MKT624

MID TERM SUBJECTIVE

BY MEHWISH KIREN
Q. Define the terms: Mission and Vision.
Mission
A mission statement speaks of the present form of business, the products it is dealing
in, the customers it is serving, and the areas in which it is operating etc. In other
words, a mission is all about achievement of present objectives.
Vision
Vision relates the future; mission is all about the present. The strategic management
process starts with a company having a vision about where it wants to reach in
foreseeable future. The vision is then transferred into the mission of the company,
which essentially is the company’s ability to reach for the immediate goals relating
the present and immediate short-term period.

Q. what are the benefits of Line Extension?

Line extension
Line extension is basically getting into different versions of the same base product
on the same market. A manufacturer of spices getting into more non-traditional
spices or recipes and a cheese manufacturer getting into different kinds of packing,
portions, slices, and boxes to appeal to different target audiences are examples of
this phenomenon. The objective here is to add more depth to your offerings within a
definite market.

Q. Differentiate the Demographic segmentation and Psychographic

segmentation?

Demographics:
It is referred to as demographic segmentation. The market is divided into groups on
the basis of demographic variables such as age, family size, gender, income,
occupation, education, religion, race, generation, nationality, or social class1. It is
generally seen that consumer likes, dislikes, preferences, and usage rates have a lot
of similarities within the demographic groups and they are closely linked to
demographic variables. Research stemming out of a design based on demographics
is generally more reliable and easier to measure.

Psychographics:
This refers to psychographic segmentation in which buyers are divided into
different groups on the basis of lifestyle and/or personality. People within the same
demographic group can exhibit very different psychographic profiles2. Example: A
consumer who drives a Mercedes-Benz may mostly like to use an inexpensive ball
point pen and wear blue jeans, whereas a consumer driving a Suzuki may always
like to use an expensive pen and wear designer clothes. The likes and preferences in
this example have a relationship more with lifestyle than demographic variables.
Q. Briefly explain the factors in Brand contract principles in customer
perspective.

Brand contract principles

There are four basic principles that we use in creating a contract1. The principles
are pretty straight forward. Use the same market research that you used for brand
image exercise. Add a few more questions and the model for research is ready. Never
forget to include competition in your research projects. Without comparisons, you
may not come up with the best contract.

Understand customers’ perspective

Go back to the sandwich project and see the kind of questions you should ask:
· In purchasing our sandwich, what benefits you expected?
· Did it meet your expectations? If yes,how? If no, why?
· Tell us the most important aspects of product quality – taste, freshness, smell, size,
filling, and overall presentation.
· What promises our brand makes?
· Do other brands make different promises? If yes, how?
· What really triggered your decision to buy our brand and do you see your decision
worth making?
· What is it that we can do more to improve our service and product?

Q. Write six factors which effect brand strong?

A strong brand works in the same way for the company as for the consumers. It
assures the following:
1. Good future sales
2. Good future earnings
3. Good future cash flows
4. Source of good future demand and lasting attractiveness
5. Strong entry barrier to competition
6. Carries its value into other markets - local as well as international
7. Carries its value into other business categories i.e., new product areas and, hence,
Offers economies of scale in advertising, promotions, and other marketing-mix

Q. What is the cause to breach the contract?

Brands make promises with the customers by providing benefits and developing
associations.
Any deviations – lowering of quality, non-availability of brands at the point of
customers’ choice, or not keeping pace with changing technologies – amount to not
keeping the promise and hence in customers’ perception breaching the “contract”.
The contract, as such, is not legal; it is purely economic and emotional in nature.
Q. As brand manger what positioning possibilities of brand for favor for
company?

POSITIONING
An understanding of the category and the roles played by competition (all brands)
leads us to develop the positioning for our brand. Positioning is very central to
having the right strategies at work to achieve our brand management and overall
business goals.
Positioning is an approach to communication that solves communication problem by
highlighting very special features of your brand. It is important to understand why
and how it started?

Q. Define brand contract and also explain it?

The concept of brand contract revolves around brand’s ability to always stay up to
the expectations of consumers. Owing to the associations developed with the brands
of their choice, consumers do not want to see those brands deviate from the strong
impressions and image they have about those brands.

Q. Uncover the bad promises?

Through a consistent contact with the marketplace and through research studies,
one can easily uncover the negative promises. Once uncovered, the strategy to fix
those and turn them into good promises should not be difficult. One must convert
the shortcomings into strengths.

