CH#1 Defining Marketing for the 21st

Century-Solved Questions
Question 1: What are the pros, cons and risk associated with Nike's
core marketing strategy?
Answer: The pros associated with Nike's core marketing strategy were:
• Nike always chose the most accomplished athletes for endorsing the brand, which
ensured profits in millions
• The numerous campaigns and attempts to build Nike as a global sportswear brand not
limited to just one or two sports were massively successful.
The cons associated with Nike's core marketing strategy were:
• Nike's brand image suffered considerably due to its association with controversial
athletes such as Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong
• The brand strategy had always been about being the winner, and little focus had been
laid on being sustainable.
The major risk associated with the core marketing strategy was that there was no
explicit display of being environmentally sustainable in an attempt to maintain the slick,
high-tech image of the brand. This could later discourage the environmentally conscious
consumers to think twice before investing in that brand, as they would not be aware of
the eco-friendliness of the products.

Q. 2 If you were Adidas, How would you compete with Nike?

Answer: If Adidas were to compete with Nike the following strategies could prove to be
useful -
• Adidas needs to tap into the potential of the consumers among the Generation Z. This
is because if the brand is successful in acquiring the younger market shares, there is a
high chance that they will turn out to be loyal customers who would remain with the
brand in the long run.
• Asia and Latin America are some of the major markets that have still not been used by
Nike. Adidas can utilise this to their advantage by sponsoring the teams from these
regions and become market leaders in these populous areas.
• The brand can also consider launching a new line of sportswear, which will not only be
fashionable but also be ethical and sustainable when the manufacturing procedures are
concerned. This will further enable to attract those environmentally conscious
customers as they will prefer to use products that have the label of being eco-friendly on
them.

Q.3 With a portfolio as diverse as Google’s, what are the company’s

core brand values?
Answer: Core values are an important part of an organization. They
define the organization's future goals and decision-making process.
Google's co-founders Larry page and Sergey Bin have expressed Google's
core values as "Don't Be Evil". Google’s branding is depending on
emotional experiences. Google changes its logo during holidays and
celebrates birthdays of artists and inventors.
Google Core Values:
1. We want to work with great people.
2. Technology innovation is our lifeblood.
3. Working at Google is fun.
4. Be actively involved; you are Google.
5. Don't take success for granted
6. Do the right thing; don't be evil.
7. Earn customer and user loyalty and respect everyday.
8. Sustainable long-term growth and profitability is key to our success.
9. Google cares about and supports the communities where we work and
live.
10. We aspire to improve and change the world.
Q.4 What’s next for Google? Is it doing the right thing taking on
Microsoft with the concept of cloud computing, and Apple in the fight
for smart phones?
Answer: Google had been developed ever since it was launched in
1998.The development and innovation of the application and products had
brought Google to the top of the world. However, I do believe that Google
need to reposition itself in the corporate world.With the mission of to
organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and
useful,it had been more than a decade ago.Google need new mission
statement in order to stay relevance in the coporate world.Ever since been
launched.Google had priorities for information access as its
vision.However,theswe days,Google plays many others important roles
such as media agency and digital TV.Thus, this situation had make
Google to change from its original vision.
Other than that,Google is been looked as inconsistent as a brand.They had
been doing too much stuff and not focusing on their vision.Plus the
priniciples that they guide are not fit with what happen recently.For
example,in principle 5,Google highlighted that”you can make money
without being evil”Google had been censured by EU and other
governments for collecting peoples WiFi data as part of their Street View
project. How can you gain peoples trust when you yourself break your
own rules?
Therefore, I do think that Google need to redefine what they really stand
for.They have to look back for what had been through and decide the new
vision in order to survive and develop their company.then they have to
undergo the most difficult part which is changing stage.
I believe that Google is doing the right thing taking on Microsoft with the
concept of cloud computing, and Apple in the fight for smart
phones.Googles attempt to break the monopoly of Microsoft in
documents and applications and Apple in smart phones can be considered
as a great step.As a customer, I think that the involvement of Google will
give us more choices so that we can get the same product with high
quality and at the cheaper price.Besides with this involvement, Google
also can redefine their vision and find the most suitable product for them
to involve.Thus the competition between three Amercican giants had been
become worlds largest technology.

Q.5 Does Marketing Create or Satisfy Needs?

Answer: Marketing has often been defined in terms of satisfying

customers’ needs and wants. Critics, however, maintain that marketing
does much more than that, marketing creates needs and wants that did not
exist before. According to these critics, marketers encourage consumers to
spend more money than they should on goods and services they really do
not need.
Take a position: 

Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants - Does

Marketing Create a Satisfy Needs
It also creates interest of people to obtain what they actually need and want
through exchanging of goods with others. Marketing gave birth to such strategies
which helps in increasing sales of the business and develping the business. It
creates a strong relationship with customers. In other words marketing is a process
of interacting business activities and transaction. The main objective of marketing
is to achieve organizational goals of the business by knowing their needs, wants
and requirements in order to satisfy the customers.

