Solutions and Product Marketing
Solutions’ marketing is a process that gives access to integrated solutions that provide customer value by helping consumers solve their problems. As such, solutions marketing is customer-centric, meaning that it emphasizes education and engagement in a collaborative communication process, which purposes to find a balance between cost v benefit (benefit) at the place the consumer desires (access). On the contrary, product marketing is the intermediary function between product development and creating customer knowledge so that the focus is on driving demand and usage for a product. Therefore, product marketing primarily centers on the benefits and features of the product. Instead of creating a dialogue between customers, the objective of product marketing is pushing communications at a price and in a particular place (distribution).
Benefits and Limitations of Solutions Marketing
One of the main advantages of using solutions marketing is that there would be increased sales for the firm because the cost of a service or product is deliberated based on the value as opposed to the cost leadership that product marketing utilizes. Secondly, solutions marketing provides better-differentiated offerings and, in so doing, augment customer satisfaction. The solution to solve a customer’s needs based on resolution, education/engagement, value, and access (SEVA) expands customer loyalty to a firm. However, it is essential to note that solution marketing integrates an increased level of complexity that requires understanding the customer target groups and demographics and, most importantly, a focused leadership approach to mitigate getting out of focus.
An example of a solutions marketing in services marketing is Airbnb, which provides exciting experiences for tourists at a differentiated price by allowing tourists to live with local communities through homestays as opposed to hotels. Through providing Service (homestays), engagement and education (Airbnb website), value (exciting experiences), and access (over 100 countries), Airbnb has increased in efficacy and profit.
A Channel of Distribution
The primary objective of a distribution channel is to lessen the gap between the producer and the consumer. A channel is vital because it ensures transactional, logistical, and facilitating functions. Therefore, a channel of distribution is delineated as the most efficient means that a customer can avail of a product to the hand of the customer. For example, consumer goods companies provide final commodities to the consumer to satisfy needs as opposed to selling goods that sell other products. Therefore, such companies must have unique channels of distribution that will best fit consumer purposes, such as explaining functionalities that middlemen might find complicated.
For a company that sells broad industrial applications, direct user channels are the most common channels because this mode transfers ownership of a product directly to a user away from a fixed retail location. Because of the complexity of industrial applications, for example, such as solar photovoltaic and thermal technologies for industrial use consumers, companies direct selling becomes the most appropriate method. Considering that businesses today are more globalized, and some entrepreneurs buy international industrial applications, companies create online catalogs (website) similar to c brand retail stores catalogs. Catalogs through 3D images and videos help potential customers understand the product specs at every step to help customers make purchasing decisions. Industrial firms are geographically concentrated and thus not only complexity, but the routinization of product, which is the consideration a producer makes to make available products in places consumers expect them to find.