UNDERSTANDING STRATEGIC MARKETING ANALYSIS

As we touched on above, strategic market analysis isn’t a fully developed (or defined)
concept. Instead, to understand strategic market analysis, you need to take each word
at face value. That’s why we say that strategic market analysis is any market analysis
which pertains to business strategy. There’s definitely some ambiguity here, which is
mostly caused by the ambiguity of the word “strategy.”

For some, strategy refers to an individual plan or set of steps that an organization is
executing to achieve a specific goal. For others, strategy refers to an organization’s
overarching approach to business, especially as related to business development and
growth. Both of these are valid definitions.

Definition of marketing

Marketing author Philip Kotler defines marketing as “the science and art of
exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at
a profit” (Kotler 2016). Marketing nowadays is not only about selling the products,
but it consists of various processes, such as developing products that bring value to
customers, distributing and promoting them and setting the right prices.
Marketing can also be seen as a way of building profitable, mutually beneficial
relationships between the company and the target market. (Kotler et al. 2008)

1.1 Strategic marketing

Strategic marketing is marketing that aims for differentiation and bringing value to
the customers as effectively as possible by answering the three following
questions:

• which markets to compete in

• how to utilize the company’s competitive advantages
• when and how to enter each market

Strategic marketing focuses on the current strengths of the company, as well as the
potential strengths it can reach in the future. Whereas marketing management
focuses on achieving the business goals by finding the right marketing mix,
strategic marketing is concerned with offering better value to the customers than
its competitors by finding out what the company currently is and what it needs to
become in the future. (Toman 2011)
1.2 Marketing strategy

A marketing strategy is a strategy that consists of all marketing-related goals and

plans. It is a process that aims for bringing value to every stakeholder in the
company, including the customers, the shareholders and the suppliers. A
marketing strategy aims for increasing the customers’ interest of the company’s
offerings, and encouraging them to choose their company instead of their
competitors. Another general goal is to improve the customer satisfaction and
therefore increase the customer loyalty. A marketing strategy should bring value to
the customers in a way that they not only become more loyal to the company, but
they also spread positive messages about the company. Choosing the target
customers in line with a good marketing strategy makes it possible to achieve
these goals while remaining profitable. (Tikkanen 2007)

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1.3 Marketing process

Marketing is often mixed with advertising, when in reality advertising is only a

small part of marketing. Advertising is the process of planning and placing
advertisements to the correct channels, such as newspapers, TV, and nowadays
more and more importantly internet and social media. Marketing, on the other
hand, is the whole process of determining the target market, identifying the
customer needs and building profitable customer relationships. (Kotler et al.
2008)

Marketing
strategy Marketing Building
Identifying Profit and
driven by program customer
customer long-term
the delivering relation-
needs customers
customer value ships
needs

Figure 7. Stages in marketing process

Marketing is a process consisting of five stages, which are shown in Figure 7. The
first step is to identify the market and to find out what the consumers’ needs, wants
and demands are. This can be done by market researches and analyses. It is
important to remember that the products and services are ways to solve the
customers’ problems. Focusing too much on the details of a product and thinking
about only the customer wants, instead of focusing on how the customer benefits
from it and why he or she needs the product, is a common mistake among
companies called marketing myopia. (Kotler et al. 2008)

After identifying the market, a customer-driven marketing strategy can be

designed. The first step for this is a market segmentation, after which the most
suitable segments for the business are chosen. These segments should only consist
of the consumers that the company has the most potential to satisfy. The next part
is choosing a value proposition, in order to differentiate the

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company from other companies in the market, and attract the customers to choose
the company over the competitors. (Kotler et al. 2008)

The next stage is to create a marketing plan. Utilizing the marketing strategy, the
marketing plan helps to identify the marketing mix and the other marketing tools.
The marketing plan puts the marketing strategy into practice by deciding the
necessary steps, such as what the product responding the customer needs will be,
what the suitable price should be, how it will be made available for the customers
and how the customers will be attracted. The whole plan must then be turned into
an integrated marketing program, responding to the customer needs, wants and
demands. (Kotler et al. 2008)

