Last week was all about the market, this week was about the consumer/customer. Understanding the market and your competitors is one challenge of marketing. Understanding the consumer is another. When analyzing the consumer a marketer needs to answer the questions: Who is the consumer? What are they buying? Where do they buy? When do they buy? Why your product over a competitors?
Since I work in construction they marketing aspect is much different then other businesses. We do not do a lot of marketing, many of our customers find out about us from their architects, engineers, landlord or consultant. We also so a ton of repeat business. The following are the answers to the previous questions for my company. Who? Our customers are businesses looking to build a new office, expand their office, or renovate their offices. We also work for the landlord/building manager upgrading base building facilities and building spec spaces. What? They are buying construction management services. Where? We do not have any point of purchase as this is a service not a product. When? Our customers hire us either before their process starts and use us as a construction consultant or after pricing has been submitted and they pick their general contractor. Why? Customers hire us for many reasons, most of the time it is because they like our services and our price fits in their budget.
The consumer decision process consists of 5 steps. Needs recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post purchase behaviors. One of the questions this week was to evaluate our company's marketing strategy. Like stated before our industry is different then other businesses and we do not have a detailed marketing strategy. Our customers recognize that they have a need for a construction manager or general contractor to complete some type of construction project for them. Their information search consists of gathering information about various GCs and getting their input on the project. The GC is then asked to price the project. The customer compares the pricing and additional services offered from multiple GCs. The purchase happens when the consumer hires a GC. In this industry the most importantly step of this process is the post purchase behavior. A customer can either be very involved in a project or detached from it. Their trust in you to complete the project on time and within budget is their biggest concern. Hopefully you have pleased the customer and if they have another project they will hire you again.
We read an article this week about marketing and social media. This is not something that we use in our company and it would not help us improve our marketing strategy. The article did show a different decision process for consumers called the consumer decision journey. It shows how social media can influence consumer. The two processes are vary similar. They both start with a need, an information search, a purchase and post purchase activities. Its the post purchase activities that make social media a marketers friend or foe. The consumer can post a review of the product almost anywhere online. This review can either influence others to purchase or go to a competitor. Social media could be a marketers best friend or worst enemy.
One of the questions this week was to review our own over the counter cold medicine purchases, similar to what we will be doing as the marketers in PharmaSim. I am not the person that buys medicine every time I have a little cough or cold. When I am sick and need to take medicine I usually stick with the same couple products. I prefer Tylenol Cold and Sinus for an average bad cold. When I have a very bad cough I use a Robitussin cough remedy. One of the most effect cold medicines I have taken and would recommend to anyone is Mucinex. Mucinex works great at clearing nasal and head congestion. PharmaSim also talks about allergy medicine. A niche in the OTC market since it used to be by prescription. I prefer to take Claritin. As long as I take it daily I do not have many allergy symptoms.
This upcoming week I will be attending a construction safety class every night in New York City. Not a very interesting class but one that is very important to working in the construction industry. If possible, I will try to connect construction job site safety it to this class.
Interesting discussion of the concepts and how they relate to the construction industry. Was curious as to what percent of your business is repeat versus new. It seems like your "customer" may well be the architects and designers as they play an important role in recommending your services. Does your company have an organized marketing strategy to maintain the relationships with these customers? Also, how might social media be used to better manage/maintain relationships? Interesting discussion.
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