Marketing——Marketing Strategy

市場營銷——市場策略

Niche Marketing 利基營銷

This involves a business selling its product(s) in small, often lucrative, segments of a market. It is the opposite strategy to mass marketing. Many small businesses can identify unsatisfied consumer needs in a particular segment within a large industry, and they can develop products to meet these needs.

This allows the small businesses to exist in industries that are dominated by large businesses (e.g. Classic FM in the radio broadcasting industry, SAGA in the holiday industry). However, if larger rivals appear within the niche market, the smaller businesses will often find it difficult to compete effectively with these well-resourced businesses.

It is also dangerous for a business to offer just one product within the market, since any larger rivals are likely to be more diversified and have a wider product portfolio. Theses larger businesses could, therefore, reduce their prices to such a low level that the small business cannot compete profitably.

Nevertheless, during periods of economic growth and higher consumer spending, then niche markets can offer a very lucrative opportunity to many small businesses to offer a personalised, high value-added service/Product.

這涉及到一個企業在一個小的，通常是有利可圖的細分市場上銷售其產品。它是與大眾營銷相反的策略。許多小企業可以在一個大行業的特定細分市場中發現未被滿足的消費者需求，他們可以開發產品來滿足這些需求。

這使得小企業能夠存在於由大企業主導的行業中（例如，無線電廣播行業的經典調頻，度假行業的SAGA）。然而，如果利基市場中出現較大的競爭對手，小企業往往會發現很難與這些資源豐富的企業進行有效競爭。

一個企業在市場上只提供一種產品也是很危險的，因為任何較大的對手都可能更加多樣化，擁有更廣泛的產品系列。因此，這些大型企業可能會將價格降到很低的水平，以至於小企業無法盈利地競爭。

然而，在經濟增長和消費者支出增加的時期，利基市場可以為許多小企業提供一個非常有利可圖的機會，提供個性化的高附加值服務/產品。

Product Life-Cycle 產品生命周期

This shows the various stages that a product is expected to pass through and it also indicates the likely level of sales that can be expected at each stage.

The length of the lifecycle will vary from product to product and from industry to industry (e.g. Oxo Cubes, Levi Jeans and Kellogg's Cornflakes have lifecycles that have lasted for over 50 years, but various pop groups and childrens' toys have a lifecycle that can last less than 12 months). Generally, there are six stages to the lifecycle - development, introduction, growth, maturity, saturation and decline, as illustrated on the diagram below :

這顯示了一個產品預計要經過的各個階段，它也表明了每個階段可能的銷售水平。

生命周期的長度因產品而異，因行業而異（例如，Oxo Cubes、Levi Jeans和Kellogg's Cornflakes的生命周期已經持續了50多年，但各種流行音樂團體和兒童玩具的生命周期卻可能不到12個月）。一般來說，生命周期有六個階段--發展、引進、成長、成熟、飽和和衰退，如下圖所示：

During the development stage, much time will be spent designing and testing the product concept. A prototype will often be test-marketed, in order to assess the potential sales and profitability of the new product. A decision will then be made whether or not to launch the product. The business will, therefore, incur many expenses during the development stage of the product lifecycle and the product will produce a large, negative cashflow.

在開發階段，許多時間將用於設計和測試產品概念。為了評估新產品的潛在銷售和盈利能力，通常會對原型進行試銷。然後，將決定是否推出該產品。因此，在產品生命周期的開發階段，企業將產生許多費用，產品將產生大量的負現金流。

It is estimated that only 1 in every 5 new products actually pass the development stage and reach the introductory stage of the lifecycle.

據估計，每5個新產品中只有1個真正通過開發階段，並達到生命周期的介紹階段。

The introduction stage commences with the launch of the product onto the market. Sales are low and costs are still very high (especially advertising and distribution). The product is, therefore, unprofitable at this stage. The length of this stage will vary considerably according to the product. Some products will take a long time to reach the growth stage of the lifecycle (e.g. new novels) whereas others will head straight from introduction into growth in a matter of days (eg new pop-music album releases).

引進階段是從產品投放市場開始的。銷量很低，成本仍然很高（尤其是廣告和分銷）。因此，該產品在這個階段是無利可圖的。這一階段的長度將根據產品的不同而有很大的不同。有些產品需要很長時間才能達到生命周期的增長階段（如新小說），而其他產品則會在幾天內直接從引入階段進入增長階段（如新的流行音樂專輯發布）。

Once the business has made customers aware of the new product and it has managed to achieve a high level of repeat-purchasers, then the product will head into the growth stage of the lifecycle. This is where the product starts to become profitable. Advertising is still extensive. Competitors may launch similar products to cash-in on the successful new product.

