Customer Relationships

Many Marketers Are Now Using New Simulated Marketing Technologies Such As Frito-lay S Online Virtual Convenience Store

Discuss two additional product issues socially responsible product decisions and international product and services marketing. Author I New products are the Comment lifeblood of a company. As old products mature and fade away, companies must develop new ones to take their place. For example, only seven years after it unveiled its first Pod, half of Apple's revenues come from iPods and Tunes. The development of original products, product improvements, product modifications, and new brands...

Viagogo As A New Intermediary

Viagogo Seizing The Resale Opportunity Eric Baker, the co-creator of online ticket reseller StubHub Inc., effectively declared war on himself when he launched an online ticket reselling business, viagogo. It is a British-based secondary ticket sales service that offers sporting and entertainment tickets. This was in August 2006, and Baker was at that time still a 10 percent owner of StubHub. He had co-founded the business in 2000 under the original name of Liquid Seats. In 2000, Baker and his...

Podcasts and Vodcasts

Podcasting and vodcasting are the latest on-the-go, on-demand technologies. The name podcast derives from Apple's now-everywhere iPod. AWith podcasting, consumers can download audio files (podcasts) or video files (vodcasts) via the Internet to an iPod or other handheld device and then listen to or view them whenever and wherever they wish. They can search for podcast topics through sites such as iTunes or through podcast networks such as PodTrac, Podbridge, or PodShow. These days, you can...

The Need for Integrated Marketing Communications

The shift toward a richer mix of media and communication approaches poses a problem for marketers. Consumers today are bombarded by commercial messages from a broad range of sources. But consumers don't distinguish between message sources the way marketers do. In the consumer's mind, messages from different media and promotional approaches all become part of a single message about the company. Conflicting messages from these different sources can result in confused company images, brand...

Marketing Intelligence

Marketing intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about consumers, competitors, and developments in the marketplace. The goal of marketing intelligence is to improve strategic decision making by understanding the consumer environment, assessing and tracking competitors' actions, and providing early warnings of opportunities and threats. Marketing intelligence gathering has grown dramatically as more and more companies are now busily eavesdropping...

Back To The Bowl

Where does a company turn when it wants to make a big ad splash For Coca-Cola, its thoughts turned to the marquee of all advertising events the Super Bowl. The company had certainly had success with the ad venue before. But scoring big with a Super Bowl ad isn't guaranteed. In fact, many cynics view the ad venue as a waste of money. One team of researchers found that average brand recall one week after the 2008 Super Bowl was an unimpressive 7 percent. Recall for specific commercials and the...

Customer Value Proposition Range Rover

Arrows represent relationships that must be developed and managed to create customer value and profitable customer relationships. Although we normally think of marketing as being carried on by sellers, buyers also carry on marketing. Consumers do marketing when they search for products and interact with companies and obtain information and make their purchases. In fact, today's digital technologies, from Web sites and blogs to cell phones and other wireless devices, have empowered consumers and...

Consumer Markets and Consumer Buyer Behavior

In the previous chapter, you studied how marketers obtain, analyze, and use information to understand the marketplace and to assess marketing programs. In this and the next chapter, we'll continue with a closer look at the most important element of the marketplace customers. The aim of marketing is to affect how customers think and act. To affect the whats, whens, and hows of buying behavior, marketers must first understand the whys. In this chapter, we look at final consumer buying influences...

Straight Rebuy For Air Asia

A business buying situation in which the buyer routinely reorders something without any modifications. A business buying situation in which the buyer wants to modify product specifications, prices, terms, or suppliers. A business buying situation in which the buyer purchases a product or service for the first time. Systems selling or solutions selling Buying a packaged solution to a problem from a single seller, thus avoiding all the separate decisions involved in a complex buying situation....

Marketing Ethics

Good ethics is a cornerstone of sustainable marketing. In the long run, unethical marketing harms customers and society as a whole. Further, it eventually damages a company's reputation and effectiveness, jeopardizing the company's very survival. Thus, the sustainable marketing goals of long-term consumer and business welfare can be achieved only through ethical marketing conduct. Conscientious marketers face many moral dilemmas. The best thing to do is often unclear. Because not all managers...

