A MINOR PROJECT REPORT

ON

MARKETING IN CITY DRUGS PVT. LTD.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of requirement of Bachelor of

Business Administration (B.B.A) General

BBA Vth Semester Evening

Batch 2015-2018

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Ms. Jasleen Rana Daniyal Usmani

Assistant Professor 01324501715

JAGANNATH INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT SCHOOL KALKAJI

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

A lot of effort has gone into this training report. My thanks are due to many people
with whom I have been closely associated.

I would like all those who have contributed in completing this project. First of all, I
would like to send my sincere thanks to Ms. Jasleen Rana for her helpful hand in the
completion of my project.

I would like to thank my entire beloved family & friends for providing me monetary as
well as non – monetary support, as and when required, without which this project
would not have completed on time. Their trust and patience is now coming out in form
of this project.

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 CONTENTS

Description Page No.

Acknowledgement 2

Contents with page no. 3

Executive Summary 4

Certificate of Completion 7

Certificate of company 8

Introduction to topic 9

Objectives 40

Company Profile 41

Research Methodology 43

Literature Review 44

Findings and Analysis 58

Conclusion 64

Appendix 65

References 66

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. The American

Marketing Association has defined marketing as "the activity, set of institutions, and
processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have
value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

Marketing is used to create, keep and satisfy the customer. With the customer as the
focus of its activities, it can be concluded that Marketing is one of the premier
components of Business Management - the other being Innovation.[4] Other services
and management activities such as Operations (or Production), Human Resources,
Accounting, Law and Legal aspects can be "bought in" or "contracted out".

Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. The American

Marketing Association has defined marketing as "the activity, set of institutions, and
processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have
value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

Marketing is used to create, keep and satisfy the customer. With the customer as the
focus of its activities, it can be concluded that Marketing is one of the premier
components of Business Management - the other being Innovation. Other services and
management activities such as Operations (or Production), Human Resources,
Accounting, Law and Legal aspects can be "bought in" or "contracted out".

In the early 1960s, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a
number of company performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to
purchase goods or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company
represented a “Marketing Mix”. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy, at the Michigan State
University in the early 1960s, suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4 elements:
product, price, place and promotion.

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Product:
The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or
services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The scope of a product
generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support.

Pricing:

This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price
need not be monetary; it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services,
e.g. time, energy, or attention. The price is the cost that a consumer pays for a
product--monetary or not. Methods of setting prices optimally are in the domain
of pricing science.

Placement (or distribution):

This refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point-of-sale
placement or retailing. This third P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to
the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which
geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business
people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can
affect sales.

Promotion:

This includes advertising, sales promotion, including promotional education, publicity,

and personal selling. Branding refers to the various methods of promoting the
product, brand, or company.

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These four elements are often referred to as the marketing mix,] which a marketer can
use to craft a marketing plan.

Placement (or distribution):

This refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point-of-sale
placement or retailing. This third P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to
the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which
geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business
people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can
affect sales.

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 CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

This is to certify that the project work titled “THE NEED OF MARKETING IN AN
ORGANISATION” is a work of Daniyal Usmani, Enrolment no. 01324501715 who
carried out this project under the partial fulfilment for the award of the degree of BBA
(G) from “JAGANNATH INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT SCHOOL” under my guidance.

This project is original and not submitted earlier for the award of any degree/Diploma
or associate ship of any other University/Institution

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CERTIFICATE OF COMPANY

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC

Marketing are activities of a company associated with buying and selling a product or
service. It includes advertising, selling and delivering products to people. People who
work in marketing departments of companies try to get the attention of target
audiences by using slogans, packaging design, celebrity endorsements and general
media exposure.

Marketing Mix:

A marketing mix usually refers to E. Jerome McCarthy's four P classification for

developing an effective marketing strategy: product, price, placement, or distribution,
and promotion. When it is a consumer-centric marketing mix, it is extended to include
three more Ps: people, process and physical evidence, and three Cs: cost, consumer
and competitor. Depending on the industry and the target of the marketing plan,
marketing managers may take various approaches to each of the four Ps.

Although the four Ps can be examined independently, in practice they are often
dependent on each other.

Product refers to the item to be sold. What product is going to be sold? What features
differentiate the product from competitor products? Are there associated products
that can be marketed with the initial product?

Price refers to the sale price of the product. Consider factors such as the cost price of
the product, marketing expenses and distribution costs. Determine if these costs are
likely to be fixed or variable when calculating an appropriate price. Price can also be
used to position the product in respect to perceived quality.

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Place or distribution refers to where the product is going to be sold. Consideration
needs to be given to the type of product being sold when determining where it is to be
distributed, as it impacts the positioning of the product. Basic consumer products are
often made readily available. Premium consumer products are typically only made
available in select stores. Is the product better suited to be sold at a brick-and-mortar
store or online?

Promotion refers to the collective marketing communications campaign used to sell

the product, often called the promotional mix. Promotional activity includes
advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations. Promotions are
typically reliant on product and price and place. Key consideration needs to be given to
the budget assigned to the marketing mix, the stage of the product's life cycle and how
the promotion can be utilized to position the product.

Four P’s of Marketing Mix:

The four Ps are the categories that are involved in the marketing of a good or service,
and they include product, price, place and promotion. Often referred to as the
marketing mix, the four Ps is constrained by internal and external factors in the overall
business environment, and they interact significantly with one another.

The marketing mix and the four Ps were popularized in the 1950s by Neil Borden.
Before the advent of the internet and greater integration between businesses and
consumers, the marketing mix helped companies take into account the physical
barriers that prevented widespread adoption of a product. Extensions of the Ps include
"people, "process" and "physical evidence" as important components of marketing a
product.

Product:
Product refers to a good or service being offered by a company. Ideally, a product
should meet a certain consumer demand, or it should be so compelling that consumers
believe they need it. To be successful, marketers should understand the life cycle of a

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product, and business executives should have a plan for dealing with products at every
stage of their life cycles. The type of product also partially dictates how much
businesses can charge for it, where they should place it, and how they should promote
it.

Price:

Price is the cost consumers pay for a product. Marketers must link the price to the real
and perceived value of the product, but they also must take into account supply costs,
seasonal discounts, and prices used by competitors. In some cases, business executives
may manipulate a price to make a product seem more like a luxury, or they may lower
a price so that more consumers can try the product.

Place:
Place decisions outline where the product is sold and how it is delivered to the market.
The goal of business executives is to get their products in front of the consumers who
are most likely to buy them. In some cases, this may refer to placing a product in
certain stores, but it also refers to the placement of the product on a store's display or
where a product is showcased on a web page. In some cases, placement may refer to
the act of placing a product on TV shows, films or blogs in order to garner attention for
the product, but this type of placement overlaps with promotion.

Promotion:
Promotion includes advertising, public relations and promotional strategy. This ties
into the other three Ps of the marketing mix, as promoting a product shows consumers
why they need it and why they should be willing to pay a certain price for it. In
addition, marketers tend to tie promotion and placement elements together so they
can reach their core audiences.

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Criticism of the Four P-Model

Morgan, in Riding the Waves of Change (Jossey-Bass, 1988), suggests that one of the
greatest limitations of the 4 Ps approach "is that it unconsciously emphasizes the
inside–out view (looking from the company outwards), whereas the essence of
marketing should be the outside–in approach".

