Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assignment - A
Question 1: Define marketing management. Discuss the various management
philosophies. Explain how the marketing and selling are contrasted and
briefly explain the societal marketing concept.
Answer:
Marketing Management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical
application of marketing techniques and the management of a firm's marketing
resources and activities. Rapidly emerging forces of globalization have compelled
firms to market beyond the borders of their home country making International
marketing highly significant and an integral part of a firm's marketing strategy.
Marketing managers are often responsible for influencing the level, timing, and
composition of customer demand accepted definition of the term. In part, this is
because the role of a marketing manager can vary significantly based on a business'
size, corporate culture, and industry context. For example, in a large consumer
products company, the marketing manager may act as the overall general manager
of his or her assigned product. To create an effective, cost-efficient Marketing
management strategy, firms must possess a detailed, objective understanding of
their own business and the market in which they operate. In analyzing these issues,
the discipline of marketing management often overlaps with the related discipline
of strategic planning.
Product Concept: The production concept holds that customers will favor
products that are available and highly affordable and that management should
therefore focus on improving production and distribution efficiency.
Selling Concept: Many organizations follow the selling concept. The selling
concept is the idea that consumers will not buy enough of the organization's
products unless the organization undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion
effort.
Marketing Concept: The marketing concept holds that achieving organizational
goals depends on determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering
the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors do.
Societal Marketing Concept: The societal marketing concept holds that the
organization should determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets. It
should then deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than
competitors in a way that maintains or improves the consumer's and the society's
well-being.
Economic factors: The rate of taxes and the credit crunch could affect marketing
as people will have less money to purchase products and will go for the cheaper
option if possible. If interest rate keep going up these will put of some of the
business. As the amount of income and output of every organisation has a bigger
role of economic factors.
Technological factors: Modern and fast technology which can make the
marketing business more efficient, gives more choices on how to send, receive and
store information.
Geographical factors: Every place have different atmosphere due to which you
cannot market every product at every place. For example in cities where you can't
find mountains you can't market climbing equipment .In desert area you can't
market swimsuits
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research is numerically oriented, requires significant attention to the
measurement of market phenomena and often involves statistical analysis. For
example, a bank might ask its customers to rate its overall service as excellent,
good, poor or very poor. This will provide quantitative information that can be
analysed statistically. The main rule with quantitative research is that every
respondent is asked the same series of questions. The approach is very structured
and normally involves large numbers of interviews/questionnaires.
Perhaps the most common quantitative technique is the market research survey.
These are basically projects that involve the collection of data from multiple cases
such as consumers or a set of products. Quantitative surveys can be conducted by
using post (self-completion), face-to-face (in-street or in-home), telephone, email
or web techniques. The questionnaire is one of the more common tools for
collecting data from a survey, but it is only one of a wide ranging set of data
collection aids.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research provides an understanding of how or why things are as they
are. For example, a Market Researcher may stop a consumer who has purchased a
particular type of bread and ask him or her why that type of bread was chosen.
Unlike quantitative research there are no fixed set of questions but, instead, a topic
guide (or discussion guide) is used to explore various issues in-depth. The
discussion between the interviewer (or moderator) and the respondent is largely
determined by the respondents' own thoughts and feelings.
As with quantitative techniques, there are also various types of qualitative
methodologies. Research of this sort is mostly done face-to-face. One of the
bestknown techniques is market research group discussions (or focus groups). These
are usually made up of 6 to 8 targeted respondents, a research moderator whose
role is to ask the required questions, draw out answers, and encourage discussion,
and an observation area usually behind one way mirrors, and video and/or audio
taping facilities.
In addition, qualitative research can also be conducted on a one on one basis i.e.
an in-depth interview with a trained executive interviewer and one respondent, a
paired depth (two respondents), a triad (three respondents) and a mini group
discussion (4-5 respondents)
Case Study
Question 1: Suggest bases for segmentation of market for groom plus products
Answer:
Segmentation is the division of market based on similarity of tastes and preference
of the customers. Different products ranges target different customer segments. If
the marketers know which segment of the market they are targeting, they can
design their marketing mix to suit the customers in the segment.
In the case studies mentioned, the target market for male fairness segment industry
is the metro sexual youth. The domain of marketing segment is limited to the
cities. Therefore the bases for segmentation should be a mixture of Individual
marketing, niche marketing and Local marketing.
