Product positioning,Branding,and Customer Relationship Management or Internet Marketing.

Product positioning

 

Product positioning is closely related to market segment focus. Product positioning

involves creating a unique, consistent, and recognized customer perception about a

firm's offering and image. A product or service may be positioned on the basis of

an attitude or benefit, use or application, user, class, price, or level of quality. It

targets a product for specific market segments and product needs at specific prices.

The same product can be positioned in many different ways.

Some positioning strategies will work better than others. The best positioning plays

to company's strengths and the product's strengths, and away from weaknesses.

Position your product to reach the buyers whose profiles most closely match needs

you serve, in the channels you can reach, at the prices you set.

 

Branding

 

The means by which names, logos, symbols, trademarks, or product design endow

goods or services with a recognizable presence and a set of associated values or

expectations on the part of the consumer. Its origins lay in the literal branding of

vagabonds with a 'V', thieves with a mark on the left cheek, or army deserters with

a 'D', all with a red-hot poker making the bearers of such brands instantly

recognizable to society at large.

It also means identifying your unique value proposition first, and repeating it

amongst all communication you have both internally, so that it is engraved in the

minds of all employees, as well as externally, so that it is made aware to the public.

The objectives of a good brand:

· Branding will deliver the company message clear

· Your brand builds company credibility

· Branding connects your prospects emotionally

· Branding should motivate a buyer

· Branding creates a concrete customer loyalty

 

CRM

 

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a company-wide business

strategy designed to reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer

satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. True CRM brings together information from all

data sources within an organization (and where appropriate, from outside the

organization) to give one, holistic view of each customer in real time. This allows

customer facing employees in such areas as sales, customer support, and marketing

to make quick yet informed decisions on everything from cross-selling and upselling

opportunities to target marketing strategies to competitive positioning tactics.

 

Internet Marketing

 

Internet marketing is the marketing of products and services using the Internet as

its medium. Lower costs of dissemination of information and a global audience are

its main advantages. Internet marketing also encompasses digital customer data

management and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM), which are

widely used in businesses today.

The importance of Internet marketing strategies has increased with the growth and

importance of the Internet. Most established companies are vying online space

today and seek to adopt web marketing strategies to increase traffic to their

company's homepage. Internet marketing helps add potential customers and the

number of quality leads to your website as well. In fact, most organizations can

adopt Internet marketing and advertising strategies to generate better business.

 

HAPPY LEARNING TASLEEM

Sales Promotion with the different elements of promotion mix.

Define sales promotion and discuss the different elements of

promotion mix with the help of suitable examples.

 

My Answer:

An activity designed to boost the sales of a product or service. It may include an

advertising campaign, increased PR activity, a free-sample campaign, offering free

gifts or trading stamps, arranging demonstrations or exhibitions, setting up competitions with attractive prizes, temporary price reductions, door-to-door

calling, telemarketing, and personal letters on other methods.

 

More than any other element of the promotional mix, sales promotion is about

“action”. It is about stimulating customers to buy a product. It is not designed to be

informative – a role which advertising is much better suited to.

 

Sales promotion is commonly referred to as “Below the Line” promotion.

Sales promotion can be directed at:

· The ultimate consumer (a “pull strategy” encouraging purchase)

· The distribution channel (a “push strategy” encouraging the channels to stock the product). This is usually known as “selling into the trade”

 

Methods of sales promotion

There are many consumer sales promotional techniques available, summarised in

the table below:

Price promotions

Price promotions are also commonly known as” price discounting”

These offer either (1) a discount to the normal selling price of a product, or (2)

more of the product at the normal price.

 

Increased sales gained from price promotions are at the expense of a loss in profit –

so these promotions must be used with care.

 

A producer must also guard against the possible negative effect of discounting on a

brand’s reputation

 

Coupons

Coupons are another, very versatile, way of offering a discount. Consider the

following examples of the use of coupons:

· On a pack to encourage repeat purchase

· In coupon books sent out in newspapers allowing customers to redeem the

coupon at a retailer

· A cut-out coupon as part of an advert

· On the back of till receipts

The key objective with a coupon promotion is to maximise the redemption rate –

this is the proportion of customers actually using the coupon.

One problem with coupons is that they may simply encourage customers to buy

what they would have bought anyway. Another problem occurs when retailers do

not hold sufficient stocks of the promoted product – causing customer disappointment.