Building customer relationships becomes relevant after the third step. The most
important activity for this is customer relationship management, CRM, which
involves getting data from the customers and determining their needs as
specifically as possible, in order to deliver high value to them, increase the
customer satisfaction, identify the most profitable customers and turn them into
long-term customers. The customer satisfaction originates from the customer’s
experience with the product exceeding the expectations. However, the customer
satisfaction should only be aimed to increase to the level at which it is still
profitable for the company. Customer relationships can also be built for example
by rewarding the frequent customers with discounts or other benefits. Companies
can choose the most suitable level of the customer relationships, based on the
number of their customers. (Kotler et al. 2008)

With the first four steps, the company aims for making a profit, which is achieved by
increasing the sales and the market share. Satisfied customers are more profitable
for the company for many reasons. First of all, they are more likely to become loyal
customers, which means long-term revenue streams for the company. A customer
lifetime value represents this by showing the value that one customer would bring
to the company during their lifetime. The satisfied customers also communicate
positively about the company to others, which can be seen as effective advertising
for no cost. It is easier to grow the share of a customer when the customer is
satisfied with the company. The share of a customer indicates the share that the
customer has for the whole product category. It can be increased by cross-selling
or upselling, or simply attracting

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the customer to increase the volume of the purchases in the company. Finally,
companies want to increase their customer equity, which is the total customer
lifetime value of the company’s current and potential customers. Loyal customers
bring more customer lifetime value and therefore also bigger customer equity.
(Kotler et al. 2008)

1.4 Services marketing

Services are becoming more common, and therefore services marketing is

becoming more important. Four features separate a service business from
companies offering only products. These features are intangibility, inseparability,
variability and perishability. Intangibility means that the result from using the
service cannot be seen, felt, heard, tasted or smelled before making the purchase.
This makes the perceived quality of the company’s services important, as that is
what makes the customers trust that the results will be what expected.
Inseparability indicates the impossibility of separating the service from its
provider, which can be for example a person or a machine. Provider-customer
interaction is a significant part of the services marketing when the provider is a
person. The outcome of purchasing a product is always the same, regardless of the
customer, but services are influenced by both the provider and the customer.
Variability represents the diversity in the service outcome depending on the
person providing it and his or her mood at the moment. Perishability means that
the service is not possible to be stored for a later time like products are. This has
to be taken into consideration especially when the demand tends to fluctuate.
(Kotler et al. 2008)

These features make the marketing process also different for service companies.
Differentiating the services might be difficult but extremely important. The
offerings, delivery and image should be differentiated from the competitors. The
company’s offerings should deliver unique value to the customers in a different
way than the competitors. The service delivery should be suitable for the target
customers, which can be done for example by offering multiple options for this or
focusing on the high quality of the service delivery. The service companies often
benefit from a positive brand image, which increases their trustworthiness and
competitiveness. (Kotler et al. 2008)

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Another factor that is different from the traditional product marketing, is the
service quality. Measuring the quality of the service is difficult, and is therefore
typically defined with the rate of the customer retention. The service quality is
dependent on several factors, such as the employees’ attitudes, the interaction
between the employees and customers, and the level of demand. Because of these,
service recovery is an important factor in the services marketing. It is used when
the customer is not satisfied with the quality of the service, by making it up to him
or her, aiming for turning the dissatisfied customer into a satisfied or even a loyal
customer. The key to maximize the service quality is to motivate the service
employees with incentives, as well as an increased responsibility and authority.
With increasing costs, the service productivity should also be maximized, however,
without jeopardizing the quality. The productivity can be improved by training the
staff, hiring new more skilled employees or using automatization to cut down the
costs. (Kotler et al. 2008)

1.5 Stages of marketing

Marketing can be divided into three stages based on the stage of the evolution in
marketing. Marketing in its first stage (marketing 1.0) was used during the
industrial age, when the core business was selling the products, mostly machinery.
The products were targeted for the mass markets, and there was no customization.
Therefore, the goal of marketing was simply to sell the products. (Kotler et al.
2010)

