a non-personal source is a search on the Internet providing information about a subject.

• Value of Personal Selling

  • The most significant strength of personal selling is its flexibility.
  • Personal selling also minimizes waste effort.
  • A final strength of personal selling is the multiple tasks the sales force can perform.
  • High cost is the primary disadvantage of personal selling.
  • Another weakness of personal selling is message inconsistency.

• Personal Selling

  • Marketing impacts personal selling and improves the selling environment by increasing exposure to potential customers.
  • To be successful in personal sales, the salesperson must understand how to sell to the needs of a customer.
  • Maslow outlined five levels of need and as each level is fulfilled, a person progresses to the next one.
  • At the core of personal selling is the human exchange between buyer and seller.
  • The word "cold" refers to fact that the person receiving the call is not expecting it or has not specifically asked to be contacted by a sales person.

• Factors Influencing Experience, Involvement, and Satisfaction

  • The main factors that influence experience, involvement, and satisfaction with a product are personal, social, object and situational.
  • Personal Factors: A person's perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and values can substantially influence his or her experience and involvement with products.
  • Personal or individual factors can also serve as strong influences, including gender, age, income level or social class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
  • Deeper knowledge about a product also translates into higher involvement because the consumer perceives it as more important, especially if some of that knowledge pertains to characteristics that hold personal meaning.

• Training Programs

  • Apple extensively uses personal selling.
  • Personal selling is a form of oral communication with potential buyers of a product with the intention of making a sale.
  • Unlike advertising, personal selling has always been task and goal orientated.
  • Training and development is now a key factor used to measure personal selling.
  • Explain how training programs are used to measure the impacts of personal selling

• Defining Consumers

  • A consumer is a person (or group) who pays to consume the goods and/or services produced by a seller (i.e., company, organization).
  • A consumer can be a person (or group of people), generally categorized as an end user or target demographic for a product, good, or service.
  • Some may find the term or label "consumer" somewhat offensive because it can be construed as being more descriptive of plain consumption (black and white purchase), rather than recognizing the person behind the purchase, who typically has feelings, needs and overall importance.
  • Typically when business people and economists talk of consumers they are talking about an individual person, an aggregated commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy/not-buy decision.
  • Marketers are paying close attention to consumer behavior or how potential buyers act when purchasing goods or services for personal consumption.

• Proactive Representatives

  • Commodity sales like a long distance sales person, shoe sales person, and to a degree a car sales person, are associated with the hunter sales methodology.
  • Based on this description, it is no surprise that a hunter is often associated with aggressive personalities who use aggressive sales techniques.
  • In terms of sales methodology, a hunter refers to a person whose focus is on bringing in and closing deals.
  • An example is a commodity sale like a long distance sales person, shoe sales person, and to a degree a car sales person.
  • They are personally close with their customers and really care about them.

• Online Sales Promotion

  • Online sales promotion can create personal relationships, channels of communication, and an exchange of information regarding a product.
  • The personal touch often makes all the difference when selling.
  • The development of a relationship with a sales representative created by a personal referral often makes the difference between an inquiry and a sale.
  • Personal likes, personal experience, email addresses, payment information, and addresses are needed in order to deliver gifts, product samples, free information, or other "value added" items.
  • Discuss on line sales promotion as a sales promotion method and relative to personal selling and sales promotion

• Defining Personal Selling

  • Personal selling is when salespersons use a process to engage customers and take a sales order that may not otherwise have been made.
  • Personal selling is when a company uses salespersons to build a relationship and engage customers to determine their needs and attain a sales order that may not otherwise have been placed.
  • The personal selling process is a seven step approach: prospecting, pre-approach, approach, presentation, meeting objections, closing the sale, and follow-up.
  • Meeting the customer face-to-face to makes the sales process more personalized.

• Reminding and Retaining Customers

  • Organizations have shifted to using personalized promotional tactics to retain customers and encourage repeat sales.
  • One method organizations use to show appreciation for existing customers is personalized marketing.
  • Amazon is one company that pioneered the "one-to-one marketing" and personalization tactics that delivered targeted offers and related products to users.
  • Retention strategies that incorporate personalization features may include one or more of the following:
  • Personalized marketing can be more accurate when based solely upon individual purchasing records due to the simplified and repetitive nature of retailers such as supermarkets.