What is needed to solve marketing problems? Introducing common problems and solutions

When conducting marketing activities, you may face various challenges. In such cases, even if you try to solve the problems that arise, there are many cases where you cannot properly extract or identify the focus of the problem and cannot find an effective solution.

In this article, we will explain the importance of identifying problems in marketing, what is needed to solve marketing problems, and the two steps required to solve them. We will also introduce some common marketing problems and their solutions.

The importance of identifying marketing issues

Marketing refers to measures to solve various problems that companies face and create a system that sells the company's products and services more efficiently. Identifying these "various problems" is essential not only to finding a solution, but also for the aforementioned system to function properly.

Therefore, identifying the problem is the most important aspect of marketing. It is no exaggeration to say that the measures taken to solve this problem will function as a marketing strategy.

appropriateCreate a marketing strategyTo achieve this, it is necessary to clarify your company's goals, objectives, and what you hope to accomplish. If your objectives remain vague, it will be difficult to correctly identify the problems that need to be solved.

▼Many companies seek support from consultants in their marketing strategies. For more details on their role, please see the article below.

The role of marketing strategy consulting, how to use it, and points to note

What is necessary to extract marketing issues (1) Analysis of the internal and external environment

Let's take a look at what is required to identify marketing issues. The first thing I will introduce is "analysis of the internal and external environment."

Planning and implementing a marketing strategy requires analysis of the "internal environment" - such as the company's technology, products, services, human resources, know-how, and assets - as well as the "external environment" - such as competitors, potential customers, economic conditions, politics, and the historical background.

"SWOT analysis" is a useful framework for analyzing internal and external environments. SWOT is an acronym for "Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat." Divide your company's internal environment and the external environment surrounding it into the above four categories, and investigate and analyze the factors for each to extract issues. Below are details of the four categories.

・Strength

Analyze the advantages of your company and its products. These are the positive elements in your internal environment.

・Weakness

Analyze the weaknesses of your company and its products and areas that need improvement. These are elements in the internal environment that could be negative.

・Opportunity

We analyze social and market changes that can leverage the strengths of our company and its products. These are factors in the external environment that can be positive.

・Threat

We analyze social and market changes that may be obstacles to our company and its products. These are factors in the external environment that may be negative.

What is necessary to extract marketing issues (2) Identifying issues from actual data

If you have some idea of ​​what issues need to be resolved in order to achieve your goals, you can identify marketing issues by using actual data.

For example, if your goal is to "maximize sales," first break down the components that make up your sales (new sales, existing sales, etc.) and create a simple graph. Then, compare the results and costs of each component.

If the comparison shows that "existing sales" are stable while "new sales" are declining, further break down the components that make up "new sales" (conversion rate, new inflow, etc.). Then, create a simple graph as before and compare the results and costs for each component.

If the result shows that "new inflows" are declining, further break down the elements that make up "new inflows" (such as inflows from listing ads and display ads), plot them on a graph, and compare and analyze each element. If you find that the number of inflows from "listing ads" is low, you can identify this as an issue in maximizing sales.

What is needed to identify marketing issues (3) Marketing research

"Marketing research" is a survey conducted to collect and analyze the information needed to discover customer needs and potential issues.

Marketing research allows you to identify issues and understand customer opinions, which will lead to the development of products and services that are more likely to be accepted by customers, purchasing methods that are more acceptable, and promotions that will attract their interest.

In addition, conducting marketing research can help avoid risks such as the planned and developed products and services not being accepted by customers, not reaching sales targets, and wasting management resources.

Marketing research can be broadly divided into two types, "quantitative research" and "qualitative research," depending on the type of data handled. Quantitative research is, as the name suggests, the aggregation and analysis of quantitative data such as numbers. On the other hand, qualitative research is the aggregation and analysis of data on emotions and behaviors that cannot be expressed in numbers.

Below, we will introduce four research methods as examples of marketing research methods.

[Quantitative research] Questionnaire survey (Internet research)

Questionnaire surveys (internet research) are a typical method of quantitative research. By setting multiple survey items and conducting them on monitors, you can explore customer needs.

In the past, surveys were conducted by mailing questionnaires to potential target respondents, but with the spread of the Internet, it is now common to use websites and social media. Using the Internet makes it possible to conduct surveys quickly and at low cost.

Another advantage of questionnaire surveys is that the scope of the survey can be freely set, such as conducting a survey over a wide area at the same time, or focusing on a specific area. Another advantage is that it is possible to limit the attributes of the survey subjects, making it easier to find rare survey subjects who meet difficult conditions.

[Quantitative research] Home use test

Home Use Testing (HUT) is a research method in which new products or products under development are sent to the homes of survey subjects and data is collected on their impressions and evaluations after use. As the name suggests, testing is done at home, so trial data can be obtained in everyday life, leading to an understanding of real-life needs.

It is also possible to understand any changes in psychological state that occur while the subjects are using the test product by having them keep a behavioral diary or similar.

Evaluations and opinions are generally collected using questionnaires. Another advantage of home use testing is that by utilizing the Internet, the survey period can be completed quickly, from the end of the survey period to the delivery of the survey results.

[Qualitative research] Interview

Interviews in marketing research can be mainly divided into two formats: group interviews and in-depth interviews.

Group interviews are conducted by gathering two or more subjects together in a round-table discussion format to discuss a specific topic. Because we can directly collect the real voices of the subjects, we can understand the deeper psychology of users, which cannot be fully understood through quantitative research such as internet research.

Furthermore, because the survey will be conducted in a roundtable format, the survey participants will be able to share their opinions with each other, which will lead to more opinions and discussions that would not be possible in a one-on-one setting.