Q. Explain correct brand picture?

A correct brand picture provides you with a lot of data and information. Using that,
you can come up with what is exactly the customer’s needs, strengths and
weaknesses of your and competitive brands. Armed with that information, you can
create the right promises, deliver them, and maintain the contract to have a strong
position.

Q. Explain Eras of positioning

The Positioning Era

The two authors of the concept believe that to be successful you have to touch base
with reality3. The only reality that counts is what is already in the mind of the
prospect. Creativity for the sake of creating something new does not help. And,
therefore, image building through advertising meant to create something that does
not already exist in consumer’s mind doesn’t help. Creating something of that sort is
very difficult, if not outright impossible, the authors believe.
Q. why brand extension is better instead of launching new brand? (5
marks)
Brand extension is all about the existing brands. As the terminology suggests, we do
something with the existing names for the new offerings. Brand extension, therefore,
is the study and practice of deciding
1. What to do in situations that evolve with changing needs? Examples could be
cited of soups coming into different flavors, biscuits in different tastes and packs,
and detergents in powder and liquid forms.
2. What to do in situations that offer an opportunity to enter a new market
altogether?
Examples could be furnished about manufacturers of juices getting into milk and
yogurt, tea getting into soups, chocolate getting into ice cream, and cameras into
photocopying machines etc.
Let’s be clear that we are discussing both situations in relation to using our existing
brand name that is strong. One situation relates getting into variants of the existing
product, while other involves going across the existing business lines into new ones.
Both have a common factor and that is the same brand name. We use the same
brand name because it is strong!

Q. Define need based segmentation and its examples?(5 marks)

Need-based segmentation research
It is good to get into segmentation research that should cover demographics as well
as psychographics to give the findings a true need-based dimension. Needs drive all
the strategies and always emerge as the most purpose-serving research basis. Right
identification of needs also offers the best alignment between strategies and
associations that we are out to evoke on part of the customers. It is here that we are
able to determine the balance between under- or over-serving the segment of
population that is our target market.

Q. Discuss in what situations brand extension is necessary? Give

example of each situation?
Brand extension is all about the existing brands. As the terminology suggests, we do
something with the existing names for the new offerings. Brand extension, therefore,
is the study and practice of deciding
1. What to do in situations that evolve with changing needs? Examples could be
cited of soups coming into different flavors, biscuits in different tastes and packs,
and detergents in powder and liquid forms.
2. What to do in situations that offer an opportunity to enter a new market
altogether?
Examples could be furnished about manufacturers of juices getting into milk and
yogurt, tea getting into soups, chocolate getting into ice cream, and cameras into
photocopying machines etc.
Let’s be clear that we are discussing both situations in relation to using our existing
brand name that is strong. One situation relates getting into variants of the existing
product, while other involves going across the existing business lines into new ones.
Both have a common factor and that is the same brand name. We use the same
brand name because it is strong.

Q. what are the positions discussed by scot davis? (3 marks)

It is a four-part approach as expressed by Scot Davis1.
1. Seek senior management’s input
2. Determine the financial contribution gap
3. Collect industry data and create a brand vision starter
4. Meet with senior management to create the vision

Q. Implicit promises with example

Promises present themselves in two different forms – implicit and explicit. Implicit
promises are taken for granted, that is, customers must see those delivered whether
the brand talks about those or not. Tea is an excellent example of carrying implicit
promises of smell, color, and taste regardless of what brand name it carries. Any
good brand of tea has to have the features mentioned in the example. Some promises
are explicitly claimed through well-designed communication. A personal computer
with features relating processor’s specifications, the size of the hard disk, and the
capacity of the random access memory (RAM) have got to be communicated very
specifically, not left to customers’ imagination. Any promises that the company
makes but cannot deliver amount to a breach of the contract.

Q. Explain Leverage scenarios?

Leverage
: An advantage that comes through a certain action. In the context of branding, it is
the use of various marketing tools to bring your brand to an advantageous position.
Leveraging
The opportunity of using the same brand name for variants or altogether new
products takes us into the domain of leveraging – adding value to the company by
capitalizing on the brand as an asset. Temptation to do so is always huge. We keep
the same brand name so that customers can develop an immediate familiarity with
the new introductions – variants or new products. And that is what leveraging is all
about!
Managers feel the need to leverage their brands under the following two different
sets of circumstances:
· When they are led into genuine situations of satisfying evolving needs, they feel
rightly driven to leverage the brand by introducing its variants – light cigarettes and
sugar-free chewing gum fall under practice 1 of brand extension discussed above.
· When it is attractive to go across category, managers do that with the confidence
that their existing brand name is going to add value to their new introduction and
will become popular immediately. This relates practice 2 of brand extension.