Location
Product Life Cycle & Development: Name a product or service example and
define the situation named in each of the following phases (one example and simple one sentence each)…
Market
Introduction:
Windows Vista
is finding it hard to get people to convert from XP, and they are cutting cost
for technical problems.
Market
Growth:
Facebook is a
social networking site that is becoming very popular, it has found a way to
compete other site by making the site very social in a way with its interface.
Market
Maturity:
Myspace was
one of the first big social networking sites, now they are falling behind
FaceBook. They underestimated the competition by trying to compete more with
sites like Youtube, instead of the more message based sites.
Sales
Decline:
Windows XP is
going to start its sales decline with the growing popularity of Vista. However,
user are slowly making the transition.
Direct Marketing: Name and describe an example of
direct marketing, other than direct face-to-face.
A form of
direct marketing can be a website. For many movie releases a web site is made
to help promote it. (example:
http://www.bekindmovie.com/)
Chain
of Supply: Choose
a finished product and
describe the set of firms, facilities, and logistics activities that are
involved in procuring the raw materials, transforming them into intermediate or
finished products, and distributing them to customers. (e.g. Can be a Diamond
Ring, House, Car, Apparel, etc.)
When a Diamond ring is made it is done through many
different firms. First the Diamond is cut out of a mine. One of the largest
markets for Diamond mining is in Africa. After
this the Diamond is cut and sold by independent sellers to large distributors.
Once the Diamond is in this stage distributors such as Zales, Robins Bro. and
so on fit the rock to a piece of gold or sliver. These distributors contract
out people to make the rings and then they sell the finished product in their
stores.
Social &
Emotional Factors in Retailing: Describe the Social Image (e.g. Status,
Prestige, Feeling of “Fitting In” with Other Shoppers) that you find at your
favorite retailer (may be any type from a Discount Store, Outdoor Outfitters,
Natural Foods Store, High-End Retailer, etc.)
The Black in
O.B. has its own feel to it. It’s in between a “Hot-topic” and a smoke shop. What
makes it different is its verity and social feel. You get a sense it appeals to
musicians and creative people in general.
Supercenters /
Hypermarkets:
Many city and town councils nationwide are debating whether to permit or ban
“mega” retail outlets that offer a wide variety of products at low prices.
(Target Greatland, Super WalMart, Costco, Sam’s Club, etc.) Name 3
reasons why you feel the banning of these outlets could help small businesses
maintain a competitive advantage, and 3 reasons why such controls could in the
long run hinder small and medium-sized merchants ability to compete.
Banning
Super centers would allow smaller business to excel because they would have an
influx of customers. They could price the products higher because they would
not be competing with the low prices of the Super centers. Also this would
build the brand name for regular shoppers.
3
ways Super centers help small businesses
are: They give small stores a sense of quality products, (quality over
quantity). They are less crowded and the environment is more customer service
based. Lastly they form more personal relationships with their customers
because it is so much smaller then the Super centers.
Publicity: Our textbook
describes publicity as any unpaid form of the non-personal presentation
of ideas, goods, or services. Explain
why I pointed out in class that marketers do ultimately pay (indirectly) for
their publicity efforts and describe some publicity generating activities that do
in fact cost money.
Even
if you or your business is made public through non-profit, somewhere along the
way money is being paid to some one. In many cases if your not paying directly
for publicity you’ll have to endorse or pay in some other way to people who
promote your company. Using sidewalk calk is virtually free however this would
just be the first step in a costly ad campaign.
Sales
Promotion:
Name and describe a
promotional activity other than advertising, publicity, and personal
selling that stimulate interest, trial, or purchase by final customers or other
in the channel.
There
are many forms of sales promotions such as: Free samples, Brochures,
Telemarketing and even Infomercials in a way.
Personal
Selling Techniques: AT&T is planning
to include door-to-door selling in the promotion of its new U-Verse
services. With this being planned, and
knowing the present company, product, market situation, and target market
profiles, which of the following personal selling techniques would you recommend
and why?
Consultative: Adapted
approach based on understanding customer needs.
I
would chose Consultative because you are selling a solution. This is the best
choice because it focuses on the customers needs, when you come to some one in
need of something and pose a solution this is the best for sales results
because it is the most direct. People want problems resolved as fast as
possible, this form of selling capitalizes on this.
Advertising Types Over the Adoption Process
Stages: Name
and briefly describe and
example of each of the following…
Awareness: Teaser
Campaigns, Pioneering Ads, Slogans, Announcements
These
forms of advertising try to build buzz and awareness of the product. Basically
they tell you what the product is or that it is out there. This form is less
interested in comparing to other products or even extensively showing what the
product is. Mainly just awareness, “Coming Soon” – these can be seen in
posters, Movie Trailers, T.V. Ad’s.
Interest: Informative or
Descriptive Ads, Image/Celebrity Ads, Demo Benefits
These
types of advertising are focused more on telling what the product or service
is. All the logistics, Who they are, What they do, and Why they do it. These
ad’s are some times endorsed by Celebrities to give the product more apple and
credit. These are mostly things like infomercials
Evaluation
& Trial: Competitive Ads, Persuasive Copy, Comparative Ads
These
are ad’s that compare brands showing which one is better, such as: Pepsi vs.
Coke, or 409, things like that. These are used not only as advertising the
product, but at the same time discrediting competitors.
Decision:
Direct-Action, Point-of-Purchase & Price Deal Offer Ads
These
are promotions that state the deal is going to end soon, in effects to get the
buyer to act. You can see this with clearing house sales, or end of the year
sales. You see this a lot with cars, Dealerships, also Musical instruments, (Guitar Center).
Also in convenient stores with clearance items and so on.
Confirmation: Reminder Ads,
Informative “Why” Ads
These
ad’s are for brands that already have a big name, “Just do it” – Nike, everyone
already knows it, but we still see ad’s to keep the brand in our minds.
Cooperative
Advertising: Name an example and
describe the cost sharing between producers & middlemen (such as dealers)
to help wholesalers & retailers compete in local markets.
This
is when you see advertisements in a store for a product. The product and the
store have a deal in that if they set up ad’s for the product in the store customers
will be more drawn to it. It’s a win win situation because the product is
getting more promotions, and in turn is selling more. This can be done with
posters in the store or a stamp of approval on the product itself.
Pricing Policies Over Life
Cycle: Give
an example for each of the following pricing policies and describe what about that merchant, product/service, or targeted
customer, makes it possible to make this policy successful… (extra credit)
Skimming Price Policy: Attempt to sell the top of the
market (demand curve) at a high price, before aiming at more price sensitive
customers.
This
would be something like Chanel No.5 or another high end product or service,
like a cruse ship. This kind of products only focus on the upper class of
customers. Lower income customers in some ways discredit the product. It’s a
snobs market.
Penetration Pricing Policy: Attempt to
sell the whole market at one low price. Wise when the top market is small, when
larger quantities result in lower costs.
This
is a product that everyone uses that everyone needs, so e.g (water, toilet
paper, laundry detergent. A car) These are priced based the average working
man. From his income he can buy these product when he needs them, they will
always be there.
Introductory Price Dealing: Temporary
price cuts to speed new products into market & encourage customer sampling.
When
two product are competing one will either build there ad campaign or cut
prices, either one can help the product. A lot of time prices will get cut down
in order to move the product faster. This
happens with product that go bad over time, like meat, or bread; these product
will go on clearance before they are no good.