Some authors suggest extensions of the 4P model (not widely shared by academic
researchers and in need of further verification):

 Industrial or B2B marketing would need to account for the long term contractual
agreements that are typical in supply chain transactions. Relationship
marketing attempts to do this by looking at marketing from a long term
relationship perspective rather than individual transactions.
 Services marketing would need to account for the unique nature of services. In
order to recognize the different aspects of selling services, as opposed to Products,
some authors advocate Seven Ps for service industries: Process - the way in which
orders are handled, customers are satisfied and the service is delivered. Physical
Evidence - is tangible evidence of the service customers will receive (for example a
holiday brochure). People - the people meeting and dealing with the customers.
 Some authors cite a further P - Packaging - this is thought by many to be part
of Product, but in certain markets (Japan, China for example) and with certain
products (perfume, cosmetics) the packaging of a product has a greater
importance - maybe even than the product itself.

Marketing Evolution:

An orientation, in the marketing context, relates to a perception or attitude a firm

holds towards its product or service, essentially concerning consumers and end-users.
There exist several common orientations:

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Product orientation

A firm employing a product orientation is mainly concerned with the quality of its own
product. A firm would also assume that as long as its product was of a high standard,
people would buy and consume the product.

This works most effectively when the firm has good insights about customers and their
needs and desires, as for example in the case of Sony Walkman or Apple iPod, whether
these derive from intuitions or research.

Sales orientation:

A firm using a sales orientation focuses primarily on the selling/promotion of a

particular product, and not determining new consumer desires as such. Consequently,
this entails simply selling an already existing product, and using promotion techniques
to attain the highest sales possible.

Such an orientation may suit scenarios in which a firm holds dead stock, or otherwise
sells a product that is in high demand, with little likelihood of changes in consumer
tastes diminishing demand.

Production orientation:

A firm focusing on a production orientation specializes in producing as much as

possible of a given product or service. Thus, this signifies a firm exploiting economies
of scale, until the minimum efficient scale is reached.

A production orientation may be deployed when a high demand for a product or

service exists, coupled with a good certainty that consumer tastes do not rapidly alter
(similar to the sales orientation).

Marketing orientation:

The marketing orientation is perhaps the most common orientation used in

contemporary marketing. It involves a firm essentially basing its marketing plans
around the marketing concept, and thus supplying products to suit new consumer
tastes.

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As an example, a firm would employ market research to gauge consumer desires, use
R&D to develop a product attuned to the revealed information, and then utilize
promotion techniques to ensure persons know the product exists. The marketing
orientation often has three prime facets, which are:

Customer orientation:

A firm in the market economy can survive by producing goods that persons are willing
and able to buy. Consequently, ascertaining consumer demand is vital for a firm's
future viability and even existence as a going concern.

Organizational orientation:

In this sense, a firm's marketing department is often seen as of prime importance

within the functional level of an organization.

Information from an organization's marketing department would be used to guide the

actions of other departments within the firm. As an example, a marketing department
could ascertain (via marketing research) that consumers desired a new type of
product, or a new usage for an existing product. With this in mind, the marketing
department would inform the R&D department to create a prototype of a
product/service based on consumers' new desires.

The production department would then start to manufacture the product, while the
marketing department would focus on the promotion, distribution, pricing, etc. of the
product. Additionally, a firm's finance department would be consulted, with respect to
securing appropriate funding for the development, production and promotion of the
product.

Inter-departmental conflicts may occur, should a firm adhere to the marketing

orientation. Production may oppose the installation, support and servicing of new
capital stock, which may be needed to manufacture a new product. Finance may
oppose the required capital expenditure, since it could undermine a healthy cash flow
for the organization.

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Mutually beneficial exchange:

In a transaction in the market economy, a firm gains revenue, which thus leads to
more profits/market share/sales. A consumer on the other hand gains the satisfaction
of a need/want, utility, reliability and value for money from the purchase of a product
or service. As no one has to buy goods from any one supplier in the market economy,
firms must entice consumers to buy goods with contemporary marketing ideals.

The Marketing Environment:

The term "marketing environment" relates to all of the factors (whether internal,
external, direct or indirect) that affect a firm's marketing decision-making/planning. A
firm's marketing environment consists of three main areas, which are:

 The macro-environment, over which a firm holds little control

 The micro-environment, over which a firm holds a greater amount (though not
necessarily total) control

The macro-environment:

A firm's marketing macro-environment consists of a variety of external factors that

manifest on a large (or macro) scale. These are typically economic, social, political or
technological phenomena. A common method of assessing a firm's macro-
environment is via a PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal,
Ecological) analysis. Within a PESTLE analysis, a firm would analyze national political
issues, culture and climate, key macroeconomic conditions, health and indicators (such
as economic growth, inflation, unemployment, etc.), social trends/attitudes, and the
nature of technology's impact on its society and the business processes within the
society.

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The micro-environment:

A firm's micro-environment comprises factors pertinent to the firm itself, or

stakeholders closely connected with the firm or company.

A firm's micro-environment typically spans:

 Customers/consumers
 Employees
 Suppliers
 The Media

By contrast to the macro-environment, an organization holds a greater degree of

control over these factors.

Marketing Research:

Marketing research is a systematic process of analyzing data which involves conducting

research to support marketing activities, and the statistical interpretation of data into
information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, gauge
the nature of a firm's marketing environment and to attain information from suppliers.

A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research. Market
research pertains to research in a given market. As an example, a firm may conduct
research in a target market, after selecting a suitable market segment. In contrast,
marketing research relates to all research conducted within marketing. Market research is
a subset of marketing research.

Marketing researchers use statistical methods (such as quantitative research, qualitative

research, hypothesis tests, Chi-square tests, linear regression, correlation
coefficients, frequency distributions, Poisson and binomial distributions, etc.) to interpret
their findings and convert data into information.

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The Marketing Research Process:

Marketing research spans a number of stages, including:

 Define the problem

 Develop a research plan
 Collect the data
 Interpret data into information
 Disseminate information formally in the form of a report

Marketing Segmentation:
Market segmentation consists of taking the total heterogeneous market for a product and
dividing it into several sub-markets or segments, each of which tends to be homogeneous
in all significant aspects.

The purposes of market segmentation:

Market segmentation is conducted for two main purposes, including:

 - A better allocation of a firm's finite resources

 - To better serve the more diversified tastes of contemporary Western consumers

A firm only possesses a certain amount of resources. Accordingly, it must make choices
(and appreciate the related costs) in servicing specific groups of consumers.

Moreover, with more diversity in the tastes of modern consumers, firms are taking noting
the benefit of servicing a multiplicity of new markets.

Overview of segmentation process:

Segmentation can be defined in terms of the STP acronym, meaning Segment, Target, and
Position.

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Segment:

Segmentation involves the initial splitting up of consumers into persons of like

needs/wants/tastes.

Four commonly used criteria are used for segmentation, which include:

 Geographical (a country, region, city, town, etc.)

 Psychographic (e.g. personality traits or character traits which influence consumer
behaviour)
 Demographic (e.g. age, gender, socio-economic class, education, etc.)
 Behavioural (e.g. brand loyalty, usage rate, etc.)

Target:

Once a segment has been identified, a firm must ascertain whether the segment is
beneficial for them to service.

The DAMP acronym (meaning Discernable, Accessible, Measurable and Profitable) are
used as criteria to gauge the viability of a target market. DAMP is explained in further
detail below:

 - Discernable - how a segment can be differentiated from other segments.

 - Accessible - how a segment can be accessed via Marketing Communications
produced by a firm
 - Measurable - can the segment be quantified and its size determined?
 - Profitable - can a sufficient return on investment be attained from a segment's
servicing?