一旦企業讓客戶了解了新產品，並成功實現了高水平的重複購買者，那麼產品將進入生命周期的增長階段。這是該產品開始盈利的地方。廣告仍然是廣泛的。競爭者可能會推出類似的產品，以兌現成功的新產品。

The business will try to prolong the growth stage for as long as possible, but sooner or later it will reach the maturity stage of the lifecycle. The growth in sales will start to slow down and the product will nearly reach its maximum market share. There will be several competing products on the market.

企業會儘量延長增長階段，但遲早會達到生命周期的成熟階段。銷售額的增長將開始放緩，產品將幾乎達到其最大市場份額。市場上會有幾個競爭性產品。

The saturation stage of the lifecycle will occur where the sales of the product have reached their peak and the number of competing products will have grown significantly. It is during this stage of the lifecycle that the business may decide to use an extension strategy to prolong the lifecycle and boost sales, sales revenue and profits.

生命周期的飽和階段將出現，產品的銷售已達到頂峰，競爭產品的數量將大幅增長。正是在生命周期的這一階段，企業可能會決定使用延長戰略來延長生命周期，提高銷售量、銷售收入和利潤。

The final stage of the lifecycle is where the sales of the product go into decline. This is usually an inevitable result of changing customer tastes and fashions, new technology and the loss of market share to new products introduced by competitors.

生命周期的最後階段是產品的銷售進入下降階段。這通常是客戶品味和時尚的變化、新技術和競爭對手推出的新產品所帶來的市場份額損失的一個不可避免的結果。

Extension strategies 擴展策略

If a business believes that a product which has reached the saturation stage of the lifecycle can still produce a higher level of sales, then it may choose to implement one or more extension strategies to improve the product's ailing level of sales, such as :

• changing the appearance and the packaging of the product;
• trying to find new uses for the product;
• trying to find new markets for the product;
• trying to entice customers to use the product more frequently;
• ltering the ingredients of the product.

The effects of an extension strategy on a product lifecycle can be represented in the diagram below:

如果一個企業認為一個已經達到生命周期飽和階段的產品仍然可以產生更高的銷售水平，那麼它可以選擇實施一個或多個擴展策略，以改善產品的銷售水平，例如：

· 改變產品的外觀和包裝。

· 試圖為產品找到新的用途。

· 試圖為產品尋找新的市場。

· 試圖吸引顧客更頻繁地使用該產品。

· 改變產品的成分。

擴展戰略對產品生命周期的影響可以用下圖來表示：

The purpose of the extension strategy is to delay the decline stage of the lifecycle and produce extra sales and revenue for the business.

擴展戰略的目的是推遲生命周期的衰退階段，為企業產生額外的銷售和收入。

Boston Matrix 波士頓矩陣

This is a method of analysing the product portfolio of a business (that is, the number and range of different products which a business produces at a particular point in time). This model was developed by a group of management consultants called the Boston Consulting Group, and it divides the products that are produced by a business into 4 categories, according to their market share and the level of market growth. The 4 categories are :

這是一種分析企業產品組合的方法（即企業在某一特定時間點生產的不同產品的數量和範圍）。這個模型是由一群名為波士頓諮詢集團的管理顧問開發的，它將一個企業生產的產品根據其市場份額和市場增長水平分為4個類別。這4個類別是：

Problem Child 問題兒童

Sometimes referred to as Question Marks or Wild Cats). This is a product which has a low market share in a high growth industry. These products have often been launched quite recently and have not had the necessary time to establish themselves in the market. They will require a significant amount of money to be spent on their promotion in order to achieve a healthy market share. They are at the 'Introduction' stage of the product life-cycle.

有時被稱為問號或野貓）。這是一種在高增長行業中市場占有率低的產品。這些產品往往是最近才推出的，還沒有必要的時間在市場上建立自己的地位。它們將需要大量的資金用於推廣，以獲得健康的市場份額。它們正處於產品生命周期的 "引進 "階段。

Stars 明星

These products have a high market share in a high growth market. They are very successful products which create a large amount of revenue for the business. They still require a large amount of money to be spent on their promotion, in order to keep ahead of the rival products in the marketplace. They are at the 'Growth' stage of the product life-cycle.