On the other hand, a depth interview is a one-on-one conversation between the interviewer and the subject. The advantage of being able to concentrate on one subject is that it is easier to obtain personal information, such as digging deeper into their apparent needs, latent behavior, and psychology.

One-on-one conversations also allow you to address sensitive topics such as money and illness.

These interviews are not only conducted in person at an interview venue, but it is also not uncommon for them to be conducted online.

[Qualitative research] Visiting observation survey

A home observation survey involves visiting the homes or workplaces of survey subjects to directly observe and understand the environment and conditions under which products or services are used.

This has the advantage of allowing for more accurate data collection, as you can hear the opinions of the survey subjects directly while observing their actual usage environment and conditions. In addition, by observing the survey subjects and their real lives, you can discover needs that arise in their real lives and potential needs that the survey subjects themselves are not aware of.

In addition, if you can take photographs and videos during the survey (with permission from the subjects), you will also be able to collect visual data.

Two steps to solving your marketing problems

Once you have identified your marketing issues, it's time to consider what you need to do to solve them. To do so, it's a good idea to take the following steps:

Step 1: Set your KPIs

KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a quantitative indicator used to measure and monitor the degree of growth in the process of achieving a goal. Setting KPIs has the advantage of making it easier to grasp the progress toward solving problems.

KPIs are generally set as numbers. For example, if the identified issue is "the number of visitors to listing ads," the KPI would be the number of clicks on various online ads.

In addition to setting KPIs based on the issues, it is important to be clear about why you set the KPIs. If you set KPIs on a whim that are not appropriate for the situation, it may be difficult to solve the issues or achieve the goals.

Step 2: Inferring factors that affect KPIs

Once you have set your KPIs, you can then speculate on what factors are affecting them and make a hypothesis. For example, based on the issues and KPIs, you can speculate on whether internal factors such as price reductions or campaigns are affecting them, or external factors such as competitor campaigns or weather are affecting them.

When formulating a hypothesis, it is important not to leave it to the person in charge or the relevant department alone, but to proceed by exchanging opinions with team members and people outside the organization. By incorporating opinions from multiple perspectives, it is important to prevent the risk of narrowing the scope of the hypothesis or not noticing contradictions, and to increase the accuracy of the hypothesis.

At the same time, it is a good idea to also consider what kind of analytical results would result if the hypothesis were verified.

Common Marketing Challenges and Solutions

Marketing issues are becoming more diverse, and each company faces different challenges. However, there are also challenges that all companies can share, such as "not being able to acquire customers" and "not being able to visualize the effects and making it difficult to obtain a budget."

Below, I'll give you examples of two common marketing challenges and explain how to solve them.

Challenge 1: Not Acquiring Customers Effectively

Customer acquisition can also be said to be finding "potential customers." Potential customers are companies or individuals who are interested in your company, your products, or your services and who may eventually become customers or users. In today's world where the Internet is widespread, it is important to know how to acquire customers online.

However, on the other hand, there is still demand for offline customer acquisition measures, so it can be said that touch points with customers are diversifying. Whether online or offline, many companies have challenges in acquiring customers.

So, if you are facing the issue of "not being able to acquire customers effectively," what kind of solution should you take? For example, the following solutions may be effective.

Solution: Improve content tailored to your target audience

In order to acquire customers efficiently as touchpoints become more diverse, it will be necessary to determine what channels your target audience frequently uses.

For example, online, these include web ads, owned media, videos, apps, SNS, etc. Offline, these include direct mail, advertising flyers, exhibitions, seminars, etc. Utilizing each channel and enriching the content your target audience wants will lead to customer acquisition.

In addition, Gain a competitive edge and acquire more customers.The "quality" of the content is crucial. High-quality and appropriate content can lead to increased user satisfaction and a greater ability to attract customers.

Issue 2: The effects cannot be visualized, which makes it difficult to secure budgets

The next issue is that "the effect of marketing cannot be visualized, leading to underestimation." If the effect cannot be visualized, it is not possible to provide evidence of why a budget is needed or how much the measures contributed to sales, which can make it difficult to secure the necessary budget.

If you are facing the challenge of not being able to visualize the effects and therefore not being able to secure the budget, the following solutions may be effective.

・Solution: Visualize the effectiveness of marketing

One characteristic of marketing is that its effects are often difficult to measure, but by introducing methods that can visualize these effects, it becomes possible to analyze the effects quickly and with high accuracy. Methods for visualizing marketing effects include:Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM)It would be good to introduce a method that uses the following approach. For example, the method offered by our company, XICA,MAGELLAN" is a service that utilizes MMM.

MMM is a method for quantitatively analyzing the "impact of a marketing initiative on results such as sales" and the "impact on other marketing initiatives." MMM's distinctive feature is that it is possible to quantify the effects of marketing, which are considered difficult to measure. By making it possible to visualize the effects as objective numerical data, it will be possible to provide persuasive evidence and justification for the effectiveness and impact of marketing.

In addition, MMM makes it possible to visualize all factors, including not only online advertising, but also offline advertising, whose effects are less visible, and factors other than advertising. By introducing the MMM solution, you can clearly show the reasons for securing a budget for marketing measures, which is expected to solve your problems.

Summary

To solve marketing problems, it is important to correctly extract what the problem is. To extract and identify marketing problems, it is a good idea to use methods such as analyzing the internal and external environment, identifying from actual data, and marketing research. When aiming to solve a problem, it is important to set KPIs, estimate the factors that will affect the KPIs, and create accurate hypotheses.

In addition, some people may be worried about not being able to secure a budget because they cannot visualize the marketing effect, or about not knowing the optimal budget allocation to maximize sales.MMM Service"MAGELLANPlease also consider supporting us with "

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XICA Co., Ltd. Marketing Team