The next step in the targeting process is the level of differentiation involved in a segment
serving. Three modes of differentiation exist, which are commonly applied by firms. These
are:

 Undifferentiated - where a company produces a like product for all of a market

segment

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 Differentiated - in which a firm produced slight modifications of a product within a
segment
 Niche - in which an organisation forges a product to satisfy a specialised target market

Position:

Positioning concerns how to position a product in the minds of consumers.A firm often
performs this by producing a perceptual map, which denotes products produced in its
industry according to how consumers perceive their price and quality. From a product's
placing on the map, a firm would tailor its marketing communications to suit meld with the
product's perception among consumers.

Marketing Communications:
Marketing communications is defined by actions a firm takes to communicate with end-
users, consumers and external parties. Marketing communications encompasses four
distinct subsets, which are:

Personal sales:

Oral presentation given by a salesperson who approaches individuals or a group of

potential customers:

 Live, interactive relationship

 Personal interest
 Attention and response
 Interesting presentation
 Clear and thorough.

Sales promotion:

Short-term incentives to encourage buying of products:

 Instant appeal
 Anxiety to sell

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An example is coupons or a sale. People are given an incentive to buy, but this does not
build customer loyalty or encourage future repeat buys. A major drawback of sales
promotion is that it is easily copied by competition. It cannot be used as a sustainable
source of differentiation.

Public Relations:

Public Relations (or PR, as an acronym) is the use of media tools by a firm in order to
promote goodwill from an organization to a target market segment, or other consumers of
a firm's good/service. PR stems from the fact that a firm cannot seek to antagonize or
inflame its market base, due to incurring a lessened demand for its good/service.
Organizations undertake PR in order to assure consumers, and to forestall negative
perceptions towards it.

PR can span:

 Interviews
 Speeches/Presentations
 Corporate literature, such as financial statements, brochures, etc.

Publicity:

Publicity involves attaining space in media, without having to pay directly for such
coverage. As an example, an organization may have the launch of a new product covered
by a newspaper or TV news segment. This benefits the firm in question since it is making
consumers aware of its product, without necessarily paying a newspaper or television
station to cover the event.

Advertising:
Advertising occurs when a firm directly pays a media channel to publicize its product.
Common examples of this include TV and radio adverts, billboards, branding,
sponsorship, etc.

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Marketing communications "mix"

Marketing communications is a "sub-mix" within the Promotion aspect of the marketing

mix, as the exact nature of how to apply marketing communications depends on the
nature of the product in question.

Accordingly, a given product would require a unique communications mix, in order to

convey successfully information to consumers. Some products may require a stronger
emphasis on personal sales, while others may need more focus on advertising.

Marketing Planning:
The area of marketing planning involves forging a plan for a firm's marketing activities. A
marketing plan can also pertain to a specific product, as well as to an organisation's overall
marketing strategy.

Generally speaking, an organisation's marketing planning process is derived from its

overall business strategy. Thus, when top management are devising the firm's strategic
direction/mission, the intended marketing activities are incorporated into this plan.

Marketing Planning Process:

Within the overall strategic marketing plan, the stages of the process are listed as thus:

 Mission Statement
 Corporate Objectives
 Marketing Audit
 SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis
 Assumptions arising from the Audit and SWOT analysis
 Marketing objectives derived from the assumptions
 An estimation of the expected results of the objectives
 Identification of alternative plans/mixes
 Budgeting for the marketing plan

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 A first-year implementation program

SWOT Analysis:

SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT matrix) is

an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and is a
structured planning method that evaluates those four elements of an
organization, project or business venture. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a
company, product, place, industry, or person. It involves specifying the objective of the
business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are
favourable and unfavourable to achieve that objective. Some authors credit SWOT
to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI
International) in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune
500 companies. However, Humphrey himself did not claim the creation of SWOT, and
the origins remain obscure. The degree to which the internal environment of the firm
matches with the external environment is expressed by the concept of strategic fit.

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  Strengths: characteristics of the business or project that give it an
advantage over others
 Weaknesses: characteristics of the business that place the business or
project at a disadvantage relative to others
 Opportunities: elements in the environment that the business or project
could exploit to its advantage
 Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the
business or project

Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in

planning to achieve the objective. First, decision-makers should consider whether
the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is not attainable, they
must select a different objective and repeat the process.

Users of SWOT analysis must ask and answer questions that generate meaningful
information for each category (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)
to make the analysis useful and find their competitive advantage.

Internal and External Factors:

SWOT analysis aims to identify the key internal and external factors seen as important
to achieving an objective. SWOT analysis groups key pieces of information into two
main categories:

1. Internal factors – the strengths and weaknesses internal to the

organization
2. External factors – the opportunities and threats presented by the
environment external to the organization

Analysis may view the internal factors as strengths or as weaknesses depending upon
their effect on the organization's objectives. What may represent strengths with
respect to one objective may be weaknesses (distractions, competition) for another
objective. The factors may include all of the 4Ps as well
as personnel, finance, manufacturing capabilities, and so on.

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The external factors may include macroeconomic matters, technological
change, legislation, and sociocultural changes, as well as changes in the marketplace or
in competitive position. The results are often presented in the form of a matrix.

SWOT analysis is just one method of categorization and has its own weaknesses. For
example, it may tend to persuade its users to compile lists rather than to think about
actual important factors in achieving objectives. It also presents the resulting lists
uncritically and without clear prioritization so that, for example, weak opportunities
may appear to balance strong threats.

It is prudent not to eliminate any candidate SWOT entry too quickly. The importance of
individual SWOTs will be revealed by the value of the strategies they generate. A
SWOT item that produces valuable strategies is important. A SWOT item that
generates no strategies is not important.

Use of SWOT Analysis:

The usefulness of SWOT analysis is not limited to profit-seeking organizations. SWOT

analysis may be used in any decision-making situation when a desired end-state
(objective) is defined. Examples include non-profit organizations, governmental units,
and individuals. SWOT analysis may also be used in pre-crisis planning and
preventive crisis management. SWOT analysis may also be used in creating a
recommendation during a viability study/survey.

Strategy building:

SWOT analysis can be used effectively to build organizational or personal strategy. Steps
necessary to execute strategy-oriented analysis involve identification of internal and
external factors (using popular the 2x2 matrix), selection and evaluation of the most
important factors, and identification of relations existing between internal and external
features.

For instance, strong relations between strengths and opportunities can suggest good
conditions in the company and allow using an aggressive strategy. On the other hand,
strong interactions between weaknesses and threats could be analyzed as a potential
warning and advice for using a defensive strategy.

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Matching and converting:

One way of utilizing SWOT is matching and converting. Matching is used to

find competitive advantage by matching the strengths to opportunities. Another tactic is
to convert weaknesses or threats into strengths or opportunities. An example of a
conversion strategy is to find new markets. If the threats or weaknesses cannot be
converted, a company should try to minimize or avoid them.

Corporate Planning:
As part of the development of strategies and plans to enable the organization to achieve
its objectives, that organization will use a systematic/rigorous process known as corporate
planning. SWOT alongside PEST/PESTLE can be used as a basis for the analysis of business
and environmental factors.

 Set objectives – defining what the organization is going to do

 Environmental scanning
 Internal appraisals of the organization's SWOT, this needs to include an
assessment of the present situation as well as a portfolio of
products/services and an analysis of the product/service life cycle
 Analysis of existing strategies, this should determine relevance from the
results of an internal/external appraisal. This may include gap analysis of
environmental factors
 Strategic Issues defined – key factors in the development of a corporate plan
that the organization must address
 Develop new/revised strategies – revised analysis of strategic issues may mean
the objectives need to change
 Establish critical success factors – the achievement of objectives and strategy
implementation
 Preparation of operational, resource, projects plans for strategy
implementation
 Monitoring results – mapping against plans, taking corrective action, which
may mean amending objectives/strategies[7]

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 Marketing:
In many competitor analyses, marketers build detailed profiles of each competitor in
the market, focusing especially on their relative competitive strengths and weaknesses
using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each competitor's cost
structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and
product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses to industry
developments, and other factors.