The next stage of marketing (marketing 2.0) was needed when the information
technology started developing and the businesses became more customer- driven.
This type of marketing has a unique product for a specific target market, instead of
pushing a general product for a bigger market, and the main objective is to satisfy
the consumers. Marketing 2.0 is more focused on the consumers but still lacks the
involvement of them in the processes. (Kotler et al. 2010)

The newest stage (marketing 3.0) is driven by customer values. The marketers who
use this type of marketing, understand the complicated thoughts and desires of the
customers, and succeed in satisfying even the deepest needs, concerning the social,
economic and environmental issues. The objective of marketing 3.0 is making
the entire world a better place, by following the

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corporate mission, vision and values, and therefore satisfying even the deepest
needs of the consumers. (Kotler et al. 2010)

1.6 Marketing concepts

This part covers the most general marketing concepts, and explains their
importance in a marketing strategy. These concepts are utilized in Chapter 4,
concerning the case company introduction.

Target market

The target market of a company consists of the consumers whose needs and wants
the company has the most potential to satisfy (Kotler 2008). Deciding the target
market is the first step that is needed when planning a marketing strategy. The
target market should be examined as clearly as possible, in order to reach it in the
most efficient way. (Kaleikini 2009)

Customer needs, wants and demands

In order to have an effective marketing plan, the target market has to be

understood. This requires a broad knowledge of the customer needs, wants, and
demands. The customer needs consist of the physical, social and individual needs.
The physical needs are the most concrete needs, such as food, water and safety,
whereas the social needs are more abstract, for example the feeling of belonging
and receiving affection. The individual needs consist of the personal needs such as
expressing one’s self. The customer wants are the needs adjusted with the society,
culture and personality. For example, eating habits are shaped differently in
different countries, and therefore the customer wants for food have differences as
well. The customer wants form customer demands with the buying power, which
originates from the resources. The wants and resources determine what the
customer can demand from a product. (Kotler et al. 2008)

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Segmentation

The target market is divided into customer segments, each segment including
customers with similar features, needs and desires. The segments should have
something identifiable that makes them different from each other, and all of them
should have their own value proposition based on their unique needs that the
company is aiming to satisfy. The segmentation can be based on demographic,
geographic, psychographic or behavioral features. The demographic features
include everything that can be found on the official platforms, related to the
consumer’s age, gender, profession, occupation, nationality and ethnicity, whereas
the psychographic features are more personal, such as hobbies, personality,
attitudes and values. The geographic features have to do with the location where
the consumers live and where they can be reached, and the behavioral variables
are related to the consumers’ behavior, such as the readiness to buy something or
brand loyalty. (Goyat 2011)

Positioning

Positioning was originally defined as “what the product stands for, and who it is
for”, by David Ogilvy in 1983. This definition includes a reason for selling the
product and takes the target group into consideration, but lacks the influence of
emotions. In modern marketing, the definition can be extended to how the
company wants the customers to perceive the brand in relation to competition. The
perception is dependent on the way the product satisfies the customers’ needs,
what the customers rationally think about the brand and what kind of emotions
they associate to the brand, not just one product. The emotions can create a
competitive advantage even if the product itself would not be seen as a better
option than a substitute of a competitor. Positioning is based on the distinctive
features of a brand that makes them stand out from their competitors. (Czerniawski
et al. 2012)

Differentiation

When a company enters a market with companies positioning their products or

services the same way, it needs to differentiate itself in order to stand out from the
other companies. Differentiation means developing unique beneficial

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features to the product or service, that the competitors are lacking, in order to
satisfy the target customers in a more effective way than the competitors.
Differentiation and positioning is a process consisting of determining the potential
benefits that the company can offer to the target customers, building them into
competitive advantages, creating a positioning strategy and making it visible for
the market. (Kotler et al. 2008)

Emotional marketing

As mentioned before, the customers’ emotions have an impact on the perception

of the brand and therefore also the single products. Utilizing this, and targeting the
consumers’ feelings instead of only the rationality, is called emotional marketing.
Humans can be thought of consisting of four components: body, mind, heart and
spirit. The human body responds to the physical needs, for which the mind adds
the rationality. The heart is responsible for the emotions, and the spirit for the
desires. All of these components should be taken into consideration as a whole,
when targeting the consumers. Emotional marketing can be explained more
broadly using three components: brand, positioning and differentiation. More
specifically, this model is called the 3i model and it consists of the brand identity,
the brand integrity and the brand image. (Kotler et al. 2010)