Individual marketing is the extreme level of segmentation in which ABC can focus
on individual customers. The company can approach individuals through emails
and tie up with popular websites for promoting its own product. The company can
send their promotional mails to the large customer base of these websites.
The niche marketing can be an effort to position the fairness products in a smaller
urban market that have similar attributes and some specific unsatisfied needs.As
research by the company shows that men prefer bleach with its own fragrance and
formulations niche marketing can be an effective strategy.
Local marketing can help expand the marketing beyond the boundaries of the
metro cities. The idea should be to offer customized fairness product to suit the
local markets.
As mentioned in the case study that the youths are driven by desire to look fairer,
this particular attribute can be exploited. Even McDonalds had to design their
strategy to to suit the local markets by introducing indianite products.
Besides certain segmentation variables has to be kept in mind such as age and life
cycle stage, gender, income, social class and certain psychographic attributes like
values, beliefs, lifestyle, personality before designing a segmentation of market.
Question 2: Discuss the importance of packaging in marketing of the above product
range
Answer:
We all know that packaging adds value to the product in the form of easier
handling and secured usage. Packaging is very important for fairness products as it
plays a vital role in its appeal and sales of the product. A properly packaged
product can result in repeat purchase by the customers.
For a fairness product, an easy to use packaging which is secured and transparent
are likely to have better sales. Transparent packaging will help the customer view
the contents of the product and help them in their purchase decision making.
Packaging is also vital for preservation and their continual usage. Incase of beauty
products, size shape color, and labeling should attract both visually and and
psychologically.
Packaging should also facilitate easier handling by the retailers and dealers.It
should also be environment friendly as it would add to the good quality of the
product and thus help in the easy saleability and marketability of the product.
Innovative packaging can help distinguish beauty products from those of competitors.
Large package size can motivate the customers to consume more as they have the
feeling that they have bought a large quantity of the product at the reduced rate.
The ultimate objective of packaging particularly in case of fairness products should
be to facilitate easier usage, secured handling and preventing any spillage while
using. The shape, size, colour, and mode of packaging should appeal to their
psyche. As a result it will help in creating brand value and loyal customer base.
1. Selection of the right media like television, websites and lifestyle journals
can be effective in case of fairness product.. Most visible display hoarding
on the busy streets, health centers, gym , spa etc. can help promote the
product.
4. Free gifts, coupons ,scratch card scheme can incentivise the customers buy
the same product again.
Besides publishing stories and articles in leading dailies and health magazines and
promoting social and health activities before launching the product can help build
awareness. If a products feature and specialty can be carried in the editorial section
of newspapers, publications or the broad cast medium, it can help not only in
building awareness but also build credibility.
Assignment - C
Objective Type Question
Question 1. The Selling Concept is
A. Products
B. Customer needs
C. Markets
D. None of the above
Question 12. The 4c's of the marketing mix tactial tool kit are
A. Customer, cost, convienee and curve
B. Customer, cost, convience and coverage
C. Customer, cost, convienence and communication
D. None of the above
Question 13. Promotion mix elements are
A. Price, advertising , publicity and sales promotion
B. Advertising, sales promotion, publicity and personal selling
C. Personal selling, strategy, advertising and publicity
D. Both a and c
Question 20. The product is now more widely known and the sales grow rapidly is the
stage of
A. Introduction stage
B. Maturity
C. Growth
D. Decline
Question 23. The process of creating and developing product specifications that optimize
the function, value and appearance of the product is
A. Product design
B. Market design
C. Industrial design
D. None of the above
Question 28. In collecting primary data, the two main research instumetns are:
A. Mechanical devices and the telephonic conversation
B. Questionnaire and the mechanical device
C. Questionnaire and the telephonic conversation
D. None of the above
Question 31. The collection of businesses and products that make up the company is
A. Product portfolio
B. Business portfolio
C. Market portfolio
D. Both a and c
Question 32. Two or more outlets that are commonly owned and controlled are
A. Business stores
B. Chain store
C. Products
D. None of the above
Question 33. The practice of using the established brand names of two different
companies on the same product
A. Branding
B. Re branding
C. Co branding
D. None of the above
Question 34. The set of basic values, Perceptions, wants and behaviours learned by a
member of society from family and the important institutions is known as
A. Culture
B. Sub culture
C. Attitude
D. None of the above
Question 35. The total combines lifetime values of all the company's customers is called
A. Product equity
B. Customer equity
C. Market equity
D. Both a and c
Question 38. Human wants that are backed by buying power are called
A. Products
B. Demands
C. Markets
D. Both a and c