Marketing management often finds it necessary to invest in research to collect the

data required to perform accurate marketing analysis. Accordingly, management often
conducts market research (alternately marketing research) to obtain this information.
Marketers employ a variety of techniques to conduct market research, but some of
the more common include:

 Qualitative marketing research such as focus groups

 Quantitative marketing research such as statistical surveys
 Experimental techniques such as test markets
 Observational techniques such as ethnographic (on-site) observation
 Marketing managers may also design and oversee various environmental
scanning and competitive intelligence processes to help identify trends and
inform the company's marketing analysis.

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

Reputation in Shortage of Well established Large consultancies

marketplace consultants at position with a well- operating at a minor
operating level defined market level
rather than partner niche

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 level

Expertise at partner Unable to deal with Identified market for Other small
level in HRM multidisciplinary consultancy in areas consultancies
consultancy assignments because other than HRM looking to invade the
of size or lack of marketplace
ability

In Community organisation:
The SWOT analysis has been utilized in community work as a tool to identify positive and
negative factors within organizations, communities, and the broader society that promote
or inhibit successful implementation of social services and social change efforts. It is used
as a preliminary resource, assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in a
community served by a nonprofit or community organization.This organizing tool is best
used in collaboration with community workers and/or community members before
developing goals and objectives for a program design or implementing an organizing
strategy. The SWOT analysis is a part of the planning for social change process and will not
provide a strategic plan if used by itself. After a SWOT analysis is completed, a social
change organization can turn the SWOT list into a series of recommendations to consider
before developing a strategic plan.

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One example of a SWOT Analysis used in community organizing

Strengths and Weaknesses: These are the internal factors within an organization.

 Human resources - staff, volunteers, board members, target population

 Physical resources - your location, building, equipment
 Financial - grants, funding agencies, other sources of income
 Activities and processes - programs you run, systems you employ
 Past experiences - building blocks for learning and success, your reputation in the
community

Opportunities and Threats: These are external factors stemming from community or
societal forces.

 Future trends in your field or the culture

 The economy - local, national, or international
 Funding sources - foundations, donors, legislatures
 Demographics - changes in the age, race, gender, culture of those you serve or in your
area

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 The physical environment (Is your building in a growing part of town? Is the bus
company cutting routes?)
 Legislation (Do new federal requirements make your job harder...or easier?)
 Local, national, or international events

Although the SWOT analysis was originally designed as an organizational method for
business and industries, it has been replicated in various community work as a tool for
identifying external and internal support to combat internal and external opposition.[8] The
SWOT analysis is necessary to provide direction to the next stages of the change
process.[11] It has been utilized by community organizers and community members to
further social justice in the context of Social Work practice.

Application in community organization:

Elements to consider:

Elements to consider in a SWOT analysis include understanding the community that a

particular organization is working with. This can be done via public forums, listening
campaigns, and informational interviews. Data collection will help inform the community
members and workers when developing the SWOT analysis. A needs and assets
assessment are tooling that can be used to identify the needs and existing resources of the
community. When these assessments are done and data has been collected, an analysis of
the community can be made that informs the SWOT analysis.[8]

Steps for implementation:

A SWOT analysis is best developed in a group setting such as a work or community

meeting. A facilitator can conduct the meeting by first explaining what a SWOT analysis is
as well as identifying the meaning of each term.[8]

One way of facilitating the development of a SWOT analysis includes developing an

example SWOT with the larger group then separating each group into smaller teams to
present to the larger group after set amount of time.[8] This allows for individuals, who may
be silenced in a larger group setting, to contribute. Once the allotted time is up, the
facilitator may record all the factors of each group onto a large document such as a poster
board, and then the large group, as a collective, can go work through each of the threats

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and weaknesses to explore options that may be used to combat negative forces with the
strengths and opportunities present within the organization and community.[8] A SWOT
meeting allows participants to creatively brainstorm, identify obstacles, and possibly
strategize solutions/way forward to these limitations.

When to use SWOT analysis:

The uses of a SWOT analysis by a community organization are as follows: to organize

information, provide insight into barriers[12] that may be present while engaging in social
change processes, and identify strengths available that can be activated to counteract
these barriers.

A SWOT analysis can be used to:

 Explore new solutions to problems

 Identify barriers that will limit goals/objectives
 Decide on direction that will be most effective
 Reveal possibilities and limitations for change
 To revise plans to best navigate systems, communities, and organizations
 As a brainstorming and recording device as a means of communication
 To enhance “credibility of interpretation” to be utilized in presentation to leaders or
key supporters.

Benefits / Advantages:

The SWOT analysis in social work practice framework is beneficial because it helps
organizations decide whether or not an objective is obtainable and therefore enables
organizations to set achievable goals, objectives, and steps to further the social change or
community development effort. It enables organizers to take visions and produce practical
and efficient outcomes that effect long-lasting change, and it helps organizations gather
meaningful information to maximize their potential. Completing a SWOT analysis is a
useful process regarding the consideration of key organizational priorities, such as gender
and cultural diversity and fundraising objectives.

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Levels of marketing objectives within an organization:
As stated previously, the senior management of a firm would formulate a general business
strategy for a firm. However, this general business strategy would be interpreted and
implemented in different contexts throughout the firm.

Corporate:

Corporate marketing objectives are typically broad-based in nature, and pertain to the
general vision of the firm in the short, medium or long-term.

As an example, if one pictures a group of companies (or a conglomerate), top

management may state that sales for the group should increase by 25% over a ten-year
period.

Strategic business unit:

Strategic business unit (SBU), in this case, means strategic business unit. An SBU is a
subsidiary within a firm, which participates within a given market/industry. The SBU would
embrace the corporate strategy, and attune it to its own particular industry. For instance,
an SBU may partake in the sports goods industry. It thus would ascertain how it would
attain additional sales of sports goods, in order to satisfy the overall business strategy.

Functional:

The functional level relates to departments within the SBUs, such as marketing, finance,
HR, production, etc. The functional level would adopt the SBU's strategy and determine
how to accomplish the SBU's own objectives in its market.

To use the example of the sports goods industry again, the marketing department would
draw up marketing plans, strategies and communications to help the SBU achieve its
marketing aims.

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Product Life Cycle:

The Product Life Cycle (or PLC, for short) is a tool used by marketing managers to gauge
the progress of a product, especially relating to sales/revenue accrued over time. The PLC
is based on a few key assumptions, including:

- A given product would possess an Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline stage. - No
product lasts perpetually on the market. - A firm must employ differing strategies,
according to where a product is on the PLC

The goals of product life cycle management (PLM) are to reduce time to market, improve
product quality, reduce prototyping costs, identify potential sales opportunities and
revenue contributions, and reduce environmental impacts at end-of-life. To create
successful new products the company must understand its customers, markets and
competitors. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) integrates people, data, processes and
business systems. It provides product information for companies and their extended
supply chain enterprise. PLM solutions help organizations overcome the increased

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complexity and engineering challenges of developing new products for the global
competitive markets.

The concept of product life cycle (PLC) concerns the life of a product in the market with
respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures. The product life cycle proceeds
through multiple phases, involves many professional disciplines, and requires many skills,
tools and processes. PLC management makes the following three assumptions.

 Products have a limited life and thus every product has a life cycle.
 Product sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different challenges,
opportunities, and problems to the seller.
 Products require different marketing, financing, manufacturing, purchasing, and
human resource strategies in each life cycle stage.