Marketing Intermediaries

Marketing intermediaries Marketing intermediaries help the company to promote, sell, and distribute its prod- Firms that help the company to promote, ucts to final buyers. They include resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing serv-sell, and distribute its goods to final buyers. ces agencies, and financial intermediaries. Resellers are distribution channel firms that help the company find customers or make sales to them. These include wholesalers and retailers who buy and resell...

The Nature of Each Promotion Tool

Each promotion tool has unique characteristics and costs. Marketers must understand these characteristics in shaping the promotion mix. Advertising. Advertising can reach masses of geographically dispersed buyers at a low cost per exposure, and it enables the seller to repeat a message many times. For example, television advertising can reach huge audiences. An estimated 97.5 million Americans tuned in to watch the most recent Super Bowl (America's championship football game), about 32 million...

Defining the Problem and Research Objectives

Marketing managers and researchers must work closely together to define the problem and agree on research objectives. The manager best understands the decision for which information is needed the researcher best understands marketing research and how to obtain Marketing research to gather preliminary information that will help define problems and suggest hypotheses. Marketing research to better describe marketing problems, situations, or markets, such as the market potential for a product or...

Changing Age Structure of the Population

The U.S. population stood at over 302 million in 2007 and may reach almost 364 million by the year 2030.7 The single most important demographic trend in the United States is the changing age structure of the population. The U.S. population contains several generational groups. Here, we discuss the three largest groups the baby boomers, Generation X, and the Millennials and their impact on today's marketing strategies. The Baby Boomers. The post-World War n baby boom produced 78 million baby...

Individual Product and Service Decisions

V Figu re 8.2 shows the important decisions in the development and marketing of individual products and services. We will focus on decisions about product attributes, branding, packaging, labeling, and product support services. Developing a product or service involves defining the benefits that it will offer. These benefits are communicated and delivered by product attributes such as quality, features, and style and design. Product Quality. Product quality is one of the marketer's major...

Promotion Mix Strategies

Marketers can choose from two basic promotion mix strategies push promotion or pull promotion. Ill Figure 14.4 contrasts the two strategies. The relative emphasis on the specific promotion tools differs for push and pull strategies. A push strategy involves pushing the product through marketing channels to final consumers. The producer directs its marketing activities primarily personal selling and trade promotion toward channel members to induce them to carry the product and to promote it to...

Private Nonregulated Monopoly Example

The product can be uniform (steel, aluminum) or nonuniform (cars, computers). There are few sellers because it is difficult for new sellers to enter the market. Each seller is alert to competitors' strategies and moves. If a steel company slashes its price by 10 percent, buyers will quickly switch to this supplier. The other steelmakers must respond by lowering their prices or increasing their services. In a pure monopoly, the market consists of one seller. The seller may...

Selecting Target Market Segments

After evaluating different segments, the company must decide which and how many segments it will target. A target market consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve. Market targeting can be carried out at several different levels. Figure 7.2 shows that companies can target very broadly undifferentiated marketing , very narrowly micromarketing , or somewhere in between differentiated or concentrated marketing . Using an undifferentiated...

Laundry Products Suppliers In The Middle East

Procter amp Gamble is one of the world's premier consumer-goods companies. Some 99 percent of all U.S. households, for example, use at least one of P amp G's 86 U.S. brands. Around the world, 156 P amp G brands touch the lives of people some three billion times a day. P amp G sells six brands of laundry detergent in the United States Tide, Cheer, Gain, Era, Dreft, and Ivory . It also sells six brands of bath soap Ivory, Safeguard, Camay, Olay, Zest, and Old Spice five brands of shampoo Pantene,...

Nonpersonal Communication Channels

Nonpersonal communication channels are media that carry messages without personal contact or feedback. They include major media, atmospheres, and events. Major media include print media (newspapers, magazines, direct-mail), broadcast media (radio, television), display media (billboards, signs, posters), and online media (e-mail, company Web sites, online social and sharing networks). Atmospheres are designed environments that create or reinforce the buyer's leanings toward buying a product....

