What Is the Role of Perception in Marketing?

Real time marketing refers to the provision of goods or services based on the current individual needs of specific consumers. The goods or services can automatically collect customer information during consumption, analyze and understand consumer preferences and habits. Automatically adjust product or service functions to adapt to the changing needs of consumers in real time. Real-time marketing is the development of the connotation of the marketing concept system. It is similar to modern marketing in that consumer-centric, consumer needs as the starting point, and consumer satisfaction as the end; they differ in that The concept of consumer "needs" has been newly defined: including both current needs and needs for future development and changes. Therefore, "consumer needs" in real-time marketing is a concept of "dynamic needs".

Real-time marketing

Real-time marketing has the following four characteristics:

Meet the current individual needs of specific consumers, and adapt to the diversity and personalization of customer needs. This basic idea is derived from the concept of Mass Customization introduced by Davis in the late 1990s. There is only one consumer in the target market segment of the customized marketing market. This consumer participates in the production process of the enterprise and provides the enterprise with its product design and specific requirements so that the enterprise can produce unique products that meet its individual needs.

Meet the future needs of consumers in real time. Products or services provided by enterprises can track changes in consumer preferences and habits during the consumption process, and automatically adjust service functions to meet their future needs.

"Customer-product" level information feedback mode. In traditional relationship marketing (Relationship Marketing, 1985, Barbara Bond), the feedback of consumer information is located at the "customer-company" level. The customer passes the feedback information to the company, and the company improves the related products accordingly, and then Provide customers with improved products. In this circle of action, relationships are centralized and company-centric. In real-time marketing, "relationships" are scattered on the "customer-product" level, and each product and its customers constitute an independent relationship system.

Product adaptation is done unconsciously by companies and consumers. Information feedback is automatic. Customers are not required to enter demand information. Customers do not need to make any requirements for the product, nor do they need to modify the information in the product. All information feedback is completed without the customer's consciousness. Product function adjustments are automatic and do not require company intervention. The consumption information is directly transmitted, analyzed and described in the "information system" inside the product. The core components such as the microprocessor in the product issue instructions to guide each part of the product to adapt to changes in the environment and needs.

The above is a theoretical analysis of real-time marketing. Real-time marketing has also been initially applied in practice. For example: a television video recorder manufactured based on the principle of fuzzy logic, during the photography process, it can perform fuzzy logic calculations on the vibration of the video recorder due to the shaking of the hand, thereby eliminating the image blur caused by the vibration of the video recorder; the vacuum cleaner can be based on the carpet's The degree of dirt adjusts its suction; the washing machine can select the water flow according to the type, weight and cleanliness of the laundry; and a computer software product that can automatically adjust according to the user's preferences and habits. It can be seen in these examples that the realization of real-time marketing depends to a large extent on the development of intelligent technology.

In the past few decades, the development of marketing theory has been very rapid. On the basis of existing theories, new concepts have continuously emerged. The most direct connection with real-time marketing is custom marketing and relationship marketing. Real-time marketing is the theoretical meeting point of the latter two, but it is not a simple aggregate. The main characteristics of the three are shown in Table 1:

A service product is a service that is provided as part of a product, as well as a service that needs to be performed during a relationship. This type of service is also called an add-on product (adding to the added benefit of the product).

The relationship between real-time marketing and customized marketing

Customized marketing means that a company provides products or services to specific customers, and there is only one consumer in its target market. In the late 1980s, the application of new production technology made custom marketing a strategic feasibility. It basically allowed companies to produce a variety of products that can simultaneously meet individual needs while maintaining the unit cost level reached in early mass production. Today, many car manufacturers, such as BMW and Toyota Motor Corporation, determine the car specifications required by individual customers in advance, and then design and assemble them for production. Dell Computer Corporation allows customers to conceive unique computers, assemble the computers they need to meet their needs, and deliver them within a few days. The price is reasonable and even cheaper than pre-assembled computers in retail stores. So far, we have learned the important competitive advantages of custom marketing: satisfying individual needs and reasonable prices. Real-time marketing is based on the successful experience of customized marketing to meet the individual needs of consumers. But its personalization process is not at the company level, but at the product (or service) level. In real-time marketing, customer information is consciously and actively collected by the product or service itself. Each product and its user constitute an independent information feedback system. In this process, the company's organization or marketing personnel are not involved. Consumers do not need to provide information directly to the company, nor do they need to enter any direct information into the product. The adaptation of the product to dynamic needs is also controlled directly by the company Internally done. Everything is carried out within the scope set by the person in advance, and everything is done spontaneously without human control.