Once the product is designed and put into the market, the offering should be managed
efficiently for the buyers to get value from it. Before entering into any market complete
analysis is carried out by the industry for both external and internal factors including the
laws and regulations, environment, economics, cultural values and market needs. Product
life cycle is guanine concept and this term ‘product life cycle’ is associated with every
product that exists, however, due to a limited shelf life the product has to expire. From the
business perspective, as a good business, the product needs to be sold before it finishes its
life. In terms of profitability, expiry may jolt the overall profitability of the business
therefore there are few strategies, which are practiced to ensure that the product is sold
within the defined period of maturity.

Extending the product life cycle:

Extending the product life cycle by improving sales, this can be done through

 Advertising: Its purpose is to get additional audience and potential customers.

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 Exploring and expanding to new markets: By conducting market research and offering
the product (or some adapted form of it) to new markets, it is possible to get more
customers.

 Price reduction: Many customers are attracted by price cuts and discount tags.

 Adding new features: Adding value to the product catches the attention of many
buyers.

 Packaging: New, attractive, useful or eco-friendly packaging influences the target

customers.

 Changing customer consumption habits: Promoting new trends of consumption can

increase the number of customers.

 Special promotions: Raising interest by offering Jackpot and other offers.

 Heightening interest: Many of the following things attract many customers who match
certain profiles: Eco-friendly production processes, good work conditions, funding the
efforts of non-profit organizations (cancer cure, anti-war efforts, refugees, GLTBI,
environment and animal protection, etc.) and the like.

Something important to notice is that all these techniques rely on advertising to become
known. Advertising needs the others to target other potential customers and not the same
over and over again

1. Market introduction stage

This is the stage in which the product has been introduced first time in the market and the
sales of the product starts to grow slowly and gradually and the profit received from the
product is nominal and non-attained. The market for the product is not competitive
initially and also the company spends initially on the advertisement and uses various other
tools for promotion in order to motivate and produce awareness among the consumers,
therefore generating discerning demands for particular brand. The products start to gain

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distribution as the product is initially new in the market and in this stage the quality of the
product is not assured and the price of the product will also be determined as low or high.

1. costs are very high

2. slow sales volumes to start
3. little or no competition
4. demand has to be created
5. customers have to be prompted to try the product
6. makes little money at this stage

2. Growth stage

In the growth stage, the product is present already in the market and the consumers of the
products are habitual of the product and also there are quick growth in the product sales
as more new and new customers are using and trying and are becoming aware of the
product. The customers are becoming satisfied from the product and they bought it again
and again. The ratio of the product repetition for the trial procurement risen and also at
this level, the competitors have started to overflow the market with more appealing and
attractive inventions. This helps in creating increased competition in the market and also
results in decreasing the product price.

1. costs reduced due to economies of scale

2. sales volume increases significantly
3. profitability begins to rise
4. public awareness increases
5. competition begins to increase with a few new players in establishing market
6. increased competition leads to price decreases

3. Maturity stage

In maturity stage, the cost of the product has been decreased because of the increased
volume of the product and the product started to experience the curve effects. Also, more
and more competitors have seen to be leaving the market. In this way very few buyers
have been left for the product and these results in less sales of the product. The decline of

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the product and cost of attaining new buyers in this level is more as compare to the
resulted profit. The brand or the product differentiation via rebating and discounts in price
supports in recalling the outlet distribution. Also, there is a decline in the entire cost of
marketing through enhancing the distribution and promotional efficiency with switching
brand and segmentation.

1. costs are decreased as a result of production volumes increasing and experience

curve effects
2. sales volume peaks and market saturation is reached
3. increase in competitors entering the market
4. prices tend to drop due to the proliferation of competing products
5. brand differentiation and feature diversification is emphasized to maintain or
increase market share
6. industrial profits go down

4. Saturation and decline stage

In this stage, the profit as well as the sales of the product has started to decline because of
the deletion of the product from the market. The market for the product in this stage,
started to show negative rate of growth and corroding cash flows. The product, at this
stage may be kept but there should be fewer adverts.

1. costs become counter-optimal

2. sales volume decline
3. prices, profitability diminish

4. profit becomes more a challenge of production/distribution efficiency than

increased sales

Consumer Focus in Marketing:

Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies that
the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally there

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are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the sense of identifying
market changes and the product innovation approach.

In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic
marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research.
Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by
the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale
for this approach is that there is no point spending R&D funds developing products that
people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in
spite of being technological breakthroughs.

A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA (Solution,

Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to
provide a customer focus.

The SIVA Model provides a demand/customer centric version alternative to the well-
known 4Ps supply side model (product, price, place, promotion) of marketing
management.

Product → Solution

Promotion → Information

Price → Value

Placement → Access

Product Focus in Marketing:

In a product innovation approach, the company pursues product innovation, then tries to
develop a market for the product. Product innovation drives the process and marketing
research is conducted primarily to ensure that profitable market segment(s) exist for the
innovation. The rationale is that customers may not know what options will be available to

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them in the future so we should not expect them to tell us what they will buy in the future.
However, marketers can aggressively over-pursue product innovation and try to
overcapitalize on a niche. When pursuing a product innovation approach, marketers must
ensure that they have a varied and multi-tiered approach to product innovation. It is
claimed that if Thomas Edison depended on marketing research he would have produced
larger candles rather than inventing light bulbs. Many firms, such as research and
development focused companies, successfully focus on product innovation. Many purists
doubt whether this is really a form of marketing orientation at all, because of the ex post
status of consumer research. Some even question whether it is marketing.

 An emerging area of study and practice concerns internal marketing, or how

employees are trained and managed to deliver the brand in a way that positively
impacts the acquisition and retention of customers (employer branding).
 Diffusion of innovations research explores how and why people adopt new products,
services and ideas.
 A relatively new form of marketing uses the Internet and is called Internet marketing
or more generally e-marketing, affiliate marketing, desktop advertising or online
marketing. It tries to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing.
It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized
marketing or one-to-one marketing.
 With consumers' eroding attention span and willingness to give time to advertising
messages, marketers are turning to forms of permission marketing such as branded
content, custom media and reality marketing.
 The use of herd behaviour in marketing.
The Economist reported a recent conference in Rome on the subject of the
simulation of adaptive human behaviour. It shared mechanisms to increase
impulse buying and get people "to buy more by playing on the herd instinct." The
basic idea is that people will buy more of products that are seen to be popular, and
several feedback mechanisms to get product popularity information to consumers
are mentioned, including smart-card technology and the use of Radio Frequency
Identification Tag technology. A "swarm-moves" model was introduced by a

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 Florida Institute of Technology researcher, which is appealing to supermarkets
because it can "increase sales without the need to give people discounts."

Marketing is also used to promote business' products and is a great way to promote
the business.

Other recent studies on the "power of social influence" include an "artificial music
market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs"
(Columbia University, New York); a Japanese chain of convenience stores which
orders its products based on "sales data from department stores and research
companies;" a Massachusetts company exploiting knowledge of social networking
to improve sales; and online retailers who are increasingly informing consumers
about "which products are popular with like-minded consumers"
(e.g., Amazon, eBay).

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 OBJECTIVES

1. To analyse the effects of marketing in City Drugs Pvt. Ltd.

2. To analyse various marketing techniques.
3. To identify the positive impact of Marketing in the market for.
4. To identify the drawbacks of marketing.

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 CHAPTER-II

COMPANY PROFILE
CITY DRUGS PVT LTD.

City Drugs Pvt. Ltd. Is a Delhi based private company established in 2009 by Mr.
Prabhat Narang.
City Drugs Pvt. Ltd. Acts as Pharmaceutical Distributors and supply medicines in well
known hospitals and pharmacies such as Apollo, Fortis etc.