Use of coupon promotions is, therefore, often best for new products or perhaps to

encourage sales of existing products that are slowing down.

 

Gift with purchase

The “gift with purchase” is a very common promotional technique. It is also

known as a “premium promotion” in that the customer gets something in addition

to the main purchase. This type of promotion is widely used for:

· Subscription-based products (e.g. magazines)

· Consumer luxuries (e.g. perfumes)

 

Competitions and prizes

Another popular promotion tool with many variants. Most competition and prize

promotions are subject to legal restrictions.

 

Money refunds

Here, a customer receives a money refund after submitting a proof of purchase to

the manufacturer.

These schemes are often viewed with some suspicion by customers – particularly if

the method of obtaining a refund looks unusual or onerous.

 

Frequent user / loyalty incentives

Repeat purchases may be stimulated by frequent user incentives. Perhaps the best

examples of this are the many frequent flyer or user schemes used by airlines, train

companies, car hire companies etc.

 

Point-of-sale displays

Research into customer buying behaviour in retail stores suggests that a significant

proportion of purchases results from promotions that customers see in the store.

Attractive, informative and well-positioned point-of-sale displays are, therefore,

very important part of the sales promotional activity in retail outlets.

 

 HAPPY LEARNING TASLEEM

Marketing Plan for a consumer product.

Discuss the marketing plan for a consumer product of your choice

and briefly explain the marketing planning process

Answer:

A marketing plan is a written document that details the necessary actions to achieve one or more marketing objectives. It can be for a product or service, a brand, or a product line. Marketing plans cover between one and five years. A marketing plan may be part of an overall business plan. Solid marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan. While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, a marketing plan without a sound strategic foundation is of little use.

 

The marketing planning process

Marketing process can be realized by the marketing mix in step 4. The last step in the process is the marketing controlling. In most organizations, "strategic planning" is an annual process, typically covering just the year ahead. Occasionally, a few organizations may look at a practical plan which stretches three or more years ahead.

 

To be most effective, the plan has to be formalized, usually in written form, as a formal "marketing plan." The essence of the process is that it moves from the general to the specific, from the vision to the mission to the goals to the corporate objectives of the organization, then down to the individual action plan for a part of one marketing program. It is also an interactive process, so that the draft output of each stage is checked to see what impact it has on the earlier stages, and is amended.

 

Marketing plan of consumer product – Microwave

 

Current Market Situation

The history of the microwave oven extends back to the year 1946, when Dr. Percy Spencer, an engineer at the Raytheon chanced to invent it, unexpectedly. Microwave Ovens gaining popularity since and mid 1980s, have been growing to become a standard kitchen appliance in most households across the world.

 

Market segmentation

Market segmentation is necessary, which is dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers with different needs, or behaviour who might require separate products or marketing mixes. Of the four levels of micro marketing (segment, niche, local and individual), we shall use 'segment marketing'. In today's world, it has become necessary to divide te market using several such segmentation techniques, and we will use four i.e.

(a) Geographical Segmentation - Urban and suburban regions.

(b) Demographic Segmentation- We are targeting people with stable income of over Rs. 20,000.

(c) Life-stage Segmentation- Microwave 1000 model is targeted to single young people and 1100 Model for newly married couple.

(d) Behavioural Segmentation- Microwave 1200 will be most useful for heavy users whereas the Microwave 1000 for light users.

 

Research and Surveys

A primary data research was executed in order to denote current customer preferences in order to design a complete product for them. It has been found that as a new participator in the market competition, we should provide a complete package to the customer. Talking in management language, all the features to focus on, mentioned above, has become hygiene factors for the customers, they have knowledge about oven and have already chosen their locality: therefore the product designed should provide differentiated needs of the customers by providing a complete package. People today are more concerned about artificial chemical usage; green revolution is

showing its colours.

 

Marketing Strategy

Microwave primary marketing strategy will be to through extensive promotion to create demand for a yet properly untapped market, Our consumer targets have been discussed above in Market Segmentation. The primary consumers are households, but we are also targeting fast-food shops with our more expensive Microwave 1200 model.

 

Distribution Review

Microwave brand will be distributed through a network of retailers in the electronic markets around metro cities. Our partners will incorporate some major electronic speciality store from the shopping malls to "Stadium". We also plan to experiment sales using e-commerce, which has to gain transaction in the sub-continent.