The concept of marketing briefs that marketing satisfies customers’ needs and
wants. Its also much broder term than selling. Marketing does both, it creates and
as well as satisfies customers needs and wants. The main objective if every firm is
to satisfy their customers in every way. As they say “a satisfied customer is a
profitable one”
CUSTOMERS VALUES AND SATISFACTION
The basic concept of marketing is to satisfy human needs. The basic human needs
that have to satisfy in any case are food, clothing and shelter.

Secondly, social needs such as belonging, goodwill and affection etc and lastly,
individual needs for knowledge and self-expression. These are some of the needs,
which are not created by the marketer; they are natural and part of human life.
People have unlimited wants but limited resources. A person always tries to make
best use from the resources available to them. Thus, person has to make the choice
between the products, which provides the most value, and satisfaction for
their money. Customers rely on the perception in deciding what goods and
products they want to purchase.

After buying the product the value attached to the product passes on to customer.
This value is the benefit attached to the product, which acts as a key for satisfying
the customer. If the customer re buys a particular product after using it that means
the satisfactory level of the customer is higher and the value attached to the
product converted his customer to a loyal customer. Product satisfies customer. If
the products performance falls or changes or does not match to the customers
expectations then the buyer will be dissatisfied and will not will to buy that
product.

MARKETING THROUGH PROMOTION

Customer’s satisfaction is closely related to quality. If the quality remains the same
the customer will demand for that good but if the quality of that good changes then
it will affect the demand of that product and customer will switch to a substitute
product. It is very essential for an organization to satisfy its customers. For that the
firm first tries to understand their customer’s needs then makes an attempt to
satisfy it. Now a day, new trends have been observed that organizations are also
trying to create needs.

By doing this, the customers will get the reason to buy more and more stuff. One
of the basic reason because of which customers purchase goods is, they need it. If
the customers do not desired to purchase the goods then he will not buy it.
Marketing not only meant to satisfy those customers (the existing one) who have
needs but it also satisfy the non-existing customers, which have no need. With the
help of excellent promotion of certain activities, a need of marketing can be
created. Marketing introduced different ways through which an organization can
promote their products.
It includes word to mouth advertising, an effective title tag, through posters,
pamphlets, commercial ads on television, which is also one of the most effective
way to promote a product in marketing, door-to-door advertising etc.

MARKETING SHAPES CONSUMER NEEDS AND WANTS

By marketing we mean satisfying human needs, wants and demand. Critics,
maintains that marketing goes beyond all this and creates wants and needs which
never existed before. According to these critics, marketer always tries to convince
people to spent more and more money on the stuff that they don’t need.

But I don’t think marketing shapes customers needs, wants and demand.
Customers mind keeps on changing from time to time. When any new fashion
enters manufacturer’s switches and starts making what customers needs.

Does marketing create needs?

Thus, we can say , that marketing create needs, coz marketing deals in creating
consumers need and satisfying those needs as well. Companies have different
criteria and strategies in which they target different class of people. And when they
define their targets they know how to attack that class of customers. In this way,
they create need for their product and then they research about what that class
wants and they satisfy their need as well.

Marketing plays a great role in creating good will of the product (Lynch, 2008).
Summarizing, marketing spend a lot of money and effort to create goodwill of their
product among the people they are targeting in order to create and satisfy consumer
needs.

Q.6 Consider the broad shifts in marketing. Do any themes emerge in them?
Can you relate the shifts to the major societal forces? Which force has
contributed to which shift?

Answer:

Suggested Response:

The major themes that emerge in these broad shifts are technology,
decentralization, andempowerment. As companies face increased global
competition, they are beginning toincrease their attention to all aspects of
marketing and are beginning to encompass marketing as a corporate goal and
not just a departmental function. The major societal forces at work: two-
income families, increased technology, fewerfirms, increased consumer
education, and empowerment are forcing companies and marketers to shift
their thinking about marketing and rethink their best business practices.

Global competition:
1. From marketing does the marketing to everyone does the marketing.
2. From organization by products units to organizing by customer segments.
3. From being local to being “glocal”—both global and local.
4. Increase technology.
5. From making everything to buying more goods and services from outside.
6. From emphasizing tangible assets to emphasizing intangible assets increasing
consumer expectations.
7. From relying on old market positions to uncovering new ones.
8. From building brands through advertising to building brands through
performance and integrated communications.
9. From attracting customers through stores and salespeople to making products
available online.
10.From selling to everyone to trying to be the best firm serving a well-defined
target market.
11.From focusing on profitable transactions to focusing on customer lifetime value.
12.From focusing on the financial scorecard to focusing on the marketing
scorecard.
13.From a focus on gaining market share to a focus on building customer share.
14.From focusing on shareholders to focusing on stakeholders.
15.Decreased availability of firms.
16.From using many suppliers to working with fewer suppliers in a “partnership.”