MARKETING MANAGEMENT MBOO46 SET I Q.1 Explain the various stages involved in new product development ?

Ans :New products are essential for existing firms to keep the momentum and for new firms they provide the differentiation. New product doesnt mean that it is absolutely new to the world. It may be a modification, or offered in a new market, or differentiated from existing products. Therefore it is necessary to understand the concept of new products. Meaning of New Products: a. They are real y innovative. For example, Googles Orkut, a networking site which revolutionized social networking. In this site people can meet like minded people; they can form their own groups, share photos, comments and many more. b. They are very different from the others: Haier launches path-breaking 4Door Refrigerators first time in India c. They are imitative; these products are not new to the market but new to the company. For example, Cavin Kare launched Ruchi pickles. This product is new to Cavin Kare but not to the market. New product development process: Stage 1 - Idea generation: New product idea can be generated either from the internal sources or external sources. The internal sources include employees of the organization and data collected from the market. The external source includes customers, competitors and supply chain members. For example, Ingersoll Rand welcomes new ideas from the General public

Stage 2-Idea screening: Organization may have various ideas but it should find out which of these ideas can be translated into concepts. In an interview to Times of India, Mr. Ratan Tata, chairman TATA group discussed how his idea saw many changes from the basic version. He told that he wanted to develop car with scooter engine, plastic doors etc... But when he unveiled the car, there were many changes in the product. This shows that initial idea wil be changed on the basis of market requirements.

Stage 3 - Concept development: the main feature or the specific desire that it caters to or the basic appeal of the product is created or designed in the concept development.Concepts used for Tata Nano car are - Concept I: Low-end 'rural car,' probably without doors or windows andwith plastic curtains that rolled down, a four-wheel version of the auto-rickshaw Concept II: A car made by engineering plastics and new materials, and using new technology like aerospace adhesives instead of welding. Concept III: Indigenous, in-house car which meets all the environment standards Stage 4 - Concept testing: At this stage concept is tested with the group of target customers. If any changes are required in the concept or the message it will be done during this stage. Also the effectiveness is tested on a minor scale. If the concept meets the specific requirements, then it wil be accepted. Stage 5 Marketing strategy development: The marketing strategy development involves three parts. The first part focuses on target market, sales, market share and profit goals. TATAs initial business plan consisted sales of 2 lakhs cars per annum. The second part involves product price, distribution and marketing budget strategies. TATAs fixed Rs 1 lakhs as the car price, and finding self employed persons who work like agent to distribute the cars. The final part contains marketing mix strategy and profit goals. Stage 6 - Business analysis: it is the analysis of sales, costs and profits estimated for a new product and to find out whether these align with the company mission and objectives. Stage 7 - Product development: during this stage, product is made toundergo further improvements, new features or improvised versions areadded to the product. There is also scope for innovation and using the latest technology into the product.

Q.2 Discuss the importance of SWOT analysis to develop effective marketing mix. ANS:-

Folowing example shows how Big Bazaar has worked out on its marketing mix in India after doing a SWOT analysis: SWOT analysis indicates the 4 specific and crucial areas by which an organization can know its position
in the market. SWOT analysis can be done by any kind of organization, dealing with any kind of

products orservices, at any point of time and whenever it feels the need to do so. SWOT analysis is an analysis showing the Companys a) Strengths i.e. areas where it has got advantage, its core processes, its unique or successful brands, key people etc. If the company has a goodreputation in the consumer market then it becomes strength of that company. b) Weaknesses i.e. areas where the company is weak or having drawbacks and which needs to be improvised or eliminated from the existing system. If the company is feeling that its sales force has too many inefficient people then it becomes the weakness of the company.
c) Opportunities i.e. areas where company can establish itself and the chal enges that it can accept to its benefit as wel as the consumers. Suppose a company knows that there are consumers all over the world who consume companys products then there presents opportunity of expanding its activities globally.

d) Threats i.e. areas where the company feels that it might be subject to pressure situations or where it is unable to pul itself from a possiblecrises or the threat may simply come from competitive forces or other external factors such as Recession.

Q.3 Briefly explain the major external and uncontrollable factors that influence an organization decision making, performance and strategies Ans:-

Q.4 Discuss the potential benefits associated with MIS ?