List of Clients:

 Shri Ganga Ram Hospital

 Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital
 Safdarjung Hospital
 Fortis Hospital
 Apollo Hospital
 Eden Hospital Pvt. Ltd.
 Family Hospital Pvt. Ltd.
 Jain Charitable Hospital
 Khanna Nursing Home

Products the company deals in:

1. Medicines:

 Beta hydroxybutyrates
 Paracetamols
 Azithromycins
 Cefiximes

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  Lulicozanoles
 Thyroxines
 Topiramate

2. Surgical Equipments

3. General Medical Equipments

Objectives of the company:

 To ensure timely delivery of the medicines needed

 To ensure optimum quality of medicines to be delivered
 To ensure the medicines are handled with proper hygiene while in transit

Future Plans:

 To expand the area of business in different more cities i.e. Mumbai and
Chandigarh
 To become the No.1 Pharmaceutical Distributor in Delhi
 To double the turnover by 2020

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 Research Methodology

Method Used:

Secondary data has been used for introduction and literature review. Primary data has
been collected for the company profile and the findings and analysis. Primary data was
collected through survey technique with the help of a structured questionnaire. This
survey was done with 25 respondents (respondent from hospitals)

Marketing Analysis:

Various marketing studies will be discussed to see the impact of marketing on a

business

SECONDARY DATA:

A secondary data is that data that is required to conduct the study and can be obtained from
books, journals, magazines, records etc. Secondary data is data taken by the researcher from
secondary sources, internal or external. Secondary data is collected from following sources: -

1) Magazines and journals

2) Company websites.
3) Internet
4) Books

Limitations:
Many limitations were involved in this study; some of them are given below:
 Paucity of the time
 Individual involved in this data were busy with their work and could not spare
much time in discussion
 Secondary data is not completely reliable

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 CHAPTER-III
LITERATURE REVIEW

Let us now take examples of few case studies to study the impact of
marketing in a business.

WALMART:

Don’t know what to get your co-worker this Christmas? If all goes well at
@WalmartLabs, Walmart may be able to suggest exactly what you and he and the
neighbors and friends you both share are into. @WalmartLabs, launched recently to
power the e-commerce push of one of America’s biggest retailers, is working on
milking information from its own customers’ social networks to reshape the future of
shopping.

Customer information on networks like Twitter and Facebook offers a rich opportunity
for retailers like Walmart to learn about shoppers’ interests–and those of their friends.
Armed with that information, they can more reliably target deals and choices at
customers–if they have the know-how to navigate that stream of data.

That’s where @WalmartLabs comes in. Before it was part of Sam’s Club, it was a tech
startup in Silicon Valley (then called Kosmix) founded by entrepreneur-engineers
Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman. The two are creating something they call
the “social genome” (not unlike Mark Zuckerberg’s social graph), which tracks links
between people and their interests. On a scale like Walmart’s, it has the power to
change the future of shopping.

At the heart of the technology powering @WalmartLabs is categorization of social

media, Harinarayan explains: “How to put things in buckets, rather than looking for
needles in a haystack.” Kosmix’s early product, TweetBeat, sifted through real-time

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traffic on Twitter to offer up a curated, pertinent stream of information which users
could tap into to follow a live event. The company also built RightHealth, a search site
for health information, powered by the same technology.

@WalmartLabs will be heading up Walmart’s foray into social retail in three different
ways. First, using technology similar to the kind they developed for TweetBeat,
@WalmartLabs will help track the interests of people living around a Walmart store,
and use that information to drive inventory. For example, people living near a Walmart
store in Mountain View, CA, may tweet about biking, while people living somewhere
else may be tweeting about fishing. Using their custom technology that organizes and
filters social media feeds, @WalmartLabs will play a key role in advising in-store
inventory, using social media as a way to predict demand.

Walmart also wants to talk to you on your social network of choice. Using their
knowledge of interests and your friend’s networks, the store wants to be able to make
gift recommendations for your friends through Facebook, Harinarayan says, like
offering deals around the holiday season. The first of these are expected to be rolling
out by the end of this year.

The store also wants to use social media to enhance customers’ experience when they
hit the store on foot. Thirty percent of Walmart’s customers carry smart phones into
stores, and Walmart sees an opportunity to enhance their shopping experience with
that device. “With mobile, we’re bringing the web to the store–one of the big
components of that is the social world,” Gibu Thomas, senior vice president of mobile
and digital units at Walmart, tells Fast Company. Thomas says another of Walmart’s
goals will be to get a combination of social media data harvesting and mobile app
building to enhance a store visitor’s shopping experience. When a person is standing in
front of the electronics display pondering which television they’d buy, their
Smartphone could tell them what brands their friends bought, and perhaps even how
much they liked the product.

Walmart has been lagging in the online retail space, behind competitors like
Amazon.com, and it’s interesting that the retailer is not using this venture to

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particularly boost its activities online. By focusing instead on mobile integration, social
network data mining, and enriching their customers’ in-store experience, it’s possible
Walmart will make hefty inroads into shopping on social media, leaping ahead of its
competitors while its customers keep up with each other.

CISCO:

THE CUSTOMER

Cisco is a technology company focused in IT and networking for companies of all sizes. It
was established in 1984 by Sandy Lerner and Len Bosack with “the intention was to be able
to connect the unconnected,” said Cristina Melluzzi, Head of Customer Advocacy for
Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Russia (EMEAR), Cisco.

Starting with creating the first ever internet protocol router, “Cisco has been innovating
ever since, from the days of the first ever router to today where, really, Cisco is at the
leading edge of digitizing businesses across the globe,” she said.

CHALLENGE

Melluzzi started at Cisco just over a year ago, having been focused on customer marketing
for the past eight years, specifically in traditional reference programs, and helping
customers tell their stories.

“When I joined Cisco, I realized we needed to do things differently,” she said. “When I first
joined, we had a pool of around I'd say 50 to 100 customers that we could tap into for
reference opportunities or peer-to-peer interaction when it came to closing deals or
speaking at Cisco events.”

She knew there was an opportunity to expand the reach and scale of that close
relationship with Cisco to a much broader audience, while not over-using the existing
advocates. It was a chance to “be a lot more customer-centric, but more than that …
humanize the experience for customers working with Cisco,” she said.

Internally, however, she faced some hesitation about launching a formal advocacy
program, as some people were afraid customers wouldn’t want to participate.

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“I think traditionally, as Cisco has grown, because of the partner model, we're a step away
from our customers. We don't have that much direct involvement with our customers.
That proves really difficult because we want them to feel an emotive connection to our
brand,” she said.

To prove that there were hidden advocates out there, she put together a collage of people
who loved Cisco so much, they had tattooed the brand onto their bodies, as part of a
broader presentation on advocacy.

Melluzzi and her team want people to feel like they’re a part of the Cisco community, and
naturally advocate on its behalf. They just had to find a way to bridge the gap of the
partner model.

“My initial fear was that Cisco is a huge beast of a company with over 80,000 employees
and I can't even tell you how many customers, hundreds of thousands of customers, no
doubt,” she said. “The question was, how we can possibly replicate what a scrappy
company [is able to do].”

Cisco has customers out there who actively advocate on its behalf anyway, she added, and
there are existing programs that exist in terms of advocate-type initiatives, but they
weren’t really formally pulled together.

CAMPAIGN

In February 2017, Melluzzi launched The Cisco Gateway advocacy program with an overall
goal to find and delight Cisco’s hidden brand advocates.

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It allowed customers to connect with each other and share ideas as well as gain exclusive
access to content, VIP perks and rewards. Also, users were building their personal brand
and networks by being active and contributing to the community.

