Ans
Ans
(b) Advise the company in relation to its Product mix decisions and its
effects on the company's image.
THE COMPANY SHOULD RATIONALIZE THE PRODUCT MIX,
IN ORDER TO
-reduce the range.
-reduce the stock level.
-reduce the stockholding cost.
-reduce the inventory cost.
-reduce the warehousing cost.
-reduce the interest payment on borrowings.
THE COMPANY SHOULD MAINTAIN THE TOP
SELLING PRODUCT MIX,
-different types of chairs.[ TOP 25 VARIETIES, WHICH
PRODUCES 85% SALES ]
-different varieties of office desks..[ TOP 12 VARIETIES, WHICH
PRODUCES 85% SALES ]
-carpets..[ TOP 6 VARIETIES, WHICH
PRODUCES 85% SALES ]
-safes..[ TOP 5 VARIETIES, WHICH
PRODUCES 85% SALES ]
-filing cabinets.[ TOP 8 VARIETIES, WHICH
PRODUCES 85% SALES ]
Q2
b) Are intermediaries and their functions necessary aspects of marketing
channels? Give reasons
Consumers often wonder whether products would cost less if one or more
marketing intermediaries could be eliminated from the distribution system.
Would cars be less expensive if customers could simply buy them straight
from the manufacturer? Perhaps, but think about the practical aspects
involved. How many consumers would be willing or able to go to Detroit to
buy a car? Or maybe Japan? If manufacturers offered cars for sale by mail
order, how many consumers would buy one without seeing and test-driving
it? Carmakers selling vehicles directly to buyers from around the United
States or around the world would be impossible.
The biggest disadvantages are the high price of advertising and the
scepticism with which audiences sometimes view advertising that they know
is unedited opinion of the advertiser.
It's not necessary to buy media space/time, but publicity is not totally
free. There are salary and production costs involved in having
someone prepare news releases or perform other publicity work.
Media audiences often give information presented as publicity more
credibility than if the same information were presented in an ad.
That's because they know that presumably objective editors decide
what's included in the news whereas self-serving organizations decide
what to put in their ads.
On the other hand, the biggest disadvantages of publicity are the lack of
control over the specific content, the timing, and the amount of coverage.
During the 1990's AT&T studied the relative effectiveness of advertising and
media relations in helping to acquire new customers. Some of these findings
and others were recently published in a study by the Institute for Public
Relations (IPR) at the University of Florida. The general conclusion of that
study, as reported by pr reporter (7/16/01), was that news coverage,
whether generated through media relations efforts or not, "modulates the
impact of advertising." Most of the time, they work synergistically and
reinforce one another, but there are exceptions.
The best ways of using advertising and media relations to reinforce one
another remain to be determined. But, in the meantime, the IPR study
author Bruce Jeffries-Fox suggests, "that partnerships between media
relations and advertising would save money and pack a bigger punch. ...
Messages from both worlds combine in the minds of consumers."
Q7
1.CONSUMER PRODUCTS
-appeals to the consumer emotions.
-appeals to the consumer desires.
-influences the buying decisions
with benefits feelings.
2.INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS
-appeals to the consumer benefits.
-appeals to the consumer ownership.
-influences the buying decisions
with the usage values
Q8 b)
Q.11. What variables would you use in segmenting the market for the
following products and why?
i) Credit Card
1.Demographic variables
*age
*income
*occupation
--------------------------------------------------
2. socioeconomic status
*religion
*language
-----------------------------------------
3. Geographic variables
---------------------------------
4.Psychographic variables
*personality
*life style
*value
*attitude
--------------------------
5.Behavioural variables
*benefit sought
*brand loyalty
*readiness-to-buy stage
*income status
=======================================
1.Demographic variables
*age
*income
*occupation
--------------------------------------------------
2. socioeconomic status
*REGIONAL FOCUS
*language
-----------------------------------------
3. Geographic variables
---------------------------------
4.Psychographic variables
*personality
*life style
*value
*attitude
--------------------------
5.Behavioural variables
*benefit sought
*brand loyalty
*readiness-to-buy stage
*profitability
*income status
Q13
Launching new products in the market involves heavy investment and huge
risk.So,before introducing any new product /service in market, many
organizations in order to understand the response of the customers with
respect to their new product/service ,take the help of test
marketing.Thus,test marketing can be defined as one of the steps of
product development stage where an experiment is conducted on the new
product under the same circumstances and conditions on a smaller scale in
order to understand the consumer’s response. This provides various
information’s to the product developers about consumers response, which
helps them to use those information’s and launch their product on
larger/national scale.
