Consultancy Marketing
The Institute of
Management Consultancy UK consider consultancy services as the services
provided by an independent and qualified person or persons in identifying the
investigating the problems concerned with policy, organisatoin, procedures and
methods; recommending appropriate action and helping to implement these
recommendations.
The aforesaid views
make it clear that in the consultancy services, an expert of the related field
or discipline or group of experts identify and investigate the problems and on
the basis of their expertise, make available suitable suggestions and also help
in the implementation of recommendations. As for example, person or persons
having and outstanding excellence in the concerned areas like legal, medical,
management, technical or so make available specialized services to a person or
persons in the shape or knowledge and information. They make an indepth study
of the problems and offer to them appropriate suggestions to combat the
problem. For the services rendered, they may or may not charge fee or commission.
The application of
marketing concept in the consultancy services is a recent phenomenon. A number
of consultants have been found engaged in the process and they have been found
selling their views or expertise. This made ways for conceptualizing marketing in
the consultancy services. The growing significance of innovative ideas,
expertise mainly to excel competition paved avenues or practicing marketing. An
individual or an institution started the process of marketing the consultancy
services on national and international levels for making profits which made the
business conditions competitive. Since then, the marketing concept has gained
importance. Thus by consultancy marketing. The emphasis is one marketing of
expertise by an individual or an institution where they formulate the marketing
mix and keep on moving the process of innovating the decisions to establish
their edge on the competitors.
Market segmentation
Clients possess some
uniqueness which complicate the task of a marketer, while assessing their needs
and identifying the level of their expectations. In the consultancy services,
there are a number of factors influencing the needs and requirements
of the prospects. In the consultancy services and organisation
needs to segment the
market on the basis of region, sector and geographical conditions.
Market segmented on
the basis of zones helps the consultancy organisatoins in studying the needs
and requirements of different zones and the development of marketing resources
are thus made optimal to the users representing a particular zone. Segmentation
on the basis of sector helps the consultants and the consultancy organisatoins
in understanding the expectations of different categories of users in a
different way.
Marketing mix for the
consultancy organisatoins
The formulation of
marketing mix is an important decision making area which requires professional
excellence. An individual or a group of individuals engaged in the consultancy
services is required to formulate a sound marketing mix that makes possible an
optimal development of marketing resources. It is the quality and quantity of
different submixes that play a significant role in determining the quality of
marketing decisions. This makes it essential that the marketers while
formulating product mix, place mix, promotion mix, price mix and people keep in
their mind the intensity of competition in addition to the level of
expectations of clients.
Product mix
In the consultancy
services, the important products are technical services, legal services,
medical services and the managerial services. The providers and the clients may
be an individual or even an institution.
The formulation of
product mix requires a number of care and precautions. The innovative ideas,
sophisticated technologies, intensive research need due care while formulating
the product mix.
The formulation of a
sound product mix makes it essential that the consultancy organizations make
efforts to design a sound product portfolio in which different types of
services are included. The medical consultants need to be aware of the latest
devices of treatment and to offer the patients the best medical aids. The
technical consultants also need to innovate their product mix in the face of
technological sophistication from the product mix. The legal consultants need
to be aware of the latest developments, such as amendments in laws, rules and
regulations and to formulate the service mix accordingly. Thus the elimination
and inclusion processes need to be adopted even in consultancy services. These
facts make it clear that like other organizations, the consultancy
organizations also need to make possible innovating in the face of multi-dimensional
developments in the business.
The formulation of
sound package is also found important in the product mix of the consultancy
organisatoins. Here the emphasis is on the blending of different types of
services keeping in view the needs and requirements of different segments
availing the services. The packages become a point of
attraction if the
marketers show their professional excellence in the blending process.
In view of the above,
it is right to mention that the formulation of a sound product mix is
considered essential and the marketing professional serving the consultancy
organisatoins need to make it possible. This is easier when they are well aware
of the changing needs and requirements and the increasing level of expectations
of the clients / customers.
Promotion mix
Like other services,
the consultancy services are also required to be promoted. With the help of
sound mix of promotion which is a fair blending of the different constituents,
such as advertising, publicity, sales promotion, word-of-mouth promotion and
personal selling, the consultancy services can be effectively promoted.
Advertising
While advertising, the
consultancy organisatoins need to draw their attention to some of the important
problems mentioned below:
·Composing slogans
having creativity.
·Selecting suitable
vehicles for traveling the messages
·Injecting sensitivity
to the messages, themes and appeals.
·Making the
advertisements measures cost effective.
·Increasing the
life-span of advertisement slogans
·Testing the
advertising slogans before their final launching
·Testing the
advertising effectiveness.
With the increasing
sophistication in print technology, the print media is an effective instrument
in informing, sensing and persuading the clients. The newspapers, magazines,
posters, brouchers, leaflets are effective print media.
Now, the telecast
media has established its edge over the print and broadcast media. This is due
to the fact that televisions have the outstanding merit of audio-visual exposure.
The marketing and advertising professionals bear the responsibility of making
the advertisement slogans creative provide adequate budget to make
advertisement effective and purposeful.