Sales Promotion

To increase our sales and exposure of our product we have decided to carry on certain sales promotion activities.

· Coupons: Offering coupons to customers which will give them 5% off if they take the coupons to the stores.

· Kiosk Marketing: We also decided to carry on Kiosk Marketing. We will have our sales personnel in the big super shops and they will tell customers about our product and company. Moreover, they will distribute our free samples and coupons to get attention of our newly launched product.

· Push Sales: For retailers, we will also have to practice push sales with a high markup pricing in order to occupy maximum shelf space. It will encourage the retailers to promote our brand because of their own advantage.

 

Conclusion

We realize that the above marketing plan focuses mostly on advertising and promotion, however, that has to do with believe that a new product should be extensively advertised in a new market. However, we all know that first year is all about gaining market share and build a great brand image while maintaining beat-even provided the guidelines are being followed:

 

This Marketing Report for Microwave Ovens is by no means definitive. In the ever changing market it is necessary to update our marketing plan as we battle along the profitable kitchen appliance.

 

HAPPY LEARNING TASLEEM

Media Scheduling

What do you mean by media scheduling. Explain the procedure for evaluating advertising programmes with the help of suitable examples.

 

My Answer:

 

Program or plan that identifies the media channels used in an advertising

campaign, and specifies insertion or broadcast dates, positions, and duration of the

messages called media scheduling.

 

Step of advertising programs

1. Analyzing the market

2. Determining advertising objectives

3. Establishing budgetary and control system

4. Developing advertising strategy for:

• Selecting media
• Creating messages

5. Coordinating advertising with other promotional and marketing methods

6. Evaluating results

 

Step 1: Analyze the market

1. Determining the demand factors.

2. Identifying the target group.

3. Assess the competition

4. Legal and regulatory environment

 

Step 2: Determining advertising objectives

Defining the Marketing Objectives: Decide what the marketing objectives is out to

achieve in terms of:

· Increase sales of brand

· Increase market share· Generate 500 new enquiries each month· Increase

distribution penetration

· Establish a network of distributors

 

Step 3: Establishing the budgetary and control system

· Advertising budget is a plan for financing certain future advertising operations

· Mostly a fund will be allocated to this purpose to marketing department

· Within this fund they try to do media selection and other advertising expenses

· An advertising budget must be flexible to change according to changing

marketing conditions

Step 4: Developing advertising strategy

· How we get there- how the objectives are achieved. Strategy drives the

tactics in the same direction

· Adverting strategy must encompass the totality of what a product or

service is and how it is sold to the consumer

· The strategy summarises the tactics, by helping to harmonize and integrate

all tactical communication tools.

· The strategy should also include selection of target markets, positioning,

selection of communication tools, sequence of communication tools (are

different tools used at different stages?), time scales media selection and

creating messages

 

Step 5: Coordinating advertising with other promotional and marketing

methods

· For an advertising program to be successful, elements as production,

delivery and inventory must be integrated with the advertisement plan

· An advertising planning must consider to get the maximum cooperation

from distributors, dealers and salespeople

 

Step 6: Evaluating advertising results

· Pretesting: It is a research technique which determines the reaction to

advertising by a representative sample of the target market before. The

goal of pretesting is to eliminate errors or weaknesses in program design

before considerable sums of money are invested

· Post testing:

This is done only after a full commitment to a creative approach and a

schedule of media has been made . The objective is to ensure that future

campaigns will be more effective.

 

 

Question 1b: Define sales promotion and discuss the different elements

of promotion-mix with the help of suitable examples.

Answer:

An activity designed to boost the sales of a product or service. It may include an

advertising campaign, increased PR activity, a free-sample campaign, offering free

gifts or trading stamps, arranging demonstrations or exhibitions, setting up

competitions with attractive prizes, temporary price reductions, door-to-door

calling, telemarketing, and personal letters on other methods.

 

More than any other element of the promotional mix, sales promotion is about

“action”. It is about stimulating customers to buy a product. It is not designed to be

informative – a role which advertising is much better suited to.

Sales promotion is commonly referred to as “Below the Line” promotion.

