Problem Recognition
The buying process begins when someone in the company recognizes a problem or a need that can be met by acquiring a specific good or a service. Problem recognition can result from internal or external stimuli. Internally, the company may decide to launch a new product that requires new production equipment and materials. Or a machine may break down and need new parts. Perhaps a purchasing manager is unhappy with a current supplier's product quality, service or prices. Externally, the buyer may...
Close or Distant Competitors
customer value analysis Analysis conducted to determine what benefits target customers value and how they rate the relative value of various competitors' offers. Most companies will compete with those competitors who resemble them the most. Thus, Citroen Peugeot competes more against Renault than against Porsche. At the same time, the company may want to avoid trying to 'destroy' a close competitor. Here is an example of a questionable 'victory' Bausch amp Lomb in the late 1970s moved...
The product mix and range planning 661 The nature of the product mix
The product mix or product range is the assortment of goods a company offers for sale at any time. Before each season the organization must not only consider how it might alter or modify its classic i.e. more basic lines, which are less liable to radical change, it also must undertake careful planning of its fashion ranges in terms of width, depth and fashion content and simultaneously anticipate and plan for the risk involved . Decisions concerning the mix of products also will relate to...
Observation
There are occasions when it is more useful to observe behaviour than to interview the respondent about it. Observation is usually used to complement other research methods in marketing research, rather than being used alone, as this method can identify patterns of behaviour, but cannot provide information on the reasons behind that behaviour. There are a number of methods available for the observation of behaviour, as follows. The researcher observes behaviour and records it as it occurs. The...
Brand Strategy Decision
A company has five choices when it comes to brand strategy. The company can introduce line extensions existing brand name extended to new sizes or flavors in the existing product category , brand extensions brand names extended to new-product categories , multibrands new brand names introduced in the same product category , new brands new brand name for a new category product , and co-brands brands bearing two or more well-known brand names . Line Extensions Line extensions introduce additional...
Advantages and Disadvantages of Yellow Pages The Yellow Pages
offer the following advantages to advertisers 1. Wide availability. A variety of directories are published. According to the Yellow Pages Publishers Association, consumers refer to the Yellow Pages more than 19.4 billion times yearly.24 2. Action orientation. Consumers use the Yellow Pages when they are considering, or have decided to take, action. 3. Costs. Ad space and production costs are relatively low compared to other media. 4. Frequency. Because of their longevity Yellow Pages are...
A Fashion Revolution
Beyond these changes in presentation, Rubel focused on the ultimate product. He implemented a House of Brands strategy, shifting the Payless product line from one comprised almost entirely of store brands to one dominated by well-known national brands. Payless now sells shoes under numerous brand names that it either owns or licenses, including Airwalk, Champion, Spalding, Dexter, Shaquille O'Neal-endorsed Dunkman, and various Disney brands. Rubel also acquired the Stride Rite chain and all its...
Advantages and Disadvantages of Direct Marketing
Many of the advantages of direct marketing have already been presented. A review of these and some additions follow 1. Selective reach. Direct marketing lets the advertiser reach a large number of people and reduces or eliminates waste coverage. Intensive coverage may be obtained through broadcast advertising or through the mail. While not everyone drives on highways where there are billboards or pays attention to TV commercials, virtually everyone receives mail. A good list allows for minimal...
Line Featuring and Line Pruning
The product-line manager typically selects one or a few items in the line to feature this is a way of attracting customers, lending prestige, or achieving other goals. If one end of its line is selling well and the other end is selling poorly, the company may use featuring to boost demand for the slower sellers, especially if those items are produced in a factory that is idled by lack of demand. In addition, managers must periodically review the entire product line for pruning, identifying weak...
C Providing Information on Businesses in Established Fields
Those of you who are in well-established fields anything from a grocery or bakery to a television repair shop or retail clothing store normally need not be concerned with communicating the basics of what you do. You are fortunate because the public has a pretty good knowledge of your type of business. If you show a group of strangers your business card, you can expect the great majority of them will generally understand your business and know at least some of the reasons why they need you....