ANS:

Various benefits of having a MIS and resultant flow of marketing information are given below: 1. It allows marketing managers to carry out their analysis, planning implementation and control responsibilities more effectively. 2. It ensures effective tapping of marketing opportunities and enables the company to develop effective safeguard against emerging marketing threats. 3. It provides marketing intelligence to the firm and helps in early spotting of changing trends. 4. It helps the firm adapt its products and services to the needs and tastes of the customers.
5. By providing quality marketing information to the decision maker, MIS

helps in improving the quality of decision making.

Q.5 Describe five interdependent levels of basic human needs (motivators) as propounded by Abraham Maslow Ans:-

Q.6 List the important differences between Consumer market and business markets
Consumer Market

Characteristics 1. Demand 2. No of customers 3. Location 4. Nature of buy 5. No of buying roles 6. Negotiations 7. Promotion

Consumer Market Direct Large Dispersed Personal Few Easy Advertising

Business market Derived Few Concentrated Profession Many Complex Personal selling

The differences stated above may not exacting and water tight divisions. Even in case of a business making a purchase for a regular stationary item, the responsible employee may adopt an individualistic and direct approach. Similarly industrial advertising may be effective. The differences lead to behavior patterns which are also different. As an example, emotion plays a major role in a purchase decision for an individual in a consumer market but wil hardly come into play in the business market.
Consumer Market Business m

MARKETING MANAGEMENT MBOO46 SET II

Q.1 what do you mean by marketing functions? Briefly explain the important marketing functions. Ans:The delivery of goods and services from producers to their ultimate consumers or users includes many different activities. These different activities are known as marketing functions. Different thinkers have described these functions in different ways. Some of the most important functions of marketing are briefly discussed below:1. Marketing Research and Information Management Marketers need to take decisions scientifically. Marketing research function is concerned with gathering, analyzing and interpreting data in asystematic and scientific manner. The types of market information could be analysis of market size and characteristics, consumer tastes and preferences and changes in them from time to time, channels of distribution and communication and their effectiveness, economic, social, political and technological environment and changes therein. A company can procure such information from specialized market research agencies, government or can decide to collect themselves. 2. Advertising and Sales Promotion Advertising is a mass media tool used to inform, persuade or remind customers about products or services. It is an impersonal form of communication targeted at a
chosen

group through paid space or time. Sales Promotion is a short-term incentive given to customers or intermediaries to promote sales. It supplements advertising and personal selling and can be used at the time of launching a new product or even during its maturity period. 3. Product Planning and Management A Marketer should identify the needs and wants of consumers, develop suitable products / services and make them available. Marketer is also required to maintain the product and its variations in size, weight, package and price range according to the changing needs and requirements of his customers. Information available through Market Research helps product management in taking appropriate decisions while planning the marketing efforts.
4. Selling This function of marketing is concerned with transferring of products to the customer. An

importantpart of this function is organizing sales force and managing their activities. Sales force management includes recruitment, training, supervision, compensation and evaluation of salesmen.

They need to be assigned targets and territories wherethey can operate. The salesmen interact with prospective purchasers face-to-face in order to sell the goods. The purchaser may be endcustomer or an intermediary, such as a retailer or a dealer. 5. Physical Distribution Moving and handling of products from factory to consumers come under this function. Order processing, inventory, management, warehousing and transportation are the key activities in the physical distribution system. 6. PricingThis is perhaps the most important decision taken by marketer, as it is the only
revenue fetching function and success and failure of the product may depend upon this

decision. Therefore, the decision regarding how much to charge should be taken such that the price is acceptable to the prospective buyers and at the same time fetches profits for the company. While deciding on the price, the factors to be considered are competition, competitive prices, companies marketing policy, government policy, and the buying capacity of target market etc.

Q.2 Define the term Brand Equity ? Discuss the components of Brand Equity. Ans:Brand equity is set of assets linked to a brands name and symbol that adds value to the product or service and/or that firms customer. Components of brand equity: 1. Brand loyalty 2. Brand awareness 3. Perceived quality 4. Brand associations 9.3.1 Brand Loyalty Is consumer's commitment to repurchase the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service or other positive behaviors such as word of mouth advocacy. True brand loyalty implies that the consumer is willing, occasionally at least, to put aside their own desires in the interest of the brand. This will help organization to reduce the promotion cost. For example, many girls in India use only Ponds products, though competitors products like Fa, Spinz, Cuticura, and Mysore Sandalare present in the market and vice versa. 9.3.2 Brand Awareness The number of customers exposed to the brand name. Higher the brand awareness, higher will be the brand equity. Organizations put all the effort inthe introduction stage of the product to create awareness among the customers. For example, Xerox Company has huge brand awareness since photocopier machines were introduced by this company and even today photocopies are referred as Xerox copies. 9.3.3 Perceived Quality The customer perception about the actual quality level of the product. For example, when a customer purchases Levis jeans he knows that it indicates quality even though there are several cheaper brands of jeans available in the market. 9.3.4 Brand Associations The attribute of the brand that customer associates with his/ her belief. A person may associate the brand for power, strength or protectiveness. For example, a customer may associate Nike brand not just for sports shoes but also any accessory associated with sports. So, for him, Nike represents sports.