Publicity
Like other
organisatoins even the consultancy organisatoin are required to use this
component of promotion. The ultimate object of publicity is to transmit the
news and information to the masses. In the consultancy services, the publicity
measures are required to be innovative. This requires support of academics and
professionals in the field of creative literature and getting them published in
the
important newspapers,
magazines and journals preferred by the target clients. The services to be
offered
by a consultancy
organisation would be published in a reputed media having wider circulation.
The technical, medical, andlegal‟stheimportantnewspapersmanagementandmagazines
preferredjournal by the prospects require due attention of marketing
professionals.
The marketing
professionals serving the consultancy organisatoin need to develop rapport with
the media people to publish the developments. Organizing press conferences,
displaying and visualizing positive contributions, quality of services,
benefits to the users are some of the important aspects requiring due attention
of marketing professionals in general and the public relations officers in
particular.
Sales promotion
This component of
promotion bears the efficacy of touching the target with the help of incentives
offered to the middlemen and the clients. It is a temporary incentive
instrumental in promoting the consultancy business.
The consultancy
organizations are required to influence the personnel supposed to offer the
services to the clients by small gifts. In addition, the sales promotion
measures are also offered for the users or clients. This may be in different
forms, such as concessional services for a particular period, offering of small
gifts to the customers, organisatoin of sales contests for the clients and
users, package benefits to the customers for a particular period. While
offering incentives, the consultancy organizations also need to turn their eyes
on the strategies adopted by the competitors so that they are in a position to
offer the innovative measures.
Personal selling
Sales people are
supposed to perceive power,s organisatoins. It is also essential that they
develop personal relationship with clients. The success of personal selling
substantially depends on the personality and excellence of an individual.
Physical attractions are assigned due weightage in the very context. If they
behave well, act well, move well, communicate well and receive well; the task
of consultancy organizations becomes simple.
Personal promotion
helps the consultancy organizations in creating impulse buying. A consultant
salesman is required to device new ways to move market into action so that
impulse buying is generated in a right direction. The excellence of a
consultative salesman occupies a place of outstanding significance. If the
clients remain satisfied with the communicative ability of the consulting sales
people, the task of consultants and the consultancy organizations is simplified
considerably. It is pertinent to mention that it is not only the
consultants who generate the business but virtually it is the result of a joint
endevour of the
consultative sales people and the consultants that simplify the process of
promoting the
business. The
consultative sales people are required to create awareness and interest,
reinforce to overcome cognitive dissonance, facilitate and cause the purchase
to take place and ensure that the clients are satisfied with the service of
consultants. It is against this background that personal selling occupies a
place of outstanding significance in the promotion of consultancy services.
Word-of-mouth
promotion
By word-of-mouth
communication the emphasis is on promoting the services by the hidden sales
force. It is pertinent to mention that the satisfied group of customers
communicate to their close friends and relatives the outstanding properties of
he services availed by them. For instance, if you are satisfied with the
services of a medical consultant you talk to your friends and relatives
regarding the same. In fact, you act as a hidden sales force. In future your
friends and relatives prefer to use the services of the same doctor. Like this,
if a legal consultant helps you in protecting the property, you talk to you
friends and relatives the same. They prefer to user the services of the same
legal consultants as and when they need. These facts are a mute testimony to
this proposition that quality goods or services are promoted even by the
satisfied group of customers or users. It is in the context the we talk about
the instrumentality of word-of-mouth promotion in promoting the consultancy
services.
It is important that
in this context the marketing professionals also need to sue the services of
opinion leaders or vocal persons. They identify such persons, offer to them
concessional services in addition to small gifts and expect from them a strong
advocacy in favour of their services.
Price mix
In the consultancy
services the price mix refers to fee or commission charged by the consultants
or the consultancy organisatoins for making the services available to the
clients. The pricing objectives may be either price-competitor or
non-price-competitor. In the price-competitor objective, the consultancy
organizations offer lower price since the pricing decisions are required to be
motivational. In the non-price-competitor objective, stable pricing is followed.
The other objectives are profit-generating, market stability, market share etc.
It is important that
the consultants and the consultancy organizations explore possibilities for a
rational pricing policy which helps in maintaining the commercial viability
besides serving the social interests.
Place Mix
An individual
consultant offers the services directly to the ultimate users. But the
consultancy organisatoins offer the services to the clients with the help of
branch offices. To be more specific when the head office located for off, it is essential that the consultancy organizations make suitable
arrangements for the offering of service at different places through its
branches. The opening of branch
offices simplify the
task of head office which also helps in improving the quality of services.
People Mix
In almost all the
consultancy organizations, the instrumentality of people in implementing the
policies and programmes in an effective way. The consultancy organizations also
need the services of quality people serving as consultants, consultant sales people,
working in the branch offices. A fair synchronization of sophisticated
technologies and quality employees makes the ways for quality upgradition. If
the employees serving the branch offices are satisfied with the incentives
offered to them, the promised services reach to the clients or the ultimate
users. This makes it essential that the consultancy organisatoins make possible
employee-orientation by offering to the employees incentives in different
forms. Thus while managing people, the marketing professionals need due
weightage to the incentive plans for employees which would pave avenues for
performance –orientation.
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