Sales promotion can be directed at:

· The ultimate consumer (a “pull strategy” encouraging purchase)

· The distribution channel (a “push strategy” encouraging the channels to

stock the product). This is usually known as “selling into the trade”

 

Methods of sales promotion

There are many consumer sales promotional techniques available, summarised in

the table below:

Price promotions

Price promotions are also commonly known as” price discounting”

These offer either (1) a discount to the normal selling price of a product, or (2)

more of the product at the normal price.

Increased sales gained from price promotions are at the expense of a loss in profit –

so these promotions must be used with care.

A producer must also guard against the possible negative effect of discounting on a

brand’s reputation

 

Coupons

Coupons are another, very versatile, way of offering a discount. Consider the

following examples of the use of coupons:

· On a pack to encourage repeat purchase

· In coupon books sent out in newspapers allowing customers to redeem the

coupon at a retailer

· A cut-out coupon as part of an advert

· On the back of till receipts

The key objective with a coupon promotion is to maximise the redemption rate –

this is the proportion of customers actually using the coupon.

One problem with coupons is that they may simply encourage customers to buy

what they would have bought anyway. Another problem occurs when retailers do

not hold sufficient stocks of the promoted product – causing customer disappointment.

Use of coupon promotions is, therefore, often best for new products or perhaps to

encourage sales of existing products that are slowing down.

 

Gift with purchase

The “gift with purchase” is a very common promotional technique. It is also

known as a “premium promotion” in that the customer gets something in addition

to the main purchase. This type of promotion is widely used for:

· Subscription-based products (e.g. magazines)

· Consumer luxuries (e.g. perfumes)

 

Competitions and prizes

Another popular promotion tool with many variants. Most competition and prize

promotions are subject to legal restrictions.

 

Money refunds

Here, a customer receives a money refund after submitting a proof of purchase to

the manufacturer.

These schemes are often viewed with some suspicion by customers – particularly if

the method of obtaining a refund looks unusual or onerous.

 

Frequent user / loyalty incentives

Repeat purchases may be stimulated by frequent user incentives. Perhaps the best

examples of this are the many frequent flyer or user schemes used by airlines, train

companies, car hire companies etc.

 

Point-of-sale displays

Research into customer buying behaviour in retail stores suggests that a significant

proportion of purchases results from promotions that customers see in the store.

Attractive, informative and well-positioned point-of-sale displays are, therefore,

very important part of the sales promotional activity in retail outlets

 

HAPPY LEARNING TASLEEM

Basic elements of marketing strategy, Relative Market Potential, and Competitive Parity Analysis

 Relative Market Potential

 

Estimating the market potential for a business is critical in evaluating its viability

and provides an estimate of the maximum total sales potential for a given market.

Once the estimated market potential has been calculated, it is possible to determine

if the market is large enough to sustain your proposed business or sustain an

addition competitor in the marketplace. It is important to remember that the

estimated market potential sets an upper boundary on the market size and can be

expressed in either units and/or sales. Unless there are no direct or indirect

competitors, a business will capture a share of the total estimated market potential

not all of it.

Key Steps in Estimating Market Potential:

1. Define your target market and market segments.

2. Define the geographic boundaries of your market.

3. Derive an average selling price.

 

Competitive Parity Analysis

 

Competitive-based approach used to determine an advertising budget wherein an

advertiser decides advertising dollars to be spent on the basis of competitors'

spending. A problem with this method is that not only does it assume that all

competitors' marketing objectives are the same but also that it leaves an advertiser

subject to the same mistakes the competitor may make. Additionally, information

concerning competitive-advertising expenditures is only available after the money

has actually been spent; thus the advertiser who uses this method is always

functioning on other companies' past results.

 

Basic elements of marketing strategy

 

Segmentation

Every market has submarkets constituted by customers with same characteristics. Each market segment represent a different opportunity. There are four conditions to fill so that a segment is attractive: the existence of dissatisfied or badly satisfied needs, a sufficient size, a potential of significant development, a weak competition.

 

Positioning

According to the adopted strategic behaviour, a different row in the network, representing the held market shares: leader, follower, challenger or nicher (specialist). With this organisation, if the position of a firm changes, the position of the competitors changes too.

 

Market entrance

There are three possibilities: firm creation, partnership or buy an existing firm or product. We can again precise for this point that is not the same in all economies. The market and the laws are different.

 

Time

The moment to pass to the action, that is to say neither too early nor too late. It will be necessary to establish a timetable, which holds account of the two principal parameters: time to cover the market and the lifespan of a product

 

 

 

Productivity Analysis, Differentiate between productivity analysis and profitability analysis.