Segmentation Targeting Differentiation and Positioning Decisions

Like retailers, wholesalers must segment and define their target markets and differentiate and position themselves effectively they cannot serve everyone. They can choose a target group by size of customer (only large retailers), type of customer (convenience stores table i 13,3 Major Types of Wholesalers Independently owned businesses that take title to the merchandise they handle. In different trades they are called jobbers, distributors, or mill supply houses. They include full-service...

Direct Response Television Marketing

Direct-response television marketing takes one of two major forms. The first is direct-response television advertising (DRTV). Direct marketers air television spots, often 60 or 120 seconds long, which persuasively describe a product and give customers a toll-free number or Web site for ordering. Television viewers also often encounter full 30-minute or longer advertising programs, or infomercials, for a single product (see Real Marketing 17.1). Some successful direct-response ads run for years...

Figure 3.1 Actors In The Microenvironment

Discuss bow companies cars react to the marketing environment. V 7 77-7 '7 . v -V' . .VvY i'U -.S--- The actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management's ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers. The actors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers the company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer markets, competitors, and publics. The larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment demographic,...

Relative Prices

Retailers can also be classified according to the prices they charge see Table 13.1 . Most retailers charge regular prices and offer normal-quality goods and customer service. Others offer higher-quality goods and service at higher prices. The retailers that feature low prices are discount stores and off-price retailers. Discount Stores. A discount Store sells standard merchandise at lower prices by accepting lower margins and selling higher volume. The early discount stores cut expenses by...

Growth of Nonstore Retailing

Most of us still make most of our purchases the old-fashioned way We go to the store, find what we want, wait patiently in line to plunk down our cash or credit card, and bring home the goods. However, consumers now have a broad array of alternatives, including mailorder, television, phone, and online shopping. People are increasingly avoiding the hassles and crowds at malls by doing more of their shopping by phone or computer. As we'll discuss in Chapter 17, direct and online marketing are now...

Requirements for Effective Segmentation

Clearly, there are many ways to segment a market, but not all segmentations are effective. For example, buyers of table salt could be divided into blond and brunette customers. But hair color obviously does not affect the purchase of salt. Furthermore, if all salt buyers bought the same amount of salt each month, believed that all salt is the same, and wanted to pay the same price, the company would not benefit from segmenting this market. To be useful, market segments must be Measurable The...

Product and Service Classifications

Products and services fall into two broad classes based on the types of consumers that use them consumer -products and industrial products. Broadly defined, products also include other marketable entities such as experiences, organizations, persons, places, and ideas. Consumer products are products and services bought by final consumers for personal consumption. Marketers usually classify these products and services further based on how consumers go about buying them. Consumer products include...

Socially Responsible Target Marketing

Smart targeting helps companies to be more efficient and effective by focusing on the segments that they can satisfy best and most profitably. Targeting also benefits consumers companies serve specific groups of consumers with offers carefully tailored to their needs. However, target marketing sometimes generates controversy and concern. The biggest issues usually involve the targeting of vulnerable or disadvantaged consumers with controversial or potentially harmful products. For example, over...

Marketings Impact on Individual Consumers

Consumers have many concerns about how well the American marketing system serves their interests. Surveys usually show that consumers hold mixed or even slightly unfavorable attitudes toward marketing practices. Consumer advocates, government agencies, and other critics have accused marketing of harming consumers through high prices, deceptive practices, high-pressure selling, shoddy or unsafe products, planned obsolescence, and poor service to disadvantaged consumers. Such questionable...

Trends in Wholesaling

Today's wholesalers face considerable challenges. The industry remains vulnerable to one of the most enduring trends of the last decade fierce resistance to price increases and the winnowing out of suppliers who are not adding value based on cost and quality. Progressive wholesalers constantly watch for better ways to meet the changing needs of their suppliers and target customers. They recognize that, in the long run, their only reason for existence comes from adding value by increasing the...

Market Challenger Strategies

Firms that are second, third, or lower in an industry are sometimes quite large, such as Colgate, Ford, Lowe's, Avis, and Verizon. These runner-up firms can adopt one of two competitive strategies They can challenge the leader and other competitors in an aggressive bid for more market share (market challengers). Or they can play along with competitors and not try to outdo them (market followers). A market challenger must first define which competitors to challenge and its strategic objective....

