Marketing Fundamentals and Understanding Customers

Market research (市場調査) gathers and analyzes information on customer needs and market trends, so that product and sales decisions rest on evidence.

Information comes either as primary data, which you collect yourself through surveys, interviews, or observation, or as secondary data that already exists, such as government statistics and industry reports. You set the purpose first, then analyze what you gathered and use it as the basis for the plans that follow.

AnalogyIt is like walking around a new neighborhood before opening a shop, checking the ages of the residents and what nearby stores carry.

Sales, product, and procurement planning (販売・製品・仕入計画) uses the demand forecast from market research to decide, in a consistent way, what and how much to sell, which products to offer, and what and how much to buy in.

The sales forecast comes first, and the products to prepare and the quantities to buy follow from it, so the three plans move together. Turning the chosen items and quantities into an actual product range, prices, and displays on the sales floor is called merchandising (マーチャンダイジング).

AnalogyIt is like estimating how many guests will come over the weekend, planning the menu, and then buying ingredients for that many people.

How to rememberMerchandising is merchandise (goods) plus -ing: the work of shaping goods into a form that sells.

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Customer satisfaction (顧客満足, CS) is how satisfied customers feel when they compare the value they actually received with the expectations they had beforehand.

Satisfaction depends on how the customer perceives things, so the same quality leaves customers with higher expectations less satisfied. Satisfied customers tend to buy again and recommend the company to others, and companies use satisfaction survey results to improve their products and services.

How to rememberCS stands for Customer Satisfaction. "Satisfaction" comes from the Latin satis (enough), so link it to whether expectations were met enough.

UX (User Experience) is the whole set of perceptions and responses people have when they actually use a product or service, or imagine using it.

It covers far more than ease of use, taking in enjoyment, a sense of security, and the satisfaction of getting the job done. The parts users touch directly, such as screen layout and controls, are called the UI (User Interface), one of the factors that shape UX.

How to rememberThe X in UX stands for Experience, using the single letter X for the "ex" sound. The X in CX works the same way.

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CX (Customer Experience) is the whole experience a customer has at every touchpoint with a company, from first hearing about a product through buying and using it to after the purchase.

A touchpoint is any place where the customer deals with the company, such as ads, stores, the website, or the support desk. In CX, the overall verdict builds up from impressions at each touchpoint, such as how quickly the company responds and how clear its procedures are, on top of how good the product itself is.

AnalogyIt is like judging a hotel not only by the comfort of the room but also by how easy it was to book, how the front desk treated you, and the thank-you message after checkout.

How to rememberC is for Customer. You only become a customer through a relationship with a company, so tie the experience to every point where you meet that company.

A customer journey map (カスタマージャーニーマップ) lays out, in time order, the customer's actions, thoughts, feelings, and touchpoints at each stage, from first learning about a product through buying and using it to staying on or recommending it.

When building one, you usually pick a single persona (ペルソナ), a typical customer profile, and draw the journey from that person's point of view. Comparing thoughts and feelings stage by stage shows where customers hesitate or become unhappy, which points to ways to improve CX.

AnalogyIt is like keeping a travel diary of when, where, what you did, and how you felt from departure to return, then fixing the tiring parts when you plan the next trip.

How to rememberJourney means a trip: treat the customer's shopping as a trip and draw its itinerary.

RFM analysis (RFM分析) evaluates and groups customers by three metrics: Recency (date of the last purchase), Frequency (how often they buy), and Monetary (how much they spend).

Using accumulated purchase history, each customer is ranked on each metric, and the combination of ranks shows where that customer stands. A customer who used to buy often and spend a lot but has not bought anything lately, for example, is seen as drifting away and becomes a target for win-back measures.

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