Setting Up Shop
In a move to keep users engaged within the app, NimbleBit opted to embed its own custom app store into their games. Tapping the More Games button in its apps displays the NimbleStore screen, which cross-promotes all of its available apps see Figure 5-10 . The nice thing about the NimbleStore is that when tapping an app icon, instead of redirecting the user to the respective page in the App Store, the NimbleStore displays an embedded, custom app page, which allows NimbleBit to tailor its own...
Core Marketing Concepts
Marketing can be further understood by defining the core concepts applied by marketing managers. A marketer can rarely satisfy everyone in a market. Not everyone likes the same soft drink, automobile, college, and movie. Therefore, marketers start with market segmentation. They identify and profile distinct groups of buyers who might prefer or require varying products and marketing mixes. Market segments can be identified by examining demographic, psychographic, and behavioral differences among...
For example
Each of these Theme-Based Content Sites stands on its own Once you have three of them up and running, WORLDSBEST-Factory-outlet-stores.com would be the perfect TIER ZERO to tie them all, and all future ones, together into your own mini-portal. The TIER ZERO page delivers the VPP and major benefits of your mini-portal. By now, too, you are likely offering pay-per-click banner advertising and even linking to your own store.
Corporate And Division Strategic Planning
Marketing plays a critical role in corporate strategic planning within successful companies. Market-oriented strategic planning is the managerial process of developing and maintaining a viable fit among the organization's objectives, skills, and resources and its changing market opportunities. The aim of strategic planning is to shape the company's businesses and products so that they yield target profits and growth and keep the company healthy despite any unexpected threats that may arise....
Value Chain
Michael Porter proposed the value chain as the main tool for identifying ways to create more customer value see Figure 11.2 .15 Every firm consists of a collection of activities performed to design, produce, market, deliver and support the firm's products. The value chain breaks the firm into nine value-creating activities in an effort to understand the behaviour of costs in the specific business and the potential sources of competitive differentiation. The nine value-creating activities...
Product Levels The Customer Value Hierarchy
In planning its market offering, the marketer needs to address five product levels see Figure 12.2 r Hacli level adds more customer value, and the five constitute a customer value hierarchy. The fundamental level is the core benefit the service or benefit the customer is really buying, A hotel guest is buying rest and sleep.' The purchaser of a drill is buying ''holes.' Marketers must see themselves as benefit providers. At die second level, the marketer has to turn the core benefit into a...
Characteristics of Objectives
A second major contribution of DAGMAR to the advertising planning process was its definition of what constitutes a good objective. Colley argued that advertising objectives should be stated in terms of concrete and measurable communications tasks, specify a target audience, indicate a benchmark starting point and the degree of change sought, and specify a time period for accomplishing the objective s . Concrete, Measurable Tasks The communications task specified in the objective should be a...
Creation of a customer profile
By identifying potential target markets for the proposed product, it is possible to prepare a customer profile for each one. Profiling characteristics such as age, gender, occupation and geographical location are considered, together with lifestyle characteristics as used in market segmentation. Once these target markets have been identified, the attitudes and perceptions of potential consumers may be researched. Different groups of consumers have different needs, and by addressing the...
Step 2 Develop the Research Plan
The second stage of marketing research calls for developing the most efficient plan for gathering the needed information. The marketing manager needs to know the cost of the research plan before approving it. Suppose the company estimates that launching the in-flight phone service would yield a long-term profit of 50,000. The manager believes that doing the research would lead to an improved pricing and promotional plan and a long-term profit of 90,000. In this case, the manager should be...
Consumer involvement
Another way to look at consumer decisions is the level of involvement the consumer has in the decision. Consumers differ considerably in terms of their interest in fashion. Even those people who are very interested in fashion may be more interested in some types of garment than in others. A common way consumer theorists have classified consumer decisions is into high- and low-involvement purchases. This classification, in part, reflects different theoretical paradigms, although some significant...