Products Services and Experiences

Product is a key element in the overall market offering. Marketing-mix planning begins with building an offering that brings value to target customers. This offering becomes the basis upon which the company builds profitable customer relationships. A company's market offering often includes both tangible goods and services. At one extreme, the offer may consist of a pure tangible good, such as soap, toothpaste, or salt no services accompany the product. At the other extreme are pure services,...

The Fastest-growing U.s. Population Subsegment Now Number Nearly 50 Million

Consumer purchases are influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal, and psychological characteristics, shown in 0 Figure 5.2 on the next page. For the most part, marketers cannot control such factors, but they must take them into account. Cultural factors exert a broad and deep influence on consumer behavior. The marketer needs to understand the role played by the buyer's culture, subculture, and social class. Culture is the most basic cause of a person's wants and behavior. Human...

Positioning Maps

In planning their differentiation and positioning strategies, marketers often prepare perceptual positioning maps, which show consumer perceptions of their brands versus competing products on important buying dimensions. Figure 7.3 shows a positioning map for the U.S. large luxury sport utility vehicle market.30 The position of each circle on the map indicates the brand's perceived positioning on two dimensions price and orientation luxury versus performance . The size of each circle indicates...

Record Breaking

SpongeBob SquarePants has become an enduring, revolutionary pop icon, inspiring nautical nonsense in millions of people worldwide white generating record-breaking ratings and retail sales. The practice of using the established brand names of two different companies on the same product. Licensing. Most manufacturers take years and spend millions to create their own brand names. However, some companies license names or symbols previously created by other manufacturers, names of well-known...

Service Profit Chain

A major characteristic of services they cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they are bought. A major characteristic of services they are produced and consumed at the same time and cannot be separated from their providers. A major characteristic of services their quality may vary greatly, depending on who provides them and when, where, and how. Service intangibility means that services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they are bought. For example, people...

Strong or Weak Competitors

The company can focus on one of several classes of competitors. Most companies prefer to compete against weak competitors. This requires fewer resources and less time. But in the process, the firm may gain little. You could argue that the firm also should compete with strong competitors in order to sharpen its abilities. Moreover, even strong competitors have some weaknesses, and succeeding against them often provides greater returns. A useful tool for assessing competitor strengths and...

Objective 4 Mfu

Discuss the natur and importance of mark -ting logistics and integrated supply chain man jgement Marketing Logistics and Supply Chain Management 380-387 Value delivery network In making and marketing iPod Touch products, Apple manages an entire network of people within Apple plus suppliers and resellers outside the company who work effectively together to give final customers So much to touch. however, have traditionally focused on the downstream side of the supply chain on the...

The Shifting Marketing Communications Model

The explosive developments in communications technology and changes in marketer and customer communication strategies have had a dramatic impact on marketing communications. Just as mass marketing once gave rise to a new generation of mass-media communications, the new digital media have given birth to a new marketing communications model. Although television, magazines, and other mass media remain very important, their dominance is declining. Advertisers are now adding a broad selection of...

Marketing

Del Monte Unleashes Dog-Lover Insights When Del Monte Foods maker of such well-known dog food brands as Kibbles 'n Bits, Gravy Train, and Milk-Bone was considering a new breakfast treat for dogs, it sent out a note to an online community of dog owners, called I Love My Dog, asking them what they most wanted to feed their pets in the morning. The consensus answer was something with a bacon-and-egg taste. The result Del Monte introduced Snausages Breakfast Bites, born out of insights that a...

Promotion Decision

Retailers use any or all of the promotion tools advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing to reach consumers. They advertise in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and on the Internet. Advertising may be supported by newspaper inserts, catalogs, and direct mail. Personal selling requires careful training of salespeople in how to greet customers, meet their needs, and handle their complaints. Sales promotions may include in-store demonstrations,...