這些產品在高增長的市場上有很高的市場份額。它們是非常成功的產品，為企業創造了大量的收入。它們仍然需要大量的資金用於推廣，以便在市場上領先於競爭對手的產品。它們正處於產品生命周期的 "成長 "階段。

Cash Cows 現金牛

These products have a very high market share in a stable market (i.e. market growth is low). These products are at the 'Maturity' and 'Saturation' stages of their product life-cycle and produce a very large amount of revenue for the business. This money is often used to promote the 'Problem Child' products and to develop new products.

這些產品在一個穩定的市場中擁有非常高的市場份額（即市場增長較低）。這些產品處於產品生命周期的 "成熟期 "和 "飽和期"，為企業創造了大量的收入。這筆錢通常被用來推廣'問題兒童'產品和開發新產品。

Dogs 犬類

These products have a very low market share in a low growth market. They produce very little revenue for the business and are at the 'Decline' stage of the product life-cycle. The business has to decide whether to try and extend the life-cycle and boost sales revenue, or whether to delete the product from the portfolio.

這些產品在一個低增長的市場中擁有很低的市場份額。它們為企業帶來的收入非常少，處於產品生命周期的 "衰退 "階段。企業必須決定是否嘗試延長生命周期並提高銷售收入，或者是否從產品組合中刪除該產品。

These different categories can be represented in a Boston Matrix, as illustrated below:

這些不同的類別可以用波士頓矩陣來表示，如下圖所示：

As you can see from the above diagram, this business has five products in its portfolio. The size of each circle is proportional to the amount of revenue which each product generates. Some important points to note from the diagram :

從上圖可以看出，這家企業的產品組合中有五種產品。每個圓圈的大小與每個產品產生的收入數額成正比。從圖中可以看出一些重要的問題：

Product 1 is a 'Dog' and is clearly in decline - the business would be advised to delete this product from its portfolio.

Product 2 is a 'Cash Cow' and produces large amounts of revenue to fund new product development as well as to fund 'Problem Child' products (such as Product 3).

Product 4 is a 'Star' and is generating a high level of sales, but is probably likely to face strong competition in the near-future. It will, therefore, require much money to be spent on its advertising and promotion, in order to protect its sales from rival brands.

Product 5 is another 'Dog', but it clearly still produces a reasonable level of sales revenue. The business may decide to use an extension strategy to prolong the life-cycle of the product and to boost its sales level. Otherwise product 5 may well go into terminal decline like product 1.

產品1是一隻 "狗"，而且明顯在衰退--建議該企業從其投資組合中刪除這一產品。

產品2是 "現金牛"，產生大量的收入來資助新產品的開發，以及資助 "問題兒童 "產品（如產品3）。

產品4是一個 "明星"，正在產生一個高水平的銷售，但在不久的將來可能會面臨強大的競爭。因此，它將需要在廣告和促銷上花費大量資金，以保護其銷售不受競爭對手的影響。

產品5是另一個 "狗"，但它顯然仍然產生合理的銷售收入水平。企業可能會決定使用延長戰略來延長產品的生命周期，並提高其銷售水平。否則，產品5很可能會像產品1一樣進入末期衰退。

Asset-Led Marketing 資產導向型營銷

This refers to the situation where a business develops its strategy based upon its existing strengths and assets. This involves the business focussing on what it currently performs effectively, and then using this as the base for developing new products or breaking into new markets.

For example, many chocolate manufacturers (such as Cadbury, Nestle and Mars) have built on the tremendous success of their confectionery products to break into the ice-cream market (e.g. brands such as Crunchie, Starburst and Rolo have become high sales-volume ice-cream lines, as well as maintaining their high sales levels for the confectionery lines).

Niche marketing capitalises on the consumer loyalty that a business has, and helps it to develop new products and devise new marketing strategies.

這是指企業在其現有優勢和資產的基礎上制定戰略的情況。這涉及到企業專注於其目前有效的表現，然後將其作為開發新產品或進入新市場的基礎。

例如，許多巧克力製造商（如吉百利、雀巢和瑪氏）在其糖果產品的巨大成功的基礎上打入冰淇淋市場（如Crunchie、Starburst和Rolo等品牌已成為高銷售量的冰淇淋系列，並保持其糖果系列的高銷售水平）。

利基營銷利用了企業擁有的消費者忠誠度，並幫助企業開發新產品和設計新的營銷策略。

Adding value 增加價值

This refers to the amount of money which is added on to the raw material cost in order to arrive at the retail price for a product.