Perception
A motivated person is ready to act. How the person acts is influenced by his or her perception of the situation. Two people with the same motivation and in the same situation may act quite differently because they perceive the situation differently. Anna Flores might consider a fast-talking camera salesperson loud and false. Another camera buyer might consider the same salesperson intelligent and helpful. Why do people perceive the same situation differently All of us learn by the flow of...
Guidelines for Evaluating Creative Output
Advertisers use numerous criteria to evaluate the creative approach suggested by the ad agency. In some instances, the client may want to have the rough layout or storyboard pretested to get quantitative information to assist in the evaluation. However, the evaluation process is usually more subjective the advertising or brand manager relies on qualitative considerations. Basic criteria for evaluating creative approaches are discussed next Is the creative approach consistent with the brand's...
Leasing Strategy
The major emphasis of a pricing strategy is on buying a product outright rather than leasing it. Except in housing, leasing is more common in the marketing of industrial goods than among consumer goods, though in recent years there has been a growing trend toward the leasing of consumer goods. For example, some people lease cars. Usually, by paying a specified sum of money every month, similar to a rental on an apartment, one can lease a new car. Again, as in the case of housing, a lease is...
Assessing Competitors Strengths and Weaknesses
Can a company's competitors carry out their strategics and reach their goals This depends on each competitor's resources and capabilities. Marketers need to identify accurately each competitor's strengths and weaknesses. As a first step, a company gathers key data on each competitor's business over the last few years. It wants to know about competitors' goals, strategies and performance. Admittedly, some of this information will be hard to collect. For example, industrial goods companies find...
Capturing Marketing Insights 1
escape. Oth ctssoughfself-realization. People bought dream cars ami dream vacations and spent inure time iti health activities jogging. ten iris , in ii urns pee I ion, tmd in arts and crafts see Table 3.4 for a current profile . Today, some people are adopting more conservative behaviors and ambitions. Marketers must recognize that there are many different groups with different views of themselves, l it'di's qfothers. People are concerned about the homeless, crime aiul victims, nnd other...
Satisfying Customer Needs
To succeed or simply to survive, companies need a new philosophy. To win in today's marketplace, companies must be customer-centred - they must deliver superior value to their target customers. They must become adept in building customer relationships, not just building products. They must be skilful in market engineering, not just product engineering. New chief executive of GEC Industries, George Simpson's views were honed at Rover where the corporate culture had to shift to the notion that...
Quinstreet
Programs - CPA, CPS Minimum Payout - 5 Payments - We pay commissions monthly, 30 days after the end of the month. Real-time Tracking - Almost 2 hour delay Multi-Tier - Yes Quinstreet gets points from me for their lovely design. The signup form is really short - it doesn't even ask for your address. But don't worry, you get a chance to tell them where to send the check after you've set up your username. Based on my experience with Quinstreet's system, it would seem that all merchants are set up...
Statistical Demand Analysis
Time-series analysis treats past and future sales as a function of time, rather than as a function of any real demand factors. But many real factors affect the sales of any product. Statistical demand analysis is a set of statistical procedures used to discover the most important real factors affecting sales and their relative influence, The factors most commonly analyzed are prices, income, population and promotion. Statistical demand analysis consists of expressing sales Q as a dependent...
internet strategy is a channel marketing strategy
We need to remember that an Internet marketing strategy is a channel marketing strategy which defines how a company should set channel-specific objectives and develop a differential channel-proposition and channel-specific communications consistent with the characteristics of the channel and consumer usage of it. The Internet marketing strategy determines the strategic significance of the Internet relative to other communications channels which are used to communicate directly with customers at...
Stimulating buying behaviour
An element in understanding consumer behaviour refers to the relationship between a stimulus of some kind created by the organization, such as a new product, the way information about the innovation is processed by the consumer and the response the consumer makes having evaluated the alternatives. The stimulus is captured by the range of elements in the marketing mix which the company manipulates to achieve its corporate objectives. These stimuli derive from the product or service itself or...