What do you mean by productivity analysis? Differentiate between productivity analysis and profitability analysis. What are the different steps in the direct and indirect approaches to marketing budgets?

My Answer

 

Productivity analysis refers to the process of differentiating the actual data over the

estimated data of output and input measurement and presentation.

 

In economics, productivity is the ratio of the output production per unit of input. It

may also refer to the technical efficiency of production relative to the allocation of

resources of enterprises.

 

If the goal is to increase productivity, enterprises must produce more with the same

level of input. The goal can also be done by maintaining the same level of output

using fewer inputs. The drive to increase productivity can be caused by various

factors, but perhaps the most apparent is the aspiration of an enterprise to increase

profitability.

 

There are certain factors affecting the productivity of entities. General categories of

the factors concerning productivity include the labor force, product, quality,

process, capacity, and external influences. Resources are also important to consider

in assessment of productivity of an entity.

 

Measuring the production level of an entity may take certain processes that include

data acquisition, data summary, and comparison. In obtaining data, documenting

the activities of an entity helps in creating tangible reports of certain group

transactions. Documents and files can be extremely valuable, particularly during

the performance evaluation.

 

Productivity analysis may be seen as an evaluative activity of the performance of

an entity. The purpose of it being employed is to provide the appropriate solution

to a problem that hinders the attainment of production goals in the present and

future of the company. The findings from productivity analysis being undertaken

are indeed of great help in providing an entity the necessary changes to be

implemented for the realization of its production goals.

 

Productivity is a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input.

For example, labor productivity is typically measured as a ratio of output per labor hour, an input. Productivity may be conceived of as a metric of the technical or

engineering efficiency of production. As such, the emphasis is on quantitative

metrics of input, and sometimes output. Productivity is distinct from metrics of a

locative efficiency, which take into account both the monetary value (price) of what is produced and the cost of inputs used, and also distinct from metrics of profitability, which address the difference between the revenues obtained from output and the expense associated with consumption of inputs.

 

The starting point is a profitability calculation using surplus value as a criterion of

profitability. The surplus value calculation is the only valid measure for

understanding the connection between profitability and productivity or

understanding the connection between real process and production process. A valid

measurement of total productivity necessitates considering all production inputs,

and the surplus value calculation is the only calculation to conform to the

requirement.

 

The process of calculating is best understood by applying the term ceteris paribus,

i.e. "all other things being the same," stating that at a time only the impact of one

changing factor be introduced to the phenomenon being examined. Therefore, the

calculation can be presented as a process advancing step by step. First, the impacts

of the income distribution process are calculated, and then, the impacts of the real

process on the profitability of the production.

 

The first step of the calculation is to separate the impacts of the real process and

the income distribution process, respectively, from the change in profitability (285.12 – 266.00 = 19.12). This takes place by simply creating one auxiliary column (4) in which a surplus value calculation is compiled using the quantities of Period 1 and the prices of Period 2. In the resulting profitability calculation, Columns 3 and 4 depict the impact of a change in income distribution process on the profitability and in Columns 4 and 7 the impact of a change in real process on the profitability.

 

Direct marketing is a form of advertising that reaches its audience without using

traditional formal channels of advertising, such as TV, newspapers or radio. Businesses communicate straight to the consumer with advertising techniques such

as fliers, catalogue distribution, promotional letters, and street advertising.

 

Direct Advertising is a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main

definitional characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing. The

first is that it sends its message directly to consumers, without the use of intervening commercial communication media. The second characteristic is the core principle of successful Advertising driving a specific "call to action." This aspect of direct marketing involves an emphasis on trackable, measurable, positive responses from consumers (known simply as "response" in the industry) regardless of medium.

 

If the advertisement asks the prospect to take a specific action, for instance call a

free phone number or visit a Web site, then the effort is considered to be direct

response advertising.

 

Direct marketing is predominantly used by small to medium-size enterprises with

limited advertising budgets that do not have a well-recognized brand message. A

well-executed direct advertising campaign can offer a positive return on investment as the message is not hidden with overcomplicated branding. Instead, direct advertising is straight to the point; offers a product, service, or event; and explains how to get the offered product, service, or event

 

HAPPY LEARNING TASLEEM