Directed Study4

Chapter 1 1. List your activities for the first two hours after you woke up this morning.

Briefly indicate how marketing affected your activities. Morning grooming Check weather Make and drink coffee Get dressed Get in vehicle and turn on morning talk show station Drive to work The products I use in the bathroom, the coffee I drink, and the clothes I wear are influenced by marketing. The commercials convinced me to try soap products, toothpaste, and the coffee I drink. Marketing may persuade one to try a new product but ultimately the product or services must live up to the “hype” to keep consumers coming back. . If a producer creates a really revolutionary new product and consumers can learn about it and purchase it at a website, is any additional marketing effort really necessary? Explain your thinking? If consumer can learn and purchase the new product on its website, additional marketing would not be necessary.

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The purpose of marketing is to publicize to consumers about a new product and where to buy it. If all the consumer information is available on via website then it is unnecessary to have additional marketing. 3. Distinguish between the micro and macro views of marketing.Then explain how they are interrelated, if they are.

The view of micro marketing are a set of activities performed by organizations and macro marketing is a view as a social process or the emphasis how the whole marketing system works overall. Micro and macro marketing are interrelated as a process. Micro marketing is part of macro marketing system. Macro directs an economy’s flow of goods and services form producers to consumers in a way that effectively matches supply and demand and accomplishes the objectives of society. 6. Define the functions of marketing in your own words.

Using an example, explain how they can be shifted and shared. The functions of marketing are buying, selling, transporting, storing, standardization and grading, financing, risk taking and marketing information. The process of buying is looking for a potential product or service to sell. Selling is the promoting of the product or service. Transporting is the movement of the goods from one place to another.

Storing function involves holding of goods until customer needs them. Standardization and grading involves sorting of products according to size and quality.Financing provides the necessary funding for producing, transporting, storing, promoting, selling and buying of products. Risk taking involves bearing uncertainties of marketing process. Market information function involves all the information needed to plan, carry out and controlling marketing activities. Not every firm performs all functions of marketing but rather shifted and shared the responsibilities.

Some marketing specialists perform all the functions but most specialize in only one or two aspects. Marketing research firms, for example, specialize only in market information function.Another firm may only handle transporting of products, and still another that specializes in buying and selling. All of these functions must be shifted and shared by coordinators to bring it all together. 14. Distinguish between production orientation and marketing orientation, illustrating with examples.

The difference between production orientation and marketing orientation is, instead of just trying to get customers to buy what the firm has produced, in production orientation, a marketing orientated firm tries to offer customer what they need.An example of production orientation is one that all of us have experienced too many times. How many times have you called customer service to find yourself talking to someone in India, or any other country? How about all the all the things that are made in China? An example of marketing orientation would be companies like Amazon. Although it is an internet company, customer service and satisfaction is top notch. USAA, who specializes in providing all bank related services, is another company that prides itself with excellence in customer service.

Over 7 years in a row, they have won the JD Power for customer service.Chapter2 2. Distinguish clearly between mass marketing and target marketing. Use an example. Mass marketing vaguely aims at “everyone”, meaning everyone is considered potential customer. It attempts to try to sell to everyone.

Examples of mass marketing are products like toothpaste or soaps. Restaurants would also be mass marketing. Target marketing on the other hand specifically “targets” specific customers. Dentures are targeted for senior citizens. Formulas are targeted for infants.

Target customers ranges from age, gender and or race. 4. Explain, in your own words, what each of the four Ps involve.Product: developing right product for the target market Place: product is available when and where at target market place Promotion: promoting product to target market which may focus on acquiring new customers or retaining customers. Price: setting price which must consider competition before the final pricing is set 12. Research has shown that only about three out of every four customers are, on average, satisfied by a firm’s marketing programs.

Give an example of a purchase you made where you were not satisfied and what the firm could have changed to satisfy you.If customer satisfaction is so important to firms, why don’t they score better in this area? I purchased couple appliances several years back from Home Depot but informed them that it would not be picked up until the following week. Few minutes after I left Home Depot, I get a call from my spouse to not to order the appliances. I promptly go back into the store to cancel the order and requested a refund. Home Depot informs me there would be a restock fee of 20%. In my mind, the appliances were never moved from the back of the store, never mind out of the store.

Where was the restock fee coming from? I just paid it, literally 6 minutes ago. In this scenario, the easy solution would have been to waive the restock fee, but it didn’t happen that way. The reason customer service is lost is simple, it cost money. 13. Distinguish between an attractive opportunity and a breakthrough opportunity. Give an example.

An attractive opportunity is one that a firm has a chance of doing something about-given its resources and objectives. A breakthrough opportunity is one that is hard to copy and be very profitable for a long time.Attractive opportunities are much more common than breakthrough opportunities simply because something new and profitable for long time doesn’t present itself everyday. An example of an attractive opportunity would be improving upon something that is already profitable, and an example of breakthrough opportunity would be finding a cure for cancer. 17. Explain why a firm may want to pursue a market penetration opportunity before pursuing one involving product development or diversification.

Market penetration tries to increase sales of a firm’s present products in its present markets-probably through a more aggressive marketing mix.Usually firms find attractive opportunities fairly close to markets they already know. Most firms think first of greater market penetration. They want to increase profits and grow customer equity where they already have experience and strengths. Market penetration is within the firm’s comfort zone and for this reason it is the first choice whereas pursuing product development or diversification there are risks involved.

Product development involve offering new or improved products and diversification means totally new line of business which entails a lot of work and money and the most risk.Chapter3 1. Do you think it makes sense for a firm to base its mission statement on the type of product it produces? For example, would it be good for a division that produces electric motors to have as its mission: “We want to make the best (from our customers’ point of view) electric motors available anywhere in the world”? Yes, it would make sense for a firm to base its mission statement on the type of product it produces since it sets out the organization’s basic purpose for being. 2. Explain how a firm’s objectives may affect its search for opportunities.company objectives guide managers as they search for and evaluate opportunities-and later plan marketing strategies. Particular marketing objectives should be set within the framework of larger company objectives. Firms need a hierarchy of objectives-moving from company objectives to marketing department objectives. For each marketing strategy, firms also need objectives for each of the four Ps- as well as more detailed objectives. Both company objectives and marketing objectives should be realistic and achievable.

Overly ambitious objectives are useless if the firm lacks the resources to achieve them. . Explain how a firm’s resources may limit its search for opportunities. Cite a specific example for a specific resource. A firm’s resources may limit its search for opportunities specifically in breakthrough opportunities where large amount of capital is needed just to get started. Lack of financial strength is often a barrier to entry into an otherwise attractive market.

Another limitation would be producing capability and flexibility. A small business would not be able to compete with bigger business when it comes to producing capabilities but it would have the advantage in flexibility. 5.In your own words, explain how a marketing manager might use a competitor analysis to avoid situations that involve head-on competition. A marketing manager might use a competitor’s analysis to avoid situations that involve head-on competition by comparing strengths and weaknesses of your current target market with your competitors. Find the competitor’s weaknesses and exploit them and using it your advantage whether to make them look bad or make your look good.

6. The owner of a small hardware store-the only one in a medium-sized town in the mountains-has just learned that a large home improvement chain plans to open a new store nearby.How difficult will it be for the owner to plan for this new competitive threat? Explain your answer. Sadly to say, it would be very difficult for a small hardware store in a mid-sized town to compete with a large home improvement chain store. The biggest obstacle is the price. Everyone would agree that the small hardware would provide better customer service but at the end of the day, people will go where the prices are cheaper.

The only opportunity option that the owner could do find a niche where it could provide a service or products that the chain store would not.

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