For example, the raw materials needed to manufacture a car might include steel, plastic, rubber, aluminium, glass, electronics, etc. These may total £6,000 for a particular car, which retails to customers for £19,000. The difference of £13,000 is added value.

It represents what the customer is actually prepared to pay for the final product. This £13,000 is not the profit that the manufacturer receives from selling the car, since part of it will be used to pay for wages and factory costs - so the profit will be less than the £13,000.

Some products have a very high added value figure (e.g. McDonalds 'Big Mac', Sunny Delight, and Manchester United football kits. The customer is prepared to pay a price which is several hundred percent higher than the cost of the raw materials. This could be due to the speed of service, the quality of the image / brand, the taste, the design, the advertising or the quality of the finished product.
這指的是在原材料成本基礎上增加的金額，以便得出產品的零售價格。

例如，製造一輛汽車所需的原材料可能包括鋼、塑料、橡膠、鋁、玻璃、電子產品等。對於一輛特定的汽車來說，這些材料的總額可能是6,000英鎊，而這輛車的零售價是19,000英鎊。13,000英鎊的差額是附加價值。

它代表了客戶實際準備為最終產品支付的費用。這13,000英鎊不是製造商從銷售汽車中獲得的利潤，因為其中一部分將用於支付工資和工廠成本--所以利潤將少於13,000英鎊。

有些產品的附加值數字非常高（如麥當勞的 "巨無霸"、陽光快樂和曼聯的足球裝備。客戶準備支付比原材料成本高百分之幾百的價格。這可能是由於服務的速度、形象/品牌的質量、口味、設計、廣告或成品的質量。

Marketing Model 營銷模式

This is a framework for making marketing decisions in a scientific manner. It is derived from Frederick Taylor's method of decision-making. The model has five stages:

這是一個以科學方式進行營銷決策的框架。它源於弗雷德里克-泰勒的決策方法。該模型有五個階段：

Stage 1 - Set the marketing objective (normally based on the company's objectives). For example, if the company's main objective is growth, then a marketing objective may be to increase the number of markets in which it sells its products.

Stage 2 - Gather the data that will be needed to help make the decision. This will involve the extensive use of market research to gather qualitative and quantitative data concerning the market size, the market growth, customers' perceptions of the company and its products, the competitors, etc.

Stage 3 - Form hypotheses, (theories and strategies about how best to achieve the objective). For example, a medium-sized UK manufacturer of shoes may start selling products in the lucrative North American market, or it may decide to concentrate on new segments of the UK market (e.g. sports-shoes).

Stage 4 - Test the hypotheses. Each hypothesis will be analysed to see its potential profitability and the likelihood of success. This will be carried out through further market research, possibly by test marketing a product in a small geographic area in order to assess its potential for success.

Stage 5 - Control and review the whole process. This involves implementing one of the hypotheses, via the marketing mix, and looking at its outcome (ie did it meet the objective? could it have been improved?). This will help the business to set future strategies and plans which will be achievable and realistic.

第一階段 - 設定營銷目標（通常基於公司的目標）。例如，如果公司的主要目標是增長，那麼營銷目標可能是增加其產品銷售的市場數量。

第二階段--收集有助於做出決定的數據。這將涉及廣泛使用市場調查，以收集有關市場規模、市場增長、客戶對公司及其產品的看法、競爭對手等的定性和定量數據。

第三階段--形成假設，（關於如何最好地實現目標的理論和策略）。例如，一家中等規模的英國鞋類製造商可能開始在利潤豐厚的北美市場銷售產品，或者它可能決定專注於英國市場的新領域（如運動鞋）。

第四階段--測試假設。將對每個假設進行分析，以了解其潛在的盈利能力和成功的可能性。這將通過進一步的市場研究來進行，可能的話，在一個小的地理區域試銷一個產品，以評估其成功的潛力。

第五階段--控制和審查整個過程。這涉及到通過營銷組合實施其中一個假設，並觀察其結果（即它是否達到了目標？） 這將有助於企業制定可實現的、現實的未來戰略和計劃。