The objective of every organization is to earn profit through sales and hence
test marketing provides all essential information in advance and thus
ensures that the launch is successful. However, for successful test
marketing; there should be correct selection of test market. Test market
should be smaller replica of the target market and should have similar
population as that of proposed target audience. In also includes duplication
of the other marketing tools like promotion, distribution, pricing etc on
smaller scale. Thus, test marketing helps to gauge about the product in
wider scale.
Test marketing results are very carefully observed and monitored before
launching the product on larger scale, nationally. Its helps the product
launchers to know about the consumer behavior and their buying
behaviour. This in return provides an opportunity to the organization to
remove any flaws present in the product and thus help them to add new
features (if needed)into the product or bring about small changes as revealed
by the test before launching the product nationally.
* It’s not possible to find exact replica of target market. So, all test markets
always have to be carried out with some exceptions like other market
research
One of the objectives of test marketing is to avoid huge loss for the company
but still such test involves considerable investment and hence its failure
may also incur loss to the company.
* Time frame of test marketing depends upon the objective set by the
company. Hence test marketing involves lot of time. This provides its
competitors an extra edge to launch its product before them.
* Gives its competitors a chance to know about the marketing strategy and
about its product in advance.
a) Water Purifier
the 4Ps
P1=PRODUCT
P2=PRICE
P3=PROMOTIONS
P4=PLACE [ SALES/DISTRIBUTION]
====================================
==================================
i) Water Purifier
P1
---------------------------------------
P2
Reduction in price.
-----------------------------------------------
P3
---------------------------------------------------------
P4
P1
1.positioning.
----------------------------------------
P2
---------------------------------
P3
-------------------------------------
P4
b) Soft drinks
==============================================================
==============================================================
Geographic variables
region of the country, East, West, South, North, Central, coastal, hilly, etc.
-age
-family size
income
occupation
education
socioeconomic status
language
Psychographic variables
personality
life style
value
attitude
Behavioural variables
benefit sought
brand loyalty
readiness-to-buy stage
==============================================================
WANTS TO EXPLOIT.
IT IS A CRITICAL STEP.
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==============================================================
For any group regarded as a potential NICHE market target, the following
questions should be asked:
Is it apt to grow?
Can we accurately measure the size and purchasing power of the target?
Can we identify the customers so that we can know where and how to
appeal to them?
How strong is our competition in this target market? Are there any
competitive opportunities for us?
Many market segments will not meet the above requirements. For instance,
a certain group may not have promising growth potential, yet it may offer
stable and profitable business forces.
=================================================
Who is the decision maker you want to target your message to, and what
keeps that decision maker awake at night?
What pressing problem does your product solve for your prospective
customer?
Why is your product better than the current solution and competitive
alternatives?
Who are your key competitors; why and when do you win or lose to them?
What makes your product unique in a way that is relevant to your prospect?
What do prospects and customers like and dislike about your product?
Do prospects and customers share your belief of why your product is better
than the competition’s?
Your positioning statement becomes the central idea and theme underlying
all marketing activities. It is a short, compelling, declarative sentence that
states just one benefit and addresses the target market's number one
problem. It must be unique, believable, and important, or the target market
will ignore the message. Once you have found the right message, your
product marketing managers won’t need to be involved in every planning
session for every marketing campaign.
Supporting benefit statements tell the story in more detail. They also provide
a structure for product demonstrations. While the positioning statement
articulates a high-level benefit, the claims made in the supporting
statements should be readily demonstrable. That is, in just a few steps, you
should be able to show how the product delivers concrete benefits.
Make sure your message strategy has enough detail to support the creation
of a standard product demonstration. This helps your product marketing
managers to create a demo quickly. And there’s another benefit—the
product detail in the support points answers a lot questions before
marketing and sales ask them.
A message strategy also facilitates delivery of the same message across all
marketing media, including web sites, brochures, advertisements, and
presentations to investors, industry analysts, and prospects. A standard
outline format makes it easy for writers and other communicators to see the
message strategy's benefit hierarchy, and to take full advantage of it.
===================================================
Q19
-stirs up the brand -harnesses the desire -helps in making the buying
decision -helps to influence the choice -helps in buying
--------------------------------------------------------------
providing information,
For example:
Message About Product – Details about the product play a prominent role in
advertising for new and existing products. In fact, a very large
percentage of product-oriented advertising includes some mention of
features and benefits offered by the marketer’s product. Advertising
can be used to inform customers of changes that take place in existing
products.For instance, if a beverage company has purchased the
brands of another company resulting in a brand name change, an
advertising message may stress “New Name but Same Great Taste”.