Case Study Easyjet Staying Ahead In The Pricing Game

EasyJet Staying Ahead in the Pricing Game In July 2008 the budget airline easyJet announced that it would have to cut flights over the coming winter period because it was expecting its pre-tax profits to drop by 45 percent due to higher fuel expenses. The company explained that oil prices had increased over the past few months and added more than 365 million to its fuel bills for the year. easyJet had been able to offset around half of the additional costs by increasing its revenue and by...

Britvic Soft Drinks Has A Long And Illustrious

Britvic Soft Drinks has a long and illustrious history in the world of brands. The company that makes the juices was founded in the middle of the 19th century in Great Britain. The firm's juices were first produced in 1938, and were a source of vitamin C during the Great Depression. The juices were always sold in small bottles to enable their easy transportation. By 1949, the Britvic brand had been fully launched, and the company continued to grow. Britvic later went on to purchase several...

Product Mix Decisions

An organization with several product lines has a product mix, A product mix or product portfolio consists of all the product lines and items that a particular seller offers for sale. Some companies manage very complex product portfolios. AFor example, Sony's diverse portfolio consists of four primary product businesses worldwide Sony Electronics, Sony Computer Entertainment games , Sony Pictures Entertainment movies, TV shows, music, DVDs , and Sony Financial Services life insurance, banking,...

Lexus Delighting Customer After The Sale To Keep Them Coming Back

Delighting Customers After the Sale to Keep Them Coming Back Close your eyes for a minute and picture a typical car dealership. Not impressed Talk to a friend who owns a Lexus, and you'll no doubt get a very different picture. The typical Lexus dealership is. well, anything but typical. And some Lexus dealers will go to almost any extreme to take care of customers and keep them coming back. Consider the following examples Jordan Case has big plans for the ongoing expansion of his business. He's...

Marketing Department Organization

The company must design a marketing organization that can carry out marketing strategies and plans. If the company is very small, one person might do all of the research, selling, advertising, customer service, and other marketing work. As the company expands, a marketing department emerges to plan and carry out marketing activities. In large companies, this department contains many specialists. They have product and market managers, sales managers and salespeople, market researchers,...

Determining the Communication Objectives

Once the target audience has been defined, the marketers must decide what response they seek. Of course, in many cases, they will seek a purchase response. But purchase may be only the result of a long consumer decision-making process. The marketing communicator needs to know where the target audience now stands and to what stage it needs to be moved. The target audience may be in any of six buyer-readiness stages, the stages consumers normally pass through on their way to making a purchase....

Building Strong Brands

Branding poses challenging decisions to the marketer. Figure 8.3 shows that the major brand strategy decisions involve brand positioning, brand name selection, brand sponsorship, and brand development. Marketers need to position their brands clearly in target customers' minds. They can position brands at any of three levels.23 At the lowest level, they can position the brand on product attributes. For example, P amp G invented the disposable diaper category with its Pampers brand. Early Pampers...

Harout Bedrossian Apple Motorola

Arabic Blackberry Adapting to the Language of the Market In October 2007, the launch of the first Arabic Blackberry was announced in the United Arab Emirates. The device had Arabic language input and an Arabic interface. Up until this point, the Blackberry was restricted to U.S. and European use. The new initiative to bring the Blackberry to the Middle East and Africa had begun. The UAE's mobile phone provider telco Etisalat collaborated with the creators of the BlackBerry, RIM Research...

Marketings Impact on Society as a Whole

The American marketing system has been accused of adding to several evils in American society at large. Advertising has been a special target so much so that the American Association of Advertising Agencies once launched a campaign to defend advertising against what it felt to be common but untrue criticisms. False Wants and Too Much Materialism Critics have charged that the marketing system urges too much interest in material possessions, and that Americans' love affair with worldly...

Selecting the Message Source

In either personal or nonpersonal communication, the message's impact on the target audience is also affected by how the audience views the communicator. Messages delivered by highly credible sources are more persuasive. Thus, many food companies promote to doctors, dentists, and other health care providers to motivate these professionals to recommend their products to patients. And marketers hire celebrity endorsers well-known athletes, actors, musicians, and even cartoon characters to deliver...