Brand

3i

Positioning Differentiation

brand integrity

Figure 8. 3i model

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The 3i model can be seen in Figure 8. The brand identity consists of the positioning
and the brand. The brand positioning should be done effectively, reaching the
target market and responding to the customer needs and wants. This gives the
company a brand identity, but differentiation is needed for making sure it is a
positive one, as the brand differentiation leads to the brand image. The positioning
and differentiation on the other hand lead to the brand integrity which represents
the fulfillment of one’s promises. A brand with a good brand integrity makes
promises of delivering value and lives up to that. For a successful company, all of
these three components should be functional. (Kotler et al. 2010)

Value proposition

The company’s overall business strategy is summarized into a value proposition.

It communicates the benefits that the customer gains from choosing the brand over
its competitors. The value proposition is one of the groundings for starting a
business as it describes the problem that the brand is solving for the customers,
along with who the customers are, and how the brand is delivering the value to
them in a unique way. A compelling value proposition shows that the brand can fix
a problem that must necessarily be fixed in order to avoid consequences, or a
problem that needs to be fixed urgently and lacks alternative solutions. (Skok
2013; Gospe 2015)

Marketing communications mix

A marketing communications mix consists of five components the company uses

for communicating with the target customers, building customer relationships and
delivering value to the customers. These components are advertising, sales
promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing. Advertising is
the process of promoting the company’s offerings to the target market in exchange
for a payment, on different channels, such as newspapers, TV, magazines, internet
and social media. Advertising includes planning the type, the frequency and the
channel of the advertisement. Sales promotion aims for increasing the sales
temporarily by attracting new customers and retaining the old customers. The
sales promotion techniques include

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different types of discounts, contests and free samples. Public relations are used
for communicating the brand image, increasing the brand awareness and gaining a
good reputation. This is done by a public relations professional who spreads the
word about the company in a positive way in different channels, such as events,
news or magazines. Public relations are a common tool for crisis management.
Personal selling is a way of attracting customers to purchase the company’s
offerings and improving the customer relationships by personally interacting with
the customers, analyzing their needs and aiming to offer a suitable product to solve
the customers’ problems effectively. Direct marketing is personalized marketing
used for attracting the customers as effectively as possible and building long-term
customer relationships. Direct marketing channels include for example an email,
the internet, a direct mail and a phone. Information of the customers is gathered
and then they are contacted in the most suitable way in order to respond
specifically to their needs and desires. This includes promoting the items that they
are most likely interested in and offering discounts that attract them the most.
(Kotler et al. 2008)

Integrated marketing communications

Integrated marketing communications means that each concept of the marketing

communications mix is integrated, forming a consistent message from each
concept. This means that each contact with the customers communicates in the
same way, uses the same style and delivers the same message about the company.
The customers should be able to recognize the brand easily through all different
marketing communications mix channels. For example, the colors should be the
same in each platform as well as the logo and slogan, the communication style
should be similar in the emails and on the website, and the pictures on social media
should be similar to the pictures in the product catalogs. This leads to a clear and
positive brand image, a better brand recognition, an increased brand awareness
and more satisfied customers. Integrated marketing mix became important for
companies as the range of different marketing channels started growing, leading
to more messages from the company in different forms. The integration prevents
the confusion of customers and builds stronger customer relationships. (Kotler
2008)

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Competition

Competitors can be defined as companies that respond to the same customer

needs. Their products or services are targeted for a similar target market, and they
bring similar value to the customers. The competitors can be roughly divided into
two categories: direct and indirect competitors. The direct competitors are the
most significant ones to take into consideration as their products or services can
be used to substitute those of the company. The indirect competitors offer
solutions to the same customer needs but with different types of products or
services. It is essential for a company to analyze the competition and choose a
suitable competitive strategy. The strategy can be decided based on the company’s
role in the market. (Kotler et al. 2009)