Proposal Solicitation
In the proposal solicitation stage of the business buying process, the buyer invites qualified suppliers to submit proposals. In response, some suppliers will send only a catalogue or a salesperson. However, when the item is complex or expensive, the buyer will usually require detailed written proposals or formal presentations from each potential supplier. Business marketers must be skilled in researching, writing and presenting proposals in response to buyer proposal solicitations. Proposals...
The growing benefits of advergames
Advergames offer the opportunity of mining consumer data that is unheard of in traditional media.Advertisers have found that, in return for the value of the game-playing experience, the audience is far more likely to opt-in to sign up for future promotions and products, or share personal information with an advertiser seeking a richer database. Campaigns that integrate advergames will routinely get 50-75 of the participants choosing to opt-in to future messages or promotions. For example,...
Comparing Models Using Lift
Directed models, whether created using neural networks, decision trees, genetic algorithms, or Ouija boards, are all created to accomplish some task. Why not judge them on their ability to classify, estimate, and predict The most common way to compare the performance of classification models is to use a ratio called lift. This measure can be adapted to compare models designed for other tasks as well. What lift actually measures is the change in concentration of a particular class when the model...
Discussion Questions Kct
1. Explain the meaning of environmental scanning. Which constituents of the environment, from the viewpoint of a corporation, require scanning 2. Illustrate with examples the relevance of technological, political, economic, social, and regulatory environments in the context of marketing strategy. S. Who in the organization should be responsible for scanning the environment What role may consultants play in helping corporations in their environmental scanning activity 4. Explain the use of...
Whats in an App Name
While researching the competition, you undoubtedly performed a countless number of searches within the App Store. Along the way, you discovered that the words used in an app's name and related keywords can affect its placement in App Store searches. I'll discuss how to refine your App Store display name, keywords, and description in Chapter 9, so for now let's focus on your app name. Obviously, in the App Store, you're able to add short captions to your app's display name to help ensure...
Dichotomous questions
These are questions with only two possible answers, e.g. yes no questions. For use of these questions to be valid the answer must fall unambiguously into one of the two categories offered, e.g. 'Do you buy ready-made biscuits rather than bake your own ' is ambiguous because many people do both and so could not answer 'yes' or 'no'. Similarly, if qualified answers to the question are possible, then the answers may be invalidated. 'Do you intend to invest in new IT equipment ' is an example of a...
The Marketing Process
The strategic plan defines the company's overall mission and objectives. Within each business unit, marketing plays i role in helping to accomplish the overall strategic objectives. Marketing's role and activities in the organization are shown in Figure 3.6, which summarizes die marketing process and the forces influencing marketing strategy. marketing process The process of 1 analyzing marketing opportunities 2 selecting target markets f,3 developing tlie marketing mix and 4 managing the...
Transit Advertising
Another form of out-of-home advertising is transit advertising. While similar to outdoor in the sense that it uses billboards and electronic messages, transit is targeted at the millions of people who are exposed to commercial transportation facilities, including buses, taxis, commuter trains, elevators, trolleys, airplanes, and subways. Transit advertising has been around for a long time, but recent years have seen a renewed interest in this medium. Due in part to the increased number of women...
Pricing
Pricing has been relatively neglected in terms of academic marketing research. This has been noted by Rao 1984 while Cavusgil 1988 stated that the neglect of international pricing was even more acute. Clark et al. 1999 comment on its continued neglect over the previous 25 years. Pricing is not simply an economic decision, it can also be seen as a marketing tactic, through the use of discounts, special offers and various incentives. It is an important decision for any business because, quite...
Consumption Communities
We factor analyzed all the variables having correlation coefficients higher than .10 with one or more of the consumption communities. We chose items with loading of at least .45 to represent each of the 44 resulting factors, and we cross-tabulated these items with membership in the four consumption communities. Some of the results are represented in Tables 1.4 and 1.5. The analysis helped us find out some interesting characteristics of these consumption communities. Attending Competitive...