The New Marketing Communications Landscape

The new marketing communications landscape The digital age has spawned a host of new information and communication tools from cell phones and Pods to the Internet and satellite and cable television systems. Several major factors are changing the face of today's marketing communications. First, consumers are changing. In this digital, wireless age, they are better informed and more communications empowered. Rather than relying on marketer-supplied information, they can use the Internet and other...

New Retail Forms and Shortening Retail Life Cycles

New retail forms continue to emerge to meet new situations and consumer needs, but the life cycle of new retail forms is getting shorter. Department stores took about 100 years to reach the mature stage of the life cycle more recent forms, such as warehouse stores, reached maturity in about 10 years. In such an environment, seemingly solid retail positions can crumble quickly. Of the top 10 discount retailers in 1962 (the year that Wal-Mart began), not one still exists today. Consider the Price...

Choosing a Differentiation and Positioning Strategy

Some firms find it easy to choose a differentiation and positioning strategy. For example, a firm well known for quality in certain segments will go for this position in a new segment if there are enough buyers seeking quality. But in many cases, two or more firms will go after the same position. Then, each will have to find other ways to set itself apart. Each firm must differentiate its offer by building a unique bundle of benefits that appeals to a substantial group within the segment. Above...

Shifts in Secondary Cultural Values

Although core values are fairly persistent, cultural swings do take place. Consider the impact of popular music groups, movie personalities, and other celebrities jtJS amp tt jtefyling and clothing norms among young people around the world. Marketers want to predr cul-tural shifts in order to spot new opportunities or threats. Several firms fer casts in this connection. For example, the Yankelovich Monitor has Iracki trends for years. Its annual State of the Consumer report analyzes and inl...

What Is Demographic Segmentation For Wild Planet Toys

Of the many factors that affect consumer buyer behavior, social responsibility is playing an increasing role. While there have always been companies that have Integrated doing good with corporate strategy, a new generation of activist entrepreneurs has now taken up the reins. The ones most likely to succeed are those who recognize that beyond just doing good, social responsibility can provide a powerful means for connecting with consumers. For example, Wild Planet markets high-quality,...

Factors Marketing Must Consider When Setting Price

Identify and define the other important external and internal factors affecting a firm pricing decisions They should persuade customers that paying a higher price for the company's brand is justified by the greater value they gain. The challenge is to find the price that will let the company make a fair profit by getting paid for the customer value it creates. A Give people something of value, says Ronald Shaich, CEO of Panera Bread Company, and they'll happily pay for it.3 Pricing The...

Objective 5

List the marketing management functions, including the elements of a marketing plan, and discuss the importance of measuring and managing return on marketing investment. Like London 2012, outstanding marketing organizations employ strongly customer-driven marketing strategies and programs that create customer value and relationships. These marketing strategies and programs, however, are guided by broader strategic plans, which must also be customer focused. Thus, to understand the role of...

Starbucks Experience

Where Growth Is Hot But Boiling Over More than 25 years ago, Howard Schultz hit on the idea of bringing a European-style coffeehouse to the rest of the world. He believed that people needed to slow down, to smell the coffee, and enjoy life a little more. The result is Starbucks. This coffeehouse doesn't sell just coffee, it sells The Starbucks Experience one that provides an uplifting experience that enriches people's lives one moment, one human being, one extraordinary cup of coffee at a time....

Consolidated Amalgamated Harry E Slicksmile

Perhaps a purchasing manager is unhappy with a current supplier's product quality, service, or prices. AExternally, the buyer may get some new ideas at a trade show, see an ad, or receive a call from a salesperson who offers a better product or a lower price. In fact, in their advertising, business marketers often alert customers to potential problems and then show how their products provide solutions. For example, a Sharp ad notes that a multifunction printer can present data...

Market Nicher Strategies

Almost every industry includes firms that specialize in serving market niches. Instead of pursuing the whole market, or even large segments, these firms target subsegments. Nichers are often smaller firms with limited resources. But smaller divisions of larger firms also may pursue niching strategies. Firms with low shares of the total market can be highly successful and profitable through smart niching. Why is niching profitable The main reason is that the market nicher ends up knowing the...