Market
leader

Market Market
nicher challenger

Market
follower

Figure 9. Competition strategies

Figure 9 represents the competition strategies. Most markets have a few

companies that can be seen as the market leaders, meaning that they guide the
market trends, such as the prices and the new inventions, and have the largest
market shares. The market challengers are using aggressive techniques to
compete with the market leaders and trying to gain a bigger market share, whereas
the market followers are following the trends created by the market leaders, and
not trying to gain big market shares. The market nichers focus on small target
markets that are not covered by the large companies. (Kotler et al. 2009)

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Competitive advantage

A competitive advantage is a feature of a company that makes the consumers

choose their offerings over those of the competitors. This feature brings more
value to the customers than the competitors’ features. It can be for example a more
affordable price or a better solution to the customer’s problem, which gives the
opportunity to have higher prices than the competitors. The following criteria
describe the features of a good competitive advantage:

• valuable
• distinctive
• superior
• visible
• non-imitable
• affordable
• profitable

A competitive advantage must be valuable for the target market and be different
from the competitors’ offerings. The customers should benefit from the advantage
more than they would by choosing an alternative solution for the problem. An
effective competitive advantage is visible for the customers and easy to
communicate, but difficult for the competitors to imitate. Additionally, regardless
of the valuable benefits, the price should be suitable for the target market. Finally,
the company should be able to make a profit with the benefits. (Kotler et al. 2008)

1.7 The 7 P’s of the marketing mix

The marketing mix is a tool, originally consisting of four P’s – product, price, place
and promotion. It was created by Edmund Jerome McCarthy in 1960. As the
markets developed, a new extended marketing mix was created in 1981 by Booms
and Bitner, adding people, processes and physical evidence to the mix.
(Professional Academy)

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 Product

Physical
Price
evidence

The 7 P's of the

Marketing Mix
Processes Place

People Promotion

Figure 10. The 7 p’s of the marketing mix

Figure 10 illustrates the 7 P’s of the marketing mix. Product represents the product
or service that the company provides for the customers, and means that it should be
suitable for the consumers and for the task it is wanted for, taking the quality,
design, packaging and features into consideration. It should be functional and meet
the expectations of the consumers. Place indicates that the product must be easy for
the consumers to find. This component includes the locations and channels where
consumers can interact with the company, and the transportation for the products.
In addition to the actual list price, the price consists of the discounts and credit
terms, which should be suitable for the product and the consumers. The consumers
are usually willing to pay more for something that brings them high value.
Promotion includes different types of advertising, personal relations and personal
selling. It is important to reach the right audience, using the correct technique and
giving the right message. (Kotler et al. 2009)

The three additional P’s, people, processes and physical evidence, show that not all
essential elements have to be physical. People in the marketing mix means that all
people within the company, also the general staff, bring value to the company and
therefore to the consumers, and therefore their skills and actions have an impact
to the whole business. The processes which affect the consumers, such as delivery,
sales process and online services, should be

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taken into consideration as they influence the consumers’ perception of the whole
company. By physical evidence is meant the physical asset received from the service
even if the product itself would be intangible. This could be for example a printout
of the service. (Professional Academy)

The marketing mix of the 7 P’s is still the most widely used marketing mix. In some
cases, productivity and quality is added to the mix. This indicates the benefits that
the customers get from the product or service, and shows how it improves the
customers’ productivity. (Professional Academy)

1.8 Key processes of marketing

Marketing has five key processes, the functioning of which is essential for the
success of the company. These are opportunity identification, new product
development, order fulfillment, customer attraction, and customer retention and
loyalty building. (Kotler Marketing Group)

Opportunity
identification

Customer
retention and New product
loyalty development
building

Customer Order
attraction fulfillment

Figure 11. Key processes of marketing

The key processes of marketing are shown in Figure 11. Marketing starts with the
opportunity identification. This means identifying a problem the target customers
face, which is lacking a solution and the company has potential to solve. The
problem should be significant enough for the company to invest in.