Activity
Visit a price comparison site such as Kelkoo www.kelkoo.com or Pricerunner www.pricerunner.com . Choose one of the products below and write down the range of prices from lowest to highest. What is the percentage premium charged for a product by the most expensive company Low-involvement purchase - CD or book. Higher-involvement purchase - household appliance. Figure 5.9 Pricerunner www.pricerunner.coml Figure 5.9 Pricerunner www.pricerunner.coml
Examples of Effective Viral Campaigns
IncrediMail, designers of e-mail software, worked with MGM to create an online viral buzz for the release of the new Rocky movie by giving away various Rocky Balboa-themed skins for toolbars, e-mail backgrounds, wallpapers, and screensavers. The viral marketing firm Fanscape was contracted to promote Clear Channel's new music web site New to unsigned bands to encourage them to upload their music to the site. The incentive was the opportunity for the band to expand its fan base through the site...
Cultural values and social influences
Individual and family decisions are affected by individual and social values. Values are centrally held enduring beliefs which guide actions and judgements in specific situations and in more general circumstances as people orient themselves in their environment Rokeach 1973, p. 160 . There are many types of values people possess moral values, express political values and satisfy utility values which are often mixed together. The significance of values is determined by their function in...
Do You Think Marketers Are To Blame For Kgoy
KGOY stands for kids getting older younger, and marketers are getting much of the blame. Kids today see all types of messages, especially on the Internet, that children would never have seen in the past. Whereas boys may give up toys at an earlier age to play war games on their xBox 360s, the greater controversy seems to surround claims of how girls have changed, or rather, how marketers have changed girls. Critics describe clothing designed for young girls aged 8-11 as floozy and sexual, with...
Product Life Cycle
Products tend to go through different stages, each stage being affected by different competitive conditions. These stages require different marketing strategies at different times if sales and profits are to be efficiently realized. The length of a product's life cycle is in no way a fixed period of time. It can last from weeks to years, depending on the type of product. In most texts, the discussion of the product life cycle portrays the sales history of a typical product as following an...
Target Market Selection
After evaluating the opportunities presented by various market segments, including a detailed competitive analysis, the company may select one, or more, as a target market. This target market becomes the focus of the firm's marketing effort, and goals and objectives are set according to where the company wants to be and what it hopes to accomplish in this market. As noted in Chapter 1, these goals and objectives are set in terms of specific performance variables such as sales, market share, and...
iPhone User Demographics
Many misconceptions and assumptions have been made about the iPhone user demographic. According to Nielsen Mobile, as of 2008, only 39 of iPhone users had an annual household income of more than 100,000. The survey included only users who were older than 18, but of those surveyed, the largest age demographic was age 25 to 34, with 33 of the pie, not, as many might have assumed, those age 18 to 24. The next-largest demographic consisted of those age 35 to 44, at 20 . Ages 18 to 24 were actually...
Bases for Segmenting Business Markets
Business markets can be segmented with some variables that are employed in consumer market segmentation, such as geography, benefits sought, and usage rate. Yet business marketers can also use several other variables. Bonoma and Shapiro proposed segmenting the business market with the variables shown in Table 3.6. The demographic variables are the most important, followed by the operating variables down to the personal characteristics of the buyer. Segmenting Consumer and Business Markets 153...
Implied Endorsement
The implied endorsement mechanism requires even more cognitive elaboration. Its message is this brand must be OK, or it wouldn't be allowed to be the sponsor. The implied endorsement mechanism requires the consumer to infer that the event is somehow endorsing the quality of the brand. Several examples of this can be cited. McDonald 1991 provided Seiko's sponsorship of track meets at which it is the official timer as an example of what he called direct relevance p. 36 . Direct relevance means...
How Cibc Competed
The CIBC's Personal and Commercial Bank competed on quality, service, and personal relationships with its customers. The bank's corporate philosophy was best illustrated by Holger Kluge, president, Personal and Commercial Bank We're not in the business of selling financial products. We're in the business of helping our customers Over the past year, the CIBC had completely repositioned itself to respond to the needs of its customers. In the past, the bank had been very focused on products which...