Marketing communication

Marketing communication breaks down the marketing strategies  into categories based on the goals of each message. There are distinct methods in order to convert strangers to customers. In
personal sales, a salesperson  approaches individuals or a group of potential customers by presenting the products.

By applying various sales methods a salesperson can attract: Live and  interactive relationship, Personal interest,Attention and response by presenting a clear and thorough product presentation.
Sales promotion is a Short-term incentives to encourage buying of products. This will attract instant appeal.
An example is coupons or a sale. People are given an incentive to buy, but this does not  encourage future repeat buys. A major drawback of sales promotion is that it is easily copied by competition. This type of promotion cannot be used as a sustainable source of differentiation.

Customer focus

Today, many companies  have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies that the firm concentrates on  its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally there 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 willing and need 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).

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

The four elements of the SIVA model are:

Solution: How appropriate is the solution to the customer's need?
Information: Does the customer know about the solution? If so, how and from whom do they know enough to let them make a buying decision?
Value: Does the customer know the value of the transaction, what it will cost, what are the benefits, what might they have to sacrifice, what will be their reward?
Access: Where can the customer find the solution? How easily/ locally/remotely can they buy it and take delivery?
This model was proposed by Chekitan Dev and Don Schultz in the Marketing Management Journal of the American Marketing Association, and presented by them in Market Leader, the journal of the Marketing Society in the UK.