Q.3 Why are marketing channels indispensable? List the functions of marketing channels. Ans:Marketing channels are a set of independent organizations comprising of the marketing intermediaries who are involved in the distribution of the goods or services from the factory to the consumption points at the right time or even before the time. For example, Haldiram, a company which produces snacks, chats and sweets have two manufacturing locations at Delhi and Nagpur. The products from Delhi will be sent to 25 C&F agents. These C&F agents distribute the goods to 700 distributors, who in turn sel to 0.4 million retail outlets. In the same way, goods reaches to 0.2 million retailers from Nagpur plant via 25 C&Fs and 375 distributors. Consumer buys Haldiram snacks throughout India through these 0.6 million retailers. Marketing channels will have marketing intermediaries such as the retailers, wholesalers, agents, brokers, travelling agents, etc. Some companies do not use these channels. They directly market their products to consumers. For example, Dell computers ask its customers to login to the website, configure their product, and order the same on the internet. Then a general question arises as to why many companies use marketing channels and some do not. In order to answer this question, we need to understand the functionsof marketing channels and how they are more beneficial than direct marketing 1.Helps in Physical distribution: Transporting goods and storing them in the assigned warehouses or godowns. 2. Promotes Communication: Marketing intermediaries promote thecompanys products. Here channel member provides the information regarding the products and pushes it to the customers. 3. Provides Information: Retailers and wholesalers collect the information or feedbacks from the customers and provide the same to the company or manufacturer. 4. Plays a key role in Title transforming: Marketing intermediaries purchase the goods from the company and transform the title of goods or ownership to the next channel intermediary or customer. 5. Supports Relationship management: Here marketing intermediaries try to understand the needs of consumers, try to match his needs and satisfy them.

Q.4.Explain the different methods which allows a media planner to decide budget allocation Ans:Media vehicle selection, number of insertions and message structure depend on the budget allotted for the
communication program. A popular channel may charge more for advertisement but organization gets better viewership. A newspaper having high circulation charges premium for the advertisement but all the organization may not have enough budgets to support such campaign. Hence marketer would like to decide what is the budget for the communication program? And how shall it be allotted optimally? There are four different methods on which a media planner decides the allocation of advertisement budget.

a) Affordable method: This method is used by small companies who dont have enough communication budgets. In this method company allots the fixed amount for the communication program. The advantage of this method is company can have better control over the spending on the communication. The disadvantage is if sales require higher communication effort,
company is not in a position to allocate the budget.

b) Percentage of sales method. In this method company allots the budget on the basis of total sales forecasted. This is the
simplest method. Marketercan have better control over the budget and also have flexibility to allocate the budget.

c)Follow the Competitor method: The Company sets its promotion budget on the basis of competitors advertising effort. Here
company closely monitors the developments of the competitors communication program and study the industry trends in communication budget prior to setting up communication budget.

d) Objective and task method: The procedure involved in estimating the advertisement budget by this method are First,
Objectives are set for the communication programs. Second, identifying the task to be performed to achieve the objective and third, estimating the cost of achieving these objectives.

Q.5 Define the term direct marketing Explain the different methods adopted for direct marketing Ans:-

Q.6 List the important differences between International marketing and Domestic marketing. Ans:The differences between domestic marketing and international marketing are listed below:

Characteristics 1. Culture

International Marketing
Multi culture

Domestic Marketing
Single culture and in some cases multi culture

2. Data accessibility Very difficult

3. Data reliability Very Low 4. Control Difficult 5. Consumer Vary from country preferences to country 6. Product mix Adaptability 7. Business operation 8.Currency exposure

Easy High
Relatively easy Vary in smal extent Standardization required Home country only Required only if there is importing

required More than one country

Required