The relationship between real-time marketing and relationship marketing

In the mid-1980s, the rapid increase in the functions of electronic information equipment and the rapid decline in costs have increased the ability of enterprises to undertake relationship marketing on a large scale. Companies often employ large, centralized computer databases to interact with consumer PCs, maintain regular contact, and track consumer preferences and habits. In addition, the company keeps in touch with consumers through email, phone, seminars, sales channels and other intermediaries. In relationship marketing, the customer information feedback system model is: customer feedback company adjustment product adaptation customer. The main advantage of relationship marketing is: during the relationship with customers, through frequent contacts, strive to be consistent with customer preferences. The company is at the center of relationship marketing, and the information connection between customers and products is indirect. The process of information transmission inevitably has problems of lagging and being misunderstood. In addition, although the cost of telecommunications equipment has been reduced, Relationship models often still imply huge costs. Real-time marketing draws on the idea of information feedback system of relationship marketing, and implements a dynamic optimization process such as information feedback product improvement adapting to new needs. But the product adaptation of real-time marketing is fundamentally different from the product adaptation of relationship marketing, that is, real-time. The real-time marketing product adaptation is completed at the point in time when the new needs of consumers are generated, which meets the time requirements of consumer needs. And the product adaptation of relationship marketing has a certain time interval, not real-time satisfaction of consumer needs. In relationship marketing, each customer forms a feedback system with the company, forming a company-centric, centralized "relationship" system; and in real-time marketing, each customer and the product or service they purchase form an independent The decentralization of the feedback system is the main characteristic of its "relationship". According to the above analysis, real-time marketing is completely new, and it is far superior to the simple combination of customized marketing and relationship marketing. In real-time marketing, the evolving needs and preferences of individual customers can be met in real time, that is, when the needs of customers occur. Real-time marketing changes both customized marketing (by stating the uniqueness of customers' real-time needs) and relationship marketing (which meets those dynamically changing needs by providing feedback chains that are obvious or not obvious at the product level rather than at the company level). Marketing practitioners realize that the relationship with customers can be well managed at the product level, that is, to establish connections within the product or service, then real-time marketing becomes possible.

Three stages of real-time marketing products

(1) Perception phase, the information in the process of perceptual consumption. Computer software regularly senses customer activities by implementing electronic records of customer behavior. Consumption information of service products is recorded in the computer database and belongs to products that are more easily perceived. Tangible physical products are also increasingly having perceptual characteristics, such as the "smart house" that has appeared in recent years. It can detect where the owner is, know when to turn on the lights or turn on the electric heater; vending machines can detect when the last bottle of cola is sold.

(2) The analysis phase is a relatively simple one of the three phases. The sensor is connected with a microprocessor (or PC, server), and the microprocessor analyzes the information and data transmitted by the sensor through a program. In the case of a vending machine, the number of beverage cans is collected in a well-known box (MIT), and this information can be instantly sent to the world through the network. (3) Adaptation stage. With the enhancement of perception functions, analysis functions, and the proliferation of microprocessors, the application limitations of real-time marketing depend on whether the product can adapt to dynamic needs. If the content of intelligent technology in the product is high, it is easier for computer software projects to achieve real-time adaptation, because this only requires changing the data bytes. For the same reason, information equipment can also adapt well to the environment.

Technical support for product three-stage functions

In order for real-time marketing to be economically viable, self-adapting technologies must be injected into products or services and must be directly feasible for customers. In technology application practice, Ford Motor Company is developing a front light line that can automatically widen or lengthen according to the environment. Mitsubishi Motors is at the forefront of automotive intelligence. The company is very likely to manufacture major automotive components that meet the needs of changing customers. For example, its HSRIV series has shown some intelligent features: artificial intelligence-type transmission systems. , Brake and traction control systems, these systems can be automatically adjusted according to the driving style of the owner to ensure high-quality driving level; the car instrument board can be automatically retracted to maintain an appropriate distance from the driver; a detector related to the eye position The horizontal and vertical distances of the driver's seat can be adjusted automatically to obtain the maximum window viewing angle.

High-level sensors are a necessary technology to stimulate the development of real-time marketing. It exerts the function of "sensory organs" and interacts and coordinates in the physical world of customer needs and desires and the electronic device world that meets those needs. The currently widely used sensor is the smart air bag, but it has given way to new technologies such as "smart products", which include smart raw materials and other smart artificial products. Smart raw materials can change shape or physical characteristics based on the "environment".

Application areas of real-time marketing

Real-time marketing applies to both service products and tangible physical products. One of the ways for real-time marketing of tangible physical products is to achieve component standardization. These components can be replaced and combined in different ways. For example, a chair that has a variety of load-bearing levels of back support. When the user gains weight (or a heavier person sits on it), it provides greater support and the chair can adapt in real time. Customer needs. Although real-time marketing is applicable to service products and tangible physical products, it has certain limitations in the industry fields. It is mainly not applicable to the following three types of industries: Labor-intensive equipment, because people are involved at every stage of production. Cannot be applied to industries that implement custom marketing. Cannot be applied to industries that practice relationship marketing. The impact of product market characteristics on real-time marketing is shown in Table 2.

Real-time marketing helps foster customer brand loyalty

Because it incorporates learning and understanding of customer activities into the constantly revised product offerings, if a competitor wants to achieve the same good level (all service levels are equivalent), he (she) needs to have a history of customers Quite well understood, and this can't be done overnight. For customers, this means increasing the cost of their brand loyalty conversion, which will reduce the possibility of customer brand aversion. Brand loyalty enables product competitive advantages to persist for a long time, thereby maintaining a high market share.

Real-time marketing has great potential

The development of modern science and technology is very fast. In the late 1970s, intelligent computers became a difficult problem to be overcome in the development of human science and technology. At present, Japan has developed intelligent robots that can walk, and other countries in the world have also made breakthrough progress. In particular, artificial neural networks with human brain information processing as a model and distributed storage representing large-scale parallel processing of the human brain are a new discipline developed with the development of computers and other technologies since the 1940s. Image recognition and understanding, computer vision, intelligent robots, fault detection, market analysis, adaptive control, and cognitive scientific research have been widely used. According to the development experience of personal computers and networks, in the coming era of intelligence, there will be widespread application of intelligent technology and a significant reduction in intelligent costs. Therefore, the smart technology content of the product will increase, but other costs will decrease. Companies that apply real-time marketing well will see that their market share has increased while their product costs have fallen.