==============================================================
======================================================
=====================================================
==============================================================
ADVERTISING/ PUBLICITY Communication OBJECTIVES involve ...
Awareness
Comprehension
Feelings
To modify attitudes
To reinforce attitudes
To push price/quality
To show association
============================================
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2.COMPREHENSION
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.CONVICTION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4.ACTION
The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is based upon the biological life cycle. For
example, a seed is planted (introduction); it begins to sprout (growth); it
shoots out leaves and puts down roots as it becomes an adult (maturity);
after a long period as an adult the plant begins to shrink and die out
(decline).In theory it's the same for a product. After a period of development
it is introduced or launched into the market; it gains more and more
customers as it grows; eventually the market stabilises and the product
becomes mature; then after a period of time the product is overtaken by
development and the introduction of superior competitors, it goes into
decline and is eventually withdrawn.However, most products fail in the
introduction phase. Others have very cyclical maturity phases where
declines see the product promoted to regain customers.
Introduction. The need for immediate profit is not a pressure. The product
is promoted to create awareness. If the product has no or few competitors, a
skimming price strategy is employed. Limited numbers of product are
available in few channels of distribution. Growth. Competitors are attracted
into the market with very similar offerings. Products become more profitable
and companies form alliances, joint ventures and take each other over.
Advertising spend is high and focuses upon building brand. Market share
tends to stabilise. Maturity. Those products that survive the earlier stages
tend to spend longest in this phase. Sales grow at a decreasing rate and
then stabilise. Producers attempt to differentiate products and brands are
key to this. Price wars and intense competition occur. At this point the
market reaches saturation. Producers begin to leave the market due to poor
margins. Promotion becomes more widespread and use a greater variety of
media. Decline. At this point there is a downturn in the market. For
example more innovative products are introduced or consumer tastes have
changed. There is intense price-cutting and many more products are
withdrawn from the market. Profits can be improved by reducing marketing
spend and cost cutting. Problems with Product Life Cycle.In reality very
few products follow such a prescriptive cycle. The length of each stage varies
enormously. The decisions of marketers can change the stage, for example
from maturity to decline by price-cutting. Not all products go through each
stage. Some go from introduction to decline. It is not easy to tell which stage
the product is in. Remember that PLC is like all other tools. Use it to inform
your gut feeling
1.Problem recognition;
2.Information Search
3.Evaluation of Alternative
4.Purchase decision
5.Purchase Behaviour
There are a range of alternative models, but that of AIUAPR, which most
directly links to the steps in the marketing/promotional process is often
seen as the most generally useful[1]; AWARENESS - before anything else
can happen the potential customers must become aware that the product or
service exists. Thus, the first task must be to gain the attention of the target
audience. All the different models are, predictably, agreed on this first step.
If the audience never hears the message, they will not act on it, no matter
how powerful it is . INTEREST - but it is not sufficient to grab their
attention. The message must interest them and persuade them that the
product or service is relevant to their needs. The content of the message(s)
must therefore be meaningful and clearly relevant to that target audience's
needs, and this is where marketing research can come into its own.
UNDERSTANDING - once an interest is established, the prospective
customer must be able to appreciate how well the offering may meet his or
her needs, again as revealed by the marketing research. This may be no
small achievement where the advertiser has just a few words, or ten
seconds, to convey their message. ATTITUDES - but the message must go
even further; to persuade the reader to adopt a sufficiently positive attitude
towards the product or service that he or she will purchase it, albeit as a
trial. There is no adequate way of describing how this may be achieved. It is
simply down to the magic of the advertiser's art, or based on the strength of
the product or service itself. PURCHASE - all the above stages might happen
in a few minutes while the reader is considering the advertisement; in the
comfort of his or her favorite armchair. The final buying decision, on the
other hand, may take place some time later; perhaps weeks later, when the
prospective buyer actually tries to find a shop which stocks the
product.REPEAT PURCHASE - but in most cases this first purchase is best
viewed as just a trial purchase. Only if the experience is a success for the
customer will it be turned into repeat purchases. These repeats, not the
single purchase which is the focus of most models, are where the vendors
focus should be, for these are where the profits are generated. The earlier
stages are merely a very necessary prerequisite for this!