Increased Emphasis on Ethics and Socially Responsible Actions

Written regulations cannot possibly cover all potential marketing abuses, and existing laws are often difficult to enforce. However, beyond written laws and regulations, business is also governed by social codes and rules of professional ethics. Socially Responsible Behavior. Enlightened companies encourage their managers to look beyond what the regulatory system allows and simply do the right thing. These socially responsible firms actively seek out ways to protect the long-run interests of...

Segmenting International Markets

Few companies have either the resources or the will to operate in all, or even most, of the countries that dot the globe. Although some large companies, such as Coca-Cola or Sony, sell products in more than 200 countries, most international firms focus on a smaller set. Operating in many countries presents new challenges. Different countries, even those that are close together, can vary greatly in their economic, cultural, and political makeup. Thus, just as they do within their domestic...

Kraft Lots Of Old Products Too Few Good New Ones

Lots of Good Old Products Too Few Good New Ones Kraft makes and markets an incredible portfolio of known and trusted brands, including half a dozen 1 billion brands and another 50 that top 100 million in sales. Beyond the Kraft label of cheeses, snacks, dips, and dressings, its megabrands include the likes of Oscar Mayer, Post cereals, DiGiorno pizza, Maxwell House coffee, JELL-O, Cool Whip, Kool-Aid, A1 sauce, Velveeta, Planters, Miracle Whip, Light 'n Lively, Grey Poupon, CapriSun, and...

Expanding the Total Demand

The leading firm normally gains the most when the total market expands. If Americans, for example, eat more fast food, McDonald's stands to gain the most because it holds more than three times the fast-food market share of nearest competitor Burger King. If McDonald's can convince more Americans that fast food is the best eating-out choice in these economic times, it will benefit more than its competitors. Market leaders can expand the market by developing new users, new uses, and more usage of...

Communicating and Delivering the Chosen Position

Once it has chosen a position, the company must take strong steps to deliver and communicate the desired position to target consumers. All the company's marketing mix efforts must support the positioning strategy. Positioning the company calls for concrete action, not just talk. If the company decides to build a position on better quality and service, it must first deliver that position. Designing the marketing mix product, price, place, and promotion involves working out the tactical details...

Interactive TV ITV

Interactive TV (ITV) lets viewers interact with television programming and advertising using their remote controls. In the past, ITV has been slow to catch on. However, the technology now appears poised take off as a direct marketing medium. A recent poll indicated that 66 percent of viewers would be very interested in interacting with commercials that piqued their interest.32 And satellite broadcasting systems such as DIRECTV, EchoStar, and Time Warner are now offering ITV capabilities....

Environmentalism

An organized movement of concerned citizens and government agencies to protect and improve people's current and future living environment. Whereas consumerists consider whether the marketing system is efficiently serving consumer wants, environmentalists are concerned with marketing's effects on the environment and with the environmental costs of serving consumer needs and wants. Environmentalism is an organized movement of concerned citizens, businesses, and government agencies to protect and...

Direct Mail Marketing

Direct-mail marketing involves sending an offer, announcement, reminder, or other item to a person at a particular physical or virtual address. Using highly selective mailing lists, direct marketers send out millions of mail pieces each year letters, catalogs, ads, brochures, samples, CDs and DVDs, and other salespeople with wings. Direct mail is by far the largest direct marketing medium. The DMA reports that direct mail (including both catalog and non-catalog mail) drives more than a third of...

Deciding on the Global Marketing Organization PP 5996

Companies manage their international marketing activities in at least three different ways Most companies first organize an export department, then create an international division, and finally become a global organization. A firm normally gets into international marketing by simply shipping out its goods. If its international sales expand, the company organizes an export department with a sales manager and a few assistants. As sales increase, the export department can expand to include various...

Marketings Impact on Other Businesses

Critics also charge that a company's marketing practices can harm other companies and reduce competition. Three problems are involved acquisitions of competitors, marketing practices that create barriers to entry, and unfair competitive marketing practices. Critics claim that firms are harmed and competition reduced when companies expand by acquiring competitors rather than by developing their own new products. The large number of acquisitions and the rapid pace of industry consolidation over...