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It can be seen significant if the customers are currently spending money or time to
solve the problem in an alternative way (Anthony 2012). After identifying the
opportunity, the product or service which would solve the customers’ problem has
to be developed. The product or service should satisfy the customers’ needs, be
unique from the competitors and be profitable (IESE Business School 2016). The
next step is the order fulfillment, which means that the product or service is
delivered to the customer, either face-to-face or via some other channel. It should
be delivered on time, along with the necessary documents, and it should be
functional, with no flaws (Orrigo 2015). After this, the customer should become
attracted to the company. This is typically a result of satisfying products or
services, a consistent brand image and functional customer support (Bhattacharya
2016). The long-term goal of marketing is to build customer retention and increase
customer loyalty. In addition to succeeding in all the previous steps, successful
marketing requires knowing who the customers are and what they need and want,
building interaction between the company and the customers, and being able to
respond to their unique wishes (Peppers et al. 2016).

1.9 Developing a new marketing strategy

In the fast-evolving world, it is important to keep the marketing strategy up to

date. It can be updated with the following steps:

• budgeting
• updating the target customers
• gathering data of the customers
• updating differentiations
• examining marketing materials
• examining website and social media channels
• documenting issues
• planning how to overcome the issues
• measuring progress

The first step is budgeting, which means that it should be ensured that there are
enough resources to achieve the corporate goals. The new marketing strategy and
the changes that are required for it, have to be in balance with the resources. Then
the target customer profile has to be updated. The business might have changed
over time, or the initial target customers might have turned out to not be as
profitable as planned, which means that the company should find out what type of
customers have the most potential to help the company achieve its goals, and focus
on them more in the future. After this, as much data should be gathered from the
customers as possible, especially the steps of becoming a customer. This will show
what drives the customer to making the purchase. (The Whole Brain Group 2017)

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The next step is to find out what makes the company different from the
competitors, and what the competitors might be doing better from the customers’
point-of-view. In addition, the marketing materials and the website have to be
examined, making sure that the communication and the design are consistent in
each platform, and that they are attracting the target customers. Also, it should be
made sure that everyone in the company has the newest versions of marketing
materials and that the copyright dates are up to date. (The Whole Brain Group 2017)

The sales process in the company should be documented, and any problems in it
should be searched for. This can point out the processes during which customers
are lost, processes that need maintaining, or other problems that can be fixed. After
this, the issues that came up in the previous stage should be documented along
with a plan for overcoming them. Relevant metrics should be chosen in order to
monitor the changes in the future. Finally, the new marketing strategy can be
implemented. It is important to evaluate it and see how it is affecting the business,
which can be done by measuring the metrics chosen in the previous stage. (The
Whole Brain Group 2017)

1.10 Forms of marketing

There are several different types of marketing strategies, and the most suitable one
for each company is dependent on the target customers, the size of the company
and the type of the business. In this chapter, some of the most common forms of
marketing are presented.

Relationship marketing

Relationship marketing means increasing the sales by building long-term

relationships with the customers. Good customer relationships make the
customers more likely to become loyal to the brand that the company represents,
increasing the volume of purchases in the future. The actions are focused on
building and maintaining good relationships instead of promoting the products or
services to the customer. (Bueno et al. 2013)

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Transactional marketing

Transactional marketing focuses on increasing the sales instead of building long-

term relationships. This can be done by setting discounts, using coupons or
organizing promotional events. Transactional marketing is especially suitable for
large companies with large customer bases, because it might be difficult to focus
on maintaining good relationships with each customer. (Bueno et al. 2013)

Online marketing

Online marketing is any type of marketing activity taking place on the internet,
aiming to increase the company’s sales. Originally, online marketing only included
placing advertisements on the internet or creating websites in order to deliver the
company’s message, communicate the benefits of the products or services, and
possibly sell the products or services, but as the meaning of the internet is
becoming more important, online marketing is getting new forms. These include
email marketing, search engine marketing, blog marketing, online press and social
network marketing. The email marketing means communicating the values of a
product or service to the customers via email. The search engine marketing aims
to promote the company’s website by improving its position in the results of
search engines or by paying for pay-per- click ads or pay-for-inclusion listings. The
blog marketing utilizes a blog published by the company or by someone else, in the
form of advertisements, articles, recommendations, or reviews of the company and
its products or services. The online press releases are stories posted online
concerning the company. The social network marketing is marketing done by
using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and
Snapchat. (Duermyer 2016)