The overall goals for The Cisco Gateway were to:

 Create a unified experience for customers by centralizing engagement programs

and advocacy requests
 Build deeper relationships with customers and recognize them for their advocacy
 Grow Cisco’s pool of advocates
 Accelerate Cisco’s revenue through referrals and references
 Save time and resources by getting Cisco customers to create content
 Increase reach through advocate social shares
 Receive more high-quality product feedback from users
 Boost Net Promoter Score

“I started out just me, just one person responsible for customer advocate in Europe, and it
grew very, very quickly. We went from having a proof of concept to building a strategy to
launch our advocacy program at Cisco Live in February of last year,” she said.

Step 1- Research and develop a strategy

When Melluzzi joined Cisco, she began researching opportunities of how they could
expand the traditional customer reference program into a more holistic customer
advocacy strategy, as well as potential vendors for support.

As this project started out, she began to work with their chosen vendor on developing a
strategy, and quickly realized that while technology is important, having a plan and
expertise is critical. She brought a community manager onto the team to be the main
administrator in charge of engaging with advocates on a daily basis.

To begin with, the team reached out to three groups:

 The pool of 100 or so existing advocates

 Customers who had scored especially high on the Net Promoter Score

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  Those who were especially engaged with Cisco Live, or in otherwise promoting
Cisco

The company paired with famous comedian Richard Ayoade, from the popular British
Sitcom “The IT Crowd” to launch the formal advocacy program.

“We created a personalized video, and it was the first time that Cisco ever sent out a
personalized video like this to our customers,” Melluzzi said. “It was a video that featured
Richard Ayoade telling the customer why they're so special to Cisco, why they've been
invited to this cool new program, what it was all about.”

The video is set in a retro office with an old Mac in the background, which typed out the
customer’s name, alongside other personalized graphics — for example, if the customer
was based in France, it put up a French flag.

“We tried to make it as fun and engaging as possible. We also, as a separate group, sent
this personalized invitation out to a select group of customers that attend Cisco Live that
also score very highly as promoters to Cisco Live,” she said.

The personalized video campaign was exceptionally well-received, she said, with a 16%
overall conversion rate and a 60% rate for those who viewed the video.

Step 2- Set up an engaging soft launch

“After the launch at Cisco Live, we registered around 450 people on-site to be active
advocates,” Melluzzi said. “We went from having a fairly small army of advocates, and
we're now around 800 actively engaged advocates. Those people have really become
super passionate about working with us.”

By launching at Cisco Live, the company’s biggest and most anticipated event of the year,
not only did the team have a fantastic target audience to test the content and experience
out on, but a direct line to potential advocates.

“We built a digital experience that encompassed all the activities that were happening at
Cisco Live and we gamified the whole process to another level,” she said.

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The team created a physical advocacy hub on the show floor where they invited people to
register for the advocacy program on-site. By registering, people had access to the lounge,
which had music and cocktails as well as opportunities for meeting Cisco executives.

New advocates were also encouraged to participate in different competitions or

challenges running throughout the four days of Cisco Live, with a leaderboard tracking
attendee’s scores.

“We would try to encourage advocates to visit different parts of the event or to tell us
something they've learned from a particular session or to take a selfie with someone … like
a Cisco executive,” she said. “We came up with really, really fun ways to engage people
that were both in the digital space, but also on-site.”

Step #3. Nurture customer advocates

After launching, the team began uncovering “all of these amazing customers with amazing
stories to tell that no one knew about,” Melluzzi said.

She gave the example of a customer named Antonio who works for Baker Hughes, a GE
subsidiary. He was recruited on-site at Cisco Live and provided a short video testimonial.

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“Where we are today with Antonio is that we feel — and he feels — like we have a trusting
relationship. When we got to know Antonio a bit better, we started to provide him with
opportunities [like being] featured in an ‘Upshot’ story,” she said.

He also agreed to participate in a customer film and sent the team user-generated videos
they could use to help tell the rest of the advocate community what's so great about being
an advocate to Cisco.

“He shares constant feedback around products and solutions or gives us guidance on how
we can potentially package a new campaign. That's just one example. We have around 800
customers doing that for us now,” she said.

What’s happening currently, she added, is that they are “uncovering all of these new
customers that really have great stories to tell of unique and inspiring ways that they're
leveraging our technology to do things that we didn't even know were possible.”

Step #4. Engage in and encourage acts of advocacy

The team created those challenges for Cisco Live to reflect the challenges that encourage
advocates to engage in a variety of ways. These challenges cover four key areas:

 Engaging with Cisco through user groups, communities, customer advisory boards
and product surveys
 Endorsing Cisco through media interviews, reviews, analyst briefings and
references
 Educating prospects by creating and promoting content
 Referring Cisco to their peers

The challenges are gamified, and users are rewarded with points depending on what
challenges they complete — for example, sharing content, commenting on content,
registering for a webinar and even creating their own customer videos using Cisco
technology.

Every time advocates complete a challenge, they receive points that they can later redeem
for perks like gift cards or tickets to events like Cisco Live. They can also gain clout in the

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community by climbing the points leader board and earning badges when they advocate
for Cisco.

“We've tried to make a mix of fun, feedback [and] educational,” Melluzzi said.

On average, she said, the team has seen 11.1 acts of advocacy per advocate, and they have
seen more than 8,600 challenges completed.

“On average, our engagement is around 50-60% of advocates at any one time, but because
it works in peaks and valleys around a specific campaign, engagement can be around 90%
of advocates,” she said.

Part of the reason for that engagement level is challenge cards, which encourage people
into a specific action — for instance, a challenge card might ask people to share their Cisco
story. From there, some of those stories might be chosen to be turned into content, and
then another challenge would be to share that content.

“What we're trying to do is basically transform the way we look at customer advocacy and
customer engagement from a storytelling point of view,” Melluzzi said. “So we no longer
just tap into customers when we need them. We have this ongoing relationship with them
and we're really getting to know them on a different level.”

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The team gets inspiration for challenges outside of sharing content as well, she said. For
example, one of her colleagues who went for a run wearing his Cisco Gateway t-shirt asked
other advocates to share an image of themselves running in a Cisco t-shirt.

Another challenge was a short quiz asking people what they know about Cisco — that had
214 participants. It asked people questions like what city Cisco was founded in and what
the logo is based on.

“Some people are motivated by career opportunities, like speaking at Cisco Live, that's a
reward in itself. Some other advocates, perhaps earlier on in their career might be
motivated by receiving a Gateway t-shirt, a LinkedIn Executive upgrade, a book they might
like, training, all sorts of rewards that we provide them for participating in the program,”
she said.

Another thing that advocates can do is refer their colleagues if they know someone at
their company who would be interested in becoming a Cisco customer. There have already
been about 100 referrals through the program, she said.

Step #5. Create a path for content creation

If a customer responds to a challenge to share their story, the team will reach out to that
person, an interview will be scheduled, the story written and then put into pipeline to be
published.

The stories are hosted on a third-party content site created and managed by the vendor,
giving it more credibility, Melluzzi said. The whole process takes, on average, about 10
days.

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“Ultimately, what we're trying to do is change the tone of voice of our customer story
away from these kind of traditional B2B corporate looking case studies to this more
human, authentic storytelling,” she said.

For example, she added, there was a customer who shared a story about how Cisco Spark
helps Del Brenta, the heel creator for brands like Gucci and Prada, keep pace with the
fashion industry.

“Again, this is a customer that we would have never heard of before, and now he's
become a dedicated advocate for Cisco. We've done four of those stories now … We've got
another four in the pipeline,” she said.

The idea is for advocates to follow this path and then perform these small actions over and
over again, to continually nurture the relationship.