Zabang Ownership

Assembly facilities Manufacturing facilities Amount of commitment, risk, control, and profit potential Licensing Tokyo Disneyland Resort is owned and operated by the Oriental Land Company (a Japanese development company), under license from The Walt Disney Company, headquartered in the United States to use the company's manufacturing process, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other item of value. The company thus gains entry into the market at little risk the licensee gains production...

Retail Stores as Communities or Hangouts

With the rise in the number of people living alone, working at home, or living in isolated and sprawling suburbs, there has been a resurgence of establishments that, regardless of the product or service they offer, also provide a place for people to get together. These places include coffee shops and caf s, shopping malls, bookstores, children's play spaces, superstores, and urban greenmarkets. For example, today's bookstores have become part bookstore, part library, part living room, and part...

Amount of Service

Different types of customers and products require different amounts of service. To meet these varying service needs, retailers may offer one of three service levels self-service, limited service, and full service. Self-service retailers serve customers who are willing to perform their own locate-compare-select process to save time or money.

Consumerto Consumer C2C

Much consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online marketing and communication occurs on the Web between interested parties over a wide range of products and subjects. In some cases, the Internet provides an excellent means by which consumers can buy or exchange goods or information directly with one another. For example, Tradus, Amazon.com Auctions, Overstock.com, and other auction sites offer popular market spaces for displaying and selling almost anything, from art and antiques, coins and stamps, and...

Placing Ads and Promotions Online

As consumers spend more and more time on the Internet, many companies are shifting Online advertising more of their marketing dollars to online advertising to build their brands or to attract Advertising that appears while consumers visitors to their Web sites. Online advertising is becoming a major medium.

Tabasco Product Life Cycle

Product life cycle Some products die quickly others stay in the mature stage for a long, long time. TABASCO hot sauce is over 130 years old and yet still able to totally whup your butt The course of a product's sales and profits over its lifetime. It involves five distinct stages product development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Management is aware that each product will have a life cycle, although its exact shape and length is not known in advance. Figure 9.2 shows a typical...

Creating or Participating in Online Social Networks

The popularity of the Internet has resulted in a rash of online social networks or Web communities. Countless independent and commercial Web sites have arisen that give consumers online places to congregate, socialize, and exchange views and information. These days, it seems, almost everyone is buddying up on MySpace or Facebook, tuning into the day's hottest videos at YouTube, or even living a surprisingly real fantasy life as an avatar on Second Life.

Assessing Competitors

Having identified the main competitors, marketing management now asks What are competitors' objectives what does each seek in the marketplace What is each competitor's strategy What are various competitor's strengths and weaknesses, and how will each react to actions the company might take Each competitor has a mix of objectives. The company wants to know the relative importance that a competitor places on current profitability, market share growth, cash flow, technological leadership, service...

Irritation Unfairness Deception and Fraud

Direct marketing excesses sometimes annoy or offend consumers. Most of us dislike direct-response TV commercials that are too loud, too long, and too insistent. Our mailboxes fill up with unwanted junk mail, our e-mailboxes bulge with unwanted spam, and our computer screens flash with unwanted banner or pop-under ads. Beyond irritating consumers, some direct marketers have been accused of taking unfair advantage of impulsive or less-sophisticated buyers. TV shopping channels and program-long...

Global Expansion of Major Retailers

Retailers with unique formats and strong brand positioning are increasingly moving into other countries. Many are expanding internationally to escape mature and saturated home markets. Over the years, some giant retailers, such as McDonald's, have become globally prominent as a result of their marketing prowess. Others, such as Wal-Mart, are rapidly establishing a global presence. Wal-Mart, which now operates more than 3,000 stores in 13 countries abroad, sees exciting global potential. Its...

Gathering Secondary Data

Researchers usually start by gathering secondary data. The company's internal database provides a good starting point. However, the company can also tap into a wide assortment of external information sources, including commercial data services and government sources (see Table 4.1). Companies can buy secondary data reports from outside suppliers. For example, ACNielsen sells buyer data from a consumer panel of more than 260,000 households in 27 countries worldwide, with measures of trial and...