Word-of-mouth marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing is usually a result of a satisfied customer. It means that

the customer spreads positive messages about the company or its products or
services to others by oral communication, after experiencing it to be satisfying.
Word-of-mouth marketing can be seen as one of the most important

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marketing techniques because consumers typically trust the opinions of their
friends and family, and are therefore more likely to buy the company’s products or
services when recommended by them than because of any other type of marketing.
(Whitler 2014)

Mass marketing

Mass marketing is marketing that is targeted for the whole market, and not
customized for a specific segment. It is suitable for large companies as they have
more resources for attracting customers from the whole market, and might already
have brand awareness among the consumers, which is improved with mass
marketing. Mass marketing is done by promoting in channels that reach a broad
audience, such as on television and on the radio. Mass marketing also requires
placing the products in different price categories in order to suit everyone in the
market. The products should be developed to suit the whole market, or a wide
range of products should be offered. The products typically have a simple design
and basic features. (Spacey 2017)

Viral marketing

Viral marketing is a type of online marketing, that spreads fast and increases the
amount of word-of-mouth about the company. Nowadays, viral marketing most
commonly takes place on social media, and starts with someone sharing a story,
an advertisement or some other content related to the company. As more and
more people share it in a short period of time, it becomes viral and increases the
brand awareness. Viral marketing can be intentional or happen unexpectedly. The
aim of viral marketing is to gain low-cost advertising, increase the sales fast,
increase the brand trustworthiness and give a positive brand image. (Sukhraj
2016)

Content marketing

Content marketing brings value to the customers with content. Content marketing
utilizes valuable, relevant and consistent content delivered on different channels,
such as the company’s websites, on social media, books, blogs or presentations,
with the aim of increasing the awareness of the

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company and its products or services and attracting customers. The content can
be for example information, videos, podcasts or books. Successful content
marketing first offers something valuable to the consumer, after which the
consumer wants to become a customer of the company. (Steimle 2014)

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is marketing taking place on social media platforms. The
social media channels, technologies and software are used for product
development, creating and delivering offerings, building and improving the
customer relationships and increasing the brand awareness. Social media
marketing is becoming more important as the use of social media increases. One
of the main advantages of social media marketing is that the consumers are
reached easily regardless of their location. It also gives an opportunity for the
consumers to participate in the processes, and to communicate their needs and
wants more clearly. (Tuten et al. 2014)

New platforms are formed on a fast pace but globally the most used social media
platforms in 2017 are Facebook, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat,
Instagram, Qzone, Weibo, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat and Vkontakte (Duff 2017).
In Finland, the list goes as follows:

1. YouTube
2. Facebook
3. WhatsApp & Facebook Messenger
4. Instagram
5. Twitter
6. Snapchat

Live videos are currently the biggest trend on social media, whereas the
combination of games and social media is also becoming more popular (Pönkä
2017).

Alliance marketing

Alliance marketing is an arrangement between two or more companies, in which all

of these companies benefit from the same marketing strategy. This can be done by
distributing the products of another company, licensing a trademark, a

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 Appendix 2

feature or a brand, or including multiple brands in an advertisement. The

companies can also utilize joint sales, and therefore both parties can promote each
other, or the products can include features of both brands. (Spacey 2016)

Telemarketing

Telemarketing is marketing that takes phone calls as the channel of interaction. It

is direct marketing, in which the company representative aims to get the customer
to make a purchase. Instead of a salesperson, the sales pitch can alternatively be
made by an automatic voice message. Telemarketing has the opportunity to
customize the way of the interaction and the products and features that are
promoted, by utilizing the information available about the customers. However,
telemarketing is commonly perceived irritating among the consumers, which
makes it important to plan carefully how to do it in the most suitable way for the
customers. (Bueno et al. 2013)

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