“We start with something quite small and fairly low barrier to entry and then maybe one
day, they'll speak at a big event. It's all about building relationships with these people,” she
said.

Keep a human voice in content

This process is creating a fun and engaging user experience, she said. It’s a different
process from what usually happens, where teams edit the humanity out of a piece.

“We wanted to improve the experience of working with Cisco around producing the
customer story, because what usually happens, and still happens in some parts of Cisco, is
a draft gets produced,” Melluzzi said. “The draft goes to Cisco's product marketing team.
They'll make a ton of changes, then it will go to the content marketing team, and they'll
make a ton of changes. Then it will go to someone in the social media team, and they'll
make a ton of changes.”

In the end, she said, “you end up being so far removed from the stories that the customer
actually provided, that it meets the brief of what Cisco wants and not the story that the
customer wanted to tell. And that just strips it of all authenticity.”

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With this venture, the team has tried to trust customers to tell their story in their own
words, because, “ultimately, that's what people want to hear nowadays. They don't trust
big brands like Cisco. They trust their peers more than ever. So, we need to put the power
into the hands of our customers and let them do the talking for us,” she said.

Ultimately, she added, the goal is for every piece of content to have that real human
experience, with first-person narrative, so that it “doesn’t come across as a polished piece
of marketing collateral.”

RESULTS:
“Working with my senior directors and the VP of marketing for EMEAR, our strategy has
changed to become an advocate-led, award-winning marketing organization because we
really see the power of our communication is in our customers,” Melluzzi said.

The strategy to fulfil that vision of becoming an advocate-led marketing organization is to

continue building authentic, trusting relationships with Cisco customers and their peers.

Since the launch of The Gateway, there are 733 advocates, who on average are completing
11.1 acts of advocacy each. Additionally, in the eight months since the program’s launch,
the team has seen:

 8,600+ challenges completed

 823 social shares, which generated 10,237 clicks on Cisco content
 284 testimonials generated
 114 reviews on sites such as G2 Crowd and TrustRadius
 84 referrals
 105 event sign ups and three speakers sourced for Cisco Live 2018, Barcelona
 A Net Promoter Score of 73 among advocates (Cisco’s general customer base NPS
is 38)

For the bulk of this effort, it was just Melluzzi and one other team member. She now has
five people joining her team this week who will be helping her evolve it for the future.

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For example, Cisco has just come into the new fiscal year in August, she said, and it is
agreed that every Cisco-owned event and even some third-party events will have a Cisco
Gateway presence on-site.

The global team is also looking to implement this project soon, she said, and “we’ve seen a
lot of success very, very quickly — so much so that we have to find resources quickly
because we've been so overwhelmed with the amount of customers that have been
interested in engaging.”

“Now I will have someone dedicated to looking at this strategy and implementing this, so
we really focus on providing this opportunity to more customers, getting out there so that
we can meet more customers and recruit them and, ultimately, growing the program
exponentially,” she said.

There will also be someone leading advocate content and identifying content
opportunities and driving execution, as well as some data work.

Internally, Cisco has a program called the social ambassadors hub that helps to grow the
program as well. Any content that comes out of The Gateway also goes to the social
ambassador hub, where Cisco employee advocates share it through their own channels as
well.

“There's a lot of excitement in Cisco about this because we've really struggled to get this to
really start to be authentic and tell stories in this way,” she said. “Because we've seen such
success in such a short period of time, there's a lot of excitement.”

Cisco, Melluzzi said, is known for being a giant in “that B2B tech space. They’re not known
for necessarily having that fun, engaging relationship with their customers, apart from
Cisco Live.”

However, this effort has transformed that perception among Cisco EMEAR’s customers, as
well as internal stakeholders.

“We've changed the approach to be more human, more authentic, genuine, all of those
things. It really is paying off,” she said.

Creative Samples

1. Cisco Tattoos
2. Personalized video

Page | 56
 3. Cisco Live
4. The Gateway
5. Customer case study

From the above case studies we have a basic idea how proper marketing
technique can impact a business.

Page | 57
 CHAPTER-IV
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Below are the sales figures of City Drugs Pvt. Ltd before the company started proper
marketing strategies.

Profit in Lacs

35

30

25

20
Profit in Lacs
15

10 Source:
Companies
finacnial
5 statements.

0
2010 2011 2012 2013

Creating a proper marketing department in 2014 impacted the business in a positive

way,

Measures taken:
1. Establishment of a separate department for marketing
2. Relying on social media to invite clients
3. Creation of a website specifically for the company
4. B2B Advertisement
5. Agents approaching directly to the hospitals.

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Result:

Profit in lacs

52
51
50
49
48 Profit in lacs
47
46 Source:
Companies
45
finacnial
44 statements.

43
2014 2015 2016

Proper Marketing allowed a boost of approximately 45% in the first year

itself,
Hence this proves that marketing is essential for a company to sustain
itself and earn profits.

Below are the results of a survey conducted, the questionnaires were

filled by the representatives who came to the companies’ office.

Page | 59
 Are You a client of City Drugs Pvt. Ltd.
Yes No

0%

100%

The above pie chart represents the people who are client of the Company

How did you get to know about this

company?
Phone Internet Reference Others

5% 16%
12%

67%

This pie chart represents the different media through which the people
got to know about the company.

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 How long have you been a client of City
Drugs Pvt. Ltd.
1-6 Months 6-12 Months More than a year

8%
12%

80%

The duration for which they are availing services from the company.

Are the medicines delivered in acceptable

state?
Yes No

0%

100%

This implies whether the delivered medicines are in acceptable state or

not i.e. tampered with.

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 Does the medicines meet the required
quality?
Yes No

0%

100%

Whether the medicines meet the desired quality or not.

Does the company actually performs the

way it advertises itself?
Yes No

4%

96%

Does the company do what it says?

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 How the process of resolving concern was?
Amazing Satisfactory Average Bad

0%
8%

20%

72%

Was the company able to resolve the problems faced?

How would you rate the overall experience

including the placing of order, delivering
experience and the after sale services on a
scale of 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

10%
27% 6%

17%

40%

Performance on scale of 10.

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 CONCLUSION

Gone are the days when the products were sold just because they were mass
produced.
Consumer is getting smarter day by day and thus proper marketing techniques are
needed to be identified and implemented.
Following things are needed to be taken care while implementing marketing
strategies:
 Type of marketing technique
 Target market
 Medium of marketing
 Amount of money to be spent on marketing

If the above mentioned points could be analysed with proper care then marketing
would allow a company to flourish otherwise it would only lead to wastage of both
time and money.

Page | 64
 APPENDIX

Q1- Are you a client of City Drugs Pvt. Ltd

Yes No

Q2- How did you got to know about this company?

Phone Internet Reference Others

Q3-How long have you been the client of City Drugs Pvt. Ltd.?
1-6 months 6-12 months more than a year

Q4-Are the medicines delivered in acceptable state?

Yes No

Q5- Does the medicines meet the required quality?

Yes No

Q6-Does the company actually performs the way it advertises itself?

Yes No

Q7-How is the process of your concern resolved was?

Amazing Satisfactory average Bad

Q8- How would you rate the overall experience including the placing of order,
delivering experience and the after sale services on a scale of 10

Page | 65
 References
 Web links:
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/Cisco-brand-advocates

https://www.fastcompany.com/1778427/inside-walmarts-super-social-
shopping-agenda-or-keeping-digital-joneses

https://www.google.co.in/search?q=case+studies+on+marketing&oq=case+stu
dies+on+marketing&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0j69i60j0l3.3574j0j7&sourceid=chro
me&ie=UTF-8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing

 Books
 Magazines
 Newspaper
 Internet
 Internship at City Drugs Pvt. Ltd.

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